Clearing up a few common misconceptions.

[Johnnydontgo]

well, TNT, in my opinion, just do a GREAT job, we only see their mistakes, we always tend to forget that in the first place it was them who created the site, if we argue too much, they can easily stop mantaining the site, and neopets would be no more

I doubt very seriously that would happen, as the site is a main source of income for the majority of the employees.

[blahdkm]

*Clap* *Clap* *Clap*

Well said... That is one of the truest things I've heard about neopets and it's staff in a long time. Sure everyone does complain partially because they or someone they talked to had a problem with the way neopets is run, but it's nice to see someone come out and say what isn't true and what are lies. It is also understand that those who work at neopets are human( Wow what are shocker....)and are capable of making mistakes.

*Clap* *Clap* Clap*

[SierraRaven]

Also remember that <i>really</i>- we all know you're not <i>stupid</i>. If you're so impressionable so as to buy an Avril Lavigne CD after playing a game for np, then so be it; very ferw of you are seriously influenced by the ads, and many avoid them specifically, so I doubt it's as much of a problem as you're making it out to be.

Out of curiosity, I wonder if you have read Neopets' own Press Kit material:

Immersive Advertising®

Neopets generates revenue through Immersive Advertising - a technique pioneered by Neopets that reflects an evolution of the concept of traditional product placement. Through this innovative method Neopets develops creative programs that integrate the advertisers' commercial products, services, brands, and names into existing or customized activities and scenarios within the popular Neopets entertainment website, thereby making the product an important part of the activity or game. Immersive Advertising produces lasting awareness, retention, and brand affinity, with impressions that effectively and repeatedly convey the advertiser's message to the intended consumer. Neopets can provide tracking data (pre- and post-surveys) through a relationship with OpinionSurveys.com, the online market research division of The Dohring Company. Neopets has used Immersive Advertising with such high-profile advertisers as 20th Century Fox, Atari, Bandai, Discovery Kids Channel, Disney, DreamWorks SKG, Frito-Lay, General Mills, H.J. Heinz, Hasbro, Kellogg, Kraft Foods, LEGO, Mars, Mattel, McDonald's, Motts, Nabisco, Nestlé, New Line Cinema, Paramount Pictures, Procter & Gamble, RCA Records, Thinkway Toys, Turner Broadcasting (Cartoon Network), Universal Studios, Warner Bros., Wizards of the Coast and Wrigley.

It doesn't sound so ineffective or negligible to me.....

[Johnnydontgo]

Also remember that <i>really</i>- we all know you're not <i>stupid</i>. If you're so impressionable so as to buy an Avril Lavigne CD after playing a game for np, then so be it; very ferw of you are seriously influenced by the ads, and many avoid them specifically, so I doubt it's as much of a problem as you're making it out to be.

Out of curiosity, I wonder if you have read Neopets' own Press Kit material:

Immersive Advertising®

Neopets generates revenue through Immersive Advertising - a technique pioneered by Neopets that reflects an evolution of the concept of traditional product placement. Through this innovative method Neopets develops creative programs that integrate the advertisers' commercial products, services, brands, and names into existing or customized activities and scenarios within the popular Neopets entertainment website, thereby making the product an important part of the activity or game. Immersive Advertising produces lasting awareness, retention, and brand affinity, with impressions that effectively and repeatedly convey the advertiser's message to the intended consumer. Neopets can provide tracking data (pre- and post-surveys) through a relationship with OpinionSurveys.com, the online market research division of The Dohring Company. Neopets has used Immersive Advertising with such high-profile advertisers as 20th Century Fox, Atari, Bandai, Discovery Kids Channel, Disney, DreamWorks SKG, Frito-Lay, General Mills, H.J. Heinz, Hasbro, Kellogg, Kraft Foods, LEGO, Mars, Mattel, McDonald's, Motts, Nabisco, Nestlé, New Line Cinema, Paramount Pictures, Procter & Gamble, RCA Records, Thinkway Toys, Turner Broadcasting (Cartoon Network), Universal Studios, Warner Bros., Wizards of the Coast and Wrigley.

It doesn't sound so ineffective or negligible to me.....

**Clap Clap Clap** Thank you. If you're going to make a statement as a Neopets member, make sure Neopets backs your opinion...

[Mystique]

one reason why i like shroomy over say, some other past staff members that quitted PPT in disgust. obviously, with PPT forums been the "most negative" of all the fansites, to say that TNT "don't like us" is an understatement. however, shroomy did the right thing by reading the forum and trying to remedy the situation as best as she could instead of making a broad sweeping statement and ignore the site altogether.

that said, shroomy, are you sure that all the freezings are done manually? i have my doubts regarding the freezings involving flash games, like what others did.

the others have already spoken my mind especially bgryph. i think i must have missed a couple of restock reading his posts; maybe i should get some compensation from him

[Hakunatata]

*snorts* Well, -I-, for one, agree full-heartedly with Shroomy. Personally, I've always had a great deal of respect for those who work at Neopets- YOU all try help running a site with millions of users breathing down your necks and leaping at your throats. I've always looked at it from that point of view, so no wonder I respect them and their decisions.

...Then again, I've never been frozen or hacked or scammed. No my opinion doesn't count, since DOA is for those disgruntled members who decided not to bite the bullet and try better to follow rules and use common sense but instead decided to bash the team...

...Now watch me get flamed. I'm just stating an honest fact; I'm very well aware that some have been frozen for 'no reason at all' or 'unfairly'. *shrugs*



And about advertising...I don't see what the big deal is. You don't -have- to play the games OR buy the merchandise. In fact, I very rarely pay any attention at all towards the advertising on the site. It's very easy to do. Heh, but some people look for more things to nitpick.


Personally, I'd LOVE for people to have to PAY to play Neopets. Just imagine how fewer people there would be on the Neoboards posting profanity and vulgar messages! Less scams, less hacks. Then again, I'm just dreaming...


EDIT: *cough* Oh, I forgot to thank Shroomy so much for taking her time to clear things up. ^^; I knew I forgot -something-.

[Johnnydontgo]

We don't flame, here. Everyone's entitled to their opinion. We just have the option to say we think yours is wrong, lol! Just kidding, really. They do a great job. When they encounter a problem, they do their best to fix it. Now only if they'd TELL us when it's fixed, that would be great.

[Hakunatata]

*nods* I agree, informing us if or when the glitch/bug/etc has been fixed would be nice.

[sailor_melody]

**Clap Clap Clap** Thank you. If you're going to make a statement as a Neopets member, make sure Neopets backs your opinion...

If you have a bitten green apple, you're not going to tell a potential buyer that it's been bitten. You can call it a small scrape or something, but if you need the money from the sale, you're going to try to convince them to pay full price.

I'm completely against the DoA, but I won't rant about it anymore, because it's hard to type with long, fake nails.

[platypus]

Thanks Shroomy, I really appreciate it how you've took time to clear this stuff up. I've always respected TNT but now I do even more. You guys deserve more respect, you should be allowed to work without these people complaining all day. I'd also like to say the artwork is great, keep up the good work.

[coming2atvnearu]

First off the bat, let me thank you for your courage and effort that you put into a well thought out and detailed post. Let me also thank you in advance because I am confident that you will read the equally effort-filled posts written in response (if not please simply scroll back to everconfused and bgryphs EXCELLENT posts) and let me thank you even more in advance for replying to these heartfelt questions that people have been begging to have answered.

Simply to clarify clarify something, there has not been an outcry at the artistic side of Neopets, simply a longing for the site to live up to its potential.

There's been a big call for artists' overtime as of late just to get a particular project done,

When particular projects such as merchandising interfere with the site, the general population's enjoyment of the site goes down. This is the source of many of the "money monger" rumours originate.

As much as many of us fume at the TNT, it is not the artists and programmers that we are dissatisfied with, and we are VERY happy with what you give us. Lumping you all together IS unfair and I take full responsibility for making that error and I apologize. It is simply the many fumbled business decisions that have changed the website from Neopets to Neopets, Inc. that we do not approve of.

[dissident]

Hey, could you clear up the misconceptions about why people haven't been getting trophies for weeks? And could you clear up the misconceptions about neoschools? And could you clear up the misconceptions about why neomail has been horribly slow even though for weeks there has been a sign saying it's being moved to faster servers? Could you clear up the misconceptions about why the site is often down in weekends? I mean many mondays we get a happy note about new records in pageviews so it's not like the weekend rush is a surprise to you. I could go on and on but you get the point.
I don't know how it works on neo but you're an artist right? Maybe someone who deals with these things or is responsible for these things could clear up some misconceptions. Hey how about... Adam? He has been posting here before right? But maybe he's too busy drawing updated neopets too...
Happy McDonalds day to everyone!

[Paulisacretin]

Well, i mean, obviously it's nice to see shoomlah again, but given that we are the "big-bad" fansite apparantly, why didnt TNT bother sending someone "higher" up the ranks.

Unless of course the higher ranks were just saying poo-poo to PPT and refusing to speak to us, in which case i applaud shroomy for doing so.

BTW, who was the other artist who left in that big tantrum last year?

[Cranberry]

*nods* I agree, informing us if or when the glitch/bug/etc has been fixed would be nice.

This would solve a lot of problems. One thing I really like about livejournal.com is that whenever you're having technical problems on the site, you can go to their status page and see if anything is going on, like if a server crashed or there was a denial of service attack or whatever. They keep everyone up to date with any repairs or glitches or anything that impairs site performance. Neopets should look into something like that.

Also, I'm sorry, but I just don't believe every freezing on the site is done manually. I've been playing for 46 months, and the sheer number of people I've seen get frozen (fairly or unfairly) is staggering. At the very least, the games must auto-freeze, because I was frozen the split second I was "caught cheating" (read: got hit by some weird glitch) while playing Volcano Run -- am I to believe one of the 25 monitors was sitting there waiting and managed to freeze me the second I submitted my score?

Also, I can completely understand that monitors make mistakes and sometimes freeze people due to a misunderstanding, but I refuse to believe monitors are so stupid that they'd warn/freeze someone for saying it was "hot outside"... or for some of the other things people have been mistakenly warned or frozen for saying on the neoboards. I know someone had compiled a list of seemingly innocuous words you could get in trouble for typing; does anyone have that?

Anyway, I have no intention of participating in this "Day of Action" -- although, while I enjoy Neopets, I do think it needs to change, especially now that there are so many players. Additional staff would be an excellent start.

[Mystique]

BTW, who was the other artist who left in that big tantrum last year?

the artist that flared up was dracosolaris.