Temporarily, the game is somewhat broken/iffy. With the release of alpha version 3.0, guilds were introduced. The claims system that came with it was meant to prevent the new decay mechanics from making live a royal pain in the behind.
Well, decay is a royal pain in the behind. Personally, my monument (claim center) seems to work as intended, but others are not. There are some major issues with everyone's stuff vanishing. So, if anyone was about to dive in, or start playing again, you have been warned of the condition of things... it should be fixed before long as this is a major issue right at the moment, but until it is you can't do a lot (you can still terraform, farm, and hold stuff on your person, but buildings and all that goes with them is iffy at best.)