Colin's meeting notes

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Colin's meeting notes

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Colin

Reply #15 on: October 18, 2015, 07:32:01 PM Colin's meeting notes (book 16)

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2015-12-27 (unofficial business)

Several of us gathered, and the discussion got around to doing a Turnover event next weekend. It'll be during the RP time slot (2-4 PM) next Sunday. We'll have dancing (possibly a DJ), socializing, probably Harper songs, whatever else anyone comes up with; and the race course will be available in Tyl for foot or runner races. Friends from outside Gianfar will be welcome, under the Visitor rules posted on our Web site.

This afternoon, after the 3 PM Threadfall, Teachmaster Simile plans to hold a class on using the SingEZ HUD to sing / lecture / read stories / whatever.

2015-12-20 (RP)

This was an unofficial meeting but it gathered more people that our official ones, largely because of the sudden influx of new members. The afternoon's RP session may focus on everyone getting to know everyone else. Here are the most recent members:

Lofty is a Web designer, game designer, and builder (especially of furniture). I mentioned our long-standing gripes about the chairs in the Council Chamber, and ten minutes later she'd created a "Functionally Identical Chair" with a 'sit' script and no poseball. I've put a copy at the hallway end of the conference table for folks to examine. It has just the default 'sit' pose but of course could have a menu of poses. Her available times during the work week are roughly 6 PM to 3 AM SLT. She's read three of the books, some years ago.

Bodkin was referred to us by someone from IoW. Plays a dragon in Uhre and a whale elsewhere. "Work hours are nuts" (how well we know about that!) so may be an occasional visitor.

Suzie is about to start reading the books. She's done a lot of RP both before and in SL. She lives in GMT so may have trouble fitting to our time (but might join with Dezy and R'iss to be a European contingent?). She's like to start in a humble role, perhaps fishing or apprentice in Healing, and see what she fits into.

Fayleen has read all the books many times. She's RP'd frequently. She originally applied last year but was grabbed by RL and is just coming back. She's not sure what role she'd prefer - holder, harper, dragon rider, and so forth.

Ian is Fayleen's SL partner, has read some of the books, has some RP experience, might be interested in Harper or Smith roles.

2015-12-13 (business)

Finances:
   Are still good, tier on the 15th will be covered.

News:
   Star will be missing for a while; dead PC and moving. Vesi's likely to be off until after Christmas. Jayce will be visiting family for Christmas week and may not have much SL access. John will be here more, for personal reasons.
   Vee has "been messing with Tyl's greeter again. Very soon, those who try to build houses there will be in for a nasty surprise." And there was rejoicing.

RP:
   New members Fayleen and Ian are looking for people to RP with, weekdays 3-6 PM SLT.

SL SF Con:
   News from Vee: "
This Sim (18,96,469)
- this is where the sci-fi con's convention map is... off to the side is a 'chalet' with an Xmas tree. Look around the tree for presents, a new one every day. The tree is kinda interesting, too. Wink

"

2015-12-06 (RP)

Finances:
   ... are good, Vee paid up our ads at NCI, RPC and WoRP last week. Next sim tier is the HS's on the 15th, still covered. And Vee has interviewS tomorrow.

New member:
   Fayleen Bellios joined Friday. She's read all the books many times, has RP experience, hasn't settled on a role.

Turnover:
   We seem to have settled on January 3, which is also Rodney's rezday, subject to seeing how everyone's doing.

Possible classes:
   Jayce created a good looking green dragon, and might be "volunteered" to teach a class about how she did it.
   Harper Teachmaster Simile asked about interest in an instruments class, Mikki Miles Ensemble. She can loan the instruments.

Unwelcome visitors:
   Vee returned a bunch of Russian prims this week. and banned one guy. The "Tyl Experience" seems to have reduced their numbers, although some just moved to Etamin.

2015-11-29 (business)

Finances:
   Full-sim tiers and Thuban's rent are paid; Homestead-sim tiers, due on the 15th, are covered. But Vee's still between jobs.

Memorial service for Anne:
   Our remembrance yesterday gathered a few people, human and dragon.

General discussion:
   Discussed RP themes, and events, and recruiting, and publicity. Speculated about putting something up in one of the social media groups.
   M'thos had done some updates to the website, putting in GPoP specific info.
   Caledon has started a basic RP class.

Afternoon schedule:
   Vee's RP class at 1, off-the-cuff RP at 2.

2015-11-22 (RP)

Finances:
   ...are ok, full tiers are due on the 28th, and our domains got renewed.

Experiences, per Vee:
   Agreeing to an Experience grants permission to scripts on the sim or land that have been set to use that 'experience'. But the experience request persists - once you've granted it once, it doesn't go away unless you go into your viewer menu and un-grant it.
   And scripts can check if you've accepted an 'experience', and boot you if you haven't. The Tyl script is just checking, for now, but I might add a teleport home later. And then auto-attach a temp hud or something, which might be used to advertise the sims, and tp anyone who rezzes something while not in one of our groups to some space upstairs... Anyone who rezzes a few hundred prims can have everything returned and be sent home & banned *without* asking for permissions.
   Anyway, still working on all that. Need to make sure no-one in our security database and with experience accepted can be booted. But curious if just getting that big permissions window will deter some of our Russian friends.
   [how does it work for those that have 'rez in land group' enabled in viewer?] No difference. Scripts can't return anything rezzed in the land group, and anyone with landgroup rights should be in the greeter database anyway. (Once I fix the broken greeters in Kuma & Shaula.) That's one reason I'm using Tyl - its greeter is working properly, just doesn't have the 'add user' functionality of the full sim greeters.
   My intention is to keep avoiding land perms... I want people able to rezz, but set a limit on how much & return stuff that's left behind when visitors - not players - leave. And keep shopping bags out of the RP area.
   [People who have prims in Gianfar but have left the Groups] are still in the database, their stuff is still in the groups. Objects rezzed in a group don't lose that group just because you give it up.. coding that would be a nightmare for LL, and cause a lot of complaints.

Memorial:
   Yesterday was the anniversary of Anne's going between, which we normally mark with a small ceremony. But we missed it this year. We'll do a ceremony next Saturday, 2pm SLT, which is 5pm ET, 10pm BST, 11pm CET.

RP:
   Decided to be informal today, just pick-up RP, as it didn't appear that many would be around.

2015-11-15 (business)

Finances:
   HS tiers and adboards are paid. Vee added an adboard at World of RP.
   Vee has a few good job leads for this week.

Other business:
   SL SF Con: Vee went to a planning meeting yesterday, and grabbed a booth - in her own name, not Gianfar's; we and Pandora are skipping the con this year. But the Con supports RFL so she wants to participate and would welcome help, especially for building.
   Question about the greeter: Is the registration box (under the table in the Dome) working? When Liriel tried to register, it kept saying "Fail."
   John's schedule: he can make meetings now, but not RP. He's off work on Fridays and Saturdays, and should be able to be online about 5ish the other days; also 3-5 SLT Fridays.

RP:
   Vee and Vesi plan to get through how Vee "steals her from the Lower caverns so she can waste her time in the Hold. <giggles>" They're thinking of starting in the Rest, at 2 or soon after Vee's class gets out. Weyrleader S'ar will try to shame the Lord Holder into a deal.
   The Weyrleader has been visiting Harper Hall more often, also flying with a few Riders to the northern part of the Island more often. There is a reason, to be discovered.

2015-11-08 (RP)

Finances:
    Tiers are up to date, HS tier due on the 15th is covered, we're up to date on renters. Vee's still job hunting.

Visitors:
   Colin invited a lady who was in the fields of Tyl to take her prims with her when she left. When he returned later, she was gone but he had to Return a particle generator and a pose stand. Today he reminded two Russian(?) furries who were 2500m above Kuma not to leave any prims here; and they didn't. Discussed what we could do about the increasing frequency of folks using us for a sandbox. We can't auto-return prims from non-members because many parts of Gianfar were made by people who left long ago. Vee and Wyn will discuss the matter.

RP:
   Cynianne, who's been gone for several months, has left our Groups and isn't planning to return. Ayla will choose Rodney as her human.
   Vesi's asked for a transfer to the Hold, and we're planning on roleplaying her being added to the Lady's personal staff, today. There was much speculation about building some RP around political intrigue.
   Jade (txep'ongokx) is interested in doing some weaving and might move into the Weaver room across from the Council Chamber, or elsewhere in the Hold. Vesi and maybe Zircon displayed interest.

News:
   Last chance to see Wyn's Halloween build: it will be taken down today.
   Dezy is on a long recovery from surgery, hoping to avoid going back to hospital.

2015-11-01 (business)

Convened with grouches about the transition to Standard Time, and the fact that the U.S. flipped a week after the U.K., garbling schedules as usual. The Threadfall rezzers have been updated (Kuma) or will be updated by noon (Shaula).

Finances:
   Full sim tiers are paid, none of the triple-billing from last time. HS tiers are covered. Vee will renew our ads today.

News:
   Vee *may* be updating Thread and the tipjars this week, depending on time, interviews, and stuff.
   We have Harper applicants, Bryi and Ardrhys.
   Wyn built a Halloween site; Vee will send an LM via group Notice. We'll have a DJ or streaming music.

2015-10-25 (RP)

LL problems:
   While Vee was clearing some visitors out of Tyl's sky, and taking care of the houses they'd built, we talked about other problems: LL claiming that "There was a problem charging your payment method." (easy enough to correct once one knows how), and LL not allowing someone to log on at all despite the account being OK (cause unknown so far).

Finances:
   Vee's between jobs again but tier is OK for now and she already has interviews lined up.

Halloween:
   We're not joining the LL event, not enough time to prepare. We'll still have a party next Sunday, details tba.

New(er) members:
   Ardrhys, new alt of Taliesin, is intended to be an apprentice Harper.
   Looks as if Bel and Phoenix are pairing up as dragon and rider.

RP:
   Wordmaster Ludo's been gone for a few months, up in the hills researching (exchanging songs and stories with) Colin's "cousins." Can we build something from that?

2015-10-18 (business)

Finances:
   Up to date, all tiers paid. Full-sim payments are due on the 28th as usual.

News:
   LL is publicizing a "Creepy Crawl 2015" on Dec 30th. We might get in on that.
   Our Halloween party is set for Nov 1st; Wyn is working on a build for it. Halloween with Threadfall?? We're recruiting a Threadproof DJ.

2015-10-11 (RP)

Finances continue sound.

And we had some bad news - Moira's going to be around a lot less, her RL is getting gnarly. And Nekome could really use some folks to RP with, if anyone can get on on Friday mornings, or even Friday daytimes (SLT). If she's not insim, feel free to ping her through the group.

Taliesin compiled a Notecard of landmarks around the island. That led to a discussion of what's where and what used to be where. The need for boats to reach Dolphin / Seacraft Hall led to a discussion of where we ought to have boat rezzers. Zircon will offer copies of the lateen skiff that Ludo made long ago, after beating the permissions into shape.

Star proposed setting up a classroom in the Weyr. We discussed the best place for it.

Vee suggested that we go through all the LM's on Tal's list, visit each one and check them out. We could list details such as the rooms in Healers', Harpers', Smithcraft, and the Weyr. We started that project, to be continued next week.

2015-10-04 (business)

Finances:
   Full sim tiers were paid last week. Twice, thanks to a glitch in LL's bookkeeping, but they did refund Vee's overpayment. Thuban's rent, and the Homestead tiers, and the next full-sim tier are covered... assuming LL get their software straightened out.

Introductions:
   We went around the table introducing ourselves to Vesi and Taliesin, our newest members. Had a very social meeting. Speculated on finding some Pern music to add to our medieval stream.

News:
   Katrine and her daughter are recovering from the auto accident that put them in the hospital a couple of months ago.
   As we discussed acquainting new (and perhaps older) members with places on the island, I doodled a list in the margin of my scroll. I'd be happy to send the resulting Notecard to anyone who asks for it.
   The group sponsoring the SL SF Con has changed name, not membership, to "Sci-Fi alliance." Next year's Con is still to be almost entirely on space stations, so Gianfar and Pandora aren't planning to participate.

Halloween:
   Discussed a Halloween event. As the RL event will be on a Saturday, we could have a Gather in the RP zone and a Halloween scene on a skybox.

2018-09-27 (RP)

Finances:
   Thuban tier is paid up, so are our ads. Full sim tier is due tomorrow and is covered. So we'll be here for another month.

RP themes:
   Weyrleader S'ar is still recovering from her injuries and won't be able to fly Thread until Healer Rodney releases her for duty. We'll probably use that as a theme for the afternoon's RP session.

Last Edit: January 03, 2016, 09:23:32 PM by Colin

Colin

Reply #16 on: January 03, 2016, 09:26:03 PM Colin's meeting notes (book 17)

Member
Posts: 68
Logged

[continued in book 18[

2016-02-14 (business)

We opened with chatting as usual, and welcomed our newest member Foeronia [who later decided to make a new character for Gianfar: Tzipipaz].

Finance:
   HS tiers are due tomorrow and covered. Thuban rent is up to date. Ads are up to date. Full-sim tier is due at the end of the month... keep fingers crossed.

Scripting:
   Vee plans to update all the tip jars this week. In future, tip jars on all sims should display a running total for all donations to all jars. The jars will forward donation data to the Web site.
   Vee's planning to activate the new greeter code on Thuban soon. It'll send unwanted visitors and their prims home, and put them in the land-ban list for 30 minutes. But for testing, it'll just tell Vee what it would do if it were allowed to.

RFL:
   Our "Dragons for a Cure" team needs to have at least 5 members, and it'd be nice for them to be different "players" rather than alts. If you want to join the team, you need to sign up on the RFL website and look for the Dragons for A Cure team. The team page is
http://main.acsevents.org/site/TR/?team_id=1993154&pg=team&fr_id=74428

Valentine's Gather after RP:
   Discussed decorating the "3500" skybox for a Valentine's Day Gather to be held at 4pm SLT.

Weyrling classes:
   Weyrlingmaster R'iss plans to be here every Sunday for the foreseeable future so people can IM her if they want her for anything specific. Otherwise she will be available to do a class in RP mode. She'll post notices in the Shaula Weyr and Dragons of Pern groups.

RP practice:
   We got into a discussion of the practice RP sessions that were held in the early days of Gianfar. The idea was for people to be somewhat randomly assigned roles to play, and a situation would be set up for them to deal with. The sessions wouldn't be connected with the main RP. We may well try that this afternoon, on Thuban; watch for a Notice. Thuban has a bamboo forest at the moment, we'll likely be exploring that.

2016-02-07 (RP)

Finances:
   ... are still good, HS tiers are due in a week and are covered.

Russian "invasion":
   No one had seen Russian furries in Gianfar in the past week.

SL SF Con:
   Vee received a supportive message from the Companions' Guild about the Con, with the hope that we'd participate. Summarizing: Gianfar and Pandora had been very active in the Cons for several years. This year we were told that we weren't science fiction because we aren't on space stations. We decided not to participate as groups, and have stood by that decision. Ironically, Gianfar was originally invited because we're a bridge between the medi-fantasy sims and the sci-fi sims.
   Vee has taken a booth in her own name as she still supports the idea of the Con and the RFL drive that it supports. Gianfar has formed an RFL team and is welcome to collaborate with the Companions' Guild.
   The RFL kick-off date is March 6th.

How To Train Your Dragon - or Rider:
   Vee: "How long a dragon stays a hatchling is entirely up to the dragon & rider. And how long they stay adolescent is... up to Riss.
   "As far as I'm concerned, the sooner you're all qualified for the fighting wing, the better. At the same time, have as much fun with your pre-graduation RP as you like. And please do try to beat Randy's course times, it means I get to fly more... I have a very competitive rider."

Harper classes:
   Z'ron is available to teach the classes by appointment; she's usually not in-world during the week otherwise.

RP:
   Nothing settled for today, several people had conflicting activities.
   Might do something OOC for Valentine's Day, in the Gather Grounds at 3500 meters above Shaula.
   Thinking of a weyrling class RP on the 21st.

2016-01-31 (Gather Sunday)

Finances:
   Full-sim tiers have been paid, on schedule.

Wyn:
   Is doing a lot better.

RFL:
   Discussed a name for our team, as registration time is imminent. "Dragons for a Cure" came out on top.
   Araminia will be working on the RFL weekend in July, and is looking for support. She has a tribute band who is willing to come over and work with us for fundraisers.

John:
   Has a new job with little weekend work and no Sundays.

SF Con:
   Vee is still thinking of putting on a dragon themed dance for the Milky Way Cabaret.

RP:
   This is the 5th Sunday of the month, hence a Gather Day. We also have M'thos & Ademith's graduation to Rider status to celebrate and five new weyrlings. We'll use the new Gather grounds, at 3500 meters.

Weyrling training:
   As we have five pairs, it's permissible to do some tasks with whoever's available; but in the long run, it's better to do as many with *your* dragon/rider as possible. Task #16 is to teach a class; the subject would be chosen in discussion with the WeyrlingMaster or Assistant WeyrlingMaster. It gives everyone a chance to take on a leadership role even if only for one class.

Watchwhers:
   Angel has been exploring the idea of RPing a watchwher. Folks liked the idea. Whers would be NPC characters, so anyone can play one. We discussed how and where to find a suitable or moddable avatar.

2016-01-24 Impressions:

Handa/green Taissath
Suzie/gold Aramyth
Adara/blue Bodnath
Sandie/green Jayceth
Zircon/green Hwyleth

This may well have been the largest Hatching ever... and during the day we received three applications.

2016-01-24 (RP)

This was the largest meeting in recent memory (and that goes back a long time): at least 23 people.

Finances:
   Are good. All our ads and Thuban rental were paid yesterday. Full sim tier is due this week and is covered, but Vee's still seeking a job.
   LL are again allowing the sale of grandfathered sims. As Sylv (Thuban's owner of record) pointed out to Vee. When finances permit, we may see if we can buy Thuban back.

Wyn's status:
   She's doing a lot better. Her mother's funeral was yesterday; Vee said "as funerals go, it was very nice and not at all depressing."

Harpers:
   The three harper apprentices and Liriel/Zircon will be revising the structure of Harper Hall rules and classes to make it easier and more fun. If anyone is interested in joining them in that process talk to one of her. (sorry, couldn't resist that)
   Zircon just made a new scroll rack, as (some of?) the racks in Harpers were buggy.

Weyrling tasks:
   Weyrlingmaster R'iss passed a list of tasks to Varian and Ortath for review.

Hatching:
   Searched Candidates are Riss's responsibility until the actual hatching. Ortath will run the hatching and impression. Afterwards, all pairs who haven't passed training are in Riss's care, including Riss's own pair.
   Riss's player can't often be Riss and Handa at the same time. Confuses her and overloads her computer. M'thos is Assistant WM and also in charge when R'iss is not here.
   Vee will try to hand out DoP & Weyr titles as people hatch/Impress, but feel free to poke her if you don't get an IM from her. Riss will probably be too busy.
   Feel free to invite your friends to come watch. Visitor rules apply. We know from experience, this sim can cope with a hundred avis at once. Lags like crazy, but it can.
   Have folk arrive by 2:00. Aim to have eggs cracking by 2:30, but essentially as soon as we're all here. Ortath knows the hatching order and will tell the eggs when to hatch.
   We'll RP in Chat. There are chat repeaters. NO SHOUTING!
   All Candidates should have robes by the time you read this.

Watchwhers:
   Briefly discussed them, with the possibility of someone playing one. There's one that was made long ago by the person who made our dragons - that one's not scripted (yet).

Shaula restart:
   Vee planned to do a sim restart to have a clean environment for the hatching.

2016-01-17 (business)

Interesting meeting: about 20 people including two canines, a feline, a wolf, a dragon, a firelizard, and a purple bunny (at last count, repeatedly updated during the meeting).

Wyn:
   Her mother died last night, not unexpectedly. Wyn will probably be in Utah for the funeral next weekend. Two of Wyn's SL friends also died recently. But her health is improving.

Finances:
   Tier for Etamin and rent for Thuban are late because of Wyn's problems. But the money's there and Vee will take care of the payments.

Greeter scripting:
   Good news: Vee has a working script to - hopefully - chase housebuilders off Tyl. It's not in place yet; she hopes to install it soon. If it works, she'll extend it to Shaula and Etamin. Kuma and Thuban will have to fend for themselves for a week.
   The scripting for a gadget to be put in the Dome to summon guides isn't ready yet but shouldn't take too long.

SL SF Con:
   Vee received a notecard about the Milky Way Cabaret, a regular attraction at the Con. Perhaps we could have dragons dancing, or a small aerial show. Anyone interested in dancing or choreographing should contact her.

RP: Search & Impression
   We have three or maybe five or six pairs. Eggs and Candidates who haven't contacted Weyrlingmaster R'iss should do so, so that we'll know who to expect and who's paired with whom.
   So today's RP is simple - unSearched candidates get Searched, Searched candidates can start journeying to the Weyr. You don't get a lift on a dragon... queen candidates only.
   Dragon pairs who've notified R'iss can begin training straight away. RP may have to wait until Impression, learning how to brake using mountains can start at once.
   We don't require hatched dragons to remain hatchlings, because we don't actually have Turns to teach & feed you. Your choice whether to grow up immediately or play hatchling for a while. You just can't play adult until R'iss passes you. But playing a hatchling can be fun.

2016-01-10 (RP)

Thanks to unscheduled LL maintenance, many of us were Ruths, clouds, or disembodied heads.

Finances:
   ...Continue good.

News:
   Wyn is well but having vision problems.

Informing new members:
   We tried to discuss R'iss's new-member handout, limited by the Notecard-sharing system being flaky.
   Moira posted a New Player Checklist on the Web, back in '14, and that was accessible despite LL's best efforts to not work:
http://www.novipeaks.com/public/index.php?topic=459.msg2202
   We discussed the need to inform new members, by notecard or class. Moira may be able to resume offering Tuesday morning classes.

RP at "other" times:
   What about RP sessions besides the Sunday 2 PM one? No one seemed to be showing up for the dolphin RP, Saturday 8 AM. We didn't think anyone was showing up for Weyr RP at 7 AM Fridays. It wasn't clear whether there was still Weyr RP Thursday evenings.
   We'll start trying sending "I'm here, let's play" messages to GPoP and seeing if people respond.

Helping new members:
   We discussed ways to help folks who are new not just to Gianfar but to SL. "One thing a new player doesn't get, is help on where to get help." We ought to answer quick questions "here," and refer SL basics and complex questions to NCI. It would be a good idea to have NCI in one's Picks: Kuula (151,209,29) or NCIsland (120,83,23)
   Vee will talk with Wyn about resuming work on the "page a guide" project to let folks "push a button" in the Welcome Center to ask for a guide.

Search:
   We'd planned to do a Search this afternoon. We have potential Candidates, but need Search riders and dragons. Also needed to have SL working! And Weyr staff too - no Weyrwoman, missing Weyrleader; at least Weyrlingmaster R'iss is still here. We'll try having weyrlings M'thos and Ademith do the Search; and "Assuming we can rezz dragons with a full complement of wings and most of their limbs, Varth will be here."

NCI RP class...
   ...cancelled for today, thanks to SL problems.

2016-01-03 (business)

Wyn:
   ...isn't feeling well just now, and her mother's quite ill. Vee will let us know more as things develop.

Finances:
   Full sim tiers got paid on the 28th. HS tiers for the 15th are covered. Vee needs to check on Thuban, thinks it's due, but that Novi has it covered. And all our ads are paid up.
   Vee has a final interview Tuesday afternoon; by bath time, she should know if she has a new job.

Visitors:
   [I rarely quote people directly in these notes, but this matter was too important to paraphrase. -Colin]
   Vee said, "Tyl, which is being my lab for security software, is about to get more interesting for our Russian friends. I've been testing a greeter upgrade on an offsim parcel, and it's about done... In future, you will need to accept that Experiences prompt, or you'll be sent home. If you rezz more than 100 prims, and you're not in the security system or wearing one of our group tags, you'll be sent home and banned for half an hour, and I'll get an email about it. More than 10 prims gets you a warning and your prims returned. Leaving gets your prims returned. I'm working on something to detect vehicles, as I've returned a lot of cars and motorbikes recently.
   "If that works on Tyl, I'll expand it to Etamin and Shaula. Kuma needs some tweaks, as Wyn doesn't want visitors to her shop area to get the experience prompt - which isn't required for the prim checker part, anyway. Tyl and Etamin, though, will have an added feature - rezz prims at ground level, without security recognising you, and they'll be returned, and you'll be tp'd to a 'changing room' platform. That *does* require Experience permissions, so failing to accept them first gets you sent home.
   "Thuban's also going to have a special version, for now. Wyn's using Thuban as a lab cum factory, so she has a lot of visitors going through there. In the meantime I've banned one housebuilder, returned 2 cars and a motorbike, and any number of shopping bags, from Tyl and Etamin, this week.
   "To repeat: I don't mind people unpacking shopping (clothes, anyway) here as long as it doesn't interfere with RP or violate privacy. It keeps the sims busy and awake, and we get good word of mouth. But we're not a sandbox. we don't have the free primmage, and Wyn and I were trained by Soo, we're lag nazis. Extra scripts are NOT welcome. So visitors should take their shopping bags with them. Anyone who wants to rezz prims, can pay us rent."

Harpers:
   There has been little interest in harpering lately. The ensemble instruments from Mikki Miles don't work on Ludo/Simile's tablet. So she'd like to find someone who enjoys playing ensemble music and give them the instruments, in exchange for their services in setting up ensemble music for events. There are a few people who know how to play them.
   She'd also like to give recognition to people who would like to perform but don't want to apprentice to Harpers. She suggested that we have a Harper student cord, just the blue cord with a different but musical badge, for student harpers. The 'student' concept has been in Gianfar plans for a long time.
   She will continue giving SingEZ classes because she just found out her scroll racks are all broken and have to be rebuilt from scratch, and all the songs rewritten to match the SingEZ script. She'll teach classes by appointment at other times than after the 3 PM Fall on Sundays.

RFL:
   Vee got a Notecard from Azdra: "After asking you about Gianfar doing RFL this year, I have been doing some research. There is a castle/house building contest that I did last year. I would like to ask for some help for it. There is a Dragonriders of Pern theme area that is still open. I would like to see if you and I and possibly Wyn if she has time would help me design a build for it. It is May 23 to June 18.
   "Also, RFL event weekend is approaching and the theme this year is Once upon a Cure. I would like to get with you and brainstorm something "mystical" for it. The dates for RFL weekend are in July this year. I'm not sure of the dates yet. I would also like your permission to put up a RFL kiosk somewhere on Gianfar for donations."
   Gianfar has a long history of supporting RFL - before Vee even joined SL, these sims were used as an RFL venue. So the kiosk was approved. We've also hosted concerts and events for RFL in the past. If anyone - of *any* team - wants to use our sims, we'll do our best to help. Anyone with any good ideas, please drop them on Azdra or Vee; or if willing to help out, talk to Azdra.
   Reference: http://relayforlifeofsecondlife.org/

Rentals:
   Vee restated our rental policy: Wyn and Vee love renters (as long as they keep paying). They run the rental 'businesses' separately, but in fact all rents go into Novi's pot. Except where they use them to offset US$ transactions - they save a bundle in fees that way. All of which goes to Gianfar. So they have the same terms. L$700, 1400 or 2100 for 25, 50 or 75 prims, payable monthly by the 27th. The only major difference is, Shaula already has rental locations - weyrs. Kuma, Tyl and Etamin don't - but they'll build for anyone who finds a place they'd like to live. Also... they do NOT require rentals to be in theme. Just, not visible from RP if they aren't. And they DON'T limit Weyr rentals to riders/dragons, or Hold/Hall rentals to crafters/holders... if you want to rent a space IC, they'll find an IC reason for you to be there, if at all possible. And they do rent to non-players. Vee's been told we don't, but she inherited non-player rentals from Soo, and "I'm sure I'd remember changing the policy... probably..."

Impressions:
   We have two pairs almost ready for hatching, but who've been out of touch with one another over the holidays. Absent an active queen, the mating flight will have to be OOV, or we use the from-the-future story again. But Vee was thinking, maybe Search next week - starting the 10th - followed by Impression as the Sunday RP on the 17th? Any dragon-rider pair that have passed out of training and happen to be free can participate in the Search. And remember, OOC visitors are encouraged... we have a big hatching ground. Probably to be discussed further this afternoon.

Turnover:
   We'll use Mist's build at 3500 meters. We'll have a couple of SingEZ songs / stories, maybe some instrumental music. There are dance balls, seating, and a game table; maybe some games. The ones Ludo has are unavailable because her Inventory is so large that she can't log in.

Last Edit: February 21, 2016, 09:35:47 PM by Colin

Colin

Reply #17 on: February 21, 2016, 09:37:06 PM Colin's meeting notes (book 18)

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Posts: 68
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2016-03-27 (business)

Threadfall:
   Thanks to the time change, Thread falls in Kuma at the start and end of the meeting rather than in the middle.

Finances:
   Full-sim tiers are due tomorrow and will probably be put off a week as Vee's hoping for a job offer. Everything else is up to date, including rent for Thuban.

Harpers:
   Journeyman Moira is progressing. She will mentor Ardrhys and Tzipi. She has been teaching Harper classes. Master Simile wanted to remind folks that Harper classes are open to all. Moira will be announcing them.
   If Hwyleth isn't here during RP time to continue weyrling training with Z'ron, Simile will teach the second class in the 'event to story to song' series.
   Moira is just finishing up the basic classes right now, with the character background class left for next week. Then she'll be doing some new classes and explorations. She's planning to do the 'event' series and the drum class.
   Weyrlingmaster R'iss and Master Simile will discuss classes for visitors to the Barracks.

SF Con:
   The con seemed to be doing well, raising record amounts of cash, etc. Vee urged everyone to go visit (especially her booth, of course). There was to be an all-day party at the Con. The last public performance of this year's Milky Way Cabaret was to be at 9:00 tonight. She was still to be the second R2D2 on the left.
   If all goes well, Gianfar will be back in the Con next year. Most of the sites whose representatives said that Pern is not SF have died. Vee thinks we might try to take on a bigger role next year. The 'all on one level' Con build was a nice idea but lagged as much as any SLB.
   This link showed up in Cabaret chat during the meeting: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_uxyyirANAA
It's coverage of at least some of the acts.

SL Birthday:
   SL13B is coming. Unlucky for some? http://www.slcommunitycelebration.info/ - it'll be in June. Theme is "The Shared Adventure". So Vee thinks we have a fair chance of getting in Wink

.

Flamethrower:
   At Una's request, a cabinet was to be put in the Weyr kitchen cave after the meeting.

RP:
   We supposed that not many people would be around on Easter Sunday.
   R'iss reported that most werylings were on tasks one and two so arranging for them to meet and RP with Masters & Holders etc. was her current priority. The goal was for them to meet all the people they need to within RP situations.    They did some flying - well, gliding - with Ortath last week, which was fun. They might focus on gliding, feeding and bathing today, just a general fun thing for whoever is here. Or perhaps cleaning the kitchen.
   The theme might be werylings doing chores and being interrupted by Harpers looking for one of their own. (The Harper assigned to the Weyr had gone missing.)
   The weyrlings will meet the Lady Holder on April 10 and the Harpers on May 8, if all goes well. 'Reserving' those dates will give people time to plan.

2016-03-20 (RP)

Finances:
   Vee reported: "Finances remain stable. Full sim tier is due in 8 days, we'll probably pay in 2 weeks 'cos I'm kinda hoping I'll have a job by then... Have not one, but two interviews in final stages. If I don't, advance warning, it's going to be tight."

UFS sim catastrophe:
   Azdra was dealing with a major disruption to her UFS (Star Trek) group in OpenSim. Details were very complicated but basically a whole sim was removed. LL handles sim ownership differently; that couldn't likely happen to Gianfar.

SL, Windows 10, and Firestorm
   Z'ron just had to upgrade to Windows 10 on a tablet (Microsoft Surface Pro 3). The Linden viewer worked but with illegibly small text. The latest Firestorm worked with small but legible text.

SF Con:
   Vee sent a Notice with the LM of her booth, "Which is 99% Jade." It's near Jade's actual booth. Be sure not to touch the dragon eggs, lest you be squished.
   Vee will be dancing in the Milky Way Cabaret... tonight at midnight, Wed & Sat at noon, next Sun at midnight.

Furry visitors:
   We had a couple of furries in Tyl, near the orchard, Friday & Saturday. Canine-ish appearance; one male one female. Colin told them they were welcome to look around but not to build anything. Vee was going to check around but hadn't seen anything major lately.

Threadfall vs. DST
   As the fog of the time change clears or thickens, Thread will fall on odd hours, e.g. around 3:30 in Shaula and 3:50 or so in Kuma. That will give more time for Weyr RP before Fall.

RP:
   Probably weyrling training and Weyr RP, possibly a harper class overlapping Threadfall.

Harpers:
   Harpers should tell Z'ron (= Learningmaster Tristin) what requirements for promotion they have met; what class would they would like to teach; and what event they would like to report on that they did not attend. As a suggestion: "We have been accused of not keeping our history well. I've written songs about it, but most people don't know how it used to be. I'd like to get harpers to interview the old timers [who are still active] and write stories and songs about what they remember." Some of the old timers besides Z'ron (= Ludo) are Vee, Wyn, John, Rodney, Riss, Colin, and of course Soo.
   Also, harpers should consider what classes we need most, and discuss that later.

2016-03-13 (business)

SL SF Con:
   txep reported that parcels at the Con are available now for purchases, and the dragon cave is already in place. Vee had claimed that plot last night.

Finances:
   Tier has been paid. Next payment is due Tuesday.

RP schedule:
   Weyrlingmaster R'iss suggested that she put together a weyrling weekly schedule as she had heard complaints that people still felt there was not enough structure.
   She also had an idea that alternate weeks she and M'thos should maybe take it in turn to lead the weyrling RP. That way she would be able to log as Handa and spend time with her new dragon.
   She also thought that as Harpers can only do their classes during Sunday RP time we should make that part of the timetable for Sunday programme and that we should also timetable in the 'free' RP time like we did a couple of weeks ago which gives people a chance to try out new roles, scenarios etc.
   But Z'ron didn't know yet what the Harpers could do. Sunday was not convenient for them. She noted that Moira had been holding classes @ 11:59pm for one or two apprentices.

Attracting members:
   We could try posting in the Looking for RP group more often than once a year.
   We could have a Gather every month or two, rather than quarterly, and invite people to it.
   We could offer walking/riding tours, with live tour guides, and a history of the island. Guiding some tours could be an optional apprentice / weyrling / journeyman task.
   The weyrlings are supposed to do a map of the sims, with important points. They could do tours as part of that.
   Someone could lead a geography / history class for weyrlings.

Griefer:
   We had a griefing on Tyl last week. For 2 days, until Vee noticed it... a single object, meshed to be hard to rez unless you were on top of it, filling the sim with temp mesh objects that caused you to crash if you looked closely. Looked like thin blue vertical lines. She found the main object through sim tools - it just wouldn't show in area search - and returned it; took several minutes before the temps were derezzed. (That delay may have been the sim or her viewer, there were a *lot* of them.) And the perp is estate-banned, of course. GeometryCat, for reference.

Next week's meeting:
   Vee suggested that we meet at her SL SF Con site. It's hers, not Gianfar's, so Gianfar wouldn't be officially participating in the Con. She'll post a Notice before the meeting.

2016-03-06 (RP)

Finances:
   Vee: "All our bills are due today, except for HS tiers and Kuma - HS's are due next Monday, Kuma was paid yesterday. To the best of my knowledge, all current bills, including tiers, are covered. I'll find out if that's true when I pay all the ads & tiers after this meeting..."

Sim security:
   txep asked about defending against griefers; a friend's sim is being attacked repeatedly. Also, LL is investigating whether a new type of "simkiller" is being used against an NCI sim.
   One can get a 'sim scanner,' something that scans a sim and makes a note of all scripted objects not owned by a whitelist of people & groups.
   These days, scripts can return objects not in the landgroup or belonging to the landowner. But don't scripts still work if they're active before you TP in? Scripts don't go totally off. It's called 'script danger', officially - a bunch of script functions & events are disabled, including in already-running scripts. Rules are different for attachments and rezzed, but some things, like touch, are disabled in both. The landowner (or group, if deeded) is exempt, as Vee remembers it.
   A lot of griefer tools use prim settings - particles are set by scripts, but in sim settings, so, once set, they aren't affected if the script is removed.
   Vee's defensive scripting seems to be working on Thuban; she'll decide whether it's ready to go live on Shaula and Etamin.
    Caledon Uni has a course in scripting, but it's mainly geared to newbies. MT Mimulus does one at Helping Haven that's good. NCI runs scripting classes, Vee is one of the sub teachers; the Basics class has just been updated.

RFL & SF Con:
   Starts today. Team Dragons for the Cure tipjars are going to start appearing in appropriate areas.
   Vee wanted to mention txep's outstanding work in unexpectedly creating a dragon cave, which will debut on Vee's booth for Sci-Fi Con.
   Vee's thinking about dragon racing, for money raising and fun. She might try adding an 'RFL' mode to our main course, and maybe restricting it to pairs. Then anyone could compete.
    Builders' Brewery will have a speed-building contest - pay to enter and no L$ prizes so that all the funds will go to RFL. Prize items will be donated. And they'll be auctioning off build classes for one-on-one lessons.

Weyrling RP:
   The weyrlings are all at different stages of training. Two pairs have completed task one though the rider needs to hand hers in. One has completed at least half of hers but it's not handed in yet. There's one pair that R'iss has not seen since Hatching.
   R'iss can set up individual RP sessions that address some of the tasks they need to do. With them all at different stages with the Tasks it is otherwise difficult to set up beneficial group RP.
   Vee is putting out a notecard dropper in the barracks, specifically for weyrling task reports.
   txep's concern is that keeping everyone "in sync" discourages everyone - the ones that finish quickly have to wait before they can move on, and the ones that take more time feel like they're lagging behind and holding everyone back. Vee saw no need to keep the weyrlings in sync.
   R'iss has mentioned regularly that both she and M'thos are available if people want help with specific things. Trouble is, nobody seems to be coming forward. She will offer a group RP every two weeks. If people want help with anything specific they can IM her. She'll also issue NCs every two weeks with task reminders. That might give procrastinators a push.

RP:
   We'll probably do some weyrling training.

2016-02-28 (business)

Finances:
   Full sim tiers are due today but we'll delay payment for a few days. Vee and Wyn may start asking for help if Vee doesn't land a job this week. The Homestead tiers on the 15th should be covered, though, so we're here for another month.

UFR:
   Shanna had looked at several of the sims and said they all look interesting.

SF con:
   Vee's too busy looking for work, and will probably abandon her booth and dance projects.

RP:
   Probably weyrling training.

Classes:
   Discussed but didn't quite decide on holding more classes; watch for Notices.

2016-02-21 (RP)

Finances:
   Full sim tier is due the 28th, we may delay paying a week but it's still covered. Vee will be renewing the ads today. Thuban rent should be due & is covered.
   Rentals are due on or before the 27th.
   Vee is still interviewing.

Intersim RP proposal:
   Ainemari Flanagan co-owns Ynys Seamaide and Mer Sea with Hywl. She said: Reality is that a lot of independent sims have 'quiet hours' - most of the huge sims, unless it's an event, are 2 dots in houses.scattered though 10-20 sims. What I would propose, is we join together and instead of being two dots in a fairly empty sim work on coordinating visits. We RP here and visit like I did for the hatch- talking to the eggs. You folks come pause for drinks and recover from your long flights- between "between."
   We make sure events don't overlap and sort of do light RP.. without impacting Pern [she is a HUGE Anne fan] and you do the same with those of us (there are 5 other sims) who are willing. Say if they need dragons to fly by and scare villagers.. someone here can do that.
   But we work together to improve everyone's experience as a whole. For instance.. I used to love doing bardic visits and telling stories that fit the sims I was visiting. I would like to have a "circuit" where I do that among the five or six that are willing to host. Preschedule dates so you know when and where.
   Seamaide would also like to host dragon races - flying races that are not Gorean tarns. I have the air race to do so.. and can also give that info to you all or simply come here and set up something. But I would like to see that alternate and someone host one the next month- then another sim the following month. We like races and such in Seamaide.....always have some side bets going on. More than once a month gets redundant and boring but with different sims and different scenery I think it could be fun for all.    Also it's not a big strain to host something like that once a month with say a traveling Unity empire market for trade goods. Then each sim hosts the rest to come visit. We keep to our own rules and stories. Visitors are expected to follow your sim's rules, and if they can't then do not visit.
   We already have a group established.. but it's been very very quiet because no one's really taken the initiative. And it's time someone did. But why have an NPC play something when you can borrow a decent RPer from another sim to do it for you? That way we all benefit, we all get RP which leads to more RP.
   I have three sims that would welcome your folks in their taverns and skies anytime you want to stop by and will reciprocate. I can make a title that indicates "visitor from United Fantasy Realms." I have already made a NC with LM's, your rules, everyone else's rules and contacts. Each sim takes their role play to the other to support populating each sim and just for variety and meeting others. (Vee: I pointed Aine at our visitor RP rules last night.)
   We have bards in other places that would get together and host story times. We can attend each other's events like the hatching- which I incorporated into my own RP. I just do not say it was an entirely new world.. it was me "going to another land." [about Hatching:] It was GREAT RP watching those eggs and I had to stop myself from grabbing the little blue.. that one nearly broke my heart. But that is a story Aine will tell - her first time seeing a clutch of dragons hatch. Simply light RP but it was GOOD RP, and I hoped my presence added something for those that were there.
   This would be for the RP sims out there that are not and do not want to be a part of the conglomeration sims [like Gor and Star Trek] so that we can lend support to one another.
   txep'ongokx: Pandora "has three sets of rules, and we do all pass out copies of the rules to everyone." But how to handle schedules with multiple sims or communities?
   Scheduling in the Steamlands: http://aetherchrononauts.org/
   The group is United Fantasy Realms.
   We have a Google calendar. If there's a shared Google calendar somewhere, we can connect the two...
   There are events that we can work together on- like a monthly roving bard circle.. Flying races - Market days. with sim items for UES that are only found in your sim.. Again between five sims that's alternating between them.. set a few events monthly not weekly..
   We'll need rules like "no poaching" - just common sense things to let people know they are welcome to visit but please claim a home base. And as an SF creator and UES dev I can offer stuff for prizes and such at events.
   Vee: "Right now, I'm not seeing anything that would conflict with our visitor or offsim RP rules."
   I know it's a lot to think about. But if it's something you're interested in, please talk about it and think about the possibilities. Your answer does not need to be right now- I would expect you have some things to consider.. and I will hand the list of sims out to you so you can take a look around- etc. before you come to a decision. I personally visited each of them and spoke to sim owners (most of who I knew already) and looked over the rules- there are a few that are on the group list that we won't go to because they just don't figure into our storylines- like the drow sims.. and one that combines star wars with fantasy / steam punk / medieval RP.
   (Question: So if we visit these sims we should wear the UFR alliance group title instead of 'visitor'?) Which is what I will include on the card.. and ask that in the rules we agree on. But again this is "light RP" not sim versus sim.
   Vee: Might be fun to have a [dragon] racing league... just a thought.
   Vee will break with tradition and appoint herself the point person.
   The consensus was that we like the proposal and want to be involved.
   Aine had already mentioned based on Roarke's and Hywl's input that IF this happens- asked other sim owners if they would be open to it and three are "Oh yes please and we will come visit too."

Purring:
   Question was whether dragons "purr" when pleased. The word isn't used in the books, as far as anyone could tell. So in a story I'm writing I'll say that a young dragon "crooned softly" when scritched.

RFL:
Aramyth (aramynia): ok...dates
Paint SL Purple Feb 28-Mar6
Kickoff March 6
1/2 way mark May 14-15
Relay Weekend July 16-17
Wrap up Aug 14

RP:
   Weyrling training today plus whatever happens at the Rest. Weyrlingmaster R'iss has had no Task One notecards handed in yet. So they could do a bathing/oiling/butchering group task (though at least two of them have already done that). Also R'iss was wondering today if we could cover some of the ground they need for Task 2 in RP, then they can write it up in their own words for homework so to speak. Or, if we could cover some dragon anatomy *looks at Rodney* with them? So maybe we do a bit of dragon anatomy & some smattering of Weyr structure. It's a pity there's no Weyrleader - it would be great to have them meet the Weyrleader. (John reported there's no recent news about S'ar.)

Last Edit: March 27, 2016, 07:19:05 PM by Colin

Colin

Reply #18 on: April 03, 2016, 07:47:16 PM Colin's meeting notes (book 19)

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Posts: 68
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[Continued in book 20]

2016-05-15

Finances:
   Finances are good, HS tier went out early this morning (unusually for LL), Thuban & the ads are up to date, next FS tier is covered... so we're here for another month.

Home & Garden show:
   The build opens Friday... which is also RLV concert day here... notices will follow.

SL13B:
   We got an Email from them last week, asking for more details because our description was too much like last year's. So Vee got with Wyn last night and they hammered out a plan... this year, we want to be at sea, on a boat. If we get the water parcel we've asked for, we want to tell the story of a Fall at sea. With the ship rigging for Fall - covering exposed parts with slate, lighting fires, closing hatches - and the option of jumping overboard to be rescued by dolphins, grabbing a flamethrower, or being picked up by a dragon. And, between falls, maybe find some fishing animations for people - throwing nets or gutting fish or something. Could be a GREAT idea... if they accept it.

Qatalina's backstory:
   She's a character that grew out of one Una made up for one of our one-off story rp days. "Got to talking to a couple folks about the character and decided to make it an alt with a fresh story rather than try to add it on to Una (working on her back story for the site too). Mostly this is Una's two-cents in answer to the 'does anyone have a rp idea' weekly question." She sent a notecard to the people at the meeting and will send it to regulars who weren't there. She's hoping once we've had a chance to read it and think about it, it will be a starting point not only to work her in, but for other rp ideas. Vee established that trading ships dock at Dolphin Hold - which is close enough to Gianfar Hold for goods to be moved there, but far enough away to discourage casual exploration by sailors. Una hopes we'll read the backstory (link to Google Docs in the notecard) and suggest lots of ideas for the story.

Party:
   Didn't happen, as Vee was buried in RL. We'll try again next Saturday.

No NCI RP class this afternoon:
   Vee lost a lot of time this week and is going to catch up on coursework. She'll miss our RP time too.

RP:
   The Healer Masters are scheduled to meet the weyrlings today.

2016-05-08

Finances:
    Tiers are all paid, HS tiers on the 15th are covered, ads and the Thuban rent are paid. So we're here for another month.

Unwelcome visitors:
   Wyn removed a huge, ugly house from Tyl last week; other than that we seem to have solved the "Gianfar is a public sandbox" problem.

No RP class today:
   Vee has a coding test to take, part of applying for a job.

Party:
   Vee will be eight years old Tuesday, and that's Dezy's ninth rezday, and John will be 11 on the 30th... so let's have a demon-themed party next weekend. Maybe 3 or 4 pm Saturday?

RP:
   Looks like a musical time around the fire ring in the Weyr bowl. Perhaps the Harpers go to the Weyr to see if any riders, etc., (traders, fishers) are interested in learning a musical instrument - and to perform - outside at the fire ring in the bowl - then we can scramble when thread falls. The Fall should happen in Shaula at 50-55 minutes past odd-numbered hours.

Kuma restart:
   Thread was misbehaving, so Vee set Kuma to restart right after the meeting. We "stood not upon the order of our going, but left at once."

Guitars:
   Una found a Midnight Mania board at Dark Forge - Akhsharumova (204,71,282) - that was giving a Spanish guitar. Several of us popped over there to enter for it.

2016-05-01 (RP)

Finances:
   Vee's current final interview that was scheduled for Monday, finally happened Friday afternoon... she had no idea how she did.
   Wyn has a rental sim, and her tenant is thinking of giving it up. Wyn's considering downgrading it from a HomeStead (US$125/month) to an OS (OpenSpace), and placing it south of Kuma, as extra sea.
   Full sim tiers were paid Friday. Thuban and our ads are due today, Vee intended to be paying them after this meeting. And HS tiers, due on the 15th, are covered.

OS's:
   Discussed Win10 (very mixed reviews) vs. Win7 vs. Linux.

Home & garden design contest build rules:
   Azdra read us the rules. Entry fee is L$10,000; entries must be original, created specifically for this contest.

RFL:
   We're doing another event for that campaign: Friday, May 20th, 6pm. 'Within temptation' (a tribute band) in concert, here. Probably on the 3500 level. Attendance will be open to anyone who wants to attend; this is an RFL event, not a Gianfar one.

RP:
   The pencilled schedule called for general Weyrling RP in the Barracks; but few Weyrings were expected to be around. Next week would've been the Masterharper's visit but it's RP Mother's Day. Journeyman Moira could do an IC Harper class during RP time. Whoever's around can meet in the Rest at 2-2:30 and ad lib.
   We might have visitors from another RP group, to which some of us belong, late some Friday afternoon. Details to be worked out.

2016-04-24 (business)

Finances:
   Full sim tiers are due this week and are covered. Rents are due by Wednesday. Thuban's tier and the ads are covered, and due next week.

Con booths:
   Vee put in an application to SL13B last week. It'll be a while before we hear if we got a booth, although we usually do. The description is: "Visitors will have an adventure! They will be able to ride a dragon (and possibly 'be' a dragon, not decided yet), go 'between', and flame falling Thread (nb. non-phys movement, no prims created or destroyed), as well as riding a talking dolphin through an underwater cavern." Also, under 'special requirements', and remembering their 85m height limit... "Would like a (1-prim) object up high. As part of our exhibit, we'd like to take a visitor, riding a dragon, 'between', which we simulate by tp'ing inside a black hollow sphere, ideally well out of visual range, for 3 seconds, and returning. (Movement is non-physical, will probably be key-frame animation.) We'd also like to put a 'Red Star' (moon) at 100-150m up, in visual range. This would be phantom, 1 prim, a flat red circular image (to make it less visible from other exhibits)." We'll hear back May 23rd to 25th; and we'll have until June 15th to build in place. And they've asked Vee for some scripting work.

RFL:
   We have the two biggies coming up:
   We have Home and Garden build competition coming up in just under a month. We are in the Pern Sim; looks as if we'll have a quarter-sim. Azdra will get the info ASAP (if not sooner). The Home and Garden competition is a build competition with the top three winners getting L's put in their donation box. The prizes are rumored to be significant.
   Also... we have the main RFL weekend coming around the middle of July.

RP:
   Weyrlings need to meet the Harper Masters and the Masterhealer. They need a dragon anatomy class; Rodney can do that on May 15. Wyn can do her firestone class once she's set up her new computer.
   Vee will be teaching her RP class at NCI as usual today.
   Liriel/Z'ron will be ready to teach a class during RP time if nothing else comes up.

2016-04-17 (RP)

Finances:
   Ads and Thuban rent have to be paid today, but funds are available. Homesteads are paid. Full sims are due on the 28th, and Vee thinks we're covered there.
   Vee had two interviews scheduled for last week. One was called off because the interviewer had the flu. The other got interrupted halfway through by an 'emergency', and will resume this coming week.

Harpers:
   Moira has created a drummer's HUD that does translation to Morse code (which is what the Gianfar drums send).
   This touring class completed with visits to the Weyr common areas (those accessible from the Bowl) and one of the dragon/rider training areas.
   Harpers met to discuss promotion requirements. Moira created a draft of a 'less wall of text' version, as a list with links to the detailed sections.
   The 'Gianfar is Different' class was presented to two students yesterday.
   There is a hand-drawn map of general locations of landmarks, found in the archives, and put up and made available just past the Archivist office in Harper Hall. Perhaps it will be useful to new players as they start exploring around.
   Vee will give Moira a hide dropper to put in Harper Hall, for apprentices and journeymen to file reports.

SL SF Con:
   Vee was told that our dragons were missed at this year's Con. (And Jade's floating mountains came in for much praise.)
   Next year's theme revolves around five elements - earth, water, air, spirit, and of course Fire. (Vee already has an idea for the Fire part. She plans to turn her idea for Fire into some sort of model, and pass it over.) And there'll be seven sims. Having one sim for events and the cabaret and the cinema didn't work. A few other changes, too. The con's getting to be a bit more professional. Like, training security, and having compliance officers, like the SLB's. Vee thinks they're thinking of having one designer per sim this time, instead of a centralised process. And there was general agreement that having all the booths on the same level on every sim didn't work - far too laggy. Next time, there will be height differences, although nothing too dramatic.

SL13B:
   txep'ongokx reported that she'd submitted Pandora's application for an exhibit parcel.
   Vee said that we'll definitely be putting a booth in, of course. No idea what the design will be. She hadn't even looked at the build rules yet.
   She and txep are hoping for some guidelines for them as well, not just land impact primage and scripts. But at least having compliance officers to check script & mesh usage and prim overlap is a help. Vee wants them to eject or move to another level exhibits that are out of theme, and do the same lag-nazi thing Wyn & she do here (that Soo taught them) with scripts & collision boxes & textures.
      It's unlikely that either Pandora or Gianfar will attempt a performance next year.

RP:
   The NCI class is cancelled for today, and Vee will miss this afternoon's RP.
   If Weyrlingmaster R'iss misses the afternoon's RP, Simile or Tristin will teach a Harper class unless someone comes up with something more interesting. There might be some interest in a Harper apprentice interview during RP time. Moira will do it as Learning Master Tristin.
   Teaching Master Simile and Tristin could visit Runners' Rest looking for students and interviewees.

2016-04-10 (business)

Finances:
   Thanks to anonymous donors, FS tiers were paid. Ads and Thuban are up to date. We're still here.
   And several people had drawn Wyn's and Vee's attention to LL's grandfather-your-sim idea. They're actively considering (when we have the money) grandfathering Tyl & Etamin, since we definitely plan to be here in 6 months, which is the break-even point. On payment of a fee, LL will reduce a sim's tier to grandfathered rates. For the HS's, that's down to US$95 from 125. Our FS's are already grandfathered, of course, as is Thuban. Longer term, it'd make Gianfar cheaper to run, at a slight technical cost - grandfathered sims are back of the line for server hardware upgrades. Vee didn't think that's changing, but it's never affected Kuma & Shaula much anyway.
   Vee has several more promising interviews scheduled for the coming week.

Harpers:
   Z'ron reminded all that our first Masterharper, Harald, said that everyone is a Harper, so classes should be open to all. If you're not an apprentice, journeyman or master and you go to a Harper class, you're a student.
   Right now the students are planning Harper RP. They had a very interesting drum code class in which everyone there threw out ideas for using drums in our RP. Weyrlingmaster R'iss said she would like to recommend that all weyrlings attend when possible.
   Moira did the drum class at 10 am Saturday and has been doing Aussie classes at 11:59 pm SLT.
   You can get info on any class from the scroll rack in Learningmaster Tristin's office. All Harpers that teach are asked to put their class notes there, through Moira, and anyone who teaches any class can give the Harpers class notes for the record, giving them to Moira or Ardrhys, our archivists.
   Anyone with Harper ideas or concerns, please notecard Z'ron because she just doesn't get online much. She sometimes knows things that will help.
   Apprentices should be required to report all activity that might relate to their promotion requirements to their mentor. Z'ron wants to see that added to the promotion NC. She wants to have a meeting soon, open to all, about revising the Harper promotion requirements. Vee would like to attend that meeting. Possible times: a Wednesday or preferably Thursday, after 10 am, or any evening. Two meetings might be held if no time works for everyone.
   Z'ron would like to get a Harper ensemble to provide dance music using Mikki Miles ensemble instruments. Some people know how to play them.
   Vee pointed out that we do need actual Harper masters - and healer, smith, etc - to cover promotion in any active Craft, and some way to cope with any timezone - whether by having more masters, or some sort of asynchronous communication, like notecards or the forums.

Weyrlings:
   We agreed last week on a date when the Lady Holder could make a visit to the Weyr and the weyrlings could meet her. The idea is to help them RP through part of task 2 (learning about roles and people in different areas). R'iss did post a notice and would do so again after this meeting.
   R'iss would also like to officially encourage weyrlings to attend Harper classes. She noticed one of the classes this week was visiting Landmarks, which would be an excellent class for people new to the sims. Vee suggested that we could make it a new player requirement - as long as we have enough people to cover enough timezones. R'iss could run that class during Euro timezones. Saturday at 10 would be another good time.
   Z'ron pointed out that anyone who teaches a class is meeting a Harper journeyman requirement.

RP:
   The Lady Holder's visit to the Weyr was scheduled for today, possibly not at the start of the RP time; so we planned to start at the Rest and move to the Weyr later.
   Colin reported starting a search for avatars that could be used as tunnel snakes. He'd found nothing so far. But txep reported that they're working on a caterpillar, and John had some possible avs.

2016-04-03 (RP)

Finances:
   Full sim tiers still weren't paid, but probably will be by the time you read this. Ad rentals & Thuban are due today and are covered.

Tyl greeter:
   The code for the greeter software in Tyl seems to need some tweaking. Vee will see to it.

Classes and other calendar updates:
   Moira suggested that we take the Tuesday classes off the schedule, as we don't have anyone who can teach them regularly. She can teach on most Saturday mornings, probably at 9:30 or 10 am SLT. She could do midnight classes, also, when that works for people's time zones. She can send out notices when she'll be offering a Saturday morning class, and when we have new people can make sure we get the core classes offered. We could say, in general, that classes are offered many Saturday mornings - check notices for dates and topics. Vee updated the calendar.
   There'll be a special class this Tuesday, 11:50 PM SLT. The harpers are heading out from the hall and will be visiting all the different landmark areas around the sims.

Pern Day:
   Anne was born on April 1. We traditionally do something to celebrate her birthday... except when SF Con and Easter fall just before it and upset folks' schedules. Too late to plan something for today so we'll do something next weekend. The Lady Holder's visit to the Weyr is scheduled for then, which would be a good coincidence.

RP:
   "What'll we do today?" triggered the idea of rescuing someone lost in the mines. That brought up the idea of tunnel snakes, which of course suggested something from Grendel's as a body. We'll likely meet in the Rest and wing it from there.

Last Edit: May 22, 2016, 07:30:04 PM by Colin

Colin

Reply #19 on: May 22, 2016, 07:31:36 PM Colin's meeting notes (book 20)

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[continued in book 21]

2016-06-26

Finances
   ... are good, full sim tiers due in 2 days and are covered. Rents are due tomorrow <Vee hinted>. She'll be running around paying for ads after this meeting.

SLB
   SLB <Vee sighs> isn't what we planned.. between my getting sick, my interviews, and Wyn's RL, we got less than half of what we wanted done. We may try to fix that tomorrow. Right now all we have is... a boat and a dolphin. If she and Wyn can install the missing parts, they'll definitely be sending out notices.
   One thing SLB did right this year was script lag... we've been nazis on scripts. The servers have 'spare time' even when the sims are full, which is a first.

RFL
   We have a parcel for the Relay. According to Azdra, it's got the road on one side and the sea on the other, and we can terraform. We won't have Jade's help, because looks like she may be the entire Builder's Brewery team. And we'll have to build it very soon.

Fishers
   Shanna has a Google Doc with notes on Fisher Hall, comments welcome:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/16ktyzooTmrCH9Ni_ijPSXRwbMtBS1kAIImfDeRf7lvY/edit?usp=sharing
We'll go with an NPC Masterfisher for now.

Visitors
   The flow of visitors, mostly Russian furries for some reason, has continued. Most are good about cleaning up their objects, a few have had to be estate-banned. Vee's planning to work on her "Experience" script, which has a problem.

RP
   We'll start in the Rest as usual, could move elsewhere depending on who shows up.

2016-06-19

No formal meeting: Varian had been sick and the SLB parcel was behind schedule, so she had to skip the meeting. No one could help her as the SLB sims had closed at midnight; only she could enter.

Finances are fine.

RP:
   Discussed what to put into the story arc of Qatalina's arrival. That included musing about trade with the mainland - secret from 'them,' not from 'us.' What would we have that they'd want, and vice versa, to justify long voyages... especially now with Threadfalls? Remember the tea and spice trade between Europe and the Orient: people risked and often lost their lives to get that merchandise.
   Discussed the 'G&S' equipment in Smithcraft. Some of it was usable but supplies were group-only and not to any of our groups.
   Planned to meet at the Rest at 2 pm as usual and probably discuss expected arrival of a trading ship, and something leading toward Smithcraft RP.

2016-06-12

Finances:
   Vee just paid all our ad bills for the next 2 weeks; HS tiers are due on the 15th and are covered.

Thuban:
   It's now ours again! Owned by Novi Peaks, with Wyn as the responsible party. (LL requires that a person rather than a group "own" land.)

SLB:
   The fishing boat is rezzed in Thuban on the work platform and most of the texturing is done (although temp textures). It needs dressing and deciding how to make it ready for threadfall (other than taking the sails down). The textures need a bit of "weathering." We could add a crow's nest (from which to spot fish). Also we need to decide if it is going to be dockside or out in the water. And why would it be at sea with Thread coming... although if it's metal-shielded (how about copper?) then Thread might be more of an annoyance than a terror.

RFL:
   Azdra applied for a booth at the Relay.

Last week's unexpected meeting:
   During last week's RP time, there was an inconclusive discussion about using something like the G&S meter, for instance, so that people could be harvesting, growing, fishing, etc. Something to do at times when RP is slow. The items made can be used within RP if people wish to. Like a prompt to get things rolling between characters that might not normally interact. For instance two weeks ago at the docks we could have been bartering fish/bread 'for real' as part of the RP. Just one idea. We'd like ideas & opinions on using the meters... anything that will give people something to do while they're here.

RP:
   Turn up at the Rest around 2 and see what happens.

Shanna chats and sings at 2 PM SLT today:
   Announcement from Shanna: This Sunday, June 12, Shonti Elder and I [Tania] will be having a chat and playing some favorite tracks from my CDs on her “Traveling Music” program - my solo recordings, projects with Mike and with Anne McCaffrey, tracks played / sung with William Pint and Felicia Dale, with Artisan… A whole, relaxed hour in the studio.
   You can stream KSKA from their webpage at alaskapublic.org/listen.m3u
   The show airs at 1pm Alaska time, which is 2pm Pacific.

2016-06-05

Finances:
   HS tier is due on the 15th, and is covered. All ads are paid up. We're here for another month.

CHG:
   In the auction, our castle went for L$1400. And we made L$6100 at our kiosk. We didn't win anything... the event raised over L$3,000,000, and at least one of the other exhibits had kiosk donations over L$100,000. But we did pretty well (another exhibit Vee saw only raised L$55, so we weren't the 'worst'!). And big thanks to Jade, Wyn and Azdra for all their hard work!
   Jade added, "it's great to be on a team that rallies on short notice. It really went together very quickly, didn't it?"
   Vee: "It did! And we did get a lot of attention! For something we threw together on the spot, we did good."
   Jade: "We all had limited time to be in SL last Sunday... but still managed to get it all done."
   There's no Pern sim in next year's CHG - we got edged out by 'Flintstones: Bedrock' - so we're thinking a garden next time, maybe on the Death Star sim... that could be interesting.

SLB:
   Wyn's determined that we don't have a boat that meets our needs and is low enough in land impact or small enough. So she's working on one. Modifying a mesh she found on MP - a small motor-driven fisher with masts, that she thinks can look more Pernese and like a sailboat.
   Also, SLB has a requirement this year that the 'main' part of the build is our own work. If we use something bought, we have to modify it, and not just a little bit.
   Wyn's rezzed her proposed boat at Thuban (127,128,1503). It has maps so can be textured as we want (slate decking, metal-clad masts, etc.). We can build it so it looks like it's next to the hall at the pier or out in the water. It has no sails now, but could have if Wyn can find some. She's enlarging the spars so they can hold "real" sails rather than tiny ones. See:    https://marketplace.secondlife.com/p/Fishing-Ship-No1-MCT/5499035
   We have a bit over a week to get this working.

SF Con:
   Vee: "... is in September. It's the 50th anniversary of some American sci-fi show, can't think of the name... <grins> So the 3 sims are Vulcan, Klingon and Risa. And the theme... guess. I wasn't originally going to put us in, but then I had this idea... booths aren't required to be in theme. But what if we could make a Trek-era travel agency, specialising in holidays on Pern. It'd be quite simple, clean lines, and constantly changing posters based off pics of Gianfar & dragons." General enthusiasm occurred. Easy build and we can use lots of pics around the sims. Federation ships wouldn't go to Pern, but a holodeck could create a Pern holiday. And an SF con is OOC anyway.

Thuban:
   Wyn's in negotiations with Sylvia to buy Thuban for us. The LL fee is US$300 to maintain grandfathering. (The lower tier for grandfathered sims repays that fee in six months or so.) Tier day is the 8th, so it would be best to do it this weekend. Donations have been enough to pay tier so far and hopefully that will continue.
   Noted in passing: if you buy a sim directly from the owner, paying the transfer fee, and move and rename it at the time of purchase, the fees for moving and for renaming are waived.

Plushies:
   Azdra displayed a set of little dragon plushies in Pern colors, plus a purple one for RFL. They'll have a 'hold' script so one can be carried on a hand.

RP:
   Still having problems with riders and dragons not being able to be here at the same time... or at all, in some cases. People get excited about flying Thread but seem unwilling to spend time learning how.
   We'll meet at the Rest to discuss the problem informally.

2016-05-29

Finances:
   Full sim tiers, all our ads, and Thuban's rent were paid yesterday. So we're here for another month. And rents are due, for anyone who hasn't paid up yet.

SL13B, part 1:
   Neither we nor Pandora were allocated a booth in the first round, but that error was quickly remedied. We have a booth so close to the Welcome Area sim, we might as well be on it. And right by the pod tour barns - separated only by some open space. We're pretty much guaranteed traffic. And lag. It's not the sea parcel we wanted, but it'll definitely do. And Vee is an EA there, meaning she has parcel powers. If Pandora doesn't get a parcel on Tuesday, we offered to share with Jade, which could be interesting.
   The idea if we are on our own is a ship in threadfall. Hopefully we can get enough terraforming to have Linden water, if not it will have to be prim water. Not ideal but doable. How would a ship be shielded? Slate, or maybe pumice, which is rock that's lighter than water? And how to shield the sides? Decided to postpone decisions until Tuesday when we'll presumably know whether we'll be sharing a booth with Pandora.

CHG:
   Those who've seen our castle like it. And now we need your money, and as much PR as we can get... the more we can get into our RFL tip jar, the better our chances of landing a really big donation to RFL.
   Vee was chatting with Snow at IoW about a hatchie raid for our CHG castle...
   June 2nd, 2 till 4 is the Castle Dance at the build. Azdra will be dusting off her mic and DJing for the first time in over a year. Vee might tweak Threadfall for the dance, and add the first iteration of the demo Flamethrowers.
   Azdra has walked through the sims and there are a lot of good builds there...all done for RFL. The builds will be auctioned off on the last day of the event for anyone: 3-4 pm next Saturday. That'll be a live auction.
   There is a hunt going on as well.
   All proceeds that are donated and won go directly to RFL.

Plushie:
   Azdra is working on a plushie dragon for sale at RFL weekend in July. Dragons are so cute! She will be tweaking all the colors so that the entire "rainbow" of colors are available.

Qatalina's story:
   About Una's plans for pre-RP ahead of her arrival. If anyone has any hold-related RP that could precede her arrival, please do think about it. Seems like a good time for that. Anything for your own holder characters. If someone has an idea Una's happy to wait. Otherwise at some point she'll pick a day for Qat's arrival.
   R'iss: ardrhys made a suggestion as part of RP to pair a harper trainee with a weyrling to visit a remote Hold, well could be any hold really...
   Vee: And we have a 'remote hold' on Tyl. Convenient.
   R'iss: ...to deliver some teaching. Weyrling gets experience of official hold visits and harper gets a kind of bodyguard. We could even do it as a special one off (series of one offs?) with people using some of their alts, NPCs etc like we did when we found the shipwrecked pair. I am sure we could dream up some other additional things that could happen during those visits to remote holds.
   Una: mhm anything - and at the end, ship comes in and that's my lead-in. One question I have is, once the ship docks and she sneaks off, would it be a few days before she's found or be found right away (day or two)?
   ardrhys: Moira and I visited the docks in our mid week class. We were guessing that we would need some RP (with NPCs) about the ship's arrival. So later Qat could sneak inland and start the whole thing off.
   Z'ron: The hunt would start right away if you accept that Fovin knows about you.
   Una: ok - that's fine - just thinking where she can reasonably hide out - how far she'd have gotten on foot.
   Vee: It's not easy to get out of Dolphinhold, but she could escape on a cargo train to the Hold, or maybe get to the smuggler mines on north Kuma.
   Shanna: Perhaps the status of trips to the mainland needs clarifying.
   Z'ron: I have a notecard about what I think Your Mark's Worth [Ludo's family business, supported by her sea-trader father Fovin] has been doing.
   The notecard proposes that trader Fovin sails between Gianfar and Tillek (Anne having forgotten to put any seaholds on the east coast of the mainland). Qat could stow away on Fovin's ship in Tillek, be discovered en route, and escape from the ship at Dolphinhold. (Shanna's backstory is that she too was a stowaway from Tillek, back in the good old days before Thread resumed. Nice match!)
   We'll discuss the story further before committing an act of RP with it - it deserves to be developed.

Sims:
   Wyn's been approached by Sylvia about transferring ownership of Thuban to us. Tier day is the 8th, so Wyn will contact LL and see what needs to be done to keep the grandfathered status.

SL13B, part 2:
   There's to be a GIANT SNAIL RACE on Saturday the 4th at 2pm. It will be to raise money for the American Cancer Society, Relay for Life and will be through the sims of the Castle contest. There are 12 themes, click on the following link ...
http://www.chgrfl.com/#!themes/mjk70
... and pick one that you might like to decorate your snail to. Vee has the 'giant snail racing package' if anyone's interested. You can get stuff to decorate with at the main Snail Race track: Gullwing Coast Racers (151,99,777).
   Shanna posted a picture of a two-headed dragon snail ...
http://gloranthanarmy.blogspot.co.uk/2010/03/dragon-snail.html

RP:
   We'll start in Dolphinhold/Fisherhall, to inspect the ship that's been moored waiting for RP to arrive.

Mid-week meeting:
   We'll meet on Wednesday to continue discussion of SL13B and RP and so forth.

2016-05-22

Finances:
   Continue stable, full sim tiers due on the 28th and half-yearly website fees tomorrow, all covered. We're here for another month.

SL13B:
   If any of you know any live acts who'd like exposure, have them apply. Seems applications are down for live performances this year, Doc's even asking already-applied acts to request second slots. Dance, song, drama, talks, classes, whatever.

Harpers:
   Need people to talk to about harpers. Z'ron just got an idea. Maybe people other than harpers could leave ideas about what they'd like to see harpers doing in the report drum (Harper Hall, 2nd floor, to the right at the top of the stairs, outside the door of the Music Master's Office). Moira thinks anyone with a group tag can drop a NC. Harpers just need to keep an eye on them - too many NC's and the menu won't display.
   Moira's working on final edits of the Harper procedure document.

Qatalina's story:
   Una thanked folks who'd given input on Qat's backstory, and would welcome more. How would the story start - with her being discovered here, or with a lead-in segment? That seems like a good way to start a trading/fisher/hold story if anyone wants to take that and go with it. (We have a very nice ship for that part of the story.) It seems like a lot of us would be interested in some aspect of a trader ship arriving - goods, news, etc. The lead-in could end at the point where Qat is discovered.

RFL show:
    There was a band concert last Friday; a lot of fun was had and over 1000 was raised. It would've been better without the unscheduled SL maintenance, though.

Markets:
   Maybe we can revive market days, which we haven't had in several years. Vee reminded us that we have a standing policy of supporting our players' other endeavours. Shops, DJ gigs, performances, whatever. Whether Gianfar-related or not.

Castles, Homes, and Gardens:
   "The Castle, Home and Garden Contest is a virtual competition which takes place annually in the virtual metaverse Second Life. Contestants from all over Second Life use the building tools provided within SL to build their own castles, homes or gardens. The builds are displayed over a set of days, wherein both a set of impartial judges and the public at large can vote for their favourite castles. All proceeds from the Castle, Home and Garden Contest go towards Relay for Life of Second Life, a charity organisation supporting the American Cancer Society. The Castle, Home and Garden Contest 2016 will take place from May 23rd until June 4th, 2016. It will take place over 8 [maybe 12] sims in the virtual metaverse Second Life. The contest will follow a unified theme of "Once Upon A Cure" with an additional focus on 8 literary pieces of work (each sim will follow a literary piece)."
   There are shops/vendors/and lots of builds. We are on the Pern sim, a quarter sim, max 3k prims, Pern theme. Azdra needs a LOT of help setting up for this: building, people to stand at the castle and be social butterflies. ALSO...Monday, June 6, from 2-4 pm slt is the time slot that we have gotten for the Castle dance. Azdra has put an idea out to Wyn to recreate the hold here... with the castle built into the side of the mountain. Vee has particle mini-Thread up on her workfloor, complete with mini-dragons that flame, left over from earlier SLB's & sci-fi cons. The castles are auctioned off as a One of a Kind Auction - just the castles, not the whole scene. But the building has to be done TODAY.

RP:
   No exciting ideas today; gather at the Rest and see what develops... "unless we just move over to the build site and help out by telling Jade and Wyn and Azdra what they're doing wrong." Vee posted a Notice with the LM to the build site... but we couldn't get there... it's by invitation-only group.
   We discussed having RP storyline development sessions, maybe during midweek class time... or by passing notecards around... or on the website... or by Google Docs as we're doing with Qat's backstory. We could visit other sites to get seeds for brainstorming.

Last Edit: July 03, 2016, 07:49:38 PM by Colin

Colin

Reply #20 on: July 03, 2016, 07:51:30 PM Colin's meeting notes (book 21)

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[continued in book 22]

2016-08-07

Finances
   Are good so far. Vee fixed the payment issue from last week, so Shaula is paid for, and went around all our paid ads last night. Next tier is Thuban on the 8th, and is covered. Right now, we think we're good for a couple of months. But please don't stop donating or paying rent. <grins>

Absences
   R'iss was without an Internet connection, Wyn was with a cold; John, Rodney, M'thos, and Azdra were likely to be in the UFS universe for most of the rest of the month.

Sci-Fi Faire
   The Milky Way Cabaret will be putting on a show. Vee probably won't be dancing.

Builders
   We have a lot of build projects currently mothballed or frozen. We have two applicants who have building skills but not much knowledge of Pern. We have Jade, who works well with a team.    We have people who can do 'this' and others who can do 'that'. We need a supervisor, and to break projects down into small pieces with no short deadlines.
   For Thuban, we need to have Vee prepare the terrain map so that Wyn can apply it. And there's one build to be done.
   We need, and have, people who are good at helping builders by doing walkthroughs, finding things that don't quite fit, and especially falling through holes.
   Vee and/or Wyn will set up a meeting to discuss what needs to be done, how, when, by whom.

RP
   We'll meet in Smithcraft/Minecraft, in Tyl, to hunt tunnel snakes. Z'ron made an avatar of one (box on the Council table, L$1, full perm) last week for the very successful 'harvest glows' RP.

2016-07-31

Finances
   Vee reported, "Are... interesting. Tiers are covered, but LL messed up billing on Thursday and we haven't managed to process the Full tiers yet. They will get paid, eventually, honest. All other bills are up to date, next tier is Thuban on the 8th."

Harpers
   Z'ron reported, "We just lost our only journeyman, leaving me and a few apprentices active. I've been looking at the records. I have noted that Apprentice Harper Una is about to complete a Master's requirement, leading role play. The big holdup in getting master level harpers is they're required to mentor an apprentice. I'd like an opinion. Should we remove that requirement? Should we keep it and make exceptions so we can get a staff?" We need to bypass the promotion procedures until we can get the ranks filled again. After discussion, we agreed that Z'ron should send a note to Masterharper Isarma proposing, per Vee's suggestion, that the Masterharper functions be delegated to Z'ron.

RP
   We'll be harvesting glows in the new mines, in Tyl. We will try very hard to stay together as a group, following our guide, Colin. We will harvest in 4 areas, then meet back outside to make a new basket. Then we will hear the song we've all heard as children (which I'm sure you'll all remember mhm) and enjoy the days good work. Hopefully we will get as many participating as can make it, human, flit and dragon. We need the flits to watch out for tunnel snakes and rock slides and such... much to do much to do... hope all can join in. We will also try to keep this to about 90 min so we can wrap up in time for thread... which means we need to meet on time. People who are late will have to tp in.
   So watch for a notecard in a bit and please do take a mo to read it.

2016-07-24

Finances
   Are still good. FS tiers are due later this week and are covered. Rents are due by Wednesday, btw... and Vee will be paying ad rents after this meeting.

Russians
   Vee reported that "One of the Russians finally got estate banned last night, along with one of her friends. They both rezzed 200+ prims in shopping bags in Dolphinhold. Along with odd bags on other sims, many in the Weyrbowl."

Portland West
   It appears that the deal is off.

Pandora Universe
   They raised the funds for their tier AND managed to get the sim grandfathered... which took effect within a couple hours, so the tier due is at the lower rate.

RFL
   The Sims did stay open until Wednesday, when there was a 'tsunami party' on the activity sims. Be nice if it was longer. And we did get an award for fundraising.

Sci-Fi Faire
   We have a booth, Vee has the landgroup for it, "and Wyn keeps poking me about ideas for the build." This should be our simplest build of the year, and we have such a long lead time.

New time for RP class
   Class is at noon today and from now on.

Una's RP
   Too many key people were going to be absent from RP for a month or so. We'll just continue refining the plans.

2016-07-17

News
   Having just survived RFL, we met at our site there and 'met' in group chat. We were sitting more comfortably than usual, thanks to cushions provided by Wyn.
   Arryn (karolinea1012) is back with us after a year in RL.
   Moira's dropped out, overwhelmed with RL. She passed her Harper records to Z'ron. She'd be welcome to rejoin us any time.

Finances
   HS tiers were paid a few days ago. An issue with Thuban tier was cleared up, all ads are paid up. We're in surprisingly good shape for the next month or so.
   Nothing new on Portland West.
   Wyn has a request... if anyone is wanting to help fund Thuban, please donate via her paypal link, instead of the inworld tipjars. So we don't have to pay the Lindens twice.
   If tier is not raised by the 25th, Pandora Universe will go offline. That's not txep's but is the oldest Pandora site - 6 1/2 years.

RFL
   Dragons for a Cure raised ~L$75,000 and got a "Rising Star" fundraising award. Not bad for our first year!
   Vee: "I want to record our thanks to Azdra for making us take part, and Wyn & Ortath for their work on the campsite."
   John noted that Azdra's already thinking about next year.

Sci-Fi Faire
   Our next project, in September, one of two off-season events scheduled by the SL SF Con folks. Only three sims (RFL had 35!), only two with booths. We're taking only a small booth.

RP
   Starting Una's arc about Qat's arrival next week.
   Today, turn up at the Rest and see what happens.
   Vee will be doing her NCI "RP Basics" class today, at 1pm as usual; but might move back to noon starting next week. That will NOT change our meeting time.

2016-07-10

Finances
   Are still good. Thuban tier went through last week, Vee paid all our ad bills last night, HS tiers are due on the 15th & covered.

SLB
   Vee apologized for letting her RL get in the way of creating the display, and thanked Wyn and Jade for their hard work.

RFL
   The event opens next Saturday. we have a large site 128x120 with 2500 prims and it's a waterside location. We are on the entrance to the Inspire Sim opposite Dr Seuss and next to Frank Sinatra. We have plenty of prims for the large ship and several dolphins. Ortath's dolphins should work for RFL, which has higher script limits than SLB had. We will definitely need people on the parcel during RFL weekend to greet people and talk to them. We'll be able to terraform. Five builders are allowed, of whom two can be terraformers.
   Opening ceremony is 10 am on Saturday the 16th and closing ceremony is at 10 am Sunday. Azdra has a copy of the themes and lap information, one can ask her for a copy of the NC.

Una's alt's story
   Una's posted the background of her alt Qatalina, at
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Jvzbs7k1HGJ_xlKKNdNUZjalxar6ZJhgmY73Zgb7aro/edit?usp=sharing
   And a draft outline of RP for Qat's arrival, at
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Wd7id8KUCJc6tfVMsjwmbn37niLnC5B65PnB4-X0NzQ/edit?pref=2&pli=1
   We discussed the RP, including how to handle NPCs for the captain of the trading ship on which Qat had stowed away; and to whom Tennar (who runs Runners' Rest) would report thefts from his supply cavern; and what would be done with Qat after she's captured.
   We'll likely start the RP next weekend... but RFL runs till 10 am Sunday... so some of us may be sleeping for the rest of that day. Stay tuned.

Portland West
   Ardrhys wondered how much interest there was in that sim coming here. It wouldn't fit as is and would need some work. But if that was done would it make sense to add it and is it of long term interest?
   That led into a discussion of the Regions that our island has had over the years... Acubans, Altais, and Gianfar which was renamed Kuma to protect Soo's trademark of the name "Gianfar."
   We'll continue this topic awaiting talks among ardrhys, Wyn, and Sylvia.

RP
   2 pm at the Rest as usual.

2016-07-03

Finances
   Full sim tiers were paid last week, next up is Thuban on the 8th, then the other HS's on the 15th. All covered.

Fisher Hall news
   Masterfisher Ayer, who hasn't been seen in years, has agreed to release the title.

Nekome news
   John found Nekome online and talked with her for about an hour. (For those who "tuned in late," she's one of our very earliest members and built a good deal of our oldest structures - like the floors of the Hold. She hadn't been seen online for years.) She has very limited access to a very limited computer. She OK'd moving her builds from Sylvia's Portland region to here.

Griefer above Tyl Friday
   John spotted a particle cloud over Tyl, investigated, found a nasty griefer: sound spam, text spam, particle spam, and pushing him around. He killed it and Vee estate-banned the perpetrator.

Building on Gianfar
   A quick review from Vee, triggered by the griefing:
   "Back when Soo bought the sims and created Gianfar, GPoP was the landgroup. Build was restricted to GPoP. Most of the membership was actually in DoP [Dragons of Pern]. I think that was true even after Soo disappeared. When we nearly lost the sims and Ludo, Sylv, Wyn & I bought them from Soo, we had a couple of issues straight off. One is, we don't own the Gianfar name. It's Soo's trademark. Another is, we didn't want to go through those last few hours of trying to save whatever we could, again. [Only by the kindness of LL were we saved from losing the sims for lack of tier payments. -Colin]
   " So, at a meeting we held at one of Sky's [Skylarian Isachenko, of IoW, who's since dropped out of SL -Colin] places, iirc, we decided to split the player group - GPoP - from the land group. Novi Peaks - named after Soo (Novi) - was created to be owned by a number of the Gianfar admins, so - if the sim owners disappeared - there'd be a number of people with land & group powers, able to pick deeded stuff up, manage land settings, generally save us much trouble - and the land wouldn't be in the Gianfar name (but still honours our founder). GPoP is much more narrowly owned, which is right for a player group. Player groups are easily reconstituted, they don't own anything except member lists. Land groups, not so much.
   "Another reason for having a separate landgroup was, the malls. 3 of the sims planned to have malls, and I was renting half of Shaula (vertically) to another RP. Merchants and non-Gianfar players didn't need to be getting Gianfar chatter & notices.
   "Anyway... we need to be able to rez on our sims. Flame requires rezz, or Thread can't be hit & won't burn. Straps need to be rezzed to be sat on. But we didn't want to require all Riders and Dragons to have the landgroup. So... we opened the build, and held our breath... And the sky didn't fall.
   "The few times we've been griefed, we haven't even needed to close build. The malls are gone now, except for the skeleton of Wyn's mall, but Wyn has builders dropping in from NCI or BB all the time, to show her things or make things. And it's been an advantage to allow others to rez things here temporarily. When we started getting shoppers unpacking - mostly underwater in Etamin - Wyn and I felt that we didn't mind the traffic, and cleaning up wasn't a major chore. Most shoppers we contacted actually apologised for forgetting to pick up bags, even.
   "The Russians are a more recent problem... they mostly land in Tyl, and they mostly don't think they need to respect our rules because 'they don't speak English'. Some of them rezz vehicles, although the house-building seems to have stopped. And they hardly ever clean up. (There's also a Spanish clothes designer who pops up on Thuban and leaves dress models all over the place, once every couple of months.)
   "We can't ban people by group membership. There's no land or sim tools for it, and no way for a script to detect anything other than active membership of the group [which] the object the script is in is a part of. (Not totally true, but close enough. I have a workaround for the sim greeters, but it only works for our groups.)
   "Which is where the experimental scripts on Tyl come in. Now that SLB's about over [and RL stresses have eased], I'm hoping to finish them. I'm debating changing the Experience setting, btw. Only offer the Experience if someone tries to rezz something. Return objects rezzed without the Experience. Force-tp anyone who rezzes, and has the Experience, to a changing-room level. Basically, as you enter the script's area of control, have it check if you're a player, and if not, ask if you're a visitor or want to rezz stuff. Anyone who responds not a visitor, or who rezzes anything without replying, gets the experience request. Don't accept within a minute, get tp'd home, objects returned, and a half-hour estate ban. (Don't need Experience to send someone home.) Accept the Experience, and be offered a tp to the changing rooms - which will be forced if they attempt to rezz anywhere except the area at... 2500, I think... where we'll let them rezz. Rezz over 10 prims, get a warning & time to pick up. Over 100, get sent home & estate banned for half an hour.
   Most of that code works, but there was a bug in the player detection - if the Gianfar server is offline and a player isn't wearing a Gianfar tag, a player could end up being sent home accidentally for already having stuff rezzed before they got here. I'm fixing that by effectively grandfathering in existing prims - if you have prims in-sim when the script starts, you 'must' be a player. (The Experience lets me share that info across sims, so eventually, just having prims in any sim [of ours] will qualify.) Different version of the script for Kuma, Wyn wants 'safe zones' for her builders there, and probably on Thuban. But same deal - if you have a prim here and we haven't removed it, you're assumed to be a player and immune from being returned home (unless the Gianfar server's database knows better).

RP
   Una and Z'ron have been outlining what will happen when that stowaway arrives on a trader's ship. We pondered what Gianfar could offer to justify a long hazardous voyage from the mainland. Nothing identifiable as being from here... no Marks of course as they'd be obvious "counterfeits"... a matter to be thought about.
   Those of us who are around during this holiday weekend will meet at the Rest at 2pm as usual, and come up with something to do.

Last Edit: August 14, 2016, 07:22:14 PM by Colin

Colin

Reply #21 on: August 14, 2016, 07:24:06 PM Colin's meeting notes (book 22)

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[continued in book 23]

2016-10-16

Chairs
   Again discussed the Council Room chairs and their vanishing-poseball feature.

Announcements
   R'iss is still having Internet problems and can log in only during UK daytime.
   Wyn's having back trouble.
   It's raining in California! And it's stopped raining in Carolina.
   No NCI "RP Basics" class today; Vee will be deep in RL coursework, and at the moment she's NCI's only RP teacher. (Volunteers wanted.)

Finances
   HS tiers paid yesterday, Novi's balance is very healthy (thanks, all!), ads paid yesterday. Full tiers due on the 28th.

Harpers
   Master Simile will teach next Wednesday: Scroll Rack and Harper Business.
   The Harpers would like to hold harperish events, like bardic circles, and various harper exercises. Those would be of general interest.

RP
   Discussed the tithing train RP that's to come up soon. Today, an IC meeting of Craft heads to plan the gathering; next week, the train leaves Smithcraft/Minercraft, passes Beastcraft (collecting a herd) and Tannercraft and Vintners, and maybe is caught in an early blizzard on the Etamin shore. Following week (5th Sunday of the month), arrival at the Weyr and a Gather. All the above indelibly inscribed in sandstone, of course.
   We'll meet at Minercraft today: NE corner of Tyl and high on the ridge. This will be an IC meeting to plan the tithing process.

2016-10-09

Canadian Thanksgiving
   ... is today.

Finances
   Thuban tier was due yesterday, but LL haven't taken it yet. it's covered by funds in Novi, so we're good. Next up is HS tiers, also covered, due on the 15th.

Harpers
   There will be a class Wednesday at 1pm, in the Harper Quintet meeting room... with new chairs having sit targets!

Council Room chairs
   Z'ron offered to provide a new set of chairs for the Council Chamber, matching the ones she made for the Harper room.

RP
   Last week we harvested numbweed, so this week we'll cook it - in Thuban where only the Heroes of the Weed will suffer from the stench.
   Soon we should prepare for the Tithing RP. Crafts should prepare, even if NPCs are needed to fill the roles.
   And Anne's memorial will probably be held on Sunday, Nov. 20th (she died on the 21st).

2016-09-25

Finances
   Full tier due 28th, covered. Quietly optimistic about RL.

Sharing our space
   BlueAgate's Trek group dropped by to use our facilities last Tuesday. (As was discussed and approved last week.) Vee was onsim at the time, scripting, and heard they had a good time.

Harpers
   Thalia, Z'ron's alt, will give Vee the latest revision of the promotion standards.
   Z'ron built new chairs for the Harper Hall meeting room. They're much easier to sit in, still minimal prim count and script load.
   There'll be a Harper class at 1pm Wednesday, the third in the event to story to song series.

Klah mugs
   Vee has put newly scripted klah pots in the Council Chamber and Runners' Rest. The pots, made by Soo, now give temp-attach drinks. That will save cluttering our inventories with drinks (and tables with forgotten ones).

RP
   No one came up with an idea for today's RP.
   Brainstormed about a 'harvest' event, as Halloween is coming in RL. Perhaps harvesting numbweed, with Thuban standing for a jungle area. We might do that next week.

2016-09-18

Finances
   HS tiers were due last week and were paid. Fulls are due on the 28th. Vee paid all our ad bills last night. Wyn & Vee are still at the point that they'll have to cut back after Oct 1.

Harper advancement requirements
   Discussed, at length, the latest draft of the requirements document.

Building plans
   People who notice things that should be added or could be improved should make a list that would get to Wyn.
   Wyn's gradually trying to rebuild so everything can be in the build group going forward and we can turn off "non-group" building.
    Discussed the G&S equipment that's in Smithcraft Hall. It's RP "stuff" that allows one to collect materials with which to build things which one could sell; or to raise crops to feed (non-Pernese) livestock which ditto. It hadn't had much use.
   txep reported that the PHT group is looking into Unity systems, which might be a substitute for G&S.
   John volunteered Studio Skye Mushroom rocks, txep and Z'ron had the Cube Republic cave system. We might be able to have better looking tunnels with less land impact.
   Speculative building occurred on the work platform over Thuban.

Sci-Fi Faire
   Ran out of time to discuss it; meeting lasted more than 2-3/4 hours.

RP
   Ditto.

2016-09-11

We met at the Gianfar site in the Sci-Fi Faire regions.

Finances
   "Thuban tier came due last week and was covered, the other HS's come up this week and are covered. Still worried going forward, but some good prospects this week. Wyn & I decided to prioritise the full sims - we think we can afford the tier on them for a few months more."

Sci-Fi Faire
   Vee: "Have to thank Wyn for this booth - I'd planned something much simpler, but she took one look at this sim, and dragged the Dome out... and it fits. The poster tubes are an experiment of mine... the posters are particles, so they always face you. They're also info givers, although not actually labelled as such. The outside 4 tubes are static, I could descript them. The inner 3 are pulling images from an invisible preloader object. And communicating with each other so posters should never duplicate. The flickering when they change is because you're actually seeing 4 particles at a time. That was a lucky accident - turns out if I just project 1 particle, you get visible gaps. Worse when you add all the other particles on this sim. I settled on 4 particles as the number that works here best for the least effort, I may change that for Gianfar. Wyn made the posters in a marathon 3-hour gimping session. Not sure how many there are, 12 I think... the preloader can handle 18, and is easy to add to if we need more.
   And if you can, take the Fantasy Flight [4pm], and/or watch the Milky Way Cabaret (performances at noon & 9pm today)." She said she'd put the LM to the Cabaret in a Notice after the meeting.
   Una suggested, "Idea for future posters: along with regular Join, what about JOIN a crafthall JOIN Dragons of Gianfar JOIN as a fun loving flit etc. just to show the enticing variety of options to joining."
   Moira added, "With a picture showing someone in that role."
   Vee: "Wyn says, anyone can make a poster. The font is Dark Crystal, the images are aspect 640x400, uploaded as 256x512 textures. The font is available at freefonts.com, comes in a hollow version and a solid (which uploads as font name 'Regular'). I think I copied that right. And I think she plans on taking more pics for posters today."
   Thalia: "We need a "Join- as a harper" poster, with maybe a pic of an ensemble group playing."

Request from BlueAgate:
   She asked how we would feel about letting her Galaxy Fleet Command RP group borrow part of our RP area when we're not using it? Specifically mentioning our mines, Vee thinks. We'll approve that subject to fixing times, and yes, warning visitors. Vee can turn off the Experience request for the duration, if needed. Or they can just ignore it, unless they need to rez something (the script in test sends home anyone not in group who rezzes without first getting the Experience). Blue had warned them about our "no weapons" policy.

Harper classes
   ...are being held Wednesdays at 1:00. We also need to give classes later or on weekends, and not in RP time.

RP
   Harpers might do something; the Weyrleader might be having an issue with the Lady Holder.

Vee's RP class is cancelled today.

2016-09-04

Finances
   Full tiers came due on the 28th and were paid. Thuban's due on the 8th and is covered. Vee went around our ads last night and renewed them all, and got us a slot on the sci-fi level at the new WoRPG place. (Fantasy level was full!) Tiers should be covered for this month. However, past the end of this month is still dependent on Vee getting a job. or at least an income. (Packets of Lindens landed in the donation box.)

Vee's availability
   She was out of SL all week - hadn't logged in since last Sunday. If anyone sent an IM and didn't get a reply, apologies, it didn't reach her email. She will be around more this week - probably quite a lot tomorrow/Labor Day, which she'd earmarked for scripting.

Project Sansar
   Vee reported: "But <she says, segueing smoothly> I didn't stay away from SL entirely... I discovered a bit about SL version 2, spoke to a few people who've been there, even saw a bit. I've been asked about it in the past, in particular what happens to Gianfar when Sansar goes live, and I can now answer that, a bit... Nothing happens to Gianfar for some time. We won't be moving. Sansar isn't designed for current SL residents. It's a lovely virtual world, but... it's not one continuous shared world, like SL. The inworld build tools are very different - you don't live-build, you go into an 'edit mode', make your changes, and 'publish' them. LL are working on a 'shared edit' mode. If Gianfar moved, we'd be alone in our own space - which could be a lot larger, Sansar is implementing variable-size regions, up to 4km on a side I think. The land will be cheaper - but there won't be any way for new players to find us. The building & rendering is amazing, btw. But the scripting is about where SL was when I joined. In my opinion, to make the move, we'd have to be a bustling, lively sim already. We'd also need mesh dragons, and full access to their scripts (so we could translate them - LL haven't even started on transfer tools yet). And there would need to be some sort of RPG exchange, like the RPC & WoRPG, already active & serving other RPs. Or we'll never get found. This is just a guess on my part, but... it looks to me like Sansar is designed for already-established virtual communities looking for a world, and for MMO game studios who want a build/distribution platform without the effort involved in building server farms for 'traditional' platforms. It's not for SL creators & socialisers, LL themselves are saying that. They're not even planning for helping SL residents make the transition. Someone I talked to who might actually know said LL *may* make a single unifying map for Sansar, and there will be some sort of inter-region transition... but that's all extras for later, it's not fundamental to LL's planning. Oh, one long-overdue change... you'll have a single account - and our SL names are reserved as account names in Sansar - but each account can have multiple avatars. Inventory sharing is part of the plan, although not implemented yet, I gather. I think LL plan to go to open beta soon, and go live with a minimal Sansar by the end of the year, but there's no fixed timetable as far as I can tell, just 'guidelines', mostly aimed at investors."
   Jade: "there is one "up" to this... some of what they've developed, or plan to develop, can be passed BACK to SL."
   Vee: "Yes, very true - the inworld mesh editor I got a peek at seems easy to use and intuitive, it could be ported back to SL - or used in Sansar to make things to export to SL. SL's going to be LL's cash cow for a while longer, anyway."

Sci-Fi Faire
   Vee: "I have to go pick up our parcel today, build opened days ago. Glad our build plan is simple... but I have a request... Our plan is a Trek/Vulcan-look travel agency. So, room, couple chairs, desk, maybe, and... posters. I have a good script for a preloading cycling texture display - we've used it at sci-fi cons & SLBs, there are 4 of them in the welcome area now. But if anyone feels like making some posters for displays to, well, display... "

RP
   Nothing planned. Holiday weekend in the US, some people sick. Whoever shows up at the Rest will do something or not.

2016-08-28

Weyrleader Star has returned! Major rejoicing and babbling occurred.

Master Fireworker (if we had such a title) Gelgesith is interested in being a firelizard, or a dragon if riders are available.

Finances
   Full tiers are due today and are covered. So are HS tiers on the 15th and Thuban on the 8th.

Harpers
   Z'ron taught a Harper class last week: Lyrics and meter and rhyme. Ardrhys wrote it up so that others could teach it. Z'ron's thinking of teaching a class weekly if students can agree on a time. Wednesday at 1:00 was agreed on for this week and should be OK for her, most weeks; Thursdays are possible. This week, Learningmaster Tristin will discuss record keeping and the tools we have for it.
   It'd be nice if we had folks who could give classes at European and Australian times.
   The revised Harper rules are almost ready to give to Vee.

SF Con
   Z'ron got the job of building a booth for UFS, celebrating 50 years of Star Trek, and needs a source of public domain pictures from those 50 years.

RP
   Remember that Vee teaches RP Basics at NCI, at noon each Sunday.
   Weyrlingmaster R'iss will give a Weyr tour. We'll meet at the Rest at 2:00 as usual, and head east.

2016-08-21

Finances
   Full sim tiers due on the 28th, covered. Ad rents due today, covered. Next month could start becoming a problem, Wyn and Vee need to talk.

Portland West
   Wyn and Sylv talked yesterday, but inconclusively.

2016-08-14

It was a very small meeting as the UFS folks were busy commissioning a starship.

Finances
   Thuban tier got paid last week, the other HSs are due tomorrow and are covered. We're still here & stable. All bills paid & up to date.

Griefer attack
   [Editorial comment: I very rarely report conversations verbatim, but this was an important matter and a statement of new rules for events; plus a discussion of "jelly dolls" and the new "avatar complexity" measure.]
   Vee's report: "Yesterday, we hosted Azdra's wedding, up on 3500. During the ceremony, there was a griefer attack, which crashed most of us, including me. Response to the attack was a somewhat panicked 'who don't we know? ban them!'... not helped by having several different groups present... We did actually ban the avi who launched the attack, btw. Seems it's someone with a grievance against the UFS 12th Fleet, or something. We know we got the right one, which is a good thing as we also AR'd him, because an alt of his considered his estate-banning a win for him. The griefer object seems to have been worn, not rezzed. So the first thing to note is the jellydoll didn't work, in this instance. I had Jellydoll on with complexity set high, and it bounced me.
   "Ok, so, after discussion with Wyn, we have a couple new rules for future events... and if anyone has any better ideas, we'll listen. When we host an outside event, we're going to lock down build to group-only during the event. That's just common sense, and it was applied during yesterday's ceremony. If there's a griefer attack, we'll do our best to ID the griefer and immediately estate-ban on both estates. But we have to insist that everyone present file an AR, as well. Too many groups don't file ARs because 'they don't work'. That's not been my experience. Get the attention of the Governance team with enough AR's, and LL are very good at banning alts of alts. (NCI's going through a thing with a minor griefer at the moment. he brings in a new alt once a week or so, teases the LO's on duty, and eventually gets banned for some minor infraction. He's careful never to be AR'd by more than a couple of NCI staff at a time.)
   "And that brings me to the aftermath... After the attack, when everyone was logging in, there was a concerted effort to identify anyone who *might* be a griefer and ban them. We don't want to see that again. We ban for infractions, not for wearing a loud shirt in a built-up area... but we don't want events we host to be griefed, either. So, new rule: Guardians can ask for guests to be vouched for by trusted guests or other vouched-for guests. Anyone not vouched for can be ejected from the sim or tp'd down to ground level, but won't be estate or land-banned. If we consider the threat level requires it, we can even move to a guest list and access-only restrictions for the duration of the event. Decision on whether to use an access list is mine & Wyn's, alone. But holds on both estates.
   "Check LL's wiki for what Jellydoll is, but basically it's supposed to simplify avatar rendering when avatars get too complex for your viewer. LL's and Firestorm's current viewers have it. [Una supplied the URL in the LL wiki: https://community.secondlife.com/t5/English-Knowledge-Base/Avatar-Rendering-Complexity/ta-p/2967838 ] One griefer trick is to attach an unrenderable object, so all other viewers try to render it and go insane... jellydoll was supposed to combat that, as well as avatar-induced lag. We think [that was what was done in this case]. Build was already set to group-only. [That doesn't crash the griefer because] the griefer either uses a griefer/copybot viewer (they're illegal - literally, using one breaks US law - but they're around), or travels in mouselook with 'see avatar in mouselook' disabled."
   Jade: "You can try this maybe... set your complexity level a bit low before the event - then right click folks you know/trust and choose render fully. it holds for the session only, but if someone comes in wearing the "induce lag" outfit - it doesn't have a chance to work."
   Vee: "The default is set to max, but the max is actually a bit low for good GPU's. Which is going to lead a lot of people to turn jellydoll off."
   Jade: "I see jelly dolls on PHT quite a lot, I show complexity info and run my slider up enough to render the known people and if visitors aren't too much higher I just render them for the session."
   Vee: "I don't see them so often, but I've discovered already that a few of my outfits show as about double max complexity. And I don't even have a mesh body."
   Jade: "Mesh body and clothes are actually lower complexity - it seems to be based on how many prims were used to create the accessory. I have a very low script outfit I use for classes - it's almost three times the complexity of this one. This one is nearly all mesh."

RP
   One of these days we'll do a numbweed harvest. Today we couldn't be sure of having enough people for it. So we'll meet in the Rest and do something.

Last Edit: October 23, 2016, 07:19:49 PM by Colin

Colin

Reply #22 on: October 23, 2016, 07:16:29 PM Colin's meeting notes (book 23)

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[c0ntinued in book 24]

2017-01-29

(A full report despite my Internet outage, thanks to John's logs)

Finances
   Vee said, "Full sim tiers were paid early this morning. So, we're here for another month. Many thanks to everyone who's been donating, payment was made entirely from donations. Doubt we'll be able to do that in full again, so please, keep donating! <grins>"

Sci-fi Con
   Vee said, "As you may recall, last year we decided, in one of these meetings, not to take a con booth this year. So, for the first time in ages, Gianfar will have no presence at the con, even by proxy. I think we'll still take spots at the Faires, though - they'll have a different build team. I'm not doing Milky Way Cabaret, either, after last year., so I've no connection with this year's con in any capacity."

Sim redesign proposal
   Felrun had published a Notecard with comments and suggestions about the build.
   The suggestion that ceilings ought to be lower drew responses that it wasn't just because of camera angles - it was also to provide for large dragons.
   The suggestion that we use skyboxes more triggered discussion: should everything be on the ground for realistic RP? Or could experience teleports make it more natural to walk through a door into a room hundreds of meters in the sky? Perhaps things like the "3500" skybox would work. Now that prim limits have been increased, and the Outer Fleet build over Shaula has been dismantled, we could have terrain like valleys with cotholds to RP in.
   Gianfar looks unlived-in. Perhaps we could use something like G&S or Unity tools to add temporary clutter and RP possibilities. We're seeking a site that uses Unity but without combat.

RP:
   We could pick up the thread of Qatalina's arrival, that Una planned several months ago. We wouldn't know when a trading ship was coming in, until it was actually seen; so we'd have only several hours to prepare for it. But DolphinHold would still be receiving goods for trade to the mainland, which might come overland or by coasters - boats that stay close to the coast, tie up every night. Goods would need to be warehoused. We don't have a warehouse set yet, but things could be stacked along the wall in the covered docks area. The Harpers would be watching for news of trader ships, might be expecting a delivery of something. And anyone standing around would be "pressganged by dockers/longshoremen into helping with the goods coming in, recording them for the ship's quartermasters, weighing & measuring nonstandard crates, physically moving them... Loading & unloading a ship, even a modern container ship, is a complex business. Ships tend to fall over if you get it wrong. So a lot of information gets recorded about goods & cargo."

2017-01-22

Meeting schedule
   From now on, "However late that annoying demon happens to be, at 11am prompt we switch to discussing RP, and pass on the rest of the agenda - except when we decide otherwise. And at 11:30, when I have to leave to set up class, we poll everyone present to see who plans to be at afternoon RP." Agreed by all.

Finances
   Full sim tiers (due next week) are covered from Novi's cash on hand. Vee will be paying ads today. So we're here for another month.

Harpers
   Una and ardrhys have composed a song and are ready to play at the Turnover gather this afternoon.

Turnover gather
   We'll have IC and OOC activity, probably a two-player board game, trivia, dancing, Threadfall.
   Discussed other RP themes, including the mystery of where Ayla got that red pebble that she gave to Tannar (possible treasure hunt).

2017-01-15

Finances
   Vee said, HS tiers got paid at 0:30 PST this morning. I need to check on ads today. Full sim tiers on the 28th are still in the air; last week's cold meant I had to put off some things that might fix that, rescheduled for this week. Also, not sure what Novi has in the bank... Just checked, looks like Novi has around L$150k. That's... impressive

Looks like the full sim tiers are safe... (but let me check with Wyn later)

GS equipment
Una said, Someone in the UFS (United Federation Starfleet) group donated a lot of GS items. A few months ago we'd started to decide whether or not to use such. We left off with the machinery being usable but supplies are locked via group. There's a winepress, grape field, weaving items, misc tools, and an iron mine.
Vee said, We should definitely have a look at them

   ardrhys said, Yes we should be able to use them for RP. Who would be interested in expanding hold related RP with them?
   Jade said, if items can be put in a scene rezzer made to look like a bench or storage trunk... the items can be available for RP, but not be a constant land impact. Rezzers are set to group access... if enough is left in the area it looks used, but when we RP there, we add the props, and can set up different scenes in the same rezzer.
   Vee said, It's something Wyn's been considering, she uses rezzers in her business, but we've just not needed them so far... we have spaces set aside for 'later' use and enough free prims - even before the expansion - to leave sets up semi-permanently. Would be useful for some of the sets that have multiple identities, though - our cothold has doubled as a Hall for several crafts, a runner station, and other things.
   Jade said, can completely change the appearance according to craft, or event, just by using a variety of suitable props.

RP question
   Some months ago after RP in the mines, we started a bit of a story about Ayla presenting Tennar with a gem. There was a germ of an idea around the mystery of where she got it. Una's wondering if anyone would like to expand that as a "meet at the rest" activity. "Flit in the stew" is getting old.

Next week: Turnover
   Where? Gather grounds near Harpers'? In the '3500' skybox? In the Hold?
   What to do? Dancing; sweeping up Thread dust, as it's midwinter. Trivia, but asked by a person at a slower pace than usual to leave time for conversation; might be nice to set the trivia ball up to ask on demand... whoever starts the game is in control of when the questions get asked. Jade's PHT group set up such a trivia ball, and Star had a list of Pern questions we used here before with the crystals Ortath set out.

2017-01-08

((Thanks to Star for the meeting info! AT&T gave me an Internet-free weekend.))

Finances
   Full sim tiers got paid over Xmas, and Vee paid up all our ads last week. Thuban tier is due today and covered. But full sim tier for this month isn't covered, yet. Vee's "going to be away part of this week, situation may change before next meeting, fingers crossed."

Turnover
   Didn't happen - not enough people around. Decided to postpone it to the 22nd, giving time for planning.

Also
   Ortath's New Year's party reportedly went well... and went on and on, as the goal was to follow midnight across many time zones.

2016-12-18

Finances
   We have enough money to get through the holidays, we will be here after Turnover.

Visitors
   We watched furry visitors - two Russian, one possibly Japanese; at least one whom we've seen several times.

Harpers
   ...have been having a good time with the Mikki Miles ensemble instruments. They might have a session in the Rest during RP time today.

2016-12-11

Vee's news
   Yesterday, Vee officially became the NCI Education Coordinator.

Finances
   Vee: "I need to check that the tiers are covered, but I paid all but 2 of the ads last night - those 2 had to wait until after 9am today. Thuban tier on the 8th was covered, next up are the HS's on the 15th."

Upcoming meetings
   Next Sunday's will be the last for the year, as Christmas and New Year's fall on Sundays.

Turnover
   We settled on January 8th. Thinking of a semi-OOC event, with us in character and guests however they please. We should start posting notices in other groups by next weekend, because no-one's going to be reading notices for 2 weekends straight, at a guess.

Harpers
   This week's meeting will focus on what the Craft can do for Midwinter.

RP
   Today, 2pm SLT at the Rest to talk about whatever comes up.
   After Turnover, we might pick up the thread that Una was developing a month or so ago... having her new character Qatalina arrive as a stowaway on a Trader's ship.

2016-12-04

RP
   The tithe train is to reach the Weyr today. We're assuming that we collected the Hold's contributions last week, before or after Ayla's clutch hatched. So, following the pattern of skipping the actual travel, we'll just meet in the Bowl. The area west of the fire circle has the most room for wagons and is close to the kitchen entrance.

Harpers
   Will meet on Wednesday at 1pm to practice and work on performance ideas.

2016-11-27

Whers:
   Felrun was building a wher, showed us her work-in-progress. That triggered a long discussion and quick research about the beasts. (Wikipedia has an entry about them, of course.)
   And that led into the idea of someone in Gianfar learning enough about mesh that we could build our own dragons. The present ones are prims and sculpts.

Finances are OK.

Memorial service:
   Thanks to all who attended Anne's memorial service last week.

Harpers
   Are working with the Mikki Miles ensemble instruments. Z'ron made a HUD overlay that makes them easier to play.

RP
   The tithe train is to spend the night at the Hold today, and reach the Weyr next RL-Sunday. We decided that rather than the train stopping at Fisher/Dolphin Hall, which can be reached only by boat, the Fishercraft would deliver fresh seafood to the Weyr. We may 'camp' in the Hold kitchen at the west end of the first floor that's directly accessible from the stairs.
   Ayla's clutch is close to hatching... her nest is in Healers' Hall... lots of possibilities there.

2016-11-20

Finances
   Bills paid.

Memorial service
   Will be held at 1:30, near the waterfall in the SW side of the Weyr Bowl. Open to the public. To be repeated tomorrow, the actual date of Anne's death, but time hasn't been set.

Party
   To be held at 2:00 in place of RP; probably at the dance floor in front of Harpers Hall in Kuma. OOC and open to the public.

Harpers
   Had a class on ensemble playing last week, using the Mickey Miles instruments. Decided that it was so much fun they'd do more practicing.

2016-11-13

Finances
   Vee thought the HS tiers due on the 15th were covered from Novi (needed to check with Wyn). Thuban tier on the 8th was covered. She paid all but 2 of our ads last night. So, we're here for another month, and we're not broke yet.

Next weekend
   Vee will be arranging for Anne's memorial service. Harpers should think about performing something related to Anne.

Harpers
   There will be a class on ensemble instruments in Harper Hall at 1pm SLT Wednesday. Everyone is welcome, whether you have ensemble instruments or not; we have loaners.

Group invitation
   pet Fhang sent invitations to join a newly formed group, Roleplay Finders.

Visitors
   We continue to see Russian furries here during the week, and one was flying around during the meeting, but they seem to be leaving no prims.

RP
   The tithe train is planning to camp at the old mines (north coast of Kuma (178, 251, 22)) today. We'll meet there, preferably having rezzed our wagons before the RP starts.

2016-11-06

Finances
   We're still here. Next up is Thuban in 2 days, covered from Novi. HS tiers on the 15th are also covered. Ad bills are up to date as of last week. Upshot is, we should be here through Xmas.

Sci-Fi Con
   Vee's been asked to be one of the sim builders this year. "My own fault for being told the theme and instantly coming up with an idea." The theme is Elements. Earth, Air, Water, Life, Spirit - aka Life2 in the sim maps - and... Fire. We can guess which one's Vee's project!
   Vee: "Anyway, sim layouts are being finalised now, and I'm privy to some of the decisions the con has made - and RFL, ftm. Two of them concern me, and I haven't been told they're secret, so...
   "First is RFL. Note, this isn't the Alliance's decision, and isn't something we can influence. But next year's RFL vendors & tipjars will pick teams by region. So, all tipjars in an event like the Con will automatically feed to the meta-event's team, in this case team Sci-Fi.
   "The second decision is all Alliance... in past years, most con booths have been free, and exhibitors paid for upgrades. This year, all booths are paid. There are 16x16 'stalls' which are free, and may or may not be pre-built - we're still arguing that one. But, as there's only 4 of those per sim...the basic booth is a 32x32, for L$5000. As always, all fees go to Team Sci-Fi. It's my understanding that, like last year, a 'mysterious backer' is funding the event, meaning every L$ raised goes to RFL."
   There was then discussion of whether Gianfar or Dragons for a Cure would choose to participate under those conditions.

LL's announcement
   Vee: "Anyone here who owns some mainland is going to notice that their prim limits just went up. The change will roll out to private estates 'over the next few months', but differently. We'll get 20,000 instead of 15,000 but with the option to buy another 10,000. And it's the same for grandfathered sims. A US$30 set-up fee (per sim), then US$30/month for the extra 10k - which, apparently, can be turned on/off by the sim owners, so it doesn't have to be an every-month deal."
   txep'ongokx: "the aim being that mesh and sculpt designers will up the LODs for better distance view performance, rather than packing in more items and textures."
   Vee: "Also reflects improvements in the... what is it, series 8?... servers LL is using now. Otoh, lag is going to go up. Anyway, this is just a heads-up. Wyn & I discussed this, and we probably won't allow more prims downstairs in the RP zone. Client lag during a fall is... annoying. But it means we might be able to rez more higher up, and it makes Fall on the HS's more... possible."
   We've converted some terrain in Shaula and Thuban to mesh; and the Hold is on the list ('way down the list) for a mesh rebuilding.

Rod's request
    "I am running an RP on Thursday with the UFS ship the Maxwell (which Jayce is on). We need a medieval place, and I would like to use Kuma to introduce some of them to the sims. It's at 6pm SLT. You all would be invited to be NPCs." We had no issues with that, Wyn agreed, Vee officially approved it.
   In what role as NPCs? "We're acting out people who, like Pern, came from another planet to start over. but these ppl get carepackages from home. So, citizens and priests who take care of the carepackages. The planet doesn't actually know where the carepackages come from; it's more like Mom spying on you, even though you're on your own."

Harpers
   Simile missed last week's class - computer was down. This Wednesday at 1:00 SLT they'll do meter (as in music, not combat) and maybe ensemble instruments.

Anne's memorial
   Two weeks from today: memorial service on Sunday, repeated on Monday which is the date of her death.

RP
   The tithe train will be overnighting at Winecraft today. Weather will be cold, expect snow. We'll at least be loading goods from Farmcraft and Winecraft.

2016-10-30

Unofficial meeting
   Neither Vee nor Wyn was there.

Gather
   John rezzed a ballroom and dance balls over Kuma [Kuma (120,113,1253)] and we decided to try a masked ball in the RP time slot (2-4 pm SLT), as we'd discussed last week.
   Folks can set non-display of name tags, in their Preferences, to go along with the masking.
   Party will be OOC so non-Pern garb is recommended, to make it harder to guess who someone is.
   If anyone has a ghost story to tell, we could have a ghostly bardic circle.
   UFS was having a major RP event overlapping ours, so we expected to be without several major people.

2016-10-23

IoW news
   Vee: "...added Snow Scarmon to GPoP, so we have an Isles representative here. This follows on from an IoW meeting Wyn & I were at yesterday."

Finances
   Vee: "Nothing to report, which is always nice. Next up is the full sim tiers on the 28th. We're shifting funds out of Novi for that."
   Wyn: "The donations have been terrific! Thanks so much to everyone!"

Harpers
   Simile: "I will be running a bardic circle and teaching others to run it, at one pm Wednesday. I will be teaching several games harpers play. All are welcome. Bring a short poem or story to share if you want to. My harpers asked me what they can do to entertain besides performing if rp gets dull. We will meet in front of Harper Hall instead of in it."

Anne's Day
   Vee: "For reference, Anne died on 21st Nov 2011, so this 21st will be 5 years. Also, a Monday, which, as usual, immediately follows a Sunday. I knew this was coming up, and had it pencilled in to talk about today. Then Snow invited Gianfar to an event planning meeting at the Isles. So now I have <cough> a few ideas for us all (and I already talked to a few people about some of this Wink

) "So, rough schedule for Sun 21st... 11am. TinyWood Squares, Pern edition, from somewhere on our sims (I suggest Kuma Gather Grounds). I can explain TWS, or you can go watch it Wink

It starts at 11am, Limbo (106,114,26) in the Isles. That should finish around 12:30, so follow or overlap that with dragon racing - we have 2 courses, Wyrms has 1... then have our usual ceremony on Shaula at about 1:30. Followed by a party at 2, in place of our usual RP. I asked the Fairports and they said yes.

(Wyn can set up a dance floor in Shaula.)
   "Oh, I should add that we'll hold the ceremony again on the actual day, Monday. Time TBD."

Flamers
   Vee: "Oh, I had one more idea, not Anne's-day related. I can create temp flamer givers, like the flamethrower givers, and enable other dragons to fly Thread, just for an event. This'd be quite trivial, since I already have the scripts. And Wyn said she could shrink flamethrowers for hatchies & tinies... so get your asbestos shinguards ready."

Cooperation with IoW
   We're going to need cookies for the hatchies. Moira has "Lord Holder Cookies" in inventory - maybe those are the plate of cookies that Simile remembered that came with a sign that said "Lord Holder Cookies, do not touch" or something like that.. Forbidden fruit.
   Vee: "And across all that, since we're allied with all these Trek & Pandoran folks... wouldn't it be fun to race ikrans against our dragons against anyone else's, and to have 'away teams' have dragon encounters... so I talked to Azdra and Blue as well... (and to Jade, so that's both Blues

).

RP: today and the Gather
Star: "We were able to get a good outline for the next month of RP days set up. [Today:] Tithe train week 1 - Meet at Smiths, walk to Tanners and overnight there. Smiths meet at Tanners, from Tanners towards Vintners, and have Beastcraft herd meet along the way. We RP at places we stopped for the night."
Next Sunday will be the 5th one of the month, our traditional Gather Day. It's also the day before Halloween. Pern doesn't have a Halloween but we usually do something halloweenish; we did one "upstairs" last year. Maybe a ghost story bardic circle? John has the perfect ballroom, a skybox with walkway; we also have last year's platform and spooky houses. We might be able to put the ballroom in Kuma, hooked up to the "3500" skybox.

Last Edit: February 06, 2017, 01:17:23 AM by Colin

Colin

Reply #23 on: February 06, 2017, 01:22:27 AM Colin's meeting notes (book 24)

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[continued in book 25]

2017-04-16

Finances
   Vee got paid on Friday, just in time for HS tiers on Saturday! So we're actually stable again.

Vee's schedule
   It looks like she'll be working from home on Wednesdays - although maybe not this week.

Ayla's news
   She's to be married to asarock menna-Wemyss, Friday, May 5th, 12:30 pm slt, Avilion Nexus ballroom. We're all welcome. It's an OOC area - non-humans OK, wear whatever you think would work for a wedding guest. There will be a TP at the landing point.

RP
   We'll explore Firelizard Island.

2017-04-09

Finances
   Thanks to your donations, the sims have made it through the past few weeks! Thuban tier was paid last night. And Vee's first payday will be just in time for HS tier day.

Applicant
   Colin talked with a wyvern named trickster yesterday.

Vee's schedule
   No NCI class today; Vee is travelling. Her work schedule is firming up: generally home soon after 5, and can work from home when she needs to (which might turn out to be Wednesdays); may change if she can move closer to work.

RP
   We have two possibilities: searching the old mines for the source of Ayla's pretty stones that could be valuable trinkets, and exploring the caves on Firelizard Island.
   Discussed whether we could pull in more players by trying other times for RP. Saturdays seemed to be full for many people. Some time on a weekday? Are people just uninterested, or are they just too busy on weekends? Suggestions welcome!

2017-04-02

Finances
   Please send more money. We haven't covered the FS tiers, and we can't cover Thuban on the 8th. Vee thinks we've enough in Novi & other places to cover 1 full.

Places
   This is a new SL Web feature described in
https://places.secondlife.com/
which automatically creates pages for all places accessible by Search. We'll need lots of images, folks! 1980x1700, 852x486, and any YouTube vids we care to share. Vee will try to figure out how we make one page for Gianfar instead of one page per sim.
   We haven't found a way for anyone but place owners to see Places they don't own, without having been given a URL for that page.
   Seeing anything seems to require being logged in to SL, so only Residents could see Places... and only ones that were listed in Search and whose owners marked them as available in Places.

Pern Day
   Since we missed Pern Day - "Vee's fault for getting a job" - if we just want to party today, she'd be ok with that.

Vee's schedule
   "I have to be up far too early tomorrow, so I won't be staying on long today - far too much to get ready :/ and I'll be away later this week. Out of town Thu through Sat, limited internet access, probably no free time Friday. But back in time for next week's meeting. By then, I should know when I can work from home and stuff. And I should usually be home by 6, thinking of trying to be here regularly, maybe between 6 & 7 or 7 & 8 each night... I can script if no-one's around to RP."

RP
   Maybe we'll just have a "Vee's job celebration dance."

2017-03-26

Finances
   Vee is almost employed: starts work a week from tomorrow. She and Wyn raised some money to pay the overdue tiers. After her pay starts, on the 14th, we won't have to worry about tier. But we'll have to (and will probably be able to) persuade LL to let us skip payments until then.

Projects
   Vee will be able to spend most of next week rolling out scripts and fixes. Stand by for Thread v3! But she'll likely miss the week-after-next meeting. On the other hand, once settled in her new job she'll be able to work from home one or two days a week - so might be able to get to or host some weekday events.

Harpers
   Z'ron clarified her remark from last week: she "didn't intend to say I would never teach regular classes again, but Colin says that's what I said. I need to know what people want, though. And no one else has asked for anything. I just found a good source for the music and mood class. That's about it."

RP
   We'll have three or four people and two story lines to follow: Qat's integration into Gianfar life, and the search for the source of gemstones that Ayla dropped a few weeks ago. So, meeting at the Rest at 2 SLT.

Gianfar meeting 2017-03-19

Finances
   Vee: "I can tell you that HS tiers were paid, I paid all our ads up to date last night, and did a cleanup on the sims - surprising several Russian furries who were playing in the RP zone with returned primmage (they all left)."

Furniture
   Discussed the chairs in the Council Room. Poseballs are unsightly but no one's put sit-scripts in the chairs. Vee's chairs are full-perm but not linked to the poseballs. She gave Z'ron a chair; Z'ron can give it back with a sit-script installed, and Vee could replace all the chairs with that one.

Harpers
   Z'ron suggested "a class on how music influences mood. People who know that can improvise better. But I haven't written the class yet. If anyone else wants to do it feel free. And if anyone else tells me we need something that we don't have I'll try to write it. I'm just not good at remembering classes that happen after hubby is off work. So I won't be doing regular classes at one or two pm any more."

RP
   Possibilities for activities around Firelizard Island: Maybe we heard that the fishing is good and we can fish and RP. Maybe we came to see if that ship that's grounded there can be salvaged. Maybe we got a clue that Ayla's gems are there - it wouldn't have to be true. Maybe we've seen our young flits fly off that way and we're wondering what they're up to. Maybe we're after flit eggs, we want to find a nest or three or four. If we want to do that we should have someone make up nests with partly eaten eggs. Z'ron was thinking we'd find some eggs and later have a hatching in which most of the eggs don't hatch because they're from greens. We could have several hatchings because we found eggs at different stages. And later on... Qat has an affinity for flits, perhaps later on she is curious about it... we could go back to the island again.
   Ayla gave Tennar two gems a while ago, and we've been wondering where she got them. Maybe that search could tie into Firelizard Island stories. She has stashes in several places, maybe including the island. She said OOC that she'd found them in an old mine tunnel somewhere; the miner was long dead. It could be a tunnel that's hard to spot because the entrance is partially blocked, like someone once tried to hide it. Maybe we could be in there because we're helping Tennar get his store room back in order... start talking about the gems... continue on back into the mine?
   So let's meet at the Rest and take it from there.

2017-03-12

Finances
   Thuban tier got paid by raiding Novi's purse again. Next up is HS tier, due Wed or Thu.
   Speculated about setting up a Paypal-like account for Novi (to whom the donation boxes send money). We couldn't use Paypal: they're only allowed personal accounts by law, one per person. But there are other processors.
   Vee is hoping to have good news later this week.

Pern Day
   (April 1, Anne's birthday) is three weeks away, on a Saturday this year. We'll talk about it next week.

Harpers
   The archive scroll rack is back, and Moira put in it NC versions of the 3 founding stories written by Soo, from the website - so they are slightly easier to find now.
   She also put up a few temporary walls - to wall off the archivist office, and to create a little sleeping room for apprentices (and Qat).

RP
    Here is the link to the story line:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Jvzbs7k1HGJ_xlKKNdNUZjalxar6ZJhgmY73Zgb7aro/edit
   Last week, a search party formed at the Rest and investigated the tunnels at the old mine. Qat's camp was discovered and though she ran and tried to get away, she was caught. She was taken by Journeyman Moira to be given quarters at Harper Hall, in an apprentice room. She awaits questioning, etc.
   Seacraft could request that Harper Hall bring her there for the time being. Captain Fovin would want her there to ask her questions and to have her around when he decides what to do about Delan. (That can be changed, of course.) He doesn't want to go as far inland as Harpers. He has responsibilities.
   She should be escorted by a Harper, who would act as her advocate; that's one of the Harpers' duties.
   At some point a Hold Guard should talk to her, as well. Just to make sure she's not a mainland smuggler, determine if she's an immigrant the Lady will need to be informed about.
   The Masterfisher might send someone to ask questions.
   Apprentice Fisher Shanna assumes she was at sea fishing when this happened. Is now really concerned that this person might recognise her, for back story reasons (she won't). Shanna and Qat are both from small holds in the general area of Tillek, but they don't know one another. No one knows just where Qat is from.
   Qat has many skills, some of which aren't covered by our present members. In the long run she can be a variety of things. She has some Fishercraft experience, mapping skills, weaving. That she does mapping could be disturbing - perhaps she was sent here to map the island for someone back on the mainland.
   Once the questioning's over and she begins being incorporated into Gianfar culture, it would make sense that her education on that would be the task of Harpers. Then she would be apprenticed somewhere.
   Harpers is a good place for her to stay, after she's been taken to Seacraft for Fovin's questioning, until we can get her settled in an area that would be best for her skills. (And we can keep an eye on her better while she adjusts to being here.)
   It might occur to people that she might be more willing to listen to another person from Tillek (Shanna) who has been treated well.
   Captain Fovin will want to have words with Delan, giving him a fair hearing before pronouncing the foregone judgment.
   It takes a lot of time for people to move from place to place, so we'll meet at Seacraft, discuss Qat's situation with her (having taken her there per Fovin's request), then the questioning by Fovin.
   Stay tuned for notecards...

2017-03-05

Finances
   Vee's report: "The good news is, the full sim tiers are paid. And I think Thuban will be covered on the 8th. The bad news is, can't say the same about the HS's on the 15th or the fulls next 28th. The HS's are US$125/mo each - so US$250 - and the fulls are US$195/mo each - US$390. And we raided Novi's funds to pay the last FS tier. So that's the bad news... I'm hoping for some good news this week, I'll let you all know if & when there is some.
   "The conversion rates between L$ and US$ are pretty stable most of the time. But LL charges fees for both converting to/from L$, and taking US$ out of SL to Paypal. Yet they'll take US$ without charging fees."

Harpers
   Z'ron suggested that "we get together catch as catch can and plan a class that people will want to remember to attend. There's interest, but in what? I need to know what people want. I'll try to talk to anyone that I know has shown any interest whatsoever. You can make sure I hear you by sending a notecard."
   Una and Ardrhys are interested in getting to know the instruments. Given Vee's illness, Una suggested something soothing. Z'ron agreed: " Good idea - mood music. What makes a tune sad, happy, calming, exciting, etc. lI'll research that some."
   Moira's interested in brainstorming for general Harper RP.

RP
   Una's "been updating Qat's backstory and adding RP summaries as we go. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Jvzbs7k1HGJ_xlKKNdNUZjalxar6ZJhgmY73Zgb7aro/edit
   "We are to the point now where we could have a search part, which would include the Weyr. This can start today or we can come back to it later. She doesn't have to be found today. It can just be the start of searching."
   We discussed whether Qat knows that she'd not be allowed to leave. Decided that "she has no idea where she is, that she found the very island she's heard about, and will find out later that she's here forever. All she knows is she got caught on a ship and needs to lay low to figure out what to do next. She would think Delan was just trying to keep her from being punished by Fovin. She has no idea if she'd stayed on board she could have been sent home."
   In any case, Captain Fovin will have some things to say to Delan, and Innkeeper Tennar will be wanting to discuss thievery with Qat.
   Una's planning to "write little bits on what is happening from Qat's point of view" as Mishla suggested. "Little 'diary' type entries. She isn't literally writing a diary but it will be that sort of short entry. I will add them to the doc."
   Z'ron pointed out that "This qualifies as designing a roleplay for Harper Master reqs."
   We'll meet at the Rest at 2 pm and start organizing for the search.

2017-02-26

Finances
   The island's still here so Vee must have paid the bills.

Harpers
   Z'ron wants ideas for what Harpers can do to improve roleplay. Send them to her in a notecard. "I might give prizes or something."

RP
   Discussed last week's episode - we got a report of a stow-away somewhere on the island, and rumors of things going missing from the Rest storage caves and the old mines behind the Rest.
   OOC (see the backstory on the Web) we know that Qat comes from "near Tillek." We can also assert that the place where she snuck onto Captain Fovin's ship wasn't near the little fishing village from which Shanna hails.
   Discussed how shipping could continue now that Thread is falling. There'd be no danger during the winter, except from winter storms. During Threadfall season we could suppose that there are sufficient safe anchorages.
   Qat's backstory, which Una is updating as the RP develops: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Jvzbs7k1HGJ_xlKKNdNUZjalxar6ZJhgmY73Zgb7aro/edit?usp=sharing
   Fisher Hall, and anti-Thread ships: https://docs.google.com/document/d/16ktyzooTmrCH9Ni_ijPSXRwbMtBS1kAIImfDeRf7lvY/edit
   Discussed the crewman who helped Qat get ashore and to the caves where she hid. Decided that as he'd been played by Colin's alt Del, he could have been named Delan. Talked about what Captain Fovin would do with him. Reasoned that Delan must've been from Gianfar, presumably in Seacraft, before Fovin hired him (which explains how he knew about the mine tunnels); so he could be just kicked off the ship and returned to Seacraft. That'll be material for a future RP thread; we'd need someone to play the Masterfisher.
   For today we'll start at the Rest and continue talking about the stow-away, possibly speculating on a connection between him or her and the thefts from the Rest stores and adjacent caverns.

2017-02-19

Finances
   Vee paid our ad bills last night, no tiers went out nor were due before next meeting.

Security
   But she did have 2 items arising from the griefer incident - and subsequently discovering 2 large (500 & 1400 prim) houses hovering over Shaula. And Colin returned a sporty car from the sky over Harpers.
   Vee made Dezy a Guardian, which gives us coverage during EU time.
   Vee wrote a security script for a friend, a while back... it's a panic-button script. Any time a suitably-authorised person hits a 'panic button', anyone over her land who's not on a whitelist gets sent home, their objects returned, and banned for 2 hours. Scripts are based on an Experience, and run wherever there's land in that Experience - her friend has several parcels. And the ban scripts, in particular, save their UUIDs in the Experience - so they can message each other, which means a ban triggered on one parcel automatically copies to all the others within a minute or two. (She's using email for that. So bans queue if a sim is offline at the time.) For Gianfar, she'd replace 'parcel' with 'region', but it'd work pretty much the same way.
   She'd love to be able to box an unauthorized build up and leave it somewhere so we can return it after they contact us to apologise... or permanently delete it if they don't... but LL don't give us that option. So we have no choice but to destroy expensive no-copy items, like a house rezzer, by returning them.
   Anyway, she'll roll out a Gianfar version early next week and let us all know where the 'panic buttons' are. In case of griefing, AR first (of course), wear a GPoP tag, find panic button, click it, fill in reason for ban - and done.

RP
   We know, OOC, that Qat, the escaped stowaway, will eventually be found in the abandoned mine tunnels behind Runners' Rest. So Tennar, the innkeeper, will be grumbling about things not being found where they should be; and the rumors of a big fuss over an escaped stowaway might get someone to wonder about a connection. Meet at the Rest at 2:00 SLT.

2017-02-12

Finances
   Thuban tier got paid on the 8th, ads are up to date. HS's on the 15th seem to be covered.

RP
   The time has come for Qat (Una's alt who's been drifting around at see for some months) to finally show up, sneaking off a sea-trader ship with the help of the crewfolk she'd befriended.
   We pondered the staffing of the scene. Shanna offered her alt, Captain Yansi, to be Trader Captain Fovin; Colin's alt Del, or ardrhys, could be a sailor. Would help to have dockhands. We could imagine a firelizard, if no one shows up to play one, to notify the harbormaster of the ship's approach. Lady Varian could be there to make sure that a certain shipment was delivered (and to cause enough disruption to give Qat a chance to sneak ashore and away). Del 'bought' Colin's wagon so he'll be able to take Qat to the mine tunnels without anyone noticing.

Multiple viewers
   While talking about bringing alts into the RP along with our regular characters, the question came up: Can one run two different viewers at the same time? John reported being able to run Firestorm and Singularity at once. Shanna said, "I know people who [use] SL and Inworldz together a lot with no problems." Vee cautioned that "If you use the multiple viewers setting, be sure none of your avatars is under RLV restrictions - because they'll bleed through to all your logged-in accounts. Discovered that while writing & testing RLV code..."

2017-02-05

Finances
   Full sim tiers were paid last week, and Vee paid up all our ads yesterday. Next up is Thuban, due in 2 days, then the HS's, a week later.

Sim design changes
   Carrying on from Felrun's suggestions last week: Wyn has some terraforming plans, no schedule. Vee's plans depend either on us having more players, or on her having enough time to finish up nearly-complete projects like a redesign of Thread.

Pern Day
   April 1 is coming, and as we're not participating in Sci-Fi Con this year we'll have time to plan for our event. Ideas for events, OOC or IC, welcome, and, since it'll be a Saturday, we can make Pern Day last 2 days.

RP
   We're not expecting enough players this afternoon, for reasons including that "game of fake rugby, mostly played by advertisers," to pick up the arc of Qat's arrival. So we'll push that to next week and meet at the Rest today, probably continuing the mystery of where Ayla is getting gem stones to drop on innkeeper Tennar's counter.
   Vee cancelled today's RP class at NCI, for lack of students, and expected to sleep through RP time.

Last Edit: April 23, 2017, 07:13:23 PM by Colin

Colin

Reply #24 on: April 23, 2017, 07:16:20 PM Colin's meeting notes (book 25}

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[continued in Book 26]

2017-05-28

Finances
   FS tiers, due today, are covered.

RP
   Started the meeting by discussing RP. Brainstormed ideas for Weyr RP, limited by having three active Weyr humans (M'thos, Rodney, and Del) and one active dragon (Mishaleth). Two Apprentice Harpers (Una and ardrhys) could have been assigned to do some research there. We'll meet in the Weyr Bowl at 2.

SL14B
   We have a booth: a 32x32 parcel. The script restrictions this year are particularly nasty. Pretty much all that's allowed is touch - no collisions, no timers, no public-chat listeners, no permanently-on listeners on non-public channels... But Experiences are allowed. So, Vee was wondering about a set of Pandora-style floating platforms or rocks, linked by - initially she thought rope bridges, but later, maybe a waterslide, like the one she made for last year's RFL... with the platforms linked by anywhere door teleports that, by changing destinations from time to time, could make the build something of a 3D maze... She has most of that in inventory. What she doesn't have is the platforms themselves [John offered some] - or things to put on the platforms. Like, games, say... this year's b'day theme is carnivalesque. There's a height limit of 75m above ground level, and we can terraform to 10m below ground, and the platforms can be small and not one above another, so we should be able to squeeze several in. We can go up to 2m outside that 32x32, provided we're over 2m up - that's supposed to allow for overhanging tree branches, but should work for platforms, too.
   This year's SLB promises to be the laggiest ever - the sim continent layout is not ideal, plus the 75m height rule, plus most of the script restrictions are, well, not actually going to help.

2017-05-21

Vee's news
   She's back from 2nd trip to hospital, recovering, doing minimal typing. No NCI class today, and she may or may not be around for RP.

Finances
   "Bills are all paid, FS tiers for next week are covered, website bill is coming up and is covered. Need to check on our ads. End of report."

SL14B
   They've reopened applications. Vee will apply, and pull our application if we can't build anything... Wyn suggests using the dolphin & dragon rides again, even if that means repeating ourselves a bit. There was agreement that being present is the main thing.

Korolev Station
   Vee and Dezy haven't been able to sync up - but Dezy's inventoried the remaining Outer Fleet assets that Vee will have to return to make space (which will also free up prims).

Harpers
   Bootstrapping continues, the problem being that we were about to lose our last active Master and had to promote someone. Moira will be promoted to Master and will then be able to promote Una and ardrhys to Journeyman. That will produce a structure in which Students (anyone who's interested in the Craft) can be made Apprentices and work up from there.

RP
   Moira was thinking we could do an informal class about using flamethrowers - a mixture of the weyrling training about checking/cleaning flamethrowers and Colin's notes about actually using them. She could lead it from what she remembers from when she was at the Weyr. All who commented favored the idea, so that'll be this afternoon's topic.

2017-05-14

Finances
   Vee: "... are good, since I still have a job

HS tiers will be paid Monday on schedule."

SLB
   Vee: "SLB closed applications about half a day early, before I got round to filing ours. However, Doc heard about my situation, and offered to let us apply for an exhibit space anyway. I haven't taken him up on it; I don't know that we'll have any builders available - Wyn still isn't back in SL full-time. I hate to not be there, though... is there anyone who feels strongly that we ought to be on SL14B?" Discussion amounted to 'not enough likelihood of getting new members to justify the work.' "Ok, I'll tell Doc thanks for the offer, but we'll skip this year."

Harpers
   Moira: "We had a Harper business meeting earlier this week - myself, Z'ron, ardrhys and Una. We discussed promotion requirements, made a few little tweaks to some wording (keeping the intent of the requirement, though) and expect that we should have some promotions occurring before too long."
   Thalia: "Expect promotions, which means walking the tables, and will need people to RP the Harper Quintet."
   Z'ron: "I want promotion requests from the apprentice harpers. Copies to Moira."

Korolev Station
   Dezy's space station sim Korolev will close next month - it ran out of money. And Vee has this void [above Shaula] that Outer Fleet used to rent from me for space RP.
   Dezy: The owner of Korolev Station is running out of money. She's got hit with some bills and pretty much can't afford a full sim and a homestead anymore. So I contacted Vee to see if we possibly could more some inhabitants along with some prims this way."
   Vee: "As I understand it, Korolev's original builder is gone, so the Korolev build will go with the sim - so you'll need to build something new here?"
   Dezy: "Most of the prims are from a missing builder, but a lot of them are from the owner as well."
   Dezy sent the "Official Statement from Korolev" in a GPoP Notice.
   Pause for everyone to read the NC...
   Vee: "So, no objections to Korolev becoming our tenants? We're thinking of using space on Tyl & Thuban, as well as Shaula. Subject to negotiations, of course, but I don't see any technical problems." ... "I have vertical space over Shaula that, after I bought Shaula from Soo, I used to rent to an occasional RP group called Outer Fleet. I think some of their space stations & asteroids are still there, although the main build was taken out a year or two ago." But Dezy said "Actually there's still a BIG space station over Shaula."
   I asked how active Korolev is, at what times; Dezy said there are just a couple of regulars. So there'd be no strain on our sims.
   The Korolev owner logged on, Dezy contacted her, she asked about rent. Vee said "We'll negotiate, but I don't think rent will be a problem. I'm not getting anything for the space right now, after all."

RP general direction
   Moira: "After our harper business, we kind of met as a RP discussion committee earlier this week, and we did some brainstorming on some ideas for RP scenarios. We came up with a list which we would like to send out to get feedback on from the larger group, and we would also like to encourage others to be part of the discussion in brainstorming ideas. We were discussing choosing a story and a location, and then figuring out characters/roles that would be needed, and in some situations taking the roles on as NPC's (rather than our normal characters). Part of the intent is to utilize other areas of the islands, expand story lines into other crafts, as well as expanding our RP abilities. In addition, hopefully we may interest other members to come back and share in the experience.
   Una: "Also hoping that by sending out some ideas, we can find out which interest the most folks, and start with those. Perhaps generate more participation and interest.
   Moira: "There are background NC's for other crafts that we could distribute prior to the RP in an area, so that we would have a common background to start from. As an example, we could do a RP at Tannercraft where NPC weyrlings are learning about how to choose and treat hides for making their riding straps, or perhaps a RP where we all try out being a dragon or a rider and have a NPC 'learning to fly' class RP. (I have all the weyrling tasks, still, from when I completed them awhile ago). Or something at Weavercraft. Obviously these types of things would take a little prep work ahead of time.
   "We also (Una and I) re-visited firelizard island. There is a lot of beautiful space there that needs some stories. Part of our thoughts are about telling our existing stories, as well as creating newer history."
   Z'ron: "We'd like to invite other interested people to meet with us to plan rp. and make suggestions to this meeting. If you're interested in rp planning, talk to Moira, Ardrhys or Una about a good time to meet. Think about teaching a class and putting it in a notecard so others can teach it if you're not available. The harpers have several classes saved, and not just harper classes."
    Moira: So any ideas - like the ones Ryu and Ayla are having fun discussing [below] - are what we're looking for. We can either set up times to meet with those interested, or if you just come up with an idea you want to share, you can send a NC to me, Una and/or Ardrhys wtih the idea, and we'll add it to our list.
   Z'ron: I still think an unofficial rp committee should meet. Brainstorming works better in groups.
   Una: "They can be one day short rp ideas, or something that can play out over several days. We want to hear all ideas!"
   Moira: Yes, it does, but I don't want to limit it to that, if someone comes up with an idea out of the blue. The committee can take ideas received and brainstorm further on them, as well.
    Z'ron: I agree, sending ideas to you three is a good idea.

Ceramics
   This thread spun off from, and was interlaced with, the RP discussion:
   Ryu: "I only know ceramics and how to use low density silica to make a firebox on a volcano for firing it. Have to have live lava flow and you're almost as much in danger of being burned as any rider is fighting thread. Lava itself is also subject to use as glass when it's the right type. Obsidian and flint are both igneous."
   Mrs. Ayla: "Hmmm...pesky flits could have fun with ceramics."
   Una: "We need some pesky flit stories at the island."
   Ryu: "I can write some "scrolls" of how to build, fire and construct ceramics and glasses. Like making the slip for a ceramic by putting the raw minerals with water into a desert plant pod that is nearly indestructible and useful as a mixing bowl, and getting the flits to play with it for a few days. And any firelizards, children and other critters running around."
   Mrs. Ayla: "Watch us break it open anyway and make a big mess, lol."
   Ryu: "Heh. Considering the pods are also used (empty) as play toys for dragons and human sports, that'll take some doing, but, yeah... SPLAT!"
    Mrs. Ayla: "Plus who knows where they might end up, you might have to look around for them."
   Ryu: "That's why it's actually a chore. You either pound slip all day in a churn, or you follow the pod around every second to make sure it doesn't either get broken, opened or disappeared by a fire lizard or down a hole. Also, if you're lucky, you find a volcanic hot spring that has been mixing up ceramic slip au natural for a few decades and then have to learn to figure out whether the slip is safe for utensils, tools or neither. Sometimes the ceramic will have Thallium or Lead and not be safe.
   Ryu [referencing the invitation to set up a class and put the notes on a Notecard]: "Do you want the notecard to be "old timer who's been there" or "brash young 'expert' full of ideas from the AI and about as experienced as a 15 Year old is with girls"?
   Moira: "Which ever suits your fancy, but the old timer might fit in with some thoughts we were having about fire lizard island... I was just trying to picture what a volcanic hot spring might look like."
   Ryu: "For volcanic firing, can be caves with several small lava tubes running through them. Safe enough if you don't poke around wildly."
   Moira: "Hmmm... we'll have to give that some thought and see what can be figured out."
   Ryu: "Holes in the floor where you would essentially dip a really high temperature retort (also ceramic, but fired long before) down into the hole just above the lava flow. And gaging the temperature can (and often does) result in lack of eyebrows and eyelashes."
   Z'ron: Pottery class is a lot more interesting than I thought it would be.
   Ryu: "We're making ceramics. Including tools and knives. May lack metals, but ceramics we have in abundance! Hooks of hull metal for the kilns (what the volcanic vents would be called). I'll make a list."
   Moira: "Ryu, what size of area do you think would be needed? and would in a cave be the best setting? (or would that not be necessary?)"
   Una: Not sure of the feasibility but it sounds like it goes with the mines."
   Ryu: "The holes would be in the floor and about a meter larger than the largest piece to fire. The hooks would hold the crucibles in place so if you made the holes 1.5 to 2 meters across, you could have one kiln and do it in a room of 3 meters across. That would be RL terms, so size it for SL."
   ardrhys: "Weren't we talking about a volcano somewhere? Maybe where the lava flow has burst through a bit."
   Ryu: "Grungy would work. And rough. The firing process is the worst part, from the danger aspect. The production of the slip and clay mixes the hardest work. The molding and sculpting the trickiest, and messiest."
   Colin: "ardrhys, we've had a volcano in Thuban since before my time, probably in Soo's original build of Gianfar. We did an eruption RP last RL-winter. But it wasn't designed for RP; the eruption was off-stage as I recall. Smithcraft and the new mines have various rooms, as does Firelizard Island."
   ardrhys: "Great, maybe we could find a suitable cavern tonight."
   Moira: "There's also the caverns on Thuban (I think) where we had the temporary weyr after the last earthquake. Those currently aren't being used for anything, so could also be a possibility."
   Ryu: "The kilns just need a nearby lavatube. Not necessarily the best real estate, but not hard to manage near a volcano. Ask someone from Hawaii. Lava tubes can be many kilometers from a volcano."

RP today
   Meet at the entrance to the new mines (northeast Tyl, high up the mountainside). We'll be discussing a list of G&S equipment, materials, and products.

2017-05-07

Vee
   ...is back with us. We spent most of the meeting discussing medical matters.

Harpers
   Z'ron has decided to drop out of all RP in favor of Virtual Ability and Whole Brain Health. There'll be a Harper meeting in the Hall at 10am SLT tomorrow.

RP
   Maybe, not clear how many can show up.

2017-04-30

There was no meeting today; Vee was in the hospital.

Some folks might gather for RP at 2:00.

2017-04-23

Finances
   ...are good. All bills paid up to date, all tiers paid, next tier - the FS's - due Friday, which is also Vee's payday.

Vee's status
   She'll be even less available for the next couple of weeks - she's been asked to start & end work an hour later most days.

Harpers
   Z'ron is going to become even less available so we need to promote some harpers. All harpers take notice and send her your recommendations in notecards.

SL14B
   Applications opened last week. The Pandorans have already applied.
   Looks like the prim allowance is a little higher than last year, but the parcels are the same size.
   The theme is 'Carnivalesque'. We could do a Pern-themed carnival ride, or a Gather. Or both. Perhaps a gather with dragons giving rides and wearing funny hats? Perhaps bit Mardi Gras and a bit burlesque?
   We can go for a land parcel, and have it terraformed to 10m down, below water level, or go for a sea parcel, no land. They're still insisting on a 75m height limit. SL14B will be just as laggy as the last 3-4 SLB's. No skyboxes... Vee can ask for a sphere for 'between' flights, but we probably won't get it. Splitting builds between surface and sky reduces client lag: fewer objects, textures and avatars to rez in your draw distance. But the SLB leaders are wedded to the idea that everything needs to be on the ground. Vee thinks part of it is being worried about empty ground-level parcels. A rule about not having your ground-level parcel empty apart from a teleport would deal with that.
   We can use Experiences. Although it's clear the rule for Experiences was written by someone who doesn't know what they are.
   Last year we were nearly passed over; we may not be lucky enough to get in, this year.
   Vee will put together an application for a water sim based on a combined Gather and one or two rides. Perhaps, for a minimum, one person with a dragon avatar offering rides. We've got a drudge manning an info booth - essentially that effect.

RP
   We had a good time last Sunday exploring the levels of caverns on Firelizard Island. Today just meet up at the Rest and see where we go? Can always visit the island again if anyone missed it.

Last Edit: June 04, 2017, 07:59:07 PM by Colin

Colin

Reply #25 on: June 04, 2017, 08:03:18 PM Colin's meeting notes (book 26)

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2017-07-30

Finances
   All covered.

Gather
   Discussed yesterday's Gather session (dancing, Threadfall, dancing, hatchie raid, more dancing till about 6pm). Seemed like folks had a good time... we had more dancers than danceballs... and the hatchies are looking forward to raiding again.
   Discussed how to get things going this afternoon. We'll have DJs for all six hours, and be feeding the music stream to all sims, so folks can be moving around and still listening - and dancing in Kuma or 3500 as they please. Hoping to have foot and dragon races. Have at least one game, "Race to the Hatching Sands," on one of the Shaula-3500-meter islands and a "Cards Against Humanity" board beside the dance floor up there.
   Discussed what we could be doing this afternoon:
dancing all the time (Kuma or 3500, music everywhere);
dragon time trials any time (3500);
Thread at 12:35, 2:35, 4:35 Shaula, 12:50, 2:50 & 4:50 Kuma, and whenever Vee feels like it;
runner racing at 1pm (Tyl);
games any time (3500);
fireworks at 3:30 (Shaula or Kuma south beaches),
dolphin play at 4(?) (Etamin or north Kuma);
bardic circle (stories & poems around a campfire) at 5 (where?).
   Vee will build [and did build] an all-Gianfar announcer.

2017-07-23

Finances
   Vee: "Finances good, going to replace the in-sim teleports with an experience-based system I wrote last week - just walk into a door/tunnel, reappear at your destination and keep walking - and may (should) roll out flight strap rezzers this week. May test RLV code for auto-sitting dragons in one of them.

Gather
   Time: noon to 6pm SLT, Saturday and Sunday.
   Discussed poster design.
   Have two DJs lined up: the Fairports on Saturday, Ayla at 2pm on Sunday. [Flash: and Ktahdn Vesuvino at noon both days.] [And Gelgesith's fireworks at 3:30pm both days.]
   Discussed Pernese music.
   Maybe a hatchie raid from Isle of Wyrms.
   Discussed 'horse' racing, whether to use wearable beasts or avatars, how to detect people using 'assists' to run faster than 'possible,' whether to allow Bento horses which some people can't see.
   I'll do a 'flamethrower 101' class about 15 minutes before Threadfalls, so that visitors can contribute to chaos.

RP
   At 2pm as usual, in Tyl this time, near Beastcraft Hall and the orchard.

2017-07-16

Finances
   ...remain healthy. Homestead sim tiers due today and are covered. Need to check on our ads. Full sims on the 28th, covered. So we're here for another month

Scripting
Vee's "going to be working from home for a week, so I should have more time to get some stuff done. May be around the sims during the day."

RFL
Vee: "Quick note, it's the last day of RFL today, do go enjoy the builds, some really good ones this year

and donate, of course."

Harpers
   Ludo: " I'm still doing seminars at 9 am [SLT] on Saturday. Last time only Una came and we spent the time working on her song and discussing mood and music. Anyone is welcome."

Gather
   We reviewed Gather schedules from 2011 and 2014 for ideas. Ayla announced that she's now a DJ, and was hired immediately. Various folks have carnival-type games; there are booths on the 3500 floor for face painting and pie eating contests; Simile has the "Race to the Hatching Sands" multi-player board game; we could have dragon races in the ring course; we have the foot / runnerbeast race course in Tyl; there are "Dragon Games" in the Weyr Bowl; 7Seas fishing in Fisher/Dolphin Hall; and more. We'll need lots of PEOPLE to run and play the games.

RP
   We'll spend the time planning for the Gather, probably including a survey of what's presently on the '3500' platform.

2017-07-09

Finances
   Vee starts her new job tomorrow. Thuban tier is covered. HS's are due next weekend, covered. Bills are paid up to date.

Scripting
   Vee reported that "Decided my priority was finishing the Russian-furry-cleanup script on Tyl, but also did some work on a straps-rezzer and some changes to the Greeters. Ran some tests, and I think the website-login-from-SL thing is doable, but I need to brush up on my PHP, and I don't think it's a priority. Also did some overdue scripting for NCI. How much time I get this week depends on my job, but I *might* be able to roll out the security scripts to the other sims and put the straps-rezzer where it can be tested on Wednesday - I have an appointment in the afternoon, so I'm only working a half-day. New [riding] straps won't be any worse - but the improved straps are a separate issue (since they go with a replacement AO for the current dragons). May try out some new ideas in the rezzed straps, like straps that rez in front of the dragon. I originally shelved the straps project while we were looking for new dragons, or a dragon builder, but since that search appears to be stymied, I may as well finish what we have. I've been looking at Bento wings & tails, and wishing we had a maker who could rig for them. But Bento wings would remove the need for 'ground' & 'flight' wingsets, and flipping arms & wings for flying, as well as looking more natural. And Bento tails would let us do things like curl the tails when the dragon is sleeping." (The Singularity viewer seems unable to handle Bento.)

Sim music
   [This discussion was going on in Local Chat while the rest of the meeting was in Group Chat.]
   Vee and Wyn choose the music for the sims, but it is changeable by the Guardians. A script on each sim resets the music whenever the sims are empty for more than 5 minutes. So to change the music permanently requires Vee, or a Guardian who can edit group-owned objects... but any Guardian with land powers can change the stream temporarily. They're set back to a mostly classical station that fits the theme.

Harper seminars
   Ludo reported that "We had the first one yesterday. For a while they will be about how music affects mood, how to pick a tune to convey the mood you want. They're at 9 am Saturdays and can't last over 2 hours, I'm aiming at 1.5.
   Yesterday's seminar discussed what dynamics of music convey what moods. What the difference in mood is between two tunes for Ave Maria. Et Cetera.
We use YouTube for examples."
   Una commented, "From the student's point of view- the ways in which music affects us, and why. Makes you think about why you say you like or don't like a particular type of music or a song."
   Ludo "was surprised to find that minor keys being sad is a culturally trained thing." Moira said that "klezmer music often sounds like its in a minor key, but can also feel happy." Ludo replied that "If it also feels happy it probably has higher pitch, faster tempo, and a greater pitch range. See what we're learning."
   Attend the Saturday seminars to learn more.

Gather
   Do we want to hold another Gather, and if so, when? And, do we want to do it as part of a recruitment drive? We decided to hold Gathers on fifth Sundays of months (there are four such each year), and July is such a month. Gathers usually last for one day but could be multi-day if we want. And we'd love to have fireworks.
   So, how about the weekend of the 30th? That gives us two weeks to plan. To do a two-day Gather, though, we'd have to have people here both days. We could base planning on the Gather we did in 2014. Some folks have things left over from that one.
   We could have "horse" races using whatever riding beasts people had; foot races; seahorse or dolphin races. We could have dragon races on the rings course above Etamin.
   We could have pie-eating or drinking contests - the winner could be chosen randomly as everyone's eating animation would run at the same speed.
   We've lost the board games that we had several years ago, but might be able to find some medieval group games.
   We have the 7 Seas fishing setup, could run a fishing contest.
   There may be a Greedy board in the "3500" skybox.
   Moira put out a box giving the notecard schedule for the 2014 Gather, to provide some ideas. That event started on a Friday evening but we decided that a Sat-Sun event would be long enough for this year.

RP
   At 2pm SLT in the Rest, Colin will teach how to use a flamethrower without endangering oneself or others. That should be good preparation for the 3pm Threadfall.

2017-07-02

Finances
   The sims remain safe; Vee will be starting a new job a week from tomorrow. All our ad bills have been paid.
   Wyn hasn't been in SL lately but is OK; has back issues; staying in touch with Gianfar and NCI; getting treatment.

Scripting
   Vee has pulled out a couple of mothballed scripting projects, so it's just possible that she'll have some of those updates for Thread this week, after the 4th.
   She might try reactivating an old project, a way to log into the website from SL. Requiring new players to register with the website from SL would be difficult but would get around our spammer problem.
   She has a complete revamp of Thread, v2.0, all mapped out, but finishing testing it, bugfixing, and then rolling it out will take a while... so this week she's going to concentrate on fixes, the reporters, and maybe dragonflight. New flamers, plant scripts, etc, are tied to the new Thread scripts, which are tied to new emitters, which are tied to new control scripts... that will mean new dragonbreath, but after the next update she'll provide updaters for the dragons, so no more fiddling with the flamers.

Dragons
   Vee summarized the differences between Gianfar dragons and the "real" ones in the books. Ours are much smaller, else they'd not fit in a sim. Vee's predecessor allowed such things as a female brown for, well, reasons, which Vee can't disagree with... she's reluctant to overrule anything the Boss did, so that's still allowed - but requires her explicit permission, now.
   We also allow/require dragons to change colour... Rider hierarchy is defined by dragon colour in the books. Wingleaders ride bronzes, the Weyrleader is selected by which bronze flies the senior queen, etc. We can't do that. Barring exceptions approved by Vee (for golds & bronzes) or Weyr admins (for browns), all new-hatched dragons are green or blue. If a pair is promoted, the dragon 'sheds a skin' and becomes bronze or gold, as needed.
   Weyrleader, Weyrwoman and Wingleader are RP roles, appointed by Vee... when we have enough pairs active for such things... so the outcome of a senior queen's mating flight RP is predetermined. Which Vee hates, but it's necessary.
   Also, if a rider (or dragon) leaves the RP, the dragon (or rider) can reImpress. We're not having player suicide characters because another player walked out. Firelizards can also re-impress, as Ayla did.
   Last week, we made a small rule change... non-Weyr players can NPC dragons & riders to fill in gaps. But they still have to complete training to fly as part of adult, fighting-wing pairs. NPC'ing a non-flying dragon is one thing, lets a rider keep RPing while their dragon is away, but we (Soo) designed this place to echo the cooperative meme of the books, and that includes riders & dragons in partnership... also, solo flaming dragons have a huge advantage over dragonpairs in Fall.
   Also, "Dragons. Can. Talk." Dragon players are free to play the pure book dragon, only talking with other dragons or their rider... but they're also free to talk to any & all players, if they choose. But Vee's unlikely to approve any human characters that can 'hear' all dragons, like Lessa can. Without a good storyline reason that carries on, that's just godmoding.
   There's backstory on the website, slotting us fairly neatly into Anne's world (except for the dragon size thing - like the Weyr really being hours away by land, or the Hold being home to a thousand people, you just have to fill in the blanks...)

RP
   Flying class in the Weyr this afternoon, for anyone who'd like to try being an NPC Rider or dragon. Tell M'thos if you plan to attend, to help him figure out how to plan it.

2017-06-25

Finances
   Vee reported that "Full sim tiers due on the 29th are covered. But don't let that stop anyone donating..." She's off work pending severance pay, and awaiting a final interview for what may be her next job.

Korolev status
   Dezi reported that "Korolev Station has a new owner. Most of what was at Korsta Banks will be moved next door, Phoenix Station included, so I won't be placing that above Shaula. On the other hand, I'm building something to fill the void above Shaula a bit: a small station, two floors, with places to dock ships at. Still in development. You can see it over at the airfield at Tyl [3000 meters up]."

RP
   Discussed RP ideas, some from a Harper meeting last month and some from last week's OOC meeting. New member Aph is interested in weaving, and Jade/txep was talking of restarting Weavercraft. Both of them have RL commitments for a while, but will be back.
   Vee's "RP Basics" class will be held at noon as usual, but she'll be spending the rest of the afternoon being a Moderator during the last day of SL14B.
   For today's 2pm RP session, we'll meet in M'thos's Weyr for a basically OOC discussion of RP ideas. John or M'thos will send invitations.

2017-06-18

Finances
   Good for now but uncertain beyond a couple of months.

SL14B
   RL kept Vee out of SL most of last week so as of last night our parcel is a bare square of grass. We'll probably have to abandon it.

Korolev Station
   Dezy's space station is up. Technically, it's Phoenix, not Korolev - someone stepped up to buy the main Korolev sim, but they want the space station as well, so the secondary station moved here. Dezy or Svetlana would be the sources for details.

RP
   We discussed RP ideas. We might be called upon by the Harpers to discuss our personal histories (backstories) and Gianfar's history. That would be a good way to introduce us to our newest member(s) and probably fun for us old-timers who've been here for months and months.
   Let's meet in the Hold dining room (cross the bridge from the Rift Dome / Welcome Center, enter the Hold, curtained doorway on the right) at the usual 2pm SLT.

2017-06-11

Finances
   Thuban tier was paid on schedule, HS tiers will be paid on the 15th.

Meeting room chairs
   Ludo and Taliesin have rescripted the chairs in the Council Chamber. We'll no longer have to deal with intermittently-visible poseballs that have everyone sitting in the same position.

SL14B
   Pandora's exhibit is nearly finished, Vee's working on ours.

Korolev Station
   Vee has cleared the air above Shaula, ready for the Station to move in. Dezy has built an airfield (Korolev's sandbox) high above Tyl.

Harper promotions
   Last Sunday the planned Harper 'Walking the Tables' ceremony was held. Moira was promoted to Master, Una and ardrhys to Journeyman. Before that, the Harpers presented songs and music.

RP
   We'll meet in the Weyr dining hall; Del will take us on a tour of the Weyr. Many of those who start the tour will get back; some will take wrong turns and be discovered some day.

2017-06-04

Finances
   Vee paid our ad bills last night, and the upcoming Thuban & HS bills on the 8th & 15th are covered. Beyond that... TBD.

Korolev Station
   Vee spent some time cleaning up Russian-furry prims (and one stray space scene that tried to hide at the top of Tyl). So today she's planning to clean up the old stations above Shaula, ready for Korolev. And make a space for at least one of Dezy's moons on Tyl. And she'll also mark out a space, probably over Shaula, for working on SL14B.
   Dezy and Pandora Tereshkova visited the meeting. Gianfar might get applications from some Korolev folks, and vice versa. Pandora, who is now our newest member, is a good contact for Korolev.

SL14B
   Last week Vee came up with an idea... rather more Pandora than Gianfar. Floating islands, linked by a slide going down, and randomized anywhere doors between the platforms. And put games, displays, rides, etc, on the islands. She's thinking of re-using the bubble ride script from last year's RFL - it doesn't rez or derez anything and the scripting is mostly non-physical. All she'd have to do is define a few courses, add some unscripted downtubes, and, of course, find all the places people can fall out. Or make the whole thing nonphysical.
   Vee "got a timeslot in the Auditorium for my justly infamous NCI RP class. Tuesday 20th at 7, iirc."

Ludo
    She offered to replace the chairs in the Council Chamber with scripted ones not using poseballs and offering both male and female sitting poses. Wyn, who owns the present chairs, agreed.
   Vee has several projects going; one is a new version of Thread, from which the debug "Found greenery" messages will finally be deleted. Another part of that project is to allow some other people to stop Threadfalls, such as during meetings. And more... sounded like much more.

Smithcraft equipment
   Una reported that "John sent me all of the G&S items that were donated to us. Because of updates G&S has made to some of their items (mines included) they've become use-it-or-lose it items. I set out the mines and Ardrhys and I (mostly Ardrhys) have been working away to collect all the ore from them. That sets us up with supplies for smithing-related rp for some time. We were also given a G&S kitchen so we've set up a small kitchen area above the forge area. Anyone who wants to work the smith equipment can cook foods for energy. I sent Wyn a note about all that too in case either of you are wondering why there are so many Una prims over there. "

RP
   The Harpers had a good session yesterday, interviewing candidates for promotion and arranging furniture in the Hall dining room. Two Apprentices have been considered for promotion to Journeyman, and one Journeyman to Master.
   Today's session will start at 2pm SLT, in the Harper Hall dining room. There will be plenty of food set out, if the firelizards don't get to it first. All are welcome. This will be a good event for newer members to attend, as a good deal of history will be told.
   The Harpers will entertain until 3pm when Masterharper Isarma is expected to arrive. Then the Walking the Tables ceremony will be held.

Last Edit: August 13, 2017, 07:09:24 PM by Colin

Colin

Reply #26 on: August 13, 2017, 07:12:02 PM Colin's meeting notes (book 27)

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Posts: 68
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2017-10-08

Finances
   Finances are good, Thuban tier paid on schedule, HS tiers due on the 15th and covered. Ads *should* be good for a week.

News
   Ortath showed up with a new dragon body, Bento, from Dawns Kingdom. VERY impressive. It'll need customization for Gianfar (size and color, for example) but maybe the creator will help with that.
   Soo Novi returned to activity after 8 years! Intense welcoming ensued.
   Vee has a new demon body and a most impressive rezzing animation.
   M'thos is now Methos until he gets a new dragon. Meredyth (meredythrmckay) just joined; looks like he'll fill that need.
   Nekometh arrived, proving that the Council Chamber is large enough to hold two dragons... and that our graphics cards could rez them, if slowly.

RP
   Nekome has taught Character Building (and there's a box of info on the Council Room table). She's hoping to do a class on NPC creation in November, and one on RP in December. She also put out a box with all
   Had a long discussion on how to handle the fact that we have hardly any active Riders and dragons. Do we come up with IC reasons for that, or come up with RP that would attract people to those roles, or both? Do we concentrate on training Riders or dragons? Why did we lose all the people from the last Hatching? Would re-landscaping help catch visitors' interest, if we had a good storyline to keep them interested? How about letting players play Riders sometimes and dragons sometimes, for variety? To be continued this afternoon/evening in the Weyr, as the meeting ran until 1:30pm SLT.

2017-10-01

Finances:
   Vee was absent, so no info.

Gather:
   Realized that we should be discussing it. Went to '3500' to look around.

RP:
   Discussed where to take the "thief" story line, as Dutch will be gone for two weeks. We'd probably have had the Lady Holder be the judge for the trial (if we decided to hold one) but had to assume she wouldn't be present for this RP session.
   Info about this RP is at http://www.novipeaks.com/public/index.php?board=25.0

2017-09-27

Finances
    ...still good. Full sim tier due Thursday and covered. Vee checked & paid our ads last night. "But don't let that stop you paying your rent, please."

RP class
    Yesterday, Liriel and Dutch and Colin discussed how to kickstart a stalled RP - such as by the prisoner's break for freedom last Sunday. They also talked about how the OOVs during the week help the RP.
   Moira's OOV posts are under "Hall" in a Harper Hall Log thread because she felt they were more of a Hall perspective. Del's "diary entries" and Dutch's OOV posts are in Forum - Prattle in the Peaks - Weyr, Hold & Hall; RP transcriptions are there too.
   Next week Nekome will teach character development. The week after that Liriel will repeat the class she was going to give yesterday: talking about questions in RP and trying a new exercise from the book that teaches the "Yes, and..." technique.

Gather
   We'll go for a two-day event again. We may well use the '3500' area above Shaula for everything except the foot/runner races. We'll see about scheduling events besides DJs. We'll presumably have a hatchie invasion.

RP
   We need to resolve the thief's case in the next two sessions, as Dutch will be gone for two weeks after that. We'll need at least a defender (traditionally Harpers serve that function), judge (traditionally Lord Holder, Craftmaster, or Weyrleader depending on the offense), and of course the prisoner. They should get together behind the scenes to plan the play.
   In this case the offense is the theft of Tannercraft products - by someone with no affiliation to Weyr, Hold, or Hall - that were being sold to the Weyr - which makes jurisdiction hard to assign. So the Lord Holder would probably end up as judge. If Vee weren't feeling up to that RP at the time, it'd be medieval practice to simply hold the trial (and prisoner) over until a judge was available.
   The prisoner's disease could be from wherever he came from (in which case possibly a threat to Gianfar folk). It could instead be from a local 'bug' to which he had no immunity, or just a reaction to our food (in which case, no threat to 'us'). It would be nice to have Healer participation in the RP that discusses the disease/disorder.
   We'll meet in the Weyr dining hall at 2pm as usual.

2017-09-17

Finances
   ...remain good. HS tiers were paid on time, Vee renewed our ads yesterday.

New and returning members
   Bookworm Hienrichs has joined us; Taissa (shapeshifter) has rejoined; Trixie (littlecrystalwitch) is joining.

Fall Gather
   Will be on the 5th Sunday of October. No time to discuss it today.

Last week's RP
   Was discussed before the meeting. Some logs were posted, see below.

RP planning
   Could we suppose that the disease that The Man brought has spread rapidly and fatally through at least the Weyr? That would give us an IC way of accounting for our present lack of Riders and dragons. Restarting the whole Weyr is a major reinvention, but we need something major. People come here expecting to see dragons flying, but few want to play them - and those who do, don't stay around. Can we come up with RP story lines that involve dragons but not in the Weyr?
   We should get RP narratives onto the Web site, and in a place where people can find them. Moira added a bunch of current RP this week - under forum -> prattle in the peaks -> weyr, hold and hall [http://www.novipeaks.com/public/index.php?board=25.0] (scroll down below the child boards there). Dutch added some things. Moira put a few things on the Harper Hall board, as well, under 'harper hall logs'. We need to put links in the "Recent Stories" section of the main page, but who can update it?

RP today
   Meet in the Weyr bowl at 2pm SLT, and probably continue with the theft/sickness story.

2017-09-10

Finances
   Still good. Thuban tier got paid on schedule, and Novi's account is looking healthy. And Vee's air conditioning was finally fixed... the day after the heatwave broke there.

RP classes
   Moira: "Liriel has been continuing on with the outline from an improv book, which has been very interesting. We talked some yesterday about what RP we've liked, and what we didn't, and what makes the difference."
   Una: "Very good tips for thinking about how RP conversation should go (how to encourage it and sustain it)."
   Liriel: "I suggest that someone volunteer to lead a seminar and you just talk about roleplay. We all know something about roleplay and can teach each other. I will come on line as soon as I wake up, before breakfast even, like I did yesterday."
   Una: "We can do, yes. Particularly as we have talked about using our OOV ideas as a catalyst for the coming RP if there are no other suggestions."
   Dutch: "Some conversation did take place on the distribution and dissemination of OOV sessions. The seminar impresses me as very collaborative and cooperative."
   Vee: "Do we advertise these 'seminars' outside Gianfar? And, should we?"
   Liriel: "We talk a lot about Gianfar specific things. However, the book is not Gianfar, it's not even roleplay. It's improv. Problem is, I want to get through the book and stop teaching classes. Guest teachers are greatly appreciated."
   Dutch: "After the book is done, and Liriel puts her feet up by the fire for a well deserved rest, the seminars could continue as general RP conversations, or even storyline sessions to map out future RP ideas."
   Liriel: "Yes, please! That's exactly what I want to see happen."
   Una: "and we keep making it clear, this isn't Harper focused. Really all of us working to inspire RP in general."
   Dutch: "And then the ideas could be put into a collection, a LIBRARY, if you will, for future reference."
   John: "I just scanned a RP document ("36 Plots") I found with broad plot ideas. Let me see if I can find it." Vee suggested posting its address on the Web site. It's a PDF; he'll Email it to her and she'll post it on the site.

RP transcripts
   Posting to the Web site, with character or display names rather than usernames, should be fine. Vee may be able to find a perl script she once wrote to clean up transcripts. It stripped timestamps, removed online/offline taglines, and dropped usernames. Moira will start putting narratives on the web this week, starting with some of the relatively older ones, moving forward towards current. She'll put a NC with a brief comment of the storyline and the web link, in the Archives office.

RP plans
   We'll meet in the Weyr dining hall at 2pm SLT. We'll be continuing Dutch's story about 'the stranger' stealing hides (and maybe cheese). We may have a Healer interviewing him to judge whether he's competent to be tried. If so, because we're short-handed the trial might occur OOV.

2017-09-03

Finances
   ...remain good. Full sim tier paid on the 28th, Thuban tier due on the 8th and covered, HS tiers on the 15th and covered. Paid up our remaining ads last night, good for 2 weeks. End of report.

Gather
   The next 5th=Sunday is October 29, just before Halloween. Maybe, instead of going OOC and having a Halloween-themed event, we could try for a reunion of formerly-active folks.

RP classes
   Class was good - had more discussion around a practice scenario... there were good tips for generating and sustaining rp conversation - which we hope to practice .... hint/warning.

No RP class today
   Vee's air conditioner is broken again(!) so she'll be out finding places where the indoor temp's below 88F.

RP today
   The cheese thief from the last Gather hasn't been caught, and some of the hides that were delivered to the Weyr last week are reported missing. (Dutch wrote an OOV story about that.) We'll meet in the Weyr Bowl and discover and/or discuss the recent thefts.

2017-08-27

Finances
   Remain good. Full sim tiers are covered tomorrow, and all sim tiers through September.

Archives
   Master Moira has been adding stories to the Archives scroll rack in Harper Hall. Our 3 founding stories written by Soo, Vee, and Buck are there [copied from the novipeaks.com site to notecards], as well as a couple of other stories relating to key events (opening gather, weyr record of pertinent events and memorial after great storm). She will also be adding a history summary (the first 2 parts up thru end of 2009) and will be working on more recent summaries soon. The history summaries aren't in the scroll rack yet, but will be by the end of the week.

Midweek RP
   We discussed posting RP narratives to the Web site. Summaries like these meeting reports? Many people posting or one person collecting and posting a week's activities? Nekome volunteered to be the collector for one month, to see how it works.
   The more RP we show, the more interesting the site is - provided that the reader can find the RP narratives. It would be OK to post OOV (Out of Vision) RP; all posts should be clearly labelled as "scheduled RP," "ad-hoc RP," or "offline RP," and the date/time (real or in-world). Vee would "like to see RP summaries - and/or cleaned-up chatlogs - sent to the group. (And maybe added to the website - either in forums or as a blog?)
   Question: " I have a summary of some actions my character took during the week, but they didn't involve other real characters, so it wasn't RP in the strict sense. It was just what I imagined as the next step for some of the things that happened at the Sunday RP. Could we post things like that?" Answer: "If you were here taking those actions, then, to me, it qualifies as 'real' RP. Stories written while not here or not moving your avi around are, to me, 'OOV'."
   Vee is "not opposed to OOV stories (or Gianfar-based short stories in general), but they should be flagged as such, not involve anyone else's characters without their approval, and won't count towards any Craft RP requirements we might add in the future."

Website
   John described his proposed new site - http://moonmusedesigns.wixsite.com/gianfarpeaksofpern - and we discussed it.

RP
   Colin posted his summary of Nekome's RP class, as a group Notice attachment.
   We'll be at the Weyr this afternoon. Perhaps an apprentice Tanner is delivering goods, possibly it's a supply run with a collection of things and other stuff.

2017-08-20

The long unseen appeared
   Nekome (who recruited Vee) and Wyn attended 'in person.'

Finances
   FS tiers are covered for the 28th. Also Thuban on the 8th and the other HS's on the 15th.
   Side note: website went down on Friday after our hosting company upgraded our software. They fixed the issue quickly when Vee filed a ticket, but some of the database stored procedures were lost, and that's broken a few scripts. She'll be fixing the ones she didn't have backed up over the next few days.Threadfall, the Dragoncourse timers, and the Greeter system weren't impacted.

Flight assist
   Flying the 3500 course, ardrhys noticed Vee was flying a lot faster when in demon form than in dragon. The demon is deliberately low-script, and doesn't carry any assists... but she does have a Mystitool HUD... and even though she had Mysti's flight assist toggled off, it seems it was assisting her anyway. Remove or sleep the HUD, and suddenly she's the same speed in dragon or demon form. So anyway, be sure you're not wearing any HUDs when flying solo. Doesn't apply to flying in straps - those are 'vehicles' in SL, 'flight assist' modes can't help them.
   Also, John doesn't wear Mysti in dragon form because it interferes with the breath/flame.

Harpers
   Improv seminar yesterday: Moira reported that "The seminar was interesting. We discussed an actor's improv tool called "yes... and" where "Yes" stands for "Whatever anyone says is so - follow enthusiastically." and "And" stands for, "add information to move the roleplay along." Something that we can draw on to keep RP moving along and be interesting. It's probably going to take some practice, but it's an interesting method." They also discussed "ways to support others in creating dialog so we're all engaged" and which will show that you have "heard" what was just said. Liriel added, "I'd like to see regular meetings on improving roleplay held when more people can attend. This isn't just a harper thing. I'm trying to drop out of teaching it."

Conclaves
   We somehow drifted into discussions of Conclaves. In the books, a Conclave is a gathering of all the Lord Holders. Later, a gathering of all the Lord Holders, Craftmasters and Weyrleaders. On Gianfar, a Conclave was a meeting of the Lord Holder and the Craftmasters. (Right now, that would be a short meeting.) In the Old Days they discussed what NPC events were going on that RPers could crash, what storylines they wanted to encourage, which characters they were going to highlight that week, what NPC events took place the week before (that didn't really happen) that they wanted to make sure they mentioned in conversation with RPers.

RP
   Discussed how to add RP to the next Gather (October 29), and whether to hold it in the '3500' area where there are several spots with Gather booths.
   Today, decided to meet on '3500' and practice RP conversation in a market.

2017-08-13

Finances
   Are fine, HS tiers are covered.

Harpers
   Ludo asked if there was interest in a class on improvisational acting - in our context, how to get RP going when nothing's planned. There was some interest.

RP
   Discussed the NC about Weyr RP.
- What do we do about missing people - assume they're here, invent some reason they're elsewhere? We can't control people's coming and going, have to play around it. NPCs are useful for that, as is done with the Harper masters.
- Could we update the Gianfar backstory on the Web site?
- How about a Rest-like place in the Weyr as a starting place for RP? There's a tavern in the Weyr (Rider Tavern, Shaula (217, 136, 54)) but Vee's not sure even she could find it 'on foot.' Looks as if the Weyr dining hall's the best bet.
- Could anyone find tavern-like animations? Dancing on tables was suggested, also banging on tables (as applause).

2017-08-06

Finances
   Vee: "...remain good. Although the new job is now snowballing work, which is limiting my time in SL. Anyway, full tiers were paid on schedule, Thuban is due the 8th and covered, the HS's on the 15th and covered. Planning to take the HS's to Grandfathered status this month. Ads are up to date (I hope...) The RPC has closed its centre, which is a shame, but Ael wasn't really promoting it... So, we're here for another month."

Gather recap
   Vee: " I want to thank everyone who helped out, I think we did very well! I'm still getting occasional 'when can we do that again?' queries from hatchies... And, if we had an MVP award, I'd nominate Ayla, for stepping in on Saturday

... [Giving flamethrowers to the hatchies] was something Snow & I had discussed, but Toady went ahead and did it. ... Now I have to figure out a way to give them Thread-burning flamethrowers next time Wink

"
   We don't know why one set of DJs didn't show up, but we covered their time thanks to Ktahdn and Ayla.
   What didn't work? Vee "had committed to replacing the intersim tp's, and then got buried under BigQuery work at work. And, on Sunday, I completely forgot to send out notices, the way I did on Saturday. And should have done on Friday..."
   No one did ground or dragon races, which used to be popular.
   Maybe we shouldn't've had continuous DJ coverage, people don't like to walk out on a DJ. Maybe the middle slot could have been a schedule of events with no DJ.
   Publishing a schedule might have brought people to the events as well as outside. We paid too much attention to making a good advertising poster, none to making one with a schedule or notecard attached.
   Anyone with 'event rights' in a group can post to the SL Events calendar, and Vee thinks that almost everyone in Novi Peaks has such rights.
   But a making a published schedule means agreeing an outline schedule by at least the week before... and we never came up with more than a DJ schedule. Vee: " I think we need an event manager for gathers and similar events. Possibly two - someone to keep the planning and Vee-kicking on track, and someone to handle announcements and put out (unintentional) fires on the day... And neither person should be me." We were a bit better about assigning task responsibilities than formerly, but still not good enough.
   Una: "I think too once we get some approved poster variations and wording variations settled on ahead of time, that process will be much faster. Just plug in the dates."
   txep'ongokx: "I'd like to see Vee only responsible for last minute script changes... and all the notices and web posts designated to responsible agents."
   Vee: "We did better - and it showed, believe me! That was the best Gather we've run in some time, and we beat most sims' events hands-down (Lady V goes to far too many)... but, we can do better.
   Vee: So, October... a Halloween gather? <grins> Not that Pern has Halloween, or even pumpkins... but Gianfar has a demon."

Harpers
   Liriel has "an idea for a class that will teach us what to do if we are in the middle of an unplanned event... on what to do when the event doesn't go as planned. It's basically how to make RP more interesting by using theater improv techniques."

RP
   The race course in Tyl is still set up, so we could [and did] have informal foot/runnerbeast races today.

Next week
   More Gather talk, and a Weyr RP discussion.

Last Edit: October 08, 2017, 09:03:26 PM by Colin

Colin

Reply #27 on: October 15, 2017, 07:00:55 PM Colin's meeting notes - book 28

Member
Posts: 68
Logged

2018-01-28

Finances
   No report this week.

RP
   Discussed the present RP arc. Strange things are happening: mysterious messages are being found; crude boats are being built in a 'hidden' woodland; something's disturbing the firelizards on the north side of Firelizard Island. We may investigate the Island this afternoon; sweepriders could happen to go past there, fishing boats could come by, and folks who'd like to play shipfish (dolphins) could be recruited as spies.
   Talked about getting reports of RP posted more regularly in the hope of involving more folks.

2018-01-21

Finances
   ,,,are still ok, but Vee hasn't checked our ads this week.

RP
    In today's exciting episode of AS THE ISLAND TURNS, we welcome back our intrepid Harpers from their mission of investigation to the north to run down rumors, as they return for more supplies.
   Further, we will engage in additional weyrling training as the need for low level sweep rides, for the dragons to SEE and BE seen, becomes apparent. This will also help, it is hoped, to reduce trepidation at the sight of dragons among the more remote islanders.
   Lastly, we will investigate some odd goings on in remote sections of Gianfar.
   RP Note: To facilitate chat in RP activities that have us spread out, we will try using a conference chat.
   Meeting at 2pm SLT in the Weyr bowl.

2018-01-14

Finances
   No report.

Gather
   The next 5th Sunday will be at the end of April, hence good (if a bit late) for a Spring Gather.

RP
   We were thinking/planning/preparing for island wide sweep rides - both for weyrling training as well as searching out signs of the disaffected, the rebels, etc. who seem to be stealing supplies, etc. We'll do something if enough people show up.
   We don't know whether Thread will fall... if it does we'll just assume it's really blackdust.

2018-01-07

Finances
   Vee: "still ok. Novi can almost pay a month's full tier by herself (thank you, all!), and tier for this month is covered. I paid up all our ads midweek. novipeaks.com hosting fees were due & paid last month."
   Vee won't be around for the rest of this week, after teaching the NCI RP class today.

Weather (Gianfar)
   Vee hasn't had time to replace Thread with Blackdust. She probably won't have time to implement it before Wednesday. She'll turn off Threadfall until Blackdust is in place - it literally replaces Thread.

New dragon
   Nekome came in wearing the Dawn Kingdoms Bento mesh dragon. Very impressive - and expensive. But every part of it is fully mod and you can load your own. Reference: https://marketplace.secondlife.com/p/DRAGON-AVATAR-Bento-Dragon-Mesh-Avatar-Prehistorica-The-Dawn-Kingdoms/12928485

RP
   At least a half dozen folks will show up this afternoon, to do whatever they decide to do. Planning meeting (postponed from yesterday) in the Harper Hall classroom at 12:00 SLT to decide.

2017-12-31

No meeting or RP today, because of Turnover celebrations in First Life (and a deep freeze over about 1/3 of the U.S.).

It's snowing in Kuma.

2017-12-24

Finances
   ...remain ok. Full tier for the 28th is covered, so we're here for another month. Vee had a job interview last week.

Threadfall & snowfall
   Vee had intended to replace Thread with dust last week but hadn't time.
   Also, the weather console forgot the emitter placements for Kuma and Tyl that we used last year, so we're having indoor snow. This is likely to be corrected. Pandora has shields that can be put in roofs to keep weather outside, but they work only at ground level. We have one that can work on platforms, but has only one console per parcel so we can have snow in the '3500' platform exclusive-or on the ground.

Quiet weeks
   No NCI RP class nor official RP today nor next Sunday. No meeting nor RP on New Year's Eve. Good time to sit back and plot adventures.

2017-12-17

Finances
   "Financial report: we aren't broke. <grins>" Tier date is the 8th (Thuban), 15th (Homesteads), and 28th (full-power sims).

Snow
   Consider that dragons on patrol have noticed a buildup of storm clouds to the west. Seems likely that Thread will fall as black dust as long as the cold weather holds.
FLASH: "Snowfall is on in 4 sims - looks like we haven't put a weather system on Thuban yet, that'll come later. Ground snow is only on in Tyl, if you want to see the weather system in full effect. Clouds are at 100m up. We may do something to Windlight to get the full overcast effect - again, later..."

RP
   Gathering this afternoon at 2pm SLT as usual, in the Hold dining hall one level down from the Council Chamber. The RP team has laid out food.

2017-12-10

Finances
   No change, we're still here for another month, and Vee paid up our ads last night.

Gianfar weather
   Are we going to have snow this winter? Probably later this week. And when the weather's that cold, Thread will freeze and fall as black dust. Black dust season could be a time of celebration, a few months without Threadfall.
   Are we going to have fireworks in January? Gelgisith is planning "a fireworks show that'll be remembered for a long time."

RP
   We were planning, in a nutshell, to take reference from the coming winter season, and experience the last of the supply trains coming into the Weyr from places further north. This would be mostly a foodstuffs train. Lots of holders/crafters coming into the Weyr, interacting, etc. Hoping to see a few new/uncommon faces, at least... people who might be bringing stories/rumors of thefts of supplies or food stuffs from other parts of the island.
   For those who were at the last supply train run, we're not doing it that way again. We're just playing the very end of it, so you can come in without any special prep. You don't have to bring supplies because you already did, off stage. We could consider that the train had just arrived, but supplies, etc., were still partially out in wagons, not completely checked in yet, and people have gathered around to socialize, repeat rumors, etc.
   Looks like a good chance for our seldom-seem members to pop in. If we have any who may want to play a different character this afternoon - such as an NPC crafter - feel free to contact Dutch, Moira, Una, Colin, Ardrhys, or Liriel for clarification. Alts will be welcome.
   If anyone has any ideas, or request for RP/future RP, please get word to Dutch, Una, Moira, Colin, and/or Liriel. And Liriel will bet if anyone wants to meet with us on Saturdays at ten in the Harper Hall dragon room, you'd be on that list in no time.

2017-12-03

Finances
   ...are fine - but don't let that stop anyone paying rent or making donations Wink

Victoria Island
   Dutch discovered that place north of northwestern Canada. It's shaped rather like a dragon and is about large enough (around 217 sq km, a bit larger than Great Britain) to sustain a population.

Events for next year
   Spent a while discussing what we might want to do next year. Only Relay for Life looks possible, and only if someone steps up to be a team captain.

RP
   There are RP ideas being baked for future consumption, but none ready for today. So, meet at the Weyr and practice being dragons.

2017-11-26

Finances
   Still sound. Vee went around and changed all our ads back from the Gather to the regular posters. Which involved paying an extra week on the NCI ones. Tiers are still covered for another month, ads are paid for for weeks out, and Novi's got more than a full sim's worth of tier in L$.

Gather
   The Gather hosted three visitors. There was dancing (thanks, Ayla!), runner racing, and dragon flying. Dutch took pictures...
https://www.flickr.com/photos/dutchman11756/albums/72157666602011299
...and so did Moira...
https://www.flickr.com/photos/155116327@N06/albums/72157689757386285
...who made a tapestry of her pic and hung it in the Archivist's office in Harper Hall.
   Next week we'll discuss when to hold the winter Gather. The 5th Sunday in December is New Year's Eve so maybe we'll aim for the 1st Sunday in January, the 7th.

Memorial
   Vee held the annual memorial to Anne on Tuesday night. Wyn attended. Apparently no one thought to take pictures. However, we held it again right after the meeting.

RP
   In our last episode, Varth was Threadscored so the Weyr staff will probably be busy soothing and healing him.
   Had a long discussion about how large the island "really" is. One thing established was that it's an archipelago, just in case we need to have an outlying island for an RP scenario.

2017-11-19

Finances
   In Vee's absence we can assume from last week's report that everything's covered for now.

Foot race course
   ardrhys and Linn rode their ((horses)) around the course and had thoughts about setting up a new one. Stay tuned.

Gather
   Yesterday we had about 10 people, including one visitor, dancing to Ayla's Celtic music. Today we have the "Race to the Hatching Sands" game board out; the hoops and rings courses for winged folk; the foot/runner race course; 7 Seas fishing at Fisher/Dolphin Hall and in the '3500' area; and of course folks can dance to the default music streams.

2017-11-12

Finances
   ".. remain good. HS tiers on the 15th are covered. I just checked Novi's balance last night and we have enough to pay a full sim and an HS tier - in addition to the upcoming FS & HS tiers that are already covered. We'll be here through the end of the year, unless something major happens like an SL tier hike. And I paid up all our ads last night.

Magazine articles
   The Atlantic has published a long article about SL. Starts out as a downer but concludes that SL is good for some things.
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2017/12/second-life-leslie-jamison/544149/
   Ars Technica has published a shorter article... that refers to SL as a "game."
https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2017/10/returning-to-second-life/
   Neither writer really understood SL.

Virtual reality?
   Quick discussion of VR. VR requires 90 frames/second and SL's max is 45 - hardwired. VR projects from other companies like EVE Online are being abandoned. "This is why LL is refocusing on SL - there will be no revenue from Sansar yet."

Gather planning
   The Fairports won't be able to DJ for us; they have four events that week.
   Una has created "Dragon Tour" posters, we're hoping they'll lead to more visitors taking rides.
   Dutch is keeping the Gather poster updated. Vee will start putting it out at our ad sites today or tomorrow.
   Vee will control Threadfall timing.
   She's working on the egg hunt scripts; may have improved ones ready, can fall back on last year's if necessary.
   Might not want to do a fishing contest, as people who come for 7 Seas fishing tend to ignore the rest of the event. No problem with just having the fishing available. The vendors are owned by Novi Peaks so the revenue will go to tier.
   Moira could put a little info board by the landing areas, with a NC with a little blurb and LMs to the different activity areas.

RP
   Starting at the Rest. Maybe "finalizing" Gather plans, including visiting activity sites. Continuing the injured dragon story line if there are enough folks here.

2017-11-05

Finances
   Remain good... FS tiers paid last week, Thuban tier coming up & covered, ads are up to date, website hosting renewed on schedule. Vee's optimistic about finding a good job.

IoW news
   The Isles lost their founder's last two sims; we assume that the owner stopped paying for them. LL brought them back yesterday for a final cleanup... but Cathedral and Limbo are gone, which is a little bit of our history going away, too, since DoP was founded in the Isles. So there won't be any more IoW dragons; the vendors went with Cathedral and apparently no one had any rights to grab them. There are still wyrmlings on Marketplace.
   The community has sims owned by others and has transferred stuff to other sims that was on Cathedral and Limbo. Vee's heard that one of the sims is even trying to duplicate Cathedral.

Fall scripts
   Vee has updated the Fall timers for daylight savings. Also, she's testing the ability to 'pause' the Fall cycle for events... such as meetings. It worked - we heard the sound of no Thread falling.

Gather planning and Anne's memorial
   Agreed that the Gather will run from noon till 6pm on Sat-Sun Nov 18-19.
   What are we going to do for Gather that doesn't require scheduling? Games, displays, or whatever.
   Rides on the scripted dragons have been popular, should be publicized.
   The "Race to the Hatching Sands" board game can be played any time; we should test it so that anyone who's around can lead it.
   We could have a firelizard egg hunt.
   The dragon course and runner course could be used any time. We could avoid problems of people using 'assist' hacks to cheat by offering prizes for only supervised races; we'd know how long it takes to do the courses at standard speeds. How could we have runner races without the horses acting as assists? Maybe we could figure how to provide 'standard' horses but probably not in two weeks.
   Harper events...
   Hatchie raids...
   Photo contest, maybe a "donate to vote" style which might drive traffic and boost our tier reserve.
   Tunnel Snake Hunt could be a good game if we had time to invent it.
   Colin will handle the runner race course, as usual. Ardrhys will look after the dragon time trials and races. Dutch will donate toward the photo contest prize and generally assist with the contest, including removing anything A-rated or advertising or just out of theme.
   We'll have a memorial event for Anne just after Gather closing (at 6pm) on Sunday. The main memorial will be on Tuesday the 21st, the anniversary of her death.
   Ayla will DJ from 2 till 4 on Saturday. Vee will see if she can recruit the Faircloths.
   We'll discuss scheduling next week.

RP
   We'll be continuing with the 'injured dragon' story line from last week, and doing some flight training, and trying to keep Varth from injuring herself by trying to fly before her wing's healed.

2017-10-29

Finances
   Vee's new employer is downsizing so she'll be out of work again in 6 weeks. Gianfar's safe through year end. And she has two possibilities. And all other Finances news is good - tiers paid, future tiers covered, ads up to date, etc.

Gather
   Discussed how to get a pic of dragons flying in formation as a background for the poster. Discussed whether to do a one- or two-day event, will aim for noon-6pm SLT unless someone comes up with a persuasive schedule by next meeting.

RP
   Speculated about a storyline of a dragon and rider being injured in a Fall. That would involve rescuing and healing both human and dragon. We'll need the dragon and rider, at least one more pair (or two) to rescue them, healers, weyrfolk, and of course at least one Harper.
   Dutch suggested appointing a painter (photographer) to record RP events. Colin said we could then have illustrated RP stories on the Web site. John and Una volunteered to take pics and of course the more people we have shooting, the more pics we'll have to choose from for the site.

2017-10-22

Finances
   ... still good. And Vee's interviewing for a really good job this week, while still maintaining her current role.

Harpers
   Looks as if the Saturday meetings will continue, with RP-related classes possible in November and December.

Gather
   Decided to slip into November, probably the 18-19th. (Anne's day is 21st Nov, which is a Tuesday this year.) We'll discuss it next week.

RP
   Nekome's been experimenting with Thuban, so everything there is temporary. We'll meet near or at Moira's home there, and explore... assuming the land's not terraformed out from under us by then.

2017-10-15

Finances
   "... remain good. All ads are up to date, HS sims due today and covered, FS sims on the 28th are covered, and Thuban on the 8th. So we're here for another month. Website paid for, too. Novi's inworld balance was good last time I checked."

General news
   So far, we haven't heard of any of "us" being hit by the fires in Northern California, but one's close to Moira. Vee and Wyn both have colds but aren't yet suffering from the smoke.
   Vee may be away for a while, doctors permitting. Stay tuned.
   Methos: "Anyone with e-reader or kindle app on computer:
https://www.amazon.com/Nimishas-Ship-Anne-McCaffrey-ebook/dp/B000FBFM2A?_bbid=7853912&tag=bookbubemailc-20 is $1.99 today."
   Wyn reported that Todd's "Dragongirl" is also $1.99.
   There have been some alterations to Thuban.

Scripting news
   Vee: "I threw myself into Gianfar scripting yesterday, which you'll all notice next time you pick up a flamethrower. Flamethrowers are now Experience-based. So no more permissions dialogs once you're in the experience. Also, they now have 'fuel'. Anyway, next time you go touch a Flamethrower Rack, you'll either be asked to join the Gianfar Experience, or - if already in it - the flamethrower will just attach. And when you use it, it'll tell you how much is left in the tank. And detach when you use it all up, or when 4 minutes have passed, or you teleport or walk off the sim. 'How much' is measured in quarter-tanks. When it says 'your tank is '1/4 full', that means you have *under* 25% left. I wanted to make sure you have to run back for refills, so I made the 'capacity' fairly small.
   "So... please play with the new flamethrowers - the rack in the practice Thread area was updated - and see what you think. The new scripts are chattier. Oh, and you can remove the flamethrower by touching it now - should reset the animation properly, but no guarantees.
   "By now, all Viewers should do Experiences. Although not all support scripting for Experiences, I hear. But to keep SL certification, viewers are supposed to have integrated Experience-running code.
   "Thread isn't all shouty anymore. Well, not when it starts growing.
   "One change for practice Thread... there's now an invisible barrier near the top of the stack, which will warn off pairs trying to fly that high and get close to the rezzers. Hopefully before hitting your dragon's head on the ceiling. Also removed some stray prims that may have been causing issues in the area."

Gather
   To be discussed next week or maybe during this week if Vee's around.

Weyr - NPC characters
   To be discussed next week.

RP
   No time to make plans. Vee will be here, watching what we think of the new flamethrowers while she still has the code open.

Last Edit: January 28, 2018, 07:52:12 PM by Colin

Colin

Reply #28 on: February 04, 2018, 08:42:44 PM Colin's meeting notes - book 29

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(continued in Book 30)

2018-04-01

No official meeting.

PERN-suitable clothing:
Dutch found some sites. Dreaming Thicket - Multitudes (128 128, 17) - has "druid-y stuff" that fits our style. Belle Epoque - Wild Willows (174, 132, 23) - has good-looking free "Mina boots".

2018-03-25

Finances
Full sim tiers are due this week and will be covered from Novi's balances. So we're here for another month. There's actually going to be some left over, for the next tiers, so thanks for that

Pern Day
   We decided that we'd best not try to plan an Event for the weekend, just have things for people to do - occasional dance music, the race courses, and so forth - possibly extending into Monday. We might offer visitors a chance to do a little informal roleplay with us. We've found Pern music, including the "Masterharper of Pern" CD

Ensemble music
   Moira, Dutch, and Martin are working with the Mikki Miles ensemble instruments. They had an intro class/practice last Tuesday, and will have another practice this coming Tuesday at 7 pm SLT (and others are welcome to join in). Vee's put that on the Web calendar.

RP
   Vee's adding the meetings of the RP Committee to the Web calendar: Saturdays, 10am SLT, Harper Hall performance hall.
   There won't be an NCI RP class next Sunday.
   Today's RP: "Gianfar Faces Life - Life Shudders and Turns Away"
Starting Point: Weyr
Plan A:
Confront thread or train or maintain equipment
Plan B:
Gather a force to confront Veekar on behalf of the Lady Holder

2018-03-18

Finances
   Vee: "I paid our ad bills last night, and the HS's were paid on the 15th on schedule. The FS's on the 28th should be covered by Novi's balances. Next tier date is Thuban on the 8th, but I'm not worried about the HS's - typically LL will give us grace on them as long as we can keep the fulls current, and last time we hit bottom they gave us a month to get the tiers paid up, when we asked them (in advance)."

LL updates
   Vee: "Side mention for any premium members, your tier just went down and your free allotment doubled. Sadly, that doesn't help Gianfar at all."

Pern Day Gather
   To be discussed during the week, as we ran out of time as usual.

RP
   With warmer weather coming (the Gianfar snow turned to rain last night). we're planning for Threadfall to resume. Time for dragons and riders to get back in shape, and ground crews to check the flamethrowers. There was speculation about 'mud' textures for dragons' feet and tails. And while umbrellas are high-tech, straw hats are medieval.
   We'll also likely be discussing the state of the story lines... whether Koenig has recovered or died, whether we know more about the conspiracy(s)... and so forth.
   Dutch: "On another note - the RP Plotting and Nefarious Planning Team® has started a document keeping track of RP ideas, for use in future events. If anyone has any ideas they would like to see in practice, please let any of us on the team know, and we can then track the idea for eventual use. (Thank you)
   "We've also started keeping track of location names we're coming up with - for use later (and to not rearrange locations around the island). If anyone has a location they wish to see/hear, please let us know (again on the RP Planning & Nefarious Plotting Team). The names will be posted to a Forum thread."
   Martin: "And from the scheduling to schedule department, I'm up to six responses on the questionnaire."

2018-03-11

Finances
   Vee: "Paid our ad rentals last night, when I sent the DST notice. HS sim tier, due on the 15th, is covered, but we'll have to draw down from Novi to cover the full sims on the 28th. After that, we'll see..."

Pern Day Gather
   Two days? three? Including Monday, which will be a holiday for some people? Sat-Sun-Mon, Sun-Mon-Tue, or Other? Some short RPs for guests, maybe 30 minutes, like a flit hatching? A Pun and Alliteration contest? A Bardic circle? Perhaps a DJ or two?

RP
   Una reported: "Koenig was badly injured and flown to Healer Hall. The rest of the party has been traveling on foot to Healer Hall where Martin will be checked over again, and where we hope to get an update on Koenig's condition. We continue to investigate mysterious notes and items found on the bodies of the folks found at the cabin."
   Dutch would like to kill Koenig or write him out of future RP. However, the rules say "Absolutely NO deaths (except by prearrangement and admin permission)". Vee "think(s) that rule was intended for combat and Threadfall, not planned exits. But, if it needs my permission, you have it." So Koenig's fate is up to the Healers.
   However, the AVATAR Koenig is also a dolphin, and may return as other NPCs - each time with a titler.
   So the group (Harpers and others) will arrive at Healers' Hall at 2pm SL[daylight saving]T.

RP survey
   Martin's gotten five responses to his RP availability survey so far. It's at
https://goo.gl/forms/XbINqyuVi8LDeOcP2
The more responses we get, the more likely we are to be able to announce that N people would be interested in playing on Xdays from Y till Z o'clock.

Other RP ideas
   Writing OOV documents is encouraged, in whatever fashion you feel moved. Anyone who posts to the Web site frequently can help you get started with that; text can be prepared off-line (e.g., with Notepad) and copy/pasted into a Web entry.
   We are starting a list of RP Ideas for future raiding - if you have anything you would like to see in PERN, please let us know, we can document the idea (so it doesn t get lost) and slot it at earliest opportunity.

2018-03-04

Finances
   Vee: "Thuban's due on the 8th and covered, HS's due on the 15th and covered. The fulls are due on the 28th, currently we're planning to draw down Novi's balance to cover that. So we're here another month."

Soo!
   Soo Novi visited the meeting. For the newcomers (who joined less than about 9 years ago), she was the main founding member of Gianfar.

Classes
   Moira held a class Tuesday evening. She introduced Nekome's character building forms. They're available in a basket of eggs on the Council meeting table.

Sci-Fi Con
   Vee: "Jade & I (mostly Jade) have a concept, which Wyn has seen and Pat has helped with. And I just twisted the boss's [Soo's] arm, going to make her help too. Our current Cunning Plan[tm] involves a 'ground' level made of mountains & jungle, with booths at different levels hidden in weyrs and trees. I think we're going to take on the 52x52 booth ourselves so it can be part of the build - which means we'll have to sell more booths to cover costs. Upper level is a still-undefined space station, and our 'event's area... you get to visit the Red Star. So "we" are responsible for a full sim build, with multiple levels.
   "Oh, one of the Con sims is for the Milky Way Cabaret - they get a sim to themselves, because they/we are phenomenally popular and can lag everyone else out of existence. Tried having the MWC on a dedicated Events sim 3 years back, and nothing else on the sim was accessible during performances. So the Con's trying something different this year - the booth sims will each have an Event space, and the MWC get their own sim, which will also be used for big events - actor interviews and the like.
   "There's also a Sci-Fi Expo this May. Run by people who think dragons & Pandorans aren't sci-fi, and much smaller. So if you see announcements about Sci-fi Alliance events, check whether they're for the Con or the Expo. The Con we're involved in; the Expo, we're not."

Gather
   Pern Day and April Fools' Day and Easter coincide. Vee's "thinking a long Gather, spread over Easter, might be appropriate." We were short on time today so "we'll discuss the Gather next week, and try to make that most of the meeting."

RP
   Vee: "When would we like the snowstorm to end? When do we want a thaw? These are separate items. I'd like to thaw out by Pern Day, if that works for everyone [it did], so the storm will abate in the next week or two. Thread will resume when the thaw is underway. I'll pick the most inconvenient time."
   Martin, following up on the conversation John brought up last week about additional RP times during the week: "I put together a Google form that could be used to get people's availability for scheduling some of these events. A few people here have seen it already, and Moira recommended I bring it to the group here to see what, if anything, could be done with it.
https://goo.gl/forms/HY5bQoo07KGjHLjh1
It's a basic form - what roles do you play, what times could you make, what things do/don't you want to see." We decided that it would be helpful to include avatar names, that alts could be included in one's primary response or submitted separately, and that there was no need for an alt to say "I am an alt of So-and-So.") Vee replied, "Of course, now you [Martin] put yourself in charge of analysing the responses."
   Today's outline:
Pick up on Vee’s ‘dropped message’?
More info on Harper Anonymous.
Martin and party (harpers, and such) en route back to Harper Hall come across a scene and a witness at a Trader Station.

2018-02-25

Finances
   Vee: "Short-term outlook is the same - full sim tiers, due this week, are covered, so are ads & website & stuff. Longer term... I didn't get the job I had the final interview for, but I'm up for several more & have interviews scheduled all next week."

Sci-Fi Con
   Vee: "The Con will be in September, probably 10 days starting the 21st. (14th also an option). Jade & I are planning on sponsoring a sim... Pandora meets Gianfar, anyone? Anyway, it'll be expensive - but maybe not as much as you might think. Sponsoring a sim means essentially being allocated one, recruiting the exhibitors. and controlling its use. I'll have to cover more about the Con next week, or during the week.
   "Varahi from the Companions [Firefly genre] is sponsoring one, too."

Classes
   Moira: "I taught the "Gianfar is Different" class last Tuesday evening at 7 pm for our newer folk. This coming Tuesday at 7 pm I will do a class on creating a character background. It went well, I think. Jullianna, Martin and Dutch were there. They had some good questions, and we ran over the normal time length. Not sure after next week, when I will be able to teach again, but I wanted to try and get a couple of the basic classes in for the new players."

News of old members
   Ryu Darragh, one of the original Gianfar players, who designed our oldest Thread system, is back in the hospital after a heart attack.
   Sable Ashborne, who was the original teacher of the Gianfar classes. has breast cancer.
   Searaven Raymaker is eager to return to Gianfar but is going to school and working full time. He was the Seacraft Master, after he lost his dragon. He and his lady Belladona got married in Seacouver.
   Vee spoke to Riss last week, she's out until July, but may make occasional visits.

RP, current
   Last Sunday, we came across a dead body as well as Adara being kidnapped and able to get away. We sent a flit with a message to Healer Hall and Rissaly (new member Julianna) came out to take a look at the body.
   Today, RP will start in the Weyr bowl.
RP Points:
   Martin arrives at the Weyr, is interviewed - getting an idea about who he is and why he was heading to the Weyr, considering the unsettled state and the rebels. Getting a feel that he's genuine and not a spy or a rebel.
   Report on strange ships
   More info on Harper Anonymous.
   Hunt for Koenig? Strange figures spotted near trader’s station? Is this him? [Today, Colin's cabin is being a way station for Trader trains to/from the north.]

RP, future
   Who's interested in reviving SL-evening RP? Bath Night's still on the Web calendar for 6:30 pm SLT Tuesdays.

2018-02-17

Finances
   Vee: "...short term, still ok. Full sim tiers are due next week and covered. I paid ad rentals last night. Longer term, outlook cloudy, but don't panic yet. I did finally have that final interview last week, I'm waiting on the outcome - and I'm also in process with <counts on fingers> 4 other companies where I'm past the initial stage. And Novi has enough funds for 2 full-sim tiers, according to my rough calculations."

SF Con, SLB, Pern Day
   The Con has been moved to September, so we have lots of time, for a change; planning starts in a few days.
   SLB, don't have dates yet, but planning is definitely underway, and it's not like the Birthday actually moves around much. So we can start thinking about what we can do for a booth this year. How we can make a 32x32 square with no more than 100m vertical and *lots* of lag, stand out...
   Pern Day is more immediate, and it's *ours*. Also, April 1 is a Sunday... and Easter. Chocolate firelizards?

Thuban
   Vee: "Nekome, Wyn & I had a chat last week, as some of you noticed. Upshot is, some work will be done on Thuban to finish it up, then we'll reopen it fully. Idea is to put a number of sets there - including maybe another cothold, or some fields. Not currently planning any more links to Shaula, so walking along the beach will remain the best access. Not going to place any Crafts there at this time, and the volcano is staying gone: It's going to be a lake instead. Wink

"

Crafts
   Vee: " Something I don't think I've made clear often enough... OOC, a Craft cannot refuse anyone who wants to be an Apprentice. IC, by all means have entrance interviews and tests and selection boards and what have you, makes for fun RP - but the outcome will always be 'accepted' if that's what the player wants. Same as the Weyr, for dragonpairs. Progression in a Craft, however... that's up to the Craftmasters. Excepting Runnercraft, I'd like some similar approach to progression and 'walking the tables' in each Craft - but they shouldn't be identical, and of course the minor Crafts will need to be handled differently."

RP
   Today's episode is titled "The Young and the Holdless"...
Pick up on a ‘dropped / found message’
Return of thread-fall due to a weather inversion (will a ship need to be rescued at sea?)
Discovery of an apparent signal fire AND a hidden cot
Report on strange ships
More info on Harper Anonymous
   Meet in the Weyr bowl at 2pm.

2018-02-11

Finances
   "...remain good, short term. Paid up all our ads last night. Thuban was paid on time, and the HS tiers for the 15th are covered. And the Full sims on the 28th." Longer term, Vee's still interviewing for jobs. "Fortunately, Novi is very well funded right now (thank you, everyone!), which probably gives Gianfar another month's cover."

Thuban
   Terraforming is waiting for Wyn, as only she can upload a new RAW file and bake it in.

Website
    Vee reported that "While interviewing Juli last week - she passed, btw... we noticed some of the website's links weren't functioning correctly ('Roles', for example). On investigation, I found that a bunch of articles for the front page, and some forum posts, seem to have disappeared. The links generate the correct query for the website's database - but the entries are gone. So far as I can tell, this only affects Soo and me - the only ones who've been able to post front-page articles - but if anyone finds any other posts missing, please let me know. I think they were 'lost' when the database was upgraded, a few months back. (You may remember me screaming when a bunch of website scripts suddenly failed because their databases went missing or got wiped.) Fortunately, I have backups... and the backups have the missing articles. The downside is, I don't know SimpleMachine's data structures, and just inserting the missing records doesn't seem to work (tried it on a copy I made). So I'll probably have to recreate the articles by hand and relink the links. Which means I can also rewrite them... So anyway, if you see anything malfunctioning on the website, let me know. Maybe I'll even get around to upgrading us to v2 and turning registration on again."

Rissaly
   While we were discussing Julianna's proposed name, John mentioned a Web site with a "Pern name" generator:
http://www.arolosweyr.co.uk/arolos.php?p=ngen.php
   Wyn (owner of Kuma) authorized Masterhealer John to assign a room in Healers' Hall to Ris.

Pern Day
   We'll be celebrating Anne McCaffrey's birthday on April 1, as usual.

RP
   Meeting in the Hold's dining hall at 2pm SLT today. Topics:
   Further investigation on the abandoned, damaged wagon with some stolen merchandise (including from the Lady Holder’s wine stocks).
   Further discussion on the crates from the shipwrecks.
   Influx of people from nearby cotholds, etc - lack of supplies/foods.
   More people on their way from further north.
   (Idea was to get some RP in the Hold by having it loaded with refugees from bad winter and renegades' thefts.)
   The RP planning team (open to all) meets in the Harper performance hall, top floor of Harper Hall, at 10am SLT Saturdays.

2018-02-04

Finances
   All bills have been paid. Vee has yet another final interview this week.

RP
   This week's report:

Thus far, on As the Island Churns, we have seen many, many things, including:
   Strange scraps of hide were found, with cryptic messages on them - the Harper Hall is attempting to decipher them
   We have received reports of thefts and shortages from up north, specifically the area of Far Cry Hold in the northeast.
   In addition to generic thefts, livestock has gone missing.
   Several holds up north are severely short of foodstuffs.
   Similar reports of thefts, as well as strange sails, ships not following the ‘law of the sea’ from Sea’s Cry Seahold, also in the northeast.
   However it is possible that the person reporting for this seahold (who called himself Koenig) was not who or what he presented himself as.
   An accidental discovery of an illicit ship building area on the coast. Obviously hidden and camouflaged, yet the boats being built there, of green, unseasoned wood are more suited towards lakes and inland waterways, than the high sea.
   Flits were set to watch over this location.
   Sweep riders were asked to monitor this location, and be alert for additional locations.
   A further accidental discovery of a broken wagon, piled with illicit (stolen) cargo was found secreted in a cave underneath the weyrling barracks. This included at least a case of the Lady Holder’s own fine Benden Wine.
   Qat was accepted as an apprentice dolphineer at the (main) Gianfar Seahold.
   A shipwreck with several deceased crew members was discovered at Firelizard Island. The ship was unsuited to open sea voyages. Among the cargo recovered were two locked chests.
   There is talk, amongst some in the know, that some of these latest troubles may have been started by a return of Karl, or his followers.
   (Google doc name is: RP Summaries - What's Happened So Far)
   (We'll meet at 2pm in the Harper Hall dining room to discuss all the info that's been collected.)
   (RP planning meetings are held at 10am Saturdays in the Harper Hall third floor performance hall / classroom. All are welcome to come and give input. The more people are involved, the more interesting will be the RP.)

Last Edit: April 15, 2018, 07:10:16 PM by Colin

Colin

Reply #29 on: April 15, 2018, 07:14:12 PM Colin's meeting notes - book 30

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2018-06-24

This was a sort of unofficial meeting, as Vee was busy being a stage manager at SL15B.

Price reduction:
https://community.secondlife.com/blogs/entry/2375-another-15-for-15-lower-land-prices-and-reduced-set-up-fees/
   As the change occurs at the end of June, we had to decide, right away, whether and how to take advantage of this. Vee and Wyn were discussing adding an OS Region south of Kuma. New OS Regions won't be available after July 2. An OS Region has a land capacity of 1000 and an avatar limit of 10; looks as if we could use one for sailing and some RP. We seldom have more than 10 people in an RP session.
   There's no price change on grandfathered Regions (Shaula & Kuma, $195/mo ea, and Thuban, HS, $95/mo). So we'd save $14/month on each of the two HS's. That makes about half the cost of maintenance on a new OS Region. The setup fee for a new OS Region is $150 but that includes the first month's maintenance.
   As of 1pm SLT, no decision had been made.

RP:
   Was postponed again as we concentrated on the OS question.

2018-06-17

Finances
   Vee: "We did get Wyn unblocked last week, but it took a couple of days longer when a support Linden suddenly changed the deal on us. But anyway, we drained Novi and Wyn's shop alt, and so Kuma, Etamin & Thuban are now officially up to date. Shaula & Tyl, not so much... I have a paycheck, but it's physical & was mailed on Friday and hasn't arrived yet, despite being Fedexed 'overnight'. And yes, Fedex do Saturday delivery as routine - but some of their drivers prefer not to, and intentionally leave packets at the depot, claiming residential addresses as 'commercial, no-one to accept package'. That's why your Amazon orders don't arrive on weekends as often as they should. (Fedex always apologise & issue a credit if you complain to them, btw.) But anyway, in a couple of days Gianfar will be paid up to date and the tier hell will be over."

SL15B
   Opens at noon. Website is http://www.slcommunitycelebration.info/
It has schedules for all the Stages and links to all the Exhibits, this year.
   Vee: "Take a pod ride, anyway. Takes a few hours and the layout means the pods have to keep back & forthing, so our exhibit is passed 3 times, for instance. Pod barn is next to the Welcome Area, which is 2 sims this year - and in the very worst place for lag. Treat SLB as a *very* busy club, basically. Complexity down, avi impostors off, advanced lighting off, draw distance in... and wait a bit for all the graphics to download. But, try to get advanced lighting back when you're looking at builds. Also, heading to SLB in the middle of SL's 'night' is a good way to see the exhibits. DJ stages are open 24 hours, but they're actually a sim away from the exhibits, so they shouldn't lag anyone."
   Vee has posted a Notice with LMs to the Gianfar, Pandora, and WoRPG exhibits.
   Vee: "Jade & Wyn did an amazing last-minute-build for us. And Pat's Pandora booth is gorgeous. There's a lot of really good exhibits this year. But I'm going to highlight two SLB builds, one to look at, one to explore... Take a look at DJ Stage South. It's made by the designer who built the last two Cake stages. You may need to pull your draw distance out to get the full effect, DJ South is 2 sims. And, the Auditorium. It's only scheduled for 4 hours today, the last of which is my RP class at 3pm. There are roleplay sim builds that took months with less detail than the 'USS Crystal'... explore it. ... From 6pm, I'll be stage-managing at DJ Stage North, if anyone feels like partying."

RP
   Dutch: "We figured most people would be out checking the SL15 build, so we kinda planned that RP would not happen today - to give people time to peruse the BD build. We are all set up for NEXT WEEK, however, with a nice 'plot' and the Tannercraft cot in NW Tyl is already staged."

2018-06-10

Finances
   Vee: "I'm still employed, I get paid Friday, so tiers are covered. The bad news is, Wyn's main account is [temporarily] blocked. Other than that, I paid all our ads last night, all bills except Thuban (which was due Friday) and the full sim tiers are up to date, and the rest will be paid Friday. Assuming my pay arrives Friday. [We don't need financial help] at present, she'll be talking to the Lindens today, and if they won't unblock her, she'll phone Linden Billing tomorrow when the phone lines are up. We don't anticipate any issues. My main issue is with having my chief builder blocked 4 days before the SLB exhibit is due... But she has several alts, and they aren't blocked."

SLB volunteers' party
   Vee: "Some of you may remember I said I'd volunteered the sims to host a party for the SLB volunteers. That got bumped to today... So, from noon until 4pm (at least), you're all invited to a party on the 3500 level islands. OOC, and we're the hosts, so be nice. [Dress code?] M-rated. But I hear the sim owner's very flexible. Bring a friend or two, if you want. Don't bring whole RP groups, though - this is for the SLB, and on behalf of the SLB Greeters, so I'll be annoyed if Shaula gets full of non-SLB folk. If you can, be here for 1pm. We booked a live act, Donn DeVore... his show is... let's just say spectacular. I'll be at the party the whole time... feel free to turn up as dragons or firelizards, btw. We're unlikely to recruit from this crowd, but we can definitely show off on our own sims. I'll put [the landing LM] in a notice, but the slurl is Shaula (173,168,3523) which is at the top of a zipline to the dance floor."

Plans
   Vee: "No class today - oh, and next Sun is SLB opening day, I won't be here except for the 10am meeting. I'll be teaching my class at 3pm in the Auditorium, and stage-managing on one of the DJ stages from... 6, I think. And Greeting the rest of the time."

RP
   Postponed because of the SLB party.

2018-06-03

Master Moira
   ...will be missed. We're hoping she'll drop in occasionally, RL permitting.

New member
   Welcomed John Zane (John Zane Helendale (bbj19728)).

Finances
   Vee: "We just, as expected, missed the tier on the full sims. I'm still waiting for my first paycheck - was due Friday, hopefully it's in the mail. But that check's only for 3 days. First real paycheck will be on the 15th. Which is when tier will be caught up. That one will be direct deposit... so there's no excuses for it being late. On the other side, the client is nice and remote working is going well (after 1 whole day of it). So I hope we're through the worst of it... And I paid all our ads yesterday. Even paid our hosting bill for the website. So that'll be around for another year

"

SL15B
Vee: "Just quickly, is looking very impressive this year! Still 2 weeks to opening. I had the first part of my stage manager training today - I'll be on the DJ Stages - and I've had my Moderator training... I'm not supposed to tell you anything about SLB or the exhibits, but I will say that people have really taken the 'Crystal' theme and run with it. More so than previous themes, which have tended to be a bit... vague.
"I just agreed to host a party for the SLB Greeters, next weekend Wink

Figure I'll use the 3500 level on Shaula. Just Saturday, from 1pm. And, feel free to drop by."

RP
   RP: 20180603 - Cauldron Boil and Bubble
Starting Point: The Hills of Thuban - Thuban (167,90,38)
Plot A: Numbweed processing
Plot B: All those who are too slow to get away, end up chatting about events on the island, such as:
   What happened to Master Moira?
   How WILL the Weyr protect all these sharding cots which keep springing up?
   Did you SEE what she did to him?
   etc. & other gossip
   We also plan on a few group calls during RP, so ask people to reset their environment editors for time of day (morning/noon/evening and night) just to show off some of the great sights.

2018-05-27

Finances
   Vee finally landed a job! So the sims are safe, after she and Wyn talk to LL in the next few days. They'll be asking LL to take a partial payment and let us catch up on the 15th. Should be ok, they've done similar before. We think we have Thuban covered on the 8th.
   The company wants Vee to be onsite (90 minutes away) for the first few weeks, so she'll be in a hotel room with hotel wi-fi starting Tuesday. After that startup period, the job will be mostly remote.
   Tiers are US$195 (due on the 28th) for the two full sims, US$125 (on the 15th) for the two homesteads, US$95 (on the 8th) for Thuban.

SL15B
   Vee: "2 parts to this. We got our booth - and PHT got theirs. Wyn should be around this week, building our booth and transporting it to the SLB site. (We like to wait until we know where the pods are running and how many booths are looming over ours on which sides, before fixing the orientation.) I'm working as an EA - Exhibitor Assistant - up to opening day, and a Greeter thereafter - and a Stage Manager. Hopefully, I'll be working mostly from home by opening day. So even when I'm online, I'll be in Gianfar less until the Birthday is done and we collapse the Cake Stage, which is... 6 weeks? Something like that. But I'm carving out Sundays, so I should always be here for meetings and Sunday RP.
   "There's still time to volunteer for some roles, btw

Stage manager requires being able to commit to 2-hour shifts, and cope with several potentially full sims full of laggy dancers at once - Cake is 4 sims, Auditorium and one of the DJ stages are 2 sims. Not sure if Greeter apps are still open, but Greeters set their own schedules and go where they want. Also, we have the best parties.
   "Oh, you're going to love the Auditorium set this year. I'm not allowed to say why. But when you get to see it, go explore it... not just the stage area,"

RP: 20180527 How Now, Brown Cow?

Starting Point: Runner’s Rest (on an evening)
PLEASE SET ENVIRONMENT SETTINGS to MIDNIGHT
(and please watch your step (you'll see why)

Plan A:
   HOW ON PERN, DID A herdbeast GET INTO THE storerooms of the Rest?
   An Apprentice reported LOST in tunnels, while exploring.... (VERY, VERY lost....)

Plan B:
   Pondering about the ring(s)

(All of which depends on how many folks show up on a holiday weekend.)

2018-05-20

Finances
   Vee: "Amazingly all the HS's are paid for (or should be, I should check with Wyn). FS's are going to be an issue, but we've a whole week to work on that... and many thanks to everyone who stepped up and helped out!" She continues to have a stack of interviews scheduled.

SL15B
   Vee: "In other news, SL15B is around the corner. We should find out if we got a booth tomorrow; I'm an EA again, so, if we get one, I'll be able to claim our plot on Friday. I'm also a greeter, a moderator, and (for the first time) likely to be a stage manager, so I might be a little busy for the weeks of the Birthday...
   "I think Doc's holding the volunteer applications open, if anyone else feels like being a Greeter or a Stage manager... and SLBs are always looking for DJ's & Auditorium performances. Biggest stage in SL - literally; Cake Stage is 4 sims, and there should be at least 2 other sim-sized stages... Auditorium is 2 sims, one for the audience, although the space you work in is a lot smaller. I put in an application to teach my class, again Wink

Oh, and expect a Cake Stage looking as, well, 8-bit as the last 2. Same designer this year, Mikati. Nature of the stages is, a lot of scheduled DJ's can't make it, so they're always looking for last-minute fill-ins. Just getting into the Performers group and being ready to jump in for 2 hours on any even-numbered hour can get you several gigs, even if you're not scheduled."

News
   Vee: "The other big news of last week was Jade's installation at the Feminist Shrine, in a very nice little ceremony. It's a nice little forest parcel, and Gianfar gets a mention... go visit before someone else gets 'installed'. (Guys welcome, too.) Seeking Wisdom (16,17,22)"
   Dutch: "Amazon has more infor on the upcoming Gigi McCaffrey PERN novel - it will be 9th pass, and feature Piemur."

RP
   Dutch: "Last week we investigated some rings which were found by Ayla in one of her .... whatever she calls her voyages of discovery... for today, we propose re-assembling at the Smithcraft Hall to further hear reports on the provenance of the rings, and to also report to the Holder on suspicions regarding Cloud Shadow hold and all. We also have a Harper and Holder mediated dispute between the Smithcraft Hall and the Beastcraft Hall over grazing rights in the land immediately outside and between both halls; and, we also have an apprentice, being an apprentice, all planned for your amusement. This week's chapter is entitled: Hold Improvement.
   "Starting point will be the Smithcraft Hall. I would (again) recommend any to show up outside and make the (long) walk up the ramp to the doors. Stage setting was not limited to indoors only."

2018-05-13

Finances
   The HS tiers on the 15th are not covered, currently. Based on past LL practice, the HS's are probably safe if Wyn & Vee talk to LL tomorrow - they'll probably let us be a week or two late on the FS's, too. Vee's continuing to do job interviews.

RP
   In today's RP - we will re-attempt that which we had originally scheduled for last week, but didn't have much in the way of participation to make it worthwhile. Over all, we have the following items selected:
   RP: 20180506 A Place to Call Hall
Starting Point: SmithCraft Hall (Outside)

Plan A: More on Ayla’s found ring.
   Discussion.
   Inquire of smiths as to provenance of ring.

Plan B: The Lusty Month of May
   Preparations for spring planting
   Plows and other farm implements
   Upcoming numbweed harvests

   As always, if anyone wishes to have input to the plotlines, etc., please let any of us (on the RP team) know - or show up @ our 10 AM Saturday's meeting in the Harper Hall classroom.
   A few of us have thought about coming as alternate characters, so - come on down (everybody) and meet some new (to you) folk (the fun part of alts is trying to figure out who is driving ....)

2018-05-06

Finances
   Vee: "Aren't great. I think we have Thuban's tier, due this week, covered, from Novi's funds." The job hunt is continuing to not go well. [Editorial comment: It's time to dig into our personal reserves, or we'll lose Gianfar.]

RP
   RP: 20180506 A Place to Call Hall

Starting Point: SmithCraft Hall (Office)

Plan A: More on Ayla’s found ring.
   Discussion.
   Inquire of smiths as to provenance of ring.

Plan B: The Lusty Month of May
   Preparations for spring planting
   Plows and other farm implements
   Upcoming numbweed harvests

2018-04-29

Finances
   Vee: "Full sims were due this weekend; as advertised, we drained Novi's accounts and they're covered. I think we'll be able to cover Thuban on the 8th. After that, may depend on [interview results] tomorrow."

Music practice
   The ensemble continues to practice on Tuesday nights, 7 PM SLT. They're "still learning the ins and outs of our instruments" so this is a good time for potential musicians to join in.

RP
   Today at 2, we'll be doing a Gather in the '3500' skybox.
   If anyone has any plotline or story ideas they would like to see developed for RP - please let us know. "Us" includes Dutch, Una, ardrhys, Martin, and Colin at the moment.

2018-04-22

Finances
   Vee: "We're going to be draining Novi's accounts in the near future, to cover the full sim tiers on the 28th. Once that's done, our reserves are gone... so please keep donating! AND renting!"
   (Two full Regions at US$195/month, plus two homesteads at 125, plus Thuban at 95 comes to around L$185000.)

Gather
   Looks as if we'll just do a Gather RP during our usual RP time next Sunday.

SL15B
   No news.

RP
   Starting Point: Harper Hall & Environs
Plan A: Ayla’s shinies and baubles
   Big and gaudy ring found.
   May be a ceremonial ring, similar to Lady Holder’s Ring - but slightly different enough NOT to be.
Plan B: The murder or successful suicide of Koenig (can defer)

2018-04-15

Finances
   Vee: " ...still stable, HS tiers due today will be paid. FS tiers on the 28th are looking iffy, though. I'm dealing with an (unrelated) dispute with LL at the moment, when that's sorted we'll be talking to LL about paying late this round. At least 1 FS tier is covered.
   "Meantime, I'm looking into freelance work, which means I may be around even less."

SL15B
   Vee: "SL15B registrations opened on Friday, with little warning. SLB will be in June. I've already volunteered & applied to teach my RP class.
   "15 is apparently the 'crystal' anniversary, so this year's theme is Crystals. And, when I showed that to Wyn, she had an idea... This is what we put on the exhibitor form: 'Crystal mines. Visitors can explore the maze-like caverns & tunnels of Gianfar Peaks of (the planet) Pern, find and 'mine' crystals of various designs, avoid or make friends with our fire lizards, and possibly experience a short Threadfall on the mountain's peak. Visitors can also learn about the history and future of immersive, storyline roleplay in Second Life.' The usual SLB rules are in place - 32x32 plot, no more than 75m above ground & 10m below water, all connected to the ground unless it's a cloud, etc.." Perhaps we could fit a 3D maze into that space.

Spring Gather
   If anyone decides they'd like to volunteer for taking the blame for the Gather, contact Vee.

RP
   We'll meet at the Rest. We might fight Thread if any dragons & riders show up; we might puzzle over Koenig's disappearance from Healers (escaped? rescued from the Hold-associated people? kidnapped?); we might puzzle over the impressive ring that Ayla dropped in the Rest "yesterday."
   Vee won't be holding an RP class today.

2018-04-08

Finances
   Vee: "Short term, Novi is still well funded - thanks for that! - so the HS's will be covered - although we may ask LL to let them ride for a week or two, to be sure of covering the fulls."
   Vee won't be around much this week or next, as she looks for freelance work. She'll make sure to keep Sundays free.

Music classes
   ...are going well, practicing with Mikki Miles ensemble instruments. They do a pretty good job of keeping players in sync despite lag.

SF Con sim
   txep'ongokx has started a model based on ideas so far, but we still have a lot of unanswered questions about specs. Perhaps we could make it an Experience so that guests wouldn't have to always being giving exhibits permissions to interact with them. Vee's proposed making the whole Con an Experience.

Spring Gather
   There are five Sundays this month, a good time to get back to our traditional Gather schedule. Market Day would be a good theme for off-the-cuff RP; we could invite visitors to join in if they felt like it.

RP
   Today we'll be dealing with the resumption of Threadfall, and working slowly toward the confrontation with the usurper Veekar who thinks she has a right to be Holder.
RP: 20180408: Gianfar Junction
Starting Point: Runner’s Rest
   Plan A:
   Threadfall (if without dragons, would be ground crew actions)
   Plan B:
   Commentary on the preparations for a punitive action against CloudShadow Hold
   Holders trying to coerce Fisher Hall into providing transport to CloudShadow expedition

Last Edit: June 24, 2018, 08:17:27 PM by Colin

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