[RESOLVED] Replicating objects destroyed
Wednesday, December 6th, 2006 at 5:15 PM by: Torley Linden[7:07 PM PST] We’re not receiving new reports of the aforementioned replicating objects. A big thanks to all the Residents both here on the blog and present inworld whose info helped us seek and destroy, bringing the grid back to a better state.
IMPORTANT: Do NOT accept objects called “griefornament”, “candycane”, “Free Christmas Ornament”, or similarly suspicious ones — if someone or something tries to send it to you, press the “MUTE” button on the blue dialog immediately so it won’t get into your Inventory. DON’T buy or take a copy if you find them on the ground, either.
If you did happen to accept one, DO NOT rez them. Trash them right away!
[6:52 PM PST] At this point, it appears the situation is mostly resolved. We’re having a look around and reenabling scripts in regions which had them turned off to halt the attack.
[6:24 PM PST] Looks like things are settling down. Scanning for residual grief objects continues…
[6:10 PM PST] Thanks for the info and advice provided in the comments, we’ve already zapped a lot of these objects. Continuing to scan for more.
[5:53 PM PST] “Free Christmas Ornament” is another object to MUTE if you happen to be sent it. We’re watching for further flare-ups.
[5:40 PM PST] Updated, there appears to be “candycane”s multiplying. We’re destroying those too.
[5:31 PM PST] We’re continuing to destroy the objects in waves.
We’re on it and nuking the replicating objects cross-grid.
I’m both inworld and updating this blog as we get more info.
December 6th, 2006 at 5:24 PM
Thanks for the quick update. Good luck to us all
December 6th, 2006 at 5:25 PM
I can’t see why people have to make these things. I’m glad to see that it’s being acted uponbut itsn’t there a way to stop this from happening? Or is the open endedness of the game also its main problem?
December 6th, 2006 at 5:26 PM
it seems to be a slow-moving one, fortunately.
December 6th, 2006 at 5:26 PM
Looks to me like teleporting may not be working. I don’t know if that’s an effect of trying to get rid of the whosamawhatsit, but I thought I’d pass that along. Also, I seem to be only a floating ponytail and bracelets. But I find this to be incidental.
Thanks for the hard work…
December 6th, 2006 at 5:26 PM
There are many on these griefornaments that have just appeared all around my house and land. How can I get rid of them?
December 6th, 2006 at 5:27 PM
tp not working….. Good luck lindens
December 6th, 2006 at 5:28 PM
Never mind…just teleported okay. My bad.
December 6th, 2006 at 5:28 PM
Well, we tried. It seems that it finally crashed the grid, or at least my sim.
Good luck!
December 6th, 2006 at 5:28 PM
I accepted one of these from a guy I thought I was talking to
bad move
20 mins with object sent back. Sorry I did not get the message soon enough. GOod luck with this one.
December 6th, 2006 at 5:29 PM
My sotre looked liked it was carpet bombed but now it seems ok good job LL
December 6th, 2006 at 5:29 PM
Well….atleast they’re festive.
December 6th, 2006 at 5:30 PM
oh for petes sake, you think those idiots who make these wretched things would do something better with their time then ruin everyone elses time on SL.
December 6th, 2006 at 5:31 PM
It came to my land Mooaleo..I turned off create objects, object entry, and run scripts to group only and that helped. If you are able to do that, I’d suggest until LL gets it taken care of. I’ve also banned the oh…12-15 people’s names associated with it including the creator from my lands
December 6th, 2006 at 5:31 PM
Yes, there are issues teleporting. It’s a pain to get around for me.
December 6th, 2006 at 5:32 PM
Congrats Lindens and assorted little Lindens, Fast response… cleared my land of the goo with hardly a hiccup.
Thank You,
Johnii
December 6th, 2006 at 5:32 PM
it would seem to cause a crash on clients if too many are in one sim
December 6th, 2006 at 5:33 PM
I and a few I was with at the time were given one by an Unknown person we Turned it down. And I thought would look on here for info, I have told all that were with me. So hopefully if they get it again they will turn the thing down again.
December 6th, 2006 at 5:34 PM
They seem to have now left Cottonwood now. Thanks Lindens. And thanks for the heads up on the live help, I think it was Chiyo.
December 6th, 2006 at 5:34 PM
Celeste, would it be permissable to list said people’s names?
Port Caledon just crashed. I’ll have to see if my bicycle I was creating is still there, or in my inventory.
December 6th, 2006 at 5:35 PM
Way to go LINDENS!! Just hope the fall out does not MUTATE things.
December 6th, 2006 at 5:35 PM
Hmm? Well it hasnt reached me. What exactly does it do?
December 6th, 2006 at 5:37 PM
UGHHH I’m trying to shop and it’s not letting me. Goodluck on stopping the griefers and their attack on the grid. This is rather annoying. Can’t tp or anything.
December 6th, 2006 at 5:39 PM
Go Lindens
December 6th, 2006 at 5:39 PM
This was my first attack. Since no one has mentioned it. I thought I would.
After I started getting the whatchamacallits a window popped up & said it was one of my friends doing it. I got angry at him, and owe him an apology. Don’t want everyone mad at everyone else.
December 6th, 2006 at 5:40 PM
Just a thought…
The *first* thing that should have been done upon recognition of this attack is that a grid-wide message should have been sent out with the same information that was just posted here on the blog: Do not accept the griefornament object if offered to you.
There are far more people in-world right now than there are here reading the SL blog.
That aside, kudos to the Lindens for what — at the moment seems to be anyways — getting on top of this attack quickly.
December 6th, 2006 at 5:41 PM
Good luck guys. My shop is in the area affected. Please don’t let it get destroyed.
December 6th, 2006 at 5:45 PM
Merry Christmas !
This year I want a gray goo fence. All shiny and new.
December 6th, 2006 at 5:45 PM
So…yeah…I was stupid enough to not only accept it, but actually tried to see what it was…now my character is muted and I can’t talk to anyone. Anyone know what I am supposed to do?
December 6th, 2006 at 5:46 PM
Why not say why it is bad to pick them up?
December 6th, 2006 at 5:46 PM
Thank you Linden’s
Fast response to clear my neighbor’s land (which is a unmanned For Sale property with no auto-return). I turned off Scripts and Build on my land and I haven’t gotten any new ones (although it’s hard to do since I only have 6 prims available). Also, no slowdown on the sim for me. Thanks again!
December 6th, 2006 at 5:48 PM
Thanks for the tip Celeste I’ll give that a try.
Keep up the Good work Lindens way to catch this early!!!
December 6th, 2006 at 5:50 PM
Shadow:
I’d assume because when you rez it it becomes a grey goo.
December 6th, 2006 at 5:51 PM
ACCEPTING THE OBJECT INTO YOUR INVENTORY MAY PERPETUATE THE ATTACKS. it’s very important to not accept the object - just ‘mute’ the giver to stop receiving requests.
also note that -banning- the unfortunate givers in this case may be erroneous - they most likely unknowingly/unthinking accepted the object, is all. :\ the only control is to not accept the object - if the receiver of the object were able to control the attack, then these attacks really -wouldn’t happen.-
December 6th, 2006 at 5:51 PM
Does this mean you’re going to call FBI on this attacker?
December 6th, 2006 at 5:53 PM
I understand you are not supposed to accept it, but if you did and it messed you up, what are you supposed to do? Can it be fixed?
December 6th, 2006 at 5:54 PM
Did it take the grid down completely? Can’t log in at all since my sim crashed
December 6th, 2006 at 5:54 PM
I believe this is just because of noobs. Noobs know nothing. They play with their nukes like toys. Im sure they are the cause of it. Report griefnoobs today.
December 6th, 2006 at 5:54 PM
and yes, good advice - if you’re a landowner, turning off of a few of the ‘create objects/run scripts’ preferences from your land tab will help control the attack.
December 6th, 2006 at 5:54 PM
I am getting so VERY TIRED of this bullshit!
The people who are responsible for these attacks should be immediately banned and their IP’s given over to the FBI for their acts against the free trade of Linden Labs and their customers.
This type of stuff is really starting to get annoying, and not annoyance to the Lindens, but to the people who create this crap.
These people, like all other Griefers through-out every Online World, are nothing more then childish, immature, and jealous people that cannot find a profitable way using their talents, so they attempt to stand in the way of others who are using their talents in a profitable way. These actions clearly show that these people are interferring with interstate commerce of others and therefore, these people should not only be reported, but then should be given stiff consequences for their actions.
Can you imagine what SL would be like, if these immature children would use their talents to do something for the betterment of the SL Community?
I say it’s time that Philip Rosedale puts up RL Dollars for information leading to the arrest and conviction of these cyber-terrorists. Put a stop to these people before they completely destroy the confidence of every SL user. Put a stop to these childish antics, use that development money for the protection of the SL community! I say Philip should put up $50,000 RL Dollars for anyone that can positively identify these people and provide that information to the authorities and see to it the people causing these issues are jailed and convicted for their crimes!
YES, I’m pissed and frustrated, and tired of this crap!
December 6th, 2006 at 5:55 PM
Grid’s still up, thanx for comments, we’re continuing. More sighted, I’m TPing around the grid. Emphasized DISCARDING them too in the post.
December 6th, 2006 at 5:57 PM
So if some one acceted it would that mean they would get banned? just a question i got confuse with the Post by Nyoko Salome…..
December 6th, 2006 at 6:01 PM
i think that accepting a scripted objects doesn’t actually do anything. The problem might be when:
1. u click on it
2. u try to rez it on the ground
3. u try to wear it(as an attachments)
just having that object in your inventory i don’t think does anything.
note: comments from lindens are appreciated
December 6th, 2006 at 6:02 PM
I lost a “very personal” object and i expect to have it back soon… i use it as often as i can. It’s not in my lost and found folder. Any clue? Name of object PCHUD ver.3.1 purchased to Doctor Austin. Thank you all for creating SL!
December 6th, 2006 at 6:03 PM
I think there is a rezzer, and when you accept that the rezzer posts your key or something.
December 6th, 2006 at 6:04 PM
GRIDWIDE announcement!!!???!!! Pleaes make gridwide announcement… Groupchats are going haywire with misinformation!!!
People in SL who are picking these up are not seeing this blog to know that they shouldn’t!!!
and btw… LiveHelp is not taking incoming text ) type and type and type and type… hit send… nothing happens… nothing at all.. text never hits the screen. Other IM’s working normally….shut down?
December 6th, 2006 at 6:04 PM
Unfortunately it will be hard to prevent replicators. replicating aka duplicating aka self copying is a core component that makes many things possible. For example guns that fire bullets. The bullets have to be created automatically. I’m guessing its smiler for particle effects.
December 6th, 2006 at 6:07 PM
OK SO I WAS ONE TO OPEN IT - ITS ALL OVER MY COMPUTER - I FINALLY STARTED MUTING THE OBJECTS - CAUSE I DIDN’T KNOW WHAT TO DO - REACHED OUT TO LIVE HELP - THERE RESPONSE WAS “WE’RE WORKING ON IT” WELL GREAT - TELL ME WHAT TO DO ABOUT IT, BUT NOTHING. YOU PAY FOR LIVE HELP AND AT A MOMENT LIKE THAT - WELL IT WOULD BE NICE TO GET SOME.
PEOPLE WERE IM’IN ME TELLING ME WHAT IS THIS YOUR SENDING ME. I HONESTLY SAY “IT WAS NOT ME” TOLD THEM TO MUTE ME IF NEED BE.
I REALLY HOPE YOU GUYS ARE ON TOP OF THIS.
AND IF IT WILL CAUSE ANY PROBLEMS OF A VIRUS TO MY COMPUTER. PLEASE MAKE ME AWARE OF IT BEFORE I SHUT IT DOWN.
I LOVE SECOND LIFE, AND EVERYTHING ABOUT IT. JUST ONE THING I SUGGEST FOR THE FUTURE. IS WHEN YOUR DOING UPDATES, GO AT IT SLOWLY, DO A LITTLE AND MAKE IT RIGHT, BEFORE TRYING TO DO ALOT AND EVERYTHING IS MESSED UP.
AND CONSIDERING ALL THAT GOES ON HERE - THIS IS ONE AMAZING PROGRAM.
LINDENS - YOUR AWESOME
NOW GET BACK TO ME PLEASE
LOL
December 6th, 2006 at 6:10 PM
we are our own civil defense warning - that’s what we can do.
December 6th, 2006 at 6:10 PM
I’ve looked into the script (got one, took it to my land, turned off all scripts), and it looks like it’s manually rolled, so it will run out of steam eventually (and yet bypasses the gray goo fence)
December 6th, 2006 at 6:15 PM
it did seem like a sedate one - sounds like it’s pretty well already over.
stay frosty though 
December 6th, 2006 at 6:15 PM
I kinda took a copy before i knew of all this. I thought griefnoobs were just having an epilepsy fit. I took the script out and deleted the object. Its a simple color animation. Nothing more. The object i put it in only flashes with the texture id.
December 6th, 2006 at 6:23 PM
Better to MUTE the giver, than to DISCARD the object.
December 6th, 2006 at 6:26 PM
@Shadow: If it was part of a linked set, you need to look inside each prim. There might be a color changing script, but in another prim you could find the giving script. Multi-prim objects are sometimes set up this way for various reasons.
December 6th, 2006 at 6:27 PM
Thank God for lindens.. Imagine if we were in another game and there was no one on to save us from this lol! Thank you Lindens! keep up the great work
December 6th, 2006 at 6:27 PM
isn’t deliberatly interfering with a network a federal crime? I am sure it is. It’s federal because it is using interstate communication. Its a crime because if you do it you are causing harm. So if whomever is doing this, you might want to keep in mind that that you are breaking federal law. Its not exactly like getting busted shoplifting at Walmart. In this case you actually spend time in a federal prison. The days of doing it, and saying “see i can do it” are pretty much over. so good luck to you. I don’t think the US has an extradition treaty with Yemen, you might want to think about that as an option, assuming you manage to get a passport.
is it really worth the risk? is it?
December 6th, 2006 at 6:27 PM
None in those either… I believe there are invisible spammers. They seemed to be flying from the other side of the sim i was on.
December 6th, 2006 at 6:28 PM
Thanks for your help, I updated it to MUTE.
December 6th, 2006 at 6:28 PM
Good thing im not trying to break the grid.
December 6th, 2006 at 6:29 PM
@Shadow: Odd. Someone I know took one apart and it used a sensor to locate new people to offer to.
The rotating items are possibly just a lltargetomega bug.
December 6th, 2006 at 6:31 PM
If systemwide messages can be issued, why was this warning not given out systemwide??? I had to relog and now cant get back in, but whilst I was inworld I had no reason or ability to read this blog
This sucks!
December 6th, 2006 at 6:32 PM
Please note that if you see any of these griefing candycanes that have the name “Prokofy Neva” or group “Ravenglass Rentals” that this is NOT repeat NOT my object in any way, shape, or form, and has nothing to do with my rentals group.
This is a persistent, repeated form of griefing in itself that these W-hat/v-5 new alts who are doing this — and it is their persistent, repeated M.O. — make ME the object owner through some kind of hack. I have never made any such object.
These things are going to be coming back to my inventory and paralyzing my account — in the past I literally have had 100,000 of these types of grief balls come back to me.
So please, don’t send me hate mail, report it to Live Help and put on autoreturn.
Torley, let me also note that we have another bug back that is displacing group-set objects when griefer prims overload the sim. Example of error message I have now on 4 sims:
“The object ‘Second Life’ has sent you a message from Second Life:
Your object ‘Seven Wonders Renter’ has been returned to your inventory
lost and found folder by (???) (???) from parcel ‘Hanging Garden of
Babylon Store Rentals Ravenglass Rentals’ at Refugio 187.865, 233.761
because the parcel is full.”
Note that the thing returning is listed as ???? which I’ve never seen before. I’ve bug reported this.
December 6th, 2006 at 6:32 PM
Having it in your inventory isn’t specifically the attack…
I however did the thing that shouldn’t be done during these attacks, I rezzed one, I am sorry for anyone who may have gotten one of the objects I inadvertently unleashed on Azure Islands, Azure’s staff and Linden Lab both helped me deal with this mistake.
December 6th, 2006 at 6:33 PM
Some remote stranger whose name I don’t remember tried to send me some random object last night, whose name I also don’t remember, but which wasn’t any of the objects cited here. Couldn’t see the person and didn’t recognize the name so just declined it. I figured it was just a mistake, but also figured it wouldn’t be smart to accept it. Don’t know how frequently that sort of thing happens around here but I’m surprised people accept candy from strangers. Maybe we should propagandize that message. If Woodsy the Owl isn’t doing anything these days, we could recruit him for a public awareness campaign. Him or that pets.com dog puppet. He’ll whore for anybody.
December 6th, 2006 at 6:34 PM
No. Its a simply color animation that uses a texture id. Stuff like llSetTexture, llSetTextureAnim, and the id of the texture.
December 6th, 2006 at 6:34 PM
OK so I had a lot of furniture and objects that I’d put in, and the sim I’m in crashed because of this. When it came back up, it was all gone, and things that were there before that I had deleted are now back.
I’ve already tried Live Help, still waiting on an answer, but if you put in anything recently before any sims crashed, you may want to check things out and make sure things are there.
December 6th, 2006 at 6:35 PM
Bob, I hear you.
It would be useful if the Lindens would refer our names to the FBI, if we are willing to give our RL information, to provide testimony about this group, which is the same group every time, which is an organized, planned, deliberate group not some chance group of kids, which is not new accounts, whatever their alts say, but some very old accounts and abetted by some beta-era residents who remain free of punishment for reasons unknown.
When the Lindens remove their own employees from some of the groups that support this persistent, deliberate, planned attacking group of W-hat/v-5, we might begin to see some progress on this problem, which follows an obvious pattern every time.
December 6th, 2006 at 6:39 PM
If the intent is criminal, then the authorities need to be brought in. I watched as the guy ran by and tossed these, greifornament’s. His intention was clearly criminal and he shouted obscenities at me as he ran by.
The fact is, that as long as there are free accounts available, all of us are at risk. Would it be possible to limit things like scripting and object creation to those who’ve paid? I understand the need for large signed up population numbers, and to demonstrate the system’s features in the hopes of gaining more paid subscribers, but isn’t there sufficient representation of those features evidenced by what the current occupants have implemented? Doesn’t it give even more motivation to sign up, to those who see the objects we’ve created and aren’t able to do so themselves because they haven’t paid?
I would REALLY like to hear a Linden Response to this comment/inquiry.
Poly
December 6th, 2006 at 6:41 PM
I hope you mean that for the people who just signed up and not people who have been here for a while, Polymetus.
December 6th, 2006 at 6:42 PM
Why not make a script that terminates rezzes after a certain threshhold has been met? One would have to set the threshold high enough that it would only kick in if the sim were under an obvious attack. Just a suggestion…
December 6th, 2006 at 6:43 PM
Nice response Lindens! It was handled fast and effectively. Many of the people I talked to half hour after I first reported the attack, did not even notice it!
December 6th, 2006 at 6:44 PM
I strongly disagree with you there Poly. While some newcomers may be malicious jerks, it does not mean that all of us non-payers are. Some of us just couldn’t afford Second Life if it were otherwise.
December 6th, 2006 at 6:49 PM
Just out of curiosity, is there a point at which replicating objects are okay?
I mean something like an object that replicates like once a day or something…
If so, there’d be money to be made in the form of tribbles.
December 6th, 2006 at 6:50 PM
I actually don’t think the intent is criminal in nature, but i do believe the action is. Just like i can’t go around in RL spitting on people because i think its funny, I can’t go around a network destroying peoples work because I think its funny. And using interstate, and international communications to do so, IS in fact a crime. And if someone doing this ‘thinks’ they can’t be caught, they should think again. I with a partner have been working on something for two hours that was lost because of this. Well if there are 15000 people on.. and if even if 1% of them, say 150 people had the same thing happen to them, that is 300 hours worth of work. So if you add it up at an average rate of 25 dollars an hour, (US dollars), It works out to 15000 US dollars worth of damage. AND i think that is a low estimate.
This is a Federal Crime. I wouldn’t want to be looking over my shoulder.
December 6th, 2006 at 7:08 PM
Someone asked if there was a way to stop these things. Yes, there is. Don’t accept inventory from people blindly. Recent successful grey goo attacks have been relying on sending copies of themselves to people as a means of getting around the grey goo fence.
Of course, if someone you trust explicitly sends you something that’s one thing. If (for instance) Kex Godel tried to drop some item on me I’d go ahead and take it. If on the other hand Joe Newbie or Kain Cleaver tried to hand me something I’d ask why they were sending me things.
December 6th, 2006 at 7:10 PM
No, that’s not sufficient. They put the items out on the ground, they replicate, it’s not just about passing inventory.
December 6th, 2006 at 7:18 PM
Thanx for your comments and concerns!
First, I apologize for a systemwide message not being sent out: I tried to send one several times, but they didn’t go through. I’m going to report this because communication’s quite critical, for obvious reasons.
It definitely helps to be savvy, especially since attacks like this, as Starwaster mentioned ^, often happen through social means. We’ll continue to implement technological measures to quickly blacklist and eradicate replicating objects.
What happens after one of these is there’s an internal post-mortem, and aspects we can improve on are emphasized and made into actionable issues. There’s a lot of tools we have that didn’t exist months ago. We’ve also continued to be in contact with the FBI.
There’ll also be a Technical Town Hall with Cory Linden coming up, where related queries are likely to come up:
http://blog.secondlife.com/2006/12/06/town-hall-with-cory-linden-dec-20-at-230pm-pst/
Re: suggestions of limiting scripts to verified accounts and such, yes, a good curiosity. The topic was previously mentioned in:
Security and Second Life
http://blog.secondlife.com/2006/10/09/security-and-second-life/
December 6th, 2006 at 7:50 PM
I agree with the continued suggestions that we only allow VERIFIED accounts in world. However I think there is some clarification necessary… YOU DO NOT HAVE TO BE A PAY ACCOUNT TO BE VERIFIED! I agree that people that cannot or choose not to pay the monthly resident fee can still be contributing members of SL.
But you SHOULD absolutely be required to give normal levels of identification when you sign up and participate in this world.
December 6th, 2006 at 7:52 PM
Its worth noting that if you DO get infected by one of these things, setting yourself into BUSY mode shortcircuits their programming. You can no longer be given items when in BUSY mode so the uberspamming doesnt work. It is a good way to stop the spamming for long enough to search your inventory for the offending objects and destroy them
December 6th, 2006 at 8:11 PM
Torley: “it definitely helps to be savvy, especially since attacks like this, as Starwaster mentioned ^, often happen through social means. We’ll continue to implement technological measures to quickly blacklist and eradicate replicating objects”
Arghhh! Noooo..
The first SlTD has arrived!
Time to bring in the CDC not the FBI!
December 6th, 2006 at 8:20 PM
I’d like to add, as a network security specialist, as well as a dabbler in programming, that I was very curious about these objects so i observed them. They appeared to come into the parcel I was on, as if they were tossed in. It looked like they were ‘raining’. So my guess Is, that either somone was flying about spewing these objects out, or these objects literally toss themselves through the physics engine in Second Life itself, from place to place, and spread that way. Just an interesting thing to note.
And yes, The FBI should be called in, and the perpetrators brought to justice to the fullest extent of the law.
December 6th, 2006 at 8:36 PM
Can someone explain what “enter objects” on land options does? I understand the other two of “run scripts” and “create objects’
December 6th, 2006 at 8:46 PM
Jeez, I got attacked with those stupid grief ornaments around 1 or 2 PM today, but I thought it was just some idiot having fun around me. It looked like I was getting bombed, though what was weird is that they seemed to appear to be thrown by an invisible person, almost like a grenade. Ah well, as long as the issue is resolved and I didn’t have to use my holstered pistols in SL, I’m a happy camper
December 6th, 2006 at 9:55 PM
Gillian: it was a recent addition, to prevent people from creating objects outside your parcel and then moving them onto your property. They can still drive vehicles onto your land.
December 6th, 2006 at 10:34 PM
I was buying some land just when this happened. My guess is that there were too many of these objects in my sim. My funds were all gone to the original owner and the land.. wasn’t transferred to me. I’ll ring LL tomorrow hehe.. Anyway, *right* after I pressed the ‘Proceed’-button to finilize the sale, my client crashed, causing my computer to power down. When I powered back up, my BIOS was telling me weird things. After resetting things I was able to log back into my system and -ofcourse!- back into SL to see my new land.. ah well..
I’m so happy Blue Linden was there in Live Help! They were all swamped with these replicating objects. But they’re always polite and very helpfull. Good job Linden, don’t let others tell you you don’t do your jobs well enough. I’m a systems engineer myself and I know how hard it can be to stay right on things.
Cheers!
Peace Seeker
Roger Gaspara,
Mangyeong
December 6th, 2006 at 10:57 PM
My land looked quite funny with 300 candy canes flying around so fast you could barely see them. The poor girl who rezzed it was so upset, I feel really bad for her
December 6th, 2006 at 11:02 PM
A few people have made a passing reference to ‘talents’ of the griefers who do this. Lets get one thing really clear here - their is absolutely no talent required to make a self replicating object. It is about as complex as the “hello avatar” script created when you make your first script. I would suggest the opposite - only untalented programmers make this kind of object - simply because they do not have the talents or skills to create something more advanced.
Every single programmer in SL could whip one of these up in about as long as it takes them to spell SL. Dumn, boring, unoriginal, unimpressed, been done before, ineffective, talentless…
There isn’t even any strategic advantage to the griefer, LL gets onto these things so fast now that half the time most of us don’t even know it has happened. If you must grief…at least be entertaining and original.
I for one aren’t even annoyed…just really really bored with the entire grey goo thing.
LOL…heh here’s an idea - why not copyright the grey goo concept and code then LL can use the DMCA to get them 20k fines per object and 10 to 20 years in prison. Maybe the stupid DMCA is good for something after all.
December 6th, 2006 at 11:08 PM
do these things do damage to people? (in damage enabled areas I mean)
December 7th, 2006 at 12:38 AM
I was offered these objects 2 or 3 times within a minute or two (earlier today, WED. 4-6pm) I declined one and accepted two. This happened in Memory Bazaar@ Ross Infohub. I am a relative noob and the messages posted at LOGIN really helped me become aware of this issue. I did not open these and have Trashed/Emptied them. I hope this helps. My apologies.
December 7th, 2006 at 1:28 AM
I know why griefers commit the “grey goo” crime. Becuase it’s “realistic”.
It allows them to reach beyond the bounds of the rules, and do things not normaly possible.
Yes I know its possible in script, what I mean though is socialy. There not supposed to do create
self replicating scripts or “Grey goo”, they know it, but greifiers create such scripts becuase it gives them a sense of power, a way to actualy be seen, a way to truly get the attention of LL, and not just be another player below them.
In short, what scripting the “Grey goo” object does, is makes greifers feel like they can battle the gods of SL (LL).
These actions usualy happen becuase the are a manifastation of the individuals RL problems, often with authority, which further stems from misscomunication, and negative dealings with Government, including but not limited to a) Corrupt acts on Governments part, or b) Ignorance of ones own wrongs, and a negative viewpoint towards accepting ones own wrongs when cuaght by authorities.
These people, known only as greifiers, should really be viewed as mentaly ill, and not just as criminals. Granted, there a undoubtly many who just delight in being cyber terrorists, and that mental health is no excuse for some ones actions, however such things DO need to be taken into account when judging such people, and punishment, or recourse should follow a plan to rehabilitate said individuals.
I know, I was once one of them… Not on SL, and definatly not big time. I was’nt caught by authorities, however, I did catch my self, when I learned about all of the above, and I have taken proper recourse in paying back all individuals I harmed in any way possible, and have actualy almost payed off those debts.
My point is, with people, regardless of type, there are a lot of factor to consider, even when your angry at them, ESPECIALLY when your angry, lest we fall towards arrogance, and act as low as the people who angered us.
Also, there is some debat, even with the exchange of virtual property, and services for real money (and vice-versa) with the magor coarts, whether or not players do in fact own the property they obtain within virtual worlds such as SL, even with EULAs stating that all media created is owned by the originator of said media.
All things considered, there is a !EXTREMELY! high chance that coarts will rule against players in the case of full ownership, or even partial ownership of objects within virtual worlds, that they obtained.
~Sorry
December 7th, 2006 at 2:12 AM
I got this late last night, from taking a free object from place I won’t name here as I don’t think that is right. It replicated hundreds of times, my screen was an absolute mess. TY for the professionl manner in which “Mars” at Live Help reassured me, some great advice indeed, because after threatening IMs, threatening Teleport invites, I was in two minds whether to just uninstall second life.
Having checked all blog entries this morning, I see that it was system wide, not just aimed at me. TY Guys for the great help, I have now cleared all “griefornaments” out of my inventory totally, there were over 3000 replicated items in my lost and found objects.
To the person who wrote or created this thing, i want write what i want to say, but will leave these words, I hope your mommy takes away your pocket money and makes you go to bed at 7pm.
December 7th, 2006 at 3:12 AM
Thanks for clearing these ‘griefornaments’ from my land pronto - Teeple Linden came out and dealt with them v quickly and efficiently after I IMed Live Help! Terrific service!
Tell me when you locate the griefers -I will personally fly over and strangle them with my Xmas tree decorations and set them up as the Christmas Fairy on the very top! I hope they are looking forward to being stuck up there with a branch of spruce inserted where it hurts all Xmas!
December 7th, 2006 at 3:12 AM
@Virrginia..sorry I can’t list the names of the people. I just went into About Land and as I returned the items to the “nice, lovely people” (sarcasm) I wrote their names down, then selected one in my neighbors yard and got the creator’s name.
-You are welcome on the tip. Didn’t know if anyone else knew about it, thought I’d give my two little cents.
Thanks LL for doing a great job, as others have pointed out. No loss of time playing, no sim/grid crash. It was one of the best griefing (read: game wasn’t shut down for hours) that we’ve had..maybe the griefers are getting weak, possibly too much Christmas candy early on. We can only hope.
December 7th, 2006 at 4:45 AM
Thankfully, I haven’t received any of these items. However, I have been given - both recently and in the past - items from people I don’t know while I was offline. I was notified by means of a message in the email account I use for offline IMs that someone gave me inventory and that I should log in to accept or deny it.
However, here lies the problem: the offline message does NOT mention what the object I was given is and, when I log in, no message notifying me of the inventory transfer and asking me to accept or deny it appears. And it doesn’t even show up in my recent items tab, so I don’t know what I was given. The only way for me to find out is indirectly, through the transactions history. Could you improve on this?
December 7th, 2006 at 5:14 AM
Yeah, the in-world global announcement would have been a good one. Would have saved me from getting 7000 emails in my inbox yesterday (I have the IM to email function active)…
December 7th, 2006 at 5:42 AM
In our weird 2L world, I got word of the attack IN SPANISH through one of the groups I belong to… the role of ‘other language’ groups in getting the word out FAST deserves mention! As 2L becomes multilingual, bridging language barriers during attacks should be a priority. I hope the Lindens have identified key English > X-language people to pass the word around to those whose English language fluency is limited… A BIG MISTAKE would be for the Lindens to send out “a systemwide message” in English and simply assume that everyone online ‘got the message and understands’.
December 7th, 2006 at 6:36 AM
Kudos to the Lindens for cleaning this up as rapidly as they did. Clearly this was a pretty lame attack, but it was a grid attack, nonetheless.
I AR’ed three of the sources of the object spam in Magenta, who all had “classic griefer names”. I noted an hour later that two of those names no longer showed in search, which I take to indicate that the Lindens actually moved swiftly to suspend or ban those jerks. Of 4 names that I ID’d, two were unverified alts only a few days old, (the ones banned), one was an unverified noob about 3 months old who possibly didn’t know any better, and one was a long-term resident from mid 2005.
Could we get an AR category that fits this sort of attack better? Like “Replicating object”, or “Object spam”, or even “Misc Griefer Attack”? This wasn’t “Assault”, nor did it really fit most of the other AR categories. I had to file the AR’s as “Misc”, with a subject line of “GRID ATTACK”.
December 7th, 2006 at 6:38 AM
And to think I’m actually ahead of the game this time.
I’ve had to tell friends to not just randomly give me stuff but tell me they are doing it first as they’ll give me a bunch of stuff all at once and I’ll decline as a reflex action.
When it started I heard a bunch of noises outside my shop (nothing new sadly as my shop has been attacked quite often recently) so I checked to see if my land was being loaded up with garbage (and it was) so I returned it all. Didn’t help. I asked a friend to file the greefing report as my client was lagging even before the attack and I needed to get to work.
I did check up every now and then to see who was attacking.
At first it was just one person. The greefer obveously. Then a bunch of names showed up. I figured some how it was able to use the persons name to do that. Gets around bans.
So I set the store “No build, no object entry” not just group only. NOBODY. No scripts except group scripts.
I TPed over to my office.. Well I tried but couldn’t so I tped to a sim near by and flew the rest of the way. I set my office to no build, no entry, group scripts only. Then TPed back to the shop and everything was gone.
The Lindens cleared things up before I got it all locked down but hay I was ahead of the game on the not accepting random gifts.
December 7th, 2006 at 6:42 AM
Would like to request some help, i´m at my workplace at the moment, and i got a LOAD of messages of items being returned, from several sims, I dont know what is going on and I would like to request help from the Lindens to resolve this matter, because i REALLY would like to keep my account (resident since july 2004).
Thanks in advance.
December 7th, 2006 at 6:52 AM
Bob Bunderfeld Says:
December 6th, 2006 at 5:54 PM PST
I am getting so VERY TIRED of this bullshit!
The people who are responsible for these attacks should be immediately banned and their IP’s given over to the FBI for their acts against the free trade of Linden Labs and their customers.
And, Ramo Benedek Says:
December 6th, 2006 at 6:27 PM PST
isn’t deliberatly interfering with a network a federal crime? I am sure it is. It’s federal because it is using interstate communication. Its a crime because if you do it you are causing harm. So if whomever is doing this, you might want to keep in mind that that you are breaking federal law. Its not exactly like getting busted shoplifting at Walmart. In this case you actually spend time in a federal prison. The days of doing it, and saying “see i can do it” are pretty much over. so good luck to you. I don’t think the US has an extradition treaty with Yemen, you might want to think about that as an option, assuming you manage to get a passport.
is it really worth the risk? is it?
And, Polymetus Mechanique Says:
December 6th, 2006 at 6:39 PM PST
If the intent is criminal, then the authorities need to be brought in. I watched as the guy ran by and tossed these, greifornament’s. His intention was clearly criminal and he shouted obscenities at me as he ran by.
_________________________________
What exactly was the crime committed? Maybe SL needs its own little Patriot Act? Remember, this is a worldwide network and really, other than the symptoms of grief, no crime was committed.
Now, when one of these smart-asses actually hacks into LLabs and downs or otherwise causes some tangiable disruption, I believe a trespass or crime has been comitted.
It sucks…it is frustrating (though I missed the party on this one), but as someone else mentioned above, we are our own best police. Learn, learn, learn and be wary. Don’t be afraid to report griefers when you see them. Keep your camara ready while exploring. I note a lot of the noob gathering places are ripe with griefing maniacs who feel the need to show their ignorant asses off.
LLabs has a TOS…if someone is reported and found to have violated the TOS, they can be banned. Now, if LL is capable of doing so, they will do so. If they are NOT capable, how capable do you think the friggin FBI will be? LOL!!!!
And to those who have lost anything because of this….save and save OFTEN! I learned this the hard way the other day during the waggy update
December 7th, 2006 at 7:07 AM
I simply muted the object by name. Turned off all permission on my property except flying. That took care of the nasties.
December 7th, 2006 at 7:26 AM
Similar problem to the previous poster: I’m now getting endless messages in email that “objects can not be created in noonkkot” because some parcel is full. It’s not my parcel that’s full, as far as I can tell. It seems to be sending them to ALL landowners in the sim.
December 7th, 2006 at 7:29 AM
Here’s a note to Sharon Hush, who participated in this discussion earlier. I intended to send it to her later today. On second thought, I think I’ll send to her and publish it here as well, in the hope that everyone will understand that some people who unwittingly spread this menace are really not always to blame. I sure hope I’ll find I’m not muted when I log in tonight, as someone mentioned above. Here it is:
Hi Sharon,
When I browsed the community-pages of the SL website today, in search for information about this griefornament I was given by someone yesterday, I chanced on your comment about it, in which you say you “accepted one of these from a guy I thought I was talking to”.
If the guy you’re talking about is me (which, judging from the time of your comment, I suspect is the case), then you must be thinking I gave it to you. But nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, when I was talking to you, such a griefornament was given to me too. At first I thought it was you, because you were giving me several things at that very moment, but since all of those things came explicitely from you, and the griefornament came from an unknown person, I realized it probably wasn’t you. After we parted company, I went to the place you’d mentioned and it was there that I checked my inventory and found the griefornament. I didn’t know what it was and the only thing I could think of to find out, was to wear it. (Hey, it was called an “ornament” and I’m a newbie…
You don’t want to know what happened next.
I was bouncing all over the place with some kind of thick band on my wrist. I even bounced out of sight of my own camera viewpoint, can you believe it? All the while, new griefobjects kept appearing in my inventory. Only when I detached the object and deleted all the newly created ones, did things seem to return to normal. I say “seem to”, because messages kept coming up on the screen which appeared to be related to what I had just experienced.
Anyway, I hope I can convince you it wasn’t me. And if I can’t, then I’m sorry, because you were the first person I met who offered me friendship, which I greatly appreciated.
If you like, we can meet again, and if you don’t want to, then too bad, but I’ll understand. So, see you around?
Kind regards,
Alexander Liddie.
December 7th, 2006 at 7:52 AM
[...] (more…
[...]
December 7th, 2006 at 7:56 AM
[...] Linden Staffers and Liaisons began acknowledging reports at approximately 17:05 (although it’s clear that they were already on the job), and Torley Linden posted a notice to the official linden blog about the attack at 17:15, approximately 25 minutes after the first reports. [...]
December 7th, 2006 at 8:23 AM
After being offered one and declining (don’t take candy from strangers), my IM started going crazy with messages from several Latino-oriented groups I belong to. I wonder if these groups might have been the initial targets?
December 7th, 2006 at 8:32 AM
Still getting email messages by the ton.
Note: i didnt get any objects offered to myself, and there’s 3 types of messages i’m getting in my inbox.
1. Your object was returned from (any) Sim by Governor Linden.
2. Your object Object can’t create X on X sim because X parcel is full.
3. You have a message from Object waiting for you on SL, please log in to see it.
I dont know what’s going on, and would like to request help again. I’m at my workplace and i can’t log in to SL, ANY help available will be apreciated.
December 7th, 2006 at 9:51 AM
Someone commented previously:- “Lets get one thing really clear here - their is absolutely no talent required to make a self replicating object. It is about as complex as the “hello avatar” script created when you make your first script.”
If this is true, can anybody explain to me please, why SL allows this kind of fast, limitless replication in the first place? What kind of scripts need to replicate like this on a valid basis? I know nothing of programming and maybe it is the inevitable other side of the coin to open scripting, that you can’t shut off commands like this without disabling other pertinent functions. But it would be nice to know the reasons.
I assume LL must have seen this coming even before SL went live with its very first alpha test… I remember attending a TeaZer U class on necklace making, and we were given a handy script that replicated a bead about 20 times. I realised the implications myself at the time, and commented that it would be so easy to use this for griefing - the instructor’s answer? ‘Oh no no, nonsense, hush, mustn’t talk about THAT!’
I do sometimes wonder if SL actively *helps* the griefers, handing some abilities out on a platter like this. It’s like having guns freely available all over the US. The result? Not very astonishing to the rest of the world, but, you guys have the highest gun crime statistics on record
So yeah, a platform where anyone can join at the drop of a hat, and anyone can script, and we get griefing? Well colour me totally unsurprised….
December 7th, 2006 at 10:30 AM
Someone commented previously:- “Lets get one thing really clear here - their is absolutely no talent required to make a self replicating object. It is about as complex as the “hello avatar” script created when you make your first script.”
If this is true, can anybody explain to me please, why SL allows this kind of fast, limitless replication in the first place?
To shut down replication, you’d have to shut down the ability of
1)objects to give/receive items.
2)objects to rez other objects.
You’d have to disable one or another of these functions. So much user generated content depends on one of these abilities that a good chunk of SL’s content would be rendered inoperable.
I do a lot of work with Alife. Indeed, that was my principle draw to this platform, and I use self replication all the time. I’d probably stay around if one or another of these functions was borked, but I’d be spending a lot less time here.
December 7th, 2006 at 11:43 AM
wheni try to log in SL send’s me this message: Unable to complete transform: copy inventory to new database. Please help me.
December 7th, 2006 at 12:36 PM
I’d also like to thank the Lindens for their thorough response to the griefornament and candy cane problem which happened SL-wide.
Logging off to check the blog isn’t something I would have thought of doing. Fortunately, several groups I belong to sent out Group IMs.
I know what the MUTE button is on the Chat History, but have no idea where it might be on a “blue dialog” or even what that is. I remember at least 20 blue cards coming onto the upper right corner of my computer screen with people’s names as gift-giver, but those blue cards had only Accept or Decline. If Mute was there, I didn’t notice it.
I was one of those who submitted an Abuse Report and included the names of the people shown on the ornaments as Owner as well as the names of those on the blue “gift-giver” information cards.
When I filled in the Abuse Report, it wouldn’t allow me to simply type in the names of the Owners listed on the ornaments. It offered only my entire Friends List. At first it refused to Submit my report. Then I tried clicking in different places and the report was submitted but had the name of someone on my Friends List…which was not the true name.
Fortunately, I’d been writing down the names of the Owners listed on the ornament objects and had included them in my Abuse Report.
Later I wrote to Live Help (I think) to restate emphatically that the person the Abuse Report listed as the Abuser definitely was NOT the Abuser.
Someone suggested putting the names of the Owners of the ornaments on the BAN list for my property. Questions: 1. Will that also ban objects belonging to those people? 2. Could the names on the ornaments have been invalid? Could someone else have put the names on them?
Sorry this was such a long post. My technology background is minimal.
December 7th, 2006 at 3:33 PM
All of the scripts in my house are disabled, including the teleporter and the front door. There was a silver ball inside the house which I deleted, but the scripts have stayed inoperative. Is there something I should be doing to get things back to normal?
December 7th, 2006 at 4:10 PM
Bob Bunderfeld
MARCY WILSON
^
you are ridiculous lol, bob: they have our addresses so they don’t need us PLUS, its not worth 50K dollars what are you thinking this is a small virtual attack, not a murder. and Marcy, you don’t pay for live help…
December 7th, 2006 at 8:58 PM
I think if i am working on something for 3 hours, and it is disrupted and lost by someone deliberatly causing mayhem, it is a crime. It is interfering with an interstate network. Granted, yes.. its not ‘murder’, however it is assault on intelectual property.
_______________________________________________________
“SaltOf Ersetu Says:
December 7th, 2006 at 6:52 AM PST
What exactly was the crime committed? Maybe SL needs its own little Patriot Act? Remember, this is a worldwide network and really, other than the symptoms of grief, no crime was committed.
Now, when one of these smart-asses actually hacks into LLabs and downs or otherwise causes some tangiable disruption, I believe a trespass or crime has been comitted.”
_______________________________________________________
I disagree with that. Since SL is created, supported, and used by its members, the “symptoms of grief” is surely disruption of a private network. It is disruptive to Linden Labs business model, and it is disruptive and destructive to its paying members.
It is my opinion that situations such as this should be taken very seriously, and prosecuted just as any business entity would prosecute a vandal, or a thief to the fullest extent of the law.
December 8th, 2006 at 1:38 PM
I got one or two yesterday and they are just too annoying. I put them in the trash, empty the trash, and there is another big supply in my objects.
This has just happened in the last two days. What should I do?
December 9th, 2006 at 10:53 AM
Was this MG TG or both?
December 10th, 2006 at 12:58 PM
Same problem here that Geraldine Weigand is having. Im getting about 1500 griefornaments on my “lost and found” every day. I delete them, and purge, but the next day (or a few hours later) they are there again. What’s going on?
December 27th, 2006 at 12:23 AM
Hey lol why shouldnt i be trusted????? i dont know how my name got picked out of people.. but wow.. yayyyy