Francopholie

It's the world's 5th language, in terms of speakers, and comes in 4th for most-used language on the Internet. But in Opensim, the French speaking cohort often appears not to reflect those kinds of numbers. Minord Loup, together with friends LadyKa and Athena, would like to do something to redress the balance. 

The idea? Make it easier for people who speak French to find each other, and make opensim more attractive and user-friendly for Francophiles in Second Life who are contemplating the jump into other worlds.

It makes sense. It's already a pretty steep learning curve to leave SL for opensim if you speak English, imagine if your first language is something else. Francophones - often called 'frenchies' in this blog - are in reality from all over the world, not just France, and it can be hard for them to find a place in opensim where everyone speaks their language.

The First Thursday of the Month group

In an attempt to create a centralized point of reference, there is a once-a-month meet up for networking, catching up with the news or maybe asking for a bit of tech help, and occasionally exploring franco-friendly destinations. It's hosted by Eden Catharine on the first Thursday of each month at 9pm Paris time.  You may have seen the poster at the Safari clubhouse. If you know any French opensimmers, it would be a kindness to let them know, you can never have too many resources or friends.

The meetings are generally held at chez-eden.venez.fr:8002 and in the event of tech problems with that location, the fall back place is hg.osgrid.org:80:Reunion Franco. 

You can get the latest info about all that by joining the Francophones group on Opensimworld or by joining the Discord group SV3D - please note, the Discord invitation expires after a week. Nothing I can do about that.

But wait, isn't/wasn't there a big French grid in opensim? Francogrid?  You're right. Francogrid was one of the oldest grids in opensim and was renowned for its art and social events, including Fest'Avi. Francogrid was home to HG Safari for several years, too. But in 2022 it finally died. 

Long before Francogrid's demise, other francophone grids and enclaves had popped up all over opensim. Safari goers will be very familiar with Ignis Fatuus, for example, but also Logicamp, Atlas, Serenity, Ocean... the list goes on. Notable French-speakers like Cheops Forlife, Ange Menges and Nani Ferguson, Ieko Catnap, and Cherry Manga are to be found working on more internationally-focused grids. Virtual Dreams grid came close to uniting the community for a while there; owners Vladimir and Miranda organized touring events to franco-friendly sims, and hosted quite a few people on their grid, but that too went offline. For someone new to opensim, this can all be a bit confusing.

Minord Loup

Minord Loup has his own grid with some friends, SV3D. Actually he has more than one grid, and that brings us to his idea: Francopholie.

Why not have a neutral minigrid - a grid with just a single region, no residents, but a place where any francophone person coming into opensim can make contact with the franco community?

It's called Francopholie, and it has a bright, clean, modern feel. There's a great gallic-looking statue wielding a hammer atop a night-time globe at one end, and at the other, the Francophonie website, featured on the big screen. This website (not affiliated with opensim) gives you an idea of the scope and beauty of the language in its various forms and cultural nuances. 

From website FrancoPhonie ...to grid FrancoPholie, it's a great choice of name for this new project! Far from being a folly, this is a fun, ingenious plan for a sort of virtual 3D 'bulletin board' where it's possible to rez an informational poster, a LM giver, or other items to help French-language people find their way in Opensim.

HG Address: francopholie.fr:8002:Francopholie

hop://francopholie.fr:8002/Francopholie/64/86/33