News

Posted on: Tue Oct 4, 2016 3:15pm

Feel better Kaiyo!, thanks for the info on the planter Eve, was wondering if I'd missed it.

Posted on: Tue Oct 4, 2016 3:18pm

Eve [No ToT <3] (#2775) Kayla-La (#48591) (so you hopefully a reply won't be missed)

Curious about this as well, does the vion planter create a breedable pet? Or did the a previous news post say it would b e un-breedable?

Posted on: Tue Oct 4, 2016 3:23pm

Kayla-La (#48591) - Yes, it is a breedable custom maker =)

As for gifs... It's been proven if there's no images then most people forget the news post even happened - which is why you will always find images in them. As for gifs now... Aywas is a finite resource, a lot more attention can be brought with a gif - and for better or worse and as annoyed as people are at me, they won't forget that Mayday PSDs are going to wiped tomorrow because of the annoying GIF.

All in all, people are going to get mad over pixels whether they're from on site, offsite, or whatever in general. It's literally impossible to please everyone and frankly I've stopped trying. I enjoy the gifs, they make me want to actually keep on top of my announcements, so they're going to be in my news posts. If you don't like it then I apologise but they're literally doing no harm to anyone.

Posted on: Tue Oct 4, 2016 3:29pm

To also note, because i really think this argument about the use of gifs is silly (no offense. just my opinion. and i am no one if importance so my opinion doesn't really matter i guess).

but yeah, the people who make gifs are technically breaking the law themselves as they redistributing copyrighted material (movies/shows/etc and most likely w/o permission) so giving credit to the person who made the gif is totally pointless. It's like giving an artist credit for fan art without explicitly saying hey this is fan out and not their original character concepts. Though fan art has more work put in it than gifs and I'd actually expect credit given to both. For gifs though? seriously? Do you see tumblr ever giving credit for gifs? Or anywhere? I've seen a crapload of gifs in my lifetime on a variety of sites and the only way i see credit is if the image link used is from the original source (though it still technically isn't the orginal source. the movie or show it is from is)

Of all the things to have a big enough problem with to say something dramatic about, gifs seems like a pretty petty thing to be upset about. This isn't a law firm or doctor's office. it's a pet site. yes, it is a "business" but it is also a community. And the business part is mostly to keep it functional (well, at least somewhat functional..). or at least that is what i gather.

which while many professional settings does have a bond between co-workers, that is still different than a digital community where the staff is supposed to have more of a connection to the userbase/"customers" than a typical work setting. So expecting a professionalism to the news is rather silly.

And on yet another side note, many businesses use social media all the time (twitter for example. and yes, sometimes they use gifs or memes). Which is aimed towards what would be the userbase/customers of the company rather than the employees.. when it comes to stuff like emails and warnings or other business type of things, i imagine aywas staff takes more of a "professional" approach.

An example of news being silly is if you have ever been to Trader Joe's? Tthey have news pamphlets that are free to grab and they have many pictures that honestly don't make sense lol... and they word stuff rather casually. Also many restaurants use meme references and what not if they have one of those chalkboard things on the outside to let you know specials and to entice you to come.

Long story short, i don't think anything is really wrong with the gifs when it comes to professionalism in this particular case. BESIDES the fact they are, as i mentioned, pretty freaking huge o.o. But that is (probably) easily fixable w/o ruining the more chill/relatable vibe. Which is not a bad thing...

Posted on: Tue Oct 4, 2016 3:37pm

TequilaThunderCatsHo (#64472) - I completely forgot to add in the resizing code which is why they're huger than I planned (I just hadn't really paid any attention other than going "good, nothing broke" lmao). Hopefully they're a little more bite-sized now ^^

Posted on: Tue Oct 4, 2016 3:44pm

"they won't forget that Mayday PSDs are going to wiped tomorrow because of the annoying GIF."
Uhhh actually incorrect. I couldn't READ the news post and honestly had no idea there was even anything about Mayday PSDs in this post until #109's comment mentioning them.
The gifs are too large and move too quickly for me to be able to focus on the words written in the news post, they take up far too much space and there's no way I can move my screen up or down so I can read it properly without them on my screen.

As for not doing any harm to anyone, I am concerned about the fact there's no way to "turn off" gifs in news posts and as such any player with epilepsy or sensitive eyes could have a REALLY tough time.
Forums don't matter so much, you can take or leave forum threads and it makes little difference to being able to play the game, but if you want to stay up to date on things happening on the site you NEED to read news posts.

Frankly the attitude given is pretty off-putting. :/
Being one of the head admins of the site, saying "It's literally impossible to please everyone and frankly I've stopped trying." in response to a valid and polite expression of concern and criticism is ... honestly I have no kind words.
Perhaps if you are unable to perform your duties in a professional manner with a better attitude it might be better for the site as a whole and your own well being to pass off those duties to someone else?

--
Thank you for telling me I'm being silly #64472?
Sure there's bigger problems on Aywas, should we only mention things if they're "big" enough? Is the professionalism of site staff not "big" enough?
What makes a pet site any less of a business than any other business?
Is a McDonalds not as much of a business as a fine dining restaurant? Is an indie game company not as much of a business as a mainstream game company? Is Aywas not as much of a business as Flight Rising?
Like it or not, Aywas IS a business and it does deal with a large user base as well as contracting outside individuals for their work and with that comes a certain expectation.
This kind of reaction to raising concerns is what stops people from bothering raising concerns, because they're always talked down to or told it's "not a big deal" or "silly" and they should be quiet and deal with it, or just leave if they don't like it.
For some of us Aywas has been a large part of our lives for years, and in some cases Aywas has even been an employer/contractor, so to see the staff presenting themselves unprofessionally and then brushing off concerns with "Eh whatever, can't please everyone, I like it so tough luck." is upsetting.

Posted on: Tue Oct 4, 2016 3:45pm

Oh nice! I was really sure it was unbreedable for some reason. Not sure why I thought that.

As for gifs, eh. I don't think this is a 'one right answer' situation. Maybe a compromise to keep them to a minimum (anything can get annoying if you do it often enough, after all), but I don't think everyone hates them, either. I can't say I've ever scrolled through a news post and have an opinion on gifs either way, myself.

Posted on: Tue Oct 4, 2016 3:52pm

Hi, so, I just thought I'd leave my two cents.

1. As much as it's fun to think of aywas as a community rather than a business, aywas is still fundamentally a business, and the staff side ought to recognize that.

2. I feel like the staff of this site places the value of professionalism somewhere between not enough and not at all. Professionalism is what builds trust in the userbase. It's what convinces the users that the staff are capable, competent people, and that user problems and opinions are valuable to staff time. It's what keeps people visiting.

3. The usage of random gifs from outside (and copyright!) sources - especially when improperly formatted so that they completely overshadow the actual news of the newspost - is unprofessional. I understand that many other companies also use gifs and such to convey their messages, but what must also be understood is that those same companies also maintain a high degree of professionalism when actually dealing with their consumers.

3a. Moreover, those same companies can recognize good formatting, so that the gif is not the most immediate, visually gripping part of the newspost, but rather, the news. They choose gifs that are relevant and interesting, rather than mere reactionary images - ones that assist in understanding the meaning and "point" of the post, rather than befuddle it. Just from looking at this newspost, there is no way to tell what it is about. There isn't even an image of the item being described. The priorities are completely skewed.

3b. (That's not even to mention the fact that many gifs can trigger epileptic seizures, a responsibility staff should be sensitive towards.)

4. I do not see that professionalism from staff here.

"It's literally impossible to please everyone and frankly I've stopped trying"?

Or do you mean "I don't care what the consumers have to say"? Because that is the impression that your statement gives off, whether you meant it to or not. And, I'm sorry to have to be the one to say it, but

Attempting to please as many people as you can

Is your job as staff.

As the face of the site, and as a staff member who regularly interacts with your consumerbase,

Ensuring that the consumers - as many as possible - have a pleasant experience interacting with both you and the site

Should literally be in your job description.

I've felt that staff has consistently failed to meet standards of professionalism that constitute the bare-bones minimum that their jobs should entail. The gifs are not the issue; the lack of care for the consumerbase is. No one would complain about the gifs if the staff had done their jobs properly.

5. Complaints about the gif usage are so mild and easily fixable. Even if staff, for some reason, dearly wanted to hold on to such an unprofessional habit, the professional way to handle it is not to tell consumers that their opinions don't matter to you, but, rather, to simply thank the users for their input and promise to put it into consideration. Staff has failed at even that.

6. Overall I've been extremely disappointed with the way site issues have been handled recently. Many queues are backed up or nearly stopped altogether, and whether or not new people are being trained to handle them is an issue that's opaque and inconsistent at best. Recently, I've had friends who have had to deal with long wait times on PMs with Kaiyo. While I send her condolences for her loss, the fact of the matter is that, instead of inconveniencing the users, a replacement should have been found right away in order to keep the site running smoothly.

7. Aywas is not your personal playland funground, staff. It is a business with customers and so you must handle it as such. If you are incapable of the job, then hire new people, or step down. That it's "hard" is not an excuse for shoddy behavior and bad habits - that sort of attitude is what is going to drive users away. Without the users, there is no aywas. I hope you understand that, because thus far, it doesn't seem like you have.

I will not be responding to anyone who replies to this. Litwick out.

Posted on: Tue Oct 4, 2016 3:54pm

Omg. 3 Dumb Sloths have said everything I ever wanted to about the stupid gifs of late. Go back to using aywas images please. This is a news post, not a personal blog. Forum posts are fine for gifs though.

Posted on: Tue Oct 4, 2016 3:59pm

350gp = really expensive