Saturday, July 3, 2010

Downsides to SL

     Yes people I have found one of the downsides of Second Life. Now I am not saying it is bad enough to ever leave, oh no we can't do that. However there are people out there that are not happy unless they can make others miserable. This is really not any different then real life, there are always people like that. We have a names for the people in SL that cause problems with our fun. They are called Grievers or stalkers. Some are less of a problem then others, they will just walk around or try and frequent the places you go to try and catch a sight of you and then may say things in local chat or consistently IM you. Some are out there who think you are their soul mate and they feel they just need to convince you. Some however may decide that for some reason or another you are a target to destroy. This can happen in many ways, even with good intentions, if a person is off balance then even being nice can backfire.
     I recently got my first scary stalker. He is angry because I would not give him a job back that he was not capable of doing. Now I am a nice person and I treat everyone with respect and kindness, however that is not always enough. No matter how nice you are to someone it can still backfire if you are not giving them what they want, and nothing can stop them. These people are a little off in their thinking I am afraid. There are ways that they can make your lives miserable so here are a few things you can do to help keep them at bay.
1. Buy a security orb for your property, and not just any particular one find a good one.
2. Ban them from your property
3. Let all the people you work with and ask your employer to ban them from the property as well
4. Block and Mute them. This is kind of fun because if you see them they are like a grey blobs.
5. Remember that they can make alts. So be careful and not too trusting
6. Yes there are security outfits in SL that can protect you and help you. I say contact one.
7. Let your friends know what is going on and who the person is so they too can keep an eye out.
If you follow those steps it may not guarantee you safety but it will go a long way in helping.

On that note I would like to remind you that SL is fun and the drama should be left in RL. Sometimes that can not be avoided but there are ways to minimize it.
So go into SL and have a blast with all you can do there and see, I promise you won't regret it!