well, somehow they managed not only to reinstate pet drag-and-drop, but replace all (or at least most, judging by the thread) of the pets into the order selected by the members - no mean feat. the only two ways i know of offhand would be a system restore to just before the crash, or manually recording pet sequences for all members before taking the code offline - both of which present a host of headaches, so big points for making the effort (cynical side must add, unless it was a side effect required by something else they were doing...).
interesting tidbits...it seems Scott is still both a member and an A here, for what that's worth and what it may signify - ran across quite a few folks we thought were MIA, including Corie, in the course of rambling around. also note that after simultaneous Announcements were made by MissJoeyLee (Ron's niece) and ParrotLady regarding the Adobe update, they seem to have standardized on our beloved ParrotLady as the best bearer-of-news, good OR bad. she also hosts the suggestions for games/contests - dropped a note there regarding the site co-hosting some Canaan-style events down the road. we'll see what comes of it...
by the way - i will go back and check myself to be sure, but it seems to me that whenever we had an explosion in Comments and had to move on, we were in the process of advocating suggestions and improvements in the main post at the time. i may be mistaken, but if not, it raises some very interesting questions...once being accident, twice being coincidence, three times (which is the present count) enemy action...sure hope this is just paranoia on my part, very disturbing if it turns out to be the case.
About Me
- GOLD RUSH
- Tabby Road, New Furrsey, Foo S. A.
- i am a seven-year-old virtual Cream Persian FooCat (born on Little Christmas, 1/5/10), the mascot and spokesfurson for FooBA4U, the FooPets members' cooperative service site.
In concerns to your comment on the comments (:P), I believe it's a matter of "misery loves company". Anything to disrupt to create that stir of chaos. :(
ReplyDeleteI do not think it is a coincidence at all. I noticed the trend but was hoping that it would stop when the "new management" began to make things better. But when they seemed to stall it only gave the trolls ammunition.
ReplyDeleteIt is a commonly used troll tactic and is quite effective. Especially in emotional situations. The only way to stop them is to ban the trouble makers. And since you have an open door policy it will not be easy to stem the tide of negative posts. When ever we begin a healthy dialogue with the management or with each other they will have to disrupt. But hopefully the "new" Foo will start to be more proactive and the naysayers will move one. Surely they have other concerns in their lives?
Good to hear that some of the ones we thought had gone are still hanging in there. There are some signs of life among some players. And that is always good to see.
it seems you know alot about troll tactics. takes one to know one, right.
Deletethe victims as well as the perpetrators tend to learn rather quickly how these things work...you cannot counter an action you do not understand.
Deletewell, hopefully the safeguards we have installed will help...it seems sad that whenever constructive change was proposed in a venue that management was (at least at that point) monitoring, attempts would be made to embarrass and discredit the Foop. granted, they did not spontaneously appear except on one occasion, though it occurs to me to wonder if the initial negative comment was a plant to get things rolling. (again, i truly hope this is paranoia talking)
ReplyDeleteIf you are referring to the disruption on the last page Rush, by an anonymous, which was myself, I have to say it's not part of a master plan, it just seems that names recur here in a negative light and I was merely saying it was kind of not needed to keep beating a dead horse. If you'll notice, when it was suggested I drop it, I did. I have no problem dropping a topic in order to keep things going on here, but I sometimes have a problem keeping my mouth closed when I feel other members are still being talked about over things that are passed. If this paranoia is in response to my comments, you need have no fear, I am not here to cause trouble. I come to get updates just like a lot of people, and I would just rather see the updates without player names or persons being cast in a negative light. It seems to not have anything to do with the topic at hand and negative comments just keep an argument going. Those are my feelings on it, but I wanted to reassure you that I personally don't want to derail any work you do here. So I'm sorry if your paranoia stemmed from me. I'll also drop the anonymous so it's easier to talk.
ReplyDeleteno, that was not a disruption, just a normal discussion, and i was not implicating you as involved in the previous...confusions. i agree with your central point, NO ONE should be bashed, though an offhand mention does not technically qualify in my eyes, especially if it is used to underscore a general point. and known personalities WILL end up being mentioned from time to time, in one context or another - actually, it's kind of a backhanded compliment, lol, in a way : it shows they have become a site icon for whatever reasons.
ReplyDeletei also appreciate your setting up a screen name, it does make things a lot less confusing than half a dozen "anonymouses" all posting simultaneously, as has happened in the past.
Read the FP's FB page. And now we have Sophiemom as a new Ambassador. I know, everyone will be cheering, but I will not.
ReplyDeletelooked over the FB, Announcement, and her profile - a bit full of the site and the party line, but at least had the initiative to set up a mentoring program (unless it's being abused as a secret police - as i've never heard of it before i have no idea. will look into it)...we originally created the Foo Betterment Association (FooBA4U) profile to do similar things, but the site moved out from under us so many times that this foosletter is about the only surviving ongoing project. don't know that we've ever actually crossed paths at any point.
Deletewhat are your reservations?
I'd really rather not mention my reservations. She could be a great Ambassador, it's a personal (kinda) reason why I don't trust her. And not really my story to tell.
DeleteDid you guys notice? Directly after a flare up on this thread:
http://www.foopets.com/topics/show/2346709?forum_id=6&page=5&post_count=98, the August update was made? Someone from another site posted all the ways in which this was a BS stall maneuver. To break it down, they talk about all fixes which we didn't care so much about and say their still working on the big ones after 5 months. Nice, but those among us with a brain see this for what it really is. Placating the masses with a bunch of fluff. Also someone from the Loony Club posted on the above thread some things that I was going to applaud her for, but the posts seem to have been removed, go figure.
looked it over...it seems that quite a few posts - in addition to the ones pertaining to the Rozzy episode - hqave been removed for reasons unknown, you can kind of feel the gaps. tossed a post on (cc'd below), we'll see if anything comes of it. if nothing else, it ought to force them to either fish or cut bait...
Delete(from our post on the Forum thread mentioned above :
"one of the reasons fixes go slowly is that previous repairs, changes, and additions/improvements are all built on and tied into most of the existing code structure, and the bulk of what they are trying to mend falls into this category. (think of that game where you must pull a piece out of a stack without knocking it all over. now have it so you are not only taking some out but putting new ones in as well...while several dozen people - conservatively - are standing, sitting, walking around, and generally affecting most or all of the pieces at any given time.
one thought i have had is for them to have a (2 hour? would that be adequate?) scheduled shutdown period daily so they can work on an engine that is NOT running at the time, or at least have a chance to test and try out projected code inserts without having to maintain live play at the same time. alternatively, depending on the needs of the recoding, a once-a-week 12-hour hiatus might be considered. whatever is implemented, having a fixed downtime schedule will certainly be am improvement over random outages and glitched coding.
while i know that this will not delight the membership - and it will take some thought and consensus to determine what time period will affect the minimum of players (and not force our coders to be working at what amounts to 3am their time, lol) - having a realistic chance to get things running properly once and for all ought to more than make up for temporarily not having 24-hour access to the site."
A new ambassador, eh -- and at a time when the natives were getting restless again? Sounds like a foo technique LOL... I do not know sophiemom1 (or if I do, I have no recollection of her) so have no idea whether she will make a good "a". I find it unsurprising that negative posts are simply being quietly removed; it is silly though, because covering negativity up never really solves anything.
DeleteThe mentoring program -- do you mean the "Angels" thing, Gold Rush? If so, I seem to recall that it was started by AuntieCritter. Or maybe it was started up in response to a thread that she began, a thread about all being nice to each other? I hope that all works out, the place needs something more than a simple scrabble after "rare" pets and items. But I still feel that the FooBA4U was a wonderful project and should not have been zapped the way it was.
That August update is a giggle, isn't it; patting themselves on the back for being very busy but actually doing very little about the site problems. Yes, it sounds like a BS stalling trick.
I agree with you, Canaan, the site should shut down regularly for repairs. If it is at a set time, people will learn to work around it. But that presupposes that there is a real desire to sort out the code, and I have to say that so far I have not felt that the powers that be do care that much about getting it right. I may well be doing them a disservice, since this feeling comes after years of watching things get worse.
(lol) that's part of the point - i'm calling their bluff, by offering a practical, simple way to do what they claim they dearly want to but can't because...and i'm really hoping they grab the idea and run like a bunny with it, because it truly would solve SO many problems - and let us move on to making it BETTER, as opposed to just making it work...or making do.
DeleteThe thing of it is- we can suggest improvements, offer ideas, and give them our best solves till we're blue in the face but if no one of any authority acknowledges the ideas or answers the questions we still have, we may as well be talking to a wall. I hate to see wonderful suggestions or important questions left hanging unacknowledged in the forum depths. Do I sound cynical? I wish I didn't have to. I don't know if the problem is the A's and a's just don't continue to read those threads or if silence from them is their best answer but it's an issue that chaps my hide in a big way. Here is an example of questions left hanging in the air.. http://www.foopets.com/topics/show/2376242?forum_id=6&page=2&post_count=35
Deletegmta2000, Azkani, auntieAnnie, OwnedByCatsTo, Lainee, all pose important questions and points and, of course, in the other thread CanaansChild's suggestions are great and thus far none have been answered. ::sigh::
took a look, and couldn't agree more...but while i share a lot of your reservations i just HAVE to keep trying - it may be fruitless, but the alternative is giving up, and i will NOT do that. we have been suggesting and advocating what we see as constructive ideas for the site since this foosletter - and the Foo Betterment Association itself - was founded, and will continue to bat our heads against that particular brick wall as long as the site survives.
Deletei take a great deal of heart in seeing so many long term, respected players coming down on the side of sensible improvements - most of which just involve restoring existing code - and have some hope that not being the only voice in the wilderness may help...
what i think we need in a big way is a return of the votable Suggestions : despite the many frivolous and impractical ones that were posted, it provided a very graphic image of member needs and opinions in one place, where they could not be "accidentally" overlooked.
*grin* Canaan, I hope that your bluff-calling has some kind of positive result. At the least it will be inteesting to see what reasons they might give for not actually trying it. And yes, it is so great to see that other long-term, respected players are voicing support of sensible suggestions. But the game-owners' stone-walling technique of saying absolutely nothing in response to useful suggestions, of ignoring helpful, loyal players and answering pointless side-fluff, is so very familiar.
Deleteperhaps we should stage a Twitter-In on their page...time we aging 60s activists put our expeience to work. anyone?
DeleteHeh neat idea, but this ageing 60s activist cannot fathom the complexities of the twitters and facebooks of today... *wanders off mumbling gently*
Deleteno worries, i'll coordinate it...first, i'll task the next post here to a shopping list of things that were here and ought to be restored, and vice versa - then we stage a mass posting of the link on FB and Twitter, and hope for a show...or a showdown.
DeleteI'd totally be up for that!! Let us know where, what and when! :)
Deleteonce i finish drafting the post, it will be the next one up - and before we bring it anywhere else i'll "take requests" for any relevant areas i may have overlooked. bear in mind that we will deliberately not be overtly confrontational : Traci is newer to FooPets than most of the membership, lol, and has very little to go on as far as what used to and ought to be for this to be a happy, productive site once more. the object is to facilitate creative change...not start a pitched battle (entertaining as that might be on some levels, lol).
DeleteOh, I never want to think of it as being fruitless and I hope that you never give up!! You are the person who gives *me* hope! And maybe that thread just hasn't had enough time for the higher-ups to respond. I'd love for that to be the case. I hate feeling skeptical, I really do. I'd much rather be the cheerleader clapping and yelling, "Yay Foo!! Way to go!!"
ReplyDeleteThat really was quite a who's who of people in that thread suggesting things and asking questions wasn't it?!
Vote-able suggestions? Foo had this and it went away? ::jaw hanging open..:: That would be brilliant! So much better than forum posts that can easily be ignored or skimmed past! ::deep breath..:: and so we keep on keepin' on. :)
I would looooove if they just opened the mart wide as some of the folks in that thread suggested.
I did stumble into a happy find that maybe some folks haven't heard of- The FooWeb Shop http://www.samsom.us/foowebshop/ It has everything that is in the mart arranged in ways that make sense, in categories and by color! I don't have to bounce around and open a gazillion windows now to compare rugs in the mart to see which one I want- they have all the rugs listed side by side WITH THEIR PICTURE so you can see them all!! Same with different types of backgrounds, with holiday stuff organized in it's own categories, etc. Shame Foo can't/won't do that- it sure makes shopping and designing less of a chore. But I am glad somebody did it!! It certainly must have been quite a labor of love to put it all together and my kudos goes out to the person who did it! If you haven't checked it out or heard about it- it is very worth a look. The pictures of the items on the website are clickable and they take you right to the mart where you can buy whatever the item is.
Yes, that is Anita Samsom's great work. Anita was at one time given some kind of special dispensation whereby, at least until recently, people were able to link to her site via the graphics that she supplies.
DeleteYesterday, though, Rozzy told some poor fish who had this foowebshop on their profile to remove that Samsom "outside link", so either the ambassadors are not aware of it or Ron and Co want the shop to continue to be useless. Why would they want it to be useless? Your guess is as good as mine... Maybe they hope that people would jump at any new, high-priced, items if they cannot easily find older ones? Maybe it reduces the server load if people buy fewer items and do less decorating? *wanders off pondering the inevitable weirdness of Foo*
anita (among other things) was no longer willing to go along with the company policies - imagine what happpened to her Feral Pet Park when open fostering was shut down - and while she is not openly in the rebel camp is certainly a sympathizer, and often one of Canaan's event hosts.
Deletei don't think it was so much a special dispensation as that they chose not to pursue the matter at that time - it was, after all, a foo-positive site (then)- and enforcement of the link ban is, as ever, optional and erratic...and for my money motivated in most cases by issues that have nothing to do with outside links. anita was the first to provide star-level trophies, all of which link back offsite, even the one with the pet links, and it was difficult for them to suppress those without looking like proper ogres, and idiots besides.
in the case you mention, it may just be a random case of the right hand not knowing what the left was doing, though - a while back remsie asked singingbadger to remove links. the only ones i had at the time were KibbleCat and the ASPCA food program (which are still alive and well on FooBA4U, along with a few others i not only left active but publicly stated were being left in place - i would expect that if there was planning involved that would have been the main target), and one to a foopet video made for me as a Christmas present - none of which present a threat to the site other than showing what it SHOULD be, lol.
Anita Samsom - who is the originator of the level trophies you see around - is behind that, i believe, knowing her i'm not at all surprised. she, like all of us with member-run shelters of one type or another, got clotheslined by fostering and pet sales restrictions.
ReplyDeleteoh, yes - there used to be a thing called the "general" forum, where you could post a suggestion for the site and people could vote and/or comment on it. each member had 10 votes and could give up to 3 to any one suggestion. as i mentioned, there was a LOT of frivolous/silly stuff posted, and a lot of duplication, but a great many very valid things were put before management that way...this was the primary place where the "beta war" was waged - our thread simply asked for the choice to be restored, allowing those who preferred beta play to have it, and those of us who didn't - a rather large percentage - to have the "old" foo they loved. as far as i recall this took place prior to the founding of the Foop, but you can click on the beta test thread, right, and get a snapshot of sorts.
(also known as "Feedback" - which DESPERATELY needs to be reinstated.)
ReplyDeleteYes, they need feedback, publicly viewable, with responses from them as to what is and is not do-able.
DeleteAlso, I have to say -- the site is currently so rocky in terms of code, staffing (we have only one or two, part-time, staff members do we not?) and reliability, that it should not be considered to be a full game. They should label it what it is -- a game that is in its beta-testing stage during this re-launch -- and they should not charge people to see or play it. As it stands, it is of beta (or less) quality, but people do not find out this fact until they have subscribed, which smacks of false advertising.
If the site were freely viewable and were free to play again -- with a warning, I suppose, that it would be pay to play as soon as it is fixed -- then they would have a large enthusiastic user-base again and fewer people would have a legitimate complaint at the dreadful state of what they are paying for.
And I suspect that they would get a fair amount of cash via donations, or the buying of special items, if they did that -- good will is something that can be priceless to a company.
Given that the owner bought the totally broken site back for love of his "baby" and that he has a full-time job elsewhere, it would make sense for him to fund the site as a hobby, with donations etc from enthusiasts to top it up. As things stand, more and more loyal players are simply leaving as they cannot justify paying regularly for a broken toy.
agree, agree, agree...but once funded, twice spoiled, i think - though the one would think the ultimate result of that sponsoring (Rivet and Janasov) would have taught them something...including the limited practicality of universal pay-to-play. there are far better developed VA sites extant, for all gae groups and mixed age groups, that ARE free - enforced subscription will sooner or later doom the site if they rely on it for cashflow, and as long as it is in place are unlikely to see income from any other (current) aspect of the site, for various reasons.
Deleteand for my money, beta was and is a step BACKWARD for the site, NOT an "improvement". the few positive aspects (InstaCare for those who like it, drag-and-drop sequencing - both of which could probably be indstalled into the "original" code, circa late 2009/early 2010) are vastly outweighed by the negatives.
Feedback wouldn't do any good. They'd just ignore it as they continue to ignore all the good questions on the August Update thread. It's obvious they won't give answers to certain questions, they just answer a few and call it good. And I believe it's an intentional ignoring, not just not checking the thread. Azkani also posted on FB a few days ago, drawing their attention to the questions that had been posed but not answered. No reply there yet either.
ReplyDeletethe idea is to put them on the spot as many ways as possible...we had that problem with the original Feedback, but at least they couldn't pretend that the real issues weren't visible and backed by a significant fraction of the membership. in the case of beta, they had to go fully public as deliberately ignoring the wishes of a large segment of their membership - putting the true cards on the table. if it accomplishes nothing else, pursuing Feedback and other realistic "fixes" like scheduled downtime for codework will get across to the more recent joins - those who have no idea of how things were pre-beta - what the real story is, and an informed membership has a far better chance of working together to get things accomplished. (and who knows? perhaps the horse will learn to sing, and they'll actually use the ideas put out to do god things...)
DeleteOh my god. Please save me from the kiddies on the site. Now they are doing fake FB weddings. Isn't there a rule about romantic involvement on Foo or something, this is just nauseating.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.foopets.com/topics/show/2378222?forum_id=34&page=2&post_count=30
http://www.foopets.com/topics/show/2378306?forum_id=34&post_count=3
I'd even take the Bieber threads over this. Gawd.
everybody's got to have a hobby...(sigh) i've seen worse.
DeleteI'm sorry but this is too precious not to share. On the meebo problems thread in announcements, a newbie comments:
ReplyDelete"im sorry miss joeylee we cant double post"
I am LMAO!!! Yes MissJoeyLee...respect the rules you set down! HAHAHA
(ROFL) did she really. is it still there?
ReplyDeleteHA, yeah it's still there...it's glorious!
ReplyDeleteOk, my last reply just vanished- sorry if this comes up twice.. anyway...
ReplyDeleteIt is glorious indeed- bless her little heart (and right-friggin'-on!) http://www.foopets.com/topics/show/2376796?forum_id=6&post_count=15
Catch it now before it mysteriously disappears! Thanks, S.P,A.M., you made my day!! LOL!!
No problem CLC, it still is making me laugh. I am SO glad it hasn't been deleted yet. I'm thinking of screen shotting it for my Foo funny folder haha.
ReplyDeleteit is indeed still there, and the usual crowd is chiding the little for daring to point out the emperor's lack of clothes...and this particular child has been vigorously harassed for double-posting (among other things) and well deserves a chance for comeuppance.
Delete(i note no flags, so there's no reason Ms. Lee couldn't have just edited in the subsequent info.)
DeleteAlso, Admins are not stopped by flags from editing their posts. I noticed that a long time ago, when Dr Jane kept adding to one of "her" awful "just suck it up" type posts back in the Rivet days. ambassadors can do it too, although it may be that they need an admin to unlock it for them first. I noticed that apparently only admins seem to have the ability to remove flags -- it was always Admin message boards such as Snacksthecat to which people went to get flags removed from rehoming threads etc.
Delete"i was talking to missjoeylee"
hahahahaha yes definitely a thread for the archives. Bravo to the little tyke, it sounds as if he or she has some bravado :))
Yeah I saw Traci on a thread that was mostly constructive criticism about the way Foo was being run. People kept wanting to ask her questions, but she couldn't keep up with the thread as she was too busy editing posts. They would say things like:
Delete"You're on thin ice"
"Removed for content"
"Removed for inappropriateness"
Just read the damn thread! She could have learned a thing or two. Then at the end she locked it because a fight was going on between two members and the rest of us asking stuff never got any answers of course.
Also, she refuses to unflag posts though we know Snacks did it all the time.
while i appreciate the often-flattering amount of "usefuls" my posts garner from time to time, it's still my feeling that the flagging system is more destructive than constructive...if someone feels strongly enough about a post or thread to flag it (in whatever context), far better they come out of the closet and post instead.
Delete(and does she really say things like "you're on thin ice", lol? how, er, "mature". and if something is to be removed, a little more specific notation ought to be made...)
DeleteYes she actually said that. At first a lot of us were confused as it seemed like the player was talking to themselves lol. It was really ridiculous, I refreshed after 2 seconds, and this person's post had been made but already edited. If she spent that much time on the thread, it would have been nice for her to take a sec and answer some of the important questions that were being asked. Instead, she let a fight break out and continue for several pages, edited posts (I don't even know if they were inappropriate because I never saw any of them, she was lightning quick), and then when the fight got bad enough, she said no one was asking any questions, just fighting, so she was locking the thread. Most of us were sitting back and watching the fight and waiting for answers to the earlier questions. Ugh...I just...I can't. That woman pisses me off to no end.
Deleteand so no way of knowing if the "edited" posts were relevant to the topic or not...mmm. if nothing else, she ought to leave the referreeing (lord that looks odd spelled out) to the ambs, as the only "public" A at this point, she really should be dealing with matters a bit less petty.
Deletealso, edited posts need to show WHO made the change - at least shorti made it clear what she was doing whether it was agreed with or not. changes like that do not belong under the original poster's name.
from the sound of it, these edits were for "political", rather than TOS/rule-based infractions - perhaps i should go pull Ron's quote about criticism being healthy and welcomed now, and tuck that into the thread(s) - where did all this take place? there aren't many places where members can launch serious discussions anymore...
It was on a thread in Chit-Chat, but I don't recall if they deleted it after or what the name of it was. Something about why Traci shouldn't be in charge lol. But there were good questions. Just like there are good questions on the August Update announcement that are being ignored.
Deleteif that was the subject i'm not surprised she cam in loaded for bear ... but - strictly speaking - Traci ISN'T in charge, she's the lowest ranking of the Admin extant. she's just the most visible, and the sacrificial lamb/stalking goat for those who choose not to show themselves...and really, REALLY ought to, if they want to retain any credibility at all.
Delete(serious content in ChitChat? well, i suppose there ISN'T anywhere else anymore, and they can hope that anything of consequence gets buried in irrelevancy...but once found i'm sure any true gem keep getting taken out and polished, lol)
I've been debating going back to FooPets and stopped by here to see if any adults were still members. The sad thing is that it sounds like very little has changed...oh well, now that I'm working again I may just get a one month membership.
ReplyDeleteplease! we need all the informed adults - and others who remember what it SHOULD be - we can get on deck.
DeleteI'll probably rejoin this coming weekend (the 1st). This is iLost, by the way...it will be good to be back :)
Deletehooray! early welcome back! (will have to send a housewarming gift...)
DeleteI'm back on FooPets, still trying to find my way around...finally found the link to the forums LOL.
Deletehttp://www.foopets.com/topics/show/2379744?forum_id=34&page=2&post_count=29
ReplyDeleteRead iLoVeFoOpEtS-'s comments on this thread. Notice they've been around since 2010 but only have 3 friends....only 2 are visible. Anyone else think this sounds like Traci trying to make a difference in a different way than her usually blundering?
did a little editorialising on that thread...we'll see what if anything that brings out of the woodwork.
DeleteAlso Traci finally did answer you Canaan. But she told you instead of a feedback forum to take it to Support or the Ideas forum. Because, you know, they look at that forum SO much lol. Total BS. As for your first post, the one with all the awesome suggestions? Ignored.
ReplyDeletewhich thread was that - the August updates? i'll go take a look. i'm losing track...any input on the coding-downtime option? i believe that one was in the Decorator/Foto thread.
Delete(wait, what? we HAVE an "Ideas" forum?)
DeleteYes there is an Ideas forum, unfortunately, the Admin seem to avoid it like the plague so...
ReplyDeletewe-ell, seeing as Ms.Lee specifically and publicly invited me to post there, i do believe that the planned post here (the one intended to be seeded liberally into Foo FaceBook and especially FooTwitter) ought to be CC'd to that location as well.
ReplyDeletethe working title is "Husker Du (Do You Remember) - and it is designed to remind the old members what they had and let the new ones know what they are missing...and if it gets anything close to the attention i think it will (having experience of that forum in the past), they will definitely pay attention to it THIS time, lol.
(and do we actually HAVE any Admin active onsite anymore other than Traci?)
No we don't. Ron bailed after he announced he took over the company, I haven't ever seen Eugene post, and Scott I also saw only on that taking over the company thread. But really, Traci is grating on my last damn nerve. I think I will soon be letting my account freeze. I am waiting a couple months to achieve a personal goal, then I am gone. At least until I hear something good about the site. I'm sick of the sunshine up your ass way they (specifically Traci) treats everything without actually saying anything that makes any sense. They need to dump her and find someone who has experience dealing with a site like this...or at least someone with people skills.
ReplyDeletei'd settle for someone - even Kate - who has long-term experience of the site and the transitions it has been through...we need more than one boots-on-the-ground Admin anyway, it's insane to expect one person to deal with all aspects of the entire site. one of the reasons we and Traci may be having problems with one another is too much work and too little information on Traci's part. (ever hear the expression, "when cornered, grin"? ...she may be pouring oil because she doesn't KNOW what else to do)
Deleteat one point it appeared that Scott had bailed on the project, but he is still present onsite...i may go pull that Boston boy's ears for him, the Big Bad Jesse is gone, he has as much right to throw his weight around as anyone...Eugene is strictly a financial guy, has never posted - anywhere - to my knowledge (and i used to feed his cats).
Ron needs to come out of the woodwork and make a State of the FooNion address - desperately.
http://www.foopets.com/topics/show/2380634?forum_id=34&post_count=8
ReplyDeleteCheck out these thread about the Foo Rebels. I haven't been able to find what they are besides people who want change and things fixed, but everyone is putting them down.
http://www.foopets.com/topics/show/2380622?forum_id=34&page=2&post_count=27
PL actually pissed me off on this one. Why would the OP get suspended for saying that? Seriously, she was saying good things, so what's this inciting others crap?
http://www.foopets.com/topics/show/2380614?forum_id=34&post_count=17
This one ^ is my favorite so far. Everyone is browbeating the Rebels, saying if they don't like Foo to leave, how Foo really is listening, uh, no. Foo doesn't listen to a damn word we say, or if they are forced to, it's in one ear, right out the other. Come on, I understand people not wanting others to start fights in the name of bettering Foo, but maybe a few constructive rant threads would help them understand why they are losing so many members.
I don't see why that would piss you off. PL I think was just trying to head off trouble. Rebel seemed be be asking to be suspended. PL continued to be kind and professional throughout.
ReplyDeleteI don't understand why she was warned about anything in the first place, that is my issue. Her OP seems to be just talking about good things, unless it was sarcasm which it didn't seem to be. So why would PL have an issue with someone talking about the things on Foo that are good right now? It seemed like PL was just there to start trouble because the member was a Foo Rebel.
Deleteif someone effectively dares you to do something, you kind of do need to respond, lol. PL did NOT threaten to suspend him/her per se, just asked if that was what was wanted - i.e. is the purpose of the "rebellion" to create a few public martyrs. (which it well may be) i looked them over and really didn't see any genuine talking points about what needs change or improvement, just a bit of "look at me, i'm rebelling! there's (unspecified) stuff/ambassadors/Admin i don't like! come on, suspend me!" therer may have been preceding threads i haven't seen, but checking the chief protagonists' join dates, i doubt many of them even realise what is really wrong here...just a bunch of bored kids jumping on one side or another of a moving bandwagon. i tossed a post each on the first and the last, we'll see how they progress.
DeleteSo, anyone notice the creative editing done on FB? I went back to look for something, and it would appear that all negative comments from the posts have been removed. And I mean ALL. There looks to be three to five people conversing with each other, but if you read what they say, it's usually in response to someone's post that is no longer there. I see a lot of gmta's posts are gone, I wonder who else? This is not acceptable. Posts should not be deleted unless they are over the top rude. As I recall, some of these were just people upset with how things were going. Not cool Foo. You can't creatively edit the past to make yourselves look good, some of us have long memories.
ReplyDeleteamen, love - and we STILL don't know who has editing privileges over there (the subject was raised around the time of the first Comment explosion here). i don't THINK they can do someting similar on Twitter, it doesn't seem to be organised that way, but the threads there are harder to follow. we'll see what happens when our little infobomb gets set off.
DeleteInfobomb? What are you planning? Or would that be giving up trade secrets lol?
Deleteoriginally i was planning a post here called "Husker Du (Do You Remember?)", outlining some of the good things that have been lost along the way, mostly for the newer joins who literally have no idea what they're missing, and are puzzled by a lot of our criticism of the site. it was to be Tweeted madly on FP's page, posted to FooFB, and cc'd to CF Ideas/Suggestions...i may yet do that, but i just took a slightly different tilt at the windmill HERE, and i may wait and see what comes of that first.
DeleteIt was the creative editing and wholesale ganging up and bullying of members who had questions and comments (some good, some constructive criticism..)on Foo's FB that made me find this blog. I and a few others had legitimate questions and concerns and we were shot down and condemned like enemy aircraft on F'sFB. It was so shocking. At that point it was still very early in my FooCareer and I was very pro-Foo and honestly made my comments with only good intentions and polite questions. But based on the defensive and angry attitudes of those who felt that Foo could do no wrong and that I must therefore be a troll, I knew something else must be afoot. I hunkered down, did some digging and found this place. So all that was to say, TrueMusou, I am sorry but I am also not the least bit surprised to hear that it is continuing. I haven't posted over there since because it was a raking over the coals I didn't expect and didn't deserve and I didn't even fare as poorly as some folks did. It was ugly and then *POOF* it was all just gone- edited into oblivion. I can't help but think again and again that any company with the sense of a toad would take those comments to heart, listen, acknowledge, and then DO SOMETHING!
DeleteI wish Foo could be the way it was the way our vets describe it. If Foo has the man power to delete and edit posts and police attitudes on both the forums and FB you'd think they have the man power to make improvements.
There is another interesting set of points made in this forum that have gone unanswered that I think deserves conversation here: http://www.foopets.com/topics/show/2376242?forum_id=6&page=3&post_count=56
In it, Azkani reiterates, quotes and gives credit to the original author of the question, the questions that had gone unanswered and one of them read like this:
"It would be wonderful to see some new items in the mart BUT it would be just as nice if you were to give us back the entire mart to shop from. Wouldn’t that be easier for you to do since all of the items already have code? Considering what we pay to be here don’t you think we deserve to have the ability to do something even if its just shopping?"
cont.' in next post for lack of space....
continued from this ^ post....
DeleteThis actually got a response from JoeyLee: "The FooMart – the whole mart cannot be opened up because there are many items with glitches and many rare items and some were ClubFoo gifts, etc."
Then, OwnedByCats replied with: "I don’t know that I even believe that many of the items have glitches, since we are still able to buy mart items not currently available in the mart from others scenes that contain these items. And we also can buy anything that isn’t discontinued or sold out if we know the item number for it. If we can buy em that way and we don’t have a problem with them being glitchy why in the world would they become glitchy because the entire mart was restored?
Seems to me the only real problem that is being caused is by the way things now are set up. You are losing paying customers and money that could and would be spent buying foo dollars by not providing your players with items they want to buy. You can make up senseless excuses til the cows come home, but I don’t think they hold much truth. Sorry. I love this site and just hate to see what is happening here.
Thanks AZ, for getting our queries some attention! :-)"
This was one of the best and most clearly stated calls of B.S. on JL and Foo that I've ever seen and I loved it! And I waited with baited breath for a response and nothing has come. Not a peep and that was 4 days ago. If this issue can be worked into some part of the plan/info/infobomb I would appreciate it so much and I suspect that many other folks would too. There are probably more pressing issues but seeing this just ignored as so many comments are is a bur in my fur.
I know this was a long post and I appreciate any folks who have made it thus far and even more than that I appreciate that we have a place that we can come to and talk sensibly, find answers and make suggestions without being shot down like the Red Baron. Thank you. :)
the FooMart, among many other once-familiar and enjoyable aspects, will definitely be addressed...all of which are still there in the coding and probably easier to address than mending glitched-from-the-start items like InstaCare and WS scenes. i plan to give the addressed-mostly-to-management post linked above a day or three (holiday weekend, doubt if they're paying a lot of attention atm) to provoke a response, then will proceed with the Twitter-In.
DeleteI'll take a look in the morning -- falling into bed right now heh...
ReplyDeleteBut I thought this might raise a smile; seems that the Foopets game itself doesn't like Widecreen much more than those of us who pleaded against its enforcement back in the day...
http://www.foopets.com/topics/show/2381740?forum_id=29&post_count=9
(ROFL) nice to be vindicated (again) after all of the vilification we received from management and members alike at the time...wonder what they mean by "fixed on Google"?
DeleteHas anyone read about what happened to AuntieAnnie? She chose to leave and give some of her pets to a friend, the friend got hacked, and now support is shutting both her and her friend down on trying to get something done.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.foopets.com/topics/show/2382332?forum_id=34&page=4&post_count=51
Page 3, read from where AuntieAnnie starts posting, it's appalling.
I felt bad for her and her friend but also was glad to see she was not afraid to post about it. Annie is a well known foo member, her threads and posts have more chances than if they were from an unknown user. Don't get me wrong here, I'm not dissing popularity, not at all. Let me share with you what happened to a friend of mine. Met her in trading. She had been scammed and was trying to get few fds back. Not a known user, elderly woman who was not computer savy.Scammed one, scammed twice...response from foo: trade at your own risks. Ok, fine. Now I will not used the word brat even if well deserved. Instead I am going to use Precious Gem. The scammer was such a precious gem! After the scam she went on taunting my friend. Sweet messages like: you are too old, this is a kid game, are you dead yet? and so on. Sweet gem had few friends of the same quality....it was like a nasty cavalry attacking ONE person. My friend had a second account, she was accused of cheating by the same clique. Why would a precious gem torment an older woman? A rare pet,of course!After scamming her precious gem had the galls to offer for my friend's LP which was not for sale. Never say no to a precious gem of that quality! My friend deleted her second account shortly after. We were few adults here for her. She posted a thread once, without result. One day I was playing in the arcade, my score came up with chat with XXX . Precious gem was playing too. I received a nice meeboo message , was called the B word, H-e etc....Then a buddy of her messaged me to let me know how ugly my profile picture was and how mean I am. Then lol precious gem messaged me from another account,passing herself for a boy...I'll spare you what she had to say. I tried to complain, was told meeboo was not foo. Blocked them all. We were hoping that pay to play would solve the issue. Wrong. So my friend left foo.She was too embarrassed, a 60+ year old woman complaining about abuse from a 12-13 year old kid.....yeah,right! She came back few months ago, created a second account .She was so paranoid of being accused again of cheating that she plead on her profile to not send her nasty messages. She has deleted this second account , same with her old one. She won't come back. Another friend was hacked, she was told that she was naive , that her own stupidity got her hacked. Sweet! ( sarcasm). Another friend was trashed publicly, no ambassador came to help. This friend had no 2nd thoughts...account deleted. I applaud Annie for posting , she did a favor to members.
Deleteadults have been bullied by youngsters since they gained access - all of them claiming "this is a kids' game" (lawn biscuits, it was not designed for younger players as all the desperate attempts at retrofitting attest) - quite a few tried it with me. one even peppered my message board and then tried to accuse ME of stalking, lol. (i said go for it - i had copies of all messages with dates/times)
Deletewhile i know many teens who are responsible foocitizens there are as amny or more who regard themselves as god's gift to the game and are insufferable. it is tragic that the people who stood by foo and understand what it can and should be are being driven offsite by opportunists and neglect. perhaps we need a special forum, not just for adults, but for chronic victims of trolls and minibullies.
After further reading, I think they should take amethystts and make her an admin. She is constantly coming down harshly in the ideas forum on children's ideas and now in the above thread she is stepping in to defend seemingly all of Foo. Let me bow down now, jeez.
ReplyDeleteAnd how ironic that Remsie pops in and suddenly the thread gets derailed. Not her fault at all, just saying, it's funny because that's exactly what the OP was talking about.
Yes, I have been following the little disaster tale there via messageboards -- I had been surprised to see auntieannie re-appear after closing down for just a couple of days, so of course I went to see why. What a dreadful tale. I had not seen the forum thread though, so thank you for that.
DeleteI am disgusted, really. Foo could do so much better than this. As for amethystts, LOL yes I agree with your analysis.
And the technique for dealing with issues such as this is very familiar. In Support, when they don't want to take it any further, they mark it as having been solved, regardless. Re-opening your ticket simply gets it closed again. Then someone takes the issue into the forums and is told to take it to Support; when they continue to explain that Support will not help, the thread gets locked.
DeleteI have seen the techniques over and over again in the forums, and am sick of it.
A thread which really addresses issues can go one of two ways: it can be derailed by someone such as an ambassador in just the way you see in that one, and trail away into chatter and mutual off-topic sob-stuff which eventually gets locked. Or it can be derailed by a foo-fawner who tells people off for not appreciating that the Foo staff do great work against huge odds, whereupon the thread descends into a fight and gets locked. Either way, the discussion gets nowhere and a bunch of people ends up frustrated.
In this case, Auntieannie is really annoyed and is trying to get Truste and that other lot -- can't recall their name but they turned out to be useless long ago -- to remove their support for the site. good for her; really, the place is shamefully inept at dealing with and protecting people from scammers and hackers whilst very heavy on possible naughtiness where in reality there is only high spirits.
Carrie, what is that in your picture here? It looks like some sort of totem but I'm sure it's not.
DeleteWant another laugh? http://www.foopets.com/topics/show/2383225?forum_id=33&page=1
MusicNote-Angel is apparently too big for her britches. Alumit comes on and peacefully tells her that what she is doing here is against the rules, and she turns into miss priss about it. Also DreamWeaver stepping in and saying "Don’t start something. You’re not up to an argument with me today." doesn't help the situation. Since when is it a bad thing to inform someone of a rule if they obviously don't know? There's a diff between mini-modding and simply being nice. As Music is an adult, the end is especially hilarious, saying "bye" over and over as an attempt to get under Alumit's skin is just so childish. And when Sophie finally steps in to right things and tell Music it is indeed against the rules, she basically ignores her and plunges right on. Who pissed in her Cheerios? Now I realize towards the middle, Alumit says some things that maybe she shouldn't have, but at that point, after being slightly threatened and after Music acting like she's above everyone else, I kind of understand why she would lose her cool even if it was not in great taste.
Oh I missed your second post Carrie. I quite agree with the whole thing. Taking a ticket and marking it resolved when it is clearly not is like a slap in the face. It's like saying, okay, we gave you your 5 seconds, now you're just getting annoying, please do us the favor of shutting up.
DeleteAlso these phishing scams have gotten out of control. I'm to the point where I won't click any links people have posted on their profiles because even if it claims to go somewhere Foo related, half the time it goes offsite. Dunno if any of you have heard of cookie grabbers, I believe they became popular in the Neopets user stores. You click there and suddenly the person has all the cookies just resting in your computer and can gain access to private info like passwords. If people are using this through Meebo, then there is no way to protect yourself really. Of course, you can not click on the link, but children won't understand this. They made the site all ages friendly, now they have to protect their members, not point the finger of blame back at them.
late on the bus, just got in from work...re-railed the first (AuntieAnnie) thread by throwing in my two cents worth...we'll see what if anything comes of it. since i've been around longer than most of the a's extant except PL, i know a bit about how things were pre-Rivet...and WHY on earth are we still operating under their fascist premises???
DeleteCarrie's pic is a Tiki (i think). i have seen amethystts around quite a bit as a general naysayer, it doesn't really seem to matter WHAT the content is, s/he disagrees and sings the old party line of love-it-or-leave-it. (barf) be nice if they learned how to spell "Amethyst"...have seen Music around as well, but less as a buttinski than a general ignoramus. (will peep that thread shortly)
It's such a shame what they've done with Annie's situation. And her friend. How rude can you possibly be to close a ticket with no response. They could have at least taken a second to type some of their meaningless drivel. I would be reopening that ticket, and it would not be to tell Foo what a good job they're doing with customer service.
DeleteAs for Amethystts, at one time she gave responses when she disagreed that at least were not over the top rude to the other players. Now all I see is her hurting the feelings of whomever she can. It would seem she has come to the age of a "get the hell off my lawn" to children which is a shame.
As for Music...wow. I had never seen her be so mean to people. It was an eye opener. I can't believe how poor Alumit was treated by her and Dream for trying to be helpful. I saw no mini-modding in the beginning, just a helpful pointer so a fellow player wouldn't get in trouble. What is happening to the adults of the site? Taking out your frustrations on kids is bullying. It's bad enough the kids bully each other, but do we really have to knock them further down? It's awful to see this.
it's getting harder and harder to tell who's who anymore, agewise...a point in favor of age-grouped forums, at least they'd be relegated to picking on people their own size.
Deletefor a wonder, amethystts came down in favor of my post on a Santuary style forum and went me one better by suggesting subforums for all three age groups - not a bad idea at all.
(and for the record...in my experience - not recently, as i'm not in circulation on the mainstream of the site that much - it's more common for the kids to bully the adults.) no one should bully ANYONE - if you don't like a remark, rebut it politely or just ignore it. there is never an excuse for rudeness, from anyone, about anything.
Well, I am puzzled by this one. The message-boards of Music and her pals seem to indicate that some underground stuff is going on; Music is telling gottheart that she is being talked about on facebook. She says "Just wanted to let you know that Alumit is saying horrible things about you on FB. Don't worry though, she's bullying me as well. Apparently she's upset with you for being "rude" when she sold a pet she got from you for AC price? Well, just wanted to let you know :)" Gottheart cannot see the fb messages so is getting one of them to send her screenshots of them. Goodness knows how that will help. It seems like unwarranted pot-stirring to me, and a little beneath Music.
DeleteAmethyssts (I agree totally about the mis-spelling, it sets my teeth on edge, but I thought that was just me) she prides herself on being sarcastic. It does not seem to bother her that this upsets others; it is her style and she thinks that is fine. She has always been a prime de-railer of threads, whether intentionally or not.
My profile pic is a punching bag LOL and was in a way a response to a wee bit of rather surprising (and to me amusing) ranting by someone on here a few threads back. This person started a blog and filled it with a couple of messages of hate before she (presumably) realised how silly that was and hid it away; I thought I would try a blog too to see whether I would find it fun. I think that it could be fun, but I have no time to update it at the moment. The punch-bag is my profile pic on that blog and it is from a different game -- a game that was discontinued, but rather splendidly was given to players as a downloadable semi-game before the plug was pulled. I wish that Foopets would give us an offline version of the game too *wistful sigh*. Sorry for the off-topic ramble heh
I agree that many players now seem to have gone a wee bit insane, whether it is frustration causing that or not. The trouble probably is caused by there being not enough to do in the game, the impression of being strait-jacketed whilst having to pay for it.
is there anyone who matters still even ON FooFaceBook, lol? i wrote it off as a bunch of self-serving snarking quite a while ago...last time i looked, even Parrot wasn't bothering to post there.
Deletefully agree that boredom and frustration may well be making monsters out of previously-reasonable folks. question is whether the PTB will try to do something constructive about it, or continue to let the site tear itself to pieces...
(still looks like an Easter Island dude to me, lol - but i sure grok your point in using it)
Deleteby the way, ran into a pic from Sophiemom's PhotoBucket account in another context (a 4-way dog breed shot, perhaps auditioning for a new pet here?), and took a peek at her album...among other things she has a bunch of Forum screenshots. didn't stop to examine them in detail, but i may at some point.
Oh...my...gawd. So I just looked at Twitter, and it would seem that someone is claiming that their niece was abused by a fellow Foopets user. And Foopets actually comments back...but seriously, the guy's (or gal's) handle was "Dick Abuser"! Are you freaking kidding me? Put your mind in the gutter for two seconds whoever runs Twitter and think! If this was serious, they would have a serious handle, not two steps away from "I masturbate". Am I the only one who sees this stuff?
ReplyDeletelet me get this straight..."Dick Abuser" was complaining that someone ELSE used vulgar language? (and i find it hard to believe that kind of sophomoric humor stems from anyone old enough to have a niece on Foo...)
Deleteregrettably, both Twitter and FooPets-on-Twitter are stuck with dealing with even the most absurd tweets seriously...it does bode well for our getting some kind of response for Husker Du...
Well Jesus H. You know I wasn't being sarcastic when I pointed out that it was probably a joke, but I feel like I got sarcasm in return:
DeleteMe: "Um. Just so you guys know, I think this is a joke, the first hint would be the name "Dick Abuser"."
I would have said more, but with Twitter obviously you have to condense.
Foo's Response: "Um. We were very aware of the user name, however we still want to address it if it is not - thanks for trying to help tho:)"
I dunno why, but the response "Um" seems to be sarcastic. Like them saying, "Duh, we know". Maybe I'm just being oversensitive. Still, don't respond with my wording, if they want to pursue what is quite obviously a bad joke and publicly humiliate themselves when it proves to be a troll, have at.
perhaps not...you know they have to be pretty embarrassed having to take such overt crap seriously, and being "caught" at it must smart, lol. me, i think i'll go look up Mr. Abuser...HE deserves a good poke.
Deletechecked him out - a typical high-school-jock moron. dropped a suggestion that FP check his profile before giving him too much credibility...
DeleteHere are some of the main issues I see, and feel free to jump in if anyone feels I am wrong:
ReplyDelete1. Scammers/Hackers are suspended for a short time, but allowed to come back and keep their gains.
2. There is no international consideration at all for people whose first language is not English.
3. Bullying is allowed as long as you are bullying on the side of Foo.
4. Favoritism is shown, see 3.
5. People who have been suspended once, or multiple times are followed around the forums being nagged constantly even if they're doing nothing wrong.
6. There are no "night guards", which means all the mods are from the U.S. and nighttime is the right time to make trouble.
7. Support is a joke. The GM has no idea what is going on. Her previous experience is house repossession.
8. Same GM is constantly riding people to "be happy and positive". No negativity is permitted, even if it has nothing to do with the site. If a person has a profile pic that she deems "unhappy or negative", you are asked to remove it, same with status quotes.
yup, pretty much - though i just saw the night supervision issue addressed at least verbally, we'll see what comes of it. there are very simple translator addons that require no server space, i will look up a couple and forward them to the site - excellent point, and a problem that need never have existed. as far as the scammers/hackers...odds-on they are among the bigger spenders on the site - small wonder they get by with a wrist slap. your point about harassment of previously-suspended members is interesting, in the light of a conversation i had with Rozzy about listing who and why...though if they are the same people as (1) i'm not sure how much sympathy is warranted. my feeling is that if you choose to argue with detractors, fine - if you choose to ignore them, fine - there really isn't that much they can actually DO except look silly and mean.
Deletein re Traci's veto of unhappiness or negativity - hm. Kate quietly suspended some depressed teens in December 2010 (and was herself phased out shortly thereafter). seems to me your mood is your business...no one HAS to look or pay attention unless they care enough to choose to do so. if you happen to see one concerning the site, let me know - i will paste her uncle's direct quote that criticism is not only allowed but encouraged.
AuntieCritter tried to make a thing for International Angels. She posted in USS to ask people to help translate and got a ton of responses from people willing to help. They all pretty much agreed that Google translate (which someone suggested), half the time spit out gobbledygook. All she was going to do was help people whose native tongue is not English to understand the rules, but the negativity towards this was overwhelming. One person said that if they spoke in a different language, they'd be able to insult you behind your back. *eyeroll* Are we really going to alienate a group of people because they don't speak English? At the time, I think Amethystts was leading the charge against letting this happen. Well here it is again... http://www.foopets.com/topics/show/2383725?forum_id=28&page=1#posts-57202727
ReplyDeletelove her idea but think it needs to be taken a step further - Foo used to have members all over the world, with no problem and a great deal of pleasant sharing. and there are tons of reliable translator programs that can be easily intergrated into both the site and the Forums.
Deletethrew in my two cents, we'll see which way the fur flies.
no translator will translate text chat which is largely used in chit chat. I was about to offer my services , was not fast enough lol : thread locked. I have several friends that live overseas. They are a pleasure to chat with.
Delete"text chat"? pardon an antique, that went over my head...to me, words is words, if they have equivalents they can be translated. i've seen systems that did the job on other sites, will have to track them down and get details.
DeleteBy text chat I was referring to text talk.Text chat being an expression of mine ~. I used to text talk, till the day few friends and I were text talking in a chat room. We noticed that a Finnish gal was quiet, asked her why. She explained she did not understand us....Reality check, I killed my text talk bad habit. I'd love if you find the links to those systems, there are few foo members I know on Foo that could benefit from them. -]
Deleteoh - things like "lol" and so on? i am a born English speaker and I don't understand most of it...i doubt it would be that much of a hardship for the texters to spell things out where letters and time do not matter as they do on a phone. i have messaged several coders i know at sites using translator programs for international memberships, i'll keep everyone posted.
DeleteRead the Foopets FB page, on the side under Amy Winn. Apparently there is now a rule that we can only gift so much at once? WTH? Where exactly is this rule and why were we not informed? Amy is an extremely credible source, so I do believe her on this.
ReplyDeletesomething like that would probably have to go in TOS, as the Rules are not legaly binding in any real sense - i'll look into it. cute that it turns up on FB but not here.
ReplyDeleteactually - depending on exactly what the limit(s) is/are, that's not a bad idea - until they implement a proper trading system, and have glitch issues with gifting, it's better to limit than witch-hunt...
okay, read through both the ToS and the posted Official Rules in the Annoucements thread (wish they would make that more clear as to what applies to Forums and what goes across the board...) and found no mention of gifting in ANY context...do you know Amy? can you ask where the info originated?
DeleteFoo answered Amy with some pawn off on writing to Support on FB.
ReplyDeleteIn other news it seems the unrest has finally shaken some edible fruit from the Foo trees. Tax was taken down to 25% (still a mite high in my opinion, but better than 50), and it would appear that Foomart has been fully reinstated. Which also begs the question of what OBC said about why they "couldn't" reinstate Foomart. It's troublesome to see that right after being called on lying, or at least misleading, they have now found a way to fix it. I am happy, but if they're willing to lie in order to avoid doing something, it doesn't look very good.
i'll take the results and let their consciences work on them over the left-hand-right-hand shuffle, lol. we proposed a compromise at 25% when they first made the jump, it'll do. (maybe Traci/Joey took my advice and asked Ron about operations before her time - if so, we may be seeing a number of interesting developments. this one they MUST have stumbled over in the course of code-sorting, or they'd have trumpeted it from the rooftops)
Deletei see they didn't waste any time trying to hustle Foo$ sales from the new shoppers...how startling. thing is - don't know about anyone else, but i already HAVE more foo$ than i'm ever likely to need.
I am so happy that you guys enjoyed my remark to MJL. I had just had enough of her that day and couldn't hold it in...not that I ever do a very good job of it. Got results though and rather rapidly, by Foo standards. Amazing. I am thrilled...wish I wasn't so broke. They still have a long way to go before I am sold on this new old regime. Seems to me MJL is becoming as intolerable as Kate was near the end of her reign. I tried to warn people when they first announced their takeover that I had a good enough memory to remember things weren't all sweetness and light in the FM days. Seems I am being proven right again. And you know? I DON'T want to be, I want this to be the greatest site on all of gamedom.
ReplyDeletethere was a time (sorry to say, and i know it may be unfair but...before the 13-17's were allowed in) that Kate was perfectly happy being "first among equals", and a generally cool person. my investgations a while back suggested that the Rivet regime had actually begun in early 2010, prior to the formal changeover, shortly before the advent of across-the-board beta, which may have had a great deal to do with it as well. bear in mind also that despite the fact that we had a ton on onsite A's at the time they let Kate be the bad guy exclusively - enough to sour ANYBODY'S disposition.
DeleteI was away for a week and can't believe all that has happened above. Just skimmed it for now and will go back and read more thoroughly. It is hard to believe anyone would pick on AuntieCritter. She is the most devoted and caring of people and is always willing to help out with kind words of encouragement. Glad to be home and back in the loop.
ReplyDeletegood to see you - and yes, a lot has happened, good and bad, but it seems that the gentle pressure we've been applying is paying off. i'm even starting to get more or less direct responses from Joey/Traci on the Forums, for a wonder.
Delete