Caution: Quills may be sharp Circulation: 109,226,905 Issue: 218 | 2nd day of Celebrating, Y7
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Editorial


I noticed that the new battle muffins you released don't work with the old Hidden Tower muffin items. Hat of the Muffin Man doesn't make them, Apron doesn't block them, and Gloves doesn't steal them. Could you change these three (admittedly very old and very rare) items so they work with all battle muffins again? ~ aglandiir
Well spotted! The items you mention have been updated and those of you fogeys with these special items should find them working properly again.



Is there (or going to be a) commercial for The Darkest Fairie game? ~ loony43309
Actually, there are two out. :) One gives you a little preview of the game, and one brings a few Neopets characters into the real world. You can imagine our surprise when we first saw that spot. We don't exactly say nice things about Werelupes, so we were looking over our shoulders for a week or two.

After you play the fruit machine you go back to the lost desert, not sakhmet. This gets really annoyin can you change it? ~ cheddartabby
Oops! Sorry about that. This will be fixed shortly. :)

There really isn't a suitably dark material you can use in Neohomes. Something that would match a Haunted Woods location, with black walls and floor. Do you think you could add one? ~ petbumblebee
I'm sure we can work something out. Nothing too dark, though. You wouldn't want to lose your Shadow Petpets in a room like that.

On the boards, when someone makes a board containing someone elses username in the title, is that harrasment? What if they aren't saying anything bad about the person? Or what if they are saying nice things about the person or whatever? I think it's annoying when on the boards, if someone has another username in the title, people start posting "reported for harrasment". ~ crazy_cat86
We're in the same boat as you! We find it quite annoying as well, especially since most of the harassment reports are simply the result of petty arguments and do nothing but prevent the Monitors from responding more quickly to real complaints. Simply posting someone's username is definitely not harassment.

To help those who are confused, here are some examples of what is and isn't harassment:

- NOT HARASSMENT: Someone simply disagrees with something you've said and you don't like it.
- HARASSMENT: Someone disagrees with you and begins to berate you and insult your intelligence.

- NOT HARASSMENT: Someone posts a warning that a particular user may be a scammer and to be wary.
- HARASSMENT: Someone posts that a particular user is a scammer and that everyone should report him and send him nasty Neomails until he is frozen.

- NOT HARASSMENT: You post a newbie question like "Where is the Paint Brush Shop?" and someone replies "lolz n00b."
- HARASSMENT: You post a newbie question like "Where is the Paint Brush Shop?" and someone replies "OMG U R SUCH A MORON N00B!! Go home where stoopid people belong!"

- NOT HARASSMENT: Someone Neomails you with "can u give me items i need them!"
- HARASSMENT: Someone repeatedly Neomails you asking for items, even after you've asked them to stop.

- NOT HARASSMENT: Someone calls you a n00b.
- HARASSMENT: Someone threatens you or continually insults you.

There may be extenuating circumstances to every case, of course, but you get the idea. Try to use common sense. We're not demanding that everyone has to be all happy and nice to each other. People disagree and argue all the time. But really, uncalled for insults and threats are NOT appropriate. If someone makes you angry, go take your Neopet on the Mysery Island tour and relax. No need to risk your account by doing things you know you'll regret, like responding inappropriately or falsely reporting someone out of spite.

Even if you (meaning tnt) don't put and editorial submission into the neopian times, do you still look at it and deal with it? ~ axel67
We sure do! We find out about many minor (and occasionally major) issues through the submissions to the Editorial. Generally unreleased colours, misspelled items, etc. We often do fix these things, but prefer not to clutter up the Editorial with every tiny thing :)

However, if you find a bug, PLEASE report it using the bug report form. That is checked much more regularly than the Editorial submissions are, and that's what it's there for. :) We'll see things much more quickly there, and we won't have to wade through TONS and TONS of the same report in the Editorial before we get to a question we can answer. :)

Can you stand another Petpet Lab Ray question? I've asked around and gotten different answers, so I thought I'd ask the boss. ;) If your petpet is zapped into a Krawk, can you take it to the Fungus Cave and make a Krawk pet, or is it not an option for a zapped Krawk petpet? ~ thedisturbedprincess
No we can't!

Oh wait. Apparently we can. Krawk Petpets created through the Petpet Lab Ray are not able to become Krawk Neopets. That wouldn't really be fair to Krawk owners who spent millions on their pet, now would it? ;)


The zapping takes its toll on the poor Petpet.

I completed my Lost in the Desert plot (yes I had to read ALL those scrolls! Not funny TNT :P) But today a mean Grundo stole my Mysterious Scroll :( Does this mean that I won't get my trophy? or do you guys already know who has and hasn't completed their plots? It'll be sad to go through all that and not get anything :( Thanks!! ^_^ ~ princhipezza7
Not to worry! Every time you completed even the smallest step during the puzzle, it was logged and tracked. It doesn't matter that you don't have the scroll at this very moment. We know you completed it and can even tell when, what order, what you did before that, etc.. That's kinda creepy actually.

Anyway, this is also the reason why it will take us a while to tally points, figure out trophy and prize ranks, etc. We want to make sure those that made it all the way through are greatly rewarded, but also that everyone who gave it their best shot gets something for their trouble as well. :)

Let's say you have a petpet that would originally give you an avatar if left equipped for a long period of time, and then you zap it with the Petpet Lab Ray and it changes species. Will you still get the avatar? Because when you unequip the petpet it reverts to its original form, so shouldn't you still be able to get the avatar? ~ cat6688
Erm, no. :) The reason it reverts is so that people can't make millions and millions of NP by zapping cheap Petpets into expensive ones. For all other intents and purposes, the Petpet is what you zap it into, which is why you get avatars for zapped Petpets. You'll just have to resist zapping your Petpet until you get the inital avatar. You can do it!

Help! I accidentally got my 1 level neopet in a 1-player battle with Inflatable Balthazar, without weapons. I can't get him out. what do I do? ~ 723186038604
Just go to the status page in the Battledome section to get your Neopet out of battle. If that does not work for any reason, see if you can equip an item to it. Sometimes equipping or removing Battledome items from your Neopet helps if it is "stuck" in the Battledome.


You punch him in the gut, but Inflatable Balthazar says nothing.


I like the new neopet Xweetok, but I have no idea how to pronounce it's name. So I went to the pronunciation page, but it wasn't there and neither was the Hissi. Can you please update it? ~ kattmew
The ultra-fabulous designer of the pet says it's pronounced "Zwee-tock." We will update the pronunciation page shortly. :)

I have a Snicklebeast that is 354 days old but it's name did not appear on the PPL awards. Why is that? Was it a mistake? ~ skarl_21
This is a very common question with Petpets who have over 100,000 people equip it on the same day. :) Basically, the PPL is judged *before* you see it on news. In the case of the Snicklebeast, the script was run on November 30th when the oldest one was indeed 353 days old. That page will always show the Petpets' age at the time the script was run, even though you didn't see the page until the next day. By that time, ALL the Snicklebeasts had aged a day, including yours and the ones at the top of the list. So yours may be 354 days old now, but the ones on the list you see are even older since they have aged as well.

One of the most commonly asked questions about lending: If the lender, after lending the item, does not take it back, is this a reportable offense? This would be considered a sell, because it was made through the trades and used collateral, am I right? Please answer this. ^^ being a lender myself, i do not want to be ridiculed just because no one really knows the answer! lol thanks ~ goldbart13
This comes up alot and, while these situations are never black and white, let's use some examples for clarity.

Senario 1
User A has an MSPP (TCG) card in trades with a lot that says "Gets you an avatar! Will also consider lending with collateral." User B has some nice collateral and bids on it. The trade is accepted. User B then contacts User A asking to trade back. User A refuses, saying it was a trade. While this may not be nice, it isn't "scamming," as it was never clarified to User A that User B's intention was for the card to be lent to them.

Senario 2
User A has an MSPP (TCG) card in trades with a lot that says "Gets you an avatar! Will also consider lending with collateral." User B has some nice collateral, and contacts User A, asking if they will lend them the card if they offer the collateral. User A agrees to lend the card to User B. The trade is made. User B contacts User A again, requesting to trade back now. User A refuses, and calls it a "trade," even though it was clearly dictated through Neomails the intention was lending. THIS is scamming, and is reportable.

If you fail to see the difference between these two, please visit your local library and check out some books with the word "ethics" in the title.

Good ol' miscommunication like the above is the number 1 reason for loans going bad. (Others are a bit tricky and require a judgment call by the Monitoring Staff.) Just remember, whether you are borrowing or lending, it's best to make sure both of you are clear that this is a loan, not a trade, before proceeding. And don't try to be clever by wording things slyly or intentionally decieving people. That's malicious and you WILL be caught.

We should also note that, as a lender or a borrower, you'll not get your items/np back should you lose them since you knew the risks when trading. In general it's best to ONLY make such deals with your close friends so there's less risk of being scammed... but if you do venture out onto the boards, play it safe and make sure you know who you're dealing with.

Hi, I recently traded for a smooth black sphere and it seems that it doesn' do anything, but in the description it wonders what is inside. I am also wondering that. How do I open it and what is it? I know it was obtained through fishing, but I can't seem to do anything with it aside from sell, trade, donate, and put into auctions or gallery. Is it just a useless junk item or is it just not activated yet? Thanks. ~ tunaham504
Our finest scientists do not yet know the wonders of these mysterious artifacts, but we're still over-funding them in hopes they'll one day find out.


DO NOT QUESTION THE SMOOTH BLACK SPHERE!

I was wondering whether it is a freezable offense to visit the advent calendar with more than one account? Not sure if i ever heard before whether it was or not and i dont want to get an account frozen. Thanks ~ karmakitten17
Yes, it is. You may NOT visit the Advent Calendar with multiple accounts. Your siblings and other family members may visit on their own accounts as well, but just one account per person please. To make sure you are not confused with your family members, please be sure to have a unique email address from those of your family members to reduce confusion.

Can you add a 'Remove All' button for neohomes and neogardens? It's quite aggravating to remove 33 kelps from your neogarden, one at a time. ~ rabbitferret
This has been forwarded to the Neohome programmers who will see if it's feasible. It'd surely be nice if it were. :)


Next week on Editorial:
"Flash maps... FOR PETE'S SAKE, WHY?!!?" and "Dragona and socks... what is up with that?"



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