Going by some of the posts in this topic there are players who were against the idea at first but who are now happy with the change.

Whoops xD I figured since the image was correct that it worked!

In the original non-unique suggestion thread, I was actually on the fence about this though I eventually shifted to not really liking non-unique. When this change was implemented, I still didn’t like it because if I’m being honest I would of preferred the nickname system.

At this point, and because it’s been a couple days since the change was implemented, I’ve mostly shifted to just being neutral about the change. There’s no real reason that I have to be continuously depressed or angry about a change that in the end won’t change so yeah, I’m mostly just at the point of living with it because it’s been done.

It definitely worked yesterday when you posted it, I tested the link when I saw it and it brought me to your Zoey.

The code also seems to work just fine when you use it on Pet profiles. points at Lucius

Oh good then I wasn't crazy cause I thought that I had clicked on it yesterday xD I thought maybe I was just assuming I had clicked it.

I'm actually starting to wonder how many of the people who are really unhappy about this have mostly fanpets/tribute pets instead of original characters. The only thing that makes those unique is presentation (since they are all fundamentally the same Harry Potter, Sans Undertale, John Homestuck, random pokemon species, etc.), so losing the name probably feels a lot worse with those than it does for original characters, who were already in the boat of never being the only character with The One Instance Of A Name.

For people like me, who focus almost 100% on original characters (I have less than five fanpets of canon characters total), this is a huge boon, but I can see from that particular angle why some people would be unhappy to no longer have the only instance of a canon name. It was (potentially) the only thing that set their "Pikachu" apart from someone else's "Electric Mouse".

At first I was taken aback by the lack of poll, but now I sort of feel more like... a poll would have been great a year ago. But after having this discussion/debate going on in fits and bursts for, what, two years or longer? I feel like a poll would have just drawn things out further, and we desperately needed more updates on pets.

Anyway, this has definitely made me more active and creative! I spent a ton of sP and CSC to max out on slots again and adopted a handful of new pets, I've been doing quests for the first time in ages, I've been hunting for treasure chest items, planning out new pet profiles, brainstorming new character ideas, changing pet colors, and looking through the 'pedia at all the different pet species/color combos to help figure out what else I want to get! All this before the weekend, too, which is when I'll really have the free time to get to work on Subeta things. For the longest time I was barely here; I would do Battle Quests on my phone every day and check my sMail/forum replies on the weekends when I had the energy and motivation, and I did barely anything else because I felt like things were at such a standstill with pets. Now I'm just absolutely revved up and I want to do all the things; I pretty much get on here as soon as I'm off work, and stay on until I go to bed!

Regarding users who aren't comfortable commenting on the forums, I do understand why they would be nervous to (let's be real, sometimes users here react pretty strongly to a totally innocent suggestion/post), but the reality is that if you don't give feedback, there's no way for staff to read users' minds.

We'll never know how many users did or didn't want non-unique names, since not 100% of active users post on the forums. We'll also never know how many users actually want to use the forums, since they might not care about the social aspect of the site at all, and prefer to play independently (I know I did this for YEARS).

I think some aspects of the forum culture need to change, for sure, but until then, maybe staff could take suggestions for changes to the site via an anonymous "Suggestions" box. I'm not sure how useful this would be, but it might be one way for shy or anxious users to still get their thoughts to staff.

To bring this comment back on topic, I just want to reiterate how excited I am for the change. There have been a number of fan/tribute pets I've wanted to make for a bit, as well as pets for original stories, and having the ability to name a pet something more descriptive or direct is so, SO good. Fundamentally, I think this change will also make for a healthier community, as so eloquently put it in an earlier post. I'm very excited to see how enthusiastic people are about developing their pets!

Okay, so now that I've actually had time to digest and enjoy non-unique names, I've gone from being on-the-fence to really liking this change! This is the first time in a while that I've seen people so excited about pets, and I'm so happy that everyone gets to bring their characters on-site now! I'm looking forward to reading them all. :)

On a personal level, I'm really glad I get the ability to wipe my characters and start fresh again. I've been on this site for a while now, and although I still love the OCs I made when I was a young teenager, it's also great to be able to update them to OCs that I connect with more as an adult, and to not have to worry about having to hunt for an un-taken name that would reflect these characters. After 12 years, it does start to get hard to find something that's not already taken!

Overall, this seems like it's brought more life back to the pet community, and that's really a great thing!

Me too. This was a major change and Idk. I feel bad for not being happy about it, but I think I'd feel better if I knew that most of us were happy about this.

I think the effects of the change to non-unique pet names depends on the moral choices of the users. Like, I know how proud it can feel to come up with something truly original, and it would really suck for people to start copying that name...... On the other hand, with more common names for characters, this change means that more people can envision their characters without having to compromise on name. So long as people stay honest and don't intentionally copy another person's creativity, I don't see the problem....

Personally, I'm really happy that we can now change our pets' names for free :D I changed VeenOryx to Shady Bee, and SukiShimaki to Sukimura. Both original names were irritating me, but I'd progressed with both pets too far to give them up and start over.

@ The people worried about them removing unique usernames

I posted my thoughts on this in the original news post, but I'll post them here too. I really don't think that's something we have to worry about. There's a massive difference between Usernames and Petnames.

One user can only have one username, and since we're not allowed to have more then one account, there isn't even the added on problem of people hoarding usernames. However, one user can have over a hundred pets. To put it in perspective.

1 User = 100 Pets 10 Users = 1000 Pets 100 Users = 10,000 Pets

Sure, obviously not every user has a hundred pets. But even if just ten users have a hundred pets(which, definitely more then ten users do), that's a thousand pet names that are now off the market forever. Compared to the ten usernames that are off the market. That's a pretty substantial difference.

Comparing Usernames to Petnames doesn't really work, because the numbers just do not match up at all.

I'm not sure how much a poll would have really helped the staff, because not only does it delay the process, but sometimes the only way to ease worried/anxieties is to just try it out. The longer something gets dragged out for, the longer you get to stew in all of the 'what ifs'.

Of course, I'm the type of person to who just likes to get things done and over with.

In other news though, I am so happy that I get to have Molly now. She's a tribute for one of my cats that I was super attached to 'Mollygurl' just didn't feel the same. It's kind of put me off on doing things with her for a long time, but now I'm collecting photos for a custom overlay.

While its not a poll, you can get a sense of how many people are feeling, even if they don't post.

If you check "likes" both here and the news comments you'll find:

1. The majority of posts with high like counts are positive. 2.The next most liked posts are people who commented both positive and negative - stuff like "the change is good, but I now feel like I've wasted money in the past" or "I'm sad that my names won't be unique anymore, but happy the stress of naming will be gone going forward"
2. Then come the posts that are "I don't like this, but I will learn to adjust"
3. Hate this.
4. Neutral.

Likes may not be a poll, but it is an opportunity for people to make themselves heard when they don't want to post a negative sentiment for fear of backlash or due to anxiety in general.

Overall, it seems to me the general consensus is happy about the change, though there are a significant number who are both happy and sad about it.

I mean, it helps a little, but it's no substitute for a poll when the forums are so slow and dead. And it's hard to gauge by likes anyway when, generally, positivity does get more likes.

The biggest issue with a poll is you may have people who prefer one thing but wouldn't die if something else else happened. You also have people who'd say they'd absolutely leave the site if it changed/didn't change, but would they? What about neutral people whp don't really care but had friends who cared so voted however their friends did to support them?

Also people who are inactive wouldn't see the poll. Potential new players wouldn't be able to take part in the poll.

How detailed would it have had to be to be viable?

Plus, like said at some point, he agreed things needed to change but what if 52% of users wanted no change?

What if the poll was 90% in support, it still wouldn't have helped the 10% who dislike+ the change.

I have been a big supporter of non-unique names for awhile. So obviously this change has pleased me.

I finally got rib of all of these names I had been keeping 'just in case' or 'just because they're 'good names'' in favor of names that inspire me to create. I've gotten new slots, I'm planing out TCs, I'm discussing with friends about OCs, I am not in 'competition' with anyone to get names I want anymore... Things are great and I can already feel the pet community coming back.

I feel like the 'non-unique names make people uncreative content' comments to be quite hurtful. Most media ever created were done so with the freedom to choose the name the creator wanted for their characters. They are hundreds of John and Jane in fiction, and each of them is unique. If anything, non-unique names allow for even more creativity. We can now spend hours researching the perfect name for a concept or character vs. spending hours trying to find a free alternative and ending up settling for something that doesn't quite fit, just cause it's the only thing that is free.

The possibility to get names that no one has used is still there. Nothing stops anyone from spending time finding an obscure name/word that no one else has used.

Regarding a poll: the bottom line is that Subeta needs to make decisions that will sustain the site for the future, decision that will attract new users, decision that will give us a Subeta for years to come. Poll and long back and forth between staff and users are not always possible in some cases. In this case, there is a long, 2 years old discussion that has been going on about this. The site had plenty of opinions to make a decision, and I'm sure they have also studied the market before making the move.

I never saw the bug report, but if Destiny can't find an older one I'd be happy to open up a new one. :)

If staff were going to do a poll, how long would you like it to run? A year, so the people who only log on to keep pet names have a chance to vote 'no'?