Transparency

[Mouse 13]

First of all, I have had no trades reversed and have not been affected by the current situation, so this comes from an unbiased point of view.

CS, do better. The Moment you realised there was an issue there should have been a site wide announcement warning of the trade reversals, and urging everyone to change their passwords for CS and their email accounts.

Anyone innocent in the situation who got hit with a trade reversal should be compensated. C$ gift or a store pet. Anything. Not giving even a notification is unacceptable.

Negative C$ balances shouldn't be possible. it should default to 0

This site is yours to do what you wish, but that doesn't mean users upset or angered by the situation won't retaliate, if only by leaving the site. Some will be prone to more drastic measures I'm sure, which will only hurt more users in the process. I wish you luck with damage control.

Do better in the future, inform users fully of situations like this. You don't need to name specific people, groups. etc. So 'user confidentiality' is not going to fly.

Example announcement:
"Dear CS users, there's been an unfortunate situation where some user accounts have been compromised. Some of your recent trades have been or will soon be reversed, please send a help ticket if there are any issues.
Additionally, please change your CS password and your Email password to ensure the safety of your account."

TL,DR: keep users informed. Now, and in ALL future 'situations'

[Lanayru]

I'm always in favor of more transparency on CS as it feels there is a huge gap between staff and normal users. However, I also want to add:

Admins, you NEED to communicate better with your general mods and admin assistants. I genuinely feel for the "lower-ranking" (for lack of a better word) staff who have kept up with the threads and tried to communicate with the userbase but have fallen short because, like they themselves have admitted, they are not given enough information about the situation. I think they also deserve better than to take the brunt of the userbase's ire for something they cannot control and do not have the details on.

I hope this doesn't sound curt or mean, it's genuinely not meant to be and everything here is said in good faith and out of wanting this site to improve.

tl;dr transparency both for the userbase and the mod team, pls and ty

[horsefun]

what happened?

[sapphipop]

i'm really stuck between staying patient and being frustrated about the whole situation despite the fact that i haven't been personally affected either.

while i appreciate that there finally is some action being taken about the security of cs and reversed trades and i understand that they likely wanted to wait to make an announcement until they solved the problems, i feel like it would've been easy to say something like, "we are aware of the problems pertaining to reversed trades and hacked accounts and are working hard to fix this."

i also agree with the fact that admins do need to communicate better with other staff that might not have the power to help as best as they can in dire situations such as these. it's come to a point where people are angry and attacking general helpers who likely don't know the full story and are doing their best to comfort cs users in this time.

all we can really ask for is transparency, but we also have to be patient with those in the staff who don't have any control over the outcome of this.

[Mouse 13]

Having had some time to think more on this, I feel like asking for transparency is the bare minimum here.

Ideally, NO trades should have been reversed. Duplicate pets/C$ should have been made to compensate the hacked people.
Responding to this situation by punishing innocent people seems like the worst possible way to deal with this.

Shifting blame onto innocent users shouldn't be okay. Having pets you traded for taken away IS a punishment, losing C$ you traded for IS a punishment. No matter if it's claimed to be a "fair compensation"

CS should be taking responsibility for the situation, and if that means eating the financial cost so be it. it is not innocent user's responsibility to fix this situation.

So, what if: Pets become more common because of the duplication? C$ becomes to common because of the compensation? STILL not users' problems and it should never be okay to take away these things just because CS is in a bad situation.
The situation sucks for everyone, but favouring the "game economy" over protecting users from the situation is just plain selfish.

But, despite how I feel about all this, a promise of future transparency is all I'm asking for here. That's my suggestion. Transparency.

[W0LF]

@ Mouse 13

I completely agree in regards to transparency.
A brief summary of the situation should have been made on the front page ASAP, along with tips / suggestions being given to keep your account as safe as possible.

I also agree with
"Negative C$ balances shouldn't be possible.
it should default to 0"
Absolutely!!
I was really shocked to hear that some users who were affected are technically(?) now in C$ debt. What?!? Wow! That shouldn't even be a thing.

However, I do not agree with
"NO trades should have been reversed. Duplicate pets/C$ should have been made to compensate the hacked people."
(& my opinion on this has nothing to do with rarities or anything like that).
Just that the people who had their accounts compromised are also victims.
There are quite a few pets I own personally that I adore for their ID numbers, & that can't be replicated.
Having to come back to find out your pets have been swapped out without your consent is a violation, in my opinion.

Just my thoughts, (also unbiased).

[Mouse 13]

However, I do not agree with "NO trades should have been reversed. Duplicate pets/C$ should have been made to compensate the hacked people."
(& my opinion on this has nothing to do with rarities or anything like that).
Just that the people who who had their accounts compromised are also victims.
There are quite a few pets I own personally that I adore for their ID numbers, & that can't be replicated.
Having to come back to find out your pets have been swapped out without your consent is a violation, in my opinion.

Just my thoughts, (also unbiased).

The reverse could also be true. Imagine you traded for a pet specifically for its ID number and you're really attached to it. Then suddenly it's gone! trade reversed back to the previous owner and you've had no say in it.
you could trade for another of the same pet, but you wouldn't get that "special ID number" back, as you put it, that you're so attached to.

[W0LF]

However, I do not agree with "NO trades should have been reversed. Duplicate pets/C$ should have been made to compensate the hacked people."
(& my opinion on this has nothing to do with rarities or anything like that).
Just that the people who had their accounts compromised are also victims.
There are quite a few pets I own personally that I adore for their ID numbers, & that can't be replicated.
Having to come back to find out your pets have been swapped out without your consent is a violation, in my opinion.

Just my thoughts, (also unbiased).

The reverse could also be true. Imagine you traded for a pet specifically for its ID number and you're really attached to it. Then suddenly it's gone! trade reversed back to the previous owner and you've had no say in it.
you could trade for another of the same pet, but you wouldn't get that "special ID number" back, as you put it, that you're so attached to.

Ok, I get that.
The situation really stinks for all involved!!
...but who had it first?
The original owner doesn't have any say?
That doesn't seem right.


Edit: I'd like to add that although I was not personally affected this time, I have experienced forced trade reversals in the past.
Yeah I was bummed, but I understand that the person gifted / traded against their will.
They're not to be blamed (or punished, as you put it).

[W0LF]

what happened?

Copied from another thread of a similar topic:

CS's security was not compromised. User data was breached from another site in the past, which allowed bad actors to get into some CS accounts where users had not updated their passwords or used unique passwords. If you follow proper password protocol you are likely not in danger (can't say never, because some CS "hacks" come from literally inside your house, for example) and there is no reason to take a break from the site or anything similar. Please do not spread misinformation about data from CS being compromised, as this is not true.

Nick posted this (prior to the current front page announcement, but as stated there will be more):

I'm working on several security improvements right now, and I've deployed some already, there will be a news post soon with the announcement.

In the meantime, all it takes to keep your account secure is to have a unique good password for your CS account that you don't also use on other websites. The issues have been due to leaked passwords from sites like NeoPets being re-used here.

This has led to several trades being reversed, as they were illegitimate.

Edit:
... Also...

Wow!! D:
I'm genuinely so sorry that happened to you vicasterology! 👇

[vicasterology]

yeah i agree. the person on my account did less with my pets and more to pretend to be me and hurt my reputation socially, now there's a bunch of people who have this idea of me that i'm someone who gets in discourse and antagonizes cs staff even tho i was literally inactive for a year before this. not to mention there was sensitive info in my account such as my deadname and other personal info about myself, and from what i've heard this hacker doesn't take kindly to trans people so god knows what they're doing with that info!!! good thing it's just a game tho!!! /s
staff was not very helpful either lol. they told me i'd also been hacked on may 26th (would have been nice to know!!) as well as july 2nd when i asked. i then asked if there was a way i could ensure that the person no longer had access to my account because i was freaking out, and the only response i got was "a good password can keep out any hackers" which 1. not what i asked and 2. simply. Not True lmao
i used to like coming back to this site every now and then to check in but i probably won't be doing that anymore as i literally do not feel safe lol

edit: also seeing staff downplay it because it only affected a "small handful" of people didnt make me feel great. it obviously greatly affected me and idk if it was the same or worse for others but it is DEFINITELY something that deserved to be addressed. it just felt like a huge slap in the face lol i dont care that i was only one of ~15 people, this was very real and scary for me. (and still is)