Class 5 - Filing an Abuse Report

So the owner of the offending objects will not come and delete them (or is offline), and you are positive that the CS and/or ToS are being violated. It's time to write an Abuse Report (AR). Here's how to do that.

Special Considerations

• • Linden Lab's Knowledge Base states that if a griefer attack affects multiple residents, they want multiple ARs written on it ("Whenever you see one of these rules being broken and you believe it to be intentional or malicious, everyone present at the scene should file an abuse report."). If it affects only one or two residents, there's no need for a group response and multiple ARs. If your call on the group channel(s) hasn't brought several responders, consider enlisting the help of local residents. You can walk them through the AR steps and they will learn something in the process.

  • If the owner's name can't be found (maybe they're already banned), use Governor Linden (or any other Linden name) as the owner. In the Details section, enter the real owner's name and explain that the name can't be found in Search.

  • If the owner was tricked into rezzing the objects, consider writing a second AR on the object's "Previous owner" (available in the object's Edit window when using the Firestorm viewer), for the category of "Harassment > Soliciting/inciting others to violate ToS." Explain the circumstances and include the chat log evidence that the owner was tricked.

  • In almost all cases, the creator of the object is not the griefer and has no idea that his object is being used for evil purposes. A common griefer tactic is to add griefer scripts to a prim owned by a Linden to make it look like Linden Lab itself is doing the griefing. A notable exception might be an object created by a griefer HUD that's being sold on the Second Life Marketplace. If its only purpose is to cause a violation of the Terms of Service, that warrants an AR.

  • Never write an Abuse Report on something you didn't see yourself. Whoever reported it to you could have been mistaken. It's not worth getting your avatar banned for making a false report, just because you didn't want to make the effort to go and see for yourself.

Writing the AR

• • For actions such as griefers assaulting residents where there are no objects to report, go to the menu and click "Help," "Report Abuse..."

  • For incidents where the griefers leave objects, center the object in your viewer window, then right click on the object and select "More," "More," "Report Abuse." Or you can right click on the object and select Annoyance > Report Abuse.

• • If the object's name and owner are not automatically filled in, then you can "Click the button then the abusive object:" to select the object (works for avatars too).

  • Click the "Select category" drop down menu and choose the category for the AR. The category may not fit exactly, so pick the closest description of what's happening.

• • If there are two violations by the same person during the same attack, LL does NOT want to see two ARs. Only write one AR per incident per violator per sim.

  • Location of Abuse is automatically filled in with your current location. If the sim was so badly lagged that you had to go elsewhere to write the AR, fill in the appropriate sim name here.

  • Summary: is a short description of what's happening, e.g., "Billboard with my Real Life information."

  • Details: is a full verbal description of the offense, e.g., "SmartyPants Voom has posted a billboard here in Sandbox Goguen and it has my real name and address and phone number on it. I asked him to take it down and he refused. Here is a copy of the chat log where I talked to him about it." Linden Lab does not consider it Disclosure to include chat and IM logs here. LL can confirm what was said in chat and IM, so this helps them in their investigation.

  • Click the Report Abuse button and watch the resultant "submitting report" message until it goes away. Sometimes you will get an error message as a result. If you get that, try writing the AR one more time. If you continually have problems with ARs that won't submit, try leaving out the screenshot.

Abuse Report Categories

Age > Age play

Assault > Shooting, pushing, or shoving another Resident in a Safe Area

Disclosure > Real world information

Disturbing the peace > Excessive scripted objects

Disturbing the peace > Object littering

Disturbing the peace > Repetitive spam

Fraud > L$ or USD $

Harassment > Targeted behavior intended to disrupt

Indecency > Broadly offensive content or conduct

Indecency > Inappropriate avatar name

Indecency > Inappropriate content or conduct for Region Rating

Intolerance

Land > Encroachment > Objects or textures

Gaming Policy Violation

Rev. 4 2019-10-20

Rev. 3 2014-05-25

Rev. 2 2013-06-22

Rev. 1 2011-01-20