[urgent] this site really is actually dying

[The Cure]

i would GLADLY splurge on chicken smoothie plushies!

[sodatab]

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.

thats why ive pretty much quit trading. rude ppl. ive also considered quitting bc im sick of people blocking me for no freaking reason.

[Pucketup]

Opinion as a new player:

I have NO idea what the website was like before I joined but this website still seems to be pretty active. There are almost always some sort of forum game or quiz going on and I'm still absolutely enamored by each and every pet that gets released each month.
I do agree that it's kind of hard to start, but this community has been so amazing that within the first couple months I've really been able to get my feet under myself because of all the gifts I've been given (bless all you gift givers).
I wouldn't be too worried about the decline as all website have steady rises and falls.

I'm just a newbie though 🤷

[BlueEyedKite]

Opinion as a new player:

I have NO idea what the website was like before I joined but this website still seems to be pretty active. There are almost always some sort of forum game or quiz going on and I'm still absolutely enamored by each and every pet that gets released each month.
I do agree that it's kind of hard to start, but this community has been so amazing that within the first couple months I've really been able to get my feet under myself because of all the gifts I've been given (bless all you gift givers).
I wouldn't be too worried about the decline as all website have steady rises and falls.

I'm just a newbie though 🤷

That's so nice to hear T.T thanks for giving your opinion because I worry about our newbies! I hope they feel welcome and get showered in free trades. We should nurture our CS babies, they will keep this site going <3 I'm glad you like it here /cryinggggg

[Pucketup]

Opinion as a new player:

I have NO idea what the website was like before I joined but this website still seems to be pretty active. There are almost always some sort of forum game or quiz going on and I'm still absolutely enamored by each and every pet that gets released each month.
I do agree that it's kind of hard to start, but this community has been so amazing that within the first couple months I've really been able to get my feet under myself because of all the gifts I've been given (bless all you gift givers).
I wouldn't be too worried about the decline as all website have steady rises and falls.

I'm just a newbie though 🤷

That's so nice to hear T.T thanks for giving your opinion because I worry about our newbies! I hope they feel welcome and get showered in free trades. We should nurture our CS babies, they will keep this site going <3 I'm glad you like it here /cryinggggg

I promise I'm plenty nurtured!! I've noticed that the pets I personally love (commons/uncommons that are cute) old players are more than willing to part with since they aren't technically "valued" very high for trades. That allows me to just thrive with all my "cheap" cute babies!!!! I love this website so much ♥️😭

[loverman]

i'd like to say im quite active here and ive seen quite a bit of this sites evoloution. I agree that no one seems to bid on auctions, even for hard to get pets (ive been trying to bid off my sockdog for a couple months, nothing). It often takes hours now for someone to reply on the ban the person above thread, which a couple years ago would never have happened. I remember struggling sometimes to even get a post in cuz of how fast it moved. To be honest it's not very suprising that the site isnt very active anymore. Now, i sometimes feel like theres way to many pets each month, a lot more from my early years here, i can imagine that the changes that put me off may have also made others leave. Honestly tho majoirty of those that used to play are busy adults now and have lives offline with jobs and even kids for some. A way we could work on this is finding someone on here who has a decent tiktok following (or a similar app) to try and get the new generation of players to join. Honestly we can't do much but hope that something for some reason brings this site back to popularity.

[shadowplay]

i'd like to say im quite active here and ive seen quite a bit of this sites evoloution. I agree that no one seems to bid on auctions, even for hard to get pets (ive been trying to bid off my sockdog for a couple months, nothing). It often takes hours now for someone to reply on the ban the person above thread, which a couple years ago would never have happened. I remember struggling sometimes to even get a post in cuz of how fast it moved. To be honest it's not very suprising that the site isnt very active anymore. Now i some times feel like theres way to many pets each month, a lot more from my early years here, i can imagne that the changes that put me off may have also made others leave. Honestly tho majoirty of those that used to play are busy adults now. A way we could work on this is finding someone on here who has a decent tiktok following (or a similar app) to try and get the new generation of players to join. Honestly we can't do much but hope that something for some reason brings this site back to popularity.

I definitely agree with the tiktok thing. I was only reminded this site existed after seeing an artist I follow on Instagram post a commission they made for someone on here … we need a new generation of users

[honeyhailey]

I’ve been here a long time and I have a few things I’ve noticed change over the years

For one, trading makes absolutely zero sense to me as of the past like 4 years. When I started all you really went by was the rarity of a pet and some people the dates. I’ve tried many times over the years to get back into trading but there are so many layers, acronyms, and small stuff I can’t make any sense of. I know there’s guides but it feels like coming back to a completely different trading scene then what I was used to. I have tons of rares and old pets but I have no clue what a fair trade is as of late. I have so many pets I don’t need or want simply because of this.

Second, I’ve noticed the auctions brought up and I remember the auction thread being as busy and constantly getting new posts like trading threads did. It kind of shocked me when I saw how empty it was.

Third, a decline in users. The ones here are consistently active but the influx of new people is staggeringly low compared to when I played. I’ve enjoyed this site so much way back when I was a kid, and I still love it now. I genuinely think that’s a testament to how well the construction and loop of it is. I come back every month for the new litters and I look forward every season to the events, especially Christmas. I don’t think there isn’t a audience for this, I think there’s a lack of advertising. I only heard about this site through word of mouth and told my friends about it. Other pet websites still bring in new users, and they advertise on places like titkok and Twitter. I think if CS had creators or big fans of the site just tell people about it, it would definitely help.

I’ve been here for years and there have been many improvements, and I’ve had nothing but love for it, I just hope it can bring in more traffic for the sake of its success and longevity.

[Suave]

I’ve been here a long time and I have a few things I’ve noticed change over the years

For one, trading makes absolutely zero sense to me as of the past like 4 years. When I started all you really went by was the rarity of a pet and some people the dates. I’ve tried many times over the years to get back into trading but there are so many layers, acronyms, and small stuff I can’t make any sense of. I know there’s guides but it feels like coming back to a completely different trading scene then what I was used to. I have tons of rares and old pets but I have no clue what a fair trade is as of late. I have so many pets I don’t need or want simply because of this.

I've noticed this. As a user who joined first in 2013 when I was pretty young, and has now started coming back to the site, trading made more sense to me back then; even when I was COPPA it felt easier to trade. Since I've gotten back into it I chalked this up at first to being rusty- and also I've never bothered with the whole list pet system so maybe I just didn't have the knowledge... but then I started trying to trade for my old dreamie which is a VR store pet and then also trading someone else who wanted some of my items... I literally can't figure out how to trade people anymore without giving them what would be overpay in the old system. Maybe this is because new pets have seemingly very little value? Inflation?

I've also noticed a huge disparity in rare to very rare. I feel as though it used to be two rares for a very rare, maybe throw in an uncommon and give them year advantage on the trade, but now VR are worth what feels like WAY more then rares. Maybe they could solve this by lowering VR? rereleasing some or adding new ones? I'm not sure. I just feel like the old system of roughly 1:2 ratio for going up and down rarities has been abandoned. Maybe it's because now it feels like once you get two uncommons for a rare it's going to be impossible to get a rare of that same value BACK from those uncommons later (which if everyone things this way... no one is ever going to trade down so players with less rare pets such as new players or less dedicated players can never trade for anything above an uncommon or recent year rare.)

(((Also if anyone feels like any of this is a wrong take go ahead and lmk please, again I've never been super trade savvy.)))

I also agree with several about the player base just growing up- like I kind of stopped playing due to work and school- I feel like most of the old users I still see on the site are from 2012-2013 so maybe we were the next wave of users after 2008-2010 creation period, then where is the third wave? People sort of seemed to trickle in in 2016-2018 but not like huge numbers. I think maybe forum and adoptable type games just aren't as popular now and there's not really much we can do about that.

[Animall]

Posting so I can follow the discussion. I remember when the "most active users of all time" count would increase every year for Dec 18th. It hasnt increased since 2017. I was excited for the Camp Smoothie event mostly for trading purposes, but Ive barely gotten any trades.