My Experience With CharacterAI as a “Veteran”
Hey everyone. I know these types of post aren’t exactly smiled upon, but I hope you at least give me some time to talk and reflect on how CharacterAI has changed since when it first launched.
I have been using CharacterAI since they released the app in May 2023. I also had C.AI+ for a majority of the time. Not to mention I also have been apart of the community, lurking around and watching. What was at first a very well put together app with thousands of characters and chats to choose from, turned into an app that is loosing sight of the mission it had when it first released: “Boundless roleplay with all your favorite characters, and more!”
When they released the updates that allowed character group chats, I thought it was a step in the right direction. (Even if it really wasn’t that great of an update.) Hell, I even made the choice to purchase C.AI+ at that point, and I kept that subscription going until just recently. I continued to pour my heart into the app, and loved the freedom (bob aside) I had with my characters and their respective chats.
Then… They removed the old website and replaced it with the lifeless new one. Then they added charms, and image generation, and “stories” nobody asked for and half the time don’t work properly. New models that were worse versions of the original ones. (which now don’t exist AT ALL.) I remember when Goro and Meow WASN’T considered “Legacy” models. Now? Have fun with one model that doesn’t talk at all, and another one that you have to pay MONTHLY for that is only SLIGHTLY better.
Not only that, but the site used to (and I’m sure it still does) go down constantly. Whenever it did, chats would disappear, or the chatting models would all break and start throwing binary or ChatGPT slop at you. Not exactly something I feel like paying $10 a month for… (which the benefits you get with C.AI+ haven’t changed. The only “changes” you get are from the updates that nobody asked for.)
Also, as a mod team and as app developers, why are you choosing to NOT listen to your community? We WANT your app to succeed. We are ACTIVELY using your product. I WAS one of these people, but now? You can see what your community is doing. Don’t act like you can’t, because removing posts and comments that don’t align with how you feel your product is will just leave a bad taste in peoples mouths for YEARS to come.
Side note here, but you know how happy and productive I’ve been without your product? You’re literally HELPING me (and others!) by making your product so awful to use, that I almost feel sorry for you. But then I see what you’re trying to do to dodge all these court cases… Making the app 18+ and all… But yet you won’t allow adults to even BE adults on your platform.
Your community is pissed off, but you just ignore them over and over again. I was a here from the very beginning, and I’ve got one last thing to say:
I am saddened by what CharacterAI has become, and I hope you will stop silencing your community and actually listen to them, before you don’t HAVE a community anymore.
Do better.