Safari Breaks the Code

            Well, maybe not the code, but for sure we broke Neiferleaf, at least for a little while. Yet, would it really be a Safari if there was no crashing?
             Exactly.

             Back after a two month break, over 40 people joined - or tried to join - the Safari this week, a sign that the interest in opensim destinations remains as strong as ever. Two really interesting places were our goals on this our 155th outing - Vibel grid, and CitizenFour on Osgrid - complete HG addresses at the end of the post.

Safari Restarts

          Today is the first day of the 2017/2018 season of Safari trips around the hyperverse, so welcome back to the crashy, crazy, creative and often semi-nude adventures of group hypergridding.
         There are some new features of the Safari. 

Mobius Grid Safari base

         We have a new base on Mobius Grid, courtesy of Serra Royale. The new base was put together by Wizardoz Chrome, and contains some information about our trips and some freebies.
         Spike Sol has added some HG Safari information, in both English and German, on the Weltraumbahnhof, the hypergrid portal base on her grid, Soloton.

Weltraumbahnhof

         

On DeReOs

        The Safari is on vacation for a few weeks, but of course, that does not mean that opensim sightseeing comes to a halt. This week and indeed right up to July 23, there is a Summer festival on DeReOs grid, well worth hypergridding over to see it - HG Address at the end of the post, as usual. 

        Here's the rundown of this year's Sommerevent  Wednesday 12 July,  9 pm   The traditional 'Wednesday party' with Samira (12.00pm SLT)
Thursday 13 July,  8 pm   Western party with Sylvia from Nextlife  (11.00 am SLT)
Saturday 15 July,   9 pm   Wolem Wobbit Live blues concert  (12.00 pm SLT)
Wednesday, July 19,  9 pm     Samira's party  (12.00 pm SLT)
Saturday 22 July, 8 pm Kueperpunkt Comedy Decaffeinated and out of control  (11.00 am SLT)
Saturday 22 July,   9 pm Rocking music with DJ Prince Von Halberstadt and announcement of the winner of the Exhibitor Contest  (12.00 pm SLT)
Sunday July 23,, 4 pm Quiz with Vivienne  (7.00 am SLT)
Sunday July 23,    8 pm Kai and Marina Baer with their 'showtruck'  (11.00 am SLT)
 DeReOs is a relatively young grid, but its origins are venerable. It began 
as a group of friends, and then, as people's expertise increased, a group of regions on OSGrid. The name comes from "German (Deutsche) Regions of OpenSim". From SL to OSgrid, in some cases then to Metropolis, and finally to a grid of their own, these friends have all got many years of virtual experience, in technical, artistic and social terms. More about that below.

Safari Goes Off the Rez-ervation

           Last Safari for a while, but three destinations well worth you visiting. The HG Addresses (that's the bit you copy and paste into your Viewer's Map feature) at the end.
Why give the destination address in this format? It's because the low tech approach (you simply Highlight text, Ctrl C, then open your Map and Ctrl V into 'Search') works for all Viewers. 

Adrean Flux

             Our first port of call was Miranda the Welcome region of Adrean's World. Usually grid owner Adrean Flux is not available during the Safari hours,  since she is in Florida. So it was a great treat to get the opportunity meet her. the grid has about 500 registered users, not surprising since the grid was founded in 2010.

Safari gets a Sinking Sensation

            The summer is the time for big concerts, and fun in the sun, trips to museums and splashing about in the waves. The great thing about virtual worlds is - it's always summer, if you want it to be! 

             This week we went back to Sensation Millennium for a third visit, this time to see the Rock and Roll Museums on the ground level, two buildings dedicated to performers of international repute, David Bowie and Jim Morrison. to see the other part of the build which is on Craft Grid.  We were lucky enough to have the wonderful Whirli Placebo playing for us... so 3 rocking legends all on stage together!

Safari Potters About the Hyperverse

      Fourteen Harry Potter regions, of which nine are open to the public, featuring thousands of scripts and gazillions of beautiful textures, fully furnished buildings, including shops and houses - not to mention a spectacular reconstruction of Hogwarts school... this was the first of two destinations this week to Metropolis and then to neverworld, with an intriguing Extra stop at the end on OSGrid. All hypergrid addresses at the end of this post, as usual.

          Franzisca Bossi is an Opensim Treasure; she has been around longer than most of us, building and contributing to the hypergrid in many ways.

Safari Makes a Scene

         Three more great regions that show opensim at its best! HG addresses at the end of the post, as usual.
         Once again, some funky teleport issues for our intrepid hypergridding team, whose tenacity and resilience makes them HG Heroes.

         Obviously, when it comes to opensim code, nobody who matters cares about what I think, but it bears pointing out the frustration that the code creates in the following scenario: A desperate IM arrives, asking "where are you all?' and 'can you tp me?" The person is definitely online, but when I reply, there's this popup: 'Unable to send message. User is not online'.  But the person IS online. And their message reached me - so why can't my reply reach them? *SCREAM: THIS SHOULD BE A BASIC FUNCTION OF OPENSIM WHY DOESN'T IT WORK RIGHT*
          That said, here's a more positive take on it all....
Sunbeam Magic: LOL what a comedy of errors ;) lol all worked out fine as always ! HUGS ♥

A Triple Space Safari Part 2

 

         

          Our final stop was at the International Space Museum, on Kitely. Rosa Alekseev, Shanna Starship, Kat Lemieux and Mike Lorrey were inworld to welcome us and give us the tour. 

Rosa Alekseev: Welcome to ISM!
Mike Lorrey: how many are coming today?
Thirza Ember: well, we started out 24, but Outworldz had us crashing, so i don't know how many will survive
Rosa Alekseev: Hi Lucy! Welcome to ISM
Lucy Afarensis: Thanks rough weather getting here

Mike Lorrey: Welcome to the International Spaceflight Museum, we are the same organization which operates in SL, we just have a little more room here, twice as much actually.  ISM is a Texas 501c3. Our mission is to document and exhibit all the worlds endeavors with spaceflight. 
Thirza Ember: what's your rl connection to space, guys?
Kat Lemieux: Thirza, I grew up with the space program since my dad was a chief engineer at the Cape in the 1960s
Mike Lorrey: You have arrived in the core of the Vehicle Assembly Building, which is a reproduction of a building of the same name at Cape Canaveral, Florida... we are working on faithfully reproducing as much of its interior and exterior as possible.
Kat Lemieux: Better known as the "VAB" since nobody knows if it should be "Vehicle" or "Vertical"

Flidais Merlin: they say vertical on the tour;-)
Kat Lemieux: OK, it's gone back and forth. I watched it being built when I was a kid.
Mike Lorrey: this is where NASA assembles its big rockets, from the Saturn rockets of the Apollo era, to the Space Shuttle, now on their Space Launch System and other large rockets... this area is what is known as the High Bay, which is where the vertical assembly happens, next door is a smaller, shorter area called the Low Bay, which is where smaller components are assembled and readied for moving in here to the vertical assembly process... the VAB is the largest enclosed volume in the world, or was at one time, not sure if its still the record holder.
Kat Lemieux: When we get the Saturn V here, you'll see 1st hand why it had to be so big. The Shuttle gets swallowed up in that volume.
Thirza Ember: very nice here, how did it all get started?

Mike and his remarkable hair

Kat Lemieux: Mike has done most of it here. It was an impulse, actually. A couple of us built a "derelict" space station for Burning Life '05, and the idea just grew from there. I've been in Kitely for about 5 years now. Mike found us when he joined.
Mike Lorrey: This is the Voyager spacecraft, there were two of them, 1 and 2, which explored the outer solar system and are now heading into interstellar space... they visited Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune and transformed our understanding of our solar system.
George Equus: Hard to fathom, how far it has travelled so far...

Tha Cassini Probe

Mike Lorrey: This is the Cassini Probe, which orbited Saturn for a number of years and has gone into depth exploring its moons like Titan and Enceladus...: We now suspect there may be life on one or both of those moons thanks to Cassini
Thirza Ember: there's definitely cheese so probably other life too
Mike Lorrey: Cassini flew through giant geysers of ice spewing from the south pole of Enceladus and detected precursor chemicals that indicate the conditions exist that favor life. Cassini is named after a rennaissance astronomer who studied Saturn.  
Mike Lorrey: This is the Japanese experiment module that is part of the International Space Station or ISS, each box you see is a separate experiment exposed to the rigors of space, the arm is used to manage each one fro m within the module, and there are more experiments inside
Kat Lemieux: The first copy of JEM we got was built by someone who is retired from JAXA, the Japanese space agency ... In Kitely his avatar is named Hajime Nishimura
Ziggy Cagney: is that the arm made by canadians ?
Thirza Ember: what kinds of experiments

Mike Lorrey: all sorts from studying how life forms live in zero g, how they tolerate radiation and exposure  as well as growing crystals and studying things like ignition and combustion
Thirza Ember: oh nice
George Equus: not for the life forms probably...
Thirza Ember: a bit like the safari then... being experimented on
Lucy Afarensis: There is a lot of mesh things on the NASA site
Kat Lemieux: We use some of NASA's mesh models, but mostly they have to be reworked for VWs since they are very full of extra vertices and use too much land impact. They aren't really designed for VWs.
Mike Lorrey: there is great potential for industry to grow all sorts of things in zero g from new proteins to better circuits, the economic potential of outer space is limitless, we just need to research the possibilities

Thirza Ember: this makes me think of Werner's region on Craft
Mike Lorrey: This is Deep Space 1, one of the first space probes to use a plasma propulsion system to get around, it has visited asteroids and comets. 
Thirza Ember: what is plasma
Mike Lorrey: A plasma drive doesn't combust fuel like a chemical rocket engine, it excites it electronically to become very hot and ionically charged: plasma is the fourth state of matter, you have solid, liquid, gas and plasma, plasma is what happens to matter that is so hot that its electrons separate from the atoms
Lucy Afarensis: electrons are stripped from atoms
Mike Lorrey: because plasma is charged, you can guide and accelerate it with magnetic fields, radio waves, and electrostatic fields
Ziggy Cagney: the sun radiates plasma all the time
Mike Lorrey: so you use magnets to accelerate the plasma to very very high speed and get a lot more efficient push from the propellant than from a chemical reaction so the probe can go much faster and further for much less fuel ...best of all it can start and stop itself along its mission to visit deifferent locations.
Thirza Ember: wow that's very good explanation, thank you
Mike Lorrey: This is the Rosetta spacecraft which has been used to explore both the moon, and several comets, it is a european probe and landed a smaller probe from it upon one of its targets, its been very useful for understanding how comets function 


Mike Lorrey: This area is where we're documenting a number of astronauts and their accomplishments, people who have achieved firsts in spaceflight
Thirza Ember: i like the way it's got all the nationalities in together
Mike Lorrey: yes we are working to document all space explorers regardless of national origin
George Equus: was checking for the Swede  :)
Chip Angelvi: https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liste_des_voyageurs_spatiaux   la liste est impressionante

Rosa Alekseev: yes here we have the list of all that was first, if u search by country, u ll see the name of astronauts and in yellow u can see the photos too
Mal Burns: even the monkeys! yay
Kat Lemieux: And don't forget Laika, the Russian dog
Mike Lorrey: yes Laika and Ham were the first higher life forms to reach space
Rosa Alekseev: here we have the time of each one in space too in plan
Kat Lemieux: Eventually we will have a published database of all our exhibits, along with a metadata schema for describing 3D objects for virtual worlds
Mike Lorrey: We have an ultimate goal of packaging a complete museum into a  "museum on a stick" that any school in the world could install on their school network to provide a safe learning environment for students to learn about space and spaceflight.
George Equus: This is a tantalizing way to do it!
Mike Lorrey: We feel that humanity is on the verge of reaching out to settle space and we want the world prepared for it.
Kat Lemieux: We will probably start out with subsets of the exhibits, and distribute them as OAR files on our website, http://ismuseum.org
George Equus: We ultimately have to...
Thirza Ember: i can think of a few people I'd like to volunteer for space exploration
Mal Burns: i can think of a few i would rather see off planet too Thirza



Mike Lorrey: ok let's go up above to see the rockets, behind Mal is the ESA Ariane V rocket, which is Europe's largest...up here you will find each rocket labeled on its object name with its RL title, we have rockets from Brazil, China, Japan, India, Israel, as well as the US Europe and Russia... this is Japan's H2 rocket, their largest which is used to launch satellites and has even resupplied the ISS
Rosa Alekseev: but we have Ariane 5 that was made with france and i m so proud cause took first satelite that ll connect all Brasil with internet
Kat Lemieux: The H2 launched Hayabusa, the Japanese comet probe back in (I think) 2006

Safari's own superstar, Wizard Gynoid

Wizard Gynoid: I liked to go to the NASA museum in Second Life years ago. 
Kat Lemieux: If you're talking about the ISM in Second Life, it was never NASA
Wizard Gynoid: the one with all the rockets.
Kat Lemieux: Yep, that was this museum. International Spaceflight Museum. NASA was next door until they quit. They didn't have a museum there.
Mike Lorrey: This is Man's first satellite, the Soviet Sputnik, simple enough, but historically titanic
George Equus: beep  beep beep
Thirza Ember: the ruskies are coming
Mike Lorrey: lol ...This was America's first manned spacecraft, the Mercury capsule, 7 were flown by the astronauts who were said to have "the right stuff"
Kat Lemieux: THe Magnificent 7
Mal Burns: tight fit!
Rosa Alekseev: yes: indeed
Mike Lorrey: the first two were flown on top of the rocket next to me, the Mercury Redstone Rocket, it was the US Army's first ballistic missile and directly derived from the German V-2 rocket of WWII, in turn the V-2 was based on patents and rockets flown by American Dr Robert Goddard in the 1930's... Ham also flew on a Redstone
George Equus: Can't imagine being cooped up in that capsule...
Mike Lorrey: The atlas rocket, which I haven't got out yet, was the second rocket used by the mercury astronauts, and was used to put their capsules in orbit

Rosa Alekseev: neither i George
Mike Lorrey: across from us are the early soviet rockets, including their Vostok and Soyuz rockets
George Equus: This display is excellent. It's gigantic...
Kat Lemieux: Thanks, George!  Largely Mike's work here in Kitely
Mike Lorrey: This is the Titan II rocket which launched the Gemini capsules, so called because they carried two astronauts
Thirza Ember: oh, that's why? I never knew that!
Mike Lorre;y: the Gemini was loved by the astronauts because of its long duration and maneuverability,  it was the spacecraft from which our first spacewalks were taken

Wizard Gynoid: so any of these rockets fly? can we take a ride?
Mike Lorrey: no, not yet, we are focused on construction right now, scripting comes later. 
George.Equus: I've seen regions similar in theme but never anything close to detailing and facts here
Kat Lemieux: We've had lots of time to develop, since 2005
Mike Lorrey: we are serious about functioning as a real museum to be a global resource.. and thank you all for coming. We are open 24/7, so feel free to come back to see how things develop.
George Equus: Thank you very much for the tour! Splendid... and a place to return to...
Shanna Starship: Take care!
Flidais Merlin: yes thanks - I'll definitely be back - bfn
Billy Bradshaw: Will do, thanks for the hospitality
George Equus: Thank you Rosa and Mike!

HG Address:  

International Space Museum  Rockets and satellites galore
grid.kitely.com:8002:ismuseum

A Triple Space Safari

          This was week 150 of the Safari, and one might think that after a hundred and fifty trips around the hyperverse, we would have run out of new things to see, and just be tootling around previously seen places... if you think that, you could not be more wrong! 

Pangea, Metropolis

           Here are three amazing first looks for the Safari, on three iconic opensim grids. Details of how to get to each one at the end of the post, and you're definitely going to want to see all of these this summer. 

Safari Double Parks

              This week, once again, two destinations with a lot going on! We started on Kroatan Grid, and then went to explore 3rd Life grid (as usual, addresses at the end of the post)  where, once again, we got to meet the locals and get some of the backstory of the places we were seeing. 
               There's nothing better for appreciating your surroundings than to have a bit of context, don't you agree? So here's what we found out, hopefully you will take a trip to see these lovely places, and make some new friends.

              First up, Kroatan, a park-like grid, where the opensimworld Beacon registered our arrival and bumped us up to the top of the webpage... you could tell that, because suddenly some people from a Brazilian grid, and from  partydestinationgrid showed up, rather bemused to come across a crowd, it seemed. We invited them to join us, but it appeared that the concept of a tour group in hg was beyond their ken... maybe next time...

Three years of HGSafari

          Sunshine Szavanna, Whirli Placebo, and Joao Frazao, with some help from the magical special effects of Cherry Manga, and in all about 60 friends and fellow conspirators, all came together to celebrate three years of crazy crashing, awesome art, intrepid investigating, and excessive exploring around the metaverse.

          Sunshine shared with us some fabulous World music, from Africa and Asia, on the theme of travel and family, both central to the hypergrid experience. 

Safari Does Stuff

          This week was a whistle-stop tour through three smallish grids, each one uniquely beautiful and interesting. 
         The grid addresses at the end of the post, so you can go and take a look for yourself... they're all well worth a visit!

            First up, Phaandoria. We landed in the shadow of a Linda Kellie creation, the Autumn Castle, a symbol in a way of the share-alike mentality this grid is famous for. Then we moved over to Nerdpol region, distinctly different in design... time for some fireworks!

Safari: Art and Science

          On average, how many minutes a week do you spend thinking about the Viewer you use to access Opensim, or SL?  I bet it's not many. Like air, or legs, we tend to think about the viewer only when there's something wrong with it, and rarely remember how much we owe to this free resource. But this week, the Safari went to XMIR grid to learn more about one such Viewer, Kokua. We followed up the tech talk with Gavin Hird by going over to Metropolis Grid to met up with Zonja Capalini and Ludmilla Writer, on Condensation Land. How to get to both grids? Scroll down to the end of the post to find out.

Pathfinder  Lester: *^applause!^*
Gavin: Kokua OS - a viewer for OpenSim
Gavin Hird: Welcome everyone, I hope you are comfortably seated?
Wizardoz Chrome: (yes thanks :) )
Aime Socrates: large seats here... you turned me to a small creature
Wizardoz Chrome: ahhhh now i see a micro rabbit :D
Selby Evans: OpenSim needs a viewer
George Equus: Specialized to see small rabbits?

Genesis Metaverse Grid

 Our second 90 minute destination was on the commercial grid, Genesis Metaverse.  It is a huge contrast to the opensource, commerce free feel of FrancoGrid with its almost decade-long history, that's the beauty of opensi, there is such a lot of variety here, and so many different ways to enjoy the hyperverse.

        The Genesis Metaverse website is hazy on specifics about its origins, but reading between the lines it seems to have begun in 2016 and the guys there seem to have been on a grid where customer service was not a top priority. But there is nothing hazy about the welcome you will get when you arrive on GMV, as they call it for short.
           Gage Logan was the GMV mentor who kindly agreed to show us around. Now usually, when someone agrees to act as guide on a grid, they choose to showcase their own regions. So is was quite remarkable - and a testament to Gage's commitment and love of his inworld family - that he chose to show us regions belonging to Roffellos Kisses, (Angelorum Enim Est) Kit Capone and bonnie dean, (Bonova)  and Kim song and Fred Blogs (Perfect Waters).
       A bunch of people were on the Welcome sim to meet us, including grid owners Dragon Genesis and Candi Genesis.  The source of any lag experienced by those coming in seems to have been down to Vivox, not for the first time in Safari experience. I you're not planning on talking, it really pays to uncheck the Voice option in Preferences before hypergridding, it can save a lot of trouble. That, and anything scripted you're wearing.

Genesis Park

Dragon Genesis: have fun all :) and enjoy our homes
Candi Genesis: y'all will love Fred & Kim's place, amazing people those two
Aquarius Dragonella: they was the first couple I met here and we been like family since!
Getting to our first stop proved pretty challenging, but about half of us survived the crashing and made it to Roffellos Kisses' region Angelorum Enim Est. The lag kind of made it hard to raise draw distances too high, but he passed out a funny dance - so mission accomplished! I went back today to try and get some pics, sadly, the region was closed to outsiders.

        Our second stop was a shopping region called Bonova built and run by Kit Capone and bonnie dean.

        Lots of toys, carousels, trains and planes here as well as a store with clothes and so forth, all on sale for the local currency.

Sunbeam Magic: Cute place! I love the guy with the bagpipes.
Thirza Ember: Gage, tell us about this region
Gage Logan: This is owned by Kid and Bonnie... they are a bit shy lol
Kid Capone: Our land is not based on anything in Particular.  It's a mixture of all sorts of wonderful stuff we just enjoy building no matter what. There is a lot to see here. Make sure you visit Versailles !
Gage Logan: ...and if there is something you want ...they will make it for you!

The vast Bonova region, and beyond

  Finally, we got where the dancing was already hotting up, on sim Perfect Waters. What felt like dozens of local residents all made us feel very welcome. The music was supplied by fantasia Logan, whose rich, warm voice was the perfect match for a lively, noisy, fun-loving playlist.

The outstanding DJane talent of Fantasia Logan

Lady Lissa: this is Fred and Kim's region
Gage Logan: Perfect Waters consists of three units, the Mall, Blue Waters Ballroom and the H20 Nightclub. To see the region at its best it is set to midnight. The Mall is a small cozy affair with stores by RFF, Anna May, Hair by Ulrika, Velvet Rhythms, This and That and Cats Claws.  Blue Waters ballroom is for those romantic evenings, dining, music  24/7, chapel attached and couples areas on the balconies and surrounding areas. H20 Nightclub is possibly the best looking club in Genesis with regular live singers, dj`s, events and contests. A family atmosphere is promoted with everyone welcome. A good place to meet friends new and old.

Thirza Ember: i was taking a photo inside the ballroom, with the glass floor, very nice!
Aquarius Dragonella: the world would be an amazing place,  if everyone just got together and partied!
Kim song: feel free to look around
Sunbeam Magic: Love the bubbles and dolphin talk !!!round
Thirza.Ember: wow we are an energetic bunch, even after all that grid jumping, we still have the stamina to dance
Maggie O: AND to have Fantasia to DJ for us! what an honor!!
Isis.Ophelia: we had power drinks before we left
Thirza Ember: i had wine, I won't lie

Kim song: whoot
Gage Logan: hahaha
Our host, Fred Bloggs, came in to greet us too
Maggie O: OOPS THE BOSS IS HERE!
Fred Blogs: WELCOME EVERYONE FROM HG SAFARI!! SORRY LATE..FUNNY THING CALLED RL WORK!!!  So has everyone had fun while I`ve been working???
       We couldn't deny it!

Lady Lissa: hey y'all, to keep up with the parties and events, check this link to the Genesis Events calendar... https://teamup.com/ks00a59b6aa516c720
      The secret of Genesis is the community.
 Gage Logan: When I first joined, I thought ok here we go another grid who has no one to help you find things or answer any questions i might have...BUT when I came on I was truly amazed ...landing here at this very spot ...and wow a what welcoming group!!! they all spoke to me ...showed me the freebies and asked if i needed anything else...They made me feel more welcome than anywhere I've ever been.  And boy, did I jump in...but yet they were right there...ready to help me ..no matter what i did wrong and believe me i did wrong ..lol  and now I want others to feel like I did and this is why I find it such a pleasure and honor to show ya'll ....our lives here on Genesis!

GMV Welcome sim                      grid.genesismetaverse.com:8002

Safari: Vive la différence

      Our first destination was Conference region on FrancoGrid, to meet some of the FrancoGrid regulars, including the democratically elected Grid President Nino Whitman, and the technical guru Ssm Binder, as well as Ange Menges, Cendres Magic, Archael Magic,  and Cherry Manga who all wanted to tell us something of the grid's story, and its future. 

Francogrid Conference

          About thirty of us gathered inside the fabulous spherical building where the grid holds its annual meetings.
          Francogrid is a non-profit grid. There is no 'owner' as you find on other grids. It is run according to European law for non-profits; decisions are made by the Administrative Council, and residents who have paid the membership fee are consulted about changes and new ideas, for example, they can vote on the look and style of the new Welcome regions that will be coming soon. 
         You do not need to speak French to be part of the grid; the website is bilingual, translators are available, and everyone goes out of their way to speak some English. And of course, it does us all good to at least try to communicate in another language. While most residents are Francophone, 'foreigners' like Lucy Afarensis, Snowbody, and me, are made very welcome!

Cendres.Magic: bienvenue / welcome
Thirza Ember: so who here is the oldest Francogrid resident?
Cendres Magic: nino
Archael Magic (fr -> en): this must be nino, the current president of FrancoGrid
Thirza Ember: what is the story of Francogrid? how did the grid begin?
ssm2017 Binder: none of the creators are on the grid actually, the first region on the grid was "orion" by "vinc sonic" and it was at the begin of 2008  the grid was called "virtualworldgrid". After creating the grid, the name has changed and people had the idea to make an association to manage money to rent servers in 2009   first region was online during february of 2008, and the association was declared in 2009.
Archael Magic (fr -> en): ten years old next year ^^
Isis Ophelia: with how many people did you start?
ssm2017 Binder: i was not there at the beginning but the grid was made by 3 persons who are not here anymore: vinc, jm louche and a 3rd one (a belgian one whom i do not remember the name now)
Ange Menges: For those who were on SL in 2006/2007, JM Louche was Osiris on SL



Sunbeam.Magic: Who designed the current Grid logo ? and when was it first used ?  It's very clever and colorful !
ssm2017 Binder: i think that the logo was made in 2009 maybe by vinc or gill
Cherry Manga: Wasn't it Vinc Sonic, Ssm?
Sunbeam Magic: When did Franco open up the HG gates ?
Archael Magic (fr -> en): I've seen an archive today, in February 2008, vinc made the first jump hypergrid. at the time, he had to move on the edge of the grid to be able to jump.
Freaky Tech: sounds like 4095 limit
Sunbeam Magic: Are most of your current residents 'artists' and was that a planned goal or did just kind of happen ?
Cendres Magic (fr -> en): not only artists ))  I am only cubes ==
Harthelie Deux: tes cubes sont sympa cendre
Freaky Tech: I think a grid of sufficient size has at least some scripters running around
Cherry Manga: Absolutely, Nino scripts like a god, Claudius like sto script too, and Ssm is above gods, he can script us a wine bottle appearing irl right now
Cendres Magic (fr -> en): I think that with the hypergrid we get to share our knowledge, and hence the scripts

Cherry Manga:  The grid takes its orientations due to the members, so it has been very educational, now it's more art oriented but it all moves with members, active or not here
ssm2017 Binder: for my opinion, artists are the ones that we see the most because they express themselves but there are other people hidden in their own home
Cendres Magic (fr -> en): it is the spirit that interests me = sharing - that's why I am here
Sunbeam Magic: I agree Cendres... it takes make individual skills to make a community
Thirza Ember: one of the most unusual things about francogrid is the way the various regions of the grid are on servers maintained by different members of the association, how did you develop that idea?
Cherry Manga: Well FG hosts some regions on its server, but like most of HG grids, it's possible to link its own server here so people who are interested to do by themselves link their servers to the grid and can host too
Cendres Magic (fr -> en): thanks to ssm, our technical support there is a cohesion of the regions and servers
Cherry Manga: When I arrived in FG, Gill hosted me, then I wished to learn a bit more, Nino helped me to figure out with server stuff and i decided to have my own, it's all about sharing knowledge
Ni Lemon: I would like to say thanks to Claudius [Utopy] who hosts my region Serenity here for veryyyyyy long...before it was on my pc
ssm2017 Binder: about the grid size, you can see stats in the right side of the webpage "infos"...sometimes more and sometimes less, but around 10... Technically we have some scripts to remove phantom regions and phantom avatars so i think that our stats are good... Every night a region clean is done and every hour avatar clean... Francogrid is hosting only few regions and most of them are hosted by other people who attached their regions to the grid.  The grid is using vanilla opensimulator 0.9 dev (version from february 2017) the grid is using everything from opensimulator (fsassets, groups v2, im v2, profiles v2...) In the past, we were using some custom php scripts for im, groups, profiles and assets but on the last year we have decided to only use everything from vanilla opensimulator... maybe we are one of the only grid using only opensimulator from a to z (except the website)

Archael Magic (fr -> en): and it works pretty well
Ange Menges: And if you have your own server, you are used to fight with the .ini ! SSM invented the francogrid.ini , hehe
Thirza Ember: question for ssm ... what is the most frustrating thing about doing the technical work on the grid.. and what is the most enjoyable thing
ssm2017 Binder: the grid is working fine, the most frustrating part is with simulator themselves. hypergrid is very modular... 
Isis Ophelia: ssm and what do you enjoy most?
ssm2017 Binder: what is the most enjoyable is when server scripts are working fine automatically and then residents are happy. Every year we have an irl meeting and this is maybe one of the best moments :)
Isis Ophelia: wow sounds cool to meet in RL
Archael Magic (fr -> en): I confirm, our annual meeting is the best moment of the year. It was  gill who has introduced this tradition of the annual meeting, an excellent idea
Freaky.Tech: if the core people of a grid know each other in RL helps a lot on grid stability
Cendres Magic: i agree freaky
Thirza Ember: so, can anyone attach a region to francogrid?
Cherry Manga: yes anyone can attach a region to FG, if they follow the rules of the association.

Thanks to Sunbeam who shared many of the photos you see in this post.

 Nino85 Whitman: Good evening everyone, sorry for my delay, welcome and big thank you to you, the whole francogrid community thank you
Ange Menges: Nino, rafraichis-nous la mémoire : au début de FG comment s'appelait le builder fou qui gagnait tous les concours de speed-build ?
Cherry Manga: ahhh Balthazar?
Ange Menges: voila
Archael Magic (fr -> en): and exactly to this topic, Nino, there is a lack of information on the birth of FrancoGrid, who are the founders ?
Ni Lemon: super une lesson d'histoire
Nino85 Whitman:  The first two, it seems to me Vinc Sonic and JM Louche. I arrived 1 week after its creation. the grid was created in feb 2008, it seems to me the association later. look at my profile :) 02/12/2008 ; (9 years 2 months; 3368 days)

Lucy Afarensis: Time flys when you are having fun
Ange Menges: mine is only 8 years 10 months :-( lol
Yara Eilde: mine is 8years and 5 months  :-) My start in the OS grid
Thirza Ember: wow .. you are so old...but you look so young!
Sunbeam Magic: Is the position of 'President' a democratic vote by all Franco Grid residents? and if so how long is the term of office ? and what is the difference between 'association' and 'citizens?
Archael Magic (fr -> en): we vote every year, the minutes of our meetings are public and searchable on the site, the members of the association have paid a membership fee (30 euros per year).  they have thus acquired the right to vote in our council. the board of directors shall elect each year a bureau composed of a president, a treasurer and a secretary.  Ssm is essential but has not always been the technical director, however, he assumed the dual role of technical director and president for a long time. thanks to his hard work, we have been able to evolve in the right direction. his role is probably the most complicated of the grid.
ssm2017 Binder: some people speak well to me because they are afraid that i cancel their account
Ni Lemon: hahaha
Cherry Manga: that's the administrative obligation with french law with association that makes us have to vote each year
Ni Lemon: democratic laws
Sunbeam Magic: Can anyone pay the fee and be part of the association ?
Cherry Manga: absolutely Sun, anyone can become a member of the association with an annual cost of 30 euros/year. Here is the Website

Cendres Magic (fr -> en): anyone can pay, Sunbeam  and help by this way to maintain the servers own by the association
Cherry Manga: yes , FrancoGrid is a non profit association, the money goes only to the association's costs, there is no profit
Nino85 Whitman (fr -> en): the role is the most important thing to be active on the grid without active members  we would not exist :)

Thirza Ember. Fest'Avi s probably the most famous event held on FrancoGrid, this Fall will be the 4th edition of the festival, can you tell us how it got started?

Cherry Manga: oh, the idea was to share creative content and imply hypergrid users to the project. Most of new comers don't know how to get a new avatar, find content, outfits... So it's a good way to offer them avatars. And the idea came to renew the proposal of FG's new accounts avatars that were quite poor at this time, then the Festival came more into sharing with all the HG community, in general. And why full perms, because we want people to play with them, redo them, mix them, and make new creative avatars with those bases.
Ange Menges: As we are in remembrances, I have a thought  for JM Louche who said 8 years ago "stop to pay SL to have your sim and come with us on opensim" and to Vinc Sonic who helped me to build my first server . I lost really good friends when they leaved. Sniff Nino :-)
Archael Magic (fr -> en): Vinc sonic has very long been a major player in the grid
Ange Menges: Search on youtube and you will find the videos of the beginning of francogrid made by JM Louche
Cendres Magic (fr -> en): and franco grid is a story of many people  who came and participated actively and you shows well the spirit -  sharing - knowledge, I hope that in 10 years; there must be a conference room of a 5-times larger!

Our next stop was on Genesis Metaverse Grid, you can read all about that in the next post

        

HG Address

Francogrid Conference region:   hg.francogrid.org:80:conference