Bogus Curry's Grid Talk

 Bogus Curry's Opensim story is a long one. He's something of an opensim oldbie, and his avatar is pure Legacy, with warm brown eyes, and some interesting tattoos.  

We met on sim grid Talk, on Dorena's World. The region is a delightful assortment of elements, with everything from beach huts to menhirs to sea monsters and windmills, all put together by Anachron Young, the grid owner, along with the eponymous Dorena Verne.

Grid Talk region on Dorenas-world

The idea of a place where you can talk to people who know what you're on about is dear to the hearts of us all. If your first language is English, or you speak it everyday for work reasons, opensim can be fairly easy to navigate, despite its many vagaries. But if you really aren't familiar with English, it can throw up all kinds of challenges and frustrations. That's how the Germán-language forum GridTalk came about.

Bogus Curry: I was previously in SL until 2009 and came to Opensim through a friend. The Metropolis Grid was founded in 2010 and that's when I met Dorena Verne. After a while we decided to make a forum for users and we called it GridTalk. I'm not much in OpenSim anymore, but I used to visit a lot of other grids and also attended events. But over time I have other interests and that's why I actually only go to the events in Dorenas-World ... where I regularly DJ myself.

Bogus Curry

Perhaps you're thinking - wait? are Forums still a thing?

Bogus Curry: Well, 10 years ago forums were still very popular and users exchanged a lot about their problems or otherwise. On the Twitter and Co. side, this has changed a lot. But our small forum is only a niche forum anyway. Maintaining the forum is not very difficult, since I've been doing it for a long time, I've gained a lot of experience over time.

Art by Bogus on Fractalworlds

Despite his charming self-deprecation, Bogus is a creative presence on Dorenasworld. We hopped over to region  Fractalworld, where you cans see some of his creations displayed. Complex patterns that speak to the brain. But thinking about Grid-Talk another issue springs to mind. What about the inevitable question - drama. It seems that anywhere on social media, even in the most niche of niche groups, it's bound to raise its ugly head as misunderstandings and unfortunate remarks get people's goat. 

Bogus Curry: Yes, unfortunately it's not that easy. Sometimes a little more action needs to be taken with users who cause problems or even drama. Which is very difficult for me, especially if you have known these users for a long time.

On a lighter note, the forum has its own dance hall - this sci fi build with one of the finest neon entrance tunnels in opensim. Here you can dance, grab a drink, and enjoy the ambience. Taking the opportunity I asked about my current obsession the upcoming HIE conference. Would it be something that Bogus would be interested in?  Considering that he runs a German-language forum, what does Bogus think about the fact that English kind of overpowers the other languages in Opensim? Spoiler alert, he's pretty chill.

Bogus Curry: No, English is a world language, so I find it quite normal to have a conversation in English. I've been to SL and got to know very nice people here too.

But what about people who struggle with languages? 

Bogus Curry: That depends on the people, there are translators and they can help to understand another user with a different mother tongue.

Thirza Ember: There will be a conference in October where speakers will speak in different languages ​​with translated subtitles so everyone can follow the general idea of ​​the talks. The idea is to celebrate the beautiful variety of languages ​​and cultures that we have in Opensim. Have you heard about it? Do you think you would like such an event?

Bogus Curry: depends on the topics ;D

Thirza Ember: good point!  There will be talks and performances on the subject of art, educational projects, the different ways people use Opensim for social purposes and for real world work. 

Bogus Curry: ahh sounds interesting 

Quote by Kofi Annan: "All evil needs to triumph is the silence of the majority."

Thoughtful venue, thoughtful forum and a fascinating guy... let's take that as a 'maybe attending' at the HIE conference in October!

HG Address:  dorenas-world.de:8002:Gridtalk

                        dorenas-world.de:8002:Fractalworlds