If I took a hiatus, but I logged in for a couple minutes every so often, would that prevent my account from becoming inactive? And can someone take your username too if your account is inactive? And when they take it, would that delete your account and all the progress you made, or will you just have to change what your account is named?

1 year seems a little short. I've gone on hiatuses for up to two years on other pet sites, though I understand that it does prevent the really good names from being stuck forever on inactive accounts.

Yes, logging in once a year would prevent your account from being marked as inactive.

Yes, someone can take your UN if your account is marked as inactive, your name would change to something like Jevilstail_12345 and when you logged in next, you would receive an alert saying that you can change your name to something else free of charge as someone has taken your previous name. The same applies to your pet names. None of your account would be deleted, you just might need to rename yourself or your pets.

Okay, thank you! That makes sense. That's honestly not so bad. As long as your pets/accounts aren't deleted

In the past once an account was considered inactive they would physically clean them from the system. The site would get shut down for some hours the pets amd user profiles removed and sometimes items donated.

I like the system now. You don't lose anything really. If a name is taken you get the option to rename for free. There's plenty of name suggestions for pets and usernames in the forums. This way when you're ready to play again you DON'T lose progress you had on anything.