Lower Priced Plans and New Monetization Options

We updated our service today with several major changes that make Kitely cheaper to use, and add new ways to earn Kitely Credits.

New Subscription Plans

We’re making several changes to our subscription plans. People have told us that they prefer to be able to spend more time in-world instead of getting additional Kitely Credits each month. Therefore, we increased the amount of free time included in each plan, and eliminated the KC that they used to provide. The Bronze Plan now includes 30 hours of monthly use (as Minutes) instead of the 25 hours that it previously provided (in Minutes and KC). Similarly, the Silver Plan now includes 120 hours instead of the 100 hours that it used to provide. This means that the new Bronze and Silver plans provide 20% more time for the same amount of money as before. The new plans will take effect automatically for all existing users on August 1.

The most exciting changes, however, are in our more advanced plans. We’ve eliminated the Platinum Plan, and changed the Gold Plan to include 20 free regions and unlimited time for just $35 / month. This means that you can now get unlimited time on Kitely for 65% less than what we previously charged for the Platinum Plan. Existing Platinum and Gold plan users can continue using their existing plans if they wish, but we recommend switching to the new Gold Plan since it’s cheaper.

Here are the new plans:

Price Changes for Creating and Storing Worlds

In preparation for when we start providing bigger worlds, this update also includes a few world-related price changes. The price for creating a world is now 10 KC (up from 1 KC). Similarly, the price for storing a world is now 10 KC per day, instead of 1 KC per day. This means that each additional world beyond the worlds provided by the plan’s free quota costs about 300 KC per month, which is equivalent to $1 per month when buying KC at our best discount price. As before, users aren’t charged for creating or storing worlds that are included in their plan.

Buying More KC at Once

It is now possible to buy up to $500 worth of Kitely Credits at once (up from $50). As will be explained later, there is a new use for KC so some people will want to buy many of them at once. This change makes it more convenient to do so.

More Free Time for New Free Plan Users

New Free Plan users now get 6 hours of free usage in the month in which they create their account (up from 2 hours). This time is only usable in the first month; afterwards Free Plan users get 2 hours each month, as before.

Payment Methods

It is now possible to pay for the monthly subscription using Kitely Credits instead of PayPal. You can choose which payment method to use in the Settings page. There are three options:

PayPal – your PayPal account will be billed at the beginning of each month. This is how Kitely has worked until now.

PayPal, or Kitely Credits whenever possible – at the beginning of each month, if you have enough Kitely Credits then you will be charged using KC at a rate of 300 KC per $1. Otherwise, your PayPal account will be billed. This option is useful for virtual world business owners: it enables them to use the KC that they earn in order to pay for Kitely. People who earn enough KC won’t have to pay for Kitely using real-world money at all.

Only Kitely Credits – you will be charged using KC at the beginning of each month. If you don’t have enough KC then your plan will be canceled. This option isn’t recommended because it can cause you to lose your plan just because you happened to be low on KC on a particular month (although we do send a warning email before that happens). This option is intended for people who prefer paying for their plan multiple months in advance, and for people who can’t use PayPal subscriptions because they didn’t link a credit card to their PayPal account. If you want to use this option then you should buy a large amount of Kitely Credits in advance, to avoid running out. This is why we increased the number of Kitely Credits that can be bought at once.

Setting a Price for Visiting Worlds

We are introducing a new way of earning KC with virtual worlds: by charging a per-minute access price for visiting a world. In the world’s Access controls you can now set a price in KC for visiting that world. Visitors will pay those KC each minute that they are in your world. This capability has great potential, and we’re excited to see how it will be put to use. For example:

  • Musical performances
  • Conferences
  • Lectures
  • Games
  • And other virtual activities

In addition to charging users for visiting your world, you can also pay users who visit your world. This can be used, for example, to automatically pay performers for the time they spend performing in your world.

In the following example, the world manager is putting on a concert:

Charging a price per-minute (instead of via fixed-price tickets) has many benefits. First, for the visitors, this entails less risk: they can sample the event, and if they want to leave then they’ve only paid a small price. For the world manager, this means it’s easier to get people to sample the event. It’s also possible to let the event start for free, and only turn on premium pricing once the main attraction begins. When that happens users are asked if they agree to remain in the world:

This means the performer can create a direct connection with the world’s visitors before asking them to pay, which increases the chance that they’ll want to stay.

Kitely charges a 10% fee for Kitely Credits that are earned using these monetization options. In other words, for every 10 KC that the world manager or performer earn using these tools, they get 9 KC and Kitely keeps 1 KC. This fee doesn’t apply to any of the other ways people can transfer KC to each another. The 10% fee applies only to the optional monetization features described above.

Kitely Credits as a Virtual Currency, and Web-Based Messaging

We are excited to announce that Kitely now has a fully working virtual currency! You can buy items using Kitely Credits, transfer them to other people, etc. We’ve also added the ability to send messages to other Kitely users from our website, and made a few user-requested improvements.

Kitely Credits as a Virtual Currency

You can now use your Kitely Credits (KC) in-world. This finally makes it possible to sell items, create tip jars, etc. Your KC balance appears in the viewer. (Some viewers show the balance as “L$” instead of “KC”, but it’s still the correct amount.) Unfortunately, the “Buy KC” button doesn’t work in existing viewers because they hard-code it to go to Second Life, so buying KC can still only be done on our website.

All of your KC transactions appear in the History tab. Some transactions can be clicked to get more information, such as the name of the item that you bought or sold.

A “Buy Item” transaction in History

Upcoming Features for Kitely Credits

Kitely Credits are an advanced virtual currency, designed to support low-risk virtual commerce. Every KC is tracked from the moment it is bought until it finally gets redeemed for some Kitely service. We will describe the capabilities of our system in more detail in future posts. In the meantime, we want to let you know about some of the virtual currency features that we’ll be adding soon, so that you can start preparing to take advantage of these opportunities.

In a few weeks we’ll roll out another batch of virtual currency related functionality. First, we’ll add another way for you to earn KC: by setting access charges to your virtual worlds. We’ll also make it possible for you to pay for our monthly plans using Kitely Credits, which means that if you earn enough KC from other people then you will not have to pay any real-world money in order to use Kitely. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, we will introduce various anti-fraud mechanisms, which will make it safe to create ATM’s. We do not recommend creating virtual currency ATM’s before that update, except for testing purposes. If you are interested in creating an ATM or Exchange that uses KC then please contact us for more information.

Send Messages to Other Users from the Kitely Website

Until now you didn’t have an easy way to contact people you see on our website without using a third-party service such as Facebook. We’ve therefore added a feature that lets you contact other users directly. Whenever a user name appears in our website, click it to get a small profile window:

Click on “Send Message” to send an Instant Message to the user. The message appears in-world, just as if you had sent it from your avatar. If the user is offline then the message will be saved until the next time they enter any world.

There is a limit of 25 offline messages per user , so if a user doesn’t login for a long time then their inbox might become full and they’ll no longer be able to receive messages.

As you can see in the screenshot, the profile window shows your profile picture. If your account is connected to Facebook or Twitter then we take your profile picture from those services. If your account uses only an Email and Password then you can setup a profile picture by creating a Gravatar. Gravatars are a widely used standard for linking an image with an email address. Alternatively, if you would like to link your existing Email/Password account with your Facebook and/or Twitter profiles then send an email to contact@kitely.com and we’ll set that up for you.

Changes to Groups Policy

We made a few changes to how OpenSim-based groups (AKA “Avatar Groups”) work in Kitely, to prevent abuse. First, it now costs 100 KC to create a group. Second, users can join a maximum of 100 groups. (Some viewers might show a lower limit, e.g. 42, but we only enforce the limit at 100.) Third, if you create a group then you must add at least one more member (in addition to yourself) within the following 2 days. If the group has only one member after 2 days (or no members) then it will be automatically deleted in order to release the group name for use by a larger group of people.

Existing groups were grandfathered in: they didn’t incur the new charge of 100 KC, and we didn’t delete them even if they had only one member.

Other Improvements

Kitely Plugin now supports the Teapot viewer.

For scripters: we increased the limit of listeners per object to 500 (from 64). The limit per region is still 1000, as before.

We’ve made it easier to view worlds in the Public Worlds page. Previously, if you clicked on a world (which opens its World Page), and then clicked the browser’s Back button, then the search started all over again from the first page of results. Now you will return to the page of results that you were last at, so you can continue browsing where you left off.

Replace Existing Worlds and Automatically Disconnect Idle Users

We’ve updated our system today with new features that make Kitely easier to use. First, we’ve made it easier to work on worlds outside of Kitely by introducing an intelligent way to replace existing worlds with new OAR files. Second, you can now automatically disconnect yourself if you are inactive for a long time. Similarly, you can disconnect visitors to your worlds if they are inactive for a long time. Finally, we added a progress bar during OAR file uploads.

Replace Existing Worlds With New OAR Files

It is now possible to intelligently replace the contents of an existing world with a new OAR file. This is useful if you are working on the world outside of Kitely, and you want to update your Kitely world with the latest version. In the past you had to create a new world, but then all of your settings were lost. The Replace World feature is smarter: it keeps some of your existing settings, so that you don’t have to enter them again. We save the following settings:

  • All of the settings in the Manage World dialog, e.g. the world’s description and its access controls.
  • The world’s URL remains the same.
  • The world keeps all of its Likes and Tweets.
  • If possible, we keep the existing parcel settings. Here’s how this works: normally, an OAR file contains a list of parcels and their settings, so when you load a new OAR file the parcels in that OAR file wipe out the previous parcels. However, often the new OAR file isn’t really a completely different world, but just a newer version of the existing world. In that case the parcels are probably the same, and it would be convenient to keep the parcel settings already in Kitely instead of wiping them out. We recognize this case by comparing the parcel names in the existing world and the new OAR file, and where parcels have the same name we keep their existing settings instead of taking them from the OAR file. This affects the parcel’s flags (e.g., “No Build”), and the parcel’s permissions: which group it belongs to; which users can enter it; etc.

The Replace World feature can be found in the Files tab of the Manage World dialog. (This dialog was previously called Edit World; we renamed it.). We’ve also moved the Export World feature to this tab.

Replacing a world costs 10 KC.

Automatically Disconnect Idle Users

Some people felt anxious about accidentally forgetting to disconnect when they left their computer and losing Minutes because of it. Other people asked for a way to automatically remove people who were “parking” their avatars in their worlds (i.e., remained logged in even when they were inactive for extended periods of time). We’ve listened to your concerns and have added a couple of features that enable you to automatically disconnect yourself, and/or people who visit your worlds, when your avatars haven’t moved or chatted for more than 30 minutes.

Your Kitely account Settings page now includes a setting called “Disconnect from worlds when idle”. When that setting is enabled (which is the default), you will be automatically disconnected from the world you are in if your avatar remains inactive for 30 minutes.

Each world has a similar setting in its Access tab, called “Disconnect idle visitors”. When enabled (which is the default), visitors to the world that are inactive for 30 minutes will be automatically disconnected. This is especially useful when you set the world to allow free access to your friends, because it prevents them from accidentally using up too many of your Kitely Credits.

When a user has been idle for 3o minutes we don’t disconnect them immediately: we show a warning message first. The user then has 1 minute to click on a button labeled “I’m Here” to prove that his or her avatar is still active. If they do so then they can continue being idle for another 30 minutes before the warning message appears again. If they don’t click the button within 1 minute then they’re automatically disconnected from the world.

Updated Kitely Plugin

We’ve updated the Mac version of Kitely Plugin to version 2.0.1. The only difference from version 2.0.0 is that we use a digital certificate to sign the plugin (for the first time on the Mac). The reason we added this certificate is that Apple are about to release a new version of Mac OS X in which only signed applications can be installed.

Avatar Groups, Profiles and Offline IM

We’ve updated our service today with several new features. Most notably, you can now select which groups of users will be able to enter your worlds even if you didn’t use Facebook or Twitter to sign up to Kitely.

Avatar Groups

We now support OpenSim groups. Groups enable you to allow only selected users to build in your worlds. Groups are also useful for sending instant messages to multiple people at the same time. These options are available inside your virtual world viewer; see this page for more information.

A user with a group title

You can also use these Avatar Groups to control who can access your worlds. Previously it was only possible to specify access options using Facebook Groups and Twitter Lists, which means that if you did not sign up for Kitely using Facebook or Twitter then you had only two options for access control: “Only Me” and “Everyone”. Now you have the option of creating or joining a group in a virtual world, and then allowing free access to your world only to members of that group.

Here’s how to add an avatar group to a world’s access permissions:  open the world’s Edit World dialog; press the Add Visitors button; and select the group you want from the Avatar Groups section. It lists all the OpenSim groups that you are a member of.

User Profiles

You can now share details about yourself with other users and view the information that other people have chosen to share about themselves.

Offline Instant Messaging

If you send an instant message to a user that is currently not logged-in then your message will be saved, and delivered the next time that user logs-in.

Security Enhancements

We’ve changed the default world settings in order to prevent unscrupulous users from destroying peoples’ hard work, or annoying other users. All new worlds are now configured to allow only the world manager to build in them. “Pushing” is also disabled by default. In order to protect our existing users, we’ve also applied these settings to all of the worlds currently in Kitely.

If you do want to allow others to build in your world then simply enable that option for that world using your virtual world viewer. However, for your protection we recommend that you don’t allow just anyone to build in your world. Instead, use Groups to give build permissions only to users that you trust.

Improved OAR Format

We’ve updated the OAR format in order to save your region’s Telehub, if you have one. A Telehub is a way to control where users appear when they enter your world. There is one caveat, however: telehubs only work if you disable Allow Direct Teleport in the Estate tab, but that option is not saved in the OAR because technically it isn’t part of the region (it belongs to the Estate). Therefore, if you load an OAR with a Telehub, and the telehub doesn’t work, you may need to disable Allow Direct Teleport.

(By the way, if you want to set the starting position in your world then Telehubs aren’t the easiest way: the easiest way is to use a Landing Point. However, Telehubs have a few features that Landing Points don’t have so they are sometimes useful.)

Updated Kitely Plugin

We’ve updated Kitely Plugin on Windows to version 2.0.1. The only difference from version 2.0.0 is that we use a new digital certificate, because the previous one has expired. The Mac OS X plugin hasn’t changed, so its latest version is still 2.0.0.

Supported OSSL Functions

Here’s the full list of OSSL functions, and who may call each function.

This list was last updated on March 2021, for functions integrated from OpenSim 0.9.2.

Allowed for Everyone

osClearObjectAnimations
osDrawEllipse
osDrawFilledPolygon
osDrawFilledRectangle
osDrawImage
osDrawLine
osDrawPolygon
osDrawRectangle
osDrawText
osForceBreakAllLinks
osForceBreakLink
osForceCreateLink
osFormatString
osGetApparentTime
osGetApparentTimeString
osGetApparentRegionTime
osGetApparentRegionTimeString
osGetCurrentSunHour
osGetDrawStringSize
osGetGender
osGetGridCustom
osGetGridGatekeeperURI
osGetGridHomeURI
osGetGridLoginURI
osGetGridName
osGetGridNick
osGetHealth
osGetInventoryDesc
osGetLinkSitActiveRange
osGetLinkStandTarget
osGetMapTexture
osGetNotecard
osGetNotecardLine
osGetNumberOfAttachments
osGetPhysicsEngineType
osGetRegionSize
osGetRezzingObject
osGetScriptEngineName
osGetSimulatorVersion
osGetSitActiveRange
osGetStandTarget
osGetTerrainHeight
osGetWindParam
osIsNpc
osIsUUID
osLinkParticleSystem
osList2Double
osListenRegex
osMatchString
osMax
osMessageObject
osMin
osMovePen
osNpcLookAt  (*1)
osParseJSON
osParseJSONNew
osParticleSystem
osRegexIsMatch
osReplaceString
osReplaceParcelEnvironment  (*2)
osReplaceRegionEnvironment  (*3)
osResetEnvironment  (*4)
osSetFontName
osSetFontSize
osSetLinkSitActiveRange
osSetLinkStandTarget
osSetPenCap
osSetPenColor
osSetPenSize
osSetPrimFloatOnWater
osSetSitActiveRange
osSetStandTarget
osSHA256
osTeleportOwner
osUnixTimeToTimestamp
osWindActiveModelPluginName

Notes:
(1) Currently anyone can apply this to any NPC, but this may change in the future.
(2) May be called by anyone who has permission to edit the parcel.
(3) May be called by anyone who has permission to edit the region.
(4) May be called by anyone who has permission to edit the parcel or the region (depending on which environment is being reset).

Allowed for the World Manager, Estate Managers and Parcel Owner

osSetParcelMediaURL
osSetParcelMusicURL

Allowed for the World Manager and Estate Managers

osAgentSaveAppearance
osAvatarName2Key
osAvatarPlayAnimation
osAvatarStopAnimation
osCauseDamage
osCauseHealing
osDetectedCountry
osDie
osDropAttachment
osDropAttachmentAt
osEjectFromGroup
osForceAttachToAvatar
osForceAttachToAvatarFromInventory
osForceAttachToOtherAvatarFromInventory
osForceDropAttachment
osForceDropAttachmentAt
osForceOtherSit
osGetAgents
osGetAgentCountry
osGetAvatarHomeURI
osGetAvatarList
osGetLinkPrimitiveParams
osGetNumberOfNotecardLines
osGetPrimitiveParams
osGetRegionMapTexture
osGetSimulatorMemory
osGetSimulatorMemoryKB
osInviteToGroup
osKey2Name
osKickAvatar
osLoadedCreationDate
osLoadedCreationID
osLoadedCreationTime
osMakeNotecard
osMessageAttachments
osNpcCreate
osNpcGetOwner
osNpcGetPos
osNpcGetRot
osNpcLoadAppearance
osNpcMoveTo
osNpcMoveToTarget
osNpcPlayAnimation
osNpcRemove
osNpcSaveAppearance
osNpcSay
osNpcSayTo
osNpcSetProfileAbout
osNpcSetProfileImage
osNpcSetRot
osNpcShout
osNpcSit
osNpcStand
osNpcStopAnimation
osNpcStopMoveToTarget
osNpcTouch
osNpcWhisper
osOwnerSaveAppearance
osParcelJoin
osParcelSubdivide
osRegionNotice
osReplaceAgentEnvironment
osRequestSecureURL
osRequestURL
osSetDynamicTextureData
osSetDynamicTextureDataBlend
osSetDynamicTextureDataBlendFace
osSetDynamicTextureURL
osSetDynamicTextureURLBlend
osSetDynamicTextureURLBlendFace
osSetHealth
osSetHealRate
osSetOwnerSpeed
osSetParcelDetails
osSetPrimitiveParams
osSetProjectionParams
osSetRegionSunSettings
osSetRegionWaterHeight
osSetRot
osSetSpeed
osSetTerrainHeight
osSetTerrainTexture
osSetTerrainTextureHeight
osSetWindParam
osTeleportAgent
osTeleportObject
osTerrainFlush

Not Allowed

osConsoleCommand
osForceDetachFromAvatar
osGetAgentIP
osGetRegionStats
osRegionRestart
osSetContentType
osSetParcelSIPAddress

OpenSim 0.7.3.1 and Additional Script Functions Supported

We’ve updated our service today to use OpenSim 0.7.3.1. This version of OpenSim includes many bug fixes and improvements: see the list of changes here. We also upgraded the version of Mono that we use, to 2.10.8.1. Together, these updates should result in faster and more stable performance.

In addition to these infrastructure upgrades we’ve made several configuration changes that can enable you to create much better worlds:

We’ve enabled many more OSSL functions than before. Most functions with threat level Low or below are enabled for everyone. Most functions with threat level above Medium are also enabled, but only for the world manager. This includes the often-requested functions osTeleportAgent and osKickAvatar. A few dangerous functions, such as osConsoleCommand, are still disabled for everyone. See the full list of supported OSSL functions.

Many people have been asking for the ability to build scripted bots, so we are happy to announce that NPC functions are now available on Kitely. NPC’s have many uses: in simulations, role playing games, as shop vendors, etc.

We’ve also fixed a bug that prevented setting the sun position using OSSL. This enables world managers to make sure that visitors will see their worlds as intended. In addition (but unrelated), we enabled Windlight functions. This means that worlds that have Windlight settings will send them to supporting viewers.

Finally, we fixed a bug related to the avatar walking animation, which sometimes caused avatars to look like they’re walking even when they’re standing still. This problem is almost completely eliminated (on rare occasions it can still happen). We will contribute this patch back to OpenSim.

As with any major upgrade, problems may occur. Please let us know if you encounter any and we’ll fix them.

Stability Improvement and Facebook Bug Fix

We’ve updated the service with a couple of bug fixes:

First, when creating new scripts, sometimes the simulator would crash. Most people never encountered this bug, but those that did had been justly annoyed by it. This bug has now been fixed, so if you’ve encountered stability problems in the past then you should now find the build environment much more stable.

Second, users who attempted to sign up in the last few days using Facebook may have received an error. This has been fixed, so if you tried to sign up using Facebook and failed then please try again now. If you’d decided to create the account using Twitter or email/password because Facebook didn’t work, but you still prefer to connect your account to Facebook, then send us an email using the email address that you had used to create your account and we’ll connect your Facebook profile to that Kitely account.

We apologize for these problems, and thank the users who helped us diagnose them.

Teleport Between Kitely Worlds, and Additional Viewers Supported

We’ve spent the last month adding capabilities that many people have been asking for since we started our beta. We’re happy to announce that you can finally teleport between Kitely worlds. In addition, Kitely Plugin now supports many popular viewers that didn’t work before.

Teleport Between Kitely Worlds

Teleporting between Kitely worlds finally works! If you try to teleport to a world that is online then you’ll be teleported to it immediately. If you try to teleport to a world that is offline then the world will be started; you’ll remain active in the world you are currently in; and once the destination world is ready you’ll be teleported to it automatically.

Teleports are also connected to the website: if you click “Enter World” in a World Page, and you are already in another Kitely world, then you will be teleported to the new world. This means that you no longer have to close the viewer to switch between worlds.

Additional Viewers Supported

We’ve released Kitely Plugin version 2.0.0, which supports many more viewers than before. We now support automatically starting the viewer with all of the following viewers:

Catznip Viewer
Dolphin Viewer
Exodus Viewer
Firestorm
Imprudence
Kokua Viewer
Nirans Viewer
Restrained Love Viewer
Second Life Viewer

Download Firestorm from World Pages

When Kitely Plugin is installed, if no supported viewer is detected then we show a button called “Install Virtual World Viewer”. This button lets the user download a default viewer, Firestorm, directly from world pages. In the past Imprudence was the default viewer. However, Imprudence doesn’t support new features such as Media-on-a-Prim and meshes so we decided to change the default viewer to Firestorm.

Change Viewers From the Settings Page

It is now possible to select which viewer Kitely Plugin will start. This is done from the Settings page in your account. The list of viewers that you will see includes only viewers that you’ve installed on your computer. Please note that the plugin only detects a viewer if it’s installed in the default location that was suggested by the viewer’s installer. Therefore, we recommend that you always install viewers in their default path.

Select Viewer

This feature was highly requested by our users. In the past it was possible to select the viewer Kitely Plugin will start by modifying a configuration file. However, this was error-prone and complicated. We’ve therefore removed support for that configuration method and added the list of viewers instead.

Start Viewers Manually

You can now enter Kitely worlds by starting your viewer manually, without using Kitely Plugin. This is useful if you can’t install Kitely Plugin (e.g., because you’re on Linux), or if you want to use a viewer that Kitely Plugin doesn’t support.

Here’s how to use this feature:

  1. Add Kitely to your viewer’s grid manager. See our viewers page for details.
  2. Go to a World Page and click “Enter World”.
  3. Once the world is ready, you’ll be asked to start your viewer (see screenshot below).
  4. Start your viewer; select Kitely in the grid manager; enter your login information; and click “Login”.
  5. You will then enter the world!

Start Viewer Manually

Use Kitely Without Facebook

We are excited to announce that Facebook is no longer required in order to use Kitely. We now support two of the virtual world community’s most commonly requested alternative login options: using a Twitter account and using an email and password. We still support Facebook logins as well, but you are no longer required to use them.

Create an account using Twitter

Our new login dialog looks like this:

Click on the Twitter button to connect your Twitter account to Kitely.

Your Twitter account affects Kitely in several ways:

  • You can login to Kitely using Twitter.
  • Your name will be linked to your Twitter profile in places such as World Pages and the History table, so that people can see who you are and perhaps follow your tweets.
  • You can use Twitter to restrict who may visit your worlds, if you wish. For example, you can allow only your Twitter followers to enter your worlds, or choose any Twitter List that you subscribe to.

(As a reminder, a similar option exists for Facebook users as well, using your Facebook Friends and the Facebook Groups that you belong to.)

UPDATE March 18, 2015: Facebook will soon stop providing the list of groups their users belong to, so we removed the option of using Facebook Groups for world access control.

Create an account using Email and Password

If you don’t want to use either Facebook or Twitter then you can create an account using an email and password. In the login dialog, click Create a new account and enter your details.

Please note that we recommend using Facebook or Twitter to create accounts, because they allow you to use Facebook Friends and Twitter Lists to manage world access controls. An Email/Password account doesn’t have these options, so it’s less flexible in managing world permissions. In addition, Facebook and Twitter accounts are more secure because they don’t require you to create and remember another password. If you are considering creating an Email/Password account because you don’t want your real identity to be known then we recommend creating a new Twitter account instead: you can hide your real identity that way as well, and you will still have access to all the great features that are only available to Facebook and Twitter users. Nevertheless, if you don’t want to link your Kitely account to an external account then you no longer have to do so.

If you create an Email/Password account then you won’t have a profile image initially, because we get those images from Facebook and Twitter. (The profile image appears in the World Pages of worlds that you create.) However, you can add a profile image by creating a Gravatar. Gravatars are a widely used standard for linking an image with an email address.

OSSL Functions Enabled

We now allow the use of some OSSL scripting functions. These are scripting commands specific to OpenSim (they’re not available in Second Life). We’ve set the “threat level” to Low, so the following function groups are available: None, Very Low and Low.

Billing System Finally In Place

After several postponements, and getting many suggestions from the community, we’ve finally rolled out our billing system today. This is a major milestone for Kitely because it puts us on the path to financial sustainability. To our users, this provides the assurance that you will be able to have all the resources you need to create and build your virtual worlds, without having to contact us every time you run out of KC.

Over the many months we’ve been in beta, people have frequently inquired regarding monthly subscriptions, free options and unlimited plans. We’ve worked hard to accommodate all of your wishes in a way that works with our business model. We hope you will be pleased with our solution.

Minutes and Kitely Credits

There are now two forms of currency: Minutes and Kitely Credits.

Minutes are used to pay for the time you spend inside virtual worlds. For each minute you spend in a world we subtract one Minute from your account. Your Minutes are non-transferable and can’t be shared with other users.

If you run out of Minutes then you can continue visiting virtual worlds if you have KC in your account: when that happens, for each minute you spend in a world we subtract one KC from your account. If you run out of both Minutes and KC then you can no longer visit virtual worlds (except for worlds made available for free access by other Kitely users, see details below).

Kitely Credits (KC) are used to pay for various services, such as copying and exporting worlds. In the future, we will enable you to use KC for virtual commerce as well.

You get Minutes and KC by subscribing to a monthly plan, or by buying KC separately. These methods are explained below. In addition, you can earn free Minutes by bringing in new users to Kitely (see details in our FAQ).

Monthly Plans

Each user has a monthly Plan. The plan determines how many Minutes and KC you get each month. KC accumulate from one month to the next. Minutes do not accumulate between months: they are reset at the beginning of each month.

Each plan also includes a certain number of free worlds that you can create. Each additional world you create beyond your plan’s quota costs 1 KC per day.

New users are automatically placed on the Free Plan. This plan includes 120 Minutes per month and 1 free world. This means that anyone can start creating their own virtual world on Kitely without having to take out their wallet and, if they are casual users, they can continue to have their own virtual world on Kitely for free. In addition, it means world creators can advertise their world widely and be assured that new users will always be able to visit the world, at least at first.

For those people who spend hours on end inside virtual worlds we now offer our Platinum Plan. This plan includes an unlimited number of Minutes per month, 5000 KC per month (an amount which would cost you $20/month to buy separately), and 100 free worlds. If you’re an avid virtual world user, or would like to provide free access to many other users, this plan provides the best value for your money.

Here are all of our available plans:

To change plans, go to the My Worlds tab, click on Get Credits and then click on the plan you want to use.

Buying Kitely Credits

You can also buy KC separately, regardless of which plan you are using. This is useful if you need more KC in the middle of the month, or if you want to try Kitely before signing up for a premium plan.

You can buy KC for the following prices:

1,000 KC – $5
5,000 KC – $20
15,000 KC – $50

To change plans, go to the My Worlds tab, click on Get Credits and then click Buy Credits.

Enabling Other Users to Access Your Worlds for Free

Normally, visitors to your worlds are charged Minutes out of their personal accounts, and you pay nothing. However, if you wish, you can enable other users to visit your worlds for free by covering this charge yourself. To do so, Edit the world, switch to the Access tab and set the price for the group of people you would like to subsidize to Free. When you do so, the selected group of visitors will pay nothing to visit that virtual world: instead, 1 KC per visitor will be deducted from your balance each minute that they remain in that world.

History Table

The history table has been enhanced to show how many Minutes and/or KC each event had cost you so you’ll be able to track how things were paid for.

Effect on Existing Users

Now that the billing system is in place we will no longer top-off people to 1,000 KC each week, as we had done previously. All the previous KC we had given out since March 2011 have been expired, and all user accounts have been automatically placed on the Free Plan.

In addition, we gave a one-time bonus of 50 KC to each of our existing beta users. These KC aren’t part of the Free Plan; new users will not get them.

Future Plans

We intend to allow using KC for virtual commerce in the future.

We are also considering allowing the conversion of KC to real-world money. However, this is difficult for both legal and regulatory reasons, so we’re not yet certain that we will do so. Please let us know what you think about this in the comment section below.

Final Words

Our billing system is sophisticated and supports many features: real-time billing (to support visiting worlds); subscriptions; two currencies; and more. Please let us know if you encounter any problems and we’ll fix them promptly.

We’ve been developing Kitely using our own personal savings for more than 3 years now. We rely on your support to allow Kitely to continue to exist, and to enable us to push the envelope in terms of what can be done with virtual worlds. If you enjoyed using our service until now, would like to use us in the future, or  just wish to support our efforts then please subscribe to one of our monthly plans (or buy some KC).

Thank you! 🙂