Written by Awportals.com

This decision was made in light of the recent announcement made by There.com CEO Michael Wilson, which outlined the closure of their community as of March 9, 2010. The announcement cited difficulties concerning revenue because of the economic recession, and despite a pronounced effort to increase features and interest, the business had simply lost too much money and forced the closure of the environment.

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Seeing as how many members of the There community would soon be displaced, Active Worlds Incorporated extended the offer to give members of the environment time to try out the full capabilities of Active Worlds while looking for other virtual environments to inhabit. The announcement made by Tom is as follows:

[quote=Tom]To help our friends from the THERE community AWI has decided to provided 3 free months of Citizenship to refugees from the THERE environment.

Please do what you can to get the word out. Tell your friends from THERE to send their THERE username to tom@activeworlds.com. Once verified they will receive a free 3 month Citizenship for the Activeworlds Universe.[/quote]

This gesture of good will has roots in an AW Forums topic from the week prior with great community support and sympathy being offered by members of the Active Worlds community towards members of There. Community discussion on this story can be followed from its source on the AW Forums in the announcement thread. The full announcement was later extended and posted to AW's main page, which details the citizenship offer and also a new world for There users, simply titled 'There'.

From There to Her

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For those reading this article who have come from There, we fully invite and welcome you into our community! There Members looking to take advantage of this offer for free citizenship are encouraged to inquire further by contacting Tom at tom@activeworlds.com (Subject Line:There Member).

The citizenship offer is essentially the full membership of the Active Worlds Universe for 6 months free, which allows you to create and save custom avatars, create and protect any builds you create in public building worlds such as Alphaworld or AWTeen, and enter citizen-only worlds, among a myriad of other features.

Download Now

The Active Worlds browser is available for download here by clicking the 'Launch' button on the main page. Alternatively, can also skip that and go directly to the download page. Upon installation, details on learning the basic navigation and chat functions of the browser will be available in the entry point -- the AWGate.

Helpful Links for New Users

* AWPortals 'Learn The Basics' Tutorial - This tutorial offers step-by-step assistance in learning the basics of the Active Worlds Browser
* Active Worlds Wiki - The wiki provides very helpful documentation for the browser, including an expansive list of worlds and communities you can participate in.
* AWCommunity - A portal of websites displaying content from across the universe.