Chain-Messages

By Bixyl ShuftanI was recently chatting with some friends, when one told me he had gotten an IM warning him of trouble. He then copy-pasted it onto his chat for the rest of us to read:I have an important warning for you in case you haven't heard : There have been some scripted attacks using the pretend "gift" tactic. Once you rez it if you have land rights you are in trouble, it can destroy your home, steal items, and if worn turn you into a walking advert and dummy gift giver. The worst attacks required a sim rollback to fix, so please be careful....It's called "Life Shop AO.”This was not the only time I heard that message. Over the next few days, I got it several times in IMs and group postings.Many of us, inclined to be helpful, go ahead and forward such warnings without much thought. But is this a good idea?These remind me of the “chain-mails” in email. Some are warnings, others stories of inspiration. But many find them more than a bit annoying, especially when asked to forward them on. Also, many of them turn out not to be true or are inflated claims. With a visit to a fact-check websites like snopes.com, or even a Google or Yahoo search, people who decide to verify a chain-mail’s message find they are often not true.So before just up and forwarding a chain-message, perhaps it would be better if one would do some research first. Maybe an Internet search will reveal on a SL-oriented forum or blog the facts behind it. If this turns up nothing, there is also the option of asking people what they might know. One group-poster instead of simply passing the message on decided to tell the others “There’s a rumor going on about a ‘Life Shop AO’ ...” and had the message on as an attachment for those who wanted to read it.And indeed, the chain-message turned out to be almost entirely untrue. The most it did was the “walking advert,” described in this post on the SL forums.Joppa: ok, false alarm. all this thing does is give out a Landmark, possible giving itself out as well.. but that's it.Toy_LaFollette: tyvm, may I quote that?Joppa: surely ..it's also an actual AO with animations in itToy_LaFollette: good news TYStill, it’s a good idea to be a little careful about accepting unknown items from people we don’t know. I haven’t personally witnessed anything like this AO, though have seen pranks involving giant mudkips doing things to the recipient’s avatar unmentionable in a family newspaper.Bixyl Shuftan

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