December 2000

Here we are, at the end of year 2000 already. The second half of this year has been rather hectic, and it showed in the site and the magazine. Thank you all for putting up with us, and a big thank you to all of our wonderful writers and staff, and especially Jeanne, without whom this magazine would not exist.

Several changes will be taking place in 2001. The one that will affect all of you most is the restructuring of the membership. Beginning in the second quarter of this year, we will be offering only one kind of Aestheticism membership. The current full membership will be discontinued, and all memberships will be converted to Virtual City accounts.

If your current membership expiration date extends beyond March 30, 2001, the remaining period of your membership will be credited to you at the rate of $2.50/month. By default it will be converted to store credit at Aestheticism Cybershoppe. This will be done automatically, and you need not take any action. If you wish to receive the refund as a check instead, you may notify us by an email to billing@aestheticism.com.

Here's a run-down on how your membership will be affected, starting April 2001:

• This magazine will continue to be published monthly, and will be available to all members.
• We are putting a moratorium on the VCity hosting service. If you have a site hosted with us currently, your site will not be affected. However, if you do not have a site hosted currently, we will no longer be offering free accounts. This is mostly due to server and manpower limitations, and we hope to revive the service in the future. We'll keep you updated.
• Instead of the VCity hosting service, we hope to offer a free age-verification service for all members. This will be similiar to the Adult Check service offered on the internet, but will be available only to our members, and be free of charge. You'll be able to cut and paste it into your current website, and protect it from underaged users.
• Membership discount will be discontinued. Instead, we'll be offering you a discount based on the amount of your accumulated purchases at the Cybershoppe. We'll provide you with more information on this at a later date.
• We will be purging the Comiket section. The doujinshi for which we have received permission will remain, and the rest will be removed. All commerical manga excerpts will be removed, although we will continue to make the translations available on the site as text files. If you wish to keep a copy of any of the doujinshi and manga, you should download them before April.

If you have any questions or concerns, please email us at webmaster@aestheticism.com

Enjoy your holidays, and see you next year.

-Mimi