Things that drive new members away

[cpvr]

What are some things that you think drive new members away from a pet site? Is it the art? Is the features? Or is it the community?

Personally, I'd go with the features because if you don't have a fair bit of things to do, then the user will get bored and leave.

[Ardy]

Like you said if there's nothing more to do than color your pets and get rich then there's no reason to play anymore. Also the community (or atmosphere) can drive people away from any good petsite, Neopets proved that to us.

[Kiku]

In my observation, if a site satisfies in at least two of the categories you've listed above, new users will come and have a better chance of staying for a good amount of time. A site may have sub-par art, but if it has an excellent community and is chock-full of features and activities, the unattractive art may not make so much of a difference. Neopets has features and lovely art, but is lacking somewhat in the community department - yet it manages to lure in and snag plenty of new users at a steady rate. And I remember that Lurapets lacked unique and attention-holding features, but users would join and stay for the community.
I don't think that any particular reason you've listed tends to turn off users more than another, as long as you have some other solid reason for people to stay with your site. I don't have the experience that a site owner would have to really say that with confidence, though.

[clubanimon]

I mostly see it as a negative response from staff or established users. Nothing will send me packing faster then an elitist attitude and a unwelcoming atmosphere.

[Joy]

Arrogance, stupidity, ignorance, disrespect, selfishness, scams, lack-of-security, disorganization, rudeness, lies, broken promises, trash talk, spam, a ride range or percent of negativity, drama, cliques, unprofessional staff, immature users and/or staff, lack of updates, no entertainment (games, contests, plots, events, ect.), lack of decent art, spelling or grammar errors, lack of creativity...

Just to name a few.

[Ardy]

Also on the flip side of the coin there's also somethings that ironically drive OLD users away. I've played a few sites that when in their mind they "improve" so that they can attract new players (and they do) they end up driving all the old users away at the same time. Losing the old userbase is something I wouldn't trade for new moronic players. (Like appealing directly to young players instead of all their players)

[cpvr]

Also on the flip side of the coin there's also somethings that ironically drive OLD users away. I've played a few sites that when in their mind they "improve" so that they can attract new players (and they do) they end up driving all the old users away at the same time. Losing the old userbase is something I wouldn't trade for new moronic players. (Like appealing directly to young players instead of all their players)

Ya, that tends to happen a lot with new pet redraws and the old players are so used to seeing their favorite pet every day and such, which is why if you can offer a feature where the users can use their former pets still.

[Don Relentless]

The main thing that keeps me away from joining a petsite, is actually the registration. If they are asking for a username/password/email, I will join up, but any other "Required" info, I get bored and find another site to try. Especially annoying is when they are telling me my password is insecure, or that damn email verification <_<

If the site looks worth it, I will stick to it and see the registration through, however 9/10 sites I visit, I leave if it seems too much effort to register.

[kami]

If I can't view the staff, contact, privacy policy (if applicable), news, rules, etc. (as in similar) pages, I will not join. (There are very rare cases in which I do, but 99% of the time this statement is true for me.) There is no good reason to keep those pages only accessible to logged in players.

[Lauren]

If the Terms of Service is in ONLY legal jargon and I can't understand what the basic rules on the site are, I probably won't even bother.

I also like being able to view how many people are online at the current time. If there are only 3 people online at any given time, it's probably not worth MY time, lol.