Monastery expansion proposal

[Arria Perreault]

I also that not only this proposal as originally seen has to be abandonnes, but all the CDS expansion. The GMP will have to be reviewed. In the domain of expansion I have noticed in the forums an idea for a new strategy: growing by merging. Maybe we can consider now that adding sims to sims is a reductive approach. Maybe circumstances force us to be cleaver. Better to look to the future...

[Moon Adamant]

I confirm that though the Board has voted the Monastery Sim WG to be chaired by Ulysse and/or Arria, as can be read in our last minutes, Arria talked to me and declined the chairing of it, in the light of possible conflict of interest.

I can't say how much disappointed i am that a very good amount of work suddenly is wasted. Arria calculates that the sim wouldn't be available before January, but that is not my opinion - the maps are done and a proto financial spreadsheet is done as well. A few more rounds of discussion would have reached consensus on the sim, specially since the maps were so well received generally, and proposed corrections were speedily incorporated in them.

I am very concerned about LL's new policy about void sims and the effects it can have in our own expansion. It has already caused a worthwhile project to stumble.

[Jamie Palisades]

The New Guild discussed the possible feasibility of this proposal, and Linden Labs sim price changes, at its 2 November meeting. There were some additional questions about analysis. Please see the posting here regarding that: http://forums.slcds.info/viewtopic.php? ... 193#p12328
Regards JP

[Sonja Strom]

Some changes to Linden Lab's policy regarding Open Space sims have been announced in the Linden blog, here: http://blog.secondlife.com/2008/11/05/a ... -residents

These are further described in the Second Life Support pages, here:
https://support.secondlife.com/ics/supp ... ionID=5650

In this Forum there is also a discussion of these Linden Lab policies and what they might mean for us, here:
http://forums.slcds.info/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=2181

[Jamie Palisades]

The CDS RA debated this today and came close to, but has not yet, approved the final sim purchase. They postponed final action until their next meeting. While this is only my personal opinion, i expect them to resolve open questions (about the use of a homestead sim, for avatar traffic and also with the new May 2009 pricing changes Sonja mentioned above), within the next two weeks. CDS should purchase the sim under the limited time low price available only until 30 June 2009, so I have asked the RA to act swiftly to approve this.

Regards JP

[Rose Springvale]

I have several reservations about this project and the way it has been presented, which i expect to comment on before the week is out. However, it is important that you all realize there is NO change in pricing for Homestead sims, and the increase in tier is merely delayed for 12 months. The grand total to be saved... by the persons paying tier... is 30 usd per month.

[Moon Adamant]

Even so, it is a saving - and a saving that will keep for a year. This is a chance, in my opinion.

Rose, i do know your reservations about this project, but it seems to me that this discussion is taking ages. After all, we do have a project, that project has already been cleared by the Guild, it has been waiting for 6 months to be approved by the RA. The passage of a homestead project to a full sim project would need... another project entirely, since the financial premises would be different. It would bring us back to scratch.

So my point here is: if the Monastery is to go forward as the current project proposes, then we must surely take advantage of the grandfathering of homesteads till June the 30th.

[Rose Springvale]

Thanks for your input Moon. Could you direct me to the guild meeting where the specifics of the project were discussed and approved? Specifically the homestead issue and the changed raw file. I note now that the edge of the sim repeats the same problem that it purports to solve with for alpine meadow, and that it does not go to sea level on the "harbor" side of the sim.

I don't mind not winning an argument. I do mind being told that because this project has been on the boards for six months, i have no right to ask questions which in my view have not been presented to the community, nor answered. The project was initially proposed because the monastery wanted to do more. We were assured that this was a public project, and thus deserving of "sim expansion" treatment. As late as May, i was asked to help with a fundraiser for this organization.

Now the monastery wants a quiet place with space, to do less. If we are simply accomodating a luxury build for a friend,fine.

[Moon Adamant]

It is not a question of accomodating a luxury build for a friend, but a question of time and project management. The first output of this project was months ago. You presented your views then and have since, Arria has presented her reasons then and have since.

Quite frankly, i don't like to see so much effort - and here i mean BOTH parties - wasted in endless discussions. It seems to me that the energy consumed could be better put to other means.

I also would like to comment that the CDS is not a handful of sims which must contain every possible detail in each and every one of them. This question arises every time we discuss a new sim - there are always suggestions for this, and this, and this, and this... The last version of the GMP previews more than a score of sims - that's room enough to build every kind of structure we would like, and to bet on diversity. If Monastery isn't able to hold large events - and i may remind you that the border of AM that touches Monastery doesn't have any kind of public structure to hold multi-sim events... - then a place for those events can be planned for somewhere else. This seems logic to me.

[Rose Springvale]

Valid points. But not reponsive. Did the issues get discussed at an open meeting or no?

[Moon Adamant]

if i am not mistaken, the match of the terrain of the Monastery to AM borders was discussed in a GMP WG meeting, and declared a very good match. The contents of the sim, it being developed independently from the Guild, are not our concern - you could fill it with orange lemurs if you'd like