OSGrid Goes On

 SO after all that drama, OSGrid is not completely closing and disappearing at all.  Having worked everyone up into a froth with the announcement that Sunday 18 October was going to be 'the Last Community Meeting',  they walked that back to simply the "Last Community Meeting of 2026". 

Big difference.

The cupboard under the podium has whiskey and vodka.
Both much needed during this meeting.

As of today (and I guess things could easily change again) the idea seems to be this:

• In the next 73 days, any OSGrid resident who needs to make a copy of their inventory should do so, also copy their region (commonly called your .iar and .oar) - but don't all do it at once or you will make things even worse than they are.
• On December 31 the grid will close, the assets will be wiped - just as they were in April 2025.
• Then, at some time in 2027 'new' OSGrid will come online. The promise made yesterday was that your Account will still be there, so things like your Rez date and Friends list should not be lost, even if you will have no Inventory when you first log in. Well, we've all been there, done that. No date was announced.
• The 'new' grid will be run on different lines. It will still of course be Hypergrid friendly, and the core regions will all still be there. But things change regarding adding your sim to the grid.
  In the past, anyone could attach a region to the grid without paying or asking for permission, you just chose an open spot on the map and joined the region(s) on your server to OSgrid. Lots of people added regions on home servers and there was little or no 'policing' of who had what land. You can read on Osgrid.online about the terrible trouble that some griefers have caused to the Grid. To prevent this happening again, you will no longer be able to informally add your sim to the grid. Only Authorized Hosters/Homesteaders will be able to do that. It wasn't entirely clear but in general, it means you'll have to go through one of the companies who host / rent regions on OSGrid, like Contabo, or Masala Estates, or Swondo, the oldest OSgrid rental service. Or you could use Dreamgrid, which is free. So if you weren't paying to be part of OSGrid, those days are over in 2027. As Albertlr put it " ...the requirement for $1 region fees will need to continue and will be incorporated into the new version of Osgrid."

The meeting started out a lot of fun - the first people on the sim showed up about 3 hours before the appointed hour and by 9am SLT, two hours before the Admins were due to speak, there were thirty or more people. It was neat to see so many familiar faces. The mood was partly anxious, partly delighted to see old friends, partly upbeat as Hicks Adder kept us entertained with his dancing as we waited to hear about the closure

Hicks and the lovely Sharann Cousine danced in the aisles while we waited for the Big News.

This event was advertised as a Community Meeting, and people had shown up to have their say. Many of them have what you might call 'dual citizenship' with other grids where they are very active, some are OSGrid diehards. 

Hurliman Plaza auditorium - no longer slated for destruction!

There was a Translator Orb on the sim, but sadly I guess nobody had checked if it worked, and it didn't. This naturally made life difficult for the non-English speakers, who were also hampered by the crazy chatter all at once, as people vented their feelings throughout the meeting.

The meeting was held in Local Chat so anyone present could make a transcript and check what was announced and promised.

Dan Banner prepares to face the mob.. I mean the public

Dan Banner was first to speak, walking back the news of the grid closing completely. He was followed by albertlr Landar who, as I read the transcript, was focused on defending the Admins and their unpaid work and talking about Zeffy. While he was doing that however, people were asking a lot of other questions a little closer to their hearts. Here are some examples:

• They were trying to understand how, if the Asset Server of osgrid is full of bad assets, it is still OK to make an .iar of our own personal assets. Would that not re-corrupt the new asset server when we return and load our .iar back into the grid?
• Many were just annoyed about what they consider to be the mixed messages and the drama and confusion of the past weeks. 
• LadyJo floated the interesting idea of OSGrid directly renting sims to residents, as happens on all the other grids, rather than having people use a middleman hosting system.
  
• Some wanted the Admins to get in touch with experts who they said could fix the grid without wiping everything.
• Rique said, why don't you tell people how much it costs to run OSGrid... well the answer to that is here
• Others wanted to understand what they're supposed to do if they don't like Dreamgrid, and don't want to pay an Authorized Host to put their region on OSGrid.
• Matilda asked a pertinent question: will the website still be the same or a new website?

Osgrid Vodka,
and some interesting seating arrangements 

That question is important, since the grid's Admin and web master Paela Argus resigned from the board of OSgrid back on September 23 2026 with immediate effect. 

However, Dan Banner put it this way: "Paela will be taking the website code and leaving". So I guess we all need to be sure we're looking at the 'right' OSGrid website...?

Nineteen years is a long time, and while it's fair to say that not everyone considers OSGrid the center of Opensim, and hundreds of Opensim residents probably rarely visit OSGrid, it would be a huge shame if it disappears. That was certainly the view of the 120 plus people who showed up on Hurliman yesterday. 

It's a view shared both by those who fiercely love and defend the grid, and those who respect its part in the evolution of our virtual worlds.  

No closure, but more clarity was what everyone desires.

Pass the popcorn and or vodka. This one's not over yet.