Linden Lab becomes landcutters

[Qie Niangao]

A Linden definitely needs to delve into the parcel sales history for this sim and figure out what the hell happened here.  I don't think it's going to be a simple answer.

Looking around the sim there are microparcel clusters with descriptions of being abandoned at different times in 2010.  Some of these clusters were set for sale, and some not, but those that are for sale still show descriptions of abandonment prior to the auto-for-sale process. Looking at the details, I'm pretty sure that the people named in those descriptions as having abandoned the land weren't the people who did the cutting.

Maybe those descriptions don't get cleared by the process?  If not, then perhaps the ones for sale were all in one auctioned parcel, purchased by some drunken dimwit, diced-up, and the pieces abandoned into the new automated process.  That's the kind of mess that makes Simeon's jira so important.

On the plus side, I see that a microparcel in a sim neighboring mine that had been bought two days ago and got a spinning ad sign and price jacked-up to extortion level, which I AR'd, has had the sign removed and the sales price dropped to only an absurdly optimistic level (which happens to be slightly less than the fool paid for it).  It happens that this same would-be adfarmer doof bought a few of the scraps in Skutter; those microparcels are not currently for sale, so I'm thinking some enforcement message is getting through.

[Phil Deakins]

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Pussycat Catnap wrote:

The LL process is automated, not manual. Did any of you think to file an AR and support ticket before calling LL's out here for not doing anything about something nobody told them about?

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Don't you think that they *should* have thought about these things before implementing the new system. They shouldn't need anyone to tell them, as possibilities like this one, and others that have been mentioned in this thread, would cross the mind of anyone with even a small degree of competence as they were creating the system. That being so, those who created this new system either lack competence (highly likely) or they realised the possibilities/probabilities and decided that they don't care.

[Drongle McMahon]

I think you are right. Supposedly they are only automatically selling newly abandoned stuff. So the abandonment in the title is not relevant. Titles aftemn get left, although I didn;'t know they were left through the auction process. I also think it's hard to envisage an automatic process doing that maz-like cutting. Then we are left with someone (an alt?) buying at auction for rock bottom price, cutting, immediately abandoning to avoid detection, then buying back the microparcels they want from the automatic sale offer (on another alt?). However I can't see that scheme as capable of making a profit, even if it was used for extortion (which I am not, of course, suggesting it is).  The solution  must be a lower limit on the size of auto-sale parcels. That wouldn't be enough if they were made up of disconnected microparcels. So I guess it would have to be a minumum for the size of connected sub-parcels, not so easy to calculate......perimeter to area ratio?

[Josain Zsun]

Look at it now.  Most is a 5536sqm parcel belonging to Eternal Gray, For Sale for L$4.5/sqm with random 16 sqm microplots scattered through the middle of it.  Just like the old days.

[Josain Zsun]

Flying around the sim, I found other medium & large parcels abandoned by single owners that have been gerrymandered.

 

[Simeon Beresford]

The  guy who put  out the  Spinning ads removed them as soon as Melodie pointed  out that they broke the TOS and  I  gather was  amenable. I suspect that's why the ones that you had reported disappeared Qie, rather than  because the Lindens had acted to remove them.

 

 

[Simeon Beresford]

Pussycat a Linden outlined the  proposed new system to me last year. I thought then that  what he outlined was  not going to work.  but until it was more  than a  vague outline. there was little we could do. 

[Simeon Beresford]

It is not unusual  for someone to cut  their parcel out of spite  before abandoning it. People get upset when they realise they  can't  recoup their 10  or 15 or 20 Linden/Meter  purchase  price and that's even if they got on with their neighbours.

If abandoned cuts are going to be quickly automatically offered  for resale.  Adcutters are going to see it as a way of getting  round the restrictions on  Ad cutting.

[Melodie Darwin]

Wow, its a bigger area than I realized. The 960m parcel next to it was rejoined from the same mess. Funny how there are also strategic pieces missing out of that one as well.

If the autoselling abandoned land is supposed to make Mainland more appealing, its not working til this stops happening. (Hint for Lindens: resurrecting fighting against adfarmers will NOT make people want land again).

[Drongle McMahon]

For what it's worth, here is a map from screen capture at 7:15 AM PDT.  (Advanced/Render types, no volumes. trees, surface patch, water; midnight, no clouds; ... then select and thicken property lines in gimp). The original offending patch is the ;arge one with a few donut holes. The mess to the south of that is covered with trees. Most of the small ones are GovL owned and some are for sale still.

note: a few property lines are missing, but very few.

 

 

[Pussycat Catnap]

Some of the lots in the woods are now for sale as well - but Governor Linden is only selling them to specific named people.

 

 

[Drongle McMahon]

Only 21 hours later. That's progress. Yellow and red are is the Govenor's land. So they rejoined nearly all their microplots. Was someone listening to us? A few missed though. For the blue microplots it was too late.

 

[Qie Niangao]

That's certainly good news.

We still need some advice from LL about how Arbor can best help them to efficiently and effectively maintain sanity (and profitability) on the Mainland.  To a layman, it would seem that a list of locations of abuse, submitted by a reliable source, would be easier to work down than a bunch of disjointed individual abuse reports from random submitters.  I know that sounds a little Arbor-FICish, but there has to be some way that this group can both help the Lab and advance its mission of improving the Mainland experience for everybody -- very much including the Lab itself.

The group still has an important role, even if we have to execute it by "AR parties" again, as inefficient as that always seemed.  I sent an alt out on a brief tour of Atoll roadways; although it was supposed to be just for fun, he found plenty of abuse (including a nasty bit of LL trademark infringement bundled with a particularly egregious microparcel scam).  I could submit these as individual ARs, but this seems the long way 'round the barn.

[Drongle McMahon]

Yes. I'm seeing more and more "illegal" ads and rotating floating for-sale signs. I haven't done ar'ing any yet. I presume they are from new people who don't know the policy. Meanwhile I have found a couple more GL microplot collections, albeit much smaller,  that might get accidentally auto-sold, but there's no communication channel to warn anyone.

[Melodie Darwin]

Wow Drongle, the work you put into drawing those maps is amazing. Kudos to the Linden who cleaned that up. I hate to add the but in that... Classic style ad farming is sprouting like weeds. There is no good that can come from LL auto selling anything under 112m. (Can something be done with the 112, 48 and 2 32m parcels still at http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Skutter/89/85/109/ ?)

There was an interview where Rodvik was asked about his view on a past policy change. His response was that it was before his time, so he really couldn't say anything on it. Likely, he would respond the same if asked about the ending of adfarming. As the autoselling of abandoned land has started under his leadership, this is what happens when land under 112m is released. I AR'd the one in the background which was gone within 30 min. But as I was one of far too many who fought this fight for way too long already,  one AR a day is all I can stomach.

http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Nangrim/121/6/83/' target="_self">

[Rabid Cheetah]

Hmmm...just playing devil's advocate, or trying to figure out why someone would slice up an entire region like that.  Maybe it's so potential buyers aren't stuck with having to buy a given size?  They can buy as much, or as little, as their budget and/or tier allow?  That's the only reason I can think of.  Though I would think selling the entire region as a single parcel would have a better chance of being bought than the "swiss cheese" approach.

[Rabid Cheetah]

I think you might be on to something, that maybe the abandoner didn't want the land t oever be bought again.  Who knows?

 

Long before the automation process, I needed to abandon some land due to not beign able to afford a high tier.  While I could have just let the landbuying bots have it and at least get some money back, the thought of the beautiful lake I owned (Ohello region) potentially being turned into crap made me decide to take the loss and abandon the land to Linden, so that the lake remained in it's pristine state.

 

So if I were to be in the same situation now, post-automation, I could see a reason to "swiss cheese" it to discourage anyone from actually buying the land and putting a giant statue of Bart Simpson's butt in the middle of the lake, for example.  Not because I don't think he has a cute tushy, but because I prefer pretty lakes.

 

Prior to reading this thread, I never knew you could get in trouble for how you divide your land.

 

My feelings on the actual automation process are mixed:  It's killing the market fo rselling land with all this $L1/square meter nonsense;  It's great to be able to find high-quality land at a low price if you look hard enough  -- I now own a sizeable lot next to the Great Wall for just twenty bucks USD, and have begun a project to get the area back to looking more Asian-themed...

[Rabid Cheetah]

One thing I don't get is why anyone would put up an adfarm in the first place.  Who actually buys stuff from a stupid sign they happened to see while walking about?  I would think most folks use search, go to a specific store, ask their friends, or use the Market Place.  Gadzooks, it's like the SL version of spam.

 

So how soon until we see spinning signs telling us we just inherited a million Lindens, but all that's needed is our login and password so they can give us the money?

[Hugsy Penguin]

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Rabid Cheetah wrote:

One thing I don't get is why anyone would put up an adfarm in the first place.

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Ad farms are a form of extortion meant for the surrounding landowners.  Basically, "if you want to get rid of the junk that has been made to be as ugly and obnoxious as possible, pay me 100 times what the land is worth to clean it up."

[Marianne McCann]

Added note: I heard at a recent user group meeting that parcels that are <512m are showing in search again. Tests with my parcel in Miramare seemed to confirm this. Anyone else confirm this?