Neoboards
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The Neoboards, or just the boards (Originally the NeoBoards), are a collection of chat boards in which users can post messages on and socially interact with other players.
The boards are monitored 24/7 by a band of dedicated staff members making sure users follow and comply to the rules. Even with this in mind, users still often use it to act out and misbehave, often resulting in their account being punished by freezing or silencing. The majority of users, however, who choose to post on the Neoboards generally behave, with only a handful posting with the intent of causing trouble.
Complying to COPPA laws, the boards are viewable by user who are ages 7 and older, and only poastable on by users who are ages 13 and up, with exceptions being made for users whose parents decide to send in a parental form by fax or mail.
The boards are often where discussions for site events and features are held, with a large variety of sub-sections conforming to pre-detained topics. Occasionally, a staff member will appear on the boards, sometimes giving news, hints, or randomness regarding the world of Neopia and it's current events.
History
The Neoboards have existed pretty much since Neopets.com opened, receiving very little updates to it's basic functions.
Through the years, it would host a large variety board sections, ranging from annual events, to site features, to plots. Some boards would see themselves make permanent additions, while others would come and go annually.
Updates
The only major update the Neoboards received so far was in 2007, to coincide with the update of the entire site. This update lengthened the number of possible pages within one board; as where boards before could only contain 10 pages with 50 posts per each, this limit was changed to 25 pages with 20 posts per page.
This update also made minor tweaks to it's physical appearance, which made topics look much slimmer and less "big" at the top.
Future Updates
In editorial #302 published in the Neopian Times, The Neopets Team said they were working on a feature which would allow the pet paired with your Neoboard post to be different than the one presently set as your active Pet, in order to "...use (y)our best Neopet as (y)our active Neopet while posting.", because your active Pet is at risk of being effected by a bad Random Event.
This update has yet to occur.
A common request among users would also be the addition of several features that modern forums do such as post counts, hashtags, 'pinging' and subscribing. However, requests to do so have been turned down by The Neopets Team for several reason.[citation needed]
Board Listing
Due to the number of board sections seen through the years, this section has been split into multiple sections, only with boards of significance acquiring their own article.
Active Boards
- Main article: Neoboards/Active Boards
Active Boards, in this sense, are boards in which every user can view (Given they're ages 7+) and post on (Given they've met the requirements to do so), often permanent additions to the board listing.
Restricted Access Boards
Restricted access Boards are boards which require special permissions and/or requirements to be met in order to view/post on.
Annual Event Boards
Annual Event Boards often tend to appear yearly to coincide with a certain site event. They vary from purpose to name each year, occasionally sporting a new image symbolically representing the section.
Retired Boards
- Main article: Neoboards/Retired Boards
Retired Boards are board sections which have been removed from the site, usually paired with a once-only event, or the section was deemed un needed and was removed.
Boards of Undetermined Status
Boards of Undetermined Status are boards which don't exactly comply the above categories, presently on a suspected hiatus or not paired with the current board listings.
Filters
Several word filters exist in order to prevent users from expressing profanity or violation the Terms & Agreements. In the case of "naughty talk", it will usually notify a moderator or take action itself.
Though the filter are often used to protect users, they've also been used coincide with several site events, holidays or miscellaneous others:
- For "International talk like a Pirate Day", the following filter(s) are utilized: Neoboards/Pirate Filters
- For the premiere of Twilight: New Moon, the following filter(s) were applied: Neoboards/Twilight Filters
- For April Fools 2010, the following filter(s) were applied: April Fools 2010#Neoboard Filters
In addition to these, specific words are filtered on a daily basis by the system, regardless of the day. It is recommended that you do not attempt to use them:
- Posting '5514344', the Phone number for the Ghostbusters, causes 'Ghostbusters!' to appear in it's place
- If the phrase 'this is not a scam' is posted, it is replaced automatically by 'This is a scam! Report me!'.
- Posting the phrase 'bikini' causes it to be replaced with 'cardigan'.
- If certain phrases associated with HTML or CSS coding are posted, such as background-image, it becomes 'I have the intelligence of a roof shingle.'
Glitches
Given the date the software for the Neoboards was assumingly constructed, it is subject to numerous unfortunate glitches and errors, most of which mess the appearance of the user's post.
In-Post font adjustments
This glitch occurs whenever a user attempts to use the Bold, Italics, "Quote", Underline, sup or sub tags within their post.
This causes the font settings in the NeoHTML to disappear, often leaving the post un centered and un stylized.
The cause for this issue lies within the use of an tag itself; the '[' and ']' brackets within said tags will interrupt the the layout established in the NeoHTML, causing it to end early then it should.
Unfortunately, after existing for many years, this issue has yet to even be addressed.
Missing Pages
This error occurs when a moderator deletes the post(s) of a user with a thread. This causing the board to not display the next page immediately when it should.
The cause lies within the software. When the post is deleted, rather than registering it's absence in the post count, it continues to exist, stating that the thread presently has more posts than it really does.
However, despite thinking it has more posts than it does, it does not post extra pages on the page navigation section to reflect this. Rather, the navigation looks at the actual number of posts on the thread. So while the thread registers that another page should be added, the navigation doesn't, therefore creating a non-listed page.
The only solution is the manually find the URL of the next page yourself, make enough posts for the navigation to register that a new page has been created. Unfortunately, once this happens to a board, it will not correct itself until exactly one week later from when the user who made the deleted posts posted.
-blocked-
On occasion, a user's post will replaced with an un centered, un stylized message simply reading "-blocked-".
While the exact reason for this remains unknown, it's often theorized to be a precursor to the filter software omitting anything 'bad' on the Neoboards.
This glitch, unfortunately, can occur for a wide variety of reasons. Often using combinations of words such as "yale" and rather un common names will cause this to happen.
Blank Messages
Blank Messages are an instance in which a user's post appears to be entirely blank, or at least half finished by the time of posting.
There are two causes for this, one being accidental and one being purposeful, with the purposeful one being a freezable offense:
- The first cause is usually due to a bad connection. Sometimes the connection between your computer and the site will be interupted, and as such, only a portion of the message will be posted. This occurs very rarely.
- The second caused is when a user puts two square "[" and "]" brackets around their post or board title, causing their post not show up at all. This is usually a freezable offense, and any found doing so will likely be frozen.