"Release Land..." Button

Michi had me going there.

And thats exactly right, if newbies mostly baught public land as they used to (because long term users mostly already had land and had not much use for public land) land prices would fall greatly, making LL's great marketing scheme of "get rich on selling land!" moot because prices would be so low very little profit would be had to gain, also money going directly to LL would drop as auctions would likely drop somewhat. The only other people besides newbies to buy public land would be users in sims who needed more of a prim limit or to expand, making the land... GASP, dare I say... USEFULL.

All these issues with the Release Land... button could be EASILY avoided if the following idea was put in place:

Upon clicking Release Land... the land goes into "holding" mode, in this mode only the previous owner of the plot can purchase it (it appears public to that user only, all other users see the land as still owned by the previous owner), land remains in holding for say 24 hours. At 12 hours an email is sent to the previous owner informing them they have x ammount of hours left to reclaim their land or it will be put on auction. At the end of 24 hours the land is then put into auction.

This would make public land non-existant.

You could still transfer ownership by selling it for 0L$ if you wished (effectivley "public" land for a directed user).

Also you could add on that when the user clicks Release Land... they must first go to the website to actualy confirm they want to put the land into "holding" mode (we have to confirm to buy land, why not confirm to release it?).

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Now someone explain to me why the above is not a good idea?

Public land has become nothing but a free meal for land barons and they are the *only* ones who really get an opportunity to even use it. There is no reason for it to exist any longer, Public Land has been killed by land scanners. Congrats to you all for killing a former staple in SL.

Flair and Blalanced?
Blair and Falanced!
..uhm ... Bare and Freelanced!

erf, sorry Lector, just couldn't

Oz, I think that is a very good idea. The only complaints I could see from others is that land that remains in 'holding' delays its ability to turn around and be back on the market.

But I think it's a small price to pay. Really, the only way to compete with a land scanner is to build a land scanner yourself. That begins to add up, especially if the scanners use multiple scripts... Not something I think people should have to do.

/13/b0/24700/1.html

Voice your opinion in the suggestion forum.

Oh, just wait until there are Linden-sanctioned Real Estate Agents in SL.

As I said, though most of it was sarcasm, I fully believe that LL saw the scanner network creators as clever, and endorse the "Economic stimulation" that they provide.

I agree that it sucks to be the person on the "want cheap land" side of the scanner; I've been hit by outrageous prices many times.

But if this is the way that LL wishes to craft this universe, that notion is a juggernaut that we will have precious little power to stop.

Furthermore, it is indeed in their interest. High land prices, are, of COURSE, aligned with the success of LL as a company.

Do we not want LL to succeed? Well, of course we do.

Do we want LL to succeed at the cost of some of us (who feel that we're being taken advantage of) and our ability to continue to live in the SL universe?

No, probably not. But they are making business decisions for SL.

There will likely be changes in the future. Some may even be as large, or larger, than the 1.2 shakeup was.

It all depends on what you want to get out of SL. Your ability to attain that, whatever it is, likely is going to change throughout the course of SecondLife's evolution.

I disagree totally.

There made money by selling its currency. What did that do? Lead to the failure of There.
Manipulating land prices just to make quick cash will have the same effect.

Furthermore, if land is expensive, less people will want to play. I would argue that LL makes a crapload more money when land prices are cheap. LL likely is not making much money in the auctioning of land anyway:

At 1L$/m, a sim is 65kL, or $300US about. At 5L$/m, it's $1500. at 20L$/m, as it was before the land bust a few weeks ago, that's $6000. Consider now the cost of the server and the pay of the technicians to pay for it to be set up, terraformed, auctioned, and then transferred to the player(s). LL is not making all that much money selling land.

It's much more logical, especially since the main goal is growth, to expand the user base by allowing them to buy cheap land. This seems to be the plan since LL basically did not respond publicly to all the Land Barrons who complained about the recent land devaluation. Further, at the town hall meeting, Philip said new servers would be added at a rate proportional to new player growth, so it doesn't seem like allowing price inflation to be much of a priority.

Further the possibility of LL getting grants to expand LL to a global system is much more likely if the user base is large. Why add a roadblock to that with high land prices?

I would say that Linden sponsored Real Estate agents are an attempt to improve the land barroney issue, not legitamize it.

Well I don't know if it can be said that that alone lead to the failure of There. It can even be argued that There hasn't failed yet. (Though it certainly doesn't have much vitality right now.)

Cheap land would be counter to Philip's expectation of competition in the future. Remember, at the townhall, Philip said that he expected land prices to steadily rise.

Huzzah!

Increased land prices are the lifeblood of my ilk!

I heartily support Philip in granting us such wonderful concessions for the betterment of our business enterprise!

I must toast with a magnum of champagne!

*chortles and rushes off to the cellar, in search of the finest champagne to drink!*

Unless, I'm mistaken, the context of that comment was more like 'steadily rise, along with the inflation of the L$'. I seem to remember a whole section of the town hall meeting talking about the minor but necessary devaluation of the L$ over time.

I haven't been here long, but looking at the GOM chart, it looks that way to me, for the short term anyway. And it makes sense, if you consider the pure amount of money poured into the economy each week vs. the small cash-sinks in place (ie, ratings, release land button... )

I don't use land scanners and I never did. Please, don't give me more credit than I deserve

Kinda funny how using little unscriped swimming buoy shaped sale signs on water plots earned me various neg rates and special place in pantheon of evil scripters of doom. A good example how rumors emerge

As far as I know, Chance and Rathe use scanners. I often happen to find land they set for sale cheap and that probably had been public. Sometimes I buy from them. They found clever way to work the system and you can think what you want about this. But the real problem is that after more than half a year of this going on the Lindens have not fixed the public land problem. And it is something easy to fix. So I assume Linden Lab consider this some kinda developer award for clever scripter kids

This could be, but it also was in context of the value of content and business in SL rise, and as an aftermath land would become more value as business on that land would be more valuable



The latest devaluation of L$ has all and everything to do with the IGE speculation bubble. The fact is, that the past 2 months the REAL value of Linden$ was much less than the price at IGE and GOM. But because IGE for 60000 US$ bought L$ off the market, the price artificially rose. Before IGE started buying, L$ traded for 1.20 US$ per block, already at peak of land boom. IGE's shopping spree brought prices to 1.40 and higher. Now it trades at 1.20 US$ again, after IGE lowered buying price and is only buying sporadically. If IGE would stop buying altogether we might see 1.10 or 1.00.

Just as a side issue, I do agree with Hiro that There has essentially failed, and the principle reason for that (besides the technical issues) was the decision to sell Therebucks.

I don't say that with any pleasure at all, as I started SL and There on the same day, I'm a lifetime member of There and always considered myself a Thereian.

The "churn rate" of members in There has always been many times that of SL. I had a buddy list of around 150 people during There beta, nearly all of whom were gone by last Easter. Time and time again, the one reason everyone cited for leaving the game was the ridiculous cost of buying clothing unless you were also a successful designer yourself. I remember looking at my first month's credit card bill and thinking, what on earth have I got for this?

To bring this rambling post slightly back on topic, it's interesting to note Philip's observation that land sales don't actually represent a high percentage of all economic activity in SL. Perhaps LL think that its long term future depends more on having a stable and accessible market for clothes, vehicles etc, rather than on land prices, and are happy to leave the land market to whichever scamming land baron can screw his neighbour the fastest.

Anshe. You know that you're a wealthy person who uses those less 'fortuned' for amusement. Or maybe you don't. (I realize that rich folks sometimes don't even realize that people who aren't rich don't just exist for their amusement and servitude.)

It was some Kurt Vonnegut book that Liam showed me -- explaining that the wealthy feel that the less fortunate should thank them for the fact that we have trees, birds, sky, and beautiful sunsets.

I just hope you get bored of SL being your little "cat toy", and stop batting us around with your huge piles of money.

Being wealthy does NOT ensure that every action you perform is righteous and noble.

Thanks for telling us that your real problem is that others are wealthy and you are not

Ladies, while I'm normally one for a catfight, trading personal insults is not adding anything to this debate.

Could you two get into skimpy bikinis and hit the mud / jello pit, else stick to discussing issues? thanks kk

(trying to be funny, btw, not chauvanist. hope no offense taken)

tsk tsk tsk LB: ya gotta keep yer bubbly in da freezer wit a couple of chilled glasses

Fuck the discussion. I am making the jello now! Hellz ya!

Typical rich person attitude that every time someone has a problem with them, it's just "jealousy".

You've been using that all day, haven't you, Anshe?

And also thank you for verifying to the world, that you believe that your own self worth is tied to your fiscal worth.

Only someone who's that money-centric would believe that the only answer to someone's anger at someone is because they have less MONEY than you do.

My problem is WHEN others who are wealthy use that fortune as a CROWBAR to SLAM OVER THE HEADS OF THOSE WHO HAVE LESS to use their cold bodies as amusement. That, Anshe, is your style.

No, Anshe. I believe that you are a horrible human being. That is, I believe, that the person sitting in your chair, that being, you, is a despicable person because you use your wealth to manipulate other people for your own sole benefit, and then try to make YOURSELF feel better by joking about providing a 'service'..

That, is not "jealousy". Even if I had a billion dollars US, I'd never condone such a thing. You've got no problem with it.

My point was, that your WEALTH does not make up for the fact that you are a DESPICABLE PERSON..

How that leads to an indication jealousy on my part, or as you say, "jeleousy", you're too wrapped up in yourself and what you have to be able to see that.

Clarification: Just because LIFE is all about MONEY for YOU, does NOT mean that it is the most important thing to other people.

I sure hope someone knocks you off of your silver tower someday. You deserve a little strife to humble you. And nothing I say in this post can ever come close to the lack of civility involved in profiting off of the manipulation of others.

No word can trump that. I yell a lot. You're a predator. In the war of wounds assessed, overall, you're the clear winner there Anshe.

We appreciate your input on the original subject - please link to Feature Feedback to read and comment on a proposal to make released land of 512 meters or more transfer to Linden ownership for auction.

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"What gets me the most about these people, Daddy, isn't how ignorant they are, or how much they drink. It's the way they have of thinking that everything nice in the world is a gift to the poor people from them or their ancestors. The first afternoon I was here, Mrs. Buntline made me come out on the back porch and look at the sunset. So I did, and I said I liked it very much, but she kept waiting for me to say something else. I couldn't think of what else I was supposed to say, so I said what seemed like a dumb thing. "Thank you very much," I said. That was exactly what she was waiting for. "You're entirely welcome," she said. I have since thanked her for the ocean, the moon, the stars in the sky, and the United States Constitution."
- Kurt Vonnegut, God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater
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