Land Baron Meltdown Leaves Residents Homeless
by Alphaville Herald on 15/10/09 at 10:48 pm
Intlibber Brautigan's estate taken offline by Linden Lab
by Pixeleen Mistral, National Affairs desk
Between 30 and 40 sims are offline tonight after what appears to be a Linden Lab repo-man job on the estate of Intlibber Brautigan. Mr. Brautigan's base - Venture Square – and neighboring sims are offline and inaccessible.
In addition several Woodbury sims are also offline.
When asked for comment, Woodbury community spokeswoman Tizzy Teardrop said, "The real solution is to decrease land holdings by liquidating most of the estate and channeling energies into profitable/sustainable things like content creation. Content creation is essentially resource free. There is no real overhead and can be infinitely replicated unlike land where there is a quite a substantial overhead cost. When you run a virtual land business, if you are not breaking even you are -losing- money. Big money."
Mr. Brautigan was unavailable for comment.
As winter closes in, the ugly specter of homeless residents wandering the metaverse in the wake of a tough economy is frightening – where will the displaced residents call home?
Witness X
Oct 15th, 2009
Woodbury dead again.
What a joke. Tizzers, isn’t Interlibber your roomie? After all, he moved to Woodbury to have a scholarship. Glad to see that’s working out great for both of you.
good
Oct 16th, 2009
Get the PN out of Second Life.
Annalyse Dragonash
Oct 16th, 2009
Frankly I am crushed, I had alot of tier paid up and am now out almost 100,000 lindens… I was assured this would never happen… I am not sure if it is possible but am looking into legal action
Atra Lupis
Oct 16th, 2009
Take your loss and get over it annalyse. When you deal with a Private Island, this sort of thing can ALWAYS happen.
You lost L$100,000?
Big deal! Come back and complain if that ever turns into REAL money.
icallbullshit
Oct 16th, 2009
W R O N G O!
Ari Blackthorne
Oct 16th, 2009
@ Annalyse Dragonash who said “I was assured this would never happen… ”
Actually, that statement is true.
If you buy from the Lindens directly. As for buying from another resident on the grid? I have a bank I’d like to refer you to. it’s called GINKO.
Mary Elizabeth
Oct 16th, 2009
It’s probably also not a good idea to rent from a known griefer.
Izo
Oct 16th, 2009
Looks like Intlibber’s lands are online again now
LOLWhat
Oct 16th, 2009
Big money? $300 a month is big money?
Ranma Tardis
Oct 16th, 2009
I would of paid you $100 for a sim, now you have nothing. Wonders how far behind they were on tier?
Jumpman Lane
Oct 16th, 2009
Here’s hopin Int can rebound. And Prok quit usin herald alts to smear these fine individuals, Int and Tizzeh u granny woman!
Harlequin Amoufhaz
Oct 16th, 2009
Too fun, too fun. I’ve lost not only my land in Rostok after this, but multiple objects created by friends who visisted my place. Some of these objects took quite awhile to make, and can’t just be replaced overnight. While the financial setback here is minimal for me, this is a matter of principal. Somebody who doesn’t have deep pockets could really be hurt by this. Scurrying away with all the money and not offering refunds? Damned ridiculous. You paid for this, and you were not provided with what you paid for. I’m not sure what we can do, but I hope the damages don’t exceed a several thousand, which is what it looks to be like right now.
With the best of luck,
-Emir Amoufhaz
Incognito Nirvana
Oct 17th, 2009
The spokeswoman for Woodbury, Tizzy Teardrop, must not know much about content creation. Take a second look at her quote: “Content creation is essentially resource free. There is no real overhead and can be infinitely replicated unlike land where there is a quite a substantial overhead cost.”
I am a content creator and have a lot of over head. Between my rents for land that I run my shop on, how much I pay in uploading textures/uv maps and the time invested in MAYA, photo shop & in world creation, it makes running land look like a breeze. Dealing with customer concerns is about 1% of my work, its the opposite for a land lord, they can rent a plot completely empty. All they need to do is settle any complaints and lay out a box that collects rent, there is no where near the investment in time that a content creator makes. If Tizzy thinks just shifting gears to content creation is easy money, she is going to get a rude awakening when she finds herself spending 5 hours in photo shop having to layer shadows on textures for each part of a 120 prim skirt, uploading each one, laying it on the prim after shaping it, then back to photo shop to package, display it in world, write to bloggers to get out the word and giving away a good deal of the stuff you just labored over to pull traffic to your shop.
Finally, no one can copy bot your land… A content creation business one has worked on for years can be wiped out in a single day just by a copy botter circulating a freebie box of your invent to a few groups.
LOL
Oct 17th, 2009
After reading thisarticle and the comments left I have come to the conclusion, this is what happens when you waste your Real World Money on fake digital land, objects, pixels and 3d houses. When you decide to rent digital land, your at the mercy of the landlord and his\her ability to pay thier tier.
the whissle blower.
Oct 17th, 2009
i was SHOCKED, when i herd the news. i was a good customer paid my tier. i spoke to the people who used to be part of BNT who basicly shouted at me and told me to just wait til the new tier box arrives.
im glad to see them exiting SL they wasnt very nice to customers and i guess that share company they have isnt active anymore. glad i removed all my funds out of that!
(we)call(bull)sh!t
Oct 17th, 2009
why rent when you can buy out-right? rents, leases and other creative arrangements are a waste (for most practical purposes). someone eles ends up reaping the benefit in the long run. do it for the long haul, make the commitment, buy the sim, spread the cost out and/or recover some of that cost basis by leasing yourself and just plan on losing some or most of your investment over time anyhow. isn’t that how any entertainment based expenditure works anyhow? gamblers, season ticket holders and other online gamer diehards know what I’m talkin bout.
Harlequin Amoufhaz
Oct 17th, 2009
As an Atlanta Braves season ticket holder for many years, eh… I sort of get what you’re talking about with season tickets, there is a lot of money to be made in that. But, no, that isn’t comparable to this.
Jasper Tizzy
Oct 18th, 2009
Intlibber is a SCAMMER .. and how can you all not know this is beyond me..
He stole my assets from my investors just after I left SL and used the funds for himself, GREEDY Then he spread the rumors that I ran off with the money.
Intlibber has not been able to pay L$ from his stock exchange, nor pay people who asked to cash out L$ for paypal. He has been USING people to live off of.
Be Smart and stay away from Intlibber and his clan.. Nothing but scammers. If you move to his few Sureal BNT sims, you will crash also.
Its About Time
Oct 19th, 2009
I agree with Jasper – how Interlibbers disastrous reputation could not have been known grid wide is beyond me. This is the best buddy of ROBO Marx and owner of the ACE Scam erm Stock Exchange, which is also circling the drain now. The King of Bullsh*t is hopefully dead and gone for good.
Maybe he’ll finally get a real job and move out of mommys basement instead of leeching off of the residents of SL.
My heartfelt sympathies to the good people who lost money and content. Its a-holes like Interlibber who ruin SL for so many.
I’m sure Blubber will have some long winded, ranting blog about how he was shafted by LL. Seeing him try to explain this will be extremely entertaining.
Surreality
Oct 19th, 2009
“Mr. Brautigan was unavailable for comment.”
Well, I guess there really is a first time for everything! Nice to see someone finally figured out how to get IntBlabber to STFU.
Sophia
Oct 21st, 2009
Basically people wake up this time. What’s it going to take?This is no surprise and use your heads. Don’t let people form your opinions or run your second life we have enough doing that for us in real life.
Linden Lab is a business whether you like it or not. If you get messed up in this crap you will loose… expect it. Try and recover what you can and move on. Think hard next time before you follow someone elses dream.
I think we saw this coming awhile ago with this situation. The signs were all there if I remember.
My computer died mid June so I spent my summer with real family and had a good summer. I missed SL I admitt that but I have my priorities in order and that is family first. I know there are some who really need Second Life for their social network. I totaly get that but enjoy it for YOU!
I have fun and enjoy creating whatever I can for my own enjoyment and if it brings pleasure to others thats a bonus. A bigger bonus is if I make a profit or help someone else make a profit with it.
I really got over the con thing along time ago. They will always be around. Not saying this drama is a con or what but what do people expect.
The real life economy is a mess and with that you get desperate people. Some who prey on others in games like this.
Who the heck can aford to waste $$ on this thing if they are struggling in real life? Of course this type of business will slow down but for those left remaining to play here or conduct business form your own opinions and run your own show in this virtual world or chose your friends carefully. It’s a harsh reality Im sorry to say.
I don’t have a problem with these investment groups as long as the people who join in them know what they are getting into. So far the track record has recieved an F for a grade to me.
Some of the groups and the people in them really do help others learn how to apply what they learn here in real life. But then you have others who really just get greedy and suck the virtual life out of those hwo arn’t on gaurd.
How do you weed them out? You got me. It’s like real life to me from that perspective. Use your intuition. If it sounds to good to be true walk away. Or teleport for that matter.
Don’t allow people to manipulate you. This is a breeding gorund for control freaks. I see it a lot. Men controling women, women controlling men, men & women enticing others to join in on their littl schemes. So many minds games are constantly playing out in Second life. Some not on purpose but there are those that get off on it.
I learned that one back in 07 what that game was all about and disassociated myself from that group. And it was a serious issue and it went real. Could have been considered really criminal. You have to really watch and listen to the people you associate yourself with in there. There are some really sick people. So beware & be AWARE!
They all wern’t manipulators but there were a few good ones who seemed to stick together. Some blindly I guess to.
I thought people had learned from the last bloke that all is not what it seems here and all is never disclosed what is happening behind the scenes and its not for you to know and the profits are never there for you. It’s messed up. There is no game to win here don’t you get it?
I suggest just from my own lessons in SL move on don’t look back but don’t forget. Pick up what you can – if you can and learn from it all.
This is going to continue and I don’t want to be a part of it. I’m lucky procrastination worked in my favor this time.
I’m not surprised with this event. Not so sure its a deliberate situation I cant prove it but I guess someone can sit back and relax now for a time until their next big brain storm hits them.
Use SL as your own tool not someones elses. You can join up with a group of people to create a Eutopia but just think about the risks now.
No one is running my machine but me and if someone wants to join in be my guest and lets enjoy the time together. I have no great expectations for anyone in here and I hope others don’t of me as well.
No one will direct me as to what I can do or can’t do and that’s what I see all to often happeneing. Like many have said this really is a living (happening now thing) study in human behavior that can be documented. People who dont’ have to really face each other face to face can now use their minds to screw each other over and walk away. People are following this behavior and it is ugly to watch but interesting.
I’m not the one who is going to look back on this a few years from now and be ashamed of myself and the way I conducted myself with others. I wasn’t the bully or thug or theif in the playground. I can sleep at night.
And if they think what they did in here wont catch up with them in real life later think agian. It can. It could possibly harm their future profesionally.
There are some real control freaks in SL and you just have to be on your gaurd. On the other hand there are some really great people that you can learn from. How to diferentiate the two I’m not a mind reader.
I’ve been fortunate to have formed some really good virtual friendships over time in SL. Some of what I’ve learned I have applied to real life. I’ve learned a lot.
I’m sorry for the people who lost out on tier. I know that hurts big time real time. I don’t know how it will all play out really.
Some people just get really to big for their britches. We can all be dreamers but of course someones dream sometimes turns out to be anothers nightmare. Don’t let this happen to you. People can get really aggresive and pushy in SL at times so take a breath and think before you say sure I’ll do that.
Buyer beware seems to be a running theme here in SL. I expect it now. I now take everything in SL day by day and expect anything is possible. I can shut it off now and walk away and find something else to do.
I wish everyone good luck in what you do in Second life but THINK! Learn again one more time from this. How many lessons is it going to take for people to wake up and figure out that there’s always someone around that virtual corner trying to sell you a get rich quick scheme? It’s only for them and a few of their buddies really.
I at least can look back a few years from now at some photos and films I took and laugh and giggle how cute they are. Some of the things I may have done may have even helped a few people out I hope.
I think Linden Lab should @ least allow people to be able to go and get their objects from the sims. Some things they can’t replace. That I find a disgrace on their part if they do that.
I am not sure if people were not allowed to collect tier which would have assisted in setlling up payments due. I’m sure this situation here went way out of control and over their heads and spiralled out of control and they may be taking a big deep breath now. Just for their own lesson keep things in perspective for now.
There are a lot of people involved in this and thats what is to be thought about in this. This is a shame. It could have been a great thing but again people got involved in to much they couldnt handle. Copy what you can put out what wont kill you to loose. The lanscape in Second life is going to constanlty evolve so deal with it. This has to be the last wake up call for people really.
Linden Lab doesn’t have a good track record in customer service. The amount of people to service the amount of customers they have is totally unbalanced. That’s what I see There is no balnce here. They are also out of control or just hanging in there. This may not be their priority either.
Your basically on your own most times. People are going to out grow this product or grow along with it and except its up’s and downs like most companies.
I’m taking it day by day now and enjoying what I can. I know what is possible for me and what isnt that I have learned. I know my limits and I know how to use this to my advantage now. That took time.
Please play cautiously & wisley. Don’t make a fun time a task or someone elses gain. Play nice there is no winner here.
Sophia~