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What baffles me is how people want to understand a company’s internal decisions as if they were shareholders. It just seems way too extreme to me.
I understand the passion of Neopets players, but to this extent? It sounds unhealthy, I’m sorry.
Just imagine if this became a trend and we started questioning layoffs at every company behind the products we consume...

"with the majority of our 80+ TNT based across North America"

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Wasn't the totality of TNT like 20...? Is that number including the people who are solely working on the apps & World of Neopets? what happened with all the stuff they were supposed to bring the last months based on the official roadmap? is Neopets still operating at a loss? at this point they should be transparent with where all the money is going

@allanmennezess I agree. This new culture of demanding full transparency from everyone on everything at all times is really strange. It's like there are no boundaries. People still have a right to privacy.. especially if Neopets let them go for a reason that might be embarrassing to the former team members.

people aren't asking for transparency on their internal corporate workings they're asking for transparency on how the game will be affected. idk why everyone's gotten it in their heads people want corporate gossip

at this point i dont trust anything tnt says lol /half joking

Allanmennezess - A lot of players do feel like shareholders because TNT is trying to break even/raise funds before they fix the site in any meaningful way. There are a lot of promises in the air, so paying customers are rightfully wondering where their money is going. Plus, a lot of Neo's sales are digital products that will become worthless if the site is closed, so anyone worried about that understandably wants answers, too. On the other side of things, lots of people want to hear the gossip in the form of a tell all from former staff. I think there are very few people who -expect- full transparency.

Personally I appreciate that TNT made a statement even though it tells us nothing new. I hope they give us a separate update on the prospects on the site since I believe the November AMA is the last time they talked about the balance of monetization and fixing the site.

I did expect this to be the exact answer, but seeing it confirmed brings relief.

. From Jellyneo's understanding, it was a mix of marketing and customer support folks at the "World of Neopia" corporate level. No one at the game level (like those in programming, art, or content) was let go.

That pretty much is all I need to know, thanks NJ

Hey it’s fine if you don’t personally care about the ongoings of a company to the site you play on but a lot of us do, thanks!
And especially because it could very well impact the game itself depending on who is laid off and how many employees there even are, which we don’t even know that of.
And with people who put money into the site through either NC, premium or merch sales, we may not be whole freakin’ shareholders but we DO help keep the game afloat with it. You think neopets would still be around rn if people weren’t buying NC on site or premium?
I’m not defending TNT here either I want them to be more transparent. I want to know what’s going on.
Also that whole ‘companies should have privacy’ thing, if they weren’t a public company or whatever then yeah I’d agree to that.
There’s just a lot of reasons as to why we want to know these things and saying stuff like that doesn’t help. If you’re not interested then that’s fine but don’t be like ‘yall are weird for wanting to know this’ because it helps no one.

Not to mention a lot of people are wondering what's going to happen with the ticketing system, since a large amount of support was handled by one of the staff members who was laid off.

I also care because Neopets means something to me, and I know that it probably means something to the TNT employees who work on it. Neopets has proven time and time again that we're a community and when something happens to some of us, we want to know and support each other. If TNT employees are worried about layoffs then I'm worried to! That's at least part of why I, and I bet some others, want details and are curious.

At this point I think the only correct thing to do is just let Neopets die.., the amount of people that whine about absolutely everything is amazing. They want the site to run but they don’t want Neopets to make money in order to run

@theearth - That's such a disingenuous and uncharitable way to frame other people's legitimate concerns.

Let's not pretend that we haven't spent the past few years with a hopelessly broken/incomplete site that seems beyond the capability of the team to fix/complete, with constant discussion from Dom about the lack of profitability of the site. It would be naive not to be worried whether the site will survive, or whether things will ever be fixed/completed. Layoffs at the company at a time like this are bound to be troubling to some players. That's perfectly rational and normal.

To the people saying we don't need to know about TNT's internal decisions, you're right. We don't. We didn't ask for a statement from TNT on this! This was completely their decision, and they probably made it because people are rightfully worried about the future of the website. And TNT doesn't want people to stop spending money, which is what will happen if users think the site is in danger.

I’m relieved that the staff were only user communication specialists instead of the programmers and artists, although I know users are worried about loss of communication from staff.

But yeah the fact that people expect complete transparency is weird. I guess it’s just one of the vices the internet has encouraged along with encouraging people to think they can tell companies what to do and have all their demands met *pokes current Nintendo Switch 2 drama*. Like sure feedback is good and we of course all hope for products to be more to our liking but we can’t always have everything our own way.

I understand, in part, the points you’ve brought up. But we need to be realistic:

1 – As much as we may feel like shareholders, we’re not. Those who purchase Premium or NC are acting solely as consumers. That doesn’t give us the right to interfere in a company’s financial or structural decisions.

2 – Of course, this doesn’t invalidate genuine concerns, but again, it doesn’t give anyone the right to question the company’s direction.

3 – From what Jellyneo reported, the layoff was due to restructuring, not financial issues. That’s great news! Money doesn’t seem to be the main problem here — at least for now — so the site doesn’t appear to be at major risk.

4 – These “rumors” can destabilize the company in the eyes of the market. What if the new CEO is seeking external investors, for example, trying to grow the brand? From what I’ve seen, the rumors "spread through social media". Don’t people realize how problematic that is?

Once again, the concerns are legitimate, but the behavior of some players comes across as immature and irresponsible.

Yeah, I totally agree that fan behavior can be extreme. I think it's legitimate and normal to be worried, but how we express that can have a real impact on the company. We need to be circumspect and show some restraint in how we express our concerns, and we also need to be sure that what we're claiming is accurate. Some of the rumors are not just silly, they can be dangerous to the company. Caution in these matters is an issue of self-preservation.

I do think it is understandable people get worried if multiple staff are suddenly laid off, especially if they have been visible staff members. Especially older players will remember previous times multiple staff members were fired and what that did to the site. Given how precarious the survival of the site has felt in recent years, I don't find it hard to understand why people get nervous and want to know what's going on.

people aren't asking for transparency on their internal corporate workings they're asking for transparency on how the game will be affected +1

They deleted my pet „TNTAlice“ and gave me a warning. Thank you!

My biggest concern right now is that KC/Alice was a HUGE presence and she has done a LOT for neopets over the course of her time there. She was STILL doing a lot right up until the eleventh hour.

As someone who has lived through corporations making slapdash layoff decisions with the short term in the mind rather than the long term, I have very real concerns about the ripple effect this is going to have.

Sorry, but I very strongly disagree. With how "Transparent" TNT has been over these last few years, I take all of this with a grain of salt. If they're willing to gaslight their community, as it seems like they have been a lot lately ( Monopoly Avie/ Mono Stamp, Jumbo plushies shipping extremely late with no info, Uski Bags just to name a few). I wouldn't put it past the company to try and save what little face it had, I have no faith in them until we start seeing more transparency.

Allanmennezess - 1. I agree that it's not equivalent to being shareholders, but I don't think people are acting entitled like that, either. I think some people's desires are misconstrued: for example, some people have suggested seeing the financials more fully to do true crowdfunding for the site. I can understand that's unlikely to be a direction TNT would take, but I also think it's true that many users would be way more motivated by that approach rather than funding the site through NC/merch/mobile app purchases they may not want and that may not lead to desired improvements.

2. Eh, I think people have an inherent right to question any company. It's not like they're known for prioritizing people every time.

3. Unless I'm really missing something, the announcements don't clarify the reason for the layoffs at all.

4. I'm certainly not advocating for rumor spreading - like the people saying it was "the whole US team" were out of whack. At the same time, I'm not too worried about this because nonsense is ubiquitous. I'd say good luck to any investor who thinks they can find a company with a perfect social media presence. And, as much as I love Neo, it deserves to fail if it continually fails its users despite extensive feedback.

They are NEVER going to clarify the reason for the layoffs, Doing so would open the door for lawsuits.

Personally I was very shocked to see that Alice of all people was suddenly let go. I don't even USE social media, and I found out via an art chatter posting that the Art Gallery board was suddenly gone, followed by both contest_judge AND darigan_ferret being frozen.

I'm not asking for specific details, and don't condone to rumors either. But the fact that it was done so sudden, a few days after a holiday (not everyone celebrates Easter, I know, but if anything, it could be an excuse to see family, do something with relatives who do celebrate, etc), and was just one of those emails that came outta the blue really makes me wonder what's happening behind the scenes. She's been the judge longer than I can remember, and was honestly THE most helpful staff member and communicated more than anyone else.

All I can gather is that maybe this is what her month long vacation was all about, but it's also speculation and not pure facts. If ex-staff decide to come out and talk about it, that's their choice, but all we can really do as members of Neopets is hope they have a good time away. Alice really did hold all of Neopets' burdens on her shoulders - Fyora could never.


But at least it's not a money thing and the creative contests continue to the next week. I do wonder about the future of them though since creative contests really do get the short end of the stick compared to other aspects of the site. I hope that whomever takes over can continue Alice's legacy.

I think part of the problem is that TNT has historically encouraged staff to be extremely front facing. Alice/Kikocat is well known to the community. We all know that she is almost solely responsible for getting ticket response times as low as they are today. We all know how hard she works, and some of us picked her for our Altador Cup staff teams.

It's only natural that people are concerned about what will happen to customer service quality going forward...but it's also natural to wonder why her whole account was frozen in addition to being laid off. That's unusual right?

Again, this is all something none of us would even know about if they didn't do regular staff interviews on the AMA, have public facing staff accounts, and have things like the Staff tournament to encourage players to become attached to staff in the first place.

@ littlespacecase

Former staff having their TNT associated accounts frozen is par for the course. If I recall correctly (from when TNT Willow was laid off), it has something to do with access to internal programs that cannot otherwise be removed.

Reading the comments I am sad to discover that Alice was a casualty from Customer Support - she has been doing such an amazing job fielding our problems and was instrumental in restoring so many lost accounts over the years. She will be sadly missed.

I agree with littlespacecase. The issue isn't wanting transparency on corporate goings on so much as the fact that very public and well known faces were suddenly gone with no explanation or warning. It would be like Disney suddenly pulling Micky Mouse from everything. People would want answers, including those that are not shareholders. And as players, we are stakeholders, even if not stockholders. It's natural to want answers. If TNT fired a bunch of artists or programmers that players had never heard of, they would not be looking for answers like they are now. That's not about transparency or wanting to know inside corporate decisions. It's a natural curiosity and concern due to them being well known.

Neopets is the one encouraging their staff to be public facing. Think about the number of feedback boards they made or the AMA. They themselves said that Neopets is not just a game but a community. With that intention being established over the years, it is not strange for players to feel concerned when layoff occurs. Why would we think of Neopets as a community in good times, but strictly business in bad times?

Not to mention, the future of creative contests and customer support is uncertain. TNT makes no mention about this. To echo many comments, we don't need transparency about the corporate's inner workings, we want transparency about the effect on the game. After all, we are investing our time and money on their digital products.

I have to agree that one of the people being Alice is troubling. Of all TNT staff over 23 years on the site, she's the one I've had the most direct contact with. Almost every ticket I've submitted lately has been addressed by her. I would have preferred if TNT had given us any sense of how these changes might affect support tickets and competitions, rather than give a vague handwave at 'things being OK'.

Alice helped me get my accounts back after I had pretty much lost hope. I know she will be sorely missed, particularly given that yeah, she was apparently responsible for a LOT of the support/customer service stuff.

I just hope that whatever the reason, it was a fair one and not something that causes any of these now former staff members hardship. I know if this had come out of nowhere (there is no reason to believe anything was amiss, this is just a hypothetical) and I were in Alice's place, I would be heartbroken. I have no way of knowing the reasons and I won't be nosy about it or anything, but given the lack of trust I have in corporate Neopets stuff in general given other fiascos, I AM predisposed to worry a little.

I think the TNT staff who were laid off deserve privacy, TNT should not be discussing any specifics of their employment or termination. I'm sure that it really sucks for them and this is especially not a good time to lose a job.

TNT should expect speculation on how this effects the game and players. One of the staff laid off is probably one of the most well know staff members on the site, and someone that a-lot of players have interacted with directly. When you feel like you know someone more personally than just a name in the news, people are going to ask questions.

I'm not sorry but World of Neopets is a company and not an individual. We ask for more transparency from them because they foster a community directly with the player base.

80+?! i'm really surprised they have that many employees considering the state of things at the moment! both in terms of site functionality and in how hard up for cash they are. i'd been assuming the current tnt was a dozen people at the most and that's why they were having such a hard time getting anything done.

Dang.. Now with Kikocat gone, there's absolutely nobody left on the TNT Staff Tournament that I care about enough to add them to my team... I guess I'll just toss all their names on a wheel and see what it comes up with, when that time comes.

I hope she, and the other staff members that lost their jobs over whatever decision, will be okay going forward!

What baffles me is that TNT specifically addresses they have a strong Canada&US presence.

Who would be afraid that would not be the case lmao. In my opinion they’ve only proven themselves to be super US centric 😂😂😂

What baffles me is that TNT specifically addresses they have a strong Canada&US presence.
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The reason they stated that so clearly is because rumors were circulating that most of the staff in the US was let go due to Dom not wanting to pay for health insurance and some crap like that.

1 - a portion of the neopets user has grown entitled to the point they demand everything and anything be done the way they want. Costumers must be heard but at this point the players need limits TBH.

2 - I saw certain forum where people was celebrating Alice getting fired, because some rumors I've never heard before about her cheating and due to the recent fiasco on the boards, where the mods where called names without reason.

3 - a screen shot of a supposedly laid off TNT member who starts to campaign for users to stop playing because the current company is evil... Yet said staffer said nor did anything while the $ kept coming...


If I am honest, the site most likely will shut down due to how a portion of its players behave.

I play neopets since 1999 and i hate how the site are since 2014!. I dont play like i use to since 2021 and now with all new things that come like uc token, prismatic tokens, pet items being with nc, site layout and alot of new stuff that come since then i just give up.

For me this is not neopets.

Agree with marduk. I have been playing for about as long and just seeing the site go down hill.. It hurts. Sometimes it is a slight tilt and other times, it is straight to the bottom. Nostalgia is a powerful thing and why we are all here.

Some of the responses to this leans toward parasocial and that's uncomfy for me.

I appreciate what they are willing to share but I don't expect them to considering that some business information, including info on employees, is sensitive.

Personally I don't think this is something that needs to be posted about. TNT's post was enough and this post is almost 48 hours after the rumours. It also opens up speculation surround who, what the reasons were etc. and does no more than fuel those who demand answers and transparency that isn't needed and or justified.
These at the end of the day are people and I don't think this kind of post helps, or is warranted IMO.

After reading further comments above, I further believe all this does is inflame the situation... 90% are "requesting" details. Which in any corporate situation is illegal and World Of Neopia could be sued for it.
No matter how passionate you are, we don't know how, why or what the situation was. For all we know some may have taken voluntary redundancies or there has been a restructure ore of those areas. Regardless if you pay for premium etc, that doesn't entitle you to any of the above info. You purchase an item from a shop, you subscribe to netflix, its the same situation. You aren't entitled to any inner working detail no matter how emotionally invested you may be.

Wow, fellow players. There's a huge difference between demanding transparency from a business and their activities for ethical reasons, versus demanding details on the personal lives of employees/former employees.

There could be legal issues limiting what details the company can share right now. It is up to the company for what they want to share and what they are legally obligated to share, and it is up to the former staffers (and possible NDAs) for what they want to share. As customers, we don't have a right to knowledge about why a company fired or laid off their employees.

We have absolutely ZERO right to information from or about the former staffers. There's a reason many of them used pseudonyms for their staff name. They aren't "public-facing" employees; they've been involved in marketing efforts for a business, typically under a pseudonym, and usually with some sort of persona as part of the Neopets brand; Alice didn't show her face in the AMA she joined, and many staffers keep their private details, such as surname, *private.* This is like demanding that an author writing under a pen name and posting on social media suddenly needs to explain why they stopped publishing with a press.

Regardless of how customer support members interacted with us, we have no right to ask them about their employment situation or for details from the company that they no longer work at. One would hope that, with 80+ employees, there are other customer support staff to take on the workload.

Can you imagine if you were laid off and then the company that you worked for posted information about you or your termination? It's one thing for a company to make an announcement or disclose information if there were legal reasons (non-Neopian examples, someone being fired from a coffee shop for poisoning the food, or a sports player's contract being dissolved because of assault charges).

But this is completely different: these are customer support and marketing workers who w

oh my comment was too long LOL sorry JN!

cont'd:

But this is completely different: these are customer support and marketing workers who were working on Monday and laid off by Wednesday. Some folks need to check their parasocial relationships and ethical policing when they're asking for immediate details on why 4 people lost their jobs.

The only things I'm concerned with:
- I hope the former staffers have support during this transition and that they find fulfilling work elsewhere.
- I hope that any site events that Alice coordinated will be incorporated into other staffers' workloads so that we don't lose features.

I want to know what planet some of you live on that we're not allowed to care why the most beloved staff member was fired.

Or maybe I don't, because that's going to go down a Cybunny hole I don't want to get near.

I've read multiple threads on this topic - here, neoboards, Reddit, etc. - and am continuously surprised that people think there is any demand on TNT for any personal details on the actual employees. People want to know what this means for the site - what's going to happen to support (especially since many people's tickets started bouncing at the same time for no reason), creative contests (UL Spotlight just switched to monthly), and whether it will ever make enough money to be fixed (last update was the November AMA). Those things can be addressed without TNT ever referencing the layoffs again.

If you missed why people found out about it in the first place, it's because TNT-associated boards disappeared. There was far more speculation about the employees on that basis, so I think TNT did need to say something.

i think it's goofy to act like users are somehow parasocial about TNT for no reason, as if TNT didn't literally have a camera in their office for years - participate on the boards - make collectible ingame merch with their faces on it - create the staff tourney & staff smasher. the parasocial relationship between users and staff has been actively encouraged for the entire lifetime of the site, it's like the only thing that hasn't changed in 25 years

@leo_star20 - in what world is it illegal for people to ask a company a question and said asking open the company being asked questions to lawsuits? Players asking questions or asking for details is NOT illegal. No company can be sued just because someone asked them a question, regardless of the question being asked. Only how they respond can cause trouble, but that's not what you said. Acknowledging that an employee is no longer employed at said company is also not illegal. It would only be illegal if they answered why someone was fired in a manner that could be considered defamation of character. I'm not sure what comments you were seeing that make you think players are demanding TNT doxx previous staff members, or something. And as long as they don't do it, TNT couldn't be sued even if players were demanding that. Also, people ARE entitled to ask questions. They are simply not entitled to an answer.

I do not need personal information, but when you let go of 4 people on an admittedly small team (didn't they say they have less staff than Jellyneo in a previous AMA? What are those now apparently 80 staff members even doing? The site is still barely functional and the plot is still on hiatus and they've done almost nothing that has past the scheduled date on their roadmap lol), it is concerning. A lot of people have invested a lot of time and real money into this site. Wanting transparency on where the funds are going when there have been next to no improvements on the site is not crazy. Many people feel like the site is close to end of service and with the lack of updates and suddenly laying people off, it's no wonder people want answers.

The money you've spent on premium and NC items was not an investment. Consumption spending is not investment.

It's rational to want to know if the site's going down before you prepay for a year of premium. But if it goes down right now, you haven't lost what you already spent. You were consuming entertainment. If you had fun, it was worthwhile. If it taught you how to code and you met your partner, it was a windfall.

@sacanth When Petpet Park closed I lost all the clothes that I bought with NC. If people know that a site is going to be around for a short period of time, vs. multiple decades, that WILL impact their decision on whether or not to buy NC. I certainly would've made different money decisions as a teenager if I'd known my favourite site was going to close when it did.

So where is the corporate office located outside of the US. If so, what is expected of the site. I know that being Premium there is an external charge to the account. So the site is controlled by WHO.

I think everyone needs to accept the reality that seeking 'answers' is pretty pointless. It's nice to get a statement and reassurances, but please understand - nothing TNT say can actually be fully relied upon at this point. If they're in dire enough straits that they might be going under, they're absolutely not going to say this to us.

Any hint that they're at imminent risk of going under would cause an immediate panic, and players would immediately stop paying for anything, investors would back out of any negotiations/deals, vendors and partners would pull out and revenue generation for the site would grind to a screeching halt.

As long as Dom plans to continue to try to turn things around, we will _never_ be given a full picture of where things really stand until/unless things really do turn around and the company starts to do well.

As for why people were laid off, it's really none of our business. The only thing we have any legitimate right to know is whether the company is on steady ground - and like I already said, that message isn't something we can trust anyway.

I personally take these layoffs as a data point in the health of the company. It's not a good sign. Taken with everything else it's troubling, but I'm still hopeful and optimistic that things might turn around.

Honestly as much as I feel like TNT could have done a lot of things better, they tried their best to be transparent with us, I feel like they’re trapped darned if the do darned if they don’t

She worked with the company since 2002. If you listen to her AMA on YT from 11/15/2023, she worked really hard and seemed like a nice person.

Its kinda sad because Alice was the one who got me back into my account.I'll forever be grateful to her for that.

Personally I dont have a care who is laid off or even fired as the staff are mostly morons. But as long as the site keeps up and running who cares. Leave the tnt business to tnt and enjoy the game.

We will never know why these layoffs happened, Obviously, given the friendly, family nature of Neopets between gamers and staff, there will be a lot of disappointment at the staff loses but the reasons for this are confidential between TNT/World of Neopets and the people who were "let go". However, somehow can't help but wonder if the longer term team senior members who were lost were nearing retirement age ... it is a normal practice for businesses to shed their older contingent when they want to make cost cuts, although they lose a wealth of experience and expertise they can also make a considerable saving on their wage bills by employing a new young employee instead.

Let's just hope that the "Helpdesk" isn't about to go all AI and completely run by a computer!

"Just imagine if this became a trend and we started questioning layoffs at every company behind the products we consume..."

oh nooooooo you mean... being as ethical of a consumer as possible?? heaven forefend.

attitudes like this make me happy that in 20+ years i've never spent a dime towards the company itself.

i hope the designers and other employees who ACTUALLY make this site worth playing have made or reactivated Patreon accounts, and that anyone who can consider doing so funnels their money that way. they're the only ones who deserve ANY subscription fee.

@thejerk, well the username does sure check out. Try to have some empathy. There are people who work hard at Neopets so that we can enjoy the game.

If they value transparency they should let the community know whether or not Alice was aiding cheaters. It would be great to know that sort of thing won't be happening anymore. It would bring lots of users peace of mind and closure.

I'm just baffled that you guys can get your 20 year old accounts back. My old accounts are gone.. i tried to recover them over a decade ago and had to make a new account because it was impossible.

@ktboo89, that's because Viacom didn't really give back accounts. JumpStart/NetDragon/Dom's TNT retrieved more.

@thejerk, well the username does sure check out. Try to have some empathy. There are people who work hard at Neopets so that we can enjoy the game.

They work hard because it's a job, nothing more or less.

@sailormoon, @premium17 - beat me to it!

Often when companies lay off workers who've been with the company for longer it's because they don't want to pay the higher salaries that those workers have been raised to over the years. It's fairly common practice to lay off experienced, longer term employees and replace them with newer employees who they can pay a lot less for (and put more pressure on to perform a certain way).

None of us knows why Alice was let go, nor do we have any right to know. It's ghoulish to speculate, and especially to spread unsubstantiated, defamatory rumors.

I just hope that everyone who lost their job is able to land on their feet.

tl;dr: neopets players are really parasocial with alice

They should've stuck with Viracom, we had the best years then. Keyquest, the PPP Habits, that game on Facebook, little side games with Six Flags or How to Train Your Dragon, etc,etc

'Parasocial' is one of the most thrown around words, always used in a very toxic way to try to shame people for their interests/fandoms, but research has shown that parasocial relationships are actually very healthy and beneficial on both sides of the equation in almost all cases, and only a very tiny minority of people cross boundaries into unhealthy behavior.

There's absolutely nothing wrong with people caring about someone that's been connected to their lives in some way - however peripheral - for decades. In fact it's very normal, humane behavior. Within healthy boundaries, of course, which I think pretty much everyone here has been doing.

But you don’t assume that Alice took a voluntary redundancy… We don’t know the circumstances. Yes it’s sad but Neopets a business. My work go through rolling redundancies every few years. Then they hire again. That’s due to the economy.
Corporate world isn’t as simple as some would imagine. Emotions aren’t really a factor as harsh as that can sound

they're probably replacing customer service positions with AI bots

Where does it say they were laid off? Their wording sounds like they were fired for one reason or another.

I think it's weird to shame people for being worried about the many public faces of TNT that they've interacted with over quite a while, even though they're a business.

People are worried about the future of the site and asking questions BECAUSE ONE OF THE STAFF FIRED HANDLED A GOOD NUMBER OF THE TICKETS AND ALSO HANDLED ALL THE CREATIVE CONTESTS.

I don't need gossip, most people aren't asking for gossip. They are asking how demonstrably they will navigate having fired a huge member of the team and how this will or will not affect the site.

Since alice has gone there's been a huge backup of tickets

@weirdee - Yeah, 'parasocial' is just a word used to make it seem outrageous to care about other people.

Yeah, parasocial relationships are a normal part of society and can be beneficial, but they are by definition one sided. The problems begin when reciprocity is demanded without consent from the other party. Demanding any level of intimacy from strangers before consent veers towards unhealthy.

Also, its disingenuous of commenters to assume and state that any of us speaking about parasocial behavior is doing so in bad faith when we're really trying to respect boundaries of those affected by change in staffing.

Rohwynn - Most of the people who say anything personal about a staff member are 1. well wishing, and 2. had some sort of interaction either through ticket exchanges (including getting beloved accounts returned) or by participating in contests. In other words, neither demanding intimacy nor one-sided. There is room for criticism of people who are not being respectful, but they're largely absent from this thread, so it's weird to call out so-called parasocial behavior here when it's just not happening.

KC will be forever missed on Art Chat. She was a cool friend to us all, and her absence is already a great loss, after all these years with us. Not only was she our art curator, but she frequently was open to discussion on art itself, assisting newbies with tips, while friendly commentating with the regs. I hope wherever her future leads, is as full of the love and positivity she gave our community.

Maivry - Respectfully, I disagree with your general stance on the topic; both your comment directed at me and earlier comments to others. You personally may not have seen this parasocial behavior in action but I have seen it multiple times regarding this event and my opinion is in regards to my own experiences of the situation.

Rohwynn - I tried to limit my last comment to the discussion here. Obviously I have not seen what you've seen, so I either haven't seen the same things or am more likely to agree with you depending on what it was. I still think the so-called demand is misunderstood and overstated, though. For instance, some people on the neoboards got warnings for discussing the staff, but they didn't continue such discussions that caused their warnings as if they were entitled to do so.

Ugh, the Staff Layoffs!! I will miss Kikocat, I hope they find a strong someone to replace her on the Lost Desert team for the Staff Tourneys - she was always a constant hi-scorer, LD will definitely be at a loss without her.