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ELF CLAN OFFICIAL ANNOUNCEMENT OF GROUP RELOCATION
Pt 1
Pt 2 click here
ELF CLAN HOME: ElvenSong at OSgrid. ElvenSong is part of the 75-region Elf Clan continents which include ElvenGlen, Dwagons Keep, the high-sky science fiction themed Replicant City, Pirate's Cove, Frankenstein (2020) and vast sailing oceans.
GROUP ANNOUNCEMENTS will be made via Second Life and DigiWorldz grids and will send you to the Events listing here. Please join the Elf Clan group on those grids if you wish to receive group announcements.
WE'RE ALIVE AND KICKING! :D
Read the following for details.
Greetings members!
We expect you have been waiting to hear where Elf Clan has decided to locate our new home. We are pleased to announce the Eldar have come to a unanimous decision in this matter.
First, we would like to thank you all very much for your patience. We have spent over four weeks of many-hours-a-day intensive research to come to our decision.
This has not been an easy decision to make... because we wished to arrive at a solution that would be beneficial to all of our members, not just some. We have heard the phrase, "You can't please all the people all the time". And yet that's what we have been working to accomplish. Our group is learning to become more flexible. As far as our group members go, we believe we have arrived at a solution that best achieves this goal.
THE FIRST DECISION
On July 27, 2018 the well-known Inworldz grid went off-line. All customer inventory assets were lost. Most land assets were lost (with a few exceptions that we managed to salvage-- fortunately which include the historic Elf Clan home regions).
There are many reasons this happened, but the primary reason entails one simple issue: Inworldz was a "closed grid" and did not follow the standard business practice of maintaining an off-site mirror backup of vital information. So when the servers were shut down by the hosting company... the entire asset data system was lost. Because of copyright and intellectual property issues, restoration even of saved OAR files provided only very limited salvage, as the "filtering" process is expected to be severe.
In light of these issues the first thing the Elf Clan Eldar considered was whether or not we wished to remain part of a "closed grid" system. The answer was no. Group position in this: After our experience with Second Life ($50,000 group land investment) and Inworldz ($150,000 group land investment), Elf Clan as a group shall never again support nor invest in a closed grid. There was no question among the Eldar in this matter. While closed grids are fine for individuals and hobbyists, we consider entrusting our creations solely to another entity over which we have no control to be a very costly bad idea. Experiences on Second Life and Inworldz made this very clear.
We wish to clarify that any Elf Clan member who wishes to remain part of a closed-grid is welcome to do so and still remain part of Elf Clan (even officially). However we have arrived at another solution for the group in general.
THE NEW "HOME" OF ELF CLAN
It is the unanimous decision of the Elf Clan Eldar our new home shall be: Everywhere.
In short, instead of being centered on one grid, with all land held and managed by one person and rented out, Elf Clan members may home on any grid they wish to reside. People have different needs and desires. Different grids offer different options. The good news: the prices are considerably lower than SL or Inworldz, more land in the deal, and more prims to work with. We're going Opensim.
By this concept: We have decided to host our primary land ourselves... on our own servers located around the globe. We have made this decision because it allows us maximum, 100% control over our historic creations, and 100% security in the handling of our home lands and inventory. This decision will help maintain our primary historic lands and landmark creations while giving our members full latitude on where to place their own lands.
Elf Clan home lands are located at: ElvenSong region on OSgrid. Since OSgrid does not sponsor group notices, such will be sent out via the friendly DigiWorldz grid. (We encourage those looking for their own home lands to check out both DigiWorldz and Kitely as stable and long-existing grids.)
ElvenSong is a 5x5 (25 region) VAR*. It is mostly ocean with lands in the center. ElvenSong is at ground level with Replicant City in high sky. Off to the side is Pirate Cove and ElvenMyst Castle. These lands are owned and managed by Snoots Dwagon. Alt Wayfinder Wishbrigner remains Founder and primary manager of the group.
Eldar Peter Lioncourt hosts ElvenGlen... a re-creation of our original home region, including the incredibly tall Elf Clan Castle, Elven Falls, the Ork Embassy and Fortress, and our ancient mascot FRED overlooking the lands.
* (See pt 2 of this article for more information on VARs.)
UPDATE September 2019: These lands have been joined by Frankenstein... a humorous and eclectic colletion of stiched-together regions which are fully explorable and contain numerous freebies. This gives us a total of 75 total regions on the central Elf Clan Continents.)
UPDATE August 2020: Our home lands have been joined by the Wellspring group (now housed on DigiWorldz) as official affiliate lands, adding 64 regions to the preceding 75. Wellspring is the host of the well-known Sendalonde Community Library, and the new Rascal Flats tiny town. Wellspring has been a long-time supporter of Elf Clan and good friends. We are very pleased to have them choose to be an official affiliate. Be sure to visit these visitor-friendly lands.
THE NEW ELF CLAN
For many years Elf Clan has been a very active, event-oriented group. When we moved to Inworldz we became a community group of separately-owned, close-proximity neighbors. Now after almost two decades were are relaxing a bit and turning our attention toward becoming creative vistior-oriented lands, with the focus on automated tours and historic builds to chronicle the development of Elf Clan over the years. We're no longer as active as we used to be, nor do we need to be. We'll let younger ones take up that banner. Nevertheless, we'll have enjoyable events from time to time as opportunity presents.
Our new homes are quite functional and work as well as they did on Second Life and Inworldz. We have far more space and lots of sailing room with no sim crossing lines. The fact that we now have three huge 25-region continents plus the 64 regions of Wellspring means we have more land and ocean space than in our entire group history (Second Life: 8 regions. Inworldz: 54 regions. Current: 130+ regions.
We have set up Elf Clan as a group on several grids. Elf Clan members have set up their homes on these grids. If you so desire, you can do so and still be an official affiliate Elf Clan Land. All that is necessary is to agree to host family friendly lands based on honor, respect and friendship. We will provide you with a beautiful banner to present at your entry area and you'll be ready to go.
Elf Clan affiliate grids and lands
GROUP ANNOUNCEMENTS
Group announcements will be made via DigiWorldz grid. If you wish to receive such announcements, please register with Kitely and join the Elf Clan group there. Events will be held by individuals on their grid of choice and announced via Kitely. The format of our group has changed. Instead of a centralized, land-locked group we are now spread throughout the Hypergrid in individual "mini-kingdoms". We believe this a good thing, allowing greater diversity and freedom.
WHY EVERYWHERE?
Our members are numerous and have varied interests. Some prefer total privacy, while others wish to host event areas. Some are creators and wish to have lots of prims available, while others prefer wide-spread landscapes.
As the Eldar considered these matters we realized (being free of closed grid requirements) that Elf Clan can now adapt to all such needs.
Elf Clan is a themed group. We are no longer land-bound. Some groups require centralization: sailing groups, role-playing groups, active groups. Elf Clan is a concept... one that can exist throughout the virtual worlds. That concept is family friendly, honorable, respectful. Our theme is fantasy and science fiction. We can do that anywhere.
The existence of the Hypergrid allows our members to create a home anywhere they wish... and attend events / visit friends regardless of location. Our members can have avatars on multiple grids, even keeping the same name on several grids... or have one single avatar and travel throughout the Hypergrid. This reality of modern-day virtual worlds helped us realize that our group no longer needs to centralize. Elf Clan lands can be anywhere and everywhere.
By allowing and even encouraging our members to pick a grid of your own preference, we expand the concept of Elf Clan throughout the metaverse, spreading our creations and concept across the Hypergrid. We can host events wherever we choose, socialize wherever we choose, travel wherever we choose. We are no longer limited within closed-wall grids... nor shall we ever be again.
WHICH GRID SHOULD I CHOOSE?
As a quick-look guide, here is a short summary of grid strengths and themes. Note that these are our observations. We strongly encourage members to do research of your own prior to choosing a grid-- a choice that may affect your virtual life for quite some time. In alphabetical order of grids we have closely examined:
3rd Rock Grid. An old and established grid with a good reputation. Easy-to-purchase packages and regions that run approximately $1 per 1,000 prims, depending on the package. Friendly tech support. Strength: an even balance of prims and land for your money.
DIGIWORLDZ. A vesatile grid that caters to those who prefer a social environment (or total privacy if you choose). Strength: Lots of land for your money.
KITELY. Offers "worlds within the world", lands completely invisible to surrounding lands (or create a community if you choose). Strength: lots of prims for your money.
OSGRID. This is the official central test grid of OpenSim and the hypergrid. There are several options for setting up on OSgrid, ranging from hosting your land yourself on your own server computer, hosting your land on a purchased server, or renting a ready-to-go land from a friendly land-baron.
Strength: 100% control over your lands if you self-serve, 100% inventory security and backup. But it has no inherent built-in group announcements that go to email, so members have to log in daily to receive the latest group information.
There are other grids which we have not had time to properly examine. Be aware that grids come and go. Some have costs in addition to basic monthly fees. Be sure to read the fine print... and the second part of this set of articles for additional information.
Welcome to the new age of Elf Clan. Please visit this site's home page for contact information and to request inclusion in the list of Elf Clan affiliates.
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SPECIAL THANKS
We would like to extend special thanks to several people who have been of great help in our transition to the Hypergrid. We could not have succeeded without you. To avoid favoritism, we are listing these kind folks in order of contact:
Ilan Tochner of Kitely. Ilan bent over backward to assist us in relocation, explained how both Kitely and the Hypergrid worked, and was professional and good-natured about it when we decided (for control reasons) that we needed to self-host our home regions. Kitely's tech support and friendliness is outstanding. One of our Eldar chose to host her personal home on Kitely. Kitely is likely the most technically advanced of the Opensim grids; they have worked hard to fix major issues in the Opensim code-- including the years-long headache of slow-loading textures-- which fix they shared with all of Opensim.
Terry and Nox of DigiWorldz. We could not have asked for a more friendly welcome. Nox spent quite some time showing us around the grid, explaining how it works, and she and Terry answered every question we could throw at them. These very-helpful people have welcomed new members time and again. The Wellspring affiliate group settled on DigiWorldz and own a 64-region continent there.
KONI LANZIUS of ElvenWorld on OSgrid. Koni hosted Elf Clan's home regions while we were getting back on our feet, made us aware of the benefits of the Hypergrid, and was instrumental in getting us the help we needed to self-host our own VAR with OSgrid. Koni is no longer regularly active in the virtual worlds, but we owe her thanks in helping us decide on our new home and convincing us it was the right choice.
THE TECH. Name withheld so he doesn't get swamped by requests... this kind, generous person was highly instrumental in helping us set up our own server system. Elf Clan had a unique situation with special hurdles... and he stuck with us the entire time, over days, weeks and months of special problem solving. He never asked for anything in return other than friendship, and personifies the giving nature of the OpenSim environment. You know who you are... and you are much appreciated. Our special thanks.
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Please contact Snoots Dwagon at OSgrid to add your region / grid to our list of official affiliates. To be an affiliate region one agrees to display the Elf Clan Banner at the primary landing point. Minimal hassle, bringing recognition from a widely-recognized group.
Update note, October 2020: ElvenWorld is offline, and we cannot contact owner Koni Lanzius. We regret the loss of this 25-region VAR and Koni's welcome advice that got us to take a good, hard look at Opensim and the Hypergrid... and realize we were no longer limited behind iron walls.
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