Posted by Arial on June 08, 1998 at 22:45:54:
In Reply to: Discussion Topic 4: Chillies Avatar Maker posted by Devalin on May 11, 1998 at 18:20:44:
I definately think we need to update the Guild
Rules to specify nonacceptance of sites that directly
or vicariouly *endorse* avatar capturing/theft.
The main problem people had with Chilly's Avatar
maker was that the page *previously* had a tutorial
section on how to steal avatars complete with
how to use the software's capture function when
positioned over a chatter's identity box while
in VP. The word steal was even used in the
tutorial. Chilly has since revised his page
and omitted this tutorial per Devalin's request.
This was an unacceptable link on a Guild site for
obvious reasons.
To accept sites that link to pages endorsing
avatar theft would also be a conflict of
interest for the Guild. Basically, people should
know better too. I am glad to see Chilly
revised his page. No one was penalizing
Chilly for creating software that someone may have
inadvertantly used for avatar theft. The issue was
with the tutorial he previously provided on his
page that instructed people on how to steal
other's avatars and provided a direct endorsement
of avatar theft.
I think the software is ok myself but does have
a lot of obvious limitations with respect to the
quality of avatars you can make. It's great that
people want to contribute to the community in
this way but this incident has raised good issues
wrt what is considered an appropriate/inappropriate
endorsement for the Guild. We definately need
to make some revisions to the rules unless
Devalin wants to use his charm to continously
handle situations like the above. I think a brief
addition to Rule#2 regarding endorsement would
take care of these types of situations.