That was my thought, too. Because if it were to go to the person who'd originally had the name and then gone inactive, it would just make those stars ultra rare and hard to achieve, which would just open up an entirely new thing for people to complain about. Plus your explanation makes sense, the name with the star doesn't have the numbers.

I'm still all for this idea, with or without the compensation of a star or anything else. I'm probably biased, because almost every single one of my pets names are compromises or mis-spellings of what I wanted for their names.

True, but honestly, it's just a tiny star on the pet's profile. Maybe the pets page too. I don't see much reason for people to get supersalty over it, it's not like the star is preventing them from getting the name at all.

Butyeah I'm still on the fence because I see both sides of the argument (and ngl there would be petnames that I'd gladly grab while also giving people the chance to have mine), but also... very very wary of the fallout that would follow if this was handled hastily. :'|

Actually, if the names did have stars in the coding (there's a FontAwesome icon for that!) that could be edited with code much like the heart button can be, I would freaking love it. I think that's a pretty solid compromise because then at least the original can flaunt that.

I guess to take it a step further, clicking the star could go to a page with all the pets of that particular name, and then the largest / most prominent pet on the page is the very original one. This page could also be accessed by doing like, subeta.net/pets/name/Joe or something like that. Pages don't even need extensive coding, more like a simplistic table setup somewhat like the spotlight pages setup, then one big box up top.

Then people can have pride in owning their originals, seek out other originals, and then people who just want a name and don't care about originals can be content.

Also, you can say you got the "OG (name here)" to shorten "original" like fam that's really cool to me??? I DON'T KNOW WHY it just is... I could have the "OG Thot" and that makes me cackle way too hard. So many pet names could make that fun!!

I really don't like the redlight/greenlight idea. It doesn't feel like a real choice since I assume most people would think only a total miser wouldn't share names. So then you've got people (like me) who would feel guilty or pressured to share just so others don't think poorly of you, OR you've got people possibly outright asking people why they won't greenlight their names.

as far as getting around the nickname thing, I don't see a big deal in someone changing the font. For one, the pet's page url would still show the true name. And perhaps we could have a rule (like, if they ever entered pet spotlight) where you have to have the old name visible somewhere, even if it's with other credits.

... Okay, you get a 👍 for OG Thot, that made me crack up at 3:40am and I hope I didn't wake the household up.

I also like the idea of the star being a sort of quick-search feature for a particular petname. Maybe a paginated list with a result on top? A mix between the spotlight and the Search Subeta page results. "There are 23 pets named Joe on the site!" and then they're all listed and the OG is showcased. Ditto if you do a site search for that petname via subeta search, the star would just be a faster way to do it.

Oh absolutely, the fallout is the biggest dread ever. I wouldn't want this all willy-nilly decided or anything. I think they'd need to take an extensive poll as well has have an official discussion about the subject to garner all the information they need. I've just been thinking as I read over most of this thread and I can't help but think that most of the people who strongly oppose mostly come off as selfish because they feel slighted that they went through the effort for nothing (even though they can obviously keep their names, and will very likely be compensated in some degree for this being implemented if it'll ever happen). Like on the one hand I totally get it, but at the same time on the other hand...I don't know, maybe I'm coming off badly, but I don't see how it affects anyone except monetarily for any money they spent getting their names perfect. But the site changes so much, and the staff does usually try to compensate, you know? This would be no different.

I get where both parties are coming from, and I also get that people would be veryvery peeved if things were changed this drastically without compensation. :'| Some people are very particular about their petnames and I'm probably going to sound like a dick, but there's nothing wrong with being a little selfish about something you feel super proud of. Especially if you got out of work, or stayed up supersuper late to get the name you've been after for literal years. But like you've said, I really doubt they'd just pull this without compensating and without researching and inquiring at length. This isn't a very light situation because there are so many emotions attached to those pets and getting certain petnames and spending the last of your allowance on that one petname that you wanted. It's emotionally charged, and I fully expect people to get emotional, upset and angry even if a poll is set up.

Absolutely, I didn't mean to sound like it was necessarily a horrible thing. You're allowed to be selfish if it comes to something you treasure. I get that, 100%. I can totally understand your pet feeling 'cheapened' that there can now be as many 'Slender's or 'Katalyn's as anyone wants to own. I can see that people have spent a lot of time and effort staying up or going way out of their way to attempt to get a name they absolutely NEEDED to have. But the more I think of it in those terms the more it's like...Why does it need to be that way? If it can be changed, it should be. But that's just my opinion on the matter and I'm not necessarily hard to please.

Since the site has done things like massively reducing the cost of CSC pet slots, some CSC potions and items, etc., I'm.. not really bothered by the idea of having essentially wasted the CSC I've spent on nameswaps/renames in the past, personally. It sucks, but... things like that happen at times, and sometimes it's because of the site changing, I guess is my view.

I've never been especially picky with names, especially since more than half of my pets/characters exist in a fantasy setting with plenty of goofy made-up ones, so I swear my support of non-unique names doesn't just come from me wanting a bunch of good names that are already taken. I can't really fully understand the feelings of people who go hard when pet names are clearing; the idea of having to compete with people over names has always stressed me out so much that I've never really bothered going after names right as they clear. But I honestly just find unique names kind of ridiculous as a concept (every time I think about it I want to scream THERE CAN BE ONLY ONE) and I agree that it just seems like an... outdated, Neopets-esque thing? Plus just sort of weird considering that all of our pets already are tied to IDs.

I dunno. I feel like most everything has already been said on this topic, but I'm definitely in full support of non-unique names.

If people get harassed over that, they would have the opportunity to report it as so, just like everything else.

I just feel like the nickname solution you brought up doesn't solve most problems - the site would still crash on days where desirable names clear because why settle for Name(Lite) when you can have the original who is clearing?

Also having to have the real name on the profile would still be an aesthetic dud.

I also think that blaming pet people for poor new user retention is lame, yo, but I absolutely, and totally will still think the current clearing way is a terrible curse on the servers, especially with the site being as unstable as it is - we absolutely DO NOT NEED the bad attention from it.

Subeta is an amazing site that, throughout its history, had one big stability problem - the reputation the site has is that it's good, but it had crashes, and errors pretty often, which prevented it from hitting its peak.

So, if we can get rid of a source of stress for the site, everyone would win, not just pet people.

If people have better suggestions to prevent the site from committing sudoku every time desirable pet names clear, I'm all ears. But, it isn't really about newbies to me - it's about making the site more stable for everyone.

I just don't think daily clearings are a plus for the site anymore, and if we can find a way for everyone to lessen the stress on the servers by making it less competitive, it's a good way to go.

Honestly, I would be pretty livid. I busted my ass for the names I have and I'm very proud of them. Is that selfish? Yeah, probably. But when I've pumped a lot of money and time and effort into getting them, I feel like I'm allowed to be a little selfish about it, you know?

I've always felt like Subeta's been really generous in that it allows unused names to be recycled. Not only that but like, I visit the Adopt-R-Us pretty often and browse the adoption forums and... there's almost always nice names up for grabs.

There was an excellent point made earlier in the thread about "is this actually a big enough issue to warrant changing" i.e. new user turnover, as well as the fact that there's always going to be an aspect of exclusivity no matter what you do. Because tbh people love having rare things and working hard to get them. It happens with IDs, CWs, and plenty of other things. And I don't see anything wrong with that? There's plenty of names I would love to have and will never get and that's fine. It just means I get creative and find something else.

However, I understand that not everyone feels the same way and I respect the opinions on the other side of the spectrum. I just thought I'd throw in my two cents as a pet enthusiast.

I have both names I am proud and thrilled to have grabbed and names that I've compromised on.

Would I get grumbly(to myself) if I saw someone else with one of my favorite pet's names? Yes.

Would I be thrilled to bits to be able to get accurate names for tributes and OCs? More yes.

So I'm all for non-unique names. With all the other customization that goes into a pet, the same name isn't enough to confuse people. I'm not going to confuse my dog Lucky with someone else's dog Lucky. And she's special because she's MY Lucky. Those who have the names first can have something special to notate it to keep that First specialness.

My two cents is that I'm not for this. I've thought about it, seen the arguments for and against, and honestly? I think the backlash this would cause, and the work it would require on the part of the coders to implement properly, weighed against the potential benefits? It just isn't worth it. Call it "elitism" if you want, but the fact of the matter is, people cherish their unique pet names the same way people cherish having old, rare, retired items, or having exclusive-batch CWs, or having specific usernames. This site's most dedicated members tend to stay dedicated because they have exclusive things, and pet names are one of those.

People keep insisting that people "wouldn't lose anything" if this was implemented, but that's... Not really true. In a purely technical sense? No, people wouldn't "lose" anything. But there's a very real sense of ownership and pride that comes from owning something exclusive, and implementing a non-unique names system would remove that. I honestly don't think that would go down well at all for the vast majority of people, in the long run.

Were this a younger site, with a smaller, newer playerbase? Maybe something like this could work. But this site is more than a decade old, now. It's simply too late in the game to make such a major change to such a core part of the site.

To be honest I support this suggestion. Yes, I worked hard for my pet names but I wouldn’t mind sharing. However I do want it with the nickname suggestion.

That way it would be amazing to create finally the names I wanted for so long for characters I have in mind.

Just to preface something, I want everybody in support of this to take a moment and imagine the rule being applied to any other exclusive part of the site: Usernames, exclusive items, one-batch/private CWs, ect. Imagine if any of those aspects could just be gained by anybody any time they wanted. Imagine, if you will, if every single CW on the site was automatically added to a shop with infinite copies and couldn't be locked with a password. In some ways, that'd be cool, right? Because you'd be able to just get any item you wanted for some CSC. But at the same time, it makes the idea of "private" or "limited" batch items completely worthless. Doing that this late in the game would cause a huge amount of outcry, more, I think, than it would be worth.

Those things are special for a reason that goes beyond their mere value as items or titles, they're special because they're yours and yours alone. I totally understand the desire for cool pet names, there are plenty I'd love to have myself, but allowing any pet to have any name would rob the unique pet names of their... Well, uniqueness. I personally think it's just far too late to even be considering something like this.

Again, call it elitism if you like, but this is how the site has been since its inception. The sad fact is that no compromise will be good enough for some people. We've had the community for this site sent into huge spirals over far smaller issues, I don't even want to imagine the amount of drama a change like this would incur. It's a fanciful idea, but it would upset far too many people and in the long run would rob many users of something they have quite often worked hard to obtain and cherish quite dearly.

Just for reference, I have very little input with pets as a whole (only started training up one to be battle-ready in the last month, and I've been here over 10 years) but I think the attitude of "nobody will lose anything so why not!" is short-sighted and that, should something like this even go as far as a poll on the site, it would rock an already often unsteady boat far more than is worth the trouble.

Gosh, I really don't know how I feel about this. I'm not much of a pet person so maybe I don't completely understand the pride of having the only and one X on site but honestly if I had to choose between the original owner or a user that wants said name more than anything I would go for the latter, specially because it's not like those that got affected couldn't take advantage of it too. On the other hand, I'm afraid people will stay on their comfort zone. My pet names suck but I'm hella proud of the work I had to come up with them, and, idk, I wouldn't like neither to create a pet knowing there are 73 others with the same name (which would affect everyone, not only the original owner) nor to visit Subeta on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and see the pet spotlight is Batman, Batman, Batman.

So, I need to stop procrastinating and study I think there would be an influx of popular names that people have low attachment with, and the only ones that would truly benefit are those that would kill for that name. This is just speculah anyway so I do support and hope that I'm wrong, also because the 'pride' could come not simply because you are on Subeta longer or you have a better internet/computer but from your own creativity of coming up with something original and being able to work a story with it. [sub]Which I think is pretty cool and cute but I feel like that's just me[/sub]

I've been lucky over the years to usually have names that most people don't want, with maybe the exception of having some names early on that were created years ago and just never changed. Aphrodite was one of my first pets on site, and it's one of a handful of pets where I've never changed their name, Yarii is another one.

At this point, I'm too attached to the name to change it so I've never changed it. I'm on the fence about this, but admittedly, I'm leaning more toward keeping names exclusive, rather than non-exclusive. Yes, that's probably selfish of me, and I've never been the type to wait days for names to drop, as I usually have a list of exclusive names in case that does happen. Plus, lately I've been adopting pets from users more often than creating entirely new pets with their own names.

That said, I like the uniqueness of having different names on site, and I do think in a way the fact that a name is yours and yours alone adds to the actual player enjoyment on site, as any stories created around that name are for the player with that name and that name alone. There's been a number of names on different accounts that yes, I've wanted at various points in my time on site, but it's not usually something I dwell on for any length of time; it's just something i've accepted as being a player on site. There will be names that I will miss having on site and that's ok.

Adding on, I'm also one of the players that's never cared about IDs but have about names. It's just never been my thing. I understand the reasoning behind it, but there's still that part of me that yes, would be pretty annoyed if my names were no longer unique simply because names is mostly been what I've focused on with pets.

User names will always have to be exclusive. I've yet to sign up to any site which allows dozens of people to have the same user name. Subeta is still advertised as being a virtual pet site, not an avatar making site. As some people have pointed out, Subeta is behind the times when it comes to pet naming because other sites use the ID system.

Many people obviously don't think a unique name makes their pet really unique because they have invested in custom pet overlays.

quote= imagine the rule being applied to any other exclusive part of the site: Usernames, exclusive items, one-batch/private CWs, ect. Imagine if any of those aspects could just be gained by anybody any time they wanted. (snip)[/quote]

This is comparing apples to oranges entirely -- the closest being usernames, which is still in a different ballpark because of the ratio of users to their pets. A really good username is easy to get because each legitimate player can only have a single username versus each user having 10+ pets. I don't know a good average for how many pets people usually own so I would think it's at least that. You can't really take drawn wardrobe items that people sell/trade all the time (with multiple copies!) and compare them to pet names either.

I posted on the other thread discussing this topic, and I feel like so many others have already put how I feel towards this subject and why, here, way more eloquent than me. I'm definitely in favour of having non-unique names! ♥