Yeah, this definitely seems like a lazy solution to stop forum point farming. I know that’s a real problem, but there could be something else done other than this. There are actually forum groups that post and have real conversations to help people earn FPs without spamming, and also give users a safer and more controlled environment in which to post where only the members of the forum group can see it/reply.

Come post here if you want to share your opinion about this decision

I don't remember this being announced or anything... I mean, how long has this been going on for? It's really disappointing that we've all been working hard, contributing to the community forums, to not be fully rewarded when it comes to our own personal groups!?

I don't post much in any forums in the first place due to anxiety and all that garbage. That I don't even have the chance to earn forum points just because of where an interesting conversation is happening is really stupid. Really, really stupid.

I also think it's pretty irresponsible of staff to have not even told the users this change was being made, and instead to let us notice (or not notice, since it's hard to notice the lack of something already that rare) on our own. My own issues make it tough for me to feel comfortable in general chats to really say much because my brain is chanting "youre annoying and youre gonna say it wrong and theyll all hate you" pretty much constantly, and smaller groups really help alleviate some of the anxiety involved in that.

Just out of curiosity, has this actually been confirmed anywhere? There was a thread in Help & Questions recently about forum points seemingly being significantly rarer in general the past few months, and this seems like the kind of thing that would, at a bare minimum, be mentioned in passing somewhere, even if not in an official announcement or anything

submitted a ticket asking about it and basically received an answer saying that no, forum group posts are no longer eligible for forum points.

I think we share the same voice or at least those voices must know each other as mine screams the same thing constantly at me about everything!

Due to that feeling and my dyslexic fingers I'm going to paste what I said yesterday in our forum group to save word check and sanity.

Why are these forum posts considered any different to any other post? When posting in the main forums should you post too many times you are classified as spamming which means you are limited to the amount of times you can respond to a said forum topic which again brings us back to limited chances for FP's. Then there is the point that most of the forum topics aren't things we have anything to 'input' in to them any ways and there is also the case like for many of us we just aren't comfortable posting in the main threads for a whole bunch of personal reasons -points finger to now non member who use to stalk my every post just to be little me for it!-

If these/our forum topics are being prevented from us earning FP it (to me) verges on a form of bias which should definitely be against all rules of common law and Subeta. If Subeta is concerned with abuse of the FP points either eliminate it all together (which wouldn't be a bad thing) or set up some form of guidelines and implement them for EVERYONE, and more importantly don't just stop things without letting consumers know! I mean we are consumers, we pay cash (most of us at some point do) so we have an investment into how things run and affect us on the site.

Edit Wanted to add that this makes me feel like Subeta sees us ALL as cheats not just a very small minority who will abuse the system, so again I say find a fix or dump the whole thing!

Thanks for the info!

I can see where spamming for points might be an issue, but I agree that there's probably a better way to handle things

Only main groups? What does that even mean? Is subeta trying to decide how we will socialize? Sounds ominous.... and is totally uncool. :(

( on a side note: Really nice forum image )

Aside from what changed, this act is so sneaky and subeta allows it?

Another issue I find regarding this topic is, by not giving out forum points in group forums, anyone who needs points will have to either farm on forum games section, which is essentially the same thing people do in the games sections inside group forums, or they have to post potentially meaningless replies in other sections of the main forums and ‘spam’ it as subeta might think. These two acts are essentially the same if not even more messier than posting on group forums. I do hope Subeta can give us a valid reason on why they want to change this mechanism.

And I totally agree on everything said.

I obviously don't have most of the information on hand, but this feels like the people who use forum groups to talk comfortably are being punished for what feels like a minority of people are doing. Maybe FP farming is a more widespread problem than I think, but there has to another solution that doesn't involve punishing everyone who would rather use a forum group.

And I know Staff want people to use the main forums, but this is might only increase activity for the game forums that apparently not spam. If people didn't want to have discussions on the main forums before (or couldn't because of stupid necro rules), they aren't magically going to have those discussions now that they can't get FPs from forum groups. Staff hasn't addressed the other underlying issues.

And keeping us in the dark about it? Definitely not cool.

I worry Im being annoying, so I rarely post in the regular forums...

Something else just dawned on me, what about people that run their own individual contests during events that AREN'T set up in the 'main forums'??? runs her own little shin dig for us to win spots to get stories written but this is just for those that are part of her writing group, so it means if we want FP's Pure isn't going to get many people attending her events and we the participant have to judge which we want more, the FP or story or what ever is on offer.

This seems both parties are being unfairly punished for something wrong they haven't done.

What. The. Actual.....

No, seriously, this is some massive bullshit. Not only did they do it, they didn't tell us. I wouldn't have even known if I hadn't poked my head in here.

I gave a huge, long rant about this back during Survival when I was talking about how THE STAFF NEED TO COMMUNICATE WITH US about things, especially something like this. Would anyone have known if they hadn't heard and then submitted a ticket to ask? Probably not! There's been no official announcement, nothing in the (previously weekly) Amber and Bug threads, nothing.

And yes, while it may be to prevent forum post farming I do agree that this isn't the way to go about it. How about open up a discussion thread, staff, and ask us how we feel this problem should be dealt with? Getting our feedback, that you claim so much to respect?

Honestly, shit like this is why the main forums are so dead. The rules are stifling, as have been discussed a hundred times before, and many people feel more comfortable in private groups or even off site on discord and other systems where they can control who comes in and actually do something about annoying individuals that the staff here never seem to do anything about because while they're being annoying they aren't technically breaking any site rules. But having a topic go even slightly off topic, or having users not hold hands and spew rainbows, is cause to shut down a thread? Yeah no f that, I'm beyond pissed off right now over this :/

I agree with the people who say that Forum Points should be scrapped. Give everyone sP compensation for the points they have and turn the shop into one where we buy stuff with sP. Users in forum groups could then stay in their groups without feeling they are being put at a disadvantage and we wouldn't be obliged to post what we got from the Galley or Mallarchy Pond etc.

The downside to this is I'm guessing that the game threads would die very quickly which would make getting 100 posts for the Blue Building even more difficult. Easy solution here, though - reduce the number of posts required to 10.

Aww, sad. I don't interact much on Subeta, much less the forums due to anxiety...the very very few groups I belong to are the only way I gain forum points. I belong to a group that has some fun games; "this or that", "the HA above ______" types of things that allow me to step out of my comfort zone and chat a bit while being incentivized for FP. Knowing there's no way to get forum points for them anymore kind of hurts and makes me less inclined to use them. Wish there was some sort of news post that didn't make this feel like a backroom deal or a slight against users.

Ah, that's the reason I didn't get forum points in months, LOL. I didn't know at all that there was a change.

As a user who runs an open forum group everybody can join with HA contests, games, parties and raffles, this is very disappointing. We don't spam at all and only have nice and often very interesting conversations, even the parties are themed. And now that counts less than posting a simple yes/no or air/wind/fire/earth in one of the farm threads here? Doesn't seem fair to me. Either everybody gets points or nobody gets them. I would be delighted if this would be considered again.

Edit: You got a forum point while making a post! Check out the shop here! (haha, after months of no points, today of all days!) ;-)

Awww. I was hoping to help my forum points when things slowed down..

Maybe there could be a suggestion in the Suggestions Form to scrap Forum Points along with scrapping the 100 post count for the Blue Building. Or reduce the Blue Building posts to something like 10.