[GUIDE] Anonymity - Smoke and Mirrors to Keep Your Account Safe
Everyone knows the basics of keeping their account from being frozen when dealing in illicit means of getting Neopoints, items, pets, or whatever else on Neopets. But what a lot of people don't seem to realize is that keeping yourself safe from TNT's icy hand goes well beyond using programs, proxies, and well-managed shell accounts.
This guide is mostly a small list of tips and tricks I've picked up over the last two decades. Trial and error as well as multiple lost accounts from making or witnessing silly mistakes have caused me to change how I think about cheating on Neopets as a whole, and I hope my experiences at least give you an idea of what you can do to keep yourselves from being frozen in the future and beyond. While some of these guidelines may seem obvious to most of you, I'm hoping to help those who haven't quite shored up their defenses just yet.
You see, the problem with getting frozen more often than not isn't just failure to dodge TNT. It's failure to dodge the nosy, report-happy sorts of people that dwell in every part of the site itself. Those with more time on their hands than they know what to do with, and those who couldn't mind their own business if it meant life or death. Other users are your biggest obstacle, and they likely always will be.
I'll be the first to tell you to avoid the Neoboards and even guilds at all cost, as your social presence in such an environment makes you an easy target for anyone to start poking around a little closer than is comfortable. But if you're the type who just can't avoid such situations, the following guidelines may help further mask your identity.
Okay, this last bit may seem a bit on the anal side, but it is always better to be safe than sorry. I have personally seen one person get slammed on another forum years ago for one of the following, and they felt like an idiot once I pointed out the connection.
I employ the above strategies myself and I can say with relative confidence that when combined with smart cheating outlined in other guides, they definitely help cover your butt in the event someone decides to take a closer look at you or your account.
Love the guide, @(you need an account to see links)! Just so everyone is aware, clraik has had referrer blocking enabled on our links since day one. The anonymous redirecting pages were for added protection, but they weren't ultimately necessary. rel="nofollow" has been around since the mid 2000s, and has been respected by browsers as an anti-tracking feature for just as long.
This is such a great guide, better safe than sorry forever!
Actually i bet many novice do commit some of these errors; it was a topic once because of art shared, if your style it's too unique or you don't accomodate it, it could lead to others identifying you too
León the Lion Ryu, the "Board Games hoarder"
Born || 2020~11~15
Thank you for the guide, it will act as a great refresher to revisit every once and a while
One thing I would like to note too, if it is okay, is that you should always be mindful of what you are sharing FROM cK... never send screenshots of the forum (this is a gimme) or pictures/screenshots from users here in to your general Discord chats or other locations. :o If someone posts a screenshot of something that happened on the boards or a meme they made specifically for UYS and you share it to a Discord server, people in that server who may also be on cK will be likely to recognize it...
Another thing I have noticed a few times is people posting on cK that they are seeking a very specific type of pet (and perhaps offering another very specific pet in exchange), but also having a Neopets topic up at the same time asking for the same type of trade.
Thanks again for putting your time in to this
userbar by lyrichord and drawings by wooloo, hollow, honeycomb, & sugarbee, respectively
thank you all!
happy happy SUMMER
Love the guide, @(you need an account to see links)! Just so everyone is aware, clraik has had referrer blocking enabled on our links since day one. The anonymous redirecting pages were for added protection, but they weren't ultimately necessary. rel="nofollow" has been around since the mid 2000s, and has been respected by browsers as an anti-tracking feature for just as long.
Oh! That's super wonderful to know! My previous stamping grounds had something similar put up as well, and that's what gave me the idea to include that little blurb, since their refer-blocking was a lot more obvious. (It took you to a secondary screen before spitting you out where you intended to go.) I'm super glad we've got that extra layer of protection here.
Originally Posted by Ghast
One thing I would like to note too, if it is okay, is that you should always be mindful of what you are sharing FROM cK... never send screenshots of the forum (this is a gimme) or pictures/screenshots from users here in to your general Discord chats or other locations. :o If someone posts a screenshot of something that happened on the boards or a meme they made specifically for UYS and you share it to a Discord server, people in that server who may also be on cK will be likely to recognize it...
Another thing I have noticed a few times is people posting on cK that they are seeking a very specific type of pet (and perhaps offering another very specific pet in exchange), but also having a Neopets topic up at the same time asking for the same type of trade.
Yes, great points as well! While we do have some public forums that looky-loos can access, sharing anything from the more private sections or even the Discord is a good way to get yourself nailed. xD
And yeeeah. UC trading is especially dangerous because of bits and pieces like that. I may amend the guide to include both above points as things to avoid, if it's all right.