Member For: 11 years, 9 months, 3 weeks

And frankly, it is the very fact that I have been a member for so long, been told repeatedly over those years that this next change will fix all the problems and am still seeing the same BS happen only with less communication from staff that is so frustrating to me.

6-8 years ago there was far better reasons and excuses for the issues. Now? 3-5 years ago is when I personally expected the finances to be invested in this site to improve the quality of game play. I think it's pretty obvious that the investing that needed to occur did not.

[ Post removed due to community guidelines violations. ]

OKAY YO I NEED TO SAY SOMETHING. IT'S NOT 502/504 RELATED, BUT IT'S STILL AN ISSUE AND WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT THIS MORE

I'm really, really sorry Rah, I know you're trying your best and it's nothing personal, but I might have choked on my iced tea a little when I read this, because it's really showcasing how bad things truly are.

It's not the only person they cannot afford to replace. They never hired to replace the artists who have left in past years, and I don't think they hired anyone to replace the User Administrators that have left in the past six months. Why? I think it's because the finances are not good enough to hire anyone else.

This might be the most saddening thing I could imagine, because I remember a Subeta in its prime, where it was a dream to go and work there. I worked for the site in its prime, and you have no idea how heartbreaking it is to read that now, the site can't afford to replace people who left, or people who are short-staffed. Because this is what this feels like to me

And the worst is that the userbase no longer trust part of staff* because of the constant problems, and are not willing to go and spend real money in the Cash Shop right now. That's understandable. Trust was broken, more than once, and I see no solution. It really, really sucks for the part of staff that are willing to do their best to improve the site.

I fear for the future. I really, really do.

• Some staff members like Amber could say they eat babies on toast and would still be beloved by the userbase because they do their job and do it well.

Just saying, I would 100% write the remaining subetapedia articles for a monthly GA and/or a small amount of CSC a month. : /

also left a few months ago. They've always said how hard it is to hire a new programmer because of all their convoluted legacy code and stuff, so I don't expect them to find a replacement any time soon. Anything that was taking time to fix before is going to take even longer now.

We were told six months ago than the shops were the root of true evil onsite and changing that fixed things, for a while. And, we're back to the start, now. It's like none of the changes really matter because we're facing an hydra of problems. Solve one, and three more pop out.

The recode should have happened years ago. Instead of having the site recoded fully back when funds were plentiful and had several programmers, it was mostly just patch jobs, and now, recoding is a lot harder since more of the coding is obsolete, and there are less full-time programmers here. Meaning that at best, we're looking at a 12-18 months timeframe. At best. It could be even longer.

Petsites are no longer in their prime, so you have to be amazing and bring something great to the game if you want to survive against Mobile App Hell. Subeta has great content, but people are annoyed, angry and depressed with having to fight the 502504 monster and even when this group boss is defeated by our glorious admins, a lot of people don't think "YAY, THE EVIL IS BANISHED FOREVER"

They're wondering when it will pop out again. Will it be Morostide, will it be Luminaire.

I think the userbase became cynical because we really supported the site, but a lot of red flags are there, now. It would be great to go and be 100% supportive even through bad times, and say everything will be alright...but...

I would be lying to you if I told you that everything will be alright, and I would rather be honest to an old friend, say that I'm extremely worried and afraid right now, and that I'd love to just go and morally support you like I used to, but I'd rather just be honest about the situation, even if what I'm saying is really sad.

People don't want to listen to "JUST TRUST US" anymore. We were told that so many times and now...we just don't know.

I'm so sorry.

I knew I forgot someone important. Thanks :D

Is there no way to get Volunteers to help with some things around the site? I know Subeta needs income to survive, it's a business as well as a game but surely there's some things that can be done with the help of the userbase aside from money. Just a thought is all. We appreciate the hard work you guys are doing and hopefully the upcoming down time can help ease matters.

This sounds like it was meant to be comforting, but the reason he left doesn't change the fact that you're still down a programmer. There's still only so much a programmer can do in a day, so things are still going to slow down unless your remaining two programmers are working longer hours to compensate.

I thought Keith was coming back full time after Code for America, but if the rumor about him looking for another job is true, then nothing really changes.

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Personally, I'm not too worried about the artists or UAs leaving. I haven't noticed a decline in quality in either of those two areas. But programming has always been dicey, and it seems like we're always told "well, we're a small team, so there's only so much we can do." I don't feel like it's overreacting to be worried about losing a programmer and being told you can't afford to hire a replacement.

This site is so important to me. I know I said so in my application the last time I applied when artists apps were open. Without this site as an outlet to get away from the real world when I was younger, I don't think I would have held on as long as I did and finally get away from all the absolutely terrible shit that used to happen in my life. I know this site is /still that/ for /other people/. A way for them to mentally break free from things IRL they can do nothing about.

And that said, I'm gong to chime in with the others and ask if there is no way to accept volunteers? I've filed a ticket in the past about unpaid internships and I wasn't given a whole lot of information, but is that a thing that can happen here? I know I would be more than happy to apply for an internship here, whether that be for helping with the CW queue, artwork, or writing. If it's in my power to help, I will do whatever I can. That's why I keep making custom wearables, in the hopes it brings in even a little revenue for the site since I myself cannot provide the money out of my pocket right now.

There is no shortage of volunteers or people willing to do so. However, there are lots of things that really need to be left up to solely staff. Volunteers shouldn't be subject to potential nasty backlash or harassment over their work on site. Volunteers also have no means to professionally handle it. What would be cool and probably help drum up some friendly support is perhaps a content contest for users to submit. Let it feel like a collaboration that the staff still ultimately have control over so if there is any backlash they can handle it. I understand the frustration but the staff that is currently in place are really wonderful. They do try their hardest and take into consideration various suggestions. They are implementing things you have asked for but will see soon in the future. If anything they are getting really good at vetting out bugs and glitches prior to releasing content so you guys won't be disappointed.

I do believe that Subeta would benefit from volunteer work. We obviously love Subeta enough to be here even if the site is falling apart and has angered us more than once. I really support speech. I've gotten nothing but kind help while I needed an answer for my tickets and same for general help. Even though it has taken over a month for a programmer to fix my Snowball Fight registration issue: it has been done. I do love this site but I fear that everything is falling apart and it makes me reconsider spending my hard earned money here. I've been releasing CW here and there to limit the amount of money I inject into the site itself. I'm disappointed by the glitches, the lag and the 502/504. I fear for Morostide and the hard refreshing that will ensue. Will we be stuck in an infernal error wreck and be unable to ToT at all? What about Luminaire? Last year, the trees were STILL glitched. And yes, it was a human made mistake but will it happen again this year? I just fear for Subeta and I'm angered by the lack of solutions. Obviously, shop and gallery recode did not help that much.

Can staff please just. stop. with this? Can y'all think about your word choice when addressing users (who you are asking to be paying/supporting users)?

Expressing reality and past performance based concerns isn't -needlessly creating fear for the fun of it-. It especially isn't that when you validate the concerns in your reply.

It's not a neutral verb. Especially when a large portion of the feedback here is about lack of communication...

I think that if Subeta can't get its shit together after (jeez, has it really been 12 years?) by now, it needs to be shut down. I would hate it, as I love Subeta and have been here for more than 11 years, but there really is no excuse for such a poorly managed site. I dread what Luminaire is going to be like.

The few Staff that we do have are wonderful, but really really need a course in Communications and Customer Service. People are more understanding of errors and things if you keep them updated. And yes, using words like "scaremongering" is unprofessional, especially to your paying customers, aka the people who are keeping the site alive. (No offense to you personally, Rah, as I think that you are a kind and wonderful person and an excellent artist. I'm very sure that Subeta would have died long ago if not for your fantastic artwork.)

And Keith. The problems that are currently plaguing Subeta are things that should have been fixed long ago. Please step up to the plate and either fix them, find competent people to do so, or shut it down. I've been with you through the Great Site Death of the first Subeta, the feuds with weird people on the internet, the hacking, the ups and downs over the years. I dearly love you, but I feel I can't trust you anymore. Is Subeta going to be around in a year? Is there anyone working on the recode or whatever is needed to finally get us stable? At this point I feel like I am throwing money down a dark hole and never seeing results. I know that a Kickstarter has been suggested in the past. Is this possible at all? I would gladly donate more money if I knew that it was going to a Coding Fund, and assured that it was going to be used for coding or paying programmers.

A Kickstarter for coding would not meet objectives. The site barely makes 25% of its daily objectives on weekdays, and even today, collection release day, we're at 61%.

So no. It would have been viable two years ago, when the daily goal was usually around 40%-45% daily but now, it's not longer an avenue that can be taken. A lot of currencies, including the Canadian Dollar, are no longer worth using for internet purchases.

Still useless site. Nothing is being done.

Because we totally don't have scheduled downtime to fix things, nope.

Like come on, yes communication is lacking, yes there are a lot of flaws but LMAO at "Nothing is being done"

We have a scheduled downtime on tuesday which will hopefully help. However, there are a lot of things in the works that will be eventually released. New wardrobe is coming and is being throughly tested prior to releasing. It even is functional on different screen sizes. The newest plot was beta tested and the games were for the most part also mobile friendly. The site is moving in the right direction but as we have heard countless times the site is running on old code. Parts of the site are being completely rewritten and tested on various oses, devices, screen sizes and Internet programs. It takes a lot of time but is super smart because they are trying to prevent more issues and not disappoint you guys. Not disagreeing with a lack of communication but to say the site has done nothing is completely wrong.

I would rather the site become pay to play than shut down completely if push comes to shove. :s

Yeah, the lag is back, but it isn't that bad to what I've experienced when I first joined the site a couple years back (sorry, I ain't got nothing on you more established players but I have been here for a few years to know it was worse). The lack of communication hasn't changed, so that part is for me the biggest issue, but considering the site has changed since I first joined it, I still have enough trust in the site to hope that some things will be altered in the future whenever that will be.