The Good, the Bad and the Landbots

Since we have to police ourselves in SL, S. Babenco has created a resource for anyone who runs into a landbot. It's a directory of known landbots where you can post your experiences with a particular bot.

Though all bots tax the resources of SL, not all bot runners are bad. It's good to know who's who and what to do if you make that dreaded error when setting your land (either setting to Anyone for a cheap amount, or mis-typing and putting the wrong amount to Anyone in the price window).

This directory contains current known landbots, and their operators in case you need to contact one for assistance or to know how to have mistakes corrected.

We've posted about Landbaron Merlin so much, that bot runner is no longer using that avatar. It is believed that the same vile bot runner who preys on errors is now running bots through the account Cel-ne Balling-r. Hope you don't get that bot as the first visitor to your land sale, because, just like she did with her Merlin AV, she does not return mistakes.

One thing to know, the creator of the directory is an admitted bot runner.

I just found out about it myself. Hope this resource helps at least one avatar.

http://landbot.wordpress.com/directory/

eeep. Forum rules, Ray.

Don't think it applies to evil dead non-sentient landbots.

Too bad you already used the Sergio Liome gag

you're right. I misread your post, thought the "Merlin" guy was the runner, not his bot. Sorreee...

Is it against the ToS to orbit people's land-bots?

I'm thinking a big damage/push gatling turret perhaps just program in the bots names as I sort them from my visitor recorder
Though trouble is most don't even rez for me to watch the show.

I sincerely hope that the avatars you've posted publicly will not be subject to harassment by people of the ends-justify-the-means mentality.

Speaking of dead, extinct, left_the_game avatars:

Way back at the start of Corsica, I was standing on a rainy mountain in wonderment of the weather system when I was joined by another avatar.
After some months of SL experience, his sculpt horse's head wasn't much of a surprise.
His opener of "It's raining here!" was unoriginal but somewhat cute.

It was his name that smacked me twixt the eyes.
Landbot M........ ?? Wowsa!
Then I checked the Profile.... "Born: 7/26/2007" --- the previous day????

We had a hilarious and surreal conversation, mostly about what a landbot should look like. He tried a few very creative shapes and textures.
He was enigmatic about whether or not he was the infamous Landbaron M......

That "Born" date in his profile knocked me out. He could just have been some joker who found the name to be available.
It struck me as very weird that it would not have been taken ages before that.


I noticed that http://landbot.wordpress.com/directory/ mentions a Landbot M....
I wonder if the writer (and many others, including myself at the time) make a mistake in the name??
Landbaron M.. ran a landbot, but his name wasn't Landbot M....

If you happen to meet Landbot M......., you'll probably find him to be an amusing conversationalist. Whether or not he's a land baron and/or a bot runner, I couldn't tell you.

It is one person with several avatars and bots set up specifically to prey on people's mistakes. Until LL does something about this particular account, I will keep trying to get the word out that there is something despicable going on. What people do with that info is up to them.

You are right, Landbot M is not the same as Landbaron M.

The Bill O'Reilly approach...

Call it the Idi Amin approach for all I care.

The person behind these bots griefs in a much more damaging way then any of us could grief them back. They are making thousands of real dollars taking advantage of others. They need to be permabanned, but LL won't do it for some screwed up reason. Whatever crap is sent in their direction is nowhere near what they deserve.

Sorry, Ray, this one time, I disagree with you and agree at the same time.

All landbots are bad

err, why is a captcha, with a time limit, so hard to include when buying land?

(A social problem with a technical solution)

. I can't fault the ones who are playing by the rules that LL allows. They are smarter than me and scripted a way to beat me to a cheap land sale. As long as they give back mistakes I personally am neutral about them. The greedy, opportunistic bot runner, not so much.

I dont suppose anyone has invented a bot blocking script that would be handy. I'm not sure how it would work but doesn't the bot still have to go to the land to purchase it? If so if somoene creates a script and sticks it in a prim to block their actions (not sure how i haven't thought about it till this moment.. or looked at the LSL to see if its possible cause i mostly worry about making a candle burn or making a car go..) .

Is it not possible to for lack of a better way to put it create a bot to counter the bot?

yeah i know that's convoluted but it seems to me that its probaly a decent solution. since bots are legal and LL likes bots and so do a lot of scripter who work at making bots "go" why not make a bot to counter the land bot?

or is that not possible?