once again Amazon - our server, along with MineCraft and a number of other sites substantially bigger and louder than us, lol - has crashed our part of the Internet. not Foo's doing and completely out of their hands, unfortunately. they apparently went down (and took us along with them) around 10:30am Pacific, or 1:30pm EST today.
FooPet updates are on Twitter, but i recommend leapfrogging to Amazon's twitter page (clickable from several Foo tweets) - both more constructive, and totally hilarious. you think our members rag the management? wait until you get a load of AMAZON'S patrons.
UPDATE - back online around 7:30pm EST (so about 6 hours) - still a little slow and erratic, they probably are still bringing servers online, but not as bad as it could have been.
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.
I've been trying to get in since 9am central time (on the 23rd) and no dice. It's now 2 hours later. I get 500 internal errors, bad gateways, and the few times I was able to get to a profile page everything just spins endlessly with no good outcome. And the play page won't come up at all. I'm supposed to be feeding a friend's pets while she is out sick so this is way more frustrating than it would normally be! If anyone else is hitting these problems I just wanted to say I'm with ya! Good luck, everybody!
ReplyDeleteI think we're all frustrated by this. What's even more frustrating is that the links that Foo provided yesterday to show the status of the Cloud says that everything on their end is in working order. If that's so, why is Foo yet once again blaming Amazon? At least yesterday the links Foo provided backed up their story, Cloud went down, problems for everyone. Today, however, it would have made more sense to delete those links than to blame something that claims to be functioning A-Ok.
Deletefeel your pain. just signed in after ten minute spin, feed the first cat on my list through the play page then i'm now getting 500 internal server error.
ReplyDeleteare they still having problems with the amazon servers? ugh!
Done done done. I am so tired of the stuff that gets assumed when you want to inform yourself or when a customer gives good ideas and gets told they are "pointing fingers". Gosh why am I still even paying these people money to insult me?
ReplyDeletefrom what i hear from other Amazon-based sites the lion's share of the problems are originating on their end...i think because this has happened several times they rushed back online before everything was fixed and tested. (sound familiar, lol?)
ReplyDeleteSickOfThis, could you tell mem what you're referring to so i can check into it?
Well two things I witnessed, and one of them was me. The first was that a woman named Elizabeth politely (on FB) posted some suggestions as to how the site might improve. She was a very loyal Foo customer for many years who finally got fed up and let her CF expire. Far from being pleased that she would still want to help them by suggesting ways to improve, they instead accused her of pointing fingers. This was in the side column under a post made by Amber. Elizabeth's suggestions (it's long so I may have to continue):
ReplyDelete"On a side note, there was nothing wrong with the instacare till you guys bought back the site...and I'm assuming you had to downgrade the extra server that was acquired for the overflow of traffic and space needed to make the site run smoothly. I realize servers cost a lot monthly and trying to save the site by downgrading the amount needed. This in my opinion backfired, more people have left the site as paying members due to "traffic" problems and not loading....then what that server probably cost monthly...
You can deny it isn't a server issue...but when high traffic and loading things is a problem, from my experience that is a lack of server space problem. Although it is very possible the code got messed up while moving from one server to another.
Here is a few idea's on how to minimize that space...
Peoples walls will only hold 20 pages, maybe less. Some people have over 200 and that takes up a lot of space. They can receive a message saying that they can't receive any more messages till they have cleared some space for them.
Gift's...there is a lot of people that use them as message boards. Once they are received there is no need to keep more then a few pages, this will clear up a lot of space.
Forums, There is forum posts that are very old and really not needed, if a forum post hasn't been used or posted on in a month why does it need to be kept? at the very least all unused forum posts that are more then 2 months old should be deleted unless it is a locked sticky.
Old accounts with no pets on them. Waste of space...if a member is returning, they can open a new account. The only exception I would say to this is if there is a lot of items on the account, a member might want to return to this account. I mean more then 100 items.
I know there was a promise made that if people let their accounts freeze that if they chose to come back their pets would still be there. I'm not talking about those accounts when I say the following. There are old accounts still on site from the old days with pets on them, ones that haven't been logged into in 3 or more years...I say delete the accounts and put the pets up for sale...
Just a few things to think about doing, I'm sure I can think of more...but this stuff might be helpful...
I don't know when I might be returning, it might be next week it might be next year...idk"
Oh sigh. My entire post just disappeared...
DeleteAnd Foo's response to this was:
"Elizabeth, a lot of things were going wrong when the site was almost abandoned pointing fingers does not fix anything and we are aware of all the things that were broken when we took over. Let's stay positive ladies, and hopefully it gets fixed soon!"
I mean really. If you can't run a site without insulting your customers, you soon won't have a site to run. It would be especially good to listen to those who are leaving (quite a few have left now voluntarily) and know what you're doing wrong so that more people don't leave. Anyhow, here was what happened yesterday. When they posted on the main part of the page yesterday, they listed a link to Heroku. I was trying to get the right link to be able to keep up with what was going on with the Amazon servers myself so that I didn't have to stay on FB refreshing all day. I was asking which place to go to because all the links that Foo had provided said that everything with Amazon was fine. So from myself:
"Just a quick question for you...if it is again Amazon, why does everything I look at say that everything is functioning normally? And that there are no known issues at this time?"
Foo's response: "are you looking at the AWS status page because it is not saying that...."
Me: "On the AWS Service page, all of N. America (except maybe Virginia) is saying "Service is operating normally." On the AWS Issues page, the last issue is from 23 hours ago, so I don't see the point in looking again as it says the same thing as yesterday. And the Heroku link that you provided here says "No known issues at this time". Where should I be looking for today's issues? I'd like to try and keep up with what's going on over there, so any help would be appreciated. :)"
Foo: "Look at the last status Amber, it is kind of hard to understand but basically they still have servers down as you mentioned the location is simply the location of the server not the location of the outtage: "Volumes affected during this event are continuing to re-mirror (which we expect will continue through the remainder of the day). While this process continues, customers may notice increased volume IO latency."
Me: "On which of the 3 pages should it say that? And LOL, the Heroku status page is now a 502 Bad Gateway, go figure."
And the response that annoyed the crap out of me from Foo: "Look at the last status it was at 630am or something Amber. You guys this is a totally different language that is why we are updating you; but if you don't believe us feel free to read through it all and interpret on your own:)"
Okay look, I am generally an easy going person. I realize that I haven't been the easiest person for Foo to live with lately because I put down my pom poms, but all I wanted was a straight answer about where to look to find that. I told them that still didn't give me the page to look at and that I was a bit annoyed by their assumption that simply because I wanted to keep myself informed, it seemingly meant I didn't believe them. And they still never told me where to look. You can slap a smiley face on the end of everything you say, but an insult is still an insult. Finger pointing and disbelief. Well, you know what? Why the hell should I believe anything they say? It's not as though they've done much in their time back to inspire confidence. And it's likely plain by now, so I will just sign with my own name.
(And to add, I have been moody lately, a fact I am aware of, so it's entirely possible I am taking offense where others wouldn't. However, with regards to the finger pointing statement, I was not the only one who felt that was out of line. Instead of accusing people, I would just for once like to see Foo answer questions that are put to them. It wouldn't have been a difficult thing to explain to Elizabeth why her points were impossible.)
would have to look to see what Amazon is actually saying at this point, but other affected sites are still having minor issues along the lines we are, so if they are singing "all is well, tra-la" i expect it's to call attention away from the fact that they rebooted too soon and work is still ongoing, lol.
ReplyDelete"finger-pointing". what a lovely phrase...and why, exactly, is it supposed to be a bad thing? just how else are you supposed to indicate what you're referring to? though for what it's worth, i'm still not sure how much credence to give any opinions originating from "the site" on FaceBook, those who matter seem to be running exclusively through Twitter, for whatever reasons.
still, valid points are valid points, and nothing gives them more credence than shooting them down...wherever they crop up. the time for full disclosure is way, WAY overdue - it's been a problem throughout and is a problem still. something's wrong? TELL us - honestly, immediately, and like people who are involved in the situation, not as peons and probable criminals - maybe we can help. X can't be done because of Y, or until Z? TELL us. especially, tell us WHY something is offline/running badly/not available. it'll buy you a hell of a lot more time to deal with it than the mystery-meat responses we have been getting.
granted, there are more younger people onsite now who may or may not understand or care (though i suspect a surprising number will)...but they are not the ones asking questions, or spending money...and they are not the ones who stood by and will hopefully continue to stand by the site through the present round of troubles. the much-maligned ADULTS are - and deserve honesty, and honest answers. and some visibility onsite by those who operate it.
My thoughts exactly. How many people have offered to help and are shot down? Though to be fair, I suppose it would be an issue of wondering if someone would screw with the code if they were given access, but at this point, I kinda doubt that they could do more damage than Foo itself has. And the questions are never properly answered. But how can you post all of this to Twitter? As with Elizabeth's advice, it would take at least 30 tweets lol.
DeleteSo I asked last night why it was that Foo stopped updating us on the status of the Cloud (since they never actually told me where to look for updates myself, I did look at all the pages of the 3 links given at the bottom where I was directed and still never saw the status update that Foo refers to), and my response was this:
Foo: "Amber this was the last update from Amazon, we were letting our members know:)"
Me: "Huh. You would think that with all the websites the Cloud services they would update their customers more when there are issues. Well okiedokie."
Foo: "They announced it was fixed and moved on I guess:) Good news for us, its good to be back isn't it?!"
Me: "Well uh, as of yesterday when that announcement was made, the forums were crawling, my play page wouldn't load, and my IC All only fed maybe 6 pets out of 62. So I was assuming it was still problems with the Cloud. I ended up having to use Mobile for all my pets which is a pain because on FF, I can't pet them, and there is no way to walk or clean litterboxes. Does that mean that all of the problems I was experiencing yesterday AFTER this announcement was made were not related to the server issues?"
And yet to receive a response for that. I feel like the easy questions get answered and the hard questions are glossed over. "Because we said so" might work on children, but as an adult, I would much prefer them to tell us when stuff is wrong. Honesty is better than lies or misdirection.
Now I'm just grinding my teeth. Foopets has liked the comments below my question, after I asked it. So it would seem they saw it and chose to ignore it. I don't know why I bother asking anything anymore. Unless I put in some gooey nonsense about how great the site is, they'll never pay attention to it anyhow.
ReplyDeletei'm still trying to figure out how all that "liking" and whatnot works and what the point is...mostly i just steer clear of FB outside of maintaining and updating AllPawsBulletin. the Amazon links i saw were attached to Foo tweets, not sure where else they were posted. and Amazon was less than forthcoming about exactly what was wrong and/or being done.
Deleteyou CAN pet them on mobile - that's the main reason i like it, the pets respond to you. a la early desktop and pokeys, you DO have to left-click for them to notice, though. as my cats at home do not have heart attacks if i do not clean the box after every deposit, i never prioritized that aspect myself.
as far as help with coding, no one has suggested they let anyone monkey with live code onsite - i truly hope they aren't themselves, you modify and debug BEFORE you launch...
as far as Twitter, what i do - and suggest - is to make a blog or whatever somewhere and post the link - this is one of the ways i dragged their attention to the Foop in the first place. and if the blog accepts comments, it permits "off-camera" discussion that tends to be a lot more fruitful than forum-style debates that the world and sundry can chime in on and try to derail.
what i think we - and they - have to address is a source of site income other than a quick turnover of easily-bored youngsters, which is what Rivet was counting on when the original pay-to-play conversion went in. it did not work then, and it will not work now. if the site is to survive, much less thrive, over the long haul (as we all hope), it will need a far more effective way to stay solvent...and this will require acknowledging that the core audience is STILL adults of various ages - and treating them as such.
All I know is, if nothing changes by the time I get my black star and 1,000 day BB (my two goals basically left and not far to go for either), I am packing it in too.
DeleteThe only time that I was ever "respected" on the site was when I was telling them what they wanted to hear. And truthfully, when I was doing this cheerleading, I was being honest with them about how I personally felt. But honesty flows two ways. I won't praise something I don't believe, neither will I encourage bad customer service or bad behavior on the part of those in charge. I tried to come out and speak against what I felt was wrong when they expelled innocent players during the glitch, but I got smacked down for negative posting. After that, I continued to get rapped on the knuckles, even when I wasn't being negative. So I went back to what they wanted (positive posts), even when I didn't mean it because with all the suspensions, I was afraid for my account.
Now I am back to saying what I mean and for those of us who still don't have good function on the site, it is frustrating as hell to be ignored. We are the naysayers, and although the things we say are true, it's easier to ignore us than give thought out responses.
For those that can continue to be patient through all of this, I just have to say I admire that. Me, I'm past the point of patience and into the land of sick of this crap.
by my lights, a pat on the head for wagging my tail (YOU were sincere, but that's the way i'm sure it was perceived by the PTB) isn't respect. when they banned any Forum references to the Foop or OpLifeboat (even before the link ban, and without anyone placing any links anyway, lol), i felt respected.
Deletenow that the Foop has been publicly acknowledged by Ron/the site, it's going to be harder to shout/shut me down...time to start rocking the Lifeboat again, apparently. think i'll start by asking THEM what THEY want from the site. the results - or lack of them - ought to be interesting, and will give me an idea where to go next.
"by my lights, a pat on the head for wagging my tail (YOU were sincere, but that's the way i'm sure it was perceived by the PTB) isn't respect."
DeleteSigh. This is so true. At first it was just loyalty to the game I'd loved for years, but then I thought I understood the problems, and I guess I had more patience or something. Idk. The whole pat on the head thing is exactly right, but I always thought that was better than worrying about my account. Now I just want to say my piece in peace. It would be nice if I could constructively criticize or others could without getting railed.
I know one person on the site who either has a guru following them around and flagging all their posts about how badly IC is working for them as funny. My somewhat addled brain keeps trying to assert that maybe it's not a guru, maybe it's one of the staff. And that is pretty bad to think. But I can't imagine who on Foo's staff would have time to follow one person, so I guess it probably is a guru. Still, it make ME fume when I see it, because it seems to be only the posts about how bad the site is working and while it's not me being flagged, that's stuff that Foo needs to hear. I guess it makes me think they don't take us as seriously.
It feels like that especially with the new fixes thread, since they asked for our feedback on IC, but then stopped replying. (The admin anyways haven't posted for 8 days) Makes me wonder if they're even looking anymore....
i seriously doubt anyone in authority (large or small A) would mess around with "funny", they'd go right for the heavy stuff...especially since they can't be conclusively implicated. nor do i think that anyone in "real" authority (big A's this time) pays any real attention to flags, unless something controversial gets enough "usefuls" to indicate cause for concern. (personally i wish they'd dispose of flagging altogether, if people want to respond to something, let them speak up - and show themselves.)
Deletethat's why i think the next move is to call management's hand and address them directly with a question they are more-or-less stuck with responding to in SOME form. any thoughts on the best place to put it? (no wisecracks please, lol, i know i dropped a setup line)
Yeah I know. As I said, that my paranoid "conspiracy theory", ridiculous ideas side coming into play. I'm sure that the people in authority have better things to do than sit there and flag all day just for fun. But I agree, flagging at one time may have been helpful, now it's just a PITA. Half the time now, mods are stuck unflagging threads constantly. What a waste.
DeleteHmm, the best place to put it? (Lol, I want to say it so badly), I really don't know. It would seem that most posts don't get Admin attention anymore no matter where you put them. Announcements is out because if it's "old news", no one cares. USS is definitely out because unless you make the title something that would grab an Admin (and that's always risky), all you get are other players or Ambassadors. And the one place that Admin should be checking all the time, Ideas and Suggestions, is like the forgotten planet. It seems like every once in awhile one will pop in over there and leave a few comments that don't commit, but other than that *shrug*. There is no real place for people to be noticed anymore.
Well they're really milking this Amazon problem. On FB they said the Cloud is up and functioning normal, but in USS all complaints are being fielded with
ReplyDeleteIt's Amazon, the problem is Amazon, hopefully Amazon can get their s*** together.
What? This stuff hasn't been working since March. You can't pin that on Amazon
m.foo was running better last night, and i was getting a lot fewer 50- errors...problems that already existed with Insta i'm sure haven't chnaged. overall, are we about back to where we were prior to the most recent Amazon crash?
DeleteI know you weren't asking me, but I would have to say we're back...
Deletehttp://www.foopets.com/topics/show/2403807?forum_id=29&post_count=18
(There are more posts than that, but not many. People I think are just throwing in the towel)
Of course there are some people who are seemingly unaffected by this IC thing. And it's a constant frustration to those of us that are because it seems that Admin is happy with the people that claim all is well, and would prefer to ignore those few that actually continue to post their issues with what is not working even after being consistently ignored.
Playing foopets just feels like banging my head against the wall over and over
ReplyDeleteand keep hoping for a different result. playing foopets must be insane.
the more it changes the more it all stays the same!
It is insane but once you've become addicted you don't think you could quit. At least that's what I thought nine months ago. But finally I just couldn't justify to myself paying an even higher fee to renew my membership. But you know what, quitting Foopets was actually surprisingly easy. I don't even look at those pics of my pets that I saved on my computer. I only come here once in a while to see what's going on with the site. It seems that it's always the same old drama that I was once watching on the sidelines. I don't miss a thing, except the good old Pokey days.
DeleteHmm you just made me realize something...if the definition of insanity is this:
ReplyDeletea.
extreme foolishness; folly; senselessness; foolhardiness:
b.
a foolish or senseless action, policy, statement, etc.:
Or according to Einstein:
Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.
And Playing Foopets is:
extremely foolish, folly, senseless, and doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results, then yeah
Playing Foopets = Insanity.
Wtg for pointing that out Anon.
I got site suspended. First time. I actually feel pretty good about it too. It, I feel, was for causes that were important to me.
ReplyDeleteSee ya in 3 days Foo.
::picking jaw up off of the floor..::
DeleteWhat the hell?!?
I went to look for your profile but it wasn't showing in my friends list so I looked via my gifts page from the scarecrow you sent and when I saw "member not found" I felt ill! What happened and what was said? Az, you are one of the most fair and mature players and use the most appropriate language in every situation no matter how exasperating- I can't even wrap my brain around how they could find cause for suspension.
I'm glad you're feeling ok with it. Really glad.. but damn!!!!! I'm going to go have a look around the forums and see if I can find out what happened but if someone could narrow it down for me so I know where specifically to look I'd sure appreciate it.
from what i've seen poking around, they've done a pretty good job of covering the trail. which is suspicious in and of itself...we'll probably have to wait to hear back from Az to find out what really happened. (push comes to shove, i'll message her on Cyska)
DeleteAlso thanks for the support. It is nice to know someone noticed me gone lol. Although most of my FB people knew as I did update them when all this was going on. Besides that I had Lainee asking me what on earth I did over on Cyska. It's nice to know if you fall off the site, people care. ;)
DeleteHugs guys. I am totally fine with it. I went with my feelings, my beliefs, and my convictions, and I can never regret that. Though I do wish now that I wouldn't have been quite so angry when this was going on. I try very hard to be mindful of the feelings of the Ambassadors since they take so much crap on a daily basis, but I felt I was being patronized a bit and it just made things worse.
you WHAT? do tell...what was the excuse?
ReplyDeletejust backtracked (there were some posts i clean missed due to power outages here) and looked into the thread you posted and the one it fed into (your posts are referred to but missing) - apparently enough of a pin was stuck into them to actually DO something, which initially resulted in water being dropped from Instacare, and now it seems to be better but still not what it should be.
ReplyDeletewill probably use CF Ideas etc, as i think it needs to be a thread and not just a post, as it would be in Announcements, and i don't see it qualifying for USS (no sense providing a readymade excuse to be ignored).
Is there a way to post screen shots? Because I have almost the entire back and forth conversation between PL and I, and then my response to Traci when she stepped in. I missed, unfortunately, the last response from PL and the one on my wall from Traci, though unless they clear it, it'll be there when I come back. Traci completely deleted my message to her, not surprising really.
ReplyDeleteThe basic story is this: I got offended on the Election sticky over someone once again bringing up people on disability, welfare, and food stamps being simply lazy. (Which I do admit, I felt this girl was generalizing, when she explained her actual point, I went back after the thread was locked and messaged her to apologize for my being so huffy). The things I saw on that Election thread on the 6th made my blood fairly boil, so I was probably already in a fighting mood. Anyhow I made a rant thread about how this group of people is being viewed as lazy by many and how they are believed to be making enough off the government to live it up. I pointed out some personal experience that proved neither was true and said that people need to stop generalizing all of us into lazy a-holes. (<-- No I didn't use that language). Anyhoo, PL came along and promptly deleted my thread and explained that it was negative, inciting, and that I should take a step away for a bit because my reaction was not healthy. Still being fairly fired up, I laid into her about the fact that people can call pro-choicers babykillers, murderers, and how gay people are called sick and people on disability, welfare, etc are referred to as lazy and no one says jack about this. We went back and forth a few times, and she finally told me I was being disrespectful to her, I continued. Said Foo needed some policy changes and that someone was going to end up committing suicide if the bullying, hatemongering, and bigotry didn't stop. So Traci stepped in and basically told me to back off or I'd be suspended, so I fed her the same rant and told her if she was going to suspend me, at least make it mean something and make some changes as to respect in general between players on the site. Next thing I know (and I was fairly expecting it), I'm signed out with a note saying I was site-suspended til Saturday for behavior that was negative to the Foo community. *eyeroll* And I should point out, I brought this down to Support about a week ago, the whole abortion thing, about how if it was against the rules to talk about, it should be in the rules because I was sick of seeing words like babykiller and murderer crop up, and they blew me off. So, that's meh story.
Oh and btw, check this out:
ReplyDeletewww.foopets.com/topics/show/2408182?forum_id=34&page=3
One of the threads I referred to when I was making my point. Oh, well apparently, the comment was finally deleted, but as of yesterday, hours after I was suspended it was still there:
"It’s just kind of sick. Is anyone with me or understands what I’m saying?"
As far as I know, the person was never warned about this statement, and while I understand having a different opinion, there is no need for anyone to be saying a person's love interest is "sick".
Also, a little bird posted a happy little message on PL's wall about this thread saying:
"Will you PLEASE block this topic?: www.foopets.com/topics/show/2408182?forum_id=34&page=3 I feel it's getting to be where people are being mean and disrespectful. One I've especially noticed is Azkani-Karmapolice. I just dont enjoy stating my opinion when I'm always being called names and being put down of every little thing I say. Will you please block it? Thank You! I understand if you dont though, I just think it's getting a little over the top :)"
Which is a little ridiculous as my only comment to this girl was to tell her she was being contradictory. She claimed she believed people should have choices, then immediately followed with gay people shouldn't marry. I believe she was angry because I laid into her friend for calling other people sick.
"Azkani – B*** was clearly just stating her opinion, which is what this topic is about. If you do not want people to state their opinions that are not yours then you can clearly leave this topic. In my opinion you are the one being rude."
Why, excuse me. For stating the obvious. It is possible to have a differing opinion without name calling.
mmm...you can post SS's by using a href="">keyword</a (you can fill in the "<" blanks, if i leave 'em it in reads instead of printing), though we take your word for it, and as SS sharing is one of the new No-No's you might want to avoid it - far as i know they still tour the Foop from time to time.
Deleteno one will EVER agree with or be persuaded by the opposing side in a relegious or political debate, regardless of the logic or tone of the arguement used. ("i've already made up my mind, don't try to confuse me with the facts") pretty much everyone already has an established opinion, mods/admin included. evenhanded arbitration in a case like this is rare to nonexistant...and it's always the ones whose point is on the other side of the fence from theirs who is labelled rude.
as an anarchist at heart, i'm for everyone making up their own minds about their own lives and NO one else getting a say in their decisions. personal ethics cannot be legislated, and "morality" (society's means for controlling individual behavior) is a weak and cowardly substitute for thinking for yourself. what person A does is no one's business but theirs, and no one - and no group - should have the right to tell them what they choose for themselves is wrong : if they chose it, it is by definition NOT wrong - for them.
Hey nicely said on the Gay Marriage thread. I totally agree. And wtg bringing up nature. Though really, some people will never understand that point, no matter what words you use. Sigh.
Deletethe fact that people do not want to hear them does not change the facts. relegion - and for that matter, poliyics in large part - may not have any, but Nature does.
DeleteMeh. I decided not to post them but have no issue with show and tell in email. And as far as I am aware, since none of this was in Support, they can't tell me not to share. My messages are still up on one of their walls so....it's not
ReplyDeletelike I'm the only one seeing this lol.
Also, I have pro-life friends, etc. It's just that they actually come at me with respect when voicing their opinions, so I'm cool with that. Not everyone has to share my opinions in life, god that would be boring.
But some people have not learned the beautiful word "filter". As in, there should be a filter, depending on what you're saying it, and who you're saying it to. A respect filter. I don't go around cussin in front of my grandparents, why? Respect, same thing applies here. No need for name callin. Though I really think that Chicken Smoothie goes two better. A. They have an 18+ forum, and B. The debates on their allow you to provide sources. So people aren't (well some do, but they get razzed for it) just running into a debate topic saying "You're all going to hell!" and running back out.
I think Cyska may at some point put up a debate forum, not sure. But for now, the Rant forum serves nicely. And on that topic, I don't think venting (unless you're just being a total prick about it) is an unhealthy reaction. It lets off some steam, and god knows we just need to do that sometimes.
amen, lol.
DeleteDouble amen!
DeleteAz, and everybody- I hate that Foo has put our friends in the position of feeling like they should just bail out. I hate that they let some folks spew hatred and smallness of mind and enforce the toughest censorship on others. I also wish that we could have an 18+ forum- ESPECIALLY one like Az. describes where we could provide sources and have a more informed discussion. All these things I wish for and it feels like wishing for a pony as a kid when you blow out your birthday candles. Yeah, it'd be great but will it ever happen? God, I wish and I'll keep on wishing and coming here searching for info, ideas and answers!!
I had to giggle a little at you and I and our shared beliefs, Canaan, when I read your definition of being an anarchist! Here, all along I thought I was a libertarian and it turns out that I am actually an anarchist! LOL! Cool!!! I'm good with that! LOLOL!!
Peace to us all and Az., I'm glad to see you back for whatever stretch of time you want to be. :)
my definition of "anarchy" is somewhat atypical, lol...if you ever get a chance, read L. Neill Smith's books, and the SF short "And Then There Were None" - they convey it better than i could ever put in words - and are a PRFOUND blast to read.
Deletewe were and are agitating for age-restricted (passworded access - and i have had this set up on other sites, so i KNOW it can be done) forums on Foo, not instead of the current ones, but in addition to them. as it is, what we have is more suited to RPing than a true forum format...they could stand to revamp the whole system (wish they had thought to install a better one when they redid it)
Hugs CLC!
DeleteSo I gotta say, the customer service is a bit weird. Upon returning I found this message from Traci on my wall:
"You have been suspended for 3 days for behavior that is negative to the community, respect was earned by our Ambassadors before they were selected to monitor this site and should you choose to disrespect them it will not be allowed on this site."
For goodness sake, I knew why I was suspended. It showed up when I tried to sign in (and duh, I was there for the argument). And if I had problems, I could have taken them to Support. What I don't understand is that a suspension in this case would be my "cooling off" period, but as soon as I return I see that and feel pissed off all over again. It comes off as snarky, like they absolutely MUST have the final word. It's not very good to rile someone back up as soon as they come back from a suspension. My opinion anyhow. Smh.
it all comes back to the inexplicable (for this began long before Rivet's efforts to juvenilize the site) tendency of Admin (and thereby conferred on their ambassadors by default - i have spoken to PL and others "off camera" and found them COMPLETELY different people) to attempt to run Foo like a day care center full of unruly toddlers.
Deleteit doesn't WORK. speaking as a parent, teacher, and groups-of-all-sorts coordinator, CHILDREN seldom respond well to it, teens resent it, and adults find it intolerably insulting. if nothing else, if they don't know a member's age offhand (and cannot deduce it from context), they ought to look it up before addressing them...
the Foop has officially "arrived", lol - i am now getting international spam trying to advertise here.
ReplyDeleteConrats...?? I guess?? :/
DeleteJust wait till you win the Nigerian lottery or get offered millions of dollars if you'll just send them a check for "security" or get notified that a relative of yours (that you've never heard of..) died and left you a bundle of money in some country you've never heard of- then you'll know you've really hit the big-time! ;)
i used to get that sort of thing all the time in my email until i added some wolf traps to my spam security, lol - that, and foreign women who wanted to date me.
Deleteno, these seem to be legitimate businesses that happened to google up the Foop by accident and for some reason think we're a big deal here and a good resource for free advertising. i've had them come in so far from Israel, Belgium, and Germany, etc and they all appear to be up-and-up concerns with actual products. had another one come in a little while ago. at first they were coming in on older posts, but they've homed in on the current one now. i'm tempted to offer to sell them ad space.
So apparently I slept thru the "Big News" on Foo being announced. Remember that? From almost 70 days ago?
ReplyDeleteSomeone messaged Traci and said:
"Hello! Around two months ago, a thread was made in the Announcements named "Big Changes to Foopets". This "big change" never came and the thread was locked. Are these changes still pending? Can we expect to see any new features any time soon? Thank you, and have a lovely day!"
And Traci's reply was:
"The big changes were announced and there will be more to come!"
Yes she announced big changes, but I'm sure the member was talking about the so called extra "Big News" that never came. Unless it was that IC All was fixed? How disappointing.
yes, aside from the Mart repair nothing really came of it (fixing what was already there - and being paid for - does NOT count, lol. i suspect that when they unearthed the Mart code block they hoped the pet and item sales coding was nearby, but it turned out to be either buried deeper or mare entangled then they thought.
Deletei really, REALLY wish that they (in the person of Traci, if they are going to use her as their Talking Head) would learn that not only is it not fatal to admit to problems, but that it gains them respect and often help.
I am always so happy to see people admitting to issues on any site. I feel like they're giving me respect as a customer by being honest and not keeping me out of the loop. Now with Foo, I totally get that there are just some customers that will never ever be happy, but most of us, I think, would just be pleased to be treated as adults who can in fact handle bad news.
DeleteThis feels so much like saying adults aren't welcome. This thread is my final reason to go.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.foopets.com/topics/show/2410592?forum_id=28&post_count=19
I'd much rather be somewhere where I don't feel like I'm just in the way. Somewhere where I can talk and not be asked to take my topic offsite. I feel like this is kind of a "no" on the whole adult forum discussion.
Un-stinking-believable. I've just commented in the newer post in reply to your comment, Az. That thread^ is the embodiment of the crux of the problems at Foo. Is it the one and only problem? Oh, heck no. But the way they are handling it sums up the whole FooManagement way of addressing (or not) problems and the way it communicates with it's members.
DeleteFinding the time and actual effort to create a superb article like this is great thing. I’ll learn many new stuff right here! Good luck for the next post buddy..
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