I've been away for a bit cause of life stuff so there was a lot of things that were mentioned or covered already. I read through all of the posts. I feel like I covered a lot that I wanted to in my one post in the
What's your current opinion on this site?
So there's not a lot more I can add to what I already said.
Staff Favorites/Influx of Art
I agree with what Crash said and it's pretty much what I said on my original post in that thread. This is an Animal Crossing forum not an artist site. I like art and there's a lot of awesome creative artists here. But there's been so many members here who have expressed what I or Crash have mentioned and either left or no longer participate in the events because of this. I feel like there's a divide with our forum on this consensus. There's a lot doubling down on the art part and going full speed ahead. I've always mentioned how I think there needs to be more tasks during events that aren't about art. It just seems that there's something like 90% art tasks and like 10% other stuff.
This is coming from someone who just recently started doing events more actively, 2021 and forward, the art part of the events feels a lot more strict. I'm not even talking presently with the 'effort' situation. I'm talking like 2022 or so. It feels like the events are catered towards veteran participants. So in its baby stages the events/art tasks were more lax and as the years went on staff pushed the envelope to match the experience of their participants. A few years ago out of curiosity I went digging to see what old events were like. The staff favorites back then would've been considered low effort by their standards now. This isn't an art site though, so there shouldn't be some kind of bar they keep raising for what is acceptable.
I'm saying this all without any disappointment of my chance in getting a staff favorite. I don't care about that. But what I do care about is how exclusive the events feel to a lot of members to the point that they either left, don't do them, or have expressed how hurt they are. I never thought about it, but if picking a member to win more than one staff favorite doesn't net them anything extra why not just put them down as honorable mentions so that someone else can have a chance?
Different event tasks
I really liked the canvas crossing event. There wasn't any winner there. It was just members gifting other members art. I do hope this comes back in some capacity. I suspect the stocking stuffers was supposed to be a return to it, but it was kind of bad timing with it being during Christmas and all. I only managed to have enough time to do one, but overall there wasn't a lot of participants that time because it was during a very busy and probably not ideal time for many.
Misc.
I also really like the hug reaction. I know that's kind of dead now, but I've only just now had time to come here and read this thread. It would be nice if there was some spacing between the reactions in case of a misclick, but I don't know enough about design and coding to know if that's too much effort. And it's something I can deal with anyway. It's a nice reaction for certain threads because before hug there was only like and love. It always felt to be in poor taste to me to even use like, especially in the what is bothering you thread.
I also agree with what others have said about 'do not respond' ect. Through the years I've been here there have been a lot of alarming posts about self-harm. Everyone doesn't like unsolicited advice from time to time, but if you're going to post concerning messages you should expect people to reach out. A forum is for social interactions. So even if what you're posting isn't concerning and you're just expressing how much you hated, loved, or thought some game was a steaming pile of garbage, you're going to have someone respond to your posts.
What do you look like?
Also, I forget that the selfie thread is a thing. I never used it and never intend to. I will say this though, I used to go on an official Sega forum. There was a similar thread. Out of curiosity I checked it and found the picture of someone I knew. Not that well, but they lived where I did. They always gave me lowkey creepy vibes and always made me feel super uncomfortable. Turns out I was right about them being a disgusting creep. They're now a registered sex offender and were imprisoned for having pictures of minors. I currently have a stalker that makes my life a living hell. I don't think the thread is necessary. Even if you make it accessible and viewable only by forum members, that child predator was a registered member.
The last thing I want to address was mentioned in the unofficial thread, but I don't think it was brought up here. About how warnings and moderation don't feel like they're equal. There's probably a better word for that, but I've been running on little sleep and tons of hours of work lol. A lot of members have already brought this to attention in the previous thread with different examples, but I can't confirm or deny any of those. I do know I got at least two warnings, one where some member was hurt by fake friends manipulating them (no on here) and I replied to them how I had similar friends and how hurt I was by it and I used an abbreviation that while was a curse, was not directed to anyone. And yeah I deserved that warning, but then I would see other members using abbreviated curse words all the time and even staff members without repercussions. It doesn't bother me that I got a warning for that, but you should hold everyone accountable to that same level.
. One of the multiple reasons why I prefer rng events. They are just simpler for staff and members, random winners, collectibles still get in circulation, and people are unlikely to have hurt feelings when it ends.
