Linden Lab Official:Discussion guidelines

Note: These Guidelines are effective April 30, 2009

The Second Life blogs and forums are here for you, the Residents of Second Life, to discuss your ideas, questions, and projects and to share what you’ve learned about Second Life with each other and with us. We believe in an honest and open free exchange of ideas, and in always maintaining a courteous respect for the opinions and positions of others. We believe that promoting a respectful discourse and sharing of ideas leads to a stronger, better informed community.

To post to the Second Life blogs or forums, you must follow these Discussion Guidelines, the Second Life Terms of Service, Second Life Community Standards, and the Marketplace Fee and Listing Policies. By following these policies, you help make the blogs and forums an enjoyable and educational place for the entire community to meet and converse.

Discussion Guidelines

The following actions and content are not allowed on the Second Life blogs and forums and may result in post removal or locking, warning, suspension, or ban from Linden Lab’s services:

• [#cmr_interpersonal No Interpersonal Disputes]
• [#cmr_flaming No Flaming/Spamming/Trolling]
• [#cmr_ads No Advertising]
• [#cmr_adult No Adult Content]
• [#cmr_off No Off Subject Posting]
• [#cmr_moderation No Abusing Moderation Process]

No Interpersonal Disputes or Singling out Others for Negative Commentary

We do not allow posts about interpersonal disputes or that contain disruptive or hostile comments. If you have a personal disagreement, do not post about it on the Second Life blogs or forums. These are public areas for the entire Second Life community and not for airing your grievances about others. Residents who have personal disputes have other channels of communication to discuss their differences – private messaging, IM within Second Life, or chatting within Second Life.

Posts singling out others for negative commentary or treatment are also not appropriate on the forums and may be removed. "Singling out others" includes calling them out by their Second Life name, real-world name, brand, company, organization, or group name, or in other ways reasonably likely to identify them. Some examples of unacceptable "negative commentary or treatment" are complaints about another’s products or services, claims that someone has violated a Linden Lab policy or the law, opinion polls about a particular Resident, and posts that include in their title another person’s name with the intent of provoking the person named.

No Flaming, Spamming, or Trolling

Spirited discussion is encouraged, but flaming, spamming, and trolling are not allowed. "Flames" are hostile or disruptive posts, or messages intended to incite an angry response. "Spam" is repeated posting, cross posting, or messaging on the same topic or discussion and includes chain letters. And "trolling" is posting an intentionally contrary opinion to incite argumentative response. In the heat of a passionate discussion you may sometimes be tempted to say something that on reflection you will regret. If your comments don’t further a productive dialogue with others who may not share your opinions, then you should reconsider posting.

No Advertising or Commercial Promotion

Except as expressly provided below under "Exceptions," we do not allow advertising or the promotion of specific merchants, marketplace listings, products, services, or commercial websites, including offers to trade, "wanted" posts, charitable solicitations, and posts on affiliate or referral programs. "Advertising" and "commercial promotion" include promotion of your own business as well as others’ businesses. A persistent focus on a particular merchant, listing, product, service, or commercial website is also considered "advertising" or "commercial promotion." A "commercial website" is a website where you can buy, sell, or trade any product or service.

We expressly prohibit posts that enable, encourage, or instruct others to leave Second Life, the Xstreet SL marketplace, or any Linden Lab property so that they can sell, buy, or trade on non-Linden Lab websites, virtual worlds, or online services that include the sale or trade of products or services. Included in this prohibition are posts promoting or advertising to buy, sell, or trade outside a Linden Lab property (such as Second Life or the Xstreet SL marketplace), and posts linking to websites that include offers to trade, sell, or purchase outside a Linden Lab property.

Exceptions

Exceptions for Designated Commerce Forums: In the Commerce forums titled "Services: List your Second Life related services", "Employment: Help wanted and work wanted", "Wanted: Are you searching for something you just can't find? Post it here!" and "Real Estate For Sale". You may advertise or promote your own products and services for Second Life, your stores within Second Life, real estate for sale, and your Xstreet SL marketplace listings, in the designated channels, provided that you do not advertise or promote any sale, purchase, or trade outside a Linden Lab property (such as Second Life or the Xstreet SL marketplace), and you do not link to websites that include offers to trade, sell, or purchase outside a Linden Lab property. If you’re posting to these designated Commerce forums, you may use SLurl links to your inworld stores, regions & parcels for sale, or links to your marketplace listings on the Xstreet SL website, as well as links to your personal website, so long as the website does not include any offers to trade, sell, or purchase outside a Linden Lab property as described above.

Exceptions for Profiles and Signatures: The purpose of the Second Life web profile and signature text is to tell others something about you and your posts that they will find interesting, pleasant, funny, thoughtful, or helpful. The profile and signature are not for advertising or commercial promotion. However, you may include in your profile photo your company logo or the name of your business. You may also associate tags with your profile, and your tag may be the name of your business inworld or on Xstreet SL. In your signature text, you may include your business name, SLurl links to your inworld stores, links to your Xstreet SL marketplace listings, as well as links to your personal website, so long as the website does not include any offers to trade, sell, or purchase outside a Linden Lab property as described above.

No Adult Content or Policy Violations

The Second Life blogs and forums are for the entire community, and your posts to the blogs and forums must be appropriate for all audiences. Your posts must also comply with the Second Life Terms of Service, the Xstreet SL Terms of Service, and the Second Life Community Standards. The following are examples of posts or conduct that are not appropriate for all audiences or violate our policies:

• Including material (graphic or text) that is obscene, pornographic, or adult in nature;
• Including profanity, vulgarity, hate speech, or threats of violence;
• Disclosing others’ real-world identity or contact information;
• Including the text of interpersonal communications, for example, email, chat, or instant messages;
• Attempting to impersonate other Residents or Linden Lab employees;
• Including copyrighted content without the permission of the copyright owner;
• Using JavaScript or active code, making repetitive or disruptive posts, or otherwise taking actions that interfere with site operations; and
• Encouraging others to violate any policy of Linden Lab.

No Off-Subject Posting

Do not post discussions into blogs or forums that are clearly designed for other discussions. The Second Life blogs and forums are specifically divided into separate channels and subject categories. And, do not post on subjects that do not relate to Second Life.

• Example: Second Life Answers adheres to a question and answer style format. Responses that are debates, discussions or not posted as an answer to the question may be removed without warning.

No Abusing the Moderation Process

Honor the moderation process and the decisions made through that process. The following are examples of posts or conduct that abuse the moderation process:

• Discussing or reposting posts that have been removed or locked by the moderator;
• Posting about the moderator’s decisions, for example, a post saying "Why did my post get removed?" or "Why didn’t you remove this post?"
• Posting warning letters or letters about suspended or banned Resident accounts;
• Discussing or posting reports of Resident violations; and
• Misusing the "Report abuse" function to maliciously or frivolously report content as not in compliance with Linden Lab policy.

Your Role In Helping To Moderate

There’s a significant amount of traffic to the Second Life blogs and forums, and it isn’t possible for us to read every thread or post. You can help keep the blogs and forums constructive and useful by:

Reconsidering Negative Posts – Second Life is a community where many different viewpoints are not only expected, but encouraged. We suggest you think carefully before you respond on the blogs or forums to another Resident with whom you may not see eye to eye. Instead of posting a negative response, just take a deep breath, count to ten, and smile. Having collected your composure, revise your intended response and consider again whether you want to respond publicly, privately, or even at all.

Reporting Abuse – If you see a post that you think violates our policies or that in some way requires review, please report it by clicking on the ! icon "Report abuse" under Actions. We’ll look at it and take appropriate action as necessary. In the interests of protecting our Residents' privacy, we will not notify you of any action we decide to take.

Moderation Policy

Feel free to challenge opinions, state your own, and enjoy the discussion, but be respectful. If you cross the line into personal attacks, insults, or other inappropriate conduct, you risk losing your posting privileges in the Second Life blogs and forums and having your Second Life account suspended or banned.

Although self-regulation of blog and forum posts is the ideal, Linden Lab may in its discretion respond as follows to violations of these Discussion Guidelines, the Second Life Terms of Service, the Xstreet SL Terms of Service, or the Second Life Community Standards

Removal or locking of posts - Linden Lab may delete or remove posts without warning or explanation. In addition, threads may be locked from further posting if they are no longer constructive or if parties continue to post inappropriately despite prior deletions or warnings. Please note that although name calling, e.g., fraud, liar, cheater, griefer, troller, jerk, scam artist etc., is strongly discouraged, Linden Lab may not delete posts for isolated instances of name calling. Generally we do not delete whole threads except in extreme circumstances, for example, where the conduct is egregious, the violations are throughout the thread, or the task of removing individual posts would be time-consuming or burdensome.</nowiki>

Informal warning - If the offense is not severe enough to warrant a formal warning, an informal warning may be issued. An informal warning is a private correspondence between Linden Lab and the violator, advising the violator of the offense and what s/he can do to correct it.

Formal warning - If the offense is severe enough or an informal warning has already been issued, Linden Lab may issue a formal warning. The formal warning becomes a permanent part of the poster’s record. Several warnings may result in loss of posting privileges in the Second Life blogs and forums and suspension or banning of your Second Life account(s).</nowiki>

Suspension - A suspension is the temporary deactivation of a violating account’s posting privileges in the Second Life blogs and forums and access to the Second Life virtual world and Xstreet SL marketplace.

Ban - A ban is the permanent deactivation of the violator’s access to Linden Lab’s services. This includes deactivation of access to the Second Life virtual world, of access to and listing privileges in the Xstreet SL marketplace, of posting privileges in the Second Life blogs and forums, and of all Second Life accounts, including all alternate accounts. </nowiki>

We believe that inworld and forum behavior are linked and that behavior carries across boundaries. This means if you are suspended or banned from the Second Life world, you may also be suspended or banned from the Second Life blogs and forums. And vice versa, if you are suspended or banned from the Second Life blogs and forums, you may also be suspended or banned from the Second Life world.

Alternate Accounts: When a Second Life account is suspended, alternate account misuse may cause an increase in suspension time for both accounts. For instance, if Resident Jane Doe is suspended for three days and comes back to the Second Life forums on the second day of her suspension using an alternate account and breaks the Second Life Community Standards, both accounts may be suspended for seven more days. Although suspensions apply to the account(s) used in the violation, bans result in deactivation of all Second Life accounts, including any alternate accounts, of the violator.

Violations are evaluated on a case-by-case basis depending on the severity of the offense and past history of violations. Although we will make reasonable efforts to take into consideration the context and general sentiment of the blog or forum discussions, Linden Lab has the final say on moderation decisions