Announcement From The Creator of Hangars Liquides

It was late last month that the Hangars Liquides cyberpunk city sims, which were in danger of closing weeks ago, were declared safe by creator and owner Djehan Kidd. Since then, the crowdfunder continued to take in more money, as of the writing of this article, it's gone up to over $4000 USD raised. Djehan would also invite several of her supporters over for a picture (she invited me to join in when I dropped by to take one of my own).

Yesterday on August 4, Djehan offered the following statement in the Hangars group, saying she was going to take a short break, thanking her supporters again, and talked a little about how the perks offered to those who donated the most would be given out.

Hello everyone,

The fundraiser stopped, we raised EUR 3682.
Minus the fees taken by the various intermediaries (indiegogo, banks, etc) the "Estimated Upcoming Disbursement" is of €3,157.00 EUR.

However this is enough to pay Linden Lab now, so we are undergoing administrative work the next few days to proceed to the transfers under our government recognized 501 C status, all our activities are monitored and the wire transfer will be made from a bank account that is thoroughly AML-KYC verified by the bank and indiegogo too.

Most people who made donations sent me messages that they donated to the non profit organization to save the city and don't want to ask for more than just me keeping the city online and running. But I intend to do anything I can, all benefactors will get special gifts, including my next commercial project release (which is what I stopped working on and I will resume work very soon, hopefully) and I will make a special group for the Hangars Liquides benefactors that will give special rights like rez rights within the city to create their own immersive environment.

Please note that if you are a builder or a scripter, texture artist, etc, who gave to the fundraiser I will be more than happy to provide you with a special creator space as part of the mission of the non profit to help create, promote and diffuse any type of art, we always did this, for instance with JC Hill, DIVE, KROVA, N3k0T3ch, and more. We will create more gallery or studio spaces too, for the artists present already you know who you are (smile). All other creators can feel free to contact me, whether they gave to the fundraiser or not, we will allocate spaces for free as much as sims resources go, like we always did.

I have put all my work on hold to save the city. Staying on the computer 15 hours a day 7 days a week since a month at possibly the timezones of the entire planet all at once (right before it was only 10 hours a day and 5 hours a day the weekend, for my normal work, and I could sleep at normal night time too).

Please bear with me as we are now finalizing all this, afterwards I will need to take a few days off for obvious health reasons, to avoid any possible burnout and eventually be able to resume working on my actual project that is not part of the non profit and pays for RL food, bills and taxes.

I could be able to keep going at that pace but I am an intensive worker with a long experience now and I know that if I don't take a few days off, it will threaten my health, both physical and mental. So next week I will probably go away from computer and home for the week, I will enable the IM to email option of course. My laptop's screen is completely broken so I will not be able to access SL for a few days.

As far as the future goes, I am very confident and I think that I will be able to keep the city running. What happened now was a downtime, I think everyone has them, so there you go, me too. This is only a transitional time, and I know that things are going to get back on track, and rather fast.

If everything goes well, as planned, all the benefactors will always keep privileges at HL in the future. I have been so touched and humbled, and you know, working for a non profit, you have to be wired this way, in the brain, and this is how I am.

Anyways now you have a better look of the intensity of the efforts made behind the scenes in order to build all these things, from scratch in both the financial and artistic aspects, from zero.

Please for people who want to claim their perks note that the 3 HANGARS LIQUIDES regions are NPO regions (hangars liquides, hangars liquides south, hangars liquides north), China and cell aren't NPO status, the rentals on China and cell are used to have these two regions pay for themselves, I can't offer perks on these regions because then the problem will reverse itself, the NPO sims will be paid for while the 2 homesteads wont anymore and they cost 3120 USD per year too.

So the perks if you want to claim yours will be on the 3 HL regions as creative spaces, not on cell or china as simple rentals.

Have a nice day everyone and so rest assured even if I take a few days off next week Ill be back fairly fast.

Djehan

This may or may not be the last big announcement concerning Hangar's recent crisis. And there will need to be efforts in the future to keep the sims funded. But for now, Djehan will be taking a needed rest.

Bixyl Shuftan

Hangars Liquides Crowdfunder Passes $3400, Owner Says Sims Are Safe

On Saturday night, July 27 at 6:51 PM, Djehan Kidd announced that enough money had been raised in her crowdfunder to keep the Hangars Liquides cyberpunk city sim up and running past the end of July, when payments needed to be made.

That's it! THE SERVERS WILL KEEP RUNNING on August 1st ! YAR!

Wow, so, 'Id like every donor, from the fundraiser AND from SL, to write to me in the next 24 hours so we can make a group picture because I think everyone is happy we could make it, couldn't we?! 

There is still way to go, you can still donate! But the very emergency is over!

The amount raised by then was $3477, of 52% of the $6682 goal for the fundraiser. Djehan had stated 50% of the crowdfunder goal was what was needed to pay for the sims before time was up at a minute after Midnight on August 1.

Chatting with Djehan, she was breathing a sign of relief. "Now, I can sort out much easier, august 1st was a real emergency. Everything will be spent on server space, but the invoice date was August 1st. This invoice is 3K so yes. ... such happiness, this is such a community thing, it is amazing! As a non profit, it's a big thing, to see we can still have community stuff like that."

"I really am grateful and very humbled, super touched in the heart (smile)."

Hangars Liquides has been in Second Life for over 12 years. It ran into trouble when Linden Lab stated that it couldn't keep it's nonprofit discount while renting out apartments for those wanting housing on the sims.

Bixyl Shuftan

Hangars Liquides Fundraiser at 45%, "At 50% We Save The City"

In an update to the crowdfunder started last week to save the Hangar Liquides sims, it was recently announced that 43% of the $6683 USD goal had been reached. But Djehan Kidd's announcement suggested preserving it for the short term needs just a few more dollars.

Fundraiser is at 43% now. AT 50% we save the city.

Please donate, consider becoming a benefactor, you can give anything, any amount, we're almost there

The amount has since gone up to 45%, or $3032 raised. I asked in the group chat if just half the money was needed to save the city. Djehan had left for the night, but one of the group told me "50% saves the city, and gives more time to pay the rest of the funds needed."

The link to the donation page is: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/save-hangars-liquides#/

Stay tuned for further details.

Interview with Hangars Liquides Creator: Djehan Kidd

Djehan Kidd is the artist behind Hangars Liquides, a cyberpunk-themed city in Second Life that unfortunately made news last week when she announced the place was in danger of disappearing. A few days ago, I had the chance to interview her. We would talk about how she came to Second Life, how Hangars came to be, and a few other projects she's worked on.

Read the interview in People.

Crowdfunder To Save Hangars Liquides Sims

In a further development on the continuing story about the Hangars Liquides cyberpunk-themed sims in danger of closing at the end of the month, it was announced in the group that a crowdfunder to save them had been launched on indiegogo.com.

We have just launched our crowndfunding campaign to save the city.

You can donate anything you feel like, keep in mind the 100 EUR perk is like the regular rentals yearly.

Djehan Kidd is offering two perks for people do donate. For a donation of $112 USD, you'll get an apartment in Hangars for a year. For a donation of $1122, you get one of four platinum rooftop lofts.

As of the writing of this article, $1257 of the $6735 goal had been raised.

Stay tuned for more updates.

Bixyl Shuftan

Addition: As of 1PM SL time, the amount donated is $1572 USD.

Linden Lab Still In Talks With Djehan Kidd Over Hangars Liquides

Last Friday, the Newser reported on the five region Hangars Liquides urban sci-fi sims in danger of being shut down at the end of the month. This weekend, I had a few words with the builder and owner Djehan Kidd about the area, and it's situation.

Djehan told me it's looking unlikely Linden Lab will allow Hangars to rent out apartments and still remain a nonprofit. She felt it's not because they don't want to, but in her opinion they're "monitored" by the US Government more today than in the past. She's also gotten numerous offers of help to keep the sims afloat. But she feels their best chance lies with the Lab's sim preservation program, "So far I didn't get a no or a yes. All I know is that a commitee will visit (the sims) and decide."

Meanwhile, others are spreading the word about the sims. A concerned resident created a thread on the official forums about Hangars Liquides, and it quickly grew to numerous pages, some people posting pictures of the area. There were numerous pleas for the sims to be given a break and allowed to stay on. One commented, "I don't think I have been there before or if I had I didn't spend long there because the scale of it whilst immersive is also bewildering. Spent 30 minutes exploring it again and it is undoubtedly a work of art. Despite all its complexity it is well optimised, I had none of my usual problems with textures and objects not bothering to load. It is a fine example of what is possible to do here."

There's also a Flickr page full of screenshots of the sims (caution, not all safe for work).

The full interview with Djehan will appear later this week in the Newser.

Image Credit: Lawrence Celestalis

Bixyl Shuftan

Hangars Liquides Cyberpunk City Set To Close Soon

Some sad news for fans of sci-fi themed sims. According to New World Notes, the "Hangars Liquides" sims will be closing at the end of the month.



The area, now consisting of five sims of tall buildings high in the sky with a gritty, run-down theme, what owner and creator Djehan Kidd called "Cyberpunk City, Technopunk, Dystopian Noir," has been in Second Life since 2007. In 2014, it was featured in a video in The Guardian. But unfortunately, a change in the Terms of Service mean that as a nonprofit, the sim can't rent spaces to help pay for it's upkeep. “As a cultural nonprofit organization,” Djehan explained to Hamlet Au, “Second Life has become unsustainable for me. Several months ago, I was told that the new Terms of Service for nonprofits did not permit us to offer rentals anymore; as a result, the city couldn't pay for itself any more.”

According to Hamlet, Djehan has been in contact with Linden Lab, and there is talk about making Hangars Liquides an exception to their new rules. But as of now, there's nothing agreed upon. Unless something changes, the city will close at the end of the month.

http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Hangars%20Liquides/136/138/2226

Source: New World Notes

Bixyl Shuftan