IMPEACHABLE OFFENSE

A pervasive political statement or quasi-griefing scheme (or both) comes to Second Life-- again and again, and maybe yet again...

So when you're trying to run an honest sex club on a pleasant foothill off the highway, you probably want the clientele in the lobby to enjoy the view outside, while waiting to enjoy the services provided within. The mini-mall across the way, for example, or the mansions up the slope. Though maybe not the giant, multi-color sign floating right outside, the one emblazoned with the words "SUPPORT OUR TROOPS - End the Illegal War in Iraq - Restore US credibility - IMPEACH BUSH". Because even if the clientele happened to agree with the sentiment, it's probably not something that gets people in the mood.

Especially if it's a sign they've already seen in Second Life, in so many places-- floating above mountains, along roads next to castles and fine suburbs, next to shopping centers and casinos, looming over nightclubs and lakes.

"It's really annoying," OnnaYokai Yamabushi, proprietor of the Cage of Sin, told me. "It looks horrible, too. They're [on] really small parcels and priced way too high."

When I talked with her several weeks ago, one of the dozens of "Impeach Bush" signs that appeared in Second Life recently was hovering right outside the Cage of Sin. Like the rest of them, the property where the sign resided had been set for sale, at disproportionately high rates-- often L$500 or 1000 (about $2 to $4, at market rates) for a plot of land no bigger than an Afghan rug. So if Mistress OnnaYokai wanted the call to impeach George W. Bush to darken her door no longer, she'd have to pay the price of a small latte. Or maybe even go high as Venti size.

Too steep for her, in any case. "I can deal with it," she told me. "I figure I just don't have to look out the window. I haven't had any of my guests complain about it, so it's not really hurting me in any way."

But the dozens of signs have had a lasting impact on Second Life culture, beginning with an enraged Forum topic on the subject.

"I play Second Life to get away from such nonsense," Ranma Tardis, a Resident from Japan, fumes to me after posting there. "This is suppose to be a happy place! Too rude, people deserve respect."

The in-world response has taken several forms-- most prominently, a rash of giant signs put up to decry the original signs.

"Yes, I agree it doesn't help the view," acknowledges Dook Buckenburger, one of the counter-sign creators. "But if I don't do anything, will anyone? The fact that you're asking me about them means that it has, if maybe just a little, had the intended effect... I feel it is disgusting what this person is doing. It is painfully obvious this person is not making a political statement in any way."

In all this back and forth, Linden Lab has not taken a view on the spread of "Impeach Bush" signage across the continent one way or the other. They have removed a few of them, Daniel Linden, Director of Community Services, tells me. This has provoked complaints from Residents who support their message, and believed the Lindens were restricting free political speech.

Not at all, says Daniel Linden. "Some neighbors thought we were acting in a reactionary manner," he explains, "when in fact the only reason we removed them is they overhung parcel boundaries. Content is something that Linden Lab is not concerned with unless it crosses the line into 'broadly offensive'. The only time we'd remove a sign for content would be under that circumstance." (As spelled out in Linden Lab's Community Standards, that rubric includes publicly viewable profanity and nudity, for instance.) "There's no free speech issue as far as I'm concerned," he says.

As for their status as an "eyesore", Daniel Linden goes on, "It's not for us to decide the relative merit of construction in Second Life. We'd also remove the signs if they were script-intensive or a targeted attempt to harass another Resident." (Being a public figure, he adds, it would not become harassment if President Bush ever decided to get a Second Life account.) As for Residents accusations of "extortion", he continues, "If someone can demonstrate a concerted attempt to extort then we would appropriate action."

The day before Thanksgiving, I reached the owner of the many "Impeach Bush" plots scattered all over the world, interviewing him via a long series of IMs that he replied to, he says, via cell phone text messages while on a train cutting through Middle America. Rather than refer to him by his Second Life name, I'll call him "Jedidiah Profane"-- reflecting New World Notes' general standard not to give press to those engaged in griefing.

That's even though, in this case, Jedidiah Profane's signs don't explicity violate Linden policy. In my own judgment, griefing is at heart an attempt to violate the implicit social contract to sufficiently maintain the consensus reality necessary for an online world to function. By puncturing that illusion, artificially imposing reminders that we're not really in an alternate world of castles and clubs, and we're just displaying a stream of 3D images regulated by a monetized data management system onto our computers-- the magic leaks away. And then we really are just in a three-dimensional Web, and not another world. And whether it's an honest attempt to express a political opinion, or just a clever way to make money-- or perhaps more likely, a calculated experiment to test the limits of expression in Second Life-- I'm erring on the side of caution here.

But motivations are for the reader to decide. What follows after the break is my complete conversation with Jedidiah Profane, edited only for grammar and clarity.

Update, 12/8, 9:15pm SLT: Voting to impeach the impeacher: approximately 24 hours ago, Schwanson Schlegel created a Second Life Forum poll, querying, "Should Linden Lab just ban the 'Impeach Bush' guy?"

As of now, 204 Residents have voted, 25.49% saying "No"-- and 74.51% voting, "Yes, ban this a**hole."

(I begin by asking Jedidiah Profane his motive for the "Impeach Bush" signs.)

Definitely as a political statement. Nothing more.

But you're making a lot of money selling the plots, right?

No. Definitely not making lots of money. I haven’t gone through the details at that level, but I doubt one parcel in ten sells at all. More likely one in twenty. Nobody’s getting rich here.

Have you seen the controversy in the Forums this has caused?

No. I’m not terribly interested in the Forums anyway. They’re mostly filled with misinformation and rumor.

A lot of people who agree with [your] politics think you're actually doing harm to the message by leaving what they say are "eyesores" in the world.

If folks are talking in the Forums, good for them. At least they’re talking. I like to think thinking goes with talking, and making people think is my goal.

But what do you say to the opinion that it's actually making people think of "Impeach Bush" in a negative light, since the signs are eyesores to them?

I suspect the sore is in the eye of the beholder. One need not look very far in Second Life to find an eyesore. Personally, I think the eyesore argument is a bit thin. Again, I’m just glad they’re thinking. If they have better ideas, I challenge them to act on them.

How many plots of land do you have your signs on?

I haven’t counted closely lately, but I know it’s more than 200.

So why do you want Bush impeached?

The sign says impeach because I [decided] that is the right way to bring the facts to light. In a court. Just as Clinton was tried for lying about getting a blow job, George needs to be tried for lying about motives for invading Iraq.

What evidence would you cite for Bush lying about motives for invading Iraq?

Sorry guy. You’re talking to the wrong man. If I started down that road we’d be here all night and you’d have to challenge every word I said. As you should. I’d like to suggest that your readers look to their newspapers, and maybe public radio. There’s more to read than I could ever cite.

I'm surprised you're not interested in airing your political opinion.

My opinion is pretty obvious: Bush bad! It’s the reasoning that requires volumes.

How much Linden Dollars have you made so far from selling the land underneath the "Impeach Bush" signs?

Not much at all, Hamlet. A more appropriate question might be, How much have I spent? I don’t want to even think about that.

Could you give me a ballpark guess on how much you spent?

Well... that’s tough to do sitting on a train. I know it’s hundreds of US dollars. Plus the tier fees. It might be more. ["Tier fees": The monthly cost for land ownership, increased in proportion to acreage owned. -- HL]

If you're doing this as a political statement, why sell the land at all?

I want the exposure in the Finder. I used to make the land sellable only to me for a buck a plot. Two months and 250 dollars later, I found out only I could see it. Now I just crank up the price to discourage people. If someone insists on buying a plot, so be it. Those folks are few and far between. ["Find land": a command in the Second Life program that displays land for sale, including whatever title the owner gives it, i.e., "Impeach Bush"-- HL]

What's your response to people who say this is extortion?

I don’t care to respond to those folks. They are welcome to think what they like. I don’t feel any need to defend myself before them, and if I did, they would believe what they wanted anyway. I will say this, I have never asked anyone to buy land, and I don’t plan to.

You profile says you miss negative ratings. Why is that?

I think negative ratings serve a real purpose. People need to hear about it when they make a bad decision. Now, there’s less ways to get that message across. I’m guessing that the Lindens just got tired of all the whining over this.

If you got lots of negative ratings over these anti-Bush signs, would you take them down?

No. Negative ratings would not compel me to take the signs down.