An Open Letter To Linden Lab

2000 USD of public land? that is 500KL$ you shelled over to LL to make 2M L$ from other players. buying public land is not investing in others.

i currently have 4000 USD in cash invested in SL in two seperate projects.
100 % is invested in value added services.
0% is invested in game exploits.

what assumptions? you tell flowery stories about "ethical" exploits. who the heck cares how nice your scripts are for the ozone layer? you're crying because your free happy meal voucher is expired.

Your assumptions are so absurd, in fact they are outright lies.

I own land in all over the grid. Where do you think they came from? They came from being purchased from other residents.

Some came from other land barons, whom I have had dealings with, but most I bought and paid for with money....yes, my money.

I paid from $0 to $6 USD for each and every microplot. I challenge you to buy 700 microplots in SL, for less than $2000 USD. I double dare you.

You have NO IDEA what my ledger looks like, so I advise you STFU about my bottom line.

You bought microplots for $1/m and resold them for an exponential profit. That is not signficant investment - and the L$ you spent on the land went to LL as a money sink, not into the pockets of residents.

We are talking specifically about the public land that you bought - that is always at $1/m.

Well I am talking about money spent buying microplots. What don't you understand about that?

It is NOT POSSIBLE to buy microplots for 1/sq, because I did not have a scanner there beforehand.

lies? in my english language, a lie would imply i knew the truth of your financial affairs and was purposely misleading others. the reality is that you know the truth of your financial affairs and only LL knows if you are lying or not.



the feature allowing you to buying land from other residents has not been changed. clearly that is not what you are talking about here is it? this is a thread about the land scanning exploit. if you say you "invested" 2000 USD, you are entirely off topic and misrepresentative if you then add an addendum 200 posts later that 1900 USD of it was actually invested in some SL ponzi scheme and not in fact public land scanning.

i double dare you to collect stamps.

please start a new thread about your other hobbies. you are confusing us simple people with your advance english.

Your ability to buy microplots has in no way been inhibited - I don't know why you are bringing up how much you spent on normal land purchases. This is all about land not going public, you know, the plots you could buy after finding them with a scanner.

oh get real...

$1/sqm = 0

even so it's a resale market then.

still part of ll's image of a "free market".

you hate land scanning so much that you're deliberately being obtuse.

ll gom'd again.

there was a business for meaningful amounts of us$ and ll took it over from the users.

it's not about availability.

oh get real...

L$1/sqm = 0

even so it's a resale market then.

still part of ll's image of a "free market".

you hate land scanning so much that you're deliberately being obtuse.

ll gom'd again.

there was a business for meaningful amounts of us$ and ll took it over from the users.

it's not about availability.

You are the one being deliberately obtuse so that you can just keep using the word GOMed for some strange reason. When land went public before, they swooped in and bought it for $1/m from Linden Lab. Now the exact same land will instead be put for sale in the Find Land window at the same amount, $1m, bought still from Linden Lab. It just means now more people actually have a chance to buy that land. It means there are now more people competing for the same pool of land, and no automated tool to allow someone to get the upper hand.

Seeing you refuse to understand my point and choose to twist it into something it's not...let me spell it out one more time before I put you on mute.

A new sim comes on line. In order to scan it, I must first buy land. I buy that land from other residents. I use the "Find" "Land Sales" like anyone else. After owning several hundred, they don't come cheap after that.

What is so hard to understand about that?

gom provided a service.

land scanning doesn't.

there is a difference. did you skip a chapter?

Ah I get your point now - somewhere along the line, it got blurred in those posts. You are referring to the land you need to buy to get a foothold in a sim to scan. However, I am confused, Given that you only need a 16m plot to put a scanner on, at worst case prices of $10/m - 700 plots would be $112,000L - a far cry from $2,000 USD.

maybe you should get a refund on your metal detector. what is so hard to understand about that?

you still own the land. sell it. duh.

Once again, lies.

Buying land at 1/sq, services a money sink, Clearing objects, nenaming, terraforming and listing for sale to other residents, is a service.

Your argument is weak, moot actually.

oh thanks for the wonderful service! do you take tips?

now everyone can equally take part in service by using the find tool. LL just lightened your load. you should thank them.

btw, use a dictionary when using big words like "lies"

You have no idea how much I paid for my plots. Once I had a few hundred sims under my belt, I had to look deeper and further on the list for plots.

Trust me when I tell you Chris, I paid up to 2000L for plots in some sims, particularily sims where there was no competition.

I will be the first to agree, that this a cost of doing business. It is a "cost" no less, made with real money, where other people benefited.

I agree entirely with StoneSelf.

And anyway, WHAT EXPLOIT?

If I'm understanding this right, residents created land scanners. Residents sold land scanners. Anyone could buy a land scanner. A land scanner script was even free.

Residents CREATED that.

Those who were interested in this land business purchased the land scanner. Anyone who wanted to could have purchased this land scanner.

Those residents then used the land scanner to find plots of land. They then cleaned up and prepared this land for resale. (Which the Lindens will now have to do.)

Then they sold the land. (Just like other people clean up, fix up, and sell land.)

There is no "exploit" anywhere in that scenario. An exploit means something that the game makers never intended, which other people don't have access to (without surreptitious knowledge), and which therefore constitutes cheating.

An "exploit" does not consist of players using the tools they were given to make scripts to do things more efficiently. Scripts anyone can get.

So it's not an exploit. And it is a service.

And if some people using scanners price their land too high, then they are no different from the thousands of other people who ALSO price their land too high. And that's no "exploit" either.

Also, everyone is talking as if it is a done deal that this land will just be held for a while, then go on the land list in Find, and the only difference will be that scanners will be kaput.

That isn't a fact at ALL. We still have no confirmation, as far as I have noticed, that the land won't go to auction - and for U.S. dollars.

Even in the best case scenario, what we have is a useful script gone kaput. A script which people had formed a business around. Which you or I could have formed a business around, had we been interested in that business.

A resident invention - freely available to anyone - is not an exploit. And now the Lindens are taking it away, along with the ability for people like Weedy to use it in their business.

IF the land ends up on Find, then it isn't too terrible a blow. But I'm skeptical, and think chances are good it will end up in auction, because that is what will profit LL.

In which case, this resident business will have been GOM'ed, rather than just somewhat crippled.

coco

Andrew indicated, this feature was not even written yet. Even if it was in effect at this time, land listed on "Find" wont last very long. It's common knowledge, that a small group of resident land barons "camp" the search button, by continually refreshing the list.

Is this fair?, I suppose, but it in no way guarantees equal access to everyone. Land appearing on the list will sell at 1/sq, likely to be resold at maximum market value. The middleman is still cut out of the picture. The only other alternative before us now is auctioning, which is unfair competition against other resident land sellers.

Sounds like LL is hanging themselves on the horns of a dilemna.

It's also common knowlege that a small group of residents used scanners to be instantly notified of public land release and would try to get there first to get it. How is this different than "camping" the search button?

I bought and paid for land. I coded script using LSL. I never violated the TOS.

By your logic Cris, you are the only person in your sim who sells animations. That's unfair.

Oh wait, I paid money to be at the top of the classifieds....That unfair too?

you should have said this in the first place! clearly your case is an exception to clause 7.3. i apologize for the haranguing. i didn't realize you had not only paid for the land but coded in LSL as well! 'nough respect for coding in LSL. i really feel silly now.

Using the Find Land list also does not violate the TOS. I am challenging you saying it is unfair for someone to be able to use the Find Land screen like anyone else, but at the same time it was fair for you to use a scanner. Either both are fair, or neither. That is all I am saying. Your animation alalogy is out in left field and has no bearing on this discussion - I have stores in several sims where other animations are sold.

NEVER did I imply that constant refreshing of the list is a TOS violation. In my opinion, both are fair.

As far as the animation analogy, it applies to your assertion that scanning is "unfair" or for "no good reason".

While I respect your opinion, and your right to express it, it does not make it fact.