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Apr 18, 2001, 11:59pm

Also, running a server can take up lots of bandwidth, slowing down service
for other users.

Apr 18, 2001, 11:59pm

Also, running a server can take up lots of bandwidth, slowing down service
for other users.

Apr 18, 2001, 10:02pm

Hello, I've heard a number of offers of free world hosting. I'm interested
in starting an IRC server. It will be a small server so it won't take up
much resourses. I don't care what the connection is as long as it is up
24/7. Any takers?


Alex
AW Cit DarkDude

Aug 2, 2001, 2:35am

Great post. It's all true

Alex Rawlings
DarkDude -- cit. 315386




"goober king" <rar1 at acsu.buffalo.edu> wrote in
news:3B5502C9.D0B5AC9C at acsu.buffalo.edu:

> There was a time in AW when COF actually had a presence in the AW
> Community. There
> was a time in AW when the concerns of the AW populace were actually
> considered before a decision was made. There was a time in AW when
> people would meet in a little world called The Transcend, and eagerly
> listen to COF's biggest announcements and plans for the future. There
> was a time when, rather than see a product that was full of potential
> get tossed aside like so much garbage, COF took it upon themselves to
> keep it alive, doing it "for the community".
> That was then; this is now. All the broken promises, unheard
> pleas, and unanswered
> concerns lie plain for all to see like an open book. Citizenships that
> were guaranteed to be free, abruptly changed to a paid system and
> unwittingly creating a caste system of haves and have-nots that would
> forever divide the community. Worlds like COFMeta, Atlantis, and
> WildAW, the "babies" of AWCI employees, now stand nearly deserted and
> devoid of life due to neglect. World prices skyrocket out of control
> without any prior warning or notification as the AW citizen base,
> mostly teenagers, scramble to find enough money for their dream world.
> Features appear in the software that only a marketing executive could
> love, as citizens' ideas go completely and blatantly ignored.
> Organizations that once thrived on AWCI support (AWHS, AWEC, et al) now
> stand in a state of dormancy, waiting for someone to help bring them to
> their former glory. Textures get changed without any notification
> whatsoever, forever changing, and in some cases, ruining the AW
> landscape.
> And all this because of money; a simple, desperate, constant
> search for money. While
> you were busy building virtual malls that no one would visit, you
> succeeding in disenfranchising the AW populace by raising world prices
> and changing textures without any input from your supposed "cherished"
> user base. While you were busy shaking hands with Juno and making their
> world, a man by the name of Cybernome left his post as caretaker of
> COFMeta (a world that *you*, AWCI, are supposed to be taking care of)
> because of the stress of dealing with the AWCI management, causing it
> to regress back to an empty, lonely world. While you were busy making
> Universes that soon flopped, your stock did a reverse split and you
> actually had to buy some of your own stock back! And while you were
> busy changing names and appointing Board members, your own employees go
> as unnoticed and ignored as the citizens they spend their daily lives
> helping and serving.
> There's a reason this letter starts with the greeting "To Whom It
> May Concern". It's
> a greeting that asks a simple question: Does this concern you? Do these
> things that have occurred over the years bother you? Do you think
> something should be done about them? If so, then why haven't you? The
> events that are described here, as well as many others, are all well
> documented, so it's not as if you didn't know about them. You are all
> perfectly aware of this buzzing community of people that has "suddenly"
> sprung up around your little piece of software, yet you chose not to
> address it. Instead of seeking to help nurture and grow this throng of
> loyal followers who have been with you since the beginning, you wish to
> try and lure in companies and businesses who might initially fall for
> the "revolutionary e-commerce/education/modeling/simulation/whatever
> software" routine, but soon discover it's nothing more than an
> elaborate chat room.
> If it's money you're after, why not look at what has and has not
> worked in your
> storied history so far. Virtual malls have proven to be completely
> ineffective, with at mart standing empty, except for the occasional
> tourist lured away from AWGate. Your precious Education universe, as
> well as worlds created for universities and colleges, lie empty and
> dead, never to be visited again. Even your most recent projects, like
> Nettazi, fail to draw in even a hint of revenue. On the other hand,
> mainstays like AW and AWTeen continue to draw in hundreds of users on a
> daily basis. Volunteers like Alphabit Phalpha, Brant, Bille, and
> countless others provide events and community services that keep people
> coming back. Even employees like Facter, Flagg, and Roland do all that
> they can to help make the community a better place, even if it's on
> their own time! And all of these things work for one simple reason:
> it's for the community! The community can make AW work!
> All it takes is turning around and looking at who's behind you.
> Will Juno care about
> AW's community and development? Will Nettaxi? Will NASA or the
> University of Santa Cruz or PCDJ.com or some other corporate sponsor
> down the road? When all is said and done, when all the deals have past
> and all the money has been squandered, we will still be here,
> supporting everything you do. Why? Simply because we have taken the
> time to invest in your product to its fullest. We are the ones who have
> committed to making AW the greatest place for people to come and,
> ultimately, spend their hard-earned money. We are the ones who have
> succeeded in keeping this company afloat, despite all the hardships and
> bad decisions. And we are the ones who can help you bring AW into the
> forefront, where it belongs; where it *needs* to be.
> But in order to do that, our voices need to be heard. We need to
> work together if
> you ever want to see this program break out of this cycle of
> stagnation. Your concerns must become our concerns, and our concerns
> must become your concerns. Only then, will AWCI begin to see true
> success, and AW will launch into the stratosphere.
> Still, the question remains: Are these your concerns? Do the ideas
> expressed in this
> letter, and echoed by hundreds of users before us, even register with
> you? Because if they don't, you've essentially told every single person
> who's ever bought a citizenship or a world or a t-shirt or a CD, who's
> ever started a community organization or a business in AW, that it was
> all for nothing. You might as well tell everyone to send you a check
> for $20 in the mail every year and never even come to AW at all.
> The community can help you, if you are willing to let it. Let us
> be heard, and
> together we can bring AW out of the darkness and into the spotlight
> where it belongs. Because *that* should be everyone's primary concern.
>
> Most Sincerely,
> Bob Rodehorst
> "Goober King" (#103935)
>
> ---------------------------------------------
> This is the letter I plan on sending to every single person on the
> AWCI roster.
> Whether you like me or not is irrelevant. Whether you believe AWCI has
> a right to ignore us or not is irrelevant. Whether you think this
> letter has a snowball's chance in hell of making anything happen or not
> is irrelevant. The only thing that matters is, if you agree with the
> statements written above, please show your support by replying to this
> message with your cit name and number. If you want, you can add extra
> weight to your "signature" by adding your real name, to demonstrate
> that you are a real person and not just some random number. In either
> case, the more people who sign it, the better chance of us actually
> being considered.
> So please, let's drop all of our petty squabbles just this once,
> and show AWCI that
> we can actually stand united as one for the common good. Because if we
> can't, then we are no better than the company we complain about. I
> still have some faith in my fellow community members. Don't destroy it.
>

Aug 15, 2001, 8:23pm

Why isn't there a vertical rotate? It seems simple enough. AW has a light
feature, but there isn't a vertical rotate? I realize that this has
probably already been asked for but is there any reason for this stupid
little problem?

Apr 18, 2001, 11:59pm

Also, running a server can take up lots of bandwidth, slowing down service
for other users.

Apr 23, 2001, 5:16pm

It's funny how off topic these newsgroups can get.



DarkDude
Cit. # 315386
[View Quote]

Aug 2, 2001, 2:58am

Why do all the companys I e-mail reply with a message like this? One that
doesn't really answer any of your questions and has that calm, I don't want
to offend you look to it. I say that everything goober has written is true.
Most of the worlds that used to be full and exciting are now empty and
lonely. Last time I checked most of the building in the world abc is from
1998. And while AWCom DOES listen to our suggestions about the software,
they ignore what the community of AW wants and needs to prosper. Lower
prices, more interesting, interactive, and up-to-date worlds, and more
organizations to bind the community together. The AW community is falling
apart and it's time to see if AWCom gives a damn about the people that use
their software.

Alex Rawlings
DarkDude
Cit. # 315386



"goober king" <rar1 at acsu.buffalo.edu> wrote in
news:3B620151.8BF4CCBB at acsu.buffalo.edu:

> It took them a week to do, but AWC has finally responded to our "To
> Whom It May Concern" letter. One response is from Flagg, and the other
> is from Mr. Rick Noll himself. Here they are, in their entirety. Feel
> free to respond as you wish. I still need to ponder this a bit
> longer...
>
> P.S. To those who missed all this, the original letter is in the post
> titled "To Whom It May Concern... [long!]"
>
> ------------------------------------------
> Flagg's response:
>
> Hi Goober King,
>
> Thank you for taking the time to voice your concerns regarding our
> Activeworlds product. We value all our customers opinions and
> appreciate the time and effort many of our users put in to help make
> Activeworlds the wonderful 3D environment it is today.
>
> I apologize that you feel yourself and other users have not been
> listened to, but I have to disagree as I feel we our listening to our
> community and addressing what we believe are there most important
> needs. At Activeworlds we get tons of suggestions/recommendations
> every day and usually respond to all of them with information regarding
> there ideas and what we can or can not do about them. I did a small
> search trying to find unanswered suggestions you may have sent in, but
> unfortunately I was unable to find to any. If you would like to take
> the time and outline for me your ideas I will be more than happy to
> respond to each and every one of them. We also have a suggestion box
> at http://www.activeworlds.com/products/suggest.html and though we do
> not respond to suggestions placed through this form most of the staff
> does read all the suggestions every week.
>
> As for the rumors that we only cater to corporate clients well that is
> just untrue. We cater to both the community and corporate clients and I
> would say it is about a 50/50 split, neither really get's more
> attention. We have added many user requested features and improvements
> over the years like whispers, telegrams, light sources, Direct 3D and
> many more. In addition 3.2 has some user requested features like
> skyboxes and software mode. (25% of Activeworlds users still use 2.2
> because they do not have a 3D graphics card). Of course our number one
> goal is always improving the Activeworlds product and that is what we
> focus on. Sometimes a release may be more corporate focused and other
> times it may be more community it is just the way it is. Our users
> suggestions come in much faster than our new versions go out and it is
> completely impossible for us implement every suggestion especially
> sense some of our users suggestions generally conflict with each other.
>
> Activeworlds has been around a long time now and it is enjoyed by a
> great many people. Activeworlds is what it is and we will keep
> improving it over time. For $19.95 a year, that's $1.66 a month I
> think we provide a very good product and I do believe the majority of
> our paying customers would agree.
>
> Attached to this e-mail is Enzo's response to some of your comments
> regarding the early days of Activeworlds.
>
> I look forward to hearing your suggestions and discussing them with
> you.
>
>
> Sincerely
>
> Tom Fournier
> Customer Service / Sales Manager
> Activeworlds.com Inc.
> 95 Parker St.
> Newburyport, MA 01950
>
> www.activeworlds.com
>
> *(PLEASE INCLUDE ALL PREVIOUS DIALOG IN ALL REPLIES TO ENSURE A FAST
> AND ACCURATE RESPONSE)*
>
> ------------------------------------
> ENZO's response:
>
> Dear Goober King and all the others who have signed his letter,
>
>
> I thank you for your letter and for your obvious concern about both AW
> and it's community of users. I think that I am at least one of many who
> share the privilege of being "Whom It May Concern". Allow me to first
> introduce two sites that hold much of the information relevant to why.
>
> http://tnlc.com/mauz/awhistory.html
>
> http://www.multimania.com/nmf/cof/events/meeting.html
>
> This meeting of course is the one where I say, "* E N Z O: if we can
> get 1,000,000 citizens by Sept 97we will NEVER have to charge"
>
> Please let me address this issue and some of the others you raise in
> your letter:
>
> I am sorry to say but that did not happen. We were not able to get a
> critical mass
> necessary to sustain ad revenue like many other sites did in 1997-2000.
> In the past year you have seen the implosion of so many "free" services
> and dotcom's. It was a reasonable and logical step to charge for
> citizenship while at the same time offering a free tourist mode to any
> who wanted it.
>
> As we moved forward from that day, it became clear that the idealized
> views we
> shared were not the only things needed to keep AW up and running. First
> there was the purchase of the assets from Worlds. Then there were
> licenses and legal bills. Then the bandwidth and servers. Then came the
> salaries for employees.
>
> Since beginning my work as consultant to Worlds Inc. COF was funded on
> credit cards
> and overdrafts. COF made just enough money to allow us to operate out
> of my parent's garage and keep our server up. Shamus worked for
> extremely minimal pay and his fiancé sold off savings bonds to finance
> his groceries. Ellen and I were never paid a dime. I had several side
> jobs to support the little shop we had going and we worked around the
> clock to make sure it stayed alive. Worlds was never able to pay us and
> instead we rolled the money they owed into an initial purchase bid when
> they went under. With the small amount we had in savings and credit
> cards we struggled to keep our end alive. When the owner of the world
> Atlantis, JP, came on board, he also put in his own money and never
> received payment. Several times we were running to the bank to make
> another transfer from savings or checking into the company account so
> that the checks we had sent out wouldn't bounce.
>
> We didn't do this with the knowledge that the coming years would bring
> about the
> dotcom revolution or that we would ever get any investment at all. We
> didn't do it to be rich.
>
> We did it because we loved AW and wanted to keep it alive.
>
> And that brings us to the Transcend and the now infamous meeting where
> we made
> promises and then supposedly broke them. Here they are as I recall:
>
> · We do have a newsletter.
>
> · We have worked to get rid of vandals
>
> · We have opened new worlds with new models
>
> · We have added models to the worlds already open
>
> · We have partnered with the users for content, SDK coding, events
>
> · We offer servers for a lot less than $495.00 some option at
> almost $100.00
>
> · There is a T-shirt
>
> And that brings us to the issue of charging. We were not able to bring
> the number of
> people to AW we needed by the time our cash reserves ran out. The
> choice at that point was close up shop, let the programmers go and let
> AW die. A paid citizenship made a lot of sense then and still does. I
> am sure if you do the math or compare AW to anything else, you will
> realize that it is well worth $19.95. I don't know about you personally
> but most people spend that on a movie and popcorn, which only lasts 2
> hours.
>
> Now I would like to address your concerns about the way we do
> business. AWCI does
> need to run as a business. There is no way around this fact. In order
> to stay alive and keep AW up, people need to work here.
>
> Somebody needs to answer support email, somebody runs the servers,
> somebody repairs
> and upgrades them, somebody needs to do artwork, somebody needs to
> code, somebody needs to make bots, somebody needs to make sure the
> lights stay on and the rent is paid.
>
> I will also tell you that although we began paying salaries to all the
> employees
> starting soon after that meeting, neither JP, Ellen or myself ever got
> a cent until January of 1999 when we got our first round of investment.
> Added together that is a period of 10 years fulltime (if 60 hour weeks
> and no weekends count as fulltime). No other employee, even the ones
> that love it just as much as we do was ever able to work for no pay
> except for Shamus and Lucrezia for which we were and will be grateful.
>
> To make sure all these things happen we need to grow interest in AW
> from the outside
> world. This means working with partners and projects that you probably
> don't care about. You may feel that things here are done solely on the
> basis of marketing or PR. That is your right, it is mine to disagree.
> Look at all the features AW has gotten since 1997. Some are:
> · whispering,
> · file transfer,
> · unique tourist names
> · avatar "fade out" effect
> · avatars in the main scene
> · mousewheel support
> · help files online only
> · speak and bot rights
> · built-in administration utilities
> · encrypted protocol, an SDK, lighting
> · fog
> · move and rotate
> · acceleration
> · higher cell data limits
>
> …and I name only a few of the most obvious. I have heard that 3.2 is
> ALL about corporate users because it includes firewall support. Don't
> any of you think some non-corporate users are behind firewalls? Don't
> some of us use NT and would like hardware acceleration that Microsoft
> doesn't support? Won't a software rasterizer help more than a few? And
> what about skyboxes and 200 meter vis? What corporate and educational
> users benefit from that? But do not get me wrong, our corporate users
> are just as important to us, and just as much part of the community as
> anyone else who uses AW. We will continue to add features both the
> corporate users and the AW community at large benefit from.
>
> I am also unaware of the "world server prices skyrocketing". In fact
> as far as I can
> tell if you buy the smallest world server we offer you renew it at
> $10.00 a year! And that includes a FREE citizenship. How can you say
> the pricing is unreasonable? Ten dollars doesn't send even any kids I
> know "scrambling".
>
> All of us here want AW to be a better place. AW is not just about
> software, it is
> about people. The reason we work here is to make it happen. We enjoy it
> and we enjoy the community you all have created. We want you to enjoy
> AW as much as we do. We would be happy to work with you in any
> reasonable way.
>
> Sincerely,
>
> Rick
>
>
>
> Rick Noll
> CEO Activeworlds Inc.
> enzo at activeworlds.com
> ------------------------------------------
>

Aug 2, 2001, 3:04am

What news program would everyone suggest? I hate OE and I'm getting sick of
the little annoyences in Xnews. Any suggestions?

Alex Rawlings
DarkDude
Cit. # 315386

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