I hope I can put an end to all the nonsense around "Woodbury in SL" perpetrated by the b/tard griefers, the Herald, Nobody Fugazi, and Shaun Altman, to the effect that there is something "authentic" about this supposed "university" in Second Life.
There isn't.
I've just heard back from Dr. Rosen at the real-life Woodbury Communications Dept. Here's his reply to my letter:
Subject: RE: Second Life Harassment
Date: Fri, 25 Jan 2008 07:16:49 -0800
From: "Rosen, David" Add to Address BookAdd to Address Book Add Mobile Alert
To: "Random Unsung"
CC: "Clift, Edward" , "Littell-Herrick, Dori"
Dear Ms. Fitzpatrick,
In the wake of the recent events at SL involving a Woodbury communication class, I take your allegations seriously and will have them investigated thoroughly.
The university has taken several actions to safeguard against a repetition. Among them we have established a board to oversee all activities in SL, and we require all students to conform to the university's code of conduct there or undergo the appropriate sanctions here.
At this time, the university does not own or rent space in SL nor has it authorized anyone to represent Woodbury there. We do not and will not condone any behavior that would not be acceptable in real life on this campus.
I appreciate your bringing your concerns to my office. You did the exactly right thing. I will be back in touch when I have more information.
Best,
David
***
If you have trouble believing this authentic statement from real life, and can't seem to grasp how the goons have hoodwinked everybody, contact the RL Woodbury director yourself: David.Rosen@woodbury.edu
From: Random Unsung [mailto:ravenglassrentals@yahoo.com]
Sent: Fri 1/25/2008 1:55 AM
To: Rosen, David
Cc: Clift, Edward
Subject: Second Life Harassment
Dear Dr. Rosen,
I'm writing to you with profound concern, as you may be in a position to exercise some supervisory function over Dr. Edward Clift and the students of the Communications Department at Woodbury University as to their misbehaviour in the virtual world of Second Life (www.secondlife.com)
Once again, Woodbury University is in the SL blogosphere over antics being perpetrated in the online virtual world of Second Life. And once again, the SL Herald and other sources are printing deliberately false statements about the antics of these students as part of their ongoing support for "griefing," or malicious behaviour targeted against other residents of Second Life.
http://secondthoughts.typepad.com/second_thoughts/2008/01/lindens-finally.html
http://foo.secondlifeherald.com/slh/2008/01/fic-tables-turn.html
http://www.shaunaltman.com/articles/2008/01/24/property-snatched-by-linden-lab
On January 23, I was very disturbed to see that the account claimed to be used by Dr. Clift, "MC Fizgig" was used to purchase virtual property next to my property in SL, at a site that had been frequently targeted by the griefing group calling itself Woodbury. It was a deliberately provocative act in order to stalk and harass me, consistent with a very long-term pattern of trespassing and vandalism perpetrated by Woodbury "students" in SL for more than a year.
This Woodbury group, which contains some persons now permanently banned from Second Life for harassing me and other residents (the account named Tizzers Foxchase and Hazim Gazov), has frequently disturbed the peace, trespassed, insulted, maliciously taunted, littered, released particles, and crashed the simulators, or servers deliberately in SL. I've filed countless abuse reports on them.
I have also spent more than a year trying to get to the bottom of the story of why a seemingly respected university such as Woodbury would be involved in this malicious form of play which in fact leads to property damage involving real money because of the sim-crashing and intimidation of people in SL.
As a number of the blogs are making false statements about my supposed "inside connections" to "get this account banned," I thought it was important to let you know that I made a perfectly legitimate, appropriate and public filing against "MC Fizgig" using the regular Abuse Report system within SL, based on a pattern of stalking and harassment by his group for more than a year. Evidently Linden Lab investigated this report, and apparently other information it had, and as far as I can tell, acted properly in closing this account and seizing the virtual land (server space rented).
As it may well be possible that these accounts and the name of Woodbury are being used without your knowledge or consent, or there might be some other fraud involved here, I thought I'd bring this latest incident to your attention and urge you to investigate.
Having seen Dr. Clift's interviews to the Herald, I know he is an interested and highly biased party in this discussion, but he also may be unaware of the actual behaviour of the people in his group in SL currently.
Prokofy Neva
(Catherine A. Fitzpatrick)