Guardians become Griefers (again)

Builders and Designers from across the grid are discovering that a well intentioned but naive act by Linden Lab support staff has rendered many products unusable and left many sims decimated.

In a post on SLuniverse, builder Latif Khalif stated

Just like what happened a few months back, the governence team seem to have done it again. They blacklisted prims of a creator whose objects are widely used in thousand of builds and products across the grid.

Now my build and sim lies and ruins and judging by the response in groups, many many sims are ruined

A Jira has been raised here https://jira.secondlife.com/browse/SVC-7382

Full details of what has occurred are still unclear, but it seems that, in attempting to address a “griefing” attack, an inappropriate black listing of at least one creator’s prims has been instituted. The latest details suggest that any prim created by Crowley Avro will have been blacklisted and returned to the owner’s lost and found folder.

It would appear that the underlying issue (the blacklisting) has been lifted, and people can now rez objects that have Crowley Avro’s prims as part of their makeup. However, the damage done inworld is not easily repaired, and creators and designers are expecting to have to deal with many support issues, replacing broken non-copy items and repairing builds that were rendered unusable by this action.

This was, when it comes down to it, a naive and unfortunate mistake. What is so worrying is that this is not the first time that an action by the Lab has caused widespread damage, and somewhat bizarrely the last time that this happened was practically identical; even with the same creator (Crowley Avro) being impacted.

The irony of these events is not going to be lost on the griefing community who will be ecstatic at the mayhem that has ensued. The Lab, on the other hand, need to look very seriously at their procedures. The very fact that this is a repeat issue cries out for action. In a complex multi-user environment such as Second Life, there is no doubting that there has to be scope for support staff to take pervasive actions to protect the grid, but any significant production/live grid impacting change of this type should require approval by senior management.

In fact, one has to ask the question, Should an ability to blacklist by “creator” even exist? It is non-sensical to delete a creator’s items in any normal circumstance. For example, should a creator leave Second Life, the removal of their account does not result in the loss of their creations, and the resultant inventory loss for residents. The items remain untouched for the very same reason that a black listing is so damaging. There is no telling where a creator’s objects have been used. There is no accounting for the investment in Linden Dollars made by customers of not only that creator but of any designer who has used that creators prims. At the very least, such an armageddon option should be safely under lock and key.