The Neopian Times Editorial Thread

[Lyrichord]

Editorial January 13th 2023

Hey TNT! As a kid, I loved the Neopets TCG. But when I moved, somehow my cards went missing (though my mom is looking suspicious) Is there any chance you would re-release card packs? Hope your day is just dandy! ~puter809
Oh no, so sorry to hear about your cards going missing! Although we currently do not have any plans to re-release card packs, you might be excited to hear that we are working on an entirely new line of Neopets collectible trading cards with the Upper Deck Company! This new trading card collection is slated for release in late summer of this year, so be sure to keep an eye out! ~~Aesop

Hi TNT! I love the new skater wearables from trudy's surprise, any chance we can get a wearable skateboard to go with them? We needs some wheels for that sick skatepark! ~keng200
Hello! So glad you’re enjoying the prizes! A skateboard WOULD be a great addition… Love the idea and we’ll try and roll one out soon x) Thanks! ~~Miss Rainbow

TNT! What a wonderful advent calendar, it kept me exciting and coming back daily, I had SO much fun. And you finished it off in the perfect way- a new exciting site theme! I was really excited to use it, but when I went to my userlookup, I see my site themes didn't go up a number. I was excited to finally hit 25! Is this something that can be fixed? ~slipperoux
HELLO! A great question. We took a look into it and we saw that all counts appeared correct. If you see any other issues regarding this, please submit a ticket to our support staff. ~~Yarner

Hello TNT. Could you please change the name of the item "Sticks N Stones" to "Sticks N Stones Speaker"? It's rather confusing as it is right now. Us rock and roll fans will greatly appreciate it. Thanks a lot! ~chasingshadow
Thank you so much for reaching out with that superb suggestion! The team agreed that the item name could certainly be confusing, so we changed the name to read "Sticks N Stones Speaker" instead. Rock on! ~~Aesop

Hi, TNT! I have a question for Kikocat, if possible. Each time a new art gallery gets posted, I see several artists posting beautiful pieces on social media that they submitted but that was not chosen. It just breaks my heart to see all that effort not recognized on site! Could we possibly have bigger art galleries, like, two pages at least for each special day? Adding more paint brushes to the economy would help with the ongoing inflation, too. Thank you for considering this request. ~swordlilly
Hi, kikocat here! I can try to do two pages for each gallery when we do get more entries. The system makes me have 12 entries on a page before I can submit it to the site so some days we don't have enough for the 24 slots but if we do have that many then of course!! The more art highlighted on the site the better!!! ~~Kikocat

Hi, 2022's Advent Calendar gave us few nice battledome items. Roxtons Trusty Bowie Knife dealing 15 icons and blocking 75% earth (It would've been cool if it was 100% blocker or reflected) and Feeling Better Soup, Once per Battle item that heals 50% and fully blocks air, making it unique 50% healer. To be honest, when i got this, i though it was food item and not battledome item. Soup's item description is bit confusing since it says This One Use Item was given out by the Advent Calendar in Y24 When others that have used in battle says it's once per battle item. I hope item description gets fixed, saying This once per Battle item was given out by the Advent Calendar in Y24. Please don't make it one use... Anyway, Happy New Year to all TNT workers. Please don't mention my name. ~Anonymous
So happy to see how much users have been appreciating the new Battledome items that we released during the Advent Calendar! As for the Feel Better Soup, you are correct that this weapon was intended to be once per battle, and our team can definitely see how the item description is causing confusion. We went in and updated the item description to better reflect that it can be used once per battle. Thank you for bringing this to our attention so that we can cut down on any future confusion, and have a Happy New Year! ~~Aesop

Hi TNT! *tosses edible cookie dough - no really, it's delicious!* I was discussing the "no romance" rule with a friend recently, and we were both a pretty confused with how it's worded in the official rules vs. in editorials. The rules only say no "sexual content", which is an entirely separate concept from romance (see: asexuality, which we're allowed to mention now!). Just the concept of people dating/being married/having romantic relationships is child-friendly, and kids see it happen in the real world all the time. Under the wording in the official rules, it looks like I could mention two pets/characters as "dating" (or "married", or "together") without any issue, but I know from past editorials that this isn't true at all! Could you either update the wording in the rules to make it clearer, or change the policy to allow casual and chaste mentions of romance with no sexual content? Thank you! Please remove my username. ~Anoynmous
This is a tough one! You can, of course, mention if your pet is married, dating or in a relationship. However, you couldn't go into details about that relationship in detail or be out looking for a relationship with other pets. ~~Kikocat

HAPPY THOUGHTS

I just wanted to tell you, that I like that you release other items on pets days now. I am really looking forward to see what items get released besides clothing. ~padxe

TNT, Thank you for an AMAZING Advent Calendar this year. It made playing 10x better this season. I appreciate all the fun gifts as well as really hard to get/expensive/rare items. Plus the new one are really fun! Thanks again for the fun times this season and look forward to more fun shenanigans! ~reignoftheman2

The Advent Calendar was absolutely incredible, THANK YOU SO MUCH!! ~crazydinosaur

Hi TNT, Thank you so much for the amazing prizes this Advent Calendar!!! It was amazing to receive such rare items and to hear you taking on board the complaints of users regarding rare items being hard to obtain! Thank you again ~rainbowflower_

Hi TNT! Thanks for the wonderful gifts in the advent calendar this year. I jumped back into playing just for AC, and now I'm fully addicted again like when I was 10 (I'm 29 now). -no tags here-3

I just wanted to drop TNT a note to say thank you so much for this years Advent Calendar. You guys really pulled it out of the bag with the prizes. I have only recently come back to Neopets this year, and this has given me a reason to keep logging on daily. Appreciate the effort the team put in, and I'm looking forward to what's to come in the future! Take care and I hope you all had an amazing Christmas and a Happy New Year! ~paulah2004

Happy new year! I just want to say thank you to as much of the staff as I can. In recent years I've felt like the site was becoming a relic, and had pretty much written it off entirely as more and more functionality was lost (flash). Felt like watching a pet you love slowly succumb to old age. I'm so glad I listened to my best friends and checked in on things recently...the passion the staff has for the site and the users is astonishing! I'm so excited to login every day again now! I'm just beyond words with joy and appreciation for all the work you're doing and continuing to do. I've re-subbed to premium after cancelling 2 or 3 years ago because I'm just so eager to support y'all. I can't wait to see what comes next!! Pls don't publish this because I'd die of embarrassment lmbo but THANK YOU ALL FOR YOUR DEDICATION AND ENERGY it's definitely shining through in every aspect of the site ~faeishh

The new maps are so beautiful!!!!! They gave me the biggest hit of nostalgia at the end of an otherwise not-so-great day. Not to mention how outstanding the Advent Calendar has been this year. Seriously, thank you for all your hard work, love, and energy you pour into this community. Like so many others, Neopets is my favorite escape, and we wouldn't be able to have it without your efforts. Happy Holidays, TNT! ~neur0nerd
Thanks y’all for all that you do for us! The systems you have inherited that have changed hands through the years are so ancient, I just don’t know how the site is still running! TNT asks for our opinions now and actually implements things that we want. We are a lucky community. Certainly, things get frustrating, but y’all are doing your best and just wanted you to know that it is appreciated. ~bbgirlsmom2022

[Hall]

As expected lottsa love for the Advent Calendar. I'm actually glad to see the clarifyer on the Feeling Better Soup. I was holding on to it wondering how if/when TNT would address it's description VS actual usage.

[Buizel]

Yikes, I wonder if the BD chat is upset at the item becoming one time use? They asked TNT not to make it one time and they did the exact opposite lol

But yep, kudos on the amazing Advent Calendar!

[Narkotiq]

Yikes, I wonder if the BD chat is upset at the item becoming one time use? They asked TNT not to make it one time and they did the exact opposite lol

But yep, kudos on the amazing Advent Calendar!

It's one use per battle, they just updated the description from "one time use item" to "Once per battle item", they didn't change the the function. (thank glob) I wonder if now that people know it's not going to be changed to one use only if the price will go up because people will want them and wont have to worry about them disappearing after 1 use or down because people only stocked up on them thinking they'd be changed to one use only..

I'm glad no one asked "Are you going to make the meowclops and candychan unpaintable" like they did with that one petpet from a few editorials ago. I mean i've painted most of mine already but there are still a few colors I'm considering and I definitely wouldn't want to buy an already painted one once they inflated after becoming unpaintable.

[Hall]

It's one use per battle, they just updated the description from "one time use item" to "Once per battle item", they didn't change the the function. (thank glob) I wonder if now that people know it's not going to be changed to one use only if the price will go up because people will want them and wont have to worry about them disappearing after 1 use or down because people only stocked up on them thinking they'd be changed to one use only..

I'm glad no one asked "Are you going to make the meowclops and candychan unpaintable" like they did with that one petpet from a few editorials ago. I mean i've painted most of mine already but there are still a few colors I'm considering and I definitely wouldn't want to buy an already painted one once they inflated after becoming unpaintable.

I HAATED that they made those pets unpaintable, just let the rest of us have the petpets and paint them as we want. This site is so messy as is, just let us have fun

[DrSloth]

so glad they are keeping the feel better soup as is! and happy to see so many neopians sending positive messages about the advent calendar!!!

[kittyray]

Editorial February 24th 2023

February 2023 Neopets Community Survey and GIVEAWAY!

Hello Neopians! If you haven’t already, we'd appreciate it if you could spare a few minutes to share your thoughts with us through our February 2023 Neopets Community Survey and GIVEAWAY!
Your answers will help us to understand the most important needs and wants of the Neopets community, and one lucky Neopian will win an ULTIMATE NEOPETS SWAG BAG! All you have to do to enter is complete the survey and provide your email at the end.

(you need an account to see links)

TNT Rules Reminder

As a reminder, collabs must now state what each collaborator contributed to the piece. We understand that this new rule may not have been seen by many people yet, so for this edition, we tried to be lenient on this. However, from now on if this is not included in the submission it will not be taken into consideration for publication.
For clarification, this just has to be stated in a comment when sent in. It doesn't have to be part of the piece in any way unless you would like it to be. ~~Stone

...About the Caption Contest Cheating? All Top 7 contestants are breaking the rules CLEARLY laid out HERE in Editorial #972. Art boards, Quest boards, Avatar boards, NC and Pound boards...just about every section of the Neoboards has MULTIPLE topics by EACH of the top 7 that offer votes, SSW searches, and/or rare items/pet lends in exchange for CC votes. If they are allowed to win the Gold trophy and avatar by cheating...the cheating will only continue. It is not fair to the other contestants...not fair to the contest. It is so frustrating to see the cheating ramp up again...will be doubly frustrating to see it get rewarded. Please do what you said would be done with Rule-breakers. Thank you for looking. ~fullonparanoid
Hello, we recently had a new little training session to get our moderators updated on the Caption Contest rules and make sure they are quickly caught. So in the future, any boards breaking Caption Contest rules will now be taken down appropriately and those found breaking the rules will be warned. ~~Kikocat

I recently started playing Neopets after a very long hiatus. I have been trying to collect avatars but realized a few of the stamps needed are now retired or was only released for a special event. Is there anyway of earning those retired stamps again? Example given them out as Coincidence prizes, random events, or selling them at the hidden tower? This way it would at least be possible to earn the stamp avatars. Thanks ~losbumbum
Advent Calendar gave us some excellent info on different ways we could possibly reintroduce retired stamps and other difficult if not impossible-to-attain items back into the economy so that new or returning players such as yourself have a chance to earn them. We are looking into the best ways to do so with the team now, such as having more retired items appear as possible prizes in future events. However, we are also considering ways to increase their circulation through onsite activities and shops such as the Coincidence and Hidden Tower! Please share any feedback or ideas you might have on this topic in the February 2023 Neopets Community Survey (the link to which can be found at the top of this editorial), as your input often helps us decide the best course of action! ~~Aesop

Hello! I've noticed Jhudora has a purple gruslen, but there is no purple gruslen item. could this ever be a thing? Dying to have one! ~xx_lil_billy_rox_xx
I don’t know if Jhudora would be willing to give up her unique Gruseln…but I can try talking to her about it…wish me luck ⊙﹏⊙ ~~ Stone

I see a lot of confusion on the boards about whether we can refer to the Neopets Discord, Facebook, Twitter, and the YouTube channel explicitly, even though the site links to those places. Are we allowed to discuss these platforms by name as long as our discussions are related to the site? (I.e., “Willow and Ivy posted a fun video on the Neopets YouTube”) ~encroached
Hello, Yes, that would be fine to discuss those if we have an official presence on them. However, this only applies to our pages, as we cannot allow any links to personal profiles or unofficial pages. ~~Kikocat

Hi! (offers a bowl of crunchy, orange, cheesy, puffed snacks) I think it's spiffy that you've been taking item requests here in the editorial; thanks so much! Other cooperative interactions, and overall more informative transparency on the part of TNT is SO appreciated! Apropos of nothing, do you think there would be any interest in creating a pair of Crunchy, orange, cheesy, puffed snacks Gloves, and a Crunchy, orange, cheesy, puffed snacks-smeared Shirt and/or Pants? ~velvet_paw
As a fellow lover of crunchy, orange, cheesy, puffed snacks I enjoy this idea! We will definitely take it into consideration to potentially create for a random pet day or something!! We’ve been trying to do more random drops when possible so feel free to also drop suggestions through the pet day suggestion boards! Thanks again for the snack! ~~Stone

Howdy TNT! We've recently noticed a new (ominous looking) tower pop up in Moltara. Do you or the meepits have an intel on this rather strange occurrence? Will this tower be featured or accessed soon perhaps? ~tigerium
Oh, a tower you say? How strange! Now that you mention it, I do see an unfamiliar building jutting out across the Moltara skyline... We have heard some rumblings that the influx of technological advances across Neopia has led to entirely new businesses and corporations sprouting up all over the globe. Perhaps this new high-rise is connected? Whatever the case, I hope we are lucky enough to get a peek inside soon. Maybe even sometime this year... ~~Aesop

can u pls make more 8bit backgrounds for 8bit pets. ~frozen_boi
Our 8-Bit friends definitely need more customization options! We will for sure look into making some fun backgrounds for them to frolic in! ~~Stone

Hello! There has been a lot of discussions about it lately, so I was wondering if we could possibly get an update to the Beauty Contest Rules. Right now, if a picture wins gold, it cannot be reused. Would it be possible to update this rule so that once a picture wins a trophy at all it cannot be reused? I think this would inspire even more creativity in a creative contest, and I've seen many others say the same. Please remove my username. ~Anonymous
Hi, This can certainly be something brought up within the Content Department but it wouldn't be something we would just do without announcing first. ~~Kikocat

Hello! In light of last Editorial, I was wondering if you could please further explain comic series submissions and publication. Should one still submit every part at once, or do we need to submit one part at a time before each issue? And why might they not have guaranteed sequential publication like written series? Is it to do with the submission form, or do themed entries take precedent over a regular comic series? Between the biweekly publications and number of themed issues these days, I've only managed to get four comics in my series published these past six months. There's been little precedent for this publishing style with comic series before, and it just feels like there's not much incentive to submit them now. I was hoping we could at least get more insight as to why this has changed, or if there was any way to reconsider this rule change. Thank you. ~twillieblossom
It is best to submit one part at a time so that the submission portal doesn’t get too clogged up resulting in possibly losing submissions.

This is not to say that comic or non-series writing parts won’t make publication. It is just that they are not guaranteed continuous publication one right after the other. So unlike series, if a themed or special issue happens a comic series won’t necessarily make it into that edition as themed entries will take precedence. If you would like the highest chance of making an entry into one of those issues, it’s best to craft a submission specifically tailored towards that issue. It’s not that they can’t make it in, just that they likely won’t if there are lots of entries that other users worked hard on to fit with the theme or holiday. But once the special issue is over the comic series could continue as long as it continues to meet qualifications.

We enjoy comic series and want to see them continued, but this is mainly to state that we cannot guarantee that because one part of the comic was accepted that the rest will automatically be accepted as well and that there may be breaks between when the next part may be accepted and continued. But as long as the series keeps meeting qualifications, we will do our best to continue featuring users' great work! ~~ Stone

HAPPY THOUGHTS

I just wanted to say thank you to TNT for introducing new wigs that represent more diverse hair textures and styles! It's refreshing to see culturally diverse hair represented in such a beautiful way. I'm excited to incorporate these styles into my pets' customisations. ~lovelygal247

Hello TNT, Just popping in after a long hiatus from Neopets to say thank you. I first joined this community when I was about nine years old, and as a very, very young writer, getting published in the Neopian Times was such a huge confidence boost. It's been over ten years since then. I'm still writing, and still incredibly grateful for a site where I could begin to hone my skills. Mr. Coconut says goodnight! ~millenarianhappiness

[Lyrichord]

Hello! There has been a lot of discussions about it lately, so I was wondering if we could possibly get an update to the Beauty Contest Rules. Right now, if a picture wins gold, it cannot be reused. Would it be possible to update this rule so that once a picture wins a trophy at all it cannot be reused? I think this would inspire even more creativity in a creative contest, and I've seen many others say the same. Please remove my username. ~Anonymous

Hi, This can certainly be something brought up within the Content Department but it wouldn't be something we would just do without announcing first. ~~Kikocat

I can guess why this was asked but I'm not sure if I'm entirely on board? There's way less art and fewer voters than there were even 5 years ago. It seems like even more work for the contest judge.

...About the Caption Contest Cheating? All Top 7 contestants are breaking the rules CLEARLY laid out HERE in Editorial #972. Art boards, Quest boards, Avatar boards, NC and Pound boards...just about every section of the Neoboards has MULTIPLE topics by EACH of the top 7 that offer votes, SSW searches, and/or rare items/pet lends in exchange for CC votes. If they are allowed to win the Gold trophy and avatar by cheating...the cheating will only continue. It is not fair to the other contestants...not fair to the contest. It is so frustrating to see the cheating ramp up again...will be doubly frustrating to see it get rewarded. Please do what you said would be done with Rule-breakers. Thank you for looking. ~fullonparanoid

Hello, we recently had a new little training session to get our moderators updated on the Caption Contest rules and make sure they are quickly caught. So in the future, any boards breaking Caption Contest rules will now be taken down appropriately and those found breaking the rules will be warned. ~~Kikocat

Things that got under my skin today: that question. So where is it permissible to try to get that avatar? The quest boards are still full of Beauty Contest entries. Maybe if they did away with the voting every 4 hours thing it'd be less of an issue. There's only so many active players. Iirc the contest period is at least shorter now.

I hadn't noticed the (you need an account to see links) yet! Interesting!

[samsepiol]

Umm, the new tower in Moltara?? Is this a PLOT in the works??

[Buizel]

I'm glad that this editorial actually addresses some concerns on site, like how some of these contests are run, over wasting space with "questions" that are just correcting an item's name.