Places gone and places missed - do your part before more are gone!

So last night I was at the HUB with my girl listening to DJ Irish Breen spinning tunes when I struck up a conversation with a woman who needed some help.  I will spare the details here, but she was looking for someplace safe to go and submit herself where she could live and learn in a BTB environment.  Immediately my mind went to Port Haifa, and that is where I directed her.  Over the years I had been to many classes there of all kinds, RP'd in the tavern, attended a few slave graduation ceremonies, knew one or two of the prominent personalities, and even had a stall for a few months selling my goods.  I considered it, along with the Gorean University and the Gorean Campus to be one of the main pillars or 'foundation sims' of SL Gor.  Someplace you could always go and gain some knowledge, or a reliable place to send or sell a slave to a slaver that knew his business and handled both the IC and OOC needs of the slaves in his kennels.  Someplace that would always be there churning out new and better Goreans every day.

Imagine my surprise when a few moments later I was told that Port Haifa was no more.  I have to admit that I was truly shaken.  I immediately looked at the world map and tried to pull it up.  No luck.  I went to find the people that I knew that lived there only to have my concerns substantiated.  Haifa is indeed gone.  How and why it happened I don't know.  I suspect, as with many Gorean sims, there was not enough funds to support it....even after 8 years of supporting and training thousands of Goreans both free and slave they likely couldn't make ends meet and had to shut down.

Of course Port Haifa is not the first place I have seen ripped away from us.  The first place I stepped into Gor so very long ago, Lorem Ipsum (ran by Magistrate Papa Gibbs), met a similar fate.  The first sim I took part of as a leader, Borderlands (Fulcrum), the Gorean Slave Gardens, Gimli, even stores like the Perfumed Rope...the list goes on and on....all gone now..  Here is the scary part...as we enter what everyone knows as the 'summer doldrums' of 2016 we are sure to lose a number of other sims as well...we always do.

'So what?' you might ask.  Change is a part of Gor and SL.  Places come and go and that is life.  While I do agree with that sentiment to some extent, we are not talking of regular RP sims or stores here.  A store has to survive on it's customers, and normal RP sims need to survive on the generosity of the players there or the person running the sim.  Places like Port Haifa, the GC and GU need and deserve ALL of our support!  Without safe places to learn or expand our RP, teach newcomers to Gor, and get insight on the different cultures and places in Gor what will Gor on SL devolve to?  I hear so many of you bitching about what Gor has become...but what are you doing about it besides standing in the Gor HUB and whining like two year olds?  Do you not understand that letting places like Port Haifa slip away hurts us ALL?  Do you not understand that failing to get new folks into Gor and helping them learn will only mean the eventual death of Gor on SL?

For those of you who frequent these places I call on you to please DONATE!  Not just of your time which I know is VERY appreciated, but also a little of your hard earned funds!  It costs approx 80,000 Linden (or $300 US) a month to have a sim on SL.  That's right, a sim actually COSTS REAL MONEY to run!  It's not provided free by the Lindens for your amusement.  Having had to administer a sim myself I can tell you that every tiny bit helps!  Please don't think that 5L or 100L won't make a difference...it does!

For those of you (like me) who are merchants selling gorean items, remember that without 'foundation' sims like the GU, GC, and Port Haifa pumping out more Goreans into SL your customer base WILL dwindle down to nothing.  No Goreans on SL means NO SALES.  Supporting these kinds of sims is in your own best interest.  Open a stall or store there...become a paying supporter...do something besides simply take advantage of them putting out new and better Goreans.


If we all do our parts, if we all contribute just a little, maybe we won't have to see another of our pillars, our foundation sims crumble.  Maybe it's not to late to breath life back into Port Haifa.  I don't know.  What I do know is that if we all just sit on our hands, or stand in the 'flesh lanes' of the HUB and whine then we will eventually see more places close and Gor on SL will suffer a long and lingering death.

Finally, I want to offer one person a very personal apology.  emm.jacks was a cornerstone of Port Haifa.  No matter how many times I was there over the years I saw her on sim.  I am sure she doesn't know me from Adam (or Torvald in my case), but I certainly knew of her.  Reading her profile picks last night was heartbreaking.  To her I would like to offer the most heartfelt of apologies.  I should have done more to support Haifa.  We all should have.  I hope you do rebuild Port Haifa, and if you do I will be taking a merchant stall there to show my support.