The Livelyzens have come together to appeal against the shutdown.
Could you please set up an area on this helpgroup where we can share
information about this effort?

For starters here is what is set up:

Google group:  www.groups.google.com/group/livelyzens

We will be posting information on the livelyzens group shortly about
what we are doing - so request all Lively users to join this group.

Website:  http://livelyzens.com

Blog:  www.livelyzens.blogspot.com

Youtube Channel:  www.youtube.com/livelyzens

Please also leave a comment on the livelyzens blog to express what
lively means to you and what your suggestions are to google.

Thanks, let us all come together to have our voice heard.  We will
atleast know that we tried.

Let's stay aLively !

I  support  this  appeal against the  shutdown. I  can't imagine
Lively closing. Let's call out to keep Lively alive.

On 20 nov, 13:05, KosmiK Guru wrote:

It is strange that Google didn't even conduct a survey for Lively
users to tell them what was good and what was lacking with the Lively
platform.  Infact it is not too late - Can google conduct a survey so
that all users get a chance to be heard?  We are collecting feedback
anyway but would be easier if it is a survey by Google.

~KosmiK

On Nov 20, 9:38 am, Lively Little Helper wrote:

On Nov 20, 12:05 pm, KosmiK Guru wrote:

On Nov 20, 6:05 am, KosmiK Guru wrote:

The Livelyzens group has started the following and we need everyone's
support to make a difference:

1. Online petition
2. Machinima Video and Slideshow contests using Google Lively

We need you to participate in these as well as spread the word to all
your friends through email / your social networks - Facebook, Myspace,
Orkut etc.

Please visit http://livelyzens.com for all details.

Time is short - so let's act fast !!

stay aLively,

~KosmiKGuru

On Nov 23, 8:55 am, WalayUtok wrote:

On Nov 23, 1:34 pm, KosmiK Guru wrote:

On Nov 25, 9:42 am, bticomics.com wrote:

Dear Mr. Guymon,

I am not sure what is compelling me to sit here and write to you
today.  There's something about Lively... !!

When the announcement came, I logged into Lively and made a room to
Keep Lively Alive.  Within seconds, the room was full - I put out
extra couches to accomodate everyone.  We sat in a circle watching our
chat bubbles - of shock, of disbelief, of panic, of grief... I knew
then that what we had here was too precious and it had to be saved.  I
have spent the last 6 days ever since the announcement doing nothing
but think about how we can save Lively from being shutdown.  And I am
not alone - there is a big community on Lively that is devastated by
the news about the shutdown.  We are all working overtime trying to
figure out how we can reach out to Google and explain our reasons for
not shutting it down.

We know you would have thought long and hard too before making this
decision.  Did you think of us - the community on Lively?  Did you
even imagine that you will have all these people rallying for a "half
baked beta product" as Lively has been called by the media?  That we
would be willing to do whatver it takes?  Well here we are.

Lively is a truly unique 3D world and I have not seen an equivalent in
graphics/animation aesthetics in any other virtual world that I have
seen so far.  It is easy to use and has attracted people from all
corners of the world.  3 months ago, I would not ever imagined that I
would have a friend called Pony at Taiwan or a friend called Imajika
at Florida or a friend called Cherry at the UK or a friend called
Oriste at Crete or a friend called Rossen from Lebanon or... the list
goes on.  Lively has this unique ability to connect people from all
over the world from the simple uncomplicated rooms.

To be honest, when I first tried Lively after having tried Second Life
for some time, I was disappointed.  Lively wouldnt let me add content
or create objects.  The mouse movements were different from SL. etc.
But then I tried it once again - and then once more...and I am glad I
did.

From what I have read on blogs and news sites about Lively - most
people tried it only once and gave up OR they had never heard about it
at all !!  I feel strongly that Google did not give Lively the right
ingredients to succeed.  Not enough advertising and not opening for
content development were some pitfalls that worked against Lively's
success.

To justify your business, add advertisements in our rooms or make it a
paid service if you like.  We have several ideas that we want to send
to you and will send them to you shortly.  In the meantime, I want to
personally appeal to you to give Lively a chance - a real chance to
succeed.  Make the content development public.  Give us Livelyzens a
chance to spread the word and get people to register.  We have already
started a Machinima contest (see http://livelyzens.com) for details.
We value this platform and are willing to be the ambassadors of
Lively.   ...Just give Lively a Chance...KEEP LIVELY ALIVE !!

I found Lively on launch day...and Ive been here ever since.  I hadn't
used a VW before and Lively's set up some how appealed.  Working
through the buggy issues that seems to have deterred some early users,
Lively has now become a very unique product.  It has so much potential
and to see it shelved after 6 months is not doing the users or the
team that worked so hard to raise this project and justification at
all!

Lively works in different ways for different people, never before
online have I witnessed a place that encourages people to express
themselves and promotes individuals creativity.  This is the exact
reason Lively was created, to embed in your own blog or space, a way
to reach out to new people or existing friends.

There is a very strong community feel on board this site. Lively links
people together under one common source, and that's conversation.  It
allows users to sit and talk promoting new ideas for rooms and
projects.  It allows ideas and themes to roll on and inspire other
people and the ball continues rolling. There are some awe inspiring
rooms that have been created in here from very basic inventory items.
There are also some very informative rooms that bring detail on
certain topics direct to the Livelyzens fingertips.

Since joining in July, I am yet to meet a Livelyzen that hasn't
learned something from their time on Lively.  Its a font of knowledge
that can only be used to yours and us the users advantage! For
starters, until I used Lively I hadn't used gmail, gtalk and other
Google services.  It was Lively that introduced me to the services
that Google provide and currently creating.  What better platform than
to promote other products.

Finally as Kosmik has to rightly pointed out this is a place to meet
people from far and wide, to understand and learn about their own
culture, language and point of view on topics. And as a friend on here
just pointed out its a place to "creating and foster very real and
very sincere friendships".

Keep Lively Alive!

Sincerely,
Cherrystar

On Nov 25, 6:58 pm, KosmiK Guru wrote:

Dear Mr. Guymon,

Being a non-native English speaker I can only hope to be fractionally
as articulate as the previous poster. Nevertheless, I too feel
compelled to address you personally today in an effort to describe to
you what Lively means to me. I will do so with no other expectation
than you reading my story. What you subsequently do with it, I will
leave respectfully to your own discretion.

When I first participated in Lively I knew the phenomenon of virtual
worlds only by reading about it. All my professional life I had been
involved in "serious" Information Technology.  I was a no-nonsense
manager making decision based on reasoning and careful calculations.
All this 3D and virtual this and that seemed pointless to me.
Addictive maybe, but still pointless. A short-lived diversion for
hormone-stricken teens maybe, but still pointless.

Being in semi-retirement however I figured it wouldn't harm to indulge
in some frivolous exploring of this hyped "brave new virtual world". A
few days in Lively turned my world upside down. It soon became
addictive indeed, but no longer pointless. With quite a few hormone-
stricken teens around looking for a short-lived diversion indeed, but
no longer pointless.

What I found in Lively, after scratching the surface as I suspect so
many industry pundits stopped short of, was a community of interesting
people from all cultures and age groups that I could connect to. This
didn't happen overnight, and I didn't realize this overnight either.
Being an old-timer in this industry I grew up with IRC, bulletin
boards and chat rooms before they were called that way. I
professionally participated in forums and mailing lists. They were
functional sometimes, a necessity at other times, a waste of time and
energy most of the time. Not once had I felt an emotional connection.
Being the obsessive analytical mind that I was trained to be, I didn't
understand at first why Lively had this effect on me, why I enjoyed
being in Lively.

Slowly it dawned on me: Lively is the first conversational environment
that makes talking to a person feel like talking to a person. It's an
enabling platform. I started investigating other virtual worlds and
they all fell short. Without being blind for its shortcomings, I think
that only Lively offers this characteristic. What sets it apart is
that Lively offers a conversation a sense of place and person. Being
able to move around a room to "physically" (as far as the avatar is
concerned) join a conversation, or inversely, move away from a
conversation, are extremely strong visual clues. The speech ballons
help a lot in keeping focused on the participants in a conversation.
With the right easy-to-adjust camera angle it's no problem to filter
out other conversations in the same room. All this is only possible
thanks to Google's implementation of the virtual world concept. For
all the criticism that Google received for Lively's execution, this is
one thing Google did right, and I thank you for it. Google managed to
take the virtual world concept and turn it into the (almost) perfect
chat room. Lest I offend my artistic friends in Lively, who have
created beautiful works of art, beyond my imagination of what would be
possible with the limited resources, I should add to my previous
sentence: ... with a lot of spare room (no pun intended) for artistic
expression.

You being in the position that you are, I take it you're an adult,
mature, business-type alpha male, like me. Have you ever had tears
welling in your eyes in a chat room, because of what someone said?
Someone you only knew through his/her moniker or avatar?

I have.

Only in Lively.

Please... KEEP LIVELY ALIVE !!

Dear Mr. Guymon,
mi full name is juan pablo braca
im from argentina.
i can usderstan the things in the world today.
i see the world wild crisis.
the figth agianst microsoft and understand some tipe of accions.
maybe you need to consider that lively program didnt have the best
managment
and see the power of a tool like this..
even to take new peoples to your future projects.
you only can see in the rooms to see the capability of creation in
lively.
you did create a new generation of 3d chat.
if you take time to enter in lively an see the kind off people you
will see a kind of "protocol".
whats that??
the users are kind off worm and educate.. allways hi, welcome, thanks
for coming. thinks like this...
lively become in some "upotia". of how real world must be...
in me. lively reborn the child i have inside.
inspire my creativity and curiosity too.
i understand you are a beasy man.. but maybe you need to see for your
self the kind of things in lively..
i invite you to join mine and all livelyzens room.. you will see what
im talking abut.
dont kill lively.. can be used for multi proposit. even to promote
chrome.
google are not like this.. dont work shut down...
google is about to figth for your ideas.. and make it works....
like youtube..
we already are making a good campian to know lively.
we just need a litle more of time
the hardware and sotware is already there.
give us a litle more of time and you will see..
lively will gonna lift off like a rocket..

thanks for yout time..
--------
-------
juanpa31
http://livelyzens.com

On Nov 25, 6:35 pm, oriste wrote:

On Nov 20, 7:05 am, KosmiK Guru wrote:

On Nov 20, 7:05 am, KosmiK Guru wrote:

Dear Mr. Guymon,

My letter is concerning the imminent shutdown of Lively, which is set
to occur on December 31, 2008.

You could say I come from a generation of techies. The majority of my
life it seems has been spent on the internet or on a gaming console.
Some might see this as a negative fact, but I would stand by the
contrary. Without ever leaving the country I have dipped into the
diversity and culture of a world I would never have known existed if
not for sites like Lively. Lively is, however, by far the most capable
I have ever seen an online chat site of bringing together the
creative, the logical, the culturally diverse, and the most amazing
people I have ever met in my lifetime.

Through Lively I have acquired new friendships and an amazing network
of contacts. Shane and Tanya are artists from Michigan and Montana.
Skip is an incredible programmer with a skill for 3D creations. Ross
is always a good laugh but also a wonderful artist. Count is a
composer from Romania, Lively lives in Australia, Deb is my good
friend from Argentina, Squeak is an artist from Seattle with amazing
talent, and KosmikGuru is creative and a born leader. There’s also
Ammy who is a from my state, Texas, and a great friend, Queen Bee
works with plants, and Luis and Monih both speak Portuguese (they’ve
taught me Boa Noite which means good evening or good night). I have
made some great friends and met some wonderful people.

Lively is more than just avatars, 3D rooms, and chat. It’s a place
where people of different cultures, location, and histories come
together to learn and grow from one another. Lively is like a
community, a town. The Sims couldn’t come close the what Lively has
become. The characters, who seem alive half the time, are better
created and far more unique than any Sim character I have ever seen.
Taking away Lively is like taking away a home and a family.

I know that sometimes I have been unhappy on Lively. Does that mean I
want it to go away, no. A speaker came to my school a while back to
talk about Google search. He told us he was the product manager of
search.  He explained the history of search, Google’s mission, and
some facts to us. I also had lunch with him and some faculty
afterward. He spoke about how while all the other companies went with
one way of searching Google took a different approach. Microsoft
scoffed at the idea. Google is now a leading name in search and is
almost untouchable. Why then is Google giving up on something that has
a chance to be their next big break-through?

I understand there are bottom lines, shareholders to satisfy, and a
bleak economic projection. Yet even in these hard times, the gaming
industry is booming. EA is making millions with games like The Sims
and some games are projected to be almost impossible to find. Hugely
popular are MMORPGs like World of War Craft and even sites like
Neopets.com are moving into interactive 3D content with their
Petpetpark.com. Lively has a huge potential for success. It’s
differentiated by its style and ease of use, you’ve already invested
variable and fixed costs into it you are unlikely to see returned, and
it can create a stronger image for Google. As well, you have the
potential for contracts with console companies like Nintendo, cell
phone companies like Sprint, and social networking sites like
Facebook.

Please know that there are many people who have their creativity,
time, and lives invested into Lively. Regardless of the outcome, I
thank you for this amazing site where I have met the most amazing
people. I wouldn’t trade it for anything.

I'm happy to say that my expectations were fullfilled, and even more
so. I've made many new friends from different countries, and I know
that they all are as satisfied as I am that Lively showed itself to be
a family-friendly and clean site. In addition to that, Lively has very
low entrance barriers and can be used by everyone with any interest in
making new friends - without any need for training or computer
proficiency.

Other users have their own reasons to appeal for Lively's survival -
a.o. the unique possibility for artistical creativity within a VW
framework. We have all our reasons to ask for Google to keep up their
image as a responsible company. My Lively friends are all intelligent
and serious people who deserve both Google's respect and to be heard
through their appeals. I join their united voice in this appeal to
Google to do the correct thing - Let Lively Live !!

Xavier

On 20 Nov, 13:05, KosmiK Guru wrote:

On Nov 26, 4:49 am, Duck wrote:

Dear Mr. Guymon,

The first time I entered Lively, I found myself, within minutes, in a
nicely decorated room having a pleasant conversation with friendly
people from all over the world.

I quickly discovered how easy it is to meet new people in Lively. Many
of those people have become friends, some very close friends.

Google got something just right in Lively: the simple aesthetic, ease
of use, clean interface, emphasis on chatting and social networking,
allowing people to be creative. All of it works to bring people
together.

What makes Lively really special are the people. In my group of
friends are men and women from all over the world and of all ages.

There is my friend from Beijing, a first-year university student. We
talk about American pop-culture (which she knows more about than I
do). I help her with her English-language homework. She tells me about
life in China.

There is my friend from Crete, wise beyond his years (which makes him
very wise indeed). He can tell you what makes people tick, and he
knows how to roast a sheep -- a rare combo.

There is my friend from Lebanon, always full of life, good for a
laugh, a talented artist, and generous. Like all of them, he is
someone I would never have gotten to know without Lively.

There may not be a huge number of Lively users, but our dedication to
Lively is huge. Lively means a great deal to us. Given the chance, I
know we will help to grow Lively into a successful product.

Mr. Guymon, please reconsider the future of Lively.

On 20 nov, 13:05, KosmiK Guru wrote:

let stay lively alive!