Cinn

Nighty, We are working on changing where the beacon shows. As Joan said, for now, the beacon only points to the center of the region. Soon, like this fall, we plan to roll out an update to the GTFO hud which will place the beacon at the slurl provided by the hub provider. When we first roll out this feature, only one slurl per region will work. GTFO Staff will be collecting slurl data over the next month. Thank you for hosting a GTFO hub on your land! Cinn

Cian, I am glad you brought this up. GTFO is still going, though between my computer issues and some unresolved server issues, it has been weaker. As you can see, I am back with a healthy computer. I had to do some soul searching when I got back because of this very issue. After some serious self-deliberation, I decided to dig in, revive GTFO, and once GTFO is doing well, make it even better. So why is it still messed up? There are 3 root problems with 2 root causes: 1) The website quit connecting to the database. That is why the vehicle list does not show up. It is also why the hub list does not work. 2) When the server and my computer messed up, I was in the middle of redoing vehicles. There is no simple, clean fix. At this point, I believe the best way out of the vehicle mess is to complete the changes I had started on. Let's come back to this, as it takes more to explain. 3) Sim crossings are having issues. I attend the weekly server meeting hosted by Oz Linden. It is an open meeting, any avatar may attend. Through that, along with a few others, I have been able to contribute a little bit of input for the Lindens who work on teleports and sim crossings. I can't fix sim crossings, but I am doing my part to make sure GTFO is represented at these meetings. I have also volunteered to help collect sim crossing data for the Lindens working on this issue. As they put it, it is still an open jira which they are working on. A highly skilled server and cloud specialist has volunteered to help with the back-end server issues. That person likes to be known as the GTFO server elf. This amazing, wonderful, incredibly skilled server elf is busily working on the back-end issues. When our awesome server elf is done, the website will talk to the database again. That will help a lot. When will this happen? I am learning to quote Oz Linden, "It will be ready when it's ready." About vehicles in GTFO..... Have you ever noticed how incredibly inequitable GTFO is from one vehicle to another? This happens when vehicles are added one at a time with no correlation between other existing vehicles. No ill intent, it simply happens when every record is added manually. The way forward it to make some intentional continuity between vehicles. There are 2 changes to vehicles which were in the works and which some amazing volunteers and I working on. 1) There will be 6 vehicle sizes to replace the existing 3 sizes XS, S, M, L, XL, XXL (those who use mesh clothes will recognize the terminology) 2) Each type and size of vehicle has very specific measurement or definition. For example, fixed wing planes are sized according to their wingspan, whereas boats are sized by the length of their hull. These changes allow me to make the playing field equitable between all vehicles. Once this system is implemented, all medium boats will have the same base FU (Freight Unit) value, and will share the same load time. The goal is to make playing GTFO about using the vehicles you like best, not about which give the greatest G$ payout. In order to make this change, the volunteers and I were in the process of updating about 400 vehicle records. We also have to update all the GTFO hubs to match the new sizing. That means updating about 500 hub records. As I mentioned, we were in the middle of updating nearly 1,000 records manually when my computer when down and the server messed up. We now are extremely close to a fixed server and my computer got replaced. There is another reason I have paused the adding of virtually all vehicles to the database. Earlier this year, a handful of vehicle creators came to me asking what GTFO was and how they could add their vehicles to GTFO. Just from those few who contacted me, we would be adding over 1,000 vehicles to GTFO. I realized that for GTFO to flourish, we need a way to automate, or semi-automate the addition of vehicles. Before we attempt to add a huge number of vehicles, we will complete the sizing changes. Then we will add the semi-automated vehicle registration process. But for now, the only VAPIs I am manually adding to GTFO are those for GTFO vehicle creators who have been longtime supporters of GTFO as they roll out new vehicles. So you see, Cian, why I am glad you asked about the health of GTFO. It has been ill, but it is not terminal. GTFO revival is in process, starting with the foundation, the server. Once the server is up to par, you will see things begin to grow again. Hope you hang in there to see it. Cinn

Hi Cian, The update and redelivery will not work from 1.7 to 1.8. This is because of the changes of ownership, moving items that come from me instead of from Rez Gray. In SL, IM me, or Syler, or May, or Ru. there is are GTFO Staff boards where you can leave a message. One is at the HQ building on Bruissac. We will get the current hud to you. Cinn

@naomilocket Thank you for pointing that out. I made the change in the database. It now shows as a seaplane, as it should. Cinn

Hi Catriona, Thank you for bringing thi sup. Any VAPI with X- will no longer work. The X- used to be a "sort of beta test" option. When we moved to the new server, Keif created 3 parallel databases for GTFO. One of them is the full BETA test environment. We got rid of all X- codes as VAPIs at that point. When I can get on SL, I will see what is needed so the vehicle has a current, correct VAPI. Cinn

Want to rez a boat or a medium helo on the new continent? You are welcome to use Port Cinnamon. Open Rez, 10 minute return time. http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Sutherfield/227/165/27 Happy GTFOing! Cinn

Bedos region for sale. Contact Cinn or Syler for details. http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Bedos/223/139/37

Hello Anna, I'm glad you opened the topic. I apologize for stopping it for a time last night. It was extremely stressful in my rl for a couple of hours and I reacted. I'm glad to see you posting again on the topic. I've spoken with KittenSue. She and I agree that although a forum is not the easiest to use, it will make a list that sticks in date order so she and I can work together to process VAPI requests as they come in. It is my disorganization that gets the work from her out of order. Having the list as posts in the Vehicles section of the forum should help. We will have 2 threads for VAPI requests in the Vehicles area of the forum. One will be for creators to request a VAPI for a vehicle they are making or have made. The other will be for GTFO Operators who own a mod vehicle which they want to see added to the GTFO vehicles database. I will get Dalton's help moving the existing requests from the HELP thread to the appropriate VAPI request thread. And i'll try to keep them in the order requested. I apologize again for closing this thread for a while last night. I will try to not let stress cause me to have knee-jerk reactions. Thank you again for bringing up this topic and for posting again now that it is re-opened. Cinn

Hello Freighter Nation! I share your frustration with the slowness of adding vehicles to the GTFO database. The first thing we are doing today to address this is to separate the VAPI requests into 2 streams. One stream is for vehicle creators. If you made the vehicle for which you are requesting a VAPI, use the Vehicle Creator stream. The other stream is for GTFO Operators requesting a VAPI for a MOD vehicle which you own. Please edit your VAPI request TITLE with either CREATOR or OPERATOR in the title so we know which stream to move it to. Thank you! Cinn

Hello Anna, Your post brings up more points than you might realize. Thank you for making this a topic of conversation. First, let me affirm what I understand you to be saying. Yes, I rely on Kittensusie Landar to do the initial assessment of any vehicle requesting a VAPI, a code so that it works in GTFO. KittenSue is a hard worker and has lightened my workload with vehicles considerably. Her volunteer work with GTFO is in addition to her designing and leading the weekly Sunday cruise for LCC plus her recurring work with the fly-ins on Saturdays. Second, there is a reason we need to see, and be able to sit in the vehicles requesting a VAPI. I'll add more details as I learn how to blog, but for now, the point is that either KittenSue or I assess the vehicle and determine its size and type, as far as GTFO is concerned. She then does the initial entering of data so that I can do more work in the database while completely off SL. Do hold me to writing more about the history, current processes, and soon to be new processes with GTFO vehicles. Third, vehicle adding is not going to get faster until we are finished implementing the new sizing of vehicles. There are now almost 400 vehicles by 100 creators. That's a lot of vehicles to resize. Maybe the place to write about these topics is here in the forum. Input from the GTFO community will help inform the processes necessary to make vehicle additions faster. Thank you again, Anna, for bringing up this topic. Cinn

Hi Joan, Thank you for sharing this info. I want to be very clear, no one from GTFO is gathering data using bots. And no one using bots to gather data has contacted any of us at GTFO. Furthermore, we do not want generalized data about regions. When we start collecting route data it will be just that, data about how people who do GTFO do their routes. Don't worry, no one's personal information will be collected. We will put virtual dots on the map which show routes taken and where from and to. But if we look at the "dots" after data collection, there is no link back to who ran that route. And before we collect any data, we will make sure everyone is aware of anything being collected and that their privacy is completely in safe with us. Joan, I do see why you would ban these bots. I wish they would not say they are collecting data for GTFO. I will contact Linden Lab to see if they can be stopped, but I have a feeling that they will not do anything about it. Hope we solve the puzzle of who is behind it. Maybe they mean well and we can make some changes and make use of their desire to be helpful. Cinn

hi Anna, You notice correctly that new VAPI requests are not as fast as new hubs. There are a number of factors. Moving to the new server was the first step in cleaning up the data for vehicles. Your post helps me realize that I need to write more about the many things we are doing behind the scenes to improve GTFO. We are working toward a semi-automated adding of HUBs and of VAPIs. for now, we have Admin huds to help the few people who help me add data do so more accurately and quickly than I was able to do them by hand previously. I am close to caught up on the new VAPI additions with our old process. We are experimenting with a new process which, if it works will make adding new vehicles much faster. I'll take your gently nudging as a hint and start writing more about the vehicle VAPI process. There is another interview with Luke Flywalker later today (Saturday 1pm SLT) on his radio station. https://www.spreaker.com/show/hit-the-road-jack_1 Listen in and add questions using either the GTFO group or Drivers of SL, or join us at the Satori crossroads party (http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Varean/7/28/83) and ask in local. The interview is recorded and will be available for playback, too. Good suggestions, Anna. Thank you for sharing them, Cinn

Hi Leal, The survey bot in question does not belong to GTFO. I will see if I can find who owns it and why it says that. I do have plans to collect route data from actual GTFO runs. But I agree, a bot could easily become intrusive. I'll see what I can find out and let you know. Cinn

fixed

Freighter Nation! Post your comments here to give feedback on the newly remodeled Satori Crossroads. (If the comments are negative or hurtful, expect them to vanish!) Questions, comments, suggestions, discussion providing positive critique, healthy discussion, and dialogue are all welcome. SLURL to the Satori Crossroads: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Varean/17/39/83 Come drive around and let us know what you think! Happy GTFOing! Cinn