Celene Ballinger
Bot(s):
Celene Ballinger (aparently retired)
How to Contact:
“Are you contacting me about a land you sold me? Do you want me to look into it? Send me a “note card” with details. If you made a MISTAKE by listing your land for cheap, well be nice, or else…
I DO NOT answer to Instant Messages. Only to notes.”
Returns:
This operator DOES NOT RETURN MISTAKES - According to this post Celene (as of Nov 2007) has began returning mistakes.
If you have any experience with this operator, please post a comment using the form below.
I set a spot of land for sale to specific person who then was not able to upgrade his tier level to buy the land. it was late and like an idiot I took his name off before changing the price first. Sure enough it seemed like before I even confirmed the Celene Ballinger bot came and stole it right under my nose. I sent a couple of polite note cards as instructed explaining what happened and never did get a response. The next day, my land was for sale by someone else.
I ask others to join in my nightly prayer that a devastating illness befalls the real life person behind the Celene Ballinger account.
I also had the same misfortune of having one of Celene Ballingers Landbots get my land when I made a mistake in pricing it but after I sent her a note card asking if she would consider undoing the sale she replied with in 3 days and returned the land to me. THANK YOU Celene.
Taryn Sprawl
Land HACKED and then stolen!?!?!
Dec 4 2007 4 AM Pennycat
Land HACKED and then stolen!?!?! Celene Ballinger has this cabability apparently.
This occured at about 4AM est on Dec 4 2007.
I was on the land when all of a sudden I had no modify capabilities for my own objects.
This was shortly after a lagging slow server connection. Then I notice I have 22 lindens for some land sale to Celene Ballinger. Well it was the land I was currently on, PennyCat over 6700 sq m for 22 lindens? how? I did contact Linden labs via phone, then I was directed to make an abuse report. I hope it gets resolved, Question is the hacking? can they get into credit card accounts too? Also note I was NOT selling the land, I was modifying the description of the land.
I confronted the avatar for 2 hours, seconds after this mess, dropping notes in her inventory like a fool, no responce. 6:30 AM went to work
I came home, made a few phone calls, spoke to Dee at LL who told me to make an abuse report. Was online in SL hovering over my own land (NOT), placing signs alerting folks to the situation.
19 hours later Celene shows up, (around 11PM)
(note I am on the phone with a Linden who is on my land as well) 1 877 number.
In a synopse I had to pay 10,000 lindens to Celene Ballinger to get the land back. Keil Linden was supporting this. It is legal ransom? Linden was supporting this, freakin amazing.. the two of them buzzing around my land, one in text chat the other on the phone. 99 minutes talking to Linden on my cell phone.
Linden also noted no one can hack or get into accounts, how sure can he be? This is not the type of thing one would admit to anyhow. He had problems just proving I had owned this land in the first place, and he is the one on the server side.
I think this was more then just a bot. As it turns out I have the same computer as his wife, but I use wireless, he suggested I use a copper connection to avoid lag. Lindens do see an issue with the land tab, (where the sale button is… and if a person uses the tab key and keyboard vice mouse, there is no telling what will happen during a lag situation, the Client GUI may not get updated in sync with the server).
Linden suspects I blindly sold the land for 22L with blind keystokes during lag.
Crazy, maybe the two work together on this whole thing.
Dec 06 2007
I am still looking into this, as well as the department head of the Linden I spoke to.
I have 7 folks I brought into this program as well. Yes feeling a bit red now.
Everyone will be aware of this whole situation. I am working hard, not just for me.
Second Thoughts of SL.
If you have doubts, you probably should not do it.
I shall close with this:
Celene Bellinger dialog: ( somehow there are 3 tabs open in her name on my SL instant messenger so this is pieced together via timeline.
At the same time I am on the phone with Keil Linden, and the two of them are sailing around my land. 99 minutes of phone call.
[20:16] Celene Ballinger: lots of writing
[20:16] Celene Ballinger: i am at the land
[20:17] Celene Ballinger: have you confirmed with lindens?
[20:24] Celene Ballinger: are we set?
[20:29] Celene Ballinger: Montelli, you got to respond to me. I have to take off soon
[20:31] Montelli Vantelli: Celene,
[20:32] Montelli Vantelli: looking at funds i have 240 lindens.
[20:56] Celene Ballinger: I am leaving
[20:56] Celene Ballinger: I’v etalked to lindens too
[20:56] Celene Ballinger: you don’t want to work this out
[20:56] Celene Ballinger: I guess
[20:56] Montelli Vantelli: i am here getting funds
[21:09] Celene Ballinger: i have to go soon
[21:09] Celene Ballinger: do you want me to set the land to you and go?
[21:09] Celene Ballinger: so you can just buy it before you take off today?
[21:09] Celene Ballinger: I need to clear it from my tier
[21:09] Montelli Vantelli: if you would
[21:10] Celene Ballinger: I will set the land back to you for 10000
[21:10] Celene Ballinger: I hope this helps
[21:10] Montelli Vantelli: i wouldappreciate it celene
[21:10] Celene Ballinger: please try to be careful nex ttime
[21:10] Celene Ballinger: this is a lot of money you would hav elost
[21:11] Celene Ballinger: okay the land is set to you
[21:11] Celene Ballinger: good luck, please buy it before you go off today
[21:11] Celene Ballinger: Have a good day
[19:47] Celene Ballinger: can you make correction to your statements first
[19:47] Celene Ballinger: If you had mistakenly sold a land for darn cheap, don’t create a monster out of by lying in the first place, mmmm i was fixing my land and opps it was gone. Celene stole it.
[19:48] Celene Ballinger: Explain what happened?
[19:49] Montelli Vantelli: hello?
[19:49] Montelli Vantelli: yes you are there?
[19:49] Montelli Vantelli: this is what happened
[19:50] Celene Ballinger: Yes I asked you a question
[19:50] Montelli Vantelli: Land HACKED and then stolen! Celene Ballinger has this cabability apparently. This occured at about 4AM est on Dec 4 2007. I was on the land when all of a sudden I had no modify capabilities for my own objects. Well this was shortly after a lagging slow server connection. Then I notice I have 22 lindens for some land sale. Well it was the I was currently on, PennyCat over 6700 sq m for 22 lindens? how? I did contact Linden labs via phone, then I was directed to make a abuse report. I hope it gets resolved, Question is the hacking? can they get into credit card accounts too? Also note I was NOT selling the land, was modifying the description of the land. Montelli Vantelli of SL.
[19:50] Celene Ballinger: Explain really what happened
[19:50] Montelli Vantelli: this is EXACTLY what had happened to me.
[19:50] Celene Ballinger: If that is the story you are telling people, then you will never get your land back
[19:50] Celene Ballinger: Good luck to you
[19:50] Montelli Vantelli: I shall see you in court.
[19:50] Montelli Vantelli: the choice is yours
[19:50] Celene Ballinger: because I never hacked and i never did anything. you sold your land on the market and i bought it. you sold your land for $22, damn cheap
[19:51] Montelli Vantelli: computer lag perhaps?
[19:51] Montelli Vantelli: 450 dollars
[19:51] Celene Ballinger: If you tell me you made a mistake and ask for your land, i always give it back. not for this threat because i didn’t do anything wrong
[19:51] Montelli Vantelli: plus tier fee
[19:51] Montelli Vantelli: I sit here
[19:51] Celene Ballinger: I always give land back, but not for lyers like you
[19:51] Montelli Vantelli: celene
[19:51] Montelli Vantelli: I understand…
[19:51] Celene Ballinger: Get your story straight first, please if you want to ask for your mistake
[19:51] Montelli Vantelli: but honestly…
[19:52] Celene Ballinger: NO ONE CAN HACK OR STEAL YOUR LAND
[19:52] Celene Ballinger: YOU MADE A MISTAKE TO LIST YOUR LAND FOR CHEAP
[19:52] Celene Ballinger: NOW TELL ME THE REAL STORY
[19:52] Montelli Vantelli: well I see I was not in that menu
[19:52] Celene Ballinger: AND I WILL CONSIDER GIVING IT BACK TO YOU
[19:52] Montelli Vantelli: Person to person
[19:52] Celene Ballinger: WELL I SAW THAT ON THE LAND LISTING, THAT IS HOW IN THE WHOLE DARN WIDE VIRTUAL WORLD, I KNEW YOU WERE SELLING
[19:52] Montelli Vantelli: I respect all
[19:53] Montelli Vantelli: lagging for 5 minutes..
[19:53] Celene Ballinger: I respect people too, but not those that twist the story
[19:53] Montelli Vantelli: when my screen came back I saw 22 linden
[19:53] Celene Ballinger: If I really hacked, you think I will be on now? Lindens will have my neck on the woods by now
[19:53] Celene Ballinger: well at that screen you should have canceled it
[19:53] Montelli Vantelli: This is honestly what I saw, and honestly i was not in the price section
[19:54] Montelli Vantelli: my lagging caused it to go on market?
[19:54] Montelli Vantelli: but why so fast was it gone
[19:54] Montelli Vantelli: and your avatar was right there
[19:54] Montelli Vantelli: i spent 2 hours with you
[19:54] Celene Ballinger: a land won’t automatically get listed on the market, if that is the case, Lindens has a huge issue,
[19:54] Montelli Vantelli: well now that is my point…. a huge issue
[19:54] Celene Ballinger: I was not around, my younger brother helps by land, he can’t speak
[19:54] Montelli Vantelli: I always lag
[19:54] Celene Ballinger: english
[19:54] Montelli Vantelli: lag get bumped off
[19:54] Montelli Vantelli: lag more
[19:55] Montelli Vantelli: it is frustrating
[19:55] Celene Ballinger: you need to get a faster computer if you are going to play around with this much money
[19:55] Montelli Vantelli: now 450 dollars later…
[19:55] Montelli Vantelli: what is this
[19:55] Montelli Vantelli: I have verizon fiber…
[19:55] Montelli Vantelli: is SOny Viao just pruchased
[19:55] Celene Ballinger: Here is what I will do, you go and update your dispute and let lindens know what really happened and tell them that you will work it out with me
[19:55] Celene Ballinger: and then if you cover my tier expense due to your mistake, you can have you rland back
[19:55] Montelli Vantelli: I see server go red
[19:56] Montelli Vantelli: then network yellow.
[19:56] Montelli Vantelli: Celene
[19:57] Celene Ballinger: are you reading what i proposed?
[19:57] Montelli Vantelli: it is less then 19 hours
[19:57] Montelli Vantelli: what is the tier expense?
[19:57] Montelli Vantelli: I certainly will
[19:58] Montelli Vantelli: when I get the land
[19:58] Montelli Vantelli: I just called 1877 linden number as we speak
[19:58] Celene Ballinger: maybe like 10,000L to cover my time and tier and you can have your land back, which is worth well over 50,000L
[19:58] Celene Ballinger: I am just being nice, it is up to you
[19:58] Montelli Vantelli: I was being nice. 19 hours of my time is worth what?
[19:58] Celene Ballinger: I can sell this land right now to others and Lindens will not be able todo anything, because you sold me the land
[19:59] Celene Ballinger: Don’t know, 19 hours should teach you the lesson not to play around with $450 US, and to be careful, thats what you get
[19:59] Montelli Vantelli: ok GOOD POINT….
[20:00] Celene Ballinger: i always give land back to people when they admit the mistake they make, lag or whatever it is, it is a mistake on the client side
[20:00] Celene Ballinger: so if you agree to this, i will set your land back before i get back from lunch
[20:00] Montelli Vantelli: I certainly would admit that
[20:01] Celene Ballinger: Please let Lindens know too and confirm that to me. I will come over in a bit and set your land back to you for 10K
[20:02] Celene Ballinger: Thanks for agreeing. Not a lot of people give land back where they can make easy $450
Montelli Vantelli of SL.
I have had the pleasure of helping someone who screwed up and sold his land for 10% its value (he dropped a zero) to Celene. If you make a mistake, send her a notecard with the details, don’t get flustered, and just say you screwed up and ask nice. She is rigid, but is not uncaring or overly greedy.
Montelli, I feel your pain.
Earlier in the year, about the same time that Celene Ballinger claims she started giving (what a joke) land back, she got 122,112 sq m of our land which we did NOT get anything back. Infact it cost my partner 481.00 USD to purchase it back. Talk about Red.
The Lindens response was “sorry, all sales final.” Until, mind you, the property had been resold. Then it was “I’m sorry, if the property has been sold there isnt much we can do about it.”
I was told then that they were working on a solution. (Some 3 -4 months ago). This Celene person is a piece of work. There is nothing moral or ethical in her/him.
Apparently Linden Labs doesn’t know what moral or ethical means either.
I have tried, held an event, started a petition, did whatever I could to get some attention. A person cannot do it alone.
It seems as time goes on that this Celene is more secure in the fact that the Lindens will not do anything about it. Hmmmm. If you want I can provide you with the Board of Directors……well everyone with their email address…….maybe if enough people inundate them with emails….hey its worth a try.
Feel free to contact me.
Jezebel Bailey – Lets MAKE SOME NOISE!!!
This just happened to me. I was making a land trade with some neighbors and apparently they did not know you have to set the land to sell to a person. Celene bought it. They are very upset. I am trying to be polite to celene but have not had any response. I really wish Linden Labs would do something about this practice. I don’t understand why they don’t. It is making a lot of people disenchanted with their levels of empathy and support for the average well thinking person who wants to do positive things in Second Life.
Sold land to celene by mistake. Asked and got it back. I made a mistake by listing my land for $1. She gave it back after 2 days and I paid her for her time.
Celene Ballinger got 122,112 sq m of land from my partner and I and informed my partner he could have the land back at 6.7L per sq m. She/he/it got the land for 1L. Give it back? She refused notecards, ims, any form of contact until 5 minutes before she had resold the property. A friend of mine sent her at least 40 notecards which she refused everyone of them. She changed the subject and had her boyfriend send it, guess what? Yep, you got it…she accepted it.
Celene now says she returns land. I believe she returns lands that are not significant in value. Even when she does return land, she makes you grovel for it. The 2 people who said she has returned their land, what was your property size? Did she charge you for the tier it cost her? You paid her for her time? Hmmm. Sounds like prostitution to me.
“Celene Ballinger: If you tell me you made a mistake and ask for your land, i always give it back. not for this threat because i didn’t do anything wrong
[19:51] Montelli Vantelli: plus tier fee”
Who is the liar now Celene?
For those who have had land returned………good for you.
Jez Bailey
Celene bot. One rotten apple spoils it for all.
Hi Folks,
I hope all is well. Everything is fine at Never Sleep. ( we just are not modifying the land descriptions
or names ahahaahah).
A few of you I spoke to already, as well as various folks on the grid have come up with some ideas to
stop the needless loss of land. Let’s face it, if you knew it was this easy to loose land you would not be
putting money into the Second life land. soooooooo…..
Step one would be to WARN folks of this aspect of Second life / before they join. If you lag or mess up
pricing on your land you will probably end up with no land and what ever 3D designs you have not copied
into your inventory in less then 500 m Sec. They can make a better decision about spending MONEY if they
know before they join. Maybe there will be a fix for this in the future releases of Second life.
Step two includes DEFENCE by dividing the larger land into smaller sections. If you take a hit, it will
not be the whole area that you own. Prim count allotment will be reduced. (16 sq m2 = 3 prims each , 32 sq
m2 = 7 prims, not 6. So dividing a 1024 plot into 4 plots is not a huge impact on the prim count
allotment. test it out under “edit terrain”
Step three (long shot) OFFENCE
Perhaps if everyone donated a few small 16sq m2 of useless plot for a mere $5L that would satisfy the
bot goal of achieving a high tier fee? Celene bot apparently only rips off 512 sq m2 or higher land
area… like I was saying… even the other bot owners do not favor Celene. One rotten apple spoils it
for all.
And how do I know about the 512 sq m2 low limit for Celene? Well for all we know this automated bot
programming for land capture is being run by one person. Currently the bot folks speak of independence
from each other. We all agree on one thing, and the solutions, as you know, are a work in progress. Linden
Labs has created the tools to solve this issue, the same way as they created the tools to create this
issue. soooooooo…..
Step four will be a hoot, (FAIRNESS) if I can pull it off. If I made a bot, which could have the ability
to buy land for cheap, resell it, or forfeit it. Would anyone be interested? It would be totally free,
inspired by Celene her self. If everyone had one, at least it would be llfair game, maybe your bot will capture your land? Or perhaps a quick llcode fix to stop the bot mass mess.
Well read http://www.libsecondlife.org to get a better understanding. !! Some of you can probably create this
quicker then me. !! I just program assembly language / and C for Atmel micro controllers. So I am just
starting out with C# and the libsecondlife library. I know nothing. It is cool though. I will finish mine.
My idea is a GUI asking for user name and password, correct link to the land sale site, and choices of
low limit high limit land size land price, etc… radio buttons. This is a standalone windows exe
file.
Mine so far logs in to a specific sim and location x,y,z, via GUI, speaks what ever is typed in the GUI box, and listens in another box. Then you log out by clicking a logout button. Lame lame lame. I am learning as I go along.
You can read http://www.libsecondlife.org to do the same. Mine was up and running in about an hour. Just 3 main
installs of available software on the Internet. No money involved.
Last thing I need to hear is that I have to pay someone 40 dollars cause they decided to run a bot and
I made their tier fee go up. blah blah blah!!!
Hows about a boot to the head bot! That could be worth forty dollars, ahahahah. wait wait…. It has to
have that little sound effect, like a watermelon getting thumped.
*****The Matrix revisited*****
and here I was thinking I would be doing 3D modeling.
Hey folks, I need feedback. Speak-up,
HUGS and KISSES to Celene ~NOT!!~
Montelli Vantelli
NEVER SLEEP
Montelli, I was thinking about doing the same thing – I think it might be possible, but would either need a kind soul with a wallet big enough to finance the tier, or establish the public fund (which would become a bit of a nuissance to manage) and have an account with a paypal payment info run the bot.
Although a more effective way might be to consult with the lawyer.
Or file an abuse report for every such event involving Celene. It will either force LL to fix the usability of the UI, or will help Celene adjust the code to make it not grab the land which is quite obviously there by error.
And if some other bots decide to grab that land and apply similar tactics – repeat the process.
And three IM windows – it is very easy. Every IM event has the conversation ID, which is used to send the messages to the correct tab. If either side does not bother to use the same conversation ID in the response messages – you get a second tab.
Sloppy coding, heh
Hi and nice to meet you all–
Just to let you know that
yesterday i had my land 2000m2 “stolen” by the Celene Ballinger Bot. I
was in the process of giving the land over to my in-game partner
Dashkova Flow. I, being new to the game and not knowing bots existed in
sl,selected the “sell to anybody” option and set the land for 1L$. There
was no one else about the area. My partner(who i was communicating on skype with) was standing right next
to me to buy land, but did not get the chance, because as soon as i
clicked “sell land” the land was automatically bought–that instance, in a split
second. My only mistake was to be dumb and naive. It’s obvious to
anyone that no one would sell for that price and, on investigating
further, I learned that there were bots in this game and linden allowed
this practice which is outlawed by every other online game.
Please advise.
@Carl:
Follow the directions listed above. Some people recently have had their land returned to them, others have been charged for the returns, as well as some have been completely ignored. So With Celene you never know.
-Stuck
Sent several notecards but she ignored and my land is up for sale..
The answer for now is to ban all bots from any land you do own and tell your friends to do so also.
All of you who have had land taken, destroyed by objects being removed, items not being returned etc are welcome to join the new SL group Anti Land Bot Coalition
I think a class action lawsuit against Linden Labs and Bot operators is a great idea!
I imed and sent a couple notecards to Celene, She was nice enough to return my land and give me some information on how to prevent this in the future. the land was 3564sqm. I fgot my land back in less then 24 hours witch i thought was great cuz i would of been out about $100 easy.
Thanks again, Celene
WE had the most unfortunate encounter with this Hana Campese person/bot
my hubby to be set the land to sale so we could reduce our land use payments form both of us paying to only one name, and well it reduced them all right. She bought our 3072sq for 1L and turned around and sold it for 25500 in 2 seconds..
She gave no hope on us getting it back with out having to pay twice for it, but luckily my hubby was on to tech support with in a minute of this happening and even though they couldn’t stop the land from being sold a 3rd time in an hour, they offered us a smaller parcel on a class 5 sim, which we were able to sell for the amount needed to buy it back. The Ninja group felt sorry for us and sold it to us for what they paid for it,
Also I would like to say the freak bot group was more than willing to reverse the sale as well, but this HANA never got back to us.
I think it might be a good idea if a 24 hour turn around on all land sales was put into place. That way the people who do make a mistake have some hope of getting there land and buildings back intact.
Myself.. the castle I worked on for a month was sent back into my inventory and it was not able to be saved. So 2 weeks now before my wedding Im rebuilding it.
a big thanks to teepy Linden and the support crew who tried to help us that night. And to the GOOD land bot people ( Ninjas and freak bots) NO THANK YOU TO HANA , I HOPE YOU CHOKE ON YOUR STEAK.. what comes around goes around. How do you sleep at night???
an update.. Im not sure who is lieing to me.. but I don t care any more.. Im whole thanks to the Lindens and the ninja group.. as for the other 2 groups named in my first post.. I hope they both sleep well at night