Into the 3rd Wind

 It's almost here!!
The 3rd Rock Grid community  - they're retiring that name and going with "3rd Wind", wind being the next element after rock - are moving to an enclave on Zetaworlds grid.
This decision was taken after a lot of thought not only about finances but also grid security, size, and atmosphere. Considering how many different solutions were proposed to them, it's fair to say it wasn't an easy decision, which speaks well to the amazing solidarity and opportunities that opensim offers these days.

3rdRock Grid will become the
3rd Wind Community located on
Zetaworlds Grid

What was the best and the worst part of this experience? I asked two well-known members of the community, David and Alia, to give me some background.

David7 Bravin: The worst is on course the fact that 3rd Rock Grid is having to close after so many years. The best thing that has happened is that Alia Soulstar took up the challenge and has managed to find the 3RG Community a new home on ZetaWorlds

Alia Soulstar: Yes,  it was an extremely hard decision. 

David7 Bravin

Thirza Ember: how did the transition process work ?

Alia Soulstar: After the news of closure the community decided we wanted to stay together as a group. We debated rescuing or re-floating the grid but eventually settled on the migration option. An intrepid party of explorers set sail into Hyperspace on a mission to find a grid that would be a good fit for our community. They whittled it down to a handful (no simple process) and invited those grid owners to come and talk at our community meetings (one per week) and tell us about their grids and their communities. It was fascinating to meet them and learn what they were up to and what they had to offer. I’d like to express my deepest gratitude to them all for making that effort. Each one had compelling reasons to make their grid our new home, our decision was in no sense a simple one. We were focused on a number of points including 'shared values' and 'robust technical infrastructure' (I don’t think anyone had the stomach for having to move again in 12 months). 

The Safari has visited the RP sim "Starfleet Infinity" several times.

Alia Soulstar: The most important thing we were seeking was flexibility. We wanted to be able to continue our 3RG legacy by bringing our identity with us—our iconic community assets like Nuna Gallery, the fantasy regions and historic builds, our entertainment and education programmes, Starfleet Infinity, etc. 

Hal9000 is one of the grid's signature builds, based on the film 2001Space Odyssey,
by Alia Soulstar with sound effects by Lorin Tone, who guided a Safari tour in 2023 

Alia Soulstar: And we also wanted to maintain our bonds as a community. By that I don’t mean a take-over or forming a gated community inside another grid, our aim was always to integrate with the people and culture in our new home. So we formed 3rd Wind, choosing another element (rock = earth, WIND, fire and water), our website and charter is here: www.3rdwc.com.

David7 Bravin: I personally didn't find the process of choosing difficult - as I had no preset ideas - also I found that that the document that Alia had produced setting out the information on all 4 Grids very informative and useful.

Alia Soulstar

Thirza Ember: I attended one of the meetings where the community was able to interact with potential grid host, and get a feel for their vibe, ask technical questions, and express concerns. In normal 3RG style, the meeting was chaired in a formal manner and people were asked to 'raise hands'  so that all questions or comments were fielded in a very organized manner, allowing for all voices to be heard.

David7 Bravin: The way we run our Community Meetings has been fine tuned over the years . People seem to like the idea of "raising a hand" when they want to speak - as they know that their name will be called and they don't get shouted out.  As Chairman I have to keep a watchful eye (and a list ) of whose turn it is to speak next.  Without such a system - Community meetings can get a bit chaotic - and makes writing the Minutes much more difficult!

NUNA Art Gallery

Thirza Ember:  And you guys have chosen Zetaworlds. For the whole community?

David7 Bravin: The short answer is yes - we are moving as a Community

Alia Soulstar: ZetaWorlds offered us an up-specced dedicated server at a very reasonable price, flexibility to innovate and design our community, really excellent back-end support, and an extant community we have already discovered to be welcoming and supportive. What this means for us is that we can on-sell private regions to our members at exceedingly reasonable prices (at the lowest end we have 256x parcels with 10k prims for $2.50 a month) and carry all our community lands, and still run at a healthy surplus. That is really exciting. A surplus gives us the ability to contract performing artists (can you imagine actually paying them!!!), and to generally support the creative economy of Opensim. We are maintaining 3RG's not for profit status so all the surpluses we generate are spent on enhancing the community and fulfilling our creativity mandate. 

Waking Dreams, one of the community's delightful music venues

Thirza Ember:  What about all your weekly events like the roleplay and various musical evenings. Will that all continue?

Alia Soulstar:  Our activities will hit the ground running. We are bringing our entertainments programme with us and continuing our Starfleet missions without missing a beat. Obviously we don’t want to compete with the Zeta event schedule so some jiggling of times will be required, but we will use our own website, social media outlets and the resources of ZetaWorlds to post our calendar of events.

Sim Einstein on 3RG, by the much-missed Kira Tiponi

Thirza Ember: So in terms of those of us who love the 3rd vibe and want to stay in touch - can we come over and check on you? (maybe bringing a housewarming gift...)
Alia Soulstar: Visitors are always welcome to poke their noses in and say hello (as are new 3rd Wind Members). We are still loading our assets but at the time of writing this Starfleet, Nuna and a handful of musical venues are running with more loading daily. The emphasis has been on getting private lands up first so that our landed gentry transition seamlessly, with community assets to follow. Most of our formalised activity is around the pre-noon, post-noon slot but we have a very international community so you're likely to bump into someone anytime. 

Thirza Ember:  One thing everyone will want to know... are you going to have a Grid-Goodbye event on the old grid?

Alia Soulstar: Yes, there will be a GIGANTIC closing party at 3RG this weekend (11-12th) which will seamlessly become an opening party on Zeta. Stay posted to this bat channel and social media, or contact me (aliasoulstar@gmail.com) for more details!!!