Realistically, I don't think a hacker would think to hack a frozen account (which might be frozen or self-froze and, in addition to that, probably has a PIN number)? It's not foolproof. Nothing is. However, it does add an extra layer of protection - and if someone is unable to access subeta semi-regularly on hiatus, that can probably add a lot of comfort if anything else.

Great suggestion! Hopefully it gets implemented.

On one hand I do agree that it gives the feeling of added protection, but because staff really have zero involvement with self-freezing/unfreezing I kinda do feel like the current system is no different from leaving an account un-frozen-- a PIN would be more effective either way.

And I legit have no idea if hacking is an issue on subeta (I'd like to think that it isn't), but I can only think of two scenarios where people would get targeted-- they have a thing someone else wants (like pet names, which users can see frozen or otherwise), or someone is attacking the site. In either of those scenarios, a PIN is key and being self-frozen wouldn't do anything to prevent someone from gaining access if they really wanted it.

That said, that isn't really.. comforting at all haha. Like the fact that the site allows users to self-freeze/unfreeze ten times a day if they want to, without any staff interaction is alarming? Like if I self-froze today because I was going off the grid for 9 months, and someone hacked me and unfroze me two weeks from now... they could. Easily (okay they'd need my pin too, but in this scenario we'll say I don't have one), and I wouldn't even know for eight and a half months. By then my stuff/pets would be all over the place and that'd be a HUGE mess and god if I couldn't prove I had those things everything would be gone.

Perhaps there should be something like a 3 month cool-down period for self-freezing, however if you're legitimately taking a leave for a period and won't have access to the internet one could make a ticket and have staff deal with the freezing/unfreezing process? Meaning you'd have to file a ticket to both be frozen, and be unfrozen (and prove it's you via email verification code or something.. like my bank does/all banks should).

The only issue I see with the email part is just the fact that someone can loose an email (be it the password/name is lost, or the service gets disconnected), so that should... probably be taken into consideration somewhere along the line? I mean, they might be gone from subeta for a pretty good amount of time.

I wouldn't be bothered if subeta had something like phone number confirmation, but that might be too "advanced" for subeta right now. (and, to be fair, you can loose your phone/number but if you have both options the likelihood does decrease substantially) - just ideas, I don't know how practical they may or may not be, though. Alternatively, maybe there could be a special kind of self-freeze that you can chose, where a staff member reviews your request before it's pushed through.

I haven't heard of hackings very often, but they have happened and honestly I think there should be more protection for the victim (since I believe if you're hacked, unless say, someone decides to give you back one of your former pets from the pound, you're SOL even if you can prove that you were hacked)

As for the cool down, I just think three months is just overly long. Why not a week or two? It's not very long, but it might somewhat discourage a person. But, as to you concerns on your OP... I don't know. I think some of the stuff is just "whatever" and if no one gives the person the attention they want (ex: the "I'm leaving forever, see you in three days"), they'll knock it off eventually. And, if someone is "debatabley" breaking rules, I imagine they can still get reported (and that self-freeze could become an official freeze)?

I have locked myself out of an email giving fake phone numbers (to be fair, they asked for one years ago before unlimited anything was a thing), and I have no idea how many neopets accounts I have in limbo presently. Though, to be fair just having to make a ticket and talk to someone might be enough of a crime deterrent (that's why there's door greeters at Wal-Mart).

I just know it's really not comforting that there's no staff involvement one way or another. I also know the Wal-Mart my Mom works at (single location) had a $700k increase in store theft from a single quarter after they got rid of their door greeters, they brought them back and by the next quarter the numbers went back to normal because all it took was someone standing there smiling and waving and acknowledging their existence for a great deal of thieves to turn around and leave without even trying to take something.

That could also be effective against serial self-freezers, if they know they have to make a ticket/interact with a staff member, and wait to get processed they might just not bother (especially if they're trying to avoid getting busted for something). I don't know if staff have the time for that per say, but in regards to hacking/potentially loosing everything that'd make me feel a lot better (a pin makes me feel more secure, but still).

As for the 3 months, I really just pulled a number out of thin air. I don't know the number of people doing this constantly (though I do know it happens, and I do know it's not always innocent, and it does cause problems if only from time to time), but I'm sure staff could take a look at the amount of people self-freezing and how often they do it and could find a workable time-frame.

I don't know, I feel like if someone is so concerned with their account that they're willing to file tickets to be temporarily frozen/unfrozen, they would probably also be on top of the email connected with their account. I still think some form of (month+ long, preferably) cooldown period would have more benefits than not.

Just to be clear, there is basically absolutely 0 reason to self-freeze an account. It does not provide any additional security what-so-ever. If someone can get one your account, they can get on your account. If someone can do things on your account, they can do things on your account. Self-freezing does nothing. It also can't prevent a person from being caught breaking the rules. If they broke the rules and staff is going to find out about it and do something about it, that's going to happen regardless. Self-freezing basically has absolutely no useful purpose. Now, if it's being used as a way for people to cause drama with a certain increased amount of anonymity, then not only does it not have any usefulness but it's also causing a certain amount of degradation to the site or community at least. I think the actual solution here is to just get rid of the self-freezing, not to regulate it.

A reiteration on account security: Subeta is a relatively small website, it's well staffed and the staff are really good at what they do. I'm not saying this as a compliment, it's just a fact. If something goes wrong with your account they can and will help you as much as they can, which they have proved is a lot more than most other websites/games. So people have absolutely nothing to worry about as far as being hacked and losing all their precious work or anything like that. Games like this always have systems in place to track the flow of everything that can flow around site. Items, pets, currencies, anything. Once again, self-freezing adds absolutely nothing to that already heavy amount of security...

I had no opinion whatsoever on this until I heard that people can and possibly have been using it to avoid punishment for breaking rules and similar shady things. If that's the case, then I think there should at least be a waiting period between self-freezes, or they are still punished regardless of whether they're frozen or not.

While this has not directly impacted me I definitely see the reasoning and sensibility to it. Totally support.

I am heavily in favor of this suggestion, for both the minimum wait between self-freezes AND a minimum self-freeze amount of time. I am honestly surprised that nobody has suggested this yet and that neither of these things have been implemented with such a feature.

I am for this, 100%. Tired of seeing people self-freezing all the time for attention.

I am 100% in favor of this suggestion, but your concerns about email and phone numbers being able to be lost does make sense. What about, when you go to self-freeze, you have to give a code word or phrase you have to give to staff in order to get your account back? Where you go to self-freeze you type it in, but it doesn't show on a ticket so if your account were to get hacked, they wouldn't know the word/phrase in order to get whatever they were hacking for? It is something you can write down or be a word/phrase you know by heart? I know emails have an option like that, with the security questions and what not...

I'd be fine with that! A lot of emails use it and it seems to work pretty well for them.

One solution to the Freezing while in the middle of any sort of trade/transaction could be the staff set it up so if you self freeze or are frozen your trades are canceled, your CW submissions cancelled etc.

That would help a bit, I think.

Although I still think a limit should be put in place.

I know this is not getting debated at the moment, but I wouldn't want to see self-freezing go. If only because people might be legitimately quitting the site and that might feel like better closure to them? I think it's useful on that situation, or even a long hiatus - it's a quick, easily noticeable flag to everyone that you're not there and you don't want to be involved in any activity on site.

That reminds me Neopets does have a self freezing feature, too. A friend of mine self froze for an extended hiatus and then, when she tried to unfreeze, TNT wouldn't believe she was herself and never gave her account back. XD Today we laugh at it but that's why nobody used the self freezing feature, LOL. It was too much of a hassle and too risky.

If there was a way to request mod approval and a mod had to be the person who does the freeze/unfreeze (as a Neopets "refugee" I used to think it worked like this here as well), it would prevent many people from doing it for whatever shady/petty reason.

There have been many topics about this on the past, with arguments both ways, but I will always support some sort of limitation on self freezing because of the impacts it has on other people's lives. If Bob freezes, you can't even mention him on the forums anymore. Considering Bob freezes day in, day out you might as well be getting in trouble for it without realizing it, because you might not know whether Bob is frozen today. Ceasing business with a person isn't always easily feasible either.

(While I understand the reasoning behind it, I greatly dislike the "cannot talk about frozen users" rule, but I suppose staff can't be babysitting the boards to know whether people are innocently mentioning someone or actively targeting a person so... yeah, I'm not gonna go there.)

100% support for both a minimum self-freeze period and a minimum cooldown between self-freezes.

Regardless of how useless or useful self-freezing is, I guess something, anything, should be done about it. I support limitations, but the cooldown might be a bit too long.

Please make this a thing. It is highly annoying when users make an uproar about freezing and leaving and shit and oh hello, I see you are back no less than a day later. Also, drama. Because I am tired of drama and would like for people to shut the fuck up. So yes. I approve of this.

I've never had problems with people freezing, but I've about people freezing/unfreezing multiple times and causing all sorts of trouble. I think it would probably be a good idea, (I'm not sure how fair it would be though...).

I really like the idea mentioned earlier of showing if a user had self froze and being able to provide a message. That would have been useful when I froze myself last year. :'D

Well, when I get pissed with this place...I get pissed. So, my hiatuses have been for 4-6 months at a time. I mean I've seen people with strikes through their UNs every few days...so I wouldn't mind this, no :)

I do find it ironic that there's a limit for unblocking someone and not this. You can type in a UN incorrectly and block the wrong person....then have to wait days before unblocking them XD

It's much easier to block someone by accident than to accidentally freeze your account.