We Support Dantom!

We the undersigned recognize that online petitions have no force, but feel that it is desirable to make a stand against the appalling misperceptions and mischaracterizations put forth in another online petition placed on this site.

The petition at http://www.petitiononline.com/byond/petition.html claims to represent people who are true and faithful to BYOND, the excellent online game development package that has been developed and supported by the good folks (both of 'em) at Dantom International for well over half a decade now. These developers have, of course, paid for us to be able to use BYOND not only in uncountable hours of programming time but in money... money for hosting, money for bandwidth, money to support the previous "dime" merchant system which allowed US, the users of BYOND, to try to turn a profit on our efforts. Yes, this system cost Dantom money. The nominal service fees they placed on withdrawls did not even offset the transaction charges that applied to Dantom in supporting this system.

Eventually, petty abuse and overuse of the merchant system meant it had to be discontinued in its original form.

Yet... the petition by the "faithful to BYOND" blames the BYOND staff for the "85\% of the games" that used this merchant system, and links it to greed on their part! Is this ignorance, or just outright lies? Either way, the "faithful" are doing great harm to BYOND by spreading something that is not true.

This is all ancient history, of course. In current events... the integrated messenger system ("pager") of the BYOND platform is becoming a premium feature, with full access going to paying members (at $15 a year, not very steep... especially as members are getting other perks, including file hosting... another freebie that Dantom had to discontinue due to abuse and bandwidth costs). This is being done because the pager is one of the major sources of bandwidth costs, and is only a sideline to the real purpose of BYOND: game development and hosting. If the pager were to continue as a "freebie", then as BYOND grows, it would certainly put a stranglehold on Dantom's not limitless resources... translation: bye bye BYOND.

Oh, we'd still be able to make, play, and host games if Dantom went bankrupt... but there would be NO hub, NO pager, NO networked anything to communicate and publicize them.

But to avoid that dark possibility, Dantom is instituting a small ($15 a year) fee on full use of the pager. BYOND itself is, as they have stated it always will be, still free. Players who have the means can help support BYOND, and through their membership, can communicate with friends who can not... not a perfect solution, of course, but the best one that's been offered.

Dantom is not doing this with the expectation that they'll make money... rather, it's a check against future costs. It's a way of making sure they lose an acceptable amount of money, instead of going broke in unchecked growth. It's not something they enjoy doing, either. After so many years of developing and supporting BYOND, it's obvious they enjoy doing things to help others achieve their dreams.

And yet... this nefarious petition claims that it's greed on their part, and acts like Dantom has any alternative! The signatories are spreading malicious rumors, such as, it will be $15 a month or even a week, or that games will become pay to play. They claim Dantom is greedy and that they owe us, the players and developers, who have been benefiting from Dantom's patience and generosity for years. They say that the fact that Dantom ever gave us a messenger for free proves that they are obligated to do so forever.

They don't seem to care if BYOND goes broke... they just want their damn pager, and they don't want to pay to support it.

So sign this "petition", to show some goodwill still exists in this community. Sign it to show that not all BYONDers are immature, ungrateful, or thoughtless. Sign it to show that you understand the hard choices real life economics forces upon us. Sign it, and help restore some of my dwindling faith in humanity.

--Hedgemistress/Alexandra (Lexy) Erin.