bots buying lands from under ur feet

Me and a neigbour were doing a trasnaction of land at a cheap price as we were friends and no one was on radar we assumed it would be safe. The land was set and immediately I went to buy it only to find someone else had already bought it! We contacted a linden who did some reaseach but bascially said they had the right to buy this land as it was set for anyone.
How can this be right that people can buy land from under your feet via a bot wihtin one second flat and then when asked they will not return it!. This is a cheats way of aquiring land and a very unprofessional one at that..... anyone else had this issue and got their land back?

ive never known anyone to get the land back it was up for sale to anyone it should have been set to specifically sell to you

that`s why u restrict it to the person u want to sell to

bots suck but nothing to do about it

how can ppl do this with bots ...what aobut fair play and everything its just so not fair

Life isn't fair. It's just fairer than death, that's all.
William Goldman, "The Princess Bride"

You should get out of your head the idea that because no one is within sight that you are "alone" in any virtual world. However, I sympathize. LL knows that this is a very common mistake that landowners make, yet they don't seem to be taking enough steps to make sure residents understand that when they want to transfer land to a friend for below market value that you need to set it for sale to that specific person. A lot of people don't know about land bots, and that its possible for them to scan all of SL in milliseconds for mistakes like this and take advantage. I would like to see a dialog box pop up when a resident sets land for sale that has a short explanation of landbots and what they can do.

Considering that people can see anything from over 2 sims away, it is not safe to do ANY sales to "anyone" if you have an intended buyer.

Bots have influential friends. Find out about the various flavors of known bots that are around and do everything you can to protect yourself against them. I predict the worst that can be done with bots is yet to come.

There is good that can be done by bots too, but it looks like there are more malefactors than benefactors working on them.

Why didn't he just set the land for sale to you? The bots have done nothing technically wrong if the land was for sale to anyone. It may be unethical, but it's not technically wrong.

The land sales window clearly shows that one can either set a parcel for sale to anyone or to a specific person. Anyone means anyone, literally. There could be a neighbour hovering in the air and checking for available parcels in his home sim at the very moment the land is set for sale, so it was always a bad idea to sell to anyone if not anyone was meant to buy. Even in pre-bot-times.

I don't mean to single you out, CL. That attitude is held by plenty more people in SL and RL, including Linden Lab and most of the US government's executive branch.

How many posts have there been now about this? And how many times have the responses been exactly the same?

What's even worse, we’ll see plenty more posts like this one, because LL refuses to alert the populace about this threat, nor fixes the process that allows it to happen.

People without extensive techie/game experience come to SL with their RL expectations. Bots do not exist in RL to scoop up a land sale out from under two people who have just shaken hands and are starting the transfer of money. How in the hell should they expect some sci-fi impossibility to exist that can do that?

So here we have another pissed-as-hell player, who posts and then gets the most unsympathetic reactions possible from the techietelligencia, and who will probably leave and start spreading around more bad Word Of Mouth advertising about SL. (Does anyone at Linden Lab read any of these posts? This WOM means massively negative stuff for your bottom line. Would that fact possibly get you off your asses to do something? Does another German news crew have to come in and broadcast a story about it before you do?)

Of course, it's not MY responsibility to protect people from their own stupidity. What kind of world do you think we live in? Some Utopia where people actually care about each other?

The lesson learned here is that SL is all about, and only about, making a quick Linden, even if it’s unethical -- as long as it isn’t “technically wrong.”

All this “technical thinking” is killing SL.

agreed and add to it "annonimity"

If you set it for sale to ANYONE and not to SOMEONE it is YOUR FAULT

Stop trying to make your MISTAKES someone elses FAULT and OWN YOUR LIFE

ur name says it all basicly but nway...

so f`ing many ppl make this mistake as said abouve, they don`t know that a bot can snatch up the land within 10 miliseconds after pressing submit
they were there doing the exchange, not sell to wait a few hours for the other to buy so anyone could have gotten it

LL should have added a warning popup when selecting "anyone" in land sales to notify people about bots that can snatch the land faster then u can blink and that`s the point, they aren`t doing jackshit, he should be glad he got a linden show up so soon nway

What kind of answer is that? (lame). Your right it is 100% crap however the Lindens really don't do much about anything these days unless it effects their pocket book.

Yes I agree that they should have specified the transaction, but I also feel that bots are incredibly unfair in that they are faster than humans...They should not be allowed, and in a case where it is clear that one was used LL should step in!

As said above, it's that attitude (and LL has it) that makes RL and SL such a mess.

We know what's right and wrong, but people refuse to do anything about it because it isn't "specifically" against the rules.

There's an old saying out there: "Judges use the law like hillbillies use corncobs."

Since SL is "supposed" to be a virtual world that is just a ~bit~ closer to how we all want reality to be, why don't we, and LL, start by doing what is right, verses just what is written down on paper.

Food for thought.

~Jessy

SL actually has done quite a lot to stop this and I commend them for the changes. (although the sales tab is in need of work, but that is besides this point.)

I did not know about the new bots that buy land like that and that is a slick invention. Its a good headsup. With that said, when you sell the land it specifically asks to sell to someone specific or to anyone. If the person wants to skip a step - they risk other issues to arise. Its an unfortunate mistake but can you imagine the hassle SL would have to deal with if they were to interject in each case like this?

Don't forget the days when a player could not set land to sale to a specific person at all and they were at the mercy of the land baron.

Xplorer

That's the very nature of capitalism, after all. Selfishness wins; community loses. Do whatever you can get away with to get to the top of the ladder, and remember that as long as it's not technically against the law, it's all just fine and dandy no matter how unethical or, to put it more bluntly, downright evil it is.

So, of course, our Second Life imitates our First Lives. And, of course, a lot of sheeple will happily bleat in defense of that because, after all, THEY didn't lose anything here.

How sad.

What a load of crap.

For capitalism to work, for the free market to work, the community wins. The best product at the best price always wins until the government sticks it's nose into things.

Capitalism would never work without "laws"...... FAIR LAWS. Un-tethered "capitalism" fails everytime..........in fact they call that totalalitarism (spelling?). When a government fails to stand up for the masses they lose.

There is a place for "governments" to take charge.

And I'm about as conservative as they come.............registered Republican in the USA, Reganomic Republican in fact.

It's been a while since I sold land to "anybody", but vaguely recall that it gave some kind of warning dialog. But whether it currently does or not, it seems a technical matter to make sure an appropriately worded warning dialog is posted before the transaction takes effect. So... what specifically should it say -- or if there is one already, what specifically should it say *differently* -- so the risks are clear? Is there a jira open with the new wording for us to vote on?

The OP's plight is unfortunate, but honestly, I don't think Linden intervention would have been appropriate after the 'bot transaction had occurred. Perhaps it's heartless capitalism, but it just seems like undoing a legal transaction--even if one party is a bot--would undermine the validity of in-world transactions as a whole.

In *theory* such bots could contribute to the economy by improving market efficiency, rather like electronic trading on stock markets, so rather than outlaw them (however that could be enforced), it's probably better to make sure they don't get opportunities to run amok.

I said nothing about no laws. There will still be laws against force and fraud, but these nanny state "Progressive" laws should be repealed.

Under the Standard Oil monopoly the price of kerosene dropped from 60 cents a gallon to 6 cents a gallon, the community won.

You do realize that your government is preventing meat packing companies from testing for Mad Cow disease. This is to protect the profits of the large meat packers. The community loses.

I have an incurable disease. The government protects me by keeping me from using one of the safest and best drugs that could relieve some of my symptoms. I and others like me lose.

I think the term you are looking for is Anarcho Capitalism

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anarcho-capitalism

Anarcho-capitalism (often considered a form of market anarchism) advocates the elimination of the state; the provision of law enforcement, courts, national defense, and all other security services by voluntarily-funded competitors in a free market rather than by taxation; the complete deregulation of nonintrusive personal and economic activities; and a self-regulated market.

Totalitarianism is a bird of a totally different feather.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Totalitarianism

Totalitarianism is a term employed by political scientists, especially those in the field of comparative politics, to describe modern regimes in which the state regulates nearly every aspect of public and private behavior.

Well, no. That's the idea, but it's a simplistic, child's view of what happens.

In reality, what happens is that you have immediate profit at the expense of absolutely EVERYTHING ELSE -- including long-term planning, integrity of the community, maintenance of the environment in which we all, y'know, LIVE, and yes, even SURVIVAL of the species -- as a virtue.

That's how it impacts reality, of course. First Life.

In Second Life, it takes this form instead, and is certainly much less important in the overall scheme of things.

But it's MORE than just individual examples of what happens (has happened, in practice), or even the overall fact that profit at the expense of all else is made acceptable and even desirable. It's the fact that, fundamentally, "greed, self-centeredness and selfishness as virtues" creates an environment that DIRECTLY OPPOSES everything community (which, by definition, requires cooperation and responsibility to one another) stands for.

The idea of a capitalistic community is fundamentally ridiculous. It's just about like trying to have a dry ocean. And so the more corporate and capitalistic SL is, the more hostile to a cohesive community it must naturally become.

Really, that's just natural.

If a person happened to be right there and bought it, it would be the same problem. You shouldn't have sold it to "anyone" - you can't blame LL for you not using the tools you've got to protect yourself.