{"id":114,"date":"2016-10-19T06:00:25","date_gmt":"2016-10-19T10:00:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tootsbook.com\/tootsbook\/?p=114"},"modified":"2016-10-18T17:15:11","modified_gmt":"2016-10-18T21:15:11","slug":"really-free","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tootsbook.com\/tootsbook\/2016\/10\/really-free\/","title":{"rendered":"Really Free?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tootsville.com used to be a pretty great bargain. Lots of players subscribed for under $5\/month, sometimes even less.<\/p>\n

Tootsville.org, though? It’s free.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

\"Tootsville.com
Tootsville.com charged almost $60 a year \u00ad\u2014 a little under $5\/month \u2014 for subscribers to unlock all the Very Important Toot (VIT) privileges.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

And I don’t mean, it’s \u201cfree to play,\u201d but you have to pay money to get stuff to keep playing. We’re not going to limit your time, or try to sell you more special items, or make you do lots of dumb stuff if you don’t pay us.<\/p>\n

It’s just plain, free. That’s it.<\/p>\n

We \u2014 the Violet Volts team \u2014 aren’t getting paid for this. Actually, the Fenn Pocock family is footing the bill for our server costs out-of-pocket, on top of all the hard work from our volunteers.<\/p>\n

We’re also not really keen on pop-ups and advertisements and things. That’s just annoying.<\/p>\n

Free. Really free<\/a>. That’s it. Free.<\/p>\n

So \u2026 why do it?<\/h2>\n

Well, partly, it’s a labor of love. Tootsville was an amazing game and really influenced some people’s lives. Non-violent, family-friendly games are hard to come by!<\/p>\n

And it’s fun!<\/p>\n

Plus, we get to build some cutting-edge technology to show off, which is cool.<\/p>\n

What happens if the money runs out?<\/h2>\n

\u201cLook, I won’t lie. I may not be able to shell out the money to keep this going forever, so some kind of more long-term foundation is going to be needed eventually.\u201d\u00a0 \u2014 Bruce-Robert Fenn Pocock, Benevolent Dictator, Violet Volts<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Someday, yes, the money will run out. We’re exploring ways to cover those costs without strong-arming people into it. There’s the PBS\/Wikipedia method, of begging for funding every few months, and taking tiny \u201cpatronage\u201d payments. There’s the idea of selling merchandise \u2026 T-shirts, coffee mugs, books, whatever \u2026 And there’s also been some discussion of allowing tasteful, in-game sponsorships of certain places or items.<\/p>\n

Bonus Services?<\/h2>\n

One feature that will probably come with a price tag is SMS (text messaging) or voice calling support. Those services cost more than plain ol’ Internet servers, but we might allow access to them in certain ways (eg: for parents to authorize children’s logins<\/a>) to people who pay for those services.<\/p>\n

We want to keep it very clear that these charges would be only<\/em> to people who wanted to use extra services that do not affect game play.<\/em><\/p>\n

But, yes. Really Free!<\/h2>\n

For now, enjoy the ride. We’re not going away any time soon, and we promise we won’t start charging a subscription or plastering you with \u201cup-selling.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tootsville.com used to be a pretty great bargain. Lots of players subscribed for under $5\/month, sometimes even less. Tootsville.org, though?… Read more Really Free?<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":115,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4],"tags":[58,57],"class_list":["post-114","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-violet-volts","tag-really-free","tag-subscriptions"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tootsbook.com\/tootsbook\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/final-57-95-icon-join-us.gif?fit=223%2C256&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7ZFAu-1Q","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":222,"url":"https:\/\/www.tootsbook.com\/tootsbook\/2017\/04\/tootsville-com-name-acquired\/","url_meta":{"origin":114,"position":0},"title":"Tootsville.com name acquired","author":"CIWTA Team","date":"23 April, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"After a spirited auction process, the expired Tootsville.com domain name is now ours. Beginning in May, Tootsville.com will redirect players who might follow links on old reviews or blogs to Tootsville.org as well!","rel":"","context":"In "Real World News"","block_context":{"text":"Real World News","link":"https:\/\/www.tootsbook.com\/tootsbook\/category\/earth\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tootsbook.com\/tootsbook\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/trouble-shooting-main-icon.jpg?fit=261%2C249&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":242,"url":"https:\/\/www.tootsbook.com\/tootsbook\/2017\/05\/tootsville-com-redirection-on-line-today\/","url_meta":{"origin":114,"position":1},"title":"Tootsville.com redirection on-line today","author":"CIWTA Team","date":"1 May, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"The old Tootsville.com site (which we acquired at auction last month) is now on-line and redirects players who might see old blogs or reviews to Tootsville.org.","rel":"","context":"In "Real World News"","block_context":{"text":"Real World News","link":"https:\/\/www.tootsbook.com\/tootsbook\/category\/earth\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tootsbook.com\/tootsbook\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/trouble-shooting-main-icon.jpg?fit=261%2C249&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":249,"url":"https:\/\/www.tootsbook.com\/tootsbook\/2017\/05\/stewardship-report-jan-apr-2017\/","url_meta":{"origin":114,"position":2},"title":"Stewardship Report: Jan-Apr, 2017","author":"CIWTA Team","date":"9 May, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"In the interests of transparency to the community, the Violet Volts project will periodically release financial statements like this one. For the period from 1 January through 30 April, 2017: Category Amount Web hosting services $ 40.00* Printing $ 18.00 Tootsville.com domain name (auction) $ 85.00 Tootsville.net domain name $\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Violet Volts Project"","block_context":{"text":"Violet Volts Project","link":"https:\/\/www.tootsbook.com\/tootsbook\/category\/violet-volts\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tootsbook.com\/tootsbook\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/favicon.png?fit=256%2C256&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":160,"url":"https:\/\/www.tootsbook.com\/tootsbook\/2016\/11\/tootsville-com-legacy-players-mail\/","url_meta":{"origin":114,"position":3},"title":"Tootsville.com Legacy Players Mail","author":"CIWTA Team","date":"14 November, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"We have obtained a list of many of the e-mail addresses of parents who requested news and information e-mails from Tootsville.com. It's uncertain exactly when this list was made, but it seems to date from around August or September of 2009. This list has the e-mail addresses of parents who\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Herd Social Events"","block_context":{"text":"Herd Social Events","link":"https:\/\/www.tootsbook.com\/tootsbook\/category\/herd\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Tootsville.org","src":"https:\/\/ci5.googleusercontent.com\/proxy\/jSF4ES5Jfwzf7mUXR7Cr_UEVzEnSQF9VR5J9-L0pe35IkIw-FgmvjRZw-dXlJvobQl_ZBASy3E4hZ_9T0yTCrQDDmemXifQnXG81UplXmXSyrUi9IA114_xoqaiySAVPor7Ts9kzCFVz7hvCr8AsM8H3AspCVtMfcvqmJqS3kA=s0-d-e1-ft#https:\/\/jumbo.tootsville.adventuring.click\/Assets\/Icons\/favicon-512x512.png?user=brpocock+1@star-hope.org","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":278,"url":"https:\/\/www.tootsbook.com\/tootsbook\/2017\/11\/details-on-duties-of-cadre\/","url_meta":{"origin":114,"position":4},"title":"Details on duties of Cadre","author":"CIWTA Team","date":"4 November, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"After opening nominations for the \"Cadre,\" or managing board, for the upcoming Violet Volts foundation's initial organization, here are some details about the duties of a member of the Cadre. When the organization is officially registered and organized as a legal entity, Cadre members will be members of the Board\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Violet Volts Project"","block_context":{"text":"Violet Volts Project","link":"https:\/\/www.tootsbook.com\/tootsbook\/category\/violet-volts\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":289,"url":"https:\/\/www.tootsbook.com\/tootsbook\/2017\/11\/violet-volts-incorporation-news\/","url_meta":{"origin":114,"position":5},"title":"Violet Volts Incorporation News","author":"CIWTA Team","date":"8 November, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Here's the brief news on the latest from the conversion of Violet Volts from an informal association\/club into a \u201cproper\u201d nonprofit corporation: The effective date of the change will be around the New Year, probably within the first week or two of 2018. Our current Benevolent Dictator is paying the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Real World News"","block_context":{"text":"Real World News","link":"https:\/\/www.tootsbook.com\/tootsbook\/category\/earth\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tootsbook.com\/tootsbook\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tootsbook.com\/tootsbook\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tootsbook.com\/tootsbook\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tootsbook.com\/tootsbook\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tootsbook.com\/tootsbook\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=114"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.tootsbook.com\/tootsbook\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":116,"href":"https:\/\/www.tootsbook.com\/tootsbook\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114\/revisions\/116"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tootsbook.com\/tootsbook\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/115"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tootsbook.com\/tootsbook\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=114"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tootsbook.com\/tootsbook\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=114"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tootsbook.com\/tootsbook\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=114"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}