Update on Mieville

 

 

 On Monday night, February 6, there was an announcement in the Mieville community group about the future of their sims. The statement came from Annakari Dragonsworn (Annakari Genesis).

 

We now know that the regions must be transferred to new owners. Linden Labs has provided us a number of benefits to enable us to save our Mieville community regions.

IN addition to that there are a number of things that everyone must understand. The benefits afforded to us for the Mieville Regions are FOR the Mieville regions. Please do not ask to purchase regions and move them elsewhere, this request will be denied. Linden Lab's generosity is intended to preserve the regions as part of the Mieville community.

Regions that are still in need of sponsors and or purchase:

Mieville Docks
Mieville Lakes
Mieville Poe
Mieville Chesterton
Mieville Dickens
and
Mieville Kipling

Mieville regions in need of sponsors, on the condition that they continue as is with no changes:

Mieville Mt. Rose

Possibly Mieville Twain (this one may be covered, but we might need a backup plan).

We will be rolling out sponsor packages to help save and keep Mieville Shelley.

Regions not listed here are already spoken for, or have transfer plans.

YOU MUST SEND ME A NOTECARD if you want to be included as a potential owner or a sponsor of a region.

(use properties and click on my name and send me an IM that includes the Notecard with your information and your request).

Other important information:

From Madori Linden:

We will be able to have regions moved free to keep the remaining regions together after all the transfers are complete (we will do the process of allowing neighbors). Downgrading to a homestead will be free of charge. There will NOT be any transfer fees.

Talking to Annakari, she told me things are okay for the moment, and scheduled events are on course to go on, but, "Regions without potential owners could disappear as early as later this month." The most vulnerable were "the homesteads of the Mieville Docks, and Mieville Lakes, the full regions of Mieville Poe and Mieville Chesterton. ... We are hoping to have some regions protected by the SL Historical Preservation team, but we are still waiting on that information. Three of us will pick up regions, on the bases that we can get sponsors to help support them, those three regions will disappear too if we are unable to fund them."

Annakari went on to say, "We will be approving or denying region owners, because these are to be purchased with the intent to remain a part of the Mieville community, with similar themes to the other regions... not for greedy landlords to snatch up and take somewhere. If the regions are not part of Mieville, the deal with Madori will not apply either."

So if you're looking to help out a long-lasting Steampunk-themed community, now's your chance. Once again, inquiries need to be sent to Annakari Dragonsworn (Annakari Genesis).

Bixyl Shuftan

Before The Newser ...

 

Before the SL Newser, there was the SL Newspaper.

As we look back to our beginning today, we also look back at where for some of the crew the story truly began. Bixyl Shuftan (myself) and Gemma Cleanslate got our start in JamesT Juno and Dana Vanmoer's Second Life Newspaper. From it's humble start as a blog in 2006, as the months went by it changed into more of a newsletter, and a year later was Second Life's top source of information with a team of reporters. But nothing lasts forever, particularly in virtual reality, and forces beyond the owners' control in real life would force it's closing in June 5, 2010.

For over three years, the Main Page remained up for those interested in reading it. Then in January 2014, it was taken down. While some of the articles can still be accessed through the Internat Archives, it can be difficult. A few stories from it were reposted, notably around May and June 2005 for our fifth anniversary. But the real effort was our SL Newspaper Archives section. It's slow work, so it's a long-term effort. 

We won't be able to post everything as sadly, the other sections are gone, and so are some of the main page articles. But we can do some of them. Recently a little of the humble first few days were reposted, as well as the "Australian Ban" scare, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, and the goodbye posts of Gemma, myself, and Dana.

While we look to the future, we also remember the past, and take care of things in the present.
 
Bixyl Shuftan
 

Gofundme To Save InWorldz

Yesterday on July 23, Beth Reisch, the owner of the InWorldz grid, announced that the virtual world was facing being shut down on Friday. But she also launched a Gofundme to try and save the place.

As many of you know, I posted this morning about current state of affairs in InWorldz. We have decided NOT to go down without a fight! But to do so, we need your support! I refunded most payments this morning via PayPal (there are still some needing refunding), and we will apply your donations to your region tier. We need $17k to get bank balance back to normal (because we paid off LoanBuilders one payment and Chase let it go through putting us in negative) and pay the servers for another month.  

I will be honest, Cashouts will be put off until we get everything organized, but all older cashouts will be held to be first paid off as things stabilize.

I know InWorldz is a home to so many of you, and I was willing to close the doors on that as I had not seen any way out of the impending doom. However, if you can donate, we can get the servers going and we'll get a new payment system in place that is not PayPal, but still allow all of our Domestic and European customers pay! I hope I can count on you and so do your neighbors! We will apply donations that match billing records as needed, just let us know which region and we'll update accordingly. Remember, if we don't hit our goal, you lose nothing! Let's hit it peeps!

As of the writing of this article, the total raised has gone up to $8290, slightly less than half of what's needed.

https://www.gofundme.com/inworldz-in-trouble

Update: As of 11AM PSD, $13,898 has been raised

University of Western Australia Sims Saved, For Now

Last month, the manager of the University of Western Australia sims announced that four of their five sims would be retired following budget cuts at the real-life university that owns them. One, UWA Virlantis, would be handed to another owner. Three others, UWA, UWA Winthrop, and WASP Land, would be abandoned and allowed to vanish. Only the University of WA sim would remain after October 9.

Thankfully, the sims are still up. JayJay Zifanwe announced the sims have been given a reprieve, thanks in part to people writing to the university. None of the sims will be vanishing, although UWA Virlantis is still being handed to Dr Phylis Johnson (Sonicity Fitzroy).

Following a lot of work in the background at UWA in RL. The UWA presence in SL has been extended through 31st July 2017. Thank you to the many who have written in to UWA central providing support as well as the many who have worked to preserve a lot of the art and grounds in film. Thanks especially to the Desinging Worlds team with AviewTV and TreetTV for their incredible work on their tribute programme, and to Secret Rage (AKA Vee Marie) for her excellent videos documenting nearly everything on the 4 UWA sims. See links below. 4 of the 5 sims will remain part of the UWA cluster, and the 5th SIM (UWA Virtlantis) is being taken over by the University of San Jose & Sonicity Fitzroy, who have been occupying it for the last couple of years.

When sims are so often gone too soon, it's good news to hear about some given a new lease on life.

Saving Prims

Becky "Sha" Shamen took a break from her exploring to reflect on an issue familiar to any of us whom have a home, office, or any other kind of space in Second Life: the prim count. Over time, she found ways to personalize her space better by looking for low-prim furniture, which doesn't always have to be expensive, and can sometimes be found for free.

Read Becky's article in Design.