I feel like this type of thread gets a lot of "Loud minority" posts, since people who don't feel as strongly about things tend to not interact with it, so I'll just throw in my two cents and leave:

I don't think subeta's dying. Subeta is the same as it's been for years, there's still new items, new battles challengers, they keep adding more pet slots, the cw community is doing pretty good imo. If you feel like it's dying, it's because of user interaction, maybe a bunch of your friends have left and you feel like it's empty, and that's valid, but it's not really? something that can be fixed?

I also understand the need to vent, but i don't think this is the place to do it. When there are people fighting to make things better and trying to innovate and all they see for feedback is negative stuff WITHOUT any ideas on how to fix anything, it really puts a damper on the motivation. If you love the site, then maybe try to add feedback on what parts you like, what you want to see more of? and if you're here "just waiting for it to die" then maybe it's time to leave. I for one know I'm staying.

I love subeta mostly for the pets, i like working on them, making stories for them. I love how customizable they are, that we can add our custom overlays and code their pages, I love that there's no word filtering like other petsites where you need to walk on eggshells. I loved the change to non-unique names. TBH the only thing I guess I'd like more of is story plots, but I understand those are hard to plan and I'm happy to wait for when there's a good one- that stuff is better done well than rushed.

As a cw artist, I'm obviously also invested in cws, but I am quite happy with the system currently and have no complaints. IF I were to give feedback, it is that if cws are to take the place of normal wearables, they should be made cheaper for the end user, but that's about it.

(also a p.s. about the whole "dying" thing - i watched the launch of dappervolk past june and it started on around 2k users, to then a few months later be at around 200 users anytime i logged in. subeta has maintained about the same amount of active users for a good while now, and it's been "dying" for how long now?)

Thank you for the detailed info --I think that having a staff person dedicated to being in contact with the community will do loads for user morale, and free up time for staff to work on other things! One of the frustrations I've personally had is the lack of communication, which is somewhat unfair on my part because I know a lot of things happen in the background that users aren't immediately aware of, but improve the site's function a lot. I think a lot of users feel the same.

I also want to echo 's sentiments about pet customization compared to other sites. I've learned a lot about simple coding and web design through Subeta. One thing I can think of that would drastically improve my ability to work on pet profiles is making them work similarly to (but perhaps not identically) user profiles. I love being able to arrange elements on the fly, and such a system might make pet profile editing more accessible to more users. Of course, I'm also pretty happy with pet profiles as-is, and like I said, it's forced me to learn how to edit things more competently, so maybe there could be a beginner/advanced option for pet profiles? Just spoutin' here, lol.

I'm looking forward to how the site changes over summer when you return to working on Subeta--I'm definitely curious about what the team has in store for us.

Perhaps I was harsh with my words, but how can I not be when the growth of the site has been on a standstill for years - and nothing apparent has been done to replace the ones who left; users, mods, staff members.

It's nice that you are willing to hire, but isn't it a little too little too late? I would love to be proven wrong, though.

Also, my subscription's payment is on the 2nd of every month. We're the 3rd - even if I cancelled right now, it wouldn't have much of an impact, would it? You already got my money for June and all, that would be cowardly.

I'll keep your suggestion in mind around the end of the month, though.

Agreeing with Emyon's post above, I don't think Subeta is dying. If it were dying I wouldn't be investing my time and money into my rewards group. That being said, I spend most of my time within the wardrobe and in the CW community so I have a different perspective from someone who loves Subeta for other purposes.

As for the main topic of site features, there are four main things I'd like to bring up.

1. Mobile - Friendly
2. Summer Plot or Event
3. Increase sP given by games and new games
4. Forums must be improved

Subeta needs more money and I think they need to attract more customers. That's why I'm bring up the first two points, because there are SOOO many people who play mobile games, Subeta needs to tap into that.

Summer Plot or Event, imo Subeta is dreadfully boring during the summer. Hook us in with an event or a plot. If not, what about giving users an incentive to host their own summer events. Maybe hosts can be given stipends of sP or CSC?

More than that, school is closed during summer. That's a whole bunch of new possible customers that go online and search for new ways to spend their time. And yet, we have no events going on during this time. Subeta needs more money, lets get it.

Increasing the sP rewards from games and getting new games. To make sP, I quest when I can but tbh, it's quite boring. I rather play the games since there more fun but I gain more sP from questing and quest shop points. And with morty cards, I can also gain CSC. Also, gotta point out lots of the games are not mobile-friendly. We should do something about that.

As for forums being improved, every one is on discord. TBH, if I didn't join a few discord channels, I would think Subeta is dying. What happened to the forum gift box idea? Bring that back. The forum search? Where's that at? Add more cool stuff to buy with forum points. It could even be limited time CSC/Cash Shop prizes, just to get the forums moving again. There is a Subeta discord now. If we're not doing forums, why not go all in on discord? Lets promote the discord groups on the Subeta main page. Or maybe highlight one of the groups, once a month?

To wrap this up, all I'm presenting is my opinion and ideas. I'm sure there are flaws but maybe it'll be a positive spark to someone who can plan farther than I can.

I agree a lot of the activity i see from subeta users is actually on discord, due to it being a lot easier to use than forums or smail!

Maybe having a better system of instant messaging would help with that, but i'm sure it's very taxing on the coders. I believe tartelette mentioned a revamp of the s-mail system, I'd love that as well since the few people who don't use discord use s-mails for commission communication, and that area is not great, currently

I also like the idea of incentives for users to run their own events as suggested by anubis! me and a few friends have been doing events in the forums for a while, with good participation from folks, especially with writing prompts, but all the prizes come from our pockets - could be an interesting idea to explore.

otherwise, having the kind of event where users can send in art or writing for the site to use has always been a favorite of a lot of ppl, and might be easier on the staff?

Creating an event system that works with the Forum Group function would be pretty cool.

I rarely post or reply to things like this bc i rarely feel cohesive w my thoughts buttttt ....

I appreciate the effort that is being put into the site rn, i get that it's hard especially with everything going on + what you mentioned HOWEVER your post barely mentioned pet content which is like ... the point of the whole site? I get CWs and wardrobe are a huge aspect of the site and ofc I don't expect you to -- in the middle of a meeting -- have a whole plan/roadmap for the website and it's improvement but i feel like given all the suggestions here too much focus is being put on CWs/wardrobe and not enough on other things!

also i think it was super rude to single out like that when they are probably just voicing their opinion (which first of all is allowed no???) that lots of others are thinking too. Everyone is focusing on the "dying" comment when i think we can all agree subeta has been stalled at the very least for like EVER.

anyways just wanted to kinda come to the defense of a friend + make my own opinion known that I think we should focus on pet content + plot ideas like someone mentioned + GAMES

Ah, yes, the lovely 'Shoot the Messenger' role. Does the position come with bullet-proof vests?

Instead of personally attacking me, of sinking to my level, why don't you tell us what there is to be positive about? What are the projects for the site, and how long do we have to wait. How long do we have to keep some hope. Give us a clear ETA.

Because I don't exactly see a lot being done for people who can't throw 50$ on CWs. The CW system being revamped does help the site, but it's a feature that's mostly for people who can throw real money at the site. It's not exactly something like in Ratatouille, where everyone can use it.

If I'm apparently just able to be negative about everything, why aren't you trying to convince me that it will get better? Why is your immediate answer telling me to stop subscribing?

I think it's a great idea, it should be a very helpful role for you guys especially. ^^

edit: Is it a volunteer-based position?

On the mention of less items being released by staff and more cws being put into the market being a bad thing and unobtainable this is not true. You get 150 csc a month alone from the bath house if you quest every day you get at least 5mil from quests possibly more you can very easily buy cws turning this sp into csc. Don't forget how you can ALSO get morty cards from quests heck I got 2 just today. CWS are obtainable without spending real money, if you truly are dedicated to the site it is possible to get anything you want. Not only this but in some instances CW artists will offer a free commission slot, I saw just offer this on their Survival board. Several users give away cws, csc and other things and it really takes minimal effort participating in site events on the forums which also build community.

It's definitely do-able to earn enough sPs to buy CSC from other players.

I never said that's impossible to get csc without spending money.

It's just an uphill battle. The CW system isn't designed for f2p players first. It is one of the most expensive hobby to pursue on site.

So, the decline of affordable options is an issue as well. Saying that if you quest daily for one week, you can buy one CW wig or shirt isn't welcoming for casual, or busier users.

But if everything is too easy to get, people aren't going to stay long anyways. I think most people start with questing, so it's really not too bad early on. I think if changes could be made to RSing so that shops either empty more often or stock far less but more frequent (I really would like to see RSing updated at some point), then that would become another viable sP-earning option so that people aren't just questing for income.

:X I'm super hoping that the pet profiles v2 are going to get worked on now that the wardrobe and hair salon are done. That would put a bit of wind into the pet community's sails. nailed it: iirc you guys wanted to make pet profiles v2 modular, like user profiles.

As for some other non-wardrobe things that could stand a bit more attention... Whoo, hold on to your butts because it's gonna be a long one.

Ideas & ramblings aside, there's also a very important tool that's prettymuch crucial for informing inactive users that Subeta is definitely still alive & has new things going on: Newsletter. Newsletter. Newsletter. (Hey, saying it three times worked for Beetlejuice! 😜 ) Tons of returning people don't know that non-unique names are a thing! A newsletter was never sent out about this. A newsletter was also never sent out about the new wardrobe. In fact, the last newsletter was on September 16, 2019. It's currently June, 2021.

I... could honestly sit here all evening typing up ideas. There's never a shortage of ideas! But I didn't feel much incentive to bother with the suggestion forum for months. I still don't. All the programming energy seemed to go into keeping the site from breaking during click-heavy events, and polishing up the wardrobe. The suggestions forum feels like the place where topics & ideas go to die.

So yeah. I understand burnout, I understand being stretched thin, I understand not having enough hands to juggle all the work projects you're working on, + the ones on Subeta. But... you can't expect people to be very enthused or optimistic when it feels like the site's just... floating along, existing and seemingly not going anywhere. ._. We have no idea what's actually being worked on vs. what's going to get worked on vs. things that fell through the cracks. Nothing of that sort is shared on the Subeta discord either. Only having the holidays go live along with the standard old roll of item revamps/quest shop items/TS restock/frag restock/season change, with barely any staff interaction save for bugfixes and siteupdate pings about bugfixes... It kinda does give the feeling that the site's been left to slowly float away.

I genuinely do hope that things will start looking up with the incoming changes and new hires you've mentioned , because I love this site to bits and the last thing I want is for Subeta to fizzle out and vanish from the internet.

Yaaas, glad to hear that the new pet profiles are being worked on! 🙌 Looking forward to eventual sneak peeks on those! The profiles are one thing I'm super looking forward to. All my CSS knowledge is old and outdated, so I'm relying on Subeta to motivate me to learn new things, hahah. x)

And I can definitely see how a bigger project like the shopping cart system would need a looot more work and heavy lifting. On the other hand, it's also definitely something that would keep people playing more because it would free up a lot of time that they'd otherwise spend repetitively clicking the same items in their holiday shop of choice. Shopping carts are definitely something that I hope to eventually see in Subeta v2. 👀

Other people always come up with more concise ideas than I do in these threads, and I always get to them late! But here's something I had:

Making the social media more active again. I know there's a twitter (it even follows me lol) - it could be fun if it would retweet things like fanart under the subeta hashtag if there is any, or just posting some pet art to highlight it. For new releases/revamps especially, and on twitter it would be easy to post the old and the new side-by-side and be like "woah! check out the revamp, wow, 10/10", etc.

I don't recall if there was an official Subeta tumblr, but it would be cool to have that active and reblogging art posted in the tag to engage with users. Most of what I see in the Subeta tumblr tag is from those confession blogs, which can get a little depressing. It could even post the "full art" size of pets with less compress than twitter, big impressive pictures to fill the blog with! That sort of thing...

The facebook page too. I think it could work well as a combo of twitter and tumblr, especially since FB is a little better at having space for real conversations.

I'm a pet-focused person so of course that's what I'm talking about, but the social media pages can easily share other art too. I think it would be nice if they did things like post the pet spotlight winner, or a "human avatar of the week", little stuff like that. I feel like a little more activity from those can go a long way, and at least engage people a bit. Maybe someone's following the twitter account but they did it forever ago and forgot about it, and it tweets so infrequently that they're never reminded. If it starts tweeting out pretty images, it might catch peoples' eyes again.

Excited to hear about the new positions opening up! They sound like great ideas.

I'll also chime in to say I don't think Subeta is "dying" at all, but I will definitely agree with "coasting". Pet releases still get me hyped beyond belief! I've been here for 14 years and I don't plan on leaving any time soon - I love my pets, I love dressing up my HA. Non-unique pet names bummed me out in a significant way, but I'm very willing to get over it for a site I love so much. I really wanna do whatever I can to help it to keep going, even if it's just yelling suggestions on a thread...

Achievements! I feel like it's something that could be done with minimal resource draw, not every achievement needs an item, or even a title to go with it.

Maybe it's just me but I like the goals not the prizes. [edit]Rereleasing old items seems to be the theme lately, attach some of them to new tiers on old achievements :D