Every now and then I find something new I wish more people knew about and utilised.My association with Skybeam and its close knit community has given me, personally, a lot of great times in SL and not long ago I was visiting with Nevar (Lobo) when there was a griefing problem at the sandbox, not unusual in popular sandboxes, which Nevar as estate manager needed to deal with. I went to see if I could help and ended up becoming what Skybeam calls a Guardian, someone who helps to keep the peace and make sure things run smoothly.
What has this got to do with innovation? My introduction to Guardianship also introduced me to Fox Reports :
Fox Reports began as a monitoring system for SkyBeam Sandbox. It was used to be able to file notes and reports about various people who caused mischief or broke the rules with repeated infractions leading to land or estate banning as appropriate, with the ability for all of the sandbox 'guardians' to have access to each others' reports. The system has a number of features geared towards making this information easily accessible by all admins without having the installation or trust network issues incurred with something like banlink.I spoke to Fox Reports creator Erix Oh:
Dana Vanmoer: What made you first think of the idea of fox reports?
EriX Oh: The main idea was, because I wanted to "report" to Charlene (Trudeau) the incidents, so she could look when she wanted ... later on, I added multi-user support, then E-Mailing and so on and also a common reporting-system... to stop everyone asking... "hey, do you've a note about
... and then I had the idea to connect the SL's Estate system to the page, and ask Char (Charlene Trudeau) to put some sims "at risk" (as such a system never existed, nor was the library complete)
Dana Vanmoer: So it started a simple database of incidents and bannings, a way to keep records?
Dana Vanmoer: What are the main advantages to using this rather than the normal estate tools?
EriX Oh: The main advantage is that you control your estate from everywhere where you've internet access... if you get an IM-to-EMail requesting a ban, you can execute it, not even logging into SL... (example from work, or in the train, if a long trip) the system is tested on PS3, Nintendo DS, iPhone/iPod touch ... e.t.c.
Dana Vanmoer: It sounds like a great advantage for any estate, where else would you say it would suited for?
EriX Oh: Generally, the estates function works only on private Sims, where they need to put my bot (and me) as EM ... it does not work on mainland owned sims, or simple land-owners, I could see it also being useful to places that have a gateway to SL or sandboxes.
EriX Oh: for these places, it is useful ... since the system allows more than 10 "EMs" (Estate Managers) .. and works even when the sim is a bit laggy, since the bot does not download textures and such.
Dana Vanmoer: How easy is the system to set up?
EriX Oh: It's in fact easy to setup... since you're not involved in the tech facts... you simply request it.. (using my support-page).. pay for it.. and I set it up... with your favourite URL ..like
Dana Vanmoer: Is there anything you would like people to know about that I haven't asked?
EriX Oh: If SL's having problems (example login problems, TP problems) my bot can be affected too, only estate-related functionalities will not work - the reporting, will continue to work.
EriX Oh: and ... ! LindenLab does not have access to it, so - if an Abuse report needs to be filed.. you need to do that separately
Dana Vanmoer: For an estate can you tell me how much it would cost every week?
EriX Oh: For one estate & reports ... it will be 3000L$/week (three thousand) ... - the price list can be found on http://foxreports.lu/prices.php
I also spoke with Charlene Trudeau, Skybeams' owner and Nevar Lobo, one of the estate managers, and asked what they thought of the system:
Dana Vanmoer: What would you say is the biggest advantage of using the system?
Charlene Trudeau: For me, its the communication between administrators and being able to extend past the ten estate manager limit for estate wide kick/ban.
Nevar Lobo: For me as an estate manager, being able to restart sims , ban people and look back at past warnings.. so it gives me more flexibility around the estates . I don't have to be at one region on a constants basis .. i can get more work done instead of keep running back and forth for sim restarts.
One other advantage of the system is ... if you have multiple estates that you own .. regions under the same brand but on different estates .. you can include them all on the same system .. so if i have a problem on one of the homesteads and I'm on say our Zeppelinhiem Sim.. (which is over at Caledon) i can take care of a restart or issue from where i am .
Dana Vanmoer: Are there any downsides to the system?
Charlene Trudeau: That's an interesting question. I suppose that would depend on perspective. From mine, no, others might prefer the option to purchase the system one time they could install on their own and run, but that would be more headache for me than a recurring fee where its someone elses headache and I can simply use it.
Dana Vanmoer: How difficult is the system to use?
Nevar Lobo: The system is user friendly. There is forum you can use to ask questions... the forms you fill out for the warnings and such are easy to fill out.. and you can get any reports sent to your email so if you as a owner are not around when something happens you can see any report and /or pictures of the problem
Charlene Trudeau: Very. There a couple of things that maybe aren't the most intuitive but once you have been through it once, its very easy to follow.
Dana Vanmoer: What other advantages does using the system have over an entire estate?
Charlene Trudeau: You can get 'on the fly' maps of the parcels on any region, including who shows as current owner (group or individual), it also shows the for sale info, if any. Its helpful when you're trying to reconcile things, esp if you're like me and change things around on the fly as needed, you can also get snapshots of the sim statistics remotely, in case you need to judge whether that remote restart really needs to be done or not.
Oh, and one bit of extreme awesomeness for handling ban lists, you can sort it by date on the website and check off any you want to purge and clear them all with one button press from there. Within the normal estate tools, you have no way of knowing which is oldest, they are in alpha order, and trying to purge is a guessing game if you run out of space.
Dana Vanmoer: Skybeam does get griefing due to the sandbox - do you feel more confident about running a sandbox now you have this system in place?
Charlene Trudeau: oh yes, it makes it so much easier, we try to use a tiered level of warnings and bans for example, someone who violates the no vehicles policy, should be talked to and warned if they persist past three warnings, then ban.
By using the system, guardian 1 knows that guardian 3 already warned this guy and that he or she is issuing a second warning, not a first, without the system, we wouldn't know that and if someone comes back and says 'I was banned and there's no reason' we can look up and say well we have the following documentation (usually including pictures where applicable) of you doing this and this and that's why you were banned or 'gee, we don't have a record of banning you, let me correct that' because we are human and do make mistakes too :)
I see a lot of new ideas but this one is tried and tested and has been in operation for about 2 years - I just wish more people knew about it!
Dana Vanmoer
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