WHY PEOPLE ARE QUITTING CS- A Discussion

[blues clues]

it seems a lot of people are interested in more stamps on this site!!

if they did a patreon, perhaps monthly there could be a new stamp so users would be able to collect the stamps for each month they paid!

[Lex.]

quote="aelius"]"on CS, we would like to maintain a safe environment for all ages, regardless of how silly others may think that is. everyday, staff experience situations on this site that remind us of why we have these rules in place. it is important to understand that it is not to censor anyone, but instead to protect those who are vulnerable."
i totally understand this, but i feel like some stuff should still be lightened up on. for example, a signature link to someone's toyhouse which has a link to their twitter where they mention their age is like, 24 or something really shouldn't be something that can get someone into trouble. if they are a minor, i completely would understand that, but i feel like adults should be allowed to share things like their ages off-site without it being moderated due to being linked a few links from CS, those are the type of things that i feel are kind of unnecessary at this point, as i personally cannot see how that makes things any safer for the vulnerable people who do play cs /gen

i totally understand where you're coming from with this, and i think many people probably feel the same as you. the reason we moderate offsite links that contain age as strictly as we do, even if the user is an adult, is because many children may see that someone has their age a few clicks away and think that it is okay to do the same. yes, someone being 24 and revealing their age is much different than a minor doing the same thing. but the issue lies in children making examples of the adults on this site, therefore leading to us being unable to make exceptions. enforcing the rules for everyone, regardless of age, adds an extra layer of protection that many sites do not provide.

adult user here, supporting hellevi
is it annoying that i've gotten bonked for something 3 links away? yes, absolutely.
but i completely understand and support the rules being this way for child safety reasons. a minor annoyance for me is worth the safety of young CS users.

I fully agree and support these reasons, but I do have a thought I'd like to add if possible.

A few years ago, I received an official board warning for having a link to my deviantart profile. I had been linking to my deviantart profile for years on this site, because I fully believed it to be free of anything that would break CS rules. something like 3 years passed, with my links to deviantart being posted innocently, and then randomly one day, I got the warning.

turns out, there was a grainy photograph of me from 9 years prior to the first time I posted a link to that account, buried in my scraps, in a folder I hadn't touched in more than 5 years. I'd completely forgotten it was there. obviously, a mod did not search through my deviantart account just to dig up something to reprimand me for, but another user did, whether for petty reasons or 'just for fun' reasons, I'll never know.

but i was really devastated to get that warning because it was an actual mark on my account for several months, felt like such a glaring "this user has done something wrong and bad," and while i know that's very silly/blowing things out of proportion, it was hard for me to handle at the time. I wonder if there's any way there could be a verbal warning first for this kind of thing instead of an immediate strike on-site? I had truly forgotten about that picture, it was 9 years old and I hadn't even remembered I'd uploaded it there in the first place. if a mod had messaged me and let me know it was there, I would of course have apologized and immediately removed those links.

Huge support for that, it's discouraging!!
Take down the link temporarily and tell the user that they need to make a change! I hate it being so punishment forward.
And Lacuna, if its just

They don't look that different, and the number of "board warnings" on your account doesn't actually matter much, it's just a mechanic of a forum site.

then why not automate it? That way it doesn't feel like a personal attack if that user has been DM'd by that staff member before?
It cuts out all of the issue while also doing the same thing.

[Also, sorry, I want to say that I didn't mean for it to sound rude, I meant why not at least suggest this for the site? Staff can contact site admins, IIRC]

[Nedbit]

It’s definitely a good idea and I have heard talk about it in the past, let’s keep in mind that Tess has the final say as she has her own life too and this could be a bit too much ^^

100%! As I stated in my first little blurb, it can NOT be easy managing a site like this, and I would not blame her for not taking on something like that again :)
Just figured I’d mention the idea!

[macintalk]

snip

I fully agree and support these reasons, but I do have a thought I'd like to add if possible.

A few years ago, I received an official board warning for having a link to my deviantart profile. I had been linking to my deviantart profile for years on this site, because I fully believed it to be free of anything that would break CS rules. something like 3 years passed, with my links to deviantart being posted innocently, and then randomly one day, I got the warning.

turns out, there was a grainy photograph of me from 9 years prior to the first time I posted a link to that account, buried in my scraps, in a folder I hadn't touched in more than 5 years. I'd completely forgotten it was there. obviously, a mod did not search through my deviantart account just to dig up something to reprimand me for, but another user did, whether for petty reasons or 'just for fun' reasons, I'll never know.

but i was really devastated to get that warning because it was an actual mark on my account for several months, felt like such a glaring "this user has done something wrong and bad," and while i know that's very silly/blowing things out of proportion, it was hard for me to handle at the time. I wonder if there's any way there could be a verbal warning first for this kind of thing instead of an immediate strike on-site? I had truly forgotten about that picture, it was 9 years old and I hadn't even remembered I'd uploaded it there in the first place. if a mod had messaged me and let me know it was there, I would of course have apologized and immediately removed those links.

100% agree! it really should just be a verbal warning and nothing else. i know that mods themselves can also edit signatures, so it would be nice if they just edited the problematic link out of your signature and sent a verbal warning about what was wrong with it, so you can edit and add it back, instead of getting a strike. i 100% agree with feeling like it means "this user has done something wrong and bad," because that's what it feels like to me, and it hurt really badly having my first strike be something so mundane i would have easily taken out of my signature if i was notified of it instead of given a strike for. i believe i may have gotten a verbal warning for my age being included in a link in my signature before, so maybe that's why i was given a strike as opposed to a warning, since it was a similar situation, but i feel like these things should only be verbal warnings, instead of strikes. i see no reason for them to be strikes as opposed to warnings, personally.

[trickyLA]

I know more re-releases was suggested, so I want to add to that. Maybe it could be a gift on the birthday that you selected when you join the site! You get a gift to open on that day (or month) that is a re-released pet. Perhaps it could have a wait period, too, so for example a user can't join or create multiple users and immediately get a re-released pet that month.

This is such a cute suggestion! A lot of players like having pets with the same birthday as them, so being able to adopt a pet on your birthday as a little 'present' would be a lot of fun!

Oh I love this! I tend to try to grab the April pets I see that fall on my birthday, I just think its cute. Would love having a little surprise like this to look forward to! <3

[tiredddd]

It’s definitely a good idea and I have heard talk about it in the past, let’s keep in mind that Tess has the final say as she has her own life too and this could be a bit too much ^^

100%! As I stated in my first little blurb, it can NOT be easy managing a site like this, and I would not blame her for not taking on something like that again
Just figured I’d mention the idea!

Yeah! Maybe someday! I remember when I first joined and started doing research on the history of Cs, it would definitely be something I feel lots of users would like

[Lex.]

snip

I fully agree and support these reasons, but I do have a thought I'd like to add if possible.

A few years ago, I received an official board warning for having a link to my deviantart profile. I had been linking to my deviantart profile for years on this site, because I fully believed it to be free of anything that would break CS rules. something like 3 years passed, with my links to deviantart being posted innocently, and then randomly one day, I got the warning.

turns out, there was a grainy photograph of me from 9 years prior to the first time I posted a link to that account, buried in my scraps, in a folder I hadn't touched in more than 5 years. I'd completely forgotten it was there. obviously, a mod did not search through my deviantart account just to dig up something to reprimand me for, but another user did, whether for petty reasons or 'just for fun' reasons, I'll never know.

but i was really devastated to get that warning because it was an actual mark on my account for several months, felt like such a glaring "this user has done something wrong and bad," and while i know that's very silly/blowing things out of proportion, it was hard for me to handle at the time. I wonder if there's any way there could be a verbal warning first for this kind of thing instead of an immediate strike on-site? I had truly forgotten about that picture, it was 9 years old and I hadn't even remembered I'd uploaded it there in the first place. if a mod had messaged me and let me know it was there, I would of course have apologized and immediately removed those links.

100% agree! it really should just be a verbal warning and nothing else. i know that mods themselves can also edit signatures, so it would be nice if they just edited the problematic link out of your signature and sent a verbal warning about what was wrong with it, so you can edit and add it back, instead of getting a strike. i 100% agree with feeling like it means "this user has done something wrong and bad," because that's what it feels like to me, and it hurt really badly having my first strike be something so mundane i would have easily taken out of my signature if i was notified of it instead of given a strike for.

100000%% this!! unless it was a direct link to something inappropriate, then it doesn't warrant a board warning.
just remove the link, and remind the user of the rules <3

[Venøm]

adult user here, supporting hellevi
is it annoying that i've gotten bonked for something 3 links away? yes, absolutely.
but i completely understand and support the rules being this way for child safety reasons. a minor annoyance for me is worth the safety of young CS users.

I fully agree and support these reasons, but I do have a thought I'd like to add if possible.

A few years ago, I received an official board warning for having a link to my deviantart profile. I had been linking to my deviantart profile for years on this site, because I fully believed it to be free of anything that would break CS rules. something like 3 years passed, with my links to deviantart being posted innocently, and then randomly one day, I got the warning.

turns out, there was a grainy photograph of me from 9 years prior to the first time I posted a link to that account, buried in my scraps, in a folder I hadn't touched in more than 5 years. I'd completely forgotten it was there. obviously, a mod did not search through my deviantart account just to dig up something to reprimand me for, but another user did, whether for petty reasons or 'just for fun' reasons, I'll never know.

but i was really devastated to get that warning because it was an actual mark on my account for several months, felt like such a glaring "this user has done something wrong and bad," and while i know that's very silly/blowing things out of proportion, it was hard for me to handle at the time. I wonder if there's any way there could be a verbal warning first for this kind of thing instead of an immediate strike on-site? I had truly forgotten about that picture, it was 9 years old and I hadn't even remembered I'd uploaded it there in the first place. if a mod had messaged me and let me know it was there, I would of course have apologized and immediately removed those links.

This type of situation basically happened to me. I didn't realise the depth of investigation the staff went into (i was genuinely astounded but i also respect that effort and commitment) after I got a warning for an insta link in website tab i had up for over a year/a toyhouse link in an art example post after seeing many many others do it and not knowing the depth of the levels of censorship (not criticising this). I escalated the warning to an admin assistant and discussed it however and got it resolved.

For people like me and I'm sure others, even if something like a board warning doesn't seem much to staff, it's really damaging in our minds to have that recorded somewhere.

[sweathie]

Okay, it's sweathie's bedtime <3

Spreadsheet is updated up to this post. I will check in at some point tomorrow to add any new suggestions.

p.s. you should check out my spreadsheet pixel art

[blues clues]

thank u sm sweathie T-T