4096m2 Auction Questions

I noticed that in the new region around Waterhead, there are a lot of 4096m plots. Seems like a lot of them. Do you think these plots will be sliced up before they go to auction? Is it standard practice subdivide the initial release or was this region planned like this to provide some of this under represented plot size?

Has anyone ever seen 4096m plots sold in auction in L$ funds? All of the current closed auctions of 4096m were sold in US$.

Is it a good idea to drain the economy of L$ by offering more L$ bids, or does LL lose too much US$ by offering them?

Just curious, I'm land shopping.

I wouldn't drain the economy until IGE dumped their cash.

LF

This is a real dud of a topic, I thought I would get some response.

Let me ask this in hopes of kick starting a dialog. I been thinking of this alot.

In the Waterhead region, Im thinking and hoping that the average plots are the size they are to promote a smaller number of land owners in the region and perhaps keep it a beautiful location. With big lots, your not right up against your neighbor and have a little breathing room. Do you think this is the intent in this region?

The entire region is leased with 16 or 30 land owners so its not like land is being wasted.

So, how is it living in a region that has been bought and subdivided into smaller plots? Do you like your neighbors (no specific dramas please)? Do you find it laggier than you thought it would be? Im just curious how it is if you bought a plot the size of 4096m and then saw all the other plots around you turn into smaller plots and with more neighbors than you thought you would have.

Why do you think there are so few 4096m plots to begin with? There are lots of people that are willing to pay US$195 a month to have huge amounts of land. Is there no demand for land (4096m) in the US$25 range?

Anyway, I appreciate your response.

I don't know the answer to this. I'm new, just getting settled in. But I can tell you this though, I bought a nice little piece of land, 2000m, in a surprisingly unpopulated waterfront area. Trees, vast land and beautiful views. 2 days later, someone comes by and purchases the 2000m lot next to mine and immediately sub-divides it into four plots, deleted all the trees and stuck out for sale signs. ::igh:::

It is possible to have land for sale without mucking up the landscaping and natural beauty of the area (which is what attracts most ppl to the area in the first place) I don't understand why people need to live ontop of eachother. There is little thought put into the future development of land. There's just a whole mixture of ill-planned, half completed buildings. I don't have the money or desire to pay $100+ a month to host a large piece of land or truly, I would buy a whole sim and develop it into something usable and functional -- attractive even. Community development. I think the Abacus and Cape Destiny communities are beautiful. More of those need to exist, IMO.. <rant/off>

btw - i'm available for any coalitions, groups, concerned citizen alliances for the betterment of land development. ha.

I have not been to Cape Destiny yet, but Abacus is a nice planned community. I love the 20m green space between the rental parcels there. I guess its not cost effective to do that to sims on the mainland, but it sure would be cool.

Zoning is another topic. Most will say, "zoning stifles creativity" but I think zoning would focus creativity. As long as the zoning codes in each region are known, why not?

The closest experience I have to this is when I first got land in Rodeo (Feb. 2004). I purchased a tiny parcel from one of the first land owners in Rodeo, about 312 m2, before the rest of the area went up for auction. I think it was one of the first auctions if I'm not mistaken. I didn't even know about the auctions at the time. The area was completely bare and undeveloped. I remember the land had been terraformed beautifully by the Lindens. There were no trees. I began to discover the other Rodeo parcels that were being readied for auction and that led me to the auction area of the web site.

I quickly figured out that the rest of Rodeo was going to be auctioned off fairly soon. I made up my mind to try and acquire as much of Rodeo as I could. I had a vision for what Rodeo could be -- a vast forest. Since I was brand new I had no Lindens to bid with. Luckily, some of the parcels were being auctioned for US$. I mapped out the different parcels and decided which US$ plots I had a chance at winning. Based on when they went up for auction and which parcels I wanted the most, I priortized them and then started bidding.

The bidding was very competitive. It was obvious that there were many people interested in those parcels. This was before land speculation had come into being, so everyone bidding on these plots was looking for a place to put some roots down (mine happened to be of the evergreen variety). It's interesting how just this one aspect of Second Life, bidding on the auctions, can color your experience here. Like who you end up living next to, who you get off to a good start with, etc.

I wasn't able to win all the parcels I wanted to. The largest parcels in the Rodeo auctions were in the 2048-2500 m2 range. Everything else was smaller. Toward the end of the auctions I had hit my budget limit and had to pass on certain parcels to make sure I could win more desirable land. I ended up with a patchwork of land that wasn't all continuous. Now it was time to go in and start claiming territory I had won.

One of the first things to greet me when I went inworld was a disgruntled IM from someone who had bid against me for a plot I ended up winning. They were not happy. I was bummed that my actions were provoking such anger in someone else who was just here to have fun as well. I thought... should I respond? What do I say? What COULD I say to make the situation better? I figured that they just had their heart set on that unique and beautiful land parcel, just as I had, and only one of us could win it. They were obviously disappointed and needed to blow off steam. I just let it go and continued on.

On the opposite end of the reactions was an encounter with someone who had bid against me for a parcel that they won. When they realised that we had both been bidding on an adjoining parcel to the land my lookout was on, they were very apologetic. We had a nice conversation, both of us agreed "that's just the way it goes" and have always had friendly encounters since then.

All this to say that when people started moving in and claiming their Rodeo land there were quite a few different land owners. About 14, in addition to the eight or ten Land for the Landless plots, that would eventually be assigned later on. No overall theme, no zoning restrictions, every av for themselves! Depending on one's personality it could have been very frustrating or very whimsical.

My forest ranger-type lookout was one of the first structures in Rodeo. It sits up high on the bluff overlooking Rodeo Bay. The back door faced the crest of the mountain range as it goes west toward the Stinson area. Just a few days after I had my lookout done, the land owner to the west of me built an immense LOTR-type tower right up against my back door. I beamed in to my lookout and went to go out the door only to be stopped by an impenetrable stone wall. I peeked around the corner and saw this tower that went up into the clouds. Holy crap! That doesn't happen every day!

Although it came as a shock, I also got to meet the owner of it and make a new friend. Without really talking about it, we had an effect on each others' builds. The base of the tower extended a bit lower and blocked a path that had led up to a stone vantage point below my lookout. I put trees in to soften the walls at the tower base. Later on I discovered that the owner had made a secret entrance to their tower (hidden by my trees) that led into a dungeon/work area. How cool it that?!? The tower definately looked impressive on top of that bluff. Good memories!

All of the land owners' builds were very different from each other. A futuristic store, small tropical dance club, traditional suburban style homes, log cabins, semi-transparent cylindrical towers, free Linden prefabs, you name it... we had it. A few parcels had lots of flashing lights and particles. I don't remember it being especially laggy. I just remember that it was a patchwork. I was more likely to run into a neighbor, since we were so close to each other. We'd notice each other there and say "hello."

It was rare if there were more than four or five of us in Rodeo at the same time. Most of the builds were simply places to call home and do some basic building. I don't think we had any really heavy scripting going on. The dance club owner, who came on the scene later, ended up selling their land to me eventually.

I feel like I had good experiences with my neighbors because we all just did what we wanted to do AND we recognized that everyone else had a right to do what they wanted to do with their land. I think we also tried to make sure that we didn't negatively impact each other with what we were doing. It really boiled down to just talking to each other and nipping situations in the bud. Communicating.

As time has gone by people have moved on and left the Rodeo area. I have been able to acquire most of the rest of the land there with a combination of snagging public land, buying up plots as they were put for sale and letting others know about my plans for the forest. The people who knew about my plans always gave me a chance to buy their land before they set it to sale. And a few others simply gave me their land when they left.

People are the most important part of one's experience, whether first life or second. If I had tried to strong arm people to construct their builds to suit my taste or had just been after people's land, I would have missed out on meeting and interacting with a large number of people I can now call friends. It has been very fun sitting out on the roof of my lookout and watching the way that people express themselves here with their builds. I can see a bit of someone's personality with how they choose to present themselves and with the objects they bring into this world (and they see a bit of mine as well).

Living around a lot of different people, each with a small parcel, is a fun part of our second life. If you choose to approach it that way. Another person can look at that same situation and think, "what a drag." Keep in mind that the landscape is always changing here. Much faster than in first life. Before you know it, people move on, land becomes available and you could find yourself with an opportunity to experience another aspect of this second life.

Like building a forest.

Hey, it could happen.

When Hanson came online, all the lots were marked out as 4096m2 squares. I had my eye on two nice ones in front of my property.

When it eventually went to auction, it was redivided so that some were 4096, some were 2048, and one was 8192. The realigning didn't suit me as well as the original lines, but oh well....

I have seen several 4096m2 auction lots going for L$s in the past - especially in the Snow sims. Just keep watching the auction page, and I'm sure you'll see something come up. There's a rare 8192m2 lot up for L$s right now, in Rydal.

IMHO, the Lindens are doing a good job of supplying auction land in a variety of sizes from whole sims down to 512m2. I find it disrespectful to repartition lots after winning them, for the purposes of resale. Only if you want to retain part of a lot for yourself, and sell the rest would I see this as necessary.

However, I know for a fact they are questioning the auction lot sizes they are currently using - if you have an opinion, feel free to let them know. I talked at length with Haney on just this subject yesterday.

Wow Salazar, I didnt expect that much detail, but it was a fun read, thanks!

And Lisse, I know your disappointment with 4096m. My only experience with auctions I found a 4096m plot. It was laid out nicely, a great plot. When it went to auction, it got split down the middle, sadly dividing the cove, into two 2048m plots. And, one of them was set to auction in US$ and the other L$. I finally won both plots to get the original 4096m I wanted, but it was a lot harder than it could have been.

I guess its best to just wait until the plots actually go to auction before making plans. I was just hoping that the new Waterhead region would remain how it is now, there are lots of nice bigger plots up there.

Anyone support the basic idea of having more 4096m plots to go for?

for lindens? sure. it seems that if the people don't want larger areas, the brokers will buy them and resell subdivided lots. but ll loses when they auction land for lindens because the currency doesn't exist for them. it would be morally wrong and drastically stupid for ll to start selling lindens at gom or ige.

good luck bidding.

Is the real money in selling the land or collecting the tier?

How many dont have a chance at a 4096m because the parcels are divided up immediately?

How many have had to try to win two or three auctions just to get the total land area you initially wanted?

in your case, selling the land



too many. there are 4096 lots in the auctions though. they seem to be going for around 10-20kL or $50-100.



to say "everybody" would be a bit excessive, but it's probably close to everyone that's actually won bids in auctions. those that have bought land from borkers usually get exactly what the ask for.

That was fun to read Salazar. In case anyone is wondering though, there is a typo. Rodeo and the first auctions were in February of this year, not 2003.

Typo fixed. Thanks for catching that. I feel like I've been here longer than just 9 months! Since each day is only four hours long that means I've been here about 4.5 SL years... right?

/me wonders how many dog years that is.