TO ban or not to ban?

Two main reasons.

One, the warning times are often set far too short, not giving you enough time to get out of their range, which is exacerbated by not knowing where the damned thing is, so you don't know which is the best direction to move away from it. This is the fault of the user rather than the designer.

Two, many of them send you back home or orbit you, which is a major frustration when you are merely trying to get somewhere or innocently explore and generally an excessive punishment. Much better to just bump into a banline and look for a way around it or go over its ban area. A simple eject would be much better. One that can escalate to orbit or go-home after several attempts to intrude by the same avatar might make better sense.

There is a third complaint many people have: The range may be set too wide, so it hits people - perhaps neighbors - well outside the owner's property. This, too, is generally a fault of the user rather than the designer.

Handled sensibly, security orbs would be fine. They are needed for skyboxes, which are usually above the range of banlines. Not handled right, they can become griefers in their own right.

Actually, that really would seem to be a script problem, assuming llGetLandOwnerAt() works as advertised... although I suppose a "creative" user could find some way to make that fail.

Thanks. Since I only want to send a mildly-worded IM to the uninvited, seems it shouldn't be too offensive.

far less certain than ban lines. Scripts can fail because of sl going borked, scripts can just not work, items can disappear, updates can destroy, etc... just not good imo

Split your land in 2 : one "courtyard" where everyone can go, and one "inner sanctum" where only group members can go. This way newcomers can still attend and you can chat with them and if you like them you can invite them to your group. The 2 lands being close together you could have a common area where people in the 2 lands can chat just like you would with your neighbours. Then of course use skyboxes and such for more privacy.

Perhaps a security cube?
Or seriously maybe a greeter bot and just change the message to something redneck or please depart my property.
You could also put the banlines on the house itself and set the greeter warning to the fence line.
If your outerland becomes public your house is up for anything really, so either keep them seperate locations, or banlines or orbs

In that view, why buy anything at all that is scripted? sex beds, jewelry, poseballs, furniture.. you name it.

These things are not perfect, true, but if you find one that works and at least has a responsible creator who will update the stuff to accommodate SL quirks, then why not get one? I know you had a bad experience with one because of one on my land - which was duly fixed because I have a responsible creator who issued me an update. But one bad experience does not define the whole thing.

When it comes to the actual question, only you can answer it based on your pain threshold of having people entering your space. When you reach your pain threshold, you will either ban people or get an orb. There really are no other options in between, other than buy pass.

Right -- the problem is the owner of the orb, not the orb. Orbs I'm familiar with (Nela Lykin's, and Zed Zeddmore's) are configurable to avoid all these problems -- assuming that some amount of time is long enough warning before bump or TP for folks to get out of Dodge.

Unless you're interested in the scripting for its own sake, you can get Zed Zeddmore's orb for $200 and configure it to do that. If you also want a visitor list built-in, you can get Nela Lykin's, for a bit higher price. Both are quality products whose authors stand behind them and are willing to help.

Crystal is right, and doesn't "buy pass" also show a visible line? Perhaps a different color?

You could always try a notecard on arrival to the property asking ppl to respect your privacy and stay away from the house. If it surrounded by a fence it is pretty obvious which house you mean. You could then set up something like the visitor counter so that you know who has ignored the card. At least then ppl can't say they haven't been warned.

I personally don't have a problem with the orbs. I think it is unnecessary sometimes the amount of force ppl use with them but i like the idea of a warning orb which gives plenty of time to vacate the area. Plus it would be easier if the orbs were noticable so you knew where they were.

Green line

Buy pass is green words that say "buy pass."

WHy buy other scripted items that may not be certain, but not a security orb? SImply because they aren't given the task of protecting my home. Theres quite a difference between a sex bed and a security orb... if my sex bed stops working well... I don't particularly care. If I have an orb and it stops working, then yeah, I really care since it has stopped protecting my home and therefore my Family.