Group liabilities - wtf how long have I been paying these?

[SlappyJoe Dubrovna]

I'd been offline for quite a while and just logged in to discover I had a negative Linden balance...about -2500 actually. No idea what I left with but um...obviously more than that. Checked groups - sure enough, a random merchant has "pay group liabilities" active for everyone. I dropped a note to the owner but it seems incredibly unlikely they didn't notice. That's IF it was even them...another group could easily have had it on temporarily along the way, right? 

So, fine. Life in the big city. I assume LL doesn't care, but I would really like to know how much I lost here, and when. Is there a way to search this out? It wasn't in the last month, so it isn't coming up on the account history. 

[Kenbro Utu]

Group liabilities are turned on by default, and if a group owner does not specifically check, then members share in liabilities as well as profits.  There have been group owners on the other side of the fence, having sold group land and the proceeds divided among the group members.  It cuts both ways.  I still have no clue why the default has not been changed after all these years.   

[Amethyst Jetaime]

There is no way to find out or even pin the whole amount on a particular group.  Your transaction history could tell you but it only goes back 30 days.  It is up to you to download it monthly if you want to keep it longer than that.  It could be that more than one group was charging you all along,  but you never noticed when you were active in SL as it was only a dollar or two at a time, but has now turned it off for all members.

Afraid you will just have to chalk this up to a lesson learned and always check new groups you join to see if you have to pay liabilities and also keep an eye on your transaction histroy and maybe download it monthly.

[Cerise Sorbet]

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Kenbro Utu wrote:

Group liabilities are turned on by default, and if a group owner does not specifically check, then members share in liabilities as well as profits.  There have been group owners on the other side of the fence, having sold group land and the proceeds divided among the group members.  It cuts both ways.  I still have no clue why the default has not been changed after all these years.   

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It did change, in July 2012. It now defaults to off for newly created groups, so the accidental cases should gradually fade away.

[Kenbro Utu]

Well that show how long ago I started my groups....  Good that it changed.

[SlappyJoe Dubrovna]

Ah...suspected as much, but thought the insiders might know another place to look for longer records. I'm not mad, these things happen. Good to know though - apparently you can be in negative $L balance for [i have no idea how long] with no real effect. (What, no interest charges? LL, you surprise me!)

[GingerHenderson]

Hmmm, learn something new every day. So where do you go to check if a group may charge you liabilities? Any thread or posts on this?

[Orca Flotta]

L$ & Land in the group Info, Ginger.

[Venus Petrov]

Great post and a cautionary tale to anyone who has been a member of a group for a long time.  Sometimes liabilities can be as little as L$1/week so someone may not notice the slow dribble in funds.  One can always see it in the Transaction Log and it is an easy thing to either 1) leave the group or 2) notify the group owner and hope that it is changed.

[Fawn Rowlands]

I found this in one of my groups:

Summary for this week, beginning on 05/16/2013.  The next stipend day is 05/23/2013.

Balance                L$     0

                      Group
Credits                     456
Debits                     -456
Total                         0

What does that mean exactly?

[Venus Petrov]

It is just the current total of liabilities owed by the group.  You should check your role in the group under Members & Roles and then scroll under Allowed Abilities until you get to the box Pay group liabilities and receive group dividends.  The box, if unchecked, means you pay and receive nothing from the group.  Ideally, you want it unchecked unless you are the owner of the group.

[Anna May]

Hi,

This is stupid. SL changed it without telling us. I did not know what it was about and wondered why i needed to pay. I did not pay in the past. But this forum helped me. Thanks for that.

 

Anna May

[Cerise Sorbet]

The change LL made means that if you are getting charged by a group now, the group owner chose to do it that way. There was never any automatic notice about this, and not really a good way to do that; roles can have this property toggled on and off whenever the group owner feels like it.

[Phil Deakins]

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Cerise Sorbet wrote:

The change LL made means that if you are getting charged by a group now, the group owner chose to do it that way.

There was never any automatic notice about this, and not really a good way to do that; roles can have this property toggled on and off whenever the group owner feels like it.

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Or it's an older group and the owner still isn't aware that it's turned on.