Rocking Sands

 

In Netera Landar's article for today, she steps away from Second Life and reports on a place in another virtual world.  The Wolf Territories Grid, an Opensim world, is pretty small compared to ours, just a few thousand residents. But it doesn't lack in entertainment. Among the venues is the Rocking Sands club, owned by Eagle Palmer and Anjolie Amore. So what did she have to say about the location?

 

Read Netera's article in Other Grids, MMOs, and Games. 

 

Luna Lunaria Has Died

 

The Newser has been informed that Luna Lunaria (apelles.luna) has passed away. She was known as a builder and writer. 

 

From her profile: 

 

find each of you to be so beautiful in so many ways, it is beyond words. Thank you for making virtual so rich. Much love to you all :-)

Spiritual seeker, writer, and creator / merchant on Wolf Territories Grid, Kitely Grid, Utopia Skye, Digiworldz, and Second Life, with smaller presences on Mobius Grid, Friends Grid, OSGrid, and others. Creator of Lunaria Emporium and Luxor, among others.

I am currently involved in projects outside of SL, but I do try to come in once or twice a week. If you leave a message I will see it and respond the next time I'm on. All my new work is being done in opensim on a grid called Wolf territories and is much better and larger than anything I can make here. Here is their website: https://www.wolf-grid.com/. My regions there are Lunaria Emporium and Luxor.

Luna had also written a story, which can be read here - https://www.wattpad.com/story/176823549-eos-renascent 

 

No word yet on when any services will be held.

 

Rest in peace

 

This Saturday at The Science Circle

 

Saturday, June 10

 

    ~*~

    

    At 10 AM PST   

    Mount Grace Priory (in OpenSim)

    By Dr. Jevi Dankowicz

    https://www.sciencecircle.org/event/in-opensim/

    Mount Grace Piory in OpenSim

 

    https://www.sciencecircle.org/sc-opensim/

      

    ~*~

 

    At 9 PM PST   

    Ancient Egypt

    By Jes Stannard

    https://www.sciencecircle.org/event/egypt/

    Science Circle Region

 

   The Science Circle (72,129,30)

 

    ~*~

    

    NOTE: Non-members required to register once

    IM Jes Cobalt or Nymf Hathaway

╚══════════════════════════════ The Science Circle (72,129,30) ═╝

 

 

This Saturday at The Science Circle

 

Saturday, December 24

    ~*~

    

    At 10 AM PST   

    A Tour of Chemistry World

    By Dr. Mike Shaw

    https://www.sciencecircle.org/event/a-tour-of-chemistry-world/

 

   The Science Circle (46/4/22)

      

    ~*~

 

    At 9 PM PST   

    Science Circle in Opensim

    By Stephen Gasior PHD

    https://www.sciencecircle.org/event/science-circle-in-open-sim/

 

   The Science Circle (72,129,30)

 

    ~*~

    

    NOTE: Non-members required to register once

    IM Jes Cobalt or Nymf Hathaway

╚══════════════════════════════ The Science Circle (72,129,30) ═╝

 

 

Mooogle As A Search Engine For The Metaverse

It's been a busy time in real life for Marcel Mosswood. But she's back this week with an article. When it comes to looking up things on the Internet about virtual worlds, it can be tricky. While one can always add "Second Life" to the search, suppose what you're looking for is in another virtual world? Marcel recently found out about a way to search called "Mooogle," a search engine for websites related to content in Second Life, Opensim, and other virtual worlds.

Read the story in Other Grids, MMOs, and Games.

Great Canadian Grid Owner Announces Closure

In December, the Great Canadian Grid, an Opensim world, went offline. The reason was a dispute between it's owner, Roddie Macchi, and that of Digiworldz's, Terry Ford, which handled the other grid's management services. Macchi started a Gofundme to raise money to get it going. But it was not enough. On the grid's webpage, Macchi has announced the Great Canadian Grid will be closing for good.

I enjoyed my virtual travels and managing GCG in the last 7 years. But it is time to move on.

Since GCG started out as a hobby I decided not to sell the grid but to close it permanently.


Machi went on to say those people who had a place on his grid could get the oars from gevolutionworld.com, "I have made arrangements with Cliff Hopkins aka Shadow to be sure to hand over only those whose names were owners ... He has an entire list of who owns what, and if successful on the corrupted database ... he may also be able to retrieve your .iars." Machi stated he no longer had the database, as "the new hosting company maintains it in their servers," so people would have to contact gevolutionworld.com.


I hope you all find your way and enjoy the opensim world like i did.

Thank you all for supporting GCG and me,

Roddie Macchi

The final line was another swipe at Ford and Digiworldz, whom he has blamed for the grid's closure.

There's been a great deal of chatter on the "Hypergrid Explorers and Creators" Discord thread (link) in the "Great Canadian Grid" channel. "The level of drama in OpenSim just boggles the mind." "Well so much for being nice on opensim. ... time to ruin hypergrid." "i seen this from the very beginning when he started begging for money .. having folks pay tier ahead of time and the go fund me ?? i feel for each and every one of you .. its like a old Inworldz nightmare all over again." One person was particuarly angry, accusing Macchi of stealing his virtual property. It was also stated that the recovery effort of the grid had been 70 percent complete when Macchi made the announcement, and due to accusations of theft the handing over of oars files would be suspended.

And so, another virtual world fades away.

Bixyl Shuftan

What Is Opensim And What Is A Hypergrid/Metaverse?

Second Life is no doubt the most successful of virtual worlds. But some people want something a little more. What about one's own private server? This is possible in Opensim in which the servers aren't owned by Linden Lab, but by someone else. In this article, Angel Fencer (Ender Leven) explains just what Opensim is, and a little about what can and can't be done there.

Read Angel's story in Other Grids, MMOs, and Games.

Great Canadian Grid Offline

So soon after High Fidelity is about to all but shut down, another virtual world is in trouble. According to an article on Hypergrid Business, dated December 28, as well as some chatter on Discord, the Great Canadian Grid, a small Opensim world, has been taken offline.

The reason for the world being offline is apparently a personal dispute between it's owner Roddie Macchi and that of a larger virtual world, Digiworld's Terry Ford. Digiworld had been handling the smaller world's grid management services. Then somehow the two owners got into an argument of some kind, and the Great Canadian Grid was taken offline after these services were stopped.

Macchi has reacted by starting a Gofundme campaign, which he says is to help pay for technical help and new services to restore the Great Canadian Grid.  As of the writing of this article, $1,175 USD had been raised.

There was no shortage of negative comments following the articles, as well in Discord. A few compared the Great Canadian Grid Gofundme to the InWorldz one over a year ago, which was unsuccessful in saving it. Some felt the incident not only made the two grid owners, but also Opensim as a whole, look bad, "It deeply saddens me it has come to this but it is our farewell to opensimulator altogether. My wife and I are heading back to our mainland parcel in Second Life ..." "... you complain that 'Why are people from Second Life not coming to you?' Coz you are terrible managers."

Bixyl Shuftan

SL/Opensim Video:

(Click here if the video does not play)

From Ann Wuyts on January 2009, " Foolish Frost performs Lindens Lament, a Second Life parody song, "Live from the Cornfield" (banned inSL) as part of the OpenSim 2th birthday festivities. Download the track, or go read the lyrics via http://music.rezzable.com . Other great songs available: "Avatar", "Sweet Home on the Mainland" and "Prim in my Hand". Recorded at Techra, Rezzable's Private Grid Alpha (PGA), and Crimson Shadow, Second Life."

News In Brief

Quite a lot has been happening. Too much to go into detail about it all, so we're going to give the short version.

The HFOT Benefit in Veterans Isle was a success with 258,870 Linden dollars raised.

Montecito Bay has decided to postpone their Nuyu Modtacular Gacha Event until December.

In a Reddit "Ask Me Anything" thread, a Linden claimed adult content was "less than 5% of our revenues."

There are no plans to introduce adult content to Sansar, in part because Linden Lab is searching for corporate sponsors for the virtual world.

An agreement was reached with Linden Lab to save the Chouchou sim, which was in danger of closing in May.

The Gacha Guild event is taking place, with avatars such as the Spirit Fennec.

Firestorm has a new release out, with Bakes On Mesh compatibility. After earlier deciding to offer separate Second Life and Opensim viewers, Firestorm decided to combine them again. Jessica Lyon admitted they were struggling with Opensim "we do not have, and cannot find, a dedicated Opensim viewer developer with lots of time on their hands."

More on these stories when time permits.

Sources: New World Notes

Bixyl Shuftan

Firestorm To Offer Seperate Viewers For Second Life And Opensim

For years, Team Firestorm has offered not only a viewer that can access Second Life, but also one that can go online either Second Life or the Opensim girds. In a recent announcement however, Firestorm's team leader Jessica Lyon announced they would no longer offer a viewer that can get on either virtual world.

We have reached a milestone in how we handle Open Simulator and Second Life binaries. In the past we have provided SL-only builds AND OpenSim-and-SL builds. This has always caused much confusion to our users, and for that reason—among many others—we have forked our code into two repositories. This means we can now issue updates for Second Life and updates for OpenSim independently of each other. It also makes it a lot easier for us to develop for Second Life without worrying about backwards compatibility with OpenSim, and to develop for OpenSim without concern about SL compatibility. Everyone wins!

No longer will the two be tied by release date or version numbers. Firestorm developer Beq Janus has been communicating with OpenSim developers and grid owners and has been working hard on OpenSim-specific issues for a future OpenSim Firestorm viewer update.

The SL and OS Viewer will still work for now. But the next viewers for Second Life and Opensim will only work on their respective grids.

Click Here for the blog post in full.

A Virtual Traveller Speaks On The Split Future of InWorldz's Residents

It was last week that Islandz, the virtual world created by the Inworldz team following the closure of their previous virtual world in July, came online. A number of InWorldz's old residents promptly headed over to log on. But the question remains: will the new virtual world recover the numbers of it's predecessor. Bain Finch didn't think so. While we at the Newser know Bain best for his being part of the Relay for Life in Second Life, he's also been in InWorldz and other places. He made the following commentary on Facebook about where the residents of InWorldz would go.


Islandz will never be the size of InWorldz for a simple reason. The existing residents of InWorldz is forever fractured into two main camps. Those that will not go back and those that will. And of those that will, that camp further broken down into two, those that will check it out but not 'home' there, and those that will make Islandz their primary (virtual world).

The other wave that happened, many of the other ranking open sims, benefited by the exodus. All the grids that are benefiting by the hyper connectivity to facilitate grid hopping, will drive the development cross grid technology for security and commerce. And there is a new focus in those directions, with the addition of all these new residents. Just taking the combined total of residents on all the hyper connected grids, is I'm guessing, is now a rather large population, taking the uniqueness of the individual and not duplicate accounts on multiple grids, into account. Then add to the mix, new open sim grids, such as Infinity further dipping into the pool of people. Many of the grid have registered spikes in new residents, the open sim market place also noted a huge spike in sales, and people are not going to walk away from those investments.

And then, there is all the whispers, one hears on the song of birds, of things in the works, in far away rooms. So in the end, what will have happened, people that enjoy virtual life, will have several options. Life in the big city of SL, or the small town feel or themed community, of a bunch of smaller girds. A few will be closed grids that will require separate logins, but would offer unique benefits, the inter connected, hyper open sim, can't do.

The friendships, that was established in InWorldz, will mature all these grid together, and a good many folks will explore across many grids and be involved on those grids. Sounds like fun to me.


So despite the disporia, Bain feels everything will work out for the better for the former residents of InWorldz, and other residents of virtual worlds.

What do you the readers think? Feel free to comment below.

Reader Submitted: Netera Landar's Chat Lounge Returns, to OpenSim

In an effort to inform, entertain and simply have a great time, I'm booting up my virtual world chat. But this time, I'm going to involve those of the open sim community.

I've been doing a lot of hyper jumping and have landed on a few interesting grids. One of which is run by Bill Blight and is called opensim life.com. I'm not leaving SL, my friends and partner are here. I merely want to introduce talented builders, content creators, authors and performers to what lies beyond. Open to guests that can speak on various topics: real life or virtual.

Those interested in being my guest, IM me here or email me at Netera@aol.com, Create an account on opensim life.com and IM me there. It will be a voice chat in a large build owned by an SL musician.

Hope to hear from you soon,
Netera Landar

"Islandz" To Be Name of Inworldz's Successor, Other OpenSim News

It seems a new name has been picked for InWorldz's successor. On the Discord group of the now-defunct virtual world, it was announced that the name of the future grid of it's owners will be called "Islandz."

There's little more information about the new world. As of the writing of this article, they have yet to get a webpage for it, although that is likely to soon change. The name of the Discord group has been changed to that of the planned grid. The website of InWorldz itself went down almost two weeks ago. Beth Reischl/Elenia did say on Sunday August 19 that she "started setup for Database recovery this morning. ... As soon as we have Database backup ... we can work on the OARS" There has been no date set for the opening of Islandz.

Other developments in OpenSim include Han Held announcing that this year's Avatarfest would be the last one.  There was an announcement on the Kitely grid's blog that it's marketplace sales have gone up 300% since the folding of InWorldz, a clear sign that many former InWorldz residents have moved there. The announcement also hinted at similar gains by Digiworldz and Discovery.

Artwork by SimonaStick Judy 

Source: Hyperrid Business  , Kitely,

Hat Tip: Daniel Voyager

Bixyl Shuftan

Copybotted Avatar From Second Life Discovered on OpenSim World

OpenSim virtual worlds have been the subject of renewed attention following the demise of InWorldz. Not every Second Life resident is a fan of them, as one responded when asked if he would set up a store in one that he considered it a copybot haven. While that was not true, some copybotting does occur in those worlds. Recently, Nydia Tungsten was going about in the Tranquility Grid when she spotted a mesh furry avatar being given out, and instantly recognized it as the same as one available in Second Life for months.

Read more in Other Grids, MMOs, and Games.

Ex-InWorldz Staff Launching "Infiniti" OpenSim World

Following the demise of their virtual home, InWorldz fans have been either checking out other virtual worlds, waiting patiently for it's owner Beth Reischl to make another place, or both. But several days ago, it was announced on the Metaverse Traveller that some former members of the InWorldz team have been getting together to make their own virtual world: Infiniti.

Talla Adam talked to Lecktor Hannibal, who told him that he and two others on the Infiniti team, Legion Heinrichs (John Arnolde), and April Chung "were part of the original six founders of InWorldz along with Beth Reischl." Lecktor stated he and others left the team due to differences with Reischl. Neither David Daeshler, whom left in late 2016, and Jim Tarber whom was on the team when InWorldz closed and has stated he will not be involved in Reischl's new virtual world, are involved with Infiniti. "It is with great sadness and pain that we've watched InWorldz deteriorate over the years and what motivates us to this project," Lecktor stated, "We are all excited however with the prospect of helping the Opensim/InWorldz community heal from the hurt."

The link to the website Talla gave, http://www.infinitigrid.com, was broken when this article was being written. But there was some information on a Google Plus post.

Our Vision

Our customers will be our existence. We strive to be recognized and respected by our customer as providing the highest level of quality service and value through accountability, innovation, integrity, and commitments to our community.

Our Mission

To provide reliable, competitively priced parcels, regions and related services to our customer and maximum value consistent with the latest technology and resources. We will work with our customers to improve the social and economic well being of our grid.

Our Organizational Values

We will strive to provide services that exceed our customer expectations, emphasizing honesty, quality, and sound business principles.

As we conduct our business, we will be responsible leaders for our grid, while focusing on continuous improvement for our processes and services.

Practicing fiscal responsibility and working together, will have the power to make a difference.

There has been no date set for the opening of Infiniti.

Sources: Metaverse Traveller 

Bixyl Shuftan

Giving Tranquility A Try, But ...

With the demise of InWorldz, and it's residents heading to other places, one of the top destinations is the Tranquility Grid. This required downloading a new OS compatible Firestorm. As Tranquility wasn't among the list of grids included, I had to add it in, and then register for a Tranquility account. And then ... this.

"Could not authenticate your avatar. Please check your username and password and check the Grid if problems persist."

After a couple of hours of frustrating work, I decided to call it a day. Anything related to Tranquility will have to be from someone else, for now.

Bixyl Shuftan

OS Grid Hypergrid Business "Winding Down" After Nine Years

For fans of Opensim, some sad news. HyperGrid Business, the leading source of news and other articles about the OS grids has been scaling back it's coverage lately. Maria Korolov, the editor, stated they have just two more articles, "after that, there's nothing else in the pipeline."

"What's Next?" Maria stated, "I’m going to continue maintaining the site itself, so that the article archives stay up, and all the resources stay available. I’m also going to do a monthly active grids list — just the list of active grids, not any of the usage stats. I’ll stop updating the list of popular hypergrid destinations, since I’ll no longer have the traffic numbers.I’ll continue running press releases and guest columns, and the free ads will stay up. We might do a short news piece or two each month as well."

Of her cutting back, "The reasons are both personal and practical. Personally, I’ve moved on from covering virtual worlds to covering cybersecurity and, most recently, artificial intelligence. ... I barely spend any time in OpenSim anymore."

"Practically, there was once a strong possibility that OpenSim would evolve into an open source, virtual reality metaverse. That’s not happening. Our viewers are still stuck where they were ten years ago, without any real support for web or mobile access or for virtual reality headsets. All projects to address that issue seem to have faded away. Instead, the focus has shifted to VR-native platforms from Google, Facebook, and, to some degree, Microsoft. We don’t know yet what Apple is cooking up, but they’re busy as well.

"It’s increasingly looking like the whole SL-OpenSim ecosystem has hit a dead end. It will probably continue to exist as a niche platform for its half million active monthly users, shrinking slightly each year until it’s just a nostalgia thing, like text-based adventure games or manual typewriters."

Those commenting on Korolov's article tended to support her observation about OpenSim. One stated, " The open source developers have been great, but if OS is not to degenerate into an historical curiosity, there needs to be a linking of business cases and investments with resources and developers. Investors need to understand the need for Open Source, and OS developers need to be open to dealing with the changes that come with resources." Another commented, " It does feel like we are stuck in Limbo at the moment. ... Opensim development seems to have hit a dead end." A third remarked, "To get to the next level of user involvement is going to take a lot of development. The kind of capitalization needed to do that means big players will develop it. Yes, there is the possibility of a grass roots development effort, but that is much harder to coordinate." But one remained optimistic about OpenSim, "I think Opensim still has a lot going for it and for those of us that still use Second Life too and are perfectly happy still using our PC's."

Hamlet Au didn't agree with Korolov's comments, at least in regards to Second Life, " I don't quite buy that last bit, because unlike OpenSim, Second Life is still backed by a profitable company with a highly engaged, highly monetized userbase, giving Linden Lab enough money to evolve ... . As with many open source-based projects, OpenSim was relying almost solely on the community spirit and voluntary work of assorted tinkerers and enthusiasts -- and that rarely leads to a commercial product with a consumer userbase." It was his wish though that Hypergrid Business somehow find a way to continue on, "maybe a benefactor could buy the site and take over?"

Sources: Hypergrid Business, New World Notes

Bixyl Shuftan

Press Release: VWBPE Unveils 2016 Horizons Program

Just three weeks shy of the ninth annual conference, Virtual Worlds Best Practices in Education unveils its program. This year, we are staring into the Horizon, which casts long rays of light over a panorama of research and best practice. Our selected presenters in the academic and communities of practice categories have once again demonstrated the very best work in their respective fields. We are excited about the diversity of topics and disciplines in this year’s conference program.

Our communities in Second Life and OpenSimulator have helped us make possible a conference on two platforms. While the majority of our program will take place in Second Life, we have some exciting sessions planned for AvaCon Grid as well.

We also have a few surprises, the first of which is another special appearance by Ebbe Altberg, CEO of Linden Lab, who will once again do what he does best: respond to audience questions and engage with communities that use Second Life.

If you’re looking for the next hot topic or an opportunity to network with others who have a similar vision, come engage in our Quadrivium discussions. We have one planned for each day of conference, on topics that are sure to extend the conversation long after the conference is over.

We encourage you to register for this free conference. With the range of content offered by this year’s presenters, along with many social and professional networking opportunities, we are confident you will find something of interest. Possibilities await at the next horizon, maybe sooner than you expect. Get your Passport to the Metaverse – the first of the Immersive Experiences adventures begins on the 28th of February! Stay tuned for more surprises as we get closer to conference time.

Prometheus Grid Offline, Future Uncertain

Earlier this month, Second Life Newser reported on the new "Prometheus" OpenSim Grid. Since then the virtual world has needed a reboot, wiping out it's contents. And one of it's staff recently informed the Newser that the main owner of the virtual world has pulled out of the team, throwing it's future in doubt.

The numbers of the world had been small, with four sims online, and a little less then two dozen active residents.