Buying land is harassment.

Yesterday, I hit the find land button, and saw that there was a little over 3k square meters of land for sale, for a total of 10L. I thought to myself "wow, thats insane" so I teleported to a telehub 4 or 5 sims away, and flew to the area, dropped to the ground, right clicked on the land, hit about land, and bought the land for 10L. Well, it turns out the person who put the land up for sale "made a typo and meant to put in 33k." Well a little bit of time passes, and I get a message from a linden, asking me to give the land back. I informed the linden that I bought the land for the price listed in the global find land panel, but I was told that not giving the land back to the previous owner would be harassment. I did not give the land back to the previous owner, it was my land, I purchased it, I tiered up for it.

A few minutes of conversation between me and the linden pass, in which I was informed that it was a violation of community standards to buy land that someone "mistakenly mispriced" and the land was taken from me by the Linden, and eventually the land was given back to the previous owner by the Linden. Between the time that the whole thing started, and the land was taken from me by the linden and given away, I made a deal with the previous owner to sell the land back for half of what it was worth, and both me and the previous owner were happy with the transaction, but at the time, the Linden owned the land, and the Linden had logged off. A message was left by the previous owner telling the Linden that we had reached an agreement, but the Linden decided to ignore that, and just gave the land to the previous owner. I therefore recieved no compensation. After the fact, I was told if I did this again (buying land for less then it is worth apparently) I could be suspended.

So apparently now not only is buying land that someone put up for sale at a low price a bannable offense, but also, Lindens disregard the wishes of both parties involved in a dispute, and unilaterally make decisions overriding the wishes of the parties involved.

Honestly, this isn't a new issue. And it has precedent. Yes, the lindens do consider buying land like this to be "wrong", and normally intervene.

I don't really disagree with that, either, honestly.

You're just pretending to be an idiot, right? Good one! Really had me fooled there for a minute.

And, let me rephrase this for you.

Buying land that was clearly priced in error[/I, not just "less than it is worth".

The land was not priced there in error, the wrong person just bought it.

Taking advantage of other people's stupidity isn't harassment, its human interaction. Honestly, there was little else they could do, if they gave her new land or cash in the amount she was going to charge then other people could pretend this happened to them in order to game the system.

While I don't think they should have taken the land from you. I do think that you should have been so utterly ashamed by your behavior that there would be no way you would broadcast what a *self-edited before the Linden's do it*head you are in the forums.

If the Lindens are so concerned about people keeping their land they would move the bloody release land button!

I second that.

Hey, no arguement here. This point has been made over, and over, and over again.

This is not what you indicated in your first post...

See, this is a grey area for me. Human interaction can be harassment... Or, to reverse that, human interaction often is harassment.



Agreed.

Well, with the second part.

The person claimed they made a typo, and put in 10 lindens when they meant to put in 33000 lindens. Obviously it was not a typo, and the person claimed that so it didn't look like they were trying to transfer land to someone else without specifying a person to sell to.

Did they later admit this? If so, why was this not indicated in your first post?

Regardless, the lindens have as much as admitted in the past that the whole "sell to" process occasionaly causes people (not always just new players) to have problems, and tend to side (rightly, IMO) with the original owner of the land in these situations.

When a deal is obviously to good to be true, it probably is.

I didn't think it was necessary to mention it in my original post, but yes, originally I was told it was a typo, but was later told that the seller was giving it to another person. Besides, how can anyone possibly accidentally type 10 instead of 33000? 3300 is a typo, 10 with no specified buyer for long enough for me to get to the land is careless.

First you say this:

and now you say this:

So, first it was your contention that this person WANTED to sell the land for $10 so that they could then buy it back for $$$$$$$$$$ ("half market value". Now you say it was a mistake (they had the price wrong, or they forgot to make it to a person, or whatever) that you have a right to profit from?

What kind of person are you? (I think everyone can see the answer to that.)

Someone who prices 3k meters of land for $10L obviously either did it by accident or is tragically uninformed. Either way doing anything other than notifying them of their mistake is just being a predatory asshat. You should be ashamed of yourself, espcially to have the gall to complain when you're forced to do the right thing. Remind me not to leave my wallet or car keys laying around anywhere near you.

I think I should have kept all of the land, seeing as I bought it, however, I offered half of what the person claimed they bought it for as a sale price, the person accepted that, but a Linden had taken the land from me, and we could not complete the deal until the Linden came back.

As far as what they 'meant' to sell the land for, they did in fact mean to sell the land for 10L, but to someone else, not to me, I just happened to buy the land before the person who was meant to buy the land, actually bought it.

The previous owner made a mistake, the mistake being not designating a specific person to sell the land to, I saw the land for sale and bought it. Instead of saying "screw off" and selling the land for full profit, I offered the land back at half what the person claimed to have originally payed for it.

Of course this does not make me out to be a nice person, and honestly, I don't care if you and everyone else things I am a complete and utter ass, I posted this thread, to A) inform people if they did not already know, that a person can cry to a Linden to fix things caused by their stupidity, and B) to inform people that buying land from stupid people who set their prices ridiculously low is apparently harassment and could lead to suspension.

Has anybody read "House of Sand and Fog"? This won't be resolved until a crooked cop holds a bunch of Irani refugees hostage in their own house and enrages university students across the nation who are forced to read about it.

Yes, the price was an error on the part of the seller. Yes, maybe they meant to give it to somebody specific. However, they did not. In real life, the land-owner was what we call "screwed by the system." However, in Second Life, much like in Soviet Russia, system is screwed by you. If something happens that you don't like, you can probably shout "do-overs!"

I support the Lindens' decision to restore the original state of things. I, however, also support the right of Disco Duck to be royally pissed off over losing his awesome bargain.

Don't be rediculous. Continuing to insist on your right to profit from someone's mistake after you've been told you can't. THAT'S harrassment.

The authority says "We listened to both sides of the story, and made a judgement. You lose, you do not get to profit from the mistake". And THEN you don't accept the judgement. Continuing to pursue the matter AFTER being told the matter is closed, THAT would be the harrassment.

IF the issue was that the seller didn't realize how much the land was worth, THEN I would side with you. That would be an uninformed seller making a bad decision, and then trying to reverse it after the fact. THAT would be different. But it was nothing of the sort.

This was a mistake, plain and simple, that you DO NOT have an automatic god-given right to profit from. Period. Let it go, and go find something useful to do.

Personally, I feel the Linden was right in returning the land.. but I do NOT feel it was harrassment/etc. In a materialistic world, people are going to jump on that kind of deal. Sad, but true. BUT.. I do believe the Linden should have followed up to make sure any additional land tier fees were reversed.

I just have one question, Disco.

Did you think that the land for sale for 10 lindens was:

A) An incredible, but intentional, good deal

or

B) An accident, be it by typo or user error

or

C) Didn't stop to consider it one way or another.

I work for a trading firm. We do a lot of our business over electronic trading platforms. Sometimes we type in an erroneous price, and most times people snap it up as soon as it is posted. It is standard protocol to call the other trader and explain it was a mistake (the most humiliating calls I make) and ask for an "out", but the other party is under no obligation to agree.

Had it been me who bought the land, I would have helped the land owner out and given it back, but that is a personal choice. Not only are you under no obligation to give the land back or make a deal with the seller, but you certainly shouldn't be threatened with suspension if it happens again. Did the Linden really say you would be suspended next time? What were their exact words??

It was snapped up instantly. I said to the purchaser, "Oh no, I left out some zeros" and they said " I thought that was a rather low price." and instantly sold it back to me at the price they had paid. I didn't even have to ask. That's seems to me what any decent person would do.

I wouldn't brag that you wanted to sell back land you bought for 10L$ for 15,000L$. Thats like bragging that you sodomized someone against their will but you were nice enough to use lube.

how do mistake 10 for 33??? this is rediculous. As a land owner you need to be more careful with what your doing with your land. the person screwed up and put the wrong price period. just as IRL.. PAY ATTENTION WITH YOUR MONEY AND ASSETS or you will lose out. period

I'm sooooooooooo sick of people crying to Linden.. this will never be an actual life simulator because of the Linden overlords handling "our" disputes the way "they" feel fit.