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Concerning enterprise, I'm happy having the main selling ground away from the heart of the community. I like priority number one to be a good social atmosphere, priority number two to be making extra profit. :)
Concerning the space itself, I am also of the opinion that Spirit City and Matara suffer somewhat from having so many of their hotspots up in the air. The ground is a good thing, because people can walk around and explore. It gives the community more of a sense of connection rather than that of seperate chatrooms. Call me old fashoined, but I like the idea of strolling between classes more than teleporting from one locale to the other.
This is one of the reasons I chose to build more meeting spaces on Matara--where you can actually look across the water and see the castle standing in all it's glory. It feels...cozy. :)
Take peanuts for everyone, water for yourself.
Blessings Ex,
You brought up the core of my concern, the lack most new guides, and members too, have in not experiencing the ease and yes intimacy of classes in the Lounge.
When I first began at MA, I just naturally migrated into the Lounge area for my classes and it sure took off and did very well.I had felt uncomfortable with the bleacher style seating we had at Rydal and Huron in those days, and the Lounge was so much more energetically and psychologically "accessible".
I would love to see new staff and members be encouraged with this option as well. :)
Joy in Peace
StarRose Merlin
Looks like this discussion really is buzzing now!
We can look at ways of putting more communal feel into the castle grounds again
I as personally prefer the open outside space at the moment but that could be seasonal!
The Library space is fantastic and zenny is looking at seating arrangements around there for discussion.
We may need to move or modify the staff board as Elborath is now looking at that with me as being more of an online thing.
Perhaps more windows and the removal of any major advertising in that area might help - This is where Sivat used to conduct his storytelling if you can recall. (left hand side of the castle ground floor)
Mystic Academy
http://www.mysticacademy.org
I'm all for enterprise and I see nothing wrong with having a Mystic Bazaar, but I voted no in the poll because as it was discussed in the staff meeting, what the question really seemed to be about (and please feel free to correct me if I'm wrong) is whether or not we should have an extension of the Bazaar in the Castle on the first floor up the stairs there.
From what StarRose says no one else is actually teaching in the Castle anymore, but I have taught all of my workshops right there in the lounge area. People do drift in and out of the class sometimes, but for the most part it's not disruptive. I chose the lounge as my location mainly because it's so easy to find and many times folks will just TP in on a whim, find the class happening and they will sit down and join us.
If people are coming for classes, I don't know that they are in the mood to shop anyway and even though I'm at the Academy often, I don't think I've been up those stairs myself more than once or twice. (My avatar has gotten kinda lazy! She likes teleporters with HUDs over stairs any day!)
The purist in me likes the idea of keeping the castle as a main place to teach, but my real question is how well is the vendor area on that floor doing now anyway? What's the expansion plan?
If the ground floor became more active because of the vendors upstairs and it made teaching harder, I would move my class to a skybox or another area as most others have done, but I would miss the casual, inclusive nature that I feel teaching in the lounge affords.
The Bridge is up, and Manon and the Fryes will need to discuss if it looks appropriate, so Manon can get to work removing a lot of other stuff. The bridge itself is a great place to hold classes, at present, and I've placed an Ice-Fire in the middle, which is able to rez prim seats on click. The old bridge takes 40 prims, and the front walk should be extended.
The purpose of this bridge, is to bring people between the interesting things, offered at the bazaar, and the interesting classes, offered on the castle grounds, but classes and shops can both be reasonably supported on the bridge itself, making a very smooth customer experience.
The reason for vendors, in the up-stairs, is that classes on one floor were polluting the chat of other classes, and the vendors won't be as noisy. We should have more Ground Floor and Roof Top Classes, and there's also a meditation room, that's suffered for the Sky Pyramid, I think.
Technically, the only reason for a Castle, is that it looks nice, and class platforms could be rezzed anywhere over academy grounds, under 4,098 meters. I'd suggest a limit of 1,000 meters, for the benefit of the TPs, and Simon Linden will have other suggestions, but that's still a lot of space, that could accomodate temporary builds.
The word Budget, by the way, means Little Purse, and refers to the art of making little purses out of big purses. OurBig Purse includes things like Prim Rights, so class space establishments should probably be contained in some sorts of Rezzers, rather than left about. With the exception of my now functional Ice-Fire, every Fire-Pit we have, is using one prim for every avatar we could possibly fit into the Sim, and is worse than the old style TP maps.
So, yes, when I can figure out how to vote, the business of the shops is to offer things people are interested enough to pay for, so they can wander the bridge, and find our academy classes and discussions, and the shops should benefit from those wandering from those activities, just as Bloomingdales would sell Nylons next to the Children's Books.
Arawn
If I forget that I'm Arawn Spitteler, could someone remind me of my secret password?
Sorry Arawn - but I'm not sure I really like the new bridge - I find it a bit too big and a little overwhelming. Plus because it is so high in the middle I think we lose sight of the Bazaar from the Academy side. Like I said - sorry :(
Elborath
Here is a pic of the bridge!
Mystic Academy
http://www.mysticacademy.org
Thanks for these comments everyone, good food for thought.
At the moment we have a few vendors upstairs which have been set up as rental areas.
We had set up that area as a class space before but it was not being used.
I am well in favour of using the groundfloor as a teaching space as its an easy port in - as Ex Noel writes.
The general problems with floors etc is that As Zena writes it becomes problematic for people finding places.
The academy is quite a large area in terms of space - with the bazaar being on a separate parcel we have problems with students finding the bazaar and wandering over the bridge to it.
In the past we have had a larger ground floor space divided into 4 main sections, one of which was dedicated to vendor representation. We need to space things out to avoid confusing visitors.
I think it may be an idea to ask new visitors when they come in what they are looking for - and some sort of survey around this.
I understand both points of view - from the merchants and the teachers - but we must reconcile them to give the Academy the best choices for our visitors. Teaching spaces and merchant spaces should always be kept Separate. I have taught in the Academy a number of times - Staff meetings are held there. So the fact that guides do not wish to teach there is a matter of personal choice. Everyone likes different environmental surroundings.
I'd welcome more comments from the merchants who are currently owning vendors in the bazaar and the academy to widen the discussion.
Mystic Academy
http://www.mysticacademy.org
Hi there,
Wish to throw in my two cents :)
I "wish" that we could have NO vendors IN the castle but rather at the lovely Baazar we already have for this purpose.
I know vending devices and signs contribute to lag and take up alot of prims, somethings I feel could be put to better use for the use of Academy classes and staff, members.
Not to mention a commercial atmosphere in a area of learning or teaching can be disruptive and distracting.
Truly focus and energy are everything to the methods I use in my classes, and I suspect most "sensitive' souls may feel the same way.
As the situation now is, I don't get ANY staff who request to teach in the Academy and this saddens me.
For me the Academy has always been the heart of our organization and the first image all new people get when they arrive.
I am in full support of our Mystic Baazar and Clubs, and in my opinion, there is surely space for everything here in Spirit City.
Let there be a free clear space for us to teach and to enjoy one another's company without distractions :)
Hope to see the heart put back into the Academy Castle :))
Thank You for your time,
StarRose Merlin
I voted yes.
I have a wish already long time for MA to develop a big shop area. That can perfectly be in theme with the topics that the academy teaches about. Cause there are so many mystical vendors in Second Life.
The classes at MA are free, and I think they should be. That's the power of MA, it's what MA is about: everyone needs to have acces to spiritual knowledge. And that's wonderful.
Same time the sim costs money. And ofcourse it's a good thing for people to donate to MA, using the tipjars around the sim. But I think that's not the only thing MA should rely on for financing the sim. People who rent a plot contribute their share and there may be some profit from the sales at the Bazaar. I think the Bazaar is a wonderful project, specially combined with the GreyWolf club. So thumbs up for the management of it.
But I also believe in a more commercial approach of a bigger shoparea. And maybe that's not suitable for or possible at Spirit City. So maybe we have to bring that concept to the new sim Matara? The idea of using that sim for spiritual communities is wonderful. But maybe that idea needs to be combined with a more commercial approach by bringing shops there for rent too. Maybe even little parcels for rent with shops on it (that's done more lately at other sims too), which will allow the vendors to be shown in search, and will also motivate them to manage their own business better with ads and other means to get people to their shop.
Selling stuff is business. And business is a good thing. We have an academy to run. That's business too. We want to run the classes for free. So we'll have to think commercial about how to do that. Nothing wrong with thinking commercial, nothing wrong with earning money. Money is a spiritual thing too! And for those who think it isn't, I will develop a workshop about Money & Spirituality :) Ok, so that one will be scheduled for Fall, cause this Summer I'm first gonna talk to you about Sexuality & Spiritualy, smiles, even about BDSM & Spirituality, big smile :) (Check the workshopbox in my Mystic Art Gallery at Spirit City for this ;-))
Ok, I think I made my point. Let's hear what you all think of this. Feel free to post your comments.
Blessed be,
Zena.
Smile and the world smiles back at you :)
I said I voted yes, but the site does not able me to vote under my SL name. I can only vote not being logged in, but then the IP appears in the voting list, which I don't want for privacy reasons (so I cancelled that vote). So my vote is not counted, and it's a yes :)
I reported this problem to Elborath and Dragon, cause I think I'm not the only one, reading the other polls, more people seem not to get the ability to vote. I hope it can be fixed.
Blessed be,
Zena.
Smile and the world smiles back at you :)
One suggestion is to increase the vendor usage on the first floor to encourage more mystics to sell their warez. Please discuss and write in your comments I would like to hear them.
Mystic Academy
http://www.mysticacademy.org
I don't support the suggestion to increase the vendor usage on the first floor of the castle.
First of all it's a fact around all SL that sales on first floors are always less. Cause people are not that often motivated to walk up the stairs (specially not in SL, I still have trouble with it, lol) or use tp's to get on floors upstairs. So I don't think it will attract much vendors.
Second I think the castle is the central building of the Mystic Academy, and should be all about teaching, like an academy is expected to be.
So I think the rooms in the castle should best be used as classrooms, maybe some as consulting rooms as well.
For what I think about a more commercial approach of a bigger shop area, see my other comment in this poll, called 'Money makes the world go round'.
Blessed be,
Zena.
Smile and the world smiles back at you :)
I find the place where the Bazaar is for now ideal, because it does not interfere with the Castle main purpose, having classes there ...
Also a shop is needed for ppl to give opportunity to buy mystic stuff, and as a place art can be showed from Mystic Academy members to sell.
But ... the land tier has to be payed by the community, not by one MA member alone, when you ask me.
Love and peace,
Dolfie.