Group Liability?

Umm okay, I don't quite get this.

Back when I first started SL, groups got paid small increments for their participation in group activities on group land.

There was also dwell and DI.

Now all that stuff has been removed. Granted...I know this, and thats okay I guess.

But today, a group member of mine that is a basic account logged in to -1 Lindens in her account.

Negative one Lindens.

Upon investigation it was shown that she'd been CHARGED 1 Linden dollar by the system as a
"Group Liability".

And after asking around the group it turns out that EVERYONE has been charged 1 Linden dollar as a "Group Liability".

Now...I didn't cry when DI went out the door. I didn't cry about dwell, and me..being a content developer...I'm not going to notice 1 Linden dollar here and there.....BUT....I don't remember being told by Linden Labs you were going to start charging us for group membership in return.

1 Linden or not, it is the principle of the matter. Suddenly the same system that USED to pay us a dollar or two for our participation in groups is now CHARGING us....and I don't remember being told this was going to occur.

Now like I said...me? 1 Linden? I don't care, I make plenty of money and I can live with that. But to people who make no money at all and any money they do make is all they have, getting charged 1 Linden for something that they've got no idea what its for, and they have also not been previously informed of this charge is highly suspiscious.

What is a "Group Liability"...what does it fund? Why is it being applied...and how come we were not informed of the implementation of this practice?

Hmm... I have -2 for group liability today... and it seems to be a weekly thing, going back to Jun 20th at the least.

That is odd.

WHAT!?!? Is it per group?



321 000 users * 3 groups per user = 963 000 $L or US$2,983.71

To be honest I don't know for sure. It applies to my family group, which has a membership of 22 people.

But there does not appear to be any group liability for a smaller group I have with only 3 people in it.

I am unsure as to whether this is an intended feature, or simply a systemic oversight in the reversal of dwell.

I don't see anything in my transaction history, is that where you are seeing this?

Does your group own any land that has "Show in Find Places" turned on? If so, until 1.12 and the group settings changes the L$30 a week is divided amongst group members.

The good news this is controllable in the new group tools ... check out the preview for 1.12.

In the past, Group liabilities including listings in Find, etc., were generally offset by group income from dwell, etc.

Basically, until 1.12 comes out there is no way to control group distributions. I know of several group owners who monitor the charges and reimburse the general members for the out of pocket. Depends on your group and the size, etc. if this is an option.

The BIG gotcha related to not having the ability to control group distributions is the sale of group held land. The proceeds go to the group account and are automatically distributed to every member. And those members may or may not be inclined to give you that money back. So, until 1.12 comes out, be very careful to structure your land deals to avoid this, if they are group held lands.

I believe there are some threads where this is discussed in more detail.

It's a pain right now, but the good news is the fix is already in the pipeline.

Is that where thats coming from? Thats ridiculous. 30L a week out of MY money is no issue for me...but taking it from other group members who have no money is silly.

You're right it's not fair, but yep I believe thats where it's coming from. The groups I have that are land owning groups charge us the liability and the other groups I have don't. This means that the members that join my groups end up stuck with this occasional 1 or 2 L fee depending on how many members it has I think. That stinks. It would be nice if it could be set up so that only officers of the group are charged the liability. As it is now, I keep the group for the mall set to open enrollment so that if they want to the renters can join, place their items and then leave the group to avoid both that fee and having too many groups.

Yep, any parcels owned by the group with the 30L finder fee comes out of the whole group, distributed evenly. However, as someone already mentioned, in the upcoming SL 1.12 that's in preview currently, you can control specifically which group members contribute to that fee. So hang in there!