User Lookup Mania

It certainly does seem to be with all the hype about lookup style. Many Neopians spend hours, if not days working on updating their user lookups to make them unique and beautiful so that other Neopet members can have fun learning more about them.

On the boards and in guilds there are constant posts titled, “Rate my lookup!” or “Harsh Lookup Rater!” And with this people on the boards flock to these posts for their lookups to be rated. Even the Neopets staff has created a contest for the best user lookup!

Now, if you are one of those hundreds that wish to have an outstanding user lookup, there are some very helpful places that you can go for tips and/or pre-made lookups. There are many useful fan sites you can find by searching the web or the HTML help page that the Neopets staff has given us. Those sites have a large variety of backgrounds, shields, HTML codes, and many other things that will help you design your lookup to your liking and the enjoyment of others viewing it.

Some fun things to add to your lookups that will make them more interesting are counters, pictures, and well-sized blogs that will fit your information perfectly:

1. Counters give people a good idea of how popular you are depending on how many people have viewed your lookup. A great place to go to design your own counter is boingdragon.com. Here you can custom design your own counter with different styles, colors, and even chose a starter number for your counter!

2. Pictures can show people what your interests are if you don’t feel like adding a whole lot of text to your lookup, because as you probably know, it is sometimes hard to think of something informative and interesting to write. So by simply adding a picture people can figure out many things about you such as what you enjoy, what kind of art you like and so on.

3. Blogs are another great way of keeping your text in a confined space so your lookup doesn’t look cluttered. With a blog you can insert text into a well-sized box and keep your lookup well kept and professional looking. You should always title the sections of your blog so that you don’t just jump from one thing to the other without any thorough warning.

There are however some very bad and may I say rather annoying things to add to your user lookups. Things such as loud music, large images, and hard-to-read text are some:

1. Music can disrupt what people are doing. If someone takes a look at your user lookup and they have their head phones on, listening to their own music, and suddenly the music you have inserted into your lookup starts blasting out, it can be very disruptive and ruin the person’s concentration.

2. Large images are another issue. They take up space and cause the person viewing the page to scroll a long ways down until they reach the information. This distracts the viewer from the content that they are most likely trying to find which can be quite annoying.

3. Hard-to-read text is a big problem in lookups. It’s very annoying and tiresome when the viewer is forced to highlight all the text just so they are able to read it. Here are some tips on having your text visible, yet still beautiful:

I. If you have a dark background, use a light text color.

II. Add variety to your text, but don’t over do it.

III. The glowing text is hard to read and is not necessary to make your lookup interesting. However, some people do enjoy this and it is not as annoying as some things people add.

I recently went out on the boards to ask some Neopians what their opinions were and here are some of the responses I received:

“1. Music on user lookups=bad and annoying.

2. Putting all of your info in a box that is too small so you have to scroll sideways is also annoying...scrolling down is OK though.” --- do_the_math

“Don’t have a background that you can’t see the text against” --- mamak2002

“The colors should look good together, if the text is light make the background dark, be friendly...that's all I can think of.” --- ellarose171

“1) Interesting theme

2) Good graphics

3) Fast loading

4) Informative” --- vivjayviv

“I don’t like dark, evil ones. I like pastel ones, and it shows off your style.” --- neopiagirl49

“1. What do I look for in a user lookup?

Quick loading, pretty looking.

2. What do I like/dislike greatly in a user lookup?

HATE MUSIC! Like custom made lookups/individual ones

3. Do I think it is that important to have a specially designed lookup?

No. Depends on the person’s personal choice.” --- viggo_orli_lover

“Needs: Neatness, color, pre-made or not.

Dislike: People that ask for donations.” --- tictocchix

A warning to those that are new to neopets: You should never pay anyone with Neopoints, a Neopet, or an item to make you a lookup. The majority of the time it is a scam. However, if it is not a scam it is still not worth your money, pet, or any of your items because there are plenty of friendly people on neopets that are more than willing to make you a lookup for free out of the goodness of their hearts. Also, if you do not wish to have help from another person in making your lookup there are always many websites that have pre-made lookups and HTML help as mentioned earlier.

Well that wraps the whole thing up! What are you waiting for? Now you know what should be added into your lookup and what should be kept to make it a fun and exciting webpage that everyone will enjoy looking at. Go make your lookup “webpage perfect”!

-By funkyjunkbanana