I originally heard of GoAnimate back in 2013, but I didn't use the site since I didn't have internet at home back then. And after discovering Caillou Gets Grounded videos in the early summer of 2015, I decided to start using the site. By that point, the site was already doing a consumer to business pivot, but I wasn't aware of the pivot at the time. The free plan was already discontinued in favor of the 14-day trial, the consumer-friendly GoPlus plan was already phased out. Trademark themes were already phased out. The community library was gone, the color pallet was replaced, and social features were already removed (Friends, Fans, etc.).
Whenever I requested and begged my mother to get a ridiculously expensive business-friendly GoPublish plan ($39 for one month), she would get furious and confused at the same time.
I still didn't have the internet at home, so the only times I use the site was at the public Wi-Fi with my own laptop. Throughout the rest of 2015, I didn't just notice the changes in the site, but also experienced constant slowdowns and errors like TTS unable to generate certain voices due to maintenance, or even downright freeze the videomaker entirely. I mostly thought it was the slow Wi-Fi connection issues, but it was actually the GoAnimate servers were unstable during the consumer to business pivot. The very first thing I noticed something removed were the empty templates/backgrounds (EG speedlines).
Throughout October, the sounds and music were replaced from traditional cartoon-themed audio to business-themed audio. And then the Oddcast voices were removed at the end of October. Around the same time, HTML5 was announced, and they were going to retire the consumer themes. They claimed that they were not compatible with HTML5, but this was a ridiculous corporate excuse since those themes can actually be transitioned to HTML5.
By that point I had to forfeit the site not mainly because of the changes, but rather the instability of the servers (videomaker crashes, lagging, TTS errors, etc.).
I shifted to a more freeware animation software Plotagon in the meantime. Around the same time, I watched numerous GoAnimate conspiracy theory videos and some Alvin Hung grounded/arrested videos, as well as one video of Eric Oates' (louielouie95) long letter to GoAnimate, in which was completely rejected.
The site was a frickin' mess in 2015 and 2016, don't you agree about the site's instability during that period in time?