Group liability fees?

My account shows that several of the groups I belong to have charged me L$1 on more than one occasion (appears to be weekly) without my knowledge. They are listed in my account as a "group liability" charge. There is nothing in the charter of either of these groups that explains that they would be charging me for anything. The groups were free to join. Upon looking at the "Land and Lindens" tab of the groups, it looks like it might be for a $30 listing fee in the search. Can anyone shed some light on how this works? Can they debit me for Lindens for expenses they incur without my knowledge or agreement, especially when nothing is said in the charter about it? And is there a limit to how much they can decide to spend, and therefore take from me?

Many groups are set up this way. There is a priviledge in the roles that includes 'paying group liability' that should be checked off for anyone that is just a casual group member. Group owners and officers perhaps should pay that, but not a common group member. Thats just my opinion though. Not worth much

Most groups probably dont even know the feature is there and havent paid a bit of attention to it. Talk to the group owner and ask if they know its set that way, nicley of course.

Ashlynn, I for one didn't know how to fix this so thanks for the info. One Linden doesn't sound like alot but if you are in 25 groups that charge adds up.

Just a bump since it seems to come up a lot .

If you have a friend or someone who's reporting a negative L$ balance, that's due to group liabilities. If they look at the transaction history on the site for the last Tuesday, they'll see which groups are causing it and can contact the owner, or leave the group.

I really dont like to pay for a group fee, unless the group is really really special...

I think it's rather irresponsible for group owners to leave the members holding the bag for listing group owned land. However, it's the default setting for groups to take liabilities from its members and many group owners don't bother to go in and change it.

When I have more time, I think it would be a good idea to make a feature suggestion for LL removing leaving the group liabilities checked by default in the group roles section for members. In addition, I think that when people join groups, if they are joining in a role where liabilities are shared, they should have a pop-up that comes up informing them of that so they can choose not to join if they don't want to pay group liabilities.

I check all groups now right after I join them to see if they own property, and if so, whether members are included in paying liabilities. If they are, I leave the group. I only got caught on it once - when I contacted the group owner, she said she'd 'look into it' but nothing ever came of it.

I agree.

There is one thing about it though, and I Quote:


This is the same as the old "Member" role, that is everyone in the group, they pay liabilities, but they also receive any money paid to the group (such as land sales...).

Anyone who has been around for a while will remember the many threads about groups selling land (or other things) and then everyone in the group getting the money.

However now that groups have that choice, if they choose to leave it on, and they sell land... (or anything else)

That is also an option under roles. I will bet a majority of groups that have the priviledge of paying the liability do not have the priviledge of receiving monies if the land sells.

But exactly what "liabilities" can we find ourselves docked for? There is the L$30 fee to be listed in places. What else? I don't want to log in some day and find my money gone because I belong to a small group that just had a big expense.

I've wonder about that too. I donated tier to my SL church, and to do this I had to join a newly formed group for their land holdings. I was almost immediately socked for about L$60 for various listing fees. If I had been warned, I wouldn't have minded. No other charges have appeared since that time, but I keep wondering just what I signed up for and how much liability I could face.

And yes, the obvious answer is to ask the group, but that would mean actually *attending* a church service and I haven't gotten around to that recently....

So you want to enjoy the group land, but not help support it? That is irresponsible. It smacks of the "Gimme Gimme" welfare mindset so widespread in today's world.

I very much agree! Especially in the sense that new people are probably the most likely to add group after group after group when getting to know SL. I've been here awhile an still did not even know that for over a month. Default set to not take liabilities is good because the owner can't claim they did not know, and a drop down menu should accompany ANY debt made in game. There should definitely be an in game warning blue drop down.

I would be curious to know just what kind of liabilities this covers! This could be a potential problem for sure.

Oh, piss off, you have no idea what I'm talking about. I'm talking about joining groups for informational and event notices.

Here's a good one for you to chew on.

I pay $275/week rent for a shop in Reef Islands mall.

This week I got hit with a $1 deduction for group liabilities, for the group I had to be in to place my items in this shop.

I will not be renewing my lease.

Why? Over L$1? Because. Either way, it's shoddy or shady.

Either: They intend for their merchants to DOUBLE PAY, both rent, and liabilities, or, they simply don't care enough to learn how to set up their groups properly.

So, that puts me back on the hunt for a new mall, but oh well.

heh i was wondering what those 1Linden things were half the time I dont know if people are aware before you leave a group and get mad ask the group owner it appears I had that turned on although i never actually turned it on in my group never knew where those 1L's were coming or going to now I know so I will turn it off (the group is 1 year old ...)

It was because of the group liablities in the old days that I disbanded the group that I ran for a shop. I did it so my SO and a friend could set the shop as their home, but I felt it was unfair to make them pay for my directory listings. *shrugs* Never got around to setting up a new one...

So, what happens if I make only the 5 Officers in my group pay the liabilibies (to cover the $30L Search listing fee), but 2 of the officers have no Lindens in their accounts? Does the system just take from the ones who do have $L to get the $30L? Or does it evenly take from all 5 of us, resulting in a negative balance for the 2 who had no $L?

I don't want to make our members pay for our listing. I think that is definitely something we should take care of ourselves. I'm just trying to figure out how exactly it would all work.

TIA!

That's the way it seems to work.

You can deed a prim to the group and pay it L$30, that will make sure noone will pay any liability for that week. Or just set it so only you, in the owner role, pay liabilities.

Does that mean that the L$30 weekly places listing fee would be taken directly from my in-world account balance, if I am the group owner and the only one set up to pay group liabilities? Or does it run some kind of tally, and you have to manually pay something/someone the L$30? What if you don't have enough money in your account?

A followup question - what happens when you do have a negative balance? What are the consequences? How does LL get $L from residents who never have any intention of putting their own cash (US dollars) into the system?

Maybe a Linden comes and sticks their av on a camping chair for however many minutes it takes to get them out of the hole.



Sorry, I'm bored at work.

-Atashi

After two weeks of trying to get through on the phone, we were told that the group liability and benefits (if you sell some land) only goes to those who have that option checked under Roles/Abilities. However, on the planning tab where the money is, there is a bug that shows the division of monies split up to all group members. This does not happen they assured us. We checked the next day and they were correct.