ONE MILLION CITIZENS!
Yes folks, we made it! One million bright and shining stars in our sky, fishes in our sea, clams in our clouds and one million, you heard it right, one million fabulous, brilliant, hard-working and big-time fun citizens have passed through the gates of Whyville, manned by our intrepid and welcoming octopus.
(Don't remember the octopus? Look at the top of the registration page -- that fez-wearing octopod used to be center stage on the Whyville homepage, before you logged in, in fact)
To honor our one million citizens, City Hall proclaimed a day-long celebration of fireworks and goodwill for December 1, the day our millionth citizen arrived.
Coincidentally (or was it?), a tremendously strange weather system blew into Whyville on the same day, bringing with it one million clams in its bulging clouds. Due to precise meteorology and an unerring nose for clams, Giggler01 was able to provide us with clues to where the clam storms were taking place.
Each clam storm lasted a sky-busting 15 minutes. They rained more or less continuously for 15 minutes, then stopped, and started up again 15 minutes later at the next location. If you arrived at the right location in the 15 minute window of no storm, the hint page should have told you that no storm was happening at that time. But, if you returned 15 minutes later, you would get a clue for the next storm.
Congratulations to the many citizens who raked in the dough -- I hope you didn't feel too "clammy" out there in the rainy weather! Ha!
Wonder what a million citizens means for Whyville? Check out One Million: Did You Feel It? by Times Writer Penny305!
In other news, City Worker jen reports that one of our citizens helped us discover another bug -- turns out the CWs had forgotten to open up Getty ArtSets to everyone when the Museum was first opened! The very minute they discovered their error, the workers got online and opened up the game properly, so now all citizens can properly enjoy Whyville's newest activity. Phew!
Speaking of Getty ArtSets, as many of you have already discovered, the game also has a home: Getty Museum, now right off Main Street in Whyville Square! Check out its incredible beauty, and observe how the Square has experienced a nearly-overnight facelift!
Where did Kiki-iki-Riki's Tiki Tours building go to? Take a trip west of the Square, and you'll find out!
By the way, I'm curious how you folks make your way around Whyville these days. Time was when some of the City Workers envisioned everyone traveling from game to game "geographically" -- if you wanted to get to Myville from the Airfield, you'd head to the Square, then Whyville West, then to Myville. That was more natural when everyone landed in Whyville Square when they first logged in to Whyville. But I have a feeling most folks use the bus exclusively these days... how many of you have even seen the Square? ;-) Post in the BBS, discuss and think about it. Maybe there's a story in this; or maybe not, who knows?
Speaking of uncertainties, I don't know exactly when it will be officially announced, but let me give you a sneak preview of the news: Whyology is back! Coming in the new year, the Whyology Center will re-open with a brand new set of surveys, brought to you by real-life scientists interested in learning more about how you learn and why Whyville rocks! Keep reading the Times to find out more.
Check out all the new icons that are appearing in the Welcome Page! You have City Workers gumbytam and neutral to thank for them.
Some folks have written in to ask about the "categories" list they saw appear in Akbar's a while ago. Yes, that was a tool to allow you to search by face part description, basically, but it's not ready for publishing. The glimpse you caught was only by luck and accident -- but the tool is definitely in the works!
The latest Senate Race continues on in full heat, with about half a dozen candidates bustling about in the lead. One person even has more than 350 votes -- but it's still anybody's game, with another six days to go before we choose the top three candidates! So get your message out and make sure you (or your favorite potential Senator) gets heard by your fellow Whyvillians!!
Speaking of the Senate Race, where are Whyville's organized political parties? I'm pretty surprised to not have heard about anybody getting together in groups to support one single set of ideals. Where are the members of the Plot Party, who vow to get a home for every citizen, or the Clam Conquistadors, who believe that the more clams you have, the more power you should have in Whyville? What about the Newbie Coalition, who argue that every future activity in Whyville should be focused on improving the plight of the newbie... they might run their candidates on a platform dedicated to making donating to Grandma a requirement of getting the right to vote, and giving plots to all citizens who take on the responsibility of actively "hosting" at least five newbies in their homes.
You never know, the Electorate Party might even win -- veterans who believe that Whyville's representatives should be selected only by people who have been around Whyville long enough to truly understand how it works, and how it should work. In real life, people have to be old enough to vote, and they actually have to *register* to vote, so why not in Whyville?
You get the idea, right? I've heard of campaign managers and a few other folks supporting a single campaign, but there just doesn't seem to be much organization beyond that yet. Certainly no one's getting together to nominate a single candidate with the backing of a few dozen party members right off the bat. That's surprising, really -- a little organization would probably lead to an enormous jump in success for your candidates.
There's a power vacuum out there, and one of these days somebody's going to jump into it....
In the Trivia Hour on November 24, cobd was in the running for 800 clams when she missed the answer to his question! However, based on popular demand from the crowd, City Worker neutral awarded her with 400 clams. Also during the hour, rptgntlvr won 50 clams, fairykiya won 25 clams, and gold837 took home 150 clams in three installments.
Neutral said after the event: "Today's trivia hour went awesome, it was a big success. I got a different crowd, I prepared new questions. and the crowd was in the great mood. I spiced up the trivia with a variety of Whyville news (the Getty Museum is now open, Tiki Tours has been moved, and a new Whyology Center survey is in the works) and the kids loved it. I also asked lots of Whyville-related questions that I made up on the fly!"
There was also a Trivia Hour on November 20. The winners included homegirl5 and gold837, who pocketed 100 clams each, and lured and penny305, who helped 50 clams make their way to their respective ledgers.
Neutral remarked: "The highlight of the hour was the poll:
"Do you own a Why Pass?", which generated the following responses:
1) Yes = 6
2) No, but will = 11
3) No, and won't = 7"
Cheers for those folks who have and who are planning to get a lifetime Why-Pass! You lucky folks will be getting a number of great perks in the coming weeks and months. If you're thinking about making that precious purchase, think about soon rather than later -- the price of a Pass will be going up in the new year, so now is the best time to lock in a cheap price for that highly-valuable commodity!
Maybe next week I'll write an article about the HUMONGOUS difference between discrimination and racism. More importantly, the "conflict" between folks who like "goth" fashion and those who like "preppy" fashion is NOT NOT NOT racism. Learn the difference ASAP, because you are INSULTING those who face true racism on a daily basis, not to mention those who have fought against it over the past hundreds and thousands of years. Racism is discrimination based on race. That "preps v. goths" thing is discrimination based on fashion and attitude, and frankly it's just plain silly when compared to the struggles of such people as Martin Luther King, Jr. I'm not saying that discrimination based on how you look or dress is cool or fine in any way! It's not, absolutely, and the Reverend King would have agreed. But the word racism means something very specific, and too many people write into the Times to complain about "racism" in Whyville. I respect your concerns, but do not equate the two, please.
Okay, that was almost an article by itself... sorry for the rant, folks. :)
Finally, I THINK that the City Workers changed the search tool in the Times a few weeks back. Bigfoot tells me that you should now be able to search using "Boolean logic," which means the words AND and OR have a special meaning now. Try it out and let us know how it changes your searches!
What, it's Monday already?
Times Editor
