Mara's just not like it used to be.

I got this from midkitten 's blog.
http://www.marapets.com/blogs.php?entry=30223
Yes i got permission. Don't plagarise people.

Mara's just not like it used to be.

[LAST UPDATED: December 20, 2007; edit at the bottom]
Especially with all of these new members. The majority of them are children that lie about their age so they can access the forums. [And before you lecture me, I am /not/ saying all newbies are annoying]
I am tired of seeing 'OMG BF HELP' or 'OMG LUKING 4 A BF' boards. Mara is a virtual petsite. Not a teenage help site. Not a dating site. If you want a partner, go to match.com.

Report happies are also annoying. One cannot post something containing 'damn' or 'hell', even though the rules clearly state those words are acceptable, as they are considered milder swear words.
Another example is a topic I made the other evening. The title was something like, 'Blonde moment' and I informed everyone that I used a glue stick instead of chap stick. It got reported. What was so bad about that? 'Blonde moment'? I /am/ blonde, for Pete Townshend's sake! Yet I've seen dating advice boards continue for hours and even days!

Rating boards and fashion shows are annoying as well. Now that they've been moved to spam, they are clogging up the spam forum. I used to enjoy spamming, but it seems somebody is determined to kill the spam chat. First the bad spam, then the one topic per five minutes, and now this. But I digress.
Another thing about rating boards is people don't know how to handle honesty. I go on those boards with the intention of showing people that not everybody loves their outfit. Though it is amusing to see people throw tantrums, get over it. It's just a virtual doll.

Attention seeking bothers me as well. Your mom died? Then why are you playing on a virtual petsite? Why are you trying to get pity from strangers? Don't you have a family to be with? Friends? Most of the time these people are lying for attention, and occasionally free pixels. Revolting.

Another thing that bothers me is the amount of complaining boards. Sure, there have always been people moaning about something. It's human nature. But it seems as though the number of whiners has increased greatly.
[Yes, I realize I am complaining as well, but I'm doing it in the proper place - my blog]

The skinny pets are a great example.
People say it's abuse. They're pixels. Want me to call the People for Ethical Treatment of Pixels for you? Oh wait, there's no such thing because pixels don't have feelings.
People say it will make children want to be skinny. What kind of child would want to be thin because of a virtual pet? The kind that needs psychiatric help.
People say it's making fun of anorexia. True, it may be poking fun at anorexia, but aren't the emo costumes mocking emotive hardcore people? Or the fat costumes mocking obesity? And what if I don't believe in heaven and have an issue with angel pets? Honestly people.

For some reason, I cannot stand this. When people are in the middle of a deep discussion and someone comes in and posts 'hi' or 'CUM 2 MI FASHIN SHOW [link here]' or something completely off topic. I understand if you wish to comment on the original post even though the conversation has changed direction. But if you can't be bothered to read the first post, don't bother replying.

Another thing that makes my skin crawl - chatspeak.
Isn't there a rule stating that chatspeak is only allowed on the spam chat? And is it really hard to take an extra .5 second to add a 'y' and an 'o' to your 'u'? No, it isn't.
Sure, I can understand misspelling triskaidekaphobia or asclepiadaceous. But come on!

Another thing that bothers me is roleplaying.
It is pretty much impossible to find a decent roleplay.
Marapets related -> Marapound roleplays get dull.
Basic -> I won't do so much as click there.
Intermediate -> I see too many things that belong in basic there and it's all the same stuff.
Advanced -> Sorry, I don't have the time nor willpower to type a seven paragraph introduction.
And why is it always the same crap? Wolf, dragon, Harry Potter, Naruto, Warrior Cats...
As one of my good friends has said, why aren't there any science fiction roleplays?

Another thing is the begging.
I don't have any intention of giving you my MP, items, or pets because you sent me one maramail, told me I look nice, et cetera. Sorry, I'm not a charity. I play Marapets for myself, not complete and total strangers. I'll help my friends, but if you're considered a friend, you won't have to ask for items.

It seems that everything is revolving around account upgrades nowadays. Many of the recently released avatars had to do with AU items. I do not buy AUs often, and they are definitely not my main source of MP, items, et cetera. It seems many users that can buy numerous AUs are getting an unfair advantage on users that would rather save their real life money for Freddie Mercury's 10-disk solo album and a new laptop and electric bills and food.
What I'm getting at is most people would rather spend real money on real items instead of pixels. True, this is our personal choice, but it seems rather unfair that most LE pets, avatar items, costumes, and more are being released through AUs. I realize most AU money supports the site, but with all the money Ian receives from AUs don't you think more could be done with the site?

Price deflating. One of the things that truly upsets me is when someone has 69 of a certain item and they sell it for /far/ less than the cheapest price on the shop search. Are they trying to purposely ruin it for others or something? I remembering RSing an emo costume quite a few months back. You could imagine my joy when I saw they went for over 60K. A few hours later somebody has over three dozen emo costumes for sale for less than half the cheapest price on the shop search [which was mine].
They changed it after I had made a board complaining in quite a strong manner and got a few people to agree that it was a disgrace, of course.

Here's an issue on the help chats. When someone answers a question and another person comes along and says something along the lines of, 'Yeah, what s/he said'. What's the point of that? I have a suspicion that people just do it to increase their post counts or, of course, attention. Perhaps even both.
Another thing is when someone replies to a help topic after the question has been answered and the topic has been inactive for ages. There's no point to that, either.

It appears you can't joke around anymore. If you say one little thing, someone spazzes or your post gets deleted [though it's usually a combination of the two]. I don't want to have to add a xD face or a 'LOLOLOL JK' for people to realize I'm merely being humourous. People need to loosen up and joke around a little bit.

I agree with everything Jen says in this blog:
http://www.marapets.com/blogs.php?entry=69672