WHY PEOPLE ARE QUITTING CS- A Discussion

[Lex.]

not on the topic of what some of u all r currently discussing but ive been staring at this thread and i have a few thoughts. ofc theres no perfect way to fix this site but ill throw my hat into the ring why not.

• one of the main things i'd love is pound reminders. i never see if this thing is open unless it is by chance. the only way to track it is my manually checking it yourself or by using a discord bot. i don't want to join a server for this or throw it in my personal discord server to miss the opening and be greeted by pets that i see no use in getting. an optional, on site pop-up would be so helpful. actually thinking about it... main page side bar that has a pound/lost n found countdown and an event reminder? pop-ups could also be used but having something you can see at a glance at the front page would be neat. something like this possibly? idk i don't know graphic design.
  
• new store items that aren't limited. i get having the more elaborate and themed sets come and go is neat (i'd LOVE for them to be released though, cycled in every so often), but i'd love to see more general items. like nature type items that i can go and grab when i need them. there's also the opinion of making these much larger sets that come in sperate bundles. like a full nature set that can be broken down into flower items, tree items, etc. i also think some of the item sets that have been limited just don't really seem... worth it? if that makes sense? like i love all the little plants from the terrarium set but i don't see why it was limited? also the january 2022 wigs being limited hurts me so much.
  
• i know people don't like the idea but releasing old store pets. there's the argument that people may of paid real money for them and such but considering how uncommon it is to see higher rarity pets come from dec 18th (from what i have seen atleast) i don't see that as a problem? it's not as if orange cerberus pets are going to start raining, i think adding a few into the economy wouldn't kill it. making something possibly slightly easier to obtain wouldn't hurt. the only people it would "hurt" would be the people who want to keep on holding up/highering the value of a pet. and that just makes me more spiteful and want it to crash so y'know.
  
• and the last one is mini-events. small little events to keep people interested in-between the bigger events. maybe something that just tells a small tale, rather than when cs drops pets and items for one day and leaves it at that.

I support all of these except for rereleasing store pets! It would ruin the concept of store pets entirely.
Otherwise, all of these are great suggestions! On top of that [and/or in addition to the store pets thing], if there were more rerelease type events [like having at LEAST 2 different dec 18th type days] that would make the trading scene a lot less strained, and actually give people a better chance to get their foot in the door.
I like feeling accomplished when I get a rare pet. It's something that took me time and I can put the lil guy in my signature if I want. It's something that I personally enjoy, though I can definitely understand the perspective of people who don't care as much when trading!
If I didn't care about rarities and I just wanted an orange cerb for it's looks, I'd just make a cerberus OC that I can look at whenever. That's basically what pets are anyways, just pngs for out viewing pleasure.

[mecha sonic]

not on the topic of what some of u all r currently discussing but ive been staring at this thread and i have a few thoughts. ofc theres no perfect way to fix this site but ill throw my hat into the ring why not.

-sneep snorp-

ooh i love this too. pound reminders would be so nice. im honestly kind of surprised that reminders for pound openings and events haven't been made a thing yet over the years?
plus, the idea of having permanent store pets is lovely. you can still have players who can't afford C$ trading to get a perm store pet and therein feeding into the economy, and have these players feel more included in owning a store pet, granted maybe not the same rarity as a limited edition one, but still!

perm store pets with maybe a store that cycles through a select number of pets would be neat !!! still giving some "worth" to them as well. if the number of those kind of store pets increased, an increase in the number of pets that could stock would also be neat. + if reminders where implemented a reminder that the shop has swapped would be neat too

[Bunnybee]

i have a suggestion for the spread sheet (love it btw)

i have always wanted to be able to have the same sorting ability for the items that the pets have had.

i just want to put my items into groups that are like [ these are the ones i want to trade ] and [ these i want to keep ]

i dont mind trading items but i want to keep a lot for my dress ups and most of my item trades ive needed to cancel and i feel bad because i cant lock certain items

[howlingwolf909]

my friend wound up quitting due to the staff and he wanted me to share his own testimony here so i thought i’d do that for him!! please don’t take this as attacking the mods because that’s not what this is by any means, i just figured because we’re on the topic of our poor experiences it would be worth sharing.


- i was temporarily banned for disagreeing with some action taken against me over my artwork, and the ban was because i spoke out about how i felt like i was being targeted/like i was literally being bullied and harassed by mods for doing quite literally nothing wrong; apparently i "insulted the staff" and was being "belligerent" simply for not agreeing and bringing up other issues about how i was being treated unfairly when half the time other issues regarding the same subjects were literally being performed by other users but they wouldn't receive any issue or feedback, especially if they were a popular artist

- i'd get in trouble for having a certain profile picture on th (which wasn't even a bad profile picture, it was literally an album cover), when i didn't even have my toyhouse linked on my profile. i was told to "either change my profile picture on toyhouse, a site they don't own, or figure it out" aka either change my profile picture on a site that wasn't even linked on my profile or posts and they didn't own, or get in trouble.

- got in trouble for details on my art like pink tummy on a flat pelvis on an anthro adopt, which apparently is "against cs rules because it's too human and looks like nsfw".

- they allowed someone to get away with lying about me regarding nsfw when the user literally edited screenshots and also i showed proof that it literally wasn't true and that the user had also been totally dishonest with me and the mods, yet i still got in trouble and effected by it.

- also allowed my stalkers have access to me, didn't allow me to take safety precautions.

i'm... honestly just lost for words. i had someone contact me about a month or so ago that had an experience very similar to your friend's testimony, so it disheartens me to see that it's still happening. they were hurt from what had happened, and i'm sure your friend was probably just as lost and confused as they were in the aftermath of being temporarily banned. i can only say that i hope your friend is okay after that experience. and i don't blame them for having a sour taste in their mouth, they were wronged and that's the bottom line of it all. there is no excusing that.

and @angst, warnings are definitely scary, and most of the time they are meant to be kept behind closed doors due to privacy. i feel that it just makes it worse on the user receiving the warning, though.. i've only ever received one, and it's from a mistake i made when i was much, much younger, but i remember freaking out about it but having nobody to turn to or ask questions about it. sucked, really.

wow, the privacy aspect of receiving scary warnings in your PMs with no one there as witness, as a kid also feels HAHA lordy that feels scary to even think about. it feels like when an older kid corners you in the secluded room of a corridor that not many kids go to. you're new to the school don't know the rules yet, you already know you're doing /something/ wrong but don't know how to do it /right/, and you get this older person who's meant to show you the ropes instead push you off them because you're using them wrong.
maybe that older kid didn't know their strength in scale to a younger kid - it could have been meant as a simple little nudge. but the power imbalance made it a shove, and their words felt pointed to a kid who's in a completely new world surrounded by people who know more than they do but wont tell them what. professionalism isn't consumer-friendly to a playerbase who is.. literally trying to have fun. talking to someone shouldnt be in business terms when the other person doesnt even understand business lol

atleast thats what it felt to me HEHEHE (not meant as an attack btw! simply an interpretation of what i wouldve felt at that time as a kid :>> )

[mecha sonic]

not on the topic of what some of u all r currently discussing but ive been staring at this thread and i have a few thoughts. ofc theres no perfect way to fix this site but ill throw my hat into the ring why not.

-sni p -

I support all of these except for rereleasing store pets! It would ruin the concept of store pets entirely.
Otherwise, all of these are great suggestions! On top of that [and/or in addition to the store pets thing], if there were more rerelease type events [like having at LEAST 2 different dec 18th type days] that would make the trading scene a lot less strained, and actually give people a better chance to get their foot in the door.
I like feeling accomplished when I get a rare pet. It's something that took me time and I can put the lil guy in my signature if I want. It's something that I personally enjoy, though I can definitely understand the perspective of people who don't care as much when trading!
If I didn't care about rarities and I just wanted an orange cerb for it's looks, I'd just make a cerberus OC that I can look at whenever. That's basically what pets are anyways, just pngs for out viewing pleasure.

yk what? fair !! i hate the idea of having to spend literal hours of my time trying to trade up for one pet. theres some pets id love to own but i look at their worth and it just drops my interest entirely ? i'd put in the effort but when it could just lead to be getting nothing out of all that time spent just makes me a little. eugh. the only reason i have a joker in the first place is due 2 me finding someone willing to trade one for art (which... also took me months waiting actually oops) but i think just the chance at getting one from dec 18th would be nice. even if they made the likelihood of getting one pretty low (which i would expect !! i wouldn't complain abt that at all JGDYG)

[Nedbit]

-snip-
Which staff positions are actually paid, and which are unpaid volunteer? Cause thats going to answer a lot as for the inconsistancy with mod posts

not sure if this has been answered before, but I'd also like to know, if someone could comment? As far as I'm aware, its all volunteer work?

[Aaron✦]

-snip-
Which staff positions are actually paid, and which are unpaid volunteer? Cause thats going to answer a lot as for the inconsistancy with mod posts

not sure if this has been answered before, but I'd also like to know, if someone could comment? As far as I'm aware, its all volunteer work?

All staff positions are volunteer positions.

[Infailia]

- snipping the rest as the post is long and I want to address this specific point!-

I do feel there is a bit of a vocabulary issue here saying mod responses are 'rude', just in that what one person considers rude can be very different to another and to be very clear: any outright rudeness and harassment is not allowed on CS, this includes moderators. You can report us if you think we are being outright rude. But from what I've been seeing user's discussing, it seems what many of you are actually referring to is bluntness. And at least personally there is a big difference to me between bluntness and rudeness. So I would suggest maybe giving some examples of what you have issues with rather than just giving a vague 'mods are rude' as that does not differentiate on bluntness vs actual rudeness. Personally I don't consider a mod saying 'x is against the rules. Do not do this again' as rude. It is very blunt and personally I usually try to be a bit nicer, but I would like to differentiate that from actual rudeness and just calling it 'rude' may cause people who haven't been involved in these interaction to assume you mean actual rudeness.

I actually want to respond to this specifically as someone who HAS reported a staff member who was being outright rude in my PMs (which multiple people I talked to also agreed with, so it's less likely just me being "sensitive")! The response I got was extremely dismissive, basically just going "I don't believe it was rude" which was... extremely disheartening and made me heavily consider whether or not it would even be WORTH it to report these things in the future. I don't think it's fair to for other staff members to make the call on whether users are "incorrect" or "not differentiating bluntness from "actual rudeness"" when it comes to their own conduct.

I will repeat my point: bluntness should not automatically equate to professionalism (especially when it's clear that your userbase is reacting to it negatively), and that there should be a balanced approach that doesn't fall under neither overt bluntness or coddling the users.

(Again, sorry if I'm coming off blunt. I promise it's not intended, just a side effect of my native language ^^)

I strongly agree that bluntness and professionalism should not be the same thing. Even just adding some simple words/phrases like 'unfortunately', 'however', 'please', 'in the future', 'reminder', etc, etc and having a softened closing statement such as 'hope this helps', 'take care', 'please reach out if you have any questions', so on and so forth would go a long way. Furthermore, unlike emoticons, these are all things that are seen and used in professional settings (you should always sign off a professional email, so why not a C$ warning PM?)

[mourning dove]

my friend wound up quitting due to the staff and he wanted me to share his own testimony here so i thought i’d do that for him!! please don’t take this as attacking the mods because that’s not what this is by any means, i just figured because we’re on the topic of our poor experiences it would be worth sharing.


- i was temporarily banned for disagreeing with some action taken against me over my artwork, and the ban was because i spoke out about how i felt like i was being targeted/like i was literally being bullied and harassed by mods for doing quite literally nothing wrong; apparently i "insulted the staff" and was being "belligerent" simply for not agreeing and bringing up other issues about how i was being treated unfairly when half the time other issues regarding the same subjects were literally being performed by other users but they wouldn't receive any issue or feedback, especially if they were a popular artist

- i'd get in trouble for having a certain profile picture on th (which wasn't even a bad profile picture, it was literally an album cover), when i didn't even have my toyhouse linked on my profile. i was told to "either change my profile picture on toyhouse, a site they don't own, or figure it out" aka eith—
-snipping for post space-

hello! just wanted to say they are absolutely not alone in this experience!
someone close to me was muted for 6 months for ‘being rude to the staff’ (when they were not). they were taking part in a discussion somewhat similar and actually agreeing with the staff’s decisions, which some people openly disagreed with, yet the staff still muted them and claimed they were being rude. not once did they mention other normal users on the site, only staff. i find it a bit strange how they’re more willing to take action when it’s staff that’s being ‘insulted’ (in quoted because there wasnt any insults) rather than when ordinary players are.
ive also dealt with staff going through all my stuff. linked directly or not, if they found something they didn’t like, it needed to be changed. carrd that you had to go through 4 sites to find? edit it. profile picture on discord that isnt shared here? change it. it’s made me scared to share ANYTHING on this site since i know they could dig through my stuff and find SOMETHING to warn me abt. which really sucks!! since a portion of this site requires you to share and have all these socials… but i feel so limited because of how easy it is to get a warning here. not to mention i find so many direct links with nsfw and i think, where is the moderation here???
the pink tummy thing is also a huge issue, i’ve seen so much art taken down for it when its not even slightly sexual? i also see so much art with it left up, esp with popular artists. it’s hard to see these rules as ‘fair’ when theres so much of it still left on the site ;; it’s not sexual! it’s not weird! its just a small detail, and i dont understand why it’s been taken away ??
also about the stalking thing YES cs definitely needs better safety precautions bc i’ve had ppl hunt down my cs account just to stalk me 😭😭
sorry for the ramble this stuff is just incredibly frustrating, ive already tried to quit before but i thought well you know it cant be that bad if i stay. but it is.

[Ziggy Stardust]

Just to add in general, I personally don't think I would ever say things like 'have a nice day' after a warning. Ah its just not something that comes naturally to me and, personally, would seem fake and almost feels like it would be more of a slap in the face to give someone a warning but '<3 <3 have a nice day!!'. But as said, social anxiety here, I never really caught on the normal social 'politeness' so maybe thats a just a me problem. I've worked in customer service for a number of years and having to say things like 'have a nice day' probably feels fake by extension of being forced to end every customer interaction with it.

As I have also worked in customer service for years, I understand that common nicities like "have a nice day" become scripted rather than sincere, and that outside of the workplace you wouldn't want to say that.
However, regardless of whether or not it is a volunteer position, this site is also your workplace, and on it you are in a position of authority over registered users, and how you speak to them matters.
Saying you would never genuinely wish someone a nice day with a warning is not encouraging. I hate to ask people to step out of their comfort zone, but as this is your job, I think you have a duty to listen to the users and adjust accordingly, even if it isn't how you would choose to relay the information to them. You say warnings are not serious to staff, but the members of the site do not feel that way when they receive one, and by asking the staff to use softer language to relay that I do not think they are asking too much.
If you cannot bring yourself to wish someone a nice day with a message, then choose one that does come from the heart. "I hope you enjoy your time here on CS!" or something so users don't feel as alienated or downtrodden.
It's okay if you don't understand or agree, but if users see that you're trying to, I think it would mean a lot.