Pixel Dog “Scruffie” Stolen – Serial Nude Sim Shutdowns
by Alphaville Herald on 18/04/10 at 9:26 pm
by Ravi Galuptra
Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. That’s how the old saying goes. But fool me three times? Well that’s exactly what has happened with the Nudite Sur Mer sim, a naturist resort formerly run by Mr. Rokutman Westinghouse and Mr. Jacques Alchemi, the latter allegedly the former’s real life son-in-law but perceived to be, in reality, an alt of Mr. Westinghouse.
The story begins with Mr. Westinghouse’s first sim at Amelia Isle, a too-good-to-be-true sim that really did turn out to be too-good-to-be-true. Cheap rent, an imaginative sim, a lack of poseballs that encouraged a lack of neanderthal males, thereby ensuring female users never felt threatened, and enjoyed by a quickly growing naturist community.
Then, almost without warning, it was closed, Mr. Westinghouse citing ‘real life personal crisis’. In itself, this would be fine, except that it closed with people having paid rent to a sim that no longer existed. Of course, the hinted at ‘real life personal crisis’ meant that Mr. Westinghouse was not challenged a great deal on the closure, and the lost rents went unremarked.
Amelia sim closes suddenly
I spoke to one renter at the original Amelia sim, Miss Debs Byron, who had lost rent when the first sim closed. ‘Lost rent isn’t strictly accurate. It was only one or two weeks worth, maybe L$100. I was going to Africa in real life, work related, so I knew I wouldn’t be inworld. I lost L$100, big deal. I’d paid upfront, my RL circumstances changed, RL would keep me from SL and that was the end of it as far as I was concerned. It was only when I returned and got speaking to some other renters that I got any indication that something was wrong and that I was quite lucky in a way. L$100 can be made to go a long way, and to lose that and upward is, I guess, a bit of a blow to many users. I spend about £40 real life money every year in SL. That gives me about L$15000 and that’s my budget. It’s pocket money. Chump change. What did I lose? £1? 50p real life money? I’ve lost more when cash has rolled out of my purse and under a newsagent’s counter, so I didn’t feel ‘ripped off’ in any sense. I couldn’t really be critical of Rok at all in all honesty. When I returned from Africa my RL circumstances had changed and are still changed, so I’m more of an occasional SL user right now. But I’d heard about the subsequent developments on the grapevine and I did get a warning not to spend cash there on renting.’
Naturists disappointed as Nudity sim closes
Mr Westinghouse’s next project was the ‘Nudity’ sim, based on a Mediterranean village with the same values as before, and this time offering totally free rent. Many regulars returned, and the opportunity to live in the sim, or run their own shops with cheap rent meant that it, too, was quickly populated by a laid-back naturist crowd. But guess what?
That’s right. It closed without warning, due to a ‘real life personal crisis’. This time, many renters found they could not access their belongings, and it was only the intervention of an assisting sim builder, and that of Linden Labs, that permitted renters to get back into the sim and claim their belongings.
As one anonymous woman I spoke to said ‘These real life personal crises are cited again and again. Just how many real life personal crises can one person endure?’
The failed attempt to hold onto other people’s belongings, as well as regularly disappearing with rent, are the main charges facing Mr. Westinghouse and Mr. Alchemi.
Dognapping charged in Nudite sur Mer
Another user at Mr. Westinghouse’s third sim, Nudite sur Mer, Miss Tisha O’hare, laughed when I spoke to her about her experience of Rokutman Westinghouse sims. ‘He stole my dog!. I rezzed my German Shepherd, Scruffy, at Nudite, and he disappeared. I wasn’t a member there, but I used his sim regularly and wandered around with my dog in tow. Then Scruffy disappeared. I put it down to a SL glitch and imagined he’d turn up in my Lost and Found, but he never has. So you can add dognapping to Rokutman’s list of alleged crimes! I didn’t lose money, but I did lose my dog out of his sims. I forget what he cost, 2-300 dollars. It’s not a huge cost I suppose, but if I was having items disappear from inventory, I guess it was probably happening to others. Plus it was my dog! I was actually more cross at that than I would have been if I’d lost a bunch of furniture. It would be interesting to learn just what items mysteriously disappeared from inventories and were put down to SL glitches. We’d probably all just intuitively blame the Lindens when it was actually the actions of -let’s call it for what it is- a thief. Steal my entire wardrobe if you wish, and my furniture, but I was kind of attached to that stupid pixel dog. I could buy another, but it’s not Scruffy. Given the way things have developed, I’m pretty sore about that loss. Given what others have said, it’s safe to say that it was deliberate content theft.’
The owner of the third sim was not actually Mr. Westinghouse, but Mr. Jacques Alchemi, Mr. Westinghouse’s alleged real life son in law, with Mr. Westinghouse supposed to be merely doing some of the building work. With a sigh, one user says ‘We aren’t stupid. We know this is the same guy with a French name on his alt.’
The end of Nudite sur Mer
This third sim, Nudite, opened in mid February and last week users received notice that it would close in mid-April. Another user, who preferred to remain anonymous, said ‘I don’t understand the mentality. Buy land, spend all this time making an elaborate and well designed sim, then close it eight weeks later? It’s insane. You’d almost imagine there were either real life mental stability issues or else someone with to much time and money and an inherently evil streak at work here. Which? It’s not for me to say.’
Miss Evie Bradders, who was not a user at the first or second sims, said that she’d discovered the ‘Nudite’ sim on a search and had enjoyed using it. ‘Hassle free. No sex poseballs, and therefore nothing there for some of SL’s beefcake to get excited about. I guess that the women using it liked its non-threatening ambience. I know I did. It led to conversation, proper conversation, rather than that nauseating ‘hey, hun, wanna jump on a poseball’ grunting that goes on elsewhere. But as I talked to others I started to get some of the back story, and I was warned off not investing a lump of cash for rental into it. So when Jacques Alchemi said it was closing on April 17th, it was almost as though we knew that was coming. I immediately put a notice up in group notices challenging him to provide an explanation.’
Evie laughs. ‘You know the way people say SL contains real people behind the keyboard with real emotions? I’d never felt that, since I generally indulge in conversation, dancing and shopping for nice clothes. I’m emotionally detached from SL in the main. I don’t become emotionally involved. So it was a shock to find that when the notice that it was closing appeared I was livid. I mean, real life livid. I had to log off, I was so cross. And I think that’s part of the anger involved here. People trusted Rokutman and Jacques, and had that trust tossed back in their faces.’
Within an hour of Evie placing the group notice, Jacques Alchemi had closed the sim, ejected all members from it and has, apparently, gone to ground. ‘Yes’, Evie says, ‘the closure became immediate. I just don’t think he was expecting the users to rise up and challenge him and his motives. He couldn’t handle it and ran away.’
I have tried to contact Mr. Westinghouse and Mr. Alchemi several times this week. I have posed questions to both, twice to Mr. Westinghouse and three times to Mr. Alchemi, without response.
Ex-residents warn public
So what do the former users of these sims hope to achieve by going public?
‘Firstly’, says an anonymous user, ‘we need to establish that it’s not about the money, irritating as that is and probably a contravention of SL’s terms of service. And I guess that many users who have lost items can and will have to live with it. But there’s a stream of crimes against the terms of service there, and other SL users need to be made aware of them. There’s missing rent. There’s the issue of stolen inventory items. And most of all, there’s the issue of the general flakiness of the person or persons behind the Rokutman Westinghouse and Jacques Alchemi avatars’
‘Right!’ adds Evie Bradders. ‘We all know how impermanent SL can be, with sims opening and closing all the time, and that’s part of the game, but honestly, people need to know that they can invest their free time to help build a sim that’s going to last longer than six weeks. People need to know that, where these clowns are concerned, they should never consider paying any more than a week’s rent in advance. Better still, don’t pay rent at all to these nutters. Linden Labs have a duty to suspend the avatars involved, and more importantly, ensure the account holder is permanently barred from SL’.
‘I don’t think both oars are in the water at the same time’, another user sighs, in relation to the time and money spent buying, building and opening a sim, only to close it weeks later.
‘What’s the motive behind that?, enquires Tisha O’Hare. ‘I just can’t fathom why anyone would undertake such a task to shut it down so quickly’.
Former users of Mr. Westinghouse and Mr. Alchemi’s sims are all agreed on one thing: they will never knowingly use a sim designed or run by those persons ever again, and are anxious to ensure that other SL users are pre-warned.
‘This could and probably does happen all over the grid’, Evie Bradders says, ‘and we can only minimise or eradicate flaky behaviour, lost rents, lost inventory items and so on by making incidents such as these as public as possible. We need to make sure SL users know the likely actions of people such as these.’
Otherwise?
‘Otherwise users will lose confidence in SL. I’ve had clothes designers who’ve delivered empty folders, and when it has happened -very rarely I may add- and contacted them, they’ve been embarrassed by the thing, made fulsome apologies and sent along the item purchased. Some have even tossed in a freebie by way of apology. There’s a lot of good, decent people out there doing the right thing, all the time. They create a positive SL experience. But the actions of those who do the right thing can be outweighed by the actions of a smaller number of snake oil salesmen. Unless we make people aware of every incident like this, and point the finger at the avatars undertaking those sorts of actions, then the danger is that people start to feel like they’re being cheated and ripped off. At which point, why bother with SL? We may as well all join a Facebook group, exist as disembodied figures with no need for clothes, furniture, hair…if we don’t make people aware of this then the danger is that it could kill trust, and with it, SL’.
Judge Joker
Apr 18th, 2010
“If it’s too good to be true, then it probably is”.
Naked short selling comes to mind, not sure if that’s the correct term, though he might have just been keeping it ticking over until he found a buyer.
1. Buy a Sim cheap
2. Add a few renters to keep some cash flow
3. Nude renters? even better to fap over while he waits.
4. Find a buyer
5. Profit.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naked_short_selling
Bubblesort Triskaidekaphobia
Apr 19th, 2010
This is why I will never touch the SL real estate market. I have my Linden home, and that will be there as long as LL is in business or at least until they change their mind about it like they did last time they gave premium accounts land. I don’t pay for a premium account for the land, though. I pay premium fees for the easy access to tech support, not that they are all that friendly or helpful, but sometimes they are the only ones who can fix a problem.
I’ve been burned many times on unrefunded rent. The whole system is a scam. Hypothetically, even if there were good landlords out there and I just happened to have a string of bad luck, how am I supposed to discern the con artists from the honest landlords? I don’t have that kind of time or money to waste. I’d rather squat than pay rent. In the SL real estate market somebody always gets screwed, at least with squatting the absentee landlord is the one getting screwed, not me. In the end, though, I don’t need to own land to enjoy SL.
brad
Apr 19th, 2010
I’ve been burned many times on unrefunded rent. The whole system is a scam. Hypothetically, even if there were good landlords out there and I just happened to have a string of bad luck, how am I supposed to discern the con artists from the honest landlords? I don’t have that kind of time or money to waste. I’d rather squat than pay rent. In the SL real estate market somebody always gets screwed, at least with squatting the absentee landlord is the one getting screwed, not me. In the end, though, I don’t need to own land to enjoy SL.
J.N
Bubblesort Triskaidekaphobia
Apr 19th, 2010
OMG!!! Plagarism!
I’m gonna DMCA Brad for stealing my intellectual property rights! The internets is srs bzns!
ROFLMAO
Gooser
Apr 19th, 2010
The only advice one can give: If you want to rent – go to a big Estate and ot to people running one or two SIMs.
There is no 100% safety – even a big estate may end up on the rocks. The risk to end up in such a situation as described is higher with One Sim Estates.
These things happen all over SL, all the time. I’ve lost a parcel two times, because the SIM owner wanted to get rid of his renters. We rented a nice corner parcel (my first one)… and after only a couple of weeks the owner told us we had to leave. The reaseon: A fraudster had tried to get the rents… too much trouble. He gave us another Parcel – much worse, no corner, but mid-SIM… OK. Only two weeks later he cut of the SIMs kept all paid rents and told his renters, he’d go to marry and had no further time for SL.
Nice to see, that these SIMs are owned until today by this person. Why he.. let’s say dumped all his renters remains a secret. Today these SIMs are Commercial/Mall.. maybe more rent?
He will never get another cent from my budget. I swear.
Gooser
(Apologize my wooden english – it’s not my native language.)
Pappy Enoch, Shameless Squatter
Apr 19th, 2010
Nekkid gals throwed out by “nekkid short selling” am welkum at my squat.
It are in a mature sim and the script-thingies don’t work. So, boo hoo, no sex.
But we kin have us a beauty contest and a fap..I means fine ol’ time.
Alyx Stoklitsky
Apr 19th, 2010
Sounds like a good e-business model to me.
Better than Intlibber’s, that’s for sure.
Jaden
Apr 19th, 2010
Well I hate to say this guys but there is nothing against terms of service broken here.
#1 Rent, Linden Lab is not responsible for 3rd party rent, nor will they get involved with residentual disbutes. OF Course if you wish to take legal actions it maybe possible, if you can prove actual losses,and court fees, ect. However You will have to have evidence of every item that has been lost, ect. And Only Linden Lab can prove that.
#2 Lost items on simulator or rented land, again this is not copybotting, nor is it against terms of Service. I use admin delete function on my simulator all the time, if your items are laid out no copy, I am not responsible for that, and my covenant states so for any reason of no copy objects. it is recomended you only use Copyable objects or Re Rezable objects. Usually I only use this command on Griefer objects spammed or griefer objects on the simulator.
So again there is no theft here, it is Linden Lab’s premission system, and nothing can be done, but them maybe restoring your invetory to the specified time for items lost.
Also Remember You dont own shit in sl, You own nothing, Once you upload it you loose your rights to Linden Lab… You may withold Rights over First World Creations, Being. A. You have copyright, B. You have a copy of your own stuff.
What you dont own…
All Data uploaded to Linden Lab. Belongs to them.
Shapes, Cannot be copyrighted or DMCA reported, no proof easy Counter File, and you would have to sue.
Skins You Hold copyright over the Textures only, but without LL’s Skin Code for SL they wont work anyways, same for clothing.
Basic Prims You Do not own LL Owns them
Sculpts You own only if you have backups on your own PC
So when it comes down to it, you will never win, and remember this is all virtual accusations, and property, You want to DMCA Report or file a lawsuite, Ive been there and done that with the Counter DMCA reports on accusations made about me. And I won them all True or not, I know the LAW, and I know the legal system, and as far as people will take it. They want to take me to court over a saw blade that looks just like theirs I created from HalfLife 2, then let them.
Ted
Apr 21st, 2010
What’s the complaint? I along with a few others were stupid enough to purchase a quarter sim just to be kicked off with the land baron holding all the cash. 800USD down the tubes. Linden would do nothing. Others on the sim lost even more than I did. Never regained the lost money.
Moral of the story… Don’t trust anyone in SL. Especially Linden Lab. Don’t trust the Terms of Service either as they do nothing to protect your rights. The person that states that all of this is for Linden is correct. It’s not about “you”, or “yours”. Everything in SL is just about “Linden”.
Do as Pappy does and squat is the best advice I could ever give concerning virtual land space in SL.
Curious
Apr 22nd, 2010
Since we no longer own the Linden land or trust land owners to rent from, why not widen the linden home offering to premium members by allowing them to move into a island or homestead sim and just pay the tier amount for the size parcel chosen? This eliminates any worries about dishonest landlords running off with your rent.
Wilde
Apr 25th, 2010
What happened at Amelia, a few weeks after Rokutman built another beach cottage for me to rent (at the remarkable rate of L$100/week – 200 prims) the sim disappeared.
I just happened to be near internet access when I got a group notice that Westinghouse had abandoned the sim and LL closed it down. However LL agreed to bring the sim up for 24 hours so people could recover their things. I probably had $30-50 USD in furnishings and a couple weeks rent.
I was lucky, I was able to get online, recover my inventory. My recently implemented rental box had the “refund rent” still enabled and I was able to recover my rent as well.
The real crime here is one of deception and false hopes.
Rokutman is really a “rocket man” and how is it that none of us saw the play on words?!
Ella Keng
Apr 27th, 2010
As has been mentioned, the real crime here is of ‘false hopes’. Nothing is permanent in Second Life (or even real life) so you log in knowing that some day that favourite shop or sim has disappeared. It’s the nature of the beast.
I had all my stuff returned from Amelia, but it was all free furniture anyway, so if it had gone it wouldn’t be the greatest loss.
I agree though, with the article and comments about ‘false hopes’. While it remains within the sim owner’s gift to suddenly up sticks and leave Second Life, one approaches a sim in the expectation of it lasting a little longer than eight weeks.
I thought Rok was a good guy, and still don’t personally have anything negative to say about him, other than a sense of slight disappointment in the short-lived nature of sims that could have been truly wonderful.
Furthermore, I guess that what is also missed is an opportunity to realign Second Life’s economic model. The person who hammers rent down to $100 a week, or less, and can fill a sim with a busy, thriving community could lead the way in redefining what living in Second Life could be.
Ravi Galuptra
May 5th, 2010
Following on from the story, Evie Bradders started a group ‘Residents Against Rocket Men’, which I joined to keep in touch with her and other residents who may have been affected by the closure of the sim(s).
One recent addition to the group is Mr. Rokutman Westinghouse himself, and I receoved notification that he has joined as a method of ‘making reparations’ to those who may have been affected through the loss of rent/possessions.
For now, I am prepared to take him at his word, as several of those I spoke to, and in the comments above, suggest that there were those who found no fault with his sims, other than a little disappointment in how they were suddenly ended.
And I feel I must be fair in reporting this to keep the story updated. It is merely a shame that Mr. Westinghouse did not get this message through to the residents before the story went to press, despite my attempts to purloin answers on 4-5 separate occasions.
The conclusion appears to be that the negative publicity in the Herald did much to lead us to a situation where reparations are willing to be made and thus result in a pleasing outcome for all. I advise those who may be missing rent or possessions to contact Mr. Westinghouse directly, as there is willingness to make amends.
Finally, I should also report that right after publication of the story I was contacted by a ‘young Indian woman’, who wished to have a liaison with me. Right after logging in, I got an invitation from this ‘lady’ to a dance club where I was invited to ‘liaise’ with her. I refused this offer on two grounds. 1, I’m not interested in SL sex, which I regard as being ridiculous in the extreme and 2, it was such an obvious set-up it was laughable. Having reported on ‘dirty deeds done’ in SL, it would have been ironic to be caught in a honey trap sting with a ‘lady’ subsequently claiming to be underage. Not that this was going to happen anyway: I don’t bump pixels with other SL users. End of. So that little mind game I am afraid to say, failed spectacularly.
Subsequent to this I also passed a note around within a group of former residents, asking if they wished to compare Rokutman Westinghouse sims with this dance club to which I was invited. Eventually, the owner of this dance club contacted me and said that I had ‘slandered’ her club. Obviously she does not know the correct definition of ‘slander’, and demanded an apology, and that she had contacted Linden Labs over this. Of course, I have refused to issue an apology over something said within a private group, comments that need to be seen in the same perspective as one little boy telling another that ‘my Dad’s stronger than your Dad’.
It is pathetic and laughable that someone would involve Linden Labs over such trivialities, but clearly there is no accounting for the foot-stomping, childish antics of some SL users that all manner of ‘drama’ has to be introduced to the proceedings.
So, sim owner and Lindens, if you’re reading, I will not be issuing an apology directly, and I am happy to repeat my failure to issue an apology here.
Grow up.
Lindens, if you’re reading, rather than become embroiled in a case of someone allegedly ‘dissing’ someone else, perhaps your efforts would be better spent in resolving cases of ‘bad landlords’.
While Mr. Westinghouse has offered to make reparations, many do not, and this is clear from the comments above. Perhaps that is where your best efforts should be focussed.
Seraph
May 31st, 2010
There’s a new placed called Eden Naturist Resort that’s making me a little edgy. Especially after receiving this this….
———————–
“The object ‘Elbag Gable’ has sent you a message from Second Life:
Visitor Database – As a visitor to, member or resident of, The Eden Naturist Resort and Estate our Hippo Visit system places your name on a database assuming that your visit indicates an interest in our sims and the activities you can enjoy here in a clothes free environment. We have 700 avatar names collected in this way on this database after only a few weeks of having opened our doors. We have had 4 complaints in that time that our messages about our events are considered as spam so we have of course removed the complainants’ names from the database. If you do not wish to receive information about our Estate and the facilities, promotions and events we provide for all to enjoy here then please let Elbag Gable know and your name will be removed from the database.
= Elbag Gable is owned by Elbag Gable
= http://slurl.com/secondlife/Ziziphus/122/205/23”
————————-
Am I just being paranoid?