Silver's Story

Hi everyone and Seasons' Greeting to all. Ed the Pug here happy to announce how extremely excited we are about the upcoming holiday season and I hope everyone is too. Unfortunately for us, this December will not bring forth many jolly memories. On the eve of December 2, 2010, Silverax received a notice in the mail that his account had been suspended by Linden Labs indefinitely...

Unfortunately, this is not a joke. Silverax Greenwood has been officially suspended from Second Life. Why you ask? According to their accounts, Silverax is implemented on charges of "parcel encroachment." If you are our friends, you know that Silverax and I are descent people and we sincerely believe this punishment is way too extreme. We demonstrate good manners, we have a great sense of humor, and we're always looking for a fun times in Second life. Anyways, we have written an appeal to SL and you can see the letter we sent below.

I have been a loyal customer to Linden Labs for over 3 years and counting. During this time, I pay approximately $600 US of my own expenses every month while meeting every single payment deadline. I own several pieces of land including 1 whole sim which houses a virtual pet cemetery named Peace Valley. I have dedicated a tremendous amount of passion towards this project, and ever since its erection, hundreds of different users have visited and praised my sim. It was even featured as one of the Second Life's places to visit. What I take pride in the most is that Peace Valley is completely funded without profit. All of our proceeds go directly towards supporting and improving the cemetery. Because of my success, I have always been grateful to Linden Labs for granting me an opportunity to fulfill this dream.

That was until Dec 2 of 2010, when my account was suspended due to what you deemed a violation of "Parcel Encroachment." To put it bluntly, I seriously question your judgement in this matter! Firstly, if one of my objects was encroaching a land outside of mine, why was it not specified to me? And secondly, why wasn't there any type of warning or request to remove my item? I have personally experienced parcel encroachment on some of my other mainland parcels and my first objective has always been to try to approach the matter constructively. I IM the person the object belongs to and if I do not receive a response within a few days, I write a support ticket or send that person a notecard. This is the type of protocol Linden Lab encourages, BUT WHY WASN'T I TREATED IN THIS MANNER?! You claim to take these matters very "seriously," but I feel as though you barely put any sort of effort into your investigations. I disrespectfully received no IM, email, nor notecard from my neighbors or any SL staff SO HOW COULD I FAIRLY DIFFUSE THE SITUATION!?

I'd also like to add that this is not the first time there has been trouble around my land at Agapema. One of my previous neighbors placed a massive structure in the middle of his land that towered at least over 100 meters. I politely asked him if he could shorten it to a reasonable height but he never replied. When we reported ghost prims at our land, some of your staff in-world came over to help us but failed to notice the particularly large eyesore towering over them. I grew impatient of his lack of response and before I could send a notecard, he suddenly decided to move away and abandoned his land while leaving behind all of his belongings including the skyscraper. I then sent a support ticket inquiring as whether I could easily purchase the land because my parcels surrounded my neighbors land on 3 sides. Along with the ticket, I attached a few detailed pictures which substantiated the reasons for my request. I even mentioned a similar situation I experienced in which Guy Linden allowed me to purchase land that had been abandoned at mainland region Or. IT TOOK 20 DAYS TO GET A RESPONSE FROM LINDEN LAB and when I did receive it, you simply wrote the land would be going into auction with a very vague explanation as to why. Because I live in Japan, I had to wake up at around 4:00 in the morning so that I could participate in the auction which I unfortunately was outbid. This would not have upset me so much if I had not learned that instead of putting the land to good use, the new owner immediately put his land up for sale! He barely touched it let alone visits it. 　And from the looks of it, it appears as though he has split the land into one large parcel and a significantly smaller one. Does this seem the very bit suspicious?…winning land at an auction and then immediately selling it at a significantly higher price? I wonder what his motives truly are in SL. And yet, you seem more interested that I have an object(s) that appears to be sticking out of my land, while ignoring the fact that I have no record of any type of other violations or misbehavior and have been a paying customer for more than 3 years.

In summation, my experience with Linden Labs in the last few months has been horrendous and at times nauseating. Now you have suspended me for reasons I simply do not comprehend. I was about ready to decorate my cemetery and hold a Christmas concert just in time for the holiday season and now my plans have been spoiled because of your inane actions. How could you do this to me? WHY DID YOU DO THIS TO ME? And now all of my in-world friends whom I miss dearly are inquiring as to why I cannot go online. My only response that I can provide them is that Linden Labs does not care about their clients. If you continue running Second Life in this fashion, I truly hope you can find a better strategy to help your company survive in these tough economic times. I appreciate you taking the time to read the entirety of this letter and do hope you find it in yourselves to do the right thing.

Sincerely,

Silverax Greenwood

I am sorry I have to be so blunt about this and I do apologize for being so explicit, BUT THIS IS BULLSHIT!!! .......BULLSHIT! Linden Lab, what happened to you?! How could you stoop to such a low level? Are you that desperate for money? Needless to say, Linden Lab in recent days has exhibited a high amount of suspicious behavior. They have been known to be extremely inefficient at reading support tickets, they have fired a great deal of diligent and capable employees, and continually raise the prices of land. And when our good friend Littleblackduck had all of his Victorian Sims absolutely destroyed after an update gone wrong, Linden Labs did even raise an ounce of sympathy for him. Needless to say, Silver and I have been quite frustrated, and our remaining existence in SL remains suspect at this point.

For more than 3 years, we have been having a blast in SL; beautiful sims, fantastic events, and just wonderful people to meet. I really do hope LL can change their attitude but the future in our eyes looks grim. We hope that Silver's account can be reactivated soon and we will be sure to keep you updated in the days to come. Again, may you have a great Holiday Season and we hope to see you soon.