Dear Whyville,
I am a new writer and if this is actually published it will be my first. I am
writing to address a problem that has occurred here on Whyville. Lying. First
of all I would like to state that Whyville is LYING to us! I love Whyville
and all, but this problem needs to be addressed. You may think I am lying but
I'm not. It all started here:
I was trying to log onto Whyville but I got stuck in the waiting room
(again!!!) and I looked on the map... 187 people were in Whyville! 187
people!!! But hang on... I whipped out my trusty calculator and added all the
people on Whyville together... only 108 people were on!!! So I got all mad
and wrote this article. Why is Whyville lying to us?!? Is lying a part of
our education?!!? I think not!
Sincerely,
Magickal
Note from City Hall:
You made a very good observation, Magickal, but I promise that we are not lying to
you. We should really explain this somewhere on the map. Here is what's
going on.
On the map, the numbers only include the citizens who are in a room
chatting. All the people who are reading their Y-mail, checking their
ledger, or playing games don't show up on the map. And at any given time,
about half the people on Whyville are chatting and half are doing other
stuff.
So, the total number of citizens on Whyville is about twice what is shown
on the map.
As for how many people total can be on at the same time, it really depends
on what these people are doing. Some things are harder on the computer
than others. It's hardest if many many people are chatting together in the
same room. If people are more spread out in small groups, more people can
be on. Reading Y-mail is kind of hard too. If many people are doing their
mail at the same time, we're not able to let as many people on.
Sorry for not having a straight answer, but it is pretty complex! I promise you that I would never lie to you. (We really should add this explanation to the map somewhere...)
City Hall
