I've been a member of Subeta for nearly eight years, shy by less than a month. During this time, I've kept my interaction with the Subetan community very limited. I've participated in only one small-casted but long-running roleplay, and I've pretty much only taken to participating in the events with limited user interaction ("Claim" for the Revolution vs full conversation for Vesnali random events). This is vastly because my perceptions of the Subetan community have made me very uncomfortable with trying to talk to people here. Up until recently that is, where I've been trying to come out of my shell a bit more.

That being said, I want to know how other people here perceive this community. Does it seem friendly to you? Does it seem rigid or intense? What sort of experiences have you had that have shaped your view of this community? If you want I can explain my own perspective as well, and what's made me feel the way I do about this place.

I personally have been impressed with the Subetan community. There are some rude and crabby people, but I've seen a lot of kindness here. I'm not a very talkative person on the site; I feel weird jumping into forum discussions if I don't have anything to add to the conversation. But the site was very consciously built to promote social interactions-- getting currencies by interacting with other users, completing sticker collections by sticking each other, etc-- and I think that has really paid off. I mean, the Luminare season alone; I'm blown away every year by the generosity of many of the users. Same with the Wishing Shrub at Peka-Boo. I could only grant one wish before I broke my bank, unfortunately.

I'm sorry you had a bad experience before. May I be the first to extend a hand to you as you turn over a new leaf?

Aw! That's sweet. I absolutely wouldn't say no to that.

I'm glad your experience has been so positive. That's not to say my experience with the people here is purely negative either - I have two or three people on here that exchange gifts with me on Lunimaire, and while I didn't wind up having any personal interactions with it I did see some of that going on with the Wishing Shrub. (I didn't participate mostly because that whole system just confused me and I didn't get a chance to sit down and figure out what was gong on.)

^_^ I tend to stick with a small group of friends too; its just easier for me that way. I'm glad the site is flexible enough that you don't have to be too social if you aren't comfortable with that.

For the most part people are nice but damn the salty people here are extra salty. For some reason some of the encounters I've had here have been much worse than elsewhere on the internet? Which is sad because this is a pet site that's inclusive of children. Elitist snobs do not belong here. I think this is less because of the fact that it's Subeta though and more of the nature of pet sites. Idk why pixels on a screen generates this sort of behaviour, in my experience.

It's gotten a lot better since the removal of the debate forums, to be honest. I think some members might have come here only to be a crab and argue with other people which, again, is not something a pet site that is available to younger children needs. I should not have to argue with people on whether or not my identity is valid lol, especially not here. Was very thankful the debate forums were removed because I think they added a lot of bad energy.

I have met some extremely wonderful people here though, and even though I'm not really friends with anyone everyone is pretty damn nice. I've gotten a lot of very sweet gifts from people I don't know at all, met some awesome people through commissions, and just in general been impressed with how often people go out of the way to help each other. Some people suck but most people here more than make up for it.

That's definitely something I'm glad for too, although I have experienced some sites that pretty much do make you communicate more with people and it's generally been a pretty good experience. The communities tend to wind up being a bit more close-knit, so everyone learns how to deal with one another. But then, I say this knowing full well that somehow I actually seem to be one of the few who is able to avoid all of the drama on those types of sites. Go figure.

Hm, actually you might be onto something there with the "nature of pets sites" bit. I'd never thought about it before but it does seem to be pet sites that have the kind of communities I shy away from the most often. I am definitely going to make a note of that.

Ah. Despite how long I've been here I actually didn't realize that once there was a debate forum and now there's not haha. Mostly because I've never really paid that much attention. Personally I love debates, but only as long as the people involved in them are respectful to one another's views and the overall air of it is positive. My personal motivation for debates is to learn and expend my views, not just to argue.

I've always had trouble sticking with pet sites because people either become elitist about pets, or they become elitist about other things you can collect/do on the site. And then some people just have bad attitudes. I find it frustrating as someone who's never been great at keeping up with the trends.

Oh yeah, there were debate forums. They were removed a year ago? I think? Debates are great and can be really useful but. They're not really useful on a pet site. At all. I doubt many people's real world opinions actually changed because this stranger on a pet site said something lol. Plus most of the "debates" were along the lines of 'is x sexuality/gender real' or blanket statements on why someone thought something was shitty disguised as a debate. Things that are generally awful lmao. There were only like three real debates I ever saw in them, most were migraine inducing excuses for making people feel bad. So the community feels a lot calmer with the forums gone. If people want to debate they should go to another site for that.

.< Ouch, glad I largely missed those forums. I was on Neopets before this, so I do appreciate that the Subeta Team doesn't censor everything to keep the peace, but I come here to unwind; that is the opposite of the experience I want out of a pet site.

I do still see some disgruntled conservatives commenting sometimes, but I think they tend to chat amongst themselves away from the rest of us now?

I have enjoyed my time here, thought I tend to keep out of the forums. Love my cult too! I know there tends to be a lot of drama though... I think there's a tumblr about it... but since I don't get involved that much, just the fact that I know about it is a bit telling about that side of the community. Like said, extra salt. There's always some clamor about things not being "fair" which, you know, life isn't. My teahcer bias is probably showing on that though. I even remember an event where the site released the "Sour Grapes" as... let's call it a homage to the whiners, that's how bad it gets.

I've never been one who's even interested in keeping up with trends myself, but I do still tend to find some of that behavior irritating because it usually shows a great disrespect for other people and their values. Yeah, that's crap. I'm not going to pretend I don't understand why they would take down the Debate forums, but it is unfortunate that people would have acted like that.

"I think there's a tumblr about it..." I absolutely agree with that statement, and that's exactly where my problem lies.

To be honest, despite all the onsite or offsite dramas and negative things (which I'm not involved in anyways), I think subeta still has the best community, at least across many pet sites. I love how that there are a wide variety of users here, so no matter how oddball you are, you can still somehow find a niche to be comfortable with. I'm eternally grateful that I met some of the most amazing people on subeta, and I can't imagine ever losing touch with them ever again. It's like friends for life ❤.

I just wanna enjoy a pet site. I don't want to have to feel like my avatar has to be dressed a certain way, or I have to have pumped a certain amount of real money into my pets for them to be good or know a certain circle of people to be worth talking to, etc. Subeta's pretty great about not encouraging that sort of environment but there are still people like that who sometimes pop up and make people feel bad for no reason.

The Debate forums were fine in theory, bad in practice. The biggest problem was when both users and mods started objecting to some of the meaner-spirited 'debates' people started yelling about their right to their shitty opinion being crushed (y'all can have that shitty opinion but that doesn't mean people won't call you out for it). Which led to it being yanked to avoid the problem all together.

Exactly, yep.

Overall though, Subeta's one of the best pet sites I've ever been on. Lioden's pretty great too (I hope mentioning other pet sites isn't against the rules?) it's just harder for me to click with people there.

That's awesome, ! I'm glad you were able to find some really cool people here. That sort of makes me want to know more about you and the oddball-ness you mentioned actually, haha. Love the avi, by the way.

Mm, that sort of makes me hope that maybe Subeta is better than I give it credit for.

Overall the site is great, the majority of users are very kind and helpful. The staff is especially great. But I've personally had the worst experience here than on every other site I've ever visited.

That drove me away for a year, now the problem from them seems to have calmed down alongside the people causing problems but you know, bad memories stick much longer.

Idk why, but on here it seems like the 'black sheeps' have the need to personally contact you to make you feel worse, as if we don't play this site to forget our RL problems and have some happiness. I wish people would just realize that we're all just people here and that that comes before any virtual issue.

But again, it has gotten so so much better than before. I've been back for 4 months and only had 3 incidents where people were a little bit rude for no reason. And 20+ times where people were kind and nice and easy to talk to. Just don't be discouraged by the few people who are not. (:

I've got to say that my experience on here has been completely positive.

I've met some of the nicest people ever. I also have always found the staff to be very kind, and quick to respond to any problem I had, big or small.

The community here is so far above the community on Neo that it is a pleasure to be a part of.

Hope you have a beautiful weekend. :)