www.whyville.net Apr 3, 2004 Weekly Issue



luvya01
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I was recently reading the Whyville Times, trying to get answers for the crossword, when I came across an article that hipriter wrote titled "How to Deal With Grenouille and Akbar." Though I agree with the majority of her points, and understand fully where she is coming from, there is something that I feel I must bring to everyone's attention.

Hipriter states: "1. Start useful, constructive petitions, not whiny complaints," when she is explaining about how to deal with our town's face part manufacturers. Well, maybe some of us have tried... don't you think we have? I know I have posted many petitions giving my ideas on how to make Whyville's servers run more efficiently.

I have noticed that Whyvillians seem to refuse to read any petition that involves any thought and has detail. Most petitions that make it to the final stage are the "whiny complaints" that hipwriter refers to. How are we supposed to get our ideas known if Whyville only acknowledges those petitions that make it to this final stage? The well-written, constructive ideas never seem to get anywhere.

So now, here is the reason I am writing: I have a few suggestions. All you Whyvillians seem to care most about making parts whenever you want and keeping the face parts you love. The reason Whyville can't do this for you is because their servers get full; it's like a big computer. When your computer gets tired and has too many programs running, it crashes, right? Well, that's exactly what happens to a server. When the server gets too full of storing information and has too many people running on it, it crashes.

To avoid crashes, Whyville has to moderate what it can do. If you want to be able to keep face parts and make parts whenever you like, then you have to be willing to make sacrifices.

A few suggestions that I have for Whyville are:

1. Delete accounts that have not been used for a year or more. Not only do these accounts take up space, but they also prevent other people from choosing names that they want. There are so many un-used accounts on Whyville it's not even funny.

Editor: Actually, City Hall does this.  If I'm not mistaken, they even delete accounts that haven't been visited in six months.  To be specific, they delete all the *stuff* out of these accounts, which is what takes up the real space on Whyville's servers.  It's stuff, not people that causes the trouble.

2. Delete some of the game rooms. Every time I go to see the checkers, tic-tac-toe, and other game rooms most of them are not even being used. Why do we need so many places to play these games when no one is playing them anyway? Whyville could even totally change it and have a game of the month or something. Instead of having all the games running at the same time, they could have only one. More people might even play if it was this way, because it would kind of be like you're getting something new every month.

Editor: The way I understand it, those extra rooms are generated when you go there, then disappear when you leave.  Since each room is the same as the original, the only way to save space would be to delete the whole game entirely... would Whyvillians actually prefer to have more face parts than games to play with each other?  Hm, it's possible....

3. Let face part creators delete face parts that they know they will never sell. I know that everyone who designs must have face parts from when they were first starting that they will never restock, so why take up space saving these old parts that will never be sold?

Editor: Is this not possible?  Designers, please post in the BBS, because creators ought to be able to delete parts.  Maybe it's just not clear how to do it?

4. Stop accepting useless face parts. When something scribbled comes in, why does it get accepted? I agree with hipriter about Ahdieh's article, giving beginners a practice template would be helpful. I'm not saying that the beginners should be discouraged from trying, what I am saying is that un-readable or messy parts shouldn't be accepted, just politely told that the part didn't work that well, and to please keep trying, we wish to see you excel with your designing skills. Or something along those lines. I encourage you all 100% to keep designing, but I do discourage you from being offended if you're told to keep trying.

Editor: There was a time when Akbar was super-picky, but that made it sooo tough for new and very young designers to get to wear their own designs.  We figured that since a lot of folks like to just wear parts of their own making, we should only reject parts that really could cause trouble.  Post in the BBS your opinions on that!

5. Remove all unused things, like links and unused rooms (if there is any). For example, The Solstice Safari link, you can't play it anymore.

Editor: The Solstice Safari comes around twice a year; we try to delete other unused links and rooms when appropriate, but single rooms don't take up that much space, I believe.

6. Instead of just adding new games all the time, take out old ones when you put in a new one, but let people that took the time to play the old ones keep their salary up. I don't think this would be unfair to new Whyvillians because they would play the games that are around when they join, and these games will be gone at a later time when someone else join. If the olbies don't take the time to play the new games before they're gone they won't get the clams for it either. Whyville could also add an old game they removed as a new game, and then the olbies would already have earned the salary bonus, and wouldn't be able to gain from it, giving newbies a chance to catch up.

Editor: What do you folks think of this?  I know I'd miss the old games, and I think it's great to see sooo many games and activities in our town -- makes me realize just how much work has gone into Whyville!  Would the town feel smaller without some of our games, or would you like it more?  (Keep in mind, I don't know that removing games would help matters -- I do know that the more folks who are playing games instead of chatting, the better....)

I know all of you may not agree with these points, but it is just my opinion. Everyone has to be willing to give up something if they want to gain something.

Another way to get what you want is to buy a WhyPass. Buying WhyPasses give the Whyville workers more money to buy better hard drives and servers and stuff, and they can therefore can make Whyville a bigger, more efficient place.

Keep voting and keep writing. Don't overlook the detailed petitions. Read the Whyville Times more often. And most of all, keep having fun.

This is luvya01 stating her first Whyville Times opinion. I hope you enjoyed my rant. 
--Sorry if this article has made you mad or offended you in any way shape or form.--


Editor's Note: Thank you, luvya01!  I hope you didn't mind all my responses -- I appreciate your suggestions, and I hope my notes helped clear a few things up for everyone.  Keep thinking!!! :-)

 

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