Recently, members of the staff team compiled a list of concerns and requests for admins, on behalf of the community. We hear that many of you feel the site is stagnating with no major updates or improvements in recent years. A lot of popular suggestions have gone unanswered for years. Our one coder (Nick) isn’t seen to be producing much, though we’ve rejected offers of extra coding support. There’s a general feeling that Nick and I have abandoned CS. We’ve taken this feedback on board, and are committed to making some necessary changes for the good of CS.
The truth is, I did quietly consider myself to have retired from CS, but I didn’t know how to announce it. We recruited Sorren and Simon to take over my admin duties. With their support, I was able to go back to university and begin a career in health care. I've worked full time in cancer treatment for the past 5 years which I find very fulfilling. Last year I finally was able to adopt my first ever dog, a 3.5yo rescue greyhound. It's always been my dream to have a dog, and in fact was the inspiration behind me getting into virtual pets. I still enjoy making the occasional event artwork/minigames for CS, and have some more planned for the future. But outside of that limited CS involvement, I've been prioritizing catching up with friends and family and relaxing in my down time.
I thought CS would carry on just fine without me at the helm. Unfortunately, Nick’s productivity has taken a dive without my sibling energy driving him. Nick has requested my help in managing his output, so I will return in a limited capacity to support him in seeing projects through to completion. We’re also recruiting Zeena to the admin team to help spread the workload. We will soon publish a “roadmap” of planned updates and expected timeframes so you can see what we’re working on and hold us accountable.
Here is a preview of the updates expected in the next 2-3 weeks:
- When browsing pets in the archive, add the ability to find that pet in your own pet groups, or see how many of that outcome you own. (Fully grown pets only)
- When viewing your (fully grown) pet’s page, have a link to view that pet in the archive to help with identifying its release date and event.
- Remove URs from counting toward a user’s complete collection (or offer different levels of completion).
- Remove store items from counting toward a user’s complete collection.
Note these are mainly QOL updates, to improve upon the features we already have. There are many more accepted suggestions on the to-do list, but we still need to timetable them. While some updates would take a day or 2 to implement, others may take months of work, so we will try to be clear about what’s going on when the frequency of updates fluctuates. There can also be unpredictable events that require Nick’s full attention, such as patching security vulnerabilities, so we will update the timeline as required.
Now you may have noticed several staff have recently left the team. Unfortunately, the way some staff organized and presented these issues has sadly led to a breakdown in communication and trust between some of the included and excluded team members. There has been heated debate and a lot of hurt feelings on both sides. The result is that many upset staff have since left the team. We’re always sad to see people go, but especially for staff to leave feeling so dissatisfied after many years of dedicating their time to the CS community. We owe the departing staff our gratitude for all they’ve done for CS, and we’re sorry we didn’t support them better.
Thank you to our departing staff:
Burrito Bunny, Dogtreat, Eagle’s Eye, Fawnie, hellevi, Joke’s On You, Seasonal, Spaceinmyhead, Wobbuffet
Congratulations to Zeena on her appointment to the admin team. Zeena has demonstrated great decision making and outstanding output the past 5 years as an admin assistant, and we’re confident she will serve the team well as an admin going forward!
I do apologize on behalf of Nick and I for letting the community down. But more than simply saying sorry, we want to let our future actions demonstrate that we still care about the CS community. These issues won’t all be resolved overnight, but hopefully with time we can regain your trust.
This has been an emotive issue within the staff, and likely will be for CS users too. We all need some time to decompress and get back on track, so we're locking the topic for now.
