If a user hasn't logged in for a long time, and their pet names and/or username is at risk of being taken due to inactivity, I think they should first get an email notification letting them know that if they don't log on within x amount of time, the consequences are y/z. I think username and pet name recycling is a good idea, but some users such as myself don't mean to leave our accounts inactive (life happens) and a little reminder to visit our Subeta account would be much appreciated. Other users who aren't interested in the site any more, would simply ignore the reminder email and the names would be recycled as normal.

I dislike this idea. A lot of people wait a long time for pet or user names to clear, and I think if you can't log into your account once in a year by your own idea then the names should go to people who actually want to do something with them. I think the most likely response to a reminder for someone who hasn't been about for nearly a year would be to log in to save their things then remain inactive for another year.

I'm sure somebody could argue why we shouldn't have it, but I don't see why not. Just one single email, though. Not a chain of emails constantly reminding people. Just the one that might end up in spam, or get overlooked, or ignored.

This idea was brought up in 2013 World Ocean Week .

I think made a very good point

[Quote=sopheroo] I'm against it because I find it very negative.

Instead of sending e-mails about something bad about to happen to your account (hey, we're about to delete it), I prefer having e-mails that have reasons for people to come back, and better, to have people stay.

People aren't going to stay long term if the e-mail they get is just about "hey your account will be deleted". Most of them will ignore it, a bunch of them will log in and never come back and a minority will actually stay for more than 72 hours.

With newsletters, especially sent during an event "We're doing this this this, we revamped the battle system, we're about to have a massive site layout. we released this this this pet", there are not only reasons to log on the site, there are also reasons to stay, which I see as being a lot more positive overall for Subeta. [/quote]

"names should go to people who actually want to do something with them"

We all play and enjoy the game differently, it seems unfair to say one kind of user is more deserving than another?

"I'm against it because I find it very negative. "

I can't view that thread. But something being negative-sounding doesn't seem like a good reason not to send it. I'd of appreciated the warning.

I receive the newsletters, which in a strange way, made me not realise how long I hadn't logged in for. I've had a busy year and there's been a lot of games I haven't had time for, or forgotten about. A simple email saying "We haven't seen you in a long time!" would've been nice. I didn't realise it would be such a controversial request.

Eh I think it's considerate enough that the site no longer purges inactive accounts and simply makes the username and pet names up for grabs AND allows free name changes to people that got sniped.

Thank you or mentioning about the link, I guess it was the topic= code that isn't working for older topics.

[Url=http://subeta.net/forums/view/889362]Actual working link[/url]

As for not paying enough attention to newsletters or remembering that you've been away for a long time, I think that it's always better safe than sorry and take 5 seconds to log back in to the site.

[Edit] Nothing about your suggestion is controversial, just people not agreeing with your opinion.

I don't really like this suggestion. All it takes to keep your account active is logging in once a year, and if someone can't manage that then I don't see why the names shouldn't be up for grabs to players who actually play the game and support the site. A reminder notice would just lead to inactive accounts taking up good names for longer.

But inactive people / people who aren't interested in this site anymore would probably log in due to such an email and then never log in again until the next notification. I think more active user and people who actually play here deserve those names more. But what if you could set an 'vacation mode' for a specific date, when life happens? And when you haven't logged in one month after your set date ended your account will become inactive.

I mean, I get that life happens. But for an entire year? Throughout a full year, you can't find enough time just to log into a site that you apparently care about enough to worry about your pet names being taken? I find that hard to believe. If you forget about the site in that time, yeah then it kind of sucks but you didn't seem to care enough about keeping those names to bother logging in so? It's not like they hide the fact that inactivity leads to names clearing.

claim

I think I'll have to step away from this thread as it's making me feel defensive. It feels like people are accusing me of not enjoying or supporting the game.. I've put a lot of real-world money into this game. Maybe I'm taking these comments too personally but it's just coming across that I'm not a good enough player to deserve my user/pet names.

I can see peoples points that some people would just log in and then disappear for another year. But I also don't see what the big deal is with that, it just means some names being taken up... But I've never craved a name that badly, except when it was a name I used to have (on another site). But if I or someone else was the first person to have that name, then that nostalgia wouldn't apply.

What I originally meant by negative is that should Subeta send you a newsletter, they should focus on giving you positives (so many cool features, wow, you'll have fun) to come back, not negatives (we're about to delete your account)

Are you going to still be playing in a couple weeks? That's what is important for Subeta, an active userbase that is giving the site pageviews. Active users, even if they never use the cash shop and never donate to the site, is why the site is alive.

The point of Subeta is to have...people play it. Not people clog the servers with accounts they will not use more than once or twice a year.

Hrm. Well, reminding people about their inactivity, like the OP wanted, can't really be done without at least a little bit of negativity. If it's about poking people to avoiding consequences of their acts (or omissions), there's no way out... but in this case in particular, it sure could be softened up. Like the OP said, something like "we haven't seen you in a long time!" or "we haven't seen you since last -insert month here-!" + "here are some cool things that happened while you were away: -insert list of positive things that may make the person log back on-" And then it could have something along the lines of "we'd love to see you back, don't let your account fall inactive!" or not. (That would totally imply consequences to inactivity imo) Mini edit here: After reading 's and 's posts, I now think this "don't let your account fall inactive" notice should be there, at least mentioning losses. It still shows kindness to the user.

Now, when it comes to whether we need it or not... I don't really have an opinion. I think it's a good idea. I personally wouldn't mind to have a couple notices be sent once the user hits (for example) 6 and 11 months of inactivity, but I also think the regular newsletters and the 1-year period are reasonable x:

Maybe Subeta should do it anyway though, since the site seems to be in dire need of more active users. But then it also needs to have some cool things to try and attract those inactive people back.

Don't the newsletters already do this? Give you a little reminder that the site is here and has things going on and wow, wouldn't you like to check it out and all that jazz. Unless I'm missing something?

Quoting myself from the other thread:

Newsletters have gotten a -little- more reliable and frequent since I made those posts, but 90%+ of my feelings still stand.

What was the point of making the change to preserve accounts if those who are gone aren't given the heads up?

Send an email. One time. It can't possibly be -negative- for account retention, something the site seems to need desperately right now (more accounts = more revenue, be it CSC or ads).

I thought notifications were already sent out? Maybe that was another suggestion board I'm thinking of. Could have sworn you got something the day you went inactive.

I get a bunch of newsletters for places I don't frequent that often (not even because I don't like them, but usually because I don't have money/time/energy or whatever.) If they send me yet another email about new features, it's just white noise. If I got a notification that I was going to lose everything I might've spent years or real money building up, I'm going to pay attention, especially if I didn't even know that losing my stuff was a possibility. I've seen quite a few boards where people came back and wanted to know why their pets suddenly had numbers in their names.

You could argue that people should be more aware, or that people logging back in out of fear isn't true loyalty or whatever, but it just feels like a bad business move to not send one last email before somebody goes inactive. The risk vs. reward seems very small. True, I might log on for a day and then disappear forever, but I might also get obsessed with it again. I've had that happen with old videogames I haven't played in years. However, if I lost something on a site and only found out after the fact that I could have saved it, I'd probably never go back to that site. Or I'd be really bitter about it. I'd definitely be hesitant to invest time and money into them again.

The idea itself is good, but then again there sure are people who don't play anymore, then get a reminder and either they just want to check what this site acctually is about OR they just don't want other people to get their Username or Pet names even if they will log out and never log in again a few minutes later. There are Users out there who wait a long time to finally get their Dream USername or Pet name and then they seen the "Last Seen: 350 Days ago" or something and then the next day it says "Last Seen: 5 Hours ago", then they need to wait another year just to see the same thing happen?

It's already enough that they don't just clear accounts anymore. If your Username or Pet name gets taken and you acctually come back you get a FREE name change for the taken names.

Im all for this suggestion. I have times of absence every now and again, but I always come back. I'm sure at one point my absence was close to a year. So what if people only log in once a year? Its their pet, they named it. I do support purging of names that have been inactive for awhile. But at the same time, if someone only wants to log in every once a year just to keep the name, so be it. You don't deserve to take the name just because you have been stalking their account forever.

Also, I do absolutely nothing creative with my pets. I train for battle and try to get the gourmand achievement. Does that make me less of a player than someone who spends countless hours developing their pets character? Does that make me less worthy of the names I picked for my pet?