A sad mentality…

Throughout the entire RedZone farrago, there is a sad mentality demonstrated among some of its most ardent followers.

On the one hand, they are paranoid about “copybotters” and “griefers” to the extent that they are willing to utilise a tool that is both flawed in concept and execution, as one of their own members points out:

Yes… it doesn’t work.

Rather than admit this, they get quite rabid in their postings concerning all of us who have genuine grounds for concern over the use and potential abuse of this tool: we’re vilified as being “copybotters” and “greifers” [sic] ourselves; we’re accused of being duplicitous and misleading.

Then on the other hand, in a stunning display of duplicity which (unsurprisingly) seems to escape them, they themselves remain unwilling to be honest and open about their use of RedZone and what it actually does, preferring to avoid, obfuscate or simply omit.

For example, when discussing the use of RZ at the sim level, Sylla Rhiadra suggests the sim owners should put up notification that they are using RZ so that their visitors may make an informed decision as to whether they in fact wish to enter the sim:

“Welcome to XXXXX! Please note that to remain in this sim you must consent to a scan that will load publicly available information about your avatar, including your avatar name, your IP address, UUID, and status of payment information, on to a third-party web site outside of the jurisdiction of Linden Lab or its ToS, where it will be stored and collated against the IP addresses of other residents in order to determine what other accounts employ the same IP address as yourself. Please note also that inclusion of your information within this database may result in you being banned from RedZone-using sims that have banned any account using the same IP address as you, and that, moreover, the names of your avatar and any others employing the same IP (including any of your alts that have been scanned) may be revealed to individual RedZone users if anyone using the same IP address as you consents to the release of this information. To gain access to these names yourself, you must purchase a copy of RedZone, currently retailing at L$3,999. Failure to consent to this scan witihin 6 seconds will result in the ejection of your avatar from this parcel.”

However, Bunderwahl Guisse replies that all that is needed is a message such as:

“Welcome to Dark Alley! [his roleplay sim, which does use the RZ scanner] We use RedZone for your protection. RedZone is a Tos compliant security tool that helps make sure you will not be harrassed [sic] or stalked during your visit.”

Leaving aside the fact that the term “Tos complaint” is highly questionable – suggestive as it is that Linden Lab themselves have vetted the product and given it the all-clear – the “revised” text from Mr. Guisse once again completely avoids mentioning precisely what RZ does, preventing his visitors from making any form of informed consent as to whether they want to run the risk of having their personal information exposed on an insecure, non-Linden database.

It’s also ironic that he claims RZ will ensure his visitors “will not be harrassed [sic]” when if, anything, it is a tool that can allow the unscrupulous to do precisely that.

However, the most revealing thing about Mr. Guisse’s attitude, and those of his ilk using RedZone and attempt to hide its use is this: the fact that they are willing to go to these lengths indicates they are fully aware that honest transparency about the tool they are using will kill their trade stone dead, because no-one will be willing to accept the realities of RZ if presented to them in terms as suggested by Sylla – and remain on their sim.

You’d think that realisation would be enough to get any rational, clear-thinking business person to consider removing the tool altogether and replacing it with something that, while it may require a little more work on their part, will not run the risk of scaring customers away.

But no. These people would rather keep the tool safely hidden and act in a completely dishonest manner towards their customers, clients – and friends. Worse than that, they’ll continue to regard the rest of the community with a mix of rampant paranoia and misplaced belief in their own “rightness” that will, in the end…destroy their own businesses.

People aren’t fools, as Jeggs in the screen shot above notes. The word will out – indeed the word is spreading. I’m persistently banging on about it here just as others are elsewhere – some in the most humorous of ways will still getting the message across. RedZone is a hot topic on Twitter and elsewhere. More and more Groups are spreading the word on the invasive nature of the tool and (potentially equally importantly), the unethical nature of its creator. May content creators who initially used the tool have now withdrawn it from use – some very publicly, as with RedGrave Skins, who sent out an apology to all 1500+ members of their product Group.

It is not as if there are not already tools available to them that could replace RZ, as I’ve stated elsewhere. They’re not even willing to participate and support JIRAs that could potentially strengthen their arsenal when dealing with griefing and the like.

This being the case, those who persist in hiding their use of RZ and trying to whitewash what the tool is and how it works will become the pariahs of SL. Their sims and stores will be avoided (many are already blacklisted) – and they’ll have no-one but themselves to blame.

Not that they’ll see it that way, of course.