Below is a short summary of the latest Community Meeting, followed by its chat logs – which have been gently edited for formatting, to put questions and answers in bold for easy skimming, and to omit greetings and farewells and other such asides. Meetings are hosted by Estate owner NeoBokrug Elytis at 2:00 pm on the first Saturday of every month at The Potato Farm in The Wastelands, and the discussion is typically divided into three main topics: Estate, Game, and Roleplay & Events. Everyone is welcome to attend!
ESTATE:
➳ The Lindex is still fluctuating, so you may receive more or fewer L$ for each US dollar you pay. Tier is still based on USD, however – rates may look like they’ve gone up, but the USD value is still the same.
➳ LL support tickets are taking a long time to resolve: there has been a drastic increase in compromised accounts, due to people giving their information to scammers. Only use the official SL site to buy or sell L$!
➳ Setting up multi-factor authentication is very strongly recommended!
➳ Occupancy remains pretty stable: no big gains or losses.
➳ Neo is still working on the USD-based tier meters for Caledon and New Toulouse, and improvements to the code for all tier payments, including The Wastelands.
➳ We’re now advertising The Wastelands on Primfeed on occasional weekends – with a graphic made by Antares!
➳ There’s “something in motion [Neo] can’t really talk about yet” regarding Northgate. Mysterious!
➳ Neo is working on an inworld event listing, to be posted at the telehubs. Each event can be clicked on for info and a SLurl!
GAME:
➳ No real development this month.
➳ Irk is taking a break from SL, so there may be no June Buzzard Hunt this year – but the HUD still tallies the kills.
➳ Neo may try to update the Miasma code this month.
ROLEPLAY & EVENTS:
➳ Thank you to everyone who attended or performed for PROMAGEDDON!
➳ Neo is wondering whether The Wastelands should participate in next year’s Relay For Life in some capacity, or support Caledon’s existing events. Input welcome!
➳ Another Wasted Karaoke will likely supplant Apo’s Audio Atrocities in late June.
➳ Pizza Day, an all-day movie marathon and pizza party, will return to Burnt Oak Drive-In this July – exact date to be announced.
➳ Apo is considering making some changes to the Rondyvoo usually held in late August or mid-September: perhaps making it every other year.
➳ Drifter seems to have taken Gott, the Sateer newcomer, under his wing, teaching him to hunt.
➳ Ccindy is still preparing to host a pen-and-paper roleplay campaign of Degenesis: Forum-style play through Discord. If you’re interested in playing a character, read up on the information there!
➳ If you’d like to host an event, or learn how to, contact Apo or Neo! Apo also has an instructional notecard on how to DJ.
➳ Reminder: The roleplay character template has been added to the Wiki – add yours today! Or review it to see who’s who and get some ideas for interactions.
Weekly Event Summary:
(All Times SLT)
Sundays:
– Storytime with Wasteland Drifter – 2pm
– Gomi’s Garbo Cinematic Expulsion – 5pm
Occasional Sundays at Dass’s Discretion: [RP] I’m Not Even Supposed To Be Here Today Trade Event – 10am
Occasional Sundays at Maenas’ Discretion: [RP] Readings by the Oracle – Noon
Mondays:
– Mutant Drum Circle – 6pm
Tuesdays:
– Film Night with Wasteland Drifter – 5pm
Wednesdays:
– HOSTILE BROADCAST – 7pm
Thursdays:
– Unstructured Playtime w/ Dia – 5pm
– Booze & Blather [RP Event] – 6pm
Saturdays:
– Sandling’s Evening Madness – 1pm
– Apo’s Audio Atrocities – 5pm
First Saturday: Community Meeting – 2pm; Fight Night – 3pm
Second Saturday: Barrelhead Bazaar [RP Event] – 11am
Third Saturday: Wasted Raiders’ Raid – Noon
Alternating Saturdays: Saturday Morning Cartoons or Saturday Morning Sci-Fi – 8am
Occasional Saturdays at Apo’s Discretion: Wasted Karaoke – 5pm.
Want to host an event? Let Neo know the event details by Wednesday night and he’ll add it to the weekly group announcements, Discord announcement, Primfeed, and Plurk feed!
If you want to keep in touch with other Wastelanders when you can’t be inworld, our Discord server is now public! The Unbridled Rage greeter bot can give a link.
I. THE ESTATE
NeoBokrug Elytis: IT’S… TIME.
Storm Thunders: I guess things taste better if the recipe is a couple states away?
Aposiopesis Fullstop: wooo!
Drifter (wastelanddrifter): The wackiest version of those regional names I encountered was
Drifter (wastelanddrifter): what Neapolitans called Roman pizza, Romans called Neapolitan pizza
Sandling Honey: The next hour will ‘just’ be death’s dynamic shroud to get weirded by, while focusing on the meeting :D
Drifter (wastelanddrifter): each attributes it to the other
NeoBokrug Elytis: As per the usual we’ll speak of the three main aspects of The Wastelands, Land, Game, and Events — with time in-between for questions and comments.
Aposiopesis Fullstop: Haha, nice!
NeoBokrug Elytis: No major gains or losses with occupancy this past month, so nothing much to speak of there.
NeoBokrug Elytis: The L$ value continues to slide against the USD, so it may seem like your tier is going up; but it’s not. You can buy more L$ per USD. Our tier system follows these changes to make sure everything is fair to tenant and the estate.
NeoBokrug Elytis: Caledon still has static rates, and I have been working on updating their system to also follow the change. It presents a lot of unique problems however, so while “flipping” a switch might be a solution, the core of the tier system that’s bolted to mine needs updates. And so that’s what I’ve been working on.
NeoBokrug Elytis: The changes will also benefit The Wastelands in the long run, but right now it is a slog. The system is about 15+ years old I think.
NeoBokrug Elytis: And I am adapting it to handle multiple estates, as well as being a bit more future proof.
NeoBokrug Elytis: Since the summer is arriving soon, I asked Antares to make a graphic for us. I am using this graphic in ads this weekend on Primfeed. I’ve seen a few new folks log in; but overall it’s gotten a lot of impressions.
NeoBokrug Elytis: I’ll cherry pick weekends to use this ad, but I am not going to do it during the week.
Aposiopesis Fullstop: Hooray! It’s a nice-looking ad!
NeoBokrug Elytis: I sort of want the most bang for the buck there.
Ϯ ℳαץσ ⑬ Ϯ (myotis.fledermaus): Rum.
Storm Thunders: it is! and that font works great!
Aposiopesis Fullstop: Haha, yeah, I was telling Neo how much I liked the font. :D
Antares Thane (vickycriss): Thanks, I did my best to destroy it.
Drifter (wastelanddrifter): Sumer is icumen in,
Lhude ſing cuccu!
Aposiopesis Fullstop: :D
Antares Thane (vickycriss): I’m happy to help.
Drifter (wastelanddrifter): or what’s that people here said?
Drifter (wastelanddrifter): Lewdly sing in goo?
Aposiopesis Fullstop: Summer is a-comin’ in, loudly sink in goo.
Aposiopesis Fullstop: Hahaha
Drifter (wastelanddrifter): ah, there we go
NeoBokrug Elytis: Hopefully with the ad, and a few things I have planned specifically for the summer, we can bring a few new faces in.
NeoBokrug Elytis: And maybe if they have a good time, they’ll feel like contributing to the wastelands with their own builds. :)
NeoBokrug Elytis: Any questions about estate stuff?
Candide LeMay: is the gate of north producing any noobs?
NeoBokrug Elytis: Not quite yet. There’s something in motion I can’t really talk about yet. We’ll see how that plays out.
Aposiopesis Fullstop: oooOOOooo…
NeoBokrug Elytis: You can probably catch me at a few LL office hours meetings these days. I am finally catching up on a backlog of stuff where I have a bit more free time to attend those.
NeoBokrug Elytis: I’ve filed a few bugs and feature requests too, and I’ve got more coming down the barrel.
NeoBokrug Elytis: Not much to say for the game development this past month. The Caledon tier meters have dominated my time…
NeoBokrug Elytis: … but I haven’t really had that feeling of accomplishment, so I have shifted gears to make this events board behind me. It is, effectively done, and will be used on all estates. We’re just working on graphics, and we’re going to put it where it belongs at each telehub
NeoBokrug Elytis: The way it works it events get posted to discord, they get automated to a google calendar, the calendar gets requested by my server, which simplifies it and extracts the next 7 days of events into json format. Then from here the object extracts all the relevant information, like the event title, description, and location.
NeoBokrug Elytis: And show the titles on the board.
NeoBokrug Elytis: You can click individual titles for the full summary.
Ϯ ℳαץσ ⑬ Ϯ (myotis.fledermaus): I wish my fridge could dispense ice cubes
NeoBokrug Elytis: Burnt Oak has a special version that only diplays the showings there. :)
Drifter (wastelanddrifter): 📽
NeoBokrug Elytis: But yeah, the telehub boards are going to get an overhaul soon. I’ll probably throw our social links up.
NeoBokrug Elytis: And since the logic for all of this is done, I can finally work on our custom calendar.
NeoBokrug Elytis: For now, it is showing just json: https://calendar.the-wastelands.org/
NeoBokrug Elytis: Any questions about anything before I move on?
Mutsumi (mutsy.kaligawa): looks neat Neo :D
II. THE GAME
Ϯ ℳαץσ ⑬ Ϯ (myotis.fledermaus): what happened to buzzard hunt
Candide LeMay: i haven’t seen irk in ages
NeoBokrug Elytis: That’s Irks event. He’s taking a break.
Ϯ ℳαץσ ⑬ Ϯ (myotis.fledermaus): ikr
Ϯ ℳαץσ ⑬ Ϯ (myotis.fledermaus): haven’t seen him in a year
Ϯ ℳαץσ ⑬ Ϯ (myotis.fledermaus): or more
Drifter (wastelanddrifter): Does that mean it’s not happening this month? The counter has been been going.
Drifter (wastelanddrifter): I saw Irk online a few days ago briefly.
NeoBokrug Elytis: I have built the system to auto-count for June. I can ask him later.
III. THE ROLEPLAY & EVENTS
NeoBokrug Elytis: So.
NeoBokrug Elytis: Relay for Life is going on right now, and my question to you all is how do you feel like participating in it next year? It’s a bit of a big project from what I’ve seen in Caledon, and would require several volunteers.
Aposiopesis Fullstop: Is Relay For Life ever NOT going on?
Candide LeMay: i am NOT participating in anything relay related
NeoBokrug Elytis: This is the primary time for it, and I would limit our participation to the primary time.
Drifter (wastelanddrifter): What do we have to do?
Aposiopesis Fullstop: Ahhh.
NeoBokrug Elytis: Noted.
Aposiopesis Fullstop: I’ve always thought there’d be a bit of bad optics to have Mutants and Ghouls participating in that, frankly.
NeoBokrug Elytis: Also a good point.
NeoBokrug Elytis: Perhaps, we don’t participate then, or talk about it more.
Storm Thunders: What about just letting people know if they ask who the Caledon team contact would be?
NeoBokrug Elytis: We can do that, and funnel help there.
NeoBokrug Elytis: They can always use the help. :)
NeoBokrug Elytis: Hopefully I can get all these big projects landed this month, and get back to working on things that don’t NEED to be done by a time.
Tora the Explorer (toraonna.thane): welp, that’s a cause dear to my heart. I don’t know how much I could get done just now, but I’m willing to pitch in however i can
Aposiopesis Fullstop: Maybe the miasma code could be updated?
NeoBokrug Elytis: Open floor for Events and Role Play Discussion.
NeoBokrug Elytis: Perhaps!
Aposiopesis Fullstop: Thanks to everyone who attended Promageddon last weekend! There were so many fantastic outfits, and great music, as well. I hope folks had a good time.
Aposiopesis Fullstop: It should happen again on the last Saturday of NEXT May, circumstances permitting. *gestures broadly at the world*
Drifter (wastelanddrifter): Good to be here.
Drifter (wastelanddrifter): Hope we can do karaoke more.
Aposiopesis Fullstop: So do I! Hopefully later this month, perhaps early July.
Aposiopesis Fullstop: As usual, I’m a little Big Event’d out for a bit, with Promageddon coming hot on the heels of the Red Revival like it does. So if anyone else has a festival they want to wrangle up, go for it! But PIZZA DAY should likely happen sometime mid-July.
NeoBokrug Elytis: I hope to have more than just this events board done in a month, hopefully the calendar website too. Maybe the bot sends you an IM the first time you log in that day (if you opt-in), of what events are going on.
Aposiopesis Fullstop: Gotta figure out what Saturday works well for all the potential people. But given their frequent guest-hosting, Pale and Rax are gonna get selections this year. :V
Drifter (wastelanddrifter): Automation is good
Storm Thunders: yay!
NeoBokrug Elytis: Yeah, if I can get the calendar done, it’ll make my thursday events post so much easier.
Aposiopesis Fullstop: Yeah. You’ve improved that a lot, but it still takes you a while.
Ϯ ℳαץσ ⑬ Ϯ (myotis.fledermaus): coming Friday is a 13th, I’m looking forward to it
Drifter (wastelanddrifter): sending out reminders to interested parties individually on multiple platforms is like herding cats
Antares Thane (vickycriss): facts.
NeoBokrug Elytis: It’s very hard. Still takes me 2-3 hours.
Aposiopesis Fullstop: Indeed. Even within this platform! Let me send the same message to multiple groups without literally pasting it three places! If someone’s in all four groups, let them only see it ONCE, so they don’t ignore it out of spam-spite!
Mutsumi (mutsy.kaligawa): all that curiosity and constant meowing, no wonder
Drifter (wastelanddrifter): and even if the message of “This is consisting of at ” they often respond with “What is this?
Drifter (wastelanddrifter): Some admitted that is because they don’t actually read the whole message before asking questions.
Aposiopesis Fullstop: Some things simply can’t be idiot-proofed.
Storm Thunders: they’re always making new and improved idiocy :D
Drifter (wastelanddrifter): true
Aposiopesis Fullstop: My sarcastic ass would be tempted to reply “You must be at least this literate to attend.”
Mutsumi (mutsy.kaligawa): some things is more like a lot today
NeoBokrug Elytis: When I am supreme overlord and install control bolts in peoples heads, I will make sure they read.
NeoBokrug Elytis: Thanks for the tunes Sandling. :)
Sandling Honey: Most welcome :D
NeoBokrug Elytis: Some misc stuff —
NeoBokrug Elytis: If you haven’t setup multi-factor authentication on your SL account, do yourself a favor and set it up now.
NeoBokrug Elytis: LL has been flooded with people losing their accounts from clicking bad links.
NeoBokrug Elytis: Support times for tickets to LL are at least 10 days for me, a concierge account, and longer for everyone else I think. So if you lose control of your account, you’re not going to get it back for a while.
NeoBokrug Elytis: So set up MFA asap.
Drifter (wastelanddrifter): I’ve tried it and it doesn’t work.
NeoBokrug Elytis: MFA?
NeoBokrug Elytis: Give it another try if you can: https://community.secondlife.com/news/featured-news/your-account-your-world-keep-it-safe-r11193/
Drifter (wastelanddrifter): Ah, I think I got it working now
Drifter (wastelanddrifter): the authenticator
Drifter (wastelanddrifter): It needed an email verification
Aposiopesis Fullstop: Huzzah!
NeoBokrug Elytis: Yeah. I know at least 2 people who had their accounts compromised, and are waiting still.
Drifter (wastelanddrifter): It happened to me once but I got control back almost immediately.
NeoBokrug Elytis: Lucky!
Drifter (wastelanddrifter): only permabanned from one estate for it
Drifter (wastelanddrifter): Owner said it was not possible to be hacked and I was making it up
Aposiopesis Fullstop: Hah!
NeoBokrug Elytis: Dumb. Show them that URL. haha
Drifter (wastelanddrifter): I couldn’t show anything since she blocked all communication after messaging me to tell me I was banned
Storm Thunders: They were just mad you keep winning at trivia night.
Aposiopesis Fullstop: Hahaha!
Mutsumi (mutsy.kaligawa): :)
Mozes Paz: Salty
NeoBokrug Elytis: Haha
Storm Thunders: I mean, ask three history questions. If you don’t learn something new about all three topics? It isn’t Drifter.
Drifter (wastelanddrifter): Yes well
Drifter (wastelanddrifter): My consolation is that most of the places that gave me a hard time are history now.
Aposiopesis Fullstop: Hah!
NeoBokrug Elytis: I find that to be a very true thing.
NeoBokrug Elytis: If you’re not welcoming or understanding of people and the mistakes or errors they may have, you won’t last in SL.
Beasil (beasil.roundfield): Ah digital selection
Storm Thunders: Yah. Tier is merciless.
Drifter (wastelanddrifter): The people who can’t adapt are winnowed out, as Ashley put it in “Gone with the Wind”
Drifter (wastelanddrifter): “But don’t you see, Ashley? WE’RE the ones being winnowed out!”
Sandling Honey: That’s it for my background death dynamic shroud reel!
Aposiopesis Fullstop: So, it’s an event that happens more in August or September anyway, so this is asking WELL in advance, but… what would you guys think of the Rondyvoo being an every-other-year thing, instead of annual? On the one hand, it could build more anticipation, and give people more time to plan and make “character-made” things to offer at the auction, etc. RL is demanding lately.. On the other, it’s just a very RP-focused event, and that is… just slow, these days, for all the reasons that it is.
Drifter (wastelanddrifter): I could go both ways
Drifter (wastelanddrifter): (as is often the case)
Aposiopesis Fullstop: Hah!
Aposiopesis Fullstop: I’m not sure if folks need more time – goodness knows the years seem to go by all the faster, now – or if it’s just a more fundamental “even with more time, there’s not much interest” sort of situation. I could try to organize a Fall event that people DID like instead, is the point. Haha
Aposiopesis Fullstop: Or someone else could, naturally!
Mozes Paz: I’ll def try and come hang around here more
Drifter (wastelanddrifter): I have been trying to help new roleplayers get started but in my experience they seem to either take to it immediately or not at all.
Aposiopesis Fullstop: Oh, that’s always the way, for sure.
Antares Thane (vickycriss): the Smack-a- tree days are fun
NeoBokrug Elytis: I have been posting weekly events to our groups, and our blusky account (among other places) https://bsky.app/profile/www.the-wastelands.org every week
Mozes Paz: I’ll check in agaiunb when I get back
Aposiopesis Fullstop: There have always been folks who’d be around a lot for a month, and then evaporate.
Drifter (wastelanddrifter): “Please explain everything to me.”
NeoBokrug Elytis: Retention is also an issue for SL in general.
Drifter (wastelanddrifter) explains.
Drifter (wastelanddrifter): “Cool. I’ll be back later.”
Beasil (beasil.roundfield): I try to keep the newbies around
Drifter (wastelanddrifter): Resident never comes back.
Storm Thunders: some of that’s chemical. A lot of people on SL are really really enjoying their chemicals.
Drifter (wastelanddrifter): The chemicals I enjoy are A, E, and X.
Aposiopesis Fullstop: Hahaha
NeoBokrug Elytis: Haha
Sandling Honey: For me it’s Chemical S, E and X
NeoBokrug Elytis: The bar for using Sl is rather high.
Drifter (wastelanddrifter): That’s true
Sandling Honey: Allll dooone
Beasil (beasil.roundfield): Aaah what a fine musical arc
NeoBokrug Elytis: Thank you Sandling.
Aposiopesis Fullstop: There’s also “Please explain everything to me.” [explanation ensues] “No, I don’t want to do anything that way.”
Drifter (wastelanddrifter): Some people I know offline asked why I chose such a complex platform for screenings films and I said “It’s what my social circle was using when I started.”
Beasil (beasil.roundfield): Thank you for the excellent music
Sandling Honey: Most welcome :D
Drifter (wastelanddrifter): Oh yes
NeoBokrug Elytis: Sl is a good place to have things like that.
Beasil (beasil.roundfield): I’m all shrouded up
Sandling Honey: I know it wasn’t my usual variety in choice – But I was zoning SO HARD on dds today, that I figured, let’s share that experience
Antares Thane (vickycriss): Just use the WL: Duct tape and try getting a newbie to stick around
Beasil (beasil.roundfield): Yes tape it to a chair
Drifter (wastelanddrifter): “This is the one way to do the thing you say you want to do.”
Tora the Explorer (toraonna.thane): gotta relog, luvs. BRB
Drifter (wastelanddrifter): and they don’t do it
Drifter (wastelanddrifter): It’s like telling someone where to find the thing they’re looking for and they say, “No thanks, I’ll keep looking somewhere else anywya.”
Drifter (wastelanddrifter): anyway
Aposiopesis Fullstop: It was enjoyable zonery!
Drifter (wastelanddrifter): “But it’s right here!”
Sandling Honey: haha nah, in all seriousness though – My biggest interests in SL these days are simply chatting, playing/listening to music, and photography
Drifter (wastelanddrifter): I don’t get it.
Sandling Honey: the latter’s just become SO GOOD these days
Beasil (beasil.roundfield): That’s great, I need your music
Beasil (beasil.roundfield): I need it
Aposiopesis Fullstop: Oh yeah – first set of June, so imma do a Pride Month set, wherever it is I wind up tonight!
Sandling Honey: I used to run entire communities and all, and that was fun too – I don’t think I have the energy for that part anymore though
Sandling Honey: but times where different in SL then too
Aposiopesis Fullstop: Yeah, there’s also an “energy levels: dwindling” thing all around.
Tora the Explorer (toraonna.thane): thankees!
Drifter (wastelanddrifter): Wirewheel said that about lawyer work
Beasil (beasil.roundfield): WOOOO
Beasil (beasil.roundfield): I’m already dressed for it
Drifter (wastelanddrifter): “I like the legal part. I don’t like the business management and office politics part.”
NeoBokrug Elytis: Part of it is the economy. The first thing to go, is time for entertainment.
Mutsumi (mutsy.kaligawa): Storm’s got the hors ready :D
Sandling Honey: Oh yeah, we are really in another great depression – financially they keep warning that it’s not there yet
Drifter (wastelanddrifter): dealing with squabbles between employees and such
Sandling Honey: but my god, socially
Drifter (wastelanddrifter): “So and so looked at me funny”
Sandling Honey: that’s been LONG going on already
Drifter (wastelanddrifter): “Did he hit you?”
Sandling Honey: ever since covid for sure
Drifter (wastelanddrifter): “No.”
Mutsumi (mutsy.kaligawa): *horns*
Storm Thunders: “They were breathing! Over there!”
Storm Thunders: whahaha
Aposiopesis Fullstop: hahaha
Drifter (wastelanddrifter): “Then don’t worry about it.”
NeoBokrug Elytis: Also this events list auto-updates. :)
Mutsumi (mutsy.kaligawa): woo!
NeoBokrug Elytis: If anyone is interested in hosting an event, poke me or Apo and we’ll help you out.
Aposiopesis Fullstop: It is true!
Aposiopesis Fullstop: And if anyone wants to test the “how to DJ” notecard I put together, please do.
Mutsumi (mutsy.kaligawa): with a red hot poker?
Drifter (wastelanddrifter): Oh right
Drifter (wastelanddrifter): I thought of doing that some time
Sandling Honey: I might soon be forced to move to icecast
Mutsumi (mutsy.kaligawa) laughs
Sandling Honey: I might need to relearn my everything
Drifter (wastelanddrifter) proceeds to play exclusively music hall.
NeoBokrug Elytis: I think it’s just a url change sandling
Aposiopesis Fullstop: Icecast! I used to use it all the time.
Storm Thunders: are we talking like 20s music hall, or 50s?
Sandling Honey: On the upside, I have a feeling I might have less songs corrupting or crashing my winamp
Antares Thane (vickycriss): I need to learn how to DJ so I can torture y’all with the five same songs on repeat
Drifter (wastelanddrifter): 1850s-1920s
Storm Thunders: ooh!
Drifter (wastelanddrifter): although the 1920s it morphed into variety
Drifter (wastelanddrifter): similar to vaudeville in the USA
Drifter (wastelanddrifter): and France
NeoBokrug Elytis: I will see you folks around. I am going to contemplate dinner.