WHY PEOPLE ARE QUITTING CS- A Discussion

[mecha sonic]

i mentioned this on another forum similar to this, but i’d love to hear everyone’s opinions!!

as a compromise for the folks that want rereleased store pets and the folks that don’t, i think store pet 2nd gens would be fantastic!! imagine a raven dog x liontail litter, or a punk dog x marionette litter. i’d give anything to see some store pet 2nd gens :3

recolours on the lines would also be neat !!

[twilispark]

at the end of the day cs is and will always be a kids site* that adults can enjoy too. i personally do not want cs to change its moderation of non kids safe topics, and the idea that it should because kids will "always" find non kid safe content elsewhere is Silly. you will survive not being able to swear or not being able to discuss or show nsfw things. i will always vouch for kid safety over adult comfort. but that's not entirely on topic with what this thread is for so that's all i'll say on that specific subject

* a kid friendly site. i do Not Mean that cs should have any less care/love/serious thought put into it because it's Just For Kids yknow

[StingRaySyd]

I saw on the google dock "Modernize site layout", but I'm unsure of what's wrong with the current layout

[Zeena]

-snip-

i still just don’t see the purpose of implementing these things into the forums. there’s no need for swearing or 18+ topics on a website thats marketed towards children, and has a playerbase of mostly children. there’s several other pet sim games with 16+ forums, such as lioden. if you’d rather see that sort of thing, you’re best off looking elsewhere.

something that makes me uncomfortable is it's extremely easy to actually find 18+ topics on CS. the 18+ discussions forum is not moderated well enough, there are plenty of posts in that specific forum with people talking about their adult lives and other topics similar to that, as i mentioned in a post last night. as much as i personally want the rules to be more lenient, i do not think any inappropriate conversations about topics like that have any place being on CS. nothing inappropriate should be linked solely through CS, either. i understand those conversations i mentioned may not have been reported or something like that, but there's so many posts about stuff like that. it feels wrong that we, as adults, aren't even allowed to have our ages linked on a site 3 links away from CS but people can talk about their activity levels on a forum directly on CS. if the site is so focused on protecting children, none of these topics should have any place on this site.

[Purgatory K9]

I saw on the google dock "Modernize site layout", but I'm unsure of what's wrong with the current layout

I'm not too sure either, but, I believe the site just needs a revamp to seem more appealing.

[FaithyDash]

I would like to clarify something that everyone has been misinterpreting, what I mean about the whole “what we do outside of CS shouldn’t be a concern.” I meant that as a general statement out of regards for everyone. I have linked my deviantart but I also want to make things clear as well. That’s why when I said I linked my carrd but it got removed due to the issues everyone said, I didn’t care for the most part, but I was so confused because I didn’t understand at the time what I was doing was wrong, so I apologize if what I said came off weird or anything like that, it wasn’t my intention. But to be honest I can see why certain rules have been placed, people will assume and correct me (which what I was looking for, I thank everyone for their responses!) But it doesn’t matter where you go (when it comes to my socials anyway) somethings might be nsfw. (I removed certain things from my profile that’ll link to them. Like my deviantart since I didn’t know I kept up certain images, again I apologize, I did a whole wipe of my profile so I thought I removed any images that are nsfw, though I haven’t from comments saying so, I did a double check so I removed the link.)

But the whole point I was trying to make was that I thought this was a site where both adults and kids can enjoy, but we as adults are limited. I’m not saying that we should talk about nsfw topics or anything like that! I’m just saying that if we could have some options to where perhaps more swearing and topics that can be discussed between adults could be a thing. There was a lot of adults who I met on CS that I wanted to speak to personally but I can’t because we can’t link socials or say anything mature in regards to adult language so to speak.

Sorry for any confusion! And I apologize sincerely if I made any mistakes, I’m still trying to understand CS and the rules, especially since I’m not used to them still.

i still just don’t see the purpose of implementing these things into the forums. there’s no need for swearing or 18+ topics on a website thats marketed towards children, and has a playerbase of mostly children. there’s several other pet sim games with 16+ forums, such as lioden. if you’d rather see that sort of thing, you’re best off looking elsewhere.

as for speaking personally, there’s no issue taking it to pms. i don’t think sharing your discord privately is against the rules but i could be completely wrong, please correct me if i am!!

Thank you for the reply! And for the suggestion, I’ll take a look at some other pet sims, and I don’t know much about the PMs so I’m confused as well if it helps! XD And yeah, currently I understand where everyone is coming from. That’s why I’ll move on and just say that when it comes to trading, some people are very specific, that’s for sure. Other than then that I see everyone’s point, but I’m sorry if I made it sound so weird, it wasn’t my intention! (Sorry if I’m repeating, I’m not great with convos sometimes)

[Celozon]

-snip-

Just wanted to add some info to this. There isn't a specific amount of warnings that will automatically equal a ban so its hard to tell users how 'close' they are to a ban, but just in a general sense you aren't going to be in danger of a ban unless we see you consistently ignoring the rules or refusing to follow rules. If you aren't doing those things than there isn't really a specific 'danger' of being banned in the sense you are talking, there is no strike system. And generally we will take other steps before an outright ban, like a temp ban or temp post approvals. There are a few cases were a ban may be immediate but thats generally only in extreme cases like posting something extremely inappropriate for CS or cheating ie multiple accounts or funneling pets to one account. Per our rules, one account existing only to benefit another is against our rules and if the only thing your friend's account did was trade with you and send you stuff it will be interpreted as cheating. Though I think our current rules are more clear on this than they were in the past.

i've tried asking about this on the thread a few times now, but what exactly is the point of having strikes on an account if CS as a whole does not have a strike system that utilizes these strikes on our accounts? if they fundamentally mean the exact same thing, why is there even a difference between verbal warnings and strikes? like, why do these two concepts exist if there is no fundamental difference, and they mean the same thing? what determines getting a numbered strike on your account versus a warning if they're the same thing? /gen

Board warnings are considered more serious than just a PM. A pm reminder about something really isn't going to turn into an issue unless you keep having to be reminded about it in which case it may eventually result in a warning. I often send out pm reminders about things like following thread rules, its a minor thing and its easy to fix and oftentimes understandable. But you might get a board warning for sharing your age its because we believe its very important to not be sharing personal info. They are both rules we expect to be followed, its just the level of severity. I'm really not sure how else to put this except that a board warning is exactly that, its a warning. Its essentially just saying '(please) dont break this rule again'. thats part of why I do think a certain level of bluntness is needed with these, it should be in essence a stern reminder of the rules and it is important user's understand that they need to be followed especially in cases of sharing personal info, inappropriate content, harassment, etc.

If you have a lot of active warnings against your account at once (ie your warning level that you can see on your account, since this does go down over time as a specific warnings gets further in the past) than that will be taken into consideration if something more than just warnings is needed. But thats still very much case-by-case and we can't just say x number of warnings equals a ban because we do take into account a lot of different things. And if you ever are concerned about your account possibly being close to a ban or temp ban it is fine to send in a ticket to ask about that and what can be done to avoid that. We honestly prefer working /with/ users when we can and not against them. Not sure if that answered your question but if you are still wanting to know more I'd honestly suggest a ticket, I've been having a hard time keeping up here and may not see all replies to me, and we can give specifics on your account as well through ticket.

Along with the bluntness and overall refusal of staff to really change or make any effort to change how they are perceived, I see the staff as... clinical.

On other things with active mods, such as subreddits, I see mods actively interacting and doing non-mod things. They joke around, they mess around with users in a lighthearted way, they host fun, silly competitions and threads, etc. But here, I feel absolutely zero connection to the staff. Everything including them feels sterile and clinical. Like a "NO FUN ALLOWED" zone. I am just saying how I perceive the staff, not necessarily how they are—I'm sure a lot or all of them are warm in other interactions. But on CS, most of the time I see them, I just see them popping on to defend their moderation style or explain behind the scenes things or give warnings.

Add this to the opaqueness of CS and the disconnection between users and staff becomes 100x worse.

I'm probably not a great example cause I'm not super social and have never (even before being a mod) had much interest in a lot of areas of the forums, but I run a big gifting game every October and have done so since 2011, years before I was staff. I very much enjoy the interaction with users and try my best to encourage users to speak to me as another user and not a mod. I know other mods have their own projects and threads around the forums as well. Oftentimes we do have less time to do these things thanks to also having mod duties, and all of us being adults with the responsibilities that come with that, but we aren't completely absent from the forums as regular users as others have mentioned.

That said I personally have always had trouble popping in on random topics to chat even before being a mod, but now more so because I (probably thanks to my anxiety) feel like it would seem intrusive or forced for a mod to show up. I could be totally wrong with that, thats just how I feel and I prefer to let people approach me rather than to pop in somewhere where people might be uncomfortable with it. I don't think we (as mods) can really be blamed for that when users talk all the time on threads like this one how they view mods as scary or we just generally make them uncomfortable. I personally don't really know how to make friend's with people with that barrier up ^^' Not that a know how to make friends without it lol

[ShadowKatto]

I saw on the google dock "Modernize site layout", but I'm unsure of what's wrong with the current layout

I'm not too sure either, but, I believe the site just needs a revamp to seem more appealing.

I think the site's layout is fine. I love it to death, actually

[macintalk]

yeah, please do not change the site layout :')
i would probably be more prone to quitting if the layout was significantly changed, there are bigger issues than the site layout being "outdated" or whatever. i personally love the somewhat outdated look of the site, however there are certainly improvements that could be made to some parts of it, but i would hate for the entire site to be modernized.

[jutdwae]

yeah, please do not change the site layout :')
i would probably be more prone to quitting if the layout was significantly changed, there are bigger issues than the site layout being "outdated" or whatever. i personally love the somewhat outdated look of the site, however there are certainly improvements that could be made to some parts of it, but i would hate for the entire site to be modernized.

i do agree with this

the site layout isnt really a factor that drives people away/keeps new players from joining but rather just the fact that no one knows this sit exists anymore, and the people that did are all adults and leaving

a handful of social media managers would really solve this problem, and while i’m not a 100% on how cs got so popular before, i guarantee this will attract many new players