What we all hate is Internet spam, such as pop-ups and unsolicited E-mail. They have cures for that now: pop-up blockers for your browser, and E-mail filters, which route spam mail (and hopefully not the registration responses we have been waiting DAYS for from various websites)directly to your trash bin. That's all very handy, but what about Second Life spam?
Exactly what IS Second Life spam, you ask. It can take many forms. One is the unsolicited notecard, which can be generated by an automatic NC-giver, sent directly to you by a lurking avatar while you are innocently shopping in a store, or the more anonymous method of somebody spamming the entire body of a given group membership. Some of these can be helpful, but many are just a huge PITA and should be rejected.
I should talk. I answered one today, even though I knew better. It was probably sent by someone with a group listing, as I was someplace completely unrelated to the topic of the note at the time it was delivered. The note said:
"Hello Sexies!!
(___________) is sponsoring a Sexy Avi Photo competition!! The Prize is 10K for the sexiest female and 10K for the sexiest male!!!
There is no fee to enter the contest, simply TP to the location and drop a notecard with your full name and pic. This is gonna be an easy and fun way to score some big $L !!
Dont have a sexy photo?? Not to worry, our professional photographers can make you a photo sure to be eye pleasing....see our gallery next door for more info!"
Hmmmm... Well, having nothing better to do at the moment, and always looking for a good story, I thought I'd TP over and have a look. I found a decent pic of myself and set up the NC as requested, and then went to see what this was all about.
As suspected, it was the old "send your friends over to vote for you" type of contest, and they will have to PAY in order to vote... *insert blank look here*
LOL... I binned my NC and did not enter, of course. People were popping in left and right, obviously motivated by the "huge" prize. Yes, folks; $10,000 sounds like a lot of money, and I suppose it is for those who choose not to buy their Linden dollars, but to depend on this sort of thing smacks of desperation and hopelessness. Sure, I could make use of $10K here, but seriously: this contest is in no way a properly judged modeling competition! It's fueled by votes that are PAID FOR by the friends of those who have entered! If you have a lot of friends (or a lot of alts... ) who are actually willing to PAY to see you win such an inconsequential corrivalry, then have at it.
(ALSO, notice that they are actually a photo studio drumming up business. Did you REALLY think they were doing it because they are generous or caring??
"Not to worry, our professional photographers can make you a photo... " Yeah, right.)
Oh, if you REALLY want the LM to this "contest," IM me in-world.
*************
Another common type of Second Life spam is the old "chat spam" routine. Often propagated by purpose-built alts, what they will do is they will join a given group and during a particularly busy time they will then send out a cut-and-pasted message, often including an Url or a Slurl. This will ofttimes result in their bannation from said group, but by then the damage has been done, and those who are interested will have already grabbed the information. It can be particularly annoying, especially in the groups where the general use of group chat is not allowed aside from owner-sent updates. Too much of this will very often result in people leaving the group, which admittedly I have done myself. I personally don't even care, as we are allowed only 25 groups to be listed, and I tend to hover at the upper limit of that. Every once in a while I get the urge to purge, and I clean out all but those I really need.
A third type of spam in SL may not even be considered to be spam at all by some, and like chat spam, can be traced back to the group chat. In one sense it is not really spam, but since it can be annoying, I will include it here. Besides, it's my blog, and I can say whatever I want.
What I am talking about here is those groups that allow open discussion on the group chat channel. While I agree that sometimes this can be beneficial, especially when it is directly related to the group topic, it can easily become just as annoying when it becomes flirtatious and even nasty. A lot of it is people testing the waters, so to speak... and if the owner of the group is weak and does nothing to curb this immature behavior, it is often taken as a signal, or even implied permission, to continue the abusive talk. The problem with this is (and yes, I KNOW you can just click the "x" to close the session) that it sets a bad tone for the group, and many people will more often than not just leave the group. All this is to the detriment of the original group, which was likely formed to support a legitimate SL business or cause. Being "nice" can also be construed as being wishy-washy, and to lose the support of serious group members to avoid hurting the "feelings" of those who strive to disrupt is just, well... unbalanced.
One other form of spam, also group-derived, is an excess of group notices, the likes of which will need to be dealt with upon log-in every day (they won't just go away; they will build up and wait for you!). One way is to quit the group. Culling the herd, if you will.
All that really needs be done is to open that group's info in your SL chat window, then the Contacts tab, then the Groups tab. Open the info on that specific group and uncheck "receive group notices." The whole thing is, if you don't want the notices, and the group chat bugs you, then why in the world would you still want to belong to that group?
BIN IT
Works for me!
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