Hypergrid Adventurers Club meet #36+37: Visiting Help Island on ReactionGrid

The region Help Island on ReactionGrid is being developed by Tinsel Silvera.

It contains resources for new avatars including a freebie area, a Gallery of Prims for new builders, and Hypergates to various places to explore.

For today’s two meetings we visited Tinsel’s region and had a great discussion about best practices for helping new users in virtual worlds.

Do you know of other Help Islands or New User Orientation areas on Opensim-based grids? If so, please let us know about them in the blog comments. I would love to put together a list of all of them to help new Opensim users, and then link to the list from our Hypergrid Adventurers Club homepage.

For more information about the Hypergrid Adventurers Club and how you can join us, please see our homepage. You can also join our HGAC Google Group Mailing List if you’d like to read more about what we’re doing.

Meeting #36
1/30/2011 : 5pm GMT
13 Hypernauts in attendance:

Kateri Runningbear
Grid Jumper
Jeff Kelley
Eraldo Carlucci
Bau Ur
Oronoque Westland
Graham Mills
Ange Menges
Vanish Seriath
Marmottina Taurog
El Sliven
Mel Blauvelt
Pathfinder Lester

Special Thanks to Grid Jumper for meeting with us and adding our Club to her blog post about Flourishing Virtual Learning Communities.

We begin on the region Pathlandia on jokaydiaGRID.

Eraldo Carlucci: Hi Path
Jeff Kelley: Hi Pathfinder
Pathfinder Lester: heya!
Pathfinder Lester: how are you folks doing today?
Eraldo Carlucci: Good and you?
Jeff Kelley: Fine thanks, and you Path ?
Pathfinder Lester: pretty good 🙂 snow is actually melting a bit here on Boston today
Eraldo Carlucci: The sand isn’t melting here in Phoenix
Bau Ur: Hell. How strange. I seem utterly unable to sit.
Pathfinder Lester: Bau that sometimes happens to me
Bau Ur: How do I tell whether my lag is due to the viewer and whether it is due to the server of whatever location we are at?
Pathfinder Lester: randomly on many different grids
Pathfinder Lester: i find i have to relog to fix that bug
Graham Mills: I love the free psychedelic t-shirts
Bau Ur: And has anyone been constantly trying out all the viewers? Is there any folkloric wisdom about which one is least laggy at present?
Graham Mills: even if they are a bit see-through
Pathfinder Lester: lol
Bau Ur: wearing a tied dyed shirt until it’s a mass ofholes is solid hippy tradition.
Pathfinder Lester: ooooh
Pathfinder Lester: i know what’s wrong with the chairs!
Bau Ur: And a good Ecotopican ethic, too 🙂
Ange Menges: hi to all I have a lot of lag
Bau Ur: Hello Ange, good to see you.
Ange Menges: and things works strange
Oronoque Westland:hello everyone
Pathfinder Lester: i had to reset the scripts
Pathfinder Lester: that’s all
Pathfinder Lester: when Jokay moved Pathlandia to it’s own Opensim console, i discovered that I had to reset all the scripts on the region to get them to work
Oronoque Westland:Ange, thanks for setting out the SLoodle box

SLOODLE is a free and open source project which integrates Second Life with the Moodle learning-management system. It also works with Opensim.

Ange Menges: 🙂
Bau Ur: Thank you , yes, Ange!
Pathfinder Lester: Ange, you set up Sloodle somewhere?
Oronoque Westland:I am glad that in oving you, you still appear in the same spot (i.e. as my neighbor)
Pathfinder Lester: oooh i see the box now
Ange Menges: Yes
Pathfinder Lester: thank you for putting that out!
Ange Menges: It works
Vanish Seriath: Hi everyone.
Bau Ur: hmm I seem unable to take a copy or to buy SLoodle
Ange Menges: I am testing on francogrid
Ange Menges: it’s a giver, click
Oronoque Westland:Bau, just left click the box
Ange Menges: Oro gave me a lot of work 🙂 I discorevered the existence of moodle at our meeting on reaction grid, lol
Pathfinder Lester: oh wait, the box eventually gave me a folder of stuff
Bau Ur: Perhaps it is that old 2006 bug in which a copiable object ceases to be givable by touch after one copy of it is given.
Bau Ur: Hello Graham.
Vanish Seriath: Hm, don’t know if SL bugs reappear in OpenSim.
Graham Mills: lol
Graham Mills: I seem to be a little unstable this evening
Bau Ur: Wasn’t OpenSIm based on a certain amount of code obtained from SL?
Vanish Seriath: No.
Vanish Seriath: It was reverse-engineered.
Vanish Seriath: There’s no LL code in it.
Oronoque Westland:when you use SLoodle, if email is not activated on your grid just remember to comment out (or un-run) the email script in the SLoodle objects
Eraldo Carlucci: There are drugs for that Graham
Pathfinder Lester: yep. it was written based on sniffing the network traffic between the SL viewer and the servers.
Pathfinder Lester: which is kind of amazing, if you think about it.
Pathfinder Lester: it’s like coming up with all the rules of a language simply by listening to two people speak it to each other.
El Sliven: Hi guys!
Jeff Kelley: Hi El
Eraldo Carlucci: Hi El
Bau Ur: THe physics engine, avatar meshes, and landscape visualization were all “off the shelf” though, weren’t they? LL didn’t design them originally, just put them together?
Pathfinder Lester: i’ll make my standard intro remarks now for the chatlog.
Marmottina Taurog: Hi !
Pathfinder Lester: Welcome to the Hypergrid Adventurers Club! Thank you all for joining us today.
Oronoque Westland:Path, now that we have groups on JokaydiaGrid, we need to have a HGAC group
Ange Menges: Graham how you succeed to sit on marmottina ?
Pathfinder Lester: The first 30 min of each meeting is spent on introductions and an open discussion.
Vanish Seriath: Yes, but OpenSim uses different engines mostly.
Pathfinder Lester: And for the second 30 min of each meeting, we will make some Hypergrid jumps to visit and explore an interesting location on the Hypergrid.
Pathfinder Lester: To start, if you wish, feel free to jump in and say a few words about yourself and your projects/interests in open chat. This is always a good opportunity for networking. 🙂
Pathfinder Lester: I post a full report and transcript of each meeting’s open chat on my blog, so this is also a chance for you to share information with everyone who reads the blog.
Pathfinder Lester: And if you say anything in open chat that you would NOT like to be posted on my blog, please just say so in chat and I will redact your comments.
Pathfinder Lester: I’m Pathfinder Lester, John Lester in real life. I used to work at Linden Lab from 2005-2010. Now I work at ReactionGrid Inc. as Director of Community Development. I started the Hypergrid Adventurers Club back in October of 2010. My blog is at http://becunningandfulloftricks.com
Pathfinder Lester: Oro, groups are enabled now on jokaydiaGRID?
Marmottina Taurog: Graham your av seems to be sitting on my head ! LOL !
Vanish Seriath: I’m V of tgib.co.uk. My blog is there, too.
Graham Mills: apologies — I can’t see your avie (well, that’s my excuse)
Marmottina Taurog: hahaha np
Graham Mills: I shall stand
Oronoque Westland:I teach at Hunter College in New York City… Path, now that we have groups on JokaydiaGrid, we need to have a HGAC group
Pathfinder Lester: oh wow. groups are working!
Marmottina Taurog: I must be invisible
El Sliven: I am El Firecaster/Sliven….the other “Half” of TGIB…and V’s proud partner…..and I jus wanna b qt!…:) (I have wanted to say that every since we started intros… and now I have a Tshirt to say it for me!)
Pathfinder Lester: everyone, try joining the group I just made. “The Hypergrid Adventurers Club”
Ange Menges: I am Ange from Francogrid. Just putted on my blog how to install moodle and sloodle
Graham Mills: ty Ange
Ange Menges: Just for Pathfinder because it’s in french 🙂
Pathfinder Lester: Ange, oh that’s great
Ange Menges: lag
Marmottina Taurog: I am an artist designer and musician, I make plants for my garden Centre Green and Wild in both SL and Inworldz, I also have a sim here on Jokaydiagrid under construction
Graham Mills: I am a microbiology teacher from Liverpool, mainly on NWG
Pathfinder Lester: Groups are not hypergrid enabled. which means you wont see the group when you travel to other grids. BUT…whenever you are on jokaydiaGRID, the group will activate for you.
Mel Blauvelt: I’m a philosopher, skeptic, enfant terrible with a keen interest in arts
Oronoque Westland:and despite all of that Mel is with us today
Pathfinder Lester: lol
Mel Blauvelt: 🙂
Pathfinder Lester: Ange, do you have a link to your blog post about setting up sloodle?
Bau Ur: I am a currently unemployed high school teacher in the USA. I have taught mostly chemistry, biology, and environmental science but also poetry, logid and rhetoric, and art. I have a special interest in the needs of biology teachers facing opposition to the rational teaching of evolution. I also have a special concern for the needs of queer and genderqueer youth in public schools.
Ange Menges: http://angefg.wordpress.com
Pathfinder Lester: yeah, we’ve gota little chat lag. seems to be settling down, tho
Marmottina Taurog: Bau that’s great stuff you’re interested in. I don’t know how people can ignore evolutionary theory…
Oronoque Westland:Bau, may I ask, did you hypergrid here from Reaction Grid?
Bau Ur: Yes, Oronoque, using the code Pathfinder posted on Twitter.
Bau Ur: That’s why I look a bit pale 🙂 My skin in this incarnation is different.
Pathfinder Lester: there was a recent article in Wired about how evolution is still struggling in public schools in the US. hard to believe. http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/01/scopes-weeps/
Marmottina Taurog: Yes I agree I must read that article…thank goodness we don’t have that in the UK
Bau Ur: The subject always puts me in danger of ranting, I’m agraid 🙂 Please “friend” me, anyone who would like to discuss it some time .
Pathfinder Lester: Bau, lol
Oronoque Westland:I ask because you and I are using IM and you also received the SLoodle object I sent you…I was under the impression that the IM would not work if we were logged in to two different grids…but apparently it works if we are on the same grid at the moment
Bau Ur: Ah good observation Oronoque!!!
Vanish Seriath: IM works if you’re on the same region.
Bau Ur: Cool. Glad you thought to check that.
Oronoque Westland:good to know
Vanish Seriath: It also works *sometimes* if you’re both from the same grid and hypergridding.
Pathfinder Lester: i have a couple quick announcements. first of all, you’ll all notice a second stone wall next to the HGAC kiosk.
Graham Mills: cue everyone trying to IM Oro…
Pathfinder Lester: i set that up as a message board area. in case folks want to rez little flyers about things

Pathfinder Lester: i figured i’d give folks more room to do that. 🙂
Oronoque Westland:I will be very blunt and say that I think the difficulty with accepting evolution in this country (that is the US), is the difficulty in accepting that we have common ancestors regardless of “race”
Marmottina Taurog: cool !
Vanish Seriath: Aw, heh.
Pathfinder Lester: so feel free to rez a flyer there if you wish
Vanish Seriath: I forgot to take mine down.
Pathfinder Lester: no worries V
Vanish Seriath: It auto-refreshes.
Ange Menges: Path, I don’t gave you any news for the hospital project because we have a machinima festival in europe and a team of francogrid is there. I wait they come back all to see how to manage a HGAC travel
Marmottina Taurog: Cool to what Path said BTW !
Pathfinder Lester: Ange, ok. no problem. thanks.
Marmottina Taurog: Not Oro’s statement
Graham Mills: inflammatory chatlaf ftw
Graham Mills: (sorry, not really a laughing matter)
Pathfinder Lester: hmm…that’s actually all I had to announce. 😛 anyone else have anything they’d like to share with the group?
Marmottina Taurog: Hard to get appropriate answer in the right place ! 🙂
Vanish Seriath: El wants to state she’s got purple boots.
Bau Ur: I’d like to ask if anyone here regularly tries out the updated versions of all available viewers, and if so which one seems least laggy or more reliable.
Pathfinder Lester: good question Bau. I’ve only been using the stable release of Imprudence these days.
Graham Mills: brb
Vanish Seriath: I irregularly try other viewers, Bau.
Oronoque Westland:I missed a couple of meetings…did we decide on a continuity plan in case of crash?
Bau Ur: Also how do I tell whether problems are due to viewer or due to server? I never know what to curse 🙂
Vanish Seriath: Bau, imho Imprudence works best with OpenSim.
Marmottina Taurog: I’m using experimental version of imprudence seems to work fine most places
Pathfinder Lester: Oro, i dropped the ball on putting together an official plan on the HGAC homepage. my bad. I’ll continue the conversation that others started in the HGAC Google Group this week.
Oronoque Westland:In Imprudence under the Help menu there is Lag Meter
Pathfinder Lester: our HGAC Google Group has 128 subscribers now. not bad!
Vanish Seriath: But it depends on several things: your OS, the grid you’re on, your hardware, etc.
Eraldo Carlucci: I’ve been using Hippo for OS Is Imprudence better?
Oronoque Westland:It gives an indication of the health of the Client, Network and Server
Pathfinder Lester: Eraldo, i dunno. i think it depends on each individual. personally, i just like Imprudence and find it pretty stable.
Bau Ur: Thanks!
Eraldo Carlucci: Thanks
Mel Blauvelt: There’s also an IRC channel: #hgac on freenode
Mel Blauvelt: quite useful in case of a crash or disconnect
Bau Ur: I thought our default was the meeting area at Core One.
Pathfinder Lester: Bau, so far, yes. But I’ll write up an “official” plan on the HGAC homepage and then make sure we’re all on the same page.
Bau Ur: the same homepage.
Bau Ur: Cool.
Pathfinder Lester: a plan with many contingencies. “If pathlandia is down, go here. If jokaydiagrid is down, go here. If the entire hypergrid is down, go eat a sandwich.”
Bau Ur: laughs
Eraldo Carlucci: lol
Pathfinder Lester: let me pass out today’s notecard now

— Contents of Notecard —
Before doing any Hypergrid jumps, be sure you have set your Home location and have relogged since you set it. If you don’t, Hypergrid jumps will not work. This appears to be a bug.

Many people find the Imprudence viewer to be very good for using with both SL and other grids. You can find it here: http://imprudenceviewer.org/

*** How to make Manual Hypergrid Jumps in 4 easy steps ***
1) Open your World Map.
2) In the text box next to the Search button, enter the Hypergrid Address.
3) Click the Search button and wait for the map to move to the jump region.
4) Click the Teleport button.

*** Our Starting Location ***
Hypergrid Address: 66.240.241.42:9004:Pathlandia
Region Name: “Pathlandia”
Grid Location: jokaydiaGRID (Lower)
Grid Website: http://jokaydiagrid.com
************************

Hypergrid Jump #1
Hypergrid Address: 216.75.32.156:9031:Help Island
Region Name: “Help Island”
Grid Location: ReactionGrid (Middle)
Grid Website: http://reactiongrid.com

We’ll be making this jump using one of the instant Hypergates on Pathlandia. It’s the stone behind the wagon full of apples. Just walk up to the archway and walk through it. You will automatically make a Hypergrid jump to “Help Island.”

For more information on how these instant Hypergates work, see:
https://becunningandfulloftricks.com/2010/10/29/the-metaphor-of-portals/

“Help Island” on ReactionGrid is being developed by Tinsel Silvera (http://twitter.com/#!/Tinsel_Silvera). It contains helpful resources for new avatars, including a freebie area, a Gallery of Prims for new builders, and HyperGates to various regions.

Do you know of other Help Islands or New User Orientation areas on other grids? Please let me know about them. I’m working to put together a list of them all which I will then publish. Thank you.

***
jokaydiaGRID has a Newbie Dome for folks to pick up freebies that can help them get started. If you find any good freebies in your Hypergrid travels that you’d like to share, you can put them in the Newbie Dome. There’s currently a lack of many good outfits and items for male avatars, so it would be great if we could find more items like that to share.
— End of Notecard —

Bau Ur: The caveats about hypergrid jumps and setting Home do not apply now?
Pathfinder Lester: so for today, we’ll be making a single jump to “Help Island” on ReactionGrid
Pathfinder Lester: i got the idea from V’s work on his own orientation region.
Pathfinder Lester: i thought we could have a series of tours where we find and explore orientation and help regions on different grids.
Marmottina Taurog: I think a help island guidebook is a great idea
Pathfinder Lester: that way, we can learn the different ways folks are helping orient new users.
Bau Ur: Great idea! Then we know where to send newcomers!
Vanish Seriath: Aw, yes.
Pathfinder Lester: and then I’ll put together a page with addresses of all of them and a description of each.
Eraldo Carlucci: That’s a super idea
Bau Ur: Yep.
Pathfinder Lester: “Help on the Hypergrid”
Pathfinder Lester: lol
Graham Mills: meta-help
Pathfinder Lester: precisely
Bau Ur: “The HelperGrid”
Pathfinder Lester: so if anyone knows of good locations on the hypergrid for help, please post them in the HGAC Google Group
Pathfinder Lester: also, if you know good webpages for tutorial stuff, pls post those too. i want to include web resources as well.
Bau Ur: Now you are asking for hype on the helper grid…..
Pathfinder Lester: Bau, lol
Marmottina Taurog: hahaha
Pathfinder Lester: anyone have any other announcements or topics to bring up before we head out?
Oronoque Westland:pls include info on irc on your site
Bau Ur: and define all your terms 🙂 for poor botanists who don’t even know what IRC is.
Pathfinder Lester: hmm
Marmottina Taurog: yes for me too !
Pathfinder Lester: i have a link on the HGAC Homepage to this article I wrote: https://becunningandfulloftricks.com/2010/12/13/hypergrid-adventurers-club-on-irc/
Graham Mills: i vaguely recall you had a web client for the irc?
Pathfinder Lester: do you think i need to expand on it? or is it good enough as is?
Vanish Seriath: I wrote some tutorial on IRC here: http://tgib.co.uk/2011/01/18/how-to-use-irc-for-opensim/
Bau Ur: Wow Vanish you’re johnny=on=the-spot. THanks.
Marmottina Taurog: what is IRC though ? in words with only one syllable please ! 😉
Pathfinder Lester: V, oh that’s right. I’ll add a link to that on my article as well.
Pathfinder Lester: Internet Relay Chat
Ange Menges: It’s ok path, i just have gone to your site, read, and I am connected
Oronoque Westland:pls expand
Pathfinder Lester: Oro, ok
Pathfinder Lester: i’ll work on that 🙂
Pathfinder Lester: okie doke. let’s head over to Help Island!
Bau Ur: Thanks. Cool.
Pathfinder Lester: just a single hop. walking thru this gate.
Mel Blauvelt: IRC = like group chat, but independent of the viewer
Marmottina Taurog: I see

We all enter an Instant Hypergate (aka “Blamgate“) on the region Pathlandia on jokaydiaGRID.

And we arrive on the region Help Island on ReactionGrid.

Graham Mills: I kept arriving in the middle of the tree and hitting one or other of the gates and tping out again
El Sliven: me too Graham!
Vanish Seriath: Avatars are lagging hard in and of themselves.
Vanish Seriath: It’s really not mysterious to me. Many agents teleporting in at the same time are stressful to a server.is so silly.
El Sliven: Was not a very well thought out design I think…:/
Pathfinder Lester: El, what design do you mean?
El Sliven: all the hypergates in a circle like that..
El Sliven: I just kept tping in and out
Vanish Seriath: Hm, did it?
El Sliven: and could not get out of it.
Vanish Seriath: I think we were a bit more.
Pathfinder Lester: yeah, i think it might be better if they were in a room somewhere. lined up
Oronoque Westland:yes, a minefield of gates
Pathfinder Lester: you can bounce between those like a pinball!

El Sliven: Finally double clicked hurriedly and made it out of them.
Pathfinder Lester: hypergrid pinball
El Sliven: yes…that is kinda what it felt like!
Pathfinder Lester: and too much bouncing, and the region goes TILT
Graham Mills: I flew up to evade the tree obscuring my view
Bau Ur: Yes I do think it would be nice if everyone would arrive in such a way that the Orientation sign is clear. It is bewildering for a newbie to try to figure out where they are and where their objective is.
Ange.Menges: Path it’s not easy to quit the circle of gates. You should put something saying “fly” 🙂
Pathfinder Lester: i’ll give Tinsel that feedback.
Pathfinder Lester: Bau, yes
Pathfinder Lester: a good starting point is key
Pathfinder Lester: i think we should have all new accounts on RG arriving here

Bau Ur: It’s nice that the orientation plaza is labelled, but could use a bigger sign lower down I think.
Vanish Seriath: Sadly, the starting point will usually be at 128,128
Pathfinder Lester: or, at the very least, a big sign on Core1 that lets them jump here from the start.
Oronoque Westland:since one knows it will be at 128, 128 then the design can take that into account
Pathfinder Lester: good point Oro
Graham Mills: Just don’t stick a tree at 128,128 😉
Oronoque Westland:or another gate heehee
Bau Ur: The Looking and Appearance tutorial boards over there seem unconnected from anything. I like the design of the Orientation plaza with everything in a deliberate order.
Pathfinder Lester: i like how Tinsel has added little areas to explore here. There’s a grotto surrounded by mountains with a little cabin and sailboat to find.

Jeff Kelley: Or put more space between gates
Graham Mills: The boards seem familiar — are they from VCE?
Graham Mills: Oh no, I’m wrong
Oronoque Westland:the buildings are VCE or Zebra
Oronoque Westland:some, anyway
Bau Ur: VCE?
Pathfinder Lester: i’m sure Tinsel will appreciate everyone’s feedback on this. good design involves plenty of ongoing redesign. 😉
Graham Mills: ok, it’s possible then
Bau Ur: Zebra?
Oronoque Westland:the Zebra presenter folk
Pathfinder Lester: one design technique I like for orentation experiences is a clear pathway to follow
Bau Ur: I sure miss being able to use long draw distance. GOod thing this area isn’t too large or a newbie on low graphics settings would be extra confused.
Graham Mills: Metavserse company run by Nick Wilson — they had a host of freebie builds — seem to have merged with VCE (Virtual Collaborative Environment) which, I think, is run by Austin Tait from Univ Edinburgh
Pathfinder Lester: go here first…then go here. guide people along on a journey. many folks get overwhelmed with multiple possibilities presented too early, in my experience.
Vanish Seriath: True, Path.
Bau Ur: I agree Pathfinder.
Oronoque Westland:Zebra Presenter was developed originally as open source, from what I understand…had a presentation screen and the controller was uilt into a laptop
Vanish Seriath: A linear course is best for that.
Pathfinder Lester: maybe start folks in a very simple area with only one path to follow aat the beginning.
Bau Ur: SOme very aggressively exploratory people, first adapter sorts, tend to overlook that.
Pathfinder Lester: Bau, yes, that’s the downside of that style of design.
Pathfinder Lester: the original Help Island design in SL was very linear
Bau Ur: And create multiple opportunities to explore , without an “articulated curriculum” of skillbuilding.
Pathfinder Lester: i used to hang out and monitor it. i’d often see people appear at the beginning and just fly off into the horizon. 😛
Oronoque Westland:Bau, what is “articulated curriculum” please?
Bau Ur: 🙂
Eraldo Carlucci: Sorry folks, but i have to go……see you next week
Pathfinder Lester: take care Eraldo
Pathfinder Lester: good to see you today
Oronoque Westland:bye Eraldo…see you soon
Bau Ur: Goodbye Eraldo.
Vanish Seriath: When I used to be a mentor in SL, many people were so overwhelmed, they couldn’t even find the exit out of help island.
Ange.Menges: I have to leave too. See you next time 🙂
Bau Ur: Yes.
Vanish Seriath: See you Ange.
Graham Mills: Bye Ange 🙂
Mel Blauvelt: bye Ange
Oronoque Westland:au revoir Ange
Bau Ur: Ah! Bye ANge Hope to visit your hospital kids soon.
Oronoque Westland:Bau, what is “articulated curriculum” please?
Graham Mills: Having water is an issue too
Graham Mills: New avatars inevitably fall in and panic
Vanish Seriath: Right.
Bau Ur: A curriculum that is designed very deliberately so that each leson enables you to understand the next
Graham Mills: well, i do 😛
Oronoque Westland:my favorite SL orientation is the one at Virtual Ability
Pathfinder Lester: yeah, the water is deep!
Mel Blauvelt: bridges are too, they’re usually the place where people start to TP to other places
Pathfinder Lester: i just took a dip
Bau Ur: or each course is a sufficient prerequisite for the next.
Pathfinder Lester: that can be fixed by rezzing an invisible prim over the top of the water
Pathfinder Lester: make it solid so you can’t go under the water
Bau Ur: Virtual Ability is good
Vanish Seriath: Hi grid jumper
Pathfinder Lester: greeting grid jumper. what brings you here today?
Oronoque Westland:I believe that one is in keeping with your suggestion Bau…the one on Virtual Ability Island
Graham Mills: actually, it’s useful to know that avies don’t drown and can fly
Graham Mills: so maybe a calculated dip 😉
Bau Ur: Heheh, yeah, need protectios for people who are just learning to use the movement controls. Also , need instruction on movement and camera controls the very first thing!!
Mel Blauvelt: good point Graham
Bau Ur: protections
Bau Ur: Well then maybe a stairway that goes down underwater then takes you up out the other side
Mel Blauvelt: since a lot of people will probably come from games where one can drown/die
Bau Ur: and some lovely aquatic things to look at down there on the way
Graham Mills: with fish 🙂
Graham Mills: yes
Bau Ur: and cephalapods
Graham Mills: not everyone likes cephalopods
Graham Mills: or piranha
Jeff Kelley: giant squids ?
Bau Ur: all sensible people like cephalapods
Pathfinder Lester: lol
Pathfinder Lester: cephalopods are very very smart
Pathfinder Lester: supposedly smarter than dogs
Jeff Kelley: Paul le Poulpe was a nice guy
Pathfinder Lester: so it is in our best interest to befriend them whenever possible.
Graham Mills: true — good at solving mazes
Bau Ur: and predicting soccer matches
Pathfinder Lester: lol
Graham Mills: apparently
Pathfinder Lester: i remember that!
Pathfinder Lester: the World Cup Octopus!
Pathfinder Lester: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/06/24/world-cup-octopus-pauls-p_n_624597.html
Jeff Kelley: Ya 🙂
Graham Mills: now sadly deceased
Pathfinder Lester: oh no!
Pathfinder Lester: i didn’t know that
Vanish Seriath: Say, are there many newbies at RG that haven’t been to SL before?
Graham Mills: sorry, bit of a shock for you
Pathfinder Lester: lol
Pathfinder Lester: V, good question.
Bau Ur: I suppose there are not, now, but it’s good to plan .
Pathfinder Lester: based on my own experience, i’d say very few do not have SL experience.
Bau Ur: If people bring groups of students here, they must be oriented de novo.
Pathfinder Lester: but there are indeed some. maybe like 5% in my experience.
Pathfinder Lester: Bau,very true
Vanish Seriath: Hm, okay.
Pathfinder Lester: most of the complete newbies here are students being brought in for classes.
Bau Ur: If people bring their bosses or workmates here to show them the potential, again, they will be true newbies, and perhaps without much time, patience, or sense of play.
Oronoque Westland:yes, now with more educators on the grids, the students would be true noobs
Pathfinder Lester: and given that more and more educators are now joining RG, that % will probably grow. many more students.
Pathfinder Lester: heya Kateri!
Pathfinder Lester: what brings you here today?
Graham Mills: I guess this assumes also that you’re using a version 1 client
Oronoque Westland:we are all saying the same thing…trily great minds
Vanish Seriath: hi Kateri

Bau Ur: Hello Kateri. You are runningbear, but I see clothing.
Mel Blauvelt: Bau!
Pathfinder Lester: Graham, what do you mean?
Kateri Runningbear: Hi there….
Kateri Runningbear: I hope you see clothing
Graham Mills: Not viewer 2
Graham Mills: The signs are designed for Viewer 1
Pathfinder Lester: Kateri, i see your clothes just fine
El Sliven: Perhaps you should rebake kateri?
Oronoque Westland:relatively new students in SL would be familiar with viewer 2, not 1
Pathfinder Lester: Graham, ooooh that’s right.
Bau Ur: Kateri, we are a club organized by Pathfinder here, to visit different places on the Hypergrid.
Graham Mills: I think a lot of SL orientations have gone to viewer 2
Pathfinder Lester: well, the percentage of folks using viewer 2 on opensim in general is very small, in my experienec.
grid jumper: how cani join the group i just saw the notice on twitter
grid jumper: and had a hard time getting here
Bau Ur: Ah! I wish we could just import Orientation Station here. THat was a damn good setup.
El Sliven: There we go Kateri! I see your clothes now! Cute!
Pathfinder Lester: grid jumper, the Hypergrid Adventurers Club group?
Graham Mills: true though it is necessary at the moment for prim media
Oronoque Westland:so one year old SL folk would be like first timers using an OS-compatible viewer
Vanish Seriath: grid jumper, just come to the meetings.
Bau Ur: Dirk Talamasca was involved, and some other very experienced mentors.
Vanish Seriath: There’s no formal joining process.
grid jumper: ok
Pathfinder Lester: grid, yes, just come to the meetings
grid jumper: so i guess you post on twitter
Pathfinder Lester: and join our Google Group if you wantto chat with us
grid jumper: or they r always at this time
Vanish Seriath: They’re always at this time.
Pathfinder Lester: http://bit.ly/HGAC_Google_Group
Pathfinder Lester: yes, we use the #hgac hashtag on twitter to announce things and just chat with each other on twitter.
Bau Ur: https://becunningandfulloftricks.com/hypergrid-adventurers-club/
Pathfinder Lester: ty Bau
grid jumper: k
Pathfinder Lester: grid, that link Bau posted is our homepage
Pathfinder Lester: summary of what we do with the club 🙂
grid jumper: wonderful
Pathfinder Lester: but definitely join the Google Group. that’s a great way to see previous conversations and chat with folks. we have about 130 ppl in our Google Group.
Jeff Kelley: wow
Pathfinder Lester: Jeff, yeah, it’s grown a lot since we set it up just a few weeks ago.
Pathfinder Lester: really great
grid jumper: well the whole gridjumpong thing had me
Bau Ur: Kateri, I used to live on a Native AMerican reservation in the USA. My partner was a basketball and cross country running coach. One of the best runners’ last name was “No Runner” 🙂
grid jumper: mean i did it once before wiht this group
grid jumper: but it was conusing
grid jumper: and i was a little lost in limbo
Pathfinder Lester: well, i’m glad you found us grid. 🙂
Vanish Seriath: Hehe.
Bau Ur: and another was “Two Legs”
Pathfinder Lester: we do our best to help each other learn
Pathfinder Lester: we’re all learning here.
Pathfinder Lester: Bau, lol
Kateri Runningbear: 🙂
grid jumper: i just wrote about learning communities in VW – i should have waited to include this group i guess i could edit
Bau Ur: Heheh Grid…just wait a bit and devote a whole article to us 🙂
Pathfinder Lester: grid, oh cool! did you blog about it?
grid jumper: http://gridjumper.net/
Pathfinder Lester: nice!
Pathfinder Lester: oh, i see you already visited jokaydiaGRID and got a tour with jokay
Pathfinder Lester: http://gridjumper.net/2010/12/04/grid-hopping-one-av-multiple-grids/
grid jumper: yes
Pathfinder Lester: so you’ve already been to Pathlandia 🙂
grid jumper: but i could not get back today
Pathfinder Lester: that’s where we have our meetings
grid jumper: lost the coordinates on my viewer
Pathfinder Lester: aha
grid jumper: so ur info is helpful
grid jumper: step by step
Bau Ur: Grid, they changed yesterday
Pathfinder Lester: that’s probably because Pathlandia recently moved to a new console
grid jumper: ah
Pathfinder Lester: the new hypergrid address of Pathlandia is: 66.240.241.42:9004:Pathlandia
Bau Ur: 66.240.241.42:9004:Pathlandia
Pathfinder Lester: Bau, you are inside my head!
Pathfinder Lester: lol
Bau Ur: 🙂 You are in conversation so I supposed it was more difficult for you to copy and paste.
Pathfinder Lester: grid, i’m happy you are finding the info we put out helpful. 🙂
Pathfinder Lester: thanks Bau. 🙂
Graham Mills: One of attamepts to get back here also showed up the old help island and said it no longer existed
Pathfinder Lester: one thing that can help with things like that is to be sure you clear your viewer’s cache at least once a day
Pathfinder Lester: sometimes it caches map stuff that becomes out of date.
Pathfinder Lester: at least that’s what seems to happen to me
Pathfinder Lester: i have a routine now. reboot windows at least once a day. and clear my viewer cache once a day.
Vanish Seriath: I think it was because the region was down a moment.
Pathfinder Lester: keeps everything stable for me. 😉
Mel Blauvelt: I used to have that problem too but now it’s settled…haven’t cleared my cache in weeks
Jeff Kelley: omg, rebooting every one day 🙂
Mel Blauvelt: no idea which setting I changed though
Graham Mills: could be, vanish — i forgot that — except it said that it no longer existed
Vanish Seriath: I need to clear cache every time I go to pathlandia, or the ground textures will kick my butt.
Graham Mills: which is a bit more radical than usual
Pathfinder Lester: Jeff, i bang on my system a lot and run lots of experimental stuff. so I need to do that.
Bau Ur: When I try to go to Core One it often tells me that it does not exist. But if I try then to TP to CHilbo or some other region that is offlimits or offline, it instantly diverst me to Core One.
Bau Ur: THings are so arbitrary 🙂
Pathfinder Lester: holes in the hypergrid
Pathfinder Lester: it happens
Graham Mills: part of its charm
Kateri Runningbear: ggremlins in the hypergrid
Pathfinder Lester: it wouldn’t be a frontier without some unexpected journeys. lol
Jeff Kelley: Soon, we will need to address the question of direction directories and gateways assignement
Jeff Kelley: “direction directories ” , silly me
Oronoque Westland:I find the greatest places by being misdirected
Graham Mills: there is work going on but it is somewhat distribted
Pathfinder Lester: Oro, yes, that has happened to me many times too
Vanish Seriath: Hmm.
Vanish Seriath: I don’t think directories are the way to go.
Oronoque Westland:but then I am not always sure what grid I am on
Pathfinder Lester: i discovered New World Grid that way. fell through a hole and found myself on a region there.
Jeff Kelley: Why, Vanish?
Vanish Seriath: Reminds me too much of Yahoo’s beginnings.
Vanish Seriath: They just don’t scale.
Jeff Kelley: So, crawlers à la www ?
Pathfinder Lester: yeah, manually curated things are good to start. but don’t scale over time.
Graham Mills: I tend to agree but maybe it’s an evolutionary thing
Bau Ur: Oronoque, I am not even sure what grids exist , and their relationships to one another 🙂
Pathfinder Lester: Jeff, i think that’s the solution. in my opinion.
Vanish Seriath: Yes, I think the hypergates are on a good track there.
Vanish Seriath: But they’re buggy atm.
Bau Ur: Hehehe
Pathfinder Lester: http://thehypergates.com
Graham Mills: and to some extent they’re eye candy
Oronoque Westland:Path, the super duper gate that you have on Pathlandia, has that been giving good service?
Pathfinder Lester: Oro, oh the big one? yeah, it seems to work fine for me.
Pathfinder Lester: i just love firing it up. the sound and animations are amazing.
Jeff Kelley: THe is a problem with whitespaces in region names
Oronoque Westland:I copied it, but use it for local tps only
Pathfinder Lester: yeah, i use it all the time to jump to regions on jokaydiagrid
Pathfinder Lester: it’s just so fun to watch it start up and go WHOOOSH with the water.

Oronoque Westland:for those who have not used it, it is very much like the one in the TV show
Pathfinder Lester: yeah, it’s exactly like it.
Bau Ur: It’s fun.
Oronoque Westland:turns and whirs and spits vapor
Pathfinder Lester: all the sounds are samples from the stargate tv show, too.
Bau Ur: hopefully in samples of under 10 seconds…
Pathfinder Lester: and the model of the gate is the most accurate Stargate recreation i’ve ever seen in any virtual world.
Jeff Kelley: agree
Pathfinder Lester: only issue is….that’s all IP belonging to someone else 😛
Bau Ur: <<
Bau Ur: >>
Pathfinder Lester: lol
Oronoque Westland:IP?
Pathfinder Lester: intellectual property
Bau Ur: intellectual property
Oronoque Westland:ah, ok
Bau Ur: opp
Pathfinder Lester: owned by MGM
Mel Blauvelt: that’s why you ought to put some reverb on the samples before you upload them *ducks*
Vanish Seriath: Please excuse us, we need to have dinner.
Pathfinder Lester: Mel, lol
Pathfinder Lester: good idea
El Sliven: Well…I better run guys….I will be back for the next meeting…:)
Graham Mills: I vaguely recall Crista Lopes has written a search engine for SL
Mel Blauvelt: Enjoy, V & El
Pathfinder Lester: take care V and El
Vanish Seriath: I’ll see you around, guys.
grid jumper: nice to meet you
Graham Mills: Bye, V & E
Jeff Kelley: cu
Oronoque Westland:see you two soon
Pathfinder Lester: i must head out as well
Bau Ur: Goodbye. GOod to meet you!
Pathfinder Lester: have a good day, everyone. and great to meet you grid and Kateri.
El Sliven: Bye
Graham Mills: You too, Path
Kateri Runningbear: nice to mee tyou too 🙂
Jeff Kelley: tc Pathfinder
Pathfinder Lester: take care folks

That’s the end of our first tour of Help Island on Sunday. Read on for our second visit of the day.

Meeting #37
1/30/2011 : 10pm GMT
14 Hypernauts in attendance:

Vanish Seriath
Kayako Mayako
El Silven
Talvin Muircastle
Chimera Cosmos
Thirza Ember
Arwenna Stardust
Joel Foner
Johnnie Waugh
Bau Ur
Spiral Theas
Decka Mah
samantha chester
Pathfinder Lester

We begin on the region Pathlandia on jokaydiaGRID.

Vanish Seriath: Hi Path.
El Sliven: Hi path!
Pathfinder Lester: howdy folks
Vanish Seriath: Hi Kay.
El Sliven: Hi there Kayako!
Kayako Mayako: Hi Everyone! I was busy grabbing some freebies in Pathfinder’s house! 🙂
Pathfinder Lester: lol
Pathfinder Lester: good!
Kayako Mayako: Very cool spider!
Pathfinder Lester: pretty much everything I put out there i leave full perm
Pathfinder Lester: ooooh
Pathfinder Lester: you discovered the hidden spider scene?
Pathfinder Lester: with the web?
Kayako Mayako: I am not sure I got the web — let me see.
Pathfinder Lester: hi Talvin
Kayako Mayako: I found two spiders — “hungry spider” and the “dangling spider”
Talvin Muircastle: Heya, Pathfinder.
Vanish Seriath: Hi Talvin.
Pathfinder Lester: did you find what the hungry spider was getting ready to eat?
Kayako Mayako: Maybe not — I will pan back over….

There’s something strange caught in the spiderweb. You’ll have to look very closely.

Pathfinder Lester: 😉
Talvin Muircastle: HGAC group not Open Enrollment?
Talvin Muircastle: Oh, wait, there it is.
Pathfinder Lester: Talvin, hm, it *should* be
Pathfinder Lester: oh good
Pathfinder Lester: it works
Vanish Seriath: It takes a bit.
Talvin Muircastle: Heh. Apparently, I was the first person in this grid to create a group.
Pathfinder Lester: cool!
Talvin Muircastle: Which means I got to file all the bug reports. 😉
Pathfinder Lester: lol
Pathfinder Lester: i love how folks visiting jokaydiagrid via hypergrid can still join the group
Pathfinder Lester: it doesn’t show up when they’re not onjokaydiagrid, but it does reenable when they are here
Pathfinder Lester: no=o
Vanish Seriath: Yes, that’s great.
Pathfinder Lester: and i believe offline group notice notifications to email works
Vanish Seriath: You can even create a group as a hg traveller here.
Pathfinder Lester: V, oh, that’s right!
Pathfinder Lester: that’s very handy
Vanish Seriath: Hi Thirza, hi Arwenna.
Pathfinder Lester: hi Arwenna, Thirza
Arwenna Stardust: hi Vanish 🙂 Hi Path 🙂
Vanish Seriath: Well, somewhat. I don’t know how well group chat works yet.
Talvin Muircastle: Offline notices don’t seem to work yet, no.
Pathfinder Lester: V, by the way, i love the new portal design you posted on your website. but i think the one I rezzed here is a gateway to something creepy.

Arwenna Stardust: @Talvin – I dont think offline IM works in OS in general
Talvin Muircastle: http://opensimulator.org/wiki/OsTeleportOwner
Talvin Muircastle: This doesn’t work here yet.
Talvin Muircastle: But, unlike osTeleportAgent, which Jokay has to enable on request because it is a flaming huge security risk….
El Sliven: Hiya Thirza!
Talvin Muircastle: It has a Threat Level of “None”.
Kayako Mayako: Group messages do work. That is, when I send out a group message in the RG, I receive the message in my specified e-mail acount.
Talvin Muircastle: Interesting. It may just not be set for JG yet.
Arwenna Stardust: but what about pesonal IMs?
Vanish Seriath: Aw, thanks Path.
Arwenna Stardust: I havent got that to work anywhere yet 😦
Kayako Mayako: I have not tested personal IMs.
Thirza Ember: evening all
Arwenna Stardust: Hi Thirza 🙂
Pathfinder Lester: Arwenna, do you have “IMs sent to email” enabled in your viewer preferences?
Arwenna Stardust: oh yes!
Arwenna Stardust: I mean yes I do – always!
Talvin Muircastle: Huh. OK, mine was NOT set.
Talvin Muircastle: I thought it was. Interesting.
Vanish Seriath: Chimera, did you see my reply re: Romenna snapshots?
Talvin Muircastle: Let’s see if that improves things. 🙂
Thirza Ember: thanks
Chimera Cosmos: yeah that’s right
Chimera Cosmos: try to relog?
Chimera Cosmos: oops
Chimera Cosmos: chat switched tabs on me!
Pathfinder Lester: i’ll make my standard intro remarks for the chatlog now
Chimera Cosmos: was chatting to Spiral – her clothes won’t download LOL
Pathfinder Lester: Welcome to the Hypergrid Adventurers Club! Thank you all for joining us today.
Pathfinder Lester: The first 30 min of each meeting is spent on introductions and an open discussion.
Talvin Muircastle: At the moment, group inviters don’t work…it thinks the URL is for a landmark. That *should* be an easy patch.
Pathfinder Lester: And for the second 30 min of each meeting, we will make some Hypergrid jumps to visit and explore an interesting location on the Hypergrid.
Pathfinder Lester: To start, if you wish, feel free to jump in and say a few words about yourself and your projects/interests in open chat. This is always a good opportunity for networking. 🙂
Pathfinder Lester: I post a full report and transcript of each meeting’s open chat on my blog, so this is also a chance for you to share information with everyone who reads the blog.
Pathfinder Lester: And if you say anything in open chat that you would NOT like to be posted on my blog, please just say so in chat and I will redact your comments.
Pathfinder Lester: I’m Pathfinder Lester, John Lester in real life. I used to work at Linden Lab from 2005-2010. Now I work at ReactionGrid Inc. as Director of Community Development. I started the Hypergrid Adventurers Club back in October of 2010. My blog is at http://becunningandfulloftricks.com
Vanish Seriath: I’m V of tgib.co.uk
Pathfinder Lester: heya Joel! great to see you.
Joel Foner: hiya path
El Sliven: I am El….V’s partner
Joel Foner: w00t – and i even have group slots free! 🙂 tee hee
Arwenna Stardust: I’m Arwenna Stardust in all VWs except for RL where I am Clare Atkins. NZ educator – was leader of SLENZ project now chair of VLENZ http://vlenz.edumuve.ac.nz
Pathfinder Lester: Joel, lol
Talvin Muircastle: I am Talvin Muircastle, and I do a *lot* of things on here. One of my group titles is “Breaks Things For Jo”, in fact. 😛 Of most recent note, I have founded the Skills For Hire group with Jokay’s blessing and cooperation. If you are looking for paid work or need to hire skilled virtual labor, check out http://jokaydia.wikispaces.com/skillsforhire
Pathfinder Lester: Talvin, oh that’s great!
Kayako Mayako: Kay McLennan at Tulane University (and I made my first OARs of the four islands in the Tulane SCS Metaverse today!).
Arwenna Stardust: great idea Talvin
Thirza Ember: I’m Thirza and I’m the proud owner of the 100th sim on the Craft Grid as of yesterday. I write about VWs in a couple of blogs. Mostly on art. Craft Grid
Pathfinder Lester: Thirza, wow, it’s great to see Craft Grid growing like that!
Vanish Seriath: Aw, what is Craft Grid, and what made you decide to get a region there?
Pathfinder Lester: i read somewhere Craft Grid had a celebration inworld this week?
Thirza Ember: Craft was 1 year old on the 27th
Thirza Ember: it started with 4 people
Talvin Muircastle: Pathfinder: may I suggest changing the title of “Member” to “Hypernaut”? 🙂
Thirza Ember: today there are almost 700 registered users
strong>Chimera Cosmos: Oh-Vanish- no I didn’t. Multitasking 🙂
Pathfinder Lester: Talvin, good idea. I will do that.
Vanish Seriath: Aw, okay.
Chimera Cosmos: Waaay behind in this chat – sorry!j
Talvin Muircastle: PLease, please…do not leave out the ‘a’
Arwenna Stardust: haha Talvin
Pathfinder Lester: lol
Pathfinder Lester: HYPERNUT
Talvin Muircastle produces a Hyper Squirrel.
Pathfinder Lester: and sometimes, we are HYPERNOTS. as in “the hypergrid is not working right now. please try again later.”
Pathfinder Lester: i have one quick announcement
Johnnie Waugh:Hello all…….. Johnnie Waugh/Wendt in SL…. blogger, builder, hyperjaunter, home sim in NZVWG OS v7 HG 1.5 nzvwg.org.8002.Andelain
Pathfinder Lester: you’ll notice a second stone wall to the left of the HGAC kiosk
Joel Foner: oh was i supposed to do a who am i? sorry was in a fwe windows
Pathfinder Lester: that’s a place for folks who want to rez flyers and stick them on the wall. for announcements, etc.
Arwenna Stardust: being a window cleaner Joel 🙂 ?
Pathfinder Lester: so please feel free to use it like a message board. you can rez things here and just place them on the wall.

Johnnie Waugh:sounds good
Talvin Muircastle: Path, you should consider rezzing the gates out *on* a map of the HyperGrid? 🙂
Pathfinder Lester: Talvin, that’s an interesting idea. hmmmm
Joel Foner: <- is a practicing technical project manager, problem solver and consultant with (fill in large number here) years experience, specializing in troubled project rescue and process improvement coaching.
Talvin Muircastle: Easier to navigate.
Pathfinder Lester: true
Chimera Cosmos: I saw a Diva map of the hypergrid in early days – and it had to be in 3D to be correct!
Kayako Mayako: Wow, I see the sloodle set I have been looking for but it is not for sale or copy (?).
Talvin Muircastle: Just a suggestion for another day. *shrugs*
Chimera Cosmos: dying to see a 3D model of it now
Johnnie Waugh:Yes if that could be done on all grids would be great often enter a grid then have a devil of job finding either a gate or a sim that is hypergrid enabled.
Pathfinder Lester: Kayako, if you click on it it will give you a folder of contents
Pathfinder Lester: hiya Bau
Joel Foner: @arwenna… yeah windowz should be cleansed, wouldn’t you agree? 😉
Arwenna Stardust: grins at Joel
Talvin Muircastle: I just want a hypergate big enough to shove all this snow through and forget about it.
El Sliven: Hi Bau…:)
Kayako Mayako: I think I may have to sneak back and pick up the set after the sim clears out. Still, I am excited to find the set! Thanks!
Thirza Ember: 😦 my hypergate won’t work
Joel Foner: i am so (not) psyched to hear that we’re getting *more* on weds!
Talvin Muircastle: Tuesday and Wednesday here.
Pathfinder Lester: Thirza, are you getting an error of some kind? or is it just nonfunctional?
Arwenna Stardust: Hot and windy and cyclonic here 🙂
Thirza Ember: no error message
Thirza Ember: just no tp
Pathfinder Lester: Kayako, thank Ange from FrancoGrid. he placed it there earlier.
Thirza Ember: i think i broke it when i dropped it
Pathfinder Lester: have you tried shaking it?
Talvin Muircastle: osTeleportAgent has a high threat level. If you aren’t authorized for that level, it’s going to sit there and look pretty.
Pathfinder Lester: lol
Thirza Ember: i kicked it …
Chimera Cosmos: monopolizing the conversation LOL
Pathfinder Lester: Thirza, did you read the help notecard I have in the hypergate?

Here’s a copy of the notecard that explains how to set up Blamgates. Whenever you click on a Blamgate, it will give this notecard to you.

— Blamgate Notecard —
The stone archway in front of you is called a “Blamgate.”

Instant Hypergates are often referred to as “Blamgates,” and by simply walking through them you can immediately hypergrid jump from one grid to another.

Blamgates are inworld scripted objects, and you can find free copies of Blamgates on the region “Pathlandia” on jokaydiaGRID, or on the region “Permutation” on the ReactionGrid public grid.

You can install a Blamgate on your own region to allow your visitors to easily jump to a specific region on a completely different grid.

*** A few things to remember ***

1) Before doing any Hypergrid jumps, be sure you have set your Home location and have relogged since you first set it. If you don’t do this, Hypergrid jumps of any kind will not work.

2) Blamgates use a command called “osTeleportAgent.” For this command to work, the region that the Blamgate is located on must have the osTeleportAgent function explicitly enabled. To enable the osTeleportAgent function on your own grid, go to OpenSim.ini and look for the [XEngine] section. At the bottom of that section, add (without the quotes) “Allow_osTeleportAgent = true” then reboot your regions for it to take effect.

3) Blamgates will only work if they are owned by the owner of the parcel of land on which they are located.

4) If you’re with a group, be sure to walk through the Blamgate one at a time. It takes a few seconds for a Blamgate to reset after a jump, so be patient. If a Blamgate doesn’t work the first time you try to walk through it, just back up, wait a few seconds, then try walking through it again.

5) The Hypergrid destination of a Blamgate is usually indicated in hovertext at the top of the gate. You can reprogram a Blamgate’s destination by changing the Hypergrid address listed in the variable “SimName” in the script named “Instant Hypergrid Jump.”

For more information on Blamgates, see:
http://metaverseheroes.helpserve.com/index.php?_m=knowledgebase&_a=viewarticle&kbarticleid=64

If you’d like to learn more about how the Hypergrid works, you might want to join the Hypergrid Adventurers Club. We meet multiple times each week for discussions on Hypergrid travel, and we take tours of the Hypergrid as a group. Learn more at: https://becunningandfulloftricks.com/hypergrid-adventurers-club/
— End of Notecard —

Talvin Muircastle: As I was saying earlier: http://opensimulator.org/wiki/OsTeleportOwner is coming soon, and I am really looking forward to playing with it. Should work for everybody. 🙂
Thirza Ember: lol um
Pathfinder Lester: i started putting a file in them a little while ago. you may have an earlier one without that notecard
Thirza Ember: i read things. don’t mean i understand them
Pathfinder Lester: i’ll give a new one to you now
Chimera Cosmos: Is there a place here on Pathlandia to get the earlier HGAC notecards?
Thirza Ember: lol
Pathfinder Lester: for the current version of my blamgates, I made a help notecard in them that you can get if you just click on the gate. explains a bit how to set them up, and why they might not work.
Pathfinder Lester: Chimera, I need to put up a kiosk for that
Pathfinder Lester: ty for reminding me
Thirza Ember: ok, i think i went wrong on step one *blushes*
Pathfinder Lester: i had a kiosk, but it got broken
Thirza Ember: I nevah touched your kiosk, Path!
Talvin Muircastle: Path, this is the internet.
Pathfinder Lester: Thirza, no worries. it can be confusing to first set them up. that’s why i wrote that notecard. 😉
Talvin Muircastle: You are supposed to say, “I had a kiosk, but I eated it.”
Chimera Cosmos: Spiral is coming over, but she can’t get out of her white underwear!
Chimera Cosmos: she needs expert advice
Spiral Theas: Hello all.
Bau Ur: Hi.
Pathfinder Lester: hello Spiral!
Spiral Theas: Very sorry to be late — and so underdressed.
Pathfinder Lester: welcome!
Spiral Theas: Having problems.
Spiral Theas: Thanks, Pathfinder.
Arwenna Stardust: Hi Spiral
Chimera Cosmos: Spiral relogged and cleared cache – but no luck
Chimera Cosmos: ideas anyone?
Thirza Ember: I’d ask what is the difference between blamgates, but i dont really want to know
Thirza Ember: blanket for spiral?
Spiral Theas: Yes!
Spiral Theas: I am afraid I’m quite the sight!
Pathfinder Lester: i can’t remember who came up with the term “blamgate”
Arwenna Stardust: I think it was Cider
Talvin Muircastle: With a Mac, it’s Cmd-Opt-R to rebake your appearance.
Pathfinder Lester: but the hypergates I set up are instant ones. you walk thru and blam, you jump
Joel Foner: sort of the avatar version of “this page left intentionally blank”? 🙂
Johnnie Waugh:yes sounds like Cider *grin*
Pathfinder Lester: so someone said “it’s not a hypergate. it’s a blamgate”
El Sliven: well…she looks ALL white to me…as most of you do…so she is “safe” in my eyes…LOL
Thirza Ember: sounds like beer really
Pathfinder Lester: and so the name stuck. ;P
Bau Ur: If I don’t intrude too much in asking, has everyone here tried multiple current viewers and have you found one that crashes less? Also how do you tell whether a crash is the fault of the viewer or the sim?
Spiral Theas: Whew, El.Sliven.
Pathfinder Lester: Spiral, is this the first time you’ve logged on to jokaydiagrid?
Spiral Theas: No, have been on before.
Bau Ur: I see everyone here clothed in white, by the way. A company of angels.
Joel Foner pictures huge stogie that when you wear it, tells your viewer to rebake your avatar
Pathfinder Lester: sometimes it just takes a while for the avatar bits to load
Joel Foner: this must have been a long day :p 🙂
Johnnie Waugh:everyone but Spiral is normal for me
Bau Ur: OR of demons with uncharacteristically dull fashion sense.
Spiral Theas: Tried changing outfit, but I get the message that I can’t change outfit or alter appearance…
Chimera Cosmos: Only Kayako, Johnnie and Spiral are white to me
Pathfinder Lester: oooh
Kayako Mayako: I mostly use the Imprudence viewer (and then when hypergrid jumping follow Pathfiinder’s steps). However, interestingly, when I use the Hippo viewer, I can hypergrid jump using a landmark.
Pathfinder Lester: i know that error
Spiral Theas: You all look great to me.
Pathfinder Lester: that usually requires a relog to fix, in my experience.
Spiral Theas: Ah, you do? Excellent.
Kayako Mayako: P.S. – I was responding to Bau’s questions.
Arwenna Stardust: We are all great – no matter our appearance!! lol!
Spiral Theas: Yes, I relogged (that’s what I thought too) – but nothin’
Pathfinder Lester: and if it never goes away, ask jokay to reset your avatar on the backend. that’s the final way to fix it.
Spiral Theas: Ahhh, right. The Jokay fix.
Pathfinder Lester: that happened to me once. and jokay fixed it.
Joel Foner: sounds to me like region db is summa funny
Arwenna Stardust: I use Imprudence pretty much exclusively now
Spiral Theas: Terrific, thanks, Pathfinder. I will try that.
Pathfinder Lester: the quickest way to reach jokay for support issues is email. Send an email to support@jokaydiagrid.com
Chimera Cosmos: right now it’s AM in OZ I think
Chimera Cosmos: you haven’t been in for awhile have you Spiral?
Pathfinder Lester: it’s also summer in OZ right now. that makes me jealous.
Spiral Theas: Yes, that’s right. I haven’t been in for awhile.
Chimera Cosmos: yeah Summer
Chimera Cosmos: unlike Boston!
Chimera Cosmos: heh
Spiral Theas: I came to the first few sessions of the Hygrid adventurers, but then, I had this avatar problem and never had all of you smart folks around to help me fix.
Spiral Theas: So now I’m re-inspired.
Chimera Cosmos: we are getting more snow in a day or so too
Pathfinder Lester: it’s “Ice Station Zebra” in Boston.
Spiral Theas: I can still move. I just look bad.
Chimera Cosmos: sun came out…
Talvin Muircastle: Spiral: I have that problem in RL
Talvin Muircastle: Except some days it hurts to move, too.
Pathfinder Lester: Spiral, you should join the HGAC Google Group. http://bit.ly/HGAC_Google_Group
Spiral Theas: We are buried in snow here in boston!
Spiral Theas: Ha ha Talvin!
Pathfinder Lester: that’s a good way to ask questions of everyone offline. and there are 128 ppl in that Google Group, so plenty of folks to ask.
Thirza Ember: path can you give me another gate? I promised I would get one for oberon
Talvin Muircastle looks wry. “That’s why I joke so much…so when I say something serious, nobody believes me. :P”
Pathfinder Lester: lol
Pathfinder Lester: sure thing Thirza
Spiral Theas: Thanks, Pathfinder. WIll do.
Pathfinder Lester: just be sure to use the “blamgate 1.1” gate. throw the other one away
Pathfinder Lester: i’ve standardized on calling them blamgates from now on.
Chimera Cosmos: I missed figuring out there was an hgac google group till this weekend. Duh!
Chimera Cosmos: knew about the calendar and blogs
Pathfinder Lester: we are a multi-tech group. lol
Pathfinder Lester: twitter, google group, inworld group, blog, smoke signals.
Chimera Cosmos: cough cough smoke
Spiral Theas: you name it, we’ve got it.
Bau Ur: …and telegraph. ANd don’t forget the water drums.
Pathfinder Lester: i’ll pass out today’s tour notecard now.

Many people find the Imprudence viewer to be very good for using with both SL and other grids. You can find it here: http://imprudenceviewer.org/

Hypergrid Jump #1
Hypergrid Address: 216.75.32.156:9031:Help Island
Region Name: “Help Island”
Grid Location: ReactionGrid (Middle)
Grid Website: http://reactiongrid.com

For more information on how these instant Hypergates work, see:
https://becunningandfulloftricks.com/2010/10/29/the-metaphor-of-portals/

Do you know of other Help Islands or New User Orientation areas on other grids? Please let me know about them. I’m working to put together a list of them all which I will then publish. Thank you.

Talvin Muircastle: Using the particle system to create a region to region signaling system would be fun, but let’s just assume he’s joking.
Bau Ur: and a code of masses of knots in bundes of cord carried by Aztec runners
Bau Ur: You know, it would be so cool if particles could cross region boundaries. If there were a permission system to allow that.
Pathfinder Lester: so we’ll be visiting Help Island on ReactionGrid. Tinsel Silvera has been working on setting that up.
Bau Ur: You could trace lost comreades when Map won’t ope
Pathfinder Lester: i thought it would be a good idea to have a series of tours specifically to visit different help and orientation regions on different grids. to learn how folks are trying to get newbies into opensim.
Pathfinder Lester: i’ll collect a list of all the ones we find, and will put up a page on my blog listing them all.
Johnnie Waugh:think that is a good idea
Arwenna Stardust: good idea
Johnnie Waugh:Snap
Arwenna Stardust: I’ll be bringing in students soon and it will be a great help
Pathfinder Lester: ooh new students!
Spiral Theas: Fresh blood!
Arwenna Stardust: yep 20 second yeat IT degree students!
Arwenna Stardust: *year
Bau Ur: hmm
Bau Ur: DO you have orientation aides, Arwenna?
Arwenna Stardust: heaps in SL and on wikieducator
Bau Ur: Great
Arwenna Stardust: but not much here
Bau Ur: Will you attempt all 20 in one ReactionGrid region?
Arwenna Stardust: my 4th year of teaching in VW
Arwenna Stardust: but all previous has been in SL
Arwenna Stardust: prob not
Arwenna Stardust: 2 * 10 will work better
Pathfinder Lester: we’ve had over 20 ppl here on Pathlandia in the past. thing were pretty stable.
Pathfinder Lester: *things
Johnnie Waugh:yes
Arwenna Stardust: yes – but they will all be building
Bau Ur: Perhaps some people here would be helpful volunteers to orient your herd.
Arwenna Stardust: can be a bit heavy
Pathfinder Lester: ah, good point
Arwenna Stardust: heavy going for me too!!!
Pathfinder Lester: lol
Arwenna Stardust: 10 is manageable for me – 20 is pushing it!
Talvin Muircastle: Arwenna: a similar number of *high school* students were building here not long ago. The grid still stands.
Chimera Cosmos: Joel, what’s your SL last name? I forget!
Chimera Cosmos: doh
Vanish Seriath: What’re you planning on doing with the students, Arwenna?
Pathfinder Lester: wrangling 20 students in any environment can be pretty challenging
Arwenna Stardust: yes
Arwenna Stardust: Vanish – I will post a link to the class blog on googlegroups
Bau Ur: wrangilng is indeed the right word too
Joel Foner: oops sorry chimera
Joel Foner: sl: joel savard, rl: joel foner, everywhere else social: joelfoner or joel.foner
Chimera Cosmos: right! Savard
Arwenna Stardust: last years was http://anm624.wordpress.com
Vanish Seriath: Aw, thanks.
Pathfinder Lester: cool, thanks for that info Arwenna. i hope it all goes well.
Pathfinder Lester: hmm…looks like it’s time for us to travel!
Pathfinder Lester: just 1 jump today
Pathfinder Lester: this gate where I’m standing
Pathfinder Lester: we’ll arrive on the region “Help Island” on ReactionGrid

We all enter an Instant Hypergate (aka “Blamgate“) on the region Pathlandia on jokaydiaGRID.

And we arrive on the region Help Island on ReactionGrid.

Pathfinder Lester: welcome to Help Island.
Decka Mah: I am trying to determine 2 things…what viewer to recommend for students for OpenSim and what viewer to make the orientation help signs and info for
Joel Foner: phoenix is an auto-crash on opensim for me, so i’ve landed with imprudence for general use
Spiral Theas: Nice.
Pathfinder Lester: Tinsel Silvera has been working on this
Decka Mah: Hey Pathfinder
Decka Mah: sorry I couldn’t get5 to JKGrid
Pathfinder Lester: there’s a rezzing area nearby, some tutorial posters, freebies, things to explore, etc.
Pathfinder Lester: and if you have any feedback for Tinsel on how to improve things here, i’m sure he’d love to hear

Arwenna Stardust: Decka – with my students I am going to start with Imprudence
Bau Ur: Did anyone else here see Orientation Station in SL? I thought it was a fine model. Movement and camera skills instruction in the immediate entry way. All other lessons arranged in a clear linear fashion, no doubt about where to go or in what order to do anything. . Nohting too overwhelming at any one time, no distractions.
Pathfinder Lester: good points, Bau
Arwenna Stardust: and then ask them to experiemnt with V2 for SL but Imp will be their main one
Vanish Seriath: Orientation station?
Vanish Seriath: Didn’t they call it Welcome Island now?
Vanish Seriath: Or is that something else?
Pathfinder Lester: i’m curious, what was the BEST new user orientation experience you all have seen in SL?
Talvin Muircastle: There are two islands involved. The second one with all the flowers and stuff was horrid.
Joel Foner: @path – people 🙂
Bau Ur: Van, it was an alternative to the Linden orientation and help island instructions, designed in conjuction with several experienced Mentors. Honda or TOyota were going to use it to orient people to SL to attend meetings and presentations there.
Vanish Seriath: Pathfinder, seriously: I liked orientation island to some extent.
Vanish Seriath: Maybe I’m just nostalgic, though.
Joel Foner: virtual ability is pretty good
Pathfinder Lester: V, yeah, i liked that one too
Bau Ur: It was the best orientation I ever saw. Well thought out. Only flaw, a bit of the text was too small.
Thirza Ember: II’ve never been oriented in my life, so I can’t say….. I get sign blindness in new places
Joel Foner: actually the brand newest initial orientation when you set up a new av is pretty good – basic basic but gets people moving without getting too lost in having to “learn everything” up front
Joel Foner: on sl i meant
Decka Mah: Virtual Ability is nice
Decka Mah: but it takes a whoile island
Pathfinder Lester: “sign blindness” i like that phrase. true for many people, Thirza.
Thirza Ember: long notecards are the worst
samantha chester: Hi
Bau Ur: Thirza a good thing about Orientation Station was that, with its hallways, it was clear where you needed to go, wihtout seeing the whole array of signs all at once. Prevented people from feeling overwhelmed. Also, was a mercy to the viewer, not too many novel textures to upload all at once.
Talvin Muircastle: One thing I worry about for an orientation area is these gates: when I visited here earlier, *I* managed to blunder right into one of them.
Talvin Muircastle: For a newbie, that’s a real and dis-orienting concern.
Decka Mah: I have a playdeck on my island in SL so people learn the interface by playing games
Bau Ur: Good idea Deck.
Pathfinder Lester: yeah, i definitely think the gates need to be moved
Decka Mah: I like the way that virtual ability ahve put rails along all paths so you follow the arriws and can’t stray
Bau Ur: yes! I agree Decka.
Thirza Ember: good point Bau
Pathfinder Lester: Decka, oh that’s an outstanding idea
Bau Ur: Virtual Ability was well thought out from the beginnig, and well tweaked therafter.
Joel Foner: i’ve always thought that a multimedia approach would be best… video demo/tutorial on web site, followed by jump inworld, with both static and video demo / tutorial options in world
Decka Mah: It is also very open so no walls to see through
Decka Mah: Joel that only works if you can get the media to play in world
Decka Mah: unless it is shown on youtube first
Joel Foner: (yes, i know… quicktime blah blah tech problems… but it works for some reasonable percentage of folks and is the best learning envrionment if done in very short 1-3 minute slugs)
Talvin Muircastle: Virtual Ability designed theirs for Universal Accessibility rather than Disability Access. The…complications of the Community Gateway setup meant that they got many people who would not normally be looking for a place with a Disability Theme. I’d say it overall did quite well.
Joel Foner: yes … that’s why i suggested also having ti on a web page 🙂
Arwenna Stardust: one thing I think is important is to explain about lag – no one does – but experiencing lag and knowing to wait a few seconds is important for newbies
Bau Ur: If the most resource-heavy thing is their first experience, the chances go up that their first experience will be a failure 🙂
Pathfinder Lester: Virtual Ability has done a ton of work making things universally accessible
Decka Mah: Only if you have camera control to see the video
Talvin Muircastle: You know, in RL we talk about Auditory, Visual, and Kinesthetic learners. Yet, when we get into a Virtual World, we don’t really think about that. Why not?
Decka Mah: it is always hard to plan for controlling the viewpoint of the user
Thirza Ember: depends why you’re coming into a VW… what your motivation is, don’t you think?
Bau Ur: It’s good to give people as many successes as possible at the start of a new thing, small though each success may be. Reduces anxiety, increases leanring over the long haul.
Decka Mah: so multiple approaches can be good
Arwenna Stardust: I really think that all orientation stations need a quick sign saying – if things don’t happen immediately DONT PANIC
Joel Foner: jennette forager has done a lot of high volume orientation work, and when we’ve worked together we bring people into a “non build” – almost nothing there, which keeps lag to almost zero, and helps people to focus on the things they’re learning in the first 5-10 minutes
Arwenna Stardust: lag happens
Bau Ur: Good idea Arvenna 🙂
Decka Mah: I once parcelled an island into small squares and you had a dot to stand on and it would play the video if you stoofd on that spot
Bau Ur: I was about to agree with Decka, it is good totell newcomers not to assume they have done anything wrong: sometimes things are slow; don’t panic.
Pathfinder Lester: Bau, yes, i think that’s a very good expectation to set at the beginning.

Bau Ur: Well, you know, it is discouraging to crash so often in these group activities.
Pathfinder Lester: i agree
Bau Ur: We are really not a very rowdy bunch. It is not clear why we break things.
Pathfinder Lester: well, first of all, we’re hypergridding
Bau Ur carries a book with the words “Don’t Panic” written in large, freindly letters on the cover.
Decka Mah: I think everyone went donw
Pathfinder Lester: and that’s more stressful to regions that regular avs visiting.
Pathfinder Lester: plus….as far as I know…we’re the largest group of folks who all hypergrid jump at the same time
Pathfinder Lester: so many regions have never experienced the hypergrid load we put on them
Pathfinder Lester: maybe one or two people at a time
Pathfinder Lester: but never like a dozen!
Pathfinder Lester: Chimera, those clothes are from FrancoGrid? they look familiar. from the winter festival.
Chimera Cosmos: from Nani Ferguson
Chimera Cosmos: when we went on the ski trip
Pathfinder Lester: cool
Spiral Theas: Ah, yes, I saw those pictures from your ski trip.
Spiral Theas: It looked lovely.
Spiral Theas: And now I have the sweater!
Pathfinder Lester: we find nice things in our travels
Spiral Theas: Thanks, Bau
Decka Mah: GermanGrid has some nice freebies available too
Johnnie.Waugh: yes freebie-heaven
Joel Foner: has anyone done any quantitative analysis of orientation areas?
Bau Ur: I love freebie areas even when I don’t want any of the stuff. The demonstration of goodwill by original creators is just so cheering.
Joel Foner: i know some folks at the lab did some work on this, but i think it was mostly retention rates rather than learning that was measured, and they’re really not the same thing
Pathfinder Lester: Joel, i don’t know. good question
Bau Ur: Walking through a mall you may see more stuff, but it does not give you any sense of warmth for your fellow man 🙂
Spiral Theas: Where are the freebies, Bau?
Decka Mah: Joel…what would you measure?
Joel Foner: i guess… (completely off the cuff)
Joel Foner: there are some skills that we’re hoping people will acquire
Joel Foner: so you could measure whether they have acquired those skills
Johnnie.Waugh: its fairly subjective and depends more on learning styles than anything else I would have thought
Joel Foner: using the same techniques for “regular” education
Joel Foner: hmm not really
Pathfinder Lester: i checked a few days ago, and our gigantic “flash freebie mob” setup is still on StaminaGrid.
Pathfinder Lester: tons of stuff we placed there. https://becunningandfulloftricks.com/2011/01/13/hypergrid-adventurers-club-meet-3132-a-message-in-a-bottle-for-staminagrid/
Joel Foner: could measure how long it takes someone to figure out how to do something they’ve learned
Joel Foner: do multiple choice
Chimera Cosmos: yeah was wondering
Joel Foner: have a “drivers test”
Johnnie.Waugh: find one-on-one mentoring although labour intensive can get someone up to speed in about 30 minutes
Joel Foner: i don’t think this is “so” different from any other measure skills acquisition issue that it couldn’t be handled the same way
Decka Mah: Having the test itself would influence the participants unless they are sureptitiously tested
Joel Foner: agreed johnnie
Pathfinder Lester: Johnnie, yeah, i’ve heard from many folks that one-on-one mentoring is very effective. folks like knowing there’s a human being there helping them out. i think it gives them more confidence.
Decka Mah: I think Virtual Ability sort of does that by making it almost impossible to fail
Bau Ur: 🙂
Decka Mah: yeah Johnnie but that doesn’t scale up well
Spiral Theas: Thanks, Bau. Very cool hat.
Decka Mah: ISTE Island in SL has round the clock Docents there to help people
Bau Ur: I think it is generally important. when your students are doing something very new, very weird, to give them as many success experiences as you can, early on.
Johnnie.Waugh: no true…….. unless you use a cell system…train five and then as the class task have them train five each and so on
Decka Mah: that is a cool hat Beau…sculpty?
Bau Ur: Even if they are very small successes. It prevents anxiety and results in better outcomes over the long haul.
Bau Ur: Even fun things naturally induce a level of anxiety in most people. Those who truly embrace the utterly weird are rare.
Decka Mah: My students love the part6y concept and it uses tell one and they tell another all done on a playdeck with a dance floor and DJ
Bau Ur: and, weird.
Decka Mah: mud wrestling and arm wrestling are always a hit
Johnnie.Waugh: find that people that get the one-on-one normally stay in grid….. continue on and dont drop out when classes finish etc
Bau Ur: party environment is a great way to learn.
Decka Mah: it is full of fun and laughter and htat helps destress people
Pathfinder Lester: have any of you tried the virtual world Twinity? it’s a web-based 3d world. their orientation experience is pretty nice in that it rewards you with $ each time you complete something.
Pathfinder Lester: that’s a good incentive ;P
Joel Foner: sooo surprising that when people find a social connection with other human beings, it tends to increase the value of staying around! (yes, snarky, but i think that’s the elephant in the room… not so many people are into being complete hermits in a figure it out all yourself world 🙂
Johnnie.Waugh: yes I have tried using Singapore but then became bored with it
Pathfinder Lester: Johnnie, it’s funny you mention that.
Pathfinder Lester: i remember when I was back at LL….
Johnnie.Waugh: same as with Blue mars
Spiral Theas: So true, Joel.
Spiral Theas: It’s the personal connections that make it stick.
Decka Mah: rewards are a good incentive. The SLoodle quizes do that but the gold is only legal tender in the SLoodle vending machine for goodies
Spiral Theas: That, along the sense of presence and affiliating with your avatar.
Pathfinder Lester: the single most important predictor we had about whether or not someone would become a repeat visitor to SL was how soon they started friending and chatting with people.
Joel Foner: jennette and i worked for a while trying to figure out the absolute fastest path to minimalist learning to attend a basic business or discussion-style event
Chimera Cosmos: I think that community is the absolute key
Joel Foner: one of the hardest things is to AVOID teaching 🙂
Joel Foner: ’cause they really don’t need to know that much
Decka Mah: competition, community, success, …these are things that appeal to different learning styles and personalities
Chimera Cosmos: depends on your goals
Chimera Cosmos: I didn’t care about making random friends
Joel Foner: ok
Chimera Cosmos: it was only finding the educator community with common interests that hooked me
Joel Foner: but… you do value making some friends chimera … that’s ovbvious 🙂
Joel Foner: right
Chimera Cosmos: meeting folks in the orientation area – meh
Spiral Theas: Totally agree, Chimera. It’s about community and supporting your own interests.
Pathfinder Lester: Decka, have you written about these ideas and experiences of yours? if so, I’d love to read your stuff.
Bau Ur: It’s very interesting to hear people at Shelter, who are just standing around dancing, asking questions about SL and getting help from the volunteers there.
Chimera Cosmos: yes, but they are people who have a serious purpose here
Spiral Theas: What made it stick for me was finidng like-minded education types.
Chimera Cosmos: whether it be business, art, music, education
Bau Ur: The fantasy of a party atmosphere induces a kind of friendliness that is helpful.
Decka Mah: I am writing it up now in my dissertation but perhaps an article after my current research into Orientation areas is a smalrt idea
Chimera Cosmos: and they are all concerned about how to grow and strenghthen community
Chimera Cosmos: as am I
Johnnie.Waugh: Yes but in a class situation..not teaching… they will naturally friend up …the cell group system of mentoring fosters that…and then you get interlinking..
Pathfinder Lester: Decka, cool. good luck with your diss!
Spiral Theas: But the party atmosphere also puts some people off.
Bau Ur: Spiral, true. In all honesty it puts me off 🙂
Bau Ur: But I am a grim bastard. 🙂
Pathfinder Lester: lol
Spiral Theas: he heh.
Decka Mah: yes but I think what we are airing here is that maybe one size does NOT fit all
Spiral Theas: Many new people that I bring into SL are very fearful of the party scene.
Johnnie.Waugh: and the one-on-one thing gets them communicating with the mentor first of all…. your key five..the first trained…. then have a circle of five friends…and becoem friends of yorus and then with each other,..it spreads easily and naturally
Spiral Theas: And strangers that approach them at the orientation stations.
Joel Foner: i’ve often wondered whether competent npcs could *dramatically* improve the learning experience
Joel Foner: that’s one part of wow and lotro that’s usually completely missing in sl-style virtual worlds
Johnnie.Waugh: yes true
Pathfinder Lester: Joel, the model of “have NPCs that give fun quests” model works very well in MMOs to teach people initial skills.
Joel Foner: feels somewhat like interacting with a person, without having to staff the place 7×24 x user count
Joel Foner: yup
Chimera Cosmos: I don’t know
Chimera Cosmos: bots kinda turn me off
Joel Foner: and gets over the “well, i’m not so social and going to a club is not my thing”
Talvin Muircastle: I am working on a proof of concept for a quest-style orientation. Very rough at the moment.
Spiral Theas: not high touch enough?
Decka Mah: in games the NPCs are the trainers
Chimera Cosmos: I think it’s better to arrange the experience from the outside
Joel Foner: chimera – if you had to choose signs or bots, which would you want to learn from?
Chimera Cosmos: meeting up with new folks, getting them to the right community
Chimera Cosmos: mixture
Joel Foner: what does from the outside mean?
Pathfinder Lester: Talvin, interesting. i’d love to hear how your quest system evolves over time.
Chimera Cosmos: if it’s just orientation
Chimera Cosmos: I think activities are better for learning
Chimera Cosmos: in context
Spiral Theas: Jenn Forager (in SL) swears by the passive intrduction.
Decka Mah: hyowever I want people to know a bot from a human driven avatar so I like the little robots that are obvious
Spiral Theas: No action at first, just watching.
Spiral Theas: Context is everything, Chimera. Yes.
Chimera Cosmos: proper web based orientation materials – outside
Talvin Muircastle: Pathfinder: well, right now it is swimming in primordial soup and trying not to eventually make Dick Cheney’s spiritual descendants rich off its decomposed remains. 🙂
Bau Ur: I find bots revolting.
Spiral Theas: Motivated by what you want to be able to do.
Chimera Cosmos: depending on who your are helping in
Pathfinder Lester: beep beep. welcome to opensim. i am your robot servant. let’s learn together.

Bau Ur: Heheh
Spiral Theas: he hehe
Decka Mah: yeah Pathfinder, there is an island in
Spiral Theas: You are a quick change artists!
Chimera Cosmos: I think that newcomers should be learning in groups
Decka Mah: SL that does that
Bau Ur: Yes, but in your case there is a ghost in the machine:)
Chimera Cosmos: not alone or with bots
Johnnie.Waugh: laughing…. if you could have a bot that reacted like that well and good
Spiral Theas: Groups. Good.
Pathfinder Lester: true
Pathfinder Lester: lol
Chimera Cosmos: social learning
Talvin Muircastle: It often seems like we are looking for The One True Answer…and the Answer is that peope learn in different ways.
Johnnie.Waugh: yes so true Tal
Pathfinder Lester: Talvin, yeah, i think that’s so true.
Spiral Theas: Too right, Talvin.
Chimera Cosmos: yes – just like regular education
Spiral Theas: Just like real life.
Chimera Cosmos: looking for the “one true solution” is a BAD idea heheh
Bau Ur: Talvin, especially when we are speaking of people with social anxieties or special needs. The type of personal interaction needed then becomes very variable
Bau Ur: very specific and individual.
Chimera Cosmos: yes
Spiral Theas: And speaking of RL, I’m afraid I have to go…
Spiral Theas: Dinner calls.
Joel Foner: sry got pulled away – what do you mean by passive introduction spiral
Joel Foner: ?
Chimera Cosmos: different constiuencies and different goals demand different orientations
Pathfinder Lester: yes, i must get dinner prepared too
Pathfinder Lester: what a great discussion today 🙂
Talvin Muircastle: People Who Use Virtual Worlds are very much like People With Disabilities in that way. “You are blind? You must want lots of sound! You do World of Warcraft? Here’s somebody with an exclamation point over his head!”
Spiral Theas: Thanks Pathfinder, and everyone, for the fun, company, and cool hat!
Joel Foner: see you spiral… yeah dinner starting to chant here too
Decka Mah: having the luxury of lots of prims and space makes it possible to have multiple learning options. When you have a small spot and limited prims, it is harder to cater to all
Johnnie.Waugh: see you guys.
Pathfinder Lester: take care everyone. hope to see you all again soon.
Bau Ur: I have mentored several people who suffer from sever social anxiety and SL has been a great thing for them, great practice in tolerating interactions with multiple people. But some of them still are distracted and anxious in the compnay of more than three or four *avatars*.

And so ends another day of tours and discussion with the Hypergrid Adventurers Club. Until next time.

-John “Pathfinder” Lester

4 thoughts on “Hypergrid Adventurers Club meet #36+37: Visiting Help Island on ReactionGrid”

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Tinsel Silvera on February 9, 2011 at 9:42 pm said:

Thanks for the visit and write-up of ReactionGrid Help Island. So glad to see all the visitors! My apologies for those who arrived in the middle of the tree. I have a default landing spot set elsewhere but it is overridden when HyperGridding for some reason. I’ll work on trying to fix that inconvenience.

Reply ↓
- Pathfinder on February 10, 2011 at 12:13 pm said:
  
  Aha, I didn’t realize that landing spot issue. Yeah, we all made a direct hypergrid jump to Help Island.
  
  If you want the most current version of my Blamgates, I just set one set up on Core1 next to the area where I hold my weekly Office Hours. Feel free to grab a copy.
  
  And I’m glad you like the signage I put up on Core1 to direct folks. I believe I left those copyable, so please feel free to grab copies and reuse if you wish.
  
  Thanks again for all your hard work on Help Island, man. Developing that area is really important, so your efforts are much appreciated!
  
  Reply ↓
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Hypergrid Adventurers Club meet #36+37: Visiting Help Island on ReactionGrid

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