It is no secret that there is a major problem with the current First Land (FL) situation. I have only been a Second Life (SL) member for a week now and I am already aware of the faults of the system. Since I have joined SL, I have read posts now all over the Internet complaining about the first land system. From what I gather, around Summer/Fall of 2006 is when it started to get bad.
Many newbies, including myself, pay for premium membership partly due to the promise of cheap FL. Unfortunately unless you do your research, you are not aware that it is virtually impossibly to get a hold of until after you join SL. There are many problems with the current system, from land swoopers, to teleport bots, to lack of availability, etc... I believe the entire FL system needs to be completely revamped.
Below is my suggestion, feel free to reply to comment on my suggetion and/or post your own "revamp" suggestion. Please try to suggest major changes, not just minor modifications.
My Suggestion: Why not assign 1 plot of FL to each newbie once it becomes available, and then give them 72hrs to agree to buy that land. If they choose not to buy it or don't respond within 72hrs, the land gets put back in the pool to assign to the next person and so on. And each newbie only gets the land assigned to them once, so if they choose not to buy that land, it is their loss. This will also completely rid the FL search feature, as it would be no longer needed. It would also help reduce land barons from taking advantage of newbies by immediately buying the FL off of the newbie for more than the $512L, but much less than the actual land value. And it would completely eliminate those taking advantage of teleport bots that automatically teleport users and purchase FL within seconds of going on sale. This also will create more time for people to enjoy SL, instead of fretting over trying to get FL. Also without the fight for FL, it can help bring supply and demand back to equilibrium and reduce the artificial increase in land value... Which was being driven up since developers can't create enough FL quick enough because of people abusing the current FL system. It may take days or months for newbies to get offered their FL, but at least they will know they now get a fair chance to purchase FL. And then with the assigning of FL, there is no need for the current penalty of buying other land making you ineligible for FL. This way you can purchase other land while on the waiting list for FL, and once your FL comes available you can still purchase it at the discounted price.