WHY PEOPLE ARE QUITTING CS- A Discussion

[manhunt]

theyre done (theyre quite big, so feel free to resize them!)

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[tiredddd]

Seeing so many people throwing their opinions and suggestions here and seeing how many of you genuinely care gives me hope that change will come at some point. Though unless Tess and Nick decide to actually act on anything or even entertain the idea is a whole other thing entirely. If they're not on board with any of it than all of this discussion is pointless, I hate to say. :c

I don’t think it’s pointless, even if it gets nowhere, it shows that there is a portion of people on here that actually care about the wellbeing of this site and would be sad to see it go

[tiredddd]

theyre done (theyre quite big, so feel free to resize them!)

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[url="https://www.chickensmoothie.com/Forum/viewtopic.php?f=119&t=4885370][img]https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/490783412597293059/1137260287486066728/Untitled492_20230805014616.png[/img][/url]

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OH. MY. GOD. I. LOVE. IT.

[Beefy]

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 also am not active in the forums. It isn't about the joy that the website gives. Everyone here is still on for the nostalgia of the website. Its an old school site that brings back good memories. What people here are complaining about is that the site is losing the nostalgic feel because people are leaving. Less people = less people to talk to = less people to trade with = less art = less fun = less nostalgia = less reasons to stay on the site.

[Lacuna]

Staff(ish) opinion on coders: Nick is a site owner. If he wants more coders that is within his power.

Re: limited store items -- this was a user suggestion we implemented as a response to the C$ inflation discussion.

Honestly, while all the suggestions that would require a coder are fun to discuss, it might be good to turn the discussion to what users can do. If you want a better site guide or trading rarity list that is something you can work on, especially because as regular users that is something you have a better perspective on than mods, in my view. If you want to revitalize the roleplay boards, start some RPs. If you want new users to come to the site, invite some from another site or discord you're on and offer them mentorship if you're able, or just friendship. If you want to have a guild of people who collect dog lineart pets, start one in the clubs board. It can be cathartic to express yourself on a thread like this, and it is helpful to have all the user suggestions organized, but that is not your only power.

[Purgatory K9]

theyre done (theyre quite big, so feel free to resize them!)
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I made a smaller version of one of them. Sadly, slightly blurry but more signature friendly!

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[url=https://www.chickensmoothie.com/Forum/viewtopic.php?f=119&t=4885370#p142555761][img]https://i.ibb.co/DGKWvSw/Untitled492-20230805014608-2-25.png[/img][/url]

[kamukoma]

This will either age me or make me look dumb if it's still a thing but remember the original way you got A Zebra? when I joined there was something like a 0.003% chance (don't quote me this was years ago) every time you adopted a horse that you could receive a zebra randomly. I always thought this was a cool way to incorporate a chance to get an OMG so rare pet into a monthly adoption. maybe something like this could be re-introduced?

I was just thinking of this again last week! Is that not still a thing? I remember it being a really cute incentive to the people who didn't like horses as much to still adopt them. Would love something like this to come back if its gone!

oh wow, i had no idea this wasnt still a thing until i checked just now... i guess i just wasnt paying attention haha. i definitely remember thinking that was so cool when i first joined the site and i always made sure to double check all the horses i adopted. but yeah, i think adding more ways to get those pets might be helpful... im unsure how it would affect demand (since if more people HAVE the rare pets then obviously they become... less rare lol) but i think its a cool idea to get more site traffic.

im also unsure about changing anything about the site management either (or at least, the people involved). like some people have already mentioned, CS isnt a very profitable site and any strategies to make it MORE profitable would completely ruin the spirit of the site in my opinion. and because its not profitable, there really isnt much motivation for people who dont have a personal connection to the site to work for free or to put their time and energy into something they cant make a lot of money on. i know the site runs off volunteers (it has to), which is WHY im so hesitant to support this idea that some ownership or management thing has to change. even with the issues that CS has, its still a FREE website that seems to run based on people WANTING to work on it (i could be wrong about this of course, i obviously dont have access to any of this information so can only speculate, but i really cant imagine that ad sales and chicken dollar purchases make nearly enough to pay everyone who works on the site and pay for the amount it costs to actually keep a huge website online).

overall i really just think that more added to the site could help things (more "december 18th"-like events, pound shuffle system (someone mentioned this a few posts back, maybe rarer pets could have staggered pound releases so even people arriving a little late can still have a chance. though im unsure if this would actually be possible to implement lol), adding extra chances for super rare pets on normal monthly releases (incentivizes people to come back every month), minigames section for past event games, etc). though again, im not sure how doable this even is, especially given how a lot of the site is volunteers. not sure if any of this would actually work :[

i also think its somewhat of a userbase problem... idk if anyone else shares this opinion, but ive noticed less people seem to... engage with the site than they did back when i first joined. maybe im misremembering, but recently ive noticed way more people saying stuff in trades like "this person offsite said this which means its unfair" or forming communities outside of the forums. which is fine of course, there are limitations, but it makes way more sense to me to talk with people who use the site... ON the site, and in the forums to make information more available. feels like a weird barrier of entry if people are doing a bunch of stuff off-site but based ON-site. but again, you cant really STOP people from doing this (nor would i want to!) so it really comes down to people being more active on the site of their OWN volition, and forming more communities here

[blues clues]

Staff(ish) opinion on coders: Nick is a site owner. If he wants more coders that is within his power.

Re: limited store items -- this was a user suggestion we implemented as a response to the C$ inflation discussion.

Honestly, while all the suggestions that would require a coder are fun to discuss, it might be good to turn the discussion to what users can do. If you want a better site guide or trading rarity list that is something you can work on, especially because as regular users that is something you have a better perspective on than mods, in my view. If you want to revitalize the roleplay boards, start some RPs. If you want new users to come to the site, invite some from another site or discord you're on and offer them mentorship if you're able, or just friendship. If you want to have a guild of people who collect dog lineart pets, start one in the clubs board. It can be cathartic to express yourself on a thread like this, and it is helpful to have all the user suggestions organized, but that is not your only power.

thank you again lacuna!! this thread has radiated so much positive energy i'd love to see all through other forums on the site!!

the forum games are fun and can go on for a while with active members ^^

[tiredddd]

I appreciate all the support on this topic!
Thank you to the users who have made stamps, they are going directly on the front page
<3

[manhunt]

theyre done (theyre quite big, so feel free to resize them!)
-snip-

I made a smaller version of one of them. Sadly, slightly blurry but more signature friendly!

Code: Select all

[url=https://www.chickensmoothie.com/Forum/viewtopic.php?f=119&t=4885370#p142555761][img]https://i.ibb.co/DGKWvSw/Untitled492-20230805014608-2-25.png[/img][/url]

THANK YOU I DID NOT KNOW THE CORRECT SIZE TO USE