Working as a Volunteer for Firestorm: I. How It Happened

The Seven Firestorm Regions

The Firestorm viewer is insanely popular in Second Life. It offers rock stable performance and a host of handy features missing from Linden Lab's official Second Life viewer. I and most of my friends use Firestorm.

The Firestorm team operates a block of island regions. The team holds its meetings there, but the purpose of the grids is to provide welcoming space for new residents. Volunteers greet new folks by name, answer questions, provide suggestions, and direct them to locations on and off the Firestorm islands. The intent is to encourage retention-- to provide a service that results in a larger percentage of new folks remaining in Second Life.

I found the old welcome areas like Olive, Plum, Hanja, Murray, and Governor Linden's mansion anything but welcoming. Older residents hung out there to socialize, and many came just to rag on or misdirect new folks. Some older residence, including myself, would visit to assist the new people, but we were distinctly in the minority.

A while back---I'm not sure just when, but certainly earlier than 2016, Linden Lab began cooperative ventures with Second Life organizations to shunt new accounts to them. Areas like New London and the Firestorm appeared, with content designed for new folks-- and the Lindens send new accounts to them upon their exit from Orientation Island.

I'm not sure if the Lindens provided regions for free or at reduced cost to these new ventures, but I suspect so and certainly hope so. Firestorm's seven regions at today's tier would cost about $2500 USD just for tier. That's a considerable expense! Bravo to Linden Lab if they're giving the welcome areas a financial break!

The Original Firestorm Social Island From the Air

When, several months ago, I began spending more time in world, I took myself to some of the old welcome areas, and then to New London, and, finally, to Firestorm Social Island. After my absence many of my friends were gone. I had lost touch with many of those who remained. Even before my furlough from Second Life I had been spending almost all my time at Whimsy, building, scripting, tweaking. It was time to get out.

Purchase of my Maitreya Lara body provided some impetus for getting away from Whimsy. One reason for my low level of activity had to do with the Lindens breaking all my old school shoes. I was ambivalent about mesh bodies until Bakes on Mesh was announced. That proved a deal maker for me. Suddenly I was back in world and focused, for the first time in a long while, on something other than Whimsy.

It helped that Whimsy had been rolling along for some years with hardly a hiccup. It still looked and ran great, and every script I wrote back in 2009 was still running merrily along, doing whatever silly or absurd things I had designed it to do. So Whimsy would be fine while I looked into some avatar modification.

I liked Firestorm Social Island from the get-go. It was attractive, and there was a good mix of new and old folks. Best of all, no one hassled the newbies. When volunteers were absent, and sometimes when they were present, non-helpers, including myself, would chip in to assist.

Two important things happened from my visits. Well, make that three. First, I was having a good time. Second, I was making friends with some of the regulars. And three, Dorrie Bellman suggested I file an application to become an assistant. Dorrie is HR Manager for the Firestorm Gateway.

I thought about Dorrie's suggestion for a few days, and then filled out the form. After filling out a second form. two meetings with Dorrie in voice, and a two-hour group meeting to learn about procedures and tools, I became an assistant. A few weeks later I became a full-fledged assistant.

Helping others comes natural for me. That's what I did in real life, after all. I'm quite good at not letting others get me riled, which is handy when dealing with griefers or people who are just unpleasant, I'm good at banter, and I type 100 words per minute. Best of all, I know, from my long tenure in Second Life, the answer to many questions that routinely pop up, and when I don't know something, I generally know what to do to figure it out.

My time commitment is a very reasonable two hours a week. I wear the Firestorm Helper tag when going to the regions, check in via group chat when I arrive, and check out when I leave. I don't yet have the ability to rez objects or the HUD that will give me the ability to relocate people who refuse to follow Firestorm's fairly liberal rules. but that will happen in time.

Even a two hour weekly commitment is significant in Second Life, but I doubt it will be a problem for me. I can come and go as I please, just so long as I exceed two hours. That suits me just fine. I'm enjoying myself.

Next: II. Redesign of the Gateway

Map Manipulation

Quite a few regions in the older areas of the mainland display text or images on the world map. I'm not certain just how that happens.

Here's a snapshot of the map around Natoma, home of the ancient and well-known and awesome Ivory Tower of Prims. Check out the Mad Magazine Spy v. Spy cartoon on Natoma itself!

When Whimsy was new I put various textures on 256 x 256 meter prims and set them at various heights. I would wait a couple of days, and then pull up the map. None ever affected the map.

I'm not sure if there's a trick involved or whether, perhaps, the ability to manipulate the map in this way has been removed by the Lindens. I've no idea who I could talk to who would be able to tell me.

I do know I'm going to Natoma later today. I'll fly up to 4100 meters and fall all the way to the ground with mouselook on and invisibles highlighted. Perhaps before I go splat at 20 meters I will have solved the mystery.

Looking for a B

Last night Sweetie and I were chasing Stay at Home Club freebies (more about Stay at Home Club in my next post!).

One store had the row of magic chairs pictured above. When we walked past, two were set to S, for Sweetie. I'm unsure, what with her spy connections and all, whether Sweetie arranged it beforehand or whether the shop owner was just trying to bribe her. I don't know; maybe both. She promptly sat in them and got free outfits. One of the chairs she sat in shuffled and came up with C, and I sat in the chair and got a free outfit.

After a while another C came up and I got my second outfit. The chair then shuffled up a question mark, which means anyone can sit and win-- so I sat and got a third outfit.

The woman to my left had a first name that started with B. She was standing in the same spot when we arrived, and was still there when we left the store--and we were there for a while. I kept checking the chairs, and not a single B showed up. I hope she eventually got an outfit.

For those who might not have encountered magic chairs, they randomly generate letters or numbers and announce them in chat and in text on the chair. If the first letter of your first name (or, for people born after 2010, only name), matches, you can sit in the chair and get a price.

I wonder if the B woman understood the rules. I feel a little bad about sitting in the chair with the question mark, but I'm not losing sleep over it.

Green Screen

Over at the Firestorm regions, a cute little teddy named Vin is taking photos of the many assistants who help newcomers.

While Vin was taking my photo in front of this green screen, I of course took a few photos myself.

Attack Monkey

The other day, as I was writing a post about wildlife, it occurred to me that other than humans, there are no primates on either Whimsy or Kaboom.

I looked in my inventory for the coconut-throwing monkeys Dodgeguy Woodward gave me back in 2007, but they didn't show up. They would be very old school on the land now, so I went shopping at the SL Marketplace. I found something called Attack Monkey and bought it for 50 or so Lindens.

I'm not sure of the species, but the attack monkey looks like the New World capuchins, the proverbial organ grinder monkeys. Capuchins are seen frequently in television and in movies.

But what made it an "attack" monkey? It just sat there, unmoving. It didn't seem to be animated in any way.

Until, that is, I noticed an invisible prim that was shaped like a rug attached to it. Having a feeling, I walked toward the monkey. Suddenly it was screeching and bouncing all around me.

It was an attack monkey indeed!

See if you can locate it on Whimsy Kaboom!

Kaboom! Fireworks Show Over Whimsy Kaboom

Yesterday we had a fireworks show on Whimsy. Like the last show, some years ago, we built a platform on the western shore of Whimsy and set off fireworks over the ocean, on Whimsy Kaboom. The show went off without a hitch, and the fireworks were gorgeous. Waves of light reflected from the ground and onlooking avatars as shells exploded, and the sounds of the rockets and explosions seemed to come from everywhere.

Look for more shows on Whimsy. I post them in Events and send messages to the Whimsy Events group, which is free to join.

Click the Images to View Them Full-Size

Whimsy Wildlife: Part I. Kaboom

When I came to Second Life animals were rudimentary. Made of prims, they were often blocky and usually stationary. Most animals that moved made slow circles around a central point. Circling birds, y'all. Circling fish.

SL's animals continue to evolve (Darwin would be proud). They became sculpts, and now most are mesh. A few are animesh. Scripts, and as a result, behavior, are far more complex and less predicable.

Whimsy still features a few circling birds and fish, just for old time's sake, but it's chock-full of complex animal life in the air, on the land, and under the sea. The photo above shows the underside of Kaikou Splash's great whale shark as it hovers above an underwater research station on Kaboom.

Kaboom has a pod of humpbacks--maybe eight by now, and it's fascinating to watch and listen to their vocalizations. They, too, were made by Kaikou Splash--as was Kaboom's rideable giant skate.

I like to watch the whales from the Kaboom's sea deck and below the sea, but they're particularly striking from above. This shot features three whales, a squid, an octopus, an assortment of unidentifiable wildlife, and, center right, just past the humpback, me. I didn't back far enough out of the shot. I love to pan across the region, looking straight down, and one of these days I'm going to make a video showing that.

Recap

Fireworks Above the Dance Pavilion High Above Whimsy

So, a couple of months ago, after five years mostly away from Second Life, I became active again.

I was behind on a lot of things, and it's taken me a while to get up to speed. It was, thankfully, like riding a bike. You just climb on again. After some practice, I'm writing scripts without problem these days (well, there's an occasional problem, as there's still a lot about scripting that I don't understand), but mostly things work right off the bat, bar a misplaced semicolon or two. I've gotten my settings in Firestorm mostly worked out, and I added a mesh body and have learned more or less how to use it. I can safely say, at least for now, I'm ba-ack!

Whimsy fared well while I was away. I had to come in world a couple of times to track down and reset Kitto Flora's little train, and again to find and fix the glass robot hand that dispenses tickets to the cinema at the robot sanatorium, but otherwise, everything was still working. It felt good to see complex scripts I wrote seven or eight years ago and running all the while still chugging along.

Most of my script problems had to do with movement. Occasionally, perhaps, Second Life wobbles, or there's a rounding error, or the sim resets mid-movement, and teleport signs and objects that move back and forth get a bit out of position. I solved that problem by setting home twice after each movement. Once was all that was needed theoretically, but not actually.  Before I added the second command the teleport board at the Whimsy entrance would eventually become misaligned, but it's been perfectly aligned for years now.

I picked up a free Genus head when the company was giving them away prior to going out of business, but haven't put it on yet. I'm in no hurry. I rather like the head I have--but there will come a day when I'll put it on and lose a couple of weeks trying to figure it out and get the look I want.

My plan was to document this no-doubt-boring-to-anyone-who-wasn't-me business, but I got behind, and frankly, I'm glad, for I wasn't looking forward to it. So now I'm looking forward rather than backward. That's the plan, at least.

Several unexpected things have happened since my return. One, I'm now an official helper on the Firestorm islands. My job is to greet new residents, assist them, and reduce their confusion so perhaps they'll log back in a second time and maybe even stay in Second Life.

The job requirements weren't much of a stretch, as that's exactly what I've been doing for more than ten years now. I would from time to time make my rounds of the old Welcome areas and help new people. That was especially needed, as most were in fact Unwelcome areas, with groups of older residents gathering to socialize and ignore or belittle or even grief new folks. I couldn't stop the bad behavior, but I could at least reassure new folks and direct them to places like New Citizens, Inc. that WOULD make them welcome. Some of those new folks became friends and remain friends to these days.

I'll be quick to say this isn't altruism on my part. It's entirely selfish. I want as many people as possible to stay in Second Life so it will stay around. I would hate for the grid to just disappear some day, like Habitat, Blue Mars, High Fidelity, and so many other virtual worlds!

At the Sunday Night Dance at My Friend Elysienne's Raven's Mark Club. DJ Annie is Now a Friend

One consequence of hanging out at Firestorm Social Island was I met people. Spending all my time on Whimsy building or scripting isn't a great way to make social connections, but the Firestorm islands turned out to be a great for that. I now have new friends as well as other old-timers like myself, and we gather weekly for dances--how fortuitous in this day of social distancing!

Adventures in Mesh Bodies, Part IX: Conclusion

I Wonder if Ashenford Knows What Happens to Avatars When They Reach VERY High Atltitudes

I won't say I'm completely comfortable with my Maitreya Lara mesh body, but I can say I have more or less figured things out.

I've gone through all of my outfits and fixed the broken shoes and made Bakes on Mesh versions of most of them. With BOM I can wear legacy outfits and use the olive-toned skin I've preferred since 2006. I look just the same, with a few exceptions. On the positive side, my joints are less misshappen, my hands and feet look much better, I have nice nails, and my hands move with Bento. Finally, rings move with my fingers! The hands and feet are a big deal.

On the negative side, the neck junction between the Lara body and my system body presents a few problems. I've not yet managed to get a match between the tones, but that's my laziness. It can be done; I've just not figured it out. On a more serious note, the 0 setting for the neck won't stay put. Every once in a while there's a gap between the two. Resetting to 0 fixes the problem, but it eventually reappears. I plan to ask the Lara help group about that.

The last problem is the nipples. When I'm using BOM, the three-dimensional shape of the nipples show on every outfit. There's a fix for that, but I'm still struggling. The one time I was able to hide the outline of my nipples there was some kind of texture glitch on my breasts. Unacceptable.

Just yesterday I found out from my friend Ashenford that there's another problem. It seems mesh heads don't function quite right at high altitudes. We went to 4000 meters and he showed me slight tremors in his lips and eyes, like incipient early-onset avatar Parkinson Syndrome. He has read up on the issue, which seems to have to do with rendering computations and too few decimal points. Apparently prims don't always line up correctly at high, either. I've built extensively at 4000 meters with no problem, so I can live with that. The tremors? Maybe not so much.

So anyway, I'm pulling the plug on this series about my adventures and misadventures with Lara. Lara has become, if not a trusted friend, at least a friendly acquaintance with a few unfortunate characteristics. At least she doesn't drink too much or invite her deadbeat drummer boyfriend over.