The Daily Neopets

TheDailyNeopets' home page as of June, 2006.

TheDailyNeopets, or TDN, is a Neopets fan site which began in late 2005. Formerly a subsidiary of PinkPT, for which the owner and administrator of TDN, Ian, had previously run a commentary, it was bought its own domain name by Yukio. As PinkPT did not post unreleased Neopets news at the time, TheDailyNeopets' main purpose was to do so. Over the coming year, TDN blossomed into a fully independent fan site, with its servers formerly based in the lounge room of its Administrator, Tipem, in Ohio, USA. Now, however, it is hosted on external servers to compensate for disruptions.

History

TheDailyNeopets was a branch off of PinkPT, with very little content and viewers of similar numbers. Its original layout consisted of sky-blue colour and a sponge Blumaroo.

PinkPT continued to support TheDailyNeopets through a facelift, which was not much more pleasing to the eye as the previous one, and new guides and graphics were added as part of TDNSUW, or The Daily Neopets' Super Update Week. This endeavour helped boost TDN's popularity TheDailyNeopets.

Despite helping to bring more visitors to the site, the super update week complicated the site's navigation: this was remedied in version 3 of the site, which brought along with improved page navigation an eye-catching layout and an overall more study, functional site. More members were added to the staff in order to write more guides.

At the end of January 2006, TheDailyNeopets ran a survey to ask the viewers of the site what they wanted to see. They received a very high amount of replies in a very short amount of time, but got lots of new ideas for version 4, which was released on the 11th of March 2006. It was an instant hit with all of the viewers, as it included almost all of their suggestions sent to Ian through the survey.

Version 5 was introduced in late July 2006, and, even with a bumpy start, had a good chance of catching on quickly. This version introduced a new banner, moving TDN's Hissi mascot to the forums but preserving Jerry the red Pteri.

Features

TheDailyNeopets boasts features other fan sites may not offer. Along with offering graphics, the latest unreleased Neopets news and dailies list, it had its own Editorial so that regular Neopians that cannot get their question answered officially can receive a helpful reply. Unfortunately, the editorial was cancelled, to the disappointment of many users. TheDailyNeopets is also one of the few Neopets fan sites to offer a complete, step-by-step Altador Plot guide with many readers. An Avatar Lending Account was set up to reward its readers with aid to get the most sought after avatars for use on the Neoboards. With a first attempt at this proving unsuccessful, two loyal members of the sites forum offered to revive the service. The "Where's Jerry?" plot (See below) was a big hit, and TDN first plot. The second plot was titled "The Scattering of the Stars" and received equal prestige. Recently, TDN has added several new features including their new Y2 layout and Neopets Redraws where users can now see all of the redrawn pets in an easy to view format, on a page that doesn't take a long time to load.

Staff

TheDailyNeopets employs an active group as members of staff. Currently, there are nine staff members, with one spot assigned to the Administrator (Ian); six spots assigned to Content Writers (Samuel [Head of Content], Animetriplicate, Eric, The Big Cheese, Superfly, Xepha). There are two forum moderators (Mikey, Matt), and two staff members in charge of the Avatar Lending Program (Eric, Matt) See link below for more information on the staff.

Where's Jerry?

On June 1, 2006, TheDailyNeopets began an on-site plot to find Jerry, the red Pteri, their mascot. Set up by Samuel, a member of staff, the plot involved various puzzles and was quite challenging. At the start of the plot, Bob the Detective Wocky was introduced, as the crime-fighting guru. The solutions of the plot were held in topmost secrecy; the threat of disqualification used in deterrence. After working at different clues all around the site for two weeks, the final part was released and everyone rushed to finish. After the prizes were awarded, Jerry was returned to the banner safe and sound, and the Jerry-napper, Commander Garoo, was apprehended.

Space Faerie Plot: The Scattering of the Stars

Soon after the release of TheDailyNeopets fifth incarnation, a plot was released to find the hidden stars the Space Faerie had lost around the site. She crashed into the site while falling through a vortex and losing all of her stars. Complaining that her power was failing, the person had to locate a star and solve the puzzle to retrieve a code. Speaking to the Space Faerie would reveal a clue as to where a star could be found. Numerous red herrings were thrown into this plot, therefore changing a rather simple task to one more perplexing. The player then had a set time to send in their codes to receive a prize. First place received 60K, second place received 40K and third place received 20K. Everyone who entered was rewarded for their efforts.

The Search For Ian

On Halloween, TDN staff gave hints that their Administrator, Ian, had gone missing. The next day, a website was set up specially for the plot to take place. The person undertaking the plot had the chance to use a TDN-only version of the Haunted Woods to follow clues and, along with interviews from the staff members, find out where the owner of the site had gone.

External Links

• TheDailyNeopets
• TheDailyNeopets Forums
• TheDailyNeopets Staff Page