Banned!

I got banned from a club the other night.

I've always looked at Banning as something you do to griefers who are dropping particle bombs or orbiting other players or using scripted objects to harass people.

I have almost never used banning for personal reasons.  Maybe once or twice in the 7 years I've been running Hard Alley.  Anyone that knows me, knows that it takes a hell of a lot to piss me off enough that I'd do something like that.  I have occasionally banned guys who were threatening my dancers.

But, 99% of the time, I only ban people that violate one of the three rules of Hard Alley:  1) People playing underage avatars or are looking for underage sex, 2) People who use weapons against others in a non-roleplaying manner, and 3) People who are complete dicks that are only there to harass other players.  Even in those cases, I usually attempt to resolve the issue peacefully in IMs before resorting to banning.  I insist all of my Security personnel follow these strict, non-confrontational methods as well.

The other night, my lovely wife, Naiya, and our beautiful Pet, Spirit, dragged me out of the Alley to a club they wanted to visit.  I don't enjoy leaving the Alley.  It almost always results in disappointment in what I see SL has become.  But I don't want Naiya and Spirit to feel trapped with me in my old sim, so I sometimes go out with them.

They teleported me to a lounge style club with a lot of people crowded into a relatively small space.  This place is obviously quite popular.  Everyone was grey for the majority of my short visit there.  The color I could see consisted of a lot of purple.  However, I never hold lag against anyone.  I've had my own site long enough to realize lag is something you really cannot control.  I cranked my graphics down to minimum and followed Nai and Spirit into the middle of the crowd.

It was a very pretty shade of purple.

We stood there for a few minutes letting things and people rezz and noticed that absolutely no one was talking.  No one bothered to greet us (something I always try to do as host of my own club when I am there.  It doesn't take any time, and it lets people know you appreciate them coming).  Nai and Spirit and I were on Skype, so conversing amongst ourselves was easy and there was no need for us to use Local Chat or even IMs.  But what's the fun in that?  We could stand silently at Hard Alley and talk in Skype just as easy!  We came to this place to meet new people and have some fun!

So Spirit "sneezed" in local chat.  I replied, "Bless you," followed by, "/me hands Spirit a tissue."

We didn't realize it then, but we were taking our first steps to being shown the Exit.

I'm sorry, but at Hard Alley, we talk in Local.  It's how we have fun and enjoy each other's company.  It's how we get to know people.  It keeps things interesting and allows others to join in and be part of things if they desire.

So Spirit, Naiya and I started talking in local.  Some of it was silly, because we can be silly at times, but nothing was offensive or rude to anyone there, nor were we saying anything rude or offensive about the club.  I might have made a remark about Canadians, but I don't think the population of Canada lost one bit of sleep over anything I said.  After a few minutes, one other person spoke up and started talking with us.  He was from Texas.  He was friendly and we were having fun talking with him.  Yay!  We broke the ice!

Thing are starting to rezz!  This might not be so bad after all...

One other person joined in, in a friendly way, and we thought we had a great thing going.  Then one other guy spoke up and was rude and insulting from the beginning.  He made several comments to Spirit, prompting her to say, "oh, I am sorry...am I not supposed to talk?  I shall zip it if that is the case."  Naiya replied, "I think we are disturbing the force here seems local chat conversations don't happen unless fully provoked over and over."  The guy being a jerk then commented that Spirit was being retarded.

Then I see this:

[22:09] Ms. Angel Cakes left the region.

Naiya was banned without warning.

Spirit asked, "Why was my friend ejected?  I am confused." to which the rude guy replied, "your probly next for being stupid."

Then Spirit was banned.

I left in disgust.  I am sure I was in the process of being banned as well.  It does not matter if I actually was or not.  I will never return to that place.

Naiya asked the owner why she was banned.  The owner accused her of being a troll because she insinuated that her club was full of people that don't talk.  They WEREN'T talking.  If the owner is THAT sensitive to being thought of as a club where no one talks, you'd think she wouldn't BAN the people who try to get people TALKING!

I talked to a good friend of the club's owner.  I sent her a notecard of the entire local chat session.  She herself could not understand why we were banned.  Several other people from the club IM'd us after and shared their sympathy and disbelief.

A friend of ours was also banned from there the day before because his avatar was too tall.  We really could not believe that any club owner would ban for such a ridiculous reason.

We believe it now.

Obviously, the owner of a site is free to ban people as they see fit, even if they are an insane ban nazi.

Come to Hard Alley.  You can talk in Local.  Please don't make me leave Hard Alley again.  I have just about lost my faith in SL humanity.

---

For those of you who would like a copy of the Local Chat notecard, just IM me in game and you can Judge for yourself if we should have been banned or not.  If you want to know the name of club, just select and hi-lite the text here -->  Teqi's Lounge

By the way, we were ASKED by the offending club's owner to spread the word of this incident to our friends....

[2013/09/24 22:24] Ms. Spirit H. Demure (spirit.eleonara): If you actually got to know people before just kicking them out of your club, that might be a good thing.  But...NOW I will tell everyone I know...which is quite a lot of people....NOT to go to your club, because of how you abuse your power.  You may not think it a big deal, but you may find that you get less and less people.
[2013/09/24 22:24] Teqi Falta: yes, tell to your friend, less work for me

[2013/09/24 22:24] Teqi Falta: i dont need shit in the club

See?  We're only doing what she wants!  :)