Have you lost money to a landbot?

There has been lots of talk about landbots the past few days. I am curious as to how many people have been "victims" of these evil vile creations.

No, but see, I don't even own land, or plan to (though I'm looking to rent a small parcel).

I voted "yes" only because I took a hit on selling some mainland when I needed to tier down... so in that limited sense, yes I lost money. I haven't lost any due to mistyping.

A general point - I have read the strands on bots, landgrabbing, etc etc.... I have to say one cannot put the genie back in the bottle. Bots exist. Both LL and we as residents need to learn to live with that and the changes bots bring simply because of their existence. I don't deny it's painful for some, or indeed all - but then who ever said evolution was pain free? And if you're not evolving/changing/growing - why do or should you exist?

As an interested newbie, can anyone please enlighten me on these bots?

There's a way to make polls not show which names voted for what by the way. I can't remember exactly how.

Land bots are basically scripts that snap up any land priced below a certain amount per square meter. They operate so quickly (seconds) that you don't have time to correct your error if you've priced it far below what the land is worth by accident. many new residents don't even know they exist.

My non technical answer might be over simplistic but basically a Landbot is a "scanner" that constantly scans the grid for land for sale. They have a "threshold" on a specific price and once that is met the landbot "buys" the land.........nearly instantaneously. It's an automated process that the owner of the bot uses to buy land at low prices....the owner does not have to be online..........only have the Lindens available for any purchase his bot makes.

The main problem with the bots is (mostly new) people might make a mistake when selling their land. Typos (like typing 1000 when they meant 10000), putting the land up for a ridiculously low price for a friend and forgetting to specify the person they want to buy the land. In many cases the land is bought before the person even knows he/she made a mistake.

Bots are "legal' according to Linden Labs since it's up to the individual residents to make their sales and purchases mistake free...........tall order when someone is new.

My opinion.............landbots are a menace to SL. Borders on being an exploit.

You don't lose money to a landbot, only to your own carelessness.

Carelessness or mistakes?

But some never make mistakes and are always careful, I guess.

I see no reason this vote should be secret.

Does that same logic follow on "age/ID" verification too?

I am a 38 year old male. Nothing to hide there.

I was joking.........but to many everything is secret here.

Guess I should vote LOL

Now that I've voted I will say "no" I have not lost land or money to a landbot. Mainly because the one time "sold" my land to a friend to "buy" it back to get rid of the group deeded land that I mistaken invoked there were no such things as "landbots". All I had to worrying about was that my friend was there with me and no one else was showing on the map. I knew nothing about designating a specific person to sell to nor did my friend.........we successfully did the deal with no hitches. But if that had been now, I probably would have lost the land to a landbot for $1L!

Hahahahahahha...........but according to at least one person in this forum I would have been "careless". It would have been 100% my fault too.

not me. i'm one of those anal types who checks and double checks everything before clicking buttons... even when buying SL clothes. in RL, bankers and insurance salesmen hate me.

Although I voted no, indirectly I probably have. Bots have taken land from people who make mistakes, they've put them back on the market at an increased rate and pushed the price of land in that sim up, so whereas directly I haven't, I'd wager that I and many others in SL have.

They need to be banned, LL's response on this is an absolute disgrace.

My First Land parcel rapidly became surrounded by casinos, ad-farms, and nightclubs...so, I decided to sell. I thought I'd done my homework, but there was NO tutorial, or guide to selling parcels...so I cautiously went through the set-up. Before finishing, I decided to scan the surrounding land for any available 512 plots to compare prices. I mistakenly selected to enable the sale...but since there was NO one else in the sim, thought I'd be good for a few seconds while I checked the nearby land...in no more than 5 seconds...my land was sold...for far less than the surrounding market value. Less. Than. Five. Seconds.
I was a noob at the time, and had NO idea there was such a thing as a landbot. But...I did try to contact the new owner of the land to ask how he managed to purchase it so quickly. No response to over a dozen IM's. In five minutes...the land was up for sale for seven times my selling price. And I never heard back from the buyer...he most likely muted me after the first IM (a polite query, by the way).
So...you use a landbot in your business...you're scum, in my book. My complete disrespect for land barons increased tenfold with that bit of *ss-hattery. It began, when shrieking real estate harpies and their chat repeaters would swarm all over new First Land, screaming and pestering any and every noob who arrived to sell their First Land to them...and how they would give the noobs SUUUCH a better price than they would get on their own.
So...while I know in my head that there are some "responsible" SL realtors out there...I still think the entire profession exists to serve bling-bloated, money-hungry thieves and cheats, who will do whatever they can to screw you senseless...all in the name of "being in business".
Luckily...my first encounter with a landbot was my last. My subsequent sales have all been painstakingly negotiated, and very carefully done.

This poll seems to place the entire blame upon the landbot owner and none on the person who ignorantly/accidentally put their land up for sale at a temptingly low price, for whatever reason.

I don't like landbots or the people that use them, and I'm not happy with LL for failing to take steps to compensate for this greedy behavior... but the person that put their land up for sale is still partly at fault.

(and... my answer to the poll is no.)

Rusty,

Don't you know that holding people responsible for their personal actions is broadly offensive?

If the land was not priced right, wouldn't the increased rate that the buyer puts it back on the market for, be the correct price? If so, how is it pushing up the price? Wouldn't the careless seller be guilty of driving down land values?

Every land broker has lost money to a land bot, but in a different sense. I used to refresh the land search listings and when a bargain came up, I would tp to the land with the other brokers and if I was first, would buy it and resell for a small profit. Of course, if the land was set by mistake, I would return the land to the seller.

Now land bots get all the low priced plots. There are no more "deals" to be found, and the fun of being the first to the occasional bargain is gone so I've quit buying and selling land.

In essence, four or five bot runners have a monopoly now. I've lost profits, but on the plus side, I got my life back.

They find the land, buy it, and return all objects in less than 1 second.

I've never unintentionally sold land to a landbot owner. I find that if I follow the very simple instructions provided when I set a plot of land for sale, the whole process goes as it should do.

Hmmm............where are these "very simple instructions" that are provided? I don't know where they are and I'm no newbie. Of course I've not sold land but one time.....as I related earlier. They were no instructions at all........just the interface and boxes to check. Intuitive, sure...........but not so intuitive as to make you aware of somene's landbot swooping in to take any mistake you might have made and grab your land in a hearbeat.

People who talk about ignorance of others.........shame on you. Everyone does something for the first time at one point or another. Simple, even silly mistakes are made in everything........those mistakes should not be capitalized on and used against them. And that is what landbots do. And the owners of those devices know it...........like someone said a bit ago, they are scum.

landbots are scum? they are just bots, they use a program that detects land for sale and if it is cheaper than the parameters set they buy it regardless of where it is.

You probably don't remember the days when you HAD to sell your land really cheap to just get rid of the stupid thing. There were times when people wouldn't buy your land for any price, I had to abandon a plot once because I couldn't sell it due to the location.

No one has brought this little nugget up so far, you just assume that someone will buy your land for the fair market value as soon as you want it sold but it hasn't always been that way.