The Daily Neopets
TheDailyNeopets is a fan site of Neopets which began in late 2005. Formerly a subsidary of PinkPT, the owner and administrator of TDN (TheDailyNeopets), Tipem, had previously ran a commentary for PPT. After a month of hard work tending to the commentary, Yukio purchased TheDailyNeopets.com for Tipem. As PinkPT did not post unreleased Neopets news at the time, TheDailyNeopets' main purpose was to do so. Over the coming year, TDN has blossomed into a fully independent fan site, with its servers based in the loungeroom of its Administrator, Tipem, in Ohio, USA.
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.
As PinkPT continued to support TheDailyNeopets through yet another facelift, not much more pleasing to the eye as the previous one. The lack of information still remained, however. That was until Tipem (The owner of TheDailyNeopets) got the idea "TDNSUW", which stood for "The Daily Neopets Super Update Week". This entailed adding various pages of guides and graphics and lifted TheDailyNeopets into better territory.
After the 'TDNSUW', TheDailyNeopets had many more visitors, but now lacked helpful navigation. This was remedied in version 3 of the site where an eye-catching layout was made along with improved page navigation and overall well-being of the site. More members were added to the staff to write more guides for TheDailyNeopets.
At the end of January, 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 Tipem through the survey a couple of months previous.
V4 lasted a good while before TDN went to v5 (why? Sources say boredom was the cause). V5 came out in late July of 2006, and, even with a bumpy start, has a good chance of catching on quickly. The Hissi in the corner is gone from the banner now and moved to that of the forums, but Jerry, as he always shall, remains.
Features
TheDailyNeopets boasts features other fansites 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. Unfortunely, the editorial was canceled, to the dissapointment 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 recieved equal prestige.
Staff
TheDailyNeopets employs an active group as members of staff. Currently, there are seven staff members, with one spot assigned to the Administrator (Tipem); one spot assigned to a News Poster (Jasper); four spots assigned to Content Writers (Samuel, Animetriplicate, Eric, The Big Cheese); and no one in the graphics area at the moment. There are two forum moderators (Mikey, Matt), and two staff members in charge of the Avatar Lending Program (Eric, Matt)
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 upmost secrecy; the threat of disqualification used in deterrence. After working at differnt 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 recieve a prize. First place recieved 60K, second place recieved 40K and third place recieved 20K. Everyone who entered was rewarded for their efforts.