"13. Why would I want to own land?"

Don't you think there should be a better answer to FAQ question #13:



Is that the best LL could come up with when the FAQ was written?

So, since that answer is going to be obsolete soon, what do you think LL should have as the answer to that question?

13. Why would I want to own land?

So I can be one of the cool kids?

So I can complain about my neighbour's builds and get into bitter feuds with them - oh, and demand compensation whenever there's a change in the rules. Obviously.

I don't want to own land. I don't give a crap if I am a basic account. The land sucks.

That is all....

So my view can be ruined.

So my neighbours can bitch about me and I can get into fights.

Why I'd like to RENT land currently..

Is to keep my ideas and current builds out so I don't have to pack them up when I leave the sandbox.

I dunno, I like the idea of making a mark on the landscape. "look at that.. I made that, and it's going to be here for as long as I own this land."

I can't say that, my builds go whenever I get a new hair-brained scheme!

What is it about 'the land' that sucks?

-Ghoti

The lag, sometimes the neighbors. I lumped it all together as "the land"

And the prices people want you to pay to own the land.

I sometimes wonder if no one wanted to own land, where would anyone go? Would it be expected for LL to build clubs, events, malls, casinos or whatever for us? If people didnt want to own land in SL it would fail. Remember its we, the residents, who build SL.

That's why I'm renting land... because it's cheaper than owning, and my build's just as permanent.

My mark in the landscape is clearly visible on the world map, too. It's the meteor crater on the south side of LostFurest dAlliez.

I have a lifetime account with the same for land.. Do I own land? No. I don't see a reason to.

You've obviously never fallen through one of the mole people's entrances and ended up sleeping with pink bunnies on a stone slab in the middle of then the narrator woke up and realized he was typing a post.

I "own" land for the same reason I "own" hosted server space for web pages and background scripts, to publish content.

Indeed. There are people who host and people who post. And they go hand in hand.
But I'm curious about something.

Is it actually profitable for someone to own land and then rent it out? Do they actually gain more than the $9.95 a month? Or does SL just barly pay for itself in that way. I mean that as the majority obviously. I know some make a profit by capitalizing that way but is it really worth the trouble? What kind of trouble is really involved? How much work in hours is done to keep it going and how much pay do most get for doing it?

Just curious.

Because people get really angry when I post these on message boards

"So that I can leave my mark on Second Life - my own unique creation for myself and others to enjoy. A persistant part of the landscape, for so long as I'm a part of the community".

That is my first answer.

My second, more abridged, and more truthful answer:

"To do retarded shit"

Whereas, just for the opposing viewpoint... I'm a control freak, in a minor way. I demand to be an absolute despot within the borders of the place that is "mine". "My home is my castle", and all of that.

Therefore, short of getting my own private island (which I've kind of done, with friends) owning mainland land is the only way to do that.

Random thought, sorta. We can buy insurance for just about anything in real life. I wonder, has anyone placed insurace on SL property? As in IF Linden Labs goes down or sells or power goes out and destroyes all data by a massive spike because they don't even have a standard data server battery backup. Not suggesting they are wrong in not having it but just pointing it out from that last blackout they had. heh
I wonder if that would be news worthy. Insurance for virtual property. hmm
Or was that last years news. Cause I'm semi new sorta kinda.

I can imagine a different approach using the same technology, in which the company offering the virtual environment service would pay people to create an interesting place, sell advertising, and allow people to access some of the content for free because of the advertising support, while other content would be pay per view.

Another approach would be to charge by the computational resources used instead of doing the billing using a land metaphor as if the land was real instead of make believe.

So if you rented space that you left empty you wouldn't pay as much as someone with a prim and script laden parcel.

A person with a complex scripted prim avatar might pay for the processing capacity and storage it takes, while a default avatar "just looking" person would pay nothing.

I guess the original question is flawed by using the "own land" wording, no one owns land in SL, one pays for computer usage. if they pay at all.

By the way, have the Lindens indicated they want to eliminate the traffic payments?