CSN Discussion Thread!

[ellebee]

I can’t apply/commit to a formal csn staff position but I saw your announcement on the other thread about needing some insights, and I could very happily recommend some great newer artists literally anytime just as a casual art/creative enthusiast of CS if it would permissible on the thread here I’d love to just come by and leave a comment occasionally & y’all could look into it as the staff sees fit

That would be amazing! If you ever want to give someone a shout, definitely do so ^^ If you know any artists personally, I'd also definitely recommend letting them know about the art submission form as well as it's a great way to get your name out there ^^

[Loelya]

That would be amazing! If you ever want to give someone a shout, definitely do so ^^ If you know any artists personally, I'd also definitely recommend letting them know about the art submission form as well as it's a great way to get your name out there ^^

fantastic! do y’all have an ideal timeframe for info like that? like the start of a month, by the middle of a month, etc?

[ellebee]

That would be amazing! If you ever want to give someone a shout, definitely do so ^^ If you know any artists personally, I'd also definitely recommend letting them know about the art submission form as well as it's a great way to get your name out there ^^

fantastic! do y’all have an ideal timeframe for info like that? like the start of a month, by the middle of a month, etc?

Generally I would say middle to end, as the beginning of the month normally has the "theme" decided. By the time we're done, we're mainly polishing and working on finalizing works, so ideas for the upcoming month are ideal at that point! ^^

[Loelya]

Okay I'm gonna start off with a couple artists - each with only one piece in their gallery so far - I was really hoping to see these get a feature haha but I think the feature gods passed over them <3

first user - gibbon! I absolutely love this human style I really hope to see more from them!

next - user WeepingWillows! this picture 😭 is like peace distilled in its purest form to me

then I'd also love to kind of just? shout-out some artists I personally think are hugely underrated

Sunniedew - I believe received a feature relatively recently BUT his work is colorful and cheerful and the lineart has such a fun style to it I almost can't believe that he doesn't get at least 50 likes per piece

tyrannical (off-oekaki) - I love this user's art but I don't think they have a dedicated art thread, so I'm just linking to their "examples" category in their art shop. but they have some really lovely drawings on oekaki too

pittoo - his warm-color portrait-style drawings are so charming to me. criminally underrated artist imo

valkyrie,, - gorgeous clean lineart style and I love the way she poses the characters she draws, they feel so lively to me

Axes (off-oekaki) - I am OBSESSED with this user's humanoid style like those eyes are just so beautifully hypnotic. I rly like some of the more abstract pieces displayed here as well

tsu-bear's gallery is like candyland to me. the colors! the fluffy! the characters!

synthwave (off-oekaki) - has this dreamy overtone on some of pup's art pup has posted here that I am in love with to be quite honest

Sea_Nettle - so underrated I am physically ill. LOOK at the love he just POURS into the character comms he draws

Stormbird did an art trade with me recently and I just love her style! the way she draws character faces is so expressive

[daybreak.]

Whoa! Thanks for all these recommendations! A very handy list with July just around the corner (✧ω✧) ...(on a completely unrelated note /j, who's excited for the Art Fight team reveal this afternoon ✧˖°·

[Wired]

I’m obsessed with the history of the CS Mall. It was an interesting part of the site where it briefly bled into the real world. Nice interview with DaDwarf too, I like their attitude

[daybreak.]

I’m obsessed with the history of the CS Mall. It was an interesting part of the site where it briefly bled into the real world. Nice interview with DaDwarf too, I like their attitude

Thanks! Had a lot of fun doing research for this one for sure! Got a lot of info from the original Mall opening threads, but also shout-out to the Chicken Smoothie History thread for being a great jumping off point for it.

In case anyone's interested, I'm inclined to share one bit that didn't quite fit into the featured article (this issue of the CSN was already so long!), but that I'm super intrigued by: the mystery of the Sunback Plushies!

You can see a Sunback plushie in the image included on page 4; that's actually a picture Tess shared previewing the merch that would be available at Anthrocon, and seems to be a prototype of the plushies CS was meant to receive to sell at the con. It's a well-documented fact that their shipment was delayed and the plushies weren't delivered in time to be available at anthrocon. However, the plan was to make them available for online orders from a different online shop, not the CS Mall.

Later on, during the first opening of the Mall in 2012, Tess mentioned that there we still plans to make the plushies available, but they were again delayed:


I know a lot of you were hoping for a Sunback Plushie for Christmas, but unfortunately due to production problems we won't be selling plushies until early 2013. We will release more information when they are ready to order, so please be patient.


However, when the 2013 Mall opening came about, the tune had changed. When a user asked about the possibility of the Mall stocking plushies, Tess responded:


argh I don't even wanna hear the word plushies xD

we have tried this before, but unfortunately it hasn't really worked out. Not sure if we will ever be able to sell plushies.


And (bold added):


unfortunately we haven't managed to find a solution to our plushie problems and we're not sure if we ever will, so we're not making any further promises about plushie sales at this point. I really hoped we'd get to sell those early this year, but we've just hit road block after road block. I started planning for those plushies in 2011 and we're still not close to offering anything! It's been really stressful and I just don't want to think about it any more.

Some plushies do exist, but they're holed up in storage somewhere. I wasn't particularly pleased with the final design so I feel like people aren't missing much anyways. It's been very difficult to manage them from outside the US and I don't know if I'll be back there any time soon.


Some plushies exist! I don't think it's outlandish to conclude that due to them coming out a bit subpar to expectations even after all the trouble incurred, they were exiled to storage, and we've not heard about what happened to those storage plushies since...

Except! In 2023 EmberWolf kindly added pictures of her very own Sunback plushie to the CS History thread!

She quickly disclaimed she didn't know much more about the rest of the supposed storage plushies, since she inherited hers from an ex-staff member:


I got [the plushie] from an ex-staff member who also mentioned the storage plushies but they had no idea if those plushies still exist/are still in storage somewhere as it's been years. No clue how many were originally made or are floating around out there. I like to think that a hoard of plushies in storage still exists and there are boxes of sunback plushies waiting to be discovered and freed, though!


So the mystery remains, but I think her plushie showing clear differences from the one in Tess's picture points toward it being one of the storage plushies. Like EmberWolf, I hope there's a stash of sunback plushies still in storage somewhere, waiting to be freed c:

Anyway! Thanks to everyone who sent in mail for this issue of the CSN! Probably my new favorite thing we included in this issue, and that's saying something because I love spot the difference games c:

[daybreak.]

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Howdy! Behind the scenes we were rootin'-tootin' excited to get mail from y'all supporters and readers alike. We thought it would be shiny to pay y'all who took the trouble back in kind; here are responses from a variety of our bona-fide CSN staff members to the daisy mail y'all sent our way! (And I'll drop the shtick—I'm just living for the summer even this year. Stay tuned for some news on the matter soon!)

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I wanted to thank the person who sent sugar to the GHs. It's really nice to know we're appreciated by the community <3"

daybreak.
author's assistant
& researcher

Howdy axel!

I'll add some more sugar on top of that June issue serving! I have so much appreciation for the work all General Helpers do around the forums, and especially those who roam the Introductions & Newbie Guides sub-forum to welcome new members to the site. As someone who's been signing up to be a newbie helper for a bit, I know CS can be a bit overwhelming at first. Making a friendly first-impression and linking some useful resources to boot on those intro threads is such a community service for real!

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CS has such a storied history that I feel isn't really mentioned or talked about a whole lot. As a relatively new user, I always look forward to CSN's fun facts always giving interesting little tidbits from the site's 16-year-old history!

ellebee
creator &
head writer

Dear MishaChu,

Thank you so much for your kind words; shedding some light on CS history is one of our goals! Whether it be new players who don't know about the history, or old players who want to reminisce, it's truly for everyone to enjoy. With that being said, it always brings such a smile to my face to hear that you're enjoying what we're doing! If you ever want us to touch on a certain topic, definitely mention it in our discussion thread, there's so much for us to cover that sometimes it doesn't even pop into my head!

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I really enjoy reading all the interviews with the staff. I enjoyed reading about Fawnie in the June 2024 CSN Newsletter, and getting to know her better. I look forward to seeing which staff member will be interviewed next!

Cade_ion
editor

.

Dear catmother456,

We’re very glad you’ve enjoyed all of our staff interviews so far!! It’s always really interesting to hear directly from staff members about their experiences and information they’d like to share about any given topic the team is currently researching this month!! I always love to see what new information they share or just general bits about themselves and their time on the site! As someone who didn’t know much about the RP forum on Chicken Smoothie, Fawnie’s interview definitely opened my eyes to a lot about its community and was definitely very interesting to read!! We hope you’ll enjoy any future staff reviews we have lined up, thanks!! ^^

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Hi there to CSN! I look forward every time the team drops a notification in my inbox! I have been on CS for a long time, and even though I have been here for a while, I'm still very shy and just love to lurk and learn about the community! I take time out of my day to read the article, and I love the horoscopes! thank you CSN team and everyone in the community that keeps this awesome place "bumping"!

Magpi3.14
editor

Hi Circle!

I'm quite a lurker myself, hehe. We appreciate the kind response to the CSN, and the love for the extras section! I hope you have enjoyed some of the newer games as well as previous horoscopes. I hope to see you around the site a little more maybe! <3

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I get so excited for the monthly newsletter because I learn so much despite being on this site for almost 11 years! I love getting to know little fun facts and seeing the dressups that are submitted. I have to say, I really enjoy the crosswords!

puffy
researcher

.

dear otterbug,

i definitely relate to how you feel about the articles! i joined in 2013 as well, and i feel like every issue that's been written i learn a ton of new stuff about the site even though i've been here for that long. it's really cool being able to look back and see how the site has been documented and see different members of the community work together to remember things or share information that wasn't saved as well. it's good to hear you enjoy the little extras—i love seeing the community's creativity, and i feel like it's always nice to have a fun little activity at the end of each article. thank you for reading!! :]

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I'm so glad you guys shed some light on Chicken Smoothie's roleplay community! I hope activity increases, and I look forward to joining a RP soon! personally, I've always been interested in realistic and mythical animal roleplays.

Roanoke
artist, coder &
site developer

Dear Lostlovebirdz,

It’s been interesting to dive into a part of CS that’s been around for so long yet not everyone is in the know about. It’s awesome to see people such as yourself being brought back into the RP side of CS! I’m also big on animal role plays, especially those involving dogs; maybe I’ll be joining in the fun sometime soon as well!

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To wrap up, I can't emphasize enough how much we loved receiving and reading your letters. It's definitely a section of the newsletter we'd love to keep publishing, and we completely rely on y'all to remember to send some mail our way by clicking the filling out the short form!

If you want to send a letter in, but you aren't sure what to write about, here are some suggestions:

Write About the CS News:

• Do you look forward to the newsletter every month? Why?
• What's your favorite section of the newsletter?
• Have you checked out and particularly enjoyed any of our affiliated threads?
• Did the CSN introduce you to anything on CS you didn't know about?

Write About Something the CSN Covered Recently:

• You can always find prompts relating to our latest article in the CSN Discussion thread.
• What are your thoughts on CS's RP Community?
• What has been your experience trading for rare monthly outcomes like the March PPS Otter or the April PPS Draft Horse?
• What did you think of our latest art feature?

[BlueEyedKite]

Here are my unfiltered thoughts reading the latest article:

Oh! That Pony Express image link is so cute! Delightful!

Omg! There was a coloring page?! That user did an awesome job coloring it in, respect!

I have been here since 09 and I have no memory of this growing item e.e do I have it. Lemme check. I do. Wow I don't remember it doing that but that's cool.

Oh! Oh! Loelya is mentioned!! Yeah her editables are epic! Long live Loelya editables!

This interview with Jacob is fascinating! Oh op, I thought Tess said we weren't allowed to trade for custom pets?!? They had to be gifts. Oh no, is this okay to advertise to the masses? Oh.... but it's so fascinating O_O wow wow wow.

Oh no I read it all T.T now I have to wait for more. - Kite

[daybreak.]

Thanks for your thoughts, Kite! They were such a fun read ♡

Thanks especially for appreciating the Pony Express banner c': Creating the monthly banners has been such a source of joy for me since I joined the team. It hearkens back to my interests whenever I first joined CS—I was such a big fan of Moonflight's banners back in the day!

As for the custom trade, there is no official CS rule, so I would think at this point it is kind of like when Tess asked users not to trade their pound pets; I can't say for certain, but I speculate she wasn't thinking about the site 15 years in the future ^^'