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Questiquette


by mamasimios

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A Guide to Quest Board Etiquette

So, there you are, happily strolling through Neopia doing your Dailies, playing some games, chatting with your neofriends, when up pops one of the beautiful Neopian Faeries. Suddenly you notice,

You are currently on a quest!

The Earth Faerie says, ‘I can’t remember where I left my Steam Jug, I am sure it’s around here somewhere.’

Now, you have two choices: You can either refuse to do the quest, incurring the wrath of the Faerie Queen who will admonish you, ‘No more quests for you for 599 seconds!’ or you can satisfy the demands of chivalry and aid a lady in her quest. So, where is that Steam Jug?

You scamper off to your friend the Shop Wizard, enter “Steam Jug” and press the handy-dandy Search button. But- oh no- the Air Faerie pops up and says ‘No! That’s cheating! You are on a Faerie Quest and are not allowed to use the Shop Wizard! :)’ You didn’t know it was cheating! So, where to find the Earth Faerie’s Steam Jug? Perhaps you know that this item restocks in Kauvara’s Magic Shop and you pay her a visit. There is a chance that the item isn’t stocked at that time, or perhaps you can buy the item once there, but are not certain that her retail price is the best deal you can get. Hovering between uncertainty and despair, crippled by the loss of the use of the Shop Wizard, you cry into the Neopian darkness, “Is there no one who could help me with my quest?” And as surely as the sun will rise on Coltzan’s Shrine, an answer is returned to you, “Yes, gentle friend. Help is waiting for you on the Quest Chat Board.”

Simply select “Quests” from the Neoboard Index and help is just a click away. After all, the kind folks in here are willing to lend a hand! At this point, I would like to refer you back to the title of this article, “Questiquette”, for we have now come to its raison d’etre. I have noticed that there are many fine Neopians who use lovely manners while requesting help on the Quest Board, but sadly, there are those whose manners would make Dr Sloth blush! I hope that the pointers I have compiled here might improve this situation. To simplify, I will refer to the people on a quest as “Questers” and the people who are kind enough to perform the searches as “Doglefox Dogooders”. No, wait, that is too cumbersome; I will just refer to them as the “Searchers”.

First of all, the Searchers are free to help (or ignore) anyone they choose. Just think, would you rather do a search for someone who says, “Could someone do a search for a Steam Jug for me please” or would you be more tempted by someone who posts, “I need Steam Jug!!! Quick I am in a hurry!!11!!1” ? Just like anywhere else in Neopia, please and thank you are indeed the magic words. Personally, I prefer it when the Quester doesn’t just copy and paste the entire Faerie request. It is easier for me if the item is posted on a line by itself, without the surrounding quotation marks or other punctuation, so I can quickly copy it for the Shop Wiz search box. When I am asking for help, I would post like so:

Steam Jug

Please and thank you.

When you ask nicely, the Searcher will post a few options for you, often in this format:

Steam Jug

fictionalusername1 1 450 NP

fictionalusername2 1 500 NP

tntroxmywussypiratesox 1 510 NP

You are now able to look up your choice of user name, enter their shop, buy the item, bring it to your Faerie friend, and receive a reward. It is then polite to post again on the board to acknowledge that you have completed the quest and thank the person who helped you. Many choose to simply post “Thanks for the lookup!” while others may choose to copy and paste the message from the Faerie, like so:

The Earth Faerie says ‘Wow, thanks, you found my Steam Jug!’

The Earth Faerie makes (insert the awesome name of your fabulous pet here) full up with food, and restores all lost hit points!

Click here to continue.

Thanks for the lookup!

Notice how a thank you is always included? That gratitude is all that anyone helping you is hoping for, which brings me to my next point.

NEVER create a thread like “Reward offered for lookup”. Offering rewards to users for performing a search for you is against the Terms and Conditions of Neopets, as is demanding a reward while offering to do searches for others. Smart users will steer clear of both types of threads. On the other hand, if you are really happy with the service someone has given you and you are bursting with gratitude, there is no rule against sending an item to the Searcher where no reward has been promised or demanded. Personally, I prefer to avoid this grey area by having my Site Preferences set to “Only Neofriends Can Give You Items”. For me, the thank you is enough, but this leads me to another point.

You may notice that some of the Searchers have a link in their signature line to either the Beauty Contest or other competition in which you could vote for them. It would not be appropriate for the Searcher to say “I will help you only if you vote for me”, but it is entirely appropriate for you to decide to do so on your own. When you think about it, following such a link will take up about as much of your time as the item search you are asking for has taken up of the other person’s time. A little quiggle pro quo sounds fair to me. Of course, if you follow the link and are unimpressed by the entry, you are under no obligation to place a vote- feel free to even vote for someone else while you’re there.

When doing a search for someone, if the item is valued very low (as many grooming items are), I may choose to simply buy the item and send it on to the Quester. I am, of course, under no obligation to do this, and would not do it for someone who makes a thread like this actual post:

I need a One Dubloon Coin. The Faerie Queen told me to get her a One Dubloon Coin! Pls help me. Send me a One Dubloon Coin if you wanna help me! Thks!

The “Pls” and “Thks” do not save this from being an incredibly rude request, and you would, no doubt, not be surprised to learn that this thread had no response at all.

When you first enter the Quest Board, you will notice that there are a number of threads which are started by the Searchers, with titles such as “Fast Free Quest Help Here”. You will also notice that many Questers start their own threads. It is acceptable for you to choose to either post on a Searcher’s thread or to start your own. What is unacceptable, because it wastes the Searchers’ time, is to start your own thread, and then post your request on as many threads as you can to try and get your search done more quickly. Sometimes, you can be unlucky and post on a thread that doesn’t have a Searcher on it anymore, and bumping the board may not bring you any help, so move on to another thread or start your own. But please please please, with Cherry-tastic Faerie Pie on top, do not spam all the threads and switch between them waiting for your item to come up. Also, if you are in a line of requests on a Searcher’s thread, do not get impatient and post things like, “Hey! Don’t forget me! Where is that Steam Jug?” Impatience while someone is doing you a favour is very rude.

And finally, please do return the favour when you have the time. The Quest Board only works when there are Searchers willing to help out the Questers, and hopefully you will now be prepared to fulfill either role. Remember that it all comes down to basic manners, so go out there and make me proud. Happy Questing!

 
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