How landcutters are still hurting the mainland

If you assume an falsehood you can prove anything.

You're saying that they cut them up precisely to put more property lines on people's screens?

Incidentally, you are the only person I've come across who *must* have property lines permanently on.

They cut them up to annoy the people around them. Landcutting is an extortion tactic, period. Different people are annoyed for different reasons, but NOBODY is ever going to set up a landcut the way it was described by the OP unless they expect people to be irritated enough to pay extortionate prices.

There is a thin line of 64 m that would complete it, and I am able to buy it for a low price, but this would put me in a higher fee level.

I just wish we could stick to a call for a minimum land ownership of 512m2 in a region and leave it at that.

They can cut them up for whatever they want but, if the parcels blend in nicely, they aren't a problem.

Since the parcels in a grid can never blend in nicely, you have no point.

...the Mainland Covenant would state no user or group could own less than 512m2 in a region. Parcels could be carved smaller but in terms of buying or selling, no land transaction could result in an individual or group owning less than 512m2 in a region. To achieve this on the current Mainland Linden Lab would run a simple database query for all regions with parcel owners of less than 512m2. The resulting individuals or group owners would receive an email stating the new policy and giving them two weeks to either sell their land...

Because that would break many legitimate uses of land. That would be acceptable for a new continent (like Nautilus City) but it's unreasonable to impose it on Mainland as a whole. There go "strip center" mall rentals, rez points, home points, and all related uses of microparcels. And Jack knows this and has said it won't happen.

What might work would be "no parcel smaller than 512 square meters can be sold for more than L$0". Which will allow transfers between people who mutually trust each other, but extortionists would no longer be able to use Linden Labs as the bagman.

Are you a plant or someone I've paid to ask fake questions so I can brag about the awesome features of my land trading system? Another feature is that all parcels that we buy for less than L$1/sqm have a notice attached alerting the seller to contact us immediately and the parcel is blocked from going on the market until I get online.

What might work would be "no parcel smaller than 512 square meters can be sold for more than L$0". Which will allow transfers between people who mutually trust each other, but extortionists would no longer be able to use Linden Labs as the bagman.

To tell those who do this work that they have to simply abandon some percentage of their purchase, will mean that they will no longer do the task for free. LL will have to hire more people to do the work that land dealers are now doing for free.

I look at it this way - so long as my view of the land with property lines off is clear and pretty, I don't care. It could be a field of 16ms, for sale at ridiculous prices, but I don't care. They can screw off and choke on tier.

Unless you actually want to buy more land in the sim, it's not a big deal and the mere presence of a small plot shouldn't get people so irate that they give up on the game. That is just my view.

... though that could be automated: "OK, to buy this prim land pay Landbot Low L$100, and then you will be able to buy the land it self for L$0". That will work for legitimate dealers selling land for a reasonable price, but won't work for landcutters trying to sell extortion plots.

Maybe you weren't reading the proposal correctly: people could do whatever they wanted in regard to their own land use, they just couldn't own less than 512m2.

What would restrict such a practice to 'legitimate dealers'?

I am just reporting on my experience here in an attempt to make some suggestions, so please don't take it personally.

When a particularly notorious extortionist dumped his 16sqm donut hole plot in my main mall plot, you picked it up. I was glad, since I knew I could work with you and retrieve the hole before another jerk did (and I knew there was at least one who would try, given half the chance). I noticed the plot a few hours after it was dumped and bought, and the price was definitely still high. I immediately IMed both you and Skye. Skye got back to me in about 30 minutes, but she couldn't help because she was at work, and was responding via email replies to IMs. You weren't online at the time, and she said it may be some time before you were. So I waited.

Hours passed; the price on the plot fell rapidly. After 14-15 hours (and still no response from you), it had gotten down under to L$200. There were also a couple other 16sqms the same person dumped that you also had across the street in one of the adfarms I was repairing. I waited as long as I could, and had to do some RL errands for about an hour. When I came back, the jerk who I feared was going to buy it had done so within the previous few minutes. I decided I couldn't wait any more on the rest, and bought the others to make sure he couldn't add them to his "holdings", paying the current price on them.

About 30 minutes later, you arrived, and we talked about the situation. You were kind enough to refund me the purchase price on the ones I did buy (and had I known that, I would have gone ahead and purchased the other one, too, to avoid the jerk getting it), and sympathized with me on the loss of the more important plot. I fought with the jerk for several months until LL finally move his hole out by force.

Anyway, my point in reciting the story is to point out:

1) There was no part of your system that "blocked the sale" of such plots, at least for me. That may be something new now, but it wasn't in place then (a few months ago now).
2) The price fell on those plots within 24 hours to well within even the most miserly of extortionists' prices.
3) Almost all of your system is automated, and it is most impressive. However, having to wait 18 hours for action on a request, when everything else is near-instantaneous, is a little long, in my opinion.

I do hope you have put a timed lockout on the resale of microparcels to give adjacent owners time to notice them. I also certainly would never consider an offer to acquire adjacent land as spam. Not as a single notice. Spam is irrelevant, repeated messages broadcast as widely as possible. Such a single notice would be neither irrelevant, repeated, nor broadcast.

You are one of the biggest land resellers in SL. With increased size and influence comes increased responsibility. I think you and Skye have proven that Ninjaland can rise to that calling, so I would expect that you are doing all that you can to help everyone put an end to land harassment, land cutting, and extortion.

I've been thinking of noting on these tiny parcels that people who want them should just buy them and ask for refunds if they are concerned about this sort of thing. No doubt many will mock me for trying to rip them off but presumably a few people will be saved from this sort of nonsense.

The fact that this exchange requires the person buying the land trust the person selling the land. That trust does not exist when the seller is an extortionist.

I've been thinking of noting on these tiny parcels that people who want them should just buy them and ask for refunds if they are concerned about this sort of thing. No doubt many will mock me for trying to rip them off but presumably a few people will be saved from this sort of nonsense.

In how many sims would it be true that some other landowner had room in their tier to buy the additional land?

In sims with microparcels? I'd say, oh lemme see... only all of them.

Unless the people know each other in First Life, I don't see how the distinction "legitimate vs. extortionist" could be known to the buyer