I have proof that LL sells abandoned 16 sq.m. lots to bots.

Oh, this PISSES me off!!!

I submitted a support ticket asking LL if they would append some abandoned 16 sq.m. lots owned by Gov. Linden in Disl to an auction lot that just went live. The auction was not live when I submitted my ticket. The auction number is 26205552. I thought it would be a great way to get 16 sqm lots off the grid and combined with larger parcels. There were a total of 5 of these lots.

Today I got an email telling me this:
We have solved your issue

Solution: All set

I went to the site, and what did I see? They sure as hell didn't combine those lots with that BIG lot up for auction right next to them. They combined the lots into one 48 sqm lot, and one 32 sqm lot, and both lots are now owned by a landbot owner. Which tells me, LL put them up for sale for unbelievably cheap. No wonder people run landbots - with LL releasing abandoned lots back like this, bot runners make a killing when they sell them to adfarmers.

I am enraged. Really I am. All the complaints we've made about the adfarm problem, and LL continues to support this practice by selling the abandoned cut up lots back to be farmed again instead of combining them with the larger parcel right next to it!

If you want to see for yourself, go to Disl 141,185,120 and Disl 152,169,117. As I mentioned, the auction for the adjacent large lot was NOT live when I submitted the ticket. Thanks a ton, Linden Labs!

P.S. - I know this thread is totally inappropriate for Resident Answers, but who are we kidding? It appears anything goes here anymore.

This is not news, sadly. They do whatever takes the least amount of thinking and effort. If the Ninja land group bought them, they won't be turned into adfarms. Hope their bots got to them first.

They did. However, sometimes the adfarmers buy lots from them. I'm ticked because LL let these lots sit there untouched for god knows how long until I asked about them, and THEN they released it to the bots. It's like saying screw you, puny little resident, for daring to make a suggestion.

That does suck in a big way. third instance I've heard in a week of LL doing the wrong thing. Contact Elanthius or Skye. They will work with you if you want those plots.

LL usually re-sell abandoned mainland quite cheaply. This is because L$ aren't very valuable to them - but the tier fees the buyer will pay once the land is sold, are.

True. I think, though, faced with a few abandoned 4x4s, LL sees itself in a kind of no-win situation: The net present value of all the tier they'll ever make on them between now and heat-death of the universe is about equal to a millisecond of a Linden's salary, so it's not surprising they take the expedient route. It's a false economy, though, because even just one adplot visible in a sim reduces the land values (fewer L$s spent by residents=fewer sold by Supply), reduces likelihood of new residents becoming premium ("Martha, look at my bungalow--yeah, there, under the spinning titties", and ultimately deflates the value of every new sim they'll hope to auction.

Prok has a good blog on this very subject:

http://secondthoughts.typepad.com/second_thoughts/2008/01/the-mainland.html

Was there something somewhere where LL stated it did NOT sell abandoned 16 sq.m. parcels to bots...or anyone else for that matter? If land is put up for sale to anyone I imagine that "anyone" can buy it (including bots).

I think I missed something lol.

And bots are the fastest buyers ... so ..

Right, but the point was that for a bot to be interested, the price would have to be below the prevailing rate--which for 16sq.m. plots seems to be, hmmm... about L$500/m2, I guess.

oh

I'm sure LL just puts them for sale at 1L/sqM

like they usually do with abandoned land.

...and the Bots swoop in....

So MadamG is right on.

yep.

Because bots are faster than humans, I consider selling land for $1/sq.m. (which was LL policy a while back) to be selling directly to the bots. Humans don't have a chance when the bots are functioning correctly. For some reason I thought LL had stopped doing this when they started auctioning off lots smaller than 512 in size. Apparently not.

The kick in the pants for me is that I asked nicely if they would combine them with the other Gov. Linden owned lot that is now up for auction. Instead, they immediately went and fed them to the bots.

I didn't want to buy the land myself. I wasn't asking for that. I just saw a solution that made sense and made a suggestion. I guess I should just keep my damn mouth shut as far as the Lindens are concerned.

You have a point.

Maybe contact them when you ARE ready and willing ot buy the plots yourself? I seem to remember a post some months back where somebody had good luck doing just that.

I believe Maintenance parcels under 512 adjacent to your property can still be gotten that way. Used to work for 512s, too, but now those go to auction--which is fair enough, and the faster they go to auction, the better. But under 512, if it weren't adjacent to my land, and given the results described here, I'd be inclined to let sleeping dogs lie.

first come first served...

Damn you make it hard not to comment on your unhelpful posts which was my resolution so I won't do it now.

Resolved

lol

ok, so how would LL distignuish(sp) between adfarm and user?

LL: hey guys, we have 16sqm for sale!!!111!1!!!!
adfarm: L$100!!!!11!!1!
LL: you suck, go buy your own!!!!1!1!!!1
adfarm: fine, have it your way!!!1!1!!!!!!
LL: hey guys, we still have 16sqm for sale!!!111!1!!!!
nub: L$100!!!11!!11!!!!
LL: SOLD!!11!!11!
adfarm: SUCKERS!!1!1! that was my alt haha!!!!!111!!!1!

lesson?
unstopable unless you buy first

It kills me but I have to agree. Lindens have no desire to be in the land business. They want to just dump it and get it off their hands. Land bots currently aren't illegal so they're going to be the ones to swoop it up and there we have it.

I see this as no different than the whole camping/bot issue. It's not the particular incident that I see as a crime, but the entire system is a nightmare.

You can't buy first unless you are a landbot owner. But you made me laugh (in a good way).

The crime is the way this company runs the world it created. I know, I know, I should just shut up, pay my tier and be grateful.

Those abandoned lots, like most of them, sat there for MONTHS owned by Gov. Linden until I had to go and bring it to their attention by suggesting they be combined with the larger parcel. All I wanted was to help one sim where I own a little bit of land (not adjacent to these lots) look a little nicer. Is that such an awful thing?

I have seen lots as small as 128 sq.m. on the auction system - that one was in Disl too. It still shows purple on the map even though it closed a long time ago. So technically they CAN put small lots up for auction - it's just easier to feed them to the bots.

I will conclude that if you don't want to have abandoned adlots dumped back on the market, don't, under any circumstances, ask a Linden anything about them, unless you are the adjacent landowner and you ask them to sell directly to you.

If you are a landbot owner, get all your bots fired up and ready to go and start filing support tickets about those lots as fast as you can. I can't even imagine how much money can be made like that.