Welcome to AMTP's guild website! AMTP (or A Mad Tea Party) is a guild based on a laid-back enjoyment of life. As such, we place emphasis on whimsy, fun, friendship, culture, down-to-earth values and intelligent discussion. If that sounds like your sort of thing, then by all means, jump right down the rabbit hole and make yourself comfortable!
Members of all shapes, sizes, hair colours and ages are welcome, within reason: if your purple hair prevents you from abiding by our very simple and straightforward rules, after all, I'm afraid we're probably going to have to turn you away! Sorry. :( We operate on a simple principle of mutual respect; show us respect in abiding by our rules, and we'll show you the same respect in welcoming you to our humble abode. ^^
AMTP is a fully literate guild but don't worry, that's nothing traumatic; in fact, our relaxed and comfortable message board allows for open and free discussion. Please feel welcome to talk about anything and everything in it - within reason, we don't want to get the guild deleted! - and share any stories, creative works, bad jokes and weird dreams that you have. The message board is the members' way to express themselves and reach out to make new friends: so feel free to use it to its fullest capacity! ^^
If you have any concerns, comments, queries, suggestions, complaints, alien abduction stories, random thoughts, invention plans, magical spells, short poems, song lyrics, grumbles, sneezes, or ideas for the guild, feel free to post them for us on the guild board or NeoBoard; or simply Neomail a staff member directly.
AMTP offers a nice, comfortable, open environment for all members who join us. We have been established for about three years, now, so you can definitely be sure that we aren't going to just disappear into thin air!
The type of people who tend to join AMTP are more mature members (more than half of our member base are over 17, though we have no age requirement), who are sick and tired of drama-filled guilds or ones where lengthier, more in-depth posts are uncommon and where quickfire chatter is more valued. People who join AMTP tend to like the deeply ingrained, core qualities of the guild: literacy, creativity, and a love of quality and close attention to detail.
We try to offer something for everyone here, but if you spot something that's missing, we're always open to change, evolve, and become stronger and better than ever! Spot something we're missing? Our guild account's inbox is always open: click here to Neomail amtpguild right now!
Our guild's size is medium-large, fluctuating between about 50-100 members depending on the time of year. (During the holidays, we swell to around 100 members, and fall again just before the holidays begin, to increase our activity levels as much as possible.) After more than two years of successfully staying the active, welcoming guild you see today, we think we're pretty much experts at making new members feel welcome, so don't worry about that. 
Instead of activities, we tend instead towards seasonal, long-running guild events with lots of different activities spanning a long period of time, usually between a week and two weeks. We have hosted such events as a Winter Celebration, Summer Festival and Wonderland Party! Members are not just allowed to join in with the fun of planning and hosting events; they are encouraged to do so.
If you've read through this whole site and have decided that you'd be interested in applying for the guild - well, congratulations on potentially making the best decision of your Neopets life! Okay, we might be exaggerating somewhat, but still, thank you for choosing to try us out.
Our application is quite short and sweet, and definitely isn't too painful at all. As such, we ask that you answer the questions honestly and in a natural manner! If you don't want to answer any of the questions, feel free to skip them.
Nickname:
Age:
Country/timezone:
Guild status: Guildless? In a guild?
Main or side account:
Referred by:
What is your favourite book? Why?
If you could have any job in the world, what would it be?
You are trapped in a room with a group of random strangers. No-one is talking. Quick! How do you start the conversation?
Have you read through our guild website?
What made you decide to apply to AMTP?
What would you like to get out your time in A Mad Tea Party?
You can submit your application to Anti or Hannah. Please give us at least 24 hours to respond - though we will almost certainly reply before then. If you do not receive a response from one staff member within this time period, please send it again to another.
If your application doesn't fit in one Neomail, feel free to split it into two, or three, but if it's longer than that, please put it on a petpage, or your userlookup, or somewhere similar, and instead send us the link to the page where your application is located. ^^ Good luck!
Our rules and literacy policy are simple: they basically boil down to use your common sense! However, just because apparently this isn't enough information, here are a list of them.
The ranking system at AMTP is a simple one: each rank denotes a different milestone in terms of post-count. From your very first post, each message submitted counts towards more respect in the guild as well as privileges and, naturally, a better, more interesting rank name. ;)
Rank names are likely to change with time, but these are the very default names: it's sometimes fun to mix things up a bit, however, and give everyone different ranks according to the occasion; or, sometimes, just the mood of the staff member who changed them! xD
If you object to any of the rank boundaries in terms of post count, please feel free to start up discussion on the message board! Any and all feedback is appreciated, and suggestions are always both wanted and needed in our bid to continually improve the guild's quality and thus the members' enjoyment of it. ^^
- Chasing rabbits is the very first rank - the default. When you first join the guild, it was between this and "n00b", so we decided on this one instead, to be kind. This rank just means that you are new to the guild: if you are at this rank, it isn't advised that you create any advertising boards yet, in case questions come up which require experience to answer.
- Caucus racing is the second rank: at 40 posts, you have certainly proved yourself to be a member who will most likely stick around! As such, feel free to create advertising boards and refer members from the NeoBoards; having been around the guild for a decent amount of time, you should be more than able to spot who would and who wouldn't enjoy AMTP.
- At Sipping tea rank, staff and members are starting to see you as a trusted individual and a valued member of the community! New members know, by your rank, that you are someone who knows the ins and outs of the guild like the back of your hand. (After all, eagles may soar, but weasles don't get sucked into jet engines. Just checking you're really reading. Well done, you passed. Please keep up the good work.) This rank is achieved at 100+ posts, though it can be later or earlier on the staff's terms.
- There's a big jump between Sipping tea and Painting roses: a jump of 200 posts, in fact! At 300 posts, expect a promotion to Painting roses rank; a reference to the Alice in Wonderland chapter wherein Alice comes across the playing cards painting white roses red. At this rank, many members have board and/or poll admin, in order to express their own humour in the form of polls and delete spam/their own typos.
- Stealing tarts is the final rank before council, and as such the most difficult one to reach: and the one which demands the most respect! At 999 posts, expect your promotion to Stealing tarts rank and, with it, expect plenty of n00bs begging you to help them out with frequently asked questions! Enjoy - you earned it. :P
Just joined the guild? Feeling a bit lost? Or are you perhaps thinking about joining our ranks, and are having a bit of a snoop around to see how we treat our new members? ;) Don't worry, we don't bite - on weekdays. Unless of course you ask nicely. Anyway, moving on... if you're new, please check out the following list and if you've done that, you're a certified lunat- I mean, a certified AMTP member. Be proud!
II. Hannah (dolcebby)
III. Empty
IV. Empty
V. Empty
AMTP's council is in charge of at least overseeing changes to the website, guild front-page, and structure of the guild. We approve of member contributions, and have the final say in things like council elections, whether the guild is private or public, and uphold the guild literacy policy and keep track of who has admin powers and who is doing what with them. Council duties mostly involve making sure everyone has a great time! This means, first and foremost, that the guild is up-to-date and that there aren't any major problems.
Secondary duties involve advertising, maintaining activity levels in the guild through encouraging chat and being on the message boards as often as possible, and generally giving the guild a good name! Making graphics and coding pages is not necessarily something that all council members need to do, but all council staff should have a good idea of the kind of standard of aesthetic that we expect from and at A Mad Tea Party. Phew. Sounds exhausting, huh?
So how do I apply for council? Sounds fun! Well, it is fun! But it is also a lot of work, and we require that only the most dedicated members (new or old, but either way, someone who has decided to stick with this guild through thick and thin!), who have quite a bit of time to spare every single week, apply.
Once that little requirement is out of the way, now to the actual nitty-gritty of council election! In the past, we have had several different methods of applying and electing. Usually, it has been done through a popular vote, with several 'rounds'. When a council spot needs to be filled, it is announced several weeks in advance, to give our members plenty of time to prepare for an election. There is no set form, but just a few tasks:
1. Create a page to host your application. Obviously, this requirement is simply for ease of access! Graphics, coding, etc. of this page can be premade if you wish without any repercussions. The page must host information about yourself, why you are applying, and why you would be a good choice for council.
2. Create a piece of support material for your friends in the guild to support your application. This can be anything, but must show off your creativity! It can be a small graphic, a big graphic, or even something like a pledge to vote for you which supporters can copy and paste onto their userlookup to show their support!
3. You must submit your petpage link through the "Apply For Position" links on the Guild Council section in the sidebar. Any applicant who cannot follow this very simple instruction will absolutely not be considered. Sending in your application through the guild board, by Neomailing a staff member, or just telling people the link to your application is not a valid entry and though it is definitely allowed to submit an entry before the deadline (finished or unfinished), and to post your link so that people can read it before you submit it, if the link is posted on the boards as an application, you will be disqualified from entry. What use is a staff member in AMTP if they cannot even follow this very simple instruction? (You'd still be surprised at how many people disregard it, I'm sure!)
Next deadline: TBA. - Our next council election deadline is to be announced. In the mean time, we may even break tradition and appoint someone at a random time! Let us know if you have an application in the works.
Read through everything on this page? Checked out our advertising boards? Chatted with a few members? Taken a look at the guild itself? Don't think that AMTP is the one for you? No worries! Here are a host of guilds that AMTP loves. If we lose a member to one of these guys ... well, we'll be a bit jealous, but we'll get over it. 
If you have a guild that you would like to suggest for this list, feel free to Neomail amtpguild! However, please do not use this as a method of advertising your guild. We are simply interested in recommending guilds that are of a great standard of quality, who we feel are deserving of our commendations.
We wholeheartedly support these guilds and should you feel AMTP is not for you (or, should anything unfortunately happen to AMTP itself) we can definitely recommend these as alternatives to AMTP - similar, but not the same. (How similar/different? Your Mileage May Vary.)
Obscurus - Harry Potter, Mature, Goals - Private, 18+ & Application-only
The Neo Project - Neopets Related, Goals - Private & Application-only
Sugar Sweet Neopia - Neopets Related - Public
Covert - Other - Private, 16+ & Application-only
The Coffee House - Neopets Related - Private, 18+ & Application-only