Dear City Hall,
I have some questions to ask you.....
1. How do you become a Times photographer?
Times Editor: To become a Times Photographer, just send in pictures from Whyville to the Times. To take
screen shots on Whyville,
if you have a PC, look for a key on your keyboard marked "Print Scrn".
If you hit that key while holding down the shift key, you'll take a
"screen shot" of whatever is on your monitor screen right then.
Then, you just have to open up a paint program, open a new file, and
choose to paste. The screen shot will get pasted into your new file.
Now you can cut it down to a smaller size, etc. just like any
other picture. Don't add text, we usually prefer to deal with
that in the article (that way we can correct any typos!).
If you have a Mac, you have to hold down 3 keys to print the screen:
shift-apple-3. A file, usually called "Picture 1" or some other number
will get saved on your hard disk. Just open this file inside a paint
program, and you'll be able to do whatever you want to this image.
Now, if you want to submit your pictures to the Times, it's probably
best to write an article to go along with your picture. Send your
article, with the picture as an attachment, in a email to
times@whyville.net. And that's it!
2. I have heard that Whyville has switched to a better server but I have seen no changes. What's up with that?
City Hall: Whyville added a second server, which allowed us to move the database to one server and everything else (the chat serving, etc) to the other server. You may not be able to tell, but things have improved. More people can get on now. On average, 400 to 500 more people come to Whyville every day now than before, and more than 80% of these people don't have Why-Passes. Our computers are also more stable. It used to be that when we're busy, almost every hour, the load got so high we'd be close to crashing. Now things are much more stable and the site is faster.
It is just that SO many people want to get into Whyville that we still can't let everyone in all at once. If we sell a lot of Why-Passes this month, we'll be able to afford yet another server, and then things will get even better. But we all need to remember that Why-Passes can't stop, because then we won't be able to pay our Internet fees and we'll have to take these new computers back down again!
3. Are any new games coming to Whyville any time soon? If so, when?
City Hall: I'm sure you noticed the Why-Pox -- that was a Whyville kind of game, one we're very proud of because it got the entire community involved. The latest addition is the GeoDig Safari over at Tiki Tours, sponsored by Neo/SCI and run by McShale. Hope you're enjoying that!
We are working on plans for a nutrition activity (related to the Why-Pox), a complete overhaul of Myville and plots, and, sometime this year, a genetics program that will allow citizens to engineer and breed their own pets!
4. If a citizen has found a sponsor for Whyville, what should he/her do?
City Hall: If it's a suggestion, email ideas\@whyville.net. If you've talked with the possible sponsor and they've told you they definitely want to support Whyville, tell them to email us, and give them our company's homepage -- http://www.numedeon.com. You can also go ahead and email us yourself as well, to let us know they'll be contacting us (and to let us know how much you're helping!).
Times Editor: I don't know what City Hall thinks of this, but I think if a citizen actually convinces a company or individual to sponsor Whyville, they deserve a mighty big reward! Free Why-Passes for a year? Thousands of clams? Your name in lights? I don't know exactly what, but I know it'd be well deserved!
Thank you for reading my article. I hope City Hall and the Times Editor answered some of your questions....
alienman... [B][Y][E]
