The Merchant Sales are well underway with freebies and HUGE discounts for visiting avatars. We are seeing an average of 110 avatars each day on the grid! Experiencing the Chemistry of Community has some suggesting OSFest2022 is not long enough to see everything, get to every store, and see every performer. OSFest is a temporary "Icarus" grid born anew each year. Data reveals this year's 17 days long Fest is the biggest, longest, and most attended Fest since it began in 2015 and we have four more days of events to go!
The Merchant Sales Event continues through the final days of events ending Sunday July 24th after the last performer. The grid will be open until July 31st so there is still some time to see all of the exhibits. Avatars have many tools available to get to the different Guild stores, Alchemist exhibits, and Sponsor parcels (some of whom are merchants and exhibitors).
Today we added the Merchant Sales Event to the OSFest Destination Guide accessed using the viewer toolbar button that looks like a location pin icon for a map. If you don't see the pin icon on the left side of your monitor (the Firestorm viewer default), you can right click any button and select toolbar buttons then drag it from your toolbar to any edge of your screen you prefer. The guide works in a similar fashion to the one on Second Life but this one is customized down to the parcel level for OSFest2022. Other entries in the Destination Guide are still in work. Try it and please let us know how it is working for you. We strive to improve based on your feedback! Other ways to get around include the Merchant Teleport Boards created by Merchant Organizer Luna Lunaria who has done an outstanding job on this unique event.
Fest goers can also use the updated Grid Teleport Boards placed around the grid. These are integrated with the web-based OSFest2022 Grid Map updated to accommodate that various methods Hypergrid enabled grids use and supported viewers. Thanks to all of the Fest goers and OSFest Staff Veritas McMaster who helped us track down the technical issues with different grids and bugs in the Firestorm viewer we needed to work around. In particular, many thanks to the "Man Behind the Curtain" Grid Administrator Seth Nygard for his just-in-time agile development to resolve issues well into the wee hours! He will port the method chosen to the integrated Grid Events Calendar as well which provides Teleport capabilities to get to events. Grid Calendar Boards are also placed around the grid.
There are also two other traditional ways to get around! You can get a Helpful Notecard with information and embedded landmarks, without joining the public OSFest group, from the givers placed all around the grid or you can get a folder full of named landmarks for your travels from the OSF LM Box - both available in the Welcome and HG-Welcome regions. Finally, you can join the public OSFest Group to chat with others around the grid or ask for help from OSFest staff. Don't worry about getting stuck in a group you can't leave - we will take care of removing all avatars from all of the groups before the grid is shut. See you in the grid!