AlysAnwyl @AlysAnwyl

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We will always need flags and celebrations because we are not all the same, and we are better because of that diversity. What goes wrong is that sometimes some begin to think they are better than others, and start to disrespect others based on some idea that they are somehow inferior, not properly human.

However, if you are making a statement of solidarity with others who respect all human groups as equal, then I stand with you.
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Ever since I've had an account in SL it has been facing imminent demise, so I regard reports that suggest SL's days are numbered with scepticism.
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Despite all the talk of its death, SL is doing quite fine and will be around for a long, long time. With the money LL is making elsewhere, it does not need SL to grow fast, but just to keep growing a little, which it does. That also means evolving though, and I think that upsets a lot of people, though I do not really see how you can avoid that.
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It hasn't been 60 -80k since the heydays of 2007.
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you should go through life with your eyes open
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This is probably one of the best responses I've seen to the whole issue of mesh production and how SL has the 'best' content. I still occasionally go to SL and whilst SL has always been 'laggy' in a way that is rare to find in Opensim, even in busy regions, the mesh load on busy sims in SL really slows things down in terms of viewer performance largely due to the loads imposed by inefficient mesh.

Nice to get the low down on how much mesh content for SL is sourced - I guess that fast fashion for SL is created in a very similar manner as its RL counterpart, by badly exploited sweated labour - stuff to be avoided if at all possible.
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I don't know how long you've been in OS, but there is no logical reason why OS should be free, apart from the ludicrous claim by those peddling the ludicrous notion that "Don't buy in Opensim, Opensim should be free!". This slogan, as far as I can tell, was started by that purveyor of pirated content, Sacrarium, which is now a pay only grid, set up for the wholesale pirating of SL content. There is absolutely nothing wrong with the idea of buying stuff in Opensim, and though the market is small, and largely limited to the Kitely Market, I'm happy to pay for those items whose creators want some return for their work.
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Girl, you can say whatever, but opensim is not place for sellers looking for a living. Opensim is and will always be free, if you are so desperate for buying stuffs, go to SL, they have a market full of stuffs you can buy.
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Firstly, I'm not desperate to buy stuff, as I said, I am happy to buy stuff where the creators have decided they would like some payment. No-one is twisting your arm to buy anything should you not wish to do so.

Neither you nor I are arbiters of what goes in Opensim, it's a blank canvas that can be used in whatever way someone wants, including to make some money.

Hardly anyone makes a living from sales in SL, and no-one in their right mind expects to make a living out of Opensim, but nonetheless running one's own regions server, or even paying for hosting costs, and I dare say that it's more than feasible that the costs of this are at least partially offset from sales on the Kitely Market, or wherever items are for sale with Globits
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Nah, from SL a lot of people make a living. I know that for a fact.
Opensim will always be free, mark my words.
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Whatever - facepalm.
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Most creators in SL are probably fortunate if they cover their SL expenses with what they sell. Relatively few will earn enough to make an RL living from SL sales. I'm not actually sure there is a similar problem with items from the Kitely Market being god moded and then distributed. I've been in Opensim since 2011 so I'm pretty aware of what's going on, and I've been an HG customer of the Kitely Market for about 10 years now. In that time I've seen the growth of pirated mesh content in OS from pretty much zero to the situation we have now, where it's ubiquitous. In all that time I have yet to see items from the Kitely Market distributed for free, and indeed, most in OS seem more than happy to pay for that content. Some of that content will no doubt have god powers used on it , mostly for the kind of reasons you've highlighted, but not so much for redistribution for free, which if it happens, I suspect happens very much under the radar. Also, most content for sale on the KM is reasonably priced, which makes a huge difference, but then creators have much lower overheads than those in SL, where upload costs are considerable and land rental is still a rip-off, even with the reduced tiers of today.

As far as restricting the use of god mode, this is Opensim, and it comes as is, and if you host your own regions on your own hardware you'll have access to god powers. The only way to restrict this would be on grids that don't allow residents to have access to the region server, which many grids don't. But the widespread availability of Dreamgrid and the Diva Distro means that it's relatively trivial to set up and run one's own mini-grid, even if only temporarily and sporadically.

It's interesting though, and I'm not the first to note this, but those who complain the most about 'copybotters' are usually those who are the most prolific purveyors of pirated content. The Kitely Market, on the other hand, hardly ever mentions the issue, though I am sure that they take copyright infringement very seriously.

God powers are extremely useful, and personally I often use them when I come across items I have made that for some reason lack the permissions I would like them to have - it's easy to mess up!
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"In all that time I have yet to see items from the Kitely Market distributed for free"

In a way, some are. Studio Skye is officially present on the Kitely Market with a bunch of products, including the famous mesh beach kit. And yet, you find full-perm Skye mesh beach pieces all over the Hypergrid. However, these aren't god-moded Kitely items, they're copybotted SL items. I'm still wondering whether the Kitely box comes with instructions...

As for my own god mode, I was made estate manager on the sim on which I have my home parcel, and I got god mode access along with it.
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There are also some Heart Botanicals in circulation from before they were available on the Kitely Market. I as using them, and when I realised that they were legitimately available on the KM I bought them - one of my first purchases there.

I think where SL creators decide to sell legit copies of their creations in the Opensim metaverse there is always going to be the risk that pirated copies will also be available. Good to know that Studio Skye items are available on the KM.
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And yet, when you log into OSGrid, what is usually the first message that greets you? Something along the lines, "OSGrid is supported by it's residents, please donate."

I know we live in the age of neoliberal economics where we give money to people who've found a way to even exploit the capitalists, but even with Jeff Bezos, we usually get something delivered that has a warranty so we can send something back and get a refund if the service or item isn't suitable or fit for purpose.
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OSGrid survives simply because is has so much support. It's quite amazing it has the support that it does really, given the contemptuous attitude that has been shown towards residents on occasion. When the asset server went down in 2014 taking the grid offline for six months many were incensed that not only were there no proper backups for those servers, but that the grid was hiding behind its status as a test grid. That's fair enough when they allow people to connect for free, or to use the grid fro free, but the fact remains that the grid is constantly soliciting donations to keep going. Nothing wrong with this at all, but surely with this comes a quid pro quo to do the utmost to secure people's inventories? Since that 2014 disaster, I am unsure that the grid has implemented a comprehensive plan to ensure the safety and security of resident's inventories.

Many left the grid at that time, and many very talented people did not return, and many of us who still use OSGrid no longer contribute financially as it's felt that this just rewards the entitled behaviour of those who run the grid with a seemingly cavalier attitude towards residents.

Then there are the seemingly arbitrary application of the rules. I get that often we only hear one side of a story, but the fact that so many have very similar complaints warrants that some note is taken of them. I know of some residents landing in hot water with a senior admin as the result of completely hearsay accusations where if that admin hadn't been so gullible and actually read the screed, (that had been widely distributed beforehand) it would have been immediately obvious that the complainant couldn't string together a logical thread, and that some of the claims were ludicrous. I also know of someone who was banned simply because an admin suspected that they were an alt of someone - merely suspected that is, not proven. Okay, according to the rules, the grid can do that, but I do feel that when a grid runs on resident's donations then residents themselves should have some say on how the grid is run.

If OSGrid were to face a defunding campaign there would soon be changes. It wouldn't take much, and whilst I doubt a democracy would be established, I do think that something like that could result in clearer terms of service, actually written down and hopefully also implemented fairly and equally without fear or favour.
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