No. We're spoilt because every time someone throws a fit the staff seem to bow down to it and now people are USED to getting their way on here, even to the detriment of the site.

How many of the people who complain about an improved site are going to stop spending money? That's probably the real question. I sure hope Keith hasn't really given up on building a better site - customers are replaceable but a reputation isn't. Subeta always had a great reputation as The Better Petsite and now we're losing huge ground.

People are going to act weird about changes because this is a weird f'ing site. If we had a fresher outlook and some real game mechanics, we would probably draw in a community that actually enjoys pets, games, battling, art, fashion and all that fun and nice stuff. It wouldn't hurt to lose a few masochists who love all the current mindless clicking and if it means gaining a site that will last another 10 years.

Sorry I didn't make it clear, I agree with what you said, I just wanted to expand on it! The "you" in my post mean not YOU. :)

Just wanted to say that while surveys are a good way to get feedback, I'm afraid that a lot of players won't give it the importance that it requires and will just answer roughly for the achievement/prize.

This. Including a prize will ensure that any survey results are completely useless.

Maybe I'm just putting too much faith in people, but I don't think it would make them useless? I suppose I was thinking we would need to appeal to a general amount of people. Not just those who do constantly voice their opinions on things like the forums. However, I suppose having it not be public would already garner a larger response than forums would.

Typically people won't just put "all one's" or whatever. And those are outliers which can be discarded anyway. The textboxes wouldn't receive much response I suppose, but even if you have people half ass the rating scale it'll still be decent data.

Regardless of whether you put prizes with it or not, can anyone remember the last time (other than Peka-Boo) that we had a survey? Especially about our satisfaction with the site and its current functioning? No? Admittedly that's probably because it's running crappy and they know it (clap your hands), but still.

So you have one example? One example =/= the rule. There are legitimate complaints, then there's just whinging about change.

I had one example because not much coding changes really.. The only complaints I remember wanting change was I think the coding and..the groups being limited. What complaints are you talking about? I think a lot of change is hard because it comes with problems that don't seem to change. They aren't fixed. So many things get sweeped under the rug until..well to quote a phrase "Sometime soonâ„¢" What if the little things that weren't fixed pile up so much that the site break anyway? There are two passages, but both lead to the same entrance.

I think when most people are saying "change it later" they do refer to the basic mechanics of a feature. However, I can obviously see some things will likely have to be changed on a recode (a good example is the ping system, that hasn't worked properly since the new forums and requires a lot of processing power for each ping made).

In that sense, I agree with ; it would be better if staff, having decided to run a fundraiser, opened a topic (or a few) roughly explaining which features will have to be changed and why. Then, fundraiser will be open, and people will at least have an idea of what's waiting for them at the other end of the tunnel.

There's "the userbase is spoiled" and there is having a tiny userbase that hardly grows (unlike Neopets used to be, prior to their changes years ago). Right now, I don't think Subeta's customers are really replaceable (at least not easily so) and even with a fresh start it would be hard for the site to thrive if a sizeable portion of its current users left it.

I'd like to believe staff would have enough insight to notice which things are actually important to users (valid complaints/remarks), as opposed to complaints that are only there because change is inherently disliked.

...because, you know, if staff doesn't have enough insight to realize what's really important for us, there isn't a point to any of this.

What is happening with Neopets is also great for Subeta's window of opportunity, and if you're not ready to upgrade the site now, could we consider a massive social media offensive to get people to join the site, at least?

I really don't want us to miss on this unexpected window of opportunity to go and enlarge the userbase. Maybe have a short period with increased referral prizes?

(no really, who would have thought we'd be in this position? absolutely not me, not in a thousand years)

Did Neopets let go of any coders or just content staff? Either way, if Subeta is looking to get staff that understand pet sites, we might want to try recruiting. Granted I have no idea what the staff from Neopets were paid or if Subeta could afford it but might be worth at least looking in to.

I don't know anything about Laravel but hey if it works and you like it yay Subeta!

A handful of programmers is implying that some were indeed let go.

I also didn't think I was going to see that day coming for Neopets, heh. Maybe Jumpstart bought it with the intention of using some of their ideas/mechanics on their own stuff, and eventually the site will be left to die?! That's a really sad thought.

Anyway, I'm seconding in this idea,

I'm glad there are new ideas up for discussions/future projects (and for now I absolutely agree no promises can be made). As long as the basic game mechanics we love/care about are watched, I'm sure at least most of the community would be flexible enough to discuss compromises/adapt to changes just so everything else can work smoothly!

Someone on Reddit said they think they pretty much bought it for the characters to use on apps and will let the site rot, yeah

Oh wow. So it's probably end of the line for them, yeah :/

I'm suddenly glad I haven't played it in quite a long time o.O Still think their current userbase lasted them an incredible amount of time with that crappy customer service and all the neoboards restrictions/CGs/account threats...

THIS IS INTERESTING WOW... my childhood... right in it.

I agree that right now is literally the best time to boost the userbase, especially since we're heading right into a bunch of really fun and amazing events that'd definitely get people interested in the site. I also think, keeping this on the front end would be good, too, so if newer players do come and notice things a little rocky-- they'll get why (that the site has a lot of it's core coding from soo many years ago, and that the users who've been here for a while like the site enough to rally up money and that the owner and creator of the site is still here, and listening).

Here's to just hoping it can handle it (it did pretty good during survival! until the very end haha), and that something can be cooked up to lure people here... maybe something like-- if you're a refugee from the recent downward spiral of neopets, enter your current active username from neo with a note on your neo userpage stating your subeta user and get bonus sP + some csc or something? (maybe less usage of the word neo for legal purposes).

PS: why would you buy neopets just for the characters? DID THEY EVEN HAVE GOOD ONES?? I don't remember anymore...

PSS: Oh god, if that was subeta and I was gonna loose all my pets I'd probably have to take a week off work and cry a lot.. and make a scrapbook like they're going to do ajhsljkdfg my life is prioritized.

No clue xD But I think they had a nice little world built there and a nice game structure too, which could easily be taken and adapted to suit a children audience better (especially if you think mobile apps, standalone games and such). In fact, its target audience has become younger and younger along the years, so... it's like a final blow :/

I'm kinda feeling for those people saying they just maxed their pets there D:

While that might be true, I believe it's more Viacom's fault. They made a horrible work managing the site, aggravating everything slowly, until the point they left it hanging from a cliff. Then JS bought the site and finished the job. I don't believe there's a bright future for Neopets, even if they wanted to. Also, I agree with the idea of enlarging the userbase. Since those changes and code rewrites are not going to come too soon, I don't see the harm in increasing referral points for a week or two.

Basically what I see is that Viacom knew Neopets was a sinking ship, and cashed out before it lost all value. They've been losing players for years. JumpStart is just letting it coast until it falls apart on its own.

They did have a nice little world with ugly, horribly outdated art hahaa, and I definitely remember liking that their locations (island, pirates, fairy, etc) had related pet colors and fairies. That was cool.. and the Meepits. I remember those too -slow squint- But I don't remember enough of it to understand why JS would pay that much for just the character rights.

That really sucks for the old school players, though (I haven't paid the site any mind in so long, last time I was there it was overrun by report-happy pre-teends.. so I guess I'm not surprised that the player demographic has dropped lower and lower as the years have gone on).

ON THE BRIGHTSIDE-- CAN WE HAS FAIRY (faerie, though, please) PETS NOW? Faeries are metal as fuq and we don't have enough magical pet colors and I would DIE (I. Would. Just. Die.) if a new part of Subeta popped up on the map that was for a really superstitious oldschool celtic /gaelic inspirered culture immerged with faerie/mythical/spirit pet color.

AND NO ONE COULD SAY ANYTHING ABOUT NEOPETS -cackle- I will make a board about this the very second it's confirmed-- watch me.

(to anyone saying, ew.. faeries..... Trolls, Orgres, Goblins, Drows, Kelpies, and Barghest are all types of faeries!)

.. anyways, yeah. I do totally feel for the veteran players, and the people with older unchanged pets/awesome names. BUt those are the people who'd most likely be looking for a replacement site, and the user's subeta should be aiming for are those users who went down with the ship.