Pink Poogle Toy Forum

Same thing here. :) One of the only things I do on the site anymore is add on to my gallery. You wouldn't believe the number of times I've seen an item and had that, "Wow, cool! Must start collecting!" reaction. Neo's diverse range of items and the feeling of collecting them really keep me on the site.



I see. I wasn't aware that many of the glitches were really happening during the McDonald's Happy Meal period or that the Happy Meal toys were given much showcasing other than the daily giveaway. Are you sure that their decision to not take the site down had anything at all to do with McDonald's, though? Neo's had many sponsers for a long time, and although most deals aren't as big as the McDonald's one, I've seen the site go down plenty of times, even in the period that the Happy Meal toys were out. (If I see that red Pteri one more time I'm going to crack!) I'm seeing the connection now, though I'm still not entirely sold. :/

For one, the biggest glitch I've ever encountered happened just recently in April. Remember that whole forgotten password e-mail page that showed passwords and e-mail accounts fiasco? Neo decided not to take the site down for a day that time either, and I don't think the huge Happy Meal deal was going on then. *shrug*



That does make sense, though I wonder how often the sponsers actually check the news page to see how their business partner is doing. Also, although I know great numbers of players have been victims of glitches, I haven't really noticed many complaints on the actual Neopets site, and that does include the chatboards. Instead of getting all huffy and "I'm not playing anymore!", most chatboard posts I've seen during glitch times consist of either helpful information ("Don't do ___!"), confused questioning ("Hey, petpages don't work for me. Is anyone else having this problem?"), or conversations that had nothing to do with the glitch. If Neo didn't look past their chatboards for information on whether players are satisfied or not, the sponsers won't be getting the "many players are on their last nerves" side of the story.

And if Neo posted glitch information in the news in a certain way, it might not be seen by sponsers as Neo admitting to something like "the site's falling apart at the seams." Something simple, although not totally helpful to actual players, like "Hey, the petpages and the pound were down for a while, but everything's A-OK now!", sounds like just a simple error, not a huge problem that'll cause large numbers of players to stop using the site and therefore the sponser who got them into Neo in the first place.

But I'm rambling now. *shuts up*

Here a few years back there was an internet freebie board. It was used by masses of internet freebie hunters. One day, the large freebie board decided that if you pay X amount of dollars, you would get special status on their board, a small icon by your avatar and acess to a "special" board that only paid members could see. It enraged alot of folks who thought freebie hunter boards SHOULD be free. THey posted their displeasure on the boards only to have a mod come along behind them and delete the threads! So, alot of us members decide to boycott the boards. Alot of people left but alot of people stayed. They eventually did away with the Paying Membership (which angered even more folks because they were told that once you paid, you would forever hold special status) The boycott did and didn't work. Eventually, non participation in the paying memberships caused them to do away with them but the actual boycott didn't cause a dent because not enough people did it. I am afraid that is going to be the case with NeoPets. I agree that the site has focused so much on the commercialism aspects of it that they have lost site of their members. But, NeoPets is huge in terms of membership and I just don't think enough people will boycott so that it will make a difference. I hope I am wrong. I wish Adam could remember the way NeoPets was in the beginning and the ideals he had back then. It is nice to be rich, I guess, but as far as I know the rules of life is NOT he who dies with the most toys wins!

While I agree that the support should be better, they aren't doing too bad of a job considering how many emails they get.

And I don't think that glitches aren't put in the news because of sponsers. They probably aren't put in the news becauce they don't want to send all those players who hadn't heard about it into a panic, especially if they were already working on fixing it/had already fixed it.

I don't think this boycott will work, because probably not enough users will participate to make a big difference.

The sending letters part might work, but if you're going to send letters to someone shouldn't you do it over something thats more important then a website's glitches, like gay marriage rights (for the USA), or animal abuse, or something?

And I don't understand what half-price day has to do with it. Wouldn't that make less user participate?

In the article on the main page, it looks like the writer planned it for Half-Price Day because "why bother getting a good restock or item when you're just going to lose it to another glitch or hack?" Heh, very pessimistic view.

Also, people on the chats who think the Day of Action is a bad idea are basically "supporting" this Day of Action because boycotters being off the site on Half-Price Day equals less users on the site to compete with in the shops. Just something someone noticed and joked/snarked about.

Oh oops, I forgot that part. Still, it seems like less people would do it because they would still want to at least try to get items cheaper.

I have posted my opinion abt this action b4. though i personally do not think this "day of action" boycott would work, i think some of you have miscontrued the meaning of the organiser.

firstly, as i understand, nobody is against neopets having sponsors or venturing into merchandising. everyone agrees that there have to be ways to maintain the free status of the game.

secondly, everyone knows that glitches can't be entirely faulted to neopets as it is mostly an accident.

However, what many of us are concerned about is the gradual shift of focus. as we read more about neopets introducing more plushies, console game and even talks of a movie, we are left to wonder abt the resources they invest in site management. for example, someone pointed out if the support department grows with the site popularity.

then, there are divided opinions over their concern or lack of..for players. the auto-freeze program for flash games for example, has a long period of problem with many players. it really disturbs players that they do have this mentality that even if their program does have serious flaws in precision (for picking out cheaters), they left it on for mths. apparently, this put further loads on the support staff who eventually have to deal with lotsa angry players. obviously, there is no need for them to be concerned abt the players who work hard as it makes more business sense with each deactivated account added to their inpressive stats. all this and others do point out a certain attitude of the staff, something which i have long accepted to be inevitable, given the success they enjoy.

lastly, we are not blaming the staff for glitches, as it was stated in the T&C that they are not responsible for any loss of item etc due to glitches/scams. what many of us are not happy abt is how they fail to make it clear to us. i wasn't around in april as i was taking a long break from neopets, but i heard there was a massive security flaw that causes players to lose their accounts. there was also the massive "resetting of pet's stats" back then which was also due to a security flaw. in both of these major "glitches" plus many other minor ones, there had been no satisfactory explanation abt them. yes, neopets is quick to announce players exploiting glitches and bugs but why can't they be equally efficient in acknowledging (and apologising) for glitches that cause players to lose their stuff?

then again, despite saying all this, my feeling towards neopets is bordering close to "unfeeling". i no longer feel any special joy or hatred towards the development of the site, beyond my own personal indulgence (in restocking and getting rich). i suspect many of the rich neopains are feeling this way, thus there seemed to be few active voices from them..(at most, you would see them post abt losing their faerie slingshots to glitches on their userlooup). maybe some of us have already realised the meaning of "you reap what you sow"...which applies to the future of neopets but then who cares abt neopets future beyond the next....restock (for me)

The Boycott probably won't work. I suggest a mass quit.
On 3rd July, millions abandon their pets and self-freeze their accounts.

It'd be cool.

If people get lazy and start to skim, or you get nothing out of this very well written, well thought out answer, at the very least read that one sentence.

Oh, that is so naive. Neopets has evolved hugely in the last 5 years. It has gained a vast membership, it's grown bigger and become more interactive, and offers more features for its users than it did in 1999. Obviously, such enormous growth requires more funding in order to keep the site running. Despite many outlandish claims to the contrary, I really doubt Adam and the rest of TNT is really rolling in the dough (maybe Dohring is, but he doesn't count XD). They have to pay for their servers, their webspace, their employees, their office building, everything required to run a large business. Since they don't charge us for all of that, they HAVE to rely on sponsorship and merchandising. I believe that rallying people to boycott those sources of TNT'S income is selfish and ungrateful. YES, the site glitches. We lose items, it stinks. It's disappointing. It's unfair. We want someone to take the blame and make everything all better. But you know what? Stuff happens. That's part of life. That's just the way things go. When you walk out the door on your way to the mall, and happen to lose $50 out of your wallet, and someone picks it up and pockets it, there's not much you can do about it. You can't write Life a dissatisfied email saying "Get your act together, I don't like the way things are going." Sometimes you just have to deal with it, even if it's unfair. No one here pays to sign into Neopets. The site is provided to us, free, for our continual enjoyment. If we were paying to use it then yes, we would certainly have room to complain when things went wrong. But we don't, fortunately. So get over it. When you lose tons of neopoints and items to a glitch, you can choose to shrug it off and get started on earning everything back, or you can quit. Nothing's stopping you, and I can pretty much guarantee there will always be new players to replace you. Seriously, what it all boils down to is that this is a GAME. People seem to have a hard time remembering this. It's not life and death. You're not going to undergo explosive decompression if you lose a million neopoints. Neopets is virtual, and anything lost can be regained with time. So either accept that you are part of a huge (and FREE) site that will run into problems once in awhile, or give up and quit. Life will go on either way, and none of it has anything to do with Adam's loss of Neo's ideals.

Having said that, I agree that TNT could use a better Customer Service department. However, I'm not going to quit the site over it, or get all highfalutin and boycott everything. I'll continue to play despite the problems and deal with them as they arise.

Very well put, Goala. I liked your sending life an e-mail analogy.

I would love to see the complainers and "Day of Action" activists run Neopets. It's not as easy as you think. Sure you're thinking "Oh they should do this, they should do that" but when your actually in their position, you'll find out just how hard they actually work on the site.

So what if they don't address a glitch? It would just cause unaware users who don't hang out at these kind of boards, or even the Neoboards. Before September, I never came to PPT and I went on Neopets perfectly by myself. I would have been unaware to any glitches unless they affected me. Had Neopets posted a big detailed explaination like you all want, I would have been paranoid to go back to making any money. Glitches happen, and they fix it, why isn't that good enough for you? I mean, it's not like you don't already know about it, so an explanation isn't going to do anything for you.

Like I said, merchandising is not shifting their focus. Programmers do not handle the merchandising. I don't understand why no one gets that...

Should they maybe have a better Customer Service department to sift through the emails and answer our pleas to be unfrozen, sure. But, if you think about it, that would actually "shift their focus". They'd either have to make the programmers stop programing to do it, or they'd have to hire a bunch of new people, taking resources away from the site. And can you imagine how annoyng that would be with every second e-mail being "HLLLLP ME!!!111 I THNK SUM1 IS HAKING ME!!!!!!11111"?

I don't think the point of the "Day of Action" is to express dissatisfaction over the fact that Neopets has sponsors. Of course Neopets has sponsors. Where else would the money to run the site come from?

Certainly not the users. I don't think it's the case at all that if the money weren't coming from the sponsors, it would be coming from us. I think that if the money weren't coming from sponsors, it wouldn't be coming from anywhere and Neopets would go under.

This is preciesly the point of Days of Action. Neopets, one presumes, doesn't WANT to go under. Therefore a risk to sponsorship is going to get their attention like nothing else would.

I really think that anyone who hasn't should go read the Neopets Press Kit. Guys -- this is not Adam and Donna working out of their basement, here. Neopets is a real, live company run by professional businessmen. And businessmen being what they are, what they're most interested in is the bottom line. You want to convince them to take some sort of action -- point out that not doing it will cut into their profits.

I suspect Neopets would be a lot more motivated to fix glitches and provide better customer service if failure to do so impacted them -- in terms of risk to potential sponsor support -- then when failure to do so only impacts users.

Sure, glitches happen. But they don't have to happen like they happen on Neopets. Your bank glitched away any of your money recently, then refused to return it to you? I didn't think so.

Sure, Neopets gets a lot of emails. A lot of companies get a lot of emails and a lot of phone calls -- and manage to get back to you. Again, Neopets is a real, live company, not a few people in the basement. If they don't have enough people to read emails they can hire some more.

If I don't like the glitches, why don't I just stop playing? Eventually I probably will. A lot of people already have. But users quitting is hardly a trend that benefits Neo in the long run. Although it may seem like it sometimes, Neopets can't keep expanding forever -- there are only so many people who are willing and able to spend that much time and energy on a Web game. Eventually they'll run out of warm bodies to replace users who have quit and user retention will suddenly become a concern. Why not give them some incentive to start being concerned about it now before they lose more of their long-time user base?

Mind you, I'm not saying the Day of Action thing is going to work. But, it's an interesting idea.

yes bgryph, that's a good perspective. sometimes, you realise that the ones that truely cares for neopets are what we call "movers", people who try to make things happen.



this one just hits the spot. i am pessimistic abt this whole thing but that's because i am indifferent. if neopets closed tomorrow, i would just move to another game but if there are ways to make the site better or make the businessmen realise certain points, why not?

as for glitches, i would rather be forewarned than be ignorant abt it and get my stuff glitched away. i am not talking about random glitches but glitches that are possible with some possible actions by TNT...eg a roll back, moving data to new server, fixing the battledome. it already reflects alot when i have to be forewarned abt some of the glitches by reading other player's experience

i am tired of players saying "it's a game and quit if you don't like it". it's all about commitment and effort, game or not. if you do not take anything seriously enough, then it can be a game to you. "if i don't like this job, i'd quit" makes one a job-hopper coz you can rarely find a job you are totally satisfied with. "if you don't like your partner, just ditch him/her" would make you a...see? the same thing which binds all people to certain thing is commitment. we all know decision making doesn't work this way, game or not.

I liked Moogum's point about the glitches.

Most people would never know about the glitches if they didn't visit a chat board or get directly affected. Many people on the big security glitch started saying they were hacked when they had 1 week accounts with new pets. A lot of people tried to use it to their advantage and get on the bandwagon with crys for help. When in reality only very few were affected and those who were just lived with it and dealt with it in a sensible way. (Like me with my missing pet. Who I got back)

I only ever find out somethings up with neopets by comming on message boards and chats. Occasionally neomails if a friend was affected.

The only real thing I don't like about neopets is the amount of time it takes to make np Since I don't get much time on it. But thats just life. I don't really care about the sponsor stuff. I just wish they would make it in Europe and Uk Like the Mc D's stuff...

First, you can't say "they'd be a lot more motivated to fix glitches" because, well, the FIX the glitches. It's not like there's a glitch and they're like "hmm... well, we'll get to that in a bit let's go make a deal with Disney first". They see a glitch, and the programmers fix it, thats just how it works.

And about giving back items, do you REALLY think it's that easy? Can you just think of how many e-mails they already get, how many more they'll get of people wanting money back, how many they will get from people who wnat to take advantage and say their items were lost. Then they have to go through records to make sure that the people aren't lying, and then give them their items back. Can you imagine how much time and work that would take? It would distract them from their regular job of keeping the site up, and even more glitches would happen.

Oh and be realistic: comparing a bank to Neopets that way is a little out there.

I, personally, am pessimistic about this whole thing. It's a good idea, but there just aren't enough people supporting it to make it work.

Still, TNT really needs to pick it up. One thing that's REALLY bothering me is the TCG tournament. The staff is sitting around playing a CARD GAME when they could be fixing some of the glitches, or maybe answering user e-mails. And do we get anything out of this? I wouldn't mind so much if we could place bets on who would win, or if the users were involved somehow. But no! It's just an oppertunity for them to add more to the news page.

Also, I'm fine with the side banners. They're just there to look at, they don't bother your neo-experience at all. But the sponsor items are just out of control. Neopia is my little imaginary world, where I can get away from everything IRL. But sitting on the shops map is a MCDONALDS, DISNEY THEATER, and CEREAL RELATED THING. Not to mention the t-shirt store and the toy thing with the voice activated plushies. What really bothers me is that they took out the GUILD HQ and put in a bit of advertising!

It seems as though Neo has forgotten that the site is the heart of all this merchandising. Even though I haven't been affected by the glitches, a few close friends of mine (not to mention tons of people here) have lost items or neopoints. Sure, it's just some data on a website, but we work HARD for those items! We invest our TIME in Neopets when we could be doing something else that DOESN'T give us eye strain! Especially those who can't restock; how would you like to spend years saving up enough money through games alone just to have it taken away in some glitch? And then, after you contact Neopets with proof of your accomplishments, how would you like to get an e-mail saying "Sorry but we can't give your stuff back because it would take too long." This is a big reason for people to quit entirely.

Without users playing, the page hits will go down and the sponserors will stop giving money. So really, Neopets is digging itself into a hole from which escape won't be easy. I love the spirit behind Neopets, despite what the site is now. I just hope they start building a ladder now, before it's too late.

That's just my little bit of opinion. *retreats to her corner*