This is why I strongly disapprove of the town claim system, it punishes old players too much.

 

As staff members, they are not required to email you and try to get you back online. As a president, you agreed to rule three times, and in the rules it clearly states that going inactive can cause you to lose you money, inventory, and town and chests.
Even if you're tagged in the town claim thread, it's a little too late to do anything about it as the application has been made.
I'm very sorry that you lost your town and stuff thought.

 

Unfortunately, town claims are often seen as malicious actions. Due to the fact that one is literally stealing somebody else's town, often along with all of the users' possessions, a user returning to the server following a town claim faces a situation that honestly, no hardworking ECC player should ever have to face. I have in fact done town claims, however I argue that a player offline since 2011 is unlikely to return to the server, and it would be a waste for his/her town to be left unused. In the event that he/she returned, I would be happy to return the town to the user, especially because the claim was not placed for profit, as no items were found inside the town to LWC.
Overall, as oxwood said, the town claiming system can be unfair in instances where the user may return, or the player doesn't have knowledge of this event occurring. As you stated, I think it would be a fair requirement to at least tag the user as you said, so they receive an email. If they do not respond within 24 hours per se, then the town claim is fair game.
For myself, I ensure my towns will not be claimed by adding phys and andrew as owners. Feel free to use this.

 

If someone doesn't log into an ECC service for 6 months though is it not fairly safe to assume that person quit? I know thats not always true, see Ascorb above, but its true for most people. I mean all you have to do is log in twice a year basically and your towns are safe. That is not asking much.

 

I'd much rather prefer to have town claims have a year+ inactivity requirement because not everyone who goes 6+months inactive quits.

 

Not everyone who leaves for a year quits. We have had people come back from being 2 + years offline and play actively again. While we wait however those towns sit uselessly prompting people to flood the saturated town situation with even more new ones instead of recycling old towns.

 

Don't think that rule was in place when this user went inactive.

 

rekt, I guess stealing is allowed. smh.

 

There should never be a limit to when someone loses their hard work, and its given to someone just cause they want to post a thread, its quite unfair on anyone to lose their work no matter how in active they went, the time put into a town should well make up for the inactive time. Plus the claim over will cause you just to lose the players whose it was should they come back.

No matter how inactive someone can be they can come back, i played ECC over 2 years ago on my old account and only just came back a few days ago on my new account.

Be more considerate to the players who where here longer, for someones town to be available to claim would mean that the player who created it was a ECC veteran player, cause they where a member for atleast 6 months.

No one ever said they had to, but if the player who made the claim report had any brains, they would know that when you tag a person on the forums they will be sent an email, and for all you know they could check that email and return as a player. No one once said to have staff email the player and bring them back.

 

Not everyone has a forum tag or PM set up to send them an e-mail. I specifically had to turn them off, since the e-mails register on my phone and I kept getting woken up from it. Regardless, even if there had been a tag in the thread or a forum PM sent, there was no way to know if that would even register, or prompt any kind of acknowledgement.

 

But it's better to atleast try and offer the person that small chance at keeping their work. Or is it to much to type @

 

Well, I for one this this is VERY unfair. I am new to the server and, for the most part, am enjoying it. Here is my problem, I travel for work. I am a seasonal chef. Come April 20th I will be leaving home for the upcoming summer season. I do not have a laptop to play this while I am away. I will be away for 6 months, this is not changing. So can I expect that my land and all the work I have put into it over the last couple weeks is going to be stolen? Once I return, I do plan to return, can I expect that i will have been forgotten and designated and a nonplayer?

 

There are several options for you, because a town can only be claimed when there are no technical owners active in the last six months. If there is someone you trust to add as a co-mayor of your town, so long as they are active the town cannot be claimed even if you are away.

 

As a builder, you have no towns to lose. As for your property you have built, that will be something you will need to verify with the owner of the town that you have bought a plot from. It would also be good for you to check and see what the rules say about how much time you may be gone before you lose your money, items in your inventory and chests and such. Dat files are erased after a time per the server rules and it is not stealing of your items at all.
All of that said, if your mayor is not cooperative, I will offer you a plot in one of my towns that I am owner of and will allow you to be gone for that long without loss of your plot or items in your chests.
Wishing you success!

 

Like @KMaxwell had stated, if you plan to leave for a prolonged amount of time, please make sure to add a trusted and active co-mayor to your town so incase of discrepancies in your time you can return to the server with no worries. I along with many others are active and I would like to once again reiterate that I am able to offer my help in preserving your town and keeping it from being claimed. However, I offer my condolences and hope that there's something I can do to help.

 

Town claiming was just a bad idea. it doesn't preserve land by using old towns -- these towns go to Tycoon+, ranks that weren't receiving a new town anyway. It is not like a Mayor can claim one of these old towns instead of getting a new one.