2020-01-25 Meeting

Discovery Grid Community Meeting 2020-01-25

12:50PM

We reserved 10 minutes to let people set up their voice chat. We do hope you already did this earlier as we are starting at 1PM.

We are not expecting you to have to speak in voice, but we do need you to be able to hear us speak.

[In text chat] Did you hear what I said in voice?

[In text chat] Is there anyone who cannot hear us? Let us know now and we will help you with the settings.

Quick start for setting up voice in Firestorm

1. Do Ctrl + P to open your preferences window in Firestorm.

2. Click on the Sound & Media tab.

3. Click on "Voice" at the top of the window.

4. Make sure the "Enable Voice" box is ticked.

5. Click OK.

6. A white dot should now appear above your avatar's head.

This setup will allow you to hear us talking during the meeting.
There are more detailed instructions for working with Voice as well as some great tips and shortcuts at this link:

https://wiki.phoenixviewer.com/fs_using_voice

 

1:00PM Meeting Begins

Balpien Hammerer

Greetings, thank you for coming to the first quarterly community meeting of 2020. I am Balpien Hammerer owner/operator of this grid. Our grid admins are Jay Copperfield, Lindee Ellsmere, and Tenbears Running. Lindee is also the Greeter Manager. Jay manages Gloebit Island a mall with free stores for region owners. On staff doing the OpenSim builds and keeping an eye on the OpenSim core developments is Kayaker Magic. I maintain and develop the servers, pumps, steam pipes, and the grid manager software that monitors all the regions.

To get the full meeting minutes, which will include all the text-chat take takes place, please go to https://discoverygrid.net, click on the {KnowledgeBase} button then navigate to the “meeting minutes” folder. They will be posted there tomorrow.

Though I am giving this talk in voice to speed things up, text chat works best for questions. Please ask questions at the end of each topic area when I open up the meeting for feedback. We will respond and write our responses in text chat as well as voice. After the meeting we will expand on the answers in the meeting minutes document.

The last meeting took place December 10th. The meeting minutes managed to get delayed and the chat logs were lost. Sorry about that. The meeting notes we did recover are in the knowledgeBase.

State of the Grid

The grid had a rough time, with region crashes, odd texture rendering problems, seemingly terrible network performance issues, a huge rise with local money system failures, and some prim loss. Looking back, the problems started mid November 2019 and they were resolved January 20th.

Foundation Code Bugs

A recent update to the Mono run-time foundation code that OpenSim relies on, had a nasty bug in it that caused the OpenSim code to fail in subtle and mysterious ways. This was discovered by the OpenSim core developers after several months of investigation. A week ago, I had to revert part of the Mono run-time. Just 4 days ago the Mono project developers created a solid fix for the myriad problems in their previous updates.

Server Failure

To make matters worse, on December 29th, server rs7 took a hit when a critical security update damaged the boot logic, preventing the server from starting. It took until January 3rd when I returned from my holiday with 3rd world internet service. I moved all region tiers on that server ahead by a week to compensate for the loss of service.

TOS Enforcement

On December 21, I enabled TOS agreement enforcement. The new TOS took effect beginning of November, so people had ample time to red and agree to it. Well, in theory that was so. The enforcement action, did get people to comply.

People ask me why this is necessary. It is required by the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), and similar privacy protection laws in the United State and other countries that went into effect in 2020. Hypergrid visitors will eventually receive messages to agree to the TOS, although it might be until mid February before enforcement takes place.

DG Blacklisted Again

We got blacklisted again by some ISPs because they bounced too many emails sent to them by DG due to "user complaints". We must abide by their requirements to cease sending emails when they send us such rejections. If we do not, the grid gets entirely email blacklisted. Consequently, the grid manager software now unverifies an avatar’s email if it sees an email bounced back to DG.

The term 'user complaint' means either someone actually filed a complaint (it happens if someone leaves the grid and did not bother to close their account), or it can simply be that an email from the grid went to a person's spam folder and stayed there. Yes, leaving email in your spam folder is considered a 'complaint'. Moving email from spam to trash is also considered a complaint. So, please check your spam email folders and move all the DG emails to your inbox. If you receive more emails than you want, PLEASE log into the DG WEB site and reduce the emails sent to you by going to account details and disabling whatever you do not want to see. You can disable all group notices. If you want to be selective, go inworld, edit the groups you want to stop receiving notices and disable them there. You can disable all avatar IMs directed to you. If you want to be selective about that, go inworld and mute any avatar who is sending you IMs. Admin/grid related IMs are always sent to you, though they are not frequent.

Chat Question:

[13:19] MarkAnthoni Resident: will saying its a safe one be good enough saying its not junk

It is best to move your email out of the spam/junk folder and into your inbox first. With almosr all email services, doing that whitelists the email.

 

[13:19] Hazumi Kaze: ( i turned off all group and im 's    i get heaps of e-mails )

I reviewed your account settings and you do have emails turned off. This looks like a bug, please file a support ticket and that will queue it up for work.

 

Memory Leaks

The Sept 12 release of NaniSim started to develop a region memory leak. The regions kept growing in memory usage so after about 2 weeks they ended up using the entire server's memory. In the end it turned out to be a mono problem.

Full Deployment to New Servers

After a couple of months of preparation, almost all of the regions were moved to new SSD servers. Regions in RS3 will be relocated into SSD servers sometime in March. Their earlier relocation was delayed by all of the massive performance problems the grid suffered in the last two months.

Solid State Disks are easily 20x faster than spinning SATA hard drives. The old SATA servers were retired. Also, one server was deployed in Roubaix France. This server significantly improves the performance for our UK, Euro-zone and Australian region owners. If you live in the UK, Euro-zone countries or Australia and you own a region, make certain it resides on server rs9. If not, please file a support ticket asking to relocate your region onto that server. The move is free of charge.

New OpenSim releases

Presently the grid is running Nani 21September, and it is stable, especially with the Mono foundation code fixes in place. This release sped up avatar rendering and significantly sped up the initial terrain render whenever you TP or log into a region. I tested newer NaniSim releases and found they had a number of problems. Eventually LaNani reverted a number of changed that were causing the problems, so a new 22 December release is available. I will test that one soonest.

Questions?

Money Issues

We’ve always has problems with the local DC$ Money system. DC$ transactions are handled by a money module that has been abandoned by its developer. I have been rewriting it to add missing recovery logic, but it is taking time to get that done. I wish I could give a date certain for completion, but higher priority problems crop up which force me to set aside the work. The good news is that the mischief created by the bad Mono updates has been managed; the DC$ money module is not glitching constantly since the fixes were applied.

Chat Question:

[13:26] MoonMaiden Horner: It only says "you've bought XXX" when you get a tip
[13:26] MoonMaiden Horner: it doesn't say who it's from....
[13:26] MoonMaiden Horner: but...it's working!!
[13:27] MoonMaiden Horner: well...object name LOL
[13:27] MoonMaiden Horner: Right! It is working :)
[13:27] MoonMaiden Horner: And very appreciated :)
[13:27] Kith Whitehawk: yes working   well done
[13:27] Harmony Beningborough: tip jars are working a little better!!
[13:27] Kith Whitehawk: mostly   yes

Yes, the purpose of turnign on the dialog box is to give positive indicate that a transaction went through. That way you can tell if a glitch happened. This is interim until I have a complelte fix to the DC$ money module. Happy to see the DC$ money modudle is doing much better.

 

The grid has two money systems in place: Discovery Coins (DC$) managed by PODEX, and G$ managed by Gloebits. Outside of technical differences, There is a good reason to consider using Gloebits; Gloebits can be used by Hypergrid visitors to transact business in Discovery Grid. If you sponsor or hold events that bring in HG visitors, they cannot easily participate in the economy if your region transacts in DC$. That means no tips from the HG visitors for the venues and performers.

What we found from the Winter market is that by setting region Seattle to transact in Gloebits, a considerable number of sales were from HG visitors. The choice is up to you, of course. You can change your region at any time to transact either in Gloebits or DC$ (restart required). Do remember though to reprice your items. You cash out at 250 G$ to the USD instead of 100 DC$ to the USD. I recommend repricing 2x to 2.5x more than DC$ prices.

Finally, it is clear we have a good split between people who wish to use G$ versus those who wish to use DC$. I will continue to work on the DC$ money system to provide access to both currencies in this grid. However, I also recommend, and this applies to both currencies, to keep a money balance that is not higher than you can afford to lose. Neither currency is FDIC insured.

Finally please do not ask us to intervene for you on a currency cashin or cashout problem. The currency providers are responsible to take care of your problems. If they say it is a DG problem, then let us know.

 

Chat Questions:

[13:28] MidnightRain Glas: I like globits
[13:28] MidnightRain Glas: and dont buy the other
[13:28] Arton Tripsa: yes Gloebits has worked well for me
[13:28] Drew Hunter: I love Gloebits
[13:29] Jeff Edwards: Me too
[13:29] MidnightRain Glas: I will use paypal if you have it
[13:29] Hazumi Kaze: me too

[13:30] Dominic James: is it possible to dual?

In the same region? No, not yet.

[13:32] Neytiri Omatikaya: amen!
[13:32] MrMikie String: like IW
[13:32] MoonMaiden Horner: Learned that after IW!
[13:32] Kayaker Magic: "Never invest money that you cannot afford to loose"
[13:32] Neytiri Omatikaya: currency AND grids are like playing the stock market - if u cannot afford to lose, don't join
[13:33] Lindee Ellsmere: We are not FDIC insured. :)
[13:33] MidnightRain Glas: cause some people used it as their bank
[13:33] MoonMaiden Horner: *sighs* I did Rain :(
[13:33] Rowe Larkham: Do a weekly or monthly trade on currency
[13:33] MidnightRain Glas: makes me tear up thinking about it

Yes, that was my point. The two currency exchange companies appear to be on solid groound, but many things could happen, including new government regulations. Because these are uninsured companies, were they to disappear you would lose the ability to cash out the currency. Remember that DC$ and G$ are valueless tokens to a grid, this one and all other grids in the metaverse. Keep your balance in any virtual currency to no higher than what you can afford to lose.

[13:35] Rowe Larkham: VAT

DG does not collect VAT. The total yearly money transactions, namely cash-outs and the total income from region tiers is well below the threshold to report. Someday when we’re as big as SL, that status would change :)

[13:35] MarkAnthoni Resident: is there a way to have one way to pay IE if I have Globits and DC  and i pay some one in gloebits it wont let me because its say DC even tho I have gloe bits too make sence ?

Presently, no. The entirety of OpenSim currency and the way viewers are implemented is based on one currency. A recent change to Firestorm viewer made it possible to tell the viewer which ONE currency is in effect. This is why it is possible to have a region run one currency while another region runs a different currency. But yes, there is a way to have vendors and possibly buy objects say which currency they accept. To do this is a huge recoding effort, something in the 6-month to a year time frame.

 

[13:36] Rowe Larkham: Why the dual currency ?

The short answer is that about half the people in this grid want DC$ and the other half prefer G$. There are many valid reasons why that is so. I provide both to meet the needs of all the residents

[13:36] MarkAnthoni Resident: i see


[13:37] Susanna Valeska: So, for club owners, it would make more sense for their region to be in Globits for the hypergrid people to tip?
[13:37] Durham Redmond: I'm curious about Rowe's question too.  Why have both currencies, why not just standardise on G$?
[13:37] Hazumi Kaze: ( keep it simple)

If your event or venue has a lot of Hypergrid visitors you re likely better off using Gloebits because doing so includes everyone in the economy. And, again, the reason for dual currencies is our diverse residents requests.

[13:40] Hazumi Kaze: silly Q  can you pay codex    through paypal ?
[13:41] Jeff Edwards: yes
[13:41] Lindee Ellsmere: Yes, you can
[13:41] Arton Tripsa: yes you can
[13:41] MarkAnthoni Resident: i have
[13:41] Lindee Ellsmere: :D
[13:41] Jay Copperfield: Yes :))
[13:41] Neytiri Omatikaya: BOOM

I was uncertain about the answer, but crowd sourcing proves its worth again.

[13:41] Rowe Larkham: Is the currency subject to fluctuation ?"
[13:41] Hazumi Kaze: TY Jeff  .. guys ...so double security
[13:41] Lindee Ellsmere: No Rowe
[13:41] Rowe Larkham: ahhh okies

There is no floating currency by the two currency exchange providers.

 

 

 

Getting the Grid Seen in the Metaverse

Having wonderful events and places to visit is fine thing. But, if you want to see people admiring your works you have to let them know.

Advertise InWorld

Advertise your events in-world in the following groups:

  • Discovery Events

  • Shoppers Guide, managed by Lily Lighcloud,

  • Advertise for Free, managed by Jeff Edwards.

Discovery Grid has events, places, and classifieds full functional. You can search for activities either inworld through the viewer or through the Discovery Grid WEB site. Events also appear in the viewer’s splash page where you can click on an event which logs you in and teleports you right to the event.

Advertising in the metaverse

Having inworld and WEB based events and classifieds is great way to reach inward to the local customer base, but there is a huge world out there in the metaverse. It is equally important to reach out to Hypergrid visitors. Do that in:

  • OpenSimWorld.com – Set up an account for your region then rez on of their beacons. If you host events in your region DO add the events to the events calendar in OpensimWorld.

  • MeWe Discovery Grid forum – This is the official forums group for Discovery Grid. Post your events here to attract locals and Hypergrid visitors.

  • MeWe OpenSim Virtual group – This is one of the largest metaverse conduit groups. Post your events here to attract HG Visitors.

  • HypergridBusiness.com – This is the largest OpenSim news and events aggregator. Create adverts for your events. It will be seen by thousands of people.

Chat responses and questions:

[13:43] MidnightRain Glas: there is discord to advertize, facebook....
[13:44] MarkAnthoni Resident: what about Opensim webpage ? put announcements there too ?
[13:44] Jeff Edwards: Send me an IM if you want post privilages in Advertize it all
[13:44] MidnightRain Glas: I go to opensim every day
[13:44] MidnightRain Glas: to find places to visit

[13:46] Hazumi Kaze: do these still work ..... Region Health (9) – showtraffic

Yes, they work but the traffic monitor with that object is local to DG. If you want to broadcast traffic and events to the metaverse, make certain to rez an OpensimWorld beacon.

[13:47] Jeff Edwards: I would like to know how to embed TP links in MeWe messages.
[13:47] Jeff Edwards: If anyone knows.

You have to give several links. People going to an event from a standard WEB browser need to use the hop format: hop://discoverygrid.net:8002/region_name. If a person is in some other grid and wishes to hop over to DG, you have to give them a link they can drop into their world map: http://discoverygrid.net:8002:region_name. Notice the slight differences in the two formats.

 

Use These Facilities

We see events are being used regularly, but we also know of a number of events that are not listed. The best way to grow the grid is to let others see the rich activities that take place. I’ve not seen any growth in the classifieds. If there is a problem with how to set those up, please let us know.

There has been some confusion about the internal events list. The Events section is not a calendar. It is simply a list of upcoming events that are auto generated when they are listed as recurring. People have asked to show events as a calendar. I held off doing this because I was waiting for MeWe, the forums service DG uses, to make their events programmed by software. That hs not happened to date. I am preparing to use Google Calendar because people like to merge the DG events with their RL calendars. I plan to do that in the next couple of months: events will be auto-posted directly to Google Calendar in read-only mode. Setting events will still be done in the DG events page because that ensures only authorized avatars can change them.

Questions?

 

Activities/Changes Past and Future

Now we are into the phase of activities we have sponsored and/or actions the grid is taking for this year.

Tier Change

First, don’t panic. Existing regions will see no tier price changes. If you own a region acquired before mid January you are not affected. Pricing for new regions is still $23/mo for 30K prims and $30/mo for 45K prims on 2x2 and 4x4 regions. Pricing on 4X4 and 6x6 regions remains at $30/mo for 45K prims and $40/mo for 60K prims. The new pricing on 8x8 regions is $35/mo for 45K prims and $45/mo for 60K prims. This pricing on new 8x8 regions has been in effect since mid January.

Questions?

Chat Questions

[13:56] Neytiri Omatikaya: so only a $5.00 USD increase for the 8 x 8's
[13:57] Lindee Ellsmere: right
[13:57] Neytiri Omatikaya (excluding "grandfathered" ones)
[13:58] Neytiri Omatikaya (excluding "grandfathered" *regions*)

The tier rise applies to newly ordered 8x8 regions. Existing 8x8 tier prices remain as before.

[13:58] Jay Copperfield: So do I!
[13:58] Hazumi Kaze: ( unless you linked to other regions )

This was a discussion about whether connected region have higher lag. Before object culling was implemented, the answer was yes. This is why our placement of regions are always to lightly loaded ocean commons regions. But we have object culling enabled throughout Discovery Grid. Object culling ensures that the activities of object outside the viewer draw distance are eliminated. This feature significantly reduces or eliminates interference from a neighboring region.

[13:59] Jeff Edwards: You can have mine back when I die
[13:59] Jay Copperfield: LOL....Jeff
[13:59] Rowe Larkham: is each 8x8 on its own server or shared ?
[14:00] Lindee Ellsmere: shared
[14:01] Rowe Larkham: okies
[14:02] Arton Tripsa: eek

Each region, irrespective of size, runs in its own simulator instance. This avoids many OpenSim bugs with region restarts and memory bloat. A physical server will house from 15 to 18 regions depending on prim counts.

 

[14:02] Rowe Larkham: hehehhe
[14:02] Rowe Larkham: yeah i think thats what i meant sorry

[14:03] Durham Redmond: How many cores/RAM do the servers have?
[14:04] Balpien Hammerer: we have 8 core, 64GB servers SSD
[14:04] Neytiri Omatikaya: SSD rules
[14:04] Balpien Hammerer: On 1Gb local networks.
[14:04] Durham Redmond: Ta
[14:04] Balpien Hammerer: The grid server is on a 10Gb link
[14:04] Durham Redmond: Yep - thanks
[14:04] Kayaker Magic: Oh, processor cores, I thought you were thinking core memory technology.....
[14:04] Drew Hunter: hosted in Canada???

Servers are hosted in Montreal Canada and one server is hosted in Roubaix France. The France server is there to improve the performance of UK, Euro-zone, and Austrailian region owners.

 

Greeter Activity

[ Lindee Ellsmere]

First, I want to thank all of our wonderful greeters. We have the best greeters on the entire planet! They do a very good job for us. We are always looking for more greeters since we need coverage across many timezones. If you are interested in being a greeter, please contact me (Lindee Ellsmere). We would LOVE to have you!

Winter Market

[ Lindee Ellsmere]

We had over 200 unique visitors to the Seattle Winter Market. We had a lot of great feedback and found that people really enjoyed coming over and taking a look at the wonderful items our merchants offered for sale. We had a Christmas/winter theme this time.

Summer Market

[ Lindee Ellsmere]

We are thinking about having a summer market in June. Since the grid's birthday is July 4th, we would schedule it around that date to coincide with Neytiri's fireworks show. Be on the lookout for a call to merchants for a special meeting to talk about the summer market some time in May or the early part of June.

Thank you again to all of the merchants who participated. You did an outstanding job!

Chat questions

[14:05] MarkAnthoni Resident: What can We do as a community to help each other and things we Can do to Help you ? Like I would be happy to put announcements in open sim grid webpage and can you Ask us if we can do something to volenter to help the community.
[14:05] Jay Copperfield: Yes Drew

Yes, contact Lindee.

Discovery Grid Birthday Party

[ Lindee Ellsmere]

Yes it’s our 4th year birthday party happening on the 4th of July Saturday. As the summer market ends, we’ll ramp up with a wonderful set of entertainment events followed by Neytiri’s PyroVR Musical Fireworks in a new build not to be missed. Details are TBD, but if you want to be involved, please let us know.

 

Questions?

 

Gloebit Island

[Jay Copperfield]

I would like to remind All of our region owners that have a Business, a Venue or a recurring event that you can get a Shop with a 500 prim allowance to sell or promote yourselves, on Discovery Grid’s sponsored Gloebit Island.

If you are interested, please contact me!

Thank you,

 

Questions?

 

Making the Grid Grow

Last January this time, our 30-day active user count was just dropping from 700back to 650. This year DG had a peak 30-day average of 860. It presently ranges around 815. A mix of our current club events plus the Winter market brought in new people. To grow that number, and I personally want to see it go over 1000 by June, we need our residents to bring in new people to visit. This means we have to run events that draw more than the regulars, so the events need to be different than the club draws. We, the admins, cannot do this all by ourselves. We need crowd sourcing to happen; people need to step up and create attractions.

Here is a list of some easy to do events. I would like to see a show of virtual hands on how many people are willing to pitch in and run one or more of these. The timing interval can be one person running an event every two weeks to a month. If we get three people or three groups to run one of these events on that schedule, we can easily double the total number of events per week. I hope you can help the grid by running one of these:

Hang Glider cruise – There are hang glider rezzers at Discovery City. All you need do is advertise a group flying social to take people around to interesting spots. DG region crossings are pretty good too.

Boating event – Contact a boat seller to outfit your attendees, or, tell them to BYOB (bring your own boat). This need not be a race or contest, just a nice communal boating through some interesting waters. DG has over a million kilometers of waters.

A car race – Did you know that region Bathusrt has a ready to race track with automobile rezzers ready to go? Built for self-service events, it really needs someone to set up race events and round up people to race every couple of weeks.

An easter egg hunt – This is very simple and fun filled event. Set out easter eggs (contact me, Balpien) for the scripted eggs. Place a prize in them and place the eggs in interesting spots. There are many sponsored regions, like Crocodile Island, to hold the hunt. Give out clues through a group the hunters are joined to help them along.

Train tours – Get people to show up in Discovery city or The Annex at the beginning point of the trolley lines. Take a ride through Discovery City, the underwater tube that leads to and from region The Annex. Or find other regions that have trains running and secure permission to host your event there.

Storytelling and/or Open Mike – This is fun one. All you need to do is find a place to let people sit down and tell stories. There are lenty of grid sponsored locations as well as private regions to choose from (ask permission to use the private regions).

Chat responses/questions

[14:23] Hazumi Kaze: ( hope to set up an aerobatic course .... maybe bt 2023 if i have 10 mins to spare  lol  )
[14:23] Tenbears Running: If someone would like to run an event with boats, I will happily provide the boats, ppl can use.  Time just not allow me to run the event itself
[14:24] Tenbears Running: Bathurst
[14:24] MoonMaiden Horner: a regular cruise would be nice :)
[14:25] Janna Gaffney: Would be good to have a bike cruise there
[14:25] Susanna Valeska: I'd like to do a Renn faire of some kind, maybe involving several regions that people could tp to.
[14:25] Hazumi Kaze: in SL there was a formal Formular one .... ppl paid money to enter    and that went to the prize money  ... over a season it was quite substantial for the season winner
[14:25] Modee Parlez: A pirate hunt !! Join th eNavy !
[14:26] Tenbears Running: Horse Racing on the region, Spirit Rock Ranch.  Free Horses you can ride etc, another thought
[14:27] Harmony Beningborough: The train is fun!!
[14:28] Lindee Ellsmere: Put your first name in chat if you would be interested in any of these things

Good suggestions, but those all involve quite a bit of build work. The point of us asking for volunteers on the suggested preset events is to get them to happen quickly. Just a note that no one volunteered for any of preset easy to run events.

 

Spotlight

If you look at the viewer, you will see a shiny new button called "Spotlight". Spotlight is a project that was founded by Harmony Meadows and Moonmaiden to showcase, hence shine a spotlight on, our sponsored events. Harmony created the adverts that showcased the winter market in Hypergrid Business, the MeWe groups and in various Facebook hosted virtual world community pages. I thank them for their service in launching this project. Let's give them a round of applause!

Chat responses

14:32] Harmony Beningborough: Harmony Beningborough :) winks
[14:32] Lindee Ellsmere: applause applause
[14:32] Lindee Ellsmere: applause
[14:32] Drew Hunter: applause\
[14:32] Jay Copperfield: ㋡ ≈ ★☆.·:*´ Applause!!! `*:·.★☆ ≈ 
[14:32] Lindee Ellsmere: applause
[14:32] Janna Gaffney: WOOOOOOHOOOOOOO
[14:32] Fitheach Eun: applause
[14:32] Drew Hunter: woot woot
[14:32] Jewel Hunter: ㋡ ≈ ★☆.·:*´ Applause!!! `*:·.★☆ ≈ 
[14:32] Lindee Ellsmere: ALSO
[14:32] Jewel Hunter: ㋡ ≈ ★☆.·:*´ Applause!!! `*:·.★☆ ≈ 
[14:32] MoonMaiden Horner: Applause :P
[14:32] Lindee Ellsmere: Jeff Edwards
[14:32] Arton Tripsa: /applause
[14:32] Harmony Beningborough: yayyyy Moonie!!!!!
[14:32] MarkAnthoni Resident: appiause
[14:32] Jeff Edwards: yay!!!
[14:32] Harmony Beningborough: applauuse!!!
[14:32] Lindee Ellsmere: We must mention Kith also

We will continue to run adverts on the DG sponsored events. Additionally, the spotlight portion of the DG WEB site will have articles of other private events. But, you need to tell us what you are doing. Send us a paragraph or two about your place or build. We can then send you a list of questions to help you and us flesh out the details.

Questions?

Willow Creek Project

[Tenbears Running]

Balpien has asked me to briefly explain a project Jay and I started, months ago. With our normal everyday "duties" here on DG, this project has taken several months.

Willow Creek is a Snow Country Build, an 8x8 region, open to all very soon. It is a private project that we wish to share. A brief video we put together, will give you a preview of what the region is all about.

This will not primarily be a "commercial" Region, but a region for all to enjoy.

More information will follow we hope very soon


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1BmGF2LYLsg&t=8s

 

End of meeting questions

 

[14:07] Rowe Larkham: any problems with personal restarts?
[14:08] Tenbears Running: Not needed, as a general rule, Rowe.  totally up to the region owner, but we monitor the grid across the board, daily

You can restart a region either through the viewer, menu Debug/Restart, or by way of the DG WEB site. Login using your avatar credentials. Scroll to the “My Regions” section, click on stop, let it stop, then ’start’ to bring it back.

[14:11] Kith Whitehawk: AReyou shutting the grid down for maintenance?

Yes, soon. The grid services need to be stopped and restarted and the databases optimized. To do that all regions must be stopped, so yes, the grid will have to be shutdown for a day. I’ll announce well before I do it to give people a chance to prepare.

[14:38] Jillian2000 Quintessa: Will we get a notecard of the meeting minutes?
[14:39] Lindee Ellsmere: They will be in the knowledge base too

Yes. The meeting minuutes are already in the notecard dispenser. I have to go through all the chat, find the questions and answer them. It takes several hours.

 

[14:39] Modee Parlez: I have a question
[14:39] Modee Parlez: afterg GCG closing people are concerned
[14:40] Modee Parlez: how healthy are we they ask
[14:40] Lindee Ellsmere: VERY healthy
[14:41] Lindee Ellsmere: Discovery Grid is very healthy
[14:41] Jay Copperfield: Extremely healthy
[14:41] Lindee Ellsmere: You are safe here
[14:41] Jillian2000 Quintessa: We appreciate that

Discovery Grid is in very good shape. I maintain a minimum of a six month reserve to weather through the harshest situations. There are backups of everything. If for some reason the grid had to close, people would have six months to prepare for departure. The goal is to not strand people. I will do everything I can to protect people from the things that took out InWorldz or GCG. GCG fell hard because Roddie had no reserves whatsoever. He said so, he wrote about it. That is a terrible business model, to offer cut-throat low prices for regions by blowing away reserves or the possibility of ever making enough profit to build up a reserve.

 

[14:43] MarkAnthoni Resident: Would you promise us to let us know if things get ruff  not like inworlds where we where in the Dark.So we can help Id hate to loose my 2nd home again ?

Yes, I promise.

[14:47] Jillian2000 Quintessa: why do we have to pay 25% for cashouts?
[14:47] Jillian2000 Quintessa: with Podex
[14:47] Drew Hunter: so they make money and stay in buisness
[14:47] Jillian2000 Quintessa: other grids don't pay such a high percentage
[14:49] MoonMaiden Horner: I'm sure they are covering all the associated fees and costs due to such things as fraud...
[14:49] MoonMaiden Horner: Gloebits is only 2%

PODEX cash out is what it is to handle the liability insurance they have to pay for. Fraud is very common in games and virtual worlds. I checked the exchange rate page in http://www.podex.info/p/exchange-rates.html and after running the cacluations, the fees are 25% once you factor in the difference exchange rates for the virtual currencies.

--- END ---

Complete Chatlog

[12:41] Grid: Welcome Balpien Hammerer.  This area is using the Gloebit Money Module. 
[12:46] Jay Copperfield is online.
[12:51] Grid: Teleport completed from hop://discoverygrid.net:8002/Seattle/503/448/46
[12:51] Kayaker Magic is online.
[12:52] MoonMaiden Horner: Hey Rain :)
[12:52] Susanna Valeska: yep
[12:52] MoonMaiden Horner: Hi all :)
[12:52] Susanna Valeska: nods
[12:53] Slyder Morgan: hello everyone
[12:53] Drew Hunter is online.
[12:53] Calnia Westland: Hi everyone!
[12:54] MidnightRain Glas: Cal huggies
[12:54] Calnia Westland: Hugs Rain!!
[12:54] Fitheach Eun: Hi everyone
[12:54] Harmony Beningborough: Hi everyone!!
[12:54] MidnightRain Glas: free hugs for everyone
[12:54] Susanna Valeska: Hi Cal, Fit, and Harmony
[12:54] Slyder Morgan: hey harmony
[12:54] Calnia Westland: HI Susanna!

[12:54] Balpien Hammerer: Can everyone see the two big displays showing you how to enable voice?
[12:54] Harmony Beningborough: ooooo...love me some Rain hugs!!
[12:54] MoonMaiden Horner: Hugsss Harm :)
[12:55] Kith Whitehawk is online.
[12:55] Durham Redmond: Hey Harm
[12:55] Calnia Westland: Yes, I see them Balp
[12:55] Balpien Hammerer: click on the boxes above the pylons, you'll find the community meeting notes.
[12:56] Balpien Hammerer: Anyone not hearing us speak?
[12:56] Balpien Hammerer: raise your virtual hands
[12:56] Harmony Beningborough: I hear you loud and clear!!
[12:56] Calnia Westland: I hear you speak, but where are the pylons?  :)
[12:56] Calnia Westland: oh, ok Balp
[12:57] Harmony Beningborough: KITHHHHH!!!
[12:57] Kith Whitehawk: Harm
[12:57] Kith Whitehawk: :)
[12:57] Durham Redmond: Hey Kith
[12:57] Kith Whitehawk: D:)
[12:57] MoonMaiden Horner: Hey Kith :)
[12:57] Kith Whitehawk: :) hug MOon
[12:57] Kith Whitehawk: Hi Everyone
[12:57] Lindee Ellsmere is online.
[12:57] Harmony Beningborough: Hi kayaker!!
[12:57] Fitheach Eun: Hi Kith, Kayacker
[12:58] Kayaker Magic: I'm not home! Where I am now it is 5:00am in the morning!
[12:58] Drew Hunter is offline.
[12:58] Balpien Hammerer: near voice is set to 50m, so everyone should hear clearly.
[12:58] Tenbears Running: ah, ok, better wx than here in the PNW I hope
[12:58] Drew Hunter is online.
[12:59] Jay Copperfield: Hello Everyone!
[12:59] Harmony Beningborough: Huggggs Jay!!!
[12:59] MrMikie String: Hello Jay
[12:59] Jay Copperfield: :))
[12:59] Hazumi Kaze: waves to all hugz
[12:59] Rowe Larkham: Heya !!!
[12:59] Tenbears Running: Kayaker the notes for the meeting - a copy in the box at the top of that white pylon
[12:59] MarkAnthoni Resident: hi folks
[12:59] eaglepalmer Resident: Greetings everyone
[12:59] Harmony Beningborough: Hi Lindee!!!
[12:59] MrMikie String: Hey Rowe!
[12:59] Harmony Beningborough: RAIN!!!!!!!!
[12:59] Harmony Beningborough: I love your voice!!!
[12:59] Harmony Beningborough: lol
[12:59] Calnia Westland: smiles at Rain
[13:00] Jay Copperfield: Grins at Rain!
[13:00] Maggie Hunter: Hey cuz!
[13:00] Drew Hunter: hello everyone
[13:00] Durham Redmond winks at Drew
[13:00] Kith Whitehawk: Hey Drew !  hug Jewel
[13:00] Arton Tripsa: hi everyone
[13:01] Harmony Beningborough: good turnout and still coming in!
[13:01] Kith Whitehawk: Hi Arton!!
[13:01] Jewel Hunter is offline.
[13:01] Jeff Edwards is online.
[13:01] Harmony Beningborough: we in trouble!
[13:01] Harmony Beningborough: lol
[13:01] Kith Whitehawk: Haz :)
[13:01] Arton Tripsa: Happy Australia Day!
[13:01] Hazumi Kaze: Kith :-)
[13:01] Kith Whitehawk: Happy to you too!
[13:01] Kith Whitehawk: ~**YAY!!!!**~
[13:01] Arton Tripsa: :-)
[13:01] Jay Copperfield: Happy Australia Day!!!
[13:01] Kith Whitehawk: Hi Susanna :)
[13:01] Harmony Beningborough: always have a plan B!!
[13:01] Dominic James: howdy everyone
[13:02] Harmony Beningborough: Hi Dom :)
[13:02] Jay Copperfield: Plan B ....Duck and Cover!
[13:02] Harmony Beningborough: lol Jay
[13:02] Hazumi Kaze: hi Dom
[13:02] MidnightRain Glas: there should not be a plan B with you both professionals here
[13:02] MidnightRain Glas: lol
[13:02] Jewel Hunter is online.
[13:02] MarkAnthoni Resident: thank you for having this Balpien says alot
[13:02] Drew Hunter: hi hi Jewel
[13:02] MidnightRain Glas: jewel huggies
[13:03] MidnightRain Glas: Maggie hugs
[13:03] MrMikie String: Hugs Rain
[13:03] Lindee Ellsmere: MrMikie!!
[13:03] Harmony Beningborough: We are the huggingest group of people!! :)
[13:03] MrMikie String: Hugs Lindee
[13:03] MidnightRain Glas: Mikie  hugs
[13:03] Lindee Ellsmere: yes
[13:03] Susanna Valeska: Go for it


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