Well I know of a couple people who have quit because of nasty things ... one was blind for over 40min... logged .. he tried coming back on and his char is still blind... another was something that dropped his stats (unknown disease) to the point that he could not play... waited over 45min and it never went away got discusted and left... Others just plain got tired of cycling the same mobs over and over and fighting people for them to pop books.
The biggest reason I think that our player base is dwindling is the time of the year (spring to those in the norther hemi).. this time of year people just start droppin off the mud if you look at the history you will see a slump about this time of year every year.
Voting does help our playerbase yeah we get alot of morons and punks but they usually go away after a bit. But there are a few dedicated players that I see on that started back when we were #1 and #2 on M.C. now voting is easier than ever just 2 mouse clicks and yer done so please take the time to vote and keep sloth in freash meat.
As for pthieves... theres a few easy solutions to that problem #1 Watch what you are doing and whos around you. #2 Fix your eq change scripts. I've seen some scripts that take 10 seconds to change eq remember longer in inventory better chance to get stolen. put stuff in a drachma robe asap as these robes are !steal. If you want to be safe spend 150drachma and buy a cloak of specialization as an inventory container and never have another worry
My $.02
Blastem
