Group fees

When a group leader lists the property in search, a fee of $30L/wk (I think) is assessed for any listiing in Search. If the land is used for teaching or events, it MUST be listed as a hangout place in order for group members to make postings in Events. Since the number of postings allowed on a land is restricted by a single member, say the head of the group, member postings are essential.

This fee is distributed over all members of the group. If there are 3 members, $10L/wk each, 30 members, $1/wk each, etc.

A question in the Linden Forums is sparking this disussion.

What happens to a person with no Linden dollars? Apparently, they are still assessed the fee which can pile up. They are not permitted to buy anything in-world until the fee is paid so basically they have to buy Lindens to pay the group advertising (and other) fees. The response I saw to this question, indictated to me, that eventually, there would be the possibility of a penalty fee if these costs became too big.

As a group that invites newbies into their ranks on a regular basis, I am concerned about the people who are now in SL without payment information and come in without any money. Getting a negative number in their funds through no action of their own other than trying to "belong" will not improve their satisfaction with SL.

Daily I get people who have no skills (and some who don't particularly want any) who are panhandling. This is a true pain in the you know where. They get miffed when they aren't given any and can't figure out an immediate way to get some..which increases incidents of anger.

Our group has multiple functions.. as a support center (Stroke/AS/etc), education center, hangout center, sandbox.

How can I invite people into the group knowing they can't pay the group fees? Yet, how can I not include them because they need a place to be also?

Our group does not exist to generate a profit. Yet, we need the advertising to exist. The idea of putting money into the group "bank" does not work because that gets distributed among members who are not involved in any fund-raising activities.

I know that in numbers, it should not matter that they need to pay a buck to have a few Lindens. However, if they signed up with no payment record, perhaps it is not easy for them to pay USD to get Lindens??

Solutions anyone?

Or is this a "bug" that needs attention?

I think that the new group updates include a way to decide which group membership level pays the group liability. So for example, once the group updates are released (with 1.12 I believe), you can set it so that only officers or only owners (or even make a new catagory for people who'll donate funds) pay the group bills.

I agree though, the way it's set up now is pretty obnoxious. I have friends with free accounts whose balances went into the negatives because of group liability. This is just one reason why I'm looking forward to the overhaul on groups.

One of my unverified fr00b (free account newb) accounts has a negative linden balance of -102 right now. I know in 1.12 we will have a group revamp that allows you to setup which ranks have to pay the fees. I would make sure none of my groups force bottom level members to pay it. only officer ranks should. Without a 50 a week stipend, those accounts will suffer this negative impact.

This "bug" has attention paid to it: as noted, with 1.12 you'll be able to set people nto to take group dividends/liabilities.

In the mean time, you could always just pay the group the L$30 so that there's no net change for your members. Is that fee the only one of concern?