Hi everyone and Happy New Year!

In the spirit of new beginnings, today I did a small renovation at Encantada.
Things were getting crowded in the spring/summer area and well, I've started work on some "Fantasy" items. I didn't have a good spot for them so I've made a new area for "Enchanted" items.
I've moved just a few things over there already and will have a new release in the next couple of days.
I'll be keeping Halloween in the fall area and Easter in the spring area for now.

Hope you have a great start to 2022 :)

'Stella Polaris' opened in 2020 in Kroatan, but as you can see, she is now beautifying Offworld.
The bubbles above the rocks contain images and landmarks to other beautiful regions in Offworld.
* * *
'Stella Polaris' wurde 2020 in Kroatan eröffnet, aber wie ihr sehen könnt, verschönert sie jetzt Offworld.
Die Seifenblasen über den Felsen enthalten Bilder und Landmarken zu anderen schönen Regionen in Offworld.

When I was building my home sims, I discovered I needed rocks and well, I couldn't find what I wanted. Hence, I made rocks and a sky island, I also made some for the beach with flat tops for sunbathing. You never know where you will want to sunbathe.

Well, I made the male goldfinch and afterwards I felt like I really should have done the female as well. So, I did. My apologies to anyone that took the box yesterday, I added the females to the same box. I just felt like he looked lonely.

Well, I released a novelty item today. Every once in a while (well, maybe more often than that) I get obsessed with something goofy. I always thought stick men were cute, don't know why, I just do. So, I made animesh and avatar stick people. There are regular ruth size and also tiny versions. I put them on the second floor of the shop building right in front of the elevator. They are dancing in the landing zone purely for my entertainment :).

The Art Factory is about art and artists. At The Art Factory, we display art; we appreciate art; we learn about art; and, we promote art. We have over a dozen galleries dedicated to in-world artists, where they show their innovative creations. As such, we are continuing our feature - Meet the Artist. This week, we interviewed Antonia Ling, owner of Antonia Ling Gallery, Inspired By Gallery, Metropolis Poster Shop, and a 2001 themed gallery.

Antonia, tell us about yourself and your art.
“It's not easy to talk about myself. What have I to say about my person? Not much... really. I like photography and I like to photograph. I love to photograph old churches when I'm in Denmark. Or ships in the harbor... often details. Not the big ones, I prefer little old boats of the local fishermen. I like to photograph old cars and colorful flowers. I love art from the 1920s to today, I love a lot of the german BAUHAUS and their Master like Kandinsky, Alberts or Lazlo Moholy-Nagy.”

What are you doing currently?
“I try to photograph a bit. At the moment I deal with cyanotype. It fascinates me...”

What is your inspiration for art in world?
“I do what I do because I like to do it. When one in a million likes it... I'm happy.”

Thank you so much for your interview, Ms. Ling. We love your ongoing contributions to The Factory.

It's really not that hard to be ranked #4 on OpenSim when you plant 8 avatars in your region and just keep them there. I really think that is being very deceitful and skewing the OpenSim numbers to raise yourself in the rank. Regions that have been found to have avatars that are just put there 24/7 should have the region deleted and it should not be allowed. Not only is this grid owner stealing people's regions but now they are lying about who is actually occupying their region to raise themselves in the ranks. Awful!

Come for the freebies. Stay for the sites! Take your time exploring this beautiful sim, filled with picturesque views, large forests, rivers, lakes, waterfalls, and beaches. Don't forget to visit Santa along the way.

JAPANESE MAPLE TREES PACK with animated leaves ** FREE and FULL PERM ** Available at BOX 02 at FOREST AREA (ground). Many options of trees sizes and seasonal textures (spring, summer, 8 kinds of autumn and 2 for winter). Also included leaf particles rezer for this time of year. Enjoy :)

SIX KINDS of sculpted wild grasses and weeds for ur place! ALL FREE and FULLPERM at GARDEN AREA BOX 01 with seasonal textures (and this time I put the standart size and also the reduced 128x128 pixels one that helps reduce graphic lag when many are rezed).

I had the pleasure of attending one of Gertie's sets. What I loved the most about her was her upbeat and exuberant personality. I wanted to create something to remember her by. This charm bracelet has a music note with her name. Free-Full Perms
hop://continuum.Outworldz.net:8002/Monentes%20Jewelry/114/...

A statement:

This is a world for avatars. If you put your avatar face in the profile, instead of the standard default picture, you get much more reactions and attention for your posts here in the forum. A standard profile picture does not specifically encourage you to open an account and take a closer look. If a profile is not maintained, the contributions and grid are usually the same. It takes effort, patience and perseverance to get people on his grid. Action = reaction. This is never quick! ;-)

Governor Heron

***

Eine Feststellung:

Das hier ist eine Welt für Avatare. Wenn Du Dein Avatar Gesicht ins Profil gibst, an Stelle des Standardes Vorgabe Bildes, bekommst Du wesentlich mehr Reaktionen und Aufmerksamkeit für Deine Posts hier im Forum. Ein Standard Profil Bild animiert nicht speziell einen Account zu öffnen und näher anzusehen. Wenn ein Profil nicht gepflegt wird, sind meistens auch die Beiträge und Grid so. Um Leute auf sein Grid zu bringen, braucht es Anstrengung, Geduld und Ausdauer. Aktion = Reaktion. Das geht nie auf die schnelle! ;-)

Governor Heron

A little message to the experts of tolerance 😇

I’ve heard some criticism about how my grid looks, and honestly, that made me a little sad. Someone told me without telling me details and source of origine.

I would have appreciated a simple “If you’d like, we’d be happy to help.” That would have meant much more to me than hearing about it afterwards.

I know my grid isn’t perfect. I also know that I don’t always have the same energy, possibilities or resources as other people. And that can make some things slower or more difficult.

But I love what I’m creating in my grid and especially now in Cataleya. ❤️

My original idea was a little city where people from different grids could have a home, gallery, club or anything new. That turned out to be much harder than I imagined.

Still, Calvin has a beautiful exhibition in the city and a wonderful sculpture in the landscape, and that makes me really happy.

For now, the grid is closed while I work on it in my own time.

And if you don’t like it, that’s perfectly okay. You don’t have to look at it.

I’m still allowed to love it. ❤️

Maybe tolerance is sometimes simply giving people the freedom to create differently.

And perhaps a little kindness along the way. 🌿

Re-posted on behalf of DJ Azraella.

Why Never Neverworld.

There is something particularly bleak about a community calling itself “The Friendly Grid” while apparently treating abusive behaviour as a problem best solved by telling the person on the receiving end: “You have a mute button.” Welcome to Neverworld Grid, where, judging by my experience, “friendly” may be less a standard of conduct than a decorative slogan attached to the front door.

I was a DJ in a virtual worlds for years lately as a visiting performer at Neverworld. By the point this incident occurred, however, my personal circumstances had changed. I am dying. That is not written for melodrama or sympathy. It matters because it explains what it cost me physically to be there at all. Despite being seriously ill and largely confined to bed, I got out of bed and DJed one final event to say thank you to my audience for supporting me and to draw people in one last time, which also helped to promote Neverworld Grid.

The reward was memorable, although perhaps not in quite the way their promotional department might prefer. During the event, I was verbally attacked and abused by a member of Neverworld Grid.

Behind every avatar is a human being. The fact that an interaction takes place in a virtual world does not make the behaviour, or its effect on another person, imaginary. The following day, despite the physical toll, I got out of bed again and raised a formal complaint with the owner of Neverworld Grid. I expected, at minimum, the complaint to be taken seriously. What I encountered instead was dismissal. No action was taken against the resident. My complaint was pretty much ignored and seen as nothing other than an interpersonal issue despite the fact I was a victim of one of their residents.

And then came this: “You have a mute button.”

And there, in five small words, lies the much larger problem. Of course I have a mute button. A mute button is a useful tool for an individual. It is not a substitute for moderation. Those are two entirely different things. A mute button allows the recipient to stop hearing somebody's behaviour. Moderation determines whether that behaviour is acceptable within the community in the first place. Confusing the two produces a wonderfully convenient system for administrators: the offender remains, the complainant makes them disappear from view, and management is spared the disagreeable business of actually managing anything. Problem solved. Well, invisible, which is apparently close enough. Imagine applying this philosophy anywhere else. Someone behaves disgracefully in a cinema and the management responds: 'you can use ear-plugs.' One can only admire the efficiency. No difficult confrontation. No standards requiring enforcement. No possibility of upsetting a patron who may have a life-time ticket. Just mute and carry on.

Neverworld Grid presents itself with the tagline: “The friendly grid.” That is precisely why this incident matters. If you advertise friendliness as part of your identity, then friendliness ceases to be merely a pleasant aspiration. It becomes a claim about the community you operate. And claims should survive contact with reality. A genuinely friendly community is not one in which nobody ever behaves badly. Such a place does not exist outside advertising copy and unusually optimistic children's television. A friendly community is one in which antisocial behaviour is taken seriously when it occurs. It is demonstrated by what administrators do when unfriendliness becomes inconvenient. That is the test. Not the logo. Not the website. Not the slogan. Not smiling avatars standing beneath carefully selected promotional photographs. The test comes when somebody crosses the line and management has to decide whether its proclaimed standards actually mean anything.

In my case, I believe Neverworld Grid failed that test spectacularly. I cannot state why the owner chose not to take action. Only the owner can answer that. But users are entitled to ask uncomfortable questions when enforcement appears absent.

What behaviour actually results in consequences?
Does a resident's financial contribution affect how complaints concerning them are handled?
Are paying residents subject to precisely the same behavioural standards as visitors are?
What happens after a formal complaint?
And perhaps most importantly: What behaviour would actually be serious enough for Neverworld Grid management to intervene rather than telling the recipient, “You have a mute button”? These are questions created by the apparent absence of action. If Neverworld Grid wants people to believe that payment of tier guarantees renters a friendly safe place, there is a very simple way of showing it: Have standards and apply them.

There is another unpleasant implication to the “you have a mute button” response. It transfers responsibility. The person accused of behaving abusively does not apparently need to change their behaviour. Instead, the person experiencing it must change theirs. You must mute. You must avoid. You must adapt. Management remains comfortably above the unpleasantness while the individual affected quietly rearranges their virtual existence around somebody else's deplorable conduct. That isn't moderation. It is outsourcing moderation to the victim. And it creates an obvious incentive for the worst personalities in any community: behave however you please as long as you keep paying. Eventually you can achieve the remarkable distinction of being peacefully surrounded by people who either tolerate you or cannot see or hear you. Community harmony, achieved through selective deafness as decreed by management.

There is another aspect of this which a mute button cannot undo: the physical effect of the encounter has already happened. Verbal abuse is not experienced solely as words arriving through speakers or appearing on a screen. Human beings respond physically to confrontation and distress. The body does not first consult the graphics card to determine whether an attack is sufficiently real to react to it. For a healthy person, that reaction can be deeply unpleasant. For somebody who is dying, already seriously ill and functioning with greatly diminished reserves, the consequences of that stress can carry considerably greater weight and could even be the last stress that body can take. And once that distress has occurred, telling the person “you have a mute button” is not a remedy.

The button cannot take you backwards in time. It cannot prevent the encounter that already happened. It cannot erase the stress already inflicted. And it certainly cannot answer the question of why the behaviour that caused the complaint apparently attracted no consequence. There is a peculiar cruelty in dismissing that distinction which no amount of virtual-world branding can disguise.

I did not expect sainthood. I did not expect somebody to erect a statue of my avatar outside the welcome centre. I expected basic human decency and a complaint to be treated seriously.

Apparently that must be the 'Super Ultimate Friend of the Owner' premium feature. Neverworld Grid calls itself friendly. People considering investing their time, creativity, communities and money there should understand what “friendly” meant when my complaint was placed in front of its owner. Because communities reveal themselves not through their slogans but through the behaviour they are prepared to tolerate. Anybody can write: “We are the friendly grid.” The interesting question is what happens when somebody isn't friendly. In my experience, the answer was depressingly simple: Nothing. The complaint was effectively binned. Apparently making bad actors into clouds is your only option meanwhile Management avoided doing anything meaningful other than preserve a monthly tier payment. And the slogan will survive. Perhaps that is the most impressive achievement of all. In virtual worlds, apparently even irony can be rendered in 3D.

Neverworld Grid also seems very keen on telling people that it isn't Second Life.

Second Life gets plenty of criticism, some of it deserved. One complaint you hear is that region owners can make their own rules and, if you don't follow them, eject or ban you. That can certainly be irritating. People can make ridiculous rules. People can throw you out for reasons you think are unfair. Give somebody control over a virtual patch of land and occasionally they begin behaving as though Buckingham Palace has asked for the keys back. But there is another side to it. If you enter somebody's region, you know they have rules and that breaking them can have consequences. If you behave badly enough, somebody can actually do something about it. After my experience with Neverworld Grid, I find myself wondering why removing that is supposed to be an improvement. If the alternative to somebody saying “These are the rules here” is somebody behaving abusively and the person being abused getting told “You have a mute button,” which system is actually friendlier?

There has to be some middle ground between petty little dictators throwing people off regions because they don't like the colour of their shoes and a free-for-all where nobody wants to intervene.
Rules can be abused. So can the absence of rules. The difference is that when there are sensible community standards, ordinary people know where they stand. Don't abuse people. Don't deliberately disrupt things. Don't make somebody else's experience miserable. Hardly tyranny. And if somebody does cross those lines, there should be consequences. Neverworld seems to dislike the way people in Second Life exercise control over their own regions. Fine. But what is being offered instead? If the answer is greater freedom, then whose freedom are we talking about? The freedom of somebody to enjoy an event without being abused? Or the freedom of somebody to behave however they like without anybody in authority becoming involved? Because those freedoms collide eventually. Mine did. And apparently I had a mute button.

Then there is the question of tier. People pay to be on grids like this. That makes it reasonable to ask whether somebody who keeps paying can expect considerably more tolerance than somebody who just visits but still contributes to the success of the grid. I cannot prove that this is what happened in my case. But the response I received certainly gives me reason to ask. If somebody pays tier and behaves disgracefully, what happens? Are they warned? Are there consequences? Or does everybody they upset simply get reminded where the mute button is? Because if the practical message becomes: Pay your tier and management will look the other way, then who exactly does that attract? Most decent people don't need immunity from basic standards of behaviour. Creators don't need it. DJs don't need it. People running events don't need it. People who simply want somewhere pleasant to spend a few hours don't need it. The people who benefit most from a place where bad behaviour carries few consequences are, rather obviously, the people most likely to behave badly. That seems an extraordinary foundation for something calling itself “The Friendly Grid.”

There is nothing wrong with wanting to be different from Second Life. But different does not automatically mean better. If Second Life says, in effect, “behave yourself here or somebody may throw you out,” while Neverworld's answer to abuse is “you have a mute button,” I know which approach now looks more like a community and which looks more like an incompetent Management avoidance strategy. Being different is easy. Being better requires rather more than a tagline. If Neverworld Grid believes this account misrepresents its standards, it can explain them.

What happens when someone reports serious verbal abuse? What behaviour actually results in action?
Are paying residents treated exactly the same as everyone else? And why was “You have a mute button” considered an adequate response to my complaint?

Those answers would tell people considerably more about Neverworld Grid than any slogan ever could.
Until then, perhaps the tagline deserves a small amendment:

“Neverworld Grid — The Friendly Grid. You have a mute button.”
or
" Welcome to Neverworld the Friendly Grid where you may have to mute your fellow residents"
or perhaps as almost happened in my case:
" Neverworld the Friendly Grid (we let you away with murder just keep paying you'll see)"

The bottom line has to be this:

If you claim friendliness you automatically accept a duty of care to all users. and paying doesn't excuse unfriendliness. Community standards you claim must be enforced swiftly and across all tiers of membership and extend to visitors. I was told my abuser hadn't broken any TOS. I guess there is no actual TOS beyond the owner's mood. Yes you guessed it my abuser is a friend of the owner.

My final advice to anyone looking for a new home...lift the carpets before you decide.

I won't see a resolution to this issue or see Virtual again but that doesn't mean you can't learn from my experience.

Azraella.

View from the balcony of Oasis. In world, undoctored picture. I combined the Blue Moon EEP sky by Jimmy Olsen with the ZZstarz EEP sky by Peter from Zweet Zurroundingz, made the surround and the desert village myself by designing them from scratch then letting Meshy have it's way with my design and this is the result. What better place to sip my morning coffee :)

ANNOUNCEMENT
Hello, animeshies lovers....its been much longer than I hoped for, but...
The Crane flock is ready!
Perfectly smooth dwelling, at as low cost as possible.
Please, read the enclosed instructions carefully, to avoid mishaps.
Also, again, this is for ubODE only....bullet has lousy fysics.
U can grab your Crane flock copy in my shoppie now @ Zweet Zurroundingz>
Enjoy!
Peter

this has been a very long and exhausting 2-3 months of my life. Between facing the death of loved ones, my own health and working on a new system and HUD i haven't really been here too often. I just got out of the hospital 1 a week ago.

Im hoping to return to working on Demon Island that the Tribulations system next weeks between the doctor appts. I hope you have all had a good couple of months and I hope to go wander around OS soon to find new things to add to my builds.

Oar creation kiosk at Holoneon. We wrote an Oar archive server that's much faster than the one built into opensimulator region server, without torching the processor cores. an average region with a few buildings and furniture takes about 10 seconds to create. loaded region takes maybe 10 minutes or so. The software queues up jobs and runs two at a time if needed. Some of the speed gained is due to switching to RFC 8878 compression in our custom assetd server instead of using legacy gzip from the 90's RFC 8878 is used in OpenZFS and is much more performant than gz. To create an oar touch the kiosk in welcome and you will see a list of all your regions with links to create, download and delete oar files. This is still beta so you should test out restore on a different grid/region and let me know if you have any issues.

screenshot of Firestorm running on steam deck/Bazzite CloudDeck

We aim to provide the easiest way to run Firestorm viewer on Linux.

beta testing
https://github.com/holoneon/org.holoneon.FirestormOpenSim

Get your grid listed in the login drop-down here:
https://github.com/holoneon/opensim-grid-directory

I just realized that I had a mistake on the original post so I fixed it and if you didn't see it I'm not telling you what the typo was. :D Anyway I want to take this time to wish everyone in Opensim a very peaceful, relaxing, fun and safe 4th of July as we celebrate our nation's 250th birthday. May our nation know 250 more years of peace, prosperity, life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Blessings and much love, Lavia. (And yes that's the real me in the picture)

Meet the Nexari, Ancient travelers. Silent explorers. Keepers of the stars.

The Nexari have arrived at Gallumbits! This all-new alien species is now available as a complete male and female avatar set, featuring sleek biomechanical designs, luminous cosmic colors, and an unmistakable extraterrestrial presence.

Whether you're exploring distant worlds, building a sci-fi roleplay, or creating your own interstellar adventures, the Nexari are ready to journey beyond the stars.

Available now at Gallumbits — where imagination has no limits.
three.hills.grid.outworldz.net:8002:Eccentrica Gallumbits

🎧 Tribute to Maldrul Smith
(Written in your voice, with your heart)

Today, I lost one of the dearest friends I’ve ever had in OpenSim — Maldrul Smith. My heart is breaking in ways I can barely put into words. Mal wasn’t just a friend… he was one of those rare souls who made life feel lighter just by being present. Kind, compassionate, gentle, and always a true gentleman — that was Mal.

He had a sweetness about him that never felt forced. A warmth that wrapped around you the moment he spoke. And oh, his wit — always sharp, always playful, always ready to make me laugh when I needed it most. Mal was fun, interesting, thoughtful, and full of life. He was one of the few people I could talk to openly and honestly, without fear, without hesitation. He understood me. He listened. He cared.

And when he DJ’d…
He brought magic into the room.
His sets weren’t just music — they were moments.
He knew how to lift spirits, how to create atmosphere, how to make people feel connected.
He played from the heart, and you could feel it every time.

Mal, I’ll miss you so much.
I’ll miss your voice, your humor, your kindness, your presence.
I’ll miss the way you made the world feel a little softer.
You were one of the few and far‑between people who truly mattered to me.
One of the dearest friends I’ve ever had in OpenSim.

Thank you for being exactly who you were — a sweet man, a compassionate soul, a gentleman, a friend.
Rest in peace, my sweet friend.
You will never be forgotten.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

💛 Prayer for Maldrul Smith
Father God,
Another dear friend has left this world, and my heart is breaking. Maldrul Smith was such a close and precious friend to me — kind, compassionate, gentle, and full of warmth. He was the kind of man whose presence made life feel lighter. A sweet soul, a true gentleman, and one of the most genuine people I’ve ever known.

Lord, I thank You for the gift of his friendship.
For his wit, his humor, his kindness, and the way he made every conversation feel meaningful.
He was one of the few people I could talk to openly, honestly, and without fear.
He was rare — one of the dearest friends I had in OpenSim, and losing him leaves a space that hurts deeply.

Father, hold him close now.
Let his spirit rest in Your peace.
Let him feel the love of those who cherished him.
Let him be surrounded by Your light, Your comfort, and Your eternal rest.

Mal… I’ll miss you so much.
Rest in peace, my sweet friend.
You will always be remembered with love.

Amen.

A gentle reminder to the self-appointed critics of the metaverse:

When you visit a curated experience and leave a one star review because you could not follow the rules, the theme or the personal boundaries set by the sysop, you are not exposing a flaw in the build. You are exposing YOURSELF.

Dismayland works like a carnival ride. You must be this tall to enter. This is not a suggestion. This is not negotiable. This is not a personal attack on your creative choices. It is a sign on a gate; read it.

Dismayland has height restrictions. It has had them. The compliance system has been OFFLINE for TWO WEEKS and people are STILL offended by the concept of it. That is remarkable. The gate does not even have teeth right now and the outrage is fully operational.

YOU READ THAT RIGHT ... the GATE has been down and these ORACLES of Wisdom never even bothered to check, no need to mention names, their self indictment is already on the wall.

This is the beauty of themed experiences; they are not for everyone and they are not supposed to be. If the child gate offends you, congratulations; it is working exactly as designed. Dismayland is a demusement park. The clue is in the name. The misery is the point. THE INCONVENIENCE IS THE ART.

As a bonus feature, the same system that checks your height also has opinions about poorly imported stolen Second Life meshes, that is an intriguing and welcome side effect. Dismayland enforces restrictions fairly as part of the user experience.

One star because you "dislike the policy" is not a review. It is a confession. One star because "the region recognized your self entitlement and processed you" is far more truthful and entertaining.

We thank you for your contribution to the experience. Your reaction has been noted, cataloged, and will be used as evidence that we are doing something right.

DISMAYLAND SECURITY IS DOWN until the MAIN LK EVENT (TBA)
At that time: COSTUME MANAGEMENT and ENFORCEMENT goes into effect.
I promise... that will end the complaints about the HEIGHT SCANNER... Muah ha ha ha ha ha!

In OpenSimulator, some region creators are choosing PBR materials—and the results are impressive! ✨ PBR makes textures truly come alive: it accurately conveys reflections, roughness, and light refraction. Stone appears cold and rough, metal smooth and shiny, wood warm and textured. Landscapes, buildings, and details—everything looks more three-dimensional and realistic. Even clothing takes on new, beautiful properties. This isn't just a graphics upgrade, it's a new level of immersion: every corner of the region, every object, makes you want to look at it again and again. Explore the worlds of OpenSimulator—they're especially beautiful now! 😍

New Video out! Thank you for watching. Thank you for liking, if you do, subscribing if you feel moved, and I would welcome your comments. There are a couple of fun only AI can do glitches. :)
https://youtu.be/J-9I0GxC67w?si=yRYDj8cwWhfsHg71