Rules & Guidelines for Swondo Free Land
By becoming a 'Free Land' landowner in Swondo Estate in Metropolis,OSgrid or Swondo World,
you agree to the Swondo Covenant and the 'Rules & Guidelines for Swondo Free Land'.
Yes I know it is a lot of text. Sorry for the length. I have tried to keep it as short as possible.
Please read it at least once. This will avoid disappointments later on.
Tightened application of the rules and guidelines
Unfortunately due to extended and wide spread over-use in the recent past, Swondo will no longer warn first when FreeLand owners are over the limits or braking a rule as described below.
Swondo staff was spending way too much time in finding the over-use and communicating with landowners about it. It is 100% the landowners responsibility to stay within
the limits. The moment a Swondo staff-member sees rules broken, the land will directly be reclaimed and all objects returned to their owners without any reminder or warning
upfront or discussion afterwards anymore. An explanation e-mail will be send after the reclaim and cleanup. The landowner can not apply for land with Swondo after that again. We are very sorry we had to add this strict applying measure. It is the only way to keep
our costs (mainly staff time) of Freeland within reason and prevent we have to stop offering Freeland.
If you know of yourself that you are someone not really reading the
rules and guidelines or not really taking them serious or someone always seeking the edge of the possibilities, then please take in mind that Swondo is most likely not
your best place to have land. OSgrid and Metropolis have other places with Freeland offerings that might be better suited.
Land must be on your name, so not on group
When you 'buy' the land for 0 dollars, the option 'Buy for group' is not allowed. There can only be one person responsible for the land and therefore
the land must be on one avatars name. Also the 'landowner-visitor-detector' needs the name of a person to register if the land is visited the required 4 times per month.
However, if you want friends to be able to rezz and create on your land, you can 'set'(tag) the land to a group.
This happens automatically when you 'buy' the land and you have a group active on your avatar. You can always 'set'(tag) the land to a group later on.
You can then adjust in the group what rights you give friends on your land.
If you need help with groups, ask Sylvia
Bots or Camping
Bots are not allowed in all of Swondo and Camping is not allowed on Freeland parcels and not allowed on public land. Camping is allowed on paid regions if approaved by the land owner. ''Camping'' is when an avatar is left inworld without a real person being at the other end,
for a longer time. It is logically not allowed on Freeland as the LandOwner Detector System has to be able to check if the Freeland is really used. A bot or camper could be interpreted as trying to trick this system.
Moving from one parcel to another
You can move from a Free Land parcel to another at no costs once every six months starting after the first 6 months. So take a good look at all the parcels befoe you choose your perfect one.
If you want to move and start a prim-lease at that moment, then you do not have to wait for the first six months. However after one move the 6 months start counting again, also for paid land.
Also no moving costs are calculated when you upgrade to a complete region lease. Ofcourse you can move as many times as you like but then the costs of moving are 15 US$ for administration and handling.
Prims, mesh and textures
Parcels come with 500 free prims of which in principle 75 prims (15%) are allowed to be mesh or sculpt. However mesh and texture load has to stay within reason and sometimes meshes are made extreme heavy.
In such a case they have to be removed or the total of allowed mesh prims has to go down. With Freeland the landowner has to watch this numbers. Swondo cannot police and send out reminders. When the rules are clearly not taken in account then eviction without warning will be done instantly.
Please note that prims holding inventory (storage prims) are strictly forbidden to be kept on the land while not being there and busy with them. This becasue all prims inside a prim do burden the server the same as rezzed prims even though they do not show up in your land prim count.
Too many prims on your land
Technically you can go over the prim and mesh limits. There is no system counting the mesh or other prims. You have to watch the number yourself. This can be done by: Right click on the ground and choose
'About Land'. Then tab 'Objects' and there you see the numbers. You do not have to count prims on your land owned by Gardener Sonoda or Sylvia Sonoda. If the vegetation prims did transfer
to you when you claimed the land, then no prims will be on a Sonoda name. You can then add the vegetation count, which is mentioned in the parcel description, to your owned prims 500 limit.
If you are in doubt, please ask Sylvia Sonoda.
Parcel settings
Strangers are not allowed to build on your land when you are not around. If you change setting to 'Create Objects: everyone' then be sure to switch it
off again before you leave. Leave auto-return at zero minutes at all times. If you do change this number, all vegetation will be deleted automatically.
Do not close your land to strangers. Visitors should always be able to enter your land. You are allowed to block individuals, but never groups.
You are allowed and encouraged to change your media and/or music settings.
Scripts
Only low burden scripts are allowed. For example, scripts for opening and closing doors, switching lights on, dance animations and viewer-side-rotation scripts.
Examples of too demanding scripts are: physical scripts, scripts that rezz objects, and scripts that actually move prims automatically.
Scanning (radar) scripts are not allowed for privacy reasons.
Evicting or ban-scripts and all other security scripts are not allowed. Scripts that make contact outside the region or even to outworld servers are also not allowed.
Estetic rules
Estetic rules are all about the view for neighbours and passing visitors. To avoid discussions about what is good or bad taste,
there are some standard guidelines for Free Land.
Parcels are large to preserve a nature look. It is not allowed to build near the parcel border. A general rule of thumb is that the height of a structure * 1.5 is
the minimum distance its closest wall has to be away from any border except the void-ocean side if the parcel has such a side. There have to remain trees between
your buildings and the parcel border except on the void-ocean side.
Photos and other displays have to be kept indoors. Hovering text is not allowed when visible from outside of the parcel. Buildings have to fit in a residential
neighbourhood and cannot occupy more then 20% of the grounds.
It is not allowed to put high fences, walls or other not-welcome constructions. If you place a low fense, be sure to put enough entrees in. Distance to border rule
also applies.
Chosen climate
Trees have to remain, but can be moved. You can remove tree-shadow-plates, groundcover plants and flowers, and some really in the way trees.
Note that Swondo vegetation is not counted on your prims. If you plant your own then they have to fit the existing climate.
Building over and under water
Creating extra land or building over water is not allowed except a small boatdock and/or small boat. Distance to border rule does apply. Completely submerged buildings
are allowed
since these do not disturb any views. Your builds are not allowed to go beyond your parcel border. Ask for exception permission for rolling waves.
Balloons, airplanes, sky-boxes etc.
No estetic rules apply when building in the sky.
Floating objects or constructions have to be above 400 meters and not at the height of neighboring sky-platforms.
However, if you want to build at a height of a neighbouring sky-garden,
then your construction must be x,y at least 150 meters away from it.
Sylvia Sonoda choses horses as one of her two favourite pets. You'll need this information to confirm you red this document.
Terraforming
Terraforming is only meant to adjust grounds to your house. It is limited to +2 and -2 meters or not possible at all.
If more adjustment is needed, first place your house and then contact Sylvia Sonoda. She will adjust the land for you as long as it not changes
the intended landscape. Creating land from water is not allowed.
Open Community (Banlines)
Swondo likes to be an open and welcome community, so everyone is welcome to vist all land and homes. Banlines and security systems are not allowed.
If you do not like people visiting your land and house, then Swondo Free Land might not be your perfect place. From visitors we expect common sence just like
in the real world. Be polite when visitng and avoid being intrusive. When someone is home be extra carefull with visiting. A shout or IM from the parcelborder
to ask if it is a good time to visit can do wonders. You are allowed to evict and/or ban individuals from your home using the banlist in About Land. Although
extrmely rare in Metropolis and OSgrid, If you do encounter a returning griefer let Sylvia know.
Parcels with House
Some parcels come with a non-removable house. Adding another house below 400 meters is not allowed. Adding a smaller shed in the same style is allowed.
Parcels with house, also have a sky-platfrom in their high-sky including easy tp up-down buttons. Non-removable house and sky-platform do not count on the
parcel its prim-allowance.
Instant Teleport boxes
On your land you will find one or two Teleport boxes at each level. If two then one is (re)movable.
Make copies of the one that transferred to you before you delete it. This TP box is the fastest way to TP to your Sky-garden in the sky above.
If you realy dislike the presence of the non-removable TP unit, please contact Sylvia Sonoda.
No physical prims
Physical prims are switched 'off' in Swondo Free Land areas. Only non-physical boats work. OpenSim physics sometimes causes simcrashes and
therefore cannot be a part of regions where multiple people have land.
The Tropical parcels
Your buildings should not be higher then the lowest point of the surrounding mountains. That way neighbours do not see any of your buildings and vice versa.
Dogs are Sylvias other favourite pets. You'll need this information to confirm you read this document.
Your prims cannot "spill over" outside of your parcel. The exception are waves-prims. If you want to place tropical-colour-water, please contact Sylvia.
Please note that the grass versus sand on the rather flat parts of your land shift per login and look different per person. This is due to the architecture
of SL and Opensim and nothing can be done about that. I suggest not to take in mind where the grass is when you put things in your garden as it can be sand
the next login.
Sky-gardens at the tropical regions are the same ones as used in the mediterranean regions. If you prefer white sand contact Sylvia
and she will change your Sky-garden floor for you.
These documents are made by Sylvia Sonoda who has experience with large estate management in Second Life, OSgrid and Metropolis as of 2006.
Please note that these rules & guidelines are not to scare you away or make your life less fun.
All rules are made to burden the server as intented and to assure the best possibilities to live in harmony close to neighbours.
If you don't understand a rule or don't like it, do discuss it with Sylvia Sonoda. What we cannot do is debate your buildings to the edge of the guidelines.
It simply costs too much time. Sorry for this.
If you have read this whole document and also the Swondo Covenant, then you already have my deepest respect :)
If you can live with these rules and guidelines and still like to own Free Land with Swondo, then please do apply for Free Land.
You are very very welcome to Swondo.
Hope to see you inworld
Sylvia Sonoda
13 June 2018*
*Bot and camping rules which were already in the covenant are now also mentioned here to be extra clear. Adding about Storage prims. Also the section 'Tightened application of the rules and guidelines' is added. Also the number of allowed mesh prims is lowered.