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 first appeared early in Neopets's life as a site feature called NeoChat, operating very much like the boards do today.
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.
NeoChat
NeoChat was the precursor the Neoboards, establishing many of it's features and abilities. Several board sections were established here, including the Help Chat and infamous General Chat, several of whom would be carried over to the Neoboards .The Neopets Team used to take volunteer moderators from their users to monitor NeoChat, but this idea was later phased out when the Neoboards appeared, and payed moderators were hired instead.
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]
Features
Smilies
- Main article: Neoboard Smilies
The Neoboards allow users to utilize various smiles in their post, using special codes such as *clap* to appear as 
in the user's post.
BBCode
Users are allowed to modify the appearance of their posts using a limited version of BBCode, with effects such Bolding' and Italics.
NeoHTML & NeoSignature
NeoHTML is a term used for the layout and header of a post; controlling the appearance of the post. NeoSignature is a term used for the layout at the bottom of the post, often ending the BBCode started in the NeoHTML.
Despite the use of the term "HTML" in "NeoHTML, users are only allowed to use BBCode to modify their posts, not HTML or CSS.
Avatars
- Main article: Avatar
Various 'Avatars collected around the site can be used on the Noeboards to represent you when posting. Users often theme their NeoHTML and NeoSignatures after these to keep their post uniform.
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.
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.
Annual Event Boards
- Main article: Neoboards/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.
See Neoboards/Annual Event Boards
Restricted Access Boards
Restricted access Boards are boards which require special permissions and/or requirements to be met in order to view/post on.
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| A board for Battledome v2 Beta testers, only viewable by those chosen to beta test.
Official Description:
Share your feedback, post bugs, ask questions, find other testers for 2-player battles... you name it. This board is only for closed beta testers! |
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The Official Neopets Team Message Board
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| This is a board where The Neopets Team can post updates and news regarding site glitches, downtime, or events. As such, only staff members can post here.
Official Description:
This board is where the Neopets Team will post updates about Meepit attacks, technical problems, event issues, and any other announcements we want to make, because we can. :P |
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Prev: [Charter Members]
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A general chat board only usable by users who have been Premium members for 1-2 months. Official Description: |
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An NC Mall chat board only usable by users who have been Premium members for 1-2 months.
Official Description:
Hats, dresses, trousers, wigs, cookies, OH MY! Discuss NC Mall-related topics with NC Mall-related fellows here. |
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A Trading/Auctions chat board only usable by users who have been Premium members for 1-2 months.
Official Description:
For Premium members who fear the main trading/auction board... we don't blame you. |
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A help board for Premium members.
Official Description:
If you need help or are a new Premium Member with questions, this is your board! |
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A primarily general chat board Premium members. Official Description: |
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A Games/Spotlights board for Premium members.
Official Description:
Get some input on your gallery spotlight entry or get help on that tough game avatar. Your spotlight and game banter goes here. |
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.
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| Jelly World? What's Jelly World? Ah, it must be... -choke-
Official Description:
Jelly World? That's just a myth. It doesn't exist. Off-topic boards are considered spam and WILL be deleted. Stick to the topic, please. |
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Style Showdown | ||
| A board that used to be associated with the now non-recurring Style Showdown.
Note -This board is currently set in this section due to several statements by TNT stating they'd bring the event back. This board is also in past Annual Event Boards.
Official Description:
Unkown |
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[Neovian Spooky Food Eating Contest]
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| Board for the Spooky Food Eating Contest. Rumoured to return based on image URL and Tippens' comment.
Official Description:
The Spooky Shindig Society put on their first annual spooky food eating contest! It... didn't go so well. Discuss it here with your fellow Neovian tourists! |
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 filters are often used to protect users, they've also been used utilized by the staff in order to execute pranks, engage in theme days, and various others. For example, posting '5514344', the Phone number for the Ghostbusters, causes 'Ghostbusters!' to appear in it's place.
So far, there have been three board-wide filters taking place on specific days,one annual and two once-only events:
- 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:
- 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 interrupted, 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.