What are Site Updates?
We're actively improving Subeta across all platforms. Updates show the latest changes to the main site, Kumos, and the Wardrobe — your feedback helps us build a better Subeta!
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Yo ho ho, me hearties! We're finally back t' port after some bleedin' bilge-suckin' storms. I'm thinking next year we'll head in a whit earlier, avoid 'avin to batten down th' 'atches or even abandon ship entirely - I know Babette would prefer not 'avin to make so many repairs on the old Freyalise, as much as she loves cursin' at us in th' process! Aye an' she does love 'avin us around Rathskellar Inn. An' young Bloodhungry needs a thing or two to do to stop 'im 'angin the jib. Port Plunder can only 'old a young lad's attention so long!
Translation: Hello, all! Please do excuse our delay to port, we were begotten by the most dreadful storms this year! We're actually considering heading home a little earlier next summer, to save us from causing any more damage to the ship! I think our dear Babette would be extremely pleased to have us back at Rathskellar Inn early, as much as she pretends to tire of us and the many repairs we ask her to do! Young Bloodhungry could also do with having somewhat of a change of scenery, turn his frown upside down!
NOTE: Keel Hauliday ends at 11:59pm on October 10. All quests have been reset. Carl has a chance to give out Freyalise Trading Co. items from this year, 2022, and 2021. This should lower your chances of getting older items!
Earlier today we updated what was once the Cursed Quests to be the Duality Quests. I'd like to provide more context into why that change was made, why it's been so long in the making, and how we can move on in a positive way going forward.
First, users brought up the issues regarding how Mori and Nori were portrayed so this brainstorm thread so born. If you look at the date, you can see it was created well over a year ago and users brought it up before that. It's unacceptable that we took so long to address this. While yes, our team is small and incredibly stretched thin, it shouldn't have taken us the amount of time it did. We as a team have a problem with breaking tasks up into smaller things; we always want to do everything at once. In this case, we really thought it made the most sense and was the most respectful to get everything changed at once. It was clearly not the right way to go about things, and I personally want to apologize to those I put off with my "we're working on it" generic comments.
Now, what was the issue with Nori and Mori?
Quote:
"Mori and Nori as well as items relating to them have been changed due to the use of terminology that is offensive to those with Dissociative Identity Disorder. While they were not meant to be a direct representation of the disorder, many users have voiced their concerns that the inherent nature of her backstory alongside it being painted in a negative light opened up a lot of opportunities for offensive language being used throughout the site. Since Mori and Nori are such an accessible and essential part of the site, having things like this at the forefront may reenforce the thought that the usage of these terms is acceptable and normalized, which is not what's wanted at all in a site that seeks to be inclusive and diverse."
This was beautifully said by user fun who has experience with DID and has been a champion for educating the staff and users. I asked them to sum up what the problem for users without having to read the entire suggestion thread.
We've updated the text for the Mori and Nori quests (the intro text, the turn in text, the failed quest, the reward text), the quest shop text, the subetapedia main entry about the two as well as the quick facts listed in the quest givers list, and various items around the site. We've also renamed the achievements associated with Mori and Nori. Did we miss something? Please ping me (Amber) so I can adjust it.
In the future, I will actively try to not offer excuses ("our team is small" "our focus is on a holiday") and will do my best to work with users to get things updated in a timely manner. This isn't always possible, of course, but I personally could have done a lot better job with this particular issue.
Why does this all matter? Like fun's quote says, we really do strive to be inclusive and diverse. We don't want to have things on site that upset users in a negative way like this. It's one thing to not like an item because you think spiders (or something similar) are scary, it's another to have to deal with an item promoting negative stereotypes to a mental health disorder you may have. By not addressing user concerns about Mori and Nori in a timely matter, we as staff made part of our user base feel unheard and unimportant which is never what we want. We've adjusted items with a quick turn around before (Algonquin Plushie comes to mind) and the fact we took over a year to make these changes was plain wrong.
Why post a new news post instead of just adding another comment to the earlier post? The users who brought up the issue with Mori and Nori, continued to fight for the change, and actively tried to educate users and staff deserve this post. They deserve to be publicly acknowledged for the work they did.
The formerly named Cursed Quests have been updated to the Duality Quests. You'll notice Mori and Nori item descriptions and subetapedia articles have been updated as well to reflect these changes. You can find out why we changed this quest here.
I've also reset all quests to celebrate this change! :)
Note: If something isn't working correctly based off Mori and Nori's quests, like shop search doesn't show their quest shop items properly or something, please let me know. Quests get mentioned in a lot of places and while I think I updated everything everywhere, I could be wrong!
:star: Babette recently received word that the Freyalise has run off course due to some particularly angry sea storms and won't be docking until sometime next week. :star: Did you know the first day of Autumn is this Saturday? The Millionaire Center and Seasonal Quest Shop will be rotating their stock sometime Saturday, so get your Summer gear while you can. :star: Bug Catching will end when Autumn officially starts on Subeta. :star: Don't forget, the birthday suit cookies will be removed from the various shops around the site once September ends. So grab them while you can. The Token Shop and Crystal Shop cookies will likely stock at least once more!
There are five new polls for you to vote in. What better way to celebrate our 19th anniversary than by looking back on various parts of the site? Let us know what your favorite plot/event was in the past, your favorite NPC relationship, what's the best pizza on site (not at all thanks to Elwood), your favorite set of themed minions, and of course the age-old question of just which NPC is the fairest of them all.
There are achievements for having the basic lifelike dolls* of the newly added species! Basic lifelike dolls are the following colors: Arid, Common, Cream, Dawn, Dusk, Field, Golden, Lilac, Marsh, Nuclear, Sun, and Twilight.
Unlike past releases, these new lifelike dolls do not have a corresponding Subetapedia article to go with.
If you visit Raffles between now and the end of the month, you'll receive the achievement Subeta Anniversary Border which gives you a kumos-themed balloon border. Enjoy!
You can change your avatar border here. If you see borders you know you've unlocked listed as locked (along with the rest of the them), don't worry. You haven't lost your borders. Sometimes it takes a refresh or a visit later to see them unlocked again.
Happy anniversary to us! Today is our 19th Anniversary! Can you believe it? Subeta wouldn't be here today without our mighty user base, who has stuck with us and supported us through all sorts of wild times. We appreciate every time you've shared the site with a friend, bought CSC or got a monthly subscription, reshared our posts on social media, helped out fellow users on the forums/shoutout box/discord who are new, and more. Seriously, from the bottom of all our hearts on staff, thank you for getting us to year 19.
There are 6 birthday-themed cookies for you to collect from different special shops to start the celebration. Feeding all six cookies to your pet will award you the Birthday Suit Cookies achievement with a fun sprinkle border prize! You can find the...
:tada: Birthday Suit Party Hat Cookie in the Carnival Prize Tent :tada: Birthday Suit Jacket Cookie in the Token Shop :tada: Birthday Suit Tie Cookie in the Forum Shop :tada: Birthday Suit Cookie in the Crystal Shop :tada: Birthday Suit Pants Cookie in the Recycle Shop :tada: Birthday Suit Kicks Cookie in the Blue Building Shop
The Token Shop and Crystal Shop have received a large amount of initial stock that will be restocked at least once more. The Birthday Suit Cookies will leave all special shops at the end of the month, so get them while they're hot! The achievement will not retire at the end of the month, so you can hold on to your cookies and feed them to a pet later and still receive the achievement. <3
The Fishing Expert achievement has a new tier! If you find 5 rare items while fishing, you'll receive the new Fishing Expert avatar border.
There's also a new achievement altogether for fishing underground! Fishing up anything counts toward this achievement and once you reach 100, you'll get the new Underground Fishing avatar border.
Over the next 24 hours or so, I will be restocking items randomly in the Token Shop. Don’t assume an item restocked earlier will appear in a later restock, I really am choosing at random. We are not adjusting the wait time between purchases, either, so you’ll have some hard decisions.
You have until the next monthly collection is released to get these challenger summoners from the Cash Shop. They are were all released in September of previous years. Note: The Deciduous Summoning Charm is an Autumn based challenger and will stick around September, October, and November.
The September collections and challenger summoning items will be released tomorrow, September 4. So grab any August items you want/need before they disappear until next year!
