New Landowner Etiquette

I just bought a mainland parcel. At this point, it has objects on it belonging to the previous owner and two others. There is no mention of a group.

Is it a breach of etiquette to simply return the objects, or should I send a courtesy message to the owners letting them know the land has been sold? The landowner would know, obviously, but the other two might not. Most of the objects are not visible to me, so I assume they're somewhere overhead.

What do you think? Do I drop a note, or send their prims home with no comment?

Personally, I'd just return their things. Or at least the former landowner's. The other two people would receive an IM to the effect of "I've recently purchased a parcel upon which you have some items. Please do try to collect them within the next 24 hours, or I shall have to return them to you. Thank you for your time."

Edited to add: It's not a breach of etiquette to simply return their things. Most people understand that any prims they leave about on land they do not own are liable to be returned at any time for any reason.

and they may just be things they have lost and simply don't know where they are. I've lost a couple vehicles due to lousy driving and huge crashes that I had no idea where they were............and I appreciated them being returned.

Thanks, Joseph.

I figured that would be the answer, but thought it was worth knowing the convention.

On the other hand, if you don't need to build on the land *right now* then I'd say send them a message and give them a chance to take their stuff. If you get no reply then delete or return it.

--Hugsy

" ... send them a message and give them a chance to take their stuff." ?

To what purpose?

First of all, once you have identified someone else's prims on your land, you are ONE CLICK away from sending them back. The alternative proposed to this one click is to:

- search for someone's profile
- compose an IM
- send the IM

The other person must then:
- TP to your location
- search around to find their prims
- click on them one at a time to take them back
before they can go back about their business. The other person cannot find their items as easily as you can by using your landowner controls.

The suggested more"polite" course of action is several times as much work and inconvenience for both parties than to just return the items.


Secondly, the sudden return of stray items is understood/accepted/expected in SL. It can even be a kind of pleasure... serendipity. (SLerendipity? ... I like it.)



To ask this other person to come get their items is akin to sitting with the TV remote on the arm of your chair and asking someone else to come all the way across the house to push the buttons thereon.

I'd send them back..it may even be someone that has set up home through no knowledge of the previous landowner..That has been known to happen, cheeky blighters!

Really nice of you to ask but unless it's a large complicated build, hitting return is not considered anything but standard business practice on the mainland.

Laziness is in no way part of what I'm saying. It's letting them know that intended (or otherwise) that my purchase of their land resulted in prims left behind.

Regardless of their born-on date, not everyone is an expert "at" Second Life. Mistakes happen. Maybe they want to "take" a few things and have you delete the rest.

I'm giving them the choice:

* I can dump all your objects back on you
* I can delete all your objects
* I can ask you to come pick and choose what you want

Yes, I've had previous land owners come back and pick up stuff they wanted (and left stuff behind that they didn't want) after I purchased their land. It's no big deal.

--Hugsy

But even if the op deletes it still goes back to the owner of the prims

I didn't mean to imply laziness, although I can see where that impression might have been perceived.

I intended no disrespect at all (I also intended no fake gangster voice in that sentence!), nor did I wish to comminucate any sort of disdain. Raymond is correct, it is way/very/totally/too nice of you to go through this thought process. Man, I wish I knew more ppl IRL who were this nice, truly I do.

My focus was intended to be more on the ... other side .... the kinda ... extra effort/futility aspect. I think you're looking at a one-click process and your intent is "Maybe I should go the extra mile to be nice"

... when you perhaps hadn't considered that all you're going EFFECTIVELY to do is cause both parties involved several minutes of effort.

The one click seems to make a lot more sense to me, especially when it is the norm.

I wish you well with your new land.

I always simply return them. They expect that.

I usually just return objects as soon as I have purchased the land. The only time I didn't do that was when I bought a parcel that had a club on it, and a number of people were dancing and enjoying an evening there. So I waited until next day before returning the previous owners objects, when no one was around, so as not to spoil things. I didn't need to start landscaping immediately.

If I can readily locate the items, I'll usually be nice and return them individually. That way they can be identified in the owner's lost and found and readily recovered.

If I can't locate them easily, then I just return them. The unfortunate aspect of that is that if there are multiple things widely spaced in the parcel, the coalleced blob that they get back in their inventory will have a name that is one or the items, randomly selected, and rezzing them re-creates them just as widely spaced.

I simply return all the items. I feel that is polite enough, because I'm not saying, "Come get yer sh.. crap offa my lawn!" Most often than not, that stupid prim or two is the sign that says, "For Sale." The group/individual that bought them isn't going to CARE about them.

For me, I didn't mean to imply that anyone who buys land and simply returns all left-over items is a jerk.



No worries! I didn't feel disrespected at all. It takes a lot more than that to get me upset.




Perhaps, but I don't see that as a big deal. Unless someone buys/sells a lot of land then, yeah, this could get cumbersome.

And for some people, based on what Ceera posted, this would actually make things easier for them.

--Hugsy

You don't have to couch it as "Get your junk of my property!" but rather "Hi! I just bought your land and there's stuff left behind that seems important. You want to come grab it or just have me return or delete it? Thanks!".

And of coarse it depends on what's left behind. A For Sale sign isn't something I'd bother to inquire about. However, I did one time buy land that still had the house and all it's furnishings (including pictures of friends on the wall and such). The previous owner appreciated the chance to come back and grab some stuff.

--Hugsy

That is a really nice way to be But even if the respondent asked you to delete, it would still wing its way to them as if returned..

What a wasted opportunity. That would have been the most fun.

Just return them, save the meladrama for the soap operas and people trying to out-nice each other for those that have the time to do so. No harm, nothing wrong, not rude or against etiquette with simply returning them and calling it a day.

If I buy a new parcel that has stuff on it, I'll return each item indivdually if it's not a huge hassle; that way they won't have a big box of coalesced stuff in their Lost and Found. I also walk around and talk to my new neighbors just to say hi. It's worth it, esp if they have banlines up; I can ask if they'll add me to their admit list so that I don't see the lines. I wouldn't ever go on their property, and 99% of the time, they say "oh sure, no problem!"

Oryx, I agree 250% to introduce yourself to those that border you. Not only is offering a olive branch to them a nice gesture but it also helps if down the road you run into a issue, the ice is already broken, and prob be eaiser to resolve.

Great reminder!

Just returning the items is the simplest, easiest, most convenient way for everybody. If you want, you might send the owner an IM telling him/her you've done that.

If you don't _need_ to use the land, send them a note saying you'll return their stuff in a day later this weekend.. If you're not using it, this doesn't really cost you anything to be nice.


How do you do it in one click?

Thanks for this, and for all the other responses. That's the kind of thing I wanted to know. It seemed a bit abrupt, but it's also very easy to screw things up by thinking what's standard in one environment will be equally welcome in another.

Now I can get back to figuring out how to make things...