My Short Lived Ban on Second Life.

Well as some of You know last night I wasn't very happy to hear that Linden Labs would be increasing the tier on open spaces sims a disgusting 67%.  I was upset, I was angry.  I realized that this was most likely the final nail in the coffin of my slowly dying estate side of the land business.  You see my rentals on estates have been slowing lately.  I assumed it was due to the lack of new users in SL, and the fact that our RL economy has been bad so people don't have as much play money to throw into a virtual world.  I just can't see renters willing to pay an extra 67% from what they pay now and I don't blame them.  That's not a small understandable increase, that's a massive jump up that most people who budget can't adjust to. 

When they started offering single open space sims everyone wanted one.  No one wanted to rent a 1/4 sim of a full estate when they could have a lot more room and privacy on a single open space.  As a result my full estates started to slowly become bare.  I ended having a few of my full estates converted into open space sims.  I didn't want to, especially since open space sims have basically no resale value but I didn't really have a choice because I could not afford to continue keeping sims that ran under the monthly tier fee.  As a few months went by even some of those sims slowed down as the market became flooded with them.  I sold off a few more estates that I just couldn't afford.  So after doing all of that attempting to adjust, LL comes out with this announcement last night only months after the delivered the last big blow to us.

So like everyone else I was like I said, Angry and upset.  concierge group chat started up and everyone, not just me started to share there upset and anger.  I added a "Fuck You LL".  And with that sl crashed or so I thought. I couldn't log back in.  It said my account would not be avaliable until the 30th.  A quick email check showed that I was suspended for 3 days.
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Dear Sarah Nerd,

This email is notification of action regarding your Second Life account,
Sarah Nerd, for violation of the Second Life Terms of Service or Community
Standards. The violation in question occurred on October 27, 2008 in the
region of Nerdagara Falls.

Violation: Community Standards: Harassment, Verbal Abuse

Communicating with another Resident using offensively
coarse, intimidating or threatening language, or in any
other manner that is unwanted or likely to cause annoyance
or alarm is a violation of the Second Life Community
Standards.



Action:
As a result of this violation, your Second Life account is
being temporarily suspended for a period of 3 days. It will
return to active status on Thursday, Oct 30, 2008.

Appeal Process: The decision to suspend your Second Life access was
reached after investigation of your use of the Second Life software and
service. If you would like to appeal your suspension, you may contact
Second Life Support, in writing, at the address below:

Second Life Support
Linden Lab
945 Battery Street
San Francisco, CA 94111

You may also appeal electronically by filing a support ticket via the
support portal at http://www.secondlife.com/support/

Please provide relevant information that you believe would explain the
above violation.  Linden Lab reserves sole discretion in considering
whether to take any action on a written appeal.



Sincerely,
Linden Lab

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That's right I was suspended for 3 days because I voiced my anger (like many others) over what they had done to me with the "F" word in a group of my peers.  Three days! No warning, nothing.  It's not like I have a bad record.  I've been here nearly everyday for over 3 years and all I have is one warning from my early sl days for goofing off and telling a mature joke to a friend in a pg area when I had assumed we were the only ones there but we weren't.  Other than that I have a clean record.  I went a little bit hysterical.  I was upset, I cried like a baby.  I was asking my husband "why would they do this to me".  I asked my friends on SLUinverse to message Yohan to tell him I'm banned since he's the only one with access to my sims.  I was worried.  I didn't know who would be able to take care of my tenants.  I was worried because the next 3 days I'll be working on a contract with a major university on a presentation for next week to help show the benefits of investing in SL for educational purposes.  I was ashamed of myself.  Not because I said fuck, but because it was the realization that the game I love, had no love for me.  In RL I talk about how wonderful Second Life is to anyone who listens.  Even when I am angry at them, I still love the game and the people.  I couldn't believe that moments after they made an announcement that I knew probably meant the end of my estate business I was suspended for voicing my anger with a group of my peers.  Did they expect everyone to be quiet and take it? Is it because I used the word fuck? I wasn't the only one who did but I was singled out for it.  The answer to me saying "Fuck You LL" was to take away my abilty to do the work that allows me to pay them thousands of dollars in tier??

I went to live chat to beg for the ban to be lifted.  The one who got me felt that the suspension was very harsh.  She talked to the abuse team and they decided to lift my ban.  I'm really thankful for Belinda's help, because those 3 days would have had a drastic effect on the projects I'm currently working on and my tenants.  I'm thankful that she was so understanding and understood my upset.  I was probably typing a mile a minute at her.

In conclusion I'll leave you with a comment that Humps made on SLUniverse because he is much better spoken than I am, and he summed it up perfectly...

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A few months back, (or however long it is since LL announced their new openspace policy/pricing), LL in one fell swoop almost ruined Sarah's business along with many other landlords/estate owners. Who in their right mind would want to rent a quarter sim, with neighbours when for the same tier they could have an entire sim with privacy and the same prim count. Back then Sarah and her peers were justifiably annoyed. FUCK YOU said LL. This is how it is going to be....get on with it.

So ever resourceful, Sarah (along with many of her peers) completely altered their business model. Converting full islands into open spaces and buying new ones in order that they could salvage their business in some form or another. LL could not fail to recognise what was happening. It was after all the only viable thing for estate owners to do, or be left with empty regions which still need to be paid for every month. I would go so far as to say that LL actively encouraged this as the way forward for estate owners. They even brought in additional, new measures to help facilitate this... i.e. the transfer owner to payer option.

For them to turn around now and say that ANYONE abused the situation is a second FUCK YOU from LL. They have happily taken the orders (and the fee's), happily taken the tier every month, so to say they were unaware of the problem this might cause down the road is simply naive. At best it is rank opportunism on their part.

So they announce that we are all rather naughty boys and girls and that to chastise us they will increase tier and set-up fee's by insane amounts and look smart at doffing your cap and tugging your forelock in future thank you very much.

soooo Sarah and her Peers are now left to wade through the mire of this latest LL brainwave and try to salvage their businesses all over again, less than six months after the last time. A third FUCK YOU from LL.

For Sarah to say what she did in concierge chat is not only justified it is bloody well long overdue. If any excuse were needed it could be argued that it is simply learned behavior! They have been fucking us so long it was only a matter of time until one of us wanted to fuck them back Bravo Sarah.