September 13, 2002

"Help! It's been so long that I've forgotten my password. When asked for the hint I have to name a pet - the dogs don't seem to work, the rabbit has died in the interim and if I named the sheep I can't remember which one..."

DD 5:11pm EST on Friday, Sep 13, 2002

(that sort of rhymes, doesn't it?)

Well, I guess two years as a holographic bug was as good as it got. I now have a Cybertown stalker. Sort of.

It all started about a month ago. I was at home with Seven (when I discuss CT, I will refer to my virtual property as "my home") giving her tech support to resolve a permissions issue with the CT servers, when I was suddenly hit with a barrage of popup windows from Cybertown's messaging system. I could barely type to Seven. Let's call the user "Rattro". Rattro's first message was something like "Doc?" to which I answered: "Do I know you?" Then came "Computer, activate the EMH," "Please state the nature of the medical emergency," and other generic spouts between my "I do not talk to strangers," and "Stop flooding me." Even my "I will contact security if you do not stop" did nothing. Contacting security did, and I had sent screenshots of all the internal instant messages to their rep. Seven and I got on with our business, and that was that.

About two weeks later, Rattro was at the beach by pure coincidence. I happen to like going to Sunset Beach, and here I wanted to try out my new swimsuit (I have about 4 changes in clothes for my character). Rattro kept zipping in front of my face (a feature called "beaming" allows you to locate someone instantly) constantly, each time as another Voyager character. He/she/it even turned into the Borg Queen and ran an automated phrase ("We are the Borg, etc..."). I had had just about enough. "I guess it wasn't enough that security had to intervene when you harassed me by flooding me with IM's a couple of weeks back," I said. "I can always contact them again." The character backed away, then turned into a hovering Borg cube and two spheres. It was an exclusive avatar used by a Beach Deputy we all knew, and after the same assimilation phrase, the cube disappeared. Beach regulars were not pleased that someone had leeched the avatar their friend designed for his/her exclusive use (5of12, aka Axum, gave me Seven's regeneration alcove as a housewarming gift). [more]

DD 1:34pm EST on Friday, Sep 13, 2002

September 9, 2002

About three weeks ago, I ran into the negative aspect of Cybertown: the merch scalpers.

Around here, a scalper is someone who is tipped off early when tickets for an event go on sale, and they're at the front of the massive line, buying up the good seats to resell at ridiculous prices. Although this is illegal, the practice is not competently enforced. If you want to attend a concert where you sit close enough that the performer's lips are in sync with what's coming out of the speakers, it'll cost you three figures.

Back to that night weeks back. I was skimming the mall shops, when I ran into one with about 60 people in it. Usually there's about one or two at a time in a store on the average. I thought judging by the names that I was getting the main mall chat in a store box, when one of them told me to go into 2D mode. Leaving my holographic self behind, I joined the chatters to learn that I had run into a mall drop. They were following the Mall Deputy around as she removed old items and added new ones. Apparently during this process, she alone can be 3D in a room, otherwise her PC crashes.

They were the merch scalpers, who buy up everything halfway decent and sell them for sick prices in the Flea Market. They call themselves Fleabies. I think they're just a mob of fleas. They and their friends make limited runs of things for 10cc, join these drops to buy the items out, then run to the Flea Market and sell them for 5,000 cc's. In one case, something I wanted went from 10ccs in the store to 50,000 cc's in the Flea. And they are the rudest bunch you've ever seen, acting like they own the place, bossing the Mall Deputy around, thinking they're actually FUNNY. Nasty things. Snerts who call people snerts.

And thanks to them, I have been unable to get spiritual articles, because they buy them out and reprice them too. Of course that's against the rules of ethics in the true magickal community, so they're bound to get repercussions in their real lives for their actions.

Apparently, this was a particularly vicious night, because announced drops stopped after that. It was also the night before I uploaded my first VRML canvas painting, Rogue Mermaid. It's the mermaid on my DDGalleries website, and a couple of days later I submitted a photo I call "Sunset Sea." I plan to link to an art gallery I set up in town apart from my home. Just want to make a few adjustments to DDGalleries.com and put up a Cybertown site before making it public.

Next: Did the Doctor finally get a wacko stalker?

DD 12:48pm EST on Monday, Sep 9, 2002