For context, I'm talking about the new Changes to Land Auction Delivery.
And specifically, this part
Second, the Resident's new total square meter commitment (including the newly won auction land) will be used to determine if the Resident needs to be moved into a new tier. If a new tier is required, the Resident will automatically be moved to the new tier level.
Lastly, the parcel associated with the won auction will be transferred immediately to the new owner. The owner is no longer required to go in-world and purchase the land for L$ 0.
The response to my first post was:
...all we are doing is automating the process you would have to follow anyway. Granted, the timing of land transfers may not be as convenient to certain individuals who are purchasing with the intent to give the land to a group. However, we feel that for the vast majority of buyers, this new process will be much simpler.
You know if this were true, if this was simply automating a process that had to be followed anyway, then I would never have made my original post. It is not simply a matter of timing, as Chris indicated.
I'm not saying that timing isn't a problem. It is.
The auctions are unlike the normal buying process. You bid today and you don't know if you've won until 2 days later. And if you misjudge what you will win by even 16m2, then the new system could immediately increase your tier by half a sim. And if the auction happens to close near the end of your billing cycle, then you have no opportunity to use the excess tier. So it's like an upcharge on the sale.
These are issues of timing and they are potentially disastrous for anyone who enters an auction and doesn't understand them.
I think it's inconvenient and unfair, but that is not what my post was about.
What I'm talking about is group land and it's a very different bird. With group land, a person uses a totally different means to purchase the land. Instead of pressing "Buy Land", they press "Buy for Group". This is a different process and one that the new system does not automate. Instead, the new system makes this impossible.
Well, I guess it's a moot point. But I did want to repost to make the distinction and to offer what I think is an effective alternative.
So, what are we talking about? We have billing and transfer. We have automatic and immediate. And different combinations of the above.
The new system has immediate automatic billing and immediate automatic transfer. I have no problem with immediate automatic billing and no problem with automatic transfer. It is immediate automatic transfer that is my issue.
My suggestion is that a 24 hour transition period be implemented. Go ahead and bill immediately, but give the winner a chance to transfer the land in the way that they want to. 24 hours after the close of the auction, transfer automatically and raise tier accordingly.
If it is a group, the transition period gives them the opportunity to "Buy for Group". If something unexpected happened and the new land will put the user over tier, this gives the user an opportunity to sell or release land.
If you're worried about making it simple for the "vast majority" of users, then you can make immediate transfer the default, but put an option in the user profile to enable manual transfer. This would be similar to the way that you have Advanced and Basic views in LindenX.
As a customer, this is what I want. I can understand if Linden Lab is unwilling to do this, but I did want to make sure that we were all on the same page.
