Griefer

A griefer is a name for a Second Life Resident who harasses other residents. See the "Griefer" article on Wikipedia for more information on this topic. Griefing is a violation of the Second Life Terms of Service.

Classic griefers

Some of them are limited in size and might affect only one or a small number of residents:

• Harass without touching others:
  • Abusive use of messages (can include advertising messages, group invites - on protected land and infohubs)
  • Sexual abuse (with messages, but not only; this can include inadequate outfits in General and Moderate sims
  • Bite requests from Bloodlines
• Pushing/moving other residents
  • Pushing (directly by a resident itself or with the help of objects or scripts)
  • Scripts that try to animate others
• Invasion of others' parcels or abusive use of protected land:
  • Particles (smoke, posters and many others)
  • Sound (excessive noise)
  • Unwanted objects

What happens to a griefer?

Griefers don't get away with this. The punishment they take is not made public, but as recorded, it usually includes access suspension and in some cases their account might be terminated. Even so, the problem is that they return with new, alternative accounts. In 2010, Gridsurvey published an incident chart and we can see there that the action token was usually an account suspension, but not only.

It is recommended to file an abuse report when you see a large-scale griefer attack. If nobody does, Linden Lab will not know about it. However, not all that looks like a griefer attack is really intended to be. For example, there have been recorded cases when a resident had a inside a wearable object script requesting to animate others.

See also

• Help:When and how to file an Abuse Report