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Burn2: ANIMALIA

October 6-15, 2023

Some Important Info: How and Why Things are Done the Way They Are

We are an "echo" of Burning Man, so there are parallels between us in the things we do, including having Burners fill out forms before they get out to the playa.

The Plot Owner Questionnaire is a REQUIRED form of all those who purchase plots for Burn2's ANIMALIA event this year. We urge you to read the information on this page and fill out the questionnaire at the bottom as well as you can. We cannot guarantee you the exact placement you want, but we will do our best to give you a great one!

The Similarities of Burn2 and Burning Man

Hopefully this will help you to understand the importance of the various rules and guidelines that are in place as part of our efforts to echo Burning Man. Included in this document are quotes from the Burning Man website as of the time this was written. They are used here purely for examples and information. Please go to https://burningman.org/ if you would like to learn more.

At Burn2

Only one person can purchase a plot (camp) - but up to 3 co-campers are accepted per plot. This year, we are encouraging some camps to group together into "villages" with "mayors". At Burn2's event, each plot purchaser is the point of contact and is asked to fill out questionnaires like this one to provide additional information that will be useful for the placement staff. During the event, a "mayor" can be selected to represent each group of camps ("village").

The plot owner is responsible for anything they or their helpers do on their plot, and are expected to follow the rules as set out in the guidelines, Ten Principles, Burn2 Code of Ethics and SL's Terms of Service (including the Maturity rating for the sims). All are expected to be familiar with these.

If you tell us you want to have events on your camp, we will be strive to place you well on the sims for lowest possible visual lag. If you provide us with a schedule we can try to place camps in such a way that they do not interfere with each other's activities too much. (This does not mean camps cannot have events going on at the same time - it means if we see there are overlapping schedules we may try to place you in such a way that there is as little interference as possible between the camps.) Regions have limits to how many avatars can be on a region at the same time - this is another reason we ask this question, so we can try to avoid "full sim" situations as much as we can.

If you do not answer this question accurately and we find that you have an active camp that will adversely affect others, we may move you to a more appropriate spot. While sound volume is not an issue at Burn2, lag levels are a concern. Avatars bring lag, and so when a region gets too crowded, things can stop working and people can't have fun.

"Active events" are: music, parties, performances, meditation sessions, readings, etc. Anything that brings multiple people to your camp at the same time.

**NOTE: Very active or "big draw" camps will not be placed on either the Man or Temple regions. This is an effort to avoid having "full sim" situations when people want to be able to visit the Temple or Man. Those sound camps will be placed in other regions instead. Let us know! Please show your communal effort in making this possible and be as clear as you can, to help us give you the best placement that we can.

HUBS (Humans Uniting for Better Sustainability)

If your camp is going to be part of a village, let us know. Tell us which of the other camps will be part of that village so we can make our best efforts to group your camps together, in what we call HUBS villages.

A village can be composed of two sound camps with complementary schedules, with a couple of smaller camps placed nearby.

It could be a large sound camp and smaller sound camp (they share a stage and schedule), plus art camp, and friend camps all grouped together.

Art villages are also possible! A group of artists who want their camps to be near each other. They could even share a schedule of activities or shows in their village for the public to know about!

A group of camps with people all in the same RL time zone.

All sorts of possibilities here!

We have the Builder's Guildelines. The Ten Principles are the same at Burn2 as at Burning Man. We also must follow the rules as set out by the Lindens in the Terms of Service. Not having read these things is not a defense for breaking them. Knowing these rules is YOUR responsibility.

Get familiar with these:
Linden Lab Terms of Service
Maturity Ratings
Ten Principles of Burning Man
Builder Guidelines

We do have a second set of rules governing the "low rules" sim, named Anarchy. This may sound fabulous on the face of things, but it does come with responsibility. If you have a problem with another plot owner, you must sort it out with them. We are all adults, and it is not the job of Burn2 staff or Burn2 Rangers to be your parents. How people use the "low rules" sim this year, will determine if we have it again next year.

New at Burn2: HUBS (Humans United for Better Sustainability)

In 2022, we offered camps the opportunity to manage their own schedules and stages through Burn2's website. Those who tried it, found it gives them great advantages: better control over their own scheduling, ability to cancel and reschedule. We're going to offer this again this year!

This year we are taking this a bit further. We want to emulate a system that was first used at BRC in 2022, called HUBS (Humans Uniting for Better Sustainability). It is a system that is designed for camps to partner up and share resources such as power, water, transportation. Placement has always tried to place camps together when requested, but HUBS camps who are partnering together at BRC to share resources get priority placement.

But what resources are there in a virtual world? Sound stages. Art installations can be shareable experiences for participants. Common areas for activities. Share the same schedule among participating camps. Shared schedules can feature not only music on the shared stage, but also activities on partner camps in a HUBS village, such as art installation shows or activities that bring Burners together. Camps can be those that are complementary in what they feature or their active hours, or they can be sound camps that are willing to share the stage and schedule resources together. Even a group of camps of people in the same RL time zone! All sorts of possibilities here.

This is our effort to "echo" Black Rock City just a bit more, but in a virtual way. Communal effort and civic responsibility can be magical!

Participating in a HUBS is not required. We just encourage this because it is such a Burnery thing to do! For a little light reading about HUBS, you can visit this page: https://help.burningman.org/hc/en-us/articles/4415023661204-HUBS-Humans-Uniting-for-Better-Sustainability-

So you want to form a HUBS!
Communicate with the groups or camps that you want to partner up with.

Decide who will be the contact for your HUBS. A HUBS is like a village, a cluster of camps grouped together that share resources.

Let us know! There will be a Plot Owner Questionnaire with additional questions to help us group your camps into HUBS villages if you want that. We want to give you the best placement we can!

IMPORTANT NOTE:
A HUBS village is NOT a 4096sqm (or any size!) plot that is shared among several groups. Each group needs to purchase their own plot in whatever size suits their needs. A large camp can be an "anchor" for the HUBS village, with other smaller size camps placed adjacent to it.
** As always, we will do our very best to give you great placements.

At Burning Man

When there is a "village" - a group of cooperating camps - a "Mayor" is selected for the village and is the point of contact between the village and the placement team. Individual Camps located in Villages are told to file a separate Placement Questionnaire to highlight mutant vehicle information and fire usage, and to request listings on the Black Rock City Printed Map, Burning Man Website, Playa Info Directory at Playa Info in Center Camp, iPhone applications and the Burning Man API.

It is not the job of law enforcement to police your lifestyle or inhibit self-expression. They serve as police like in any other city, which means they can also assist in search-and-rescue missions and in evictions where necessary. They also must address any infractions of the law that they find or that is brought to their attention.

At Burning Man, there is a basic sound policy, with "loud" and "quiet" sides of the city, and there are rules for sound camps that must be followed. Louder camps are placed along the ends of the city and can play until/unless community complaints persist. Maximum power level is 300 watts.

In the event of noise level complaints, the Black Rock Rangers assist and they are empowered to do these things:
a) volume check and mediation between camps;
b) volume check and a final warning on complaints;
c) disable the equipment.

Burning Man has many rules that must be followed - some are very similar to those at Burn2, especially those relating to the Ten Principles.
- Anything outside a camp is MOOP (Matter Out Of Place).
- Structures must be anchored to the ground.
- No commodification (any kind of changing of money).
- No lasers.
- If you try to smuggle something past the Gate, you may be refused entry, get no refund on your ticket, and can even be banned from future events.

Black Rock City is patrolled by the following agencies:

Federal Bureau of Land Management Rangers
Pershing County Sheriff’s Office
Washoe County Sheriff’s Office
Nevada State Department of Investigations (NDI)
Nevada State Health Division
Nevada Highway Patrol

In 2022, Burning Man developed and started the HUBS (Humans United for Better Sustainability) system. This resource-sharing system is intended to help camps plan and share resources to support Burning Man Project’s goal to handle waste ecologically, be regenerative, and be carbon negative by 2030.

You can read all about this here: https://help.burningman.org/hc/en-us/articles/4415023661204-HUBS-Humans-Uniting-for-Better-Sustainability-

The Questionnaire

Please Fill Out Accurately!

The answers you give us in the form below will help Placement to situate your camp in the best spot that suits your needs.