I don't mean to baw, but has anyone else been waiting a hell of a long time? Is that normal?

@/Dotty

before last year's rule change i had two pets in the queue for about a year, maybe even a bit longer, who promptly got kicked out when the new rules rolled out

after that i had ruu nominated around january/maybe february and he got kicked out some weeks ago, so now i fixed his profile and he'll hopefully win someday haha so i dunno how long the average wait is. but i feel you on waiting ages q ___ q

I had my pet Genia in the queue for a while before the new rules and she was kicked without a notification. I put her back in after fixing her profile and she was rejected 3 hours later about the links not working and no credit given (which was bizarre since the credits were just fine). Put her back up and it's been about 6-8 months since. Not to be a brat or anything, but it does sorta seem like a lot of the ones being picked are popular people around the site or close friends to the staff. Again, it's what it feels like to me, not saying to start anything for anyone.

I think that's my biggest fear, that I've been waiting the entire time and then he's just gonna get booted, without giving me a reason, and I have to start all over again. Do either of you know how the queue actually works? I mean, I assume its not just done in the order of acceptance? So.. do the people in charge of the spotlight just choose.. based on.. the ones they like the most? I can understand choosing a pet thats relevant to a recent site event - like the current spotlight and the Feli beanbag revamps, but if its always done on a 'which I like most' system then IDK whats to say someone's pet isn't in the queue forever? Can staff see how long a pet has been waiting? I have so many questions o.o

Thanks for the info! Can I ask why the winners are pulled at random? It seems to me like doing it based on who has been waiting the longest (the order of acceptance) is a much fairer system - unless I'm missing something? I can't help but think that with luck against you and with new pets constantly being added, you could potentially never make the spotlight.

I want to apologize for like, all of my profiles suddenly popping up in the update queue. But I changed my username and didn't want a pet of mine to win and then have "user not found" in the profile or something :O (Plus a couple of them just looked terrible, and my coding was messy lol. Thought I might as well fix everything at once!) I really appreciate your efforts to get us all caught up!

And it's definitely not them playing favorites or anything, don't worry ❤ One of my pets won about a month ago, and I'm hardly popular, and I think I annoy staff more than anything lol. I get really impatient wanting my babies to win, but it'll happen... eventually ;)

thank you so much for the reply and all the had work!! o v o i used to be one of those people who never credited anything bc i was just 'eh i did everything so it's not necessary' lmao.......

"Can I ask why the winners are pulled at random?" I wish I had a better answer than, I have no idea. That is how it was set up and even if it were changed NOW, then we really have no dates when things were moved to the win queue for anyone already there so it would still be a big jumbled mess until those older ones cycled out. I mean even I have a few pets that have been in there forever (I did NOT judge those for anyone curious) and have not won. I am however going to see about adding the weekend winners back in so we at least can get through more!

Please don't take that as shaming people for updating! I am just saying that it could make your wait longer! If you need to fix things, fix them! But there have been people in the past that you couldn't even tell what they updated because they were so small! I really do appreciate fixes though!

It used to not be a problem and then a few bad apples spoiled the bunch so to speak xD

Oh no no, I didn't take it like that at all!! ❤ I just meant, sorry for dumping a bunch of work on you is all, and this thread reminded me to say it ^^; I knew it might make the wait longer, but they needed fixing :)

And thank you SO MUCH about looking into getting weekend winners back in! It would be great to have them at least for a while to get the backlog cleared!

I'm in the same situation- changed my name, but because I completed my profiles and they were nominated before the use ID scode was added in I had to go edit them to fix the names in the credits.

I said it as an opinion because everytime I see a winner, it's always either the same people, popular people or friends of staff. It wasn't meant to be a stab. I've been trying for years to get a pet into the spotlight. And not a single pet has gotten a win. It's just something I've witnessed, as un-popular as it may be, but it is my opinion. It just doesn't seem as random as stated.

Sorry about what happened with your pet. I haven't submitted any of my pets into the queue yet, but I plan to do so in the future. That's honestly one of the biggest fears I have on this site: that I try my hardest to stick to the rules yet end up get booted. :(

And I believe I saw someone asking for help with coding a pet profile....and the pet wins spotlight a fews days later. 😆

Haha, Yaretzi and Zalu have been in the queue for ages. I really need to work on my pets, though. I've accomplished jack shit lately.

I've had Alice and Genocidal in the queue for quite awhile, at least a couple months for both.

I'm not sure what finally got Alice to stick in there. I kind of want to re-write her whole story at this point, but at the same time, might as well not fix what's broken. Maybe I'll wait for her to win and /then/ rewrite...

And... I'm always doing more stuff with Genocidal, so I wouldn't be surprised if it takes them awhile to win. :') But that's good, because I intend to name-swap them as soon as I have an open slot, and I wouldn't want them to win with the wrong name, not after I added more to their story and made their actual name easily mentioned therein.

Before the spotlight overhaul went through, I'd have pets in there for half a year to a year before they would get kicked out or would eventually win. It's gotten a lot better, I'd say. If Asriel or Star Dream get in the queue anytime soon, it'll probably be a long time, but it's worth it + means I have time to swoop in and make little changes if I notice them,

Also, in terms of encouragement, especially :

Work hard on your pets, talk with friends about how your profiles look and come across, and whatnot. Observe the winners and the way they format things, the similarities despite differences, those sorts of observations: reverse-engineer what works and make it your own. That's how I make everything! And I'm a total recluse who somehow wins spotlight stuff anyways. It's also way way easier if you have some sort of support system, or even just proofreaders to catch things. A close friend, a significant other, a creative group, any of those can really help.

If you don't want Genocidal to win with the wrong name, let me know. As I said, it is random once you hit the win queue so if you are there, it could win tomorrow or next month xD

That's super sweet for you to offer, but I don't mind too much!

It's still a very relevant name for them to have, and I think I have my yearly loyalty box available as of tomorrow/after rollover, so even if they do win (heaven forbid), I could swoop in and namechange them soon enough. :')

Thanks for the info on all this! I was just going through the forums and came across this board which is awesome cause I have always wondered how spotlights work. Any-who I think it should honestly stay as a random system. Although the people in the win queue are subject to win at sometime they don't exactly know when which still gives it that competition feeling.

I remember when my pet won back in 2010 I was so excited haha

Error 502 - nominated 23rd May 2015

laughs he's been waiting in that queue surprisingly patiently for an error :P (and I'm amazed it's been that long since he was nominated to be honest - I hadn't realised it was over 2 years o.O)

My pet Tarvik is in the queue for more then 2 years now and Kyron is close as long in it. Marcius won not to long ago ^^. So yes it is normal for pets to be in it for a long time and I guess Tarvik is simply a very unlucky fellow ^^ He was kicked out several times bevor that time and I had to fix him again and again and now he is waiting for ages to get the random draw ^^.

Thanks a lot for the nice explanation how the PS works anf hopfully the WE winners will be back to improve the situation a bit =).