Replace the Counters with Active Staff

So recently there’s been the problem of people messaging the counter users thinking they’re staff, right? I think it’s a useful tool to have the ability to find and message staff so easily, so I suggest that we replace the Uzumi, Persephone, and Dusky Peculiar counters with Eltafez, Constantine, and Nova-Chan. That way we keep the counters as a handy way to message staff, but retired staff won’t be bothered my newbies. But the counters have been here for so long! We shouldn’t change them, they’re a part of the game! Actually, the people in the counters aren’t that vital to the game’s lore or whatever. The counters used to contain now retired staff such as Rokon and Leah, so there’s certainly precedent for replacing obsolete staff with newer staff members. But why those staff members? It really doesn’t matter which new staff we add, just that they’re current staff. Those three staff members I mentioned are just the senior-most staff without counters. Why not replace the Ravyne counter? There’s no reason not to replace that too. Blank Banshee is inactive, and the Wishforge is already easily accessible through the hotbar.

I don't support this as I don't personally see the use of it. Counters aren't actually tied to any account and whoever is representing a counter, be it NPC or Staff, isn't involved in doing anything regarding it. Newbies should be encouraged to see the staff list (and learning who to actually contact for what) instead of clicking the counters and messaging those users. I also heard people were complaining about not having returned clicks from counter member's parties. You also need to take into consideration that some staff members might retire so you will again face the same problem of retired staff getting pms until this is changed. I believe having no links is the best option and should stay like that. After all, you can change images via site skin css code so beside aesthetic and bit of lore, I don't think they should have any links in them.

The problem wasn't just the inactive/retired staff. It was also the current staff like Shazi, Sei, Niet, and Garth. It's not going to *help* to add more staff to the counters and re-link them. If you really want to find staff that bad just look on the forum and VIP them.

Why not put the staff rooster as link? They way it could be a quick way to access it and members could know more easily which mods to contact.

no support for multiple reasons. this is kind of useless and pointless to do because most of the counters ARE active staff, one is an npc for a reason, ravyne links to the wishforge not blanks profile as they changed their name and are inactive now. also, correct me if im wrong but doesn't staff have their job roles on their profile? if all their names linked to the staff roster and ravyne to the wishforge still, then i dont see it as being a problem. Also, people can still pester them even without being sent to their profile through the bonus bars. people still send messages to inactive users and staff even if their profile says inactive.

Your first line of reasoning doesn’t contribute to your argument at all. Ravyne isn’t the only inactive staff member on the counters, y’know. Garthic just removed the links anyway, so the if the hypothetical situation you’re describing did happen, it’d still be a direct improvement over the current situation. I agree! That’s a good idea. But that’s a separate possible solution which seems to hold more or less the same amount of merit. [Mod edit: posts merged.]

Or, link Garth to the Albino Radar page, Niet to the Egg Timer, Uzumi to Scours, Dusky/Persephone to cr/gp, Shazi to the Shelter, and Sei to Shiny Hunting. I don't really think they should be replaced, we're already used to them, and besides newbies shouldn't be looking at the bonus counter, they should go to the Staff Roster.

If you want easy access to staff member's profile pages, I'd suggest either bookmarking the staff roster using the on-site bookmarks feature, or adding them to your VIP list.

I'm 99.9999999% sure that if Staff felt they needed to, they'd replace the staff who the counters represent. Also, let's not arbitrarily link counters to pages. 6 of the pages that Audrey mentioned are default pages/unable to be changed. The only two that aren't are Scours and Wishforge, but with the expanded bookmark system they should be literally 2 clicks away, one click if you swap them for an item on the bar. Also, this suggestion just seems like a way for people to more easily stalk the staff. Niet answers way too many questions in his PMs that should be put in the help forum, and I'm sure the rest of the staff already have that problem too. Let's not make it easier for folks to bother them.

Aren't the bonus bars still undergoing changes? Garthic states they've been removed at the very least for the time being, in the announcement, which implies they're potentially being changed/new links being added eventually, so tbh this suggestion feels premature with that being from 6 days ago and this having been made 4 If you want to get to staff pages easily/see who is best to contact Tada I agree with what Rebecca said up to having no links tied to the bars, I think there should be links, but to what the bars have progress towards rather than the "mascot" representing each goal If I recall correctly, the only reason the Ravyne counter wasn't changed upon Blank Banshee adopting a new pokesona thing was because the character was given to the site to use, I believe was mentioned somewhere? You'll notice the character has art in the Wishforge page and a bit of background info somewhat, and has also appeared in past events related to Gem tasks I don't really see Blank Banshee changing their name/pokesona and being inactive(???) having to do with why they didn't have a link to their page prior to the change to the bonus bars, but that's just me I really agree with what Audrey said, and hope for this to be implemented! The interactions bonus bar affects your interactions, so it should link to that page The interaction point bonus bar affects Albino Radars, so it should link to this page The scour bonus bar affects scours, so it should link to this page Gems to wishforge, credits to supplier, shelter adoptions to shelter, gp to daycare (I feel that daycare passes are the most actively purchased gp items, could be wrong though!), and lastly shinies hatched to the shiny hunt page! They make sense, it'd help users find locations of useful things, cause obviously they're useful if the site has a bonus bar dependent on these being used! :D We don't know what Staff feels the need to do/not to do, so for all we know, they are indeed planning to change who represents what counters! As the current staff are really just mascots for the counters, not being represented by the counters, since the staff associated with each counter doesn't directly impact what happens with said counter. I'm confused what you mean selocon saying they are unable to be changed? Mind elaborating, I'm confused by this. As for "arbitrarily" linking counters to pages, I believe what Audrey, and myself as well since I sorta expanded on it, were made upon reason and logic, not random choice, as that word means. I think the intent upon this suggestion was to just have it updated with current staff, I mean after all Garthic did clearly state in his post; "We were informed that people were sending messages to those in the counters as though they were members of staff when they are no longer a part of the staff team." I don't see how having it updated with current staff, as it seems a large part of the issue were members no longer on staff being contacted, is going to make it easier to "stalk the staff" to be honest. Not to say there weren't other issues aside from this one stated, I'm sure there were, but if someone contacts the wrong member of staff via the bonus bars, they'd be easily directed to the right member as it is a part of staff's job to aid those in need of help. If the staff felt they were being bothered by PMs of questions when they volunteered to help out, then I'd be a little worried, as people PM staff all the time, I've PMd various members of staff myself for assistance in all manner of things, I've never had they impression any of them minded it o: While I still think it'd be better to link the bonus bars to places, not people, I think that what Rob suggested would work as well, as again, Garthic stated the issue was ex staff members being contacted. Needless to say, I support, be it for what Audrey/I said or what Rob said, it'd eliminate the main concern Garthic addressed in the announcement. :)