Are clickies slow or not working?

[Ange]

I thought that they had already disabled those links.

[Morningstar]

I'm sorry I ever asked, what a mess this has become!

Oh, don't ever be sorry for asking. Because you asked a question that was on a lot of peoples' minds. And I think it is a good thing to be able to hear all of the various opinions and interpretations that people have. Perhaps, someone from TNT will notice this thread and realize that we are still in a quandry about this and clarify it further (after all, they have listened to some of our threads in the past. )

[background_noise]

Thanks, Morningstar. I still feel bad for sticking my foot in it. Especially since Garmfay is catching flak for having asked.

I see they moved very quickly to close off all those clickies. Now those pages are gone, and your pet will say "boo hoo" if you visit them.

So I'm wondering why they didn't turn off the process_click links at the same time. Probably somebody was lurking here looking for loopholes. If so, they got a nice list of them.

The process_click links still work. I just tried one just now. I wasn't logged in so I won't get any NP. (Hopefully I won't get frozen, but I do have the toolbar so TNT could be keylogging me.)

That's what's so confusing, feather it all! If you click on those links, they still take you to the original sponsor websites. And many of those sponsor websites are still valid. The sponsors are still getting page views when you click those links. Maybe they're still getting paid for them, too; how can you tell?

And you can't tell whether the sponsors are paying TNT or not. You might guess that they're not, once the original ad or game is gone. But you actually have no way of knowing what kind of deal the sponsors and TNT have.

If the link still takes you to a valid sponsor page and the sponsor is still paying TNT when you view it, I don't see why you shouldn't get NP for your trouble, regardless of how you actually find the link. As long as the link gives you your daily NP, it still might seem as if TNT approves of you clicking it.

It would be much better if, when any sponsor offer expires, the link automatically redirects you -- not to the sponsor's website -- but instead to the "boo hoo, that offer is no longer valid" webpage. Then you stop getting NP so you quit using the link. The sponsor sees a drop in page hits and realizes Neopets is a good place to advertise. There's no open loophole to exploit and no need for TNT to warn or freeze anybody. And nobody gets blamed when the promo finally ends.

I don't know enough about how TNT's website works, but so many other parts of the site automatically turn off and on at preset times -- Turmac, plot pages, etc. -- so I think they must be able to build an expiry date into other things like clickies and process_click links. Is it hard? or expensive? Why not do it?

[patjade]

Neopets has been in the process of removing dead process_click links. When one clicks on removed link, it takes you back to the Neopets home page again. As soon as the link is reported or seen as doing that, it's removed. It might take them awhile to get to all of them (if I am correct, the 4 digit code at the end of the link is the link number, and there are numbers in the 9,000 range, so a possible 10000 links).

I did a little experiment and played with one the other day.

Example:

http://www.neopets.com/process_click.phtml?item_id=4605 Is the click for the Aladdin game. Change 4605 to 4606 and you get redirected back to the home page. The same on up to 4608, which takes you to an ABC kids go site. of course, we don't KNOW if any particular site pays, or if it does, WHAT it pays until you see a change in your NP's.

The process is similar to the old way we used to look for new games Neopets was working on. You find the link to the highest number game then change the last number up and down. Example: http://www.neopets.com/games/launch_gam ... ame_id=724

But Neopets has removed all the old games they don't want, and clicking on that link brings up the page the game is hosted on, instead of the game itself.

Perhaps Neopets can do the same with their ad links.

Here we have a link that not only takes you to the sponsor page, but it tells you the game isn't available anymore, yet still had the link for the game and the movie, and both still work. Something got mixed up there.

http://www.neopets.com/games/launch_gam ... ame_id=692

I guess we shall see what happens.

[Six]

Example:

http://www.neopets.com/process_click.phtml?item_id=4605 Is the click for the Aladdin game. Change 4605 to 4606 and you get redirected back to the home page. The same on up to 4608, which takes you to an ABC kids go site. of course, we don't KNOW if any particular site pays, or if it does, WHAT it pays until you see a change in your NP's.

the page that everyone keeps referring to by jadephoenix does not use the PROCESSCLICK part -hers go directly to the website
not through NEO...so would this be considered an other activity as the editorial put it?

[patjade]

Example:

http://www.neopets.com/process_click.phtml?item_id=4605 Is the click for the Aladdin game. Change 4605 to 4606 and you get redirected back to the home page. The same on up to 4608, which takes you to an ABC kids go site. of course, we don't KNOW if any particular site pays, or if it does, WHAT it pays until you see a change in your NP's.

the page that everyone keeps referring to by jadephoenix does not use the PROCESSCLICK part -hers go directly to the website
not through NEO...so would this be considered an other activity as the editorial put it?

Vague, isn't it? Since there is an email on the webpage, all that needs be done is a request to take it down and that can happen quickly. They DID say they weren't freezing people for clicking on them. They just would like for people to use the pages those links are found on.

[Meer]

the page that everyone keeps referring to by jadephoenix does not use the PROCESSCLICK part -hers go directly to the website

Uh, yes it does. I use(ed) that site every day for a long time. The links have the process_click in them. You couldn't get NP from them if they didn't.

Vague, isn't it? Since there is an email on the webpage, all that needs be done is a request to take it down and that can happen quickly. They DID say they weren't freezing people for clicking on them. They just would like for people to use the pages those links are found on.

I wish TNT wouldn't be so vague. >.> "prefer you don't use them" is not necessarily the same as "we will freeze you for using them" Since the links still pay out NP, and it is TNT's responsibility to disable them once the sponsor deal has expired or whatever, I would think it particularly evil for them to freeze people for still using the working links. But I don't consider TNT to be above being particularly evil. If they would just disable old process_click items this would solve the problem completely.

Of course a large part of me doesn't want them to disable the old links. I really liked those NP! I work hard playing games for my NP, but I counted on those sponsor links to help me along. Without them it will take me nearly 4x longer to reach my goals. I'll survive of course, I'll just be disappointed and frustrated for a while.

[background_noise]

Yes, it's really too bad TNT didn't give a clear yes-or-no answer. They left it open to misinterpretation.

It's a big problem at our house: I don't want my younger siblings to use the links because I don't want them to lose their accounts over this. I guess I'm risk-averse, but I know they'd both be devastated.

They both don't believe me when I say they *could* be frozen -- eventually -- for using them. The under-13 still believes TNT knows what they're doing, so if the links pay out, why not use them? The over-13 (but younger than me) believes me when I say TNT is having trouble keeping up, but thinks TNT will be fair and not freeze anybody because of all those vague hints.

Meanwhile they're both mad at me because they're missing out on a good 40,000 NP a day for no good reason. And since nobody has been frozen YET, it keeps getting harder for me to keep telling them DON'T.

Even my mum and dad can't understand why TNT is waffling. Either it's legal or it's not, Lawyerbot should know. Of course they don't approve of Neopets, they say we use it too much. Mum actually said she's hoping we'll all get frozen so we'll quit.

I guess I'm just going to throw in the towel, let them make their own decisions and see what happens. Maybe I'll join the crowd, too. At least if I get frozen I'll have an incentive to leave Neo and focus on my placement exams. And they'd never forgive me if they get frozen and I don't.

[Six]

Uh, yes it does. I use(ed) that site every day for a long time. The links have the process_click in them. You couldn't get NP from them if they didn't.

sorry Meer- I stand corrected about the process_click part ...it comes and goes so fast sometimes that you don't notice it unless you watch carefully

Has anyone been frozen for doing them? People must still be doing them or the hoopla wouldn't have died down so fast? I still can't decide.

thanks for listening and setting me straight on that.

[patjade]

Uh, yes it does. I use(ed) that site every day for a long time. The links have the process_click in them. You couldn't get NP from them if they didn't.

sorry Meer- I stand corrected about the process_click part ...it comes and goes so fast sometimes that you don't notice it unless you watch carefully

Has anyone been frozen for doing them? People must still be doing them or the hoopla wouldn't have died down so fast? I still can't decide.

thanks for listening and setting me straight on that.

Since the page I host on Jadephoenix appears to be very popular, and there is an email BOLDLY listed on it, I would have imagined the list maintainer would have received a C&D letter from Neopets if there were a problem. Still, how is the page any different than someone saving found links to their favorites, like Free Jelly or Tombola?

The links ARE there, and they DO work (hard to tell with some with my own bad-site blocking in my Hosts file), and the DO pay. Neopets HAS removed some of the links from the site, and I imagine more will be disabled, but aside from tracking each person's history on Neopets, it'll be very hard to tell if they bookmarked the link page or the link itself, or if they discovered the link on their own, had it bookmarked, or got it elsewhere. SOMEONE had to find the link in order to click on it in the first place.

I showed in a previous post how such a link could be found, and that's no different than any other item hidden in URL's. Neopets even uses such as clues in their plots. There is nothing wrong or illegal in changing the URL to get information about a new pet color, a new game, or even a new sponsor, is there?

[Six]

I showed in a previous post how such a link could be found, and that's no different than any other item hidden in URL's. Neopets even uses such as clues in their plots. There is nothing wrong or illegal in changing the URL to get information about a new pet color, a new game, or even a new sponsor, is there

I posted this on the neoboards and just about got my head chewed off

as I understand it the main part of the url stays the same and you need to change the last 4digits from 0000 to 9999 (boy you have patience!) to see if it goes some where and then click and wait and click and wait
how is it cheating ?

Everyone said that changing the url was the same as cheating but the same principles apply to games - you change the last 4 digits and voila!

[bgryph]

I think you guys may be trying too hard to justify using those links. The editorial response wasn't as clear as it could be, but it did say right out that sponsor links need to be visited by clicking on the link in an activity.

Whether you use the process_click links is up to you, but it seems pretty clear we're not supposed to. The only question is whether or not TNT will start freezing people for it.

[Aufstandkind]

On the main forum of my guild someone linked to a cache of the old links and it pays out about 25k a day, but I really don't think they should be used despite their being there. I miss the easy NP too, but I was thinking of legit stockmarketing anyway. It was still a success to get my Christmas Cybunny and Mutant Ruki but it would have been more fulfilling had I not used links, I bet.

[Meer]

I didn't feel any loss of satisfaction or accomplishment when I got my Draik egg. I felt the sponsor links were a legitimate and fair way of making NP. It still took a lot of time and work. The money I made from them wasn't that much up until recently when it jumped to 40K or so a day.

Maybe TNT is being vague intentionally. They wanted to discourage the use of the old links, so they disabled them on petpages. They don't want to encourage more people to use them on off-site pages by coming out and saying they won't freeze people. But yet they won't, maybe because it's not a huge deal to them, or it's too much work to track them all, or who knows?

But that doesn't make any sense, does it? Sorry, I'm just grasping at straws. I'll shut up now.

[moreau360]

after much discussion,can someone confirm whether we will be iced for utilizing the links?