Revived 3rd Rock Grid growing, building community

3rd Rock Grid, one of the oldest grids in OpenSim, is up to 26 named regions a month after its original founder, Terry Ford, brought it back online, but still has no date set for its official grand reopening.

As of this morning, the grid has 51 registered avatars, with 68 visitors over the past 30 days, according to its grid statistics page. Its total land area is equivalent to 141 standard regions.

That’s up from the three regions — Welcome, Hunter, and Our Town — that were online when the grid came back in July.

Hypergrid address: grid.3rdrockgrid.com:8002

“We’re still very much in the rebuilding stage right now and haven’t announced an official grand reopening date yet,” Ford told Hypergrid Business. “Rather than simply trying to bring the old grid back online similar to how it was, we’re taking the opportunity to rebuild and expand quite a bit of it.”

New areas under construction include the grid’s Rock -N- Roll City, beach and island areas, an industrial and warehouse district, neighborhoods, music-themed areas, medieval areas, and some science fiction areas, he said. Some are further along than others.

Ford, known in-world as Butch Arnold, originally founded 3rd Rock Grid in 2007.

After stepping back from running 3rd Rock Grid for personal reasons, it was taken over by a non-profit which eventually shut the grid down in 2024. Many of its residents moved to ZetaWorlds.

Ford also runs DigiWorldz, a separate OpenSim grid, which he has said will continue as it always has.

Recreating and restoring

Ford is also rebuilding the grid’s free content library from scratch, including male and female mesh avatars, clothing, skins, and hair, so that new residents have something to work with when they arrive, he said.

Ford also has 196 region backups from the grid’s 2021 change of ownership, but said in July that he wouldn’t use them without permission from the previous owners.

“Only a few old users have asked about the old backups, and I have directed them to ask for permission to use them,” Ford said, “but I’ve not been provided with permission to use any of the old content yet.”

The grid is now looking for builders, landscapers, mesh creators, photographers, content creators, entertainers, club and event organizers, promoters, community recruiters, and people to help with its social media presence, Ford said.

“I don’t really look at this as simply recruiting volunteers to do work for the grid,” he said. “I’d much rather build a community of people who enjoy OpenSim and would like the opportunity to contribute their talents, ideas, and creativity toward deciding what 3rd Rock Grid becomes.”

Anyone interested can email him at [email protected].

Two staff roles are already filled, according to the grid’s team page. Jericho Rain is grid manager, and Tinsel Silvera, who first joined the grid in the summer of 2008, is assistant grid manager. A community liaison position is open.

Merchants and events are further out. Ford said he has had a few conversations with merchants but isn’t pushing recruitment while the commercial areas are still being built, and there’s no event schedule yet, though live music and community events will be part of the grid again.

“There’s a lot of history behind 3rd Rock Grid, but I don’t want the rebuilt 3rd Rock Grid to exist simply because of its history,” Ford said. “The goal is to take what was good about 3rd Rock Grid, build on it, modernize where we can, and create a place people actually want to be part of again.”

Land pricing isn’t fully posted yet. The grid’s land page lists one live option — a 16,000-prim region for $8 a month — and the rest of the price table is still placeholder text.