Vandalism

Vandalism is the act of defacing or otherwise modifying a build in an unpleasant way. Vandalism can happen on a small or large scale, with targets ranging from tourist houses to worlds. It should not be confused with deletion, unless the target is only partly deleted, and then vandalized with the methods described later on.

Vandalism is frowned upon and can be an ejectable offense in public building worlds.

Motives

Usually, the motive behind vandalism is an aggressive one. However some acts of vandalism are not intended to be aggressive and are instead exploitive of cracks in or lack of land cover in or around builds, usually to place advertisements. A well known historic example of this is the ground zero area of Alphaworld.

Tourist Hate

Many 'anti-tourist' groups or individuals may vandalize tourist builds they may have found as a 'warning' or threat to the builder.

Revenge

Should an argument or disagreement breakout between individuals to an extent where there is a found hatred for each other, one party may know the locations of builds made by the other party and therefore deface them as a revenge act.

Advertisement

If there are cracks in land cover around popular areas such as Alphaworld Ground Zero (only one of a very few such areas) they may be exploited and used to post advertisements for a world or build. Usually, this is done without any actual malicious intent. Nonetheless, this is still considered vandalism as it encroaches or defaces the view of the area.

Methods

The methods of vandalism depend on whether one has the ability to modify the victim's objects (or if the victim is a tourist), there is land cover and world restrictions. These methods can be combined when possible:

Spamming

Object 'spamming' simply means selecting one or more of the existing objects of the target build and duplicating it many times. If the target build is a tourist build or if one has the privilege password of the target's owner, the objects are usually spammed inside the build area. Otherwise, it is spread out onto surrounding open land. Satisfaction is usually reached when the area becomes full.

Modification

If one has the right to change the objects of the target build (If they have the owner's privilege password or the target build was built by a tourist) then instead of duplicating, the objects may be CTRL Selected and rotated around. Objects may also be changed into signs or pictures and have create picture or create sign code applied to them, configured to show a malicious or offensive message.

"create move/rotate" tactics

If the target build is surrounded with land cover, but not enough so that the build is still visible from the edge of the cover by 200m (The maximum visibility setting, therefore it would be in the vandalizer's interest to make it visible within range) objects may be duplicated from the target and changed into different objects, such as a flame1.rwx. The move command can then be applied to it and when configured with the right distance and direction, move the vandalism to the build.

Prevention

One can protect their builds in a numerous ways to ensure it cannot be vandalized or defaced:

Land Cover

In a world with a registry, which disallows enroachment, land cover is important to ensure surrounding land cannot be enroached by vandalism. Landa.rwx is a recommended 10x10 meter object which is pre-textured with grasso. It does not have to be visible; it can simply be hidden underground. It should be positioned properly on the cell grid with reset rotation (To ensure cracks do not form) and then duplicated to cover at least a p20-sized patch of land (20 coordinates NSWE from the build) so 'create move' vandalism cannot be done within range.

World Choice

Public building worlds should have a registry, which prevents other people enroaching on your property (If you're a citizen). It is not safe to build in a public building world that lacks a registry because then anyone is free to enroach your build made in that world.

Security

If you are a tourist, it is always important not to publicly share coordinates to your builds, as you may disclose them to someone with the malicious intent of looking for tourist builds to deface (Or usually, delete). Citizens should not disclose coordinates to their own builds in public if they are not protected enough, as they may be defaced by a waiting predator.