Raglan Shire to Close InWorldz Location

By Bixyl Shuftan

Among the groups in Second Life that made a presence in the InWorldz grid was Raglan Shire, it's most noted community of fans of tiny avatars or "tinies." In June 2010, they got a sim in the virtual world and built what they called the Great Tree. For five years, the place stood, called an example of what could be done with InWorldz. Then on April 9 came some sad news from Zayn Till, the founder of Raglan.

This afternoon I logged in to Inworldz to make the announcement that Raglan Shire IW is going to be closed. The sim will remain on the grid for another 5 weeks & then be shut down (May 15th-ish). This will give everyone enough time to take up any no - copy items or builds (or anything really) if necessary.

While very sad, the sim really hasn't been utilized & I'd rather not continue to accept donations just to make tier if this is the case. I have nothing but respect for the Inworldz grid. The founders & ppl behind the scene make Inworldz fantastic. They deserve a big thank you for all the hard work they did for us. Especially in the beginning. They are the best.

Special thank-you's as well to Etheria, Oceanoz, Liandras, Teal, Caleb & all the folken who helped bring the tree to life as well as maintain it. You are all amazing. It was glorious.


On the InWorldz forum, he posted the following.

It is quite sad for me as well & I can appreciate the questions and everything regarding the closing of the Sim and the end of the Great Tree. In a nutshell, The sim really hasn't been used as I had hoped it would be. This has always been about growing and moving forward as a community. The last few years it has felt like a lonely museum with the occasional visitor or activity. This is probably my fault for not being involved the last few years. For those that did try to have interesting things to do on the sim you have my thanks.

I have always felt in any world, that if growth and moving forward ever came to a standstill that I would no longer be interested in carrying it forward.

I would like to be clear that the Tree was a collaborative work of incredibly talented people. The first 4 months was a flurry of activity as Etheria, Oceanoz, Dagmar, Teal and myself tirelessly worked to construct the tree with help from Inworldz residents and the founders. If you want to thank anyone for all the hard work, thank these people as they/you are the ones that deserve it.

I am glad folks appreciated the build and what we tried to accomplish and my best to the Founders of Inworldz who have always been nothing but kind and helpful.

In Second Life, I ran into Zayn, and he and I talked about the matter, "I just was talking to someone. This is pretty much what I wrote them: The sim was intended as a place of social gathering and activity but somewhere along the way became a lonely empty place with only the occasional visitor. It was never supposed to be a mall with only the odd activity/event every few months if that.

"In the nearly 5 years I kept this sim on the Inworldz grid, I watched as the initial concurrent log ins which started at around 125 when I purchased the sim in June of 2010 grow to about 275 log ins concurrently at the current date.

"That's just not growth.

"As reference, Second Life which has been dwindling, still has concurrent log ins between 35,000 & 60,000 at any given time although I am no fan of Linden Lab. For me it is about moving forward and growing as people and as a community. I have always said if I felt that it is no longer growing and is merely lingering, that I would no longer be interested in carrying it forward.

"This has  happened in InWorldz, and may be happening in SL Raglan Shire. Perhaps this will serve as a reminder that nothing should be taken for granted."



Going on, he added, "I'm pretty wordy, but yeah, been down, really loved that tree. ... actually hoping the closing of Raglan Shire in InWorldz may give folks an idea that things never should be taken for granted." I asked, "Were there any notable events that took place there?" He answered, "Some, but much too far and in between. IW is so small in comparison to SL. not a lot of folks. It generated a lot of interest the first few years. 2 years ago IW named it Sim of the year. But really, people & activities were to far and few in between. Plus a lot of folks that did kinda embrace what we do were doing it all off sim, so I  thought it was time."


I asked, "Has interest fallen off since the content creator controversy died down?" "In InWorldz?" Zayn answered, "There's just no real growth sadly. Five years ago, concurrent logins were around 125. It was not unusual for Raglan to have more then half the entire grid population on the sim the first year or two during concets and stuff. Five years later, concurrent logins are around 250ish."

And so, InWorldz will soon be losing one of it's favorite sims.

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Bixyl Shuftan

InWorldz/Second Life Connection Center Closes - Statement From Zia Larina

On December 7, Amore Crux suddenly announced the InWorldz/Second Life Connection Center was closing. Taking place less than a week after the discussion in Second Life about InWorldz which it helped organize, and about a day after the article on the event was published, this move was a complete surprise. Amore made a short anouncement, and deleted the center's regions in InWorldz and Second Life. The groups themselves are still up, though word is many people have already started leaving them.

Zia Larina, the manager of the Connection Center group and places, was not online at the time. Today, she made the following statement to the group in InWorldz and Second Life.

*  *  *  *  * *  *  *  *  * *  *  *  *  *

Hello A/all,

I had some things happen in my real life that needed my attention starting about a week ago.  I needed to give up the IRT management position because I have real-life schooling.  Because of some issues concerning classes I needed to let that go and just focus on the Coaching which allowed me to be more random in my schedule; focused around my real-life classes.  I am in my BS/MS degree program right now and that is my primary focus in my real life.

I was in SL when Amore decided to close the centers and send word in group chat here.  I received some IM's in SL saying to get to IW.  When I went to IW I was given many NC on the conversation that happened in the group chat.  I will attempt to answer the main questions that were being asked and didn't get addressed.

1)  I sincerely apologize for what happened yesterday and the choice of Amore to close the connection centers down.  It was a big shock to all of us and to be fair I am not sure what really happened.  He has officially closed them down and there is no going back from that.

2)  All of you that have been volunteering your time to help people link and get set up here in IW and making their expansion of game and business we can still help and I am leaving lm's at the bottom.  Any terminal can be used as a linking point to help people get connected.

3)  For those of us who wish to still have a help group in case this one gets shut down.  Contact Nydia Tungsten.  She has created a group here and in SL for those of us still wishing to have a help group for each other.  This is their attempt at participating in helping us in this new direction.

4)  Elenia did a clean house and removed 6K from the welcome center group last week it is in the forums on the website.  Elenia did have a private discussion with Amore and made and official request that he stop a certain provision (check certificates).  To be fair she has never said anything against the centers, the group, and sat on a stage with us in SL answering questions in the meeting last Saturday.  If her official stance was in distancing the founders away from connection to us and our group then she would never have sat on that stage and would have done official IW answers based on the Feed after the meeting was done.  I had been speaking with her last week about getting connecting link to help people know solidly the reporting  people if they had issues with specific people at the Welcome Center and how to navigate that.  This was going to be included in the Coaching staff pieces.

5)  InBiz is a viable and established business and the terminals are working and linking and transfer of fund is still running as it has always been available.  You are able to use any atm terminal in IW at any location to access InBiz market place and to transfer lindens to IW.  There is an InBiz HQ on SL side.  ......Ellesmere (173,26,147)

**when using any terminal that will take money from your account whether it is a store or an ATM use the ctrl+alt+T if the prims are NOT red they are safe to use.  Use the Ctrl+alt+T to turn off again and shop or transfer funds.

In Conclusion,  I did not agree with the decision and I can understand if there have been stresses on Amore that maybe we don't know about.  I am at a loss as to how I can help on a personal level and that can not be helped.  I so sincerely apologize for all for all of the upset.

There are some options for all of you if you wish.  I will continue to help people if they need it and be available for questions the best I can.  I am sorry that Amore chose to close the centers and I apologize for the closures of the physical center locations.  If you have any questions please IM or send a NC and I will do my best to get answers to you as soon as possible.  For those of you who were coaching please IM me you are still very much needed and we can stream line this process a bit more if you are willing.

Sincerely,

Zia Larnia ~~ Ex Manager of the Connection centers.