Who or what about clraik do you like or appreciate?

[kittyray]

After thinking over my reply in the neopets appreciation thread, gonna Be The Change after all. Feelin' kind of groovy tonight, so figure I'd encourage us to spread some joy as we hit the home stretch (is it too early to call it that) of this weird, weird year we've collectively had and journey onwards into whatever the next one throws at us.

[ID: gif from Mean Girls of the girl saying "I wish I could bake a cake made out of rainbows and smiles, and we�d all eat it and be happy."]

But yeah, shout things out, shout people out, idk whatever!

To start off I'm gonna say:

1. The community. I've been active here in waves, but I've made some really great friends this time around and it brought me a lot during solo-lockown and The Everything this year. I don't want to name individuals and accidentally leave somebody out, but whether it's a fleeting passive interaction on a random thread or we blow up each other's notifications on the daily, I'm incredibly grateful for it!

2. How much it's inspired me and pushed me creatively. Starting off with the emoji contest and the art challenge, and then the utter chaos, semi-masochistic dedication to Defenders of cK. And then just doing stuff on my own. Plus the random side projects inspired by things here for the purpose of sharing here, encouragement to write scripts despite not totally being my wheelhouse (even if the only one I've posted was a shitpost buried in the charity corner thread), motivating me to share things even if it isn't perfect.

123go

[Digipoop]

Lovely thread, @(you need an account to see links) ! I can't wait to read through the wonderful fluff to come *__* I'm drained for words atm so my answer will be short but no less sincere:


1. Mature community. I don't want to chat on neopets. I don't want to chat on reddit or discord. I want to chat with experienced neo players who know what they are doing and are not report-happy. I don't want anybody judging me and trying to figure out if I'm doing something wrong.

2. I miss forums in general. There's so much you don't notice about a forum account (compared to soc media) in terms of customization and convenience until you spend some time not using one (don't know if that sentence made sense, I mean by it that forums feel more personal somehow). It's also very fun slowly building your account, not to mention getting to know the people. What attracted me initially to try this place out were the userbars, I think it's a great idea to have them, again for reasons of self-expression.

3. I appreciate how active the staff and experienced members are. Both in forum topics and in terms of content like forum games and competitions. Just looking back at the past few years it seems to me that there's always something fun happening and I think that is a sign of a healthy forum community and the dedication of staff to keep everyone interested. I don't think I've seen this in any other forums I've come across.

4. I'd rather get my neopets news from here where people are not afraid to be critical and objective.

5. Totally agree with the notion about clraik and boosting creativity. And the support that comes with it. I remember I posted an update on the current NaNoWriMo wordcount thread just sharing my progress and I come back the next morning to find several lines of "thank yous" from people I've never spoken to, encouraging me to move on. That was really unexpected and I felt joyful and inspired to keep going.

[Ice]

Seconding what you said! Small immediate shout outs off the top of my head. Not tagging anyone cos I'm a weenie.

PrettySarcastic for being PrettyAmazing. Being super kind and helpful and sweet to everyone but COMING FROM THE TOP ROPES WITH THE CHAIR when needed.

Bat for being a coding genius - seriously your scripts are Everything. I have not Lived before Bat's scripts.

Fanfiction for Being My Friend and all around Awesome :pleading_face:

Ariealle for being a sweetheart and putting up with/appreciating my kpop drivel. ;-;

Aero, alister, Double.Trouble, Nyanobite, Druid, Abyss basically EVERYONE who regularly contributes to UYS (actual UYS + now more regular Neopets related chatter, good and bad) for giving me Neopets tea and conversation I really can't find elsewhere. Thank you guys for pretty much always brightening my day in some way, shape or form!

[Zapdos]

Great thread idea!
I'll start the first person shoutout to both @(you need an account to see links) and @(you need an account to see links)!
Thank you both so much for helping me put together the CSS/HTML Resource thread! It's been wonderful watching it fill up with coding goodies. You guys are the best :')

Edit: LMFAO Ice beat me to the first shoutout haha

[Buizel]

Ever since I joined clraik years ago, this site has been nothing but good to me. I used to just lurk all the time since I'm extremely shy in real life, but bit by bit, I started posting and was immediately accepted into the community. I remember the days we used to TC and finally getting the courage to turn my cam on, and that was a big step for me...I can't really put it into words how happy I am/was to make friends here.

All in all, I just really appreciate how open the community is.

[TsUNaMy WaVe]

It's been a year since I came back to ck, and I'm so glad this time I actually stayed!

The community here is amazing. Everyone I've seen were always happy to help. There's always nice threads and discussions to take part in. I get all of my Neopets news and needs from here too, no other site/community needed!
I also want to add to what Digipoop said - I love forums in general. I'm so happy that ck is so active and still going. I've been in a lot of forums throughout the years and ck is definitely the one I enjoy the most and also does the best when it comes to activities and events!
Which leads me to also agree with kittyray - thanks to the activities in ck (namely the emoji contest, art challenge, defenders of ck and the recent NaNo write along) I picked up a lot of creative stuff I used to do in the past, which has been super fun so far!

[Ariealle]

Ooh this will be fun. Thank you for the thread idea.

So thankful for @(you need an account to see links) for being my first friend on here, and a wonderful one at that. Many great convos, and a little fun surprise we have been trying to conjure up. You made me feel a lot more comfortable posting as well. Thank you for your love and care, and I hope that I can return the same to you. *hugs*

@(you need an account to see links), your Twice post awakened something that I thought had disappeared. I haven't danced in 2 years to this date today. You'd have had no idea what a MV would do for someone, nor did I upon viewing it. I tell everyone about you. "omg Ice on cK posted this video about kpop and i never kpopped before but now all i wanna do is sing and dance." They look at me in confusion as I prance around to no music with a huge smile on my face. All the suggestions you have passed on have been top notch. I will listen to them all so send when your heart desires. I will keep up with you! Maybe we can debut together on cK one day. ;-;

I really appreciate the Admins and Mods. They have all been super helpful in their own way, and seeing them around, sometimes savagely, really brightens the space (even being savage. It's hilarious). So thank you for keeping the community together and thank you for being awesome. Please don't ever change.

For the conversations along the way as well, I'm grateful to have been apart of them.

PS. I love userbars. Thank you for the grand and colourful aspects on a wordy space.

[Nyanobyte]

There are a few things that just really stand out for me about Clraik!

The community! Everyone here is just so nice and encouraging. Not only that but we all stick together and I find that sense of camaraderie overwhelmingly positive. We can go from bashing Tony P on the UYS to lifting up someone in need on the Help forum and something about that just feels special. There is an unspoken bond here that’s simply unmatched.

How creative and talented everyone is! No matter what your craft is, be it art, writing, coding, botany, cooking, there is someone here ready to encourage your growth and guide you in the right direction. The level of skill and creativity on this forum is through the roof.

Staff/Admin/Mods are top notch. Kind, intelligent, and fair would be an understatement. It's so important to have a strong leadership in a community of this size and ya’ll absolutely crush it. We are all so lucky to have you<3

YOU. You reading this. The active daily people here, you make my day -everyday- and its always a pleasure to be here with you all. It would take me ages to name everybody, but there has not been one person on here that I have interacted with that didn’t make me smile (or snort laugh on the UYS thread). You're all the best!

[Aero]

Yesss, thank you for the thread @(you need an account to see links)!

Already mentioned some of this in the appreciation thread in Neo Chat, but I love how chill people are here! Maybe it's because most of us are all lowkey illegit in some way, but I love how there's no judgement about how anyone wants to play- AB, score sending, UC/NC, or even legit. I love that CK dishes out the real talk when it comes to stupid stuff on the PC, ArC, NCC, etc- I feel like the players here are all way more mature than whatever goes on onsite, which is shocking to me because I'm pretty sure most people playing Neopets are at least 18+ now. I love that thanks to CK I'm now able to recognize mostly who is bad news on the PC L O L.

Also shoutout to @(you need an account to see links) who always encourages my bad ideas and responds to me (real PC housewives tho???) and @(you need an account to see links) for randomly sending me rep one day on a Dune trailer thread around when I first joined, which was kinda the start of me really enjoying being around here because it felt so welcoming! And also everyone else who posts regularly on the UYS thread like Ice said. You all send me. <3 AND THE MEMES THREAD I sometimes will just go through it and cackle.

[Crow]

Firstly, I'm thankful for the site in general. It's really my go-to for any issues I have, in Neopets or in real life. I often feel like I can trust personal things with you guys and you always deliver!

Also, site events are super fun! I especially loved the Secret Santa during Christmas last year. I hope something like that happens again. I don't participate in most of the events ya'll have but it's always exciting to see them around nonetheless.

Shoutout to @(you need an account to see links) who seems to be always doing stuff for the community! Also I will forever love my lil icon from you!!

Shoutout to @(you need an account to see links) for my super cool userbar! It's just so fantastic, I LOVE IT!

Shoutout to @(you need an account to see links) who welcomed me a lot when I came back from a very long hiatus. You're a cool person!

Shoutout to @(you need an account to see links) who was friendly to me both on Neopets and here on clraik. You're also just a pretty chill person overall from what I can see.

Shoutout to @(you need an account to see links) who has a refreshing perspective and is easy to talk to. ^^