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.

  

Friday 22nd June

A few cool things happened today! During my exploration of the massive hotel I came across a DJ that was giving away free furniture!! It was pretty good even though I had to wait almost half an hour in the que.. yet at the end I received a trophy for my room. I think the free give away was to promote a radio station but I didn't find out much info because the hotel is still muted. Its clear that some habbos are still really rich even when I've been away for so long; looking at the scene this person had, gold bars, money bags and some rare items!

Throughout my few days of habbo I not only received a badge for logging in 5 days in a row but this was one day where over 3500 people were online. I'm pretty sure that's a huge amount and my determination to find other lgbt people from this lot didn't pay off today. Not only did I check all of the rooms under "lgbt" and "gay" but went through a few shopping malls! I just don't understand why so many lgbt people have left or gone somewhere else. It is a muddle :/ Thankfully I was able to go to this cool pool party where loads of amazing girls from Canada, the US and even Scotland talked to me!

Time: 1 Hour 30 Minutes
Where: F R E E Giveaway + Pool Party
ANI: 0
Cringe Rating: 3/10
Expometer: 9/10

Thursday 21st June

It seems the community are letting Sulake know how they feel.. but alternatively the company it seems are making the issue greater than maybe what it already is. This image below used to contain very few Habbos but now it's filled to the brim with what appear to be protesters followed by the words, "Let Yourself Be Heard!"

It is almost as if Sulake are engaging the community to fight against the investigation that has been brought forward against them while at the same time trying to grasp ideas on how to tackle the problem. Whether this is some sort of ploy to divert attention from the main issues of "sexual chat" and "paedophiles" within the hotel is not known however its clear there is limited time in solving this crisis.

Wednesday 20th June

Today I went to check out http://greatunmute.habbo.com/ which featured comments in over 10 languages from around the Habbo world! Most people were not happy about Channel 4's reports on the hotel often calling it "biased" or "absurd". However the report does contain credible information and hopefully Sulake will be able to come to a conclusion from user comments on the subject. Indeed lots of people posting comments believe it was a small minority of users who engaged in "sex chat", etc and comments like those below highlight the still thriving community!

 
Unfortunately I wasn't able to get onto the hotel today at all. A continuous adobe flash error kept popping up which was really annoying!

The Great Unmute

It seems Paul LaFontaine has taken increasingly big steps to know what the Habbo community wants and needs before him and his team decide to unmute the hotel. At http://www.thegreatunmute.com/ which will open at Wednesday 2pm(ish) UK time people will be able to post their thoughts through text, image and video in an effort to give Sulake and the wider world a look into solving the problem.

   
This should be interesting because while thousands of people enjoy Habbo and will post all of their good experiences there may be a small few whom may need to vent their anger at the site. Whether Sulake will let them is an interesting prospect yet what is clear is that this is a make or break situation for the hotel. The world of Habbo has been in placed in the hands of its users and only they have power now.

Tuesday 19th June

Fun and games galore? 100 percent yes!! I was invited to the Cute Teen Party through private chat where all the teens met up and really had a good time. The great unmute failed to dampen spirits as people sent friend requests, respected one another and danced the night away!

 Yet those who I spoke to in Habbo mentioned that it wasn't just going to be parties which would become the highlight of the night. The Fast Food game a new addition to the hotel where you make the food and then send it down onto a table using a parachute. You have to extremely fast though because if you click the button too soon the other player can shoot it down... too slow and the food will splatter onto the table!!

Ultimately it was a pretty cool night with a whole range of activities to choose from but no gossip.. gutting!

Time: 2 hours
Where: Cute Teen Party + Fast Food Game
ANI: 0
Cringe Rating: 0
Expometer: 9/10

Monday 18th June

I've been thoroughly enjoying Habbo with it's vast gardens, swimming pools, jungles and even mazes! Yet I'm really sad that Sulake haven't unmuted the hotel yet as I really wanna know what's going on!

I visited two rooms today! The first one below I was surprised to find empty as I used to talk to loads of interesting people here. I'm not sure if the great mute had something to do with it or people are simply hanging out in other rooms but I decided to sit there for while and think. I met loads of interesting lgbt people here once but seemingly no longer.

I also found this really weird room in my travels! Not quite sure when they brought the living plants in but this seems to be like a nursery where people can interact and help.

Time: 1 hour

Where: Rainbow Room + Plant Nursery

ANI: 0

Cringe Rating: 4/10

Expometer: 8/10

Sunday 17th June

In an effort to document my experiences online I've decided to focus on Habbo Hotel as a starting point. I joined around 2004 because lots of my friends were on it and it was truly a great way to meet new people. After a while I left and enjoyed other cool things however its recent appearance in the news prompted me to check it out again. After logging in I was greeted by this message:

A recent Channel 4 investigation found that the site regularly contained sexual chat which was increasingly alarming due to the fact the site was aimed at people as young as 13.  Not only did many stores stop stocking Habbo currency but Sulake decided to mute all chat within the site until they decided what to do. As I write this nobody knows when the company will decide to unmute Habbo Hotel however I have doubts if they can honestly fix the problem. I'll be investigating from now on, hopefully having a good time on the website while posting my experiences that will hopefully resemble some good times in comparison to sexual and paedophile incidents that have been reported.

So far though everything is deadly quiet. I was at the lovely beach, crystal water, palm trees, deckchairs and enjoying mouthwatering mocktails!

So really it's been a pretty good experience :)

Time: 1 hour
Where: B E A C H
ANI: 0
Cringe Rating: 0
Expometer: 9/10

Simply living life!

Just live your life! That's what some people will tell you, but not me. Things can be difficult despite what they tell you in school and I'm one of those who really want to document it and inform. Hopefully my computer will stop freezing so I can start writing blog posts!

On every post I'll be providing info and pictures about my experiences mainly online!! Also on some posts I'll have a list of essential information that relates to not only the image but that experience in general.

Time: The time I've spent online!
Where: The place where I've spent the time!
ANI: Average Number of separate Incidents!
Cringe Rating: That unsettling sinking sensation out of 10!
Expometer: My overall experience in this instance out of 10!