Make All Land Transactions Public Knowledge

Well, auctioned land shows all bidders, including the winner.

Since these are public, I see no reason that all land transactions can't be public knowledge as well. Let's implement it!

Why?

Why not?

Land transactions are public knowledge in RL.

Accountability.

For what?

I mean, sure, it'd be "nice" to have, and I have nothing against it, except the fact that it means the Lindens actually spending time coding the thing. Well, that, and I can't see an actual thing it'd be used for.

Unless there's a dire NEED for it, I'd rather have a bazillion other things first.

Accountability.
I could spend time listing scenarious that have or could happen where the public could / should be aware of who's buying land, but I think I like my one word answer better.


I could see this taking all of a couple lines of code. We already know the location, sim, buyer, seller, and price. It'd just need to XMLRPC to a webpage hosted by Linden Lab that could just list the fives pieces of data in a big table.


I think the benefits from having the accountability, as well as having a data pool to come up with much more accurate maps of sim values would make this minor change well worth the work.

Again I'll ask: Accountability for what? What, precisely, can someone do with land transactions that can harm others?

Mole, I guess you're just not wanting to do some thinking on this. So I'll spell out some:
1. A shopper can look at the asking price of land, see how much the person bought it for, perhaps how much surrounding land went for, and make a more educated decision about the purchase.
2. A record can exist for people who do the 4x4m "laggy and annoying land so you have to buy it at exhorbitant prices", and these people can be targeted for abuse reports with more evidence.
3. If there's a bug or error or user mistake and someone grabs the land, then embezzles it to another person, there's a record of who had it that's public. (has happened)
4. A person could see how often land had changed hands - turnover may be a factor in whether a sim is desirable.

The first might be useful. Though quite honestly I'm not sure how previous prices are going to affect whether or not I can afford a plot or whether I think it's too expensive or not.

The others would most certainly require more than just a few lines of code, unless you expect everyone to go scrolling through thousands of transactions to gather the information.

There would be a downside to making all this public. More than once I've been harassed because I bought or bid on land in the auctions. This might be much worse this might be if all land transactions were listed.

I strongly disagree. Some folks have been putting land for sale, at L$0, to an alt or friend as a source of quick ad space. If anything, all public sales should be listed and "private" sales should have a separate checkbox/tab.

Or, if you're referring to the completion* of a sale, then yeah.

Then you should report the harassment as abuse. I've heard this argument about the auctioned lands, and I have little pity for land barrons who whine that people know they are baroning.


I was thinking that an entrepeneurial player would do the legwork on these - so yes, I was thinking of Linden Lab just posting a bulk database.

Sorry, what I do with my land, which includes buying, selling, and giving it away, is no one's business but mine and the involved parties.

Agreed. Keep your rotten commie mitts off our private transactions!

I disagree.
Land is leased from Linden Lab, not technically owned. A land transaction is an act of transfer of Linden Lab property from one player to another via lease transfer. It is a public act and should be listed publicly.

If the servers were independently owner, I would agree with you.

As far as acts on the leased land, I am all for "owner's rights" as long as it falls under US law.

Attempting to tie your "lease" concept to the idea that land transfers should be public is utter bullshit. If anything, adding a 3rd party to the mix (Linden Labs) only justifies *said 3rd party* having the knowledge of the transaction, not the general public.

Nice try though.

Auction winners should be posted. I question doing the same for all land transactions.

Morse, was calling it "bullshit" really necessary? Couldn't "incorrect" or "wrong" or "invalid" be sufficient? Did I attack you? Was anyone attacking anyone in the thread? Was that called for?

No.

That aside, I would just point to the fact that Linden Lab has its auctions public as showing that they believe there is value in making these public.

*Sigh* Comparing auctions to a land transaction between two people is not entirely valid. In the case of an auction, the public actually PARTICIPATES in the transaction (because anyone can bid on an auction). Therefore, it makes sense for the purchase price to be public. This is NOT the same as a private transaction because only buyer and seller are directly involved in said transaction (and through a roundabout way Linden Labs, see earlier post), and therefore they should be the only ones with knowledge of the transaction details.

As for 'Bullshit', it's a word I use a lot when I hear someone saying something I disagree with. That's just the way I am...

Your point works, up to a point. (heh!)

Most people just set the price on land and let it be purchased by whomever - in this case, it's exactly the same as the auction as far as the public being able to bid on it.

But in the case of a private transfer of lease, you do have a point. Perhaps a compromised suggestion, where private "sell only to" transactions are private?

US Law? No way. Screw US law. Our legal structure is incredibly invasive and practically totalitarian, especially when it comes to land.

As far as the lease concept goes, I agree, but that in no way convinces me that land transactions should be publicized. To the contrary, it would be a violation of my basic privacy. Do land lords publish lists of their renters and subletters, and how much they pay in rent?

As for accountability, I think it would lead to even more sniping and baiting over money.
Such as, Av-A goes up to Av-B and says "you paid 30000 for 2048? damn, you got ripped off". Av-B now says "oh, I did? Damn that Av-C, I'm gonna tear him a new one..."
Things like this would happen on a massive scale.
I think you might actually have this in mind, as your idea of accountability, but in that case, I'm against accountability. I am against any "eat the rich" type of proposal.