WHY PEOPLE ARE QUITTING CS- A Discussion

[LittleMaple]

Hey!! Im not trying to be rude- but could anyone who has had a blunt/rude message from mods post them for clarification? Im just curious as to what was being said exactly! Obviously take out any sensitive info (names, dates, places, etc) but i think that could help make things more clear! I understand it is likely that users no longer have the message but i just wanted to shoot my shot lol

the quote i put in my message was the closest i could get! i don't think official warnings are allowed to be exposed to the public due to the privacy behind them, even if censored. i would if i could, apologies.

Ohhh okay!! Yours was very helpful, i appreciate it! Its unfortunate that they cant be shown but i understand why

[cats135]

Just gonna throw 2¢ in quickly lol bc this is a sensitive topic, but wAy back when I was a wee bean, not even 13, I posted a "statement post" (me just saying something, not discussion) in the forums before fully understanding what forums were for. I was a Child who had never used internet before.

My post got closed and I got some warning I don't recall word for word, but it freaked me out so bad I stopped using forums for months, maybe more.

I don't recall if the mod was rude, but it was stern enough it scared me from trying to post for ages. So, as a certified Teacher myself, there is professionalism without sounding scary, rude, or blunt. Even just adding a "thank you!" at the is enough sometimes.

[Betta132]

I've seen some mentions of taking pets from old, inactive accounts and redistributing them back into the economy somehow. Although I see why people want that, it would really suck to be one of those old, inactive accounts, if the person ever comes back online. I left for a few years and came back, and I wouldn't have been happy to find everything gone.

However, I know the number of people who leave for 10+ years and come back is quite small. So, I have one possible idea, though it might be hard to code.

Duplicate the account's pets and release those. The most likely outcome is that the account owner never comes back, meaning those pets stay on the account. Since they've been duped and released, this is functionally identical to the account's pets having been taken. On the rare chance that the owner does come back, they still have their pets, and no harm has been done- the chance of that happening would be low enough that the overall number of pets which are duplicated, and then later come back into trading, would be pretty small. One out of every few thousand or so.

I also have an idea, unrelated, that I suspect might help with the trading thing. Namely: a petdex. Described here: Forum/viewtopic.php?f=119&t=4842798&hilit=suggestion
In short, make something that, like a Pokedex, tracks what pets you've owned. If you trade away that pet, you still have its entry in your Petdex. That way, people can collect an entry for every pet, without having to actually own every pet at the same time. Just imagine how many pets are sat in groups somewhere, not because their owners particularly want them, but because their owners are trying for a full collection. Now think what it would do for everything if all those pets were suddenly available again. This would also solve the problem of there being only a limited number of rare pets- now you don't have to keep every, say, 2008 Tess horse. You can get one briefly, then trade it off to someone else who needs it. And if someone does want to collect and have one of every pet, not only can they still do that, but it should be easier (read: not functionally impossible) due to the greater amount of pets being traded.

[Seasonal]

on the discussion of mod responses, some of the help ticket responses i've been exposed to by other users has just.. honestly lined up with what some of the other users on here have been pointing out.

celozon, i know you are trying to prove a point by trying to upkeep that professionalism, but what is the harm in giving a soft warning before getting straight into it? one of my friends received an immediate, non-disputable board warning for a link to one of their socials simply because of a hidden picture they had posted years ago. personally, i think it would be more suitable to remove the link from their profile and issue a soft (NOT board warning??) warning rather than going straight into putting a strike on their account.


and though i cannot share this help ticket due to privacy, i saw a help ticket issued as something similar to this:
"you were worried about xyz, but now i guess now it's not right that zyx gets to be compensated."

in. a help. ticket. where is the professionalism in that? rudeness is as it is perceived, yes, but using a fallacy against one of your own users by taking what they had said and then twisting it into being as if they suddenly don't care about what they were reaching out was. um. concerning to me, haha..

so on this note, i am all for a revamp to the warning system. it has problems, and i know the mods are not intending this, but it just feels more like a kick in the shin rather than a slap on a wrist when we receive that blunt tone in warning posts. even if it's just a change in wording, it would help a lot from the users' perception.

One reason why I stopped collecting pets and now just trade them for art is because it's so easy to just get a strike. 3 strikes, you're out. Spent years collecting? Doesn't matter. Some rules I find really silly and kept forgetting because I just thought they were so stupid, mostly because of how I was raised. I think I last time got a strike or something because I posted a female anthro sheet (No nipples, naturally), and got in trouble for that. Then later saw male anthros with same sized breasts seemingly not getting into trouble. I wasn't raised to see much of a difference. It was weird to me I got a warning for that, which I can get their side now but yeah some rules are odd and you get in trouble and get a strike and after three you just loose everything.

CS does not follow a “three strikes, you’re out” system. We really only ban people in severe instances of repeatedly breaking major rules (and cheating).

[howlingwolf909]

Just gonna throw 2¢ in quickly lol bc this is a sensitive topic, but wAy back when I was a wee bean, not even 13, I posted a "statement post" (me just saying something, not discussion) in the forums before fully understanding what forums were for. I was a Child who had never used internet before.

My post got closed and I got some warning I don't recall word for word, but it freaked me out so bad I stopped using forums for months, maybe more.

I don't recall if the mod was rude, but it was stern enough it scared me from trying to post for ages. So, as a certified Teacher myself, there is professionalism without sounding scary, rude, or blunt. Even just adding a "thank you!" at the is enough sometimes.

this is the kind of stuff that had kid me first playing on the website avoiding even TRYING to learn the forum. i think if i had given it a go and accidently did something wrong in my child naivete, and gotten what everyone is describing as the usual mod response which is stern, cold, blunt, and unforgiving.. i really think I would've quit the game much sooner just out of anxiety.

[FunFace]

This may seem a bit silly, but maybe we could have a staff member of the month/year award?
Users could vote for staff / or submit a ticket when a staff member has been particularly helpful or made their experience on CS better.
This way it could incentivize staff to be more considerate in how they may handle user interactions while also allowing the user base to show appreciation for the CS staff.

I like this idea! It's a simple idea that doesn't seem to hard to implement and could be very refreshing for staff to feel appreciated. :]

[MishaChu]

I'm a fairly new user and after a month of playing I thought I'd give my thoughts.

- I am not a big fan of off-site trades and I know what I'm about to say might be a bit of a controversial take but, I think it should be banned altogether. My reasoning is that it just feels like an unfair disadvantage? Especially for those who don't have accounts on other virtual pet sites where off-site trading is allowed. Like for example I see a lot of threads asking for off-site trades for flight rising currency. I do have a FR account but I only like very recently got back into playing again, so I don't particularly have a whole lot of gems or valuable/unique dragons that would justify a trade for a pet on this site...

- I have... mixed feelings about a CS discord server. I saw mentions about how PCE has a server that's read only for announcements and such. I definitely understand why a lot of people are supportive for a discord server and how it can be beneficial. But my biggest critique in regards to a discord server is that important information and announcements have a habit of being gatekeeped within their server and those who aren't in the server end up being out of the loop.

- I cannot speak too much regarding mod behavior as I don't really go on the forums to socialize a whole lot, but I do overall agree that the mods should at least try to be more polite and explain things more clearly especially when it comes to handing out warnings.

[Jmchs]

We shouldn't have to trade hundreds of pets for 1.
I have had multiple OMGSR and ended up trading them for several store pets because the demand and list is so difficult to understand. It takes the fun out of the game.
Plus lots of rude kids and people in general.

[Lifora]

CS does not follow a “three strikes, you’re out” system. We really only ban people in severe instances of repeatedly breaking major rules (and cheating).

That's... really useful to know. Thank you. I thought it was 3 strikes within 3 months and then you are out. I (thankfully) was wrong- if not then I should of mentioned the month part aha.

[LittleMaple]

This may seem a bit silly, but maybe we could have a staff member of the month/year award?
Users could vote for staff / or submit a ticket when a staff member has been particularly helpful or made their experience on CS better.
This way it could incentivize staff to be more considerate in how they may handle user interactions while also allowing the user base to show appreciation for the CS staff.

I like this idea! It's a simple idea that doesn't seem to hard to implement and could be very refreshing for staff to feel appreciated. :]

This would be SO fun... maybe even a version for user of the month?? That would be harder but itd be kinda cute lol!! Id love to be able to say "this person was super kind and helpful!" And let others know!