The Magic Auer

Shapeshifter, by Elif Ayiter, the Turkish artist and academic known in virtual by names such as Alpha Auer and Felix Ringtail,  is a magical sim on New Genres Grid, owned and maintained by Max Moswitzer. Over the many years that is has been here, there have been sea changes - alterations as irrevocable and gradual as the work of ocean waves.

It is a playground for ideas, a counterpane of imagination, a toybox full of concepts and genres. 

Sand Castle

It is an island, and yet it it not. It is an important religious seat, and yet only sometimes. It is a unique place, and yet not exactly. It is a place of sanctuary, and yet not always. It is a piece of ancient architecture, and yet not entirely. Mont Saint Michel, on the Northern coast of France in a sandy bay where Brittany meets Normandy, is a spectacular paradox in space and time. 

Mont Saint Michael, Serenity Grid

Erwan Elan has reconstructed Mont Saint Michel on his Opensim grid, Serenity, and it's a realistic piece of magic. The island takes up an entire sim, and is walkable in a way that creates a perfect sense of place. There are gaunt defenses and soaring vaults, dizzying heights and a warren of narrow streets. It is a tour de force, and most of the images here come from Erwan's build. Why not make the trip to see it for yourself, the HG Address is, as always, at the end of the post.

RL Photo of  Mont Saint Michel in the late 1800's

The White Stuff

A three dimensional mandala, a work of lace and light, a fragile skeleton hanging weightless between the sea and sky, that is Ivory City by Tosha Tyran based on an idea by Lumiere Noir.

If there is one point in the hyperverse that might be defined as its spiritual heart, this build is it. 

The location of Ivory City has not always been the same, and the configuration of the

Conference Call Ten

 This year is the tenth annual OSCC, and you're invited. Great! But what is that?  Who's behind it? What's happening? How much do I have to pay to go to this thing? Where is it held, and when?

Conference Hall, OSCC

Let's start with when and where. The OpenSim Community Conference is held on a dedicated grid with the snappy address cc.opensimulator.org:8002. The grid is online all year round but it is most

Outgoing and Upcoming

 After 60 destinations - well 62, if you count the two special Safari trips to the seasonal Hunt builds of Ange Menges and Nani Ferguson - over three seasons in 2022, the Safari is taking a break for a bit. 

Mandjelia on OSGrid was our first destination this year

In 2022 we went to 36 different grids, from Kitely to CopyKat and back. At last count, somewhere between 60 to 70 people joined us in person as Safari tourists, forming part of the group that gathers at the Clubhouse before setting out on the adventure - plus many more who came along to support their friends, our Hosts, at each destination. 

Safari trips begin at the Clubhouse -  last minute information, gossip and jokes

Aether Way

Air or sea? Light or dark? Either way, our final stop for this season of the Safari is an oasis for the senses. 

Nico Kailani invited us to visit sim Aether, whose definition defies simple terms. Part art sim, part clothes collection, part gallery, part party place, it is all worth seeing. HG Address, as usual, at the bottom of the post. Check out that EEP!

Nico Kaliani: So, anybody got a notecard? Imbedded in it is "The Story of Aether" Read it if you like. Alot of cool stuff about the Greeks and all

Forest Azure: yes... yes...yes...yes

Wizardoz Chrome: yes

Tree Kyomoon2: this is an excellent place to be hit with the epiphany that Hypergrid works, we already have a metaverse. Thanks everyone!!!

Fallingwater Finale

 Camryn Darkstone is a gem of a builder, and this her version of Fallingwater is a triumph in every way. It's beautiful, it's harmonious, it's informative, and it's fun. 

Together with Littlefield grid owner Walter Balazic, she ported the sim from its original place of creation in SL to their grid almost ten years ago, when Littlefield opened.

Walter and Camryn 

The Fallingwater logo is not, as might seem, a Japanese ideogram. Instead it represents the shape of the house and its cascade, although perhaps you can see a F and a L in the pattern also.

The house is primarily a prim build, indeed, it was begun before Mesh was even a thing in SL. Yet the quality of the construction is so perfect that the house, as it does in RL, seems to float above the torrent.

Dead Fall

 Three days in Autumn throw up some contrasting ways to think about the spirit world. Halloween kicks things off - it is the most widely publicized and also perhaps the most disagreeable of the three events, having been reduced by its secular, money-making possibilities to a world-wide rigmarole of ghoulish gore, with a lot of sugar and spite thrown into the mix. In Catholic countries, the morning after has a very different feel.  November 1 is the day when the cemeteries are bright with potted plants and bouquets, as people remember their loved ones en masse. The atmosphere in the graveyards of Europe where this holiday persists is generally serene, neither somber nor spectacular, just a time of quiet recollection and resignation, with flowers - and like Mother's Day, it's the time when florists finally get back into the black. 

But then comes November 2, the Day of the Dead. Not to be confused with either of the other two events, The Day of the Dead has its origins in Aztec traditions, particularly the figure of Chicunamictlan, the Aztec queen of the underworld. Its trappings are unique, and beautifully portrayed by Nyx Breen in Opensim.

Girl Power

More woman, less violence! That's the unequivocal message of Rosanna Galvani and her group on the region Piu Donna Zero Violenza, over on Craft Grid. This year is their second festival, aimed at raising awareness of the need for men to be less idiotic, for women to seek their voice, and for a lot less horrible acts of violence in this world. If the theme appeals, then the artwork that you will find on this unusual and interesting region will provide further food for thought.

This region is home to a multi level exhibition area, including a performance space about halfway up the construction,  and a park-like area at ground level. 

Più Donna Zero Violenza - in Italian, you can write it like this "+donna 0violenza" - means more (plus) woman obviously zero violence. Rosanna is Italian, but this is an international project comprising a long series of artistic and social events. Alongside Rox you will find artists and performers who speak French, English, Portuguese, Hungarian, Spanish - the common tongue is equal rights for all. 

Moon-scape

 The second destination for the Safari this week brought us into contact with great architecture, in every sense of the word! We were guests of Luna Lunaria, who specializes in mesh builds, often on a very grand scale, and she welcomed us into her Emporium on Wolf Territories grid, rather than her art installation  'Lunaria', because it is on Mobius, a grid that is sadly not open to OSgrid residents at this time.  It's a great strategy to have different pied-à-terres on different grids, because the ups and downs of opensim are never that predictable  and a presence on multiple worlds makes you nimble!

The very nimble Luna Lunaria

The Emporium is what the name suggests, a store full of creations, all original work by Luna, which she sells both here and on Kitely and in SL. 

Action Station

 Soul Grid has a great tagline - 'Living with friends' and it lives up to the name with a very friendly crowd on hand to meet the Safari gang on our arrival this week. Rudi Bakerly: Hallo, willkommen im Soul

Nasti Bakerly: hello and welcome

Star Ravenhurst: Hello Hello!!

Miguel Torres: hello  to all

Cosa Wiefel: hallo

Rudi Bakerly: Yes some residents wanted to join us

Nasti Bakerly [de→en]: nice to see you all here

Thirza Ember: wow 24 people!

Luna Lunaria: that's a lot

Star Ravenhurst: Good crowd!

Our first destination (you will find destination 2, the Emporium of Luna Lunaria, in a separate post) is a colorful, warm and friendly place with a name that has huge meaning in the history of Opensim - Weltraumbahnhof. The word means 'space station' but ask any oldbie what it really means, and they will tell you it was the iconic hypergrid hub built by Spike Sol about ten years ago, an essential place for discovering new places, good shops, interesting events, and new friends in opensim. That build is now gone, and this is its successor the creaton of Rudi and Nasti Backerly, owners of Soul grid.

Spooqued

 It's noon SLT on the first Thursday of the month, so that means it's Frenchie time! This month the Soiree Franco involved a visit to Quebec, in the form of the grid Creanovale, home to Kelso Uxlay and Dabici Straulino.

For those who don't know, once a month the French-speaking community of opensim has a grid jumping event. Things start off on Eden Cat's little grid, where there is a meet-and-greet, in Voice and in French. A great way for you to polish your pronunciation and irregular verbs! But don't worry, if you

Playing Ketchup

 Part one of this week's Safari was a visit to Aire Mille Flux, one of Opensim's oldest continuously operating grids, focused entirely on art.  There are a number of builds by the grid owner Marc Moana, and other builds that originally debuted in Sl, but have been ported here. This is an important aspect of Opensim, as a repository for installations that would otherwise no longer be visitable. 

Due to RL, our host wasn't able to join us on the grid. That is risky, because if anything goes wrong, the sim will crash (sometimes the whole grid, if it's a small one!) and there is nobody at the back end to start it up again. To try to mitigate any teleport shocks, we had a portal set up at the clubhouse on HG Safari, so we could arrive gradually.

I Dew

We all do so love builds by Azi Az and Danger Lytton. In the second part of this week's adventure, we visited the Dew Drop Islands, and what a contrast from the first part of our tour! 

Azi Az and Danger Lytton

This blog covered the Dew Drop  a few months back when it first opened. At that time, the sim was attached to OSGrid. Since then it's been moved over to Danger and Azi's personal grid, called Shipyards, where it is one among a whole clutch of jewel-like regions. HG Address, as always, at the end of the post.

We did manage to crash Sauce, our first destination, but with no casualties, as we were all kind of expecting the crash so we just relogged and rolled up a little early at the Dew Drop Islands, in ones and twos.

Azi Az: Hi Thirza :))) Welcome

Thirza Ember: woohoo we survived!

Kelso Uxlay: Drinking stuff was risky

Namirea

 It's Halloween season, and if you can't contain yourself, then Nani Ferguson and Ange Menges have the perfect Hunt for you - Namirea, on OSGrid. 

Plenty of containers here - a whole ship of them - unfortunately, shipwrecked. On a volcanic island. With zombies and giant spiders and all kinds of other monsters. Some people have all the luck.

Breen's Dreams

Nyx Breen: Hello everyone, and welcome to Aedifex in the AMV grid; Aedifex is an ancient greek name for Creator. 

Nyx Breen

 Nyx Breen:  Today we will explore both sides of Aedifex, the land side of highly detailed nature and builds. Then we will explore the skies of Aedifex and the 3D Artscapes that fill the heavens above us. Aedifex is a 4x4 70,000 prim land surrounded by water, allowing one to explore by boat, vehicle, horse, and walking. At the main welcome area of Aedifex for the land, you will find an NC giver with LMs for all the significant points of Aedifex. 

Snoots in the City

Mal Burns: Hi Snoots

Alexina Proctor: hi da Snoots.

Prax Maryjasz: Hello da Snoots

Sun Tzu: Greeting Snoots and thanks for having us

Sun Tzu: Odd my text does not show up in local for some reason

Kelso Uxlay: Hooo laggy

Snoots Dwagon: There are LOTS of textures and thousands of prims.  So it may take a while to rez.  Please walk in little circles to help it. :D

Thundergod Thor: It's been a while since I've been here but it's an awesome build.

          Lag is blamed on lots of things, on bandwidth, on less than stellar graphics cards, on poorly compiled scripts, on the Viewer (always a favorite), on server configuration, on voodoo - the list is exhaustive and exhausting.  That makes it an interesting experiment to have two avatars inworld, both on the same computer and using the same viewer, both having loaded the region previous to the trip, but each experiencing the sim very differently. 

          Safari Regulars will not be at all surprised to learn that the Thirza who arrived before the rest of the group had zero lag either in chat or in textures (call it 'owner's eye' - the way the sim creator experiences their own build), but the Thirza who was one of the last arrivals suffered the classic symptoms: seeing clouds, falling through floors, rubber-banding, and stuck in chat lag limbo. Immensely frustrating.

          It's handy to see the Safari this way,  it's a reminder that our trips have something of the quality of the bumblebee - flying in the face of all probability. 

Snoots Dwagon: Let me know when ready to start Thirza. :D

Thirza Ember: if you're suffering lag, friends, bear in mind the poor old server is trying to hand out hundreds of textures to everyone, so give it a chance 

Snoots Dwagon: There's THOUSANDS. :D

Lucy Afarensis: I sat but I am not

Alan.Scot: orange clouds everywhere :(

Dabici Straulino: even chat is laggy

Lorin Tone: yes

Thundergod Thor: It is indeed.

Snoots Dwagon: A bit of a note on building technique, for you builders out there. First, I am moving around and have no lag.   So such will have a great deal to do with your computer. Replicant City was built using original, ZERO-LAG scripting

Alan Scot: I got  a superfast pc and exposed breasts

Creative Mode

Wir Machen Mode !

 Loru Destiny has been incredibly busy in the last few months, and it all paid off yesterday night at the fabulous Fashion Show (German Modenschau) on her home grid ArtDestiny, attended by an incredible 64 persons.

Loru Destiny

Safari goers will recall this grid for the beautiful paintings of Loru's partner Tryad, the subject of a trip back at the beginning of the year (he was also a participant in the Pangea Art and Culture Festival in the Spring). We returned to the grid to hear a concert by Moses Rau, and made a tour of some of Stormy Scorpio's Start Trek regions, including memorable Vulcan and Klingon homesteads. 

This time the lights were up for the art of Loru, not only as an accomplished designer of clothes but also as a fantastic organizer. Pulling together the community is always a challenge, but it's one she excels in, and this beautiful event on a dedicated sim showcased seven German makers of fashion in opensim.

Cave Crave

 The first sign that this was not going to be your average hunt was when the bone fell on my head. 'Tis the season when people crave the pumpkin, the prizes, and the surprises, and Novale has it all. Plus caves.

But bones collapsing on me - wasn't expecting that! This is the new Halloween build on Creanovale grid, one of dozens of excellent seasonal builds you can find listed on Opensimworld, and around and about opensim in general.

Kelso Uxlay and Dabici Straulino

Into the West

Continuing our celebration of all things Rings on this the 55th Anniversary of the publication of The Return of the King, the final volume in the LOTR trilogy, we visited  an elven sim of quiet majesty. Roland Francis has been building at ViBel grid (Virtual Belgium, his homeland) for years, and the quality of his regions reflect his artistry and philosophy - a respectful, relaxed environment with a little spirituality thrown in. Perfect elf territory.  Roland's region WesLorien was our second destination this week, on the heels of his recent post about making animesh animals herd - something everyone would like to have on their landscape sim. But first, a little history.

Roland Francis, photo by Wizardoz Chrome

Roland Francis: Once the home of the Lorien Elves, the region was depopulated during the Fourth Age until all Elves were gone. The woods and the elven homes have been maintained by the creatures who reside there, hoping l that the Elves eventually will return to claim their home once again. Read Elbereth Elentari’s Diary entry about her visit to WesLorien here. You can see the  WesLorien Flickr photos here.

Creature of Hobbit

 JRR Tolkein published the third and final part of Lord of the Rings on 20 October 1955, and this week the Safari decided to celebrate that 77th anniversary by taking our fellowship on a bit of a quest. There are dozens of LotR builds in opensim, we could only see two this time, those belonging to Ferd Federix on Outworldz and Roland Francis on ViBel. 

Way too many pictures for a single post, so this one is about Ferd's place, Roland's build is covered in 'Into the West'. HG Addresses are at the end, as usual.

And also, as usual, we met at the clubhouse. If you have never been on Safari with us, take 5 minutes to drop in at the region hg.osgrid.org:80:HG Safari. The set up is simple, we gather a couple of minutes before it's time to head for the first destination - it helps to know who's planning to be part of the trip before we leave, so we can tp you if you get lost. There is a big box right by the landing place, with LANDMARKS on it. Click to buy, you will get a folder with the LMs for the day, numbered in order of use, and a Notecard summarizing where we are going - simple as that. We head to destination one at 12 noon SLT, and destination two at 1pm SLT.  

Horse Play

Je suis posey, avec mon poney, je kiffe ma journey

OK... Feelings of calm - a pleasurable journey - at the Apocalypse?   And surely those aren't ponies. Yikes! You know how it is with horseplay, it's all fun and games, until someone gets hurt. Or the world ends.

Terra... and Terra!

Well no, of course they aren't ponies, they are the famous 4 Horses - in this case, Domination, War, Famine/Disease, and Death - the brainchild of Terra Merhyem in her latest build, 'The 4 Horseriders of the Apocalypse'  which is part of the ongoing and very lively Pangea Festival of Art and Culture. 

From Aphra to Bibi

A bijou grid and a gem of a region on Opensim's biggest grid this week. 

Our first port of call was the home of Aphra Hendrix, Cozy Comforts grid. Check out the Cozy Comforts Grid website to learn about the meaning of the place, and for news of events. 

There were a dozen of us, landing on the sim Cozy Comforts World, where the party was already started. Full HG Addresses of our destinations are, as always, at the end of the post.

Beth Ghostraven: Hello everyone!

Ard Rhys: Hi Beth

Star Ravenhurst: Hi Beth

Thirza Ember: wow nice big crowd

whirli placebo: and so quiet and polite!  good looking too

Beth Ghostraven: lol whirli

whirli placebo: dancing with the avatars!

Beth Ghostraven: that's why I was late, getting dressed in something new :o)

Lloud and Clear

What's going on in Opensim can be a difficult question to answer. There's so much happening on so many grids and people who are busy making things don't always have the time or the temperament to effectively let others know about their creations.  

One way this need for communication is being served is through two broadcasts, MBTV News and Inworld Review,  filmed on Sundays from 10 am Pacific time, and available on Youtube. 

Making a show like this isn't easy - and there is a lot to learn not only from the guests on the show, but also from those behind the scenes...

What Dreams May Come

 Eclectic & Ever-Changing are the first words you see when arriving on AI Dreams in Art, the new sim by Karima Hoisan featuring art by Dale Innis. A bold promise, you might say, but Karima isn't the kind of person who over-promises, and this build lives perfectly up to expectations.

At this point, pretty much everybody on Discord has tried their hand at MidJourney, with varied results.  Admired and despised in about equal measure of passion, millions of words have already been spent on its place in the art world, so there's no point in rehashing all that. 

What counts here is the inspiration, and by that, not just the word choice by Dale Innis that elicited the images, but also the fabulous way the images have been set, like jewels in a splendid jewel-box, in discrete galleries in collaboration with the wonderful Karima Hoisan.

Fluxantis Fun

 Alien alert! Continuing the Pangea Art and Culture Festival, FLUXANTIS opened on September 30 with a big party. Made in Blender by Finja and Jason Flux, the predominant color of the build is turquoise - or is that Avatar Blue? 

 Finja and Jason Flux

The theme of the sim is scifi, with more with a touch of water-based fantasy and manga thrown in. Make sure you switch to shared environment to get the full effect of the region - it's beautiful!

French Weave

To weave the mirror's magic sights...

Tennyson, The Lady of Shalott

The appointed hour - the heure fixée -  is 12 noon SLT, let's call it 21 heure de Paris. The place, a marble palace on the tiny grid of Eden Cat, full of souvenirs, games, pictures, comfortable chairs, and music. The day - the first Thursday of the month.

It's time again for a regular get-together of anyone who enjoys the francophone community in Opensim. This month, half a dozen grids were represented among the participants, some with famous names, others bijou grids with only a handful of residents, some personal sanctuaries with a single  inhabitant.  It can be fun to have your own place, there's a lot to be said for it creatively and in terms of keep the drama to a minimum, but humans do tend towards gregariousness. Advice, encouragement, and some chill chit chat can make a welcome change.

The Wonders of Wellspring

Opensim has a long and storied past, and certain projects exemplify the resilience, ingenuity and strength of  the community on the vast archipelago of independent grids that it comprises. One of these is the Sendalonde Library, currently residing on Digiworldz. 

This was the second destination on our Safari trip, and although we lost a few travelers due to the slight complication required to access the grid (you have to verify your UUID and some find that a bit complicated) the majority of us made it through. To welcome us, Alexina Proctor, Prax Maryjacz and Snoots Dwagon were on hand, and let us into the Sendalonde Theater which is an integrated part of the library building.

The Sendalonde Library is the gateway into 'Wellspring' - follow this link to learn more about that.

The Sendalonde is preparing for a grand reopening on Sunday October 16 at 1pm SLT , so you might say that our visit was a bit of a dress rehearsal for region performance! We saw a really nice slideshow down memory lane, ably put together by Alexina.

Cho and Tell

Kashi Takeshi: Hello all, happy to see you and welcome at Heiwa. Heiwa is hosted on the Virtual Worlds Grid that was founded 2 years ago.  The grid is non-commercial and sponsored by the founder and residents. Heiwa stands for Peace and is the name I gave this region where I am making a little Japanese village. I do like the old Japanese ways instead of the modern cities, The ambiance and atmosphere breathes Zen.  That's what I am trying to create here on Heiwa. Heiwa is still being build and hopefully will be ready this winter ;)  Many people helped my out to gather the items you see around  you.  If you happen to like an item please send me a notecard and I will deliver it to you later.

Kashi Takeshi 

The Wow Factor

 Our second destination this week was to one of the most unusual and spectacular mesh builds you'll find in Opensim. Inspired by the great city of Dalaran in World of Warcraft, it's an immense labour of love by Gridmistress Wendie Blackthorn on her delightful grid, Kinky Haven. Lots of mesh, lots of passion, but not lots of Blender, as one might assume -pro tip alert!

Wendie Blackthorn:  I do not use blender to edit mesh, that program gives me a headache to look at it

Star Ravenhurst: What do you use?

The splendid floating city of Dalaran

Wendie Blackthorn: Wings3D   it's a much friendlier interface and has lots of tutorials that are easy to follow

Arielle Popstar: oh really, little more intuitive then Blender

Fetter Gyve: Good to know. Thanks Wendie. I will check it out

The Art Factor(y)

Way too many pictures, interesting things to look at, lag, fun, and fascinating people to put both of this week's destinations in a single post, so this is the first half of our trip. The second part, on sim Dalaran, Kinky Haven, is in a separate post. The Art Factory is not just a repository of art, it's a thriving community based in OSGrid but with its arms open to artists and art lovers all over the hyperverse. Here's what happened. URL as always at the end of the post.

Ernest Moncrieff: Hi All and welcome to the Art Factory, before I start I'd just like to say that due to timezones Co-founder Ellen Tiratzo cannot join up this evening (3am in Japan!) But she has helped to put together tonight's Safari and I will be using the words that she prepared.

Ernest Moncrieff: (Speaking for Ellen) - Welcome Thank you all so much for coming out today to support the Art Factory and to learn about and enjoy some of what our artists have helped us create here. Thirza asked us to give you a brief history behind The Art Factory. I met Ernest in LBSA Plaza, when he was trying to fix his broken mouth in preparation for a musical performance! Long before we began TAF, I would get up at 4 am here in Japan to attend and support Ernest’s shows, before beginning my work day. We would often talk about art, and he would tell me about different art installations he had built in other worlds and regions. I could tell he longed to create again, so on his birthday, I bought a small plot of land, teleported him there, and said…”Let’s make art!”. And so began The Art Factory!

Performing in VWs by Laszlo Ordogh

 The following is a guest post by Velazquez Bonetto, in rl László Ördögh. Vela's long career in virtual worlds is best known for the many performances and presentations of the Cybernetic Art Research Project 'CARP'  which was founded in Second Life in 2007. Now based mostly on Craft Grid and a close collaborator with Rosanna Galvani and her Museo del Metaverso, Vela reflects here on aspects of performance in Virtual Worlds. 

The miracle that we are experiencing today: the Cyberspace, the dematerialized virtual time-space, the worldwide webbed society, where we surf at lightspeed. Any artist NOT using this virtual universe as a challenge and a goal does not deserve the name Avantgarde.

Velazquez and colleague Rosanna Galvani, on Craft Grid, 2022

Why work in Virtual worlds?

1: Everything built in virtual worlds has no material consequences. Everything is Illusion but is useful as a model situation.
2: There is a unbelievable potential in variability and flexibility.
3: Nowhere else you can express and experiment new ideas and thoughts in such a fast spontaneous way. For creative people this world is a  playground to model new situations and experiment with them.

New and Nu on Safari

This week a trip two regions with something 'nu' about them - first, New Hope, on Asgard, also known by its hg address grid.our-dawn, and to NUNA the spectacular sim on 3rd Rock grid. Complete addresses, as usual, at the end of the post.

the spectacular NUNA art museum on 3rd Rock Grid

First up Asgard, aka Grid Our Dawn, in some places called 'Starfleet', but Asgard is a shorter name so I'm going to stick with it. The story of the Asgard grid is a story full of Ragnaroks - although, not really, because that Viking term means the final destruction of the world, and this grid/group has survived not one massive upheaval but many, and with surprising resilience. We met on a community sim with two members of the grid, Thundergod Thor and Star Ravenhurst.

Go Continental on Neverworld

Dawn is breaking over a new continent on Neverworld, and it might just be the answer to your dreams. 

The new continent is called Bountiful. 

If you don't know Neverland, it's a 7 year old grid with a solid tech, drama-free, HG Friendly reputation. The grid's motto 'Live, Love, Create' fits it perfectly. It's a mixed-use grid, with art installations, a fun Hunt region with worthwhile prizes, a lot of quality freebie shops, and plenty of residential areas too. 

Click here to get to the Neverworld Grid website.

Govega Sachertorte

The rental charges, if you want to get a region of your own, are reasonable, and there are self-hosting opportunities too. If you just want a bit of a sim to live on, then the prices are ... well, non existent!  

I asked Govega what she considers to be the secret of her success.

Govega Sachertorte: I'm nice! Just kidding... I am lucky to have a good team, we give out free land, and we don't micro manage people. We don't force events on them or rules. Or act like a pyramid scheme lol We are the no drama grid. This is the 4th or 5th time I've done a project with a massive themed area, and I am optimistic about the success.  It starts slow and before you know it, you are  turning people away.

To visit the new continent, you should jump over to

Creanovale in Summer

Truth to tell, Opensim isn't one of those places where you just automatically count on people to be reliable, communicative, and also talented. But if exceptions prove a rule, then look no further than Dabici Straulino and Kelso Uxlay. They bring together all these virtues not only in their kind offer to host our first field trip of the final Safari season of 2022, but also with their beautiful build on their grid, Creanovale.

Arriving on the grid is always an exciting moment. 

Maria on Safari

 The third season of the year kicked off in style with two very different destinations... yeah, yeah, I always say that, but this time it's true. First hour, chatting around the campfire with Maria Korolov -  then off into the Canadian paradise, Creanovale, with its amazing countryside and hilarious underwater and overwater activities. The Creanovale trip will be in a separate post, because the gifs alone deserve their honored space. Not to mention Dabici's goldfish. Right now, we have other business. Hypergrid Business.

Maria Korolov

Most opensim residents have heard of Maria. Journalist, novelist, creator of websites and collector of grid statistics, you probably have consulted, maybe even contributed to, her Hypergrid Business website, which she started in... well, let's let her tell us all about it.

Going, Going... Gone

 'Gone' is not a word we want to hear - not if you're talking about a grid being gone, especially if the gone grid is OSGrid. 

The historic 'Test Grid' of OpenSimulator, OSGrid, just celebrated its 15th anniversary. As tradition demands, in a couple of weeks there will be a Fundraiser Auction to help bring in some money to support the grid.

So here are some fundraiser questions, do you agree with these answers?

Virtual Spain in OSGrid

Some great news for anyone whose first language is Spanish. 

We all know that people new to Opensim -and not so new - struggle with finding resources, resolving bugs, and finding congenial company. But if English is not your first language, it's all way harder. So how to cope? Well generally speaking, people flock to a grid where a good percentage of the residents speak their language, that's why you find 'German' and 'French' grids all over the place - it's not racism, it's just that at the end of a long day when you are being frustrated by the vagaries of Opensim, you want to talk to someone who knows what you're on about, without struggling in another tongue.

Of course, we have opensim legends who are Spanish speakers, like Victoria Logan and Tina Bey, Plastichansa Bade and Zonja Capalini, Xirana Oximoxi and the lovely singer Nazirah - just to name a few. But there is room for growth in community support for anyone who wants to take the plunge and whose first language is Spanish.  Spanish worlds in Opensim are something of a rarity. Well, not a rarity, but let's say the best known Spanish-friendly grid has a fairly dramatic reputation, which is not to everyone's taste. So what happens when someone who speaks only Spanish comes to Opensim?  

Evan Belmond and friends have decided to try to fill that need with a brand new sim called Virtual Spain, on OSGrid. The idea is to create a central place where Spanish speakers who love Opensim can come and get advice, find freebies, and make friends without having to fight with the Yandex translator every five minutes.