I have 8 of them because I spent some time spamming two threads yesterday. I didn't spam the post button, but I did type out like "boxy boxy boxy" several times. I've tried opening a box several times and haven't gotten anything yet. Just the same line about it needing to be restocked, bleh.

But now that I see it's not allowed, I won't be doing it anymore. I wonder if I'll even get anything out of the boxes or if I'll just have to delete them at the end of the event.

eta: I saw in one of the links someone posted that Amber said the boxes ended last night? So I don't even know.

i think i posted like... three or four times on a box farm thread? but honestly posting on the dance thread is enough for me.

repeatedly mashing the post button isn't cool, i agree. i also agree that next time, staff should post a site-wide reminder because as this was the first masquerade i actually partook in, i thought the box farm threads were similar to the dance claim threads and were okay. i didn't think people were mashing the post button but my three emojis were definitely not contributing to anything LOL. kudos to people who could keep a conversation on them! my wifi would have exploded had i tried.

about the boxes themselves though, i've gotten one really nice item from the boxes and aside from that, i like opening gift boxes without feeling bad that i didn't save them to sell or something. as put it: "call it addictive-reasons-I-should-never-gamble." i like the boxes even though i'm not the most active on the forums, and think that they can be obtained easily through threads like what you got from games or similar threads that require little to no actual communication between users.

regarding the spam itself, it didn't bother me because 1) i thought it was fine and 2) it seemed to me just like another kiss/dance thread. at the worst, i could have not went to those threads if i didn't want to see it. as i said though earlier, i do think they're unnecessary but in general don't really bother me. as does waiting for another prize pool restock. i totally forgot about the free shop and living out in the country, my wifi is slow and shoddy as it is so restocking really isn't something i can do. the boxes are a really cool alternative, and it gives me incentive to post.

all in all, i would definitely approach this differently in the future but wouldn't never do it again. it's a great opportunity, and if nothing else, uncomfortable users can go to other threads where they can post but not require a conversation with another user if they don't want it to. i wouldn't be opposed to a cool down for the boxes, but i feel like it would just encourage people to post every time the cool down is over rather than on a continuous basis.

Amber said they will continue to be restocked, and I could have sworn that if you don't redeem them this time around, you can save them for the next event. But I can't find where I read that.

I did participate in spam as well. I've tried to ping some people back and forth but nobody was willing to hold a conversation :( It was more than 'box' tho but I wouldn't say it contribute to a convo (but neither are some threads anyway). I agree with a lot of previous users commenting on said spamming matter. Heck - I was even talking to myself at some point and gave up with the idea of finding boxes by doing that. I do find it awkward to force the whole 'be social to get stuff' bandwagon on everyone. I'm not sure how to improve that part next time they bring back the giftboxes!

I will definitely stop spamming or find someone who's willing to hold a convo with me next time around. I would definitely love a 'rule and reminder' post next time you guys bring these boxes to us! But for now, ain't posting on these anymore.

By the time my post went through, I was four or pages behind! The threads were just going so quickly. I love the idea of forum boxes, but this wasn't the best way :(

I understand where you're coming from and agree 100% with what you said here: "there are pages where the same person has every other post, clearly just posting as often as the site would allow them to and that's pretty clearly something that would not be allowed outside of the event."

I do wanna add that I think a chatting or game thread wouldn't be the same in that I did also enjoy content that wasn't necessarily contributing to a conversation. For example, random facts and gifs/pictures of different pokemon or cats or something. I'm under the impression that those would be considered spam on a chatting thread, I think, and I liked that the farming threads were so free about posting entertaining nonsense. You could talk, or you didn't have to talk necessarily if one has social anxiety or something. Everyone could participate in their own way to try get forum boxes. I'm not sure what kind of forum thread could be created to have that type of vibe but minus the repetitive box posts, but I would love such a place if they ever did forum boxes again. But maybe that's all just spam and even if I apparently like spam it shouldn't be allowed at all lmao I don't know anymore after typing all that

Through pings! If I saw someone say something funny or whatever we'd just ping back and forth.

I don't know, those kind of seem to fall under a user-run game type scenario to me? You could just make a thread like "Post a gif of your favorite Pokemon," and there's not necessarily conversation there, but it's something.

I definitely get the anxiety factor and not wanting to just jump right into a conversation, but there are so many existing options that could be joined or replicated besides just posting an emoji or the word box. I know that objectively, it's pretty much the same thing in the end, but it seems different somehow and maybe that's just me :/

I mainly just wanted to clarify that it was a certain type of posting I took issue with (and from an outside perspective, by the time I looked at them at all, that's pretty much all I could see on those threads) and not just the general presence of a nonsense thread because conversation or no, I think some of those things still have merit

Somehow, even after over 9 years here I'm still shocked by how many people will complain about free shit.

I think there should be more ways to give out the boxes. Not all the users likes to post on the forum, it can be harsh sometimes here, some are just shy to post here and there are other reasons.. mostly social and mental.

when posting on a thread, you see other posts. What you do is just ping people and start conversations. Eventually someone will reply.

• Compliments and/or questions about their avatar, leashed pet, or the gif/image/quote in their signature or post.

• Replying to whatever spam people were using. In response to "sharksharkshark" I said "baby shark doo doo doo". Responding to "I'm hungry" with "soon you shall feed on potatoes".

• People were sharing the cool stuff they got from drops, much like a random event bragging thread.

• Just asking them how they're doing or if they're getting any cool stuff.

Stuff like that.

If you ping the person you're talking to, they don't have to look through all the spam because they get an event for it. And if they reply, they'll ping you back. So once you ping someone, a conversation between two people is actually pretty easy to maintain.

I've never seen conversations like that on a claiming thread or a user-run game.

A disclaimer: I spammed too. Oops. But I never hit the button repeatedly. I thought it was just the same as the dance claiming threads, and that staff were ok with it. Also, I was overexcited about all the retired stuff that couldn't be found anywhere else.

If these farming threads appeared again, I'd still post in them, but I'd slow down and actually make the effort to say something interesting this time rather than just spamming, because looking back on it, the fun conversation was just as good as the boxes.

I still think a lot of the problems with getting Forum gift boxes for posts is the necro rule. The Chit-Chat forum should be easy but you have to look at the date of the last post for every topic in the forum to see how old it is. If a topic I'm interested in is over 3 months old, that's it.

I've been conditioned by other forums. For example, there's a topic about dinosaurs that hasn't been posted in for 4 months. I start a new topic about dinosaurs and a mod will appear with the message "There's already a topic about this" and the two topics will be merged.

Yes, there's loads of threads that people started but they never really want anywhere, and now might as well be deleted if they can't be posted in after too long, better than just making a new thread and leaving the old one to hang around. I don't know how deleting threads here works though.

Personally, I'm glad the forum giftboxes were paused/ended for now because man, those were annoying. Nice thought though.

So simply writing "boxes" in your post isn't spamming? That's what I did, I was just following everyone else's lead cause I didn't see much conversation.

thanks for the reply, yes I understand, I just hope there could be some kind of way to let those kind of users the option to use the forum too without feel scared and anxious (being able to post anonymously? a 24/7 moderate sub-forum? just throwing ideas in the air) because so far their only way is to use the "farming posts" or not to use the forum at all and I think that everyone should have a chance to get the boxes even those with social anxiety and especially when the social features of Subeta were always a bit vicious and you need a to be mentally strong to use them (I still have trauma of my first and last 5 minutes in the old Subeta irc chat).

I feel what is saying... I don't socialize in the forums much because I simply don't want to form relationships with people on here. Maybe that sounds harsh, but past experiences and stress from trying to be friendly with people/ hold conversations with strangers have steered me away from making internet friends. Pets and Advertising are the only forums worth posting in for me, and forcing myself to make a post in someone's casual conversation for the sake of trying to earn a reward still feels like spam? If you're trying to boost forum usage in a meaningful way, the forum boxes don't seem like a good solution.

I liked the forum boxes. I just don't want to miss out on goodies simply because I'm not a social butterfly. Lots of users like to keep to themselves here for various reasons... If forum boxes are re-implemented somehow, I hope they'll also consider similar rewards for participating in other subeta features.

I can understand the concerns everyone has 100%. But I also like the idea of trying to breath some life back into the forums, too. Subeta has always been small, so conversations have always been slow, but the pacing used to be much better across the entirety of the forums... now old topics that, should they be posted on, can be considered "necro'ing" even though it's still on the front page.