Lights On Lights Off Fanclub

[britneyrox]

Just finished responding to my last trick-or-treater! I got 135 visitors in total. Just wanted to thank everyone who played this year, for both the fun as well as the thoughtful treats. I look forward to this every year, you all make it such a great time.

[sumashira]

Sooo here we go:

-snip-

(yes, I like numbers ^^ )

I loved your statistics. 😍 I was visited by 128 players and gave out 153 treats (one art treat is still pending but will make it 154) because of revisits. I had a lot of fun!

I like having this lower amount of people playing, I have more time to read the stories. When it was really busy I used to have to skim the long ones just to keep up with PMs. The only day I had a crazy amount was Oct 1st lol.

I'm with you, I thought this was actually pretty pleasant. 😊 I'm a LITTLE sad that we don't get as many players as we used to, but I agree that it gives me more time to actually enjoy the stories and give a personalized response. It can be hard with a lot of players if my schedule isn't perfect for LOLO. 😂

[EmilineRose]

To some extent I do wish that it was mandatory to have your lights on for actual Halloween. There are a large handful of players that I tried all times of day and week but their lights were never on.

I'm not sure that's fair. I mean some people are just too busy to be online on Halloween, and I personally like turning my lights off before logging off of CS. So if I turned mine off on the 30th, and couldn't find time to get on for Halloween, I'd be in trouble for not having my lights on. But I understand what you mean, a lot of people seem to never have their lights on, personally I didn't have mine on much this year either, I lost my internet like a week into Oct so I only had my lights on for maybe an hour two or three times week because I don't have unlimited data on my phone. Stuff happens irl that we can't forsee.

[Celozon]

I'm glad you all enjoyed LOLO this year!

I'm still catching up on ToTers myself, looks like I got 117 total. I wasn't able to have my lights on the first week or so but they were on for the rest of the month so thats pretty good ^^

To some extent I do wish that it was mandatory to have your lights on for actual Halloween. There are a large handful of players that I tried all times of day and week but their lights were never on.

I'm not sure that's fair. I mean some people are just too busy to be online on Halloween, and I personally like turning my lights off before logging off of CS. So if I turned mine off on the 30th, and couldn't find time to get on for Halloween, I'd be in trouble for not having my lights on. But I understand what you mean, a lot of people seem to never have their lights on, personally I didn't have mine on much this year either, I lost my internet like a week into Oct so I only had my lights on for maybe an hour two or three times week because I don't have unlimited data on my phone. Stuff happens irl that we can't forsee.

Unfortunately I've never really had a good way to enforce users turning their lights on at least a couple times over the month. And there are a lot of things to consider, like some users join up but never actually find time to play (to send or receive), and everyone's situation is different. I don't want to punish users that just don't have as much time to get on or are busy during specific times, or just don't have a lot to give away. I mean, I'm def up for suggestions on that front but I've just never found a good way to have 100% certainty that someone is playing without turning on their lights.

Maybe if everyone used the discord I could require like, posting when you turn on your lights, but I can't do that on CS since that sort of thing is spam, and we only had about 1/4 of the players on the discord this year. I also at one point considered requiring everyone to turn in their sheets of who they ToTed and who ToTed them at the end of LOLO, but in order for that to work it would have to mandatory for all players, and considering some people don't actually keep track and how much of a hassle it would be to be requesting that from a couple hundred players,,,I never really seriously considered it.

[Stargazingwithbees]

-snip- I mean, I'm def up for suggestions on that front but I've just never found a good way to have 100% certainty that someone is playing without turning on their lights. -snip-

Perhaps bit of a stretch but maybe in the forms you can add a:

"What days will your lights definitely/most likely be on?"
Or instead of having "Lights on/Lights off" in our bio instead have
"Lights on: "Monday, Tuesday etc" so there's always at least one day when the light is on?

Or something similar?? Its not much of a suggestion but it's out there as something. Because I myself did notice some trick or treaters with me, but every time I went to respond with my own their lights were off. It was mainly the same group of people tot repetitively which was a bit annoying

[onion]

id absolutely hate to have to turn in a list of who trick or treated at MY house because i dont keep track of that nor do i have the time for it.

[Iwein]

yeah, having players turn in sheets would be... A Lot. everyone keeps track differently, some people don't track who came to their house. you could, I suppose, make a standardized form to use, but even then - that would be a hassle to do on mobile and mods would still need to evaluate them.
something I considered for myself was allowing users to ToT at my house even when my lights are off if I had ToTed at their house, maybe such a rule could be considered? I didn't end up asking a mod if that's allowed under the current rules because I was able to have my lights on enough that most of the people I visited got to visit me too.
I'm not so sure about requiring like, a whole day of keeping your lights on, if only because getting a lot of pms is stressful for me personally and especially at the beginning of the game, you can get flooded because everyone's super active.
also something something time zones... I left my lights on overnight multiple days, but I completely understand not wanting to do that.

[zenisiti]

-snip- I mean, I'm def up for suggestions on that front but I've just never found a good way to have 100% certainty that someone is playing without turning on their lights. -snip-

"What days will your lights definitely/most likely be on?"
Or instead of having "Lights on/Lights off" in our bio instead have
"Lights on: "Monday, Tuesday etc" so there's always at least one day when the light is on?
-snip-

i like the general idea of this! i'm not the best at keeping track but there were a few users who were active and came by but every time I checked to see if they had their lights on, they never did

[musicgurl333]

(Disclaimer, I didn’t play this year because I was too busy, but I’ve played many, many times in the past.)

Regarding people not turning lights on, unfortunately I just don’t think there’s a great way to enforce it that would work for everyone. The “lights on every X day” sounds good in theory, but as others have mentioned, it’s easy to get overwhelmed with PMs in the beginning.

The best solution I’ve found is an individual one For me, the two things that have worked best are 1. Keep a list of people who have NEVER turned their lights on (that I’ve seen) in all the years that I’ve played, but who do come to trick-or-treat from me. Those people get automatic tricks when they visit. 2. I factor in whether their lights are on/off when giving tricks/treats. It’s not the ONLY factor, (I know not everyone can keep their lights on all the time, some people don’t have many pets to gift, etc.) but it is ONE factor. I’m more likely to give a treat (and more likely to give a better treat) if your lights are on.

Are some people still going to getting treats without gifting any? Yeah. But I don’t think you can ever eliminate that completely without a LOT of rules/oversight that would be a hassle for the mods and/or players.

[Shooting Stars]

I hope it's alright if I put in some input, as someone who didn't really have their lights on that much. Only like, 6-7 times, at the same time, and for about 45 minutes max.
I definitely meant to turn my lights on more than I did, I just couldn't because I didn't feel well enough to most days.

I don't think it's fair to expect mandatory lights on, especially on a specific set day. There's so much trouble that would come to that, like work/school, timezones, unexpected life stuff, etc..

I guess turning in sheets could be feasible, but all records would have to be something easily sharable (?) like google-docs. (I thought you were supposed to keep track of everyone who visits/you visited?)
Of course not everyone can or wants to use google-docs.

Perhaps bit of a stretch but maybe in the forms you can add a:

"What days will your lights definitely/most likely be on?"
Or instead of having "Lights on/Lights off" in our bio instead have
"Lights on: "Monday, Tuesday etc" so there's always at least one day when the light is on?

I don't think this would work, because of people with sporadic schedules and lives, unless it was optional. I know I couldn't just set a designated day.

I don't have any suggestions myself, I think truly there isn't a perfect solution. It is annoying/unfair when someone just plays to gain, but also it's a privilege to receive free things, not a right. I guess you can always trick anyone you think isn't being fair.
(I'm not trying to be rude I promise)

I can't speak for everyone, I always had my lights on when I trick-or-treated. I sent 8 PMs and received 15 ^^
And I apologize too for not really having my lights on, I didn't mean to disappoint anyone. I promise I wasn't one of the unfair ones!