Daku Hax and Raiya Hastings, of that stupid ass club I gave a negative review to (the club name will not be mentioned again because they don't deserve the name recognition, same reason I took down the "review"... why should they get free publicity for sucking? lol) have gone on to stalk, harass, and otherwise pester me and my group ever since the day the blog was posted.
For people who "don't care", they spent over 5 hours harassing my group IMs... some of you already know this first hand. Well I of course ejected them from the group, but somehow they were still able to grief the chat. I changed everyone in the group over to the subscribe-o-matic system to avoid you all having to deal with the crap I'm dealing with. I reported the incident to LL.
Then, they rented the space next door to the original VIP Suite. When I approached the owners of the land, they were uncooperative. I opted for a refund on the month I had prepaid, and left in search of land that was better for me anyway. And happily found it.
Within minutes of sending out a group IM announcing that the new location was open, Daku, Raiyna, and sirobone appeared, almost predictably at this point. Went on to yet again rent the space next door to me. Luckily for me, I log ALL my chats. I appealed to the owner of the sim, and sent her a notecard documenting the harassing threats and comments, and explained to her that these people have stalked me from one sim to another. Thankfully, the owners of the sim I currently live on are more reasonable, and intelligent enough to see their tactics for what they are: a violation of the TOS and of the covenant on their sim: no stalking, no harassing. They were removed from the location they rented next door, and from what I currently know of, no refund was issued due to the fact that the reason for their eviction was violation of the covenant.
I have all 3 of these quality individuals muted. And all but sirobone are banned from the sim the Suite is on. However, as we speak, these obviously MATURE GENIUSES (lol) are camping out just outside the sim bounderies... here is a screen shot:
My thoughts? Where do I begin. I went to their location in search of ad space, as I have been putting ads for the blog and the VIP Suite all over SL. I was visiting the locations in Popular Places, hoping to not only find places to rent ads, but to also find somewhere cool to review for the blog. Like I said before, as I was rezzing I sent literally 5 people who were close to where I was standing, invitations to join my group. Then Raiya goes into my group IM and thanks me for "spamming" her club, before a word has been said to just me. She then IM's me individually, and tells me she will be reporting me to LL for spamming her club.
At this point I am taken aback completely. I was confused. How did I violate the TOS? I didn't. I know I am somewhat new to SL, but I also thought spamming was if you send things to an entire location, not to just a couple of people. And maybe I am wrong about that. But no one ever complained before. EVER. And to be honest, had she simply IMd me privately, and not in my open group chat, and said we don't like people to do that here, can you please not send unsolicited invites, I would have, OF COURSE said okay sure no problem. I probably would have even apologized to her.
But instead I get put on blast to my entire group and threatened with an abuse report. Before I said a word to her. Now, though sending unsolicited invites might not be allowed in their club, doing it isn't a violation of the TOS. And I was pissed at her going into my group to say what she said rather than come to me and speak like an adult, or even attempt to handle it civilly before making a threat. I think that was a cunt move, so I called her one. I let her know that I have a blog, and I was going to blog about it. Her boyfriend, Daku, then IM's me. You all hopefully saw the chat logs I posted on this the other day, because I have since taken them down. More threats, and a bunch of illiterate garble.
Since then they have been harassing me on a daily basis. They are trying to intimidate me to take down the blog. They are somehow justifying their obsessive stalking psycho behavior with that I wrote a blog about their club. All the time insisting that "they don't care", but spending most of their time on SL and plenty of $L retaliating to my little old blog posting.
I have to ask myself, why do they care so much? I mean, this is a relatively new blog. I am still building my readership. I write my opinions and experiences on here, and I try to share the things I find that are awesome. But I am also going to share my experiences that aren't so good. Why? It's all part of SL. The good, the bad, and the ugly. I am writing about MY experiences. Why do they care so much about the opinion of one person? Why have they taken this on as some kind of crusade? It just isn't normal. It really isn't.
The reality is, I'm not taking down my posting. Freedom of speach is a right. Freedom to harass and stalk is NOT. I am not the only person who blogs about their SL experience, and I am sure this isn't the first time a location has gotten a bad review. You win some, you lose some.
A professional person would take it as part of life. Part of the business. They rubbed a blogger the wrong way and it got posted. Another reality is had they handled me with adult professionalism in the first place none of this would be going on. When you run a business, whether in SL or RL, you can't just randomly talk to people however you want just because it's yours. You CAN, but you won't find success that way. You never know who would have been your best customer, or who is a reviewer, or what damage you are doing by treating people poorly.
What's ironic is, if I was so wrong for "spamming" by inviting 5 people to join my group, how can they not think that what they have been doing is so very much worse. I have not been retaliating to these attacks other than to defend myself, ie: contacting the sim owner when being harassed.
The owners of the last land were passive to the point of ignorance. And when I asked for a refund on my "3 extra weeks", they gave it to me, and immediately returned my things when I still had 1.5 days left on the current week I was in. Also not professional or good business. So I would stay away from business dealings with Cheran Snook and Rene Wilder. I had done nothing to violate any rules of their land, I appealed to them about the harassers who moved in next door. They wouldn't do anything about it so I opted out. However I did that knowing I had 1.5 days left in the current week. I specifically asked for a refund on my "extra 3 weeks". My plan was to finish out my current week there, and use that time to find another location and change the landmarks that were included in the ads I placed. It was NOT explained to me that a refund would mean immediate eviction, because had it been I would have not taken that option. So you can imagine my surprise when all my items were returned to me. Totally unprofessional and rude. If you rent in blocks of a week and ask for a refund on 3 extra weeks, who would think that means you are forfeiting the 1.5 days of the current week block you are in? Anyway, I wouldn't do business with people who make those kinds of choices. Decide for yourself.
What I'm learning from this? On SL, play at your own risk. I have reported all of these things to LL and have yet to see anything actually happen. I don't feel I can count on LL to have my back in a situation like this. Which might be why people resort to griefing. There is no "police" in SL, and people are free to pretty much do what they want. I have yet to personally see someone suffer a consequence for violating the TOS. Is that right? No. But like I said, be aware of it and play at your own risk.
At this point, what they are doing is exhaustive. I am not going to take down the blog. I am less inclined to do so now than I was days ago. Other than being annoying, they can't really do anything to me. They are all muted, and if I were you, I'd mute them just to avoid ever dealing with them in person, lol...
I tried to reason with sirobone, who seemed somehow a touch more mature than the other two. And maybe even felt like I was getting somewhere with him for a minute. But then he TPs her to the land just outside my sim so she can harass a guest I had and make threats to him as well. And then the phrase "birds of a feather" came to mind and I realized I was being too nice giving any of them the benefit of the doubt.
I had to get this out. I mean so many of you have been IM-ing me confused about the group switching, the locations switching... and it's so much easier to say all of this once in the blog than over and over in IM's. As of right now I am washing my hands of this issue. They can do this until they tire. I am not closing my VIP Suite, I am not taking down my blog or the posting, and I am not leaving SL.
NO.MATTER.WHAT.THEY.DO.
It's almost flattering that my opinions I write here mean so much to them. And that they are obsessed with me now and following me all over SL. But now I'm bored with them. All 3 are muted, 2 are banned from the sim. The rest is just the noise of a fly buzzing around my ears.
Thank you and good night.
