February 13, 2013
You know, I started writing this article to share my thoughts and outrage over recent actions taken by the Administration at OSGrid. How they are unilaterally blocking HyperGrid connections to other grids, sudden changes to policies that were never fully disclosed to begin with, a hidden ToS, eliminating methods for community input and discussion, censorship and banishment of individuals for disagreeing with them. I intended to do so in a respectful and well thought out manner.
Fuck it.
OSGrid was setup to for testing the ongoing development of the OpenSimulator software. They allow people to run their own software on their own systems and to connect their regions to OSGrid. Out of that has grown a large, vibrant, creative and intelligent community.
But it is not free nor is it a democratic community. It believes that it is, but recent events have proven that it isn’t. Anyone who disagrees with the decisions or actions of the Administration at OSGrid will be censored and kicked out.
In the old USSR, anyone who disagreed with the Administration was sent to the gulag. There the dissenters, the "bad thinkers" were taught “right thinking”. Think this isn’t happening at OSGrid? Here’s what Walter Balazic is promoting in the OSGrid forums; “Go out and when you see a negative or incorrect post about the grid. Post the "right" information. …” ( http://forums.osgrid.org/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=4669&start=10 )
I was posting to that thread when my forum account got deleted. Shortly afterwards, my account on OSGrid itself was blocked. Read my posts there. I was not disrespectful. I was not trolling. I haven’t been on their grid itself since before December, so I certainly haven’t been griefing anyone. I have not been telling people to stay away.
All I did was have the balls to voice my disagreement with the Administration at OSGrid.
I do not blame any one individual. The Administration at OSGrid is a group effort and they have been supporting these actions and decisions.
The choice is yours, gridlings, to support an organization that is administrated by a group that practices censorship or not. At least you still have that much freedom.
I sure as hell won’t be.
They haven't banned me (yet) but due to the admins' support of banning from the grid anyone who dissents on or off the grid - I won't be supporting OSGrid ever again. Oh, I linked to this from Gridcache at opensimulator.me (sorry, karma too low to post an actual link - that's my life!) :D
Sarge? Is that you?
Sure is, Vanish
(edited to add for clarification: yes, its me, returned from being sidelined by legal matter)
Also, Sarge..hehe I linked it in the same forum thread they kicked you from..
Thank you. I look forward to any responses they might make.
*laughs* Walter now thinks you're my alt!
<later> I wonder how Walter explains the difference in locations of our IP addresses and how I am able to travel from here to where you are and back again so fast …
LOL ain't that nuts?
Not if I have figured out the RL TP stuff :-D
Now, if I could just rez a cold beer on demand ….
lol I'd settle for a copiable one in my inventory :D
Just found this post on Opensimulator.me. I can't say I'm not surprised. I really am. Why such a rash move all of a sudden I wonder?
It is rooted in narrow minded ignorance. Narrow minded in that those taking these actions are not willing to entertain the concept that they might be wrong and ignorance in that they lack the knowledge of understanding that disagreeing with them is not a personal attack.
I gotta say that I *am* surprised that the others are going along with what is going on, surprised and quite disappointed. Based on his writings in G+, I guess Nebadon is stressed out and is simply saying "fuck everyone". To some degree I feel bad for him, but on the other hand he (or Hiro) is banning people for opinions that they express elsewhere, and they're playing games with the opensim wiki (maybe the opensim mailing lost, tho I can't find the url to confirm that).
This presents a real danger to the neutrality of the opensimulator project, IMO.
This comment is for the record and is in repsonse to a post made by Walter Balazic in the OSG forum thread, made February 13, 2013 at 5:52PM as listed on that thread. I hope people will copy and paste this to the OSG forum
Walter Balazic,
I would rather post this in the OSG forums in response to your statement claiming that ELQ is an alt of mine. But you have ensured that I do not have that opportunity.
I stand by what I say. I do not need to hide and so have no reason to use an alt. Anyplace that I have an account, it is always this same name. And I always import the same appearance. Bald, purple skin, cyber eyes and a face tattoo. When people see me, they know that it is me.
In MMOs I always use the same name. I always have a similar appearance. Bald, strange eyes and a face tattoo.
In all the forums and chatrooms I visit, I always use the same name. Every place I comment on, I always use the same name.
I know you will refuse to believe that. I know that you will likely call me a liar. But your own narrow-mindedness and ignorance shows the truth of things. You are incapable of believing anyone would have the courage to stand up and say No to you. You abuse any authority you have to shut people down. You go out of your way to stifle open communication. You are so weak willed that you are incapable of dealing with any disagreement that may be directed your way.
You are a coward, safe in posting such tripe in a forum you control with an iron fist.
Do you have the backbone to come here and spew your crap? Are you capable of posting here and facing uncontrolled rebuttals from the community at large?
My own words stand on this site to show that I don't moderate here. I don't censor people and I don't ban them. Abide by the law and the policies of Wikidot and you can post anything you want in any fashion you want.
Its up to you.
In response to the astounding claim from Albertir that OSgrid has not claimed to be a non-profit, I present the following screen shots with this post:
"I feel that I must interject a knowledgable observation on Timber Wolfe's claims that OSgrid is promoting itself as a non profit tax exempt organization that is not the case. If you read carefully and stop trying to reinterpet the English words which are printed on the donation page, you will not find any mention of it being a non profit organizaton."
Albertir, the archives prove what was there since Jan 2011 claiming to be a registered non-profit California entity, it's been that way up till yesterday at least, and all this time the state of California records show it was SUSPENDED. That's not reinterpreting anything, that's plain english.
Donations are not currently tax deductable and haven't been for the last two years!
Here's the OSgrid donate page from at least Jan 2011 thru this week claiming to be a registered non-profit in California:
New users cant post links, you'll have to fix the munge to see the images.
i.imgur DOT com SLASH A786guQ DOT png
Here is the official State Record from the other day proving they are not and have not been valid because it's SUSPENDED:
i.imgur.com SLASH jpACAGl DOT png
Here's the California State Attorney General's database showing OSgrid inc is in their archives but not registered:
i.imgur DOT com SLASH QkZpqsm DOT png
And now from this morning, it's obvious the change was just made (after blocking my now former ip address to the web site) after the complaints:
i.imgur DOT com/ztgO0g3.png
But this doesn't erase history Albertir, and all of the documents were already mailed out, so it does not matter what they changed on the page or that they are now doing a new corporate thing in Texas, that doesn't erase the facts of the history.
Want to tell us more about the last two YEARS of having that "non profit" text on the donate page even though there was a suspension?
Non profit donations are always tax deductable- IF the charity or non-profit is legally registered, valid and in good standing. Obviously a SUSPENDED non-profit or chairty is not legal, or in good standing, in which case any donations are NOT tax deductable.
Also, if a non-profit or charity is suspended, especially one for two YEARS- the IRS is not going to consider thousands of dollars in cash donations to be anything less than for-profit taxable business income.
"The Osgrid organization now running the Grid is a new organization,"
Yes, we are aware of the new Hiro-grid organization, which is why we left!
I read that.
One thing I am not sure of, though, is the tax deductiblilty. Part of that is the fact that I am in Canada the other part is that I am about 10 years out of date on the regulations. When I was up to date, though, donations to a non-profit were not tax deductible, only donations to registered charities were. The non-profit standing was to allow the organization itself to benefit from the same exemptions as a charity organization.
Canada law may differ, I posted the US info earlier today, as long as the donor follows certain guidelines they absolutely CAN deduct donations to a non-profit as long as the non profit is registered, valid and not suspended.
You do have to itemize your return, you do have to have a receipt with full particulars on it, you are limited to up to 50% of your income, beyond a certain dollar amount (many thousands of dollars) there are restrictions, you cannot deduct now a donation made by a promise to pay it later.
Hello Sarge,
I stumbled upon this post while doing some research on how one would go about migrating an opensim based grid to an aurora sim based grid. I also run a non profit in the U.S. and I can tell you that there are two types of tax exemptions for non profits in the U.S. There is the federal exemption from income tax under 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1974 or current which only deals with federal income tax exemption. In most cases if you receive a certain percentage of public funding (i.e. government grants, etc) you would be considered a public charity or foundation. If you do not receive public funding in which case I am guessing OSGrid does not they would likely be considered a private foundation for purposes of federal income tax in the U.S. and would file Form 990-PF with the IRS at the end of their fiscal year (some non profits use the calendar year for their fiscal year while there are some that do not and use a fiscal year such as September 1 through August 31 the following calendar year).
There is also the exemption from State Income Taxes which varies by state. In some states a 501(c)(3) may not qualify for exemption from State Income Taxes regardless if they do at the federal level. A Non Profit organization that has sound and transparent business practices should and in most cases will post their determination letter where it can be viewed by the public (i.e. website) They will also provide a copy of their ethics and transparency policies and who is on their governing body (i.e. Board of Directors) on their websites or other publicly accessible venue.
However based on what I have read here and what I have noticed even in the opensim users mailing lists and their mantis this issue appears to be slowly trickling into the core development of opensim itself.
I hope that helps a little bit to clairify the issue of the tax exemptions in the U.S. a little bit.
P.S. I noticed some of the pictures for your station you had posted while doing my research. Very nice work.
Best Regards,
Emperor Starfinder
Thanks, Emperor, for both the information and the compliment.
Is it okay if I pass that info along to the OpenSim and AuroraSim communities as a copy&paste?
As for Excelsior Station, I am working towards getting it open to the public as an independent stand-alone. That is, not residing on or connected to another grid, just a small little sim floating all on its own on the seas of the Metaverse. If you call 4,096x4,096 small :-)
Sarge,
Of course you can. Most of what I say is usually public knowledge anyhow. I am still doing my research on how i would migrate my grid database tables from an opensim grid to an aurora sim grid (if we ultimately decide to do that). I do enjoy playing with code as it is a hobby for me and a good learning tool. Unfortunately I haven't had much luck yet and I would hate to accidently lose data or have it in the wrong table as the two databases have some differences in their tables.
Oh and yes 4,096x4,096 is to small :) You wouldn't believe the complaints I get from people about sizes of parcels or full regions.
Amusing in a way really.
Emperor Starfinder
Thanks, I always double check for permission :-)
If you are interested, there's a couple of G+ Communities you may be interested in. OpenSim Virtual Community and AuroraScape Community
I'm a total putz when it comes to MySQL, but you are correct, the two databases are different from each other. It may well be easier to save your OpenSim instance as an OAR, with separate terrainmap and all of your inventory as IARs. Then load those into an AuroraSim instance. At the very least, doing it that way would clear out old, defunct data.
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