Knowing When to Deed Your Land

A land group is a Second Life mechanism that gives landowners the ability to grant certain abilities to guests who visit their land, and to prevent unwanted visitors from accessing or disturbing the property. Using a combination of settings in World > About Land and the Roles tab of the Group Info dialog, a land owner can grant a wide number of abilities to group members while restricting the general public from doing the same things. There is one somewhat confusing detail about land groups that not very many people understand: It is possible to "set your land to a group," but simply doing this does not necessarily grant group members all of the abilities that you might intend for them to have. In order to give your group members access to the full range of abilities listed in their respective group roles, you need to deed the land to your group.

Normally, only the person who actually owns the land (i.e. pays the monthly tier to Linden Lab) can deed one's land to a group. There are some private islands that grant tenants the ability to transfer ownership (and thus deed), but that is not possible on the Desperation Isle estates; only I, Wildefire Walcott, or one of my estate managers can do that for you. Simply contact me if, after reading this article, you have decided you want to deed your land. You will have to invite me to your land group as an Officer. I'll deed the land when I'm able, and then quit the group.

I have covered how to create a land group and invite members in another article. This article focuses solely on the difference between setting your land to a group and actually deeding the land.

Setting your land to a group

To set your land to a group, just stand on the land, go to World > About Land, and then click the Set button. Pick your group from the group list and then click Select. Doing this alone only serves some basic purposes. It allows group members to create objects on the land (if group-only building is enabled), and prevents objects with the group tag set from being sent back to inventory if autoreturn is enabled. It's also necessary if you want to limit land access only to members of your group, but please remember that Access lists are not allowed on Desperation Isle (refer to section 6.4 of the covenant).

Unless you actually deed your land to the group, only the following group abilities will be available to group members, regardless of what your group roles say:

• Parcel Powers > Always allow 'Create Objects'
  
• Parcel Content > Return objects owned by group (includes object's shared with group by using the Share with group checkbox in the object properties).
  
• Object management > Deed objects to group
  
• Object management > Set group-owned objects for sale
  
• Object management > Manipulate (move, copy, modify) group-owned objects (Moving is always allowed when this is enabled, copying and editing sometimes isn't- even with objects on deeded land.)
  

Deeding your land to a group

Everything possible on land that's set to a group is possible on deeded land, but deeded land enables many more role-specific group abilities to take effect as well. The following abilities are only available to group members on deeded land:

• Parcel Identity > Toggle 'Show in Find Places' and set category
  
• Parcel Identity > Change parcel name, description, and 'Publish on the Web' settings
  
• Parcel Identity > Set landing point and set teleport routing
  
• Parcel Settings > Change music & media settings
  
• Parcel Settings > Toggle 'Edit Terrain'
  
• Parcel Settings > Toggle various About Land > Options settings
  
• Parcel Powers > Always allow 'Edit Terrain'
  
• Parcel Powers > Always allow 'Fly'
  
• Parcel Powers > Always allow 'Create Landmark'
  
• Parcel Powers > Allow 'Set Home to Here' on group land
  
• Parcel Access > Manage parcel Access lists
  
• Parcel Access > Manage parcel Ban lists
  
• Parcel Access > Change parcel 'Sell passes…' settings
  
• Parcel Access > Eject and freeze Residents on parcels
  
• Parcel Content > Return non-group objects
  
• Parcel Content > Landscaping using Linden plants
  
• Parcel Content > Return objects set to group
  

Should you deed your land?

If you simply want to let group members build on your land while preventing the general public from doing that then setting your land to the group and adjusting your About Land options is all you need to do. If you want group members to have more freedom, such as the ability to set your land as their Second Life "Home" location, then deeding is the way to go. If you're one of my tenants and you wish your land to be deeded, just invite me to your group (as an Officer) and contact me.

A warning to mainland residents

Most of the above information applies to mainland holdings as well as rented land on private estates, but you should know that the stakes are a fair amount higher when you deed mainland properties to a group. Anyone in the group with the proper abilities (like in the Officer's role) can sell group-owned land to another player, or even to themselves. This is not much of a risk on a private island because many islands prevent the sale of their land, and estate managers can easily fix the problem on islands that do allow it- but if you lose a piece of mainland property you lose it forever. Make sure that you only grant those kinds of powers to people you trust VERY much. It's also worth noting that proceeds for any group-owned land you sell are divided between all group members who have the 'credits and liabilities' ability enabled, and those profits are disbursed all at once at a specific time of every day (usually very early in the morning).

Final words

Proper management of your rented or owned land requires your understanding of the About Land options and the abilities of various group roles. You can learn more about the abilities by taking a look at the Abilities subtab of the Members & Roles tab of your group's information dialog.