Hi I would like to suggest a slight change to mysterious melody. It can be a little disheartening to get something which is clearly the cheapest thing they could get or a piece of coal or a vomit filled pastry!! yep really :(

It does put you off taking part.

Can I suggest that to reduce disappointment it would be better if it could be possible to enter a category of mysterious melody eg gifts worth up to 10000 sp items up to 50000 etc At the moment I fear that those of us who enjoy the spirit of sending cute and fun things, will be put off from playing over time, as those who are using it as a point making exercise may mean that it becomes a bit of an unhappy experience.

I dont think it is a bad thing to encourage people to be kind especially at this time of year. thanks

No Support. This is the exact opposite of what Mysterious Melody is about. Therefore, it is not an improvement.

I understand where you're coming from, but even with that suggestion there's nothing stopping a user from entering the 10m+ gift category every day of December and waiting for expensive things without giving anything back. :/

I thought the idea of mysterious melody was for people to send gifts to one another that they might like, to show kindness I thought it was the intention that it could improve the community spirit in subeta overall

If you mean it is supposed to be a surprise I agree with you but a shock or a hurtful feeling is not I think what is supposed to be the intention of mysterious melody

A newbie starting out and sending a gift only to have a pile of poo returned as I did once years ago, would quite possibly be a bit disillusioned about the subeta community generally which is why I made the post.

You are quite right it is possible that even with a catogory available some would still abuse it I simply hoped to throw light on what seems like a negative so that people could come up with a solution to make it a happier experience for everyone.

It should be what's in your heart, not whats in your wallet. ¯(ツ)/¯

I don't think its possible to come up with a solution. Some people will accidentally join - I did one year and while I sent gifts even though it was an accident it was still stressful. Others who accidentally join may not always be able to send gifts. No doubt people also join thinking they'll participate but something comes up and they can't. Others may not understand how it works.

Then there will always be those who want something for nothing. And, sadly, a few trolls who want to send coal and other mean gifts.

The only way I see to fix it is to change your (generic you) attitude. Decide on one of two courses of action.

1. Join up and send out a bunch of gifts and if you get stuff back, be thrilled. If you don't get stuff back, be satisfied that you made someone's day.
2. Join up and send something small and seasonal and see if you get a response. You'll still be a little disappointed if they don't join in, but at least you won't have invested a lot of time or resources into it and can try again another day.

I know and I appreciate that. I've had some disappointing experiences with Mysterious Melody myself so I haven't participated at all in years now. I definitely do agree that it's really disappointing when you get the feeling that your partner only signed up to get gifts and not to share the fun, or that they signed up just to be rude.

I'm not sure if anything can be done about it, though. :c These kinds of topics come up every year for Luminaire and nothing ends up changed because it's a complicated issue. No matter what's implemented, people will find a way around it because MM is anonymous. And if usernames are revealed at the end of the day, there's going to be a lot of angry and upset people arguing with eachother, which really isn't good either.

thanks for that, I had not realised that this had been a discussion in the past, I suppose that shows that it is a bit of a problem for some others and Im not just imagining it.

I dont think usernames should be sent as I agree, it would be trick,y but I do feel it must be possible to develop a kind of pool where you allocate a gift that you have chosen and a gift is returned to you that someone else has chosen from a similar price range..the only reason for the price range is that hopefully it could help to ensure that people play more fairly.

Naturally changes couldnt happen this year but I hope that someone might consider how it could be tweeked for future years.

I think its a shame that kind people are being put off from taking part as you and I clearly have been ... bit by bit that means the people left playing are more likely to be those who are being unkind etc

I think a solution is possible with a change of format such as you send the gift when you click to join the mysterious melody that would avoid the problems with mistakes forgetting etc I agree that the current system can be worked with if you choose to see it differently, I simply felt it might be useful to see if we could think of a different way of providing mysterious melody so that it was a more positive experience.

I agree that the mean minded troll types will always be there, but I would prefer to make mysterious melody less of a playground for them, so that unsuspecting subetans dont get a bad experience and I believe it is possible with a bit of adjustment :)

One of the best things about subeta in my opinion is the way the users treat each other here and the way the staff get involved, unlike another pet site I used to be a member of. I just know that a negative experience is so off putting for new people coming along.

I don't currently have a dog in this race as I haven't touched MM in many many years. The prospect of potentially 24 hours if being interactive or being considered a complete bust by a total stranger gives me a ton of anxiety; this site feature, as it sits today, is not for me.

However, that in mind, I would actually like to see more suggestions and discussions because the concept of MM I enjoy. It's the execution of it I have issues with.

I'd really love a "one and done" MM swap, option. Where you sign up, you include 1-5 items (of any price range) and hit that "let's do this button". It pairs you with another random person who's also included their 1-5 items and items are swapped. Done, end of transaction. Everyone is guaranteed 1 item and you can be as generous as you please.

I'd also appreciate an option to end the MM for the day, if this isn't already a thing-- is it? If so then, maybe I may partake a few times. If not, it should be. If I'm being bombarded by fairies and red balls I would like the option to say no thanks I've got enough of my own thank you. Equally, I would just want to send some things and opt out an hour or so later.

i was thinking that would've been a nice compromise between the regular mysterious melody and something like you're talking about? i used it once or twice, but it wasn't super active so usually my item's "trade lot" would time out and i'd get it back... bit of a bummer, i'd've liked to have used it more.

My partner today sent me cheap-ish gifts, but they sent me a mountain of thank you's/you're awesome's because I sent them a few millionaire center things. Some people just don't have the sp, people being excited and grateful is pretty nice.

I do understand the feeling of getting something that might come off as aggressive or rude tho, I wonder how common that is.

Honestly I think the MM needs to be removed altogether, and instead people can join a pool of 'active participants/users/whatever' and send a gift to anyone within that pool instead, randomly. As it stands, the MM is a poor feature and as someone who has been on the site for over a decade, I've barely used it because of poor experiences.

Alternatively... basically everything Andrea has stated, haha. I think this is an excellent plan.

Thats really interesting because it sounds like subeta has already built a 'gift swap' in the past, as you say that would be a nice compromise.

I dont think anyone would have a problem with low sp value items, its more the feeling that someone set out to be unkind which leaves a bad feeling from something that I hope was intended to feel good, I dont know how common it is but I have had it happen to me a number of times, I wasnt going to play again this year but decided to give it a go as I do like the idea behind it, its just open to abuse as it stands at the moment, and from what people have said it could be different if subeta staff feel it is worthwhile of course . Im glad you posted on this, because I think it helps to show that people might be missing out because MM could leave you feeling horrible.

Personally, I would love to have a timer on it. I don't bother with it because I feel obligated to respond with a gift for like, the whole duration of the day. It stresses me out. I would like to be able to say "I would like to do this for an hour only", but the system currently doesn't allow for that.

(I don't know if this is a good idea, I'm just throwing it out there.)

Have a separate MM, where you need to donate 1m to join? The donation goes to gifting random items worth the same amount in the end, just like present giving.

My thoughts: I'm reluctant to suggest this, but I'll admit that if it results in a better experience, I'll gladly take this option if it's available.

If you want to make sure to get stuff back while also keeping things relatively mysterious? I'd suggest just going on the forums and signing up to give a gift to the user above threads. You don't know who's after you unless you stalk to forums, and while you don't know what you get until luminaire, it's a great way to be able to give and recieve luminaire gifts. I don't trust the mysterious melody any more. Too easy to get burned, and sometimes if you send gifts that AREN'T expensive enough for your mysterious melody's tastes, they'll kindly send you a bunch of stickers telling you to go F yourself. And they'll spell it out one letter at a time. Some people are petty. And to be fair sometimes you won't always get something nice on the luminaire gift above tree threads either but you can at least try to give and receive things you think people will like.

Whoever Palpatine's Mysterious Melody was is why I'm against removing the feature in general - there are people who aren't rich in SP or CSC, but are rich in heart and are very grateful.

To the peeps who are worried or anxious about the "I'm obligated to send as much as I'm receiving" or "I feel like I have to send stuff all day" that's really not the point of it. The forums and the Trading feature can help ease those feelings and you can still participate in Lumi that way.

Not trying to being mean or tell people to get over it, but there's really no way to fix MM without removing the anon aspect of it, which defeats the purpose. Maybe submit a ticket if you feel like someone is being rude on purpose?

I don't really care about receiving something of equal or greater value. I've been here a long time, I've got a hoard of nice things that I have no use for/can't be bothered to sell. I like the idea of mysteriously giving people stuff, but I don't like the anxiety of handing someone a small amount of relatively nice items and then ignoring them for 16 hours because I've done all I wanted and am cashing out.

I also don't like the idea of getting someone who has 5657457 annoying fairies (hey I already get enough, thanks) they feel inclined to unload on me without any way of escaping.

Could I just anon gift box? Sure. I could take a whirl through the forums and pick a handful of random items but then I'd feel like I had to look at their wishlists and hope I had something on it offhand and then it's not really as much fun as it sounds.

Overall I get enough remarks of "anxiety sounds annoying why don't you just get over it/ignore it" irl, thanks.

This is a suggestion board for ways to make site features more enjoyable, if nothing changes I don't mind. I don't use this feature already, I can just keep not using it.

The main thing about Mysterious Melody is that you should enter it wanting to give a bit of a smile to your partner, not expecting things from them.

I always get frustrated when people quickly send over 500k items and then turn around and go "But I just got a slots spork!" that is part of the game, the risk.

I've never had a partner that has given me anything more than 20k and I don't really care. I sent the items I wanted to send and moved on with my day. If you want to have something with set prices, maybe start up a gift exchange on the forums or someting.