sim management software/script

Hi,

Is there a script/software avaliable to manage sims ?

- a script that scans all the land, lists the owners, how many land they have, calculates the monthly fee, sends payment notices, ... , ...
- a script for house renting with possibility to buy extra sims, doors locked if rent not paid, ...
- same thing for shops
- ..., ..., ....


Possibility to export all this data to external SQL database for detailed reporting and so.

Does this exist or is it allways custom made?
How do other sim owners / land lords do the administration of sims ?

Try Hippo Technologies. The current version (3.0) isn't quite what you need but the beta of 4.0 comes pretty close. The creator intends to add web functionality in the near future which may provide a web based transaction log.

where do i find more info about the beta version.
I have been in the shop but could not find anything about it.

Currently I am working on a fully automated Land Management system, that includes scanning, and sending information to a website, with the website organizing and sending information back to a SL object to deliver late notices and such. An inworld ATM so residents can fund thier website account with L$ so they can pay with L$ or paypal on the website for thier land fee's. and full resident account information they can check thier land holdings history and payment history.

Look to the next couple weeks for beta testing and eventual release in maybe a 4-6 weeks for public use via a hosted website. IE you pay a monthly fee for a website($10), and a fee ($15-$20)per sim managed under the system.

Reliability beyond human error and human flaws will make this the ideal software/website combo for any size estate, from a single sim to a 500 sim estate

I use Moonshine Herbst's Rent-O-Matics.

Yup. Not kidding. 18 sims, over 1 million square meters, hundreds of parcels.

Not networked, no web interface, none of that.

But also, not net-hackable, won't fail when LSL email implodes (as it does regularly), and about as simple as it gets.

Mine are generally in the streetlamps of Caledon as the 'address' prim for the property on the streetlamp (I changed the textures for occupied/available so they are more pretty).

Also, these suckers have been on the grid since forever - deeply, deeply tested and validated by years of service. Caledon's alone are collectively well over 100 tested script-years of service.

Besides, you are gonna have to walk your sims anyway to manage them. No way out of it.

I been beta testing thru 2 updates aready and havent lost a single scan, built in redundancies and cross checks eliminate any unreliabilities.

While Rent-o-matics and Hippotech might work well enough for rental properties, sold properties have no system availible, as far as I know

And the only land walkthru that will have to be done will be for reclaimation of land. My scanners are set up to look for certain Covenant Violations like access restrictions and blacklisted objects

What do you consider constitutes a sold property on a private estate? Just curious.

I deed to a resident's name, group, or whatever, so long as tier is paid - no forced group of my own.

Yet I'm very shy of using the terms 'buying' and 'ownership' myself when it comes to private estates. Considering all sim owners have a reclaim button, whatever terms are used.

Well Desmond, at fear of provoking a "is estate purchase or rental" flame thread I'll just say a few things about it that I consider indicators of LL "Original Intent"

1. When you "purchase" any land, sim or mainland, you go thru a "purchase process" not a rental process

2. after purchase of land, the "Owner" of the land is set to the purchaser. This doesn't in any sense indicate renter, nor does it say anything about rental. There is no "renter" button.

So one should assume that LL intent is o covey ownership and not rental, as if they intended rental, they surely wouldn't have gone to such extent emphasizing "Purchase" and "Owner"

Now I know this can be argued to death, and so many threads have been started and locked already on the issue. but you have to take the original intended meaning of "owner" for the literal meaning, if you dont, you can say anything means anything, and chaos is never a good thing

And no doubt LL isnt limited on control of their mainland any less than estate owners. Im most definately sure LL has a reclaim button on every plot in SL including Simland. So therefore Estate owners and LL can be considered the same type of entity as far as is concerned to a "buyer" of both mainland and simland. So the rules dont really change either way, thus is why LL didnt feel the need to modify thier "purchase process" on sim land

I see where you are coming from now; I know many who hold similar views.

My views differ a bit, but I'm not here to debate all that.

A reliable, fully automated system would be pretty handy.

Though I must confess I haven't needed to evict anyone ever, save for cases where tier was no longer paid. And all parties seem to understand that necessity.

There's no need to guess.

/139/81/161029/1.html#post1386518
Note the first and last line. From LL's point of view there is no transfer of ownership and hence no sale, only an inter-resident rental agreement.

(Edited cause my keyboard is misspelling words )

I'm not sure if that. When a renter needs you he can send an IM.

You can't be at every sim the first of every month.

Do you think that anshe chung walks everyday at every land in every sim ?

There has to be a better way to manage your sims.

I think estate rentals and purchases are pretty much the same thing, but one difference (well, depending on the covenant) is that with 'ownership,' you can resell land. Therefore, it's possible to buy at one price, and if the value goes up, you can resell at a profit. You can't do that with rentals...there you just pay your monthly fee until you feel like leaving.

Better from whose perspective, though?

Sure, it's easier to not walk your sims I guess. I do it anyway, as a side effect of just taking care of things.

I'm not talking about just checking parcel meters - it's other stuff. Somebody gone for a planned 2 month absence and noob junk all over their property? Stuff like that.

Absentee landlording... Sims really do need personal attention. Failing that, it's essentially unzoned mainland.

* * * * *

Even with rentals, or, whatever you wan to call it - people can resell rental rights.

"I'm leaving, but so-and-so wants to pick up where I left off." If you allow that, you probably won't even know what deal went on. I do allow it, and I don't mind people exchanging spots for $L (within reason).

Mini-baronies leeching off my customer service, intending to strangle a land market in Caledon - I would mind that, and it's against covenant. But someone simply getting a reasonable amount of $L for their longtime spot after they want to move on - I'm cool with that.

That isnt any indication of LL point of view, firstly, the sentence your speaking of is ended in a question, and no where else does the statement indicate any kind of rental situation...

Consider it like this.. In real life even aftet you have your home paid off, you still have to pay taxes, and if you dont pay taxes the goverment will take your land and give it to someone that will pay taxes, but you dont consider your home that you own deed and title, as a rental. Very easy to understand the diferences between rental and ownership. And really those claiming its rental are just confusing less expereinced residents with thier own "Propaganda" for whatever unknown motives they might have

Also too, if you read the Original post that Kelly Linden was replying to in particular you will see that Kitty took the Kelly Linden statement out of context

/139/81/161029/1.html

Actually it's the other way around. Anyone claiming that a "purchase" of private estate land conveys ownership is just plain dishonest.

"Allow resell" is nothing but a checkbox in the Estate tools which you can change at any given time. It's hardly uncommon for a dishonest estate owner to uncheck it after the sim's been filled to have an way of extorting extra money from their renters by taking away their ability to resell their land.

At no point does the estate owner (or estate managers) ever loose the ability to do with the land as they please. The "Reclaim/Abandon Land" is always there to be pressed at a whim and whim really does include a harsh "no payment" enforcement.
You can argue up and down that LL will reclaim land if you don't pay your bills, and you're right, but they don't actually forfeit. It takes at least three weeks for the land to get seized at which point it's put up for US$ auction and if there's anything left after monies owed and a fine, that money is yours.
Contrast that to countless estate owners who simply pocket the original purchase price when you're 5 minutes late paying rent and instantly relist.

The covenant is hardly a solid contract as well. There was a thread over on SC a few weeks ago in which an estate owner changed the covenant to get rid of a renter because she felt his house was "too ugly".

"Do something I don't like, and you're out" is what I heard for my first private island land and that's really all that needs to be said. There is no pretense of me having any kind of rights, nor is there a worthless, unenforcable covenant. If she wakes up and has a whim to kick me out, then that is entirely legal and completely within her right as *owner*.
If you don't tell your renters they're there because at this moment it suits you, but that may change, then you're just deceiving them.

In what way? The op who was a land dealer and pointing out that private island rentals were unfairly showing up in land sales, while they're clearly rentals and should be published under the classifieds instead and Kelly responds by stating that she sees no difference between a private sim "rental" or "sale'. They're both the exact same thing.

My unknown motive is that I don't want anyone feeling they have more control than they actually do. A 'be honest up front' situation. Anything else would be deceptive.

* * * * *

Here's the biggest issue: I make it clear in the covenant that not all evils are listed in the covenant.

How's that, you say? That's terrible, right?

Well, it goes like this. I can't possibly think of *every* single nightmarish thing a resident might do in advance.

So, while I don't have any specific rule against 50m Karl Marx heads on fire and making flatulent sounds, or 15 Al Gore clones boxing 15 George Bushes in an eternal partisan deathmatch, I do say essentially this:

...do something so bad that it makes the surrounding land effectively unusable for most people, whatever you are doing is gonna stop.

I've never had to use this provision, mainly because it's there. So a few have said: Well I own it and there is no specific rule against (obvious sim-killing nightmare), so I'm going to do it...

Erm... no, the covenant makes clear you don't have that kind of control, and I'm not paying 295/mo so you can pay 30 USD/mo and drive everyone else out of the sim on a technicality.

* * * * *

Another risky one: "If you are doing something horrible that nobody likes, I'll refund your money in full and ask you to leave." Sounds great, right?

Well, guess what - this is basically saying: you will get a full refund if you are horrifically obnoxious, but not if you are nice! Doh.

I'll leave it as an exercise to the reader to guess what happens sooner or later.

You can say what ever you want, but the fact remains that nowhere in the land purchase interface does it make any mention at all to "rental". Whereas it does make several references to "purchase". I think its very clear.

Interjected what LL really means is rental, is one persons opinion speaking for LL who is not authorized nor qualified

What LL does with land they reclaim after a residents failure to pay his tiers has absolutely no bearing at all on this subject

Nobody uses the land interface in my sims without talking to me first. I won't allow it until they know what they are getting into. The 'land buy' interface is simply a co-opted mainland tool left over from Company mainland, poorly worded.

In fact, the Company has understood this problem well enough such that we can add a covenant to our estates. Fail to read an estate's covenant before getting involved, at your own risk.

* * * * *

Oddly enough, you might find that I grant far more in the way of ownership rights than you do.

My sims have avatar rights embedded in the covenant, I don't ban people from parcels ever, I don't have auto-bans for specific objects, I allow some time for most covenant violations to be corrected before doing anything. There's no unwarranted search and seizure either.

Never once yet have I evicted anyone for a covenant violation, in well over 1 million square meters of land and hundreds of residents. The forums aren't exactly filled with residents complaining of my use of an iron fist, and I've got a waiting list a bazillion miles long. I deed plots over to people's groups or names as standard practise.

Yet even with all that, I don't feel comfortable calling it ownership in a private estate.

Be careful, I heard you can break your arm patting yourself on that back too much,

First of all, I dont have a sim so your saying how much more rights you grant than me is moot.

Second, YOU cant deed land to anothers group yourself, since you cant select a group as the specific buyer, so I dont know where this is coming from

Thrid, no one ever made a attack saying that you rule your sims with a iron fist. Demond, babe, aint no one attacking you here, we all know your a good and fair sim owner.

Now, going solely on what is there as fact, selling plots thru the land sales search MUST be sales and not rentals, all these sim owners offering reservations and rental thru the land sales search are gaming the system and they eventually will be punished by LL... hopefully

All we have to go on is what is intergrated in the system, not saying its not outdated, or left over from mainland. but you cannot go against the way the system is set up because you disagree with its meaning, take it literally for what its meant, and all the confusion goes away. Anyone promoting that its rental is wrong, plain and simple. While you might not feel comfortable with calling your land sales, sales, this doesnt mean your anymore correct than the next person that might call it sales, as a matter of fact, taking the literal meaning could be construed as more correct...

I have rented land from Desmond on Caledon for over 6 months now.

I rent the use of the land. I rent the facility he gives me to use the land as HE pays the tier to Linden Lab. If he didnt pay the tier to Linden Lab, the sim would go off the grid, i would lose the use of the land and I would not be entitled to use it any more. I pay Desmond a set amount per week, he takes a little and pays the tier to Linden Lab.

I no more own that land than i own the rental car I hire from Avis. Desmonds tenants know that they rent, and it is made clear to anyone who wishes to take up Caledon land rental and wishes to know. I cannot comprehend how it might be thought to be a sale, since Linden Lab dont even know i live there.

Imogen Saltair.

Lapdog?

Like this, you dont pay your taxes on your house you lose your house, even though you own your home, and not cosidered a renter, I think making a direct relation to a well known real life situation works alot better for illistrating the point... much better than some far fetched vague interpretation that it seems some people are trying to promote here

Just for the records, anyone thinking land sales is anything but sales, kindly huddle it to yourselves till you can show me where on the land sales process it says rental, til you can dispute those FACTS with some sort of proof of process your just wasting time and trying to misinfom people

Lapdog??

laughing...

No.. just an individual with an opinion.. like yourself... and no more or less right to it either.

imogen

Actually, no....here in the UK, there are no land taxes levied on owned property. Taxes on purchases and sales, and any profits gained from them yes... Local Authority Council Tax, yes...But nothing that automatically leads to forfeiture of property if unpaid. Put even more simply? You own your land, you pay not another penny, and no-one can take it from you.

Now, of course, this is utterly irrelevant: we're in SL, not the UK or the US. In SL no-one 'owns land'....there is no ownership, because there is no land to own. You rent server space, whether directly from LL or via an agent such as Mr Shang. The only difference I can see is how much you trust your 'landlord'; any given individual can leave the game or be indisposed...or go beserk, kick out all their tenants and build a shrine to the Giant Spaghetti Monster...One would assume this is less likely to happen to a company like LL. Besides, if LL goes down, well, we're all paddleless and up that proverbial creek, with a lot worse things to worry about than whether our items have auto-returned.

Now, if you'll excuse me; well-mannered Caledon calls me home...

I sure can, and do.

Look around in Caledon and you'll see lots of group-deeded land.

I deed land to people's groups all the time. People invite me to their group as an owner, I deed it over, then leave the group. Takes mere seconds. Few think I'm stupid enough to try stealing other land they might have associated with their group.



Yes, let's stick to facts. Fact: I don't list on the land sales search.

I privately invite people to discuss land from a land waiting list I maintain, when I have any land available at all.

* * * * *

Abby, I'm sure there are some very nasty scammers out there. Go get 'em.

I do gently suggest that though others may have different views than you, that doesn't make 'em evil or even wrong.

Or that if someone shares an opinion of mine, that makes them worthy of being called a lapdog. Something to think about.