WHY PEOPLE ARE QUITTING CS- A Discussion

[LittleMaple]

on the idea of hiring coders, what if it the hiring was done the same way the hiring for artists is done? put out a form for the site members to answer, maybe give them an example webpagw to code, something simple thatll only take a few hours (my shoddy hrml pages from 7th grade didnt take too long so im kinda just going off of that lol) and go from there? i feel like theres a way better degree of trust that way

Volunteer coders could be trusted users maybe???

I think that could work, only concern would be still that you know, a lot of players go inactive for a while. Go on hiatus and come back. It would have to be someone who has had a continuously active history to speak for their ability to stay active. You wouldn't want an intern coder who comes up for 4 months before disappearing for a year, meanwhile leaving their site access active

Def would have to be like "hey volunteers let us know when youll be inactive"!! Honestly i think that is just true in general, its kinda just expected to let people know youre leaving if you know you will be. Ex: you wont have access to cs for whatever reason but have access to it for enough time to let the others know! This would be good!! Other ex: if your phone suddenly broke and that was the only way you could access cs that wouldnt require you to have a notice because you couldnt have predicted that or had time to formulate a "hey something is going on" kind of message
Sorry if this is confusing i was trying really hard to get my point across

[TheFoxMaster]

Random thought for more engagement but there could be a type of daily login every month. The number of days you log in potentially corresponds with an item, pet, or some 3rd thing. idk and no one would know until they logged in every day that month.

not to replace the current system ofc, more of a bonus with just a handful a things with most days just giving you a cool fact or showing you some art someone drew or even just nothing.

[darkspawn]

Random thought for more engagement but there could be a type of daily login every month. The number of days you log in potentially corresponds with an item, pet, or some 3rd thing. idk and no one would know until they logged in every day that month.

chicensmoovie battle pass

[blues clues]

I have a unique roll on this website, as I would consider myself a ghost of sorts. For many years I have seldom traded, and I have avoided the forums (in fact this is my first time posting in another individual’s thread ever in my 10 years on this website) And although being an artist, I have yet to try to make art on this website. But I come back frequently to enjoy the small things. I love to look at other artist’s work, I enjoy the designs of the pets, and lastly the events truly bring me a sort of nostalgic glee. So then, why is it that over the years I have watched the community crumble, when this website still brings me the same amount of happiness that I had when I made my account in 2013? Is it the expectations that there should be a degree of change and advancement within a website of this age? So what is it about my experience that differs so much from everyone else’s?

Despite the joys that this website brings me, I do have one major gripe. Pet and Item value.
For me, my biggest gripes of this website is how unbelievably difficult it is to understand pet and item value. It’s like learning a different language. People tend to take “bad” trades personally as though it’s an attack on their person, When in actuality the trading system is just so convoluted and unintuitive that individuals send trades without fully grasping the concept of pet value.
(I would like those who read this to know that I have almost backed out of posting this like 20 times)

extremely valid stance! it seems like you enjoy this website for its simple and easy nature which makes total sense. i enjoy the simplicity of the site as well, but for users who don't pay much attention to the art side of cs it's reasonable that they'd want the sides of cs that they are more passionate about improved!

also id assume the 'ghost' role has a bit to do with it as well! seeing as many of the improvement requests are features that players would have to be active in to experience you might've missed out on those ie: warnings, friend requests, c$ inflation, etc.

[Infailia]

-snip-
Hire additional coders/Increased admin activity
The only way I can see this happening is if CS starts charging a membership fee for access. CS is not, from my understanding, a profitable website. The only way of bringing in cash is through C$ sales, which as mentioned above, cross site trading makes for easier attainability of C$ and does not bring any profit to CS. It's a free to play site, with minimal ads that most of us use ad blockers against anyways.

Quickly adding my thoughts here about the inability to pay additional coders: hire interns. As someone heavily involved in the computer science realm, the amount of people (particularly college students) looking for internship even a little related to coding is ridiculous. Off the top of my head, I could name a couple dozen people who would jump at the chance to intern for a site like this for free.

I am not at all knowledgeable in the computer science realm, but I imagine the concern with this is finding someone you can trust to have that sort of site access and not abuse it or abandon responsibilities. Interning would be great, but for my field at least, they're looking for internships that are more household name businesses. A little old pet collecting website that's called "chicken smoothie"? Unless you've been a member, you've never heard of it. Wouldn't students rather intern for somewhere that has more of a reputation, or even a bigger presence? Not denying that students would be grateful for an opportunity, I'm just wondering if the lack of general population popularity of CS would only bring students who are a bit more lax and not as dedicated to the candidate pool. But again, I know nothing of that field, I don't know how big of a concern my thought here is

The problem for computer science students is that (for most) in order to graduate you have to have completed an internship or co-op, and there are not enough positions to go around. Would it be wonderful to intern for Google or Microsoft? Sure, but they don't hire more than a handful of computer science interns a year, and that leaves students setting their sights on something more obtainable. Most computer science internships end up happening through companies barely anybody has heard of, but since there are so many candidates, everyone is highly competitive, and to abuse your internship is a surefire way to be barred from graduating and blacklisted in the industry.

On top of all of this, a good portion of computer science students are going into game design (and that's, somehow, even harder to get a vaguely related internship in), so a site like Chicken Smoothie offering an internship? That's a dream position right there because not only do you get to work on a 'game', but you also get real-world experience with coding a site, and that's very valuable.

[avaloafe]

I have a unique roll on this website, as I would consider myself a ghost of sorts. For many years I have seldom traded, and I have avoided the forums (in fact this is my first time posting in another individual’s thread ever in my 10 years on this website) And although being an artist, I have yet to try to make art on this website. But I come back frequently to enjoy the small things. I love to look at other artist’s work, I enjoy the designs of the pets, and lastly the events truly bring me a sort of nostalgic glee. So then, why is it that over the years I have watched the community crumble, when this website still brings me the same amount of happiness that I had when I made my account in 2013? Is it the expectations that there should be a degree of change and advancement within a website of this age? So what is it about my experience that differs so much from everyone else’s?

Despite the joys that this website brings me, I do have one major gripe. Pet and Item value.
For me, my biggest gripes of this website is how unbelievably difficult it is to understand pet and item value. It’s like learning a different language. People tend to take “bad” trades personally as though it’s an attack on their person, When in actuality the trading system is just so convoluted and unintuitive that individuals send trades without fully grasping the concept of pet value.
(I would like those who read this to know that I have almost backed out of posting this like 20 times)

honestly agree! i've interacted more on the site than you have no doubt, and i've taken long breaks from cs. yet i keep coming back! this site still continues to hold my attention and i honestly feel like people are asking SO much of this website that it wasn't DESIGNED to be. it was designed to be a forum and pet adopting site.

[Purgatory K9]

Random thought for more engagement but there could be a type of daily login every month. The number of days you log in potentially corresponds with an item, pet, or some 3rd thing. idk and no one would know until they logged in every day that month.

I love this, I think it could be something super simple, like an item that's been in the store, or maybe like 1 C$?

[Bellarocks123a]

I think that could work, only concern would be still that you know, a lot of players go inactive for a while. Go on hiatus and come back. It would have to be someone who has had a continuously active history to speak for their ability to stay active. You wouldn't want an intern coder who comes up for 4 months before disappearing for a year, meanwhile leaving their site access active

Def would have to be like "hey volunteers let us know when youll be inactive"!! Honestly i think that is just true in general, its kinda just expected to let people know youre leaving if you know you will be. Ex: you wont have access to cs for whatever reason but have access to it for enough time to let the others know! This would be good!! Other ex: if your phone suddenly broke and that was the only way you could access cs that wouldnt require you to have a notice because you couldnt have predicted that or had time to formulate a "hey something is going on" kind of message
Sorry if this is confusing i was trying really hard to get my point across

I totally get what you're saying. Yes, if you know you're gonna be inactive for a month because of something like finals prep, you should be letting people know. But my concern is more of the "life got in the way and I didn't even think about it and slowly faded into the abyss until now it's a year later and I'm back"

[Ravens-Folklore]

I have a unique roll on this website, as I would consider myself a ghost of sorts. For many years I have seldom traded, and I have avoided the forums (in fact this is my first time posting in another individual’s thread ever in my 10 years on this website) And although being an artist, I have yet to try to make art on this website. But I come back frequently to enjoy the small things. I love to look at other artist’s work, I enjoy the designs of the pets, and lastly the events truly bring me a sort of nostalgic glee. So then, why is it that over the years I have watched the community crumble, when this website still brings me the same amount of happiness that I had when I made my account in 2013? Is it the expectations that there should be a degree of change and advancement within a website of this age? So what is it about my experience that differs so much from everyone else’s?

Despite the joys that this website brings me, I do have one major gripe. Pet and Item value.
For me, my biggest gripes of this website is how unbelievably difficult it is to understand pet and item value. It’s like learning a different language. People tend to take “bad” trades personally as though it’s an attack on their person, When in actuality the trading system is just so convoluted and unintuitive that individuals send trades without fully grasping the concept of pet value.
(I would like those who read this to know that I have almost backed out of posting this like 20 times)

I'm glad you didn't stop yourself from posting. I just want to say I agree with you. The vast majority of trades I get are people asking for rare+ pets of mine that I have seen with medium to high demand, and it is clear to me they don't understand the value of the pet they are asking for versus what they are offering in the trade. I will cancel the trade because I know it is unfair, but also within the next few minutes I tend to backtrack and ask myself if I really understand the worth of any of the pets that were in that trade, either. The rarity system was created to be straightforward, but ever since the Rares list and then it being taken down and everyone deciding on their own what they think things are worth, it has been anything but straightforward. It is extremely convoluted and it makes it hard to trade away rare+ pets even if you don't want them, because it is so much harder to figure out what they are worth in an auction or for C$ than to just hold onto them and let them rot.

[manhunt]

Random thought for more engagement but there could be a type of daily login every month. The number of days you log in potentially corresponds with an item, pet, or some 3rd thing. idk and no one would know until they logged in every day that month.

chicensmoovie battle pass

ik this is meant to be a aerious discussion but the way i gigglef at chicensmoovie battle pass