GENERAL BAT INFORMATION..
AND AN ANNOUNCEMENT: DONATIONS


As most of you recall, we have officially opened donations for
a varying period of time every "few" years, the latest being
three years ago.

Basically, the ideology behind this is that the decision of
opening donations (in their current form) is based exclusively
on the needs of our beloved BatMUD - or atleast based on what
the prevailing administration honestly trusts are the needs AND
the required waypoints for BatMUD's successful continuation
in the coming years.

As controversial as it is, I feel compelled to remind you that
there are, as is with everything, "other effects" due to these
kind of periodically open donations. The most visible one of this
to players is probably the fact that we have quite a number of
people who weren't present (yet, or were absent by the time) in
the days of the last round of donations. As we all know,
donations are a quick way of obtaining the "giveaways" (task
points), instead of working through the hard tasks set by wizards
inside the game. The door to get even with the "oldbies" will
thus soon be open, in case someone wants to.

As with the substantial donations B.A.T. ry and BatMUD have
received, I want to strongly emphasize the point that you are by
no means required to donate anything: The game's free.
Concentrate on your own, your girlfriend's (or boyfriend's)
and your family's well being first. Then concentrate on everything
else that touches your heart and maybe after then, consider the
prospect, if you wish to.

Since 2001, BatMUD has been in a "slow burn" mode. Sure, we've
invested in new hardware, consulted lawyers and auditors about
the (mandatory) legal issues, done minor advertising campaigns,
held our very first exhibition in years, etcetc. But during all
this we have enjoyed a great deal of support, no, enermous support
from basically all of our interest groups (the players, the
wizards and even the tax authorities;)). Most importantly, We have
survived the harsher times, a thing everyone can and should be a
little proud of. The Game is still here, as it was 14 years ago.

Today, the basics of our operations remain the same. On the way,
we have learnt a thing or two and gathered valuable information,
which we mean to utilize, keeping to the same basics that have
formed the purpose of Balanced Alternative Techniques ry.

Recently, we have purchased a new 64-bit dual Opteron server (in
Tyan's Transport chassis) to sustain the growth of BatMUD, not
just player-amount-wise but code-wise. In order to provide an
even more reliable service, the new server will be commercially
hosted at a high-quality hosting facility, giving us redundancy
with hardware pools in two locations.


As Bat's 15th anniversary grows close, the B.A.T. ry board
has planned several activities for the next year, including an
anniversary party; a gathering for BatMUD players (retired and
new), small scale participations in gaming/computer-conventions
and work on a distributed BatMUD platform based on our
experiments on the test systems.

To support these plans and ensure that we're still here, in text-
mode, fending off MMOGs and evolving to become even better,
the B.A.T. board has decided to open donations ('help donate'),

STARTING on Monday, the 1st of November 2004.

The donations will run until Monday, the 19th of January 2005.
More details will be posted later in this same newsgroup.


On behalf of the Balanced Alternative Techniques board,
Amarth and Gore