Dumb question: What does "Land Grab" mean?
- Thread starter Adam Dray
- Start date
Enoki
SOC-14 1K
A "land grab" is generally where a government, corporation, or individual buys up or takes a large chunk of land from current owners at substantially below market value.
Sometimes a government will collude with businesses or individuals to do this. Colonial powers did this. In the US the railroads did it to gain right-of-way in many parts of the country, particularly where the land wasn't privately owned in the West.
The term generally has negative connotations, but it doesn't necessarily have to have a negative long term outcome.
Sometimes a government will collude with businesses or individuals to do this. Colonial powers did this. In the US the railroads did it to gain right-of-way in many parts of the country, particularly where the land wasn't privately owned in the West.
The term generally has negative connotations, but it doesn't necessarily have to have a negative long term outcome.
In a Traveller context...around the millennium change, the Traveller Mailing List had a "Grab a world and detail it out". Use of WBH was encouraged; each participant logged in their claim on the mailing list (and a central repository was on someone's website, I forget whose). Each TML-LG participant then put their details up on their own webspace. Mine is still up, tho' the address (and hosting) has changed several times.
I grabbed Wypoc/Lanth.
I grabbed Wypoc/Lanth.
The Great TML Landgrab
"In a fit of pique, during a netiquette flame war, while no one was minding the domain, rabid Traveller Mailing List (TML) citizens made a mad grab at unsuspecting worlds. Not since the Sword Worlder forays into Vilis during the Fifth Frontier War has such a brash, unprovoked campaign been attempted. It was so successful that it has become a great tradition and favorite pastime of TMLers to this day.
So don't just stand there gearheading, grab a world and start detailing! The catch, if you can call it one, is that the grabber must report on the grabbee (the exact level and the canonicity of it is open to interpretation) within 90 days. A survey must be taken and a State-of-the-World Address (SWA) presented by web-proxy to the whole of the high council of the TML. Claims are documented on this Web site. You can browse them by Sector, Grabbee(World), or Grabber (Claimant)."
"My original Landgrab was thoughtfully sustained by Berka at his website " the Zhodani Base"
- Sheyou/Cronor
I later Claimed two more systems in the spinward marches during the TML Landgrab Landrush, but on may 2005 I hadn't developed an online site for either system.
"The 2005 Landgrab Landrush: In accordance with advance notice given on the TML, all Landgrab claims made prior to 15 March, 2004, (the date of the relaunch of the Landgrab site) for which no SWA had been submitted (or reconfirmation of intention to complete an SWA received) by 31 May, 2005, were removed from the Landgrab site. A record of these expired claims is available here."
I never had the time to develop these Landgrabs due to my time serving in the US Army Airborne and my tour in Afghanistan. That was a decade ago, I like to finish what I start so I have included them here.
- Chwistyoch/Chronor on (originally claimed March 15, 2004)
- Joyeuse /Sword Worlds (originally claimed March 15, 2005)
And for posterity, this should not be confused with "land grant"
In the real world, land grants are gifts of real-estate made by a government as a reward or incentive, e.g. to a university to build on and/or sell for income. Early in the history of Traveller, GDW made what it termed "land grants" of several sectors to licencees to develop, including Far Frontiers (FASA), Theta Borealis (Group One), Beyond and Vanguard Reaches (Paranoia Press), and others.
In the real world, land grants are gifts of real-estate made by a government as a reward or incentive, e.g. to a university to build on and/or sell for income. Early in the history of Traveller, GDW made what it termed "land grants" of several sectors to licencees to develop, including Far Frontiers (FASA), Theta Borealis (Group One), Beyond and Vanguard Reaches (Paranoia Press), and others.
