on the main suggestion directory, there's a list of "active suggestions". the problem is, they aren't that active, and the thread has not received an update in over a year. one thing i have really wanted was the ability to edit multiple groups at once. just yesterday i spent over an hour having to re-organize my groups and ask for help to make sure all my groups were properly locked and had the settings i wanted on.
i was happy to see a so called "active" thread about this idea as i wanted to suggest quite a few QoL changes that i'm suprised haven't been implemented. upon checking the "Locking, naming, and deleting multiple groups" thread i was shocked to see it was created in 2011. that's 11 years ago close to 12 now with 2024 coming up. that's over a decade. the last post was in september and people are STILL in support of the idea.
sorting pets by rarity or "mode" was put up in 2016, nearing 7 years. (would be even more awesome since we got a rarity update)
Re-arrange Pets in Their groups was started in 2014, nearing 9 years.
Display unknown rarity bars in groups was also created in 2016.
some suggestions are more recent, and i am glad that the main thread was updated to include new ones. however some are much older, and i'm sure many users would like some more clarity on how suggestions are handled or worked on. thank you for reading!
UPDATE BELOW
Points to note from staff
some staff members have responded to this topic in a few ways I find important - so I will list them here for everyone to read. what i've compiled below are staff responses about the thread in chronological order. i highly suggest reading through these as it basically encompasses the thread as a whole.
found here
found here & here
after finding out suggestions that require coding work / major changes get sent to nick - some questions were asked. winx has stated a new way of handling suggestions is in the works.
found here
we know that ANY staff member can forward suggestions to Nick. however it seems like power to actually make coding changes to the site rely solely on nick. from another suggestion, the idea of hiring outside doesn't seem like option to the team meaning we are left with Nick as the only individual to implement ANY coding suggestions.
in response to above:
found here
unfortunately - the direct question of "what is Nick's response to the old threads / this suggestion" has gone unanswered. Nick will respond to other coding questions as seen here below. Nick does also not code, or fully code the mini-games you see archived on the site & including this year's (2024) halloween candy game. there's bugs consistent with this year's minigame and previous mini-games leading me to believe it's a "game template" that has cs art placed into it. Nick may still code some parts of the mini-games; but based on what I've seen I do not think this is true. no other staff responses have been posted after the questions below. if you've read this far, thanks for doing so and don't forget to push for change!!
found here
some staff members have responded to this topic in a few ways I find important - so I will list them here for everyone to read. what i've compiled below are staff responses about the thread in chronological order. i highly suggest reading through these as it basically encompasses the thread as a whole.
Celozon wrote:
-snip-
In regards to this thread as a whole;
In the end, the admins are the final say on what gets implemented and I do share the frustration with how some suggestions seem to sit around forever without being implemented. However, I do think its important to be aware of what work needs to go into a suggestion to implement it. A suggestion might sound simple but need a whole new system to be built in the back end for it to actually run. Whether its ideal or not we do only have one site coder and at least while that is the case I think we should be realistic about what we expect a single person to be creating while also doing the regular back-end maintenance of the site and everything else required of a site coder. Thats why I tend to prefer suggestions that require little to no additional coding to be done as those are more likely to be implemented quickly if admins decide its a viable suggestion since either other staff can do the bulk of the work required or it would not be too time consuming for Nick to implement.
Word walls aside, I think a thread compiling popular suggestions is fine as an idea, but would requiring linking to all said suggestions, and technically the suggestion's directory is already that so another thread would probably be considered too similar. I'd suggest replying on the directory thread with any suggestions that are missing from it so they can be added, and replying on suggestions you do think are good so they can get more user feedback. I do understand the frustration on suggestions never getting admin feedback and I personally would like to see more input on suggestions as well, but I do think it goes go a long way to be able to show admins a well thought out suggestion with a lot of feedback and support on it.
found here
Simon wrote:Hey there, I wanted to clarify what I have control over in terms of site updates and QOL changes. I take care of monthly/event releases, pet/item tagging. news posts , MOTDs, volunteer staff management, dress up challenges, and rule updates. Full transparency, a large portion of my time is taken up by "must do" action items to help things run smoothly from month to month, obviously this is all done behind the scenes so I don't expect everyone to necessarily be aware of this. I did recently have a sit down and review some things that I would like to work on during free moments that are within my control. One of these updates that I can share ahead of time is I'm planning to separate out sitting cats from normal cats in the archive to organize those better. So any suggestions along those lines, please feel free to forward to me!
Simon wrote:Sorry I didn't mean to try to say that you have to hunt down specific staff depending on the suggestion or update. I do my best to keep up with the threads in the board, I just meant if there is a suggestion that falls within what I listed and you feel it has been ignored or would be an easy fix feel free to reach out to me specifically. I wanted to make it clear what I can handle on my own because I saw questions about my role brought up in this thread.
Most of the popular suggestions that would require coding or major changes get forwarded to Nick.
found here & here
after finding out suggestions that require coding work / major changes get sent to nick - some questions were asked. winx has stated a new way of handling suggestions is in the works.
winx wrote:beestie wrote:Clayflower. wrote:
most of the current suggestions generally require coding, and some of the oldest are suggestions that require nick to work on them. how does forwarding these suggestions work? sorry to be blunt; but it's obvious he does not work on them. does he even respond to any of the suggestions forwarded?
i too would like to know how suggestions are forwarded and what sort of responses are shared from nick - because if suggestions are forwarded as you've said, surely there is some sort of discussion happening. and if that is the case, i feel as though nick's answers or responses about certain suggestions should be shared to those originally making said suggestions - instead of just having these threads sit around in limbo for years.
Any staff member can forward suggestions to Nick. Our current method is basically a thread where we link popular suggestions for founder review. I stated this in another thread, but we are working on a more efficient way of forwarding suggestions that would involve “rack and stacking” ones that have gotten the most support, seem to be easy to code / implement, etc., and listing them all on one living document. This would prioritize what we would like to see answered first, second, and so on to provide you all responses on if said suggestions are possible, in progress, and so forth. By consolidating everything, it should hopefully make the process easier on both staff and Nick.
found here
we know that ANY staff member can forward suggestions to Nick. however it seems like power to actually make coding changes to the site rely solely on nick. from another suggestion, the idea of hiring outside doesn't seem like option to the team meaning we are left with Nick as the only individual to implement ANY coding suggestions.
Clayflower. wrote:winx wrote:I don’t think this would be super helpful to be honest.
Nick is the only coder for the site. The other staff members are not able to code the kind of suggestions being requested. Not to mention, CS artists have no involvement in the coding aspect of the site either, so it wouldn’t make any sense for them to not make event pets during that time if they couldn’t assist with the updates.
darn, that sucks! what about the suggestions hiring outside help? and i know the artists can't help during the events hence i said them getting some downtime in the bulk of the suggestion. they aren't paid anyway so it would be a break for them!
this is exactly the issue people have; it's like nick is the only coder and many people want more QoL updates. where does the staff want to find the balance between the need for updates vs one coder?
in response to above:
winx wrote:It would be a decision outside my control/purview for there to be outside help hired, so I can’t really help with that suggestion. I’m sorry I can’t provide more insight on it.
I read all the suggestions I see pop up in this forum; there are lots of updates that I would like to see implemented (if possible). I think many of the staff would agree with this sentiment. Currently, the balance involves writing down popular suggestions we see and routing them up to Nick to determine if they are feasible given the site’s structure. We are working to streamline this process a bit more so we can at least say if a suggestion is possible or not.
I am trying to help with QoL in stuff we can control, i.e. updating old threads, fixing broken links, locking inactive or 900+ post threads, clearing posts from trade threads by request, providing clarification on rules, or basically anything from a thread perspective. If anyone sees something that falls into these general areas, please submit a ticket or report so we can update and/or assist.
winx wrote:BlueEyedKite wrote:No support as skipping the summer event would not allow time for QOL updates. Only Nick can code suggestions into the site. Sounds like it's Lacuna, a bunch of artists, and maybe some mods that put on the summer event anyway.
Also, just to add. I once vented to my partner about CS only having one coder. My partner works as a programmer/coder. They said that it was unlikely CS would ever hire/accept a volunteer coder. CS is over a decade old+ which means the code to run the thing is just as old. Coders can't just come on the scene and start working in the system. Nick knows the programs, whatever they are, inside and out. It would be a huge undertaking to have another coder taught to understand CS's code infrastructure let alone understand it well enough to make huge changes like QOL suggestions :c there is also a security aspect of trusting another individual with the code infrastructure of CS. Trade secrets and what not. Which may be another reason why we only had one coder to begin with.
We probably need like a "clear Nick's schedule" campaign instead.
I think there may be a lot of truth in this, Kite. Speaking as a general user with a computer science degree working in a cyber career field, I’d agree that the infrastructure would probably be way different than what is taught nowadays.
found here
unfortunately - the direct question of "what is Nick's response to the old threads / this suggestion" has gone unanswered. Nick will respond to other coding questions as seen here below. Nick does also not code, or fully code the mini-games you see archived on the site & including this year's (2024) halloween candy game. there's bugs consistent with this year's minigame and previous mini-games leading me to believe it's a "game template" that has cs art placed into it. Nick may still code some parts of the mini-games; but based on what I've seen I do not think this is true. no other staff responses have been posted after the questions below. if you've read this far, thanks for doing so and don't forget to push for change!!
Clayflower. wrote:beestie wrote:winx wrote:
Any staff member can forward suggestions to Nick. Our current method is basically a thread where we link popular suggestions for founder review. I stated this in another thread, but we are working on a more efficient way of forwarding suggestions that would involve “rack and stacking” ones that have gotten the most support, seem to be easy to code / implement, etc., and listing them all on one living document. This would prioritize what we would like to see answered first, second, and so on to provide you all responses on if said suggestions are possible, in progress, and so forth. By consolidating everything, it should hopefully make the process easier on both staff and Nick.
thank you for the explanation! it's always a bit reassuring to have a glimpse of what's going on behind the scenes.
can i ask how often that thread receives responses from nick with the current set up - just kind of a ballpark estimate? i think a lot of people in this thread would appreciate knowing just how involved nick still seems to be, as obviously a lot of us looking from the outside in believe he's,,, not around nearly at all anymore.
yes, how often does nick respond to things like this? i'm glad you're working on a more efficient way of handling suggestions though!
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because i also noticed he did respond to Celozon about an issue with the current mini-game. i am honestly disappointed to learn that nick doesn't even fully code the minigames like i initially thought.Celozon wrote:Buck Ruffler wrote:I spent a minute testing different things out and I believe the issue is pausing while treats are in the process of being cleared and/or treats are still falling onto the board. I tried matching 3 treats and immediately hitting the pause button while the animation was still playing and my timer did not stop counting down. When nothing on my board is moving the game will pause normally, with the timer freezing and all. So to anyone having this issue, if you unpause and pause again it'll work fine and the timer will stop, as long as nothing on your board is being cleared.
editing to add: I checked the Feed the Campers minigame too and this issue is also present in that one
Ah I see what you mean, that is happening to me as well if I pause during the animations.
I checked with Nick, but sounds like its not something he would be able to fix at this time. Some of the event mini-games use outside code that he didn't make (I believe the snake mini-game was another one of those) so he doesn't have the same access to the inner workings of them. I don't pretend to understand all the details, but as it stands it sounds like he won't be able to fix it. Assuming the pausing during animations was the cause of OP's issue, its at least a fairly easy thing to avoid once we know what causes it.
so communication happens here at points like these, but what about the overall point of this suggestion? what is his response to the decade old threads?
found here
