[urgent] this site really is actually dying

[×Seven of Nine×]

When I said mini games I didn't mean make them mandatory. Just have a fun little high score thing that you can try to compete with each other with every day like the summer event one.

On the pound and lost: they're open depending on stuff being in there, not it being open for a set time.

I can't disclose the game I'm playing instead of this as it has a rating of 13+ and has rather generous amounts of gore/body horror (even if it's default censored)

[Ebony Stardust]

When I said mini games I didn't mean make them mandatory. Just have a fun little high score thing that you can try to compete with each other with every day like the summer event one.

Yes, this is the sort of thing that'd be a reasonable change
I was just explaining that I don't like them being necessary like loonsong suggested

[×Seven of Nine×]

Sadly more coders isn't ever going to happen and I feel that's one of the biggest things hurting the site right now. Someone could work in the back on fun stuff for the site while he did all the heavy work, but...

[DisneyLuv]

I've been on this site for 9 years. I originally joined in 2013 with my brother, but he stopped playing years ago. I took my breaks here and there but tended to come back a few months later.

In 2019-2020, I gave away all of my pets and items. I had discovered the toxic side of CS and.. that was it for me. Some of the users on CS are so cold and mean. I was gone for a year and a half, I think only visiting three or four times to accept new trades.

I came back, wanting to just collect pets. I had collected all of the uncommons and below before, I wanted to at least do that. I joined the CSTM discord again and something felt different. The people I had issues with before had gotten bored, I guess, and moved on. Either that or they grew up. I received a lot of open arms, kind words and, of course, gifts. CS made me happy again and still does.

The main problem I see is like what most users have mentioned, nobody wants to trade anymore. Whether it's because of the list being crazy or finding no one to trade with. I have a 33 page wishlist. I bump my thread pretty often and I make it clear what I'm trading for. I still have people try to get me to overpay or I get nothing. Whatever it is, no one wants it.

I'm not here just to rant, but if you have a site like CS that doesn't require much from you on a daily basis, hardly anyone will log on daily. Some things that could be added are:
- mini games
- more coders to implement ideas faster
- items (and item sets) in the CS store!! and make them stay there
- more reasons to buy C$ (custom stamp maker?)
- staff interaction from higher ups (Seasonal, Lacuna, Sorren Fey, Zeena, Simon, Nick and Tess)
- merch (pins, plushies, etc)
- etc

I also agree with the staff aspect. There is practically no interaction between staff and users, unless we’re breaking a rule or posting a thread in the wrong topic. I’ve made suggestions before, only to have them completely ignored. I do not think it helps the community aspect of this site.

[×Seven of Nine×]

When the staff do communicate it feels snappish in a way. I don't want to put them in a bad light on this thread, but this thread is supposed to discuss why the site is dying.

[Bunnybee]

I think it has to do with trading, and how hard it’s becoming to get the pets that you want or need. People are getting tired of putting the effort in, with very little success or reward. Only users with valuable pets or lots of C$ get anything worth trading, and it’s very hard for new players to succeed. Overpay is expected for nearly everything now. People are simply unwilling to negotiate with others. I know a lot of users that have quit because of how rude other users have been towards them, for simply sending a trade. Trade politics have gotten very bad. It’s why we’ve lost a lot of older users.

100% i recently sent a trade that was like 2 uncommons for a rare, all in the same year and the person canncled and said that it was very unfair to them. ive had someone cancle a trade because it wasnt within 4 months of each other but it was like 6 months apart. ive seen people say in their rules that if u dont say anything they will cancle the trade even if its fair.

where is the friendlyness, why does everything have to be so hard. ive had to specify in my rules that im a relaxed trader when honesty im just a fair trader. new players need to be welcomed with advice not rudeness

[×Seven of Nine×]

I think it has to do with trading, and how hard it’s becoming to get the pets that you want or need. People are getting tired of putting the effort in, with very little success or reward. Only users with valuable pets or lots of C$ get anything worth trading, and it’s very hard for new players to succeed. Overpay is expected for nearly everything now. People are simply unwilling to negotiate with others. I know a lot of users that have quit because of how rude other users have been towards them, for simply sending a trade. Trade politics have gotten very bad. It’s why we’ve lost a lot of older users.

100% i recently sent a trade that was like 2 uncommons for a rare, all in the same year and the person canncled and said that it was very unfair to them. ive had someone cancle a trade because it wasnt within 4 months of each other but it was like 6 months apart. ive seen people say in their rules that if u dont say anything they will cancle the trade even if its fair.

where is the friendlyness, why does everything have to be so hard. ive had to specify in my rules that im a relaxed trader when honesty im just a fair trader. new players need to be welcomed with advice not rudeness

Even though my account says 2016 on it, I've also been hit with rudeness for "underpay". Even things that I KNEW were a certain amount, but now they're double or more.

[Daxx]

I forgot to mention. It started out as a thread of, basically, the same concept. CS is dying, here's what can help. When we brought up that there were little updates to the site, staff assured us there was more than we thought. Then there was a thread a while back, asking for more communication with staff, which is why they started the mid-month update. As I read them, I realized there.. isn't actually that many updates happening.

Oh and, help tickets that would've been answered within a few days now take weeks to get a response to. If you want CS to be active, you have to start with the staff.

I 100% agree with this. Honestly, I know so many people who can code and do know how this site can easily be enhanced. But trying to talk to anyone to get anything done...they don't listen. And no one can actually speak to Nick about it, because it all gets ignored. And tess ..it just seems like no one actually has any response to things like people offering free coding help or free assistance, so these things get done. Like personally, my girlfriend codes. And offered to code stuff for the game if others on the site wanted to help. If Nick or Tess were more willing to accept help like that I feel like the site could be endlessly helped. But it seems like everyone that offers just gets ignored. Like 25-30 people that play the game could help code new things for the site, and just send it in to Nick, to help. Then he could just check it over, or implement it and change things ya know? If that many people put a good project together, all the staff and Nick and Tess would need to do is check it, try it, tweak it here and there. That just seems like an easy solution but maybe it's not in the grande scheme of stuff.

[TruthBomb]

I think it has to do with trading, and how hard it’s becoming to get the pets that you want or need. People are getting tired of putting the effort in, with very little success or reward. Only users with valuable pets or lots of C$ get anything worth trading, and it’s very hard for new players to succeed. Overpay is expected for nearly everything now. People are simply unwilling to negotiate with others. I know a lot of users that have quit because of how rude other users have been towards them, for simply sending a trade. Trade politics have gotten very bad. It’s why we’ve lost a lot of older users.

I love this site, but there are some days where I’m at my wits end myself. I’ve been trying for literal years to complete just one collection, and now that I’m down to three valuable pets, it’s nearly impossible to negotiate unless you’re overpaying. I dunno, those are just my thoughts. We’re not really acting as a community anymore.

this is a big part of it. it's not really fun anymore because i can't get anything. everything is so unobtainable now it's like animal jam in a way. it's just not fun when all of your dream pets are unobtainable because they are worth more than your entire account. i think it needs to be easier to obtain older pets and valuable pets. nobody wants to play because of that reason, a lot of my old CS friends quit for that reason too. I think the game needs to be easier. I get trading is a huge part of it, but the value of some of these pets are insane. pixels you could get for free should not be worth over 100 USD in c$, it just seems unreasonable to me especially when a majority of the people who play it are children and physically cant dish out hundreds of dollars on a pixel pet.

[DisneyLuv]

I’d also like to point out that the other reason why some list pets can be harder to find is because of hoards. Now I fully support hoards that are rare and below, but list hoards are a bit ridiculous. I found a person recently with a PPS dragon cat hoard. I don’t really understand the purpose of that? It’s a well sought after pet that could bring several people happiness if it’s their dreamie. I feel like it takes away someone’s chance at owning a list pet as well, and it could be contributing to a decline in some popular list pets.