Poptropica’s social media problems

NOTE: Creators, if you’re reading this, I didn’t write this post to attack you, but to share my opinion on your work, which is, well, a negative opinion. This analysis (with comedic relief) is to teach you how to run better your social media, and you should probably listen to what your fans have to say in the future, since the damage has already been made.

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oh god I don’t know how to start this…

Hey Clawtropicans, it’s your friend Purple Claw!

We all remember Skinny Moon: she brought the community together in such an amazing way. She shared fan-made content, commented on fan blogs and YouTube videos, visited us on Discord, and she even made official badges for various sites (the official Poptropica fan-site badges). She was Poptropica’s social media manager for more than a year, and she was awesome.

But, the days of her reign didn’t last long, and she left because she didn’t have time for Poptropica anymore, and we totally understand. She said that she was going to be replaced after she made a goodbye post, but she was replaced quickly without saying goodbye to us (but you can find her at @PopGirlJess on Twitter).

The new blogger, though, isn’t doing such a good job. And that’s the literal thing of thing of this post. This intro took more than 200 words to write, and that’s five minutes I’ll never get back. Let’s get started anyway!

Jorge the producer: Time to interrupt the show for a commercial break!

Purple Claw: EEAAK WE’RE LIKE THREE MONTHS INTO SCHOOL

Jorge: But it’s not over ye-

PC: YESH IT IS. FOR YOU. YOU’RE FIRED. Go back and continue the comic strip series with Oliver. *kicks Jorge out*

Um, now that THAT’S over, we can finally continue…

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First of all, their Twitter.

Not only it’s a mess, but they’re trying to be hippy and family-friendly at the same time. Don’t get me wrong, since I’m a person who likes to stack Wendy’s comment section just for their sass. But Poptropica wants to be both edgy (to appeal to the teens probably) and also tries to be kid friendly too, so they can win the parents’ attention. Just pick one already.

Here’s a few examples:

And then there’s this:

Ugh, just make up your mind, Creators. What do you want us to think from you? That you’re hippy and edgy, or a company mainly targeted to 6-12 year-old kids? It’s getting annoying after a while. But, I’ll have to admit, edgy Poptropica is pretty funny, even if not suitable for a company such as Poptropica.

Promoting.

Skinny Moon used to advertise a whole lot of blog posts, as long as we tweeted them to her, but that doesn’t seem to be the case with the new person. Why? BECAUSE THEY DON’T GIVE A CRAP ABOUT THE FANDOM. I’ve tweeted my posts countless times to them, and they didn’t even say anything (not a single retweet). What they mostly retweet are PHB posts (which isn’t a bad thing, but others also deserve to be promoted), and some YouTube videos.

There was also this cringey thing that lasted for like, two weeks, where they’d feature one YouTube fan video for Poptropica Worlds, and introducing it as a weekly mini-segment, like if that’s a good idea. I’m sorry, new person, but if you think our content isn’t good enough to be on your twitter wall, then you’re WRONG. VERY INCORRECT, actually. Why? Read below.

The Poptropica Blog.

The posts the new Creator has made (not including mai boi, Captain Crawfish, because I love him), are well, pathetic. Usually the posts Skinny Moon used to write were sweet and short, but this guy pushes short to a brand new level. And that writing… those titles… They make me cringe so hard, and I’m sure I’m not the only one who thinks that.

Look at this. Just look at it. Not only it’s short, but look at that creative title! And why isn’t the URL hyperlinked? This post can be much better, so get to work, please. Thankfully, it seems like Captain Crawfish has taken over the blog, since all of his latest posts have his sign-off. That’s a good step forward, since the blog posts are fun again.

New blogger, if you’re reading you should probably think of the fans that keep this game alive and work extra hard to make posts, videos and art about their favorite game, and struggle to balance schoolwork with fandoms. What you’re doing, well, kinda hurts, and is rude, considering you still promote some fan content. Why not give others a chance?

We don’t get release dates anymore.

Poptropica fans, including myself, have asked so many times about new island releases, and we’ve never gotten a legit answer other that ”there’s something soon stay tuned lol” There are multiple examples, and if you’re on Twitter you’ve for sure seen one, but I’ll just show a more recent one just for the sake of it:

Yeah, no. You’re not helping us, Creators. At all. Saying just that ”there’s something soon” doesn’t keep your fans hyped. It’s literally the opposite: you’re turning them away.

Why can’t you give us release dates for new islands anymore like you used to? Where are the sneak peeks? The trailers? Believe me; that’ll keep us all interested until you finally launch the long-waited content.

Let’s continue with their YouTube channel.

Poptropica has been really active on their YouTube channel, posting videos such as livestreams, gameplays, top 5 lists etc. And, don’t get me wrong, I do think what they’re doing is pretty cool, but there’s a slight problem with what they’re doing…

Look at all these lazy thumbnails. Heck, for some videos, they didn’t even bother making one. A friend of mine, also known as naps said that they mostly care about the amount of videos they release weekly, than the horrible way they advertise them, but who would wants to click of a video with such a lazy preview?

Not only that, but the latest top 5 list is… kinda pathetic… I’m talking about the *gasp* Top 5 UNSOLVED mysteries in Poptropica Worlds!! BIG SHOCKER!!! :0000

Half a minute in and I’ve cringed already. Look, Dave, you’re cool, and the way you talk is amazing, but I can easily tell you in just two seconds why these mysteries are unsolved. It’s because they’re not real mysteries. No one even cares about them.

While this video could’ve been a really nice, well-made video about real mysteries from the original Poptropica, since there are actual mysteries there, they decided to go with Poptropica Worlds, where there’s barely ANY content at all!

Like, we know that they’re trying to promote PW more, and who can blame them, it’s their recent game and want to drag people’s attention, but they’ll have to try harder than that. This idea was kinda unnecessary, and the creators probably know that, but I don’t want to judge their whole YouTube channel just from a video, since the rest of them are pretty well-made, it’s just the thumbnails that absolutely annoy me.

Wow, I’ve written a lot today, but I’m still not all the way done yet. Not until I address this last issue…

The creators aren’t at all interactive with the Poptropica fandom.

Skinny Moon tried her best to interact with fans, often by dropping on the PHC Discord, commenting on other people’s art on DeviantArt, commenting on Poptropica blogs, officializing Poptropica fan-sites (we’re one of those!), and she even let me interview her a bit less that a year ago! Heck, it reached to a point where Skinny Moon felt like she was everywhere. 😛

The same thing doesn’t seem to be going with the new social media person, though. They haven’t chatted with us on Discord, they rarely comment on artworks, they only comment on blogs whenever there’s a misunderstanding or whenever we don’t seem to *big shocker* like their most recent updates (*COUGH* *COUGH* THE COLORIZER *COUGH* *COUGH*)

Creators, you need to be more like Skinny Moon was. Skinny Moon was the best thing that ever happened in Poptropica’s social media management. Maybe we didn’t see how cool she was right away, but we want an interactive social media manager like her. Someone who can run Poptropica’s social media well and someone who has time to make quality blog posts (though, it seems this problem is being solved). Someone who encourages people to keep making fan-content about Poptropica; someone who actually cares.

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Again, I’m not writing this post to offend you, but to tell you what you should do, since your activity has a great impact to this small community of Poptropica fans. If you’re a Poptropica fan, feel free to share your thoughts about this topic in the comment section below.

But, Poptropica fans aren’t the only people we want to hear from — we also need your thoughts, Creators. Please try to improve, and if you have something to say, go right ahead in the comments.

🐾 Purple Claw 🐾
🌊

PS: More than 1500 words. Who needs sunlight anyways…