UPDATED SEPTEMBER 23, 2004
Here is something I bet most Whyvillians don't know -- once a week, all the city workers get together in one place to meet and talk about Whyville, about how to make our community better, new projects (like the Mall and cool things nobody but cityworkers know about yet) as well as the concerns of our citizens.
It is usually quite an interesting meeting, with City Hall running the show and MediaWiz, mark, jen, Bigfoot, scyllaCat and sometimes even me (superid) all in attendance.
Well, something quite extraordinary happened in this week's meeting. We were all sitting around, as usual, trying to figure out how to keep our community financially sound while keeping our citizens happy, too.
Jen was saying, "Well, the best way for a Whyvillian to support Whyville is to buy a Whypass," while mark said, "Yes, but our citizens are more concerned about their vanishing face parts than buying Whypasses." And just then, City Hall jumped up and said, "I GOT IT!
If a citizen buys a Whypass, then they help us buy new and bigger servers, so why shouldn't those citizens have lifetime body parts?"
MediaWiz then said, "But Whypasses are sold by the month, so what happens when the Whypass is over, do you lose your parts?"
Well, I was listening to this, and pondering this hard problem, when ALL OF A SUDDEN, in a BLIND FLASH of INSPIRATION, it occurred to me: "Why not have a special Lifetime Whypass sale -- where if you buy a whypass, you will not only have a Whypass for life, but you will also have all your face parts for life?"
"A Whypass for life?" everyone said. "That is pretty cool -- but that would cost a bizzilian dollars." Mark, always the calculator, started calculating -- "let me see, a one year whypass costs $46.50 and lets assume our citizens will live at least until they are 100, and they are about 12 now, so multiply by 88 and we should sell a lifetime Whypass for $4,092 ($5,317 Canadian).
"No way!" everyone said -- and of course that makes no sense at all -- so I said, no, no, no, we want everyone to buy a Whypass right?"
"Right," they all said, "so let's make it really simple and affordable -- $20.00 USD."
"And let's not only give Whypass owners lifetime body parts, but also double the number of parts they can put on their faces, and double the size of their Friends List."
"After all, by buying a Whypass, they are helping us pay for our servers, and helping to keep Whyville alive and well."
So that is what we decided to do. From now on, any citizen can buy a lifetime Whypass that will include lifetime body parts, twice the number of items on your face, and double the number of people in your friends list.
Of course, as with everything in Whyville, keeping your account lifetime depends on your visiting Whyville at least once every 6 months, and having a Whypass still means abiding by Whyville chat and behavior rules. So, if you get banished or your account expired, your Whypass is gone too. We can't transfer it to another account for you. Still, we think the pros far outweigh the cons, so we are excited about our citizens having lifetime Whypasses, and we hope you are too.
If you are interested in knowing more about the Special Lifetime Whyville pass, you'll be able to get more information on the announcements page (right after you log in).
That's it for now,
Superid, signing off.
