Group ethics question

OK - I never paid much attention to the bewildering information on land and groups and how it becomes a bargain if a group owns the land.

If group owned land is more of a bargain, do people make a group out of their alts, and is this ethical? What was the original intent behind the group bargain if there is one?

I'm asking because I don't understand the concept at all and don't really want to cheat the system. Still, a couple hundred real US dollars up front for land gives me pause.

I think the main thing that group ownership of land helps financially is that it saves tier by letting everyone in the group add in their land to take advantage of the tier breakpoints at higher sq m ownership. After figuring out the tier as if everyone's land were owned by one person, the tier payment gets divided up. But it's not a discount. Making up a group of your own alts to own the land isn't going to save you any money. In either case, you'll be paying the same tier as if one person owned the land, and since you own all the alts, you'll be paying the full amount of the tier.

Edit: Nevermind what I said, I did not know that there was a 10% group bonus.

actually, the Lindens themselves suggest using an alt to set up a group.

As far as the original intent of the group bonus, I think it had something to do with promoting resident interaction. *shrug*

There's a thread on here titled "conspiracy theory" in which I propose that the whole thing was engineered by phillip to increase the resident count for marketing purposes.

I don't know the ethics involved, nor the history, but as observed, any group that owns land gets the 10% tier bonus, and I use alts as co-owners of the groups, lest any one of the accounts gets inadvertently Lindened.

There are lots of reasons for group-owned land other than the bonus, though. I use it for making a separate group for each rental, so the tenants get a Role in which they can do almost anything they like with their parcel, without endangering any other tenants.

[Edit: Re-reading the OP's emphasis on "bargain" and ethics, this might refer to a rumored practice among the less visible "barons" by which donations to multiple groups are shuffled back and forth, covering several times more land than the sum of the tier. This is surely unethical, and fraught with peril. And can't possibly scale: if somebody the size of RavenGlass tried to pull that off, for example, it would be detected within days.]

No, my brain just doesn't work that way. The whole land buying and group ownership thing is too much like business to me. Heck, I rarely even use coupons in the grocery store just 'cause I don't want to fool with it. Mainly I was trying to get community views on using alts to make a group to save a little on tier -- and you forum folk delivered the goods, as always.

Groups arent regularly used just to save the minor amount of Lindens that are discounted (see forum cartel land group). It is for building community - and Linden Lab endorses this community building by offering the group discount. LL also suggests you use a alt when you want to deed your land to your group because in the old days mainland groups could go rogue and steal your land. With the new group tools that is no longer possible - unless you are careless or too trusting.

you can also use groups so you can own land on mainland without having a 'premium' paid for account.

any account even 'no payment info on file' can 'buy land for group'

all you need is a member to 'donate' tier

there are many people / places out there that RENT tier donations to groups at much cheaper rate then paying tier directly to LL


so, with groups you can keep your cost very low, still own land on mainland and pay the cheapest tier level per sq meter


groups ftw

If you want to own a larger plot of land, having 2 premium accounts and group land does actually work out a little cheaper than owing the same amount of land as sole owner and paying that tier. I have an alt who is also premium, and formed a group with basically just the 2 of us. The "group" (me) owns 5632 sm's of land, and the total monthly cost for me is $45/month. If I were to own that much as just one avie, the total monthly cost would be $$49.95/month. However, also consider that each account receives a L300/week stipend, which when added together pays for one of the premium fees. My alt received a "linden grant" for going premium after her second bill date of L1250 lindens, and my main received a referral fee. If I were to pay both premiums yearly, which I may do in February, then it's even less. However, if I wanted to add any more land, I would consider dropping my alt down to basic and just having the land as sole owner. Not sure...I would have to sit down and work all that out. But right now, it's less expensive for me to have the alt, the group and group owned land.