2 possible compromises to Land bot issue...

I posted this in the SL issue tracker so if you like these ideas please go and vote for them.

https://jira.secondlife.com/browse/VWR-431

2 solutions to reduce the number of accidental losses of land to landbots due to user error and the unfair response times the bots enjoy over their much slower human competitors.

1. A 5 minute grace period before the land is listed in the system as for sale. Hopefully this will help reduce the number of accidental losses of land to land bots when trying to transfer land to a friend, alt, or other group for $L1 when making the mistake of setting the land for sale to ANYONE.

2. An option to set the land to accept offers for a predetermined time period (set by LL) allowing the land owner to accept the offer they want from who they want with the option to automatically just take the best offer when the time has expired. This allows for a more fair system of selling and leaves the door open for bots to still take undesirable plots of land off of a sellers hands.

Number 2 is an added option and would not replace the current way land is set to sale. It just gives more control to the land seller.

Not bad ideas.

Id like there to be a warning that popped up when you attempt to sell land for more than 20% below the average market rate. This would wake people up if they made a mistake.

I have also proposed a feature, which will allow land owners to use their land ban list to block specific purchasers.

https://jira.secondlife.com/browse/MISC-116

I saw that and that is a good idea as well. Land owners need more control over how and who they sell to.

The possible solutions to the bot issue are the same possible solutions that were tossed around in the pre-bot days of the land swoopers, ( folks hammering on the search button looking for great land deals or preying on people who would screw up during a personal land transaction while setting land for sale to an associate for a dollar). The five minute grace period ect was never implemented, instead they added a few extra button clicks to the task to make the seller absolutely positive that this is what they wanted to do. Back then your window of vulnerability was under 30 seconds, today its instantaneous. LL gave you the 'YOU SURE YOU WANNA DO THIS???' menu, and thats all your gonna get. They need to have a guy on a flaming horse riding all over the welcome centers screaming " DO NOT SCREW UP OR THE BOTS WILL EAT YOUR LAND!" Awareness is your only defense, spread the word.

Well I tried.

**EDIT**
Would also like to add that even though for experienced users who read the forums this seems cut and dry, many new users do not read the forums and are unaware that automated land buying bots exist and will definitly take their land if they make the mistake while trying to transfer their land.

Obviously they didnt fix it good enough before the bots.

And now that the bots are here the situation has been automated.

Heres a solution: put a Captcha (or whatever it is) like their own website does, SERVER SIDE as a requirement to buying a plot. We don't need the land bots. We shouldn't have to compromise. All they do is eat up deals other people should get because they cram up the search server function - and ther eis an incident where a land bot was so fast it bought land after the person unchecked for sale, taking it off the market.

On a side note- there is now zero excuse for accidently listing land, there was very little before the last changes. The captcha is the best solution, when implimented server side so clients can't bypass.

Simply change the default: right now the default (for a price higher than L$0) is to sell to everyone, so change that to sell to yourself by default, requiring an extra conscious step to allow everyone to buy.

That changes the problem from "a landbot stole my land!" to "why isn't anyone buying my land?".

I like this part best. Set it to a default of say 24 hours so if you make a mistake you have 24-hours to remove the listing. It also allows plenty of time for people all around the globe to get their bids in and should hopefully result in much fairer amounts for your land, especially if it's in a really good place and you're not sure how much to sell it for, you'd just enter the minimum you want and hope the users who want it want it enough to raise their bids.
Not everyone in SL is aware of current land-prices and it would make selling much better for many users. Just have to make sure the 24 hour period (or whatever) begins from when someone makes a first-bid, in case after 24 hours no-one has expressed any interest

That is not the default. The default is "Impossible to click done until you pick Anyone or Someone." People are making the conscious step to choose Anyone, it is equally as prominent a choice as the option to sell to someone specific.

As much as I don't like the landbots or Elanthius' actions with them - he is right on this point as of the last time I sold land.

I agree for experienced users it seems silly to add anymore safeguards to the process of selling land, however, there are many people who still do not know that if you do make a mistake by trying to transfer your land by seling it to anyone for $L1 that a bot WILL take the land instantly.

Not everyone visits the forums and not everyone is aware of automated land buying. The game has changed with the introduction of land bots and so the process needs to change as well. After thinking long and hard about this, it does seem ridiculous that if you set your land for sale to anyone for $1L for even just a few seconds, it is suddenly insta-gone . Telling people to just not do it is not a solution.

Just change the wording on the button to read. " CHOOSING THIS OPTION WILL ENABLE A BOT TO EAT YOUR LAND INSTANTLY."

That should do it

I like this idea. It's much better than More Stupid Approval Dialogs.

Chosing "Anyone" is a single click. Choosing someone involves going through a conmplex and poorly designed dialog, and the sle dialog makes it obvious that they expect most people to just choose "anyone".

This is what they call a "magician's choice". It's better than the old way, but it still encourages people to reflexively choose promiscuity.