Automated Mainland Vehicle Guidelines

-- Under construction! --

About

Along mainland protected routes [1][2] there are two types of automated vehicles regularly seen, self-navigating "roaming" vehicles and pre-programmed "tour" vehicles. These have been a topic of heated and polarised discussion for some time [3][4] with little official line on the subject in public from Linden Labs. This page aims to dispel myths and clarify the boundaries for their use as indicated by Linden Labs employees, Terms Of Service and Community Guidelines.

Relevant TOS and Community Guidelines

Terms Of Service[5]

• 8.3 You agree that you will not post or transmit Content or code that may be harmful, impede other users' functionality, invade other users' privacy, or surreptitiously or negatively impact any system or network.

(iv) Engage in malicious or disruptive conduct that impedes or interferes with other users' normal use of the Service;[6]

This means that automated vehicles must not be deployed that deliberately interfere with other residents use of the protected routes. Where automated vehicles might interfere as a by-product of their functionality, all possible steps must be taken to minimise any negative impact. As past incidents have shown, if the owner of the automated vehicle can show that, within the capabilities on the grid, everything possible has been done to minimise problems, the vehicle will be tolerated by Linden Labs. Spamming can also be seen as disruptive, so this is to be avoided too.

Community Guidelines[7]

(excerpt) "treat each other with respect and without harassment"

• 2.Harassment

Given the myriad capabilities of Second Life, harassment can take many forms. Communicating or behaving in a manner which is offensively coarse, intimidating or threatening, constitutes unwelcome sexual advances or requests for sexual favors, or is otherwise likely to cause annoyance or alarm is Harassment.

This means that automated vehicles must not exhibit offensive or intimidating content, or spam passing residents either. However, riders of such vehicles may be sent information (as long as within TOS and CG) because sitting on the vehicle can be regarded as consent.

• 3.Assault

Most areas in Second Life are identified as Safe. Assault in Second Life means: shooting, pushing, or shoving another Resident in a Safe Area (see Global Standards below); creating or using scripted objects which singularly or persistently target another Resident in a manner which prevents their enjoyment of Second Life.

This reflects on automated vehicles much the same as the TOS section quoted above. Again, by-products of some vehicles might mean that their behaviour could be interpreted as assault, but the defining point is whether or not it is deliberate and avoidable. All possible efforts must be made to ensure that residents are allowed to freely roam the routes. Second Life is not and never will be a perfect environment and constant evolution of the grid means that avoidance behaviour must continually evolve along with the grid where possible.

• 4.Disturbing the Peace

Every Resident has a right to live their Second Life. Disrupting scheduled events, repeated transmission of undesired advertising content, the use of repetitive sounds, following or self-spawning items, or other objects that intentionally slow server performance or inhibit another Resident's ability to enjoy Second Life are examples of Disturbing the Peace.

This means that automated vehicles should not interfere with events scheduled along the protected routes, such as Relay For Life or the Cross Grid Rally. Residents are fully entitled to request that automated vehicle services be suspended to ensure smooth running of such events and owners of such systems should fully respect that. Deliberate spamming or exhibiting advertising on automated vehicles will not be tolerated, neither will the deliberate use of automated vehicles to disrupt residents enjoyment of the routes.

Quotes from Linden Labs employees

Blondin Linden in IM with Yavanna Llanfair (19-May-2011) regarding the concept of tour vehicles (excerpts)

Blondin Linden: :)when you say ON THE ROADS, what do you mean specifically?

Yavanna Llanfair: I mean, sending it off my own land onto Linden land

Blondin Linden: yeah I dont see a problem with that. The roads are meant to be used by vehicles

Blondin Linden: be it car or pod

Yavanna Llanfair: OK... and unmanned vehicles are fine then

Yavanna Llanfair: Well, I don't just use roads

Yavanna Llanfair: These don't rely on roads

Yavanna Llanfair: I use waterways, and any Linden land I can find that is a through passage

Yavanna Llanfair: They self-delete in 4 minutes if they don't move though, so no littering

Yavanna Llanfair: And they also send me an IM to say what happened, so I would soon spot it

Blondin Linden: oh gottcha

Blondin Linden: yeah, Its fine

Blondin Linden: it would be cool if it would like, stop at historical sites and give an update or soemthing.

Yavanna Llanfair: I have my logo on this, not the YavaScript name, just the YS symbol. Any problems with that?

Yavanna Llanfair: (actually the name is faintly etched on the windshield)

Blondin Linden: not really. I dont see a problem with the logo

Blondin Linden: So here is what I would do. If someone complains, take a moment to try and explaint (sic) to them what it is you are trying to do. If they still have an issue, let them submit an AR I wouldnt worry about it until a Linden contacts you about it, At that point, reach out to me and Ill look into it

Yavanna Llanfair: Good. I think it would be a nice thing to do. I have been cautious what I've said, I guess maybe I am too worried about offending people

Blondin Linden: no, Yove made an effort to be respectful and it shows

Michael Linden at the Rail Community meeting (03-June-2011) regarding vehicle appearance

• Michael Linden: Mild note #3: one area the Lab won't act on is the "appropriateness of appearance". [8]

• Michael Linden: If a train looks like a potato with twelve noses and "eat at joes" written on it, that's fine with us (TOS-ly speaking). [9]

Known issues which cause confusion

• PJIRA - Sitted (sic) Avatars 'ghosted' by losing contact with a vehicle are not removed from the prim settings: 29/November/2008[10]

This bug causes a vehicle to retain its status regarding an avatar being sat on it. This means that sometimes when an avatar crashes on sim entry, the vehicle is unaware that it has lost the avatar, and the upshot of this bug is that sometimes residents are unable to sit on an automated vehicle, leading them to believe it serves no purpose other than to advertise the scripting abilities of the maker.

• PJIRA - Self Cloning objects reproducing: 31/July/2010[11]

This bug causes exact replicas of automated vehicles to be created upon entry into a new sim. This issue is aknowledged and under investigation by Linden Labs and responsible for "swarms" of vehicles sometimes seen on the mainlands. This issue often leads to residents mistakenly accusing owners of excessive rezzing of vehicles and sending abuse reports for "unfair use of region resources".

Related pages

Route Problem Guide

External Links

http://protected-routes.com/