New Site Layout Split #3

[ahoteinrun]

27th April

* SITE UPDATE! - Okay, so the Meepit from yesterday was just a diversion tactic. Truth is, as you might have already gathered by the new surroundings, Neopets has gotten a HUGE facelift and we didn't want to let the Kadoatie out of the bag too early.

Here's a bit of info on the big changes... as much info as we could fit in New Features, anyway.

Site Layout
Neopets has gotten a whole new look (while keeping our famous eye-popping yellow, of course)! We've cleaned up, re-coded, and generally gotten out of the 90's. Hooray!

We've streamlined the navigation and added short cuts to some of the most visited places in each section. Don't be discouraged if you get lost while looking for your favourite pages or activities. (It took most of us a bit of time to get used to it, too.) If you're ever stuck, look for this graphic: Clicking on this will take you to our FAQ section, and that should help you find your way again!

More Info: (a bunch of links to FAQ sections)

Customise Your Neopets!
Ever since we started Neopets, the requests to dress and accessorise your Neopets have only increased. We've always said we'd never do it because of the work load, but we're allowed to change our minds and work ourselves to death if we want! As such, you can now dress and accessorise your Neopets with items you find around the site!

You can start by visiting Quick Ref and clicking on the "Customise" button. There are too many new features to explain here, so be sure to read the FAQs and the tutorial!

We've had to update some of the Neopets art to make them compatible with the customise system. In cases where we felt the change was very drastic, we've added the option to choose. If you and your Neopet are eligible for that option, you'll see a "Convert this Neopet!" link on Quick Ref. Click that for more information.

We would also like to mention that if you aren't happy with the change to any of your Neopets, don't go hunting for a morphing potion just yet! You may find justice early next week. If in the meantime you need to get out some anger or aggression, may we suggest playing a round or two of Whack-A-Staff-Member?

More Info: (a bunch of links to FAQ sections)

Beta Beta Beta!
To be honest, the site is HUGE and there are many, many more pages to update, so we're not nearly done. Expect more updates, and don't be surprised to see some strange occurances here and there. Please report any bugs so we can get them fixed right away!

All this will take some getting used to, we know... especially if you're a long-time user, but don't be afraid to jump in. We think these changes make Neopets even better, so we really hope you enjoy them, too!

We'll return to our regularly scheduled New Features tomorrow!


* Oh, right... we're also launching a new game today - just in case all this new stuff doesn't cure your boredom. We thought ahead.

Here's the FAQ page they set up about the changes: http://www.neopets.com/s/index.phtml?cat_id=50

A few things Neopets seems to have missed:
- If you have to side-scroll, change your resolution to 1024x768. Everything will seem to look smaller, but everyone has been switching to it anyway. See the trends here: http://www.pcpitstop.com/research/vidres.asp
- Premium needs 1280x1024 to get usage of both sidebars in the site-in-portal feature. (As of right now, 1 PM NST April 26, it's still buggy, though.)
- Sidebar themes are now just site themes (or "top-bar" themes, if you'd rather.)
- The primary-colors Games Room has been taken out.
- As was noted in the news, some drastically-changed Neopets have the option of keeping the old look - but only some.

Play nice kiddo's (and not so kiddo's), i'm tired today and you don't want to mess with me. (<- this is not a joke).

[anjuna]

(Referring to the last posts in the last thread...)

Thanks, vivian58. Keep on posting all other useful codes.

bgryph, no worries about 'easy linking' as that is what I use my bookmarks/favorites for. I can simply make a quick link to quickref.

I want all this gone so badly I am almost willing to learn CSS from scratch.

[Ange]

I, too, will have to brush up on my css if this doesn't improve. I did know quite a bit of it at one time, but never used it and forgot it all.

[Kittygirl123]

*sigh* I've decited not to get onto Neopets untill monday. Maybe they will have fixed it by then.

I was thinking about how they moved everything around and overloaded our eyes on the homepage. Well, Neopia is like the equivilent of Earth in real life I suppose.

What if Earth suddenly reduced in size without warning, but nothing actually left the Earth. I wouldn't be surprized if we were all crashing into trees that wern't there the day before or getting lost on the way to our room. (Not to mention our cats suddenly have really long eylashes and evil creatures of the night look like teddy bears) But we don't have to worry about that, because it will never happen... in real life.

*Sighs again* I've been sighing alot lately.

[anjuna]

I just wanted to express my disdain in a few emoticons:



Since it is more 'fun' than actually playing on Neopets now.

EDIT: Oh yeah, I forgot this one -- -- bye Neopets.com

[Nefasturris]

If I were you, I wouldn't block too much of the new layout. Since it will definitely make the site load for you faster now TNT might say its an advantage. They might also say "You can block ads, but not (insert thing here)"

I'd wait until they say one way or another before blocking too much.

[anjuna]

I am pretty much at the point that I almost don't care. I don't restock so there is no advantage to me surfing the site faster. I am sick of the 'unfair advantage' argument anyway. I'll say this: Lawyerbot isn't prepared.

I wonder if 100,000 of these would help?

EDIT: TNT is really screwed if they cease to value mass user input. They really ARE going to need more ads than ever to make up for this. Less users and more ads deter more users. It is simple economics people!

Once again I can't imagine who in the world decided this would be BETTER for business. Just look at the decline over the years! Someone is not making the right decisions. And changing managers every couple of years is not the solution.

It is very much similar to many bureaucratic processes. In which perhaps you 'apply' for something, filling out much paperwork, only for your 'case' to be handed down to several people in a line of command, and each next person has no clue as to the extent of the situation. They are simply handed some 'stats' and handed some protocol and told to 'do the job.'

Life, and yes even business, is not efficiently handled in this way. People's 'feelings' are forgotten and ignored, and then Neopets 'wonders' why they have so many less page hits than 'before'. No mystery to me.

Sure it may be quite a bit more 'work' to consider user responses and adapt to that, but that is how you keep loyal customers. That is how you secure a business to be successful in the future.

The very fact that we no longer have any say in choosing our gameplaying experience shows just how 'impersonal' the 'bureau-crazy' has become. If we even knew the name of the best person to write to about our concerns, that person would be so alert to the information, I would hope they would consider that very very seriously and just submit to us. To us, to the people that keep them IN business. They are 'anonymous' to us for a reason, just as we are anonymous to them.

[AySz88]

Well, thanks to the comparison with the ice cream Lutari in the last split, I think I know exactly what's wrong - it's missing fur tufts! The whole chest area looks so strange without them. I suppose it might be to accommodate clothing. Are all the pets suffering from this to some degree?

Moongewl: Well, 1024x768 and greater is more than the majority, so they are still within the vast majority's usability range. and 1280x1024 (or 1280x800 in your case) is the new Premium resolution (with the additional two sidebars to the side).

[Ange]

The Kyrii is missing fur tufts. It got all smooth-ified, like it's meant to be in a coloring book for 4-year-olds.

[Matrinka]

Well, thanks to the comparison with the ice cream Lutari in the last split, I think I know exactly what's wrong - it's missing fur tufts! The whole chest area looks so strange without them. I suppose it might be to accommodate clothing. Are all the pets suffering from this to some degree?

Its not only the fur tufts... the neck looks thicker, the hips look thinner, and the head is MUCH boxier. The eyes in the new cap are squared off -- the whole redraw looks much more squared off than the previous renderings. Not only that, the fur color variations are more gentle - not jagged at all. It looks like someone tried to baby-proof the lutari.

[Mongrel]

Yeah, but my point was that they didn't really utilize a whole lot more space for me on 1280 and up, so the only ones who really benefited were the 1024 people, while the 10% of us still on 800 are at a real disadvantage and most of those who don't change their resolutions will probably not stay on the site. Basically they're shutting out a tenth of all computer users.

[Meer]

AAAAHHHHHHHHH

....sorry, I just had to vent my frustration. I hate this so much, that's really all I can say at the moment.

I suppose I could get used to the new layout, but what I really hate it the complete demolishing of my lovely lookup, and the redraws of the pets taking over! Aggrrrr now all those lovely old redraws like faerie and mutant are ruined by cookie cutter poses. And our pets never get angry or sad and no more battle dome poses!

(I'm sure I'm just going over the same ground that'd been whined about before, but I just don't have the heart to read all the splits right now, I'm too bummed out)

[AySz88]

Oh, I'd completely forgotten about that. What's up with the missing happy/sad/angry poses? One of the lamer things that occurred with this; I hope they just forgot it or will fix it.... :/

[mercurius]

I just can't get over the raised fists!!! everything else I can handle but all the neopets look like cardboard cutouts standing in the same pose

[bean_jean]

The Kyrii is missing fur tufts. It got all smooth-ified, like it's meant to be in a coloring book for 4-year-olds.

Yeah my Island Kyrii has lost his mojo.

http://www.neopets.com/petlookup.phtml? ... lgorbachev