Get to Know Your Neighbors!

We think it would be great if everyone got a chance to get to know some of the volunteers in the community, and to find out why they love AW so much.

This month we meet cyberjak1 who was recently recognized as GK of the Month and Allen Iverson AWTeen Volunteer of the Month!

cyberjak1

Courtesy of cyberjak1

Well I was browsing around the web at the time. Big into 3d art, building of 3d models, Chat, etc.etc. I came across Worlds Chat. and I loved it. Worlds Chat was a Program from Worlds Inc. ( former owner and founder of "AlphaWorld" ) Well after using worldschat for awhile I heard them talking about Worlds inc. making this new thing called Alphaworld. where you had a real 3d model instead of a 2d avatar to represent you in 3dspace. i thought that was great. So I signed up ( at that time it was free to "Immigrate into it as a citizen" )

How long have i been a citizen? well i first immigrated in late 1995. back when it was really a challenege just to get from point a to point B in alphaworld .

Well I had watched things progress over the years with alphaworld. both when COF bought Alphaworld and saved it from being shutdown by Worlds Inc. ( who was going to discontinue it and shut everything down, causing all the wonderful buildings to be lost ) and then again thru it's transition to the now ACTIVE WORLDS name. I've watched what the GK's do and thought. " ya know i've been here so long, and I've never really given back other then the later financial compensation to activeworlds , any benifit to the community" So I felt becoming a GK and helping new users learn to use the browser. as well as making that first impression that people see when they first try out Active Worlds, to be the best it could be. And even help older veteran users learn a thing or 2 that they might not have known =)

The main satisfaction I ever get outta being a GK is that wonderful feeling you get when you show someone something new and they love it. and they get all excited about how you helped them learn something new. I encourage people to explore and not just be pointed to "What's a neat place to look at" the more you explore the more you get curious, and the more you get curious the more creative you become when you finally get that Building Bug that everyone gets eventually. I've seen quite a few Wonderful builds made by people that i remember being just another everyday tourist at one time. ( kinda like sitting in the seat of Father Time. and watching the wonders of the world as they pass by you )

Well I'm a amature 3d artist. I built quite a bit in Alphaworld, since i find it more of a challenege to build in a world that i don't have control over the object path's selections of objects. Sure I could buy a world. And just go crazy making my own advanced objects and really blow some minds out there. But isn't creativity more shown by making things with what you already have? I say yes. And for those that think they have it rough now, they need to visit my History gallery ( telegram cyberjak1 for the coords ) and take a look at version 1.0 build .89 of the ALPHAWORLD BROWSER ( it's name at the time ) see it from when i started and how you did things then. you'd be surprised at how well you have it now a days with 60 fps on most area's ( best i ever saw back in the day was about 10fps if i was lucky hahah )

I challenge all new users to explore the vast number of public and private worlds for creative idea's and new way's to make things. And not to make just the old square box of a house. Get creative and build round structures. if you don't think it's possible visit my area, most of it is round structure's.

my last closing thing is this. if you choose to make your own world and get a world server. and your looking for objects. Look me up , i'm pretty good at modeling. I don't charge for the models, I just ask that you recognise me in some way ( Maybe a sign that says thnx cyberjak1 for some of our models in this world ) so that others may want me to make models for them as well. I enjoy doing it. even if it's frustrating to get JUST that right shape. =)

Allen Iverson

Courtesy of the AWTeen Caretakers

Allen, a council member in AWTeen, has helped with the world for awhile now with the Object and Avatars committee, and website committee - always completing more than his fair share. Yet in the past month Allen has been keeping himself busy with not only his duties, but projects that enhance everyone's visit to AWTeen. Like usual, he put together a huge compilation of objects; last month's theme being winter, everyone got a chance to get into the holiday spirit and try building with the new objects! But not only that.. Allen surpassed his expected duties and organized and hosted Holiday Fest. Those of you present at this event can most likely agree with me that we had a blast! Allen can always be counted on whenever we need something done. Thanks for all the things you do in AWTeen Allen - they definitely do not, go un-noticed!