Okay, so hopefully I can explain this well. I don't know if this is something that could be fixed large-scale or not, it'd probably have to be by a case-by-case thing, but...

Back when pet slots came out, and later when they introduced the loyalty totem, the site couldn't tell the difference between the two after you used them. The max was 10 pet slots, but that was for what you could buy - which is why on preferences, a lot of people have "15 from pet slot plushies and early totems (max 10)" in their pet slot breakdown. However, if you hit that limit after using your totems and then plushies, you capped out at 10.

I'm one of those people. I've been on the site for 8 years (nearly 9), so I know I've gotten atleast 7 loyalty totems, all of which I've used on pet slots. (And I think there was one loyalty pet slot totem that was given out to everyone when the site first hit 2,000 people online at once or something like that, and maybe one other time)

Right now, this is my pet slot breakdown: 10 from pet slot plushies and early totems (max 10). 3 from pet slot loyalty totems. 9 from new slot additions (max 5).

(the last one is actually max 10 but for some reason it was never fixed on the preferences page, even though I suggested it in the past)

Only 3 out of all of the pet slot totems I've used are actually counted as such. So, I'm recommending this... Something to see if a user used a totem back at the original max "10", and maybe that person being able to "earn back" those "missing" slot(s). This wouldn't effect people are hit the "high total limit" (ie: 15 of the early totems), just the people who where "stunted" (so to speak)

I'm not sure how popular this idea will be with the rest of you, though I imagine it wouldn't be... too terribly hard to check? Maybe it is, I don't know. It might have to be a case-by-case basis, though I'm not sure how many people from when this was introduced are still playing. But if this can be remedied, I think a lot of people in this situation would be willing to buy slots to fix the gap again, which would earn the site some "missed' revenue?

I've wanted this to be fixed too, but apparently it's not possible to work out who would have these missing slots, and how many. :(

If something can be worked out, I'm all for it. I missed out on quite a few thanks to this, and I would totally buy them all if I could.

Haven't we been told it would be impossible to fix and already been compensated with 1 or 2 slots for this?

I seem to remember that when we changed to the new system of current totems, we have already been given slots because they cannot fix it for everyone.

I thought that was the issue giving out free pet slots in 2012 was all about?

[Quote=checkmate] There was a change with the slots somewhen, and they couldn't check which slots are from plushies and which are from Totems. So all "old" totem pet slots count as plushie slots. As compensation people were given 1-2 totem slots " for free".[/quote]

Weren't those because the pet slot prices decreased by half, so it was a reward given to those that had purchased slots before then?

The price being lowered came with the retirement of the plushies, not the fact that the loyalty system was fixed. The loyalty system was fixed before.

We were really given the slots because it was impossible to track how and when we got the slots in a realistic way.

I have too many slots, I can't actually go and break down how I got them, but I can assure you we were already compensated for that oversight.

trawls through old Subeta news pages

I'm pretty sure that's what the up to 2 free slots back in 2011 was for (it mentioned the totem being fixed to not count towards the plushie limit) -5th April 2011 news page

Best I recall:

Originally totems as well as the number of pet slots a user could purchase counted towards the same "pet slot" pool, which could only be raised higher via totems; meaning if you could buy 5 slots but ended up using 5 totems first those totems ate those purchasable slots.

This oversight was recognized and eventually fixed however at that point it was literally impossible to determine how users had obtained their slots. They could have gone the merit system route but it would have been ridiculously easy to lie unless a user had the absolute maximum amount of pet slots obtainable (max purchased slots, bonus two from being maxed at the time of first price reduction, slot from 2k users online, all LBs, extra freebie slots, etc) then someone could have lied. Like even with 40 pets I wasn't maxed when the plushies dropped in price from $60 to $40, so I could have lied and said I did and just used 2 totems. So staff went the easiest (and best) route when they changed the totem counter and gave everyone 1 or 2 slots depending on how many pet slots they currently had as compensation for the slots they may have been shorted due to totems eating their buyable slots.

This most recent price change (from $40 to $20 and the retirement of the plushies) didn't involve any free slots but instead allowed everyone to buy 5 more slots.

So basically the free-totem-slots were compensation for any slots lost before said change.