SLUniverse Forums

Sarah Nerd

Well You know how I feel about it, but in case anyone follows land bot issues..........
http://www.your2ndplace.com/node/688

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www.SarahNerd.com
http://www.your2ndplace.com/sarahnerd

Aodhan McDunnough

Gads. I wish there were some way of keeping these things from happening.

Joshua Nightshade

There are, LL just won't implement them.

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Aodhan McDunnough

Is there any other approach other than the listing delay?

Joshua Nightshade

I think that would be the simplest way to do it short of crippling bots in some way. A few minute delay or a limit on how many times a bot can hammer the database would be all you need.

Aodhan McDunnough

Yeah. But I just find it sad that things have to be goof-proofed to that extent. The delay would likely help a bit but it also won't address one of the core issues which is residents who aren't using the built-in tools made precisely to protect them. I foresee the day that unsuspecting residents will be so complacent that they'll leave the L$1 price on and several hours later the correct buyer comes on and finds that a bot has already picked up the parcel.

Preventing database hammering will slow down everyone, including legitimate land buyers. Bots though have infinite patience and any delay we put in will only slow them down, not stop them. In the meantime the delays will slow everyone down.

I'm an educator and I really really wish there were a way to educate landowners to use the land sales tools properly because those tools can stop bots dead in their tracks and fully protect your transactions.

But how does one educate when many newbies skip the tutorial, never read the TOS and even worse don't read the Community Standards (which is a bloody short document)?

Fade Languish

There's already a limit to how often you can hammer it. The way around it is more bots.

I still think the delay is good.

WarKirby Magojiro

A captcha on land sales would be useful

Fade Languish

And that.

Aodhan McDunnough

THIS I'll vote for. It won't stop the manual land swoopers but it will stop the bots.

grr ... Jira's messing up.

Joshua Nightshade

When did they add a database hammer-limit?

But the delay would help specifically in instances where you listed something incorrectly. The issue here is that people mistakenly put a price in and a second later a bot has eaten it.

I do have less sympathy now than I used to, because the UI alert is more clear than it ever has been. A captcha would be good, and a delay in a listing showing up is really the last thing I can think of. If after that someone still makes a mistake, honestly, oh well. Learn from it then to pay attention more in the future.

Fade Languish

Several months ago. Do a search in land sales, refresh a few times, or hit next a few times, and you'll get locked out for a while.

Aodhan McDunnough

I don't have much sympathy myself. A neighbor and I managed a parcel swap where we effectively sold the parcels to each other at L$0. Everything went smoothly and we weren't even rushing things.

I don't complain much about LL in this sector because they put in the one security feature I wanted which was an input to specify the buyer. That alone is a LOT of security.

Though I do believe the captcha will be a help.

Tyche Shepherd

I doubt whether a delay before listing and Captcha would have helped in this case - The delay could possibly but the issue isn't really with the existing security measures but user awareness . In all the cases I've seen and read about the person who lost the land didn't know about land Bots - If they did I'm sure they would have been more cautious .

Captcha for buyers .. well that's another issue and would seriously slow down land bots (until the captcha is cracked) but I don't think LL want to stop land bots, they are probably a major part of the "vibrant Linden economy" accounting for a small but significant amount of Linden trading activity each day.


If you really want a technological solution to a educational issue then what about an option for seller confirmed selling - The land is put up for sale to anyone ... Once a bid is received the seller must actively confirm that they want to sell at that price to that bidder, the current system doesn't allow a final check when the land is bought.

Joshua Nightshade

Ah, this is a good idea.

Aodhan McDunnough

This could work. I'd like to add something to it though. The confirmation must come within a specified time period (3 days should be enough), and that the buyer also can cancel the unconfirmed order whereupon the sale reverts back to land sales. The funds for the sale have to be held in escrow between the buy action and the confirm action. Funds return to buyer on canceled transaction.

The problem would be bots hammering the sales but I think that should teach the seller to specify the buyer's name.

mcgeeb Gupte

You could also add or change the warnings to "If you sell your land for 1L, it will sell within seconds to a land bot"
I like the confirmation idea too. Why not?

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Aodhan McDunnough

Adding more:

Because some people can't login to SL often perhaps we add the option of confirmation by email or by site login. Two links would be provided in the email, one to confirm and one to decline. On the site we would have buttons or links.

Fade Languish

I think this would impede legitimate transactions too much. People would not want to wait once they parted with their money.

prinţesă nină

the only realistic way to deal with this problem is to make people aware that landbots exist.

prinţesă nină

youre not a noob though, and you are aware of the existence of landbots and thus know to take precautions against being burnt by one.
just like you know better than to point a gun at your face and squeeze the trigger, but a 2 year old noobie human may not be aware of what the gun can do. people need to be bot aware.

Aodhan McDunnough

What can be done in this case is that if the seller is offline it autoconfirms in 10 minutes. Is that short enough? If the seller comes online within those 10 minutes he is given a confirm dialog. If he logs out again the count continues.

Comments?

Aodhan McDunnough