Question about first-land eligibility.

If a newbie were to donate thier newly aquired premium account tier to a group, and that group were to buy land for a while and do thier thing, then disband and the newbie gets his or her tier back.... having never actually purchased land his or her self, is the newbie still eligible for a first land plot?

Yes. The criteria is 'never having owned land', not 'never having donated tier'.

Wunderbar - Thank You!

Lisse, I've researched this EXTENSIVELY. And I'm afraid the answer is NO, not YES.

In fact, the newbie who joins a land group and donates tier is NOT repeat NOT eligible for First-Land purchases. Giving tier to a group owner that owns land extends that ownership status to that newbie, who is now no longer eligible to buy First-Land. I've now seen this happen in the game.

I do wonder if this was something changed in a patch, wittingly or unwittingly.

Because I swear that months ago, I did join a group, give tier, and then buy a new First Land plot later when I was able.

So I can only beg and plead a Linden to please test this out with their available accounts and let us know how this works, it is really important. They may never have thought of it, but they really need to let us know precisely what is the case.

In fact, I propose that the Lindens not punish new people who donate tier in this fashion, when they personally haven't ever right-clicked and bought a land for their personal property. They should set it up so that tier donation does not disqualify you later from First-Land purchase.

I think a really great benefit for the game would be the right to first join a group and donate tier, look around, and only when they have sufficient knowledge and/or money to chose land, they should be able to use up that privilege.

And Lisse, I'd be curious how you became convinced about this matter such as to answer "yes" because I also thought it was true, then discovered recently it wasn't.

I have to agree with Prokofy.

In my experience, if you do anything with your land tier (donate to a group, buy land, whatever), you are INELIGIBLE to purchase First Land. Bad news, yes...

Same thing applies in FL... no good deed goes unpunished. But the rules are the rules to prevent alts from abusing the newbie benefits.

Well.. poo.

Could we please get a LINDEN to answer about this?

I am puzzled. I've seen some people join groups, and then be able to buy a First-Land. So it seems like just joining a group doesn't make you lost that privilege.

So it isn't just joining the group, even if that group does own land, if you just join it to set your objects, say a mall. I think that only if you join the group AND donate your 512 tier to the group, are you unable to then buy a First-Land if you are new.

But I don't have a way to test this and don't want to risk telling somebody to try it that way. I'm confused because I could have sworn I saw it work this way where you join a group but then leave and buy First Land -- is something changed in the game? I think Hank's point that if you do anything with your tier -- join a group, donate, buy land -- you then can't go and buy that First-Land marked land for only $512.

As I understand it, joining a group doesn't have any effect in itself. If, however, you use your allowed tier to do anything at all besides buying a First Land plot, you will never be able to buy a First Land plot with that account.

The flag for 'ever owned land' is set any time your billable square meters is set greater than zero, including any time you contribute land toward a group. No other operation changes that flag.

When the first time buyer land was introduced, we set this flag based on the current land ownership/donation status, so it is possible that an account that used to own land or had a group donation in 1.2 would have escaped detection.

ive been had

You have not been "had" martin if your comment is directed at our offer to join our group, put in 512 tier, and receive a 512 property with a house. We undestood the system to work a certain way, and it turns out it does not, and has been changed.

As you can see from this thread, both old players and a Linden have explained how this came about.

Older players and newer ones like myself believed in good faith that you could join a group, donate tier, but then leave the group later when you had done more research and still use that privilege to buy first land. The whole point of first-land privilege is to spend only $512 -- the price of 1L per square meter which the Lindens have set on First-Land, a fraction of the cost for most pieces of 512 out there on the open market.

We did that because it was our own experience. It was a help to us to have a group to be in and have access to land without yet making that first purchase, so it seemed reasonable to extend this offer. After all, we get no real benefit for asking someone to donate tier -- they get land that we could be charging much more for in terms of cash rent, or selling instead of renting. The donations are not enough to make any kind of huge difference in the group bonus. So it is not some kind of exploitative practice.

so it is possible that an account that used to own land or had a group donation in 1.2 would have escaped detection.

The Linden representative explains here with this remark how a subsequent version could have changed this feature, and how it could be that someone was able to buy first land AFTER donating to a group -- which has exactly been our experience. So the offer was made in good faith.

I know this is all very confusing at first, and it remains confusing when it seems the features change on you.

All I can say is that if you feel you've been "had" I personally am happy to purchase for you a good 512 you find in the game, at a standard or even above-average price, so that you can have a 512 piece of land at no cost to you.

Trust me, this is an absolutely good-faith great deal. First-Land purchases, as everyone knows who has already made them, are of crappy, poorly-placed land. They fill up rapidly and become crowded, griefers tend to flock to them and build ugly extortion builds, and they lie fallow sometimes because they are useless being blocked. The Lindens almost never put First Land on prime real estate locations.

So in making this gesture to compensate for your loss of this privilege to pick out a Linden first-land and pay $512, what I'm doing is saying that you lost the right to spend only $512 on land, and now I will restore to you paid land, even free. And what I expect is that you will find something in the 2000-6000 range, and not find something that is marked by a griefer as $9999999 and ask me to pay that, because of course I won't.

But I remain convinced that the secret to getting past these terrible hurdles that exist for people to come in and acquire land that isn't crappy or griefed or badly located is for them to join groups, and to benefit from the group, and enjoy the use of land completely, while paying low rent or no rent, until they get their bearings and then can make an educated purchase of land they really want in a location they've really researched and desired.

When this discussion began in the threads a few days ago, I made every effort to reach the 3-4 people who took advantage of this offer to donate tier, to explain the issues, and also to distribute revised notecards on rental boxes. The others all understood the issue perfectly and did not feel misled. After all, as group members, they are now living rent-free on much better 512 lands than they could have ever gotten by applying their 512 tier to a first-land purchase. I think anyone in the game would agree. If I missed seeing you on line to inform you of these developments in the last few days, I'm sorry, but as I said, you will receive just compensation.

You were in a beautiful 512 seaview property with a house, something you could not have obtained had you exercised your First-Land privilege. Go and see where the First-Lands are in SL, and you will understand. In any event, I am happy to compensate you to the best of my ability for this misunderstanding.

i got a cabin but i dont know what land is avaible to put it , can someone help me i just want to get rid of it all in my folder