Sell Chicken Smoothie (Poll Has Been Reset!)

[dracowolfie]

I have continued to come back here year after year, even though I am a total lurker with few posts, because it is just so comfortable and cozy. It is one of the few art communities I know that feels safe. I love to passively collect things and chat with people in a noncommittal way. (I am looking at you, minimal forum games, aaaahhh)

I had been busy with college and starting my life and am not much of a social person in general, but it never seemed to me that the website was dying. Of course, as a person who doesn't trade adoptables, nor RP, nor reeeaaallly post at lot I don't know what I am talking about. But it seems that is what the site facilitates best--a community for animal lovers to hang out and create stuff and collect things and express themselves through that. Maybe bringing in new people means looking at what kids are doing now. Maybe it means altering the functions more for mobile so this can be played easier on a tablet. Maybe it means finding ways to combine media now with this. Maybe, it means leaning more into the niche that it might become--a place of nostalgia for people from a specific generation. The combo of RP & art seems really good here--I am excited about the follow features and how art works on here. There just isn't really a replacement for this experience that I am aware of.

I know some people have said too many contests can be too overwhelming, but as someone who works at a startup video game company, I disagree. If a person doesn't have time to participate in an event/contest, then they won't--but there will always be people who do have time and want to participate. Plus, the feeling that something is always happening is good for the site. Heck, I only really come here around halloween / summer / christmas to grab pets and leave, and browse art a bit. I always loved the trick or treat events that gets run (lights on / lights off). It seems a good idea would be to give people easy and constant opportunities to show off their art, writing, and pets, and reward them for it, and that would then bring in more people. Which I suppose is what is already happening, but more. :p Hmmmm.

Yeah, really tough thoughts here, because in many ways it does sound like the inevitable end of an era, but how can humankind really be done with forums like this? Am I already that old and out of touch ahahahaha

edit: it really might help to hire some form of game designer to figure out what to experiment with. People might be afraid of breaking the chicken smoothie tradition, but stuff like that could also create interesting buzz.

[ahirked]

To make events more interesting (excluding monthly events, I highly doubt we could have a new event every month), does anyone think it's possible to add more to the current events? Like, a story, for instance? For example, in the Christmas event, you could have a story where you have to save Christmas, where you get rewards for the further you progress through it. (This is just some thought that popped into my head at 3am help). Any ideas?

oh that sounds a bit like what dragcave has - and I second this! actually think it would be super fun and a brilliant idea to get more excitement other than just adopt and go (:
honestly I love dragcave's christmas events. you get a badge for participation - which granted, on cs we have stamps! - but you also can mess around, see new graphics, play something a bit different. though to this extent cs would have to be careful of simply copying something but that's up to the creativity of the staff ig ;v;

[Mythic]

Honestly I'm a bit disappointed in this site. I know it is hard to maintain but it feels like there really hasn't been any active maintenance on the site in a long time. There are a lot of features that could be implemented but just haven't been for one reason or another. I feel that is my only really big problem with the site.

I just wish there was a team that actively fixed things and added new features, especially those that people have been asking for for YEARS. It honestly feels like no one cares and that kinda hurts, as someone who has been on this site for nearly it's entire run. It used to feel more like a community, especially when the mods were more active, but now it just feels like it's been abandoned, which I can understand a bit.

It's hard to run such a large site for such a long time, and it's hard when you want to leave it because it feels like there are so many people wanting you to keep it going. Maybe Tess feels this way. I had a similar thing with a site I ran that got too far out of my hands when it wasn't supposed to be as big as it was.

To be honest, I wouldn't be very surprised if one day -poof- the site is just deleted with little fanfare.

Maybe it won't happen, but it's how I feel it will go.

[Simon]

We really appreciate the feedback and engagement that this thread brought. Recently, it seems that the productive conversation has slowed and we are left with a bit of a rant thread mixed with buried suggestions.

Our team has addressed a lot of the initial and productive concerns/comments that this thread brought to light. Since this thread was first created, our volunteer staff have worked very hard to improve in these areas. We've established monthly community updates, re-organized all of our rules, started releasing more mini-holiday pets/items, and continued rolling out site improvements (ex: New dress up interface).

As always, we strongly encourage users to continue making separate threads for specific suggestions you have to improve the site!