I'm just going to revisit the thoughts I expressed on this thread.

I think there should be a section on the FAQ specifically addressing inactivity.

Maybe there should be a question like:

"What happens if I want to leave Subeta/delete my account?"

or

"What happens if I am inactive for a period of time?"

The current information about names clearing is hidden in another question regarding /wanting/ a taken name.

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I'd also like to say that I'm pro reminder emails.. heck I'm pro more newsletters. It could just be a reminder at the 6 month stage, or maybe in the (more frequent) emails there will be a little note at the end saying "If you are recieving this newsletter but haven't been on in 12 months, your names are at risk of being taken, please come back and enjoy the new event, new features new whatever".

I'd rather have more users rather than the same users (not that I dislike anyone I'd just like to see more people on Subeta).

Support for adding information about it to the FAQ!

There's a catch to e-mails being sent out:

newsletters are not guaranteed to arrive in your inbox. Ditto with any reminder e-mails, if those get implemented. A handful of us did not get the last newsletter at all (me included), and we wouldn't have known there was even a newsletter if it wasn't for the forums. 😕

I wouldn't mind more newsletters in general, but I'm still against reminder e-mails. If someone doesn't want to come back, or doesn't have time to come back, no amount of borderline spam e-mails is going to change their mind. ._.

My first account on Subeta was one I made yeeeaaarrss ago, when inactive accounts were straight up deleted. On my first account I was a lot younger and I didn't really understand Subeta. I took a short break, came back, and was upset to find that my HA was "graffitied" because I didn't "feed" my pets. I took another break, longer this time, and then came back to find that my account was completely gone. It put me off from playing Subeta for years. However, 4.5 years ago I decided to try again, because Neopets was a dumpster fire, and started this account. I got a RW petname I really liked and everything! But life got in the way, I even ended up being homeless at one point, so Subeta went on the back-burner. When I came back about a year ago, the RW name had been taken, and I was also really upset about it. However, the free name-change inspired me to find new names, and I eventually developed really fun characters that I still put a lot of work into.

TLDR, I feel you OP. It sucks when you can't stay active enough. There are tons of things in life that come before petsites. But it's also a great opportunity to start fresh without actually having to starting over. I mean, it's been a whole year! I'm sure you've been through a lot of changes. You have free name-changes you can use, and probably even a loyalty box or two you can redeem for a variety of incentives. When I came back, I remember using one of my loyalty boxes to change a pet into a color I really wanted that I thought was completely out of reach, and it really motivated me to work on my other pets too!

I'm really sorry you lost your pet names, but I hope you can find new ones that you love even more. Other users are always adopting out cool names on the adoption forums too, you might even be able to catch one of your old pet names again! :)

I get the feeling. I had an account from way early in the history of subeta but went to college and fell out of the website for a few years. Turns out i had been inactive during a period where they deleted old accounts so all evidence my account existed was gone, my pets off to who knows where, and my account name being used by someone else.

I do understand why they release old pet names though and agree with the policy, even if it does suck coming back after a long hiatus. I think it is better than getting rid of whole accounts. Now, I just try to log in every once in a while if I have been inactive when life is busy.

I still stand by the fact its great we get to pick new names for free. We have a few threads that list open names to browse and get inspired by. Most often in a year many new pets out as well. If I left for a year and came back I /know/ there's names of mine that would get snatched as soon as it was ready. I'd be bummed sure, however if I don't have the means or the time it is what it is. I'd either reconfigure my pets or abandon and start over. I'm happy the system is in now vs losing progress on EVERYTHING.

I'm for clarifying in the faq what happens when you self freeze or leave the site. But beyond that if you can't log in to keep from losing a name then move on with a new name and idea or maybe check on the name and see if its open again. I once suggested AAAAAGES ago to have people play a few games and interact with the site to have it remove the inactive status and that idea was quickly shot down. There's no seemingly ideal way to handle this because you have those of us who KNOW someone pops in for under 5 minutes a year to hoard names. Then you have those who missed logging in saying its unfair they lost any name(s). This system is fair for what it is trying to deal with.

My two cents on the subject is that, I believe the account clearing is one of the many reasons that Subeta is superior to Neo. It's sad to see a pet with potential sit there on an account of someone that doesnt get on anymore. And while I understand that you might love them, I think someone that logs in every day can love them more than someone that can't even be bothered to log in once a year.

As sucky as it is having names be changed you are provided with a means to change them for free. A full year is a long time to not log on.

I fully support adding more info to the user guides that explains what happens if you do not log in for a while. I also support more newsletters and email interactions.

Any easy way around potentially not receiving emails is to make a new user confirm their address just as many sites do (not sure if we do this currently, I haven't change my email in ages), and to add a note to whitelist the email address newsletters come from. Also it would be a great idea to once a year have to confirm if your email address is still valid and update if needed.

I am all for more newsletters and reminder emails.....yeck it'd be awesome if you could enable push notifications for certain alerts! I'd be all over that! lol

For Newsletters there have been but not anymore since the user base is too large for staff to send them by email

We just got a newsletter in November....what are you talking about? Oh That Newsletter!

Several of us didn't get that newsletter, myself included. Which is weird because I've gotten every newsletter before this one. It wasn't even in my spam folder - it simply never showed up at all. :/

It's too late to check my spam folder (and I don't think I got around to checking it at the time) but as far as I know, I didn't get it either. It still got sent out though, so that's a problem with the system sending it, not a "staff isn't sending them out for xyz reason"

If someone didn't get the newsletter e-mail and they don't lurk on or use the forums, they wouldn't know that there was a newsletter at all. .x.

I'm assuming that's what happened with , hence their comment and assumption that newsletters aren't going out due to how large the userbase is.

I know they changed to a new system and I hope it was adjusted, but afaik every mass-mailing list is going to have snags like that.

ngl I wish it was possible to only send it to people who have been active in the past 2 years. Subeta still has abandoned accounts in spades, so inactive e-mails are just clogging that mailing system up.

That's still an email though, it's just being sent through a different system.

I mean, yeah, if people aren't getting/aren't seeing them, that doesn't help with the point of the thread, but the only thing I addressed was "What do you mean they're not sending them out?" which seems to be a miscommunication and not actually something I missed since the last one went out

You hit the nail on the spot

I work for a company that does mass mailings and there are many reasons that Subeta has no control over that would cause an email not to go through, not matter how top notch a system is used. As long as Subeta is making an attempt to contact a user and they have a a full year with which all they need to do is log on I feel that is sufficient.

It does stink, but the timeframe in which you have to be completely inactive before your pet names are cleared is entirely fair. Set reminders for yourself if you plan on being away for a while and log in once every few months to avoid losing them. It's plenty annoying on the other side of things as well when someone has been inactive for several years and only logs in to keep their pet names and then leaves again for the rest of the year until it's time to log in again just to keep their names.

Though I do sympathize, and I hate to sound harsh-- I don't think sending out a newsletter to someone who will possibly never play again to remind them to login is fair. There have been names I've been watching for years and the user clearly doesn't play anymore. Why should they, a now non-paying customer, be valued more than someone who is willing to pay for a name change or pet slot like I am? I'm incentivized to buy CSC because that one name I've been wanting forever came up. Yes, there are users that are gone for a year because of circumstances. But there are farrrrrrrrrrrrr more users who plan to never come back but want to keep their names anyway.

Set an annual reminder. Make your homepage Subeta. Figure out something that works for you. But the time frame is 100% fair.