Showing posts with label terminated. Show all posts
Showing posts with label terminated. Show all posts

Saturday, November 18, 2023

Music Video Maker Furrex Banned From Second Life

 
Over the years, the Newser has posted on Saturdays a number of music videos done in Second Life. Some of them were from a resident known on Youtube as Furrex, or Furry Alex in the past. But it looks like there will be no more. A few days ago, he released a video stating he had been banned from the virtual world. It included a picture of the email from Linden Lab stating they had "terminated" his access "due to severe or repeated violations of the Second Life Terms of Service or Community Standards."

Furrex stated in the comments (in Russian) that it was no secret he had been doing photoshoots or videos for payment, "... this has allowed me to improve the content of the channel. ...  As far as I know, the platform rules do not prohibit doing this." He went on to state that he couldn't buy Linden dollars himself "due to restrictions in my country. Therefore, I used what seemed to me a legal method." Two days earlier, he had done a deal for a video for 30,000 Lindens "and within an hour I received an automatic ban."


 
He would state at first he thought he broke something, and went to technical support. It was then he was informed of the ban, and asked what was his relationship with the resident who had given him the Linden dollars, "but it seems to me that the support didn’t even read what I wrote about, they simply ignored my words." He filed another appeal, and was told "that I also used some programs. I have no idea what programs can be used for SecondLife. I apologize for using Fraps and Sony Vegas 19." Fraps is a video program, and Vegas 19 is a video editor.

I will probably never be unblocked again. Also, I still have no idea why I got banned. I am not going to somehow bypass the blocking, register new accounts or use my second empty account, because I have always been an honest user and remain one to this day. ... Unfortunately, I can’t somehow influence this situation, I had a lot of new content prepared for you, ideas, avatars, animations, while I’m writing this, my soul is just crying ... It was something.

I just want to say thank you to all of you, you are the best and most positive thing that has happened in my life. It has been my absolute pleasure to create content for you. Each of my videos is a piece of my soul, this is what I felt at that moment, these were my thoughts, my mood, what I wanted to show. ... Thank you for the gift of emotions and the opportunity to express yourself. Over these 9 years, the content has grown very much in terms of quality and my individual experience, it would seem that now there would be something unreal, but, alas, it happens. Life doesn't always happen the way we want.


As Linden Lab doesn't go into why it bans people with others, we have only Furrex's explanation. Beyond that, we can only speculate. Over the years, the Newser has written about a number of people who were banned. Some such as zFire Xue the creator of Redzone clearly deserved it. There were others in which while a ban was understandable there could have been a warning instead such as when one young businesswoman used her mother's credit card to get Linden dollars. And then there were times such as when one hacked resident instead of having her account returned found it was banned and making another to rejoin her friends found that banned as well. A few years ago, the owner of Rainworx was banned for having a claw machine at her place. But after word got around, Linden Lab did a rare reversal and lifted the ban.

In any case, it looks like this is the end for Furrex's videos. He has some more we haven't shown, notably a few new ones, but he will be making no more, at least not in Second Life. 

*Addition* I've heard some speculation that the reason for Furrex's ban was because of the sanctions on his country due to it's dictator's invasion of it's neighbor. It's also been speculated that the person who he did business with had gotten the money through less than legal means and somehow the music maker got caught up in it. What is known is that he crossed out "last video" in the Youtube's title and is continuing to make music videos. So it seems we'll continuing to hear more from Furrex.
 
Bixyl Shuftan  

Thursday, November 8, 2012

Oskar Linden Dismissed From Linden Lab: Full Story

A few days ago on the SL Universe forums, Oskar Linden posted that he had been fired by Linden Lab. Rumors had been going around for a couple days in SLU before Oskar finally responded.


To solidify all rumors, yes my employment was terminated by Linden Lab last Friday. It was a surprise Skype call with the manager of my department and HR. At the same moment all my accounts were locked and I was told a courier was on the way to my house to take my laptop. This is standard operating procedure at the Lab. The reasons given were quite vague, but at the root of it was complaints from a griefer who I had banned from a private testing sandbox that I managed after he was harassing people and threatening to crash them and the region.

I was also told that there were issues with my communications. I don't understand that because I have operated in the role of public communicator for the lab for three years and have always had stellar reviews. It's not like the reasons really matter anyway. When the Lab wants you gone it's over.


To be quite honest this has all come as a surprise and a shock. I have known for a while that this would happen eventually though. All Lindens fear 'the skype call'. The old Linden culture is long gone. Many Lindens are disappeared in that way when the Lab no longer has use for them. It has been difficult working through the changes at the Lab the past few years. I could have left, perhaps I should have left on my own. I would have been better off. I did not choose to do so because I was dedicated to the wonderful residents I have met during my 4 years working on SL. I was committed to all of you and committed to making Second Life and Linden Lab a better place. I felt I was fighting the good fight and didn't want to just run away. I felt that I was making a difference. I hope that I did.


I have no idea what is next for me. I have varied passions that I will follow until I feel the need to pursue further employment.


I have nothing disparaging to say about Linden Lab, in fact I am not legally allowed to because of the wording of my separation agreement. :-) 

 
Linden Lab is cotton candy and kittens, unicorns and rainbows.

I greatly appreciate all of you who friended me and were so passionate about helping me make Second Life a better place. Your enthusiasm to help find bugs greatly helped the quality of the server code. You are all amazing. You are Second Life, not Linden Lab. Never forget that. I love you all and will miss working with you greatly!

In his profile, Oskar stated he was he Technical  Lead and QA engineer.

Someone in the SL Universe forums thought that last weekend's Grid glitch happened after he left was no coincidence, "Oskar leaves LL and SL breaks for 7 hours, does that say anything?"  Daniel Voyager commented that questions about his sudden leaving will probably be around for weeks. " I think many appreciated Oskar Linden’s work and SL/LL communications over the years. Oskar Linden ... will be missed deeply by the SL community. I wish him all the best for the future!"

 Images from Daniel Voyager and Oskar Linden.

Tuesday, November 6, 2012