Noticeboard: AWTours seeking Language Translators

LINK: http://forums.activeworlds.com/showthread.php?t=15173

A nice feature of Blogger is the ability to see where my viewers are from; apparently I have them from all over the world. :)  Since that's the case, I figure that some of you may be able to help us out in AWTours... Urbane Chaos is looking for some help to translate helpful signs in AWTours to other languages so as to serve as many viewers as possible.  It's not a big job and would probably be nothing at all for someone who is fluent. :)

Full text of the request below:

 In AWTours, I've been working on a non-english speaking help area. I'm looking for people who could help translate two signs into different languages. We have a few languages covered already, but in order to best serve the community, I'd like to have as many translations as possible. 

Personally, I don't trust the translation programs for what I'm doing, as I've seen them make several mistakes in the past.

If anyone can help, that would be great! 

The signs read as follows:

The header sign:
__________ Speaking Visitors (Example, "German Speaking Visitors")

The information sign: 

Welcome to AWTours!

This world is dedicated to showcasing the best of Active Worlds.

If you need help in your language, either use the translator here or teleport to AWGate and ask a GateKeeper for assistance.

If anyone can stop by and lend a hand, I'm sure UC would appreciate it. :)

Tours - YOU are the Key to Retaining Newcomers

College has me busy busy these days, but in my downtime I've been able to read an excellent narrative by Urbane Chaos that detailed an encounter he had with a new user.  Unless you've been in some sort of cave or bomb-shelter, you've heard by now of the really great effort that Urbane Chaos and others have been putting into renovating AWTours; that effort has paid off as AWTours became the setting for U.C. and his tourist acquaintance, and the infrastructure for that tourist to become familiar with the Active Worlds technology as well as its community.

An informative location in the recently renovated AWTours world

By the end of the post we as readers had been challenged to "go the extra mile" for new tourists, many of whom may still be having difficulty achieving flight or leaving AWGate. The whole story was great and is the sort of hands-on experience that new users need to make any sort of word-of-mouth advertising successful.  It especially had me beaming by the end because this story read so much like a similar encounter I had a couple of years ago.  The circumstances were different -- I ended up spending an evening building with a tourist -- but the experience the same.  Read on, as we turn back the clock to the far-distant year... 2009.

Back For More

Hey everyone, and welcome to a rather late start to April!  I apologize for my extended absence, but here's to hoping that my Calculus test grade will reflect the time away! (Don't count on it.)  At any rate, that's in the past, so let's see what's been going on lately...

• The forums seem to be going through a pretty dry spell.  Events too.  If I recall correctly things are typically pretty quiet this time of year until late May when the summer crowd comes in, so that's no surprise.
• I did manage to sneak some time in to attend the town hall meeting last Sunday, which was held in SW City.  I was only there for the first 40 minutes, but during that time I got to share and direct some users to SW City Interactive and there was some interest in getting some SWI tours set-up.  That sounds like a good idea to me. :)
• I would like to get a new tutorial up, probably one concerning the ActiveWiki.  I may do that as early as tonight depending on my motivation.  I'm pretty drained from the Calculus test, to be honest.

And that's where I'm at.  Hopefully I'll get back into the swing of things soon.  Later!

Noticeboard: AWTours Meeting TODAY at 6pm VRT

Hey everyone!  Bach Zhaa will be hosting a meeting to get volunteers together for a new effort in AWTours world today @ 6pm VRT.

Alternatively, if you cannot make this meeting, you can post your opinions in this forum thread.  I myself cannot make the meeting, so that's what I will be doing. :)  I'll probably CC those thoughts over here as well later tonight, that will all depend on how much free time I have before my next class.

Later!

From an era gone by...

Rest Area - AWTeen 2557.556s 1160.247e 0.4a 269

As a caretaker in AWTeen world, I spent a good chunk of my time in 2006 designing and holding events to keep the world population entertained.  It was fun work and with a steady -- though small -- stream of new users coming into the world it was usually satisfying as well.  One handy device I quickly learned of after taking the helm with events was that older builds can be great fun to explore, and ended up making that my focus for a while.

At about the same time, pcnate of historicbridges.org was still active in AWTeen world.  In AWTeen, pcnate is infamous for his AWTeen Interway -- a massive undertaking that criss-crossed AWTeen with very well designed roadways.  The network focuses around controlled-access freeways that exit onto smaller roads as they approach points of interest.  The Interway was invaluable for builders during the cities boom in the mid-2000's, as it was a literal networking of our cities.  Back then, you hadn't really 'made it' until a roadway connected your town to the rest of the world.