Needless Restrictions

This needs protection?

Written 8 September, 2008

Needless Restrictions

My former property on Dreamland’s Forsaken sim (and Leaf’s) sat vacant for more than four months.

That’s most of a sim empty and not generating revenue for Anche Chung, but that’s another blog.

I’ve been popping over every few weeks just to see what was happening with the place.

Last week I teleported in and found most of the land sold and inhabited.

I was most interested in the volcano, of course—and of course the fool who bought the northwest corner of Forsaken had leveled it and put up a log cabin on a boring flat lot.

I had barely noted this fact when I was booted by his or her security system.

That didn’t stop me, of course, from checking the property out. I just used my camera.

Said cabin was long and narrow and empty, and no one was around. Just a mostly empty lot with a badly-designed and positioned empty house on it.

Which brings me to wonder what the fuck the owner was thinking, putting in a security system. Secure from WHAT?

I mean, it’s not like I could sneak in and poop on his floor or set his house on fire or scrawl graffiti all over it. The worst I could do would have been to leave a prim—assuming, of course, that build was on, which it wasn’t.

Dreamland can be visually striking, but I long ago learned it’s a waste of time to fly about admiring the scenery. There are too many red fences and security bots and no-script flags and object-no-entries set and full parcels which de-rez your vehicle and dump you onto—guess what!— the red fence.

I can understand the reason for security systems and red fences and no-build and no-script settings. I’ve used them myself—but selectively and temporarily, to solve an immediate problem. Then I turned it off.

What is it with these insecure people who lock down their land when they’re not even there? It’s like they’re hiding in a virtual bomb shelter or cowering in a virtual closet. From whom or what are they hiding? Al Queda? A cat burglar? Bubonic Plague? Jesus!

It’s unfriendly and unneighborly, and damn it all, unnecessary.

All of Whimsy allows object entry, building, and scripts. There is no autoreturn for objects. There are no red fences or security devices, and I’ve given the residents extra prims with the understanding they keep a minimum of 30 free to allow fly-over.

And you know what? To date, there have been no disasters. People occasionally leave a prim or two on the land or even a scripted particle object, and one idiot newbie thought she could build a house on the flanks of Pele. When I find such objects (I check every day or two), I just return that individual’s prims. And when people are disrespectful, they get banned. There’s no drama. All has been peaceful.

Of course, some stupid griefer could come at any time and make things miserable for everyone, but that’s easy enough to deal with.

And you know what? It’s worth the risk.