Tag: Minkata

July 2021 All Guilds Meeting Summary
Here is the summary for June’s Meeting, along with the raw and cleansed chatlogs!

Contents
Events in the Cavern

Since Mysterium will be online this year too, the Committee will host a couple of marker missions in the Cavern. The meeting point is Ae’gura Plaza: from around 16:00 KI, Kelly C will be online to share the codes for the games. To get them, PM “sendme [code]” to either Mir-o-Bot (#32319) or MinBot (#9292763). You will need a calibrated KI; you can find a tutorial here.

On Saturday 24 at 11:00 KIT, Nosila will hold a Door Run contest; everyone is welcome!

More events are being planned for the next months: a Caribbean Night with hot music in August, D’ni Day of Dance with a small show by the Nulp Dance Group in September, and a Halloween Party in October. More on those at next Meeting.

If you have an idea for an event and need help organising it, there is a Discord server, a Facebook group, or you can contact Minasunda via KImail (#5667000).

Cavern Tours

The Cavern Tour will be held on Saturday 10 at 11:00 KIT, starting from the Cavern Tour’s Hood. The host, Larry LeDeay, will use his Twitch channel for the presentation, so you will need to keep a browser or the app open in the background. Videos will be available for two weeks after the tour. The stream will be simulcasted on Facebook and Youtube.

The tours occasionally visit hard to reach places. Mir-o-Bot (KI# 32319) is employed for special effects and long-distance travel (and to avoid stairs). If you arrive late, you can PM Susa’n (KI# 9122427) to join the in-progress tour – but do try to arrive in time!

A new era in D’ni

Patrick (aka Doobes) started by announcing the release of Vothol Gallery, by Rustee, which like Tre’bivdil happened stealthily the day before the Meeting. The location in the Cavern is unclear, and it used to house priceless and valuable D’ni artworks.

He then announced the beginning of the to restoration of the Great Shaft and the full path from the surface to D’ni. If all goes well, explorers will be able to start from the surface and work their way down to the Cavern, following the steps of Atrus and his family, although the elevators will also be activated.

As with all these projects, no deadline can be set; it is a huge undertaking and it will take the time it needs. Safety first!

To keep updated on Doobes’ work, check his blog and his Facebook page.

OpenUru

Rarified mentioned they have about a half dozen new improvements in the pipeline. Marten has been working on cherry picking the most requested, in particular the fixes for many of the problems when avatars are being moved through ‘subworlds’ (elevators, vogondolas, etc). The next scheduled update to MOULa will be in mid-late August.

He also mentioned a panel on Sunday at Mysterium that will present how fan content can get to MOULa.

How to be a tester (click to expand)

To be a tester, you will need to open an account on the Minkata shard; it is highly recommended to read the Tester’s Guide to understand what is expected. To test the cutting edge additions, you can sign up for the Minkata alpha shard.
To report bugs, you can post on the OpenUru forum or the Discord server (channels #hood or #dev); on Discord you can ask to be added to the @testers role to be notified of testing requests, which sometimes need quick response in terms of hours, not days.

Fan Ages Touring Club

Korov’ev gave a quick update on the Fan Ages Expeditions he is hosting on the Deep Island shard, every Sunday at 11:00 KIT. Recently, they visited Alabaster by Dulcamara.

For July, the plan is to finish the visit to Alabaster; after that, it will be time for Laki’anay and related ages, by the New Age Project.
More about the Expeditions (click to expand)
- After the expeditions, the participants will be able to share their observations in dedicated threads in the Guild of Writers’ forums (listed in the index). The expeditions are streamed (without comments), and the videos will be available for two weeks after.
- After the tour, those who still have the energy are welcome to Korov’ev’s Gahreesehn for some Wall training (send a message to #194197 for an invite).
- A gallery of fan ages with some details is available on the Writers’ wiki. Setting up a Deep Island client can be a bit tricky in some situations; a quick guide is available in our Troubleshooting section.
Mysterium news

Korov’ev reported some quick news about the convention:
- The schedule of the convention is now available;
- As mentioned, the Committee will host a couple of marker missions in the Cavern, made available through Mir-o-Bot or MinBot.
And that was it for this month. Please consider donating to keep the Cavern open!

June ended with the CavFunding at 135% (CavCon 4.4) and the reserve at 298%, with 30% extra expenses. Population was at 40,902 (⇑542), with 1252 unique visits. New accounts and donations above expenses!

The next All Guilds Meeting is planned for Saturday, August 7 (Leetahr 5) at 13:00 KIT.

Until then!
4 July 2021
June 2021 All Guilds Meeting Summary
Here is the summary for June’s Meeting, along with the raw and cleansed chatlogs!

Contents
Events in the Cavern

Right before the Meeting, Mystitech released The Lost Art episode 12 “States of Possession” as a Premiere on YouTube.

Nosila will host a music program, “The Times They Are a-Changin”, about equality, protest and hope. The stream will be on Monday 14 at 13:00 KIT; the main location will be the Ae’gura plaza.

If you have an idea for an event and need help organising it, there is a Discord server, a Facebook group, or you can contact Minasunda via KImail (#5667000).

Cavern Tours

The Cavern Tour will be held on Saturday 12 at 11:00 KIT, starting from the Cavern Tour’s Hood. The host, Larry LeDeay, will use his Twitch channel for the presentation, so you will need to keep a browser or the app open in the background. Videos will be available for two weeks after the tour. The stream will be simulcasted on Facebook and Youtube.

The tours occasionally visit hard to reach places. Mir-o-Bot (KI# 32319) is employed for special effects and long-distance travel (and to avoid stairs). If you arrive late, you can PM Susa’n (KI# 9122427) to join the in-progress tour – but do try to arrive in time!

A new era in D’ni

Doobes started by announcing the release of Tre’bivdil, by Lontahv, which happened stealthily the day before the Meeting, and relayed a presentation by the author:

Tre’bivdil is best classified as a modern garden Age. The geometric shapes and primary elements that form its core are described by simple phrases that are shared with a set of phrases from ancient training manuscripts discovered by the modern day Guild of Writers.

The name, which can be translated roughly to ‘amongst everything’, reflects the combination of these very basic elements together.

While the weather is generally clement, care must be taken after a rainstorm as the rocks can become slippery.

Vothol Gallery’s release is not too far away either, and it will also be an unannounced surprise. So keep checking, you could be the first to find out!

He then discussed the big news that happened just the day before the Meeting: the public release of the Intangible assets by Cyan, under the Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 4.0 license. The files include concept art, documents, audio and textures as well as 3ds Max files in varying states of completion. For developers, this means free access to complete any of the content; for everyone else, it means places like Descent are very likely be greatly expanded, and ages like Kahlo, Rebek, Katha Island and others could see the light of day, someday!

It should be noted that the content is very unfinished, so it would take quite a long while to see most of it completed. As always, patience and Cautious Optimism™ are needed, but these locations have just become a little more concrete. Doobes himself has been working for a while on expanding Descent and opening up the rest of the Great Shaft and the path from D’ni to the surface.

The Guild of Archivists is also taking a more direct role, in relation to compatibility with Uru lore, in the approval process for new fan content on MOULa. Doobes also mentioned that more client improvements and more fan ages will soon be up for testing on Minkata alpha, including works from Ametist and Dulcamara (not Elodea yet, but newer ages).

To keep updated on Doobes’ work, check his blog and his Facebook page.

OpenUru

Rarified mentioned that the Intangible assets have been archived on both the OpenUru and the Guild of Writers repositories.

There is some new fan content in the pipeline which should be made available on Minkata prime for testing soon. Meanwhile, Marten continues to port the many user experience improvements, that have been in the H’uru fork for a long time, to the Minkata/MOULa client.

The next major update will probably be timed in late July or early August, though there might be an intermediate update before then, for an upcoming special event. Things to look out and test will be: fixes for subworlds (e.g. the Ahnonay gondola chair, the Teledahn bucket, the Gahreesen lift), frame rate unlock, general performance and QoL improvements.

How to be a tester (click to expand)

To be a tester, you will need to open an account on the Minkata shard; it is highly recommended to read the Tester’s Guide to understand what is expected. To test the cutting edge additions, you can sign up for the Minkata alpha shard.
To report bugs, you can post on the OpenUru forum or the Discord server (channels #hood or #dev); on Discord you can ask to be added to the @testers role to be notified of testing requests, which sometimes need quick response in terms of hours, not days.

Fan Ages Touring Club

Korov’ev gave a quick update on the Fan Ages Expeditions he is hosting on the Deep Island shard, every Sunday at 11:00 KIT. Recently, they visited Lonirvan by Jhon J. Jaguar, Eh’ko by D’eux, The Cathedral by DenDwaler, Ahreesen Melin by Semjay, Kahntinoy by Rich, Fena Barel by Wodan & Hans.

For June, the plan is to visit Alabaster by Dulcamara, which will take at least 3 sessions. After that, it will be time for Laki’anay and related ages, by the New Age Project.
More about the Expeditions (click to expand)
- After the expeditions, the participants will be able to share their observations in dedicated threads in the Guild of Writers’ forums (listed in the index). The expeditions are streamed (without comments), and the videos will be available for two weeks after.
- After the tour, those who still have the energy are welcome to Korov’ev’s Gahreesehn for some Wall training (send a message to #194197 for an invite).
- A gallery of fan ages with some details is available on the Writers’ wiki. Setting up a Deep Island client can be a bit tricky in some situations; a quick guide is available in our Troubleshooting section.
D’ni Language Classes

Shokhootahn Rehn (a.k.a. r’Tayrtahn) gave two announcements, one for the D’ni Language Classes and one for the Story Nights.

There are daytime openings on Monday through Friday; those interested should contact Rehn (see KI# below). Evening classes are not currently available.

Seven students are taking the classes at various stages of completion; two of them are new.
More about the D’ni Language Classes (click to expand)
- Those who would like to attend the lessons should contact Rehn via PM or KImail (KI# 58324); be sure to include your KI number in the message!
- The Guild of Instructors’ Hood will be open and public unless a class is in session, currently on Monday–Friday starting at 12:00, 13:00 or 14:00 KIT, depending on the student’s schedule.
- Last-minute changes to class times are posted on the left-hand imager in the hood.
R’Tayrtahn’s Story Nights

Story Night – Europe is in synch with original Story Night. They have finished the story from The Book of D’ni; next week they will start with the game Exile.

R’Tayrtahn has been uploading the Stories on his YouTube channel. The videos are usually uploaded a few days after the live event.
More about the Story Nights (click to expand)
- Story Nights are held in Tsahno’s Hood every Saturday, gathering at the fountain at around 23:00 KIT, with the story starting at about 23:30 KIT.
- For Story Nights – Europe, the gatherings are on Saturday starting at 13:30 KIT, with the story starting at about 14:00 KIT. On All Guilds Meeting days, the event will begin at 14:00 KIT or 30 minutes after the end of the AGM, whichever is later.
- The stories are told using voice chat, so you will need to have your speakers, headphones or KI devices on. If you would like a reminder, please send r’Tayrtahn (KI# 58324) a KImail with your KI number included in the text, so that he can add you to his buddies list.
- Last-minute changes to Story Night times are posted on the left-hand imager in the hood.
Mysterium news

Korov’ev reported some quick news about the convention:
- Meinert Hansen, Robyn Miller, Brian Wrench are the first 3 special guests announced;
- event submissions are still open until June 20, if time allows;
- the Westin Alexandria will not cancel bookings automatically, you will have to do it yourself via the Marriott website or by phone;
- the location for Mysterium 2022 is not set, the Committee will go through the normal bid review process.
And that was it for this month. Please consider donating to keep the Cavern open!

May ended with the CavFunding at 94% (CavCon 2.9) and the reserve at 253%. There were no extra expenses. Population was at 40,360 (⇑304), with 1303 unique visits. Donations almost matched expenses.

The next All Guilds Meeting is planned for Saturday, July 3 (Leesahn 1) at 13:00 KIT.

Until then!
6 June 2021
May 2021 All Guilds Meeting Summary
Here is the summary for May’s Meeting, along with the raw and cleansed chatlogs!

Contents
Events in the Cavern

Minasunda thanked Yoda and Mirphak for the special effects they conjured for the D’ni New Year celebrations and the Nulp Dance Show “Mother Earth Day”, Eternal Seeker for streaming the music.

On May 15 at 12:00 KIT Mabe will host a competition in Mir-o-Bot’s Jalak, named Mabes Rebus.

It starts with simple pictures to warm up and then increases the level of difficulty. The first to write in the chat what is displayed receives one point. A little surprise awaits the winner.

Depending on how long it takes to solve the puzzles, Mabe will do a short show afterwards. If not, there will be a separate event soon after.

Eternal Seeker will also take over the music stream for this event. Since Mir-o-Bot cannot be there, MinBot (KI# 9292763) will step in for the event. PM “link” or “meet” to be linked to the event location.

For more info there is a Discord server, a Facebook group, or you can contact Minasunda via KImail (#5667000).

Cavern Tours

The Cavern Tour will be held on Saturday 8 at 11:00 KIT, starting from the Cavern Tour’s Hood.

The host, Larry LeDeay, will use his Twitch channel for the presentation, so you will need to keep a browser or the app open in the background. Videos will be available for two weeks after the tour. The stream will be simulcasted on Facebook and Youtube.

The tours occasionally visit hard to reach places. Mir-o-Bot (KI# 32319) is employed for special effects and long-distance travel (and to avoid stairs). If you arrive late, you can PM Susa’n (KI# 9122427) to join the in-progress tour – but do try to arrive in time!

A new era in D’ni

Doobes gave a quick update about the age restoration project. On Wednesday 5 there will be a two-hour downtime, starting at 10:30 KIT. The first of a new set of ages will be made public soon after. These new ages will not be made available all at once

More fixes are also coming. Some industrious explorers (including Hoikas, Deledrius, boq, estherbolik, Marten) have been working on fixing the unruly clock in the neighborhoods, to make it show the correct D’ni time.

There are also some quality of life fixes to the KI chat: avatar names and KI commands are now case insensitive. So if you mistype something, you will not have to retype or get the “no such command” error as often.

You will also be able to partially type an avatar’s name, then hit tab to autocomplete the name. If there are multiples, you can continue hitting tab until the correct name is displayed.

You will also be able to hit the up and down arrows to cycle through previous KI chat and commands, up to the last 50.

Aspect ratio and resolution corrections from the H’uru client are also coming; fullscreen will also automatically use your native resolution, so no need to adjust anything if you choose that option.

Lastly, a fix from Hoikas will take care of the overly dark Relto hut bug some have been experiencing when the windows are closed.

Thanks go to MOULa’s server admin Chogon, who has been patient, understanding, and enthusiastic about fan content since long before the first big update in August 2020.

To keep updated on Doobes’ work, check his blog and his Facebook page.

OpenUru

Rarified acknowledged the contribution of Marten to improve the ability of adding fixes and improvements to the client in a timely fashion. He put out a call for fans to list their most wanted improvements to the client interface and behavior.

If you have input of that kind, you should post on the OpenUru Discord channels #hood or #dev; an item high on the list is the frame rate unlock.

Rarified is still working to bring the MOUL/Minkata client synchronized with the work from the GoW/H’uru team. The Minkata client is now much easier to build than before.

Within a week of freezing all the parts for the May 5 update, they have already started testing another new age. Those who dabbled with age creation before, but put things on the shelf because it looked like it never would happen, this is the best time to come back!

Fan Ages Touring Club

Korov’ev gave a quick update on the Fan Ages Expeditions he is hosting on the Deep Island shard, every Sunday at 11:00 KIT. Recently, they visited Shorah Pahts by Jhon J. Jaguar and Elsewhere by Denost.

For April, the plan is to finish Elsewhere, then visit Lonirvan by Jhon J. Jaguar, and later revisit Cathedral by DenDwaler.
More about the Expeditions (click to expand)
- After the expeditions, the participants will be able to share their observations in dedicated threads in the Guild of Writers’ forums (listed in the index). The expeditions are streamed (without comments), and the videos will be available for two weeks after.
- After the tour, those who still have the energy are welcome to Korov’ev’s Gahreesehn for some Wall training (send a message to #194197 for an invite).
- A gallery of fan Ages with some details is available on the Writers’ wiki. Setting up a Deep Island client can be a bit tricky in some situations; a quick guide is available in our Troubleshooting section.
D’ni Language Classes

Shokhootahn Rehn (a.k.a. r’Tayrtahn) gave two announcements, one for the D’ni Language Classes and one for the Story Nights.

There are daytime openings on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday; those interested should contact Rehn (see KI# below). Evening classes are not currently available.

Seven students are taking the classes at various stages of completion.
More about the D’ni Language Classes (click to expand)
- Those who would like to attend the lessons should contact Rehn via PM or KImail (KI# 58324); be sure to include your KI number in the message!
- The Guild of Instructors’ Hood will be open and public unless a class is in session, currently on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday starting at 12:00, 13:00 or 14:00 KIT, depending on the student’s schedule.
- Last-minute changes to class times are posted on the left-hand imager in the hood.
R’Tayrtahn’s Story Nights

Story Night – Europe is in synch with original Story Night. They are about halfway through the story from The Book of D’ni.

R’Tayrtahn has been uploading the Stories on his YouTube channel. The videos are usually uploaded a few days after the live event.
More about the Story Nights (click to expand)
- Story Nights are held in Tsahno’s Hood every Saturday, gathering at the fountain at around 23:00 KIT, with the story starting at about 23:30 KIT.
- For Story Nights – Europe, the gatherings are on Saturday starting at 13:30 KIT, with the story starting at about 14:00 KIT. On All Guilds Meeting days, the event will begin at 14:00 KIT or 30 minutes after the end of the AGM, whichever is later.
- The stories are told using voice chat, so you will need to have your speakers, headphones or KI devices on. If you would like a reminder, please send r’Tayrtahn (KI# 58324) a KImail with your KI number included in the text, so that he can add you to his buddies list.
- Last-minute changes to Story Night times are posted on the left-hand imager in the hood.
Cyan and Mysterium news

Korov’ev reported some quick news, covered in a separate post.

And that was it for this month. Please consider donating to keep the Cavern open!

April ended with the CavFunding at 106% (CavCon 4.1) and the reserve at 258%. There were no extra expenses. Population was at 40,360 (⇑344), with 1260 unique visits. Donations matched expenses, and there is still a large reserve.

The next All Guilds Meeting is planned for Saturday, June 5 (Leebro 8) at 13:00 KIT.

Until then!
1 May 2021
April 2021 All Guilds Meeting Summary
Here is the summary for April’s Meeting, along with the raw and cleansed chatlogs!

Contents
Events in the Cavern

Minasunda announced the D’ni New Year 9677 Light Show by MagicYoda, on Wednesday 21 at 14:00 KIT, after Fil’s weekly live event. The location is a secret: when the time comes, PM “link” to Mir-o-Bot (KI# 32319) and he will get you there.

On Saturday 24 at 12:30 KIT the Nulp Dance Group will host the Mother Earth Day Show, in Mir-o-Bot’s Ahnonay. This will be the 5th Mother Earth Day with a show by the Nulp Dance Group and their 17th show.

Seeker will provide the music stream for both events.

Note that linking to and from Ahnonay can cause crashes for others; attendees are therefore asked to arrive early before the show starts, and to not leave the show before it ends if possible. If you arrive while the show is running, you may not be able to see the special effects until the following dance routine.

Attendees are also asked to refrain from interfering with the scenery during the show, particularly by using the bot.

An advice: the top of the rocks is not a good vantage point, as the show uses fog, which will obscure the view from above.

For more info there is a Discord server, a Facebook group, or you can contact Minasunda via KImail (#5667000).

Gehn shard

Hoikas announced that the Gehn shard is going to get an update sometime in April.

The highlights will include the new PhysX 4.1 physics engine, the update to Python 3, a fix for the Relto hut darkness bug, and all the updates to Doobes’ ages that made it to MOUL.

A new era in D’ni

Patrick gave an outline of the upcoming new ages. The plan is to release them on a very loose schedule so as to keep each a surprise. The first, possibly in late April, will be Serene; sometime after, a get-together will be held in the age to celebrate Andy Legate, who restored it originally.

Next up will be Tre’bivdil, originally restored by Lontahv; unfortunately the ‘downstairs’ area will have to stay off-limits for the time being due to excessive flood damage.

The third location will be a Cavern location: Vothol Gallery, originally restored by Rustee. A piece of debris from the entryway too large to move will be used as a support for the linking book back to Chiso. There is still plenty of stability checks that need to be done, so it will probably be the last of the three legacy locations that will be opened.

Patrick also introduced Kelsei A. Taylor, who was a very big help in translating the Caltauc language in Chiso, and have been helping CalumTraveler with some interesting documents discovered on a location known as the Vertigo Cathedral. The documents are written with the D’ni script, but they are not in the D’ni language! More info will be released soon.

To keep updated on Doobes’ work, check his blog and his Facebook page.

OpenUru

Rarified updated the crowd about the two Minkata shards: Prime, where bug fixes, GUI improvements and fan ages are given a last test before being sent to Cyan, and Alpha, where new ages and features are first tested.

More testers are always welcome, but keep in mind that (if you never visited fan shards) there will be spoilers for the ages that will be added to MOUL in the following months. Some of them will be added to Minkata Prime very soon.

In addition to opening new areas of the cavern, volunteers have helped in improving the game client. There has been a lot of work behind the scenes to improve stability and address the issues of introducing new age access that had not been initially designed for Minkata’s server.

For fan age bug reports, the best place is the #hood channel of the OpenUru Discord, or on the forum.

Fan Ages Touring Club

Korov’ev gave a quick update on the Fan Ages Expeditions he is hosting on the Deep Island shard, every Sunday at 11:00 KIT. Recently, they visited Elodea by Dulcamara, Gavster by Calena, Denkasen and Canyon by Sirius.

For April, the plan is to visit Shorah Pahts by Jhon J. Jaguar, Elsewhere by Denost, Lonirvan by Jhon J. Jaguar, and revisit Cathedral by DenDwaler.
More about the Expeditions (click to expand)
- After the expeditions, the participants will be able to share their observations in dedicated threads in the Guild of Writers’ forums (listed in the index). The expeditions are streamed (without comments), and the videos will be available for two weeks after.
- After the tour, those who still have the energy are welcome to Korov’ev’s Gahreesehn for some Wall training (send a message to #194197 for an invite).
- A gallery of fan Ages with some details is available on the Writers’ wiki. Setting up a Deep Island client can be a bit tricky in some situations; a quick guide is available in our Troubleshooting section.
Cyan and Mysterium news

Korov’ev reported some quick news, which we covered in a separate post.

And that was it for this month. Please consider donating to keep the Cavern open!

March ended with the CavFunding at 265% (CavCon 4.17) and the reserve at 252%. There were no extra expenses. Population was at 40,016 (⇑337), with 1241 unique visits. One very large donation that will help a lot with the next big update coming up!

The next All Guilds Meeting is planned for Saturday, May 1 (Leefo 9) at 13:00 KIT.

Until then!
3 April 2021
March 2021 All Guilds Meeting Summary
Here is the summary for March’s Meeting, along with the raw and cleansed chatlogs!

Contents
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7 March 2021
January 2021 All Guilds Meeting Summary
Here is the summary for January’s Meeting, along with the raw and cleansed chatlogs!

Contents
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3 January 2021
December 2020 All Guilds Meeting Summary
Here is the summary for December’s Meeting, along with the raw and cleansed chatlogs!

Contents
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6 December 2020
October 2020 All Guilds Meeting Summary
Here is the summary for October’s Meeting, along with the raw and cleansed chatlogs!

Contents
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4 October 2020
News roundup #9
- Virtual Mysterium will start a few hours from the time of this post! New guests have been announced (Russell Brower had to decline), and the schedule has been released (blue events are streamed on both Twitch & YouTube; red events only on Youtube; green events are discussion rooms on Zoom). See here for more info on how to access the virtual con.
- Jack Wall, in collaboration with Tim Larkin and Cyan, has re-released the soundtracks from Myst III, Myst IV, Uru, and Myst V through his record label. They are available for purchase digitally from iTunes, Amazon, and Google, and can be streamed on various services worldwide.
- A live Q&A was hosted by Philip Shane (The Myst Documentary) with Myst and Riven co-creator Robyn Miller.
- About three hours before the Opening event, at 15:00 KIT, Korov’ev will host an Uru Installfest on Zoom, demonstrating how to install Uru Live and the various shards.
7 August 2020
July 2020 All Guilds Meeting Summary
Here is the summary for July’s Meeting, along with the raw and cleansed chatlogs!

Contents
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12 July 2020