|
|
This is the first edition of our paper here in Postland. We are looking forward to your input. In fact we need an editor and reporters. Members of the Postland Community do your part to meet your neighbors
If you build here come join in the fun of being in a city office. Help the new comers with the builder welcome wagon. Soon we will need a tour guide maybe more than one here. Oh yes soon the opening and grand games to start this fall. Next Issue The story of Wolfen is it all true?
Your friend and Temporary Editor BRO
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Welcome too all our new builders.
Strez
CloudStrife7
Malfunction
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Meli and The AW Mafia married
Meli is now known as Princess Maggie
Oh Happy Birthday 28th July to Princess Maggie
Skyee Happy birthday
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Auto Building Prohibited
Immigration Officer: Welcome to AlphaWorld! The use of automated building tools to claim land in AlphaWorld is currently prohibited. I asked Roland why the prohibition and here's his answer...
"The problem is a lot of people have started using macros and Robo builder and things like that and leaving them running for hours on end to claim enormous amounts of territory... All those macros are really driving up the number of objects added to AW per day and the database has started growing really fast... It is starting to cause us problems on the server because of the size... Some people have been adding 5 objects/second for hours at a time... That's over 15,000 objects an hour!" "In the future, there will be a limit... The limit will be on the total number of objects that you can have built at once in a world (settable by the world owner)... As the AW database grows larger and larger, there are some difficult technical issues that begin to arise that will make keeping AW open to building more problematic... These problems can be solved eventually but it will take time... The ban in AW is to give us the time we need to solve them, and to prevent us having to close AW to building before we can solve them..." "Once building limits (what I call "build quotas" actually) are implemented, the limit in AlphaWorld is going to be very high (e.g. 50,000 objects or something like that) which will only affect the worst land hogs, which is the whole point."
"If people have any questions about it, they can email me at
roland@activeworlds.com "
Hi,
I just wanted to say "thanks" to everyone who has cooperated with the newauto-building ban in AlphaWorld so far. The building rate has dropped down to far more sane and manageable levels now, which gives us the breathing room we need to consider how to plan better for the continued growth of AlphaWorld into the future. I realize the ban was hasty and unclear, and I apologize for that. I will be the first to admit that it was a "quick fix" to address a growing problem that I haven't had the time to properly address due to the large array of other technical challenges currently facing AW. Daphne's post summed most of the important details of why the ban was imposed. I've noticed that some people have latched onto the number 50,000 that I tossed out as a possible future building limit, although that was just a wild example. I have no idea what the limit will actually be, or for that matter if there will ever be one (implementing building quotas is a sizeable project, and as with any other future feature it must float up to the top of the to-do list before it gets tackled). I should mention though that currently in all of AlphaWorld, out of the approximately 30,000different people who have built there, less than 50 users have built more than 50,000 objects, and many of them are no longer citizens. If for example we made the limit 100,000 then only about 20 people would be affected. Several people have requested that the limit be based on land area used rather than number of objects built - this is an interesting suggestion but it would be significantly more difficult to implement Vs. a system that simply tracks the number of objects built. Nevertheless I will consider it. Someone else was concerned that if and when limits were imposed, anyone who had built over the limit would suddenly lose a large part of their building. in AlphaWorld until they deleted some of their stuff to make room for new stuff, or their quota was raised.
I should also mention that the build quota feature as I envision it would of course allow the adjustment of quotas on an individual basis, so that special consideration could be given to certain individuals if it was felt to be warranted...I know people generally hate the ideas of quotas or limits of any kind; please understand that this is not a feature I particularly look forward to implementing. Keep in mind that however "virtual" AlphaWorld may seem, there are some very real and harsh technical constraints that underlie the implementation of such a large and complex system. My only goal here is to keep AlphaWorld running smoothly for the foreseeable future and to avoid any disruption of service that could occur if we don't properly plan for and accommodate these constraints.
Again, if you have any questions about the current auto-building ban, please
Feel free to email me at roland@activeworlds.com.
Sincerely,
Roland Vilett
Ps. if anyone is interested, as of July 17, 1998, there are now 27.6 million
Objects built in AlphaWorld. The server database is now over 1.6 gigabytes.
So, again, as in Real Life, a few can spoil things for the many... We evidently need to teach users to cover only as much as they can reasonably use for any projects they have in mind... If we can't change the "land baron" attitudes then we will all suffer the inevitable consequences...
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
There was an article in Usr Pages of the official Active Worlds WebPages about a guy called Agent Rookie who had spied out a cyber gang, if you will, that called themselves The Order. Also in the article was something about a Police Department developed AWPD for such occasions. I am interested in learning more about the AWPD and how you join or at least what it really is.
I would appreciate any replies, thank you.
-John
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I regret to announce the building contest scheduled to begin July 24 in
Bizworld has been postponed for a month or two. The owner of Bizworld, Lady Silvanna, will be moving from one part of the USA to another due to her husband being forced to switch jobs. Therefore she will not be available for the contest period.
Anyone who has moved a family understands what a major chore this is and how time consuming. Please be patient and wait for the next announcement of the contest's new starting date.
Thank you,
Jakknif
Tech director: Bizworld
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hi all, I'm trying to start a Charter Club for tours within the AW universe. The idea is to announce 3-4 tours a year that about 10 'globetrotters' can join by signing up in advance. It's normally more fun to visit new location together with others. These tours will be organized in cooperation with the local host. I'm now looking for:
* Anyone who's willing to join in planning the tours.
* Any world owner, owners of larger communities/locations etc that want
The Charter Club to visit them.
A little more info on a temporary WebPages:
http://www.geocities.com/WestHollywood/8382/charter.htm
Anyone out there interested? Mail or tg me...:)
Bille
-----oo-------------------------
Bille's World: http://home.sol.no/~bille/
Bille in AlphaWorld: Pink Village, 2222s 2222e 222
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
If you are at all interested in the topic of "Online Communities", you might find the following article of interest, and at the very least, thought provoking.
http://www.zdnet.com/icom/content/columns/1998/06/comm.resp/index.html:
"Community Means Responsibility Offline And Online." A commentary by veteran Internet analyst Angela Gunn, and published in print, and online in ZDNet's "Internet Computing" Magazine.
Inspired by the recent email list murder confession of Larry Froistad, and the list member's reactions to the confession, Ms. Gunn reminds us, "Every online community has a responsibility to develop standards of behavior." Perhaps there is something for us to learn from this landmark event?
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The AW Universe, a site dedicated to connect the worlds of the Active Worlds Universe has just opened. Created by TEMBWBAM and me, J King, the site will become a database for world travelers to find out information and teleprompts about the world that they are going to. Currently, there is only one layout for the database and, since the site just started, my world is the only one that has registered.
Eventually, there will be many ways for people to search the database, but nothing will happen unless world owners register their site at http://www.bizwrld.com/awuniverse/owners.html The site for world travelers to log in is http://www.bizwrld.com/awuniverse and we hope that world owners and world travelers alike will support this new venture.
Thank you.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A few nights ago the background to all the tree objects I see turned solid. I just finished reloading AW with a newly downloaded awb.exe and that didn't help. Anyone know how I can make the tree backgrounds become transparent again?
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Well remember much of the paper is taken from the AW news groups and if credit is not given sorry we will get better as we press on. The views held here maybe in no way a vote of approval by BRO or Postland.
The news is news nothing more nothing less. Power to the people who wish to be heard.
Send all mail and comments to bro@mail.usmo.com