This installment of the Neopian Guild to Better Living will encompass what I
feel is probably the most essential part of playing on NeoPets--etiquette. Etiquette
is, in short, manners, politeness, a way of conducting yourself as to not make
other people's time less enjoyable. Very few Neopians have it, mostly because
they are young, I assume, but that doesn't mean you can't learn how to be considerate
and make Neopia a better place for all of us.
NeoPets is a community, like it or not, but many people treat it like a game
in which they are the only player and can act with utter impunity. I am here
to disagree with that and say, "Hey, think about someone else for a change!"
It's easiest to break areas of improvement into categories and list some common
offences, so let's begin!
Shops
This is probably the area that needs the biggest improvement, we've all been
on some kind of timed quest when we go into someone's shop that, for various
reasons, crashes our browser, or worse yet, our computer. I've had shops that
have frozen my computer and some that have taken over 5 minutes to load (I have
a cable connection so that's a big shop). Here are some basic pointers.
- Galleries are fine, don't sell stuff in them. If you have 500 items for
display and 50 for sale you are seriously slowing some people down. Any full
shop over Size 20 is starting to annoy someone. NeoPets allows gallery accounts
as separate from shops, get one.
- Midis, flashing background, huge backgrounds, that horrid Space Counter,
and hundreds of dolls are not appropriate under any circumstances. They severely
slow come computers and if someone is unfortunate enough to be working at the
public computer (school, library, café, etc.) they will probably be thrown off
entirely. If you love all the dolls that much, fell free to rotate them, one
or two a week. We have all heard a song by so and so, we don't need to hear
one every time we go shopping. Also, and perhaps more importantly, it consumes
NeoPets bandwidth, that means that site runs slower. I named the Space Counter
specifically because I always know when a shop has it because it will take at
least 30 extra seconds to load, even if there are no items in it. Stop the madness!
- Look at the shop front after you edit it, that way it won't be chalked full
of broken images and all the items won't be a link somewhere, it's just a nice
thing to do.
- Don't steal other people's graphics or backgrounds, it's so amazingly rude.
I'm embarrassed that I even have to mention it. I made some fake faerie plushies
with my roommate a while back for guild members to use as links to the guild.
I saw them in shops that didn't give me credit and eventually I saw them in
the Beauty Contest, I was outraged and there was nothing I could do. There was
one user in particular (whose name I won't mention) who was using my graphics
and I kept asking him not to, he was directly linking to my server so I took
the graphics off lock stock and barrel.
- Don't price something low and then freak out when you see the person who
bought it selling it. We've all sold things way too cheap and we've all bought
things way too cheap, let it go. Which brings me to…
Neomail
This little feature of NeoPets has the unique feature of being one of the most
useful and the most annoying, here are a few tips on how to make it better on
all of us.
- This relates to what I just said, if you sell something too cheap accidentally--live
with it, and don't Neomail people harassing them, threatening to freeze them
unless you get your item back. Move on. In the same regard, if you get something
cheap feel free to share the good news, but don't tell your whole guild what
an idiot someone was for pricing it so low, it's just rude.
- This next one also relates to what I wrote about shops, if someone has a
gallery full of items priced at or over 100,000 NP, don't Neomail asking them
to lower their prices or saying they are mean for having things so expensive,
I've gotten at least one of these Neomails a month and I always have to kindly
explain to people what a gallery is. Don't take it upon yourself to help people
sell items, their reply probably won't be as nice as mine.
- Don't Neomail people asking for free items, I can't stress this enough!
About two weeks ago I got three Neomails over three days from a girl who was
asking me for a Faerie Paint Brush. She didn't seem to care that I didn't have
one and I had no idea how she got the thought into her head that I did. Let's
just say it got old fast.
- Grammar! You have it, don't be afraid to use it. Before you send something
out just glance over it, are there more words spelled wrong than there are words
that are spelled right? If people are asking for advice I usually respond if
their sentences are clear and well phrased, if they aren't I don't bother. Same
goes for appointing council positions in my guild, if you can't handle typing
you probably can't handle the responsibilities of being a council member. Same
goes for typing in all capitals or with every other letter capitalised, contrary
to popular opinion it does not look cool.
Guilds
Despite what you may think Guilds are not a place to load up on freebies before
abandoning.
- Don't join a guild just to get free items, guilds aren't technically allowed
to give out free items as a reward for joining, so even if you are promised
them don't expect them.
- Be active. You won't have much fun if you aren't, and that doesn't just
mean donating, you can post on the message board or help find shops for Faerie
Quests if you are low on NP.
- For those of you who founded a guild, the standards for shops apply. If
your guild is gaudy, people won't like it, unless that's the theme. Also, and
this is something you probably wouldn't have thought of, don't use scrolling
text on the front page or post it on the message board. Why? For some people
(myself included) scrolling text on a page means that certain people can't click
on any links on that page. I've tossed people out of my guild for doing it,
so be considerate of people who is disables and live without scrolling text.
- Don't beg for items on the message board, if you need help offer to trade
or ask if you can buy something for cheap, but don't beg.
- Don't join a guild just to advertise for another guild and then leave, it's
rude and it will get deleted quickly. When I changed my guild from Plushies
to Adoptions about 12 members decided that they wanted to carry the torch and
advertised for other guilds that they were founding.
Trading Post
Rude people seem to flock to the Trading Post in record numbers where they are
met by even more people ready to befriend them. Get ready for a few pointers.
- Don't put up lots of unbuyables and say things like, "The first bid over
5 NP gets it!" You know it's a lie and you know it bugs you when people bid
6 NP on it. It would be nice of you not to get their hopes up. Also, if it's
not for sale don't just write "none," people usually think that means you are
open for anything.
- In the same vein don't use the Trading Post as a gallery, when someone searches
for something they get the 10 most recent listings, if 5 of those are for display
only it makes trading unnecessarily hard. If you have to show off something
put it in a gallery. I actually Neomailed a few people about this and almost
no one responded, those who did were very rude, but maybe someone will read
this and take down their for display only lot, making it totally worth it.
- Don't scam on the message board saying that you are giving away accounts,
if I see you, I will report you, scamming people is bad but getting their hopes
up is way worse. Same goes for saying that items will do things they just won't.
- If you are putting an item up that people can haggle over or a large lot
that could be separated (i.e. 10 unbuyables) do us all a favour and take the
Neofriend/Neomail blocks off your account.
- Lastly, don't bid 10 NP and a Yellow Snowball on a Hasee, if you know what
I mean. I for one don't like it when I see that I have a bid (Yay!) and it's
bad (Boo!). Also, it's probably bad idea to write things like, "Bad offers will
rot," it scares people away and makes you look like a mean person.
Thanks for reading my article, if you didn't like it please don't take it
upon yourself to barrage me with disapproving Neomails. And remember: NeoPets
is a community, it's not just about you, so be considerate of your fellow Neopians. | 
