ramattra wrote:it seems like the site is a lot deader in general, though i couldn't say why. i've always been involved in closed species and UMAs on here but the interest and activity in those forums is NOT the same as before. it's really sad. i almost wish they would do some sort of revamp to freshen the site and maybe attract old players back? or bring in new ones?
i can see a huge difference in activity from when i was first really active in 2019 compared to now. even now umas / species feel dead.
i cant find where he said it, but nick doesnt want to update the code behind the scenes. which would make sense if it were relatively up to date -- but this website is almost 20 years old. if things arent directly breaking as a result of that or security issues are not found (which. is unlikely for old software but thats another matter) then at the very least your userbase will get bored of the stagnant nature. sure, we get a uniquely themed summer event each year (which is great! i love the variety in pets compared to say. the constant themes of valentine's and halloween) but,,, thats a week or two out of the entire year. i dont think we need more events per se, but cs really needs a new coat of paint. id rather sit through the possible bugs and maybe the inability to use certain features as theyre upgraded than. sit with what we have for another 10 years.
ive really only been active here for 4 years and i used to play every day! but before yesterday? i hadnt touched the oekaki in about 4 months. i hadnt really even
looked at cs for a month or two, and i cant even say its because ive been busy, coming from someone who almost drew on the oekaki daily. i have no university classes over the summer and i dont have a job. the oekaki is imo the most outdated feature. i think the rise in umas contests to cs's outdated nature: people can get twice as much work done in half the time and effort. the biggest species from 2019-2020 (kalons and keldines come to mind) are... well, dead might be a little dramatic and overexaggerated but compared to then? a complete standstill. the only ones i really see going on with steady activity on the oekaki anymore are ones where line edits never happen -- or are so infrequent the clunky nature of the app doesnt make a huge difference to the productivity of the species anyway (we are ignoring chicoons, the spiders georg of our situation). and now?? wermz has afaik surpassed the giant that was kalons in adopts,,, in half or less of the time. i dont know how kalon nursery batch numbering works and frankly i dont care enough to dig through all those images, but in main adopts last i had checked and can remember there are far more wermz now.
on the note about discord: even those feel inactive. i remember there used to be tons of art servers! all i'm in are species ones now and aside from wermz are pretty much completely inactive. i havent seen a cs art discord in a couple years now either. theres really no motivation to visit cs outside of events and maybe the beginning of the month. nothing ever changes. theres only so many palettes and themes you can use before they all start to feel the same regardless, especially since line edits are not common outside of special occasions. and the more people that visit once or twice a month, or leave entirely, magnifies the problem. because now the existing userbase has fewer and fewer people to interact with.
any updates are a rarity, and even then theyre usually very minor. like the dark mode. which last i checked wasnt even finished either but. yknow. i dont use it because the contrast is too high for my eyes so maybe its changed since then. i think the effort needed to be put into the website to keep it going would be well worth the effort. updates could be made much easier for nick, and itll bring more interest back to the website. even if nothing outside of the backend is changed initially, i think it might interest people who have left or have debated it to maybe stick around a little longer, because something is
finally changing and whatever comes after might be interesting. but it at the very least shows the site is maintained and cared for. who knows, maybe updating the code might make it easier and safer to bring on extra coders to help nick.
