OSCC 2019, Membership meeting Osgrid, Fresh Yeti build

Last weekend the annual OSCC ( Opensimulator Community Conference ) has been held, and it was well attendend. I personally haven't been on the regions a lot, mainly due to the excellent and high quality livestreams, enabling me to follow all i liked without having to be present in pixel form. Big thumbs up to the organisation for another succesfull conference.

This weekend we also had The OSGrid Membership meeting planned aswell, so to avoid conflicts it was shifted a week prior to OSCC. The meeting logs havent been posted yet, but will appear on the Osgrid wiki sometime soon. Some changes in the board have been announced, AlbertLR will stop his work as Treasurer and hand this function to Wizard as the by-laws of our grid require such shifts.
He will remain admin, and assist OSGrid with administrative and legal work as secretary. The main (and very good) news of this meeting was that Osgrid Inc. for the first time in it's history has a "normal" and healthy surplus bank-balance.

Just before the meeting, a new Yeti Opensim build was uploaded to Osgrid, which you can grab here.  Red Dragon regions have been running Yeti since it was released, without any noticeable issues.

For the last weeks of this year we have a huge christmas party  (friday 27th) in the 'Osgrid pipeline', and possibly (if there is enough interest for it) a "networking session" in which you can learn about NAT,  servers, routers, portforwarding and running Opensimulator from your home on a windows or Linux machine.

Last but not least, Primwords and Speedbuild are running every Thursday on Recreation Plaza. These events are hosted by Snakedance Moonwing and start at 13.00 grid time. If you have never attended, you really should try it at least once. You migth really like it, as those games are quite fun, and very specific to Virtual worlds. After the winners are annouced, Tiggs Beaumont hosts Greedy dice-games at 15.00 on the same plaza.

Xmas Party in OSGrid !

Speedbuild and Yeti code

last week a new Opensim build was posted to OSgrids download page, containing the Yeti build. The 2nd named Opensimulator release that follows up on Snail. All Red Dragon regions have been updated to this build, and seem to be performing nicely.

Recreation Plaza has been revamped, and opened to public. It's OSgrids "Gaming"  region, on which a variety of inworld games are / can be played. It has been ever present, but didn't have the love and attention it needed. So it got a refresh, and active hosts are deployed for Multiplayer games.
Last Thursday Snakedance Moonwing hosted the 1st game of Speedbuild, in which 9 contestants had 1 hour to build the theme "Something that flies". Speedbuild is "core building with prims". So people create a build from scratch, and after an hour, contestants and visitors can vote to declare a winner. You can see the winning builds (we had a tied 1st place) at LBSA plaza on display. With nine  contestants and sixteen spectators, it was great fun. If you missed it, no worries, these games will be reoccurring bi-weekly on odd and even weeks. Feel free to attend, or compete in the contests.

Next Thursday Primwords will be hosted on the same plaza. It's like pictionary, but with prims rather than drawings. 1 person gets a word / theme, but is not allowed to type in chat. Than he has to make the others guess his word by building something. Hilarity & amazing quick-builds guaranteed.

Apart from above fixed time games, Greedy tables have been added, and you can play things like bubble breaker, Tetris, crude trap, ride the mechanic bull or other carnival rides, have an exhilarating Media experience or jump the giant trampoline with all your friends. OSGrid is an 18+ grid, but since you're  there playing computer games anyways, just enjoy "letting that inner kid out".
The plaza is open to public, so if you're bored of yapping with your friends, can now pop over and beat them in a friendly game of choice.

This years Halloween was great fun to with an awesome Event Plaza, you can find some pictures of it in OSgrids Facebook Page. The annual OSgrid Members Meeting will be held at December 8th instead of 12th, as that date the Opensim community conference is in full swing. And after that it's already Christmas again. The Metaverse didn't die, codebase is getting new features, and even after a decade we are still having Fun and moving forward.

Fundraiser Events & Auction

Entertainment

Every week I like to hang at party's at event Plaza. Mostly every Wednesday, and for sure on Fridays, to kick off my weekend. OSgrid is home to loads of great DJ's, and i really enjoy listening music. And yes i could put on some playlist, radio or Spotify, but i'd miss out on the excellent selections of the inworld DJ's. I learn about new songs nearly every week, and smile at the gems i didn't hear since long.
Due to OSgrids DJ's coming from allover the world, the song choices are always a surprise. What you might not know, is most of the Event DJ's also run party's at their own regions. Yesterday i got invited to a party at Trancelucid club, hosted by DJ Kawaii. She mainly plays dance, trance and club music, and since i'm a 'slave to the beats', i had a blast. Sunday mornings usually have party's at "The Alternative" where DJ Lanani streams a variety of easy going tunes.

If you are more into Live Music, try to visit OSgrid on Sunday evening, and check up on the Maritime club on Belfast region, which hosts the longest running "live music event" in the Grid. They feature various musicians and singers streaming live concerts straight into your viewer. On Tuesdays you can find live performers at the Almost Islands.No need to be ever bored, always something playing or coming up shortly.

Fundraiser & new Opemnsim release

A fresh copy of Opensim was posted to the OSgrid downloads page today. It requires .NET framework 4.6 or Mono 5.12 to run, change-logs can be found here.


From 20 to 27 September, OSgrid will have it's annual fundraiser. Also this year, there will be an action of unique builds and services, made to sell at the action. All sales will be funding the grid directly.

OSgrid is doing ok-ish financially. The regular donations nearly cover the monthly running costs of the grid, and we have a small reserve for calamities. The money raised at the fundraiser will form a buffer for the future, and opens options for expansion, and / or hardware replacement if the need arises. This years chosen theme is Steampunk.

Although OSgrid is free, its operational costs are real. You can see here, where your donations are spent on. All staff are unpaid volunteers, your money is used for 100% on keeping servers alive. Your donations also allow the people that do not have the budget to spend money online, to still participate, have fun, and enjoy all the great experiences a virtual world has to offer. Your input is hence very appreciated.

If you want to make a donation, click here. If you can't spend money, but you're a great builder, consider making something unique for the auction, and donate that. If you have other creative idea's, those are welcome too. In last years action several services were offered, like a "live DJ", "Personal training classes" by subject matter experts, and even complete OAR's and websites were hammered of. The funds it raised enables all of us to live our dreams, and keep the grid strong and lasting. Today (Saturday at 11.00 am grid time), the weekly Q&A at Hurliman plaza will likely be dedicated to this fundraiser. Feel free to join the discussion and share your input. 

Cleaning up the Blog

No, i'm not wiping it, nor stopping it, just cleaning it up. Removed a few bunch plethora of dead links, the downloads page & footer links have been cleaned, and we brought the information in the sidebars up to speed again. Inactive pages with historical references will remain available, and new links will be added on a irregular basis as we collect them. Some more page maintenance is planned, check back and visit to check the changes.

OSgrid 12th Birthday has been a blast, with loads of visitors during the week long events. Great music and DJ's almost 24/7 and a variety of skilled live musicians, streaming live concerts into Event Plaza. Like every year, very cool displays were built on the OSG12B regions, which you can still visit ! Don't wait too long though, as these regions will disappear within now and a few weeks. You can check pictures of all builds on Verna's Flickr page,

For rest life in OSgrid is fun as always. Unexpected flash-mobs of the LBSA-band brighten up the early weekend mornings, after a great Friday Party at event plaza.

Soon planning for this years fundraiser will start. If you want to contribute / organize / perform, or are just interested, attend the Saturday Q&A at Hurliman Plaza. Your input is appreciated !

Last but not least, a small promo video for OSgrid made by Snakems. Enjoy. 

OSG12B Party!!!

Still alive & kicking

Geez, 6 months no Blog posts. You probably thought i quit. But i didn't. When Google+ disappeared google " forgot" my Blogger was hooked to it, so first had to re-register before I could get back in. Also i wrote some drafts, but never hit the publish button. And thus all over sudden 5 months have passed.
Since G+ is gone, OSgrid opened a MeWe account here. 

OSgrid is still present and going strong, despite the sounds about a declining interest in virtual worlds in general. We have seen quite some people leave over the last years. Developers, admins, even some long running venues and annual events in the metaverse have had their "last run". In some cases however the 'passion' lives on and such events are continued by others. HgSafari & Avatarfest for example. In absolute numbers, new people keep discovering opensim. There just more thinly spread due to a massive growth in smaller grids. Overall there is still growth, even after some major grids having closed down the past year.

Despite the metaverse being a niche (it is, really, ask anyone you know in RL about metaverse stuff...)  i like to believe its a persistent one. Just like in real life, people come and go as time moves on. Some grids grow, some get abandoned and disappear.
Living in OSgrid i'm not scared of it "disbanding". In the past 4 years, the board and it's admins have achieved impressive steps forward, strongly backed by a supportive community. Bearing in mind it's  completely running on volunteers, it's progress is slow but steady.

Servers got migrated, front end completely rebuilt, OSgrid made legal non-profit status, listed at  Paypal, due to collective efforts and support of all users & residents with fundraising efforts. The admin team was expanded with Wizard and Aussie, LBSA  plaza has been modernized. Hurliman plaza was born so we have a great auditorium for meetings now, and we said goodbye to some older event builds, as these now get built per event and loaded at Event Plaza. The database server disks have been renewed, and all above efforts give us stability and the capacity of growing for another 3-5 years. Residents sometimes don't "see" much of what the OSgrid board does, but as you can see, it's doing exactly what it should. Prepare for the future constantly. This is also the theme for our next fundraiser. Building a solid future.

Yesterday (9-6) OSgrid has had it's annual community meeting, you can read it back here. In there the following items were discussed :

OSG12B regions : They are up. 22-28 July is the event date. The first 2 regions are already full, so if you want a display plot, don't wait too long asking for one. at any of the admins. OSG is preparing huge party's as always, and your input is really appreciated. Talk to Aussie if you want to run a gig on Event Plaza. And don't forget to visit the OSG12B regions to check the cool builds and grab the goodies !

Fundraiser :Planning for our yearly fundraiser has started. This is all very early, but these events take an incredible amount of effort to not only be held but also " work", so a whole team started brainstorming on this years festivities. (Dunno if this is a secret, but : This year will have Sci-fi / Steampunk as theme !!).  It's going to be a blast, like last year !

OSgrid Board changes : Wizard Atazoth has been invited to join the OSgrid board of Directors. We congratulate him on his new position, and wish him luck and much wisdom in this role. Like all board members, he will also remain active as grid administrator, so you can still bug him with tech stuff.

Admin Changes :Last, but not least. Paela Argus, our web and back end developer, has retired from active duty. We congratulate him, as he's expecting to become a father soon !!  He will need his time to focus on his new family. The efforts and input he gave to this grid are commendable, so on behalf of the OSgrid and it's community we thank him for all of is hard work and efforts, and wish him all the luck in the world in a new adventure as a parent.

Happy 2019 !

Happy 2019