Have you lost money to a landbot?

Read my statement again:

"And the owners of those devices know it...........like someone said a bit ago, they are scum."

I know a "landbot" is a script. I hate when people pick a person's post apart looking of reasons to dispute them. But I get a kick out them when they obviously did not read (or, at least, understand) what was said.

As near as I can figure, most people seem to think theres only one of two possibilities... it's all the land bots fault, or it's all the victims fault. Theres no possible way both could be at fault in different degrees.

Over the last few months the debate has raged. Half the folks think those who set the land to "anyone" or mistakenly put the wrong price in the box deserve what they get and the other half wants LL to put new fail-safes in place.

A lot of good ideas have come up, from banning bots to captcha to a pop-up the first time you set your land to anyone explaining about landbots to making it as time-consuming to set to anyone as it is to search for a specific avatar. But untill LL comments on this or implements one of the suggestions we are wasting our breath. The best thing anyone can do for now is pass this on to every newbie that they meet who is interested in land: Step by Step: How to Transfer Land:
/327/3d/174599/1.html

I too have taken advantage of landbots to offload worthless land.

Setting it for L$.5 less per meter than the cheapest land on the first page of the mainland sale list will result in your land selling instantly for more money. And it will be purchased by someone other than a bot runner, who is raking in most of the profits.

Scum? You are too soft, I cannot find words strong enough to describe the species.

I want to ad something as well, most of the jokers out there calling people newbies because they do mistakes, YOU are the real newbies, because you don't know what you are talking about, never ever assume that you know someone because that person got stitched by a lanbot, it just proves your ignorance, if you judge people because of a mistake they made, you should start worrying about yourself - bc you are the mistake.

Personally I don't need publicity, or tell who I am, what I know, what I have done or how many parcels I have sold so far. But for you out there who put me down, I know who you are and what you are worth.

I have the guts and I stand up for myself, don't have an ego problem and I am NOT ashamed to say that Gina Jacks got stitched by a landbot.

But Gina Jacks says: If you support their practice and laugh at victims, you will never be my friend, RL or SL, and you better not reply to my post because I will put you on ignore list quicker than a bot can. I will communicate with people who love me and will love them back, I do not care for opposite forces. I will be rude when it's time to be rude.

Peggy, this message is not for you, I hope you understand

Still it would be no concern to you if the mall owner put the property up for sale as RL malls do all the time, accidently dropped a zero, and you found your shop bulldozed for a new resort the next day.

I've sold a few blocks and I don't think the sale process is complicated at all, in fact it offers alot of feedback about what you are doing. Go slowly, think about what you're doing, switch yourself to busy mode.

Even before landbots people used to refresh the land for sale list, some people might have had the ethics to return land sold in error but there was no obligation on them to do so.

Ideally no one should profit from another persons error and automating that process is abhorrent but unfortunately I feel the responsibility has to rest with the person clicking the mouse and making the choices.

lol. Yes, that's it. I am scum.

Please.


Let's forget the landbots for a moment and just talk about people, posting the land. Let's assume no one knew about Landbots, and they weren't a concern. Should you then not worry about accidentally posting your land at an incorrect price? Let's say you did, and then you went about your business.

Your next door neighbour, being ever mindful as he is, is wandering around your property because he's bored, and takes note that your land is for sale. He checks it, and notices the price is rather low, and buys it.

Same situation, without the evil of the landbots. He doesn't have to give it back either, and neither do they. And he is not scum. He's looking to expand, and he needed the extra land, and you know what? You are SOL. It was your own damn fault for being complacent. New or otherwise, if you sell your land at a price lower than you INTENDED to, notice I said intended. Sometimes people put in a price only to find out later that it was lower than the market value, and that's not the same thing as accidentally forgetting a zero. But if you sell your land for lower than you intended to because you didn't double-check the value you entered in the value box, shame on you. And what's more, shame on you for coming here and bitching about your own failing, and then calling people like me and Chris Norse and Kyrah scum for not rallying to your side and raising torches and pitchforks, ready to bust down the land barons door and demand your money back. It was your fault, and all you are doing is making excuses for your own mistake. I feel for you, really. I know it sucks to screw up, but people do it all the time. People have to learn to pick themselves up and start again, or go do something else. You screwed up, but honestly this isn't a fight you will ever win, right wrong or indifferent.

Gina, I thought you were ignoring me? You are welcome to post in my thread.
For one who doesn't need publicity, you sure are posting a lot.

It is NOT the same situation at all. If you set your price low and then go off on a shopping spree and come back to your parcel and find it's not yours anymore then I would say........"crap!! I screwed up! Dammit!!" Then move on knowing once I set the land price and did not stick around and at least click on the "about land" to see my sale offer I missed out..........an important lesson learned the hard way. However with landbots that process of double checking is not possible. By the time you click on "about land" it's gone.

Let me ask you.....have you ever posted in this forum, submitted your reply and noticed you missed typed or left out a few important words that would change the meaning of your post entirely? Don't you get a chance to "edit" it after rereading once you posted your reply? That is more like the "SAME SITUATION".

But, of course, I know you are so perfect you would never do that.

I think the defenders of bots would do themselves a favor by dropping the absurd pretense that bots do no wrong and it's all their victims' fault. The problem is not dealing with bots, per se. The problem is dealing with malefactors and exploitive people who use bots to take advantage of people. Make sure people know what the latter are, and how to deal with them, and then let them work it out for themselves. Defend the indefensible, and you onlymake for problems for yourself. You mean you haven't noticed that yet, after all these threads on the topic. Gee, youmust be really stupid.

Sure. I'll give you that, I've made spelling errors. Oh my. Landbots are fast, yes. I've said that a number of times, faster than you can move, they've gotten your land. HOWEVER.

It's not a forums you are posting your land sales into, is it? It's in-world. It is the same situation. Because the bottom line is, it's pure carelessness. Do you treat your car like shit? Do you live in squallor and filth? Or do you instead take care of your things? If something has value to you - and it must or you wouldn't be whining about it - then maybe you should take the extra time to make sure you are doing it right. You can take all the time in the world to stare at that sell window, can't you? Nothing is compelling you to take fifteen seconds to slap in an amount and click sell. No, we're talking about hundreds of dollars possible, aren't we? There is a backspace key, there is a cancel button. There is a little window that pops up asking you to confirm your sale. This isn't about being perfect. I never once said I was, did I? You seem to like to assume you know who I am as well. I've made plenty of stupid mistakes in my life. No one is perfect, but I never asked anyone to take responsibility for MY actions. I did that stupid thing, I am paying for it. You screw up on your land sale.

Let's reread that sentence.

YOU screw up on YOUR land sale. YOU suffer for it.

To me it has nothing to do with the landbots. I am not defending landbots, whether they are good or evil.

I am defending nothing, to be honest. I am simply pointing out that instead of owning up to a mistake someone makes, they look for the nearest thing they can blame it on, because heaven forbid anyone take responsibility for their own actions. Heaven forbid someone make a mistake and it be their own fault.

You obviously don't know me. I own my original "first land" plot I bought about one week after signing up in SL. That land is about as "valuable" to me as my favorite "The Who" CD. I lose it I will miss it...............for about 5 minutes. As Har said..........it's not about people making mistakes or even being careless (which I recent quite a bit being seen in that light). It's about some scumbag (yeah, that's the way I feel about those "bot" runners) taking advantage of someone's mistake (or carelessness).

I'm a pretty careful person......especially with things of value. But I remember when I sold my land to a friend and bought it back............I could have been screwed when all I was doing was trying to rid myself of an earlier "mistake". I wasn't even all that new to SL back then either. But I did not know about setting the land for sale to a specific person. No one told me about the dangers (yes it was a danger back then too). However, there were not the scumbags using landbots back then either. The "old" scumbags had to repeatedly search to find it and then tp to the location before they could capitalize on my mistake. And they also had to be "face to face" with the person they were screwing (funny how that seemed to make a difference......well not really. It's much easier to be a scumbag when you don't have to "face" anyone). It wasn't some automated script that constantly monitors the land sale data. Reaction time...........there is none with landbots.

I wasn't being careless.............and I didn't even know I made a mistake until the landbot thing popped up a few months ago.

So put me in the window as a landbot (the owners.......not the inanimate script) haters.

People are always going to get screwed. It's part of life, part of existing. There is always going to be someone who is heartless enough to not give a damn about the little guy or girl. In it to win it. That's what they say, and really all that means is they are in it to make money, not care whether you lost money or not. Buy low sell high.

Landbots suck. But people who don't pay attention to what they are doing are just perpetuating their use. Landbots would be nearly useless if everyone would doublecheck the price they are setting their land at. And that's really all I am saying. Asking even. Check your landsale before you post it.

Good advice. However, I'm still waiting on where those "easy instructions" are located. Instructions telling you that if you make a mistake you could be screwed. Most people are like me. They come up an interface that appears to be intuitive and since there are no notices or instructions it would be logical to assume that it's okay to check, set, etc whatever "seems" to be right. No where does it say............"If you are attempting to sell you land to a specific person you must check that box and enter the name of that person". Or a warning box that says "You have entered a price quite a bit lower than the going rate for land on this sim". There's not even a pop up or a notecard outlining what needs to be entered.

And "bot" runners know all this........they use it for their advantage. And excusing the people who capitalize on such things by diverting the blame to the victum is nothing less than condoning the action. I won't put you in the same window as the landbot runners........but you are right next door.

I've lost money to landbots too. There are so many of them now that all this competition is killing my bottom line.

LL can you ban all land flippers except me? kthxbye.

o.O

This is a bit like taking a poll on "have you ever been murdered?" The number of people who have or haven't been robbed in this way doesn't make it any less robbery, or any less unethical.

Didn't your wifebot advise you to stop posting here? Good to hear from you, Elan. And thanks for returning the mistakes your bot snags when you are contacted.

Well the correct price is what people are willing to pay but no, if land bots are buying up all land below a certain value, the price never hits the market, looking around I'll never see the land at that price. Even if the person behind the bot was to buy all land at that price, the time it would take would mean others would be pricing their land around the lower value.

It's not robbery.

The person robbed or murdered is likely an innocent victim. A landbot cannot buy land unless it is set for sale to anyone.

I have heard tell of another game where most transactions between players are done on one big board, and apparently the equivalent scam there is to offer for sale a large number of, let's say, stacks of timber at 50 copper farthings and in amongst them, one stack priced at 50 gold doubloons in the hope that someone who wants lots of timber will buy all the stacks without spotting that one of them is priced 10,000 times higher.

Now you can say if you like that it's the purchaser's fault and they should have been more careful.

But I say that the person who tries to scam the unwitting like that is scum, and if it isn't "technically" robbery, it's morally equivalent.