Account Changes (LL Blog)

Fionalein

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I think it's funny that Medhue makes those comments about her from his and others interactions with her. I don't know her, and I have never talked with her but -- that is the same impression I got from reading her twitter and interviews.
Medhue said "many other users",... when posting in public at least double check your legend... many users and Sansar, ... sorry if I don't buy that.
 

Beebo Brink

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Being told you're "too intelligent" and to "dumb it down" is actually evidence of the antithesis of racism. And I've worked in the tech sector long enough to recognize a certain of type of employee who is indeed very intelligent when dealing with abstract concepts but hopeless when working with other people. I can think of several who walked out because no one listened to their very intelligent but unfeasible ideas. When white males with big egos are thwarted, they can only accuse other people of being fools, but minorities can attribute this unfathomable resistance to prejudice. She may be quite sincere in her belief, but I'm seeing all sorts of yellow flags on her side of the story.

This is an especially difficult personality type for recognizing non-technical impediments to their ideas and solutions. "Minor" details like, "The client is going to hate this." or "No one has the resources to maintain this." or "people will simply skip this entirely." don't register with them. A few years ago, I lost a battle with a developer over just this kind of issue. I asked for an interactive form to be developed in a specific way. He ignored my request and built it with a different workflow. The end result was the same, or at least it would have been if the users could have gotten through it, but all of them found it incredibly confusing. In the end, some 200 development hours were tossed out the window because the system worked perfectly fine but no one liked it using it. To this day he does not understand why that project failed. Next time, however, I'm standing my ground.
 

NeoBokrug Elytis

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I have read the complaint that Bartholomew posted a link for. I am not a lawyer, but I am well versed in legalese. Here's my summary of things not already covered in previous posts.

She's suing Linden Research and 50 John Does who allegedly conspired against her (employees / avatars?); but doesn't go into detail about those 50 Does and what they did. Without knowing more about this whole ordeal, that seems way over the top to me.

In summary she is suing for wrongful termination and "retaliation" based on her skin color, race, ethnicity, gender and religious practices. In paragraph 20 she defines "retaliation" as: Resistance to her ideas, lack of support, interference with her ability to work, interference in meeting deadlines, and a willful failure to implement compliant security strategies. In paragraph 50 as: Interfering with her work, humiliating her in meetings, denying her a merited position and training, as well as asking her to resign and terminating her employment.

Some interesting things that aren't issues with LL compliance: Even though she was hired specifically for this position and worked from home, only a few months in she asked for an assistant but was denied. In June 2018 her supervisor suggested she be promoted, but that never materialized. In July 2018 she got a Performance Improvement Plan, which sounds like a "please do better", or a write-up. In December 2018 she got a positive performance review with a pay increase. So I guess she did do better.

Apparently LL asked her to resign, but terminated her when she didn't.

She's suing for ALL THE DAMAGES, based on six actions.

She's asking for a Jury Trial, which may backfire spectacularly, or not. Jury Trials are wildcards.

That's the meat of it. The causes of action and requests for damages all read like "let's throw shit at the wall, and see what sticks", with a dash of "malice" and "fraud" to make the defendants seem evil.

~~~~ ~~~~ ~~~~ ~~~~

Right now it seems as if her complaint defeats itself because it shows repeated communication issues, an attempt by Linden Research to improve things with a PIP, and then a raise after the things seemed to have improved.

There is literally nothing in the complaint to support her termination based on skin color, race, ethnicity, gender or religious practices. I guess that's what discovery will or won't find out.

The whole crux of her complaint will rely on the court determining if what she's complaining of constitutes as retaliation. I think a judge is going to find that LL doesn't have to do what you say as a hired expert, and not listening doesn't constitute retaliation. As for the non-promotion, she was given her PIP not too long after the suggestion, which to me seems like people above her supervisor saw issues her supervisor may have not seen. If you have documented communication issues and you're terminated because of it, I don't think that's wrongful termination.

I think LL asking her to resign was offering her a good way out, without damaging her reputation and leaving opportunities open for her at other places. Requested resignation is typically far better than termination.

The final kicker is this; she's repeatedly asking for damages for emotional distress that she'll continue to suffer from, and loss of enjoyment of life -- but she's obviously gone out of her way to try to make this a social media trend. Even going so far as to make an "I'm gonna show you how strong I am" viral picture. I don't feel like asking for those types of damages is made in good faith. Why draw attention to the lawsuit on social media when that would just exacerbate your suffering?
 

Ayesha

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Every time I do the captcha, it sends me to the main court page instead of to the text of the lawsuit, and then I don’t know how to find it. So I haven’t been able to read the actual complaint beyond the screenshots on her Twitter. But from what I can conclude, she is both an unpleasant person and correct about the concerns she sees. Most of us who have done business with Linden Lab know they are an incompetent company, so the idea that they have poor cybersecurity and are violating financial laws is not surprising at all. On the user side their security is terrible, with no option for two step verification or other measures in place to keep hackers out of our accounts. Within the platform fraud runs rampant and scammers often get away with the money they steal. So do I believe that all the concerns she is raising are legitimate? Yes. But like others have said, I don’t think they have anything to do with her race, gender or religion. I doubt LL would have done anything more if she had been a white man telling them the same things.

If Linden Lab is violating laws and regulations, seems to me she would be better off reporting those to the appropriate agencies and being a whistleblower to get an investigation launched. Then she could have moved on with her career and if her situation was ever made public, it would be in the context of Linden Lab being investigated, indicted and/or fined and she would be the hero. Well, maybe not to users. If the government really took a hard look at things like scams/fraud, money laundering, skill gaming, minors checking the "I'm 18" box and going to sex sims, ageplay etc., SL could end up getting shut down. I hope that doesn't happen, but I can't say it would surprise me if it did.
 
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Bartholomew Gallacher

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In the comments of NWN there are another two comments which really disagree with Linden Lab being racist.

First by somebody calling himself "Better then Pie" [then is no typo, but in the original name there]:

@Medhue your well known and respected by many, also your creating day to day in both platforms so I believe you.
Your not the lone supporter of the lab on what looks like to me a hit piece, several of us pointed out how the lab in our opinions was likely not guilty, all our posts were deleted, i believe in my own speculation for not fitting the narrative.
I will state again, I do not believe this "person" while knowing for a fact as an ex-linden lab employee myself, the lab is far from raciest while being one of the most tolerant AND accepting group of individuals around.
Ebbe is too nice to everyone, a very honest person, some may see that as a weakness?


And an answer by someone named "Eugene":

Pies a good example of LL fulfilling a mission of diversity' being she is a physically challenged person of color
LL even installed the 2nd outside wheelchair ramp just for her
any raciest,bigots or xenophobes would have never responded to her resume let alone accommodated her needs

- Former Phoenix Viewer Developer
 

Bartholomew Gallacher

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The same day Ms. Pearlman filed her law suit she also created a funding campaign on crowdrise; she wants to collect 80.000 US$ in order to fund her XRSI initiative, and uses most of her Twitter text about the law suit as information why this is necessary in her eyes.

So far nobody spent anything, it seems her whole plan backfired greatly:

 

Beebo Brink

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The same day Ms. Pearlman filed her law suit she also created a funding campaign on crowdrise….
Her opening paragraphs make her sound unhinged, which reinforces my impression that she has problematic social skills. She obviously has no idea how to frame an appeal to donors, instead she leads with accusations and acrimony about an issue that most people outside of SL would not even understand. And there's scant information on how this money would be used or what purpose it serves. Keeping my dollars in my wallet, tyvm.
 

Bartholomew Gallacher

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She kinda reminds me of Amy in this sketch here in the end: "Why are you so negative? You gave me no feedback, confirmation, guidance whatsoever... I need to talk to an HR director, I need a mental health day off." "Amy, you're not working here?" "Does that mean I'm fired?" "Ok... yes."

 
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Fionalein

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While she might be wrong about the harassment thing I admit I am only interested on how much substance there is to her accusations over violations of regulations...
 

Bartholomew Gallacher

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Since the case of her law suit is work related and she's not suing Linden Lab on those supposed privacy/cash law violations, we'll never really know, because it's not really relevant to her case.
 
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Beebo Brink

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The screed on her fund-raising page admits that there have been no data breaches and that her recommendations were ignored for "potential" issues involving privacy and security. That's all very vague -- are we talking vulnerabilities to credit card numbers and email addresses? Or are we talking vulnerabilities within SL, such as doxing or stalking or spam?
 
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Kara Spengler

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This NWN article is just full of hot air and not much real substance at all sorry; her Twitter account is more interesting. And security experts - well, everybody can claim to be one. It's not like it's something you need to get certified first with or have to study at all.

Real security experts have to work hard to earn a good reputation, like Bruce Schneier, Tavis Ormandy or Daniel J. Bernstein. Those three are well renowned, heavy weights in the field of security expertise.

But I've only got to look at her Twitter badge, where it shows this:



OMFG, so much cyber cyber cyber... every security expert who wants to be taken seriously by his own industry avoids that word at any cost, because "cyber" is just being used by politicians and other people who've got no clue what they're talking about, like a blind born man talking about colors. Calling yourself a "cyber security expert" just makes you the laughing stock of your industiy, nothing else.

Reading her papers reveals that she was more acting like some kind of legal advisor on operational and privacy questions than a security expert looking for security issues.

First and foremost it happens every day that some employers and their employees simply put don't match together very well. Hire and fire. Reading through the papers the impression to me is that she never really fit well into the working environment of Linden Lab due to uncertain reasons; and now she's blaming Linden Lab for that. For this it takes two, and in the end it's for the court to figure out the truth if she indeed was facing racism, or not.

She's also right now playing heavily on the discriminated victim card right now: female, Indian and muslim and made her law suit public, which is normally uncommon. If she were instead a white, protestant American, the publicity would be much, much lower.

I guess this is a tactic to motivate Linden Lab to avoid further bad press, and pay her a nice compensation instead of fighting it out before the court - if the case is going to be accepted, that is.

Well, we're going to see how this in the end is going to turn out in a few months probably. 🍿
Actually, cyber security (with whatever suffix, although usually the word 'professional') is the term companies use.

I am writing a presentation right now to get people from marginalized communities into the field. I have a slide that points out that cyber security people, CEHs (certified ethical hackers), white hats, and hackers (using the old definition) are so close they can be treated as synonyms in many cases.
 
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Argent Stonecutter

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Which "old definition"?
 

Argent Stonecutter

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Just checking, real "hackers" are now "makers" and computer criminals have been dubbed "hackers" since Hollywood discovered the word in the early '80s.

Best not to use the word any more. I stick to "crackers" when a less generic word doesn't work better.
 
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NeoBokrug Elytis

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THREAD. RISE FROM YOUR GRAVE! THIS I COMMAND!
Driving home from the grocery store today, I pondered... What ever happened to that Pearlman lawsuit against LL. So when I got home i went to go look at the case. Linden Lab made a reply to her allegations. OH BOY! It's exactly what you thought it was, and so much more. Go here, view the 2019-10-21 response by LL. But here, just a sample:
Plaintiff: (1) disparaging or harshly contradicting others in meetings and via public channels; (2)
creating conflict and not working collaboratively; and (3) denigrating coworkers and executives to
others. One coworker stated Plaintiff “continues her habits of rail-roading and talking down to other
employees she has no authority over, making her a nightmare to work with.” Another employee stated
Plaintiff was “toxic for everyone who has to work with her.”
 

Dakota Tebaldi

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How were you even able to read that, Neo? When I clicked your link, the first thing it did was make me verify that I'm not a robot.
 

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