Something for everyone to think about....

Teradyne · **Posted:** Tue Jul 20, 2004 12:57 pm

I've been seeing alot of people complain about glitches, and I though I'd share my opinion on the matter. I know I don't post much here, or anywhare for that matter, not after the whole fiasco last December between me and another forum member.I perfer to keep my mouth generally shut. Heck I don't talk much period. However, I thought I might post this for you people to consider.

I think, in my opinion that is, that these glitches are partly the fault of the users for constantly pressuring the programmers to fix things, partly the fault of the McDonalds promo, which caused them to receive more users than they can handle at this time, partly the programmers for making "quick fixes" just so they can get to around to fixing another glitch, partly the management's fault for not hiring more staff, and partly the computers for not being able to take the strain. It's acting as sort of a combination of everyone being at fault that led it to getting out of control.

Some users want them to take the site down to fix glitches, then complain that it's down because they want to play. Some users the site is to glitchy, but don't want them to take down the site. Some users just want to have fun and don't care what happens. It's all about balancing out what the users want to what is needed.

They try to make people happy by trying to make a quick fix so that people will be happy by playing the site, but then they end up making people mad by triping up some line of code down the line. Then they try to take down the site to fix it and make some people happy, and they end up making more people mad because the site's down.

I think you get what I'm saying. Everyone who plays or works on Neopets, in one way or another, is at fault in some way. That's what happens when you try to make people happy, you end up making more mad at you. It's just something that happens that really can't be controlled by any person or machine. It just... happens.

untouchable dragon · **Posted:** Tue Jul 20, 2004 1:03 pm

nicely spoken! its totally true, too many people complain, it is a FREE site anyways

autechre · **Posted:** Tue Jul 20, 2004 1:09 pm

i get what you mean, but i think what annoys most people, is the fact that in alot of cases, glitches aren't always acknowledged, remember the shop glitch? the neoboards were full of people panicking, pulling stuff out and overloading the servers because of it.

also, while its hard, if people lose items that are very important, or worth alot of nps to them, whats supposed to happen? my friend lost a baby pb in a glitch, and hes never gotten it back. hes sore, but he got over it, but it set him back a fair bit. so what should happen then?

believe me, i understand tnt are human, but their policy on items and stuff, which wasn't the users fault, needs a bit of work, thats all.

Teradyne · **Posted:** Tue Jul 20, 2004 1:23 pm

autechre wrote:

i get what you mean, but i think what annoys most people, is the fact that in alot of cases, glitches aren't always acknowledged, remember the shop glitch? the neoboards were full of people panicking, pulling stuff out and overloading the servers because of it.

Annoucing could also cause mass hystaria(sp?). It's a "Bad if you do, bad if you don't." kind of thing.

autechre wrote:

also, while its hard, if people lose items that are very important, or worth alot of nps to them, whats supposed to happen? my friend lost a baby pb in a glitch, and hes never gotten it back. hes sore, but he got over it, but it set him back a fair bit. so what should happen then?

Ever try going through a log file of about 5 MB? I have, and it's not easy. Their's must be in the GB range, and, even with twenty or thirty people working on it, it's not going to be quicka and easy.

autechre wrote:

believe me, i understand tnt are human, but their policy on items and stuff, which wasn't the users fault, needs a bit of work, thats all.

Like I said once before during the december fiasco, it's there to make some people happier by making things quicker, but it only makes more people mad. No matter what they do, it seems that they make more people mad than happy. To tell you the truth, I've lost well over two million in items over the course of 6 months, tow million that I've never had at one time. I know they can't give the items back, and I accept that. I bet they want to, but can't because of that stupid policy. It's just something that we agreed to when we signed up, and that we have to accept or attempt to do something about, as that's all we can do.

Mystique · **Posts:** 687 **Joined:** Tue Jun 01, 2004 8:32 pm

not announcing to prevent mass hysteria only worsen it. for example, if there was going to be a data transfer, they could post a notice in the news which many players would read the moment they start their neopian day. they could warn for example of possible shop glitches. players reading these would then check their shops first and then take necessary precautions like not restocking their shops till their original shop inventory came back . no notice of the data transfer was made and some players who didn't check their shops only found their shops empty until they have put new stuff in the shop to sell. now they face the prospect of not having their item returned. other lucky ones were able to get back their shop inventory because they found out about the glitch b4 they put anything new in the shop to sell. now the thousands of missing shop inventory had resulted panicky players emailing the support more frequently...talk abt mass hysteria.

and also i know that many of us, including myself like to rant about stuff but trust me, half of the time, we are actually not as serious as we put it. i love to read rants more than praises becoz most likely, i am always alerted through glitches/scams through rantings whereas there's really nothing praiseworthy about neopets that i am not aware of because some of us have been playing neopets for years.

twinklyspangle · **Posted:** Tue Jul 20, 2004 2:12 pm

I think your right, actually. It's unfair to blame everything on one thing, and to say: Well if they didn't spend so much time drawing new pets they could sort stuff out, when actually it'\s different departments that do each thing.

Personally, if neopets is down, I do something else, it's not the end of the world.

auriya · **Posts:** 44 **Joined:** Tue Jul 20, 2004 4:08 pm

Glitches are annoying, but still, the site's free, and so you have to accept these things. If I had to pay money for this game and it still glitched up, then I'd be mad.

On the other hand, I totally understand that people are angry when they've saved up a long time to get an expensive item, and lose it in a glitch. I myself have lost about 15k to the shop glitch.

Morningstar · **Posted:** Tue Jul 20, 2004 2:39 pm

You wrote this a few weeks back, but perhaps you have had a change of heart:

Teradyne wrote:

I've been on Neopets for 3 years, had my first main account wrongfuly frozen for cheating on flash games (My computer lagged sometimes because it was slow, which they saw as cheating....), my new main hacked twice (once by another user, one during the big security glitch), lost a total of 1 mil in NP because of glitches (and that's a lot for someone who hasn't even reached 1 mil at a single point), and had 12 accounts frozen (One main, One spare, and two gallery is all I have left. The two gallery were two of my first frozen, but I thankfully got them back along with a rude email from TNT). I've been through alot, but I've seen a alot of bad things happen to people, which could have been avoided had TNT truly maintained the site.

TNT my have a good site, but letting it get the way it was for a few days not too long ago, allowing a breach of security to last so long on 04\04, not returning items lost in glitches unless the person is famous or a friend, sometimes siding with scammers\hackers, and even going as far as lying about glitches or things of their own fault is going over the line.

I don't know why, but it feels as if TNT, and even Neopets.com itself, is starting to fall apart from within.I just wish they would start caring more about the site instead of stupid TCGs, plushies, and ither real life items.

I want to see it go back to like it was in the old days, when players were helped by real humans working in support, instead of these auto response bots. I want the Freezebots to be toned down a little, so people arn't frozen wrongfuly. I want to see then care about the players, instead of practicly worthless peices of paper and cloth with silly little designs made of green ink on them. That's what I want, and frankly that's what a lot of people want, before they are driven away from a site and game with unlimited potential that could be unleased just by caring about the players. Once the players get what they want, once TNT see that they've made some mistakes in the past and admit to them, once TNT start caring about the players, that's when the true potential of Neopets will be unleased.

gabriellaeve · **Posted:** Tue Jul 20, 2004 2:39 pm

untouchable dragon wrote:

nicely spoken! its totally true, too many people complain, it is a FREE site anyways

Dragon I don't mean to single you out but this is a phrase I see a lot of people use and it drives me up the wall.

Yes we are not paying with the site with money, however this site is a for-profit business that depends on my continuing participation in the site. They sell advertisment based on the number of page views/ number of participants. These people are being paid to maintain a professional webpage- it is not unreasonable for it to expect that it will work. If there product doesn't work then people will quit visiting the site, thus lessening their advertising power and damaging their business model.

The fact that the site is free to us has nothing to do with TNT fulfilling there obligations to their advertisers and doing their jobs.

If you're hired to run a website- you should run a website- you don't see Yahoo going down everyday, when they do go down its for "scheduled maintanence" that they warn you about well in advance- perhaps that is a solution Neo should look into, I know I would be pleased to put up with a 2 hour block once a week in exchange for a less glitchy site.

All that said, I have to agree with the gist of this thread that TNT has a big job, and overall they're doing a pretty good job. I just don't think they should get a free ride because the money they're making doesn't come directly from my wallet.

Morningstar · **Posted:** Tue Jul 20, 2004 3:05 pm

gabriellaeve wrote:

untouchable dragon wrote:

nicely spoken! its totally true, too many people complain, it is a FREE site anyways

Dragon I don't mean to single you out but this is a phrase I see a lot of people use and it drives me up the wall.

Yes we are not paying with the site with money, however this site is a for-profit business that depends on my continuing participation in the site. They sell advertisment based on the number of page views/ number of participants. These people are being paid to maintain a professional webpage- it is not unreasonable for it to expect that it will work. If there product doesn't work then people will quit visiting the site, thus lessening their advertising power and damaging their business model.

The fact that the site is free to us has nothing to do with TNT fulfilling there obligations to their advertisers and doing their jobs.

If you're hired to run a website- you should run a website- you don't see Yahoo going down everyday, when they do go down its for "scheduled maintanence" that they warn you about well in advance- perhaps that is a solution Neo should look into, I know I would be pleased to put up with a 2 hour block once a week in exchange for a less glitchy site.

All that said, I have to agree with the gist of this thread that TNT has a big job, and overall they're doing a pretty good job. I just don't think they should get a free ride because the money they're making doesn't come directly from my wallet.

Now, that, gabriellaeve, was nicely spoken.

Pink Poogle Toy Forum

Something for everyone to think about....

Who is online