Group Land Settings

Has it always been the case that in order to get the finer points of group land settings to work; that you have to deed the land to the group?

I'd prefer it if I could just set the land to a group, deeding land gives me the heebie jeebies.

For the last several months, it's Deed the land, or group functions are severely limited. LL has stated clearly that was an intentional change and they won't 'fix' it so merely setting land to a group rants group privileges on that land, based on group roles.

Just make sure you have the group rules and permissions set up before deeding the land. And DON'T just take default values!

I normally wipe out almost all the permissions for the "everyone" group, and limit anything financially related, like the paying and recieving of group liabilities and the ability to sell or abandon the land, so only the Owner of the group can do the dangerous stuff. Then I assign an alt of my own as the second member in the group, and deed as needed.

Deeding your lands to someone else's group is an excercise in Trust. I did that once, and it worked out OK for me. Small group, and I was an officer in the group. I knew and truested the others who would have any control over the land, and I was also friends with the sim owner, who could reclaim the land if something was terribly wrong.