Frozen
|
This page is under construction |
|---|---|
| More complete article to write (explanation of "Frozen" and "freezing", how and why it happens, how it has effected the user community). |
The term Frozen on Neopets refers to a blocked/banned/suspended/disabled user account which has broken the rules. Accounts which are frozen can no longer be accessed by the user, and all items, Neopoints and Neopets in the account no longer exist in Neopia.
Overview
Users are frozen for serious infractions of the Neopets Terms and Conditions. Being frozen is usually permanent, although it is possible to petition The Neopets Team and convince them to un-freeze an account. Unfreezing is very rare, due to site moderators usually freezing users for a good reason. A frozen account will display this message on their User Lookup:
This account has been disabled.
Once the account is frozen, the user name and names of Neopets will stay logged into the database, preventing a user or Neopet from having those names. This stops the previous owner of the account from starting over or other users from potentially pretending to be that user.
Because of the several meanings of the word "frozen", slang for being frozen has been created over the years. It is often referred to as being iced, sometimes with references to Iceland. Someone who is reporting another user for wrongdoing on the NeoBoards may say "have fun in Iceland" as an example.
Warnings and Suspensions
In cases of more minor infractions, a player may receive a warning or a suspension instead of having their accounts frozen.
An official warning from the Neopets Team will have a red exclamation mark in the event log, and it is a neomail from the Neopets Team with the message of telling the player what have they done wrong. Although a warning itself does not have any immediate effects to the player's account, the Neopets staff keeps track of the amount of warnings the user has received and the causes of the warnings, and being warned multiple times for violating the rules repeatedly could lead to the account being ultimately frozen.
In a suspension, a player's account may be suspended or temporarily disabled, which often serves as a warning to a user. A suspended account works the same as a frozen account, in that it cannot be accessed by the user (the main page and a few other pages can still be viewed, though). Unlike a freezing, a suspension will wear off after a certain period of time (acting as a temporary freeze). According to the terms and conditions, an account can be suspended for up to 72 hours; however, some users have been suspended longer, sometimes reaching over 100 hours. After the suspension wears off, the user has to confirm that he understands why he was suspended and has re-read the rules so that he won't do it again. After being given a suspension, it's possible to be frozen much more easily, due to a warning already being given to the user.
Reasons for freezing
A user is capable of being frozen for many different things on Neopets, all of which stem from infractions against the rules set in the term and conditions. The most serious infractions include...
- Abusing multiple accounts in order to earn a profit.
- Plagiarism, which includes stealing another's artwork, story, or even HTML/CSS coding.
- Accessing another's user account for any reason.
- Usage of profanity in username, pets, boards, and/or user lookups.
- Repeated spamming in the boards or sending chain mail.
- Harassment of a user or users.
- Scamming users.
- Falling for a scam. Accounts are usually returned after a scam pandemic is over, if there is one and the user is involved.
- Using cheat programs. According to the Terms and Conditions, one may have to pay a fine for using one.
Controversy
Many users have complained it is too easy to be frozen, and that freezing often occurs unfairly. However this was later changed when account suspensions were introduced in November 2004. However, with the introduction of account silencing in September 2010, both of the previous methods of punishment have been used more leniently.
Trivia
- Questions of how and why a user can be frozen are one of the most popular topics in the Neopian Times editorial.