The Alphaville Herald

Linden Lab Governance Team Blinks – Reverses Itself

by Alphaville Herald on 22/08/08 at 8:32 am

Tizzers BnT brought back from the dead

by Pixeleen Mistral, National Affairs desk

Tizzers at Fort Longcat

A tense stare down developed between residents of Second Life and the Linden game gods earlier this week – part of a struggle over avatar naming rights and a series of preemptive account bans in the absence of any evidence of wrongdoing on the part of the players. Suggestions of corruption and manipulation of the ban hammer wielding governance team surfaced, and at least a dozen innocent accounts with the first name Tizzers were removed from the people list in Second Life.

But after an unscheduled secret meeting of the Linden Lab governance team thursday, Tizzers BnT was brought back to life, and has now re-joined the world – perhaps acknowledging that Linden governance had overstepped its bounds — and the power of the virtual press to expose government wrongdoing.

Thursday night the reincarnated TIzzers BnT told me, “g-team had a huge meeting today that was not schedule, after the article came out, before tizzers bnt reappeared”.

When I asked how one might detect a Linden givernance team meeting, Tizzers said, “they were all showing as online at the same time, even harry was on ‘til much later than normal”.

While most Linden staff hide their online presence, a number of residents have devised Linden monitors that scan for avatar keys and display the online status of even stealth Lindens. These tools are in widespread use in the griefing, land baron, and anti-griefing community as each of the groups uses knowledge of who is on duty to shop for a favorable hearing for their grievances – or a ban for their enemies.

Tizzers’ profile: poppin and lockin and <3 for fans

Although an innocent avatar named Tizzers has been brought back from the dead, a larger problem remains – how to balance the Lab’s drive to minimize governance costs against the residents’ desire for justice in a world where everyone tries to game the system.

If this incident was any guide, perhaps a move to significantly more transparency can act as a check on the almost unlimited power of the game gods. Certainly Tizzers BnT is one girl who would not be poppin and lockin at Fort Longcat had not the G-team actions been brought to light.

Innocent until proven guilty and a right to confront accusers might be more work for the Lab and conflict with Prokofy Neva’s notions of rough justice for those Mr. Neva dislikes, but the current state of affairs is certain to drive even loyal customers into the arms of metaverse service providers other than Linden Lab.