Autoreturning

A friend and I created a group, and he donated some land to it, and I've been doing quite a lot of building on it.
Anyways, we've been having problems with people accidentally leaving a bunch of junk scattered around, like damage prims from weapons, etc. But since I'm new to managing land, I'm reluctant to set an autoreturn time out of fear that the enormous lair I've been working so hard on may be returned too. So could anyone tell me who all is affected by autoreturn, and what I'll need to do to have it ignore me, if anything?

As long as the prims are rezzed set to the group that owns the land, they won't disappear. They don't have to be deeded unless you want them to have parcel privileges like changing media and automated ejection for security. And, you'll just have to remember to have the land group tag on for any new items you rez that you want to keep permanent. (^_^)y

You do need to be very careful. I decided to form a group for my land instead of being a sole personal owner. When I did that I set auto-return to 1 minute and a minute later my home disappeared. It was upsetting at the time, especially because it had a lot of unsaved stuff in it.

Anyway, I built a new, better home, which is now well and truly locked in place and I have auto-retun turned off!

I wouldn't own land without auto-return. It's true that setting it up the first time you need to be a bit careful, but About Land / Objects has a very handy tool for making sure everything on the parcel is set to group, and for identifying anything that's not. By selecting "Show" of "Owned by others," things that aren't set correctly will be highlighted with a white outline. (With a few exceptions: it won't highlight Linden plants, and it won't highlight anything that the viewer hasn't rezzed--so if you're too far from a poseball, for example, it won't show up until you get closer. This can be challenging on a larger parcel with stuff in the sky.)

I almost always keep the auto-return interval very short--1 minute, usually--so that if I forget to wear the group tag when rezzing, it comes back sooner rather than later.

I am just in the habit of checking the objects tab of about land every couple days and returning any objects owned by anyone I don't know. But... my group only owns one parcel so I can understand if you own several it would get to be a pain.

Will try to explane this as simple as possible since it really isnt hard.

There are basicly 3 options on the land ownership. Open about land and go to the general tab to find out what aplies to the land.

1. Just one owner, not set to group:
Behind Owner there is a name, the name of the person that bought the land. When autoreturn is on, only his objects are save from not being returned.

2. Owner set the land to group:
Same as above and below the name is also a group name. Both the owners objects and the objects set to the same group, are save from autoreturn.

3. Owner deeded the group to land:
The land is group owned and below that it shows wich group owns the land. Only objects set and/or deeded to group are save from being returned.

Now what does that mean for you. First you need to find out the situation by going to "about land" and then the "general tab" to find out wich situation applies to you. Once you know that, you can go to the "objects" tab to see what is what.

So the "objects" tab. Simple said, you see 3 lines, Owner, Group, Other

Owner: this is in situation 1 and 2 above, the person who bought the land and in situation 3 the group that the land is deeded to. In situation 3, only objects "deeded" to group will be counted here.

Group: all objects rezzed by anyone that set (NOT deeded) the object to the group that the land is set or deeded to.

Other: every other object not owned by land owner or set to group.

Basicly when you turn on autoreturn, all objects in the "other" category will be returned.

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Now what I understand is the land is either set or deeded to a group that you are member of, so for you, this means your objects must be set to group in order to be save from Autoreturn.

First a small explanation about the difference to set and deeded.

Set to group: your objects will stay yours and will be save from autoreturn.
Deeded to group: you give up ownership of the object and it becomes group owner, meaning everybody with the right privileges in the group settings has full owner rights on this objects.

- See all objects that are going to be returned if you turn autoreturn on:
Open "about land" and goto the "objects" tab.
Behind "other" is the number of prim that are not set to the right group.
Click on "show" behind that line and all those objects will be highlighted.

- Set an object to group:
For all objects you did not rezz inworld yet, just activating the right group and therefor wearing the right grouptag is enough, every object you rezz will be set to the group you activated automaticly.

-All objects you already rezzed:
Rightclick on them and choose "edit"
Click "more" if not yet activated
Goto General tab
Here you see: "creator" - "owner" and "group"
Click on "set" to set the object to a different group.
NO need to click on "deed" after that.

Now go back to the land options and then the objects tab and you see that this object will no longer be highlighted, and is save from autoreturn.

Once you set everything, and have others set their objects that should not be returned too, you can savely turn on autoreturn.

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This became slightly longer than anticipated, but I hope it makes things clear for you.

Good luck and have fun!!

Benski