Editorial Time!-split 2/16/09

[DamionDarkheart]

I've been asking the editorial for years for whether they dropped translating the site into irish like a molten slab of iron but they refuse to acknowledge that they ever said anything remotely similar to that.

Four times a day, every day, for six months.

It's not even like I'm demanding that it get done, I'm just asking if they still plan on doing it but don't have anyone to do it for them.

[KauKrazy]

I keep asking when they'll release the bori trans. As far as I can tell, it doesn't exist as the only mutant boris I've seen have come directly from the lab. I thought they had released it when they slowly began to release all the new items from September onwards.

I've asked it too. I think they just forgot to release it and now they don't want to admit that they made a mistake, so it still isn't released. I'm not happy about it since the Bori would complete my mutant side account and I've been waiting for months!

[ulyyf]

You have frozen many, many honest people for what you call "cheating" by having widely available browser ActiveX plug-ins that refresh screens automatically at preset time intervals. Refreshing a screen isn't cheating. It isn't a "program" that buys things or plays a game. How rottenrottenrotten of you. ~[removed]
Wow. Umm... where to begin?

First, Neopets itself is a game. It's played by visiting a series of pages in a web browser. So, technically, having someone else (whether it's an automated program or a person) refresh pages for you means that they are playing a game for you, which you agree is cheating. But let's forget that for a minute and use your other example.

What is the difference between using a program to outright buy an item, and using a program to help you click on that item and buy it before anyone else even sees it? Not much. Despite which of you actually did the final purchasing, the program is giving you an advantage no one else has, right? This is exactly what auto-refreshing programs do. If you can refresh a shop every two minutes using a program, that greatly increases your chances of getting an item. It's more precise than a human, and you can be off making Neopoints at Scarab 21 in another window while waiting for the shop to refresh. How is that fair? The same can be said about refreshing for avatars or Random Events, too. You are not doing the refreshing, so how can you say that you are the one earning the rewards?

So basically, none of those people were "honest," despite what you (or they) claim. They broke the rules and were frozen for it. Everyone should start on equal footing on Neopets, and while we have no control over connection speed, we do have control over whether or not we allow third-party programs. How well you do on the site should be determined by skill (and a bit of luck, of course) and not by how well you can download programs and install them on your computer.

By the way, a program being "widely available" does not make it okay to use. There are lots of things in the real world that are the same way.

THANK you! Not everybody is able to download or use autorefreshers - or even knows they exist. So it's not very "widely available" to them, is it?

Though you know, sooner or later somebody's going to come up with an autorefresher that refreshes at somewhat random intervals, and at a pace that humans could easily mimic. And then all heck will break loose.

My Neopet has Neomonia. The cure is medicinal soap, which costs approximately 2,200 NP. The Pharmacy never has this soap stocked. I have around 600 NP. I tried using the Shop Wizard, but the prices are too high for me. They are around 17,000 NP. I am trying to earn Neopoints, but the Pharmacy never restocks. Will my Neopet die if it doesn't get its cure in time? ~funfunfun101
Aww, no. Your Neopet will never die, so don't worry! We see you've already discovered the Healing Springs as your Mynci has 23/3 hit points, so keep going there. Eventually that kind faerie will cure your Neopet's disease.

To which I want to ask - how hard is it to earn 1200 np? Even if all you do is play Potato Counter, BADLY, you should still have enough in a week or so.

Hi, TNT. Can you tell me why you lowered the maximum we can charge in a shop from 250,000 to 99,999? I would really appreciate it! Thanks! ~ wheels18035135
Actually, items could never be sold for more than 99,999 NP. Anything priced at 100,000-250,000 NP was considered a "gallery" item, and could not be bought from the shop. Now that there are separate galleries, there is no need for the 100,000 NP+ pricing, so you may not price anything higher than 99,999 NP in your shop anymore.

Weren't they going to consider changing the shop price limit at one point? That'd be a good idea.

HI TNT! If someone buys something from my shop, then puts it in their shop for a jacked up price, is that okay? Should I report them? This happens to me a lot. Thanks! ~synchrogator
Yep, this is just fine, and a normal part of the Neopian economy.

It constantly amazes me the things that people think is wrong, reportable, or worth writing to the editorial over.

[Wingsrising]

Though you know, sooner or later somebody's going to come up with an autorefresher that refreshes at somewhat random intervals, and at a pace that humans could easily mimic. And then all heck will break loose.

I think they do. At least I think I came across one that refreshed at random invervals once via Google.

Obviously I didn't install it to see if it really worked.

[dandelions]

Also, if you set a group of windows to each refresh at different intervals, it would probably look random. Say you had three windows on 5, 7, and 9 seconds each, you'd get refreshes at these seconds:
5
7
9
10
14
15
18
20
which don't appear to have much of a pattern to them at all.

[Anna the Red]

I was pretty 'Whoa' about the person going 'you guys are so rotten for not letting us use these programs even though it's dictated in the rules we can't!'

They just sounded so pissy and rude.

And thinking you can report people for buying from your shop and having it be more expensive? Pfft.

[ulyyf]

Is there a reason why our interest goes *POOF* when we don't collect it each day, instead of accumulating? For example: I get 1500 NPs per day, if I skip a day I lose those Neopoints. Since I think I deserve my interest *snickers from crowd* then shouldn't I get 3000 NPs the next day? Is this some kind of subtle scheme to get you onto Neopets every day? =P ~attagirl1117
Well, the main reason is that someone could just make multiple accounts, dump a bunch of NP in them all, log back on once a year, and poof! Tons of NP for no work. It's not really fair, nor does it make the game challenging. But yes, it's also an incentive to come back every day.

Not that subtle

If you have a royal Neopet with opposite gender and image, there are two ways to go. One, you could challenge the Lab Ray scientist in the Battledome and hope his attack will shift your Neopet to the correct gender for the image. Or, you can buy another royal paint brush and repaint your Neopet to change the image. Although, there's nothing wrong with leaving it as is, either.

Okay, this? Is the coolest thing I have ever read in my life. Did I know about this before? Should I have? Because it's really pretty cool.

Dear TNT, many people neomail me saying, "The lab ray makes Neopets disappear," or "The lab ray makes Neopet's eyes turn red." They claim they have proof from the Neopian Times. I just was wondering, is this true? Thanks, LOL. ~cosmogirlz
Hahaha, what? Interesting. We can assure you the Lab Ray does neither of those. It can only take away or give levels, raise stats, change your Neopets' gender, or alter their colour. The Petpet Lab Ray can make your Petpet go poof, though. Maybe that's what they were referring to?

Now, here's the question I want to ask - many people? Neomail her? To tell her this? WHY???? Seriously - why?

Hi TNT!!! I am sorry if this is a dumb question, but I am not sure. Due to my username, everyone is like, "OMG! I LOVE THAT BAND!" Anyway, if I set my neomail settings to "Neofriends only," can I still receive messages from TNT if an auction is successful, or if I win a contest, or something? Thanks! ~panic__atthe_disco
Yes, mail from TNT always comes through. We suggest you set your Neomail to "friends only" now. Welcome to mass exposure!

*giggles*

Something about this whole question is making me giggle. Maybe I'm just too tired?

[rebelheart]

Hasn't the royal gender question been asked and answered in the editorial just a few weeks ago? I think this show it's about damn time they compile a FAQ instead of burying answers like this in unsearchable editorials of past times issues.

[Rainbow Daydreamer]

Whilst helping my sister by buying plushies for her gallery I noticed she didn't have any of the Buzz. In doing a search for "Buzz Plushie" I could only find "special" ones such as Faerie, Mutant, Christmas, etc. Is there a reason that the Red, Yellow, Green and Rainbow ones are Toys? Many thanks! ~libmix
Oops! Heh. Some time ago, we moved all plushies to their own category, and they must have been forgotten in the transition. We've gone ahead and changed them to plushies.

It may seem a tiny issue, but I'm actually quite cross about this. I'd always seen the Buzz Dolls/Toys (it varied) as dolls, something a bit different from plushies-- an important character in my fan fiction owns one, and it's definitely not just a squishy bundle that flops over when you poke it. To my mind, they had more personality than a simple plushie, and would be more likely to be a pet's favourite toy. Now the only "dolls" I can think of offhand are Usukis and the Baby Kyrii Doll, which isn't even a proper toy (it sells in the Gift Shop).

I have been a Premium member for several years now, and I was wondering... if I create an alias account, would I be allowed to transfer everything to it and make it my main account? Or do I have to cancel my premium subscription on this account and make the subscription for the new one? ~iworshiplegolas
The latter. Things like the premium sidebar and collectable cards are non-transferable. You would need to cancel your premium account, re-subscribe on another account, and re-earn all the rewards. (Which, in the case of the collectable cards, means you would not be able to earn back many of the ones you had since they are based on how long the account has been a premium member.)

That seems... unnecessarily awkward. Surely it would just be a matter of tweaking the information on the new main account (age, type of membership, rewards) and marking the former main account as an alias? I admit I'm no techie, but if they have the means to put the rewards etc. on people's accounts in the first place, I don't see why it's a problem to adjust them with the same procedure.

[Anna the Red]

Hasn't the royal gender question been asked and answered in the editorial just a few weeks ago? I think this show it's about damn time they compile a FAQ instead of burying answers like this in unsearchable editorials of past times issues.

This would be really awesome. It would be good that if for each GOOD editorial question, it gets added to the FAQ. There would be less repeats that way, and it would be a lt easier to know about the vaguer rules and stuff.

[dandelions]

I think, RD, that it's not that they can't, but that they don't want to be inundated with requests to change. It's like how on livejournal there's nothing to stop them changing your username- it's just editing one field in a database- but if they made it free, you'd get people who'd just keep changing. It's possibly even similar logic to "you can't change main accounts too often"- if they make this too easy, people might think they're allowed to.

And the gender thing's been around for years now- Secluding's been a female royalboy since March 2005

[Kamil]

Dear TNT, many people neomail me saying, "The lab ray makes Neopets disappear," or "The lab ray makes Neopet's eyes turn red." They claim they have proof from the Neopian Times. I just was wondering, is this true? Thanks, LOL. ~cosmogirlz
Hahaha, what? Interesting. We can assure you the Lab Ray does neither of those.

Liar! Liar!





That snarked, I too wonder how many people neomail this person - and why they presume she knows/cares?

[ulyyf]

Can we have a trophy for how many Petpets the Turmaculus has eaten? *begs please please please, grovels, etc.* ~neomyotismon
Why would anyone WANT the Turmaculus to eat their poor Petpet? That's just wrong and we can't condone that type of behaviour, so sorry, no trophies for that!

Just avatars!

Is there a way to change your username? Please tell me! Please leave out my username
Sorry, there is no way to change your username. You'll have to create a new account and move your items and Neopets to the new one, but trophies and other aspects of your account cannot be transferred, alas.

I am now really, really curious.

How in the wild, wild world of sports do you pronounce "Pygui?" Great job on the lunar festival, by the way. I love Shenkuu. Can't wait to see more! ~theknighthawk
We're glad you like it! We think Shenkuu is a pretty cool place ourselves! As for the Pygui, we were discussing it (we have a lot of odd discussions in the office) and figured it was best described as sounding like "Pig-wee" but said with an English accent. And yes, we love our jobs.

Word to the wise - never, ever, EVER give anything a name you don't know how to pronounce. Especially not yourself. You end up spending the rest of your life explaining your username to everybody, and half the people don't spell it right anyway.

Not that I speak from experience or anything....

For example, she has said (and I quote) "brb gonna go on my other names and report u again." Is there anything that can be done about this?

Well, you can go on IM and mock her for her inability to spell, and apparently her complete grasp of how irony rules her life....

I was reading some old editorials, for fun, and I came across a question concerning how to change your Neopet's gender. I knew that you could do it with the Lab Ray, but I don't want to risk changing my Neopets colour or species. But then you said that there was a "special potion that could be bought at the magic shop" but you failed to mention what the name was. I'd like to look it up on the Trading Post or something, so can you tell me the name of the item? Thanks. ~epoxy
Okay, this was just so freaky we had to put it in here. The person that asked a question just before yours asked:

Are you ever going to update the old images on Neopets? There are some old ones like the ones for some pets (for Petpages), some items, and so on. And also I would like to know why the Strange Potion looks so plain? ~someoneink87

Which is just freakish because that's the exact potion you were wondering about! Imagine the odds of that one! And, since he oddly answered your question, we'll kindly answer his question:

Yes, we have been going through and updating old images. Perhaps you've seen some revamped plushies? They are quite cute. It's slow going, but we're doing what we can. As for the strange potion, it was made so long ago that no one really remembers why it's so plain.

Isn't it nice to be easily amused? Me, now, I read this sort of thing and instead of laughing "what're the odds", I want to pull out a calculator and figure out the odds. But I don't know how to do that!

So instead, I just sit here. Crying. Alone. In the dark. Cursing cruel fate that led me to read this question (two questions? I don't know!!!!)

DAMN YOU, TNT! DAMN YOU!

(It's been a long week, can you tell?)

Dear TNT, why is it that we can only scratch off 6 out of the 9 spaces on a scratchcard? ~okeefe_melinda
That's how scratchcards generally work. It's a lame answer, we know, but that's just how it is.

Yeah, but in real life, once you've scratched off your six and found out you've lost (again), you can scratch out the remaining three and see if there was any chance of winning.

I'm very disappointed on a daily basis at my inability to determine if I had a shot at those neopoints. VERY.

(Really, a LONG week.)

Would you rather be a faerie paintbrush or a Darigan plushie? Very random. ~faerie_daemon
While we cannot speak on behalf of every member of TNT, we think most of us would prefer being a Darigan plushie, though a mutant Cybunny plushie would probably be our main choice.

I like the random questions, so long as they aren't the only ones there. And I like this one. *hugs it*

[Madge]

In other news, our very own Anna got into the editorial this week with her question about the pet with the innapropriate name! Let's all give her some cheers!

P - please?

C'mon. You know you want to cheer D:

[rebelheart]

But basically they said they assume if someone has a pet with an inappropriate name they know what that name means and that it is in appropriate.
I came across a lot of names that were inappropriate, especially while checking up two-letter names last week, and I still don't know why they were inappropriate, most of them.