Week 96 part 1: Safari Has Visions

                  This week's trip took us to two grids, Great Canadian and RefugeGrid, both operate on US time so we met at grid time, which was an hour earlier for European gridhoppers. Next week we're doing all Euro grids, and will be starting at 9pm CET. Our aim? Confusion, of course.
This is part 1 of two posts.

Aacme Cityscape

          But there was no confusion about our first destination, at Aacme City on GCG, the home of Visionz magazine, which celebrates its first anniversary this week. The magazine is a great example of all that is best about OpenSim. It is a produced by a team, but newcomers and contributors are welcome; it spans all hg enabled grids, rather than being virtually nationalistic about one place; it's free, and offers free advertising space; and it's a positive, upbeat source of information - a ray of sunshine across the hyperverse, one might say.... Visionz publisher Sunbeam Magic said a few words at the champagne and cake do in the office above the shop, on Great Canadian Grid. HG Address at the end of the post.

          Visionz magazines are available from a newspaper dispenser like the one you see in this photo. You will get a magazine to Wear, s it opens as a hud, and you can click on the pages to make them turn. You'll also receive a Notecard with the Landmarks associated with the articles, encouraging you to get out there and grid jump! The dispenser is in most cases free to copy, although of course, OpenSim permissions sometimes go weird. So if you would like a copy of the dispenser for your own grid ask one of the team and they will ship one over to you. Visionz comes out on the 26th of each month.

Visionz magazine dispenser, on the street corner of Aacme City.
The HUD will pop up center screen, edit it according to taste.
The useful LM list helps you navigate the places mentioned in the articles.

Sunbeam Magic: Last year, when Miney [Minetheree Athanasios] talked me back into VW, she suggested we do our magazine again. We had one in InWorldz. So we decided instead of grid news we would focus on Hypergated grids - all things HG, and only read inworld to be more immersive. And then we got some wonder folks to join our team, Serene Jewell, and virtual Christine, and Leighton Marjoram and Jessie Campbell and Reyn Softly/Forest. We report on events and people and regions, we have a couple ongoing articles, like the Secret Shopper, 10 Questions and Dear Reyn and GIGGLEZ and Welcome Area. We all love doing our jobs and giving a little glimpse of what HG has to offer. There are 1000s and 1000s of regions and we'll never get to them all, but we do the best we can! We are all so proud too be part of this wonderful adventure with all of you.

cookie cresci: amazing job

Pathfinder Lester: you have a great team
Sunbeam Magic: Many popular grids have our rack dispenser on their Welcome Areas and many have our magazine on their regions, we just started our own website, you can click on the poster to go there, and if you click on the portraits upstairs it will take you the Google + of that team member.

Pathfinder Lester: I need to put out a magazine rack on Pathlandia
Jessie.Campbell: I think we distribute to 13 grids now, and multiple locations
Minetheree Athanasios: i think it may be more Jess, I pass a few out each issue
Pathfinder Lester: do your magazine stands automatically update for each new month?
virtual christine: Nope, we have to put in the latest issue
Minetheree Athanasios: wish they did, lol, that would be nice
Jessie Campbell: we're working on it, if you think inter grid chat is tough, wait till you tackle inter grid delivery
Pathfinder Lester: ok, no worries.  work in progress. :)
Sunbeam Magic: We are always looking for a Guest Writer, and we accept ads for free. Send a 512 x 512 texture to me, with information about the ad.

Minetheree.Athanasios: Yes, we love guest writers, it's nice to get different ideas on things.

Sunbeam Magic: Thank you all for your support, especially our readers

Sunbeam Magic

Pathfinder Lester: Based on all your experiences and writing about the hypergrid, what do you think is the biggest challenge the whole hypergridded Opensim community faces right now? What do we need to do to make Opensim and the Hypergrid grow?

Minetheree.Athanasios: we need to get the good word out how cool it is I think, like how I do some of my blog pages highlighting places. Once most check it out they like it, especially hypergating

Pathfinder Lester: yeah, raising awareness is a big one, I agree.

Sunbeam Magic: biggest challenge is smoother traveling .... and friends and groups in HG Metaverse I think

Serene.Jewell: Chat across grids is imperfect right now. Could make a huge difference.

Pathfinder Lester: cross-grid chat seems to work most of the time, but not always. And the presence feature (is someone online?) doesn't always work.

Sunbeam Magic: would love it if Group chat in HG worked better too

James Atlloud: @path - from Kitely I have less then 10% function in presence and chat from my HG friends.

Sunbeam Magic: we try to get notices in our upcoming events and report on them afterwards too. To hopefully improve the magazine and get more readers

Minetheree Athanasios: yes, we really need folks to tell us of upcoming events, we can't get them all

Thirza Ember: so do you think Visionz has an impact on GCG residents being aware of grid jumping?

Minetheree Athanasios: Daisy or Tom, would you think that?

Daisy Coronet: oh, absolutely, Miney! I just can't believe no one told me about it earlier, Miney....10 years in virtual worlds and only 1 in the hypergrid....*sigh* lol

          To the question who works hardest, and who's the team slacker, we got the warm friendly jokes you might expect. They all work hard to get their articles in before the deadline. 

Sunbeam Magic: Jessie produces the most per month articles, and she always comes up with the most clever ideas. Miney's Travelogue was really the start of the magazine ... and we all follow her lead.
Minetheree Athanasios: stop that, I am just a shy and demure southern woman!!
Sunbeam Magic: Dear Reyn keeps us all in stitches, he is our most fun writer, and Leighton is so precise and loves to write and do theme series like his Roleplay series.

Minetheree.Athanasios : yes he does

Sunbeam Magic: I love how he starts off with what outfit he is wearing and where he got it from ;))

virtual.christine: woot! GO LEIGHTONS ENSEMBLE!!!!

Minetheree.Athanasios: where is he i wonder
virtual.christine: Perhaps his wardrobe is on strike. His shoes want a byline!
Sunbeam Magic: Virtual christine has been like our biggest promoter, and this next issue we feature her first article. Our first edition had an article about Arcadia Asylum and vc is doing a great article about Sanctuary and Arcadia.
 Minetheree Athanasios: anyway, our main thing is that all the staff love the hypergrid and want to tell about as much of it as we can

Pathfinder Lester: Minetheree, well the passion for the HG comes through in the articles.  It really does.
Minetheree.Athanasios: how about you do a quest article Path?
Pathfinder Lester: i would like to do that.  so yes, sign me up :)  and that whatever is published, you include a picture of my new feet [by Taarna Welles].  because I love them.
       Champagne and cake all round.
James Atlloud: Best wishes for many more years!
Emil Jannings: congratulations on the first year!
snowbody Cortes: ty Sun and team for having us here
Truelie Telling: Congratulations! I can't wait for the next issue
Sunbeam Magic: A toast: To the best team ever VISIONZ crew!!!
HG Address 
Aacme City    login.greatcanadiangrid.ca:8002:aacme city
Our second and third destinations are mentioned in Part 2