Need for group land in new regions?

As we continue to to make more land available, we are trying to determine if groups - whether based on a theme or just friendship - want buy land together.

If so, are you able to under the current auction system?

Ooops i just started a thread on this issue !

How do groups buy land ?

How much $L would a group need to get a whole sim ?

Can the group then split up the land amongst it's members ?

Could a group with enough $L side step the auction process and buy direct for Linden ????

I guess we need th edetails on process for the new $ this week .

Can a group be started and then all $L be refunded if "goal $L" not acheived ??

If yes I'll start canvassing for a "gimme a home" Group !

As a member of one of the surviving theme groups, I thought I'd weigh in here. Things have gotten very weary on the forums and showing interest in having more land is a touchy issue, so I'm not surprised you haven't got more responses.

I think the time is ripe to run a new program for land-owning or theme groups. The change to 1.2 makes it much easier to have a large land-owning group, which was actually a liability under 1.1. It's a much different scene now. I remember last summer, when there were a whole bunch of new theme communities, as a very exciting and creative time. I'd love to see a renaissance of that.

Points to consider:

-The second whole sim up for auction was bought by a member essentially for the purpose of creating a theme community. The demand for it is there.

-There's a lot of landless "refugees" from failed theme communities around, who might jump at the chance to build a new one.

-While potentially there is a lot of new theme ideas, perhaps getting a group together to buy a whole sim is a bit much. It's been my experience that no matter how many people might be on the rolls of a group, there is never more than 7 or 8 truly active at a time in building or making decisions about things.

-The surviving theme communities from last summer all survived because of two factors. First, they evolved and re-evolved from their original concepts. Second, they each had one or two main leaders who drove the survival of the whole.

-There's no one size fits all model for land-owning groups. Some will be able to have a wealthy member buy an initial giant parcel, like in Indigo. Others would benefit from a preferential land-grabbing process like happened last summer in the northern continent.

I'd love to see new theme communities open up. Here's some ideas about that - ideally we'd get some of each.

-First, check out the railway project. If this can get some help right now, getting right-of-way through the new sims in the north, this could be a GREAT bit of infrastructure giving a unifying "theme" to the whole northern peninsula.

-Continue to put up whole sims for sale, but make it a special auction process where prior to completion of the sale, the winning bidder has the option to subdivide the land among members of a group. Try out an auction for a whole sim where the price is in $Lindens instead of $US.

-Run a new theme selection process for some new sims. This time, though, do it a bit more like Dore and Bonifacio instead of the Blue/Gray model. Set aside half the land as Linden parkland or buffer zones, and use the other half for one or two communities, each getting a bonus amount of prims from the unused Linden portion. Then have a competition for the land, each group needing to come up with an original theme, at least 7 members, and enough free land allocation to hold onto 1/4 of the sim. With the smaller scale and the buffer zones I think these would have a much better chance of surviving over the long term.

-Run another competition along the lines of the Coney amusement park or Luna shopping center, only for groups. Set up a whole sim with a buffer of Linden land, and half the land would be a won in a lottery among groups. The winning group would get the land and and all the prims in the sim to build with for 3 months, free, with no need to use up their own allocations on it. If they succeed in maintaining a sufficient level of dwell over the 3 months, they get an extension and a new sim opens up for the next contest. If the spot has gone moribund, then a new contest is held and another group gets a chance at making a successful theme.


...after all that, getting to your other question: It would be a good idea to allow groups to have a collective account and to buy inworld land directly, rather than going through the whole individual buying and deeding rigamarole. This might give groups too much advantage though.

I don't think it's a good idea to mix auctions and groups. There's too much potential for disputes over who owes what and who does the bidding for that to work.

The auction system is difficult for groups because of the uncertainty. You want to get people together and agree in principle on something, but without knowing how much land is involved or even if you're going to have any land when the auction is finished, it's difficult for people to plan.

The group project I have in mind is somewhat less structured than what Ananda was talking about -- an expanded version of what we've done in Clementina with Riverkeepers -- but its a little crazy-making to contemplate bidding on a large parcel with the right geography (maybe I'll get it, maybe I won't) and *then* going around to see if I can find enough like-minded individuals who'll buy into the notion of parkland and open space.

So in answer to your question, Haney, what I have in mind is possible but not easy under the current system. I'm not sure what to porpose as an alternative, although Ananda's mail has several excellent ideas that definitely deserve further discussion.

Thanks,

Kelwyn

First of all glad to see some improvement in this area.

Idea:

Auction off Sims divided into 1/2 or 1/4 or 1/8th pieces and up to 8 members of a group can purchase the sim that way.

Say 4 members of one group are bidding against 4 members of another group for the same sim. The highest bidder wins.

I also agree no US$ should be included in the auctions.

1) gives residents a chance to win a sim
2) if anyone wants to purchase a sim outright for 1200.00US$ They probably want to make rl $ with it in a commercial sence and probably should be contacting LL directly anyway.

Why limit this to groups why not auction off sims in 1/2, 1/4, and 1/8th sizes?

Cat Cotton

I'd like to see more parcels in the 1/4- to 1/2-sim range. Seems to me like there'd be far more demand by smaller groups of like-minded individuals looking to purchase land than there would be from larger themed groups looking for a whole sim.

Haney, based on the wording of your original post, it sounds like you are thinking about alternatives to auctions for people looking to buy land together. If this is so I would be very interested in hearing about it, as my first attempt to buy some land for myself and some friends in the Periwinkle auction was not a success.

Thanks,

Kelwyn

The Nightbreed group were able to make it work under the new auction system, but only because FlipperPA was happy to pay out the initial costs.

After that it was easy because we all just added our land allocations to the group we made and when we had enough we group deeded the land.

It would probably be a different case though for people who wanted to split the initial auction costs, were it for US$.

I'll have to disagree with the idea of not having auctions for US$. I think it's great that whole sims go up for auction for L$ too, but to presume that anyone who would pay out $1200 for a sim is only doing so to get money back from it is not entirely true. Flip bought a whole sim just so he and his friends could have a great place to live... i'm sure there are others out there who would make the same generous gesture.

Maybe, (if people want to share the actual auction cost if they win), it would be a good idea to let people state when bidding if it is for group purposes or not. If it is then they can have time after winning to decide how to split the auction cost and each be charged accordingly.

Hi Haney, sent you some email using the forums mailer last night but got some sort of weird error message so don't know if you received it. It was mostly lots of blarney and clever grovelling about yes please can the (somewhat excitable) wood elves have a chance to bid on a 32K+ parcel please?

Thanks,

Kelwyn

and i would like to for a group to be able to purchase a sim. very much so.

Haney says "it's quite possible that we will offer whole and half sims for auction in the future but not sure whether that is days or months."

FYI,

Kel

simple answer to Haney. Yes

Cat Cotton