Hey Guyz,
It's me again, Shelly1. As you all know I'm a Y-mail Helper, and recently I received a why-mail from one of the citizens. I think it should be brought to the attention of us all.
Have any of you noticed people just sitting in the middle of the Whyville Square or in the Pool Party, Playground, etc.? They just sit there, remaining inactive for hours at a time, and I do mean hours, sometimes full days, sometimes more than full days! I've noticed one person on, always in the same spot since I started coming back on. What's up with that, anyway?
Since that specific why-mail, I've noticed that there are several people doing this, not just one or two. I've never really paid too much attention to it. I usually just ignore the people like that and find someone who will answer me back. I didn't really pay attention to how long they were there until recently. But the person who mailed me offered an excellent point.
Why do people do this? People who do this are cheating Whyville and its citizens. It's like a free Why-pass basically. If they are always on Whyville, they never have to worry about getting stuck in the Waiting Room. They just have to make sure that their internet stays connected and they are fine -- they can leave the computer, come back and keep talking again. I'm going to refer to these people as "campers".
This is extremely unfair; there are many other people that don't have a Why-pass, myself included, that are being cheated out of our spot in Whyville. It is very unfair, and I for one think something should be done about it.
Think about it, these people are just clogging up Whyville and they should be punished, they could be the ones keeping you waiting it out in that boring Waiting Room reading the Whyville Times for the 17th time. I think these campers should be warned or punished. Something needs to be done! It is very unfair. What do you think?
Should these "campers" be punished or not? What do you think should be done with them? Should we let them off with a warning and leave it as that? I for one have an idea. It is as follows: " After a whyvillian has logged in, if they remain inactive for over a half an hour at any point in time, they should be automatically logged out." I think that is fair. I'll be posting this as a petition at City Hall. If you agree with me and are against camping out then please sign. If you have an alternative to this, please feel free to y-mail me, I'll include them in my next article if I get enough response.
For those of you campers that hadn't realized that you were doing anything wrong, please take this a fair warning. You know what it's like to be kept in the Waiting Room. Whyville a virtual town, not a campground, please do NOT use it as one!
Thanx,
~Shelly1~
Note from City Hall: An interesting and important point, as always, Shelly1!
That said, it goes to show you that even one of Whyville's most experienced veterans can't know everything about our town... the deal is, no citizen can remain "camped out" in Whyville for longer than three hours without being automatically logged out! Oftentimes, the heads you're seeing are the afterimages of people who enter a chat room and then leave. Your computer loads their faces, but doesn't register their departures, so you get stuck with them in the room. Sometimes you can clear them from your computer's memory by reloading the screen (a good practice to keep your browser from crashing, btw). And sometimes they just seem to stay there forever.
Thanks again for your letter, Shelly1!
City Hall
