Web Fed News Yearbooks - July 2002

THE OWNERSHIP OF NAMES

Last week I explained how our terms and conditions grant you ownership of your own planet. This week I want to explain how ownership works when it comes to names.

Since names are unique in Federation, then you do own your name. Of course, other people can use your name in conversation - you can't stop people talking about you! But you can control who uses your name in anything permanent, such as on a planet.

Memorials

It's quite fashionable to put memorials or statues on a planet, remembering friends who no longer play Fed. Or perhaps a mention of a current Fed husband/wife/lover/friend. But if the person whose name is mentioned has any objection, then the planet owner has to remove it.

Insults

We have also had situations in the past where a PO has used planet descriptions to say rude things about another player - the equivalent of scrawling insults on the toilet wall. That's not allowed, not just because insulting remarks made in public are against the rules, but also because you cannot use someone else's name without their permission.

Names After Death

In general terms, the rules about ownership of names only last as long as a Fed character is alive. If the character no longer exists, the name doesn't belong to the player any more.

However, there is a nasty little trick some people like to play following a DD. When a player dies dead-dead, whether by accident, or by suiciding in a fit of anger, spoilers sometimes like to grab the name by setting up a new character, to stop the deceased from coming back with the same name. I don't approve of this kind of maliciousness, and if anyone does find this happens to them, they can email me and I will retrieve the name for them.

Dormant Names

The final twist on the matter of ownership of names, is what about all those inactive characters? Well, if somebody wants to use a name which is already being used - for their character or as a planet name - they can ask me to look the character up. If it really is inactive; if it is not being paid for, and hasn't set foot in Fed for a long time, then I will zap the account so the name comes free.

If you have any name issues you want to bring up with me, or any questions about this, mail feedback@ibgames.com.

IGNORING PESTS

Sometimes people in Fed can be irritating. Yes, it's true - don't look so shocked! We do occasionally get pests; people you don't want to hear from, but who don't actually break the rules and get themselves chucked out.

There was a discussion in Fed a few days ago about how to ignore such people. Helpful players were giving oh-so-complicated instructions for how to program various programs to block out messages from pests, but really, there is an easier way.

Use FedTerm. It has an ignore function. All you have to do is click on the pest's name in the player list, then right-click to bring up a menu, and select Ignore. Hey presto! You won't see any comm, XT or TB messages from that person. The ignore remains in force until you log off, or until you decide you want to hear from the player again, and reverse the process. The ignore is not cancelled by the pest logging off and back on again.

There is no limit to the number of players you can ignore at one time, if you're in an unsociable mood - or if the pests are swarming. If you forget whether you are ignoring somebody or not, you can highlight their name and look at the menu; if the ignore option is greyed out, it means you are already ignoring them.

FedTerm's ignore function doesn't block out Say messages or Acts, but if somebody is being a pest in the same room as you, can you always leave the room. If they follow you and continue to annoy you, then they are harassing you, and you can report it by mailing a capture to feedback@ibgames.com.

THE CARE AND FEEDING OF GROUNDHOGS

We are starting to see an increase in the number of new players in Fed - thanks largely to the efforts of Flair, our Fed Evangelist (see below). This is something that all players would probably class as A Good Thing! New players means new people at lower ranks to do work for the people at high ranks. It means new people to talk to, interact with, have fun with.

If we are all agreed that GoundHogs are A Good Thing, then it follows that we should be nice to them. We should welcome their presence in Fed DataSpace. We should not do anything that might frighten them away.

What does that mean? It means, don't cause a ruckus in the Cantina. It means, don't have sex in the Meeting Place. It means, behave yourself when you are anywhere that new players might wander.

On the positive side, if there's no Navigator on duty to help new players get started, then your help will be appreciated. If you see a GroundHog log on, TB her to say hello. Offer to help her in her first steps in Fed. Tell her how to talk to you - using TB or XT. Show her to the office block, tell her how to get a permit, then where to buy a ship. Talk to her, make her feel welcome, pass on your enthusiasm for Fed.

Make her want to stay. We will all benefit!

Incidentally, if you enjoy helping new players then you might want to apply to become a Fed Navigator. You will find details about what's involved at http://www.ibgames.net/federation/fedinfo/nav.html.

DIESEL INVESTIGATED FOR INSIDER TRADING

Galactic Administration securities and exchange commission officials are questioning Diesel, owner of Chez Diesel on Mars, about irregularities in her financial dealings. They are investigating her sale of 3,928 shares in Clone Alone, the day before the GA rejected the firm's bid to take over cloning operations in the Galaxy.

When Diesel sold her shares they were worth 583 groats per share. Following the public announcement about Clone Alone's failure, shares fell by over half, to 236 groats. Investigators are probing whether Diesel was tipped off by the company's chief executive Waksai Three, a close friend who used to work as a waitdroid in her establishment.

Diesel denies any wrong-doing, saying it was just a coincidence that she happened to sell the shares the day before they plummeted in value, and was part of a previously established plan. She appeared on a holocast serving drinks in her bar, and chopping up ingredients for her famous pizzas, saying she wished everyone would let her get on with her work and stop bothering about trivial things like fraud.

In other financial news: Woodspring Auctions are the latest company to announce that there have been irregularities in their finances, and that far from making 732 gigagroats last year, in fact they made a loss of double that. In an echo of the collapse of energy giant Moreon earlier this year, Woodspring Auctions have blamed their accountants, Arson Backhander, for not noticing the problems sooner.

FROM THE POSTBAG: WHAT IS A SENATOR?

Ok, so this question wasn't actually sent in my mail, but rather passed on by word of mouth (or equivalent communicating (or ingestion) orifice) as having been a topic of discussion in Fed DataSpace recently. But "From the Comm Channel" doesn't have that snappy ring to it, does it?

So, however the question got here, it's here now, and we trusty know-it-all newsdroids can answer it.

Senator is an official rank, used in Fed for characters that for various reasons need to have a non-player rank. For example, Alsatian and Ashkellion are both Senators because they go out exploring the unknown, risking life and limb. Senators have a great little perk: auto-insurance. When they die, they are automatically re-insured, so they can never die dead-dead. So Al and Ash don't have to worry about their mortality.

Another example is a character called Inspector. He's a Senator because his role is to be used by people who have designed an official planet (for events such as Scavenge Hunt, or for holiday planets such as Christmas). Inspector is used to check the planets after they have been built, to make sure there are no errors. Since Senators cannot be spied upon by players, it means there is no chance of sneaky players getting an advantage over others by spying the planet's author as he, she or it walks through the planet.

The follow-up question, inevitably, is always "How do I get to be a Senator?" Answer: you can't. It is not a rank you can be promoted to, it is purely there as a tool, to be used when needed for an official function.

PUT YOUR SPYBEAMS TO GOOD USE

The Galactic Administration has launched a new program whereby loyal citizens of the Galaxy can report suspicious behavior seen over their spybeams, and help keep the Galaxy safe from its enemies. But opponents to the scheme are worried that this will turn ordinary people into Peeping Toms.

Operation TIPS - Terrorists Identified by Private Spybeams - will be officially launched next month. A Galactic Security spokesdroid denied that there was any risk to civil liberties. "Everyone has spybeams, and they use them all the time to watch each other anyway," it said. "We are already a Galaxy of Peeping Toms. All we are suggesting is that instead of spying on debauched sexual activities, the general public actually put their spybeams to some worthwhile use - to protect our Galactic Homeland."

An objector from the Interstellar Civil Liberties Union pointed out that the program would simply result in a flood of useless tips, which Galactic Security would be unable to follow up on. "They don't have the man-, woman- or thing-power to cope with the enormous number of plausible sounding accusations they will receive. An elementary knowledge of human (and alien) nature makes it obvious that people will use the program to accuse people they don't like, in order to get them investigated."

The GA's spokesdroid moved fast to scotch those concerns. "We're not asking for people to spy on people," it said, "but if they do happen to spot anything suspicious in the course of their day to day spybeam activities, we have given them a means to report it. We just want people to be alert and aware."

In an attempt to inject a little humor into the press conference, he went on to make jokes about the Galaxy needing more lerts and wares, but since Galactic Spokesdroids seldom have a sense of humor programmed into their circuits, the jokes fell completely flat.

REAL LIFE NEWS: SAVED BY THE BELL

Next time you curse a telemarketing droid who phones you up when you're in the middle of eating a meal, pestering you about buying a long distance phone service, remember this story, about the telemarketer who saved a life.

Leonardo Diaz is a mountain climber from Colombia. He was recently climbing in the Andes when he ran into trouble due to the weather. So he whipped out his trusty mobile phone and started to call for help - only to find that he had run out of minutes and couldn't make any calls!

Fearing this was the end, he settled down to die - when suddenly his phone rang. He answered it, and it was a telemarketing droid from the mobile phone company, who had noticed he was out of minutes and wanted to sell him some more.

He explained to the telemarketer that he was stuck on top of a mountain, in danger of imminent death, the salesdroid called for help and lucky Leonardo was rescued.

So calls from telemarketing droids are not always unwelcome!

Incidentally, I wonder if he bought some more minutes once he was back home safely...