You will hear it being whispered in darkened corners of Second Life. Shadowy figures are abroad, they may even be coming to a mainland sim near you and with them they carry no tier contributions, but they will be in the possession of mainland parcels.
There’s something amiss and according to the whispered reports, there has long been something amiss. These shadowy figures are allegedly taking advantage of a rumoured exploit and getting for free, something that others pay through the nose for. I should be outraged, for some reason, and I’m not quite sure why, I’m not.
One reason perhaps is that some people will inadverently be taking advantage of this loophole. I’ll give an example, I’m frustrated that Linden Lab have made no moves to address the tier issue, tier remains too damn high. I have taken steps to downgrade my land holdings. During the course of this I started to unload some mainland parcels, then I decided to check my group contributions in case I had tier donations above and beyond what was needed. I found that I didn’t have enough tier donations in one particular land group, I found myself 2 metres under. Now 2 metres is neither here nor there and it may have only happened as I unloaded parcels owned by that land group due to losing land in tier bonus, or I may have long been 2 metres under and not realised it. I had more than 2 metres of tier available, so it was easy to put that right.
Another reason I’m not outraged is that even if Linden Lab send round the tax collectors and plug this hole, they won’t shift a damn inch on their tier pricing. The shadowy figures aren’t likely to pay for their tier, they are more likely to abandon, so the net result would be nil.
However, there does appear to be something amiss and like most people, I do get annoyed that other people are apparently getting away with something. The key of course isn’t to join them, as tempting as some may find that, but there is a feeling that this is something Linden Lab should be able to do something about, I find it a bit disconcerting that this has been going on for as long as it allegedly has.
Whispered rumours in darkened corners can end up being somewhat wide of the mark or overstating the problem. I’m sure Linden Lab are aware of such issues and will try to sort out any alleged wrongdoing.
The thing is, these whispered rumours in darkened corners aren’t going away, I’ll feel a lot better when those whispered rumours can be dismissed as being out of date.