It’s crack-of-dawn early on Thanksgiving morning and the house is still and silent while the kitties snooze.  Having a cup of coffee with four days off stretching before me is a lovely feeling, especially since the past few weeks have been so exceptionally busy. So busy, in fact,  I took a short hiatus from online social stuff to keep my focus and get things done before the holiday break, and now the old habit of watching my morning Twitter stream roll by feels like a luxury and a treat.
It seems like a good time to reflect for a moment on those in the Metaverse for whom I am very thankful, and to recognize the contributions they have made to my personal metaverse and all the wonderful people and information they’ve brought into my life. A general thanks to everyone who contributes, of course, but the following are the folks who I’ve interacted with personally in one way or another and to whom I owe a great deal of thanks.
(Note: Â Names are listed in no particular order, and I’ll use the name I personally know them best by, which is sometimes an avatar name rather than a real one. Â Also, it’s hard to decide whether to link to someone’s blog, or twitter account, or what, so I’m slowly adding links to all the names, and linking to the place I go most often to find them or what they’ve been up to lately.)
(Second note: Â Invariably I am going to forget someone who deserves great thanks. If I’ve forgotten you, blame it on my sleep addled brain this morning and not my lack of gratitude!)
The Developers & Bug Testers
None of what we do in the budding Metaverse would be possible without the tireless and often unappreciated efforts of those who bring the code to life, and those with the patience to endlessly test and help squash all those pesky bugs. Â I’m especially thankful for the programmers who listen, explain, and document things for the rest of us, who solicit feedback, and empower us to achieve our goals and dreams with the things they create.
My Metaverse Heroes in the Opensim community:  Justin Clark-Casey, Diva Canto, Melanie Thielker, BlueWall, Hiro Protagonist, Mic Bowman, Edmund Edgar, Michelle Argus, Dahlia Trimble, Mimetic Core, SignpostMarv, R. Gunther, Nebadon Izumi, Kevin Cozens, Ai Austin, Oren Hurvitz, Latif Kahlifa, and WhiteStar Magic.
Thank you for all of your contributions to Opensim, and to so many of you for taking the time to answer my endless questions, help me troubleshoot and solve problems, and to learn more than I ever thought I could or would about running my own grid. FleepGrid brings me an endless source of education and entertainment, and it wouldn’t be possible without you!
My Metaverse Heroes in the Third Party Viewer community: Â Latif Kahlifa, Nicky Perian, Boroondas Gupta, Onefang, Armin Weatherwax, McCabe Maxsted, Jacek Antonelli, Henri Beauchamp, Jessica Lyon and the Firestorm/Phoenix teams.
I’m actually grateful for everyone who works on a Third Party Viewer, even if I’ve never met them or haven’t used their viewer. Â The work they do to give us options and choices, to improve the windows through which we view the metaverse, enriches all of our virtual lives. Special thanks too, to Sarge Misfit, for the hugely helpful Misfit’s Index of Viewers, without which I’d be lost in figuring out which viewers do what.
 My Metaverse Heroes in the Unity3D/Jibe community:  Chris Hart, John Lester, Kyle G
I still consider myself quite the novice with the Unity3D platform, but the work the Reaction Grid Jibe team does to help ease the transition for those of us moving from Second Life-like worlds to working with Unity is much appreciated. I’m especially grateful for their terrific support, efforts to produce a great knowledge base, and their scripted enhancements that makes development in Unity so much easier.
The News Reporters, Aggregators, & Community Connectors
Things change so quickly in the metaverse, it seems impossible sometimes to keep up, especially when it’s so very easy to get mired in the weeds of your own projects.
When I do finally look up from my work and wonder what everyone else has been up to, there are a number of folks who do a terrific job of keeping tabs on the metaverse when I don’t have time to do it myself. Whether they blog, make machinima, or tweet, these folks are indispensable sources of information and I’m eternally grateful for all the work they do to publicize, report, analyze, share, recognize, and connect the huge, global collection of people co-creating the metaverse. Â In many ways, their efforts are as crucial as the developers – we wouldn’t have a community without them!
My Metaverse Heroes in the News & Connectors community:  Malburns Writer, Maria Korolov, Hamlet Au, Daniel Voyager, Mitch Wagner, Roland Legrand, Peter Miller, Inara Pey, Ener Hax, rivenhomewood, Draxtor Dupres, Gwynneth Llewelyn, Tyche Shephard, Botgirl Questi, Honour McMillan, Crap Mariner, Prokofy Neva, Glen Gatin, Pooky Amsterdam, Chestnut Rau, Grace McDunnough, Salome Strangelove, CallieDel Boa (her curation of virtual world topics on Flickr is extraordinary), Lalo Telling, Chantal Harvey, Icarus Studios, Indigo Mertel, Whiskey Monday, Saffia Widdershins, Grocon Emoto, Ciaran Laval, Lanai Jarrico, Lacy Muircastle, and the entire Treet TV team.
The Creators & Unbelievably Generous Sharers
There are some people who seem to give for the pure joy of giving, or even if they sell stuff to make a living, their creations add to the beauty and functionality of our worlds. If you’re looking for an item, a script, or a new way to do something, they always seem happy to help or point you in the right direction. They make stuff, they share stuff, they know stuff, and they restore my faith in humanity when I’m feeling cynical.
My Metaverse Heroes in the Creators & Sharers community:  Linda Kellie, Vanish Seriath, Molly Montale, Peter Miller, Ener Hax, Kristine Kristan, Ferd Frederix, Cel Edman, Maria Korolov, Alicia Stone, Han Held, garry, Pam Broviak, Aaron Griffiths, KayMcLennan, Jokay Wollongong, John Lester, Rick Anderson, Edmund Edgar, Daniel Livingstone, and Richard Hackathorn.
The Members of Chilbo, AvaCon, SLCC, SLED – My Personal Friends & Communities
The deep friendships I’ve developed through working and playing in virtual worlds over the years is really pretty astounding. Some of these people know me better than my own family, have supported me through personal tragedies and successes, have slogged it out with me organizing enormously complex and stressful community events, or otherwise have a special place in my heart for a kindness they’ve shown me personally. Even if we haven’t talked in a while, I hope you know I am deeply grateful and thankful to have met you and have you in my virtual (and real) life, and I’m sorry I’m sometimes a lousy friend who takes forever to reply!
My Personal Metaverse Heroes:  Rachel Corleone, Corcosman Voom, Tara Yeats, Malburns Writer, Kristine Kristan, Chibi Lexenstar, Maddog Easterling, Ra Deemster, Monarchy Republic, Graham Mills, Rah Rehula, Scalar Tardis, Maggie Larimore, Gann McGann, Memorial Dae, Polenth Yue, Gem Blue, Ellie Brewster, Olando7 Decosta, Cecilia Delacroix, Rhiannon Chatnoir, Katydid Something, Xavier Sockington, Dirk McKeenan, Crap Mariner, Amulius Lioncourt, Manx Wharton, Sitearm Madonna, Shirley Marquez, LOM Runner, Lenni Foxtrot, Farley Scarborough, Hiro Pendragon, Prokofy Neva, Andrew Hughes, Ignatius Onomatopoeia, Magda Voss, JJ Drinkwater, Indigo Mertel, Phelan Corrimal, Zha Ewry, Maggie Marat, Jennette Forager, beladona Memorial, AJ Kelton, Wainbrave Bernal, Anthony Fontana, Kenny Hubble, CDB Barkley, Chimera Cosmos, Douglas Story, Desdemona Enfield, Emru Rau, Gentle Heron, Kelp Parkin, DrDoug Pennell, Morse Dillon, Stargazer Blazer, Telmea Story, Tomkin Euler, Rubaiyat Shatner, shamblesguru Voom, JB Hancroft, Lyr Lobo, SignpostMarv Martin, Morgaine Dinova, Cybergrrl Oh, Dirk Talamasca, Scottmerrick Oh, KJ Haxx, Zotarah Shepherd, Deevyde Maelstrom, John Carter McKnight,  Hydra Shaftoe, iAlja Writer, iYan Writer, Wiz Nordberg, Texas Timtam, Troy McLuhan, Dizzy Banjo, Jeremy Kabumpo, Intellagirl Tulley, Buddy Sprocket, Typewriter Tackleberry, Widget Whiteberry, Topher Zwiers, Prospero Frobozz, Ordinal Malaprop, MrTopf, Tiggs Linden (wherever he is), Yoz, Whump,  and probably a million more people I’m forgetting.
With such a huge, kind, and wonderful community of fellow Metaverse travelers, I have much to be thankful for indeed. My many thanks to all of you, and I hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving!
[Update:Â Â The best part of writing this post was taking the time to go to each link and hunt each person down and see where they are and what they’ve been up to. Â Some folks I haven’t talked to in a good while, others may even have left the worlds I still use, but I’m still thankful for them. Â It really does make your heart feel full to realize how many good, earnest people are out there working hard to make our real and virtual worlds better places. Â I feel not only thankful, but blessed by good fortune too.] Â <3
Tags: giving thanks
Beautiful post. 🙂 Thank you for sharing such positive thoughts.