@spoot

Ah well-- I prefer a business to be run like one, and pet sites being highly collaborative between devs and users is one of the hallmarks of the job. Even (and especially) for the truly old ones, I'm sure I have a Wajas account older than most of the users of this site. Alas.

yall type so fast oh my golly

@Reave could you not belittle us by saying we have been hosting events as a desperate ploy to keep the site alive? I've been hosting events because they're really fun and we've been building a really cozy community around them. When I don't have time or energy to host events, I either participate in other people's events or step back entirely if I'm just too busy. Though it's always fun to see people active and having a good time, if the forums get quiet they get quiet and they tend to pick back up after a breather.

I've always said I don't care if the site grows at all, I really genuinely just love the amazing core gameplay loop we have and the strong foundation for customizability and creativity the platform offers. I've enjoyed learning digital art and basic coding at points, as well as being pushed on the writing/lore side which I don't consider my strong suit. The lack of icerun update proved for me that I wasn't exaggerating because after my initial 30 minutes of disappointment I realized I actually found a lot of benefits to a slower seasonal and re-access to 2025 items, so it didn't impact my enjoyment of the site at all. In fact, I'm not-so-secretly hoping we don't get updates for the next two seasonals this year and just pick them back up next year (though I consider it a win-win either way, ofc I'm always happy with new apparel as well). I've never doubted the site is getting enough funding to keep the servers running, which is all I care about, because I can confirm amongst the people I'm playing with that we're collectively contributing enough money to at least do that (and the evidence I've seen indicated the devs weren't planning to fully abandon the site, like when the certificate expired and the site went down temporarily last fall but was restored in less than 24 hours -- I understand that other people have their own feelings and doubts, but I've personally never thought the site was at risk of shutting down).

Apologies for the long post not related to the topic of the thread, but it is a direct response to your own comments in this post. Please don't try to ascribe those intentions to me anymore since you've done it a few times in the past despite my clarifications. If you want to call me a liar, at least do so openly instead of implicitly (this isn't sarcasm, I just can't tell if you haven't seen those comments in the past or have and have ignored them). Thanks, appreciate the future respectful adjustment to these interactions! 💖

Personally I haven't had a huge hold up caused by the charges, but I also haven't been doing any heavy grinding. I can definitely see how going through grinding for a specific thing would burn through the charges faster, especially if you're refreshing looking for ww encounters. It hasn't been out for long, so I guess time will tell if it's something that can be tweaked over time to alleviate some of that frustration, something that players just adapt to, or something that just stays frustrating. I mean, I hope it's something that can be tweaked and adjusted to better fit a broader range of play styles lol, but at this point I'm just along for the ride :)

Edit - Actually, came back to add that while I haven't had any frustrations with grinding, I have noticed an increase in lag and freezing while campaigning since the update. I don't know if it's specifically related to the charges or not, or even if it's a site issue or just my laptop, but figured it was worth mentioning.

I think the changes are positive overall, and I don't think we need more interaction with the devs or a community manager. It's a small site, we aren't owed anything. There's no obligation for JimJim to give us anything at all, really. I'm also a pet site veteran, my very first neopet is old enough to legally drink beer in America.