It looks like there hasn't been a Pet Spotlight winner since June 17th? I know it was announced that there would be one winner per week for the summer, seemingly each Wednesday (per the news post on June 9th) but the spotlight seems to have gone "poof". I did double check that it wasn't just the announcements not working, but the spotlight page itself lists the 17th as the last winner, meaning we've gone two full (and one partial) week without a winner. Unless I'm missing something, in which case please tell me!

This Section is Feedback I wasn't sure if it was better to make two boards so I could share these thoughts, or if it was better to put it all on one. Staff - if you want me to remove this section or separate it into a "feedback" board instead please let me know!

I know staff said they needed time to review submissions, but I agree with others I've chatted with - it's discouraging and a little saddening to see the spotlight get so little love. For folks who are here first and foremost for their pets, having a nominated pet sit in the queue for over a year, having offers to help get no response, having the spotlight decreased to once per week, and now having no winner for weeks really does take the wind out of your sails a bit.

While I personally don't utilize / play any other sites so getting a pet completed / nominated is a separate goal (a more personal goal) from winning (a true site goal), I know there are others who do utilize other sites for character or story creation and winning the spotlight is one of the primary things that gives them drive and maintains their engagement on Subeta. I can't blame them for being discouraged and losing motivation.

I am not and do not want to disparage staff, I know they're / you're working very hard on many things. This feedback is meant to provide honest insight into how some community members are feeling, it is fully intended as constructive criticism not an attack.

I'm hoping that the spotlight can be fixed and that there can be ways to make it a higher priority in the future. I know the site needs to prioritize things that generate revenue (without those things the site would go down the hole, and that's the absolute last thing anyone wants!) so perhaps there are some ways to generate some revenue (ex: subscribers) via pet spotlight / pet related channels?

[Spoiler=Ideas] These ideas are from this suggestion board

Spotlight

• Notification when pet has been reviewed (either denial with feedback or notification that they have moved to the spotlight winner queue)
• Community review program with checks / balances for nominated pets to remove workload from staff (some folks have pets that have been nominated for a year or more)
• Possible second nomination queue for subscription holders that gives some kind of perk related to spotlight, be it a promised time the pet will be reviewed in (for example if the average time to review after nomination is 2m the perk would be that your pet will be reviewed within 1m) or if the queue is well-managed then a perk like if the "chance" of being picked from the winner queue is 1% then yours is 1.25%
• Ability to remove historical win and win again for a specific pet (lots of parameters to this, all discussed here)

Other There's been support for a Mass-Read option (more details on the idea on that board) as a perk for subscribers or GA holders [/spoiler]