———————–
“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?

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.

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.

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?!

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.

#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.

Better than Intlibber’s, that’s for sure.

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.

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.)