Why marapets is falling apart!

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.

[EDITED RECENTLY]Another thing that makes my skin crawl - chatspeak.
I used to be bothered by any chatspeak at all, but I've changed a bit. I don't mind a simple 'u' or 'r'. bt wn ppl uz chtspk exsivly iz wn it strtz 2 bthr mi
I do have a problem with people correcting someone else's grammar when they themselves are using chatspeak. Also, if you're going to insult someone's intelligence have the decency to type your insult out instead of shortening words.

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

I find it tremendously annoying when people don't express gratitude when you help them. My computer is incredibly slow, so it takes me a bit longer to find URLs for things and information from other sources than it normally would. Even a simple 'thx' is enough to please me. I don't have to help you, you know.
I'm not requesting that people send me items for helping. In fact, that's the last thing I want.

Removed 'cause I don't wanna be banned.

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'OMG IM KWITTIN PERSWADE ME 2 STAY' topics should be a bannable offense.

People that advertise their topics and other garabeg on other people's topics should be forum banned.

The same applies to unnecessarily poking topics.

The forums need a sticky function. Certain topics should then be sticked for all to see.

People that create topics for the sole purpose of increasing their post count [and say so] should have their post counts deleted.

People that make a 'wut song r u listing 2' topic when another one [usually mine, hah] is right there deserve to be forum banned.

People with the words 'sexy' or 'pimp' in their usernames should automatically be banned.

Drastically deflating items should result in a temporary ban; the next time should earn the person a permanent ban.

If someone posts just so they can receive 60 MP, they should be fined and forum banned.

People that beg /anywhere/ should receive a temporary ban; a permanent ban should be issued if they continue.

'ong dunt clik hur' topics should be deleted for obvious reasons.

People that create pitiful 'ONG I M QUITN' topics should be permabanned.

If someone posts in the middle of a topic saying 'hi wana b mah marapl??', they should receive a forum ban.
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Yeah, I've more than likely complained about this before, but certain things are occurring more and more often.

If you don't know the answer to a question, DON'T REPLY. I don't know if you know how frustrating it is to receive a reply from someone saying 'idk gl', but it is. Your support is appreciated, but if you don't know the answer you don't really have any business replying. Go find someone who's asking a question you /can/ answer, or get out of the help chat.

Don't restate information that's already been posted, especially if the topic is dead. This doesn't help the person in the least, unless they have some mental disability that prevents them from comprehending something the first time it's said. Just move on and find someone else to assist. And no, this does not apply to late posts - I can understand if you're a minute or two late.

For Pete's sake, don't bump dead topics, especially when the issue has been resolved. There's no point in doing so, and it just burns people's biscuits. Find someone who has created a more recent topic to help. This is even more annoying when the topic being revived has to do with downtime that we experienced days ago.

Replying to help topics really ought to be a privilege.