Unnecessary Drama at the Convention

I read this morning a disturbing blog entry by a certain "member" of the SL Whovian community accusing another group of violating rules at the SL Sci-Fi Convention this year.  I am not going to name names here, though screen captures will unavoidably show the information, but I want to make this about the act, not the people involved.  To correct the official record, the accuser's allegations are false, as can be demonstrated by reading the rules pertaining to donations to Relay for Life by vendors.

Booth Prims:

- 384 - Non-vendors & non-sponsors (Free)

- 384 - Vendors & non-sponsors ($250 L or 10% of sales going to the charity.)

- 500 - Sponsors ($16,000 L)

The above is copied and pasted from the convention rules regarding sponsors and vendors.  The group being falsely accused is donating fifteen percent of its sales to the event's charity sponsor.  No rules are being violated by the accused, as far as security can determine.  There is no one affiliated with the accused group claiming to be part of Relay for Life SL group or trying to confuse people as to which group is which.  Others have reported the accusers to convention administrators for clarification and to end the harassment and defamation, especially since the accuser is a sponsor at the convention and should know better than to pull a stunt like this at an event co-created by someone who was sick of politics and fighting and wanted a way to unite people under a common cause to help others.  Whatever other actions taken to report the offense, I don't know, but I can't imagine they won't be taken.  Screencaps are posted below in case the accuser removes the entry and denies what he wrote.

The accused group was not even going to have a booth at this year's convention because of the accuser's constant drama-causing, both in-world and off-world.  But I talked them into attending so they would not be chased away or excluded from yet another SL event, like they were from the Designing Worlds broadcast at SL's 8th Birthday celebration.  The SL Whovian community is larger than any one group or region, and it is wrong for any group to be excluded, defamed, harassed, and bullied — especially for the stupid reason of the accuser simply being too childish to share his Doctor Who geekdom with anyone else.  The accuser is deliberately and maliciously trying to destroy the SL Whovian and Sci-Fi communities just so he can stroke his own ego by pretending he's Master of the Universe.  This has GOT to stop.*

UPDATE (3:18PM EDT-12:18PM SLT): The accuser in this latest bit of melodrama has now resorted to sending out a group notice in-world with this false allegation of his, trying to bully people into booting his rivals from the convention.  I am told that he has been reported to Linden Labs and to convention authorities.  It is bad enough to use Relay for Life and the American Cancer Society as weapons in a personal feud against another region from an off-world blog.  But now he's bringing it into SL, which can and should be reported to Linden Labs for harassment and defamation of another individual or group.

UPDATE (4:20PM ETD/1:20PM SLT): I have been informed that the thread in question has now generated a number of comments, some of which the accuser has apparently deleted in an effort to protect his lie from the Truth. A poster named Wolf apparently read this blog entry and posted what I wrote above in the thread.  Here is the comment screen capture:

The accuser has since updated his entry to post a like to the American Cancer Society's rules regarding donations of proceeds from non-sponsor vendors, but those rules do not appear to apply in this case.  The rules pertain to people actively participating in the Relay for Life group or groups in Second Life, not specifically to non-sponsor vendors.  A ten percent minimum donation was asked by Sci-Fi convention admins of vendors, which the accused has done in compliance with said request.  In fact, they're giving more than the minimum amount asked.  This is just my theory, and may or may not be correct, but I think the reason the accuser has chosen to pull this stunt today is because he thought he had successfully chased his rival away from yet another event involving the SL Whovian community, and was livid at having been denied what I'm sure he saw as a victory over his sworn foes.  The accuser has not only been caught telling a major lie, but he screwed up royally by posting it in-world to smear another group.  That is a breach of LL terms of use, as he well knows.  I will keep you updated as more information follows.

UPDATE (6:19PM EDT/3:19PM SLT): IFT Sci-Fi Alliance, which runs the SL Sci-Fi Convention, just sent out the following notice regarding sales-sharing and Relay for Life:

The RFL rules are clear on this...  You can split your profits from vendor sales by sharing it, but unless you give 100% of sales to the American Cancer Society, you cannot promote it using their name.  I am told this reason is to reduce their liability on any fraud.  Plus, I believe they prefer people be using their vendors if that is the case.  See the attached notecard for details.

From the attached notecard:

If an individual would like to donate a portion of their store sales, tips or proceeds to RFL of SL, they may advertise that they support RFL of SL on signage in their establishment or venue and drop any monies they choose into a kiosk.  They may NOT advertise that a percentage or portion  goes to RFL of SL, nor that their sale is a RFL of SL event. 

It has also come to my attention that Laredo Lowtide of TARDIS region has been in contact with the Relay for Life people and been assured that they have no problem with New London Systems or TARDIS region's booth at the convention.  As usual, a certain someone is making a big stink over nothing in order to stroke his massive ego.  For the record, some of us have loste friends, relatives, and acquaintances to cancer over the years.  One person I know through SL told me she lost a close relative yesterday to cancer.  I have a history of cancer in my family, and a few years ago I had to have two abnormal moles removed because the dermatologist was concerned that they could devlop into malignancies.  So this latest round of dishonesty and bullshit hits pretty close to home for many people.  It was performed maliciously and knowing full well that the accusations were wholly fabricated.  If any mistake was made by anyone, it was in the outright refusal to take the matter up in private with the proper authorities and the decision instead to transform what should have been a fun event for every sci-fi and Doctor Who fan, that serves the worthy cause of fighting cancer, into just another excuse to wage war against a rival group.  That is absolutely disgusting and there is no excuse for it.  The truly guilty parties, having been thwarted in their latest attempt to exclude their rivals from a popular SL event, have desecrated the cause of fighting cancer and put a serious damper on everyone's good time.

*: The accuser has a legitimate grievance with me, for reasons I have stated in previous entries and which I will not go into here.  But his efforts to punish everyone else he doesn't like by spreading lies must be challenged.  Bullying, defamation, and harassment cannot, must not, and should not be tolerated.