Una, IARs, and OARs

In the troubled period since OSGrid went into long term maintenance, Unadecal Masala has found himself in a unique position. He not only rents regions to people in OSGrid, he also rents full independent grids. Most of these grids are small and private in nature, but some are public and they operate their own land rental schemes. Una doesn't have a grid of his own, his motives are simple.

Unadecal Masala: As a mark of respect for their efforts in attracting members and building their own communities, I decided at the beginning that I would never compete with them by setting up a grid where I rent land. I do have a private grid, but this is for testing purposes only.

We met up on HIE region, in the Hypergrid Expo park, on which is still open, if you haven't yet gone around and picked up the LMs, information cards, and freebies. I wondered what Una's reaction was to the whole OSgrid situation, and what had been the effect on his business and his clients. First reaction?

Unadecal Masala: Absolute dismay. Borderline desperation. Not only because of the grid going into long term maintenance, but because of the total asset wipe. Almost twenty years of OpenSim history lost in the blink of an eye.

Una set up Star Ravenhurst's Tenth Dimension Grid

Thirza Ember:  How much work has it been for you to reorganize your clients oars?

Unadecal Masala:  Ensuring that I saved several copies of my clients' OAR files was relatively straightforward. My servers are already configured to regularly make automated oars of all active regions.. I only needed to preserve the oars and keep them from being deleted after a preset period of time passed.

Una set up the HG Safari grid a little more than a year ago, and thanks to his encouragement,
we were able to run the 2025 HIE event from this grid.

Thirza Ember: and what about the .iar files?

Unadecal Masala: IARs were a different story altogether. Osgrid released a new version of the software which allowed making IAR files that excluded corrupted/missing items from inventory. I commissioned a brand new server and configured it with several new regions dedicated to creating IAR files for clients, friends, and grid members in need of assistance. I began to create the IAR files I was asked (begged in some instances), and the problems started.

So many people were trying to make IARs and OARs at the same time, that the grid servers kept crashing, or at least being overloaded by the requests. Numerous reboots and short-term maintenance periods ensued, which in the end made it impossible to create reliable IAR files, so in the end I simply gave up.

Unadecal's booth at HIE this year couldn't have been more minimalist - needless to say this year he has been rather busy doing stuff other than building publicity stands. But if you click on it, you'll get the Masala Estates website, which is pretty much to the point.

Unadecal Masala: When any of my clients asked for alternatives to Osgrid, I gave them a list of grids I either rent or have a personal association with, and therefore trust implicitly. I then allowed each client to choose whether to move their sims elsewhere (providing them their oar files), or simply wait until OSGrid returns from extended maintenance. Many clients simply decided to cancel their rentals and leave OSGrid, whether seeking their own alternatives, or abandoning OpenSim altogether. My client list has been decimated and my income has been adversely affected by cancellations and refunds. On the up side, the adverse effects on my business have been mitigated by an upsurge in sales of private mini grids. I have yet to run the numbers, but it seems this will allow me to ride out the Osgrid storm.

Symphony Vive's lovely Mech Lab region on OSgrid has this stand at the Expo park

Thirza Ember: You're an opensim oldbie so you well remember other times osgrid has been offline, so...

Unadecal Masala: Oh yes, we had a far worse scare ten years ago, when the hard drives in the asset server crashed, and the grid went offline for around six months. I have no doubt in my mind that OSGrid will return from the current maintenance period, albeit in a completely blank state.

My feelings towards the grid and the people who give so much of their time and expertise to keeping it going have not changed, but the prospect of losing their entire inventory has scared many well established grid users away from Osgrid, and that is a shame. There is a fair amount of anger and disappointment among the user base, but there is also a very supportive core of users who are trying to keep the community alive and can't wait for the grid to return.

Lavia Lavine's Genesis RP Grid is an enthusiastic supporter of Una's operation.

Unadecal Masala:  We have been notified in the past couple of days that the grid admins are finalising testing of the improvements that have been introduced to the way that the grid manages its assets, and the grid is nearing its relaunch date, although they have not ventured a possible date for this to take place yet.

The charming, Seville based Don Javi grid, another in the Masala Estates family.

Thirza Ember: You're not a guy who looks for drama, so I appreciate your candor. But looking forward, can you say something about your overall sense of what the future holds?

Unadecal Masala: I think my frustration at the current situation is palpable in my answers, but I also wanted to remain as positive as possible, and to be fair, my grid clients are fantastic. If anything, I would like to promote two aspects of Masala Estates. well, three aspects.

One, I rent private mini grids that can be configured and rolled out fairly quickly.

Two, As a result of the asset problems that have plagued Osgrid for a long time, and several requests from users, I have just launched a bolt-on backup service for my private grids.

Three, I am also developing a new radio station rental system for OpenSim. We could talk a little bit about this, but it is not yet ready for release to the general public... watch this space!

To visit the 130 booths at the Expo park, which will be open for a couple more weeks

HG Address: grid.hgsafari.org:58002:HIE