History of Stones N Rubber
The History of StonesNRubber
compiled by Sinha Hynes
The First Encounter
We start at the beginning, it was February 2009 when there was the first idea of having a place for statues. Before Sveta and me had a week as statues at Alter Labs, which was fun but a bit lonely... where is the fun for a statue without visitors to enjoy them?
So we – that is Sveta Takaaki, Janina Martinek and Sinha Hynes – started our first attempt on a small 512 sqm parcel main land. It was a mall with several vendors along the walls and between statue pedestals. From the start it was always me building the items, being the prim dominatrix.
There was also a desk with a statue pedestal for the information statue, similar to what we still had for several years in the so called "office" (a white marble pavillon). Not that we'd ever had a information statue, but the idea is always coming back to our minds...
After the mall was built we added some outdoor decoration, a bench, a small garden, a few trees and a street lamp. But a very few weeks later we decided that would be too small and we would need to move. It wouldn't be the last move, but we didn't know that yet...
Growing Big
So we opened the next chapter of sNr, looking for a affordable place and what to do with it. This time we could terraform the land to our needs. Still it stayed a bit flat... We found a nice place at Montsegur sim, around 10k sqm. We moved in, moved the mall as it was and Becky Baroque moved in as well, adding a small castle in one corner of the sim. We got a stonehenge like meeting place and with the time it grew. The mall was refurbished, added more vendors, a small zen garden in the middle and a new exit. We got a doll house for living dolls and a MD prison. A small aquarium was added later as well as some stables for two ponies.
And for the first time, we got a partner. Laura Eun of 24/7 restricted group moved in at the neighbor place. We shared the tp landing point together and she made a huge hill beside our "flat style" plot. We called it "Mount Segur" jestingly because of the sim name. She kept an isolation cell in the middle of it. Yes, RLV was coming along, we were just moved from 1.15 to 1.16a and JaneDoe Dovgal added a vendor for her RLV Renamer to the mall. We made good use of that item.
So mostly a year had passed and the sNr community was growing, before 24/7 moved out and we decided to keep the land for sNr. MD had released their pony and ballets boots that needs training and so we added a huge training ring for those.The sNr temple was proudly erected in the middle - it didn't have a proper use - but looked impressive :)
There was also a dolly factory to produce automated pretty dollies ready for shipping.
Moving All the Way
And the next move came along quite suddenly. I am not quite sure why it was, it might be that the Montsegur sim was changed... we needed a new home and found it in Ultimate Love. First time we got half of a sim, wootwoot. Wow, never knew before that it could be that huge with so much to build. The training track made it over to the new location, also the aquarium, but it was very much enlarged. And the pony stall grew to a small prefab building for 4 ponies. Mostly xenia and Hermine were using it, Innex was more into the puppy life. And since the castle was gone the owners got a small part of the sim as "theirs". ...
The Pony Way of Life
The next move, and what a luck we had, was half a sim again. One quarter was occupied by DStech and another one by the owner of the sim. Then we needed an owner because the old one retired. DStech took over one third and the rest for sNr. Again so much to build!
...
And suddenly we became a pony sim. That fact wasn't obvious right at the beginning but after some time, it became very noticeable that there were only Rubber Mares and staff in the stable and the rest of the sim got more and more empty.
So over the last years we became a pony sim even though the other items were never removed. But the barn became the center of life, everyone met there, ponies occupying their stalls, doing their work on the yard and curious visitors around tried to become rubber mares.
...
And again we got a new partner, this time Tai Yong Labs – TYL in short – which brought drones of all kind to sNr.
More Pony
But one sure thing in SL is the steady change of things. So often we were required to adapt to new situations and find solutions. DStech closed and TYL was on hold for a year before the closed as well. So it was about time to get some renovation done as we now had a full sim. In 2015 the old barn was removed and replaced with a new stable in a different look. It was more open and designed as center of the sim. It was made with a central place with seats and ponies stalls around it. Was... cause it was redesigned a bit again in 2017, separating the stable and the central place a bit.
Beside the pony side of sNr we still keep an open heart for everyone. So we have a rubber lab for some time and the aquarium is still around since the early days of sNr.
Anniversary
Incredibly we have reached the year of 2019 and still are alive and breathing. In April 2019 is a big anniversary party to celebrate our 10th birthday.
The Future
Sometimes one would wish to foresee the future but probably better not to try. What can we do for the ten year anniversary of sNr? First and foremost it will depend on the people. There will be ones who'll like to be restricted and locked, some who will like to restrict them and some in between, there will be toys, dolls, drones, mares, ponies and all kind of the other creatures one can see around. We need all of them, their support and their – I'll admit it – money. We, the founders of sNr – have spent several thousand of Linden Dollars and Euros as well as US Dollars for the support and wellbeing of the sim. All your donations always go to the upkeep of the sim, the last ten years as well as in future.
We are proud of the history of Stones N Rubbers, let's work on the future of sNr and keep the history of sNr growing!
Appendix: People of sNr
The history of sNr couldn't ever be complete without all the people who were part of the community for a while or for longer. Beside our visitors, ponys, toys, donators and other folks there are some people who are essential for sNr or have been for a while:
- Innex Wasp – as mentioned above one of our first operators at sNr with very good work
- Yan Swindlehurst – we started with just checking out her human bowling lane, since then she's a always returning and welcomed guest
- Alexander Chapman – our first ever visitor in sNr
- Thom Madrigal – spent a long time restricted at sNr as snail and was even the first snail in the aquarium
- Katti Aeon – once Stable Mistress and keeper of all the documents she was a great editor, sadly missing from one day to the other
- Lucy Schlesinger – not a real part of sNr, even though without her it wouldn't exist probably, she tought me all about scripting and always had a helping hand when needed
- Katinka Teardrop – my lovely pony sister who came to sNr when PPP stable closed in 2010. Without her sNr wouldn't be here anymore. I simply love her.
- curious Haven – the sweetest pony in whole SL, a bit shy but lovely
- pelz0r Resident – better know as Anna, she has started in sNr as mare and made it to Stable Mistress. Thank you for being a helping hand
- Hermine Foxdale – one of the first ponies and rubber mares, she really spent some time here before she went on to other things
- Sally Ruff – mermaid and our secret sim owner, the fastest rubber kitty of sNr
- devika Selona – owner of DStech and originally creator of some sNr scripts like the Mare Hearing
- Aoife Lawson – been in the stable managment since 2015 with a great help in handling the sim