Sylestia, as a whole, has been having some issues. Changes need to be made. With some older members quitting, and whole threads addressing the state of Sylestia being ignored issues have come too rise.

Now as a dedicated player, i've been online daily for a little over 3 years now. I love sylestia, and I want it to thrive; but, also being such an active player, i've seen issues arise and have a lengthy(what I would consider decent) player experience too speak on some of these issues.

Recently (in the past few fests i've noticed) 'drama' has risen. With most of these issues players are left to deal with it themselves, with admins not stepping in until prompted. With this point I am not blaming Krinadon, running a whole site almost by yourself can be a hassle and I understand not having time to monitor /all/ your threads (As there are quite a lot). With this comes up the need for player (or even outside hire) moderators. Many games, such as runescape, have had success with player moderators and their are many veteran players who would be happy to help, without pay.

Another big issue is the lack of enforcement or care for the rules. Large issues, such as begging, which are clearly stated in terms of use to be not tolerated is. Even for repeated offences toleration will be made. Even more serious rules such as art theft are tolerated by the admins, and coming into the players hands to deal with. Punishments should actually be handed out instead of players just be given a slight slap on the wrist.

With the above even players who speak out and try to police these rule-breakers (a large example is the caps issue in region) they are berated by other players, and harnessed even to an extent. Another thing to bring to light with harassment, which is clearly stated to be against the rules, many players have to deal with this and is (Once again) up to them to deal with. Others have been allowed to get away with blacklists that under a correctly moderated forum would be dealt and not left to fester in the community.

Player/Admin communication is not taken into awareness as much as it used to be. Admin's (although perhaps not intentioned) are coming off as straight up rude and just ignoring the concerns of players and telling them not to play. Issues like this should be better handled with more player centered responses. As this is a business it is not profitable to drive your player base away.

With all of the above changes need to be made before the site runs itself into the ground with drama and ingame fighting between players. Moderators and rule enforcing are needed and Krinadon, take a look at what needs to be dealt with. Players are worried to come too you with fault for the site, in worry of getting banned. There should not be this attitude and thought, as any idea of pushing the site forward (no matter negative or not) should be considered too an extent.

Players should be listened too and not pushed away. I and the other dedicated members of this fanbase want to see this site stick around. But please, Krinadon, consider what your community is telling you and accept the help of sitewide players and don't push off the concerns and ideas of your players.

Another issue I forgot to discuss is newbies. Now I don't have a fault against Newbies themselves but newbies need to be better educated some the etiquette if you will of the site. Many newbies are not aware of the 'begging' or the 'harassment' that comes with asking a seasoned player "Oh why did you release my pet?" and the like. The Q&A forum just isn't cutting it. A better tutorial and a clearer statement of rules would be of great help, and I think would help the community as well.

(Response to Taptothebeat's point)
Now addressing Taps' point that the admins listen too use, yes they do. I'm referring to the aspect of denial too having player moderators. I do believe this site has a better player/admin relationship then sites say like Lioden and the like. On this site most are aware who are admin is and relationships are built. The issue is with more policy site related things. Art, games, and the like are taken into consideration from players wonderfully. I am addressing the issue of (in large) ignoring player takes on the community. Also seeing where you mentioned being thirteen or older to be on the site, Krin has stated that is not a rule. The rule is if your under thirteen you have to have a parent make your account, but someone under thirteen can still play.

All screenshots are taken directly from threads/chats found on site.


---

Now seeing as how Krin's responded to this yes, I very much agree with many of his points. Although I still stand by some of my points I also understand his points and his take from this.

the lack of rule enforcing is what really gets to me. i cant tell you how many ppl i pointed out for begging. i have a huge block list due to harassers who jump on me for releasing. doesnt look like their getting even a warning. i have seen many multi accters, who are very obvious abt it ( what are the chances you get 2 diff ppl called ironwolf2017 and ironwolf2019, or 3 who post the same exact birthday and wishlist ) and design stealers. i hate even looking thru the games forum. atleast half those are those annoying rpgs they call 'interactive storys' like.. no they are just rpgs that you use to throw your unwanted pets at ppl...
tons of newer players put posts in the wrong spots. one person said the mods dont care. which they dont bc there are none. i think id like to see mods around if they are carefully picked. ( and i really dont want to have to see rpgs in the games forum. i check there kinda alot bc i like design contests, but if there have been any recentley i cant see them due to giant # of rpgs in there

The fact that people are worried about getting banned for reporting is quite sad. And things on site have definitely gotten out of wise in a ton of different ways.

Firstly, the player base has gotten a lot bigger, with that obviously brings a lot more bad players too. I even remember a few years back in comet chat that people would make fun of other players for all sorts of things including projects, personality traits, etc. Players can literally be horrible to one another and it's not getting any better either. There is a few people I purposefully avoid any contact with for sales or anything. Recently in the General forum someone posted a social hiatus because of the community, and I totally sympathsize with that

With that is the harassment for releasing pets. Krin has stated MULTIPLE times, that once you sell a pet it is /strictly/ yours to do whatever you like. Yet, I still have people all up in my PMs telling me to quit. It's obviously not Krin's fault, but there is not enough enforcement for the player base. Currently it's 2 admins : thousands of players. That's quite a lot for only those two and some sort of moderator system might help.

But overall, definitely agree that something has to be done to keep the game running smoothly. It's a growing game and to keep it that way, something must be done

I agree. I'm in dialy (ahem 80% of the time) for the last year.
(Warning: mor emispellings ahead. Mobile sucks, there needs to be a mobile version)

I often go through the newbie list and send a little welcome note that tries to help neveboes go the right direction and know that there are rules. But I miss a lot of hem.

For me , sylestia is where mso tofu my friends are found. It has jsut the right amount of activity for me. I'd hate to see it die.

THere really does need to be some "user junior moderstors" or somwone who can check on threads and things. Full time. The roleplay threads ar mostly fine but....everything else, not so much.

And fests. Less fest. So. Much. Fest.

And....everything has been said. So yeah. Um, I'm not great at long posts but I think you all get the point I hope?


(Darn. Spellcheck ain't helping. Ill come back and fix this on a computer that works)

Ok.
Here's my thoughts:
(If i mispelled something, **** it sticky keyboard and may autospellcheck go to hell. If i broke a site rule by naming other sites....let me know so i can remove it. I....have a bad memory sometimes. I apologize)

As a whole, for being made and run by just one person, that is amazing. I can barely do that. However....

Sylestia is the one place ive found friends who I can be random with that I can "see" daily. I'm homeschooled and like 80% of the kids at my church go to the private, expensive Academy. The others are a mix of everything else. For me, i'm better friends right now with non-academy kids but I see most of my non-academy friends like once a week if i'm lucky. Texting and Instagram....not much there. It's not the same. And anyway, most don't really do social media or texting. Even if they have it.

ON the other hand, i've always, until recently, been able to express myself here. No one really cares if i like putting ><>'s and <><'s and blub everywhere as long as i don't spam. i've found two people that have more in common then many of my friends do. And someone's always open to listening to me rant in festchat. Heck, someone once said they WANTED to hear me ranting about my psychology homework XD. (FOr anyone who's not aware, I have a bad habit of ranting in zonechat. Dunno why. Just do.)

But I can see the difference since I joined and now. Up until around May-Junish, zonechat was, most of the time, pretty friendly. At least o me. I mean, i wasn't as active then but I could see the community factor.

THen suddnely, it all stopped. This fest was the worst. People who'd been doing what they'd always done were being caled out by others for hogging the boards, recieving more then they needed, etc. Once in zone chat I saw two people who'd used to be friendly start arguign a little and one of them ended up leaving the chat out of frustration.

Then there was that releasing debate. 9 pages of aruing that got worse and worse. my views changed during that ime but still....serously? Even older players got in on it and some of them I'd almost never seen in the forums.

I've played on many gamesites and so far, this site has teh best community I've seen. It's active, it's friendly, and you can be yourself (within reason of course).
For example, Neopets has so many players and the "introduction forum" isn't even an intro forum it's a chatterbox area. The team rarely connects with the players on a normal level. And many are under 13 so.....yeah you get the idea.
Then there's Tattered Weave. Great site, plenty of potential. ONe problem? Tiny almost-dead but not-quite playerbase. It's only 3 years old but it's not as active as here-some forums go untouched for days, even weeks.
And Howrse.....well, anyone who plays there knows it's dominated by veteran players. Plus the site just doesn't like my phone.

These are just some examples. But things like the spring fest 26-hour extension and community projects are what makes this site unique.

So some suggestions:
~moderators. DThey don't need payment. THey just need to be active , respectable, knoledgable, and voted on by both the admins AND the community. A moderator choson just by admins will make it biased, it needs to be a community vote as well. iF they don't keep their standards, then the community can vote to toss them and replace them. We have a community poll area. Let's use it.
~The new site. Please. Just pleae. we need this. Newbies get confused by the old outdated tutorial, we older players sometimes end up helping them (I personaly send little "welcome and info" notices), the automatic message that i your first ever PM is out of date (the original menotring thread is D e a d (why do you think i made a new one?), as are many of the player guides (which are outdated). Newbies get confused, lose interest, leave. Look at all these newbies who joined then quit? THousands. We need a new site. Not new features on an old site.
~Less fest. Please. One month (plus two weeks) is too much. From late october to midmarch is all fest. (Fall fest, christmas, winter fest, valentine's day, st patricks day). Then two more (spring and summer) and patriotic. That's so much fest I barely progress in the Lost Grove becasue of it


That's realy all i have to say. Krin, you said yourself you made this site because the one you and Fai were on din't connect with their players. I know you're the only one coding this thing but do let us help. We've been hee long enugh that we might not leave for a logn time. Friendships have been made. THings achieved. Don't put it all to waste. This isn't suosed to be a monarchy. We're here for you. There's a good reason we stayed and your community was part of it. We can help, even in little ways like keepign tabs on posts so you don't have to.

Everyone's human. Stress isn't good either-take care of yourself Krin :) If you need abreak, we're still here, fingers crossed and ready to help.


(Edit: OMG i can't believe i jsut wrote that....that was a literal essay :P well, guess i jsut had to rant a litle..)

I have to agree with this. Usually I do not voice my opinion as I can usually see the other side. In this case, if I let the side that this has always been the way things were and mods could abuse rights, then the site as a whole would crumble soley based on the fact of humans being humans. Ive been playing on this site for ages, and Ive gotta say this is the site Ive played on for the longest. Why? Because when I started, I was still welcomed and told how to play. I got a few pets here and there, but I still had to work to get my pets. I still had to work to level the pets and get money which I could use to buy other peoples pets. Once I started my own breeding projects, I realized how hard it was just to figure out how to set one up which gave me a respect for those who can finish countless breeding projects and max stats. Now I understand why pets are priced the way they are and it makes me sad to see how they have to drop the prices so low to even make any money at all, not even a profit.
I also enjoy this game because of the friends Ive made. Never before have I made friends of a site. I want sylestia to stay the community it was, but with the increasing amounts of drama it cant.
I have to agree with everything that was said before, (no offense to the admin) but running a site 1000 active people yesterday and 7000 active players is hard in addition to trying to revamp sylestia. Some newbies come in and leave feeling not welcomed, finding the game to difficult because they do not understand, or wanting everything at the start. Older players leave seeing the chaos and nothing done about it. Those whove always worked really hard on fest and themed designs are targeted for only the reason that they put time and effort into battling, nurturing, and designing.
THe sylestia community has been great. While before there were a few shenanigans here and there, they have always been quickly resolved through communication. However as time goes on the chats grow more hostile such as releasing and caps (I know I have accidentally used caps, I assure you I did not mean to and a warning is fine but if someone accidentally writes caps once and they get bombarded on it does cause slight issues).
Therefore I agree with the proposal for moderators. They can be carefully selected and trained and people who are trustworthy to not abuse their job. Someone to help guide newbies until they can see that the teethgnawing grinding on sites is what makes them fun at the end. Someone to help enforce the rules however the admins see best. Another pair of eyes to look through the forums before something gets out of hand. They dont have to be glorious moderators, they just have to be there to make sure the community is still the one I fell in love with years ago.

And by the way, I recently was looking at profiles (no I'm not a stalker!) And I noticed....

This one person had pit on their profile something about how their autistic brother, who'd been excited to find a theme, had posted in all caps the simple word Yay!. And the petlink. And then apparantly got harrassed for it and is now afraid to use chat.

I know we have a lot of players on here, new and old, that have autism and other disabilities. Heck, I've got the worst vision possible (one eye is all blind) and a physical disability bt no one calls people out for it (usually) here. That's why I like the site and community.

But yeah. Calling out someone jsut because they caught their first ever themed or misread something or forgot caps was on is a definite no-no. An then the people who call that person out don't get punished and keep on doing it.

I'm not active, so not familiar with the instances. But my experience with websites/the-internet, in general, is that these things are bound to happen whether mods or not, unfortunately. :(

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

As far as the forums go and rule-breaking, I think it's users that are clearly under 13 years old yet still are on the internet that circumvent the rules. It's pretty easy to guess which ones they are, grammar and all.

That said, these complaints are valid. Here are two concrete suggestions on tackling the issue:
- a popup appears with the main rules (e.g. no begging, etc.) on attempt to post reply for a player's first X number of days.
- A notice in red on the art forums on art theft tolerance

Both seem like they wouldn't be too hard to implement.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

For my personal feelings on Sylestia: Given that it's just Krin running the site, I think Sylestia's worked out pretty well, imo. As a user from 2013, I'd say the only qualm I've had really is content-delay (aka megazone, lol, it happens).

I'm kind of surprised with the ["Players should be listened to"]
Idk, I've just been impressed with the amount of effort and care that's been put into the website and the users, community, etc. Krin looks at everything in the suggestion and bug forums and is super responsive to PM's and open to feedback. As a developer, it's kind of crazy that he does all that, and is highly unusual on pretty much any website out there. At least it stands out to me the amount of listening from players that is given. On this point I do not agree.

added a small response too you on main post :)