While the idea of giving it to the top 100 (including ties) was good in theory, the lag and issues we had yesterday put a serious wrench in that plan - users in some timezones no longer have a chance at getting it, through no fault of their own.

Perhaps giving it to people who have completed a certain number of quests during the event - 1000 quests, perhaps? That's still a possible goal for people who missed on a day, especially if they have a gold account active. That number also demands a certain involvement.

It's also less luck based than top 100 - remember that we have a random event that can give some people an advantage over others. Having a solid point where the border is given is rewarding dedication, without demanding perfection.

EDIT

tldr:

i support this! it'd be nice not only because of yesterday's laggy start, but because it gives some leeway to people who might end up missing a day because of real life issues and it encourages anyone who shows up in the midst of the event to take part since they can still get the fancy prize (whereas some might see that they're already way behind and decide not to participate).

There needs to be a line. You can't solve one set of issues without it being unfair to a different issue that doesn't get the same treatment.

You get the Blue Sun Sparkle one just for participating without perfection so everyone who participates already gets a nice new prize.

The verbiage of the Gold Sun Sparkle is "Placed in the top 100 participants in a quest-a-thon". It doesn't sound limited to this exact Quest-A-Thon. In the news post Amber also mentions "Keith has bullied me into doing quest-a-thons more often though, so I want to feature different areas of the site with some of the future ones. This time, it's obv pet people + forum people (the title) + anyone who likes their HA (avatar borders)"

To me it sounds like we will have more questathons in the near future and you'll have additional opportunities to be in the top 100 to get the Golden Sun Sparkle at that time.

I hate the shade blue that's been chosen for the "general participation trophy."

Why not just make it CSC and just... be done with it? Especially when the shops aren't restocking right and the usershops are basically making the site want to KO repeatedly.

I'm in the top 100 right now, as I haven't missed a single quest in the last two days, and I don't see the problem with changing the method at all!

Staff couldn't have seen the issues coming, but right now, it's unfair to go and penalize people...because they couldn't be online in the period where the site was actually working right. Because timezones.

Meanwhile, if we keep it to the top 100, a lot of people are gonna be bitter that they missed it, again, by no fault of their own.

I am not comfortable to have people being penalized for something that's out of their control. Even if I do win, what worth is it going to have, when I know that a bunch of people who happen to be in the wrong timezone couldn't compete fairly.

It weakens the victory for me.

So, changing it to award it to people who did X number of quests is better than keeping it that way, or making it CSC. It encourages participation, even if the first day was terrible.

I'm not super concerned about the border but I gave up on questing yesterday because of the lag. I was excited for the start of the event but it was way too frustrating. I can see why people who really wanted the border could be upset but I'm unsure how to approach it?

In the past things have just been extended due to lag...maybe just run an extra day?

No reason to extend it - we're absolutely hitting the needed goal for awards. We're at 400K after a little less than 2 days. I don't think we're failing this one.

In fact, running it an extra day will make it HARDER for people with no GA, no access to Blue Building or Carl to make it to the top 100!

I also like the idea of a top 100, but given yesterday's issues (which obviously the staff did not plan) I think it being do X number of personal quests would be nice! Or at least confirmation if it'll be any quest-a-thon? Especially if they are going to be more often, which is exciting!

And jk re: what was here I'm just bad at number concepts! <3

Yeah I can definitely see the issues with it! I've just never really seen anything else done to deal with lag issues beyond an extension...I'm pretty go with the flow so if I miss out on a prize because I don't want to deal with lag then I miss out haha. Hopefully everyone who wants the border a whole lot are able to work it out regardless!

There can be ties so all 230 would get the award. (per the news post)

I don't know why my brain didn't realize it was any score in the top 100 lol. Thank you!

If they're going to change how its awarded, I think the 1000 quest is too low. Though I do like basing it on quests done, I would prefer a minimum of 1500. Making it 1700 would mean having to do every possible quest (incl. Sarah) for 11 of the 12 days.

My numbers mean only GA users can qualify. I generally don't like pay to play, but with CSC avail for free through bathhouse and morty cards, I don't think its unreasonable in the case of earning an "extra" prize.

I wasn't on in the very early hours, so I don't know how bad the lag was then, but it didn't seem all that bad when I was on. It sure wasn't ideal, but it was manageable during those times (even though I was still seeing people at that time complaining and saying they were giving up, etc. while quests were still moving for me). So given that the top 100 totals, with ties, are all getting the gold border...that still seems pretty inclusive. Obviously, we don't know where everyone else is at, but you pretty much don't have to worry about the people getting all their quests in, for instance, because that still leaves 99 places on the leaderboard open.

I wouldn't complain if they changed it because I'm going for it regardless, but I don't really feel like it's necessary (especially if they do intend to bring it back in the future)

The lag between midnight and 3AM monday was manageable, but pretty terrible.

The problems with the 502 and 504 errors happened later in the day, while I was at work. It happened past noon for sure, but was fixed before midnight today.

We don't know if it's gonna be back, but the border is called "sparkly sun" while the forum title is sparkles.

I don't think the border will automatically come back for the next Quest-a-Thons - we might get other borders, or other type of rewards.

Fashion Hoodie didn't come back - neither did any of the other Quest-a-Thon rewards.

Isn’t the difference between who gets the gold border or not really just going to come down to who gets a bonus wizard quest every day?

I literally hated the idea of 'Top 100' from the second I saw it.

I have the tools and the time to finish every single quest possible every single day. So don't get me wrong, it's not because I wanted it and didn't think I would get it. I'm going to get it. No questions asked.

I do however, think that with any reasonable amount of effort, anyone should be afforded the ability to get it. And this includes non-GA users.

I think "Complete 1000" or even "Complete 1200" would be completely fair. It celebrates people who have worked hard. That's a LOT of quests and that really says "Thank you" to those people who've taken the time to participate and not just do one quest and leave.

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Also did we not just get non-unique pet names because unique pet names were promoting a negative attitude of "I wish people would leave the site!" .... Is this not a similar mindset? "I hope people don't participate so I can place!" Why can't we support each other, instead of fighting each other for a place on an invisible list...?

Hello, I love this. This is the best tldr I have ever seen. :D

That's why I said if :) Someone else brought it up and I didn't look for the actual comments but if they bring it back I don't think anything needs changing. I also logged in at around 1 or 2 pm and it was fine? Not lag-free fine, but definitely manageable. I was on and off after that point and didn't really have any issues personally.

I think just eliminating day one from the top 100 totals would be fine too as a compromise from the lag, feelings about a top 100 limit aside. I don't typically love "top x users" situations either but since this is a case with a cap on the total possible AND ties are all included (so more than 100 users will "win" anyway)...I think it's fine.

Honestly, I agree. The lag was really bad for a good chunk of the day which meant people in certain time zones could barely use the site during the only time they could play.

On top of that, I'm personally annoyed by the Sarah's Quest issue. I don't know how others feel but I remember it being a big issue last Quest-a-Thon that some people dumped their sP in order to do the quests and gain an advantage over people who didn't. Then I think some people got in trouble over it (at least, there was talk of it, obviously I don't know what goes on behind the scenes).

This year, Keith commented on the "Quest-A-Thon: COMING SOON to a quest near you" news post that people could use their forum group's bank to store sP so they could do Sarah's Quests.

Do we really have to read every comment on a news post or search for staff members' names to get this information? This goes back to the constant issue of lack of communication, mixed messages, etc. That's not easily visible to everyone. It's not buried in a random forum thread like usual but it should have been in the original news post.

I didn't know if storing sP to do Sarah's Quests was allowed until today so I missed out on 15 quests yesterday. Those might be the 15 that mean I don't place.

So along with the lag issues making it so people in certain time zones couldn't finish their quests yesterday we also have some people not completing 15 quests yesterday because they were too cautious.

It's a bit frustrating.

edit:

Since the new news post I feel a lot better about how the border will be awarded. I do think it would've been best to let us know in the initial news post and I stand by my complaint about important info being in news comments or forums, but at least we got clarification now and I'm completely fine with how the border will be awarded.

yeah, this is what i realized when i got the event yesterday... like do i need to get that every day in order to place?? i did all my quests yesterday even with the lag; i finished at like 11:45 pm lol. but i can definitely see that other people wouldn't have been able to make it. dunno what should be done about that though. imo the "have done x amount of quests" sounds fair enough. like 1500 or even 1700 like someone else offered. then you can have missed a couple days due to whatever circumstance and still place.

and the sarah quest thing - i didn't realize we were allowed to do the forum group thing until, uh, just now. so i spent like all my sp yesterday in order to do sarah's quests. so i don't think that people who were "cautious" and didn't want to spend/use the forum group thing should be considered, sorry. if you really wanted it you could have spent your sp too. i know that sounds like i'm salty (i'm not, really), but it's just less of a dedication if you were too scared to qualify for her quests... so...