Sunday 8th July

Two days ago Sulake took the decision to reintroduce limited chat within the Habbo.com hotel! As people entered room they were greeted by banners that said, "Take Our Habbo Safety Quiz. Read our new safety policy and take our safety quiz to enable safe chat!"

The moment I clicked on the banner a number of slides popped up which would give the low down on how to stay nice and safe while in the hotel. Ultimately this is a vast improvement from the past where many of us would undoubtedly skip the Terms of Service which included some of this information such as not giving out your address etc. However some of the information slides while straightforward are not always easy in real life or the Habbo world. This slide titled "Don't Give Into Peer Pressure" explains that just because everyone is doing it doesn't mean that you have to do it...

Ok so firstly Santrock (315) explains that peer pressure the omnipresent force "can be observed in almost every dimension of adolescents' behaviour - their choice of dress, music, language, values, leisure activities..." etc. Secondly this is probably rife in Habbo because the hotel is like school for loads of people. Everyone spends a large amount of their time on it thus it becomes the epicentre for where peer pressure originates! In school it is the teachers job to make sure that peer pressure doesn't get the better of a student yet in the virtual world someone cannot report someone else for inciting peer pressure! 


In a best case scenario adults, teachers etc can only prepare them for the dangers ahead but cannot be there to face it with them. Teachers can be positive role models but in Habbo Hotel who becomes the role model? Surely not the moderators but what about these new guardians? #foodforthought


Time: 2 hours
Where: Welcome Lounge
ANI: 0
Cringe Rating: 0
Expometer: 6/10 

Tuesday 3rd July

Hey everyone! Some important things have happened over the past week not to only mention the Parental Advisory Summit but the revival of chat in several major hotels! Today Paul Fontaine announced some communications would open for Norwegian, Swedish and Danish hotels and full communications would be available for all shortly! While explaining yet more reasons behind The Great PR Unmute he goes on to explain that apart from more contests, campaigns and articles the Hobbas will return.

For those who don't know what Hobbas are well they were volunteers chosen by staff to moderate, help new players, answer questions and even ban rule breakers. Since 2000 Hobbas were in a way a volunteer police force that worked largely successfully for Sulake.In regards to responsibility they really had a tough time during play!! While answering calls for help etc, it was the Super Hobbas who had to train Silver Hobbas with moderators in order to make them prepared for the road ahead. For people who live far away, only work on their computers AND operate 1-2 hours per week it must have been tough. 

 Notably there were three types of Hobba who truly had the rule of the roost!!

Silver Hobbas: Started automatically in training and given a peer guide (Higher ranked) Hobba to help them. Yet they were given immunity to room kicks, enter "full rooms" and sent out alerts to the Habbo population.

Gold Hobbas: After passing training Silver Hobbas were given a gold badge and in doing so enabled them kick anyone out of rooms with the ability to give them a warning and to initiate bans. Other handy powers included recording conversations as well as muting players.

Super Hobbas: In recognition of their dedication to the Hobba program Gold Hobbas were promoted after 12 months of service. Additional powers were: Editing all private rooms, resetting rooms rights, access to the Habbo Hotel database and monitoring Hobba activity.

However in 2005 due to the increasing amount of Hobbas and security concerns total responsibility was given to paid moderators and as a consequence "ex-Hobbas" were given special badges to commemorate their services. Yet now that we're back in 2012 Sulake has seen it essential that this once successful and thriving service continue and in doing so hopefully save the hotel from any further blunders. It will be interesting to see how they deal with the security issues but it is pretty obvious that they won't be employing lots more Hobbas this time round!

Monday 2nd July

Monday is a pretty boring day. You wake up but you don't wanna get out of bed, you hear the world going on without you and it makes you think.. hang on I have to get up.. no matter what day it is! Today has involved me looking out of the window to an overcast day, seeing the baby seagull chicks on the roof opposite trying to fly and then me afterwards going food shopping. It was sale day today for many stores but I decided not to go. Not because I didn't have enough money or time but because Mondays just go reeeaallly slowly! After deciding to see if they had lifted the chat on Habbo which they hadn't :( I went to the Welcome Lounge which was full of interesting people! It would have been more curious if Sulake had decided to lift the ban for the .com hotel, yet I hope we can wait a bit longer. To lift spirits Frank the autobot said "Don't stop believing..." Regardless of whether this quote is to inspire teens or contains a secret message it matters not because for me it gives me the signal that change is coming real soon! 

Time: 30 Minutes
Where: The Welcome Lounge
ANI: 0
Cringe Rating: 0
Expometer: 4/10

Saturday 30th June

Today was pretty interesting! I discovered Habbo Hotel's very own airport! Not the normal variety though as it was as silent as the hotel usually is these days - not compared to some I've been to like Liverpool or Barcelona! The room contained very black stylish furniture, with a huge tv tower, cctv and staff while fellow habbos quietly moved along to their destinations. This simply wasn't any ordinary trip as I managed to capture one person letting off what appeared to a blast of light although in habbo terms I'm sure they would have described it as a 'bomb'. Yet a very cool and snazzy bomb of light! Essentially I really can't wait until chat is enabled again as I'll finally be able to properly ask people everything!

  
Time: 1 hour
Where: Habbo Airport
ANI: 1
Cringe Rating: 0
Expometer: 4/10

Friday 29th June

As the whole of Habbo prepares for Euro 2012 and the Spain Vs Italy match I've seen that everyone is in pretty high spirits. I entered one room where everyone was playing a game with the teleporters while trying to win a trophy prize.

Recently though I was talking to one Habbo through private chat who said the hotel is "gunna go through a whole lotta change with this chat thing. I don't know what's gunna happen in a few weeks..." However Sulake haven't been in the dark with users.. in fact the opposite! With the successful introduction of chat to Finland, Spain, Brazil and the introduction of chat today in France, Germany, Italy and The Netherlands they are right on track! In addition to this Sulake believe its important to talk to parents by hosting a Parent Advisory Summit which will aim to gain insight into how the company can educate kids! Sooo it's a pretty exciting time and change is just around the corner!!


Time: 1 hour
Where: Football Games
ANI: 0
Cringe Rating: 0
Expometer: 5/10
  

Tuesday 26th June

Hey everyone! Apologies for not writing in a while but I thought I'd wait until Sulake posted what plans they had in regards to moderation of the hotel. After posting a video about The Great Unmute and 6000+ views later the company have issued a few points which they stress don't "provide a comprehensive solution" but they basically say its a start for them. The new safety measures which were introduced in the Finnish Habbo Hotel seem to have worked and their roll out into the wider community will be a challenge in itself if they are to prove Channel 4 and other journalist institutions wrong.

 
Hopefully in the next few weeks the Hotel will be back to normal and now more than ever users will be tested on their loyalties to Habbo.

Saturday 23rd June

This post titled Sensationalism was published yesterday and I found it in some of the top search results on Twitter. A few days ago Sulake asked the community to send in their comments about the recent events that have happened on Habbosphere. They have the chance to answer 3 questions: What does your community mean to you? How do you feel about the recent news? How can we improve the site in the future?

This particular post which has been reblogged, retweeted etc hundreds of times I believe is the kind of thing the company wants to be published but also the type which it wants new users coming to the site to look at. The first question "What does your community mean to you?" is answered simple and straight to point with "99% of Habbos are cool and funny and great." While we accept this is an opinion the use of the word "are" implies it is true and the more its shared throughout the web the more inclined people believe it. The second question "How do you feel about the recent news?" was answered in a more opinionated way due to the start "It is obvious..." They go on to say while the Channel 4 team "probably" went to dating rooms etc they state what appears to be an absolute, "That is about .000001 percent of Habbo." Essentially I am totally against these sorts of people who try and spell out the facts when in fact no one truly knows the answer. The last question titled "How can we improve the site in the future?" contains a great answer from the poster. They opt for more moderation in dating and single rooms where they state all the trouble occurs. I'm pretty certain that the answer to the last question at the very least represents public opinion and Sulake would be wise to follow it. To an extent the post is largely sensationalist in its views but its something that can keep Habbo alive for the moment.