Late Night with Jules and Tom: 02/20/02
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| MC-Betty |
Hi everyone and welcome to Halsofts's
very first Auditorium event!!! |
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Who better than to have as our
very first guests than the owners of Halsoft... Jules and Tom. |
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Jules and Tom have a very long
history with VP but I shall let them tell you their stories themselves. |
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To ask Jules and Tom guestions
thru tonights show click on the "something to say?" button located
bottom lower right corner of the stage screen. |
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>>> right here |
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Tonight your MC's are Doc and
Gizmo. |
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Sit back, get comfy, throw popcorn
and send iny our questions. |
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Without further delay, please
welcome to the stage Doc and Gizmo. |
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Hi Gizmo |
| MC-Gizmo |
Thankyou Betty |
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Ok so where is doc? |
| MC-Betty |
i'll head out looking for him |
| MC-Doc |
im here im here |
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shhhh |
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im old |
| MC-Gizmo |
slow |
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oh so slow |
| MC-Doc |
sooo giz |
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do we get to find out who that
green haired lady is to night? |
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and the guy that EVERYONE in vp
knows personaly? |
| MC-Gizmo |
hah im thinking we do doc |
| MC-Doc |
awesome |
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are they here? |
| MC-Gizmo |
might be slow and old like you?
never know lol |
| MC-Doc |
i heard they were scared |
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rumour has it in HHB they wont
show |
| MC-Gizmo |
rumours are rumours |
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let the truth be known |
| MC-Doc |
its time |
| MC-Gizmo |
see rumours! |
| MC-Doc |
woah!! |
| MC-Gizmo |
Welcome Jules and Tom |
| Jules |
hey everyone |
| MC-Doc |
hey Jules and Tom |
| Tom |
hi |
| MC-Doc |
Halsoft....why? |
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where did it come from |
| Tom |
i'll take that one |
| Jules |
why? because it's there... |
| Tom |
when i was looking to start the
business ... all the good names were taken |
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anything to do with chat |
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i didn;t want to have some huge
long name |
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i already owned the name halsoft.com
from a business 10 yrs ago |
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so, what the heck :-) |
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later on, i was able to buy vpchat.com
and vpadult.com |
| MC-Gizmo |
And how did you get into it Jules? |
| Jules |
for me it it started quite a while
back... |
| Tom |
lunch at Guerro's -where the power
deals are done :-) |
| Jules |
I had a company in Austin called
Go Media |
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indeed :) |
| Tom |
oh but i'm skipping
ahead |
| Jules |
Excite bought my company in 1996 |
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and we became a remote office
of the california-based Excite |
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Jules we were charged with "doing
community" |
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not that we knew what that meant
at the time... |
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Go Media had been a graphic design
& development company |
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so I had to hustle
and hire engineers - that's how Tom and I met |
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he was among the first engineers
I hired for Excite |
| Tom |
i was hired as a networking consultant
... |
| Jules |
we launched a bunch of products
- tours, boards, chat, pal, clubs... |
| Tom |
then for another contract as a
database consultant |
| Jules |
oh, that's right, you were |
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I'd forgotten, lol |
| Tom |
then jules offered me a real job
:-) |
| Jules |
we were looking for a chat product |
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only a couple options were viable |
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and VP was definitely the most
robust, and the most interesting |
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so we licensed it - Tom was the
chat engineer from the beginning |
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which is why he knows it inside
and out |
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I stayed with Excite for 3 years
- left in 99. Tom stuck it out until the bitter end. |
| Tom |
i remember the day the service
was turned on ... quite exciting to see people show up and start chatting
! |
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yes, and i was there to pull the
plug at the end :-( |
| Jules |
it was! 2am on a Monday morning,
I believe... |
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Tom came up with the idea of launching
a vp community as a subscription service |
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he contacted me last fall |
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I was hesitant at first, but before
I knew it I was involved |
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I couldn't resist :) |
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and here we are |
| Tom |
my years at excite convinced me
it was the only way to go to provide a high quality experience |
| MC-Doc |
wow |
| MC-Gizmo |
very very interesting |
| Tom |
with no ads :-) |
| MC-Gizmo |
finally! |
| MC-Doc |
One of the most asked questions
is what do they do |
| Tom |
i was always uneasy working for
a place that was always trying to find ways to shove ads at people :-) |
| Jules |
and the ads obviously didn't make
chat financially feasible for Excite |
| Tom |
the "give it away and make
it up in volume" business plan |
| Jules |
right - worry about profits later |
| Tom |
those were the days :-) |
| Jules |
but hey, we ended
up with a great business idea out of it. Not to mention great software &
great community |
| Tom |
yes -- the community that grew
at excite made this place possible |
| Jules |
and we had a blast at excite |
| Tom |
even got to cash in
*some* of the stock before it crashed :-) |
| Jules |
thankfully |
| MC-Doc |
@ a nickle a share? |
| MC-Gizmo |
lol |
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since we are on the line of most
questions asked...here you both go |
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Question from perl script:Jules,
Tom I must ask, is your relationship strictly business? |
| Jules |
geez, I can't believe how often
I get that question |
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we are friends and we are business
partners |
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we are not married, attached,
or otherwise involved |
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this is where you agree, tom |
| MC-Doc |
lol |
| Tom |
oh |
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yes :-) |
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i'm married - to someone else
:-) |
| MC-Doc |
What areas do you each take care
of in Halsoft |
| Jules |
Tom does all the technical stuff |
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I do the community side |
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and we overlap on the web site |
| Tom |
well, we have several other people
who work on technical stuff too |
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i work on mostly the server and
the database and the network |
| Tom |
and jules and i argue over the
fonts and color in the web pages :-) |
| Jules |
lol |
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but I *like* that yellow |
| MC-Gizmo |
i give no comments on that subject
lol |
| MC-Doc |
Question from Moon711_ : Can you
give us an idea of how much you have invested in Halsoft??? Maybe we can
understand your pricing better then. |
| Tom |
jules changed my halsoft logo
:-) |
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a lot of people underestimate
the overhead of running a service like this |
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some people have set up a chat
server on their PC with a cable modem |
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but to run a service that is up
24x7 and has thousands of people online is a much bigger effort |
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our ISP bill is thousands of dollars
a month for example |
| MC-Gizmo |
Tom you were talking about people
setting up chat servers on their pc |
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Question from snickerz.:wat do
u think about all the other servers popin up..xchat.. dummy etc |
| Tom |
i think it's great |
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i've often used the anaolgy -
you can have a great restaurant without being the only place in town that
serves food |
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there is always a place for services
that offer different things to differernt people |
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however |
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people should think about security |
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i know of 2 people who had password
stolen by using the same name and password here and at some other place |
| MC-Doc |
Another question along this line |
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Question from kowboy : if you
own the rights .. how does X chat or there new name visual places manage
to have the program??? |
| Jules |
great question |
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The short answer is
they don't have the right to use it
Jules they're using the client, not the server |
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but the rights on the client specify
that it be used with a VP server |
| Tom |
they're not supposed to run a
server on their cable modem at home either, but i don't think it bothers
them too much :-) |
| MC-Doc |
There is alot of talk about TBH
being part of Halsoft, can you clairify that? |
| Tom |
before we get to that ... |
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i'll also mention about VP |
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which was originally developed
by a small software company in Israel |
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the lead programmer from that
company, Alon, is one of our partners |
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the guy who developed the original
VP server |
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we've got the real thing :-) |
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he also managed to find the long-lost
source code for the games, recently |
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so we look forward to working
on new and improved games now :-) |
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ok, TBH |
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that is run by a very smart guy,
Mike - Archon |
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we've met him |
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talked to him |
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but he never has been, and isn't
now, associated with halsoft |
| Jules |
another myth dispelled |
| MC-Gizmo |
finally the myth is gone. another
question once again lol |
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Question from Trevor:Is HS being
as successful as you had hoped thus far ? |
| Jules |
actually, I'd say it's successful
way beyond our expectations |
| Tom |
yes, it's doing well -- i hope
i can stop dipping into my savings account for expenses soon :-) |
| Jules |
we made 1-year projections for
traffic, and we're just about there after 3 months |
| Tom |
a crucial point for us is to see
if people renew after their first 3 months |
| Jules |
so yes, it's going great |
| Tom |
so far, it's looking very good |
| Jules |
yes, and so far people are |
| Tom |
many people have renewed already |
| MC-Doc |
Question from perl script : What
happened to Andy? |
| Tom |
for which we are VERY grateful
:-) |
| Jules |
nk |
| Tom |
andy? he works for us |
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he is working on a new version
of the VP prog |
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build 165 |
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i am using it now
:-) |
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will be ready for testing in the
next few days |
| MC-Doc |
Question from L-L-2 : how come
it says there over 14,000 people and we only see 1900 at the most |
| Tom |
Tracker will finally work in vpadult
:-) |
| Jules |
the 14,000 number represents members |
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all the people with member names |
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2165 shows now - that's the number
online right now |
| Tom |
actually, the percentage of people
online at halsoft is amazing |
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excite used to get 5,000 to 7,000
new names per DAY |
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there were literallly millions
of registerd names |
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21,000 was the peak online at
one time ever |
| Jules |
I remember that... I believe it
was another excuse for a party at Excite |
| Tom |
the people at halsoft use their
names more frequently, and stay online much longer |
| MC-Doc |
We have a few questions on the
2 servers can you talk a bit about that? |
| Tom |
many people at excite used names
once and never came back |
| Jules |
sure |
| Tom |
it's much differrent at halsoft
of course since you pay for the name |
| Jules |
you mean the adult server v the
family server... |
| MC-Doc |
Yes |
| Tom |
vpadult was NOT intended to be
"pervert chat" :-) |
| Jules |
Lots of people were tired of the
general atmosphere in Excite |
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no, it wasn't |
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and "family" doesn't
necessarily mean kids |
| Tom |
right |
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we intended something more in
the middle, for both |
| Jules |
the idea is that one is simply
tamer - not so much foul language, no sexual content |
| Tom |
vpadult was meant
to be "adult" like in a bar or nite club -- not necessarily XXX
pron |
| Jules |
and adult is meant to be looser
- no language constraints, fewer content restrictions |
| Tom |
porn, i mean :-) |
| MC-Doc |
Question from Pacer_ : Is ......
it possible to move the 20`s 30`s 40`s & 50`s to the adult server ......
????? |
| Jules |
actually, we put those rooms on
the adult server just today |
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they're still in family, too,
because that's a peer group that works on both sides |
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but now there's a place for those
groups where you don't have to worry about your language |
| Tom |
or avatars or gestures |
| Jules |
and if there are other peer groups
you want over there, just let us know. |
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We still take background submissions
- we'd be happy to add some to adult |
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send them to support@halsoft.com |
| Tom |
we intentionally put a barrier
between the two - no IMs -- but you can still use Tracker to be online in
vpadult yet watch for and talk to people in vpchat |
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and the next VP build will have
Tracker for vpadult too |
| MC-Gizmo |
Ok this is a good one... |
|
Question from anon:Do you both
have lives outside of VP?? |
| Jules |
outside VP? |
|
Jules huh? |
| Tom |
not lately :-) |
| Jules |
I pretend I do |
| MC-Doc |
Question from gimp : i have something
to ask..okay if we pay for chat why is it you get banned or gagged for cussing? |
| Tom |
i have a sailboat, try to get
out to it once a week |
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it's a good diversoion |
| Jules |
sometimes I get to go too :) |
| Tom |
we're not on gimp's question yet
:-) |
| Jules |
nothing like a little wind to
get away from it all |
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go for it, tom :) |
| Tom |
the main principle i like to talk
about it -- respect and courtesy for other chatters |
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the Guides only respond to complaints |
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they don't go looking for people
to gag and ban |
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and, we'd much rather people just
take it over to vpadult than give a penalty |
| MC-Gizmo |
you both were talking about going
out and such Tom you mentioned sailing...where do you both live |
| Jules |
we're both in Austin, TX |
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separate houses, of course :) |
| Tom |
two other employees live here
too |
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not surpirsing since the excite
office was here |
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andy lives in Ft Worth, TX |
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and Alon si |
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still lives in Isreal |
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but we all work as one company
- online on the Internet is great :-) |
| MC-Doc |
Question from Cali-11 : It would
appear that the Australians and NZ`ers are disadvantaged by the cost of
Halsoft here |
| Jules |
they are, that's true |
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unfortunately we can do a whole
lot about the exchange rate |
| Tom |
we tried to help by pushing the
U.S. economy into recession but it didn't quite work |
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i think you mean "can't" |
| Jules |
while I think it would be way
cool to have a NZ office, Tom just doesn't agree on my commuting expenses |
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yes, can't, lol |
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this is vp |
|
typos are mandatory |
| Tom |
actually, we're looking at ways
to have a local agent in NZ or AU |
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perhaps have special pricing for
customers in those countries |
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Canada too |
| Jules |
and California |
| Tom |
we've only been in business 3
months, though, and can't do everything at once |
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there's a differernt exchange
rate in California ? |
|
LOL |
| MC-Doc |
Question from kalana : is the
rumour about D/s and Goreans and alternate lifestyles having to move to
adult side true? |
| Jules |
everyone has to play by the same
rules - we don't single anyone out |
|
if the content is adult, it should
take place in adult |
|
but being Gor or D/s doesn't inherently
mean you have to move, no |
|
I've seen plenty of the above-mentioned
in here playing backgammon |
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nothing wrong with that |
|
or with general chatting |
|
the only issues that come up are
when it's adult content - and that's true for everyone |
| MC-Doc |
Question from Dawn : Do you think
people will renew when the policing of you guides is sometimes to say the
least militant?? |
| Jules |
Well, they seem to be renewing... |
|
everyone won't renew, of course,
but so far the renewal numbers are great |
|
much higher than cancellations |
| Tom |
we're only trying to spread the
load between vpchat and vpadult ... not trying to be militant or censor
people |
| MC-Doc |
Question from txPEPPER : why do
U still call it VP ? its Halsoft now |
| Tom |
the software is still the real
Virtual Places |
| Jules |
VP is Virtual Places - the name
of the software |
|
Halsoft is the name of the company
that licensed VP |
| MC-Doc |
Back to your "new" build
Tom |
|
Question from Sober : is there
a place we can download beta builds of the client? like the chattool on
excite |
| Tom |
there will be very soon - i'm
thinking maybe early next week |
| MC-Gizmo |
Question from jesl:Are there any
plans to have sounds in Halsoft Rooms? |
| Tom |
like voice chat? |
| MC-Gizmo |
I believe so. |
| Tom |
that's an interesting question |
|
there are two levels of voice
chat |
|
voice in IMs |
|
or |
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voice in the room |
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voice in IMs is easier and a lot
less load on the network |
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i'd be interested to hear from
people what they think |
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are voice IMs enough? or do you
really want voice in the rooms too? |
| MC-Gizmo |
while we are on the subject Tom.. |
|
Question from xx-Truth-xx:will
we ever have email or some way of leaving messages for friends when they
come online? |
| Tom |
the big 3 services from online
companies are email, home pages, and chat |
|
we're offering home pages and
chat |
|
email? that's a big job -- lots
of servers and such |
|
it's not something we have in
plan for any time soon ... |
|
but, we're working on new features
for web pages |
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like, FTP upload |
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will be coming very soon |
| MC-Doc |
Question from mickey316 : jules/tom,
are you all working on the lag situation, since we do pay for the service
now? |
| Tom |
lag is something that is affected
by many parts of the internet |
|
from your ISP through our servers |
|
we can only control a small part
-- the last leg of the network and the servers |
|
i can tell you that halsoft has
equivalent network capacity as excite had, and uses the same servers and
equipment |
|
that excite used to handle over
10,000 people online at once |
| MC-Gizmo |
Question from Hot_n_Hungry:what
Im getting from halsoft that i did not have with excite??? besides paying
for it |
| Tom |
i think the lag is much better
than at excite, for example, but a lot depends on your modem and ISP |
| Jules |
Well, we like to think you're
getting to participate in a much better community |
|
one with no bots, fewer troublemakers,
and administrators who pay attention to what's needed |
|
you also get web page space |
| MC-Gizmo |
ad free! |
| Jules |
right, and no ads :) |
| Tom |
how many times has a mug sent
an IM to you with A/S/L lately? |
| Jules |
lol |
|
Tom & I are focused 100% on
chat |
| Tom |
geez even I used to get those
:-) |
| Jules |
we're not spread over a dozen
other products |
|
we're focused completely on making
this great |
| MC-Gizmo |
Question from Earth-_-Angel:Do
you both ever chat in OUR rooms, or you don't dare??? |
| Tom |
i am online several times a day
using this name |
| Jules |
wander around and chat quite a
bit, actually |
|
but it's slow-going sometimes,
because I tend to get quite a few IMs... |
|
but yes, I like to rove around
and chat |
| Tom |
i don't always have time to linger
and chat, but i'll say hi and i'll listen to questions and problems |
| Jules |
and we encourage guides to do
the same |
|
less policing, more chatting |
| MC-Doc |
Anonymous Question : Will you`s
ever decide to make the names recyleable, for use when banned, deleted,
etc..? |
| Tom |
yes and no |
|
there are a lot of people who
reserved names and then never paid for them for one reason or another |
|
i'm thinking we'll start releasing
those after a month or so |
|
names that were banned, are a
differernt story |
|
if a name you like was deleted
by mistake, we can get it back |
| Jules |
and if you're on someone elses
account, and want your own, that name can be moved to your new account |
| MC-Gizmo |
how do they go about doing that
jules? |
| Tom |
yes, names can be moved from one
account to another without deleting |
| Jules |
You need to set up a new account
- then the old name can be transferred to the new account |
| MC-Doc |
Question from taylorj_4 : do you
have anything to do with web pages being taken down from other servers such
as geocities? |
| Tom |
in the past, when i worked for
excite, i sometimes reported web pages to geocities that were offering pirated
software or attack stuff like bots or viruses |
|
i've not had occasion to do that
lately, fortunately :-) |
| MC-Gizmo |
Question from reubix:What is the
probability of malicious programs being made for halsoft? |
| Tom |
the same stuff that
was used at excite could be used here |
|
however, difference is |
|
at excite, if we booted someone,
they got a new name and came right back |
|
here, we close the account |
|
that goes a long way to controlling
the urge to lauch a room kill :-) |
| MC-Doc |
Question from Techbabie : WHY
CAN"T WE USE THE MASS IMER? |
| Tom |
people have a love/hate relationship
with mass IMs |
|
some people simply HATE them |
|
what we ask is that people target
their IMs |
|
for example, if advertising a
paint contest |
|
look for people with Av Artist
or Painter |
|
in their ID |
|
that goes a long way to reduce
the bad feelings |
| Jules |
as to why, the complaints we got
vastly outnumbered the requests for the ability to use them |
|
so it was kind of a majority rules
sort of thing... |
| MC-Doc |
Its time to look at wrapping things
up, 2 more more member questions and maybe Tom and Jules can tell us where
they go from here |
| MC-Gizmo |
Question from stinkycat:what kind
of bussiness relationship does vp have with excite now? |
| Tom |
none |
| Jules |
nada |
| MC-Doc |
Question from Earth-_-Angel :
Will these meetings be an ongoing thing? |
| Tom |
if people find them useful, sure
! |
| Jules |
We plan to have a Late Night event
once/month... guests may vary :) |
| Tom |
i love to type :-) |
| MC-Doc |
So where do you go from here...Jules.
Tom? |
| Jules |
well, I thought I might go to
bed later... |
| Tom |
i'd like to take a moment to thank
everyone here |
|
i can't tell you how thrilling
it was to start up the service |
|
first few days, we wondered, will
ANYONE come ? |
|
then you started showing up |
| Jules |
stressful days, those were... |
| Tom |
it has been the most exciting,
gratifying thing i've ever been associated with |
|
except maybe for sex :-) |
| MC-Gizmo |
no comment. |
|
lol |
| Jules |
lol |
| Tom |
and i am deeply grateful to you
all for your support |
| Jules |
we really do care |
|
and we really do want this to
succeed - we're well aware that it's all of you making it so |
| MC-Doc |
Thank you Jules and Tom, you have
been great :) |
|
Nice to see the green hair gone |
| Jules |
and thanks for missing "West
Wing" to be here |
| MC-Gizmo |
Yes thank you both |
| Tom |
hey that's what vcrs are for :-) |
|
yw gizmo |
| MC-Doc |
Im waiting to see Tom with all
the grey hair next time |
| Jules |
lol |
| Tom |
lol |
| MC-Doc |
Good night all and thank you !! |
| Jules |
night everyone |
| MC-Gizmo |
Goodnight everyone |
| Tom |
goodnight |
| MC-Gizmo |
-cartwheel's off stage |
