I know Suggest was already pinged but maybe this is something you could get behind?

Honestly, the whole "don't have the time" excuse is utter bullshit, especially now that the wins have been dropped.

I don't mind the only 3 a week wins, but if there are 80 pets in the win queue, without adding a single other pet, that will still take 26+ weeks to get through them. You're honestly going to tell me you're booked out for the next 26 weeks and can't possibly find the time to give a tick box reason why? lol

And the fact that "this is a contest so we can't help you" excuse is bullshit too. The wins don't clear out every week. IF it cleared every week, and you had to re-submit, then yes, that is a contest. This is a SPOTLIGHT. We make a nice pet with a nice profile etc. You accept it fits the criteria, and at some point it is featured for all to see. That is not a contest.

Already put my opinion and support on the previous page, but it's worth saying again that simply checking a box "story" "layout" "graphics" would help immensely. It gives people a place to start. Not sure how people can be expected to fix something when they see nothing wrong with what they've done and no one else can tell them either.

The pet spotlight was changed to do 3 times a week because the queue is low because people have given up because constantly entering, being rejected, fixing something, entering again, and being rejected again, over and over, is a little discouraging.

omg I love you.

I can understand how before when the spotlight achievements were added and EVERYONE RUSHED TO GET IN THERE AND GET DAT there were thousands of pets to go through. Understandable - I remember the struggle of approving/giving reasons for rejecting CWs.

But now, with so FEW pets entered (which should clue you in pretty quick..) you STILL don't have time to tick at a maximum - five boxes? really?

I think step 1. should be adding in the reasons for rejection. and then if the queue is still pitifully low step 2. should be looking into the spotlight guidelines.

Because I think a lot of people have started to be like and just work on their pets for them (Which is what you should do anyway, obv.) and say fuck it to the spotlight.

Hell, I know I'm starting to feel that way.

I agree with this so much. I might be totally wrong but I don't think it'd be a huge drain on staff resources to have them fill in a very simple form like the one mentioned above.

Ugh yes please. I used to love working on my pets and the spotlight was a major motivator, but now I have barely any motivation to work on them and get them all perfect in my eyes only for them to be kicked from the queue for reasons I have no idea about what I should be changing. I haven't worked on my pets for AGES and it makes me sad because that was the main reason I came on Subeta and I just don't have any motivation, thinking I could do a whole lot of work only to feel crushed when I see it's not good enough for spotlight and no idea why

I honestly barely work on mine because all my hard work gets ignored. One day I will have enough sp or csc to make some nice things, but until then I'll just stick with my 2 spotlight ready pets and that's it.

I really support the call for staff to put together a one-time tick box (meaning once they're done with it, it's ready for coding instead of staff ever typing out reasons for every rejection) that can be put in constant use.

How do CW rejections work? I've never submitted one but I understand that handles a ton of it. Could there be a person like that for the Pet Spotlight? We know Subeta's doing ok with funding so is it terribly understaffed? I really admire the training and additional workload that some staff members have taken on so I hope that this project could be divided fairly or someone new (new hire?) could step up.

Personally, I think the more limited Pet Spotlights are good. Some of the winners were starting to feel very formulaic and generic. They fit the "Spotlight mold" without really seeming spotlight worthy. (This is an extremely vague and general comment based off of personal opinions that have developed over a period of time. I hope no one feels affronted by it!)

Sometimes it seems like staff is really picky and other times I see winners with spelling and grammar errors. It would be nice if they had one dedicated mini-mod to take care of these, (someone with an editing background xD) who could look them through and use the check box idea. I mean if they're spending the time to look at it on each browser, read the story, check for plagiarism/credit ect, why not take that two seconds to check off the box of the area's you see that don't work? I mean you're already going through it anyways.

A basic checklist seems pretty simple to manage, tbh, and I think it would make a lot of people more interested in participating. I mean, if there are only 80 submissions in the queue it's PROBABLY because people have been so discouraged to participate.

I'm all for some kind of checklist. My pets are the main thing I do on this site, and I do love looking at the spotlight winners. I've won the spotlight a few times and the comments I've gotten on my stories have really made all my hard work feel worth it. But then I have a couple pets that have gotten booted for reasons I won't know, and I'd at least like to know if there's something wrong with the layout, story, etc.

If there was a checklist I think it should be divided into categories. Profile Layout, Story, Coding, whatever is wrong, then under those categories there would be little tick boxes. "Clashing colors", "spelling errors", "coding doesn't line up properly on other resolutions", things like that. And if it's nothing that is listed in the tick boxes, there could be an "other" section for someone to just write a quick sentence, if nothing else fits.

Hell, I'd even personally volunteer to check the spotlights, if the other staff members are too overworked for it! :P

Mostly for curiosity / illustration reasons, I still have an event for a denial of an older CW laying around so I can offer it as an example c: ( !)

They're more detailed because each CW technically makes $50 to the site (normally more because of additional batches) but a little checkbox without the extra explanation would certainly be enough for PS!

...however is the person for PS as well, so she does that and CWs on top of the tickets / forum questions she also answers :x

"CWs make money for the site and that's why they get a denial system" isn't really even valid anymore (hasn't been for years actually whoop) if that was ever the reason because while it may not be $50+ a pop x however many CWs are approved each day, pets do earn money for the site from custom overlays, auto-training, neelas, potions, renames, pet slots, cash shop books and challengers and of course ridiculous people like myself that spend an obscene amount of money on TC items and CWs that allow me to dress up like my characters.
If I didn't buy CWs that reminded me of my pets, I'd own maybe 5. As it is, I have several hundred. At least two of my pets have more than a dozen CWs just in their TCs.

I really don't participate in the spotlight because of lack of time and motivation, but I have to say that not having a denial system is basically what keeps me from wanting to try with the one pet that I think might almost be ready for it. Since it is meant to be a kind of achievement, I don't think anything more than a check response should be necessary, but even that would help people a lot since there seem to be a lot of denials where no one really knows what staff is seeing.

To claim that there isn't enough time in the day to check a box or even write down the reasons you are rejecting something, when you are already taking the time to review the pet to look for reasons TO reject it, and when you just changed from 7 to 3 winners a day because there aren't as many pets in the queue (which means the job used to take far far more time than it does now!) just seems illogical.

Well if you simply can't make time to use the checkboxes... then in half a year ish - a year there will be no more pets to put in the spotlight because everyone gave up.

Pro: you'll have more time on your hands with no one entering the spotlight anymore. Con: goodbye the only site feature involving pet showcasing on a pet site.

I rather know there are grammar issues than know nothing at all. I've been entering the same pet ever since the spotlight was founded, I adjusted every single fragment of the pet, had it all checked by dozens of people. YET, somewhere is something wrong. The site spotlight is around for what... 3 years. 3 years of having my favourite pet rejected every single time for a reason no one can find. I spend money on art, money on profile, money giant tc just so he would be perfect for the spotlight (I was happy with how he was before all the changes). Result: nothing. I'm not spending a cent of real money on my pets (and thus the site) until I can see what is wrong.

The constant rejections of the spotlight, which was my only motivator to work on my pets made it so that I spend less money on the site. Why go through the bother of investing in tons of art if it won't be accepted anyway for god knows what reason (and if it's visually pleasing enough for myself without the art). The pet spotlight might not directly bring in money, but if you motivate people to work on their pets they'll spend money on the site for art, profiles, cs tc items, cw's in tc's, cw's to match their chars, etc etc.

And "not everyone will be satisfied" is the lousiest excuse in the world, then nothing has to change on the site, because there will always be someone who isn't happy.

I'll have to echo everyone else when it comes to pets not generating direct revenue via spotlight but generating it via other ways, as long as people are actually motivated to work on them. Just like regular wearables can be an "investment" that draws people in to the wardrobe and makes them start buying CS/CW items!

Imo, the sheer lack of nominations already shows that people are worn out :c

But of course we have no knowledge of behind-the-scenes stuff, if it isn't possible right now then there's nothing we can do -- just please keep it in mind for the (hopefully near) future as a priority for many pet people ;-; I know I have a couple friends that don't bother anymore after getting denials they can't sort and I would love to see their pets featured one day.

[edit] Yes, the PS isn't ever meant to work like CWs! Sadly not everyone will be happy, but at that point it will be easier to explain it's not really feasible. I'm sure some people will still get worn out and never be able to figure out why their code/story/whatever is bad, but any pointers will be incredibly helpful as I see it c:

I understand the reason staff can't do it now is certainly other work constraints, and not the inability to please everyone (that'd be a silly reason). But we can hope it will still happen!

So... because some people will "ask for a mile" you won't give ANYONE an "inch" (to paraphrase an old saying). Really?

While I can understand that there may not currently be time to code a rejections system (that's understandable considering the time of year), I don't understand the idea that such a system would be ignored for the unforeseeable future (let's face it, even if we were told "its coming soon," in Subeta time, that could still be months) just because "you can't please everyone." That excuse is flat out unacceptable for any company to use. What if we used that reasoning on other parts of the site? "Oh, we can't revamp that NPC because someone won't like it." "Oh, we can't change the wardrobe because someone won't like it." "Oh, we can't do that plot because someone won't like the steps involved." Really? The "you can't please everyone" reasoning has NEVER been used on Subeta. This site is ALWAYS revamping things (including pets, which often causes huge outrage before a happy medium is met), always changing things (new wardrobe which WILL eventually replace the old), and adding things (people complain about some aspect of every plot, yet we are always given new ones). Change is flat out inevitable, whether we like it or not. As site players, we've had to accept that for both good and bad things.

Some of these listed above may be seen as good to some or bad to others. You truly cannot please everyone. But that has never been Subeta's goal. The goal of all those changes was to please the MOST PEOPLE. And as this suggestion and the comments on the news post show, even the BARE MINIMUM FEEDBACK (simply clicking the first reason for rejection and give that as feedback, I would never expect a feedback system that is as comprehensive as the CW one) would please MOST PEOPLE. So wouldn't it fit into Subeta's goals to at least CONSIDER having bare minimum rejection feedback in the near(ish) future?

Again, I completely understand that this is a busy time of year and that coding such a feature would take time. Honestly, this has only ever been an issue for me in the past, and I have since learned from my pet "mistakes." But knowing that the number of entrants has been lower and knowing that so many people need this sort of change to consider entering again, I fully support a feedback system and I highly suggest that staff at least toss around the idea to see if a feasible option can be created.

A pet site that makes its players lose interest in showing off their own pets is doing something wrong.

People don't enter as much because most of the people who cared are tapped out/tapped out on funds to commission stuff for new pets.

I know more than a handful of people who have a plethora of pets that don't enter because we have no desire to cluster profiles with art just to get 24 hours of "fame", potential drama (favoritism I can like totally find 940832945 things wrong with this profile and why I deserved to win more clearly even though this post is anon on tumblr you just can't handle my dazzling pets okay), a few comments, and a trophy I'd use coding to hide because it's clashy. The standards for the spotlight are relatively low and mostly deal with aesthetics vs. actual character design. There's only going to be so many "pet people" who's primary focus is pretty layouts, end of story.

Give me a white plain profile with a well thought out idea and an amusing short story and a loaded TC full of creativity and relevance any day of the week.

Idk if the idea of tick boxes/this board in general would help up the numbers or not, I doubt it could hurt, but like it's been said time and time again this isn't going to happen in the immediate future. Maybe by the time it can, more interesting ways to deal with the spotlight can take place and more people will be interested.

I'd like to see the days swap between different types of pets (pretty profiles, actual designs, impressive themed TCs, maybe even impressive battle pets). Then again I'm the minority because the current system is all looks no filler and tumblr has shown the nasty side of non-winners too many times to count so -shrug-

I don't know what goes on behind the scenes at all but CWs and Pet Spotlight sound like a lot for any one staff member to work on. Just my two cents as someone who isn't submitting to either any time soon.

I wish we had more programmers to help everyone who works so hard already.