Dear OSgridders,
We are writing to you today with some difficult news regarding your data within our platform. We understand this news might be upsetting, and we want to be as transparent as possible about the upcoming situation and what it means for you. Over the past several months, we have been working diligently to address a series of issues with our core databases. These problems, unfortunately, have proven to be more timely and complex than we initially anticipated due to the sheer volume of data to process.
After exhausting all options and consulting with our peers, we have come to the heartbreaking decision to reset the inventory. In the past 4 months, we made a mere 20% progress compared to last check, and it’s hampering the grid running these operations in the background. Also, we have no guarantee we can restore everything, as there is corrupt data in there, requiring manual intervenes making it a complex and time-consuming process, of which the outcome is just not guaranteed. I wish I had better news, but it is what it is. We decided enough is enough.
As it is causing more and more issues in-world, and starting to look less and less feasible to get it this working, back at an acceptable level within an acceptable time frame, we’ve come to the conclusion it’s better to ‘wipe the slate’. The current database is a massive burden to the grid. 60% of it is probably never used, and it kills the performance of our state-of-the-art hardware, running all kinds of repair and conversion processes instead of servicing the grid. The amount of time and costs to fix things have well exceeded any reason, even before we started the conversation. (As with regards to the massive investments to save this data the past). We have landed on a point where dragging this further is not logical anymore.
You can be assured this decision was not made lightly. We explored every feasible, and discussed every reasonable option. We understand this might feel a loss for you, and for us as a community. But for Osgrid to have a stable future and survive in the long run, we have to let go off the old data. This moment was bound to occur in the future sometime anyway, so it might as well be now. The broken SL imports, the experiments of thousands of users no longer active. The corrupted bits from a data recovery process. The broken scripts. This grid can be so much better, but it means letting go of the past.
And so we decided to start with fresh inventory. For you this will imply that a significant portion of data, spanning the last 18 years, including photo’s, notecards, creations, virtual items, and other in-world activity, will unfortunately be permanently removed. So will your prims / inventory / regions if you don’t save them. Mind the above will have no impact or your avatar name, regions, friends or groups. You will still exist, only with a fresh inventory. If you load an IAR or OAR on your region, you will be back as you were.
We strongly recommend and advise you to make OAR’s of your regions, and IAR’s of your inventory’s. Import them on standalones / other grids in the next month. We understand that for many, this data represents not just virtual possessions, but also cherished memories and connections. We are completely rebuilding our database infrastructure from the ground up. While we cannot restore your lost data, you can still save all you have currently, and import it back later, in a blistering fast new cluster.
We know this might feel incredibly disappointing, especially for those of you who have invested significant time and energy building your presence and communities within our metaverse. We share your disappointment and frustration, and we sincerely apologize for the distress and inconvenience this might cause. We understand this might be a difficult time, and we want to assure you that we are here to support you if you need help saving your region or prims.
We will create a dedicated Discord channel to answer any questions you may have. Our admin & greeter team team is also available to provide further assistance. So will be your inworld hosts. New user registration will be closed until this process is completed. Thank you for your understanding and your continued support.
We are committed to rebuilding a better and stronger OSgrid for everyone.
To summarize: Your avatar/friends/groups/region locations will remain! Only inventory will be reset. We plan to go offline for a week starting on March 21. You have almost 6 weeks to backup/save/transfer/etc to iar/oar/alts as you can. We will provide some regions dedicated to storage that can be used by residents without land.
