AMV Six

Cataplexia Numbers: Hi Thirza! Welcome to the AMV Birthday region... this is Cafe Espresso and Town Meeting Stage. 

The grid's 6th birthday celebration is on December 6 and the fun starts at 6am SLT, you can find all the details on the AMV website front page. The region has various stages and meeting areas.

Cataplexia Numbers:This is where we will do Taffy's inauguration as mayor, and Desy's retirement, then on to the living stage. Desi Greywolf has been our Mayor for the past year, and Taffy Starr continues the tradition. 

The Region address is (yes, you know before I say it) at the end of the post. If you're admiring the lovely setup on this region, it was made by Ted Junior and Chris McCracken. Both have made many fine regions in Opensim, for example, you may have seen Ted's build Creative Landform, a sort of tour of beautiful places around the world, and Chris is known for builds like Raceway Island, an automotive paradise. After the Mayoral ceremony from 9 to 10am Grid time, the Birthday bash will continue with three hours of music with  Clan Escotia, Cataplexia, and Icky Thump.

Thirza Ember: Do you remember what sims you first had on the grid when it opened back 6 years ago? are any of those originals intact?

Cataplexia Numbers: Yes. Cliff started out with two, there was not much on them. When I came I brought a dozen VARs I had on OS Grid...  Indigo, Wintervale (now Winterfest), Summervale, Koryphon to name a few ...

Thirza Ember: It is quite a leap of faith to pass your regions on to a person with a new grid - what was special about Cliff that made you sure you were doing the right thing?

Cataplexia.Numbers: Well I had met Cliff back in InWorldz. I had a very busy life there, I was the InWorldz events coordinator, and I had many clubs, and a school of enlightenment. Cliff and I were next door neighbors. I have known him 11 years now.  Its never been hard for me to trust Cliff, he's been so genuine with me since day one

Cat and Cliff

Cataplexia Numbers: When we got married on OSgrid, AMV was called V World... it was not really public yet, was just a few weeks old, and so we literally began it together.

Thirza Ember: you went from one of the shortest grid names to one of the longest!!

Clifford Hanger: yup

Cataplexia Numbers: we just changed the name because I had spend many years building that brand.

Inside one of the oldest buildings on sim Manipura

Cat and Cliff showed me one of those very early regions, still online, though in part, of course, rebuilt over the years. There's still a bit of the original construction, a prim building where they do the belly dancing. The vast ground floor space is dark and ornate like an ancient temple. Above, under the roof, is a densely decorated ballroom where Clan Escotia has been known to do a set in the past.

Thirza Ember: How many people joined you when you started? or was the idea just to have a place of your own.

Cataplexia Numbers: my renters mostly. I had 3 regions of rentals there for free, 66 renters - Marune Estates - so some came for the ride. Others just found the place and liked it, others still came from other places i lived, like InWorldz.

Clifford Hanger: they came from everywhere

Thirza Ember: your regions are very colorful and imaginative, I bet that drew them here... and so Cliff, when did you think, "this is really going to be something, it has taken off" ?

Clifford Hanger: yesterday lol ...no, seriously, it was during our 2nd year. At one point we couldn't create regions fast enough.

Thirza Ember: and did you learn from the mistakes you may have seen on other grids?

Clifford Hanger: on how not to do it yes... we wanted to be visible, we wanted lots of space, no residents next to each other.

 From one of the oldest sims on the grid, we moved over to a region that exemplifies today's Alternate Metaverse Grid, in the eyes of its owners. Metasea is a huge 12x12 VAR which is principally water, with lots of room for sailing, fishing and other water sports, as well as camping. The great indoors, indoors.

Cataplexia and Cliff are an affectionate team

Thirza Ember: Cliff, if you could give your younger self a bit of advice about getting the grid going, what would it be?

Clifford Hanger: automate things if you can! Also - When you start out with a grid of your own, you think you can borrow bits from other grids you've been involved with. But in reality every grid is different they all have their own special needs, so you have to make your setup fit our unique set of circumstances. On the whole, "Don't Panic!" would be my best advice. 

The AMV landing point sim contains information for finding your way around the grid.

Clifford Hanger: Be transparent with your residents when things go wrong, they will be patient, they know that sometimes things break... and cultivate good relationships with your service providers and tech people. For example,  the one time we were hacked, we were back up after five hours.  Another time the main grid server died on a Saturday afternoon. Thanks to the good business relationships and contacts we had developed, we were able to get someone to build an identical server, and in just four hours all was back up.

With affection, teamwork, and commitment to each other and to their residents, it's no wonder that AMV grid has grown and matured over the past six years. Here's wishing them many more to come.

HG Address: alternatemetaverse.com:8002:AMV Birthday