[Panda]

So much I want to say lol, but I don't have time right now. I was a kid when I first started going on avatar sites, I was a member on all of them and there were a lot. I am almost 30 now, but I already set my mind and I accepted the fact that it is a dying community. It's basically dead already! I made so many amazing friends throughout the years and I do miss chatting with them, but they all have their own things in real life....

When I was younger, dramas followed me everywhere on different sites. There are a lot of people that like me and then there are also a lot that don't like me, but I always stay true to myself. I actually quit most of the sites before they closed down because I've been busy with life and my career...It's sad because avatar sites were a huge part of my online life, but oh well, nothing last forever. :/

[8Nephila8]

lol I don't know about that Panda. I mean There are at least ten solid people posting in here right now so it's not dead yet. A couple new people joined up here recently to. And more on other sites that are regulars. Most have just stayed by Gaia/ returned when they made everything cheap.

I think we (people that like avatar sites) just keep splintering off because we all think we can do a better job with our group of creative friends, and some people follow to the new site and some people stay on the old one they're used to.

Money is tight right now for a lot of people because of recovering from the epidemic, but honestly there's a new baby site like this every year or two. Voltra being the current new kid (as far as I know) But they're like 5 years old now.

It's probably just time for a new site to emerge.

My one wish for the next avatar site is that they're donation items, also have physical items along with them. So when it closes or goes stale there is a memento to have physically. Stickers; for example in a limited run of 500-2500.

No one take my idea this time. >:(

lol

[Panda]

We don't have updates anymore, we also haven't had new items since forever. Personally for me, I considered it dead because there's no future for the site anymore, it's just here because the current owner promised to keep it alive forever or as long as he can. I was part of the staff during closed beta and a few years back and stepped down because I don't have time. He promised to keep it alive because it doesn't cost him much to keep it alive...to you it's probably not dead yet, but I've seen it all on here and so many people left. We also don't really have anyone to cycle rare items, so even with all the postings you still can't buy old items because there's no seller. Probably one or two lol, but they aren't even here to reply back.

You have a good point, but it's going to cost them some money to get those merch made, sent out and probably won't be as profitable unless they have a big user base. I already gave up on avatar sites, but It's refreshing and nice to see someone like you who still have hopes. I wish I feel the same way, but as I got older, I really don't have interest in anything anymore. I'm getting old and grumpy XD

[KittyBeary]

We seem to get a new person joining every few days at the moment.

Also Stabb is working on stuff for the site lol he's mentioned that multiple times.

[Stabbsworth]

aye, yeah. i've also got a friend on the art team (that isn't Den, no offense to them, of course!) that's helping out with the art stuff. he should be listed in the staff.

i'm decently certain that one of the other members of staff has mentioned what's going on in their life to make updates so slow. i can't really do much in that vein, and i would prefer not to disturb them, y'know? it's not really their fault, it's just one of those things.

[Fontaine]

It was by pure chance I logged into day, I wanted to see how avatar sites were doing, this thread answered all my questions and I am so sad to hear pantheon is shut down. =( Avatar sites are a huge part of my life and always will be. At least we all have the fond memories. Or some not so great memories. Honestly I don't know what I am trying to say I apologize.

[Boris]

I have heard of Dappervolk and wanna see what it is! Also, same thing about Zatarni. I left Solia as well because I got bored. There is one other site that I forgot about. It had pets, and you can do some kind of games with them provided you can get them energy. Maybe it was menewasha. There was Syndrone as well. I left because it was boring as well.

Okay, the reason why I left Solia is because... I didn't like the direction it went, and I lost a lot of stuff. I also didn't like how the one guy in charge would say something along the lines of "That's the way the cookie crumbles" when someone made a complaint as if he didn't care.

[KittyBeary]

Originally Posted by Stabbsworth

aye, yeah. i've also got a friend on the art team (that isn't Den, no offense to them, of course!) that's helping out with the art stuff. he should be listed in the staff.

i'm decently certain that one of the other members of staff has mentioned what's going on in their life to make updates so slow. i can't really do much in that vein, and i would prefer not to disturb them, y'know? it's not really their fault, it's just one of those things.

No worries, life happens! Plus Tris isn't going anywhere atm and we still log on here. xD

I have an account on Zatarni but hardly log in.

[8Nephila8]

I forgot about Zatarni.

I posted a bit there, they had some interesting systems for playing I forgot about. Unlike Gaia, it's more readable to returning people. Still a little confusing.

[skyplus]

I randomly logged in today after I got a happy birthday email from the site XD

But yeah, avatar forums like this are a dying breed. It’s kinda sad, because I used to love creating little pixel anime-esque characters. Still do tbh. Gaia is still going, and that’s the one I remember fondly. Spent most of my high school days there to escape the bullying. I randomly logged in today on a whim and it’s become very money hungry which is kinda sad.

[Stabbsworth]

yeah, plus the stuff that essentially amounts to gambling machines on both gaia and dappervolk.

[Coda]

Originally Posted by skyplus

I randomly logged in today after I got a happy birthday email from the site XD

That's why we send them! :D

[Dalhanahue]

*Just jumps in the conversation*

On the topic of Solia. Solia was a huge disappointment for me. And I had been an active user for a while and did donate what I would consider frequently. I mean, sure there were people that I know donated more but I put some money into the site. And just how that whole server and item issue was handled was so off putting. Then the site itself changed. I mean, I get they couldn't really help the server issues but how it was handled was awful. In the end there was no compensation for long time users who lost so much. And don't get me wrong, I'm an adult and I understood that when I donated I was basically throwing money at something that wasn't tangible but even still; there wasn't some sort of way they could have made up for it? I think there could have been had they put more thought into it. I've not been back since. I don't know if it's even up and going still.

I did enjoy Gaia for a while until imo it became troll central and inflation was ridiculous.

Caedon is still around but it's very inactive and slow and that makes me sad. We has some really fun times and events.

Pantheon just shut down recently and that made me sad. Honestly the best avatar system I've come across so far and the community was just really great.

I started out with Gaia when I was in highschool. My parents were strict and I wasn't allowed to go out much so it really opened up the world to me for meeting people and having a place to be myself. Express myself through my avatar and what not. That's where my love of these types of sites is rooted and it bums me out that they aren't as popular anymore. That being said, as I totally understand when real life gets in the way of our online lives and I imagine running these types of sites, while rewarding, isn't always easy and the people who do are always doing it as side project while still having real world obligations and responsibilities.

[Stabbsworth]

i p much discovered a love for these through trisphee.

[Chloe]

I try to be active but right now, I tend to have bouts where I'll pop on then poof. :} Tis the Chloe way.. pretty sure most of my neopets are ready to mutiny against me.. besides maybe Voltron.. he gets a cool car.. on the moon.. while wearing robot clothes.. don't ask what Chloe has been drinking when she dressed him that day..

I am a bit more active on Gaia cause working on putting a rpg together, just been busy with a few rl things so been delayed in getting much more done the last two days.

Solia was all right, but it was a site that felt cliquey.. I got lucky when I first joined... years ago, I was adopted into a 'Solia family' so I wasn't really on my own getting to know things. But sadly those users eventually left and now if your not one of the richer users there with lots of sparkly items, then most stay away from you, lol. And yea, they didn't care if an item went missing. The pose I had missing costed me nearly 100 dollars.. :(

Not too sure if many sites are going to try, unless a site probably gets the backing from a kickstarter, I highly doubt many will have the spare cash to support what a site needs. I actually was a mod on an avatar site that was being worked on and the owner ended up abandoning it in the end.. so yea, it's not something you just go into without at least a basic idea of things.

And if I remember right, Gaia started to release recoloured items of hard to get items.. new colour devil tails, ninja headbands, etc. Those were always so hard to get, so were Cocos and Kikis.. Now there's pink, blue, yellow cocos and not sure what colors of kikis.. just too many items are unlisted, lol.. there's one I'm trying to find and it's proving to be a right pain in the arse since the only seller doesn't log on that often.

and I found avatar sites while in High School myself through my parents actually begged me to go out and have a life. The thing was, none of my friends drove and none lived near me besides two, so making plans without a willing parent to drive us to the movies.. the mall.. etc was hard to do. On top, most of us didn't have the cash to do those things.. most of us lived in tiny towns or out in the boondocks where there was maybe one or two places to work and most of them didn't want to deal with antsy teenagers. Let's also say, my parents came much more strict in my High School years, I had little say in clothing - if the item didn't please my aunt, I wasn't getting it unless I had my own money. Anything like tank tops, those cute little crop tops, etc, I only bought if I had the money.. was the same with anything Anime related.. my Aunt was fine with buying me like Babysitter's Club, Fear Street or VC Andrews but if I wanted a manga or an anime tape, which she felt was more for kids and not someone my age through most of my friends were hard nut anime fans. I think my grandmother bought me one copy of Yu Yu Hakuso and only cause it was a limited edition copy and the store only had one copy.
Where my parents were a little more lenient on the Anime side of things. I got to watch Akira, was probably around 11 or 12 at the time, X/1999 the movie and then my parents just let me stay up late on Saturdays for InuYasha, Cowboy Bebop, etc.
My dad even went into the local video store and bought me a copy of Bastard.. lol.. I was like 16 or 17 at the time and believe the guidelines said 18+ but the cashier sold him the tape and he handed it right to me but cause I was a regular and they knew that was my parent, what could they do to be honest?
And my parents actually bought me alcohol before I was legal age.. I always had a bottle of Smirnoff in the fridge and was welcome to a beer Friday or Saturday as long as I stayed on our property. So really, I had no need to go out and bribe older teenagers to get me and my friends booze, I had full access to it at my house and my parents blessing. Plus to be honest, once most of us graduated High School, we lost touch with each other which is what happens, I think the friends I really keep in touch with is my college and uni friends but again, we have separate lives and due to covid, how we hang out has changed and all. Maybe one day, we'll agree to go back to our Friday/Saturday and Sunday gaming days at each other houses but right now, two of us want to get into work and the third, I have no idea if he's in the UK or back in the US, lol.

[Stabbsworth]

i mostly get a load of my items on gaia through RIGs. and the fucking spinning wheel. spinami, i think. they don't update the lucky catch thing, so like. i have tons of copies of certain items bc i would constantly gamble on that and try to make outfits with the items i could get.

honestly, i probably should make an alt account on here and use it specifically for storing crane game items so that i can always make sure that i have plenty to spare for newer users that don't have good hand-eye coordination, but there's already plenty in the item exchange, and older users probably aren't going to be too happy if the pool gets diluted even further with stuff that's essentially a junk item with no value.

i played on dappervolk for a while, and i was a trainee artist for pantheon. i've looked into applying to voltra, but they don't have applications open right now iirc.

quite frankly, there's absolutely no way i'd be able to make my own site. plus i actually prefer working under other people bc that way i know what to do, haha!