Come dance with the Wanderers... Circulation: 158,073,880 Issue: 316 | 2nd day of Storing, Y9
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Editorial


How bad is some of the grammar before you edit it? Do you ever get chatspeak? ~ktbkrafty
Normally the questions written in complete chatspeak aren't the kind that get into the Editorial, but yeah, quite a few of the questions need a good deal of cleaning up. We always greatly appreciate those who ask questions in a manner that does not require us to change "ur" to "your" and capitalise the letter "I."

*Gives TNT a cookie* I see people get warnings all the time on the chat boards and I know that there is supposed to be a Neomail involved or even a suspension of the account for some time. I have never had a warning before (or at least I don't THINK I have), but I was wondering if there is a page to view to see if my account has been warned or anything of that sort? Thanks, TNT. Keep up the good work! ~Zenumare
Sorry, we don't have this information available to players. Those who get warnings can file the Neomail away in their saved folder if they would like to keep a reminder of what not to do in the future. PS: We checked, and your account is squeaky clean. Well done!


*gold star*

Hello! You guys don't rock! (You do really; I just thought I'd give you a change.) Anyway, I was thinking about the Editorial last night while I was snuggled up in bed with a cup of hot chocolate and I wondered how many people read the questions? I mean, is it just one person's job or are there loads of people writing answers all day long? Pleeeeeeeeeeeaase answer this! Oh, and yeah, why do some people ask for their name to be removed? Should you ask for it? I'm not going to bother. Bye! ~6levi_6
Just a couple of us read and select the questions. Remember, the Editorial is just for the Neopian Times. If you have concerns about your account and other things that have already been addressed, or really want a question answered if possible, it's best to contact support. They're the ones that look at those things. Just because you submit something to the Editorial does not mean it will be answered, though we do sometimes address or fix things that we spot in the submissions that don't quite make it to the actual Editorial.

As for having names removed, some people prefer their privacy, and that's fine. Occasionally we'll remove a username ourselves if we feel they may get harassed over the question asked, or targeted for scams.

Hello TNT! :) I've got a question that has been bothering me. This is the seventeenth time I have submitted it this year, and I desperately need an answer, because my very account depends on it. My question is: are we given more chances? I mean, let's say "Joe" just got over his 72 hour suspension. Now let's say "Joe" is a great Neopian for the next two years. Then he makes a mistake that would usually get a suspension. Would he be frozen, or do we get more chances over time? I just want to know if I need to be more careful! Thanks again! Please, PLEASE try to answer this one! ~48cats
72 hours?!? oO Wow. Yeah, "Joe" is going to have to be on really, REALLY good behavior for the next couple of years at least. Otherwise the next punishment will very likely be a freezing, and we can just about guarantee it if it's something you've already been warned about previously. To answer your question more directly, though, a greater amount of leniency is generally given if an account hasn't had a warning in a very long time (and by very long we're talking well more than a year).

Remember though, each player and case is different, and each warn/suspension/freeze is a judgment call by a staff member. Players that have a history of walking a thin line and constantly pushing the rules are more likely to have the hammer fall a bit harder when they do finally cross the line. You may not see us, but we're watching over you guys. ;)

I was searching through the Second Hand Shoppe, and I've been seeing items like woolen caps and other usually expensive wearable items, and it said that they've been donated by people like Prince Jazan! When I try to get one of them, it says it "slipped through my fingers." I'm just wondering, is this another one of TNT's famous jokes like the Scamanders, or can you actually get one? (PS: How do they slip through my fingers? Are they snakes? o_O) ~newneo7172
Haha, no. It really is someone getting to it before you. It seems like some Neopian characters are just happy to help get wearable items into the hands of those who appreciate free clothing. Also "slipped through your fingers" is just a nice way of saying someone ripped it out of your hands as you both frantically tried to grab the item at the same time. Mentally picturing Neopian shops and the like during restocks makes us giggle.


"The shopkeeper has accepted... PWND!"
"ARGH! I mishaggled!"
"Walked in late!"
"Stupid lag!"

Dear TNT, in Ultimate Bullseye 2, it says on the game page, "If you're lucky enough to land your arrow in the bullseye on your last shot, though, you'll earn 3 extra shots!" I've landed a bullseye on my last shot more than once but I've never gotten 3 extra shots, just a power up and one extra shot. Was this just an error in the text, or did they actually forget to put that part in the game? ~jebbica
Curious. We'll test this and send it over to our game guys so they can check it out!

TNT, I have a question that's been bothering me for some time now and I was wondering... if you don't feed your Neopet does your account get deleted? I had previously thought that this wasn't the case, but my friend said he didn't feed his Neopets and his account got deleted. He said he also did not go on Neopets a lot, so I thought it could be because of his absence from the site. Please help clear this up. ~anime_otaku13
No, whether you feed your Neopets or not does not cause your account to be deleted. The only thing that causes account deletion is extreme absence from the site. By deletion we mean a database purge, and not the freezing of an account, just to clarify.

Thanks for the Notable Neopets question last week. My guild mates and I were wondering if, when we enter the Customisation Spotlight, a screenie is taken at that moment. Will it hurt our chances to win if we then change outfits after we enter? Please clear this up. Perhaps it is why some people enter Neopets with not one item attached. An answer to these questions will be appreciated even if it's not mine. It would be awesome if you picked mine, though. ^_^ ~bbgirlsmom
It's... sort of a screen shot. :) We have a pretty hefty back-end system that uses a bunch of codes to determine what colour/species your Neopet is and what it's wearing. When you submit to the Customisation Spotlight, those codes are stored so that we know what that Neopet was wearing at the time it entered. If you change your Neopet's outfit after you submit, it won't affect the spotlight at all or dampen your chances of winning. Those voting will see what your Neopet was wearing at the time of entry and have no idea that you changed outfits.

*Ouch! Gets hit by one of those TNT rocks everyone's always talking about.* There's something I've seen discussed on the boards from time to time called "bulk restocking," which apparently involves one or more people grabbing stuff out of the Neopian shops when they restock specifically to sell to another restocker to fill up their shop for them. The one who puts them in their shop tells the other person(s) what items to get for them and then pays them a bit (maybe a couple hundred) more NP than the cost was for each item. The big seller saves time and makes money. The restocker(s) make a little NP but not as much as if they sold the items themselves. Okay, to me this sounds like paying someone to help, which I know is against the rules. But the people who do this insist it's a normal, legitimate part of Neopets. So is this allowed or not? ~pesharocha
You are correct! This would be offering a service in exchange for NP or items, which is against the rules. You cannot have someone else aid you in playing the game of Neopets, and that person cannot charge for such a service. (Nor can someone charge for other services, like the making of User Lookups.)

As a representative of the Neopian Hygiene Commission, I would like to bring a matter to your attention. In Pick Your Own, only one basket is provided by the slack-jawed Gelert at Meri Acres Farm. That means we are forced to put items such as dung into the same basket as our berries. This is a very unsanitary practice and ought to be stopped immediately. I tried talking to the slack-jawed Gelert about this issue but he told me to get off his property. Any chance you could talk some sense into him? ~kmc244
We've tried, but it seems no use. He somehow thinks it would cut into his profit margin. Remember, when playing you can click on items to remove them from the basket. Maybe just bring some hand sanitizer along with you next time? Or line the basket with paper. That should help.


We're personally not too keen on the half-eaten berries either.

For the latest Caption Contest (entered on October 30th) I entered twice, but only because I had two different caption ideas and I wanted to see how you would like both of them. So would I be disqualified for entering more than one caption, or would both of them (or at least one of them) be entered? ~bowlor
No, players are more than welcome to enter multiple captions, as long as they don't spam. Trust us, there's nothing that will make us skip your caption quicker than seeing it pasted to us 12 times in a row. Actually, on rare occasions the same player has gotten multiple captions selected for voting. Wish we were that lucky!

I've noticed recently that more and more people have been getting warnings, suspensions, and even trips to iceland for saying what some would consider inappropriate (and some consider appropriate) words. My question is this: are we allowed to use the word "sxc"? If we are, please get up now, take a walk across the office, and tell Snarkie her Aisha is sxc. Ty. ~splenetic
Let's see, so you're spelling a disallowed word in such a way to avoid it getting filtered. Um... yeaaah, that's a no-no. If you're not supposed to be posting it typed out with proper spelling, then you're not supposed to type it spelled differently either.

Hello! I'm a new player and there's something bugging me. When I go to Faerieland and then to Faerie City, when I point my mouse over the window of one of the towers & click it, I go to Altador! How did that happen? Please answer. ~blackieblue_9_9
Welcome to Neopets! We hope you're enjoying your time here. :) Previously, the Neopian globe did not rotate, making it impossible to get to Altador by traditional means. When Altador was first made available to visit, players had to journey there through that portal. It's a bit useless now, though. We haven't removed it yet because... well, don't tell anyone, but we're planning on giving that map a revamp soon. We'll fix it then.

Since they're already drawn for Neopets (such as Lupes, for example) on stands that are beside the pets, why are the puppets (baby Wocky puppet, for example) not wearable by baby Neopets and others who cannot wear clothes but can wear backgrounds and some trinkets, etc.? Will they be available for baby Neopets soon, possibly, maybe? Also, can you say that Meepits ate my username and leave it out? Thanks and happy clicking. :P ~[username removed]
Even though it's already drawn, it still has to be re-exported and uploaded for every species. If we throw Baby, Mutant, Maraquan, and Fruit Chias into the mix, that means much, much, much more work for the artists, so they currently are not part of the rotation for all-species wearables. We are planning on some special items just for these colours, though, since we don't want to leave them out.

And just to explain, these colours were definitely a trade-off. The two options were to make them conform to the poses of the regular Neopets so they could wear everything, or allow for different poses so that they'd be special to their owners but have fewer things to wear. We went with the latter.

TNT, I'm not going to start saying you rock because right now you don't, but there you go again excluding things only to people who pay. To be the Notable Neopet your pet must have 4 or more clothing items on. To get clothing you have to get Neocash, to get Neocash you have to get real money. Honestly, what silly person wastes real money on Neopets? ~booboobear22395
There's actually quite a bit of clothing that you don't need Neocash to purchase, including both species and paint brush specific, as well as clothes that almost any Neopet can wear. We obviously have no intention of forcing players to pay to dress their Neopets. The NC Mall is there for players if they feel it's worth it to them to spend real money on the items they see there, and if not, there are lots of alternatives and more always on the way if there isn't anything you quite like yet.

Therefore, while you do have to have 4 or more items on your Neopet for them to be eligible for the Notable Neopet, none of them has to be purchased with Neocash.

So TNT, can you use a Neocash card even if you're, say, 12? Because I really want to get my sister one (for her 12th birthday) but I wasn't sure if she could use it. Please and thank you! ~tera_kidron
There are no age restrictions on the use of Neocash cards. (Only Paypal has these restrictions.) So feel free to gift the cards to players of any age.

Dear TNT, I was wondering why the Random Contest sometimes goes on another week? Is it because there are too few/not-so-good submissions entered in that weekly deadline? Thanks! ^^ ~kiibosh
There are various reasons, but usually it's due to a lack of entries or because the contest is complicated and we want to give everyone enough time to finish their entry. We've also had our judge go on vacation and needed to postpone the contest a week until she got back, but don't tell anyone we told you.

*Compares you to rocks* As you said in your last Editorial there are simply so many Neopians it's hard to monitor them all. I got to thinking (TROUBLE! lol) and thought maybe you could set up a system where Neopets players who follow rules and set good examples could be volunteer moderators. They would have the power to delete boards and keep people from posting for, say, a day until the professional moderators had a chance to look into the matter. This could help stop some of the increasing rule breaking that's been going around. Thanks for taking the time to read this! ~395kkk
While we sincerely appreciate all you wonderful Neopians who love to set good examples for others and do your best to follow site rules, we really can't have volunteers helping us. When the site was just starting we had volunteer mods (thanks guys!), but we've grown far too large to justify free help. (There are also legal ramifications of such a system.) If you are old enough and fit our other requirements, though, keep an eye on our Employment Page, as we're almost always on the lookout for a few more good paid monitors!

Community notice:
Yes, the second round of trick or treat bags were on us yesterday. We ran into a bit of a snafu and had to clear our records, meaning all logs containing information about who had already picked up their bags were cleared. Since we did this on purpose, you have nothing to worry about if you got seconds.

HOWEVER, please note that this is a rarity. ;) Usually a glitch like this is not on purpose, and anyone collecting multiples will be frozen for abusing a glitch. In the future, it's better to be safe than sorry.

Also, we're very sorry for the confusion we caused ;_;


Wooooo... oops.



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