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Hi everyone, I'm a mayor of a relatively new deed on Independence... and I've got a bit of a "fool me once..." situation. What I Want: Some feedback based on in-game experiences, as well as personal play style commentary. Discussion with and between Wurm players. Honesty. What I DO NOT Need To Be Told: how permissions function, how to use permissions, technical aspects and how-to's. That I'm a stupid girl. That I'm naive. That I need to L2P. No grandstanding or hating. Some Background: I deeded a large swath of land. It's basically a rectangle longer than it is tall, that occupies most of a relatively steep hillside. The land includes a ton of trees, bushes, an entire mine, and even part of a highway. I have plans for all the space I took, and intend to work on this deed (and stick around on WO) long-term. Knowing that deeding this land will take away access to a bunch of previously free resources (wood, ore, food, mobs in the forest, etc) from the established locals... I deliberately set non-citizen permissions on deed for harvesting resources. In order to allow this level of access, it is necessary to also allow pick-up privileges. This is especially for trees and ore - resources that don't automatically go into your inventory, and require you to pick them up after gathering. I put a LOT of thought into this decision, and I knew how risky this level of permission - for basically anyone - would be. Where I'm Coming From: Despite the risk, I felt that it was (is) important to be a positive addition to my neighborhood. My deed is also very close to a newbie spawn point - so I also wanted new players venturing out for the first time to be able to use forage & botany, etc. Part of why I felt comfortable deeding so much land was that, from the very start, the build I intend to create on this land is based on a kinda idealized version of an old English estate (very idealized, lol) - where someone owns the land and is technically in charge, but the lands are accessible to the locals for farming, building their own homes as tenants, setting up a local market or town square to socialize, using the land & water resources for hunting, fishing, etc. Ultimately, I simply wanted to be neighborly, to play fairly, and to keep other's enjoyment of the game in mind. The Situation: As I have been building and gathering resources, things have been.... going missing. This is happening in areas that are noticeably "in-progress" and obviously on someone's deed. I have been building very methodically and keeping resources clustered together, to avoid the appearance of this stuff having been abandoned in the middle of nowhere. Anything that is able to be "secured" has been planted. But I'm not perfect, and some things end up simply dumped in a pile, or are otherwise loose - especially when there are times that I've needed to log off in a hurry. First it was a barrel of nails. Fairly low quality and easy to replace. Then there was a barrel of ribbons. Again, pretty low quality and I simply replaced them and the barrel. The most recent was a large barrel full of water (I haven't built a well yet). Obviously, again, not such a deal - I'll replace the large barrel and I'm not dying of thirst. Anything else that has "wandered off" has been mostly incidental, some jars of milk and cooking oil, a stack of grass or dirt or planks. Nothing really unfortunate... yet. I do have areas that are fenced in and behind locks: my horses and work animals, my food and fields, my cart of major supplies and tools. But I'm more concerned by the overall pattern being established here. Will the person(s) making visits to "borrow" from me eventually decide to bash down a fence and take my sheep? Or horses? Due to limitations beyond my control, some areas that I'm using are on perimeter instead of on deed. I would have simply deeded more, but there are reasons that this is not an option. And even if that never happens... will I always be plagued by ongoing petty theft in return for my attempts to be accessible and neighborly? The Bottom Line: I knew that something like this was a risk when I set the permissions the way that I did. Now that I have new information (in-game experience) - should I re-evaluate my earlier decision to allow general access to resources on-deed? Should I restrict non-citizen access, and come up with some other way to provide free resources and materials to my neighbors and the occasional traveler? What would that look like? How can I make that happen? Will these incidents escalate, or is this just a minor annoyance that isn't worth making any changes over? Is there a general consensus among Wurmians about resource access & etiquette? In terms of "Wurniam ethics," am I doing something abnormal, or is the "thief" the aberration? Ultimately: at what point does this cross a line and I need to tighten my permissions - if ever?

To those it may concern, I hope that you are willing to talk. My friend (Novatic) and I (Jadedragovan), had found a little bit of land we were hoping to cultivate to our own uses. We realize it is fairly close to your current territory, as well as near Hope. We're not looking to start any quarrels or trod on anyones toes. We've already been okay'd by Hopeians, even helped with our initial building. We've noticed your very recent extending of your perimeter right up to the small mining shack we've erected. While we do understand that you feel impeaded on, we'd like to assure you we have no intention of extending back further. But with your 'land grab' it really cuts into the small bit of land we had intended on using, which would be more towards the road down by us, not pushing into your area. We even took your settlement into consideration when mining. Aside from a small 2x3 'lobby', we wrapped the tunnels back under the flatland area between the shack and 'Oak Veil Winery'. We are more than willing to talk this over with you, in hopes that you might retract your recent expansion of your perimeter enough to allow us to place down an appropriate sized claim of our own. We're on mostly in the evening/early morning EST and you can talk with either myself or my friend. Again our names are Jadedragovan (myself) and Novatic (my friend), and we hope to work things out and be pleasant neighbors~!