I agree with other people stating that this explanation makes no sense since it's supposed to be a masquerade and the people are supposed to be anonymous anyways. I don't really care about the longer wait time for mystery dances (although an announcement about this would have been nice, as well as an introduction to this feature at the beginning of masq letting people know they could do both options at the same time), but PLEASE consider changing the events to include the user names of friends dancing with you so that it's easier to invite them back? This is the case for kissing and for me it simplifies things SO MUCH! If you really want to encourage people to dance with friends, this would help a lot.

It's not really fair to extend the timer after introducing a prize that's awarded at random, and only a few days before the event ends as well. It would have been better if you extended it earlier so it doesn't look as bad. And I was using it as a timer for regular dances too.

as someone who dances with a friend as well as mystery partner every time the mystery timer is up, i don't understand why this was the solution, as obviously all it takes is to Tell People They Can Do Both.

i didn't know i could use both options, either, and only found out by chance, so why are the users being punished for poor communication? idgi

The border is extremely common, and there is always next year to get it.

I think I got the border around my 6th or 7th mystery dance

I don't believe the intent was to punish users. It comes off as a punishment because of the poor reasoning that was given.

Just my opinions on this event and events in general:

We all know the way the main dancing is setup now is no more social than the mystery dances, they both just rely on a click if the button and receive prize system. The whole point of people's names being hidden on the event boards is so that you dont know who you are dancing with under the mask until after so you are still dancing with strangers.

It doesn't take long for anyone that does mystery dances to see that they are just better than dancing on the forums. While I do believe the intent was to encourage people to use the forums more for dancing, I also believe it was to cut back on how many mystery dance prizes are going out every day.

I am fine with the increased timer, I just wish these things would be better planned before the event happened instead of an afterthought where people feel like they are being punished for poor communication among staff.

It would have been nice to mention in the news that the wait timer increased. I couldn't figure out why my alarm timer was wrong until I actually checked. I don't care that it increased, I just hope I can get the achievements pretty quickly so I can go back to not intently keeping track of wait time. I have more than enough trinkets to probably buy out both shops multiple times over (like over 50k total) I don't need more trinkets, I was liking the other prizes we can get for mystery dancing.

Also, I didn't realize at first you can do both at that same time. Granted it took me a few minutes to figure out because I wondered so I tried.

i don't think i made any other point than, yes, it comes off as punishment. doesn't matter what the intent was, when they could've easily made a statement regarding the increase rather than let people find out on their own. idk, i'm sensing a pattern here, lmao.

i don't care that they did it, but how it's been done, if i have to care at all. rather than increase dance time (negative reinforcement) because stats are saying users neglect to use both dance forms and instead focus on one over the other, inform people they can use both, and why not when a user faces more prizes that way? (positive reinforcement; encouragement).

the former sparks a negative response such as these threads. designing an event/interface to be used a certain way versus actual user interaction is something to taken into consideration when taking a feature live. in this case, communication would've bridged that gap.

honestly i don't care as much as it looks but i'm frankly confused as to why i was tagged when it ain't that deep and i wasn't asking a question. :p aight i'm out. in the end, we appear to agree and all this is directed at staff

tl:dr; communicate with ur userbase lol

That was my bad. It was only the first piece that was intended for you, the rest was my thoughts on the matter haha.i will go edit

Personally, I'm fine with an increase to 15 minutes between dances. I have thought the prizes were almost too generous (I have more tokens than I'll ever be able to use!), but the enticement of those occasional bites of CSC was really exciting. ^_^

I am also one of those people that use one timer for both mystery dances and regular dances, so my overall dancing will probably decrease (not that I've been online to dance much, anyway). But it's fine!

While I'm fine with the increase of time (I only log on once or twice a day to send out dances, accept the very few I've gotten that way, and delete the 1-5 notifications) it does seem a little odd that it wasn't announced that 1. the different dance types counted separately and 2. that the timer would be increased for mystery dances.

Mystery dances are basically the only way I've been participating besides clicking on some peoples dance links in the news comments (and posting mine there but getting no dances) because the forums aren't really usable for me right now as they keep having problems loading. I'm personally not concerned with tokens but I can see why some people are seeing the slower timer as a punishment when an achievement was just released.

It's also discouraging to see users say the achievements are common when many people are going dozens and dozens of dances without getting anything yet. Some people are just more lucky and while it'll be possible to get next year, its tempting to try and get now while its "easier" and new.

Of course, as I said, I'm no longer a user that spends all day on Subeta. I log on at lunch break and then maybe after dinner, so the Mystery Dances made me feel like I could get more done / help more because people could send me dances and get their prizes and not wait on tired old me.

So...part of the explanation for why this was okay to do 3/4 of the way through and on the same day as the announcement regarding the new achievements was that the achievement drop rate was "very high".

I've been dancing for a day and a half as much as I am able with working full time (back in the office and not at home) and I have not received the mystery dance one.

I was also the person Feral referred to on the first page who was completely unaware that mystery dances and regular dances could both be done at the same time. I don't recall it working this way before (maybe I'm misremembering).

I also don't know what everyone is talking about in regards to mystery dances being overly generous. I got a lot of them before the multiple changes were made and I got hardly any that weren't a few trinkets or something worthless like the tortoise hat thing. I appreciate that it was generous to some of y'all with hundreds of csc since the event start - but I don't think it was actually that generous to most of us. It still is primarily a few trinkets and occasionally a bag or a quest point or another cheap wearable. I think I've gotten csc twice? Maybe I just have really really crap luck when it comes to this site, idk.

i also had no idea you could do both dances at the same time... i feel really stupid now. :/

i don't personally care the timer was increased because i'm not doing them to the minute anyway. and i guess i can see how they were regarded as too generous, since the mystery dance is simply better in every way besides the timer. finding someone to invite and waiting for them to accept is tedious. and like others have said, doing the "dance with the user above you" threads are basically mystery dances anyway. only with more waiting.

i'm honestly confused about the reasoning given though? i don't know what it matters if you dance with friends or not. is that really the reason for the timer increase? and if that really is the reason then why not simply point out you can do both dances at the same time? and yeah the whole strangers thing being bad during a masquerade??? i'm definitely not as invested in this as i probably sound. i mean i really don't care and i'm not upset or anything. it's that i'm like, lol huh?

i don't know how to put this without sounding like an ass so i guess i will anyway. but why are ways to get free csc introduced (mystery dances, bathhouse) and then there are attempts to steer users away from them (increased timers, refusal to allow alerts)? again i'm not upset, only... confused?

I didn’t know that you could use both dance options, I thought you could only use one until today, like many others. I don’t remember it being this way previously but perhaps I’m misremembering.

The wait time doesn’t bother me at all, but I do think the way the masquerade event functions should be more clearly explained.

I agree that there is an issue with informing users with some aspects of the events. I'm a fairly new user, this is my first masq and often I have to google stuff and look in the old news posts and/or comments in order to find out quite basic tips (like the fact that you can dance in the forums and use mystery dances at the same time). Same thing happened to me during survival. You totally can find that knowledge but I wish I didn't have to go digging to access it.

I'm totally ok with the time between mystery dances being increased, tho. They feel like too good of an alternative + no need to deal with laggy forums, so 15 minutes is still quite generous. Just because the time is increased doesn't mean it's some kind of active punishment towards users when the prizes are so much better than regular dancing (that reasoning keith gave doesn't feel very honest tho lol, for all the reasons other users mentioned above).

A bit weird that the increase happened when the new borders got introduced & was a bit sneaky, no info about it in the news post. But at least it made the achievement more challenging, I guess. I got the rave border right away and that's all fine and dandy but that steamwork one is way more my style and that's the one I'm after :P I'm not opposed to having to do quite a few of mystery dances, even if I won't be able to get it this year. That still gives me something to work towards and I don't think it's unfair, honestly.

Does anyone remember if there’s usually an FAQ thread for Masquerade like there is for other events? Maybe this year was a bit hectic and it got forgotten, if that’s usually the case. If there isn’t usually one I’d highly recommend it for next year!

Oh wait! We can dance both ways at the same time? I had no idea and have only been using the mystery option.

Mystery dances have been so generous to me I have like 3k in each trinket currency from all the bags of trinkets going out and I don't get many dance requests either, so the bulk of that came through mystery dances. I'm not even super active on the site, so not sure if I'm lucky or what ..

Now, my main hope is Vesnali to be changed up because that's a holiday I really need oodles of currency in and finding flowers and sticking flowers on others takes longer. :s Lazy. Sorry. ; __ ;

Honestly the mystery dance option just has so much going for it: -Higher token output ,the trinket bags came so often that I just started selling them at some point. -Better other prizes, The last couple days I have mainly been using it for that sweet 25CSC -No need to wait on other users to confirm the dance. -Less effort to keep your dance partners varied and therefore being able to see more nice avatars. -Not having to deal with the laggy forums -Just needing to refresh the page for a new dance partner.

I barely danced via the forums this year, the 'normal' dances I did get in were via the "please dance with me" banners users put up. that and the mystery option were simply way easyer.

While it would be a shame to do away with the mystery dance maybe more people would keep using the normal dance options if the expanded prize pool was added to normal dancing. Also, maybe a mystery dance option where only people from your friend list are in the pool, Keeps you dancing with your friends without all the hassle of navigating trough the forums. Place it on the same timer as the normal mystery dance as to not cause a unfair advantage.

Edit: since people seem to be misunderstanding what I am saying, I do NOT mean “replace the mystery dance with a version where you can only mystery dance with your friends”, I merely ment it as an additional option. Making it only usable with friends would make it unusable for me and my friendlist of 0 people too.

So . . . Keith is getting mad that, out of the two options that he introduced, users vastly prefer the one he doesn't want them to prefer? Am I reading this right? The increased timer for the option that Keith doesn't like sure feels like a punishment to me.

Sorry, but some of us hate the forums with the fury of a thousand suns (can't stand the lag, dance threads move too fast and people get skipped, dislike having to beg other people.)

Also, holy fuck Subeta, can you have all your ducks in a row before an event starts for once? The forever forum lag, the new borders being introduced with only a few days left, the wardrobe bugging out the first week? Jesus. Your own events are not a surprise.

Usually I'm completely on board with staff needing to communicate things via the News where everyone can see it but for this I'm just like... meh. I mean, as soon as you refresh the mystery dance page you can see the time's been increased. It's not something people aren't going to notice unless they're not paying attention (which is entirely on them).

I also don't care that mystery dances are now every 15 minutes instead of 10 because they are very, very generous. I've gotten a ridiculous amount of trinkets and at least 800 csc. Probably more, but I didn't keep track. Just for keeping the mystery dance tab pinned and refreshing it whenever I remember.

With the rewards you get from the mystery dances it makes sense to only be able to dance 4 times an hour.

The border thing being introduced in the last week is something I'm fine with too. I've already gotten everything I want from the shops so I'm only doing the mystery dances for stuff to sell. I'm not invested in the event. When the borders were introduced I became more invested and hopped back into the forums. It made sense to get people more invested in Masq partway through rather than just letting it die off a week early.

And idk what the solution is for people to be more social. I totally get how filling the database with "claim" posts is annoying and there's zero socialization there. It's also frustrating that the forums are so slow to load because they always are plus there's hundreds of "claim" posts hogging resources.

As for the lag and the wardrobe not working... yeah, I'm frustrated with that too. Lag's always been a problem, same with major bugs. I dislike the new Subeta style and it just seems way too buggy honestly. I get why it's being made but I like the current style and at least main areas of the old site work. I'm tired of going to the wardrobe and waiting ages for it to load or for it to just not load ever. I don't know what was wrong with the last version of the wardrobe except that it wasn't on the new version of the site. At least I almost never had issues with the last version..