Limiting parcel size to NO smaller than 512 sq m

I would like to create a proposal for voting and would like some feed back first, the proposal is this . To no longer allow parcels to be divied up smaller than 512 sq.m. Those of us on the mainland know what im talking about tons of 16 sqm parcels filled with floating whirling signs.
Not allowing smaller than 512 sq m parcels would allow the new player to find land easier,and make the mainland much cleaner and attractive both for us already living there who cant afford to have a private island and for those new folks just ariving. Another small benifit would be an increase in sim perfomace the use of spining blinking blinging scripts in the ads placed on all these 16m parcels. These tinly parcels and there ads have been and increasing problem over the last year. Nothing wrong if you want to advertise this way, but do it on a 512 sqm parcel. Curious to hear what everyone has to say on this do you think this is a good proposal and if not why do you feel this way.

thank you

So you want to punish everyone who has a legitimate use for small parcels just because some are misusing (according to your opinion) them? No thanks.

I am considering to divide my 512 parcel in two: one part for a little store with a vendor, one for my private workspace, around which I would like to put up banlines occasionally when working on sensitive things.

There are legitimate reasons to have a parcel under 512.

Why not just ban the spinning ads, no matter what size parcel they are on? Everyone hates them, and they don't work!

"So you want to punish everyone who has a legitimate use for small parcels just because some are misusing (according to your opinion) them? No thanks."


well this is the reason for asking for feed back Jacques could you please list a few legitimate uses for 16sg.m parcels

I agree with elimination of rotating ads in the skies. But, for example, I bought a couple 16sqm parcels to place single vendors in strategic sims. They are in the ground level and causes no lag so, I think that's a good legitimate use.

However I repeat: I hate rotating long ads.

Mainland is not zoned. Therefore, the owner has full right to do whatever they wish to do on the land they pay for, as long as it is not used for griefing.

In 99.9% of the case, rotating signs are not griefing.

If you want zoned land, go to a private island.

Kiosks or mall stalls, so that traffic can be accurately measured or music/video streams can be set.

Somebody wanting a place to flag as their home location.


Just because you don't like what your neighbor does, doesn't mean it is wrong and should be regulated. There is no mainland zoning. They have just as much right to use their land as they deem fit as you do to yours.

Excellant points Jacques, thanks

Here's one - media feeds. If you wish a person to get a specific media feed by standing on a particular spot, you need to parcel it down pretty small. You could actually create a self guided walking tour in a museum this way - each exhibit with its own feed, and a place to stand right in front of the exhibit where you'd hear the audio presentation for that display.

Creating parcels of relatively small sizes can have practical uses.

Oooh... I'm stealing this idea!

You don't need to limit the size of the parcel, but you could prevent anything below a certain size from being put up for sale. That way anyone could subdivide to their heart's content and when it's time to sell the parcel, it would need to be rejoined in order to sell all of it.

Or - although maybe more taxing to implement but more effective - have a required minimum size (512m²) that someone needs to own in a sim. If you own 1040m² in a sim and split it in 1024m² and 16m² and sell the 1024m² you'd have the option to either get more land in the same sim, or have the 16m² auto-abandoned to Govenor Linden within 48 hours.

Additionally, just cut anything listed for sale under 512m² from the land sales and from showing up for sale on the map. Not because it would deter ad parcels, but because it would significantly reduce the database load .

wow Kitty

I have a beach house that I like very much on 448 sq.m. between a Linden protected waterway and a sim edge. It appeared to have been a remainder from dividing the two neighboring lots that were 512 sq.m. each. I would not have been able to buy this if your proposal was in effect.

Please consider that there are many irregularly shaped parcels that are this way because of roads/waterways. I have been impressed at how resourceful people can be with buildings on lots as small as 128 sq.m. Also, some people do use these small lots for storage of their vendor boxes or backups of copiable inventory items.

I kind of like Kitty's idea of not listing the small lots in land search. Of course, reducing the database load is a great idea! If the lots could be listed for sale, but not listed on the search, they are still available to buy for people who are looking for land in a particular location, but the incentive for people to chop them up into tiny lots to sell would be reduced, because they couldn't flip them as fast.

I know there are a great many people that dont like the small 16m and 32m parcels in second life...they steal your view from you...right?

Nothing worse than going to your home and seeing a bunch of ads on small parcels all over the place, right?

Well, those small parcels represent commerce in second life, people that are doing more than consuming...more than slapping a house on a 512 parcel. They represent those that are the builders and the developers...the heart and soul of second life. They may be ads...they may be obnoxious, to your way of thinking...but they are there because someone built or designed, or scripted or dreamed up a product, a service...something that will drive the second life economy. Without people like this, you would not have the house on your parcel, you would not have the gadgets, huds, toys to play with in the game.

If they choose to advertise those products and services on land that they purchase for that reason, it is their right to do so. Here in second life, just like in real life...if you buy the land, you can use it for what you want, provided it does not break any laws.

One of the first things i learned when I purchased my first parcel here in sl, was that "You buy the land, not the view"...in other words, you ONLY own the parcel you own...you have no right to tell me, or anyone else what I can do on or over my neighboring parcel.

Ranting about the billboards that spring up around your land will do no good...nor should it...it is simply none of your business. You dont own their land, nor the air above it. Just like it is not the advertisers business what you do on YOUR parcel.

I see there is a proposition now, to charge a surcharge for each parcel a person owns, in a targeted attempt to keep owners of land from using the land for whatever purpose they choose...in other words...forcing you to use YOUR land the way your neighbors choose. Interesting concept...

""Prop: 3231 169 votes/30 voters/no applied
Name: Stop Land Cutting: Multiple parcel usage fees
Category: land management
Subcategory: content control
Author: Iwana Fouquet
Prop Date: 2007-04-27

Feature Detail:
To reduce all of these annoying ad farms, land cutting, and 16m2 plots, I feel that there should be a monthly fee for the peak number of parcels one resident or group has. A typical monthly fee could be:-

1-2 parcels: US$0.00
3-4 parcels: US$9.00
5-9 parcels: US$17.50
10-19 parcels: US$32.00
20-39 parcels: US$60.00
40+ parcels: US$75.00 + US$17.50 per 10th parcel over 40.

To allow shaping our parcels and to enable us to buy and join parcels, parcels should be 30 minutes old to count towards our monthly usage. Also, the current square meter usage charges should be reduced to compensate for the above charges.""


The proposal creators name is in the content of the "vote"...wonder how she would feel if someone bought land next to her home, and decided they didnt like her decorating tastes, so started a vote to require that she remove her house from her land?

Regardless, the proposal creator suggests that there be a charge for having multiple parcels...She will be happy to know that there is such a charge already in place...It's called "TIER"...

I put up my first classified add for my custom home sales. I already had an area on my parcel setup for the sales cubes, and in the addvertisement, it used the name of the parcel for the listing title. It also seems that the search->classifieds use that same parcel title listing for the search words entered. So, I had to subdivide the parcel to make the area where the sales cubes are have its own more relevant parcel title that includes the words "custom homes" so that the classified search works better. I don't want my whole parcel to have this new subdivided parcel name, so the small 288m2 parcel works well.

Also, I use teleport routing landing points, and have different ones for each subdivided parcel I have.

Also, I have a streaming video TV in my livingroom sometimes, and the whole parcel (7000+m2) does not need streaming video, just the living room.

There is no sense in restricting parcel sizes, it will never happen.

There is or was a group that bought those 16m2 plots just to get rid of them, but some of those are 12000L$. They would plant trees on them. Some people just make a wall around them using terrain textures.