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

Film Noir

       Two destinations that delight this week. Grid addresses at the end of the post as usual.
        If you have not visited Avacon Grid yet, put it on your 'Must See' list.

         Not only is Avacon closely associated with the organization and prep work that goes into the annual Opensim Community Convention (held over on OSCC Grid), it is also home to some interesting regions, including the Building Tutorial region Primland, you may remember it being originally on Fleep Grid; some nice work-in-progress Library regions belonging to Rockcliffe University, and of course Nebadon Izumi's regions bursting with interesting free stuff, called Oni Kenkon Creations.

Safari Goes Down Under

               Three stops this week, with the added bonus of some teleport hullabaloo. Addresses to our three destinations - all impressive grids and regions worth your time - at the end of the post.

Camping on the beach in Australia

                We gathered, as usual, at the Safari Clubhouse on Francogrid, on a region called hgsafari so reasonably easy to find. This week had an Australian emphasis, and although our first stop was not on that continent, our second destination host managed to be with us from the start, pretty impressive since he lives on the other side of the world where the Safari starts at about 6 am, not 9 pm as it is for those of us in Europe. 

Walk-through Safari

             Each Safari trip lasts about three hours. Sometimes, that's divided into three one-hour visits, and sometimes into two ninety minute encounters. This week was of the ninety-minute-times-two variety, and for good reason! Our destinations were on OSgrid, Metropolis and Mobius grids (huh? three grids for two destinations? You'll see.) and all the HG Addresses are at the end of the post, as usual.

Safari goes from the Foxx to the Absurdists

"In the simplest terms, Absurdism is the belief that universe is 

too vast and unknowable for for human beings to ever know anything for certain. 

Because of that, we do not possess the ability to say or know for certain 

what, if anything, has meaning of value objectively. 

This causes us to comprehend the absurd nature of our existence: 

we cannot exist without meaning but we are incapable of determining meaning."

from http://the-absurdist.com

The Absurdists were Post WWII writers, like Albert Camus, who you perhaps haven't heard of, or like the book Catch 22, which you have heard of. So now you've Googled that, you'll agree that nothing really fits the hypergrid paradigm better than 'you have to be crazy to work here'. Yesterday proved we're crazy like a fox, in this case, Foxx Bode.

The planned destination was on Foxx's Red Dragon Club X, built when Foxx first discovered opensim back in the year dot. Sadly, this didn't work out, so we decamped to the Safari clubhouse on Teravus Plaza. But do take the time to go and see Foxx's historic OSgrid build, HG Addresses are at the bottom of this post, as usual.

Safari goes Dutch

        It's a small country with a lots of names, and loads of personality. Whether you like to call their home Holland, the Netherlands, or the Low Countries, the Dutch contingent in opensim is large, active, and innovative! The Safari group got to see three different aspects of Dutch culture this week, all the destinations are open to the public, and listed at the end of this post, if you want to experience them for yourself.

            Utrecht Citycenter is a region on OSGrid built by Avia Bonne. The region is on land owned by Mark aka Repudiator Quann, one of the smart and generous people who have regions attached to OSGrid and allow others to get a parcel or even a whole sim in exchange for small donations used to help cover expenses.

The House in SL

The new Safari house in SL will be holding the first in a series of events on March 25, at 12.00 SLT
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Sistiana/106/81/25


Back in September 2014, The Safari was lucky enough to be given some space on sim Sisitiana, in SL.

The 2014 Safari Embassy on Sistiana

 The beautiful sim is the home of John 'Pathfinder' Lester.

Safarina Wizard Gynoid immediately took in hand the space and put up a building, very much like an ancient church in the gothic style.

We held a party there in October 2014, with a crowd of bi-virtuals, or should that be multi-virtuals. It was a way to remind all of the symbiotic relationship between SL and the opensim worlds.

Inside there were some posters and information about opensim, including a link at the now famous video that shows the hypergrid jump by some of the Linden team to an IBM owned region in opensim... this video

Time went by, Wizard became busy with other projects and relinquished the land to me, and last November, I began rebuilding and rethinking the space.

As you can see, the classic look of the region has not changed, but the style of the new building is rather different. it's divided into 3 floors. The ground floor is all about general information on how to find people in opensim, how to get help, and some tips and tricks - from things like 'What is an .oar' to 'How come people friend me so fast in opensim'.

The middle floor is dedicated to specific information about grids. Click on the posters and get a notecard that tells you something about the size, location, prices, and ideology of each one. The central display gives you an idea of how the grids are distributed around the world, and shows - just for illustrative purposes - the names of about 200 grids that are hg friendly. Wow - 200, that's a lot!

A separate space called the 'school room'  will house some information about educational builds - everything from university grids to privately run sims with a didactic twist, like Graham Mill's Micrographia.

The top floor is for social events. While it's not my intention to have a lot of events in SL, it's nice to think we have a place where experienced opensimmers can share their experiences with people a bit shy about taking the plunge. And dance a bit too. The events here will not be SL-bashing, but will hopefully dispel some of the myths and misinformation out there.

This build has a strong not-for-profit bias. It celebrates the generosity of opensim, not the people trying to make a fast buck out of it. The idea that we can all give something back to the opensim community is paramount - because those are the kind of people I hope will join us.  Finding your way around opensim can be a huge challenge to new people. I say this - if someone showed you kindness in opensim, then please, pay it forward by helping someone new.  And if you're not fond of newbies, just consider this, if you help them, it is also a way you can help put the rip-off merchants out of business.

It makes no absurdly self-aggrandizing claim to being the official home of Opensim in SL - nobody can speak for the massive variety of worlds, with all their fiercely individual ideas and aims. However, I'm proud to say that people from some 50 different grids have contributed to the build.
Many have provided posters and notecards, advice, moral and practical support, and some have given a few Lindens to help with the upload costs. Thank you all!