1. This time last year we had a lot more grid attacks than we do now (several every week), yet each of those people was verified with a credit-card, and had paid real dollars for their account.

A griefer will pay to grief. That's been amply demonstrated in SL. I presume this will continue until there's some definitive legal action, and someone earns files and/or jail time. Even that will only slow it down some, though.

Posted at 8:10AM on Dec 26th 2006 by Tateru Nino

2. You need absolutly the real identity of each new member.
Credit card required, that's all.
Or disabling scripts for subscriptions without real identity but.. this is less secure.

Posted at 8:25AM on Dec 26th 2006 by Martin

3. You should be CHARGED $$$ if you are a paying member in Second life. If you are found "Griefing" your SL money should be set in the negative by a thousand bucks and your real life Credit Card account should be charged a hundred bucks.

Posted at 8:48AM on Dec 26th 2006 by Doug

4. I wonder why everyon looks around and pretends they don't understand where these griefing attacks come from.

They come from W-Hat. They always use penises, they always use self-replicating objects, they always take names that amplify their griefing attack, they always name their objects "grief object" or "present" they always use terms from LSL on their profiles and in this case even the name "llMakeExplosion Toll" -- the footprints are always, always the same. These are known accounts, and aided and abbetted by paying, verified, even very old accounts.

Posted at 5:18PM on Dec 26th 2006 by Prokofy Neva

5. It is impossible for a man to learn what he thinks he already knows.

-- Epictetus (c.55-c.135)

Posted at 5:25PM on Dec 26th 2006 by Cory Edo

6. Christmas in SL - where even the griefers get into the spirit.

Seriously though, this is definitely mean-spirited stuff... who's the idiot who wants to ruin Christmas for us all?

\Happens to suspect she knows :(

Posted at 9:58PM on Dec 26th 2006 by Patchouli Woollahra

7. You know as well as I do that we at SLI have got no more evidence that these attacks were caused by W-Hat than I do that they were caused by Philip Linden, Prokofy Neva or Tony Blair.

Just saying the same thing over and over again doesn't make it any truer than if you say it once.
I think the "guilty until proven otherwise" stance is an unsupportable point-of-view.

Posted at 5:28AM on Dec 27th 2006 by Tateru Nino

8. Even better...If you bring down the system as a whole or even a single server Linden Labs should calculate how much it cost them in extra hours and $$$ to their bottom line, change the EULA that says your Credit Card will be charged THAT AMOUNT if found that your griefing caused a system level outage....

Posted at 7:03AM on Dec 27th 2006 by Doug

9. As much as I share Prokofy's beliefs on who is perpetrating these attacks, I'm afraid I have to side with Tateru on this one. If there are any common threads tying these attacks besides the hallmarks you mentioned, they don't directly link to only a few parties per se.

\Points out she could make a griefing alt of her own
\\Shovel a fake LSL expression in
\\\Spread self-replicating sky-blue flying, meowing penii till the Lindens start banning.
\\\\Does that immediately link her to SomethingAwful?

Posted at 7:29AM on Dec 27th 2006 by Patchouli Woollahra