Thursday, December 31, 2015

Az... good as it gets

          Snakedance Moonwind's lovely avie said it best...2015 was on it way out. Some of the  Safari regulars met to talk about what they thought the year had brought. 
https://gyazo.com/a75074116ade9b204f1da2879014ea7d

          It was a two stop Safari, the second half on the heart-breakingly lovely region created by Azi Az. Azi and her partner Danger Lytton, who hosts the region on a fabulous server connected to OSgrid which took in its stride the arrival of a dozen happy avies, despite the colossal amount of detail on the land.
       Arriving in the main square we immediately tp'd over to the ballroom where Danger was spinning some fantastic tunes. That made it easy to cam out ant about on the var region. It's pretty awesome, is open sim. A fair sized group of people, with my viewer set to Ultra and the maximum draw distance possible, and not a whiff of lag. Bliss.

Azi is from Portugal, Danger's in California, and the sim reflects the landscapes and cultures of these gorgeous parts of the world. The Var region includes a museum of antique furniture, a village based on a real world place, an art gallery and a mall, access to other regions created by Danger and Azi, this lovely ballroom, and some great landscapes. 
https://gyazo.com/ad60efe22c5c8ef094d7ad5fdb9f2364
Our hosts, Azi Az and Danger Lytton
               You will find photos of Azi's Village on OSGrid throughout this post, although the actual conversation took place on Cookie II, a not-for-profit enclave one might say, on Kitely Grid. It is home to Selby 'Thinkerer' Evans. You may enjoy his website, virtualoutworlding.blogspot.com
Sunbeam.Magic: i tried to go to Clubhouse first lol :)
Thirza.Ember: it's been 2 days that something is wrong there, it is a residential sim and I think a neighbor has some script that is out of control... restarts aren't helping
Sunbeam.Magic: awww
Ange Menges: hello everybody
Sunbeam.Magic: Greetings Ange
Selby.Evans: could not get into osgrid
Thirza.Ember: i put notices but people only read things on social media when they are unimportant, I find
Sunbeam.Magic: i shared the event earlier on G+ :)
Cherry.Manga: aloha everyone
The meet, Hobo Sandbox, Cookie II on Kitely
Thirza.Ember: so technically, what vote do you give HG this year, if 1 is TERRIBLE and 9 is AMAZING
Selby.Evans: I vote 8
George Equus: 7-8
Nara.Nook: I think it works better. Used to be like loading yourself in a tin can and firing from a a slingshot.
Sunbeam.Magic: 7-8
Neo.Cortex: i think 7 for the technology, 9 for the way ppl start to use it
Selby.Evans: Yes -- 9 for users
Cherry.Manga: Have no idea what voting is about but I vote for Snow's panties, anyway.
Unadecal Masala: I vote between 7 and 8. It takes a while to get used to the vagaries of hypergridding, like TP to a plaza first, then to my region on the way back... little things like that
Azi's Village - the waterfront

Sunbeam.Magic: but LM's seem to work much better I believe
Thirza.Ember: yeah but Sunbeam, think of 2014 and hair up your bum all the time
Nara.Nook:  Or before when they had the 4096 error and it was really complicated to teach someone to hop
Selby.Evans: Life's Little Lessons from virtual worlds:  Frustration tolerance --
Neo.Cortex: the story we worked on showed all the ups and downs of HG connectivity
Nara.Nook: I think the story gave us a glimpse of what we can do with the hypergrid in the future
Selby.Evans: Creative Collaboration -- that is it
Thirza.Ember: it has been an amazing year ... the hosts have really been generous to us, taking a lot of time to get their regions in shape for a 20 avie shock wave

Tom.Frost: there's also still grids forcing everyone coming in to go to one central region instead of allowing direct teleports, that's a bit annoying too (no direct hgurl jump possible)
Nara.Nook @world.narasnook.com:8900: isn't the landing area because of bulletsim incompatibilities with older Opensim?
Lucy Afarensis: Can you tp to wherever once on the grid ?
Sunbeam.Magic: i don't mind landing in welcome region first and rezzing up before hopping to region
Unadecal Masala: and not everyone who wants to self host has the knowledge to configure a HG enabled grid properly. I'm still sucking my thumb and hoping for the best after a year of this
Explore the sim to find this collection of amazing miniatures by Danger Lytton

Thirza.Ember: some gridowners believe it lessens the impact on the grid if you go through one central sim
Neo.Cortex: sometimes it is neccessary to land in a starting region because it would bring down e.g. a party region if all would rez there
Nara.Nook: Really HG works best if you go to default region first.
Thirza.Ember: i think if you understand the underlying principal of default regions, you can improvise if a direct tp doesn't work
Harthelie.Deux: bonsoir tout le monde
Thirza.Ember: we also need more tourism groups in different languages! not just english!
Nara.Nook: Or we could use a decent translator. If someone knows where to find such.
Azi's Village, the town by night

Unadecal Masala: I speak Spanish but that is it for me. Translators work sort of OK, though
Sunbeam.Magic: Waves to Harthelie
Wizardoz.Chrome: yes, รจ difficile trovare un traduttore che funzioni ovunque ..
Wizardoz.Chrome: Yes, it's hard to find a translator that works everywhere.
Nara.Nook: They get shut down after so many messages
Unadecal Masala: do SL/OS translators work through Google/Bing translate? then it's going to be very difficult to improve on those. Our translators will improve as their backend improves
Wizardoz.Chrome (it>en): I use a translator that I have "donated" in Metropolis by Emil Jannings... It's not the usual translator of Metropolis, which after a while no longer works
Unadecal Masala: so basically we need google to open up the service for VR applications and perhaps provide a server add in like Vivox, with further viewer extensions?
The landing point on Azi's Village, a lovely old village full of personality

                          There was much talk about the new Firestorm, whether you can see Videos using the 64 bit version of various viewers, and the mystery of the missing My Suitcase, all of which seemed to depend on perception and chance - no to people reported an identical experience and folks going and arriving, provoking another question: how many new acquaintances have you made over the past year, and does the increase in population in open sim improve it?
Cherry.Manga: no idea, I'm a wild one.
Lucy Afarensis: maybe 50,75
Selby.Evans: 261 friends --
Nara.Nook: I think 50-75 sounds abut right
George Equus: No idea...
Tom.Frost: given that it is my first year: all of them :)
Unadecal Masala: same here. 57 friends... call it 50 cos some are from my grid... but the HG is sooooo sparsely populated. Always the same 10 faces at all the events I go to
Sunbeam.Magic @login.greatcanadiangrid.ca:8002: 100 or so I'm sure, perhaps more
George Equus: probably me too. Don't collect friends.
Wizardoz.Chrome @hypergrid.org:8002 (it>en): I have no idea ... many:) ...
Nara.Nook: I have some 125-200 visit the grid each month and 90 percent of those are hypergridders
Selby.Evans: Knowing more People  makes any virtual world better
Sunbeam.Magic: it depends really how often one hops, b/c of my magazine I hop at least to 20 different grids per week
Nara.Nook : I meet so many people. I think it depends on whether you stay on your grid or you go everywhere.
Azi's Village, the ballroom

Unadecal Masala: I suppose it depends how much you get out there and explore and talk to people...
Sunbeam.Magic: I believe the large events attract the same people, but I meet many new faces when hopping around randomly
Cherry.Manga: yes Sun
Lucy Afarensis: that has been my experience also
George Equus: Pretty solid group on Maritime, but past couple of months have seen quite a lot of new fresh faces from all over the HG
Ange Menges: we have generally 150 people coming to our events, I think 80% of them are the same each time :-)
Azi's vVillage - spot the giraffe

Thirza.Ember: there is also the time zone factor
Sunbeam.Magic: oh the dreaded TIME factor lol
Cherry.Manga: yes Thirza, by the way, now, are there people out of europa?
     Turns out, we had group members from Australia, the US, and various European countries, from Sweden all the way down to Italy. Cherry seemed pretty satisfied with that answer. but certainly the time zones do affect the viability of a community like ours where every person present is precious. Well, almost all.
          But is 'community' the point of open sim, or does it serve as a loosely linked network of pioneers, lurking in their own personal sandboxes, intent on seeing what they can make code and scripts and meshes do. In the past, traveling in opensim might mean not meeting anyone, or meeting people quite hostile to any mention of SL, and even to other hg enabled grids with different ideas about what should be allowed or acceptable in virtual worlds. Regular social events open to all could be counted on the fingers of one hand.
           You may have seem the poll asking what OpenSim is 'for'?  If you consider the question only superficially, you may say that opensim is not 'for' anything, but of course it is. It has a direction, one that may zig zag a little but like any designed environment, there is purpose behind it, and one that may be evolving. What do people think.
https://gyazo.com/07ba9e06d93c29c2a50d6d9133619db8
This lovely modifiable dragon avatar was being handed out by Satyr Gator in the OSGrid sandbox, a classic example of the community spirit of  building and giving
         Most people, grid owners and their tenants, standalone operators, and core developers, came here after some time in Second Life. But why? Creating and exploring seem to be the big two motives.
Sunbeam.Magic: in the very beginning of OS I believe all were recluse, building frenzy ;)
Lucy Afarensis: I was a recluse for years
Cherry.Manga: I explored HG the very first day I created an account in FG.  I went to OS and Craft and Metro
 Mal Burns: i like collaborating and seeing interesting things others are doing - but don't do dancing or music things (social only) very much
Thirza.Ember: the favorite answer on the poll about what open sim is 'for' seems to be 'sharing'... would you guys agree with that?
Cherry.Manga: Yes for those who answered, but because those same persons are caring enough to share their answers Thirza :)
Nara.Nook: To me open sim is where I work
George Equus: Suppose sharing... and collaborating with a small group. Or, rather the opposite
Aussie Envee: yes i get lotz of new ideas of making things and how to do things
Cherry.Manga: In my "neighbourhood" I would say most people are there to experiment their own things, whatever it is about building, scripting...but 75% are in their own corners and 25% are into collab and sharing knowledge
George Equus: Building is main
Sunbeam.Magic: OSgrid was a University originated grid, when it was taken over by private citizens I felt a big change there
Tom.Frost: thirza: i can only speak for myself, but for me coming to metropolis was mostly about 'not corporate', and then about 'building on my own self-hosted servers that i control and that provide cheap land'
Cherry.Manga: I chose FG not only because of the language but mostly because it isn't owned by anyone, it's a non profit association, that gives it a lot of meaning.
Sunbeam.Magic: I think the non-profit grid is gaining more popularity, 3rd Rock just changed to that
Unadecal Masala: I came here cos my RP group became homeless and we are broke, and found the philosophy and ideals of OS appealing, so we stayed I came to the Hypergrid (OSG and mine) for those reasons, and to see what other people are doing applying their imaginations without all the economic and policy restrictions of SL
https://gyazo.com/59bc23c1a8e0c6951c215e838e411519
Romantic dancing on Azi's Village
Sunbeam.Magic: I have to admit I came to OpenSim due to the economics
Nara.Nook: I came to both worlds at the same time but stuck with open sim because it was more useful for the creative tasks I needed it to do. It was also easier to teach other authors without all the griefers around.
Lucy Afarensis: I am still a solitary builder but I am starting to enjoy getting out more
George Equus: Same here I think
Thirza.Ember @grid.kitely.com:8002: ok so my last question is... do you think the safari should continue? do you like what we go to see? or do you think that now people are hg savvy enough that it has served its purpose
Mal Burns: yes yes yes
Sunbeam.Magic: YES yes and yes
Lucy Afarensis: YES !
Cherry.Manga: OUIIIII
Nara.Nook: Yes!!!
Aussie Envee: i like the idea
Unadecal Masala: YES it should continue. Can't like everything, but everything is interesting
George Equus: Safari... YES!
Sunbeam.Magic: you'd be amazed at how many have never even tried HG ... seems silly since its really just a tp from point a to point b just like inworld tping ... go figure....  and its more fun to travel in packs :) Safari is the biggest Tour group too ... it must continue!
Azi's Village- the ballerina

Tom.Frost: i'm hg savy but i've seen so many places i would never have heard of without hg safari
 Nara.Nook: There was huge growth in Opensim this year and I think HG Safari fills that need of teaching people how to get around and get to know each other.  It's been a really long time since I heard anyone ask what the hypergrid was and that is usually a newbie from SL
Art Blue: of course safari must be or my events are empty!
Cherry.Manga: Safari IS the social media on OS
Mal Burns: safari is shared interest in exploring - a niche of its own and very worthy - you do a great job Thirza!
Thirza.Ember: wow thanks for that... my heartfelt thanks to you all for coming along and supporting it, and making it work... thanks to Wizzina here, for her help, extraordinary kindness, and talent, and a thought to our much missed Safarinas, Wizard Gynoid and Fuschia Nightfire
           And thank you for reading this blog, and sharing in the adventure. May the new year bring you love and serenity, joy and ... more adventures in hypergridding!
HG Addresses:
Selby's Hobo Sandbox   grid.kitely.com:8002:cookie II
Azi's region                   hg.osgrid.org:80:azi's village

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