I'm glad that subeta is trying to bring more focus back to the pets. However, if the intention is to remind people that subeta is a PET site, I feel that there are better ways to do it than sacrificing users' creative integrity/freedom.

I find it quite ironic that in order to reinforce the importance of pets, it's actually the pet people who got punished for being into pets. The pet people are also the least that need to be reminded of subeta's pet site status. Like I said before in the news comment, I probably live in a bubble because most feedback on the spotlight I saw was about encouraging effort and diversity, not imposing more restrictions and alienating users.

Anyways, while I'm not personally affected by the rule change, I know a lot of pet people that are. And in the process of helping them redoing their profiles, I do think there needs to be clearer guidelines on this particular rule if staff insist on keeping it. For example:

1. Are there size requirement? Can I display a huge human art, and then put a 50x50 pet image somewhere on the profile?
2. Does the pet art need to be a separate piece from the human art? If my pet representation is a dog, and the character is human, can I use the art of a dog sitting on the human's lap?
3. Referring back to , if the dog was covered partially due to design reasons (eg. a hand petting the dog), would that affect how the staff judge?

PS. I know the mod wanted us to bring rule related questions to another thread, but these need to be brought up in the feedback because I feel that the implementation of the rule is premature. Detailed rules are needed so that the judging can be objective as possible. There should also be enough rules for average users to follow so that the staff don't have to spend extra time to give case by case opinions on another thread (while I do appreciate how the subeta staff are always so approachable, but time could really be spent on something more important).

^^^^ this

This really just keeps getting more ridiculous and confusing.

Why do we now need to make another section on our pets' profiles to type up an explanation of why we picked a certain pet to represent them on Subeta? If I wanted to enter the Pet Spotlight I wouldn't want to clog up my pet's profile and ruin the flow of what was planned and created originally. It would be silly to have a section explaining that I felt Graveyard Koras reminds me the most of the Butterfly Bruise zombie virus and that's why I picked it for my pet Butterfly Bruise. That's not an objective thing. Would I be told I'm "wrong" anyways and she should be a Feli, or a pet staff think represents the virus "better"?

Can staff not use their imaginations and consider why someone might pick something unexpected? Sona Lua is a Sweetheart Archan because that fits her character the best out of all the released Sweetheart pets. I don't like the Sweetheart Kumos and it doesn't fit her one bit, and I won't change her color so she can be one. Sweetheart is what syncs with her personality perfectly. My Aeanoids are Aeanoids because that's my favorite species and I want to collect all the colors I like. Most of them don't even have characters or "forms" - animal or humans. They're based on places. An Autumn Day may end up Nostalgic for the color name alone (I don't even like Nostalgic Aeanoids) because of how well it fits what she represents. No staff member or normal user would ever understand why unless they played the game she's based on. I wouldn't want to ruin the flow of her profile to waste time trying to "back up" my choice and "prove" I'm right. That's so beyond unnecessary.

Back to the feli/experiment example, what if the cat's name or nickname was Tank? What if the cat was given to their owner by someone in the military, rescued from a military base, etc? What if the cat's owner was in the military when they got the cat, or it was their friend overseas while shipped out? What if the rhino's colors/body pattern look like the cat's coat, or the patchy regrowth pattern after the cat was shaved for surgery? Or even reminiscent of a botched haircut by a well meaning person? What if the expression just sums up the cat's personality perfectly? What if the cat was dressed like a tank or a similar costume for Halloween one year? The experiment number could even be the significant part! What if the number is the cat's birth date/time? Or their number at a shelter or a number on paperwork, a toy, anything? It could even have been a nickname of some kind. There are literally countless reasons why someone might pick a 357 to represent their cat and not a single one is wrong. I really don't think we need another section or to interrupt our stories to explain our choices.

Remove the rule requiring a written story while you are at it.

I have always matched my characters to their pet counterparts. A lot of them even have custom overlays. Does that mean I have those on their profiles? No. Not everyone against this rule doesn't work to have their pets accurately represent their characters. 😊

Maybe I love spotlight and still want to participate in it? :) Pet image isn't all that's part of a pet (and I work hella fucking hard on the other aspects), and as said before, you see the pet image before you've gone to the profile. A character without the pet image on the profile is just as much of a pet without it.

--

I love spotlight and I love creating pets. My desire to work on my pets here on Subeta has definitely been affected since this change, and I've been less excited about (and also spending significantly less time on) the site in general. But! Most people don't care about that, because it's "less competition" for spotlight ha ha! 8)

I am 100% with Britt on this issue. I might add some other thoughts later, but holy crap on a stick, THIS.

If you have a very angry character seeking revenge for something, and you pick an angry looking pet, that makes sense to me, even if that pet is Glacier colored and your story takes place in a desert. RE: The Flowey fanpet whose representation is an Ontra, I'm assuming the choice of a Sweetheart Ontra has to do with it holding a heart and if that symbolism is clear when the story is up, that would be fine for me. I don't think it needs a pet image in addition if your reasoning is clear, if that makes sense.

But I'm not staff and my opinion ultimately doesn't matter, I just wanted to (attempt to) clarify since my wording was confusing.

110% what both and had to say. The rule seems detrimental to fostering the kind of creativity and diversity at Subeta's core that made it unique among other pet sites. One of Subeta's biggest appeals when I joined was that suddenly I had the creative freedom to do much more with my pets than I ever had on other sites--but now (and not just with this most recent rule) it feels like that freedom is being slowly constricted to fit into a certain mould.

I mean I do understand where it's coming from, that Subeta IS, primarily, a pet site. But it always felt like...more than that? I dunno. I just don't think introducing a new rule that alienates a good portion of their pet-centric user base is quite the way to go. It's already been suggested that the news post image renders this rule unnecessary, and I agree. I know I'm guilty of not always clicking on the pet spotlight winner, but I'll remember it's a twilight lain or whatever because that's what popped up in the news post. And if that kind of foundational association is all the staff is looking for, what does the new rule actually add?

Also seconding 's suggestion for further clarification, since one of my own pets got recently kicked out despite my efforts to comply with the general rules--but that may be more of a discussion for the pet forums.

What about in instances where the user thinks the pet is close enough to the subeta species while a member of the staff does not? For instance, if I want a pitbull or a bulldog character, I'd pick an Archan over any of the other dog pets. The Archan has always struck me as a pitbull (or bulldog)/lion mix, and it has proportions closer to the breeds than the other canine pets.

What would be done in this sort of situation? It's bound to arise, since I'm sure not everyone looks at the Archan and immediately thinks 'bully dog breed'.

We have a lot of pets that aren't just one thing. Like, the malticorn is a dog/unicorn mix and the demi is another dog/unicorn mix. A lot of the experiments are mixes of different species of animals, like the 8625, 6789, 333, 3877, 2759 and so on and so forth. Let's say I get a 2759 for a peacock pet. Would that be rejected because the species is only partially a peacock?

Or if I get an 1107 and make it a shark without the lobster bits? Would that be alright, or should I make that a Tutani instead?

What happens if I get a plant pet, but want to make it an 810 instead of an Aeanoid because it's technically part flower and is closer to what I want?

Any of those would be fine. Some wording about "pet misrepresentation" earlier on in the thread was very unclear, but see this quote instead:

I'm still extremely concerned about these quotes. Why can a sloth be a Kora but a flower can't be an Ontra? Why do we now need to explain our choices to staff? This only serves to limit our creativity even more.

(bolding mine)

I just want to say I am not really a fan of the lame solution for those affected, the solution being that you just have to quickly slap on a hover effect that displays the pet image and quickly hides it.

I just feel like putting up something that isn't meant to be there which adds nothing to the overall product is just bad code and design... Regardless if the character limit is extended or not... it is still bad code and design.

I think this rule needs to go back to the drawing board because of reasons already mentioned on this thread and how this new rule isn't strictly enforced to the max. Like, if a pet image is really required, why is it allowed to hide it when it is obvious the pet image isn't supposed to be there? Just that lame solution makes this new rule really wishy washy...