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  AW News (march ->june 2023)
 
* AW : the end of the free public building worlds
 
* The end of a decade - a short overview :
 
In june 2013 , Rick Noll had announced that citizenship became free, and that there were no tourists anymore. As from then, everyone could build for free in the public building worlds. But AWI had already plans in 2013 for charging money for building.
* The first public building world that closed was AWTeen in 2015 , "due to abuse" it was said.
* Later , and 2016 and 2021 there came restrictions on bot use in Alphaworld.
* During this decade, the number of online users hasn't increased, so this formula of free building could not remain.
* During a community meeting in january 2023 , it was announced that there would be a "new concept", but it was not clear what would happen or when changes would happen. As a consequece, the changes happened suddenly and unexpected.

When you go into building mode in Alphaworld (=right-click upon an object), you can see in the object properties window,that you need to purchase building rights. After paying some credits, you can build for 24 hours.
Then this window will show a lot more information.

 

Traditional free public building will remain disabled
 
* On 26th february, building had been disabled in all the pubic building worlds during 3 days. Then the "new concept" has been applied. Traditional free public building will remain disabled. From now on (march 2023), everyone will have to pay for building.
 
* Public building worlds : "new concept"
 
Only 4 public building worlds have remained : Alphaworld, Cofmeta, WildAW, and Yellow. Initially, Winter remained a building world, but had gone offline a few months later. As the number of citizens has decreased, it is better to use only 4 large building worlds and bring the citizens together in these 4 worlds.
* Building in AWTeen was already disabled in 2016. Reason then was lack of good conduct of AWTeen (with constant change of caretakers) , and after abuse and vandalism in 2015/2016.
* There, Winter, AWReunion and America have gone offline. This is also due to the absence of the caretakers (Maxpoly,Ciena,Nursemom)
* However , a new building world will be launched , operated by an honorable community member. (more info isn't available yet)
World name
Size
Building status
     
Alphaworld P 32750 enabled , pay credits
Cofmeta P 1100 enabled , pay credits
WildAW P 3750 enabled , pay credits
Yellow P 2000 enabled , pay credits
     
AWTeen P 3750 only object selection
There p 2500 world has gone offline
Winter P 2250 world has gone offline
Mars P 2000 disabled
Atlantis p 1000 only object selection
AWReunion P 500 world has gone offline
America P 500 world has gone offline
Pollen p 500 disabled
Colony p 200 disabled
ABC p 100 disabled

 

* Object selection in certain worlds
 

* In some worlds, even object selection has been disabled. In Mars, Pollen , Colony and ABC , you can now only explore. Also in the world AWSchool, object selection is disabled, but this is because the world is under maintenance, Lensman is currently caretaker of this world.

* Fortunately, for the worlds AWFX , Uberpath , AWTeen and Atlantis, the object selection is still possible. This means that you can still see which object name has been used and who has built it.
* The world Uberpath
The "Uberpath" was assembled by Karten in 2011, but in december 2022, Karten has decided stop with the service, (as well as with world hosting and running his worlds) , so the ruling of the world Uberpath has been handed over to AW, including the uberpath itself and the download files. The world has been re-opened in march 2023 and the uberpath is available again for download.
* The restrictions and changes in public worlds
 
*1* The Action command script in not visible, unless you pay
* Right-clicking for object selection has been restricted : only the object name and description can still be viewed, the action command script is not visible anymore. But if you pay credits, then the action command script will be visible when you go into building mode.
 
*2* Picture urls disabled - Introduction of the U-Path
* All the picture url's in the public building worlds have been disabled, also pictures of url-links that still exist. But this has been replaced by the U-path . To be honest, this is a big improvement : there were plenty of error messages of dead -url links of websites that dont exist anymore. These error messages have gone. All the pictures that still load today are now part of the U-path , and these are stored on the servers of Activeworlds.
 
*3* Using AWG-files (object groups) has been disabled
* The use AWG-files (object groups) is not possible anymore in public building worlds. When selecting multiple objects, you could save them as an awg-file , so that you can build that object set elsewhere . The reason why AW did that is because they want to have more creativity instead of copying existig ideas. You can still use awg-files in private worlds.

When going into building mode in Alphaworld (=right-click upon an object), you can see the object trash1 has been used here. The original trash1 object is a lot smaller.
This is what you see after having paid credits.
In the action command script, the scale command has been used, and also the texture command.

 

* Enable building : You pay credits for what ?
 
*1* Paying credits for building
 
* Citizens that want to build in the public worlds, first need to purchase an amount of AW credits on the website of Activeworlds. The payment method is via PayPal.
* Each time when citizens wants to build , there will be deducted 5 AW credits from their total amount of AW credits. The building will be enabled during 24 hours in only 1 public building world of their choice. The building rights also include modify or delete builds.
 
*2* You pay additional credits for the use of V4-objects
 
V4-objects are object types that were introduced in AW version 4 and later. The V4 object types are movers, particle emitters, zones, cameras and cloths. When starting to build or move these objects, then a window will appear where you can accept or decline the credits that will be charged for building with V4-objects. The amount of credits that will be deducted is not the same than the credits you pay for "just building".
 
*3* Extra credits for building in a 2nd world the same day
 
Citizens that build in a second public building world during the same day , will be deducted 5 AW credits extra.
 
*4* Promotional actions
Sometimes, Activeworlds will offer promotional actions, so that you pay less than 5 credits.
But sometimes Activeworlds also offers "building with credits" at a reduced price. Especially during this first year when citizens are not used yet with this new concept. On the pictures, you can see that only 1 credits was deducted for building on that day, and only 3 credits for using V4-objects.
 
*5* Has building become expensive ?
 
The answer is : all depends on how frequently you want to build. If you build once a week, then you pay 52x5 = 260 credits on a yearly basis , which is less than 25 dollars per year. If you build more times per week and also use V4-objects, then you may consider buying a private world, that has a lot more possibilities : a p10-size world costs 32 dollars per year and a p20-size costs 63 dollars per year.
When moving or copying (=creating) an existing object, the screen will get darker and the AW program will ask if the credits can be deducted from the total number of credits on your account. You can choose "yes" or "no" (see small black window on this picture above).
 
When moving or copying (=creating) a V4 object, the scree will get darker and the AW program will ask if additional credits can be deducted from the total number of credits on your account. You can choose "yes" or "no" (see small black window on this picture above).

 

* The U-Path (User-path)
 
All external picture-urls have been disabled in the public building worlds. Citizens cannot view their own picture url-images anymore of their own builds ,even if they had uploaded these pictures to their own webspace. Now there is a solution: the citizens can restore pictures in the public building worlds (Alphaworld, etc) by uploading these pictures in the "U-Path"-section of the AW program. The pictures that you upload can be used in all the public building worlds. Also audio-files can be uploaded.
There is a seperate article to explain how it works :

(click to enlarge the image)
* What about the private worlds ?
 
* No "new concept" for private worlds
* In the public worlds, nothing has changed, you can still use external url-links or url-links from your own website.
* You can still use awg files (object groups), but you cannot create new object groups from the public worlds anymore in order to bring them into your private world.
 
* Down-Sizing existing worlds in no longer possible
* On 26th february, Chris has announced that as from now, private worlds cannot have a smaller size if those worlds have to be renewed.
 
* Community Meetings on 16th april and 18th june
 
These meetings were located on position 7204N 14901E and were hosted by Arsène (152438) and Chris (#290095)
 
*1* Restored picture url's
 
* Since february , all external url picture files have been disabled. The purpose is that all users put their picture files manually in theU-path that can be found in the tabsheet Notepad. (You need to teleport to a public building world to see that).
* For some builders, this is too much work, and also some builders don't return to AW to fix that. Various areas in Alphaworld have been "restored" by Chris himself : all the picture urls of SWCity , Horizon City, and also Imgur-files have been transferred to the U-path, so that the pictures (of still existing url's) remain preserved.
 
*2* New object properties search tool
 
* The object properties search-website of Tomas has been desactivated. This has been replaced by the search-tool made by AW (Chris) .As from now, you will find an "optimized" object property search (for 8 building worlds) by going to the AW Forum:
 
https://forums.activeworlds.com/read.php?7,368158
 
-> Type this in the chat (url directly from this webpage won't work).
When you enter the AW program, the url link for the property search is displayed immediately in the chat window. Then you will enter in the AWForum, where you can search for the builds.
It may occur that the link doesn't work: then you make the chat window smaller , so that a vertical slider appears in the chat window. Then you scroll up and the program will show the window above.
*3* The Alphaworld Landing Zone contest
 
-> Type this url in the chat (url directly from this site won't work.
* There is again a Landing Zone contest , in view of increasing the number of visitors to Activeworlds. You need to pay credits to build now in Alphaworld, but there are prizes for the 7 best participants : 1500 , 800 , 500 , 200 , 100, 100, 100 credits .
* Each participant can also describe the project in the forum
* The LZ area will also need information about paying credits if a citizen wants to build .
More info about the LZ contest can be found in the AW Forums.
Timetable for the LZ contest:
16th april : Start of contest + registrations
18th june : meeting
17th september : meeting +end of registrations
15th october : meeting
12th->19th november : first round of voting
26th nov -> 3rd december : 2nd and final voting
10th december : ceremony
1st january : new LZ will be ready
february : meeting about the new LZ
* DearHeart has passed away
 
DearHeart (#302667) has passed away on march 27th after a period of illness. She was an active citizen and also ran her own world.
 
* The world ThePatch
 
Her world exists since 2019 , and looked a bit like the world Leaves (that world existed until 2009). But in ThePatch, no sprite objects were used. Apart from real 3d models, she used for each plant two .png-pictures that she crossed by 90 degrees, creating a kind of 3d-plant without getting the impression of seeing a flat image.
The world has gone offline now, but her friend Dovestar (#278411) has saved a copy of her 3d world.
 
* Her buildig area in Alphaworld
 
Dearheart had built also a really huge area in Alphaworld in the same style of building as her world ThePatch (between 2016 and 2018). There is a rainforest area, a desert area , a mountain area. You will be amazed by the variety of plants that she used. For that you will have to teleport to 260 meters altitude : AW 6979N 7330W 26.06A

 

The world ThePatch
* Mondo has passed away
 
On may 27th , Mondo (#209221) has passed away at the age of 75.
Last year, in 2022, he has participated with Alpaworld Landing Zone contest , and his build was chosen to become the AW Landing Zone for 2023. Unfortunately he has only seen his LZ for 5 months.
His project is located on position AW 6828N 14950E . It contains a huge area with movers (cars,planes, scooters,...), particle emitters , parks, and various buildings (cinema, teleport center, info area, aquarium, dance area, ..etc )
He was also an active citizen in game wolds like FutureRPG and dance parties.
The current AW Landing Zone built by Mondo
* Memorial areas for deceased citizens
 
There is a memorial area for both citizens in Alphaworld on position 4388S 3685E 180 , built by Lady Pippin
The former memorial site can be found on position 9118N 18865E and had been updated by Nursemom until 2021.
 
 
* New worlds
 
* KoToff
 
This p20-sized world is owned by Ko Toff (#111213) and it is focused on Linux and Unix users. Ko Toff is also an intensive builder in Alphaworld, where she has built a huge railway network.
 
* SecretSpace
 
This p20-sized world is owned by Steve For Faith (+365534).
The world existed already from autum 2020 till autumn 2021 and is back online now. The content of the world is mainly educational.
 
* BetaWorld
 
This world is owned by Old Chinese Man (#427489) , and this world is still closed.
 
* ZoneOne
 
This world is still closed. Owner yet unknown.
 
 
 
 
 
World entry point of Secretspace