Is anyone feeling the CS Spark Fade?

[nickjr]

I haven't read all of this thread but can I just quickly say that the claim that CS staff don't like it when anything negative is posted and will lock such threads is false

While I can see why users are getting that impression, it's very false because staff do allow constructive criticism threads about various aspects of CS

What's not allowed on CS are rants. Having been here since the Things That Annoy You and Trade Rant Threads were started, I watched them evolve into horrible, ugly, nasty harbors of negativity, to the point where it was almost certainly the case that people were just looking for things to rant about so that they could post in those threads. (The worst of those messes have now been cleaned up, which means regular users cannot see them anymore. I watched as some of those messes were cleaned up and as posts were removed from public view.) I watched as those threads became worse and worse even as their rules got stricter (e.g. replies to other posts were no longer allowed after a certain point) and even as they went under staff ownership and, in some cases, admin ownership. The TTAY and TRT threads were given countless second chances over several years and users still couldn't stop using them as harbors of negativity, whether deliberately or unintentionally. The TRT was particularly worrisome as every post, by definition, involved some other CS user. But the TTAY was awful too.

So rant threads are no longer allowed. This is a user's view of the rationale that is now given when rant threads are locked: "Sorry, rant threads are not allowed on CS as they become harbors of negativity." Since I have never been a mod nor was I on either of those threads literally 24/7, I did not see everything, but based on what I did see, I'm certain all staff members who had to deal with those two threads had to deal with some horrible things.

But just because rant threads are no longer allowed doesn't mean that all negativity--or anything like it--is no longer allowed. The statement that no negativity is allowed on CS is false.

Whatever my thoughts about CS are, the fact that we don't allow rant threads is not a negative point for me. It's really a pity that years of horrible experiences can't really be effectively conveyed in like 1-2 sentences.

(Note that the Comfort Corner is still open. Despite the upsetting circumstances people are in and that they post about, the CC is, quite frankly, a far more wholesome version of the TTAY.)

[Xia]

This is honestly a pretty low maintenance game if you want it to be. I actually left this game for other games a good 8 years or so ago. Recently with the quarantine and me being pretty sick for a good month, I picked it up again because it didn't require a lot from me. The ins-and-outs of the trading is hard to pick back up but I found that the game was comfortable and it was nice to stare at my collection once again.

The hardest part of this game is the trades. I've found lots of perfectly wonderful people on here but also entirely infuriating people as well. I miss being able to rant about it at times because if a day goes badly, all the frustration just builds and bottles within you. When that happens, I just step back and go do something else. It's understandable that the admins don't want negativity brewing, but with the trade system it's inevitable that there will be people doing irritable things.

That being said, I think personally after I accomplish my goal of getting all the site butterfly wolves (15 left), I will stop actively soliciting trades and be relatively content on the site.

[s a g e]

I do have to admit, trading got really ruff. Trading was def more fun back then when the list was still a thing. Everyone knew what their pets were worth, we had a gap list, it was easy to convert.
I think it got even worse without the list because some people are still holding onto the list & some not, so it makes trading difficult. The list was wrong, yes, but at the end of the day, fun is holding this game up and not a list. People come back to this game because it is/was fun and not because a list. So I dont mind that the list was wrong, as long as trading was fun tbh. For me the spark faded. People are more scared to trade so they want to have super "precise" trades & a lot of people dont trade anymore. Its really sad & Im hoping that there will come a list /lists with the "right" data & that things will calm down.

[ShrimpSundae]

i think the biggest thing that's been putting me off of cs is the lack of certain features for the pet side of CS, or even just no communication on what features they 100% want done at some point, what features are a priority, etc. the rarity update was amazing, but the pet side still feels like it's missing a lot of stuff that would make trading easier.

which makes a lot of sense when the team is so small, i really just hope the possibility of getting more coders is being looked into? i don't know, i feel like i'm noticing how much harder it is to do things without certain features whereas it didn't bother me nearly as much before.

i guess for reference a few examples of what i mean would be:
- not having a hoard wl when you've got tons of hoard pets/items and a long wl. if i put hoards on my wl it gets lost in the stuff i'm actually missing, and if i don't i rarely get trades offering them.
- getting items in a trade and needing to dig through pages to remove it.
- not being able to select many pets at once in trades, like in groups.
- not having a "show pets that are..." sorting option for groups, like if i wanted to find all rares in a group to easily move them out.

as for trades i've also noticed my rules have been ignored more than ever, so i think it's interesting to see others are having the same experience. i wish i could make my rules even shorter, but every time i do i end up needing to add it back. ^^'

[WhiskeyFox]

i think the biggest thing that's been putting me off of cs is the lack of certain features for the pet side of CS, or even just no communication on what features they 100% want done at some point, what features are a priority, etc. the rarity update was amazing, but the pet side still feels like it's missing a lot of stuff that would make trading easier.

which makes a lot of sense when the team is so small, i really just hope the possibility of getting more coders is being looked into? i don't know, i feel like i'm noticing how much harder it is to do things without certain features whereas it didn't bother me nearly as much before.

i guess for reference a few examples of what i mean would be:
- not having a hoard wl when you've got tons of hoard pets/items and a long wl. if i put hoards on my wl it gets lost in the stuff pets i'm actually missing, and if i don't i rarely get trades offering them.
- getting items in a trade and needing to dig through pages to remove it.
- not being able to select many pets at once in trades, like in groups.
- not having a "show pets that are..." sorting option for groups, like if i wanted to find all rares in a group to easily move them out.

as for trades i've also noticed my rules have been ignored more than ever, so i think it's interesting to see others are having the same experience. i wish i could make my rules even shorter, but every time i do i end up needing to add it back. ^^'

I can agree with the items and I think a hoard WL would be absolutely brilliant, I had a friend who also wants to have two WL just so it’s one where she knows what I’m looking for more than anything, but it comes up as her WL. Because we swap pets/gift each other fairly often.

And yea, it just seems people care less and less about rules, I have a simple, “Adoption Center Rules are quoted” as I just gave up on keeping the thread and so many people come in sending me trades for multiple number of pets with the word “Adoption” and I have to send back a message explaining them the rules so often. The only thing that’s easy for me is I keep my non trade groups locked, my issue now are just items. People always seems to ignore the doubles rule, and I understand if you’re in a hurry but I think a lot of us are trying to make our rules as short as possible but we will have to go back and add to it.

[Shian]

as for trades i've also noticed my rules have been ignored more than ever, so i think it's interesting to see others are having the same experience. i wish i could make my rules even shorter, but every time i do i end up needing to add it back. ^^'

TBH, I quit reading rules long ago. They're always the same thing or same groups of things. The only thing I pay attention to are keyworded binaries so they're easier to spot. (WL only vs. WL not necessary)

This comes from only having one hour of online time long ago. If you only have an hour online and you read everyone's rules, how many trades could you send out in a day? How many trades could you send out if you didn't read rules? A whole lot.

People can and usually do cancel your trade even when you do read and follow all the rules and people will accept even when you don't follow the rules because it's a good deal or something, so why bother trying to be careful? Why waste your own time? Why expect others to waste their own time?
For this same reason, if I cancel without a message, it's because someone didn't read my rules. Why give a message? They didn't read the rules the first time, what gives me any indication they're going to read a message if I send it a second time?

If 90% of your trades are going to be cancelled in the first place, it's better off to just mass send a ton of trades and hope one sticks.
This is how it's been for years and what makes it the easiest.

It would be nice if everyone took the time to read and understand rules, but this isn't a small site anymore where everyone knows everyone and there are only a few hundred pets to collect.

[Pleuriglosse]

I think the spark is fading because of the lack of new users, at least for me anyways.
If you spend much time on the website you mostly see the same people over and over again, which can be quite annoying. I think the lack of new users is because of how impossible it seems to get pets that they want. For newbies to get good pets, they really just have to either get lucky at the pound, get a good gift, or spend money on C$, which isn't something everybody can do. Most people on the site are older users (at least from what I've seen, I don't know any statistics or anything) reminiscing about when they used to play CS actively.
Anyways, that's just how I feel.

[WhiskeyFox]

I think the spark is fading because of the lack of new users, at least for me anyways.
If you spend much time on the website you mostly see the same people over and over again, which can be quite annoying. I think the lack of new users is because of how impossible it seems to get pets that they want. For newbies to get good pets, they really just have to either get lucky at the pound, get a good gift, or spend money on C$, which isn't something everybody can do. Most people on the site are older users (at least from what I've seen, I don't know any statistics or anything) reminiscing about when they used to play CS actively.
Anyways, that's just how I feel.

I can see your point, I actually got a friend in to CS a couple months ago, he luckily joined just before the easter event and because me (2013) and my other friend (2011) have been here for a long time it was exciting to tell him all about it, how events worked, talk about past events and just gift him in general. But now many users are also quitting, some because they just outgrew the game, which is fine and all, but some are just sadly leaving because it's just like you said, impossible to get pets now unless we get lucky at the pound or buy C$.

[bellamare]

i used to love trading and pet collecting, but now im really only interested in a few pets, im not trading as much, and im really only here for the art and character community. i dunno man trading was fun when i wasnt "Rare" (im still not that rare compared to some) but now thats all people ever want to trade and values are so skewed. i find it annoying and pressuring now, and i'm always scared of getting ripped off for one of my "higher value" pets.
im really just here for the art man lolll

[TzatzikiTheLeg]

yesss. i joined cs 3 years ago which i guess isn't that long ago, but i feel like it was so much different back then. i quit a while ago because i lost interest in collecting pets and all that, but i still log in now and again and it's just not the same. still a lot of fun though :)