land owned by Linden employees

I recently noticed that various Lindens own land dotted around the world? None of those that I've seen have anything built on them.

Anyone else know about this?

Alexa

Huh?

yes - Linden employees own chunks of land. I will show you an example if you don't believe me.

Alexa

No, I know they do, but what's your point? Are you saying it's part of a conspiracy or something?

LOL this is funny

The Lindens keep some land around the grid in order to preserve certain features over time.

you will also see some land owned by Colin Linden (I think that's the one) which is land being held while Linden Lab deals with disputes or account issues of some kind. I don't know the details, but I queried on one plot and got an answer to that end.

It's possible they contain invisible Linden loos for those times when they get caught short.

Well, it could happen.

They are holding bits of land for people who don't want to pay tier while they pursue other interests. Then they will return it to them for below market value when they decide to come back.

...are these one-prim loos?..seriously, they should make them available to the user clients as well to conserve parcel allocations, because when you've got to go you've got to go!..

I've heard this *rumor*. It is one of the better ones I must admit!

It's not a rumor, I recently watched them do it. Despite numerous emails to the various Lindens involved, protesting the unfairness of this practice, they still did it. I just got a runaround from the Linden office. I've prepared an expose' on the whole episode but am not sure if anyone even cares if the Lindens ignore all their stated policies concerning this.

Well... out of curiosity I'd love to see your expose. Of course, I would have to hear the other side of the story before making my own judgement (because personally I can see cases where this would have been a good thing for LL to do).

So yes! Let me know when you have it ready. I'd love to see it! Even if I'm one of those people that doesn't think everyone should be treated exactly the same in SL, I do believe in what is just and right.

Where was the land? How about some details?

I've had Linden land right next to my former property in Cass. Nothing was on it. Maybe he was saving it to make a summer home on someday, after he retires from Lindening.

I'll give you the basics, but I don't want to reveal all the details right now, as that would only get this thread deleted.

There is a well known griefer in SL that has been around causing problems for over 2.5 years. This person has been suspended at least a dozen times, but due to some "inside" connection always manages to get back in to SL. This person acquired some land through unscrupulous means. To be precise, they formed a group and had one of the members give their tier to the group and after having an argument with this member proceeded to deed the land to him/her self and eject the landowner from the group. (This was before the group recall/election rules were changed to prevent this). This person then proceeded to wage a constant war of harassment on everyone in the neighborhood. This went on for about 6 months and the Lindens were called in on a daily basis to bring peace. Finally about a year ago, Daniel relocated this trouble maker to the other side of the world and made the land in question First Land. Despite numerous offers to buy the land from various people, the Lindens would not sell it. About 3 months ago, this land, that was marked First Land for 9 months, was changed over to Governors Land then set as Jeska Linden land. Then about one month ago this land was set to sell to the griefer at substantially below market value.
This is totally against stated Linden policy:

(which can be found in this thread - http://forums.secondlife.com/showthread.php?t=12659)

" As a policy, land owned by any Linden, currently and in the future, is not available for sale or trade to any Resident. Should a piece of land end it’s tenure as a Linden parcel, it will be auctioned or released to public at a time that does not benefit any particular Resident."

Not only did Jeska set this land for sale to this person (after the land was in Linden hands for a year, she even terraformed it back (before the sale) to the way this player had it before it became Linden land. This is also against publicly stated Linden policy.

From notecard ( LL Employee Policies) handed out to Lindens at Waterhead (151,81):

Please don't interfere or set land for others to claim, land issues need to be mailed to [email]support@lindenlab.com[/email]. Also please don't terraform or fix terraforming issues.

I sent emails to Robin, Philip, Colin, Daniel, Michael and Jeska Linden protesting this unfair action and the only one that responded with the least bit of concern was Robin. The land sale went through and no one else was even offered a chance to bid on it. And the worst part is this land was sold to someone who never legally owned it in the first place, but had actually stolen it and the Lindens knew about that too.
Nepotism? or some other form of favoritism?

well, you can name the land. you don't have to name the griefer.

What sims were these in?

Interesting replies - thank you.

Alexa

It is always extremely disconcerting when a well-known and respected resident makes accusations of wrong-doing against the Lindens. I would hope that in these cases an instant refutation or explanation would be forthcoming.

Jeska used to own a little piece of land next to me when I lived in Mooaleo. I was always a bit disappointed that she never really settled down with a house or hung out there.

Having been present, I can corroborate the story Buck is referencing. However, I see it not as wrong doing, but as feudal reality. We live in a world owned and operated, ruled if you will, by an oligarchy of Linden nobels under Philip's ducal blessing.

Hem and haw about favouritism and democracy all you like, the simple reality is that we each the choice of functioning in this political atmosphere to get what we want, or be branded as rebels. Harmless rebels are toyed with; dangerous ones are generally run off or, eventually, banned. Most are not savvy enough to be dangerous. Once in a blue moon, somebody that refuses to follow the rules and fit into society will be shown great leniancy for reasons that are never acknowledged, much less published or defended by the peerage.

It gives the rest of us hope that, if we play our cards right, we might one day wield such incredible influence over His Grace's domain.

I personally have a hard time understanding why anyone concerns themselves with what the lindens choose to do with the platform they created. They are the developer, they have sole discretion as to what transpires on their watch. I think it is amusing that people like to call this stuff out as if it is somehow wrong. Firstly, who knows what actually went on during those nine months of arbitration via e-mail, the lindens may have understood a situation in far greater detail than anyone else could have because well, they are handing the arbitration. Secondly, ummm its their game, we pay for certain privleges, however dictating and policing the linden's actions is not one of them.

Let us all not forget who created the game/platform, it is always the developers choice as to what they do and do not do, regardless of what they have stated in TOS etc, they are free to bend or change those rules should they see fit. I think this is invaluable for them to do so in certain circumstances. There are precedents for this in nearly every business arena. A customer at best buy can get preferential treatment merely by raising his/her voice, they will bend over backwards to make sure you don't cause a scene. Whats to say that this is not a similar situation?

In summation, no one knows what went on behind closed doors and the lindens have no requirement stated or implied that they fill us in on every or any decision they make. Sure it may feel like we get shorted from time to time but such is life. For those who have a problem with behavior like this I suggest you read my sig. And just to clarify I do not mean to be offensive at all, nor say you are doing wrong in bringing this issue up, I am merely reminding people of something it appears may have been forgotten.

Okay well Neil said it a lot better than I did. But I'm still greener than him so I'm happy.

Yeah, let's not FORGET.

Trust me Neil, do the math - the amount of man hours that has gone into non LL content far far far exceeds what has been done by actual LL developers.

So, we need to communicate amongst ourselves. If we feel we're not being treated fairly, we should alert one another and then we can all make more educated guesses as to whether or not we wish to continue developing content for LL.



Hmm, by guns blazing, are you trying to say that we should try to take down the grid if we're going to get banned?

You want influence over Stoneself Karuna's domain?

Oh, you mean Philip....