Apologies for the preponderance of ‘mutterings’ posts of late. Hopefully, this will be the last annoyance I have to put up with for a while. *sigh*

A brief lesson in land

1. Just because a parcel has ‘anyone can build’ switched on, that doesn’t mean you SHOULD build on it. If it’s not marked as a sandbox, check with the owner first.

2. If a parcel is set for sale, you have to BUY IT before you can build on it.

3. If you have not RENTED or BOUGHT a parcel, and it’s NOT A SANDBOX, then DON’T BUILD ON IT.

This post brought to you by an irate Mar, who just found two avatars – fashion bloggers, both – with an entire bloody STORE and several pose studios rezzed high up above her land. And no, I didn’t set the land so anyone can build. I own two parcels that are divided by a teeny, thin strip of abandoned land (which I don’t quite have enough tier to cover, hence I can’t buy it). Both parcels, upon purchase, were set to: Build and Object Entry = Group Only, and Run Scripts = Anyone and Group (because some AOs don’t work if scripts aren’t enabled on land). I have a two-minute return time set on the main plot, since that’s where I have my store and I like to let people unpack things, and sort their inventory on the chairs up there.

Here’s the map of Endicott:

See the tiny thin yellow strip of land on the right? That’s actually a 512m abandoned parcel that’s about 2m wide. I own the plot beneath it and I also own the plot above it, where you can see two green dots (those two avatars, on their platform). I’ve highlighted my land in pink.

SOMEHOW (God alone knows how) both of my parcels’s permissions changed, and I don’t know when this happened. They became: Build, Object Entry, Run Scripts = Anyone.

The only other people in my land group are my own alts, and Mar is the only one who has full land permissions; the others are only in the group so they can Set Home and build/unpack boxes. Something screwy has happened here, maybe during a server upgrade or something, because I know that’s not what I set the parcels to.

Regardless, in short:

There is no such thing as ‘free land’ in Second Life. Every plot of land is paid for by someone. Yes, sometimes they allow others to build on their land, but usually that land is clearly described as a Sandbox or something similar. Both of my plots are described thus:

Mar’s place: Home of the Del Mar Store. Homes, useful stuff, freebies, photo studio, newbie help :)
https://www.sl4nowt.com/

So tell me, how is that an invitation to build your stuff wherever you please? These weren’t exactly newbies, either: one was 1245 days old (over three years) and the other was 704 days old (almost two years).

They seemed to assume that, since the tiny strip of land was for sale, they could build there. And around it. On a 30m platform.

Without actually BUYING the land.

And, when I started returning stuff, they were yelling, “NOOOO!” at me.

Sorry, ladies. I’m not paying £40 per month for you to have 200 or so prims rezzed out. This may be a harsh lesson in land ownership, but it’s one that some people clearly need to learn.