April Fools 2023

[Blue]

Hint - click on a new weird (TNT) popup

2nd Hint (lookin' at you, Siniri) - Click on Read the theory notes and read them all...

Too tired to capture this correctly... Might fix later... and I missed capturing the first part/page with the avvie info... and i missed capturing the 2nd goodie due to bad clicking (laptop pad, not trusty mouse).

Hello fellow freethinker! I see you clicked on my ad because you are interested in the truth. Welcome… to the Sceptic Tank!

Mavericks like us need to stick together. Unlike the other Babaas around here, we, the true sceptics, can see what’s really going on behind the scenes…

It was only after The Neopets Team and I once again parted ways… exactly three years to this day… that I finally achieved mental clarity. The team had once again rejected incredibly brilliant ideas from yours truly, which utterly baffled me… Even after I had changed my own last name to be more on-brand, why would they possibly continue to turn down ideas worth their weight in Neopoints? Then it finally dawned on me…

The only rational explanation for their persistent resistance to the shining progresses my ingenious brain-blossoms offered, was that TNT was hiding something. Something terrible… Something sinister… Something so ghastly and appalling, that they would rather continue to toil in mediocrity than ever dare let me into their inner circle….

So, for the last 36 months I’ve lived completely off the grid, covertly researching the many skeletons TNT has been trying to keep locked away in their closet, and I’m not talking about customisation here! After years of conducting non-peer-reviewed research, travelling to the darkest corners of Neopia to compile evidence, I’ve unearthed horrid truths that would disgust even Meuka himself. The more secrets I uncovered, the more my resolve grew. I knew that all of Neopia had the right to know the truth TNT was desperately hiding from them, and thus, Sceptic Tank was born!

You might be sceptical about the veracity of Sceptic Tank, to which I say… well done! You, my friend, have the makings of a true sceptic. We must question everything, constantly and incessantly, never actually learning technical skills relevant to the topic of course, but vehemently voicing our questions and criticism all the same! So, I implore you, fellow Neopians, to click around, and decide the truth for yourself.

You never know what you might find… if you take the time to look!

Largepaw and Other Neopian Cryptids

Cryptid sightings around Neopia have skyrocketed lately, from a mysterious aquatic creature surfacing in Kiko Lake to the rumoured Chupacachia sightings around Meridell, there is no end to stories of mysterious creatures all over Neopia. The most dangerous of which lately has been the beast spotted around Terror Mountain, dubbed by the locals as “Largepaw” due to its massive footprints. It’s been spotted multiple times by visitors, often in Snowbeast territory, but although it’s been rampaging and terrifying tourists across Terror Mountain, TNT doesn’t want you to know about it. Yes, my friends, these cryptid reports are often quickly snuffed out before they can circulate to the mainstream, and elitist publishers like the Neopian Times would never dare print on any of it! What logical reason could explain this? Mass hallucinations? New Mutant colours? Pure coincidence? I think NOT!

These are coordinated efforts by TNT to obscure failed experiments they abandoned! Every time they design a new colour they create early versions they call “sketches” or “concepts”, according to a source I cannot reveal. This informant explained that these sketches are attempts at perfecting the look of the next Neopet colour, often described by her as “gooby” or “doofy”. However… this can sometimes result in unimaginable creatures far too dangerous to be wandering Neopia. And what does TNT do to these failed “concepts”? They brush them under the rug. Make them disappear from the media, the public eye, and Neopia altogether. All the while making those of us that find and document these creatures, seem like deluded crackpots as they make all evidence of these creatures’ existence disappear without a trace!

Illusen and Jhudora's Scandalous Secret

For years now many Neopians have wondered about Illusen and Jhudora’s past. The reasoning behind their disdain for one another. Is it a deep unsatiated hatred between Earth and Dark? The aftermath of a dramatic and tearful end to a long friendship? Or perhaps it has something to do with the deep longing for a happy past that you can see in their eyes each time they pass one another... Sure, there’s the rumour of Jhudora running Illusen out of Faerieland so that she would never be able to reveal a vile act the Dark Faerie performed, but all of those are simply too easy and to be honest too vague. Just how TNT likes it! For if they revealed any true facts, the illusion of grandeur they’ve worked so hard to protect would be shattered! That’s right! There is no big, exciting secret! In fact, the truth is far more mundane than the liars over at TNT would ever want you to know!

But I’m here to tell you the truth no matter what! Utilizing my deep diving and super-secret sleuth-detecting skills I went deep undercover and interviewed a multitude of Neopians that were tied to each of these faeries’ past. And okay yeah, I couldn’t get anyone like Fyora to return my calls, but I was able to talk with much trustier Neopians like the hairstylist Jhudora went to once before threatening to turn her into a Slorg and Illusen’s long-time grocery store clerk who would check her groceries out from time to time! The truth is always in the details that these fine citizens see with their own eyes every day! After talking to many such citizens, the only connection I could find that wasn’t simply the hearsay of others was that many many years ago there was a baking competition where they both competed...or at least it appears they both did. Judora’s name was spelt a little odd with like a random i and an h at the end or something like that, but I’m positive that was just her trying to hide her identity! And as it turns out Illusen won the contest and soon after left for Meridell! SO the truth is simple! It was jealousy all along, nothing more nothing less! It may not be entertaining, but at least I’m not dragging you along like those snooty liars at TNT!


Nick Neopia

Hello fellow freethinker! I see you clicked on my ad because you are interested in the truth. Welcome… to the Sceptic Tank!

Mavericks like us need to stick together. Unlike the other Babaas around here, we, the true sceptics, can see what’s really going on behind the scenes…
Nick Neopia

It was only after The Neopets Team and I once again parted ways… exactly three years to this day… that I finally achieved mental clarity. The team had once again rejected incredibly brilliant ideas from yours truly, which utterly baffled me… Even after I had changed my own last name to be more on-brand, why would they possibly continue to turn down ideas worth their weight in Neopoints? Then it finally dawned on me…

The only rational explanation for their persistent resistance to the shining progresses my ingenious brain-blossoms offered, was that TNT was hiding something. Something terrible… Something sinister… Something so ghastly and appalling, that they would rather continue to toil in mediocrity than ever dare let me into their inner circle….

So, for the last 36 months I’ve lived completely off the grid, covertly researching the many skeletons TNT has been trying to keep locked away in their closet, and I’m not talking about customisation here! After years of conducting non-peer-reviewed research, travelling to the darkest corners of Neopia to compile evidence, I’ve unearthed horrid truths that would disgust even Meuka himself. The more secrets I uncovered, the more my resolve grew. I knew that all of Neopia had the right to know the truth TNT was desperately hiding from them, and thus, Sceptic Tank was born!

You might be sceptical about the veracity of Sceptic Tank, to which I say… well done! You, my friend, have the makings of a true sceptic. We must question everything, constantly and incessantly, never actually learning technical skills relevant to the topic of course, but vehemently voicing our questions and criticism all the same! So, I implore you, fellow Neopians, to click around, and decide the truth for yourself.

You never know what you might find… if you take the time to look!

Why Faeries Really Ask for Quests

For years now Faeries of all kinds have asked Neopians for random item after random item even though one would think a magical being with wings could get these things for themselves with ease! But no, they come and demand things from the busy, hardworking Neopets of the world with the promises of gifts in return, and sure a dunk in the rainbow pool is a pretty cool reward, but do you know what’s even cooler? The truth! The faeries have been hired by TNT to keep us Neopians too busy running around Neopia looking for “the right shoe of a left-handed Skarl” or whatever wild item they can think of, so you don’t have time to question the bigger picture!

Wake up Neopians! It is time to see the faeries for what they are - pawns in the bigger game that TNT calls life! They are just using them to lure you in with a false sense of fun and then bam you’re stuck with an award from the Air Faerie... That is how it works still, right? The faeries kind of stopped coming to me with request after what they said was the “umpteenth time I ‘invaded’ their ‘personal space’ in order to ‘bombard them with questions’”, but we all know that’s just code for I was getting too close to the truth! So, l say it’s time we band together and outright refuse to participate in their manipulative tactics to distract until they tell us the truth about TNT...or at the very least let me participate again, you know so I can get to the truth for us all!

Community
Games
Explore
Shop
Premium
12:45:26 am NST
118,392
950
Nick Neopia

Hello fellow freethinker! I see you clicked on my ad because you are interested in the truth. Welcome… to the Sceptic Tank!

Mavericks like us need to stick together. Unlike the other Babaas around here, we, the true sceptics, can see what’s really going on behind the scenes…
Nick Neopia

It was only after The Neopets Team and I once again parted ways… exactly three years to this day… that I finally achieved mental clarity. The team had once again rejected incredibly brilliant ideas from yours truly, which utterly baffled me… Even after I had changed my own last name to be more on-brand, why would they possibly continue to turn down ideas worth their weight in Neopoints? Then it finally dawned on me…

The only rational explanation for their persistent resistance to the shining progresses my ingenious brain-blossoms offered, was that TNT was hiding something. Something terrible… Something sinister… Something so ghastly and appalling, that they would rather continue to toil in mediocrity than ever dare let me into their inner circle….

So, for the last 36 months I’ve lived completely off the grid, covertly researching the many skeletons TNT has been trying to keep locked away in their closet, and I’m not talking about customisation here! After years of conducting non-peer-reviewed research, travelling to the darkest corners of Neopia to compile evidence, I’ve unearthed horrid truths that would disgust even Meuka himself. The more secrets I uncovered, the more my resolve grew. I knew that all of Neopia had the right to know the truth TNT was desperately hiding from them, and thus, Sceptic Tank was born!

You might be sceptical about the veracity of Sceptic Tank, to which I say… well done! You, my friend, have the makings of a true sceptic. We must question everything, constantly and incessantly, never actually learning technical skills relevant to the topic of course, but vehemently voicing our questions and criticism all the same! So, I implore you, fellow Neopians, to click around, and decide the truth for yourself.

You never know what you might find… if you take the time to look!

TNT’s Mind Control Ray and Sloth Connections

TNT has been using the Mind Control Laboratory to influence the Neopian Stock market and brainwash innocent Neopians. The proof is in the pudding, and by that, I mean the chocolate factory. That Kiko Shopkeep has been under TNT’s thumb for years! It’s exactly why I’m never invited to the annual Chocolate Ball. They can’t let me get that close, they know a sharp intellect such as mine would expose the truth in no time! This conspiracy goes far beyond the Chocolate Factory Shopkeeper. A number of prominent Neopians across the globe, such as Loic, Ellia, Tippens, and Donny, are under their influence. These globalists have access to MIND CONTROL technology, and they are using it to bend Neopia to their will. Still not convinced? Take a look at this suspicious location I found during my voyage to Virtupets SpaceStation:

"What? There's no "Mind Control Laboratory" here on the space station. I don't know what you're talking about. Sloth would never take control of the servers run by those pesky Neopets Staff people, so you must be mistaken…"

Clear collusion between Dr. Sloth and TNT! They are toying with us here, my fellow Neopians. Right out in the open, practically laughing in our faces! Clearly, they made some sort of arrangement with Dr. Sloth and have access to a number of his most dangerous inventions, including the Mind Control Laboratory! As for their proposed arrangement with Dr. Sloth, one has to wonder what he stood to gain from their backroom deal. I wouldn’t be surprised if, right now, they were plotting ways to pay him back by freeing him from the Space Faerie’s Token…

The Real Reason No One Can Visit Lutari Island

Lutari Island – an island that has been impossible to reach by swimming or flying for up to a decade now, not only is it impossible to get to but it also somehow is never in the same place twice! People who have tried to approach its shores say they couldn’t even see land due to the storm clouds and fog surrounding it! The suspicious behaviour of this island only grew when I asked a Lutari what the island is like! And I quote, “A beautiful island originally but all the change in weather has made it sadly unlivable for years now.” He then went on to say other things, but I have deemed them unimportant as not a single part of it could have possibly been true! Put the pieces together Neopians! As we all know TNT most certainly controls the weather, add that with this island that moves around freely, and no one knows what it even looks like now, what else could it possibly be but one big lie? But I’m here to tell you the truth about this “island.”

It is obvious that what we all know as “Lutari Island” is a cover for what could only be a large-scale moving surveillance drone put in place by TNT to keep tabs on all of the fine citizens of Neopia! Just think about it! TNT somehow knows a lot more than they ever should! They know how much Neopoints we have, what’s in our Security Deposit Boxes, heck they probably even know what we had for lunch today! How could they know this without the help of a high-powered security system! And for them to have room to fit one that is strong enough for all that, well, it would need to be the size of island!

[Pickles]

I didn't catch the second thing, but I caught the avvie.

Something Has Happened!

You are now eligible to use 'Mind Control Avatar' as an avatar on the NeoBoards!

I never saw any of the pop-ups. Ad-blocker might be killing them, but who knows? If anyone has the urls, I'd be interested in seeing them.

I don't feel like this one was as hilarious as previous years, especially when you compare it to Neovision and Dung Dash. Some of the word choices didn't quite work for me and other situations going on in the Neopian community made it kinda fall flat for me. I could elaborate a lot on this, as I've read the neoboards and reddit frequently enough as of late to have a lot more of a feel for how the community feels about a lot of things, but...I'll not go on that tangent.

Also...I don't think my kids are going to really understand what they're making fun of...at all. I guess we'll see when they're home from rehearsal, but...I get the feeling that for it to make ANY sense to them, I'm going to have to explain what "tin foil hat" means. (Which seriously, why didn't those get given out through this? They're junk items already, but they would've fit the theme perfectly...)

JN's joke is a little more fun. I didn't get to it in time to vote in the first bracket, but I voted in the second...


ETA: Watching LLP do dailies, I've seen some of the ads. Some of them are kinda funny? So I'll give them that. LLP completely didn't understand the point of the joke, clicked on it, saw a bunch of text, clicked everything he could, and didn't bother to read any of it. He was like, nope, this is boring not wasting my time.

[Siniri]

I'm with LLP. I've been sick all week and am not reading all that. I did skim it and kept clicking through until he seemed to be repeating himself, and I did click on a link I saw in one of the conspiracies, but it seemed to lead in a circle. Then I came here to check what else I needed to do to get the avvie.

Since it seemed like I'd already done everything, I checked that I received the avvie (didn't see any message on my phone, but it was there in my list).

What's the second goodie? What else do I have to do? *Grumbles* I just want to go to bed. April Fool's ain't supposed to be work!

P.S. The YouTube video didn't seem to work for me. It looked like it had about thirty ad breaks and kept pausing itself. There was no sound for me, and I didn't see much happening on screen after moving the video to a few random spots. (YouTube works just fine on my phone, so I assume it was a video issue, not the app.)

[Blue]

The 2nd goodie was a recycled item from Y14 AC - a Day at the Beach Background. I apparently had 2 in my SDB already. I now have 3 if you want it

You needed to open the conspiracy pop-up with the yellow button and then click "next theory(?)" and on the last one, it said something to the effect of "I can't believe you made it this far, so here's a small gift." I was using my laptop an inadvertently clicked in the wrong spot before I could copy the text

[Pickles]

I was typing this at the same time as Blue. The item is worth almost nothing now, so yeah...easy to come by.

The YouTube video is more of a podcast. This is the third one they've done. I listened to the first and this one. There's very little image-wise. The section that had to do with April Fools felt...also flat to me.
Summary of the rest of it in spoilers:

The rest of it was them discussing the "frequently asked questions" (which was summerized nicely in the comments as:

Battledome : not the priority
Flash games : not on the road map
UC pets : people are working on that when they have down time
Map fixes : rather sooner than later

), but they've still ignored the AC, the now more than 6-month delayed premium sale (that will happen as soon as they finish upgrading their payment system, which was supposedly a priority back in September?), the cheaters being unfrozen and accounts and items/nps/nc items being giving to cheaters by staff members, the fact that most invisible pets still cannot be customized, the fact that a fair number of NC items (and some NP items) STILL don't work in the new customization app (some of which are currently buyable, even - quite a few obtainable dyeworks items are in this list), or, you know, the people who had ALL of their NC items WIPED OUT by a mistake a staff member made last year and STILL have not had them returned. (I could go on here, seriously.)
Then they had Miss Rainbow in as a guest and asked her a few random questions about favorite pet, how she came to work there, etc, but then it was kinda embarrassing as none of them could remember the name of a petpet (or P3) that she (Miss Rainbow) brought up. She then talked about how the new (April) gift box capsule features Unis because of their upcoming pet day (Uni day is the beginning of March, not April), and apparently the NC event (if there is one) to go alongside whatever Negg hunt there is this year is not "next" on her event list, as she spent a bunch of time talking about Altador Cup as the "next" NC event.

Oh, but then, they mentioned (but said they couldn't sanction officially) the fact that they had all started using the work around to be able to play some of the flash games. So...if the TNT staff members are using it, I guess that makes it "OK?"

The neoboards yesterday were HEAVILY modded, no surprise. Several topics were deleted and a NUMBER of posts on some of the threads, as well. WHY would you make a "joke" out of something that we're not allowed to talk about on the neoboards? I still feel like this year's was a total bust...but that's just me. Sorry if this post is rather salty.

At any rate, I hope you feel better soon, Siniri. Being sick stinks...I should know. I'm over the cold, but I've still got this lingering dizziness mess. I think there's still fluid in my ears or something. Bleh.

[Siniri]

Thanks! I'm actually feeling a bit better, even went to work today. I also had $2000 in car repairs this week (3 different cooling systems failed independently of each other just before summer, but I'm grateful they caught the one that didn't throw an error code early, and the warning codes in my car for serious things get you to take it in right away, so there was no additional damage).

I have to take my car to a specialist for those kinds of repairs, so the long trip via transit wiped me out Monday and Thursday. I only missed dailies Friday.

Anyway, I checked my inventory, and the BG is there, so even though the pop-ups don't work on mobile, the steps apparently still did. Yay for a beach BG!

Thanks for the info from the podcast. At this point, I just really don't care anymore about most things -- except maybe it's time for me to submit a new ticket to get my original account back? Especially since I did nothing wrong... At this point, I've got nearly as much in the new one, but I still miss my original pets. And my beach gallery, though that will be completely disorganized.

[Blue]

Sorry to hear about the expensive car repairs. That is never fun. Glad to hear you're feeling better!

Thanks, Pickles, for the recap of the YouTube (YooYooTube?) video. I had no audio, so I did not bother with it.