Today voodoo has published a blacklist of people they have deemed griefers, upon finding this blacklist I took a copy for record keeping reasons, this is a list of people their HUD will act against in the threats they made, not only am I on the list for sitting quiet in the greenzone group listening to discussions.... but also a reporter whom I passed the story along too who ended up on the list just for trying to get both sides of the story. Despite having interviewed Monkey Wonder Directly and having made their intention known through the interview no exclusion was made... to make matters worse, the page declares that this will be further integrated into their other products, so not only will their HUD systems be slandering members of a target group... so will the rest of their products eventually!
taken from the page excluding the List currently at time of the posting of this article(their page is subject to change but this is what is currently there):
Start of taken from http://vudu.sl/Help/SecondLifeGriefers
"""Some groups in Second Life exist only to attack and cause innocent people grief. At Voodoo we believe this behaviour is wrong and are taking steps to expose and limit the problem.
Our FREE Voodoo Tracker HUD has a new advanced griefer early warning system, which will scan the area and warn you if the land is owned by a member of these griefer groups, if one of them is nearby or there are any objects around you created by them. Get the HUD now and spot trouble early!
The griefer blacklist will be slowly integrated into other Voodoo products to maximise your security, and more griefing groups will be blacklisted as we investigate them.
If you find your name on a list below, it is because you belong to a group known for attacking people. Voodoo staff cannot remove you from our database, but our data is updated every 24 hours, so you will be removed automatically if you no longer belong to the offending group.
GreenZone Griefer Group
"Green Zone Users" Group in Second Life was created by Fart Admiral several years ago in an effort to protest against the Red Zone security system. Since the demise of Red Zone long ago, the group is used as an umbrella group for anyone wishing to attack others. The members of this group have repeatedly proven they will use any griefing tactic that comes to mind to achieve their agenda. """
End of message from http://vudu.sl/Help/SecondLifeGriefers
as we can see here its based on an automated system that adds and removes people from a list which is essentially updated by a bot(there aren't LSL calls that I'm aware of which gets lists of group membership)... and you can remove yourself from the list simply by leaving which if your really are a griefer your going to do anyways and be able to dodge around this system just like that(so common sense should of dictated to voodoo's creator this don't work, but obviously its more about an agenda so its more an "I don't care this wont stop an actual griefer, but it looks good for us" mentality much like zFire had)... So as we can see here... voodoo has officially gone from declaring themselves to protect you from bots.... to going on the attack against groups with the use of a bot, and this is simply an attack against a group of people designed to dissolve that group rather than protect innocents as its creator claims.
but remember the threats from voodoo? one of the points I had emphasized was that this individual was knowingly on the attack to damage legitimate SL businesses... the page starts off "Some groups in Second Life exist only to attack and cause innocent people grief. At Voodoo we believe this behaviour is wrong and are taking steps to expose and limit the problem." which is certainly a change in tone from the threat I as many others had received which included a line such as "We do however understand that there is a minority of legitimate business owners currently in the griefing group," where as voodoo had acknowledged that they knew of actual legitimate businesses that operate and have membership in the greenzone group... obviously its doubletalk... send a strong threat to a discussion group while slandering it as a griefing group... and put on a false sense of professionalism for your customers... obviously with the text from the threat... VooDoo committed this attack against the group knowing they would cause harm to innocents involved yet they claim to be protecting them....
Obviously Monkey Wonder the person that runs VooDoo has a very poor sense of right and wrong.... its right so long as he can profit off of the sploders.... and the so called free tracker HUD that directs their customers to the sploders... while slandering and libeling innocent people on the side.
Also making mass gridwide banlists really isn't an honest attempt at dealing with the griefer problem... the sims I hang around when we get griefer trouble it's either Hijacked accounts that don't last long carrying out attacks or new accounts which were created for the sole purpose of such, which usually promptly become known and banned in the target places. given as such griefing is generally a one shot deal per account the accounts being throw aways... a list of long term users is not about stopping griefing, its about an agenda and a vendetta against a discussion group.
Given these actions are obviously a vendetta comparing what is currently on his site, to the threats he sent out to the group, you can obviously see these are emotionally charged actions and are about carrying out an attack rather than solving a problem, if your a user of a voodoo product and reading this with concern and an open mind rather than bias, I encourage you to read my previous articles regarding VooDoo, and ask yourself if you really can trust the creator of this product having added new features solely for carrying out a personal vendetta. I especially encourage you to examine and compare what he wrote on his product page(whats currently there at time of this posting copied and pasted above) to the threatening blackmail notecard he sent to everyone in this group(published in VooDoo Blackmails Greenzone users)... Also if you believe the threat is something I made up to defame the product then please by all Means confirm it, Afterall the threat he sent out he sent out via an automatic notecard giver to every member of the group so it should be easy to inquire with several members of the group, and get several exact same copies of the threat Monkey Wonder of VooDoo has sent out thus making this extremely easy to verify for yourself.
http://treminarisecondlife.blogspot.com/2012/04/voodoo-blackmails-greenzone-users.html
I am not a griefer.... but will likely stay on this slanderous list of accused griefers, as I would rather remain in the discussion group to further hear the talks of privacy issues and any new upcomming issues within SL than back down to the blackmail threats and criminal actions of this cyber-terrorist.
Thursday, April 19, 2012
Wednesday, April 18, 2012
VooDoo Acts on its threats to harass greenzone users!
Well it would appear that Monkey Wonder the creator of VooDoo anti-bot has acted on his threats to harass and defame the greenzone discussion group, earlier today upon signing into secondlife the greenzone group was discussing the latest action and group notice... I made a brief inquiry as to where the information came from and was informed it was a Group notice, in the group "VooDoo Anti Bot" which is open to free enrollment, which I joined briefly and viewed the back Notices, I found 3 notices for today... two of which pertained to the issue and appeared related to the threats and appear to reflect VooDoo's creator acting on his very threats.
The Group Notices are as follows:
Notice1:Voodoo Tracker HUD2.5
New tracker HUD is available FREE from vendors and Marketplace.
NEW Sploder player personal status & rank information button in the menu.
NEW Griefer early warning system.
https://marketplace.secondlife.com/p/XPLODER-Voodoo-Sploder-Tracker-HUD/1661951
Notice2:Announcement
Announcement :
===========
New Voodoo Tracker Hud 2.5 is now available in our main store --->
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Morenci/225/245/23
and on Marketplace as well --->
https://marketplace.secondlife.com/p/XPLODER-Voodoo-Sploder-Tracker-HUD/1661951.
***New sploder player personal status & rank information button in the menu.
***New griefer early warning system.
Enjoy & have fun,
Voodoo Team.
=========
The Group Notices are as follows:
Notice1:Voodoo Tracker HUD2.5
New tracker HUD is available FREE from vendors and Marketplace.
NEW Sploder player personal status & rank information button in the menu.
NEW Griefer early warning system.
https://marketplace.secondlife.com/p/XPLODER-Voodoo-Sploder-Tracker-HUD/1661951
Notice2:Announcement
Announcement :
===========
New Voodoo Tracker Hud 2.5 is now available in our main store --->
http://slurl.com/secondlife/Morenci/225/245/23
and on Marketplace as well --->
https://marketplace.secondlife.com/p/XPLODER-Voodoo-Sploder-Tracker-HUD/1661951.
***New sploder player personal status & rank information button in the menu.
***New griefer early warning system.
Enjoy & have fun,
Voodoo Team.
=========
Monday, April 16, 2012
Voodoo Blackmails Greenzone users
There has been an ongoing controversy within the greenzone users group... many suspect some of voodoo's products to violate your privacy much in the same way redzone did... some members herald it as the second redzone while others are indifferent to it, Don't know what voodoo products are? their a couple of blacklisting products related to sploders and clubs, there are a couple of articles about them on both sides of the controversy which I feel provide an accurate assessment as to what voodoo is:
http://forcemesilverspar.blogspot.com/2011/08/voodoooooo-magic.html?zx=434fbb899ab14566
http://www.examiner.com/second-life-in-national/voodoo-anti-bot-detection-software-police-protection-for-bingo-traffic
anyhow there is a debate as to whether or not it's functionality is redzone like, like on forceme's blog voodoo sploders need their users to check in which includes being sent to a website to be checked out which users can opt out of by simply not playing the sploder... however the voodoo anti bot product there is some debate as to how it works(such as some suggesting it uses the media loophole if you don't voluntarily verify), voodoo's description is there are bot hunters that go around using a series of tools(undefined tools created by them and third parties) to determine who is a bot and who is not.
further blowing this controversy out of control the creator of these products "Monkey Wonder" has been kicking the hornets nest on a regular basis, joining the group chats of greenzone users, and harassing its members, I remember one time lecturing him about not appreciating being slandered over a few outspoken people within the group.... less than a week later I could see what I hate to say was completely disregarded with more slander and libel against the group
of course it don't help that the greenzone HUD alerts its users to the presence of a voodoo sploder like it would any other redzone like system, however the notification only goes to the wearer of the greenzone HUD, so based on what side of the controversy regarding voodoo products they believe, they can take it or leave it when they get an alert as to a voodoo product being present...
After getting tired of seeing Monkey Wonder in the group chat harassing the members I decided I would myself test the voodoo products for a media exploit... My finding's were similar to Forceme's in the above blog... and I decided the results were inconclusive....
I visited several locations that included voodoo products at the time... this is some time back early on into the controversy... but I had a difficult time finding enough for testing despite the products claimed popularity at some locations, I did find attempts in media to send to a specific IP and port number... the locations had matching IP's but varying port numbers.... and some locations had different URL's... unfortunately due to finding few locations I was unable to rule out what I did see recurring as the possibility of another products that sets media URL's such as a harmless shoutcast DJ board.... so thus then I decided things were inconclusive and would need to be tested another time before coming out and saying voodoo is harmless... or as some suspect a redzone like product.
of course on and on since then there have been several more incidents of Monkey Wonder kicking the hornets nest getting the group in a stir and the argument between greenzone and voodoo escalating as a result... I participate in the group Greenzone users not to hear him harassing the group members... but so that I can watch the group chat a short period of time, oftentimes as many people as there are your not the first to discover a problem so its nice to login and hear chatter of stuff like "NCSA alt detector" created by "NCSA resident" after the disbanding of the redzone system... Obviously a redzone like spyware system where the creator is trying to Impersonate the National Cyber Security Alliance... due to group chatter and LL being informed as a result that little scam didn't last long... and It's very very rarely I chat in the group unless there is some chatter that is radically different from my research or I have questions to ask... but nonetheless I participate in the group as a listener as if something else like Redzone, NCSA or quickware etc comes out... it's very likely to get the chat in a stir where I can hear about it.
Well as of recent I as well as many other users of the group received a blackmail message threatening us:
[15:14] Voodoo Notecard Giver owned by Monkey Wonder gave you 'WARNING: You, your land and creations BLACKLISTED' ( http://slurl.com/secondlife/Morenci/210/252/22 ).
Anyhow the notcard content was as follows
(((Start of Notecard)))
Dear Greenzone griefing group member,
Following mass defamation, griefing, propoganda, scamming and false abuse reports initiated by members of Greenzone griefing group recently on a scale never before seen in SL, Voodoo has taken the decision to protect our customers and other residents of Second Life from your activities.
Greenzone once had a legitimate purpose in Second Life, protecting the privacy of residents from systems such as Red Zone.
Red Zone is long gone, and Greenzone now operates more like the Anonymous hacking collective. The moderators have lost control, and the group is now a leaderless organisation that anyone with a grudge can join to attack others in the name of Greenzone.
Voodoo produces an extremely popular free Sploder tracking HUD which is owned by thousands and used everyday by many people, we have a user base of over 40,000 avatars. The next version of these HUDs, to be released imminently, will announce any nearby Greenzone griefers in local chat by name, along with any land owned by these griefers and any objects created by them. We believe your creations and land are not safe as you are a member of a group well known for griefing.
We do however understand that there is a minority of legitimate business owners currently in the griefing group, who joined long before Greenzone was hijacked by trouble makers. Due to this, we are allowing 12 hours for you to leave the group and avoid any damage to your business.
Voodoo has been at the forefront of SL security for many years and we take it and peoples privacy very seriously.
We do not wish to become ememies of any group, but we simply cannot tolerate people who choose to attack or scam others.
Thank you for your understanding and please make the right decision.
Monkey Wonder
Owner of Voodoo SL
(((End of Notecard)))
I Personally had a neutral stance on voodoo products up until now, even though sploders are an illegal gambling product under the SL ToS and California Law the state Linden Labs is headquartered in... I personally have no interest in gambling... but many other users do and despite Linden and State Policy sploder systems are such miniscule small scale stuff and are so common across so many different clubs they are generally widely accepted despite not being legal... but I am starting to see the reasons for these laws personally even though its something I personally avoid... you get sore losers... then you get controversies like this over tools like this... anyhow regardless of the gambling element and the bot protect which as forceme truthfully put... a ban list of anyone voodoo dont like.... we can see obviously this is a very emotionally influenced notecard... and it threatens to blacklist members of greenzone not for what the bot protect product targets.... but because their members of a group....
the general message of the notecard I feel is leave your discussion group or I will do something very bad to you... obviously meant to coerce people into leaving which is the very definition of blackmail
From: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/blackmail
"to force or coerce into a particular action"
obviously I'm getting a sense of that a extortion scheme which seems to be quite common around the gambling scene go figure the sploder problem has been ignored and it has exploded into threats...
anyhow onto the threat which you've probably seen in the the notecard that slanderously and libelously and falsely describes its recipients such as myself it appears that he claims he has 40,000 users walking around with HUD's related to his products, and the next version of these HUD's is going to via Public chat slander members of the greenzone users group such as myself... a very different action from what the greenzone HUD does which is only bothering its wearer about a potentially unsafe object... the Voodoo Hud is supposedly going to be updated according to this notecard to say in public chat that someone such as myself is a griefer when were around...
to put this in perspective.... while the greenzone HUD bothers only its owner.... the voodoo HUD's are going to bother everyone in the vicinity of the wearer according to this... to slander someone that is nearby the HUD
Obviously this will all happen if you don't submit to Monkey Wonders threat... even worse yet is Monkey goes on to acknowledge there are business owners in the group and that they have 12 hours to leave to avoid damage to their business... so he acknowledges he will be doing something to damage your business out of his maliciousness for a group you may participate in...
Given this while I felt it debatable whether or not Monkey Wonders Voodoo fell into the spyware category.... however given these threats based on someone that operates an emotionally charged blacklist to quote forceme's blog """Really... this should not be called "Anti-bot" but rather "Anti-anyone we Voodoo people don't like""" I really feel voodoo has crossed the line from having a service that was of debatable stance... Into a service that can be accurately described as Malware...
this is also specifically prohibited under the secondlife terms of service section 8.2 "You will not post or transmit prohibited Content, including any Content that is illegal, harassing or violates any person's rights.", "(v) Post, display or transmit Content that is harmful, threatening or harassing, defamatory, libelous, false, inaccurate, misleading, or invades another person's privacy;"
In the case of voodoo this would be harassing content as it is designed to single out certain people... and transmit to those around them falsely that they are a griefer, and also aside from that the very notecard sent out was threatening to the group members so whether or not the action is taken, I really feel for me the debate as to whether voodoo is a malicious product or not is over... with this recent action from the voodoo group and violating the above action... I find voodoo's products to be content that is harassing and violates the rights of those around it... as in section 8.2 of SL's ToS... also I as per subsection V I find it to be harmful, threatening harasing defamatory libelous false inaccurate as well as misleading... the notecard itself threatens a users rights to participate in the discussion group and exercise their thus then first ammendment... so yes the voodoo system does infringe upon actual rights of users of Secondlife.
http://forcemesilverspar.blogspot.com/2011/08/voodoooooo-magic.html?zx=434fbb899ab14566
http://www.examiner.com/second-life-in-national/voodoo-anti-bot-detection-software-police-protection-for-bingo-traffic
anyhow there is a debate as to whether or not it's functionality is redzone like, like on forceme's blog voodoo sploders need their users to check in which includes being sent to a website to be checked out which users can opt out of by simply not playing the sploder... however the voodoo anti bot product there is some debate as to how it works(such as some suggesting it uses the media loophole if you don't voluntarily verify), voodoo's description is there are bot hunters that go around using a series of tools(undefined tools created by them and third parties) to determine who is a bot and who is not.
further blowing this controversy out of control the creator of these products "Monkey Wonder" has been kicking the hornets nest on a regular basis, joining the group chats of greenzone users, and harassing its members, I remember one time lecturing him about not appreciating being slandered over a few outspoken people within the group.... less than a week later I could see what I hate to say was completely disregarded with more slander and libel against the group
of course it don't help that the greenzone HUD alerts its users to the presence of a voodoo sploder like it would any other redzone like system, however the notification only goes to the wearer of the greenzone HUD, so based on what side of the controversy regarding voodoo products they believe, they can take it or leave it when they get an alert as to a voodoo product being present...
After getting tired of seeing Monkey Wonder in the group chat harassing the members I decided I would myself test the voodoo products for a media exploit... My finding's were similar to Forceme's in the above blog... and I decided the results were inconclusive....
I visited several locations that included voodoo products at the time... this is some time back early on into the controversy... but I had a difficult time finding enough for testing despite the products claimed popularity at some locations, I did find attempts in media to send to a specific IP and port number... the locations had matching IP's but varying port numbers.... and some locations had different URL's... unfortunately due to finding few locations I was unable to rule out what I did see recurring as the possibility of another products that sets media URL's such as a harmless shoutcast DJ board.... so thus then I decided things were inconclusive and would need to be tested another time before coming out and saying voodoo is harmless... or as some suspect a redzone like product.
of course on and on since then there have been several more incidents of Monkey Wonder kicking the hornets nest getting the group in a stir and the argument between greenzone and voodoo escalating as a result... I participate in the group Greenzone users not to hear him harassing the group members... but so that I can watch the group chat a short period of time, oftentimes as many people as there are your not the first to discover a problem so its nice to login and hear chatter of stuff like "NCSA alt detector" created by "NCSA resident" after the disbanding of the redzone system... Obviously a redzone like spyware system where the creator is trying to Impersonate the National Cyber Security Alliance... due to group chatter and LL being informed as a result that little scam didn't last long... and It's very very rarely I chat in the group unless there is some chatter that is radically different from my research or I have questions to ask... but nonetheless I participate in the group as a listener as if something else like Redzone, NCSA or quickware etc comes out... it's very likely to get the chat in a stir where I can hear about it.
Well as of recent I as well as many other users of the group received a blackmail message threatening us:
[15:14] Voodoo Notecard Giver owned by Monkey Wonder gave you 'WARNING: You, your land and creations BLACKLISTED' ( http://slurl.com/secondlife/Morenci/210/252/22 ).
Anyhow the notcard content was as follows
(((Start of Notecard)))
Dear Greenzone griefing group member,
Following mass defamation, griefing, propoganda, scamming and false abuse reports initiated by members of Greenzone griefing group recently on a scale never before seen in SL, Voodoo has taken the decision to protect our customers and other residents of Second Life from your activities.
Greenzone once had a legitimate purpose in Second Life, protecting the privacy of residents from systems such as Red Zone.
Red Zone is long gone, and Greenzone now operates more like the Anonymous hacking collective. The moderators have lost control, and the group is now a leaderless organisation that anyone with a grudge can join to attack others in the name of Greenzone.
Voodoo produces an extremely popular free Sploder tracking HUD which is owned by thousands and used everyday by many people, we have a user base of over 40,000 avatars. The next version of these HUDs, to be released imminently, will announce any nearby Greenzone griefers in local chat by name, along with any land owned by these griefers and any objects created by them. We believe your creations and land are not safe as you are a member of a group well known for griefing.
We do however understand that there is a minority of legitimate business owners currently in the griefing group, who joined long before Greenzone was hijacked by trouble makers. Due to this, we are allowing 12 hours for you to leave the group and avoid any damage to your business.
Voodoo has been at the forefront of SL security for many years and we take it and peoples privacy very seriously.
We do not wish to become ememies of any group, but we simply cannot tolerate people who choose to attack or scam others.
Thank you for your understanding and please make the right decision.
Monkey Wonder
Owner of Voodoo SL
(((End of Notecard)))
I Personally had a neutral stance on voodoo products up until now, even though sploders are an illegal gambling product under the SL ToS and California Law the state Linden Labs is headquartered in... I personally have no interest in gambling... but many other users do and despite Linden and State Policy sploder systems are such miniscule small scale stuff and are so common across so many different clubs they are generally widely accepted despite not being legal... but I am starting to see the reasons for these laws personally even though its something I personally avoid... you get sore losers... then you get controversies like this over tools like this... anyhow regardless of the gambling element and the bot protect which as forceme truthfully put... a ban list of anyone voodoo dont like.... we can see obviously this is a very emotionally influenced notecard... and it threatens to blacklist members of greenzone not for what the bot protect product targets.... but because their members of a group....
the general message of the notecard I feel is leave your discussion group or I will do something very bad to you... obviously meant to coerce people into leaving which is the very definition of blackmail
From: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/blackmail
"to force or coerce into a particular action"
obviously I'm getting a sense of that a extortion scheme which seems to be quite common around the gambling scene go figure the sploder problem has been ignored and it has exploded into threats...
anyhow onto the threat which you've probably seen in the the notecard that slanderously and libelously and falsely describes its recipients such as myself it appears that he claims he has 40,000 users walking around with HUD's related to his products, and the next version of these HUD's is going to via Public chat slander members of the greenzone users group such as myself... a very different action from what the greenzone HUD does which is only bothering its wearer about a potentially unsafe object... the Voodoo Hud is supposedly going to be updated according to this notecard to say in public chat that someone such as myself is a griefer when were around...
to put this in perspective.... while the greenzone HUD bothers only its owner.... the voodoo HUD's are going to bother everyone in the vicinity of the wearer according to this... to slander someone that is nearby the HUD
Obviously this will all happen if you don't submit to Monkey Wonders threat... even worse yet is Monkey goes on to acknowledge there are business owners in the group and that they have 12 hours to leave to avoid damage to their business... so he acknowledges he will be doing something to damage your business out of his maliciousness for a group you may participate in...
Given this while I felt it debatable whether or not Monkey Wonders Voodoo fell into the spyware category.... however given these threats based on someone that operates an emotionally charged blacklist to quote forceme's blog """Really... this should not be called "Anti-bot" but rather "Anti-anyone we Voodoo people don't like""" I really feel voodoo has crossed the line from having a service that was of debatable stance... Into a service that can be accurately described as Malware...
this is also specifically prohibited under the secondlife terms of service section 8.2 "You will not post or transmit prohibited Content, including any Content that is illegal, harassing or violates any person's rights.", "(v) Post, display or transmit Content that is harmful, threatening or harassing, defamatory, libelous, false, inaccurate, misleading, or invades another person's privacy;"
In the case of voodoo this would be harassing content as it is designed to single out certain people... and transmit to those around them falsely that they are a griefer, and also aside from that the very notecard sent out was threatening to the group members so whether or not the action is taken, I really feel for me the debate as to whether voodoo is a malicious product or not is over... with this recent action from the voodoo group and violating the above action... I find voodoo's products to be content that is harassing and violates the rights of those around it... as in section 8.2 of SL's ToS... also I as per subsection V I find it to be harmful, threatening harasing defamatory libelous false inaccurate as well as misleading... the notecard itself threatens a users rights to participate in the discussion group and exercise their thus then first ammendment... so yes the voodoo system does infringe upon actual rights of users of Secondlife.
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