Y'all might have some suggestions :)

give your HOT TAKES after work

IM BULLET-POINTING instead of making a long drawn out post that will inevitably end in my rambling haha so... b: (i might come back later and expand on some of these or format it so it doesn't look like im a machine barfing out text)

i guess these fit under rule clarification/updating!

allow people to submit human-based characters into the pet spotlight without needing an animal representation. like, i get it, it's a pet site, but a lot of people have human characters that deserve just as much love & attention as any other, with or without an animal representing them.

do not allow backgrounds from wallpaper sites; a lot of the times these images are stolen. most the times i see background found (insert wallpaper site here) on the spotlight, i'm able to google search that image and find the artist with little effort- and most the time it says their work is not allowed to be used. i don't fault the users here because i feel wallpaper sites are something that a lot of people find harmless? but in truth, they aren't. they're theft all over

my last point just expands into this one on PROPER CREDITING. idk i feel i see a lot of work that's been found on deviantart or artstation mostly that's used but shows absolutely no sign of actually getting permission from the artists to use these things. just because something is credited doesn't necessarily mean it's been permitted for use and that's equally as important! both these things need to go hand in hand; even if the art has been credited, you're stealing if you haven't obtained permission to use it and that's bad

Does colourlovers count as a wallpaper site?

Maybe 2 winners on weekends; One at 12 AM and one at 12 PM (noon) for both days?

Anywhere that isnt by your own hand is another source that you could list. I usually list all of the credit but some times I forget x.x

I believe the rules say to credit everything even if you did it yourself.

I understand where is coming from, but I believe wallpaper sites are used because most users only have a vague idea on what the pet profile background should look like at best. It's already a lot of work coding a pet profile to fit spotlight standards if you don't have a template. And not everyone is artistically gifted enough to make a stunning backkground.

iirc colourlovers is a community run site with people creating their own backgrounds, isn't it? if it was created by the artist, and it says you can use it, then it's probably ok to use

this is no excuse for using stolen images. i don't make my own backgrounds so i put in the effort to find backgrounds created by artists that have expressed permission for their images to be used. it's not hard, it just might require a little more effort than going to wallpaper.com and using any stolen image. seriously, people need to go to the lengths to credit artists properly if they have any respect for their work. someone's vision for pet spotlight is not more important than that artist's hard work

edit;; a lot of the backgrounds i use were found on deviantart or tumblr, made specifically with the intention of being used as backgrounds, and thus permission to use them is given in the art's description. art sites are a good place to start when searching for backgrounds because you can usually find some really good ones that are available free to use! and if you aren't 100% sure it's okay, shoot the artist a message and ask! tell them what you want to use it for and explain how it will be used.

Fair point.

I also support with the 2 winners on weekends idea. I mean, it's not really a thing where one pet wins 1st place and the later winner is 2nd right? ;)

Spotlight suggestion thread, you may like this!

You're not the only judge content for the Pet Spotlight, correct?

it's probably not possible but i'm gonna mention it anyway, is there any way to make the spotlight slightly less random? i was thinking of a pet's chances of winning increasing by like 1% every day it's in the queue or something, so it's still random but at least pets that have been in there for a while have a higher chance of showing up

i also wouldn't mind if users have something like a 1 month "cooldown" before winning again, since i know there's people with tons of pets in the queue but idk, to me one win a month sounds like enough haha

ALSO for people who want high-resolution backgrounds for profiles, unsplash and pixabay have free photos made available by their photographers, so you can credit them directly c:

rubs me grubby hands together

can i say i don't like spotlight

hear me out before the hoards come at me or smth. there are amazing pets and ideas out there by unknown users who can only have their pets seen and nominated by their friends WHICH is a shame !! i want a way to see finished pets without relying on sheer luck finding them. the spotlight feels like a competition which -- in my time -- has earned me enemies bc they don't like how i finish pets ( i have had 25+ wins since it started ). while yes this is a personal issue i feel like theres MANY people who have attacked others bc the way they finish their pets ie not doing anything other than paying for all the content or they don't like the art and make fun of it. a few examples i know of from the past. having the spotlight on a pet makes them unnominable if they get adopted off and the idea changes on their new account. this is ... not fun. especially for people who shuffle pets a lot too. if there was to remove ( which if i recall there is not ) it wouldn't be an issue but. alas.

i'm only on break at work so i'll come back with more reasoning and stuff later.

[edit] okay so how about. just a once a week post to an archive of accepted queue pets and like LOOK AT ALL THESE GOOD PETS THAT WERE COMPLETED THIS WEEK. it leaves nothing on the page. idk how we can keep them from being re-entered besides asking for them to be allowed back in if ideas change etc etc. it allows more than 1 pet to be seen. and it lets a BUNCH go through instead of piling up.

ohh yes absolutely going to second 's feelings on how annoying not being able to get rid of spotlight wins is ;; i actually made a suggestion thread about it last year and tbh i still hold that there should be a way to remove wins from pets, or at the very least have the wins removed when a pet is abandoned/adopted out

I would love if it were possible to send a request to get rid of the "spotlight win" in any case, after the new person has had a pet for 1 yesr for example, so the staff checks that the adoption is for real and not just someone is dropping the pet off and adopting right away over and over

I agree that a win should be removed if a pet is abandoned or adopted out. I agree that it should be slightly less random and love 's suggestion of the chances going up every day they're in the queue. Would that be difficult to change? Probably, yes. But I think it'd be worth it more than a totally random system, which is currently leading to some pets waiting for 2+ years waiting in the queue while others can win within a few weeks.

And that there should be stricter guidelines about using background stuff that either doesn't explicitly state it free for use or states it isn't free for use like said.

Unpopular opinion time; I also personally think that the spotlight boils down to 4 aspects - what can be done with the site itself (the pet's gender, species, color and treasure chest), the artwork (including overlays), the profile code and the story. Of those obviously the last 3 can be 'farmed out' to other users and I think the rules should change so that if that's the case a pet cannot win. If the art, profile code and story are all bought off other uses and then the TC is rad and the pet is anything but common then it's just a competition of who can throw the most money (USD/CSC/SP/ect) into the pet and those who can't afford that much don't stand a chance unless they are also super brilliant at one of the three aspects. At bare minimum I think the code, art or story must have been done by the user who owns the pet in order to qualify.

Going to add a few cents here! These are general ideas I had.

Split the spotlights in categories! Inspired by what [user= Sigilmancy] said:

• Pet Treasure Spotlight (for the GREAT TCs)
• Pet Profile Code Spotlight (code-only reward)
• Pet Artwork (includes pet overlay and general art drawn on the pet's page)
• Story Spotlight (a good story, mostly)

These are exclusive to their own categories, but one pet can win more than one if it's able! For example, if the pet has a good TC and good Art, but has no custom profile code, it would be eligible to earn the Treasure and Artwork Spotlights but not the other two. Likewise, a pet who has only a story written out but nothing else would be able to score a Story Spotlight.

I'm going to second the idea from the other thread of having a pet spotlight "holiday" where multiple winners can be announced each day for maybe a week or so; I don't like this as a permanent solution, if only because it feels like, even now with one-a-day, many users have their spotlight wins neglected at best. I don't like bulk wins in general for the same reason.

Coming off of that, I wouldn't mind seeing categories of wins either as mentioned, especially if there's also an "overall" category where a pet that shines in multiple areas can win. I feel something like that would be able to show off the myriad different talents that profiles tap into, as well as truly spectacular profiles (of which there are many!).

I'm also going to second that we need to be way more careful about crediting and use of assets. I've seen a lot of profiles that use improperly credited (linking to a wallpaper aggregate or similar) and/or stolen artwork, even in wins. I'm not sure how this would look on the backend or how it would affect staff workload, but properly attributing images or using public domain assets should be high on the list for spotlight priority.

I hope this makes sense but, I see a lot of the the same people winning within the two week cool down time (i love to look at the users as well!) so i think a greater cool down, maybe a month would be great!

I also think that a way to nominate without having others users do so, I feel like it's unfair to those users, like myself, who don't post on the forums often or go out of their way to show their pets. Maybe open up a section others can see and nominate pets after they have been submitted? Like an "open to the public for voting" type thing, as I'd love to see more pets haha

Yeah the coy "Oh i'm parading my pet around asking if it's done when I know it is" doesn't appeal to me. Let us ask directly to let other members nominate or do the open public voting thing; Enough votes (Maybe 10 or 15) and you get checked by staff.

i'm happy you agree! i feel like this would help a lot of lurkers? also the current rules makes it so a lot of people ask their friend's to vote which contradicts that set rule in the 1st place?

"dont ask anyone to vote but you need people to vote hehe find another way!" seems.. silly to me