We need your feedback: Bigger, less frequent pound openings?

[Darni]

So after rereading a couple messages that stood out to me on this thread I think the bot issue can easily be just done in compromise. If you think the pound bot that can set a reminder and show the time (the basic Discord one) then we add those features on the site. An accurate countdown timer on the HOME page or even constantly counting down above ADOPT (or POUND for mobile users?) telling us exactly which is next Lost & Found or Pound. And if they mean the other Discord bot that shows the upcoming pound group (I think this is what it does based on what I read?) then just add an option at the Pound page to go to next available group (if it's already been sorted). Also for the ping issue just add a way to get pinged for next LAF / Pound. A small little button that says "REMIND ME VIA EMAIL" that will send you a little email to tell you Pound / LAF is coming up within 5-10 mins (timer could be adjusted maybe?). Then every feature these bots do is accessible to people without Discord or feel it's cheating because it's outside of the site mechanic. I understand Nick is like one of the only coders (if not the only one) so I'm sure that might be tough to get done quickly, but it's worth the wait for some new features.

As for the other ideas like lessening the amount of pets each page- I'm super in favor of this since you have to scroll to see all the pets and sometimes the one you wanted is just under your view. This would also make it so the pound will drain a little slower as people have to wait to refresh.


The other idea I saw about making the pound random - though I'm more neutral on this I find it an interesting thing that could be built off of. Sort of like money tree on Neopets where you can go once a day and get a limited amount of items maybe like 1-3 random pets (?). IDK this is a strange idea, but I don't absolutely hate it.

BTW are we supposed to take these suggestions and make new threads for them or can they stay here to be discussed and everything in this thread will be read through?

[Darkcloud!]

So after rereading a couple messages that stood out to me on this thread I think the bot issue can easily be just done in compromise. If you think the pound bot that can set a reminder and show the time (the basic Discord one) then we add those features on the site. An accurate countdown timer on the HOME page or even constantly counting down above ADOPT (or POUND for mobile users?) telling us exactly which is next Lost & Found or Pound. And if they mean the other Discord bot that shows the upcoming pound group (I think this is what it does based on what I read?) then just add an option at the Pound page to go to next available group (if it's already been sorted). Also for the ping issue just add a way to get pinged for next LAF / Pound. A small little button that says "REMIND ME VIA EMAIL" that will send you a little email to tell you Pound / LAF is coming up within 5-10 mins (timer could be adjusted maybe?). Then every feature these bots do is accessible to people without Discord or feel it's cheating because it's outside of the site mechanic. I understand Nick is like one of the only coders (if not the only one) so I'm sure that might be tough to get done quickly, but it's worth the wait for some new features.

As for the other ideas like lessening the amount of pets each page- I'm super in favor of this since you have to scroll to see all the pets and sometimes the one you wanted is just under your view. This would also make it so the pound will drain a little slower as people have to wait to refresh.


The other idea I saw about making the pound random - though I'm more neutral on this I find it an interesting thing that could be built off of. Sort of like money tree on Neopets where you can go once a day and get a limited amount of items maybe like 1-3 random pets (?). IDK this is a strange idea, but I don't absolutely hate it.

BTW are we supposed to take these suggestions and make new threads for them or can they stay here to be discussed and everything in this thread will be read through?

seconding. this makes it fair to coppad users, users who for whatever reason dont have a secondary social media account, and keeps the game on the site for minors. someone can sign up for the pms or subscribe to the pound and get emailed for them. (since its already a coded feature to get emails for those functions)

lots of people near the start of this thread said they didnt know that the pound group shows and got treated rudely for not knowing. making that basic public knowledge on the pound page would be a good idea.

disclosure, not at you, but some people on this thread implied i was ableist for not wanting an offsite tool being used for the pound, or purposefully omitted the post I was replying to distort what I said. Please don't do that :)

[AncientEldritch]

I may be misreading so please disregard me if that's the case but I'm getting the sense that some people think that the pound bot is an always available live timer?

Just to clarify, it's not! All the pound bots do is lift the time listed from the website, when prompted. If someone asks it for it the time, it just spits out "The pound will open within 4 hours" or whatever the pound/l&f page says at the time. It doesn't magically have a live timer lol

Some of them do ping within 5 minutes of opening but for both of the bots I've interacted with, it's opt-in only so it's not actually pinging thousands of people. The role pings are done by actual users and not the bots themselves.

[Darni]

I may be misreading so please disregard me if that's the case but I'm getting the sense that some people think that the pound bot is an always available live timer?

Just to clarify, it's not! All the pound bots do is lift the time listed from the website, when prompted. If someone asks it for it the time, it just spits out "The pound will open within 4 hours" or whatever the pound/l&f page says at the time. It doesn't magically have a live timer lol

Some of them do ping within 5 minutes of opening but for both of the bots I've interacted with, it's opt-in only so it's not actually pinging thousands of people. The role pings are done by actual users and not the bots themselves.

I think for the users who haven't looked into the pound bot they were confused on what it exactly did. From my understanding there are two different ones. I found one that you can use a command for [/ time] that shows you how long until pound, but not accurately to the exact minute unless it's under 2 hours just like the regular pound page. This bot also had [/ remindme {amount in minutes}] which will ping you on discord after that timer amount has passed. I saw someone say there is another one that displays the pound pet group, but IDK anything about that one- I only know about this basic one that I found so I can only speak on what that one specifically does. That's why in my post above on this page I said if all the features this bot or other bots do can be added as accessibility features then it is an even playing field. The reason I said accessibility is because someone mentioned they have ADHD and are forgetful of pound so they use it because of that disability. IF anyone has any other bot features that I don't know of that aren't against CS rules and wants to throw them up here to also add to CS that way people won't feel it's "unfair" to those without access to discord they are welcome to.

[AncientEldritch]

I may be misreading so please disregard me if that's the case but I'm getting the sense that some people think that the pound bot is an always available live timer?

Just to clarify, it's not! All the pound bots do is lift the time listed from the website, when prompted. If someone asks it for it the time, it just spits out "The pound will open within 4 hours" or whatever the pound/l&f page says at the time. It doesn't magically have a live timer lol

Some of them do ping within 5 minutes of opening but for both of the bots I've interacted with, it's opt-in only so it's not actually pinging thousands of people. The role pings are done by actual users and not the bots themselves.

I think for the users who haven't looked into the pound bot they were confused on what it exactly did. From my understanding there are two different ones. I found one that you can use a command for [/ time] that shows you how long until pound, but not accurately to the exact minute unless it's under 2 hours just like the regular pound page. This bot also had [/ remindme {amount in minutes}] which will ping you on discord after that timer amount has passed. I saw someone say there is another one that displays the pound pet group, but IDK anything about that one- I only know about this basic one that I found so I can only speak on what that one specifically does. That's why in my post above on this page I said if all the features this bot or other bots do can be added as accessibility features then it is an even playing field. The reason I said accessibility is because someone mentioned they have ADHD and are forgetful of pound so they use it because of that disability. IF anyone has any other bot features that I don't know of that aren't against CS rules and wants to throw them up here to also add to CS that way people won't feel it's "unfair" to those without access to discord they are welcome to.

Both of the bots I've encountered have three features regarding the pound:

An auto reminder that you can set to a certain number of minutes prior to opening.

The ability to view the current timer (exactly as its displayed on the pound page.)

A generated image of all of the rare+ pets currently in the pounds upcoming group.

Iirc the only feature that not available regularly on the site is an auto reminder ping. There's really no other accessibility differences, which is why this entire discussion is so baffling to me. Especially when a staff member already shared their stance (that it's NOT breaking any site rules) and it's kind of irrelevant to the discussion and should be posted in suggestions or a separate thread. (Not directed at you! Just the conversation in general)

[Darni]

-cuts my little part out so it's not so crowded-

Both of the bots I've encountered have three features regarding the pound:

An auto reminder that you can set to a certain number of minutes prior to opening.

The ability to view the current timer (exactly as its displayed on the pound page.)

A generated image of all of the rare+ pets currently in the pounds upcoming group.

Iirc the only feature that not available regularly on the site is an auto reminder ping. There's really no other accessibility differences, which is why this entire discussion is so baffling to me. Especially when a staff member already shared their stance (that it's NOT breaking any site rules) and it's kind of irrelevant to the discussion and should be posted in suggestions or a separate thread. (Not directed at you! Just the conversation in general)

I take no personal issue with what you said I know it was just a statement because of the broader discussion happening. I was just making clear what features people have pointed that the bot does that aren't as easy to do on CS itself. I believe a ping would be good and also a quick link to see the available pets group for adoption would also be nice directly on the POUND page. I don't believe bots are breaking any rules just for the record. At first I was a little standoffish about the bot, but seeing as it only really does a few basic things that's no issue. I get some people have a gripe seeing the adoptions coming up, but I think they are upset at the wrong thing. I don't think it's bad to be able to see what pets are coming, but I think if that feature isn't shown to you in your face that's kinda silly. A user from 2013 or even earlier explaining they didn't know about that feature is super interesting since some of the people using that feature kinda give you a jab like "Oh you didn't know? That's your fault for not going to the Pound's personal account page and checking to see if you can see their group." As for the ping / constantly timer I think ping is easy since we already have opt-in for emails with trading and messaging it would just be for pound instead of those. The constant timer is just a little thought for some people who mentioned having ADHD and forgetting the pound.


Edit: Also forgot to say thank-you for explaining the other feature to confirm it shows the rare+ of pound list cause I wasn't 100% sure

[Lynxkit443]

finnaly! i hate when all the pets are taken.

[A s t r a]

I just thought of something that might help us decide better.

How about we do a 2 week trial for both a bigger and smaller pound openings? We can do 2 weeks for bigger pound openings and then after 2 weeks we do a smaller pound openings? This could help us decide which would work best for the community and to see which one we like best?

[ButterflyChaser]

Im still disappointed with whatever set up is happening now. It has been last week since I've been able to get a pet I don't already have.

I am stuck on mobile most of the time and the page loads with the pets already adopted for the first 4 so refreshes.

[PansyPossum]

I just thought of something that might help us decide better.

How about we do a 2 week trial for both a bigger and smaller pound openings? We can do 2 weeks for bigger pound openings and then after 2 weeks we do a smaller pound openings? This could help us decide which would work best for the community and to see which one we like best?

They basically already did a bigger pound test during the Easter event, though. It was raised while significantly more people were online for the event. Of course, they could still try an official scheduled trial run of the bigger but less frequent openings, but it seems a little late now that the poll has been out for a while. I think a lot of people have already voted on the poll with the Easter pounds still fresh in their minds.

The thing is, since they aren’t shrinking the pound (They’re either making it bigger or it’s staying the same size as it is now.) there’s no reason to test a smaller pound opening, because really that’s just how it’s normally functioning. So if you like how it works now, you can vote for that! But if you want to try the bigger openings, you can vote the other way!