Pink Poogle Toy Forum

Well, you have to admit they do a great job freezing all those people for free.

I didn't even realise that and that's a great point! Now I know it's not the computers who don't care about my emails, now I know it's humans who don't care about my email!

Unless you have been there and helplessly watched your kid crying her eyes out after getting her year old account frozen for doing nothing wrong whatsover, then you just don't know how it feels. And, in reality, being wrongfully accused of something when you are innocent can affect you for the rest of your life.

I'm glad to see you post here, Shroomy!

It's the first I've heard of the day of action.

I agree with a suggestion made earlier, that 25 people are not enough to provide customer service to so many enthusiastic members. I've worked as admin and moderator, both paid and unpaid, and I would be willing to volunteer to be a remote mod for a few hours a week to help out, and I feel that there are others who could help. We could deal with email messages, for example, that were routine.

The members at neopets would have much better morale if they felt that their suggestions and worries were being listened to.

One complaint that I made to neopets did receive a response- not a helpful response though. When I replied that the response did not answer my question, I received another seemingly random response, that still did not answer my question, so I gave up. I assumed that whoever was answering questions did not have time to actually read them and just fired off answers.

For the issue of ads, NP needs to make enough money to provide adequate income to support employees and the site. It would be nice if some more of a profit were channeled into customer service.

Twinklyspangle, what's so amazing? That I take my responsibilities very seriously when it comes to administrative decisions regarding our elementary schoolchildren? That I don't want to get dragged before the School Board of Directors/Trustees because parents are complaining that their children got frozen on Neopets, an Internet site that I encouraged them to join during school hours and on school grounds?

Seriously, do you have any idea what it feels like to be labeled a "Cheat" when you're not one?? Parents, teachers, administrators, etc., all have heavy responsibilities. With your reasoning, I might as well let the kids play outside during a thunder storm. After all, who am I to prevent kids from doing something because they 'might' get hurt....

You are so right! I used to be one of those people who thought that nobody innocent ever got frozen, until it happened to me and alot of my friends. I am embarrassed that people who were my neofriend list, that I didn't know all that well really thinks that I did do something that was freezable. My reputation as a good and honest player is tarnished, and I can't even defend myself because I can't get a reply! It like being accused of shoplifting by the police in front of all your friends and they won't let you empty your pockets to prove you are innocent.

My husband got wrongfully frozen last year for cheating at flash games and he is in his 40's, law degree, business degree, 2nd in command at his company--and he was devastated! I mean absolutely down and out and depressed for days. When he is on Neopets, he is a kid again (which I think is why it appeals to so many adults). And, you could tell how hurt he was by the false accusation--he didn't even know what a flash game was. He got the account back--but only because my daughter and I convinced him to write a letter to the staff about it--and even then, I think he was lucky.

Six months later, my daughter gets frozen while I am in the same room for giving away Christmas presents on the help chat--no strings attached. Just feeling generous and wanting to help out others. What a slap in the face to her wanting to be generous, eh?

Luckily, I was right there when it happened--with a box of kleenex, my law school education and my fiestiness. I spent about 20 or so hours scoping out the site, seeing others go unfrozen while doing the same, making a list of arguments to present, and then writing an extremely detailed letter to the staff. And, I got an answer and unfrozen account about a day after I sent the email.

But, six months later, I am still miffed about the whole thing. Why? Because, when it first happened, I was embarassed for her. She and I were active PPTers and I really couldn't face my fellow PPTers with this event. And, because I felt like you--my kid is caught shoplifting, isn't allowed to empty her pockets, and I had to waste a lot of time arguing on her behalf to a nameless, faceless entity. And, most of all, because it could just as easily happen again tomorrow without warning and without reason.

My account was frozen over a year ago. I did nothing to deserve a freezing. After MANY tries to get a personalized response over the course of a year, I gave up.

Therefore all of my guilds will be closed on July 3rd.

Over 75% of my members have agreed to also boycott neopets.com on this date.

I have a total of 2931 members as of 5:08PM CST US.

What are the average page views per person a day on neopets? I know its over 200..

Multiply that by 3000.



And we arent the only ones.

Wow.. I don't feel like I wouldn't make a difference anymore! I think I support the day of action again!

Well... I still don't support it.
And I doubt I ever will. I think that there are better ways at getting your voice heard, but, thats my view, not every one elses.
I also think that theres going to be a few people who self freeze in the heat of things, and then realize "I didn't really want to quit" and then they'll be unable to get their accounts back. Hurting them in turn. And then they'll just attack neo again for their own self freezings.
*shakes head*

You can't protect kids. I can understand that if you knew there was a murderer outside your door, you wouldn't let him go out to play, but this isn't like that. It's a game, and that worst that can happen is that they'll be be frozen. But they'll learn. What doesn't kill you makes your stronger. I lost an ccount with 1.5 million (which was a lot for me at the time) and I didn't cry. I looked at the login page and said, "Oh, crap."

And that's it. I have a seven year old sister, and the only reason I keep her away from neopets (other than that we would have to share a computer) is because she's seven, and she has no common sense. She'd be posting chain letters and giving away her password. On the other hand, I have a cousin who is only two weeks younger than she is, and I wouldn't care if he played. First of all, I wouldn't have to share a computer with him, and second of all, I know he's not gullible enough to fall for every scam. He would most likely be the one scamming.

Maybe your kid's not 'strong' enough to deal with a such a big loss, but that's up to you to decide, isn't it? At some point they're going to experience pain. They're going to be made fun of, they'll be dumped, lots of other things (like losing a family member) are going to cause them pain. If we don't let them out, they won't learn.

As for losing all the time you spent on something if you get frozen: Simply don't waste your time with it. You don't want your kids to play neo because they'll be sad and bitter if they get frozen? Well, maybe you shouldn't play either, since a lot of older 'reasonable' people do get upset, too. You may have wasted two weeks getting a royal paintbrush, so instead of complaining about losing your valuable time, don't waste it again. That's like burning your hand in the fireplace, and then putting in your foot.

Even with that new statistic and even more information on the Day of Action and why to support it, I won't participate. I highly doubt that it'll make a huge difference unless virtually everyone using the site decided to boycott. But, you never know.

I still stand by my much earlier statement (which many reflected upon) that there should be more customer support, even if there are only volunteers. The Neopian public just needs to have a sign of some sort that their emails are being read and responded to insthought and consideration put into the freezings. It should at least tell the frozen user exactly why they were frozen and leave a few (not one, a few) email addreses they can contact to try to gain their account back.

It is hard to maintain a website of Neopet's size, especially without popup and banner ads. PPT is a fine example; though the ads are annoying, it keeps the site running. Neopets only has the few sponser games and tiny banners. The tiny banners are even outnumbered by the ones promoting certain games/shops/worlds on the site. I have a few friends who run their own websites, and they often rant about how people hotlink their images, spam their chat rooms, etc. My mom even has her own webpage, and she's trying to compress everything down so she won't have to pay for more space. Really, try running your own high-traffic site and not find a problem.

I think it would be a much better idea if we supported Neopets and offered to help them instead of boycotting. I for one decided that I might start collecting Neopets TCs because it would help fund the site and maybe even help open up the possibility of employing more staff members. Besides, they look like good cards.

sailor_melody, I guess it's just something you won't understand until you have children of your own. It's not a matter of how strong a child is or how much heartache they can take. It's a matter of why should they have to. If we can spare one child the heartache of losing a virtual pet that they loved, why not try to do it? There are so many things a child has to deal with in life, as you mentioned. Why must their games be filled with sadness as well? Neopia is not supposed to be real. It is a fantasy land, a place where children can play safe and their parents shouldn't have to worry about what they will encounter.

I recently started an account for my girls. I thought over this for a long while and had many reservations. I'm still not sure it's the right decision, but they love Neopets and wanted their own account. They love their neopets. They make up games and pretend they are in Neopia playing with their neopets even when they are offline. It's another world to them. If this was suddenly taken away from them, I know it would be horrible.

I'd like to see you tell a six year old that she will never be able to play with her neopet again because there was a "glitch in the system". How heart-wrenching. Or even worse yet, tell her you have no idea why her acount is gone or that the people that ran the site accused her of doing something horrible enough to feel they had to close the account.

It just should not happen. No ifs, ands, or buts. On the occasion that it might happy (in a decent world), there should be a clear reason why and explicit instructions on what to do if you disagree with the ruling. Then support staff should reply within a reasonable amount of time telling you what to do/who to contact further or that you can not reopen the account.

The current state of things makes Neopia a scary place for anyone who watches over children who use the internet.

I guess the volunteers would help...

Go Morningstar! You said everything I was trying to say -- and then some -- a lot better than I could.

I think ultimately the problem with the "suck it up" mentality is that it amounts to saying -- "So what if the glitches are making the game less fun? Suck it up and keep playing!" That's daft. As other people have said(although usually while trying to make a different point) Neopets is just a game. It's not a job, a responsibility, or an obligation.

And if a game isn't starting to seem fun anymore, the response isn't to "suck it up" and play anyway, as would be for work or school. Why should you play a game if it's not much fun? Having fun is the whole point, after all. So people lose interest and eventually stop playing, instead.

Or, in the case of the people who started the DoA, they try to take steps to fix the problems that are making the game less fun for them.

Of the two -- losing users or user action -- I think stuff like the DoA is better for Neoepts in the long run. Our time is the commodity that Neoepts sells to its sponsors. Without it, they have nothing to sell.

As far as children being hurt go: of course you can't protect your children from being hurt. But why expose them to opportunities to be hurt gratuiously? Life will throw enough problems at them on its own without going looking for more.