This summer, Akbar and Whyville's computer system was so overwhelmed by all the face parts being made and already made that it seemed to most folks that barely anyone got to make new parts. It even got so bad that rumors started to fly that only Why-Pass owners were allowed into the Factory -- which isn't true.

The question on everyone's lips is, Why? Why can't we get in? Why does it have to be this way?

The reason is, there are SO MANY face part designs in the database, our system just can't store any more. In fact, our computers are too overloaded right now, and that adds to the slowness you sometimes see on Whyville.

Just to be clear, we're talking about designs here, not the individual parts that people own. As long as ONE part of a design is owned, we have to keep the design itself around. After five years of Whyville, that adds up to 120,000 designs (!!!) stored in our computers.

Imagine having 120,000 emails in your email account... yikes!

Last year, we hoped that when face parts started to expire after 90 days, every day some designs would have to go away. When that happened, they would leave space for new designs to be made.

But here's the bad news: Not nearly enough face designs expire each day. While only around 100 designs expire per day, when the Face Factory is open, more than 2000 designs are submitted in one day!

Do you see how that's bad? If we can only replace every expired design with one new design, all of Whyville (and you can see how large our town is getting) can only make 100 face parts per day!

And that's why Akbar's Factory is closed so much. If we accepted any more parts than we do now, the whole database would crash. It's like trying to put too much stuff into a suitcase... if it's too jam packed, it'll burst open... and then parts get lost, salaries forgotten and nobody can log in to Whyville!

Okay, we all understand that -- but why is the turnover of parts so slow?

One big reason is that a lot of parts were bought before the expiration rule came into effect last year. These parts don't expire. We call them "non-expiring parts". Fact is, the City Workers were very unsure about having any parts that didn't expire. We knew that allowing so many of them would probably create a huge problem. But we also didn't want to upset the citizens who bought these parts before expiration was an issue. We hoped it would be fair to let them hold on to their original parts.

Right now, though, there are over 60,000 designs that might never expire because of these non-expiring parts! That's half of the designs that exist in Whyville!

Here's the deal: All the City Workers are trying to redesign the face part system, in a way that keeps the Face Factory open all the time, for everyone!

Problem is, these non-expiring parts make for a huge obstacle. We can't have both.

Now here's OUR question to YOU: What's more important to you? Holding on to these non-expiring parts, or having the Face Factory open more? If you have any non-expiring parts right now, would you give them up, so that the Face Factory can be open more?

Vote in this opinion poll on the Greeting Page!

For example, when the Factory isn't open, you could still use the design tool in "demo" mode. That means you'd be able to play with it and draw, but you couldn't save or submit what you've done.

Also possible: Akbar's Factory would be open all the time and you could save your parts, but all citizens would vote every week on which parts can be accepted, and only the very top parts would go on sale.

Tell us what you think of these last ideas in the BBS below!