(NOTE: If your land is Group Owned (aka "deeded"), do not turn on auto-return without the help of estate management, othewise you could get all your possessions, house, trees, etc returned)

Land settings are powerful but confusing tools for most Second Life residents. I thought I would share some tips on settings that work well for me and that provide a good balance between preserving the open use we all appreciate here at SLNE, while protecting your parcel from griefing or just plain litter.

First off, on the General tab, notice that I have set the land to a group, in this case one of my own, "Ceorlcraft Innovation". The reason for this is that it allows me to give friends certain privileges on my land, without giving those privileges to everyone. I would recommend using a group that you have control over, so that you can add and remove people as you like. I would also recommend that the group not be set to allow anyone to join, otherwise you will have secured nothing. It is probably worthwhile to just create a new group, for the sole purpose of managing your parcel. DO NOT DEED YOUR LAND TO A GROUP! Unless of course you want your "friends" to steal or trash your land when you have a falling out of some sort. It happens all the time in SL. Don't let it happen to you. Deeding actually means that YOU don't own the land any more. Instead it belongs to the group, and anyone with sufficient rights in the group can do anything they want to it.

Now go to the Options tab. Notice that all residents are allowed to do a number of things here, such as "create objects", "run scripts", and "object entry". I know that sounds like an invitation to trouble, but don't worry, we are not done yet and you will be perfectly safe. These settings are actually quite important to be enabled here at SLNE since they are vital to people being able to rez boats and aircraft, and sail or fly them through your waters or airspace. Our open environment for such recreation is one of our core values here at SLNE and is a big part of what makes this area so special and attractive. You should also not disable flying for other residents. That would be just plain rude. I also like to allow people to set landmarks if they like. I take it as a compliment if they like my work that much, and for the most part their visits are not a nuisance. I also don't set a landing point, mostly because I dislike it so much when others do. It removes so much of the convenience of teleporting. The "safe (no damage)" setting is up to you. I like my land safe so that I don't die every time I fall off my skybox or fly into a wall, but that may just be me. Finally, if you do have the ability to enable terraforming, DON'T!!!!! Residents are not allowed to terraform at SLNE, it will get you booted, and you certainly don't want some newbie practicing on your land (and getting you booted for allowing it by changing the setting).

Now go to the Objects tab. There is just one setting on this tab I want you to pay attention to, the "Autoreturn other residents' objects (minutes, 0 for off)" setting. WAIT!!!! DON'T TURN IT ON YET!!! First be sure that all the objects on your parcel either belong to you the owner, or if they belong to friends of yours, that they are set to the same group that you set your land to on the General tab. THIS INCLUDES FOLIAGE like trees and plants which may belong to Sudane on some parcels. DO NOT RETURN Sudane's plants!!!! or you may get to know her grumpy side :) So if in doubt, talk to her or me before changing this setting. However, it is worth it because this is the all important setting that makes griefers and litterbugs a non-issue. I set my auto-return to just 1 minute. That is plenty of time for someone to rez a boat, hop on it, and move along. It is not time for someone to build a gothic castle or an aircraft carrier on my property, which are things that make me grumpy :)

Finally, let's take a look at the Access tab. There are some things here I don't want you to mess with, as they are vital to our open use policy at SLNE. Most importantly, leave "Allow public access" checked. We do not allow banlines at SLNE, and again it is something that will make the owner and managers very grumpy. We do not allow access to be blocked based on payment info, verified age, group membership or purchased passes. You can however, in emergency situations, use the "Banned Residents" function to temporarily block named individuals who are harassing you in some way. We ask you to inform the estate owner or managers (I am one) of any such problems and we will set up an estate ban for the trouble-maker rather than a parcel ban.

Well that's it! A few simple settings that from my experience will make your land pretty much manage itself. If you have questions about these settings don't hesitate to ask. The more parcels that are set this way, the easier it is for the estate as a whole, and it makes us all much less vulnerable to griefer attacks. Thanks for reading!!! Fair Winds friends!