Empty accounts, large scale botters, and just sell me your items. Where is the everyone

[Onetwo]

I'm just musing in a grumpy mood here. Take my comments with a grain of salt.

I recently returned to Neopets after a decade. I came back in December. The community feels so different than I remember. One thing that I've noticed is there is a decent amount of site activity... but very little site interaction compared to the activity level.

I've noticed that my stamps tend to not sell for periods of time. I'll build up 3-7 copies, and then one account will buy all of them. The account never buys all of more than one stamp type, but this happens enough that it's an obvious pattern. The thing about these accounts is that they are empty. No trophies, few avatars, no designs... an obvious bot account. It's the type of account that's obvious it's not a normal person. If any of us had a bot, we'd take the time to make it look at least a little like a real person and not obviously a bot account.

I'm trying to collect stamps, and I'm at the point where I'm buying UB stamps. Often there will only be one copy, and the owner is another empty account like the above. They won't respond to neomails, and they take forever to accept my offer... Just sell me your item!

I've had a FFQ for over a week now. The item I need is a 1m item with only one copy on the TP, and the owning account is another empty account. I've had a good offer for over a week, and I've neomailed the account to radio silence. They aren't accepting the offer! Just sell me your item!

I'll often build up a large number of UB stamps from restocking that aren't selling. And then out of nowhere, I'll get one offer on most of the stamps for exactly the asking price. Again, all the accounts are empty bot accounts. It feels so lonely getting these offers. Like I'm just playing Neopets with a bot as my only companion. I want to see the stamps go into an album! I want the buyer to neomail me that they are a collector and ask for a discount! I'll give it to you!

Overall, it 'feels' to me like there are an incredible amount of bots manipulating the economy and its resources. And to me, an observer just trying to play the game and enjoy the community, it's obvious that bots are all over the place. I know a lot of people here have bots, but they tend to use them in ways that won't directly impact me. I won't notice the lack of humanity in the account (lol).

Honestly, TNT knows. I bet they could even handle the bots if they wanted. New captchas for restocking, automation prevention, bot bans, crawl prevention, close the food club, etc. You get it. But that might impact site traffic by reducing bots. That would reduce the site engagement and ad revenue. To me, it all feels like the death throes of an aging site held together by duct tape. I don't have any suggestions for change. I don't even know if I want TNT to crack down on bots. Maybe it really would kill the site. I want more onsite engagement and less inflation. And sell me your item!

[gabigabmitch]

As a stamp collector myself, I hear you. Very frustrating when you have the money and just cannot seem to get anyone to sell your item to you. I do think TNT could do more about the bots, but at the end of the day, it's a lot of extra traffic they simply wouldn't have without bots.

Either way, welcome back, and enjoy the ride while it's still around.

[phantasia]

I think the problem is not only on Neopets. Overall we are losing human interaction. When you call a company a bot answers the phone. websites has bots handling questions.
Human - interaction is being lost.
Its so frustrating when you are looking for a answer that a human can easily answer but you have reprased it so many ways to try get an answer that is correct from a bot.

The internet was suppose to be a place where we can connect with each other but instead we are connecting with bots and AI.

Its a problem but it is how things work now

[DarkSkies]

Well I have used shells on the past to buy some stuff (mainly because when collecting the banker got angry at me and won't let me to withdraw more lol).

I normally check too who offers on my stuff or who I buy from. Not because of bots but because of resellers or false inflators.

But I don't do a lot of interaction on the site to really notice many empty accounts. I have some very short sprees and normally I only give 1-2 days for replies before moving onto next user.

That being told, it wouldn't surprise the amount of bots out there. Especially because generally speaking many people blaming bots are using bots too xD

[I_royalty_I]

I have heard similar complaints before, saying shell accounts run the trading post now a days. Empty looking accounts come out paying top dollar for the stuff you have for sale, likely to turn around and sell later on... or just to convert pure NPs into ETS items that are easier to move around to different accounts. I haven't listed things up on the TP or really been trying to buy too much lately so I'm not sure how often that happens. There have been bigger items that I have been trying to buy and it seems I either get no reply or a reply once a day from a seller and then radio silence. Generally I assume that the person is just busy with IRL and isn't on neo at the same time that I am. My time online is pretty short so catching them online has proven to be pretty tricky lately. I'm sure we are also competing with plenty of bots when restocking. If one of the bots gets an item I doubt they are turning around to sell it on the TP. They probably toss it in the SDB or list it for sale elsewhere and that's just another item that doesn't QUITE make it to market.

[Onetwo]

As a stamp collector myself, I hear you. Very frustrating when you have the money and just cannot seem to get anyone to sell your item to you. I do think TNT could do more about the bots, but at the end of the day, it's a lot of extra traffic they simply wouldn't have without bots.

Either way, welcome back, and enjoy the ride while it's still around.

Thanks! I'm enjoying my time here

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I think the problem is not only on Neopets. Overall we are losing human interaction. When you call a company a bot answers the phone. websites has bots handling questions.
Human - interaction is being lost.
Its so frustrating when you are looking for a answer that a human can easily answer but you have reprased it so many ways to try get an answer that is correct from a bot.

The internet was suppose to be a place where we can connect with each other but instead we are connecting with bots and AI.

Its a problem but it is how things work now

That's an interesting perspective. Thanks for the input. Seems you like feel that it was inevitable

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Well I have used shells on the past to buy some stuff (mainly because when collecting the banker got angry at me and won't let me to withdraw more lol).

I normally check too who offers on my stuff or who I buy from. Not because of bots but because of resellers or false inflators.

But I don't do a lot of interaction on the site to really notice many empty accounts. I have some very short sprees and normally I only give 1-2 days for replies before moving onto next user.

That being told, it wouldn't surprise the amount of bots out there. Especially because generally speaking many people blaming bots are using bots too xD

I don't like selling to resellers or false inflators either. I will normally sell much cheaper to user that is actually going to use the item. Speaking of blame, I don't use bots but I do use automation. The pot calling the kettle black I suppose. I just wouldn't play neo without all of my QoL script haha

[infestedvirus]

Same with the shop wiz. Always same users buying same items... only to sell them 1np more in their shop (so, up to a number the bots buys x item and then sells in shop).
But we cant complain, can we ?

[Meepit]

Everyone is hiding from that bullshit lol. I bet a lot of people just wont even deal with high end stuff onsite anymore and just focus on something else instead because its a headache. I hate going to the tp for shit, I mostly snag things from auctions once in a while instead. I bought shit here, I literally spent money to not have to interact with people on the tp despite having the np.

[DarkSkies]

Thanks! I'm enjoying my time here

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That's an interesting perspective. Thanks for the input. Seems you like feel that it was inevitable

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I don't like selling to resellers or false inflators either. I will normally sell much cheaper to user that is actually going to use the item. Speaking of blame, I don't use bots but I do use automation. The pot calling the kettle black I suppose. I just wouldn't play neo without all of my QoL script haha

Nah it's okay. My comment was more directed to the people on social media screaming and bleeding that they're 10000 legits and bots ruin their life. It's a different thing to say No to avoid reporting than being a drama queen everywhere.

I'm also all for QoL scripts

In my personal experience, I don't have much time or will to interact on the site. And it's also the fact that interaction level changes from one to another.

I've found kind and helpful sellers and also short and cold ones haha

[Junellie]

TP can get super frustrating, for sure.

I was on the other side of that just a few weeks ago, where I was trying to sell two MPs I got from rare events. Due to personal preference, I don't like dealing with Baby PBs, so I specified PURE in the lot description and said Neomail to offer.

The number of people who ignored that and offered Baby PBs plus a bit of NP without bothering to shoot me a NM, and then got offended when I rejected their offers...

One person made the offer SEVERAL times, and after the third or so time sent me a very angry message telling me I was a horrible person for not accepting their generous offer.

Another person messaged me a bunch of times after I rejected them, trying to argue their case. My good sir, arguing with me is sure as heck not going to make me change my mind and sell to you.

In the end, one of the MPs I sold at a 1m discount to a polite person who didn't have as much as I was asking for in their bank but could actually follow instructions and was undemanding about it. The other one I released it in a giveaway here.


I'd rather they go to people who are nice than make more money selling to rude people who can't read.