On the discussion on AW groups, and the fact that they are apparently losing members to the ‘hoods developments, Jot noted:

Ah, Groups! We thought that by putting a high price on group formation, we would naturally limit the number of Groups created. But with little else to do with site currency, perhaps this backfired. People may have created Groups just to have something to do with their idle cash...the idea of Groups may still be valid, but the sub-community need they fill may be partially picked up by Hoods and partially diffused by the sheer number of inactive Groups. ...As a solution, we may try to cull inactive Groups and make the approval process for new Groups a little more difficult (not based on site currency). Finally we could make the replacement of inactive leaders a possibility.

On an idea for future development, which came from discussing festivals, he wrote:

The Festivals are a way of giving people common goals toward which they may work together. Working together is a communal bonding experience. The objections to non-stop partying may actually be a form of asking for other communal goals. One goal that has been floated many times before is the building of encyclopedias and libraries...At one point, I was ready to begin development of the "Encyclopedia Antica," a knowledge base that the community could build that would be as factual as possible. But this would not be the vines. It would be a component of the community, integrated with it. When I learned of the Wikipedia project, I thought that it has been done. But perhaps it is time to consider such a project?

On the early days of AncientSites, he noted:

It is hard to recall a world without boards, blogs and instant messaging - but with the birth of the first board, the world was suddenly different. The ability to converse with total strangers who shared your interest was completely new, untested. There were no examples of how to facilitate such an environment. There had been the WELL in San Francisco, but that was on a local dial up service and was text only. Also, the WELL was not about any special topic of interest for people to bond over.

As we started AS, we experienced a lot of "forming and storming." People did not know how to engage such a world of contact with strangers. At AS and on boards at other websites, there was a lot of experimentation with protocols and rules of conduct. Eventually AS settled into a mode of "norming and performing."

One of Jot's primary programming interests has always been the idea of 3D development, including chat environments (set in the ancient world) that would permit avatars to move, meet, and visit, say, in the Roman Forum. On Jot’s hopes for an “immersive 3D” environment:

Some of the questions fielded so far ask about the next ten years of the site and specifically about making the context of the site more 3D, perhaps more immersive...

AncientWorlds/AncientSites was launched from a sort of demiurge to "be" in Ancient Rome, to create an interactive environment that one can walk through. Oddly, for various technical reasons, this dream of integrating 3D environment and community is still elusive today. (read the whole post at http://www.ancientworlds.net/aw/Post/951067)