Editorial
None of the text stories from the Advent Calendar are displaying properly. It just shows a blank space instead of the story. Can you fix this please? ~anonymous
Hello! This has been fixed, the Advent Calendar Archive should now display text based entries properly. Thanks for reporting ~~ Sunpotato
Hello! It's a small but noticeable thing: visiting Kelp with my gender as "Other" results in being called "Sir" and "Mr" (generally masculine terms). Would it be possible to add a third honorific? Perhaps "Honoured Guest" or the like? ~ anonymous
Thank you for the suggestion! We are looking into this and while we can't make promises, we will see what we can do! ~~ Adler
Dear TNT, I was very excited to see that we could possibly win a Cherise from the Neopies this year, but my joy was immediately dashed when I realized that the art for the beloved Cherise seems to have been crushed. It looks like someone grabbed the image at the top and dragged down to compress it, rather than grabbing in the upper right hand corner and dragging down and left in equal measure to resize it. The little face is all smooshed now. :( Is there any way you could revisit it and get Cherise back to looking adorable and plump instead of apathetic and smashed? Thanks so much! ^_^ ~ amyjaned
Hello! Thank you for writing in and bringing this to our attention! We have made the fix, so now the beloved Cherise is back to looking adorable and plump! Thank you!
~~ Goldfish in Bowl
***ASK ADLER***
Hi everyone and welcome to the new section of Editorial, Ask Adler!
Since we recently announced some changes coming to Spotlights & Contests, we wanted to give you an outlet where you can ask questions and raise concerns about Spotlights & Contests directly to Adler. Thank you to everyone who has sent us kind and supportive messages in the Editorial! We are grateful for your continued support and understanding during this transition.
Hi TNT! I'm an older user (currently 33 - been playing on and off since I was 8!) and since I've gotten older, I've considered trying out my luck at the NT. I know there's a section for articles and short stories, but I was curious if poetry is an option to include in the NT? I wasn't sure where exactly it would fit, if it's at all acceptable. ~ scottneal
Hello scottneal!
We’re glad you’re still around Neopia! With the revamp coming to contests, you can expect Poetry to be included in the contests that will be changing moving forward. We have been thinking about combining Poetry into the Neopian Times, but nothing has been set in stone yet, so please keep an eye out on the New Features page for updates as we hope to announce these changes soon!
~~ Adler
Hi Adler! Do you think it would ever be possible to create a new category of Neopian Times submissions for Comic Series? Themed issues often make it difficult for those of us telling longer visual stories to have continuity, and this would allow us to tell our stories in a more timely manner, while keeping the comics section consistent for theme weeks. ~ deadzzi
Hi deadzzi!
Thank you for the suggestion. We do like this idea, however, we want to ensure that Neopian Times is fair for all users, new and old, and therefore when we have continuous entries, it can be a bit discouraging to new users to see those users winning in a row. Rest assured, we try our best to include comics that are part of a series when we can!
~~ Adler
Hi Adler! I read the new features. Are there any changes planned to the STC going forward, and if so, what might they be? Thanks. ~ rielcz
Hello rielcz!
We will be having changes to Storytelling, however, they won’t be too drastic, it will just be a reduction of cadence as we currently run Storytelling every day! Please keep an eye out on the New Features page for any updates!
~~ Adler
Hi TNT, Thank you for all the work you do on contests and the Neopian Times. The addition of Ask Adler seems to add more work to an already likely overwhelmed staff. Poetry Contest judging can feel inconsistent and favour entrants who exploit timing or process weaknesses rather than merit. This is a structural issue. Reducing contest days does not lower total submissions and may increase per-contest workload, leaving many entries unreviewed. To improve fairness, consider limiting one entry per subject/date, randomizing submission times, capping submissions, adding and rotating judges, or using cooldowns. Alternatively, review a randomized, system-generated sample sized based on realistic time limits. Clear scoring guidelines or a rubric could score entries on theme adherence, structure, mechanics, consistency, and style elements. Additionally, a small anonymized peer review could help catch overlooked entries. ~ xlilstarryeyes
Hi xlilstarryeyes!
Thank you for the kind words and suggestions, they are appreciated! While “Ask Adler” is indeed an addition, we think it’s an important one as it’s our goal to create transparency when it comes to contests and spotlights. We are listening and understand concerns surrounding fairness, however, we can ensure you that we do not favour entrants in any contest. We are planning on updating contest rules and FAQs, and we have already begun implementing capping submissions on various contests. We recommend checking out the Neopian Writers forum on the Neoboards, as lots of users offer advice and best practices for written contests. If you find that your entries are still not getting in, they may be triggering our AI detector, in which case, we suggest to ensure you’re not copying/pasting your entry into the submission form and that you’re not using third-party spelling/grammar checkers. I hope this helps!
~~ Adler
It was recently announced that Gadgadsbogen would be cancelled alongside other currently unspecified non-Pet site days on Neopets in order to make more items for pet days. Why can't resources for items be reallocated towards introducing a second color for Pet Days again like they have done through the majority of the site's lifespan instead? ~ derpyunikitty4_
Hello derpyunikitty4_!
While we made the difficult decision to not release new content for smaller Pet Days this year, we ensure you that the days are not being entirely deleted from the site and you are still welcome to celebrate them however you choose to do so. Time and resources taken away from these smaller days will be redirected into other free-to-play content, such as including more NP content when and where we can - think NP Pet Days/themed-days, NP events Wheels and more! Our resources are stretched in different areas as we are a smaller team and we are focusing on ensuring consistency across NP and NC. Additionally, you might be happy to see that we have 3 new Valentine Pets today and we are adding new colour-ways to some new and old favourite Pet Day items! Keep an eye out on the New Features page to see all the new items and thanks again for writing in!
~~ Adler
Really disappointed with the lack of acceptances for issue 1050 and with the communication about how to submit. How difficult can it be to set a deadline 3-5 days in advance of a publication date and say that ALL entries received by that deadline will be given EQUAL opportunity to be published? Just make a calendar and go with it. Not really that difficult and certainly more user-respectful. ~malphd
Hi malphd!
Thank you for your feedback. We do not have firm deadlines when it comes to Neopian Times, however, we suggest that you check out the Neopian Times FAQ as it includes a lot of information about best times to submit and other rules. We also post the Neopian Times schedule under the Neopian Writers forum on the Neoboards. As I’m sure you can understand, we do receive a lot of entries for Neopian Times each issue, so while we do wish we could include all entries, that’s simply not feasible. Rest assured we do go through the entries manually. I hope this helps!
~~ Adler
I understand removing the silly days from the calendar with no new content - consider having tie-ins with contests, like Gadgadsbogen Storytime, or more articles about Tyrannian Victory Day in the NT for that upcoming issue. The silly days are fun. The world building of Neopia is fun. We don't want Neopets to be capsules and items all the time. We like lore. ~ the_academy_awards
Hello the_academy_awards!
To clarify, we will not be removing the days from the calendar, we simply won’t be releasing new content for them so that we can focus our resources on more free to play initiatives. We do have some ideas for other ways to incorporate them so as such, please feel free to continue to celebrate the holidays as you please!
~~ Adler
Hey Adler! My question is about the recent mention of changes to contest and spotlight frequency. Creative contests are a core part of what keeps longtime players engaged and preserves the "old Neopets" feel. While the news post mentioned shifting resources toward favourite themed contests, it’s unclear whether this will result in increased frequency for some contests, or primarily reductions for others, especially since many already run infrequently. Can you clarify what these changes will look like? ~ c4774r3
Hello c4774r3!
We hope to be able to provide some more clarity soon surrounding the changes so please keep an eye out. Rest assured that we have strongly considered which contests have the most participation and engagement and we are focused on what seems to be the most valuable for users as well as where our time could be best spent.
~~ Adler
So I saw that TNT has made the decision to scale back on holidays to conserve resources in favour of Pet Days and holidays which have more engagement- which I understand!, but nevertheless it made me sad. Some of these holidays- like Gadgadsbogen Day!- are the exact kind of quirkiness that gives Neopets its soul. I thought of a suggestion- maybe switch some of these smaller days to every other year? So we still get them, just less frequently. Or, combine some into consolidated days? Just some thoughts, and I appreciate the difficulty that went into this decision. ~ tphjr222
Hi tphjr222!
It was definitely a difficult decision for us as well, so your feelings are valid and we thank you for your understanding. We completely understand that a lot of these silly holidays are what makes Neopia unique and fun, and as such, they will not be going anywhere, they will just not have new reoccurring annual items. We are looking at other ways as to how we could incorporate them elsewhere on free-to-play areas on the site so all can continue to enjoy and celebrate these quirky days.
~~ Adler
Dear Adler, there's been much feedback about allowing more publications into the milestone issues since NT 1000, 1025, and now 1050. However it feels they've largely been ignored seeing that each issue is so much smaller than past milestone issues (example NT 500 had 130 total published entries) and overall it feels like so many entries that many users poured their best efforts into have been overlooked. Why is this? ~ winner19955
Hi winner19955!
We completely hear you. We understand that retroactively, Neopian Times has been longer and more frequent. This is the level of transparency that we’d like to have and therefore, we do want to let users know that while we wish we had the resources that we did back in the day, we now have a team of two editing Neopian Times each issue, TNT Adler and TNT Goldfish In Bowl. As I’m sure you can understand, Neopian Times is quite a large lift, on top of working on both NP and NC content and releases. Again, we wish we could include every entry that gets submitted, but we need to be wary of our time and resources to ensure that we are delivering the best quality possible. We see your effort, and we hope that in turn, you can see ours too. Thanks you for your support and thanks again for writing in!
~~ Adler
HAPPY THOUGHTS
i LOVE the artwork on the new Pirate Pandaphant and i LOVE the new White Walking Carpet. I love the fact that your team has been introducing new Petpets on the special pet holidays lately & I hope you continue to do so. ~ i_vap_

Need more help?
If you have a question that you think should be answered, click here
and you can use our submission form. The most common/bizarre questions will appear here next week.
|