Open Forum: Should Chestnut Rau Cover Events On All Imprudence-Accessible Worlds (And If So, Which)?

Imprudence, the third party Second Life viewer, has become by popular vote the official viewer of New World Notes. I just installed it on my new laptop (more on that later), and immediately saw a cool Imprudence feature: The ability to easily select and log into OpenSimulator-based grids, such as InWorldz and Reaction Grid (see above). This means it would be feasible for Chestnut Rau to include events on multiple worlds accessible via Imprudence on her indispensable calendar. I talked with Chestnut about this opportunity, and she's potentially willing. But it's going to take extra legwork on her part, so I want to know if readers are interested: Do you want to read about events on all Imprudence worlds, or just Second Life? And a question for folks in those worlds: Are there enough weekly events for Chestnut to cover, and are you willing to send her details a week in advance?

Comments

[Simeon Beresford]

hmm should Chestnut Rau do more so we don't have to?
Not if its going to burn her out.

[Gridjumper]

Oh definitely ALL Imprudence worlds. Also nice to get information on both Mac and Win platforms.

[Maria Korolov]

If she does, she's going to have her work cut out for her.

I'm currently tracking over 100 public grids (81 of which were active this month).

Full list here, with website URLs:

http://www.hypergridbusiness.com/statistics/september-opensim-grid-statistics/

As the number of hosting providers proliferates, it becomes ever more cheaper, easier and faster for people to set up their own grids.

But creating avatar accounts on all these grids, learning your way around them, and finding events would be a nightmare.

What we're going to be doing at Hypergrid Business is just following events that are accessible over hypergrid teleports. After all, even the smallest grid can draw a large audience for an event if it markets it to the wider OpenSim public, and lets everyone know the hypergrid address. And you don't have to create a new avatar -- instead, you just teleport in.

But then again, we do have "hypergrid" in our name. :-)

Another option is to just pick a handful of the largest grids, and follow events on those. Like InWorldz, OSGrid, ReactionGrid, New World Grid, FrancoGrid, etc... For example, there are only six grids with more than 5,000 registered users each -- a nice, manageable number. :-)

Expect things to change rapidly, though -- InWorldz came out of almost nowhere over the past couple of months to take second place. More grids can be popping up any minute and do the same. After all, most of the current grids are run by volunteers, with no marketing plans or advertising budgets -- well-funded competitors can quickly clean up.

-- Maria

[dandellion Kimban]

I'd like to see that. Let's get those grids out of the shadow!

[Thoria]

I was just thinking about that as I was reading your listing from last Thursday. I, of course, would love to see events in 3rd Rock Grid listed. But I agree with Simeon that we don't want to see you burned out.

[Gianna Borgnine]

I don't want to add more work on her plate, but while I spend 95% of my virtual time in SL and so events there are priority, I would be interested in key events in other virtual spaces. Like the Blue Mars event you just had, or some of the education roundtables on the OS Grid or Reaction Grids, etc. I'm mainly interested in Second Life, Blue Mars, OS Grid, Reaction Grid, inworldz, and collaborations using Unity 3D.

So while I don't need Chestnut to go way out of her way to find events there, if she or someone else knows of a key event in other virtual spaces, I would love to see them included on the list!

Regardless thanks to all of you for working so hard to bring the information to us! <3

[Hitomi Tiponi]

I would like to know anything good wherever it is - and it should also give the smaller grids some good exposure. But I also don't want Chestnut spread too thing - like chestnut butter.

[Hamlet Au]

"If she does, she's going to have her work cut out for her."

Maria, that's what I'm afraid of. The OpenSim grids probably have less than 10K active users, so if Chestnut's getting a ton of event suggestions on multiple worlds that few people are actually interested in going to, I'm not sure it's worth her time. I'm hoping some OpenSim experts can help advise her on the very best 3-5 events every week.

[Alexandra Rucker]

Chestnut could at least *check out* the events on a wide variety of grids, even if there's no articles. See which worlds are likely to attract more people TO events in the first place, before deciding which ones to write about.

[Loman]

howc about adding some articles by Maria once in a while...

[Renmiri]

Yes, why not ? But don't run yourself ragged, covering SL and blue Mars is already a big task. Perhaps having something "opensim" once a month or even more spaced would work.

[Suemoon]

I believe that Chestnut does have a full time RL job in addition to the NWN gig. Is extra compensation involved? Probably not so I vote for not wearing her out.

[Valentina Kendal]

Let me be the contrarian then. No. She does a fabulous job finding important SL events and doing anything else is bound to dilute that effort. Why not spin that job off to someone else willing to do it?

[Botgirl Questi]

Great idea. Probably should create some automated system for people to post their events and then she could select a few each week to feature.

[Emerald Wynn]

As far as I'm concerned, Chestnut Rau should RULE THE WORLD!!! Can't get enough of her! Give her a raise!!

[Chestnut Rau]

I am very flattered by the show of support. Thank you all.

Chestnut's Choices is just that - I choose what to write about based on what I think NWN readers enjoy. I am happy to include events in other worlds and I do have avatars in several already. I do not want to dilute my coverage of Second Life as it is my virtual home. I am happy to add coverage of events in other worlds but I will need help from event organizers.

Please send me your event listings by Tuesdays for possible publication on Thursdays. I have developed an intense hatred for notecards and strongly prefer email to [email protected]

Once again, thank you so very much for your support of Chestnut's Choices. I appreciate it.

[Hamlet Au]

"Can't get enough of her! Give her a raise!!"

Agreed. And done. One reason I'm doing Blue Mars stuff, so I can pay her more like she deserves.

[Extropia DaSilva]

Oo Hamlet, untick that 'Remember Password' box. We do not want some grubby thief logging in as our beloved Hamlet, should one such ne'er do well run off with your shiny new Alienware laptop.

[Seasprite Destiny]

Hmmm. I'm sure Chestnut deserves a bigger raise than *that*. I mean, I'm not the *only* witness to a public offer from a competitor, for more money.

Besides, it's Chestnut's Choices. Let Chestnut choose what she wants to cover. We like her choices. Those folks in other worlds will have to work hard to get picked. And that's not a bad thing.

[Hamlet Au]

Chestnut does have full control over what she covers. If she only finds interesting events in SL, cool, if she finds others available on worlds accessible through Imprudence, also cool.

[Hamlet Au]

Extropia, I'd be amazed if a laptop thief decided to log into Second Life to steal my Linden Dollars, as opposed to selling my deck on 16th Street for crack.

[Scarp Godenot]

I know I'm in danger of offending those who are on other grids right now. But in the big picture, there is not enough concurrency at any of those grids to be relevant yet.

This might change, even in the near future. But for now I would recomment covering only SL for practical reasons.

[Nickola Martynov]

I'm an addicted grid surfer and, since I have limited vr time anyway, it's hard to keep up with all of them. So, I welcome any chance to find out what's going on out there.

[Arcadia Codesmith]

InWorldz appears to be gaining momentum. I think it's worthy of coverage on several levels, though live events are still sparse.

[DD Ra]

I agree with everyone to praise Chesnut's work, and would be happy to read about some interesting events on other grids.

[Ener Hax]

Imprudence also has Google translate built-in and a low overhead shadow renderer

as to covering other worlds, well why not? the universe has grown and Second Life is no longer the only world in town (?) =D

it's not as easy to find events as they are not as centrally located but osgrid.org may be a place to start =)

good luck!

[Ozzy Wozniak @slurl]

all Imprudence worlds

[Jabbaah Annuna]

I guess one should have in mind that OpenSim does not work exactly like SL does. In OpenSim we do NOT have a number of separate grids but we have the HYPERGRID. This means that one can easily jump (teleport) from one grid to another.

What we really need is a collection of events of whatever which deals with the complete OpenSim hypergrid universe. There is still much work to find a unique understanding on how hypergrid links can be listed and published.

IMHO a great start is what already has been done at http://thehypergates.com/ in order to collect hypergrid places. Maybe something similar could be done for events? But be careful - I guess this could become a very comprehensive work... ;-)

Greetings, Jabbaah
from Annuna Grid - Hypergrid 1.5 Link:
secondlife://grid.annuna.net:8002:Welcome%20Area/

[Lead Generation]

I like to read more on all Imprudence worlds than of just Second Life