Farewell Tesract

There comes a time in every City Worker's life when they must move on and away from this little town we call Whyville. They need to spread their wings and fly, do bigger and better things, and that time has come from one of our dearest City Workers, tesract.

Tesract announced yesterday on the BBS that he will no longer work full-time on Whyville. Many citizens expressed their grief at his depart. Tesract was a kind, dedicated CW, and he will be missed by many.

We will not stop learning, Tesract. So long, and you're welcome for all the fish.

It's okay to cry,

~Jelloroks

A Guide to the BBS: BBSer's Spill All!

If you have not already, I recommend reading part one of A Guide to the BBS here.

Today, Whyville Insider interviews BBSer's to get their opinions on BBS happenings. I would like to thank MadamTaz, natnat10, XkaylaX5, HotTrent1 and ooooopppp for taking the time to be interviewed.

When did you start BBSing?

MadamTaz: I started BBSing in 2012, when I was eleven.

natnat10:  I don't really have a good guestimate, but I would say 2008-2009. There are only a few BBSers who still regularly log on from when I first started. When I first started BBSing, there was only one "hidden" section for the few of us who discovered it. We only posted on human body, no matter what the topic was.

XkaylaX5: 2012. Gah, the glory days

HotTrent1: I discovered the wonderful world of the BBS in 2011 when my friend showed me.

ooooopppp: I started being the best pest in the BBS in late 2006 or early 2007, but I don't think anybody noticed until a few years later, lol.

What's your favourite section to post on?

MadamTaz: My favourite section would probably be Life in Whyville. There's a range of posts and they're the most relevant to me.

natnat10:  There are always fun topics in the Human Body section. My other favorites are School, Life in Whyville/Other topics, Music, Beauty & Fashion, and Emotions and Coping.

XkaylaX5: For Sale/Wanted, Emotions and Coping, and the Human Body.

HotTrent1: My favorite section to post in is Life in Whyville. I have no favorite subsection. The section [Life inWhyville] opens up to business that can lead to millions of clams. Life in Whyville can also help people communicate about random topics.

ooooopppp: That depends; if I'm in character, I don't care what section it is, I'm just happy to derail any thread. Out of character, I actually enjoy discussing current events! Though no one can take me serious when I'm trying to make a real point, lol.

What are your biggest BBS pet-peeves?

MadamTaz: I really hate it when people do not even make an effort to use grammar. Yes, I know, call me pretentious, but it really irks me when people disregard basic grammar rules. Full stops and capital letters are REALLY basic skills, we should be able to use it. Seeing abused apostrophes makes me sad.

natnat10:  Sometimes I disagree with others' opinions, but arguments in interesting topics are my favorite.
Also, I despise the For Sale/Wanted section being more popular than the Life in Whyville and Other Topics subsections.

XkaylaX5: Jesus, posting unnecessary things, trolling (bad trolling), rude posts. Also re-bumping buying threads, like, you're not gonna get that.

HotTrent1: One pet peeve of mine has to be the trolls.They can be funny, but they're mostly annoying people. Something else that bothers me is when people lie constantly to seek attention. I also don't like it when people post in the wrong section. It's fine if it's something understandable that the thread is in the wrong section, it's annoying.

ooooopppp: The only thing that bothers me is that there aren't as many users on the BBS as there were years ago, or on any part of Whyville at all. So it's kind of boring now.

What's your opinion on trolling? Do you have a favourite or least favourite troll? Do you feed the trolls?

MadamTaz: I think trolling is okay when it's appropriate. I don't like trolls who make too many suggestive comments or post things which degrade others. It's not necessary and they should have better things to do. Trolls can liven up the BBS, so I think it's like "everything in moderation", in both senses of the word. My favourite troll would be Springtan; I'd laugh a lot at her posts. She had this thread about microwaving ants and the way that other BBS users responded had me in stitches. I don't feed the trolls because I can never think of anything witty.

natnat10: Well, usually when "trolls" post, I reply with a sarcastic or rude comment when in reality I find them hilarious.

XkaylaX5: ooooopppp is funny, but just a tad too funny. CAIR0 isn't a troll, but he's so funny. I don't think I feed them, but if it's funny, I'll reply.

HotTrent1: I should've read all the questions before I started answering. Oh well! Anyway, I think that they can be funny, but more often, they're annoying. Lemme put it like this: they're fun when there's nothing going on. My favorite troll is the Banjomann guy; he's decent. At first, I did feed the trolls, but I've learned to ignore it.

ooooopppp: I think it's funny that you ask me this question. Haha. No, I don't have a favorite or least favorite troll, and I do feed some of them; they keep things interesting.

Do you have any advice for new BBSer's?

MadamTaz: My advice would be to not throw a party for yourself and spam it all over the BBS. I did that when I first joined, and I swear most of the users hated me for months after. Also, try to use your grammar and punctuation to the best of your abilities. Think before you post; once it's out there, it's out there forever! 

natnat10:  Don't try too hard; everyone here is pretty welcoming and you can get used to the environment easily. The majority of us are accepting, and quite interesting people to get to know. Be friendly and you'll be loved.

XkaylaX5: Just don't be too needy or questioning. Just be yourself. Hit up the pinned posts, they're usually important and full of awesome information.

HotTrent1: My advice to newcomers: try not to be annoying. Be free to ask questions and everything, but try to get the grasp of everything before you go around and say something you'll "regret". Your first impression will stay, so make it good!

ooooopppp: Don't be intimidated by anybody. Don't let the bullies, or the trolls, or the rude/snobby oldbies bother you. Be active on the BBS and post often, start threads of your own and voice your opinions of things but be respectful of other people and their opinions, and everything will work out fine.

Well, I definitely got some interesting answers. Great minds think alike it seems. Until next time! Happy posting!

A Guide to the BBS

In the past few years, the BBS's popularity has skyrocketed. New categories have been added, and new Whyvillians have joined in the conversation. Here's what you need to know about the BBS, and how to be a good BBSer.

The BBS stands for Bulletin Board System. It's basically a forums board where you can discuss a myriad of topics with other whyvillians. Whyville's BBS is commonly used to debate, critique Times articles, buy and sell faceparts, talk about events in Whyville, ask questions, and more.

First of all, before you start BBSing, real the rules and guidelines here.

Now, those are just Whyville's rules. There are some unwritten rules of the BBS that you should know about too.

1. Please, please, PLEASE use proper spelling and grammar. Wen u tipe lyk ur 5 years old u aint gonna B very likalbe. We understand typos, and the occasional text speak is okay, but remember, you have brain cells, don't talk like you don't.

2. Don't overdo it with bold, underlining, colours, and punctuation marks!!!!1!!1 No one will take you seriously.

3. NEVER type in a light colour. (Examples of this: Cyan, yellow, etc.) You're hurting our eyes.

4. If you're gonna troll, at least be a good troll

5. Don't overuse emoticons.

6. Don't spam.

7. Don't bump your threads every five seconds.

8. Don't abuse the report tool. Don't try "deleting" someone's post, just because you don't like them. Most likely, their post will be put back up and you will be punished.

9. Know what section to put your topic in. A big example of this is the Current Events section.

Things That DO Go in the Current Events Section

• Nationwide or worldwide events (natural disasters, war, politics, etc.)
• Current REAL WORLD events that have an impact on many people

Things That DO NOT Go in the Current Events Section

• Birthday announcements
• Whyville announcements (there's an "announcements" thread in the section 'Ask the City Workers')
• Your local news
• Celebrity gossip
• Anything that fits into the "Life in Whyville" category
• "My (relative)(friend)(etc.) passed away"
• "i pooped"/any kind of trolling

Everything has it's place on the BBS, and if you commonly misplace your threads, people will begin to resent you.

10. Don't bring up old threads. As a rule of thumb, if it's irrelevant (an old Whyville announcement, a not-so-current event, etc.), if the last post on it was made 3+ months ago, or it's not on the first page, don't bring it back up.

and finally

11. Be kind to one another! (Wait, did I just steal Ellen's catchphrase? Whoops. Oh well, she won't mind).

In general, BBSer's are kind and accepting of newbies. If you follow the status-quo, you'll be joining in on the discussion in no time! Happy posting!

More BBS Updates!

Originally posted on: Tuesday, November 15th, 2011

So at the beginning of November, whyville city worker, Tesract, announced some more updates to the forums which include:

Paginated search results- More accurate search results

Quotes from "city hall" now appear correctly

Spellcheck for username searches- This one's kind of obvious. Everyone will spell their friend's username wrong at least once! I don't know about you, but I find it hard to remember hawtgirl132532. :P

Adjusted post length minimum to 1 character- Remember when you had to put "too short to be useful" or a bunch of spaces after your posting? After we got the updates, those spaces didn't work, so you had to put characters or codes. Now you don't have to do that. Your post can be as short as one character.

Post speed limits (3 posts / 2 minutes)- This is a good one to prevent double/triple posting and spam

Extra wide posts now get a scroll bar instead of breaking formatting- No more page stretches! Now we have a convenient scroll bar.

I would like to thank the city workers for implementing these awesome updates and for listening to our suggestions. (Tesract and Keine, I'm talking to you. ;D)

I would also like to apologize for my lack of posting on this blog. I've been busy and just plain lazy. My bad. :P