Hello. I obivously do not write in the forums often (at all!), but today I was witness to 1 swarm and 1 'bait' attempt that both errupted in all out Sim chaos for more time and effort than was necessary.
Although never having owned land personally, I have used land as a group member and have many friends who buy and sell land for a living in SL. I therefore thought I would share my thoughts on the whole topic as people seem fairly passionate about it.
I know that if I were buying land, and I was using the public find tool, I would jump on the chance at getting a deal. I know that if I had found a great deal, I would act very quickly and purchase this land, literally as fast as possible. If land was at say, 1L or an oviously ridiculous price, would I hesitate? ABSOLUTELY NOT. The way I see it, it is a win-win situation either way. There are MANY example of people dropping down to a cheaper account plan, making space to buy a piece of land they want immediately or my favourite, a true story, someone just wanting to 'get some attention' and pricing land at $1L. So the claim that "It is obviously a mistake" is an absolute falsehood. However, I am also very aware that there are always accident, typos and with group land a few bugs when changing back to personal land. Mistakes do happen. What I would do, and have seen done, is discuss this with the previous owner, and if it were a mistake, refund the money in full. I might even get a positive rating, yes? Let's say, in order to get this great deal, I had used the handy automatic account upgrader feature Linden has installed. I have likely already been charged money to my credit card. In that case, I would compromise. I didnt do my due diligence because I was in a hurry, and the seller obviously didn't do their's as a mistake. In this case, I would probably take the bigger loss, but, if I was willing to break tier once, THERE WILL BE ANOTHER DEAL THAT WILL BE AS GOOD. So, we have 2 positive outcomes (cheap land, good PR/ratings) and 1 compromise. Doesn't sound so bad.
I know, there are those who would take the deal and run. All I can say to this is that YES, the system is imperfect (a do not list option when selling OR editing land would be sweet), but in all fairness, the seller does have to make a mistake before risking themselves. To attempt to label a valid business practice 'unethical' or even term it 'swarming' is absurd. Until the system is changed, those who use the system in an efficient way should not face scorn from the SL public. Those who would purchase and run, there are fewer than people think, well they are acting inappropriately and should be named and called out if it were possible.
This is is why we have my next point, BAITERS>
The second incident I witnessed where someone decided to be judge, jury and executioner decided to attempt a bait. Price land exceedingly cheap, then jack up the price as people came, trying to take speculator's L$ because they have a problem with the imperfect Land Purchasing system. Given what I've outlined above, this is not the appropriate way to deal with this issue. Take care buyer, be nice seller, things will for themost part be OK. When someone INTENTIONALLY goes out to trick a group of speculators on the off chance that they'll catch the imagined 'bad one' of the bunch amounts to an attempt to steal at random. Those 'baiters' are then no better than the 'land thiefs' who don't bother to stick around to find out if they had purchased in error. A baiter, although somewhat well intentioned, has NO WAY of knowing who they will trap with their devious schemes.
So, everyone, be nice. Work within the system, don't try to abuse it (for profit or misguided retribution) and if there comes a time when the system is changed to help minimize accidental pricing, GREAT! But until then, let's all try to respect eachother, the SL rules and more importantly the Land itself (with all of its ugly 16m plots EVERYWHERE)...
Thanks, hope no one was offended. Just speaking my mind, feel free to disagree with my ideas. Don't bother reacting personally though ^^ My eyes will glaze over and I might miss what you write!
LOL
AngelPuff