Mathilda Stark^✦ @MathildaStark

For better or worse, I am sharing things I have done for online safety in Opensim, as the reader you can decide for yourself which actions to take. If you can learn from your own mistakes, you are pretty smart but if you can learn from SOMEONE ELSE'S mistakes, you are a genius!

After reading a number of posts on Opensimworld, it is apparent that some hobbyists of unaware of protections they have available when running Opensimulator for the first time. Some tinkerers may opt for running a simulator on their spare computer at home and connecting the region to an OPEN grid like OSgrid or Zetaworlds. Nothing beats the excitement of having your own land for the first time. You spend hours designing your city, giving it a theme, placing sit targets on all of your furniture; everything is 'ponies and rainbows' until some jerk comes in and decides to populate your territory with questionable objects in the hopes they can READ YOUR COMPLAINTS HERE ON OPENSIMWORLD while they are fondling their (ahem - your favorite depiction here) ego at your ire.

THE BEST RESPONSE TO TROLLS IS NO RESPONSE. When you ignore them, they move on to someone else who will make some noise... They are like vampires feeding off of negative energy.

The screenshot above illustrates things you can do to protect your simulators. In 'about land, options' section I un-check the Everyone boxes. Only Group users may use those features. You can also define who may enter, in 'about land, access' you can restrict access to a group or only certain individuals. Now some of you will say "Stop right there, my visitor's AO will not work or they cannot use their custom dance huds". The good news is that if your visitors are using the AO built into their viewer, that is not a problem, they will have their own custom animations or dances and will not need to run scripts. If the visitor is someone you can trust, you can allow them into the group... If you are having a party, you can temporarily enable script access to guests while you are present. When you are running the region it is up to YOU to POLICE IT. You have options for blocking hostiles in your built-in configuration files. There are also scripted solutions for traffic control where you can banish individual users, entire grids or IP ranges in real-time. You are free to seek out any technology which keeps your world safe. I strongly advise that you examine the code before employing these security devices.

For Hypergrid users: Enjoying a LAG-FREE experience is not the HOST's responsibility. IT IS YOURS.

As computers get more powerful each year, region operators WILL populate their sims with content that could bring many CPUs and display adapters to their knees. Lets face it, not everyone can afford to buy a new computer every year with all of the latest bells and whistles. When traveling you want to make sure your PC is optimized for controlling client side lag. Luckily, your viewer has features available to combat these issues. Reducing draw distance, particles, LOD and avatar complexity will give you better frame rates at the expense of reduced visual quality.

Other ways to protect yourself when traveling include: Making sure your SUITCASE IS EMPTY - the more junk you have in there, the more BLOAT that follows you as you travel. You can also make a lightweight hypergrid avatar. The screenshot above shows my actual inventory window. Instead of carrying everything on my person, I have everything rezzed on land in a hidden region on my grid that only I can access. Less inventory means less orange smoke at login. I have been told that some shady grid owners can use rogue simulator code see what is in your suitcase and copy it. I have also heard of grid operators cloning visitors via collision scripted objects - it is easy to copy stuff a cloned avatar is wearing. I always say "Never wear anything when traveling that you do not want some simpleton to copy". I have seen some nasty OSSL code that will crash the sim of the person who cloned you without permission. Trolling the trolls can be fun BUT I digress, TWO WRONGS DO NOT MAKE IT RIGHT.

Opensim does not have to be the 'WILD WILD WEST' - protect yourselves & protect your regions. You and your guests can enjoy the best of Opensimulator.

As always, feel free to share this article when needed.

Peace & Love
Spax

A new attraction on Stark Straits, a gallery of AI art that does not take itself too seriously, being created from fantasy and desires by a complete novice!!! You will love it or hate it, it is the marmite gallery!!!!!! It it is called Niki's Checkerboard Museum of AI Art.

I don't usually support mesh bodies that have got nothing to do with Ruth2 or Roth2. But I've come across an improvement trick for Athena 6 with BoM that nobody seems to know.

The major problem is that the skin on Athena 6's limbs may look weird under certain viewer settings, much like a lighting bug. Some skin areas look brighter or darker than they should.

A minor problem is that alpha masks don't work on Athena 6 although they technically should with BoM.

The reason is because Athena 6 has a chaotic hodge-podge of alpha settings all over it. Parts are set to alpha masking, more parts are set to alpha blending (it's them which may look weird to you or to others), most have alpha off (this is why alpha masks don't work on Athena 6 out of the box).

The solution:

Step 1: Edit your Athena 6 body. All of it, not just any piece. Select it in your inventory while wearing it.

Step 2: Go to the Texture tab.

Step 3: Set the alpha mode to alpha masking.

Now the different shades of skin colour are gone, but your hands and feet may turn partially white. Don't panic, this is supposed to happen and will be fixed in the next steps.

Step 4: Set the mask cutoff to 128. If it is already 128, set it to 127 and back to 128.

The white should disappear, and your body should look normal again. Or better than what you saw previously.

Step 5: Take the body off and put it back on to save the new settings.

Also, you can now wear alpha masks like you can on the system body which might save you from the hassles that come with the alpha cuts on the HUD, and which you can save with outfits. The only limitation is that the alpha masks still don't work on fingernails and toenails.

Should alpha masks stop wearing, just edit the body and set the mask cutoff to 127 and back to 128.

The same method should work on Adonis 4 if you want to use alpha masks with BoM.

Oh, and before anyone tries this on Ruth2 v4 or Roth2 v2: You don't have to, at least not with the "BoM" bodies and Ruth2 v4 "Business". They've got alpha mode controls on the HUD. The "0.8.2.1" versions, on the other hand, are de-scripted and have no HUD, so they require this trick, too, if alpha masks don't work.

Wir wünschen Allen ein besinnliches Weihnachtsfest. Danke allen die uns 2022 unterstützt haben.

We wish everyone a merry Christmas. Thank you to everyone who supported us in 2022.

Vi önskar alla en god jul. Tack till alla som stöttat oss under 2022.

Yay, another great party at Stark! Thanks Mattie for the music and all that attended for the fun :)
If you missed out, you get more chances every day at aprox 12-3pm :)
https://opensimworld.com/hop/82322

„Jetzt leuchten die Kerzen überall. Deshalb ich wünsche Euch, dass deren Wärme und Geborgenheit Euch durch das gesamte Jahr begleitet. Habt ein frohes Weihnachtsfest!“
"Now the candles shine everywhere. Therefore, I wish you that their warmth and security will accompany you throughout the year. Have a Merry Christmas!"

A new attraction on Stark, and specifically on Stark Straits, is a new monthly comic, which is somewhat pornographic in content, but is all intended as some fun, so if you are easily offended please do not read them. They will form a running storyline and are created to be a bit grainy and bad spelling etc like old porn from the 50s 60s etc was. So again if you only like perfection in graphics etc, do not read them.
I start off with the first two issues, they are available only on Stark Straits near the AI Gallery.
Please enjoy them for what they are and do not read too much into them, they are a bit of fun for anyone so inclined.
Thank you

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All of us here at Club Equinox want to wish all our friends a very Merry Christmas and thank you all for your support threw out the year!!!
Becca Hannah and Xaria along with all the staff!!!!

Wishing you a happy and prosperous New Year! May this be a year of joy, success, and good health for you and your loved ones. Remember a New Year is a new 365 page Novel, the first day is the first page. So this year, write a good one! 2023!!