Slate Doings!

Greetings Friends!

After quite a busy time in Slate this past weekend, I am happy to announce that the Slate residence have decided to open a Slate Community Store.

So what you say? Well, the Slate Community Store will be selling only those items which have an outdoor or nature theme. Plan to find trees, plants, waterfalls, fish, aquariums, textures, clothing, furniture, fireplaces, etc., at the new Slate Community Store.

Right next door to our Community Store, will be the Slate Community Center. Here the residents of Slate will be holding events for everyone to attend. Building Classes, Fashion Shows, Art Shows, etc., will be held here, along with Slate gatherings and parties!

The grounds surrounding these two structures will be decorated in our outdoor style and will be a tranquil and beautiful place to visit!

We will also make the Slate Community Center available for other groups to rent to hold thier events in as well.

Things are really hoping in Slate, if you haven't visited us lately, you should!

Also, we are pleased to WELCOME BACK Zana Feaver to the Slate Community, and she has graciously agreed to help lead the Slate Neighborhood Association with myself. We would also like to welcome Khula Serpentine, Taylor Thompson, Dan0h Rogers, Eins and Fey, Cori Sunshine, Jamie Baykslef, and Bhodi Silverman to the Slate Community!

BTW - The Slate 1/2 off Land sale is still on-going. Come to Slate and find land owned by Bob Bunderfeld or Crissy Crossing that you would like to build on, and if you meet the requirements we have for all residence, we will sell you the land for 1/2 the system asking price!



Thanks!

I'm still new here and have a little trouble finding my way around.

What is the address of the Slate store? I want to go shopping.

Well Dan, I appreciate your anxiousness to see the Store and go shopping, but at the moment, the Store is still under development.

Hopefully within the next week or so we will be ready to open, but until then, you can always come on by the Slate area and watch the Store take shape, and visit the most beautiful and tranquil community in Second Life.




Thanks!

Thanks Bob next time I'm around slate I will stop in.

The passing of an era.

Slate hit 100% object usage last night when I tried to put my tree up. I'm afraid that any dream of making Slate the giant forest of SL has finally been put to bed. Oh well... the only constant is change and that's multiplied by a thousand in SL.

Maybe we'll see some treehouses again someday in a new sim.

The Slate demise has been wrongfully reported! After seeing the prim usage go up, the Slate residents themselves held an impromptu meeting and decided to reduce their own prim usage so other users, especially the newer users, can fulfill their dreams.

Last night we freed up 12% of the prim usage, and I'm sure more will be freed up as others follow through on their committments to reduce their builds as well.

Slate is truly becoming a community built on trust, communication, and loyalty to the idea of what we the residents of Slate are trying to accomplish.

We have decided though that at the moment the 1/2 off land sale will discontinue. We feel that at the moment, Slate is populated enough and we really don't want to overburden the residents.



Thanks!

I want to personally thank the more established Slate residents for their voluntary Prim Conservation efforts. As a new resident, I am building my first house in Slate, and was disappointed when I could not add even the most basic furnishings. With the voluntary removal of 12% of the Prims in Slate, I have been able to continue the work on my house.

AND, in thanks, I'm making a "low prim usage" pledge to the community. (Just as, say, I would voluntarily commit to low water usage if I lived in California.) But I'm not certain, as a new resident, what would constitute "low prim usage." I would think that we would want to figure out a prim-per-square-foot-owned kind of number as a guide, but my degree is in Critical Theory, so what the hell do I know?

However, if someone comes up with a prim-per number that would leave a chunk available for community usage as well, I would gladly become a voluntary adherent!

Thanks,
Bhodi - Prim Conservationist and Slate Ecologist!

Wow, you guys are amazing - imagine a group here actually capable of reducing prim count by that much! I'm not a resident anymore but my best wishes go to you in your endeavors to keep Slate a beautiful and friendly place.

In any case, by "end of an era" I meant that the peculiar species of giant trees which at one time seemed to thrive there have all but died out. That's not surprising - they are really #@% complex and expensive to maintain.

There have been several discussions of "prim limits" ... sorry I couldn't make the last meeting folks. Anyway, a couple of my thoughts:

-- Having the prim limit based on land ownership ("1 prim per 4 m^2" say): penalizes people who "think small" which is kinda backwards from the basic concept of a prim limit. I buy an 8m x 8m piece of land, and can only put 16 prims on it? On the other hand, it's "stable" ... your "limit" doesn't vary by what others do.

-- Prim limit based on even division among landowners (not including Lindens, heh). There are currently about 30 landowners in Slate who seem to be using their property; since the idea is to keep the prim usage below say 90%, each might be asked to keep it below 300 prims. This might seem a bit unfair to large landowners who like to plant forests -- they'll have more land to cover, but no more prims than the 8x8 meter guy. And the limit would go up and down as people come and go.

I think that the general concept of "prim minimization" is actually the best hope. Pondering a house 12m on a side? Consider 10m, so you can use a single prim foundation maybe, and perhaps the sides. Fancy window openings? Make a custom texture of the wall+window opening in alpha .. though I know this is a bit advanced, and alpha-textured walls don't display right to all video cards.

Pondering where to reduce prims,

-- Athos Murphy
GSLR proprietor

I think what makes Slate such a cool sim..besides our natural setting is the people. Yes we hit 100% build out and yes a group immediately swung into action trying to wrestle with this Prim Sim limit. There truely was a concern for the new folks who had not even finished their new homes and amazingly folks were willing to hit the delete key in a big way..Kudos to all of us...However our work is far from over as we need to continually manage the prims in a fair and justified manner.
But to me this is just another puzzle or challenge for all us Slate folks. I have no doubts that with the expert builders and scripters we have in sim we will be able to create the place we dream of and still fit in all in 10,000 prims. Athos brings to light some guidelines that are very useful...and some helpful building ideas. We need to treat each prim used with utmost care. We need to examine our builds and look and see. Could we make it look as good with less pims. So that is our challenge......and we all share it....however I dont want to see the cool looking things deleted. We need to all work together ...maybe someones build is a little over the guideline but it is very cool..well maybe to keep it up if we all may need to "donate" (by not using ) some prims....I for one would rather sacrifice to have cool things in the hood. So I am in favor of trying to be fair and equitable but if someone is doing something so cool or has something that really shines....I think the community should be be able to say...yes that is important ..yes it is x prims over but we all want that thing standing .So we all need to look about and think economy of prims...It may take a few days for all of us to rebuild or reprim but keep striving to build the best with less.......In the end we will succeed because we share...we share are thoughts ...we share are laughter...we share our knowledge....we share our respect for each other and we share our prims..

Oh. My. God.

I love you Slate people so much...