Mmm, idk Subeta users tend to act like complete buttholes to each other on other social media sites so I'd really rather not see a push to gain traction on Reddit. Just look at all the Tumblr anonymous hate blogs. (But don't actually, because they're a breeding ground for toxicity.) The fact is, pet sites aren't popular in media anymore. Neopets is a shell of what it once was. At least Subeta has remained a mostly active community with the same vibes and regularly occurring events that it has always had. And honestly, I was obsessed with Dappervolk when it was in beta and got released, but that didn't last long. Hit the end of the storyline and got bored. Subeta, I don't get bored of easily. And when I do, I take a short hiatus and come back. I don't think I can have an opinion on the number of users in 2022. I'm just glad we're still here.

I wanted to add to my other post but despite other pet/avi sites I think Subeta does the best in at least communicating its short falls with its community. Its never an issue of prying teeth if something doesn't work, we'll be told it the same or next day. I appreciate knowing what's going on. I think Subeta does far better then other places even newer like DV. Sure Subeta isn't perfect but it's cozy. In the coming 6 years I've been a member, this place is very home-like.

I just returned from a two year hiatus after having a dream about restocking on a pet site. I don't know how long I'll be back this time. But in my nine+ years of being on this site I've taken breaks like this and have always been able to jump back into a fun time.

I'd be lying if I said I didn't miss many aspects of when it was busier. My shop sales moved faster, there were more threads to chat on, more sales to hit up, etc.

I don't necessarily think it's a bad idea to be promoting Subeta to new users, whether it's on Reddit or elsewhere.. Inevitably, people will move away from Subeta and they may or may not come back. Having new users, or having older users come back, helps keep the site afloat. Trying to prevent people from drifting off could be another tactic.

After my day of being back on hiatus, it seems that the site economy is still doing fine and there's still an awesome community here. Which is fantastic! But it'd be nice to make sure that this continues for a while to come.

Is the Staff happy with the number of users, I wonder???

I enjoy the close-knit aspect of the sight right now - all users have been kind to me and it feels wholesome as heck chatting with anyone here. Super cozy! On the other hand, I do miss when the site had 600+ users at a time, because new trades were always popping up, the forums were going off, and shop items would sell fast. It was so fun and competitive. The site will need more users in order to survive, which is worrisome to think about.

I’m a fairly long-time member at 13 1/2 years. I know there are much older users but whether or not they’re still around, I’m not sure. I’m no longer anywhere near as active as I used to be and a lot of that is honestly on me; I moved on in my life, I got a job that took up way more of my time….I had less time to just sit and refresh/do endless quests/obsess over collections.

Sometimes I still have the yearning to come back here because I spent SO much time (and money…) here but on the other hand, I don’t really have that spark any more. And like I said, I think that’s on me rather than Subeta, because I’ve changed (I’m 30 this month).

I’ll never totally abandon Subeta and I do wish it was still busier because I think it would make it maybe slightly easier/more welcoming to get back into but also…when it was super busy years ago, the site was not without other issues lol. I could never be bothered to involve myself in all the drama (and still can’t). Still, for Subeta to survive, it needs more players.

Basically this. It's not even other social media sites, it's straight up here on the forums sometimes. Plus, it's against the rules to call out people for being like that. So...

Mine reminded of a quote, " I can remember times when this place would be a third full".

I would like the achievement for more people being online.

But, I don't see that happening, so no I'm not happy with the number of users.

Basically this. It's not even other social media sites, it's straight up here on the forums sometimes. Plus, it's against the rules to call out people for being like that. So...

this isn't directed at you in particular, but... i think this is no small part in why the forums aren't very active. just recently a thread got not only locked but nuked entirely because... people were pinging someone who had a dissenting opinion? just pinging them. well, and "seeking a debate" which is apparently not allowed here now. that was such a fucking joke to me it's obvious why there's never anything happening here anymore. you have to walk on eggshells lest a topic get locked! probably only a matter of time until this one is. a forum that forbids any debate, any "targeting", is too sanitized and boring. if someone says something stupid and wrong, then they can deal with people calling attention to it. boo hoo. i've stopped myself from posting in several topics in the last couple years because i don't want to get in twouble for being so rwude! does this site cater to 13 year olds or 30 year olds? we can have those stupid survival kink items but can't be meanie weenies uwu!! it's clear the userbase is older. if i want to call someone a dumbass then i should be able to. not treated like i'm on club penguin and can't call someone out directly for having a terrible (and in that earlier particular case, violent) opinion.

what exactly is there to talk about in regards to the site itself anymore? hey guys i want to brag about this r99 item i restocked that is actually a reward from battle quests so it's worth 10k?? what do you think should be revamped? this item art from like 2010? well it's been suggested 50 times so stop asking. wHaT aBoUt ThE tEa HoUsE???? dance with the user above! let's see how high we can count! i'm opening my owned list to sell! (but not really teehee) daily ping for (insert whatever here)! these forums could be used solely by bots and it would look almost the same.

there is no worthwhile discussion ever had beyond, hey this event was broken and handled poorly, time to post in site feedback and get the thread locked because reasons.

now... obviously the situation people are referencing with toxic users probably isn't what i'm screaming about... but i wasn't here for all the cw drama or whatever was so bad. so. idk. maybe it was bad enough to warrant the attitude we have now. sucks though.

However many people the site can comfortably support, that's how many people I'm happy with.

Also when the site was really active, it definitely wasn't always positive, but we did have the moderation to step in when needed. Any site is going to have offsite drama, but "adults treated like children, everything moves at a snail's pace, and mild dissent quelled" sums it up perfectly like how are you selling that to new users.

I had not really even thought about this until I saw this post. Am I happy with the number of users? I think I have been lucky to find the group of friends I have because they are all so different, and most are so open, and we really do have different ways of looking at things.

I think large number of users or small number of users has not affected me much but the lack of new things to do has. The plots were always fun to do and discuss, and battling is always fun, but even that feels like just grinding, and other than that, there isn't much to do that doesn't feel repetitive.

I agree with much of what said - the one thing that really made me want to leave neo (cuz I loved the games and my houses) was that they started censoring things. I find that lots of things here offend me, and I disagree with people, but I LOVE that those things are there, because obviously there are players who like them, and I LOVE that I can disagree with people on some things, but still get along with them. I don't usually feel the need to express myself, but I use to really like reading other people's thoughts. Sometimes good points were made that I had not thought of and changed how I felt. I didn't look, but is there a forum for debates - I know there is a Current Events one, but is it okay to debate there - I am not sure.

Now, I feel like some people are becoming mean or expressing it more, not in a debating way but kinda clickish? Maybe because there are less players, but the balance of Subeta does seem off to me these days.

I remember the site was a lot more hostile the first time I signed up. The smaller users on is not a bad thing as long as the site stays afloat

I figured as much and you put that into far better words than I ever could.

not really lol but what can we really do about it? the forums are dead for all the aforementioned reasons and the fact it's needlessly segmented. i've said it before but i'll say it again, 1 forum with 20 active threads is infinitely more appealing than 20 forums with 1 active thread each

the vast majority of active users are people who have been here for 10+ years or who joined more recently out of nostalgia for old-school pet sites. idc about attracting kids (and tbh wouldn't mind at all of subeta went 16+ if not 18+ altogether) but as more and more people leave this lack of growth just doesn't feel sustainable imo

but just... what can subeta even offer new players? pets? you get a maximum of 10 and yes you can buy more pet slots - but there are multiple systems that aren't clear at all to new users and the most obvious 'buy more pet slots' link on the pets page immediately brings someone to the csc slot page lmao. if i joined today, got 10 pets i liked and saw that the way to get more was to spend $15 each i wouldn't stick around long enough to find out i could get them with sp too

the ha's are the biggest draw but even those have a needlessly steep learning curve. without a tagging system how the hell are new players supposed to know that is actually a pair of stockings? are they expected to just hover over every single item (which isn't even doable on mobile!) until they figure it out?

the site being small is a circular problem too. because even if someone joins, enjoys the game mechanics, wants to stick around... what do they even do once they got the pets and ha's they wanted? with the dead forums there's nobody to really show them off to - they lose interest and leave

i didn't mean for this to be so negative but idk man even tho i don't spend as much time here as i used to it still sucks to see what used to be my favourite place on the internet reduced to a shell of its former self. and maybe i'm just really fatalistic but after seeing more and more of my friends leave because there's just other places that let me do what subeta does but better... yeah i'm not really happy with the amount of users on here and wish the site were more active

Thespian and peachette really put it nicely. I would love to add that the lack of organization and clear goals of the site definitely make me lose a lot of hope. There is no roadmap, no progress on anything and it's understandable since staff wouldn't know where to begin. It makes hiring developers the more difficult. I am sure many people have registered in the past months, yet the site has no clear idea on how to keep them entertained. Why would someone care for e.g. a new beanbag? Why would new users collect them? Why would users save up for them? Where could they showcase them? These questions need to be apparent when discovering the site, but when people are not engaged by art alone, why bother commissioning all the art in the first place? It's item bloat, decision paralysis and a lack of meaning. There is so much to work with, yet one wouldn't know where to start.

I'm not happy with how things are going with Subeta but at this point giving negative feedback means risking your account. It's frustrating to tip toe on eggshells to not offend staff.

I honestly feel like staff have continued to drop the ball over and over despite constant feedback from loyal users. Things get better for a short time and then regress. Over and over. It's like a predictable roller coaster and every time I feel like I can trust staff and I believe that they're moving forward, it goes backwards and I feel like I was duped. That's not a nice way to make your users feel. As a player, that really really sucks. And it's why I cancelled my Goddess subscription.

Maybe the feedback isn't always sugar coated, and maybe sometimes staff would need to look past the emotions of the poster to see why they're upset, but at the heart of it there's always been a reason for it. The people who get really upset get to that point because they're so invested in the site! They're loyal users and they want things to improve. But instead of that loyalty being met with staff at least taking their concerns into account, they get in trouble and get told to stop complaining. At this point, it feels like staff doesn't care about feedback because we are so often completely and totally ignored.

Things were getting better for a while, but it feels like we're back to a skeleton crew with bare bones everything. Like always.

Pet sites are not dead. They may be less popular than they were at their peak, but other pet sites can get over 3k users online without trying. The problem isn't pet sites, it's Subeta. Staff have chosen not to keep up with the trends and innovate the way other pet sites have. Maybe it's an issue of money or time or resources, or all three, I don't know. But the problem isn't the genre.

I'm trying to figure out what was the last thing that made me go "Whoa", something that completely blew things out of the water, and I'm struggling to find something in the past few years.

Subeta did its thing - its routine events were mostly all fine. There were a couple hiccups and faux pas (HI KINKWEAR FOR SURVIVAL) but overall, Subeta didn't fail at anything. The changes that were done were properly done, so kudos.

But, in the innovation department, the site plays it far too safe - and this is why a good chunk of the userbase is underwhelmed. There is just so much of the same old one can do before it gets a little dull.

Personally, I rarely see more than 150-200 users online during my (rather lengthy) play sessions – I’m no stranger to missing peak user activity periods because of my time zone, but even taking that into consideration I must admit it feels a bit barren.

The vast majority of the community-based activity on my account – shop sales, replies, and what-have-you – happens while I’m AFK for the night, so once I’ve finished my silly little tasks it tends to become a matter of waiting around until tomorrow for something to happen. Subeta is the only place where I really feel that divide, off-peak hours in other online communities definitely quiet down a little but they don’t reach what feels like a standstill.

I mean, being able to RS the main shops without much competition around and have the items stocked when everyone gets online is pretty sweet, sure, but given the choice I’d definitely rather have a larger and more active community overall.