Jeremy G. Pippin

So… I got suspended from Second Life for “misrepresentation of a Linden.”

Funny, because I’ve had no contact with anybody outside my friends list for the last several days, and most of those conversations were chatting about, y’know, my cat. Or scripting questions. I’ve certainly not represented myself as a Linden in any way, shape, or form.

Upon contacting Help, I was given the usual “The Governance Team takes these matters seriously and weighs them using various…” blah blah blah. Only, if they really took this seriously, and came to the very seriously wrong conclusion… well, I’d say their policies and techniques could use some very serious review.

And they should probably start by reviewing the fact that I was never contacted in any way and asked about the infraction. If I had been, I imagine the matter would have been pretty easy to clear up, seeing as I didn’t do it.

If you’re going to issue a warning, fine, but suspension or banning without so much as providing the accused with an opportunity to speak in their defense…

I’m not asking for a Bill of Rights here, just some semblance of respect.

I can take a guess at what happened.  Somebody used Secret MSGR to impersonate a Linden.  Of course, the if I get in, the Secret MSGR servers will need to be updated to block any outgoing messages that attempt to use “*** Linden: ” as the sender.  It’s something I would have happily done in just a matter of minutes had I been sent an IM prior to being suspended, but alas, expecting LL to behave in a way that is beneficial to its residents, and not to its own convenience, is apparently too much.

Here’s the thing: You can’t encourage residents to build businesses in Second Life and then be cavalier with their livelihoods.

Update: As a result of this particular incident, Secret MSGR servers will no longer transmit messages that use the word “linden” in the sender identity.