The Festival of MUDs
I decided to pass this bit of info along, it seems interesting...
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Heya. In case you don't already know me, I'm Kris, owner of AethiaMUD and Event Manager for The Festival of MUD.
Well it's that time of year again! At first, I wasn't gonna hold an event this year due to time constraints. However, after receiving a barrage of emails from people in the past few weeks, I've decided to go ahead and do one after all. Apparently last year's Festival of MUD (FoM) was more successful than I thought....
In case this is the first you've heard of it, The Festival of MUD is an annual event (this being the 2nd annual) in which people from all around the mudding community get together on a single mud server. While there, you can meet new friends, attend various seminars on topics ranging from recruiting good builders to intermud communications networks, discuss and debate various issues of the day, or just strike up a bit of chat with some fellow mud owners, etc. The all-day event will be covered LIVE via AMR, my mud's internet radio station! There will also be an awards ceremony broadcast live over the radio stream, recognizing outstanding MU*s, resources, and individuals in the mudding community. Some of the awards this year will be: MUD of the Year, Admin of the Year, Player of the Year, Coder of the Year, a creativity award, etc. Winners receive shiny trophies to boast on their websites....
If last year is any indication, this will prove to be a very fun-filled day for all who attend! If nothing else, you'll at least get a chance to meet some new people, and tell people a bit about your MUD (just so long as you're not a spammer hehe)....
So, when is it? I'm glad you asked! The 2004 Festival of MUD will be held this month on Saturday, May 29th, 2004, and will start at: 3 PM Pacific (6 PM ET / 11 PM GMT) and will run all the way until midnight (pacific time)! Nobody's expected to stay for the whole thing, of course; many people will make an appearance whenever their schedules permit. Some of us will be there the whole time, though. And, of course, this event is open to all members of the MU* community (MUSH, MUCK, MOO, etc), not just MUDs. :)
If you're interested in attending, or just learning more, please feel free to visit our newly-redesigned website at http://www.aethia.org/fom. Although it isn't required, you are strongly encouraged to RSVP (there's a form for it on the site). That way, you can ensure that your desired screenname will be reserved for you, and we'll be able to have some idea as to how many attendees we should expect. When you RSVP, you're under no obligation to actually attend; we understand that your RSVP simply means that you plan to attend if you can, time-permitting.
Although it goes without saying, there is obviously no fee or anything involved in attending this event. Like most of you who run your own MUDs, I'm not in this for the money....
Also, word-of-mouth is very important as well, since I obviously can't send out emails to every MU* owner out there! I'm contacting MUD owners and admins in hopes that they'll tell their players about the event, and encourage them to attend as well, and to tell other people about it, and so-on. We're hoping to have a really big turnout this year! And again, people from MUSHes and the like are just as welcome! :)
Last year, there were over 150 attendees at the event! We had a few first-time glitches, including a few server crashes (maybe it's because I was dumb enough to use an experimental codebase under Windows). This year I'm leasing a more stable server using RedHat 9 on a T3 connection, and using a far more proven and stable codebase for the MUD. With those things in mind, and with the overwhelming success of last year's event in our wake, my goal for this year is to break the 300 mark for RSVP's! That would break the all-time record for such an event, set last year when we had a little over 150....
If you'd like more information, including the RSVP form and a list of who has RSVP'd thus far, please feel free to take a look at our website at: http://www.aethia.org/fom
If you have any questions/comments, please feel free to visit the "contact us" form on the website. Either that, or you can just reply to this email (fom@aethiamud.org), and I'll get back to you as soon as I can. *beeeep!*
Anyways, thanks for your time, and I hope to see you there on the big day! =)
--Kris Craig
Owner/Founder of AethiaMUD
Network Chairman, The ICE-MAN InterMUD Network
Event Manager, The Festival of MUD
Posted by abermud
at 8:29 AM CDT