This is our Elba...
I'd been thinking of relocating my SL home to a new lake, and had found some nice land to perch on (the other land's in Castaneae and is now for sale, and a nicer region you'll never find - rarely anyone on it and generally pretty good stats - I just wanted a bit more room and a slightly larger lake). So I bought the land, which is actually the corner lots of two regions, and I also, in a giddy rush of consumerism, bought the corner lot of one of the adjacent regions, but then decided that was just silly and put it up for sale. Turns out that this was not such a bad thing.
As some folks are aware, there's been Drama with a capital D at the Shelter of late. Travis has some RL stuff going on, and in his absence many of the event hosts have been made... unwelcome (for lack of a better word). So much so that they've been looking for an alternate location. Enter me with some extra land. And the willingness to let the group use the land on two other sims for big events (although I'd like to keep my lakey bit private for when I want downtime).
Isabel's infohub has been hopping of late, so much so that the portion of the Shelter in that region is often inaccessible because the region's full. I'm told Travis had been planning, in a kinda vaguely someday sort of way, to look for land on the corners of four PG sims. PG regions seem to be going the way of the dodo, and finding large parcels available on four corners simultaneously... not very likely.
My three corners of mature land aren't such a bad idea after all. We have kinda got a revolution on our hands. We're not pulling tier donations from the Shelter, because presumably Travis will be back and we can hash out future plans at that point, but for now, most of the gameshows seem to be relocating to the Shelter In Exile. There was talk of starting a new place with a different name, but we wanted to make it clear that this is a temporary split and presumably things will cool down in the future and we can all be one big dysfunctional family again at some point in the future. For this temporary location, we've relaxed the language rules - some swearing is allowed, but insults aren't. Makes sense, I think.
(The Club Dolmere sign is kinda a joke. Not a direction. Please do not club the skeleton.) Mera's working on a building; Jacek has offered her help (maybe we should use the dance floor she made for the SL 3rd Birthday thing?). We're going to see if we can incorporate the little bit of terrain water, since it's handy. No pool parties, but maybe a beach party? I really liked the waterslide, so maybe we can find another.
Dolmere's talking about getting some more live music events going on - Jaycatt and Frogg have already been invited, and Cylindrian hung out with us last night as we hashed out details (and spun around like tops and danced in hot dog suits, but that's kinda normal for us). FireEyes is going to host Second Fortune here, and has the dance balls. Carl said he'll probably cancel the Wednesday edition of Trivial Obsession this week while things get sorted (and we make sure there's a building!).
In a strange twist of fate, Ever Student, an old friend of mine from TinyTIM dropped in and we got to talking about the Clock on the Wall in the Nexus there. So he's attempting to build one. SecondLife often reminds me of TIM, so the Clock would be a thing of beauty to add to the Shelter (which is, now that I think of it, a bit Nexus-esque at times). And because the world is a very small and strange place sometimes, Patience overheard us talking about the Clock and immediately piped up, "TinyTIM?!? I used to be on there in 1995!"
"Clockie?"
"Whatie?"
:D
Comments
I'm not surprised that the huge influx of newbies has strained the fragile resources supplied mainly on a volunteer basis by long-time residents like Travis. Couple that with RL strains and you have a drama, sure. But it's all good because there needs to be not ONE Shelter but LOTS of Shelters. Not one Shelter in Exile but 10 more Shelter-like activities. The Lindens built new welcome areas; so should independent volunteer groups. It's a huge influx. It may stabilize but it will keep growing.
I've written on a SLOG comment today about what's wrong with this whole system -- too much funnelling to officially-sponsored or approved Linden volunteer systems and oldbie created systems. Let it go. Let a 1000 flowers bloom. There will be enough work for everyone.
Posted by: Prokofy Neva | October 24, 2006 12:46 PM
Obviously, I have been out of touch...
If I can be of assistance either personally or in my capacity with DPD/BLM/the GR, please let me know.
Posted by: Erbo Evans | October 24, 2006 01:28 PM
The "In Exile!!" text doesn't show up very well in the pic. I know we all love purple but I wonder if there is some way to make that most important piece of the sign stand out more :)
Thanks for volunteering the land and suggesting the idea. Without your suggestion I'm sure we'd just have lots of cancelled events.
Posted by: dolmere | October 24, 2006 02:14 PM
Hiya Coal! Frogg and I would be delighted to do a show there :) I was unfortunately stuck out in RL on Monday, so didn't get to come and party with you all. Got to hear all the fun details from Rosa though :D
Posted by: Jaycatt | October 24, 2006 04:53 PM
The Shelter was to me a tremendous help in my early days here. I will gladly donate my time and skills to help out.
-Roe
Posted by: Roenik Newell | October 25, 2006 05:20 PM
If I can help with land fees, I will.
Posted by: Akela | October 27, 2006 02:45 PM
Put out the donation jar/column/bucket and I'll contribute.
Posted by: Shockwave Plasma | October 28, 2006 07:56 AM
Hi Coal,
Thanks for your willingness to host The Shelter in Exile. As a relatively new SL "resident," I don't know what happened; all I know is that I walked into The Shelter in Isabel one day and everyone I hoped to see there was gone. Whatever the dispute is or was isn't my business - I'm just glad that The Shelter I want to visit still exists somewhere. Thanks for that, and please let me know if there's any way I can help.
Posted by: Kieres Tzara | October 30, 2006 12:18 AM