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Mar 21, 2002, 6:07pm

I find it very disconcerting that AW's management is contradicting itself in
these statements. Someone should write a follow-up letter to Mr. Noll (use
some manners, this time), and inquire about the exact meaning of this
phrase.

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Mar 21, 2002, 11:32pm

I don't care what AW's been doing - you still use manners because it's the
right thing to do. Would you reply if someone sent you an E-Mail calling
you incompetent and a complete idiot? Thus, on this particular incident
(I'm not saying anything about any other incidents), I'll have to side with
AW. The original letter was very rude and I don't blame ENZO for not
replying. Were I in his shoes, I certainly wouldn't have.

Perhaps if we all worked on basic communication skills, there wouldn't be so
many miscommunications around here.

-Brant

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Mar 22, 2002, 11:23am

I still disagree, but I'm not going to argue anymore about this letter. The
reason that AW isn't listening to everyone is because the community is very
disorganized. Just take these posts - people are spending more time
throwing accusations at AW than actually figuring out what to do to get
these policies changed.

The entire problem started with that worldowners meeting that turned into a
complete disaster because the organizers didn't let everyone share their
views on both sides (as well as not ejecting troublemakers, but that's
another story). Everyone emerged from the meeting with no definite course
of action determined. Then there were a variety of worlds that threatened
to close down, but they remained just that - a variety of worlds that
threatened to close down, instead of a lot of people shutting down their
worlds for a day to make a statement. There were protests in the AWDebate
world, but just as things looked promising and people were discussing
acceptable solutions, host J B E L L told everyone that the meeting wasn't
being held right now and that he wouldn't let anyone use the world until he
was ready later, at which time most people had left.

In short, if someone had stepped up and started to organize everyone back in
January in a logical fashion, there would be a lot more people here now, and
you'd probably be paying somewhat less for citizenships as well as not
arguing about this subject either. I'm not saying that AW isn't at fault
for instituting these policies. A lot of the blame rests on the community
as well.

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Mar 31, 2002, 4:01pm

Quite frankly, Mod, I don't believe you. Until I personally see this list
of passwords, I'm not taking action in any of my worlds, nor would I suggest
that anyone else waste their time either.

Second, if you actually have, as some claim, downloaded and de-encrypted
files to your hard drive that do not belong to you, then you are in
violation of international copyright law. All it would take would be for
one owner of any of these 53 worlds to file a lawsuit, and you (or your
parents, depending on your age) could be out thousands of dollars, not to
mention spending some time in jail.

I seriously doubt the legitimacy of this claim. Until I see proof, I'm not
going to panic.

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Mar 31, 2002, 4:02pm

Why can't you reveal who's on the list? That, coupled with the capital
letters all over your message and subject lines, spells "HOAX" to me.

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Apr 7, 2002, 1:40pm

The report is listed on a certain government entity's website. Eep always
said that people who posted URL's with, or otherwise used those three
initials in this newsgroup, had their accounts temporarily disabled and the
posts deleted automatically by the server. Thus, while I know the address,
I won't post it here.

Anyone else care to take the chance and figure out whether this rumor is
true?

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May 4, 2002, 6:29pm

You obviously downloaded the beta version of the bot. As you can see at
shoemakervillage.org/programs.html and in the message that appears in the
upgrade notification, the latest version 3.0 is a beta version and may
contain errors - thus, in other words, download at your own risk if you like
to search out bugs. If you're dissatisfied with the current version, you
can retrograde to version 2.24, which is still available - just press "skip"
to reject the upgrade.

Next time, please read the webpages clearly or E-mail me with your question
before making a hasty decision to post messages like these.

-Brant

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May 4, 2002, 10:54pm

There is no code anywhere in the paintball bot that deletes score files, so
I don't know how your files would have disappeared. I also don't know how
the program would have upgraded unless you specifically pressed the
"upgrade" button - that same code is used in every program I've published
and nobody has complained of anything of the sort in some 50,000 program
runs in over two years, and I did investigate a lot of complaints about the
upgrade process.

But anyway, the more important question is don't you have any backups? The
first rule of computers is that you make backups of EVERYTHING - I myself
have three copies of my magazines, novel, and source code even though they
take up five CD's.

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May 6, 2002, 11:02am

I welcome all comments and suggestions for improvement :)

But isn't there already a function to do that? When you start version 2.24
now, it should display a message saying that there is an upgrade available.
The bottom part of the form displays what's new in the upgrade, or in other
words simply downloads and displays

http://www.shoemakervillage.org/pbwhatsnew.txt

when an upgrade is available. As you can see in that file, it says that the
upgrade is a beta version. Since the upgrade isn't mandatory, you should be
able to simply press "skip" and continue using the program as normal if you
so choose. Isn't the "skip" button what you were referring to, in a way?

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May 9, 2002, 6:57pm

That doesn't work. When you try to merge the file into the registry, it
doesn't recognize it as a registry file.

I believe that you have to put something in the top lines of the message
that explicitly declares it as a registry file, but I don't remember exactly
what.

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May 10, 2002, 1:22am

Back in January, when the prices were raised, I, like everyone else, took a
"wait and see" attitude. Even though Roland didn't respond to my E-Mails
about the negative number of objects in a world
(http://www.shoemakervillage.org/serverbug.JPG), I assume this was because
he's busy with 3.3 debugging. If you looked, you'll notice that a new beta
version was even released between 6:00 and 9:00pm, which means that at least
one person is working pretty hard (and late) on this one.

The feature lists in this version would even impress Eep, if he was still
around (which he fortunately isn't) - perhaps the price increases changed
the emphasis in AW's development to the user instead of the "corporate
partners." This release even includes improved security in ejections, which
I feel has been by far the most lacking aspect of the browser - this will
save AW (as well as myself, the peacekeepers, and every other world
caretaker) a heck of a lot of trouble in dealing with pranksters.

Did anyone else notice, however, that the feature list for 3.3 has been
growing longer and longer immediately before its release? It's as if ENZO
or Roland or someone else decided that everything important should be put in
version 3.3 before it's released. Don't look at me - I'm not complaining -
but it's a lot different than things have been before.

Unlike Goober King, I never had any doubt that AW would be around at least
for a while - my concern was what state the universe would be in after a few
months. That still remains to be seen, but the features in 3.3 are a step
in the right direction.

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May 10, 2002, 10:43am

You're missing two extremely important facts, Goober:

First, you said that these features were decided on in November, but then
again who says that the prices weren't decided on in November as well?
Obviously, the price increase wasn't decided on on January 2, and the
executives obviously took a long Christmas vacation, so that had to be in
the wraps long before then - in the beginning of December, or even November.
They announced the 3.3 feature list because it was good news, and held off
the bad news until the day before it would take effect in hopes of
minimizing the PR hit they would take and prevent the sort of riots that
occurred from lasting for two months.

Second, ENZO's statement about 3.3 being the last version was only included
in the letter in an attempt to appeal to users in terms they can understand.
As it is, the letter was bad enough with that justification - if they hadn't
included that statement, people would have gone more nuts. There can't be a
"last version" to AW unless the company folds - it's that simple. Any
company in technology that ceases their R&D will soon become obsolete as
technology changes. Thus, as long as the company's around and wants to
support its 3D technology, Roland (or someone else) will have to be as well.
If not, then ENZO knows very little about business or he plans to dump AW
and move into netbroadcaster.com or one of AW's other acquisitions.

[View Quote]

May 10, 2002, 10:49am

Well, I'm sure that ENZO researched the CARP issue well before acquiring
netbroadcaster.com and knew that the final terms would have to be decided
upon by two Mondays from now. What he couldn't have known was the February
decision that put the Internet rates so ridiculously high that most radio
stations (including netbroadcaster.com) will probably be forced out of
business should it pass because AW probably now inherits all of
netbroadcaster's retroactive royalty fees. Thus, unless there's something I
don't know about or a clause in the contract to the contrary, AW will
probably lose a heck of a lot of money that could have gone to 3D
development in this deal.

I can't fault ENZO for this one, like everyone else most likely in their
flames in reply to this post. It's just a case of poor timing and bad luck,
both of which have brought down many businesses in the past :)

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May 10, 2002, 10:24pm

Perhaps they are going to go bankrupt, but it's not going to happen anytime
soon - it'll be at least next year before anything of consequence happens.
Thus, since I'll still be here until July, I'm making the best of the
present. You should too, Goober. Myself, the last month has been bliss
because all the troublemakers have seemingly vanished, leaving a community
of intelligent (is that going too far?) people - look at this newsgroup for
example - at least in the last month, there have been very few flame wars.

AW's price hike did accomplish one important goal - it got rid of all the
idiots whose primary goal was to make everyone else's lives miserable - at
least for now :)

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May 11, 2002, 12:00pm

I don't fancy myself a businessman, so I won't comment on AW's stock and
what it means, but I'd venture that since AW's stock has been in the dumps
for years, daily fluctuations mean almost nothing.

Myself, I have no problem with the price hike - AW obviously needs to make
money. What I do have a problem with, and which is part of the reason I'm
leaving permanently in July, is the lack of tourists in the worlds, as you
said. The only reason that I liked the lack of tourists in the beginning
was that there were less anonymous troublemakers, making my job a lot
easier. Now, with AW 3.3's improved ejection mechanism, it's easy enough to
get rid of tourists who break the rules. Perhaps AW is making more money
out of the deal, and I don't doubt they aren't, but their extra money comes
at the expense of a lively universe.

[View Quote]

May 11, 2002, 12:22pm

Everyone below has been discussing how the release of 3.3 will affect AW's
user base, how many people will be willing to pay, and similar topics. I
would like to venture the suggestion that the largest reason for the severe
lack of community involvement recently hasn't been because of the price
increases, the elimination of tourists, or one of AW's recent mergers. The
real reason that nobody seems to care anymore is that Roland no longer holds
TechTalks.

When they were still being held, TechTalks provided a way for normal people
who use Activeworlds to communicate with AW staff, though way of Roland.
Granted, he didn't always have the best information to give everyone, but
TechTalks were THE way that citizens could communicate to AW staff at least
in a basic form. If you look back at posts from 2001 and 2000, you'll
realize how many were prompted by TechTalk topics or by Roland's "hinting"
at something or another.

Now, there are zero events that allow people to discuss aspects of the AW
browser and environment with a staff member. Furthermore, there are very
few events held by AW staff in the first place. Sure, there's bingo, but
generally the bots are just left to run and people play for prizes. Don't
say that normal citizens should organize their own events, because that's
not what I'm talking about. AW needs to have company representatives out in
the community in a visible fashion interacting with people, finding out
what's right and wrong, and creating an enjoyable environment for everyone.

AW's downfall will most likely not be due to price fluctuations,
technological obsolescence, or a poor investment, because it has survived
these problems for the past seven years. AW will fail when its citizens
don't care enough to renew their subscriptions because the sense of
community that defined AW is now gone. People will pay any price, as long
as there is a reason to do so, but right now, Activeworlds is doing an
extremely poor job of maintaining community interest. Unless action is
taken soon, there will be no reason for most citizens (myself included) to
stick around.

Reinstating weekly TechTalks, while not a complete solution, would be an
excellent starting point in reviving community interest.

May 11, 2002, 7:16pm

Well, while others are saying that 999's replacing Roland is a bad thing, I
like to think of it as the start of a new era. I disagree with Goober in
that while he says that Roland's leaving will kill the TechTalk idea once
and for all, 999's start is the perfect time to revive the event or start
something entirely new.

Let's think positive, people! Maybe someone should suggest to 9 9 9 that he
hold a talk like Roland did now so that he could have the idea in his mind
for later? Just a suggestion....

[View Quote]

May 15, 2002, 10:38pm

Well, in 3.2 that's not possible, because Roland implemented an encryption
algorithm that's different on each computer. Thus, you couldn't just copy
the aworld.ini information anymore.

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May 15, 2002, 10:39pm

Well, the "average" computer user could also guess the password on an E-Mail
account, or even easier, guess the answer to the hint question of a Hotmail
or Yahoo account, especially if it's your mother's maiden name - that sort
of information is easy to locate. If someone was able to delete 200,000
objects in AWTeen this way, they could easily steal a citizenship and change
its name :)

[View Quote]

May 16, 2002, 10:40pm

While I am not a beta tester for Activeworlds, nor do I have any desire to
do so after seeing some of the bugs that are uncovered (especially the one
that deleted property in the world server by accident), when I have a few
spare minutes, I sometimes look over the beta newsgroups and bug lists to
see the torture others' systems are encountering. I did so a few minutes
ago, and was pleasantly surprised to find that the documentation for the new
SDK was now available.

Those who know the kind of bot work I've been doing over the past few years
will attest that most of my time has been spent implementing features that
should have been in the SDK in the first place through long-winded and
inefficient use of existing methods. The new SDK includes a "Global mode,"
which while making my work on the Activeworlds Utility
(http://www.shoemakervillage.org/AWUtility.msi) obsolete, opens so many
possibilities for bot development in such a simple addition that it's almost
funny. These are the sort of features that should have been implemented
years ago.

Were tourists available throughout the universe at no extra charge, I would
say that AW is finally listening to its citizens instead of "corporate
partners." As of now, I'm becoming more and more convinced that perhaps the
price increase (by itself) wasn't such a bad move for us "lowly citizens" as
many feared. While I won't be completely satisfied until tourists return to
the Universe, this SDK is yet another step in the right direction.

Flames are welcome :)

May 17, 2002, 12:50am

You're all missing the point, lol. The point that I'll have to change the
utility is insignificant. What I'm trying to say is that AW is finally
implementing features that are of great use to its citizens that pay (now a
high price) for its software. As I said in the message above, perhaps the
price increase (if tourists were still allowed in the universe) wouldn't
have been the worst thing in the world.

[View Quote]

May 17, 2002, 8:59pm

Wow - huge is an understatement. The Ultimate Paintball Bot, for example,
is slowed down up to 10 times in having to query property and, search the
collection of objects for the object clicked on, determine the object
number, and perform the appropriate action and re-order the collection with
the changes to the object in question. Not only does that take an
inordinate amount of processor time, it also causes lag when playing
grenade-enabled games, and can consume up to 10MB or more of memory for each
world survey that can have upwards of 20,000 objects in a single
aw_query5x5() call.

Not only that, but people complain constantly that they can't click on
certain objects because they're out of the particular zone that is in
liveupdate at any given time.

If the object click event now returns all the attributes, this is the single
biggest advance to the SDK (and perhaps AW) since its introduction. Not
only will it significantly enhance the performance of existing SDK
applications and make obsolete a ridiculous amount of work-around code, but
it will also enable relatively new programmers to make their applications
deal with objects (a significant leap), which eliminates the need for
questions about querying I receive all the time. Heck, I even have trouble
getting the sequence numbers to work right when I program a new application.

Roland definately deserves a pat on the back for this one. Well done!

[View Quote]

May 17, 2002, 9:36pm

I completely agree with you, Goober, for once. In January, there were
things that, when satisfied, would make me continue to use Activeworlds even
at the higher prices. The first was privacy enhancements in the AW browser,
which are available in version 3.3. The second was an SDK that worked
without a ridiculous amount of workaround code.

Unfortunately, AW has yet to restore tourist access to all worlds. Until
that step is taken, I am still not convinced enough to decide to continue
programming bots, Caretaking AWTeen, or organizing community events past
August. If I can't invite those I know into AW without them being required
to use a credit card to see my buildings and other work, then I can't
justify the time I'm spending at these activities right now.

I sincerely hope that AW changes its stance on this issue before August. If
not, then I'll have a heck of a lot of worlds, citizenships, source code,
and other paraphenalia that I've acquired over the past four years to
auction off or give away as prizes before I leave - who knows, you could buy
some of it :)

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May 18, 2002, 1:01am

Looks like you learn something new every day - I hadn't noticed this one. I
wish I knew more about Windows API programming in C++ so I could write an
application for Windows using the C++ SDK.

As it is, I'll still experiment with some simple console applications in C++
until MrGrimm gets around to updating the VB SDK so I can add these features
to other bots :)

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May 18, 2002, 11:57pm

Everyone here claims to have obtained some "inside information" somehow.
Without TechTalks being held and Roland not even replying to E-Mails I (and
others) have sent him, I find it very unlikely. If you look above, there
are even people contradicting each other.

It's hard to believe that this version will be released by May 31, seeing as
how there's only ten weekdays left before that date. Plus, there's very few
bugs found as of yet in this version, while in AW 3.1 there were upwards of
50. I've been wrong in the past, however.

In short, unless someone knows something and can say positively where they
found it out, maybe it's best not to post rumors here that most likely will
not materialize :)

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May 19, 2002, 12:00am

Like I said above, everyone here is complaining before the browser has even
been released. When it's released, I'll make a decision, but I'm not going
to waste my time posting complaints about features I've never experienced
first hand.

[View Quote]

May 21, 2002, 9:29pm

Perhaps this isn't your friend's fault. Roland did make some changes to the
universe server today, after all - take a look at the bugfixes page. Maybe
if more people are encountering the problem, they could send an E-Mail to
support at activeworlds.com (not to Roland - he'll just ignore it) and ask
about it?

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May 22, 2002, 6:37pm

LOL - There's so many stories there that even I haven't had the chance to
read them all! But from the ones I read, they are extremely creative and
well-deserved of publication - those who are interested should check them
out.

I'm commenting becuase unfortunately, you forgot to add the specific thread
that the posts are in. As there have been ten new threads since, I thought
I'd add that the stories are located in the "The AWTeen Story - Mission
Impossable (sic) 1 and a Bit" thread.

-Brant

[View Quote]

May 24, 2002, 1:02pm

Hey Robbie,

Why not include a bot database as well? There could be two sections - one
for finished bots such as the Magzbot or Xelagot. The other section, and by
far the one that I feel is more important, would be for programmers to
submit source code so that future developers can save time in rewriting code
that everyone has written already. There's no real central repository of
source code for AW applications, and this would really speed up bot
development for both new and experienced bot creators.

Just an idea,

-Brant


[View Quote]

May 24, 2002, 1:56pm

Well, of course source code would have to be checked over. If a reviewer
were to miss something, then if someone experiences a problem they can
inform the site's developer(s) and let them know to remove the code in
question.

[View Quote]

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