Is there a list of known tree/chair farmers?

I've been in business in SL now since January...I'm having alot of fun doing it, and I'm making a fair amount of Lindens out of the deal.

So I decided...since the Lindex is such a mess and its almost worthless to take money out of the economy any more, that I'd put in a Money Tree at my business to give a little back.

Well I've started to notice something since I did.

First of all, its ALWAYS the same people rolling through and hitting the tree...granted its free money.

But secondly, nearly 80% of these people are base newbie avatar females that haven't even bothered to do anything to personalize the avatar. Whether they're 2 weeks old, or 1 day old..they all look exactly the same.

Well a few days ago, I caught a farmer, it was a female newbie avatar. Their name was already on the last 5 list of my tree, as the last name, so instead of leaving, they just stood there....so I watched for a minute, then...voila..another newbie whos name wasn't on the trees list ported in right on top of them and took 1 dollar from the tree...then the original one came back to life and started harvesting what was there, then the one that ported in took another 24 dollars afterwards.

This was quite obviously a case of someone running two under 30 day accounts to manipulate waiting lists on money trees.

So what I'm wondering, is if theres a tracking resource/database...for the farming groups that are quite obviously taking advantage of the free money in the game (money thats intended for newbies) to amass large amounts of Linden for relatively little work? (Gee...wonder why the Lindex is at 317L/1USD?)

I mean..maybe I'm paranoid...but I didn't even get off the newbie island without customizing my avatar somewhat. I changed my hair color and worked on my face and did some tweaks to my body because I couldn't stand looking like a board. So I just find it pretty unbelievable that all these "girls" hitting my money tree lately are actually individual people that just can't be bothered to...oh...I dunno....customize their avatars and spend a little of the money they've made.

I ran a total on one of the suspected farmers thats been hitting my tree since Wednesday when I put it up. They'd made more than enough to buy an outfit...or some hair over at ETD (I mean...come on..what newbie girl DOESN'T get hair at ETD like...within at least four hours of creation? I did...I was dragged there by some girl that took pity on me in a club I'd wandered into.)

So overall...I'd like to know if theres a list of known farmers/abusers around so I can add these names to my trees blacklist. Cause I put the tree up to give the money to newbies that actually need it....not casino/mafia/sweatshop farmers that run networks to soak up the free money in the game and turn around and sell it on the Lindex at higher and higher rates.

Huh?

How is it almost worthless? I'm still paying my tier, my cable and some gasoline on SL.

wtf, the economy crashed and no one told me?

Please note the almost in the statement.

At 317, its still viable to make a fair amount of money if you're turning around a 75,000 - 100,000 monthly...but not all businesses do that.

Yes I pay my tier and have a little to spare. But cashing out my profits isn't very attractive at the market rates we're at. There may be more money in SL now than there was when I started and the market rate was 255, but I'm not seeing that "more money" I'm seeing more or less the same amount I always see. So while the market has inflated, my profits have not.

So thusly, its not profitable to cash out at current market rates, or at least in my opinion.

Now...to the point of my post please...instead of seizing on one small part of it you don't agree with?

Thank you.

I have four money trees at my one location so I've seen a good number of multi account harvesting. One thing I've found that combats multiple accounts is to keep a good flow of new residents hitting up the tree. Those with more than one account will only get a couple L$, as the tree gets harvested quick enough to only have that much available at a time.

If you just recently setup a tree, give it some time. If you pay for find and/or classifieds try adding "money tree" to those descriptions to bring in more new residents who hopefully spend the L$ inworld.

Thanks, I appreciate the advice and I'll give that a try. I have absolutely no problem with giving this money away, I just want to make sure its going to be spent in the world...quite obviously this group thats been hitting my tree since I put it in isn't doing anything close to that. I guess I'll just keep a close eye on it and blacklist the ones I'm fairly sure aren't legitimate.

What can you get from a tree - working for hours - and the income compared to IRL must be.. low? Or lower than low.

/Tina

Actually thats a fair assumption based off the math presented by the creator of the tree itself.

But with the amount of them out there (Money Tree in find returns upwards of 50 listings)...hitting every tree for 25L is 1250L, now granted not every tree is going to have 25L in it waiting for you. But if you run all day, which some of these farmers appear to do, its not impossible for them average a daily income of 2000L per avatar on money trees alone.

Run a good circuit on 2 avatars, I'd imagine a weekly income of upwards of 20000L a week....many in world business make less than that.

And then this money is accumulated under one avatar and sold on the Lindex for USD, and only makes its way back into the world after someone ELSE buys it. Totally negating the true intention of the money in the first place....which is to help give newbies a start in the world...not to finance casinos and other sleeze business interests.

Which isn't too bad of a wage to someone living in China or other third world country. When I see the same names stopping by again and again, I figure if they're doing such to cash out they have a use (need) for it far more than I or anyone picking it for inworld shopping.

If you really want to help newbies out then don't be lazy about it. Nuke the money tree and go find newbies! Talk to them, then give money to the ones you like.
If you just set out free money, of course someone is going to take advantage of it!

I am constantly amazed that peolpe think being online negates human nature.

I ”help” newbies at the GNU store instead... The can buy my Designed EXAKT Furniture - a special made version for the GNU store- a set - for 1L..

Same IRL I buy a magazine called SITUATION STOCKHOLM (they do a living selling that magazine) and if I meet someone that ask money for food I polite tell them to follow me to McDonalds. Few does.. but maybe they dont support the American food?.-)))

Its of course a way to ”control” where the money are used... good or bad I dont judge..


/Tina

The money trees are a great thing for newbies. I myself flew around like mad for the month I could - I think I got about $600 that way, and that was in February of last year.

I can't imagine putting one out and NOT listing it in classifieds! I tell all the new people to put in "money tree" in the search (with mature turned on). If yours isn't in classifieds, then I imagine just a few would stumble onto it, compared to all those who could be looking for them, and so just a few would benefit from it.

When I was new, that was the kind of help I needed - money trees - to save up. So I think they are good things.

coco

As much as I'd like to go out and find newbies, I'm pretty busy as a developer. I almost NEVER leave my tower because I'm always working.

The money tree...to me, seemed like the best option for a controlled and helpful way to give a little back and help new people get started in the world. Course I got a job like...5 hours into my first day...but not everyone knows how to find a job in SL, and theres not that many jobs to be had.

So yeah I'd like to find newbies and help them, I'd even be willing to hire them if I thought they'd hang around and actually do something. But since neither situation really presents a reasonable situation for me....I have to go with what works.

ROFLMAO!!! You want to give away free Lindens, but had no idea this would happen -- my first 30 days, half my time was spent running from one tree to the next, and I worked a list in FIND. I only had my one acct, tho -- no alts (as yet, even).

They can only do it for 30 days -- then they have to get a job or camp or actually (*shock*) BUY their Lindens.

Either you do want to give away free money or you don't -- make up your mind. You can't pick and choose who takes the bucks off your tree.

So, hold on here...

It's more profitable to give away your money than to keep it for yourself?



The rest of your post isn't very interesting to me since I don't really care about giving away my money to greedy harvesters.

But I'm very interested in this whole "giving away money is better than cashing it out because it doesn't have value" thing.


edit: Although, if it makes you feel any better, the answer to your main query is no.

First, I'm dubious about the math in that statement. The per-minute return on farming money trees has to be so insignificant as to make it only attractive to people who can't do math. You have to first find the trees, then hope someone hasn't beaten you there to take the money, THEN -- and here's the big one -- after 30 days delete that character and start a new one, because there is a limit on the number of avatars per credit card along with the age limit on money trees.

You could run one freebie account, sure, but your second alt is going to cost you $10 to sign up -- for $10 you can buy a little over $3,000L. If you go to the trouble of making 3 alts, you can buy about $10,000L for the same price. In addition, each of those accounts gets $50L per week stipend (that's $2600L per year). All of that must be factored in to your math when you're looking at people gaming the system. Frankly, it sounds to me like more trouble than its worth.


I like that idea better yet. It would spread goodwill along with helping new people starting out. If I had a bountiful supply of $L, I'd do it in a heartbeat -- right after I bought a Starax wand

One of the first months in SL. - I was walking around in Beverly Hills - felt alone.. Meet Daphne Molinari - small talked - and suddenly she gave me own designed underwear and 500 L.. I will never forget that..

She inspired me many months later:

Today - I sometime give away my own designed things.. Donate Lindens at places where I feel they will help... make some happy..

BUT a tree - I was thinking of one or more but I stay to give away when I see things that I like or people I feel will appreciate a ”donation”.

/Tina

A very wise man once said: “Give a man a fish and he eats for a day. Teach a man to fish and he eats for a lifetime.”

When I meet newbie instead of giving them money, a one time “help”, I give them a notecard I made that has landmarks to in game tutorials so they can learn how to earn their own money. I have never held a “job” in SL and never will. Why would I want to work eight hours, come home and log into SL just to work another five hours or so? SL is supposed to be fun, not my second job. Creating things in SL is fun. It earns you money, and best of all it contributes to the overall content in SL. One of my best moments in SL was when I walked into a random club, and found items that I had made and sold being used as décor in that club. Not only did I get the pleasure of making those items, and then making money from selling them, but now everyone who visits that club will get pleasure from using them and the club owner is making money off of them as well. Win/win for everyone, and I actually did something to earn that money.

At the very least put a notecard dispenser next to the tree that will give newbies information on how to earn their own money. If they are Spending all their time in SL tp'ing from tree to tree they won't learn a thing and will waste their first month in SL. At the end of that month, the only skills they will have is how to find money trees, so basically they will still be a total noob.

Don't get me wrong, it's nice that you want to help out new people, but automated machines that spite out money at random doesn't seem a very good way to do it.

A better way to give out your money, if you don't have time to do it yourself, would be to find a mentor that you trust. Give the money to them so they can use it to buy newbies a nice first outfit and some hair maybe. A good friend of mine is a mentor and she uses her own money to do this, so I am sure she would gladly take any donations you would be willing to give her. And you could be confident that it was going to newbies that needed it, instead of scammers working the system.

Edit: Oh, and I bet the mentors would even bring them to your store to spend that money, or at the very least mention that you are where the money came from.

Enabran remains confused.

This doesn't make sense to me.

It costs about $10 USD to make an alt.

If you worked all month popping from tree to tree, you might
be able to recover the $10 you spent on the alt, but could you
make a profit?

It would require having no social life, never seeing outdoors,
and a constant stock of Captain Crunch, Coffee and Beer.

Hmm, I guess I forget. These are nerds.

It hasn't cost anything to make an alt for almost a year now (as long as you leave it as a basic account)

What? Are you using a different credit card per alt? Its funny, they charged me the $10 per alt...

http://secondlife.com/whatis/plans.php