InWorldz Grid Fighting to Survive!

InWorldz announced the grid was to close just a day ago but after an outpouring of Resident grief and worries over lost money and content, Beth Reischl, leading founder of the grid 10 years ago, set up a GoFundMe and is appealing for help to save the virtual world so many have come to love and call home.

Reischl has blamed travel-related communication problems, bureaucratic mistakes and other issues resulted in the shutdown of the grid’s PayPal accounts and the calling in of the company’s business loans. Hypergrid Business reported this and, quoting InWorldz blog, Reischl also explained "In middle May, we took a loan from LoanBuilders, a subsidiary of PayPal." All was going well then everything took a down turn. She went on "The first payment was scheduled at the end of May. I received notice from them that it was NSF (Non-Sufficient Funds). I checked our bank account, the monies had not even attempted to be taken and the monies were definitely there."

"Without payment, RackSpace will be shutting our servers down," she went on to say in her initial announcement. "I’ve extended our servers out until Friday, July 27. I can not process cashouts, no payments may be sent out. For that, I’m truly sorry." However, she said she will begin issuing refunds, as much as she can before PayPal shuts access to the accounts, and she recommends customers use the PayPal dispute system on monies they paid to InWorldz which PayPal will have to honour and make refunds from their account although the dispute process may take a short while.

Later in the day Reischl came back with an addendum to her initial announcement, saying "Many of you are not happy over this, and want to do whatever you can to save the grid. I'm down for that! So what I did was set up a GoFundMe that will update your tiers and if we raise the amount needed, the grid will be ok and we'll set up new payment methods. They will not include PayPal. If you want to keep your home, please visit us at: https://www.gofundme.com/inworldz-in-trouble And let's make this happen! I can't stand the idea of going down without a fight, but now it's on our users! YOU!"

InWorldz does, indeed, have a loyal user base but there have been many voices raised against the managment over the years including my own at one time when the InWorldz founders, having migrated from another early start-up based on Opensim code, kept attacking Opensim developers and Hypergrid at a time when InWorldz was itself an early fork of Opensim and little different than the growing number of other grids around. However, although InWorldz has it’s roots in Opensim, it has diverged considerably over the years and now runs on the in-house developed Halcyon platform.

Early on in 2017 Hypergrid Business posted an article "InWorldz stops publishing falling stats" which brought a torrent of heated comments from both Opensim users and InWorldz supporters on the reasons why Reischl suddenly decided to stop giving their monthly traffic stats. The gist of the argument was that InWorldz was losing merchants and users which brought a backlash from the Iz community on HB for the article. A year later HB published a new article, this time headed "InWorldz merchants concerned about future" and reported that the public forum for InWorldz had been closed some time to try to block  complaints.

Not withstanding all the past drama and obvious drop in traffic many merchants remained on the grid and it appears they are willing to help save it because after just a day the fund stands at $11,818 of $17,000 goal. InWorldz is loved by and for its community as much as anything else and it looks like help is on the way. 

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Kim Kardashian is Big on Second Life too!

So Kim Kardashian has switched from IMVU to Second Life and posted this screenshot to her Instagram account to promote her new perfume!

The photo already has 1,179,119 likes so that must be good news for Second Life if any of those clicking actually know SL is a virtual world. But it has certainly brought a smile to the faces of those reporting on it  - mine too!

In fact I was so bemused by the use of a voluptuous SL look-alike avatar I had to look on Market Place to see what was actually on offer and it is huge!

So there you go if you are looking for an avatar that is all bum and boob you know where to look. 

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 

By the way, we are told this is not the first time she’s has done it either. Wagner James Au over on New World Notes tells us she did the same thing in the past used the Kimoji avatars that appear to be from IMVU.


Anyway, one can only wish her the best of luck with her product and may Second Life and and all those wobbly avatars strut their stuff to heart's content.

Wagner adds "IMVU, the social network with 3D animated avatars, said that it has provided the technology behind a new version of the popular Kimoji paid app created by Kim Kardashian West... “Kanye and I found this amazing social experience company, IMVU, and worked with them on creating some of our latest Kimoji designs and GIFs. They’re such innovators who have helped me really set Kimoji apart,”Kardashian wrote on her site." 

Kardashian's official @kkwfragance perfume brand on Instagram has even more SL pics

Heck, I haven't blogged in ages and I return with this! Well it was fun to write about.

But really, it is about time I got into blogging again. I mean there are all these new VR worlds to write about and Second Life and Opensim are far from dead. They're actually doing quite well despite the arrival of Sansar, High Fidelity and a lot more next gen platforms.

Opensim Metrics Paranoia Kills Popular Grid List

A biter war of words broke out just recently over the publication of Grid Lists & Stats with some well-known people fanning the flames with some pretty incendiary and divisive blogging calling on grid owners to remove stats info from splash screens. This row began recently on Hypergrid Business where, in comments, Inworldz owners demanded they be removed from the HB grid list and stopped displaying their full stats to prevent HB from scraping the numbers. Great Canadian Grid then joined the argument and a furious row broke out between Magnuz Binder and Roddie Macchi, owner of GCG, which lead to the closure of the Binder stats list and to Macchi threatening to bring a lawsuit against Binder. GCG, Inworldz and Atek grid appear to be arguing that stats lists are being used against them unfairly. However, others say the grids complaining have seen some decline and rather than addressing the root causes of that decline they would rather have the numbers hidden.

The Great Canadian Grid Arrivals

It is well known that Inworldz owners have had a stormy relationship with HB at times and complained of bias in their reporting and yet that grid which grew out of forked Opensim code has grown pretty well over the years to be the grid with the most active users, and it is that statistic which has been falling in recent months, and the stat they now want to hide. HB noted this as part of the grid watch reporting but Inworldz owners just saw it as yet more bias. Inworldz is not Hypergrid enabled and they have often complained that HB takes a "them and us" approach while others, myself included, have generally taken the view that Inworldz appears to see Hypergrid as their main competitor as if it were a single grid they were up against. Well, in a sense that is true but only because Hypergrid connects grids allowing travel between them and that is building a bigger market for goods and services. For a large competitive commercial grid like Inworldz you can see how they might see that as serious competition.

However, regardless of how Inworldz might see things I myself though G+ Opensim Virtual and I think Maria Korolov of HB too have been trying to bring the community together including the closed grids but that is not because we favor or disfavor closed grids in any way. My view and that of Maria I'm sure is that it is better to be conciliatory towards closed grids while spelling out the advantages of Hypergrid and trying to persuade them to open up. Some grids have done so and I think that proves it is better to take that approach than waging an ugly war of words that, in my view, is more likely to drive people away from the open Metaverse altogether. And to be fair to Inworldz I do think they seem to get the headline when Maria reports on Opensim Statistics and that does tend to labour the point that Inworldz is outside the mainstream Hypergrid community which must be annoying and even frustrating to both the owners and the resident community that would naturally defend the grid they call home.

 

Inworldz Grid

Inworldz is not actually against Hypergrid though but, like Avination before it closed which has a core developer, Melanie Thielker, both grids wanted to see a more secure Hypergrid if they were to adopt it. Inworldz lead developer, David Daeschler said recently in comments on HB "I personally review and approve many of the pull requests I can tell you that there's no reason we would block an interconnectivity protocol from Halcyon, unless it really messed up the core code. I would definitely prefer to see something like Hypergrid implemented as a separate gateway process that worked gracefully with the simulator rather than something that had to be tightly integrated with the core code. A contribution as such would be welcomed with open arms and actively supported. This has been discussed at length with core Halcyon contributors." Jim Taber, another Inworldz developer also commenting at HB said, "I think InWorldz would welcome connectivity with other grids, provided it meets either (or both) of the following: protected content must travel securely, or what seems more likely to me personally, it allows exportable full-rights content to enter other permissions-free worlds. Of course it could do both. But one thing is clear, that does not describe Hypergrid, so there would need to be a new, improved, peer-reviewed protocol between grids. I think the MOSES team may have put a start to that, but it would be a big project and could be years away from production use." So this doesn't sound like they want to shun the rest of the free Metaverse as a closed world and HB has probably given that impression.

So, in the wake of this controversy, we have lost a very useful stats list that Magnuz Binder took great pains to keep updated. He did this as a service to the Metaverse and asked nothing to use it. HB provides a grid list too and free adds that help our community. I keep a grid list as well on the METAVERSE link of my blog Metaverse-Traveller which is designed to be searchable and serve the community. That's what we do for free but too often, and especially at times like this, it becomes a thankless task that only brings us unnecessary abuse, legal threats and stressful drama.

The thing is grids display their stats for public information so it is helpful to gather those statistics and publish them in a list so people can get an idea of the size of the Metaverse and where the action is likely to be found. Bloggers and writers may well report conclusions after looking at the stats and if the most active grid shows some decline then it is fair to report it. I agree they do have a responsibility to not over egg the point though which Inworldz claims HB has done. But, at the end of the day, if the numbers show decline for a grid then I would say the owners need to address the reasons for that decline and not try to shoot the messenger to avoid the facts being known.

Grid Search 

Now the Binder list has been closed I decided to review my own Grid Search list and it looks like Inworldz will drop in ranking if I can't find their stats. They have, until now, enjoyed the highest rank since I started publishing some three years ago simply because they have consistently had the most active users in that time and, as of last month, they still had enough to keep their high placement when people search the commercial category. Unfortunately, now Inworldz active user stats are hidden, they are not going to appear at the top and that will also make the Metaverse look smaller when, in fact, an important member has just made itself invisible. Or, some might say, cut its nose off to spite its face.

Grid Search open web page in viewer

But I have a plan! Maybe I should do some informed guess work? Well, let's face it, some people are quick to say all grids fake their numbers and that may well be true in a few cases. I'm pretty sure Second Life stats are suspect anyway because we know there are plenty of bot's and alt's  - that is, robot avatars and alternative names owned by the same person - that are all included as unique active users. Well, Opensim grids might have their alt's and bot's too but, better than Second Life, Opensim does have proper scripted NPC bot's and they are not included in Opensim stats anyway so you can rule those out. What I mean though is I am going to have to login to those grids that don't display their stats and seek to get view on the in world activity and try to build an estimate based on new user count and the in-world actives I find. It is possible although extra work for me but no Opensim grid is so big that it would be impossible to do. it's just a matter of if I want to bother helping a grid to keep their high ranking for the sake of keeping a full view of the Metaverse.

The thing is the open Metaverse is growing. People are investing in it. Kitely Market are delivering to very many grids and now there is a universal currency, Gloebit, available which is spreading with new malls opening that will increase in-world shopping via Hypergrid. There are a number of Opensim forks and Inworldz has open sourced their code under the name, Halcyon which the US Army MOSES team have adopted and continue to work on a web viewer for it. Inworldz might differ from core Opensim in physics and script engine now but it is based on the same protocols so will always be an Opensim derivative and therefore part of the open Metaverse so I think they will be included in grid search and I will still welcome promotions from both closed and open grids including Inworldz at G+ Opensim Virtual.
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Zangrid Opens Up Shopping To Hypergrid...

I was interested to learn Zangrid has opened a shopping mall region that is Hypergrid enabled. You can reach it using this address: hg.zangrid.ch:8002:HyperShopping

Arriving at the HyperShopping Mall at Zangrid

According to Rique Giano, speaking on Google plus, Zangrid now has Gloebits currency installed which their host Zetamex Virtual Service Network is supporting. Gloebits were first mentioned by Maria Korolov in a series of articles here & here in Hypergrid Business last year although one article did say hosting firms were split on adopting the token currency at that time. However, it now appears the Gloebits team headed by Seth Alves who spent seven years developing and administering cutting edge systems for Linden Lab's Second Life Virtual World is testing a new module on Zangrid which permits direct purchases, allows cash out for merchants and offers full online accounting for users. I understand Zangrid merchants are giving full permissions on content bought at the mall so visitors from the Hypergrid who buy virtual goods for personal use can take their purchases away with them when they leave.

I visited the shopping mall at Zangrid and took some pictures but I didn't sign up for Gloebits yet. It's hard to say at the moment if it offers a better or comparable service to Podex Exchange and Kitely but it is to be welcomed of course and I hope more grids consider adopting it to help stimulate trade across the Hypergrid. I like shopping at the Kitely online market and having the goods sent to my grid at Farworldz but I also love to browse in shops at Hypergrid destinations when I travel so I'm sure the experience of in-world shopping will be given a powerful boost with Gloebits and it would be nice to have a universal currency rather than having to buy local currency.

I did wonder if a serious currency trader might bring out a universal coin and it seemed to me that Podex who is well established might be the one to do it. I even dedicated a plot on my Welcome region at Farworldz ready to invite Podex to serve my currency requirements which would have left me free from legal worries and all. So, I am interested in Gloebits but more than likely I will still take Podex who have a good reputation anyway. They've been a virtual coin trader in Second Life since 2007 and serving Opensim grids  in recent years. They offer both their own currency and they trade in local currencies so exchanging one local coin for another struck me as quite handy. The only drawback now is they can't exchange Linden dollars any more since Linden Lab imposed a ban on thrid party exchanges effectively cutting off a big part of their business. Podex also deal in Bitcoins which gambling venues like YrGrid offer. However, Gloebits is offered as a universal, or global (as in the name) currency, they hope will be adopted across many grids. Opensim has been growing steadily and the growth is largely Hypergrid traffic so a universal currency might well become big business. Of course, if it becomes big, then I'm sure it may encourage some of the banking and share dealing that Linden Lab allowed in the early years before taking a tougher approach to be sure of satisfying financial regulatory laws in the real world. 

None the less, having a universal and easy to use currency has got to be the way to go if the Hypergrid is to continue to grow. There really isn't anything quite like Hypergrid out there yet although High Fidelity is a possible contender for the crown and what with Kitely market possibly selling to HF worlds in the near future then a universal currency like Gloebits can prove itself in Opensim and expand beyond as time goes by.

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US Army, MOSES Team Report Progress with Halcyon Branch of Opensim

An actual environment, on the left, compared to its virtual representation on the right. (Image courtesy Douglas Maxwell.)

In an article by Douglas Maxwell, the Science & Technology manager of MOSES, the US Army team working on a forked branch of Opensim, he reports on the team's progress in this important development. The team are working with Halcyon, the InWorldz engine that can handle PhysiX and advanced script improvements. Maxwell has answered some of the questions raised in Opensim Virtual recently and confirmed their aim to produce an HTML5 web viewer. This article, published in Hypergrid Business, is a must-read for anyone seriously interested in the future of Open Simulator...

This is a very welcomed update on MOSES, team's progress with their branch of Open Simulator. We had been discussing this briefly at G+ Opensim Virtual recently asking if anyone had heard news on the project. Some of the user community have been talking about how we might help and have our views considered. New Media Arts (NMA) are also interested in stimulating the development of OpenSimulator software and in an article at Virtual Outworlding blog there is more discussion. This article has also been linked to G+ Opensim Virtual 

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Opensim Virtual at Google + Two Years Old Today!

Back before Google Plus took off two years ago it was hard to say Opensim grids collectively had much community. It was easy to point to the Second Life community given it was all under one roof with a central focus but Opensim didn't have that. There were numerous individual grids, some closed, insular and fiercely competitive, while others were Hypergrid enabled but still not reaching out as much as they could have. A decent social network was needed and Facebook with it's real names policy and data mining was not filling the void. That was when I thought G+ could make a difference and the fact Google have no problem with avatar names it really has become all that I hoped it would.

It was slow to start and I had to find topics to post every day to keep up interest so, naturally, my focus was on the many open grids, lots of pictures and a little praise for all their efforts. Gradually the members began to join, post new topics of their own and comment on things of interest. I decided right off from the start to welcome all grids whether closed or Hypergrid enabled. I was happy to have them post topics about what they did on their grids and what they were offering in terms of entertainment, free content and services. Event notices where especially welcomed. I believed that by allowing promotions both commercial and none-commercial we would start to see the extent of the Opensim community as it came together around G+.

Happily, it did start to take off and the membership was growing. I saw grids promoting their activities and members asking for help. New G+ communities started to appear as well which supported individual grids while others focused on Hypergrid tours and education. More opened to promote role play and services like content creation and where to find it. I don't think anyone would doubt the impact Google Plus has had on the Opensim community and the centralizing focus it has given us. I believe it has helped more than anything else to bring Opensim users together to show the world we really do have a sizable and growing community across many grids, both open, closed and even the hidden ones.

In the past I used to speak of the hidden Metaverse but today, two years after I started Opensim Virtual, I think we have become more visible as a collective community than ever before and that in itself has been attracting new people. There are more and more grids opening and the associated G+ communities just keeps adding to the promotion. That can't be bad!


The future is looking good for the Opensim Metaverse.

Crowdfund Settlement News & Next Public Meeting Info

Dahlia Trimble has fixed the llLookAt() function for OpenSim and it works beautifully according to Fred Beckhusen who has tested it extensively. It is very low-lag with a modified sensorless script Dahlia gave him to test with and he put a high-def video version of how well it works on Vimeo seen here...

llLookAt is Fixed! from Ferd Frederix on Vimeo.

Now we have this success the Pledge Makers readily agreed at a private meeting on Friday 27th to pay a bounty of $1200 to Dahlia Trimble and the breakdown of payments due by the Pledge Makers is as follows...
 
Talla Adam (Kitely Grid) $120
Shin Ingen  (Ingen Lab Grid) $120
Fred Beckhusen (Outworldz Grid) $300
Selby Evans (Virtualoutworlding blog) $300
Gavin Hird (Geir Nøklebye  @ Xmir Grid) $30
Terry Ford ( Butch Arnold @ 3rd Rock Grid) $60
Michael Sietz (Digital Worlds Group LLC) $210
Alex Ferraris  (Avi-Labs/Aviworlds) $60

Progress info for this fund is here.
 
The target sum for the fund was $2000 and that was reached but the way we work is to ask the developer what they would like for payment if they complete the work and Dahlia asked for $1200. That left a surplus $800 which it was agreed the pledge makers would hold their own share for a time and it might be called on for follow-up maintenance of the code. Dahlia agreed to make minor tweaks and adjustments free of charge but anything major will, it is hoped, be covered by the surplus fund. 

We now hold public meetings at various grids on the last Sunday of the month where we hear proposals and debate them. A proposal can be made by anyone at the public meeting for some new code feature or to fix a bug in some important feature the community really world like to see working properly. Once the proposal has been considered we ask if anyone will guarantee at least half the target sum considered sufficient to interest an Opensim developer. We then call for pledges and publish a Crowdfunding request to Opensim Virtual with details of the item proposed. It is possible we may get more than one proposal at the meeting but since this has to be handled in Administration going forward I may only take the first proposal that gets a guarantor and postpone other proposals to the next meeting. It is basically a simple system that actually works and has produced quick results in the first project.

The next public meeting to hear & debate new proposals will be held Sunday 1st March 8pm GMT/ 3pm EST/ 12pm PST.
HG address: grid.xmir.org:8002:Barcola

For those of you who live in Europe and don't relate to GMT, the meeting is 21.00 Central European Time.

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