An in-Second Life interview with millionaire landlord Anshe Chung at CNET's in-world headquarters was disrupted when a group calling itself "Room 101" caused a flurry of animated pink flying penises to drift through the room. Attempts to reconvene at other locations were similarly vexed, but  eventually the interview took place.

(The Register wonders why the reporter didn't simply call Ms. Chung on the phone when Plans A and B failed. Maybe the interview itself wasn't the real point - the fact that it was conducted in Second Life was.)

"Virtual magnate shares secrets of success" (CNET)

"Gross Genitals Grief Graef, Commandeer CNET Conference" (Second Life Safari)

"CNET interviewer assaulted by flying wang" (The Register)

YouTube video of the "griefing"

In related stories, Second Lifer Prokofy Neva says that this sort of thing isn't harmless videogame pranking, but real life terrorism; and Ed Felten ponders Linden Labs siccing the FBI on this group for creating an in-world object that crashed Second Life's servers.

What can we learn from this fiasco? For one thing, that the elements of Second Life that make it attractive to users make it a highly volatile place to work in. You can deal with nasty comments on your corporate blog much more easily than you can handle someone with in-world superpowers deciding that your press conference would be a great venue to unveil his exploding chicken bombs that shower your island with porn.

"Take someone and deprive them of any sort of 'real' social contact. Give them the ability to script any program, animate any action, or build any object through intuitive processes. Allow them to own their creations, and to sell them to the highest bidder. ...Now make the person in question the psychotic neighborhood kid who slashes holes in the back of the schoolbus with his Swiss Army knife, and you will begin to realize the Lovecraftian horror of Second Life. "

-- Chris "Petey" Peterson, Second Life Safari (Not Safe For Work, unless you work for a marketing agency and are reading it for research. Ahem.)