Dear Philip: How To Preserve Land Without Socialism

Dear Philip:

1. Fix group permissions to avoid problem of treacherous officers who sell land out from other officers: make a *separate* functioning category of "investing officer" who pays for the land -- only that investing officer can set a land to sale, other officers cannot, though they can terraform, put in music URLs, etc.

2. Take away officer recall function entirely -- game practice shows by now that it is almost always used by rogue members to terrorize officers unlawfully and attempt to grief them and steal their land -- and never used to topple tyrants legitimately. Get rid of this hippie socialist commune thingie entirely, it is not democratic but mob rule.

3. Regular group members then donate 512 from premium accounts after sale of first land or come right to the group to help preserve forest/good builds/community/etc. property.

4. Mine these 512 throughout the game, there are loads of them. I do it already in my rentals groups.

5. Purchase new land using the 10 percent increase in the group

6. Adjust other features of group perms that are buggy like group object creation

7. Fix bug where objects deeded to the group and put on the land *disappear* entirely when objects set-to-group are returned off land -- really a bummer.

Fix these flaws in group perms, people will cooperate more with less fear of the sabotage that reigns in the game (tier-pullers, stealers, griefers).

Land will get preserved but tier paid, in a cooperative way. This method works great also just for any join project, non-profit or commercial. I struggle to achieve it constantly.

Prokofy Neva

Philip Linden came to the protest at the oil rig tonight. Somebody was manufacturing prims on a kind of UPS-style conveyor belt and threatening to lag the sim I guess (yes, I managed to fly out there after numerous relogs, doglegs, stalls, freezes, etc.)

We struck up a conversation about preserving land in SL and about the fate of these Linden builds in the new sims. I mentioned that some players were already complaining in the forums that newbies or others would buy this land and blow off the Linden builds.

I asked specificall if the oil rig would stay, if it wouldn't be some kind of landmark. Another player said a Linden had told him it wasn't going anywhere. Philip said to my surprise "Hmmm...I'm not sure P." and "Perhaps".

There are a number of landmark-type items out there -- my favorite is Xenon Linden's crashed airplane and the railroad side cards. They appear to be on red Linden land not marked for auction. The oil rig is out in the water.

The question is whether they will preserve these or auction them.

Philip asked what rule we suggest for preserving land. I said players should organize it. We talked about the "friends of the forest" concept that didn't succeed here because players couldn't get their act together to donate tier. He said "ooh what a good idea" as if he had never heard of the "forest" idea, but who knows, it is a big game. Next, he conceded that yes, it could be hard for people to get together for the big purchases and he said "maybe we should be auctioning off big pieces" and "put some pieces together".

Well, of course, they already do that on the Linden auctions. And it won't necessarily induce player cooperation to preserve land, but it will encourage barons to help themselves to big chunks to chop up for quick sale, or to set aside for zoned sims they control. Not sure everybody is gong to be liking this on the new continent, but maybe it might work.

I'm afraid I mounted my hobby horse about all the problems in groups and how they need to be fixed in order to help players pool tier and funds to get land to preserve, manage, or do joint projects.

The fact is, there is no Linden sentimentality or even slightest inclination to "preserve" land they make tons of -- even pretty new land with their own people's funny and cool builds like in the new continent. They'll likely preserve some of that, but then later might wonder how it's going to look to have all those cool things next to Club Lagg with its Black Box of Doom and White Cube of Death and all those dumb prefabs with the hearts particles spewing out of them and the hot tubs on the roof LOL. Whatever.

My take-home from the oil rig impromptu convo with Philip is that the Lindens will listen to players making recommendations how to preserve something if it makes sense financial for them. We all discussed the need to get the tier paid. I suggested they keep the rig and charge to use it for events. I dunno, it really doesn't take up THAT much of the server space, they should just let it be a hangout and a landmark.

The question is whether they can keep things like Tiki houses and boardwalks, but why not? They can be like Linden roads.

I second that motion! LOL

That was exactly (at least some of it) what I meant with [there aint no] 'working, effective model for a player to provide that' in that last reply in my poll about preserving some of the northern continent. Sorry, I just read this after I wrote my reply. And thanks for the quick reply. If I see your last reply I ask me again, how you find the time for all of this writing

I don't think such group efforts, like you suggested are feasible without some mechanisms that further stable groups with responsible members. Is has to be possible to form groups in which membership is a real commitment on which the other group members can rely on ... at least for a defined timeframe.

Another example for this are the zoned sims which seem to become more popular these days. Its not easy or very much effective to enforce any kind of rules in such a sim, when it is not owned by one person. And ownership by one person has other disadvantages.

Well, I disagree because I do it. While I was talking to you in the game, I'm dealing with a tenant who has pulled her 1024 without notice, after maybe a week's stay, after soaking up an hour or two of officers' time with the purchase and placement of her house, URL, other custom items. But that's ok. Because someone else is selling first land and donating their tier, and it ebbs and flows and it's all good.

We ask that people notify in 24 hours. When we have larger amounts we ask for public pledges to try to have some "naming and shaming" capacity. But the only way to guard against members who through malice, neglect, or forgetfulness do not notify of tier changes is to have a buffer built up, so that they can't pull out at once and leave you with the Lindens seizing the land. Of course, keeping the buffer is expensive and maybe not worth it. The alternative is having staff constantly ask people about the tier donations LOL. You can't be that intrusive.

I don't believe you have to be good friends or trust people. A woman comes and offers tier and picks a lot and lives on it happily for a week and pulls her tier. What's not to like? She put in her paid tier! That was tier I didn't have to pay! What's not to like! She doesn't have to be my best friend and my trusted partner for us to arrive at this simple, expeditious transaction of benefit to her and me.

In a zoned sim , one or two trusted partners police all the tier by paying themselves and then collecting in Linden or from PayPal. It's different. I think they can't supply the level of customer service, land access like landscaping and terraforming and freedom for builds, and customization that my groups can, but whatever, just judge for yourself. There are plenty of rental groups in SL, they're all over. Type "rental" or "rent" into FINDPLACES and you will find them and visit them and contrast and compare.