WHY PEOPLE ARE QUITTING CS- A Discussion

[jutdwae]

ITS NOT ABOUT THE BUTTON‼️‼️‼️‼️
it’s about silencing any negative opinions. i do NOT want a warning for me saying ‘i dont like genshin!!!’ or ‘i dont like FR!!!’ it makes me Not want to share any of my opinions on the site
i should be allowed to say i dont like something without having to worry about a mod in my pms.

i think that there is a stark difference in saying you dislike something and literally having a stamp in ur sig, which is everywhere, saying you hate something

[Darni]

while i don’t necessarily agree with the way staff handles things sometimes, this conversation is steering from productive to pettiness. there’s no reason to have an “i hate cs” stamp in your signature, this is a really strange and fruitless argument that won’t do anything for fixing the fundamentals of the site.

I think it's more that it ties into being silenced. It builds off of threads being locked and stuff being deleted. If you remove any negativity or critique people are going to take notice. I don't think it's actually about "i hate cs!" sticker; rather the principle of not being able to express yourself in how you want and convey your frustrations. Locking threads shuts down talking. Putting something in your signature to show that frustration because it is YOUR signature makes sense.

I DON'T THINK THEY ACTUALLY HATE CS AND I THINK IT'S BEING TAKEN TOO LITERALLY

Bwomp because I think a lot of you are stuck on the sticker and I think people are just taking it way to literally like people actually HATE the site while still using it

[Buck Ruffler]

If I may pivot to a different topic for a bit I want to kind of resurface what was mentioned briefly 10+ pages ago: CS as a site doesn't really have any good avenues for casual chatter at the moment which makes it harder to engage with the actual community. I personally don't RP or partake in closed species and while I like to post in the event threads every now and then there's no... "casual chitchat" thread. I understand part of this is inherently unavoidable just due to the way forums are, but I think allowing some lighter, more casual general talk -style threads would potentially help retain more active forum users.

I feel it's partially why Discord appeals to so many users - there they don't have to worry about whether their posts have enough substance to contribute because the conversation is much more casual and less confined to a specific topic. I know staff has expressed disinterest at an official Discord server or other chatrooms due to moderating issues, so maybe more casual chatter threads could be a good compromise? :]

I can't keep up with this thread because it has been going by so fast but OMG, I think this is my favorite suggestion. I don't talk on the forums really (see my like. 20 total posts) cause I can't find any thread to just talk about whatever whenever. This deserves its own separate topic I think :P cause I totally support it... I used to use the Transformice forums (very dead and empty now) and they had a topic like this, where you could talk about whatever, and it was nice for talking so I think this could work...

[Ziggy Stardust]

I do sympathize for the staff in this situation. A lot of these posts deal with unhappiness with staff interactions and it can make the staff feel targeted or attacked.
The users are just genuinely trying to be heard by the staff and work towards a solution that can be beneficial to everyone, and I do not think the majority of the staff interacting on this thread are the ones that have been involved in making CS users feel that they have been treated harshly.
I know that the staff interactions I had that felt way out of line were years ago with temporary mods who are no longer in that position. I think the long-term staff may not be aware of how other staff conduct themselves, especially in PMs. (Not to say this is true of all, or any, of our new or current staff). It is possible that some hired staff get off on a little power trip and take things too far, and I am not sure how much (if any) of these interactions are monitored by admin or other staff.
I think the CS staff wants whats best for the site and its users and even if both sides are frustrated I hope that this thread has been a good way for both sides to see each others perspectives. I appreciate all the CS staff does for us and I hope they see this thread as an opportunity to learn what has been bothering the users and not see it as anything malicious or unwarranted. Thanks for taking the time to read :^)

[barbwirebrat]

i think a lot of people are forgetting that at it’s core this is a forum game website targeted towards children where you adopt virtual pets. there really isn’t any need to hate on things here, there’s plenty of other places to do that freely. i’m not trying to silence anyone, i’m sharing my own opinion which i believe is just as valid as everyone else’s :)

[Purgatory K9]

Pixel Cat's End has an official Discord Server that is view-only. It would be interesting to see CS do something similar, as it would negate the need for intense moderation of a Discord Server.

A Discord Server that implements:
1. Site Updates / Announcements
2. Announcements for Events
3. Announcements for Pound / LNF
4. QnA sessions
5. Suggestions

Would be really interesting to see!

I just wanted to add to this, from the last thread, here's something Seasonal wrote.

I believe the whole Discord server thing was declined because it would be too much of a hassle to moderate for the mods here and in the Discord. However, something like this may open the idea again?

[Animall]

while i don’t necessarily agree with the way staff handles things sometimes, this conversation is steering from productive to pettiness. there’s no reason to have an “i hate cs” stamp in your signature, this is a really strange and fruitless argument that won’t do anything for fixing the fundamentals of the site.

I am personally just curious if you hate CS that much why you would go out of your way to state it ON CS. Why are you participating in something you hate? That genuinely confuses and baffles me. Spreading that kind of hate just because you can seems so… I dunno it’s the wrong term but… just icky to me. Like it gives me the “ew blech” feeling. It seems pointlessly hateful and rude and it is considering you are literally saying you HATE it here. So again if you hate it here so much why stay??

It’s a weird circle in my head and I can’t wrap my mind around it.

exactly, and even though “satire” its still just contributing to lots of toxic negativity and incredibly unproductive,,

While I ~kind of~ agree, I also want to point out the pettiness on CS's side for that, as well.
I think the point of the "I hate cs" stamp is that the cs staff pay attention to that, and go out of their way to remove it, when there are many threads open rn about the dissatisfaction from users being ignored. CS hasnt changed since I joined in 2009 imo, no effort has been put into the website, and any effort that is put in is by retaliating against upset users.

The only time users are listened to on this website is when they "break rules." All suggestions to change the site are rejected. I cant name one big change on the website singe the CS store was announced and opened back in 2009.

EDIT; and I just want to add that the CS staff have nothing to do with making any changes on CS, its literally their job to implement the rules... BUT the admins are mostly inactive and uninvolved, so sadly the dissatisfactions gets pushed onto people it shouldnt.

[marley&me]

I've mostly been lurking on the site for the past few years, but I used to be fairly active & have personal experiences with a lot of the issues people seem to be raising. I've personally had some issues with the way staff has handled things in the past, but they've pretty much been resolved.

I'm obviously just speaking from my own views, so feel free to take any of the below with a grain of salt. I also have no intentions of coming off as rude/aggressive with any of this!

- I've personally never experienced a mod being rude/unprofessional, and while I understand that people have their own two cents on the topic, I really don't see how it'd be possible to essentially force the staff to change how they interact with the userbase when dealing with site-related issues such as giving out strikes/warnings. I've seen multiple people bring up the fact that every individual perceives things different, which is why I honestly think it's pointless to keep that particular topic alive. If the staff were to be "less rude" and use different language, there'd likely be people who suddenly complain about the mods being passive aggressive. Bluntness is almost always a given in professional environments, and to suggest that staff change that because their bluntness can be perceived as abrasive would be a disservice to their positions overall.

- A lot of people have also expressed their dislike of the fact that CS hasn't changed to accommodate its adult userbase over the years, but as an adult myself, I honestly think that's pointless. I see absolutely no problem with the way the website functions right now, and it seems like everyone is so caught up in "wanting the website to grow with them" that they neglect to consider the fact that most adults on this website started their accounts as children. If the website shifted to be more adult-centered, it would be taking something away from the current generation of kids on the site who wouldn't be given the chance to grow up with the site like so many of us were. I genuinely do not see the point in changing anything about CS in regards to what audience it primarily caters to. If the site were to suddenly shift to focus on the adult demographic, staff would still have to consider the thousands of underage users and potentially risk exposing them to more mature content. I would MUCH, much rather prioritize keeping kids safe online over any potential shifts in the way CS is structured. Even then, all of this is hypothetical, because I truly and genuinely believe there is and will never be any plans for the website to change who it caters to.

ALSO, I'd like to point out the fact that COPPA is only applicable to users in the United States. Kids younger than 13 are free to post on forums/private message other users if they're outside of the US.

- I'm seeing a lot of newer users that don't seem to have been on CS prior to the "no anti- anything statements" rule, so it seems a lot of people don't have context as to why it was put in place. I do think it's a bit redundant to an extent, but I'd much rather have the rule in place than witness the various racist/homophobic/etc. statements that were broadcasted on the site prior to the rule being implemented. Yes, I think people should be allowed to say they hate various media and whatnot, because I definitely hold a strong dislike for certain things, but as I said, I'd much rather have all negative statements in that vein discouraged than allow the few bigoted ones to leak through.

i don’t have much to contribute to these topics, bc i think u nailed all of them perfectly on the head

[darkspawn]

I cant say i have any complaints about the way staff conducts themselves with warnings. It reminds me of a manager giving a redirective. It makes sense to me

[Ziggy Stardust]

ITS NOT ABOUT THE BUTTON‼️‼️‼️‼️
it’s about silencing any negative opinions. i do NOT want a warning for me saying ‘i dont like genshin!!!’ or ‘i dont like FR!!!’ it makes me Not want to share any of my opinions on the site
i should be allowed to say i dont like something without having to worry about a mod in my pms.

i think that there is a stark difference in saying you dislike something and literally having a stamp in ur sig, which is everywhere, saying you hate something

^^^ You are totally allowed to dislike things and say you dislike them on CS. Making topics dedicated to hate and parading it around in your profile is what is not permitted.