CYBERTOWN DAILY NEWS

It's been a shamefully long time, but both my clubs are now restocked and I hope to keep them stocked too, because I need to clear some space in my storage!

The Quality Bargains store is stocked with my QB series and a few items from the amrta series, all at 75 CC a piece.

The FV Creations store is stocked with all sorts of things (first restock features mostly art) including a few freebies.

Congratulations Dixie *hugss* and thanks especially to Morning.star, without him there wouldn't be a CCA4 team. And thank you to the rest of the CCA4 team members, who worked very hard to set it up and pull it off !

How Do We Pay Our Subscriptions?

by jdb_educator

Cybertown citizens are asking how do we pay for Cybertown now that the telephone number is not working. CVN discussed this with the mayor and discovered a few recommendations.

Paying for your subscription using your paypal account is probably the easiest and most effective way. From what we understand, if someone uses paypal, the account is automatically credited and the subscription updated.

Wovencroft warns "I am not sure it is such a good idea for anyone to be emailing credit card information to any place, even IVN. Emails are notoriously unsecure and almost always transmitted in plain text. Might want to consider removing that idea from CVN." We did consider woven's request.Instead we will urge you to have a small amount secure card for use with internet purchases, IF at all possible. Sadly woven is exactly correct, emailing credit card info is dangerous, and using routing numbers even more so unless you create a separate account strictly for cybertown payments. We are very sorry that this seems to complicate life. Nothing is ever easy in our unsafe world of real life.

Citizens can also e-mail IVN with payment information (ie, credit card info, but be cautious. Best is paypal or snail mail your payment to the IVN address. At present we are unsure if IVN can do electronic transfers with routing info, etc., so we will seek to find out if that is a possibility.

Mayor stone told us "a number of people that have contacted me have not tried the e-mail, they have only tried the phone number". We understand that IVN is continuing to look into getting the phone service restarted but it has taken longer than we’d hoped.

Therefore it is clear to us, and we hope it is clear to our readers that you should start with an email to IVN at billing@integratedvirtualnetworks.com. And the mayor added "If you continue to have problems, you can also e-mail me at stone98ct@phazite.com " use subscription payment problems as your subject.

CVN thanks Beca for bringing this to our attention and stone_98 for discussing the issue with us. And thanks to wovencroft for his wise warning. We hope this story helps our readers.

Sponsorships to Cybertown!

by jdb_educator

A couple of days ago, a longtime friend and active cybertown resident wrote me:

"my access to ct is up soon, and i haven't heard from my sponsor, without a sponsor i can't return to ct, but i don't wanna leave ct :(, plz help if you can".

I sent off a couple of emails and found by reply:

"The best option and the one I usually give is to post on the Sponsorship Club board(http://www.cybertown.com/cgi-bin/cybertown/place?. I know there are those who regularly check there to see if someone needs assistance. I don’t know of anyone right now that is offering to pay for sponsorships but I know that there are those who will often consider it when they know who needs one."

Before I could write that to my friend, I got a quick note:

"i'm saved! i found a sponsor, but thanks for helping "

That intriqued me so I asked what had happened and discovered the answer:

"i just wandered into the fleamarket and i said 'anyone know someone who sponsors?' and then the sponsor (not telling the name) said 'who needs a sponsor?' and i said 'I do' and then i was sponsored"

That's Cybertown!

Avoiding Free Trial Abuse!
Security Helpful Tips

We all know that long term members have an issue with storage. Right now, there is only one way to increase the storage capacity on your member account and that is to add another nickname. However, a few members have accidentally initiated a free trial account when trying to add another nickname and increase storage and this puts them in danger of a Unified Ban Policy penalty for Free Trial Abuse.

Avoiding this is relatively easy. First, immigrate as per usual for a new account. Fill in the application, making sure to include a valid email address. When you get an email that your new account has been accepted on the Cybertown server, do NOT log in using the activation code. That will automatically open up a free trial account. Instead, go to the second step as advised here and contact billing@integratedvirtualnetworks.com, or phone IVN at 1-888-557-5611 (between 10am - 5pm EST ), and let them know you are trying to add a new nickname.

Billing issues are generally, though not always, answered by Vialle. Whoever replies will be happy to guide you through the next few steps of adding the new nickname to your account. It's only a buck more a month unless you pay for a family account, which is $99.95 a year and allows you have to one main nickname and up to 5 others.

Some people realize old members have come back under the free trial and try to help them re-establish themselves in Cybertown under the new name. But this isn't fair to either the old member or to IVN which operates this site.

Old members could be sponsored for up to 30 days by IVN if they follow the proper protocols. That is, if an old member who has been out of CT for at least six months contacts IVN and asks for a free month to evaluate a potential return, there is a possibility this will be granted, as long as the former member has no security record. This is the best of both possible worlds. The returning member not only gets a month in CT for free, they also get all of their cc back and get to have back all the objects in their BP and their storage units. These objects are often rares when a former member returns and could be worth untold riches if sold in the Flea.

Otherwise, if they try to hide under a free trial nickname, they will be banned for Free Trial Abuse once Security discovers them. And everything that was given them to re-establish themselves will be lost as a free trial ban is punishable by a permanent ban both on the new and old nicknames.

No one likes to do these kinds of bans. For that reason, returning members may also contact ABluEyedBrunette, our Security Commissioner, for help to obtain this possible free month.

Silhouette FAQ

Be sure to read this FAQ that covers the no-obligation Silhouette deal! We read it with interest, having already signed up/pre-registered! CVN Congratulates IVN on a well prepared FAQ! It helps a lot! No obligation means just that! Sign up NOW!

The link to the FAQ is: http://www.cybertown.com/SilFAQ.html

IVN/CT POLICY

Did you know? Any Cybertown citizen can purchase space in the top frame for things like events & special announcements (b'days, anniversaries, etc.) The current rate is $20 per week, $60 per month.

These are special rates for, NON-commercial ads and as always, all banners must be Founder approved before they can be uploaded. Advertisements for businesses are handled differently at different rates.

IVN/Cybertown thanks Holodoc, ND of Star Trek Hood in Sci-fi, who not only helped in the planning stage is also the creator of the first banner to take advantage of this new option!

This will not affect the cotm (Colony of the Month) banners or any that are already up there.

Interested parties should contact me at billing@integratedvirtualnetworks.com

A Shop For All Liquidation Auction