There’s an interesting thread over at SLUniverse regarding the trials and tribulations of buying mainland, deeding mainland to a group and moving land from one group to another group whilst at the same time trying to avoid incurring increased fees by tiering up.
The process is fraught with danger and confusion and Linden Lab should take a look at that thread to understand the challenges people face. The old old official Second Life forum archive had a sticky by Skye Whitcroft with some advice on how to move land around without tiering up, here for example is an explanation on how to transfer land from group A to group B, or in other words, transfer land from one group to another :
HOW TO: TRANSFER LAND FROM GROUP A TO GROUP B
—————————————————————–1. Set Destination Group as Active Group
2. Donate/Transfer Tier (Set Land Contribution)
3. Transfer Land to New GroupSET DESTINATION GROUP AS ACTIVE GROUP
Choose Edit >> Groups. In the box highlight the group TO which the land will be transferred. Click Activate.
DONATE/TRANSFER TIER (SET LAND CONTRIBUTION)
If you have donated tier to Group A for land and you need the tier in Group B, remove your tier donation in Group A.
1. Select Edit >> Groups from the menubar. The list of the groups you belong to appears. In the new pop up box, highlight the group where land currently is held (Group A). Click the Info button. The Group Information box opens.
2. Go to “Land and L$” tab. In the white box next to “Your Contribution” change this number to zero to remove all of your tier from group, or subtract the amount of the land you will remove and click “apply”.
3. This puts Group A into negative tier and gives warning message. Don’t panic. It will be OK for a few minutes to have negative tier in Group A to complete this transaction.
[N.B. You can simply sell land to yourself and tick the “remove contribution from group” box EXCEPT that if you do not have sufficient tier to cover buying the land back out of the group, you are bumped up to the next tier level. These steps help ensure you do not incur a higher tier charge]
4. Add tier (if needed) to Group B. [If Group B does not need tier donation, skip to steps for Transfer Land to New Group.] Select Edit >> Groups from the menubar. The list of the groups you belong to appears.
5. Highlight the group you want to donate to (Group B) and click the Info button. The Group Information box opens.
6. Click the “Land & L$” tab.
7. In the Your Contribution box, enter the amount you want to donate and click “Apply”
TRANSFER LAND TO NEW GROUP
1. Go to the land and right-click it. Select About Land from the pie menu.
2. Click “sell land”
3. In the new box, type in agreed price for land (can be 0).
4. MOST IMPORTANT STEP!! Choose “SPECIFIC USER” from drop down box. In new popup box, type your own name and click on “find”, then click “select”
****If you choose ANYONE from the dropdown list, and you are selling below the market price for land, you’re almost guaranteed a bot will buy your land. In effect, you are telling Second Life that you are selling the land to anyone in the game for the price you have just typed and that means anyone can buy it.*****
5. Choose whether you transfer the objects with the land.
6. Click “set land for sale”
7. Go to the land and right-click it. Select Buy Land from the pie menu.
8. Click on “Buy Land for Group” <— Double check you have correct group active!
9. Watch for the transfer message. If Group B does not have sufficient tier, you will get a message saying the transfer failed.
Now some of the information may be a little dated due to how the viewer now works but the process remains complicated. Skye’s old guide also includes the following information:
- HOW TO: TRANSFER LAND FROM INDIVIDUAL TO INDIVIDUAL
- HOW TO: TRANSFER LAND FROM A GROUP TO INDIVIDUAL
- HOW TO: DEED LAND TO A GROUP (TRANSFER FROM INDIVIDUAL TO GROUP)
These are tasks that many Second Life residents want to engage with but are put off from doing so due to issues such as group land carrying a 10% bonus, which means if you try and sell said piece of land back to yourself, you lose this bonus and may need to tier up to buy your own land, which is confusing to say the least.
The problem is that making the process easier for people is also fraught with danger. This is because group land can be funded by tier donations from several residents and they may not want the land moved to a new group. Therefore a quick transfer option isn’t really feasible, the system would need to be able to seek approval from all the people currently donating land to the group and that in itself would lead to complications.
A lot of group land is of course controlled by one person who uses alts to make up group members, and in those cases a quick transfer option would work, but people using alts to make land groups isn’t really the intent of group land, although that’s how it has evolved in many ways.
However something should be done to make the information more easily understood and a starting step may be for someone at The Lab to update Skye’s guide and place it as a sticky on the current forum, or on the wiki, or somewhere that people can find and understand these processes.
Land ownership in Second Life has always had problems, but Linden Lab can help people to understand the process more easily and at the same time encourage people to purchase and share land. However as I’ve already said, there is potential for further complication.
Tks for the info, real useful for me at least.