| Virtual Chinchillas ~ A Kid-Friendly Site? ~In My Personal Opinion~ NOT Under the NEW Owner |
In the past, I had the pleasure of working with the original owner of Virtual Chinchillas, Jamie
Huggins. Who was at that time, and still is, the owner of the Chinchilla Club.
Jamie created a place on line, called Virtual Chinchillas, that was kid-friendly, and free for all.
She, being familiar with the internet and being a young mother with children of her own, knew the
dangers of the internet for a child.
So, she purchased a simple program and made many changes of her own to enhance the
program. Games were added, improved characters and eventually her own drawings of
chinchillas. Due to many request to be able to breed the chinchillas, like a real breeder, more
scripting and new the chinchillas were added. These characters were chinchillas representing
the colors of real chinchillas, that could grow from a new born kit to an adult chinchillas in 4
different stages.
Food, cages, treats and supplies needed for a real chinchilla were made for the virtual
chinchillas. These could be purchased from the site store with virtual money earned from points
made playing games. Later, the players were able to make their own stores and stock them with
prizes and items from the games and the main store.
It was fun, safe and kid-friendly. It's reputation blossomed and within 5 months there were over
1,800 players, at the end of 6 months over 2,000 members. Bandwidth was being eaten with so
many people and the new players just kept coming. And was FREE for all, except the owner,
Jamie.
The number of virtual pets was like an explosion with the births of new kits. How do you cut back
on the number of chinchillas with so many being born? You couldn't just kill them off! Not on a
kid friendly site. So, Jamie made a retirement home for the chinchillas. Here, the children could
send their chins to live their life out happily with other older chins. This was an option, not a rule.
Some members became attached to special chins or characters and wanted them to stay and to
continue making kits.
If you were caught cheating or using bad language. You were warned the first time. If it
happened a second time, your account was frozen and you could not come back.
People/children have to learn/know that their actions have consequences. This, Jamie, proved
by enforcing a set of rules ... one set of rules for all, not just for some.
The more that came, the more bandwidth was used. It was getting to expensive. Jamie created
an upgraded a part of the game that would let those who could afford it, help support the site and
make it possible to keep it going, by purchasing a one-time up-graded status. As a "thank-you"
for helping support the site, Jamie added the up-town store with some added items, not available
to those not up-graded. These items could be used in the player's store or with their own
chinchillas. As time went by, she added other new things for both regular and up-graded
members.
I helped a little by drawing some of the angora-style chinchillas. The ones I drew while Jamie
was the owner and in control of the site, I gave her the rights to them, because of our long-term
friendship.
Jamie even hired an artist to do some special drawings for the up-town pet store.
Ageless chinchillas were added to help pay the bills (3 for $10), but did not see much progress,
because all chins could continue breed and stay with the owners forever, if they wanted them to
do so.
When the site started crashing under the stress of so many members, Jamie hired a man to help
her with new scripting that should correct the problem.
This is the way it was, under the ownership of Jamie, the creator of the site. Everything was up
and above board for all to see. Only one set of rules for all.
It grew so quickly and demanded so much time, it became to much for Jamie health-wise, so she
felt it would be best to sell it ...
Leon, the man doing the new scripting, wanted to buy the site. The agreement was made, but he
never paid Jamie any money for the site and was going to shut it down. It was common
knowledge that the deal never went through and that Jamie had been paid nothing. Instead of
shutting it down ... Several women on the site wanted to take it over. So, he 'gave' what was not
his to give, to one of the women that was a member on the website.
To try to re-coup a small portion of the money spent, Jamie contacted Jacquie about a price for
buying the V-Chins website. But she stated it was not making any money. So, rather than shut it
down, Jamie gave Ms. Rothermel time to work with it, several months as a matter of fact.
Jacqui began to make changes that would bring much more money into the site. She cut the
breeding age of chinchillas off at 6 months old. So the purchase of ageless chinchillas really took
off. A warehouse where items could be purchased in quantities of 100 was available to members
for $5 real money. This may not sound like much money, but consider the number of members -
Well over 2,000. (You do the numbers.) Custom Chinchillas were added, another money-making
addition, at $3.50 each. Then opening of the V-Cash Store was proving very profitable.
Having given Jacqui months to build it up, and seeing that it was apparently becoming profitable,
Jamie contacted Jacquie again about a price to attempt to re-coop a fraction of what she had
invested in the site. But Jacqui (now current owner, Jacqueline Rothermel) still claimed it was
not making any money. It was "given to her" by Leon.
Some Gratitude!
Jamie still owned and was paying for the domain name and all original graphics and could shut it
down at any time, but, Jamie was receiving NONE of the monies being taken in by Jacqueline
Rothermel and had no control over what was being added to the site. So, Ms.Rothermel, finally
paid Jamie a very minimal amount for the site, graphics and rights to it. A price less than 1/3 of
what Leon had agreed to pay.
And so our history lesson continues .... Into the recent past and up to the present ...
| ~A Little History ~ |
Viewing Topic: Question, Please
Forum
Jo Ann McCraw
Posts: 201
posted on: 2008-04-27 17:08:07
I notices the **chinclub is no longer marked an *admin* ... that's strange, she started the site and
has the copy rights to it. Did she leave?
Replies
1
Billydkd
Posts: 294
posted on: 2008-04-27 14:33:11
I hope she did not leave. She should be a life long admin in my eyes.
2
jmrothermel
Posts: 888
ADMIN
posted on: 2008-04-27 16:55:12
JoAnn - you know as well as I do that Jamie and I are talking via email - but since you decided to
post on the forums to publicly announce it.....Jamie was saying about how she is still being asked
questions, comments, complaints, etc because she is still tied to vchins but has (and I quote) no
control or affiliation with VirtualChinchillas.com since I turned the site over to Leon in October
2007. So rather then new members become confused and mail her with questions/problems etc, I
just removed the admin status from her name. I'm sorry that you felt the need to bring this to the
forums when you know we are discussing things :(
3
Jo Ann McCraw
Posts: 201
posted on: 2008-04-27 17:08:07
I'm sure glad you know more about my personal life than I do. Someone else brought it to my
attention that she was not marked *admin* anymore. I have no IM connections with Jamie, my
personal e-mail account has been down for 2 1/2 days. I have attempted to call Jamie twice in the
last 3 days, but had to leave messages ... she is working with her father and has a family to take
care of ... we rarely get a chance to connect by phone. Thanks for assuming and anounncing that
I know more than I do. Thank-you ~ Please.
PLEASE MAKE NOTE OF THIS DATE (October 2007) FOR FUTURE REFERENCES
The *ADMIN*, "jmrothermel", making the post is Jacqueline Rothermel, new owner of V-Chins.
~~~ MUCH MORE TO COME ~~~
**"chinclub" is the name used by the original owner on the website. Not only did Ms Rothermel
remove the *ADMIN* visual status, she also removed all access for Jamie, to the scripting of the
site. This was during the negotiations for the purchase of the site.
| Recent past ... April, 27, 2008 ~ A little peak into the "attitude" taken by the new owner when ask questions she wishes to avoid. And the assumptions she will make and post for all to see, as if it were fact. When corrected, she immediately deleted the whole post, but not before I copied it. |
| |||||||
| Over the next few pages, I think it will be apparent that the 'attitude' displayed here, with an adult, did not stop with adults. I believe it will be very obvious to you that there were two sets of rules and the owner apparently decided which set of rules were for who and why. |
|
| Could who had to play by what set of rules ... have been determined by ... How much money they put into the site? Or if they always agreed with the owner all the time? You decide, as you go through the additional pages. |
| |||||||
You Are Visitor
#
#
Luv 'N Chins
|
| Page 2 |
|
| Page 3 |
| Page 4 |
|
| Page 5 |