It has been so wonderful to see our community blossoming again after all the hurdles we've been through the last few years. There's no doubt in my mind that this site has the potential to be something truly special, not just because of the art or features, but because of all the wonderful people who gather here. While our obvious priorities right now are to release new items, fix up the site programming, and add new features, we have another priority - and that is to grow and improve our community. This is not something the staff can do alone, it's a long project that takes everyone pitching in to accomplish. However, I know it can be difficult trying to figure out 'well how does this include me?' so the purpose of this news post is to spotlight some ways that users can get more involved.

â—„CHARITIESâ–º

The purpose of our charities is to help new members and veteran members alike. Usually by providing free items or discount services, however there really aren't any limits on what form your gifting can take. For instance: I have seen avatar site charities that offered an avatar designed by the staff and one free item from that design to go along with it. I've also seen charities that help newbies get their first outfits. And currently we have a wonderful charity run by Aleah that is all about getting free hair! So there are many, many different possibilities to help one another out! If you have an idea for a charity, but lack funds to get it up and running, the staff and I are discussing a sort of "grant" opportunity to provide start up WS to new charities. I will be posting more about this in the charity forum once we get it all hashed out.

â—„C.A.G.E.R.â–º

Not to be confused with "kegger", C.A.G.E.R. stands for "Contests, Auctions, Giveaways, Events, and Raffles". Most of our events so far have been officially run by our Party King, Royal, but members can host events, too! This can be a good way to support a favorite charity, by donating a percentage (or all, if you're feeling really generous) of any entry fees or raffle ticket purchases. Or you can do it just for fun. To celebrate your birthday or another big occasion in your life. We may release some options to allow for site supported events that remain member run - such as allowing for FA items or pet designs to be created as prizes for a moderate fee. This is something the staff and I are also still discussing!

â—„NINJASâ–º

No, don't worry, we're not sicking trained assassins on anyone or anything. Ninjas refers to ninja gifting or gifting anonymously. These special individuals pass out gifts, run events, and sometimes even run charities. Basically, if you want to do good, but stay out of the spotlight, then a ninja account would be your alter ego! This is something we have been considering, however, there are things we would need to work out as this requires users to open a second account. We would want to privately keep a record of which ninja belongs to which user just to prevent any possible issues that might arise. Aleah has agreed to be part of this process, so she and I will continue to figure everything out. In the meantime, if you are interested in donning a ninja mask then please shoot myself or Aleah a PM to express your interest!

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I believe that's everything I have for now. Thank you all so much for being part of this journey with us and for being so patient through what seems an endless transition! I know we're getting to a more stable place, bit by bit, and I'm excited to see us truly succeed with this project. As always, if you have any questions, concerns, or idea, don't hesitate to contact me!

So quite a few of you have been feeling a little unnoticed and unseen.

Don't fret! We see you! Yes you! All of you! *cough*

Thanks to the tireless efforts of our staff wracking their brains to figure out this odd infection, we have managed to find a vaccine! (Thanks Cataluna!!! You rock our socks right off!!!)

For those of you being redirected to the Index Page when trying to access your avatars, there is a simple run-around that seems to fix it.

When logging in, make sure you have the "Remember me" box clicked to set the cookie for your account.

Spoiler: here's a pic for clarification!

Once that elusive little box is clicked, you should be free to prance around in all of your pretties like everyone else!

If this still doesn't work for you, please let one of our staff know via this thread.

This is so far a temporary solution while we work on exterminating this pesky bug. Thanks everyone for your patience and give a HUGE shout out to Cataluna for being brilliant!!!

Oh boy, first I have to apologize at all the issues we've been having with the new system. Please rest assured that we are working on these things and will do our best to get them fixed up. We have a good base code and system, it just needs a few solid kicks and probably some stabbing to get it into shape!! okay maybe not stabbing Until then....

Here is a list of known bugs and how you can work around them:

â–º Wonky layering, deleted items returning, saved avatar appearing to reset to previous version? â—„
• In the list of buttons is an arrow/circle button leftmost to Save Avatar. This is a refresh button. If you equip an item and it isn't showing. Refresh. If you save and it doesn't look like the version you saved. Refresh. Basically, if there's any layering issue... Refresh. This, frustratingly, was a cheap work around to whatever is making the avatar go haywire. Until I can have Lyro fix the underlying issue our lives are going to be full of refreshing.



â–º Avatar button is sending you to the index page? â—„
• This one I'm not so sure about, I'm still working with those who have mentioned it to see what we can do to fix it.
For now, if you are having this issue, please go to this thread to chime in.

â–º Not being able to see colors before equipping or see which color you have equipped? â—„
• An unfortunate oversight. We will try to get something in place for the latter ASAP, however color preview might take more doing so that might not be an immediate fix.
However, we do have this nifty little color guide that will hopefully help you out until then!

â–º Avatars not showing for private messages? â—„
• I've brought this issue up to Lyro and he is going to be looking into it once he has a free spot in his work rotation.

â–º Drag and drop not working on mobile? â—„
• Sadly this is going to take a lot more work than it should and so it is on our to do list. In the meantime I apologize to anyone who is on mobile that can't use this feature. We will get it sorted as quickly as possible!

I believe that is everything that's been brought to my attention, though naturally, I feel like I'm forgetting something. If I did miss one, post in the Bug Reports forum. If you are having completely different issues, then post that as well! Thank you all for being so patient. You're the best little test subjects

Don't worry! You're not really disappeared! Lyro is in the midst of making the new avatar system live and fixing a few bugs for us! For now you can still find all of your items and previous avatars via the following link:

Old Closet

And this will be the new link, which will take over the button at the top once Lyro is finished:

New Closet!

Your wardrobe will not change! Both closets pull from the same database, so everything you own will show up in the new one without you having to do anything!

I would advise waiting to play in the new closet until Lyro has finished working. I know, I know, I'm barely managing to resist it myself!! I'll make a new announcement when he's finished up!

UPDATE!!!

I got the all clear from Lyro! Everything is all set up! You will need to visit this link, which can be found in Settings >> Avatar. It will allow you to choose which avatar to make public! *happy dance* One last note, I will be leaving the link to the old closet in this news update and swapping the link at the top of the page to the new one. Your previous avatar should still be accessible via the old link so you can switch the design over!

Please let me know if you have any comments or concerns! Thank you all!!