Weekly News Thread: May 13 - May 19

[bettywales]

13th May - Tyrannian Victory Day

* If your Neopet is feeling hungry you might want to drop by the Tyrannian Food Shop to pick up one of these hearty meals!


* There is a new page of Poems for you to read.

* Remember your trip to the Giant Omelette with a background from Mystical Surroundings.


Mmmm.... yummy omelette!

* The winner of this week's Minigolf Spotlight is Ucecilia_girl with their rather unusual course - it's a jungle out th.

* UGGG... Buddy Icons are good.


* There is a new page of Tyrannian themed art in the Gallery.


* Keep your Neopets entertained with these super fun Tyrannian-themed Toys!


* Congratulations go out to TigerLilY5258 and yoyo89yoyo! Each has proven spiffier than the rest in the Customisation Spotlight. Voting for this week's contest has begun. Good luck to this week's entrants!


* A new Story Telling competition has begun.

Enec gazed down at the rolling green fields below him, starred here and there with spring flowers. From that height, he could see the rippling movement the wind made in the grass, making the countryside look like the back of a giant green Snowbunny being stroked by an invisible hand. Meridell. The kingdom that had stolen his land's birthright and left them floating high above the countryside, forever in darkness.

* Can you think of anything witty for our latest Caption Contest?


* The last Pet Spotlight award of the week has been given to a Moehog called Ruhihana.

* Awww... now those are some cute Tyrannian coloured Petpets!

[bettywales]

14th May - Moehog Day

* Moehogs might start reciting poetry when they see the new Moehog Clothes.





Thou art as fair as a flower.

* konayukii wins the User Lookup of the Week award.

* You might want to use this new Moehog Background, which is now available for use on your desktop.


* ~All things Moehog~ is quite the Moehog Gallery Spotlight, don't you think? Congratulations to unster143.

* Moehogs will be looking quite spiffy after using these new Grooming items.


* There is a new Mystery Pic competition. The answer to the last one was Ruki - Island Relaxing Shopkeeper. 159 people guessed correctly, earning them 12,579 NP each.

* Who said that Moehogs don't have Fun?




* Moehogs can now be painted Snot or Starry at theRainbow Pool!


* Cap'n Threelegs is giving out free training to all Moehogs on Moehog Day!

* These tasty Moehog cookies are a wonderful treat from the Bakery.


* Congratulations to anime6997, winner of the latest Meridell Castle Spotlight award!

* Last, but certainly not least, the Art Gallery has a brand new page of Moehog art on display.

[eilu]

Loving the Charlotte's web reference.

[bettywales]

15th May

* The Bakery has some tasty new crepes for you to buy.


* Today's Site Spotlight award goes to lauziloges and Cultured for their website - The Cultured Guide to Netiquette.

* This week's PPL award has been given to the Woolypapith. Well done Beast, Billy, Frank, Lisseth, and all the others.


* Today's Better Than You features Cylara!

* Add a little music to your life with one of these new Darigan instruments from the Neopian Music Shop.


* If you want a chance to have your videos viewed by others on Neopets why not submita video for our sponsor contest?


* There are four new Shopkeepers to choose from for your shop!




* A new Lenny Conundrum competition has begun. The answer to last week's was juice. 3477 people guessed the correct answer earning themselves 576 NP each.

* If you are feeling a bit warm you might want to cool off in the shade and colour one of these new Maraquan Colouring Pages.


* Dare ye try yer hand at pattygame's Pirate Cave Of The Week?

* Make sure you don't eat these new pizza-themed School Supplies.

[bettywales]

16th May

* To start off the day there have been some fun candy buttons added to the Chocolate Factory.


* A new page of Poems is available for you to read. Congratulations to the selected writers.

* There is a new Tiled Background for you to use on your webpage.


* Aww, we thought we were going to stump you with this last Mystery Pic , but you guys still figured it out! Oh well. Congratulations to the 138 winners who won 14,493 NP each!

* The Trunkard can now be painted Blue, Pink, Green and Red at the Petpet Puddle!


* Neopets Series 2 collector plush and Series 1 collector figures are now available at Target stores in the US. Every product comes with a virtual prize code and you may even get a special Key Quest bonus item! Click here for more information.


* emmpathy and their pets are opening their neohome at 14598 Fire Faerie Crescent, Faerieland, because they've just won the Neohome Spotlightaward!

* A Neopet with rather unique skills seems to be spotlighted in our latest Caption Contest.


* Today's Petpet Spotlight goes to a Tyrannian Bearog called Jobill.

* Say Hi to your friends and family with these fun greetings from the Gift Shop.

[May]

17th and 18th May

* The newest issue of the Neopian Times has been released! Keep your eyes open for great stories and adventures like The Pound Updated-Shaking our Society's Foundations and Ten Minutes Until Sundown.



* This week's Neoadventure Spotlight goes to betjwint for How to use the Neodaq.

"This guide is to help teach you how to use Neopet's Stock Market to help your Neopoints fund grow more quickly! Time to get on your way to becoming an Elite Neopian broker!"

* These new glittery combs from the Grooming Parlour are sure to make grooming more fun!



* A new Random Contest has begun! Good luck to all the entrants, and congratulations to last week's winners.

* It is time for Fun in the sun!




* The next round of the Beauty Contest is about to begin! Head on over and vote for your favourite.

* Mmmm... the Plushie Palace has some tasty looking new plushies!



* The latest videos are out and ready for you to view on Neovision! Why not take a look at some of these great videos like A day on the fields or The Dairigan paintbrush. Congratulations to the winners!



If you want a chance to have your videos viewed by others on Neopets why not submit them?

* Roo Island fans might appreciate a few new Buddy Icons to use while chatting with friends.



* This week's Faerie Caves Spotlight goes to omgarthas for their level - Arkamonds Lair.

* These Erasers might smell good, but they don't taste very good.



* If you are looking for a new game to play you might try our latest sponsor game - Line of Respect.



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Neopian Times Editorial

I've seen a few instances on the board lately where someone who stole someone's account asked for the remmact link or tried to get frozen by using... bad words. Is there a way to report these people without freezing the account? I don't think it's fair to the people who got scammed, so I don't report these types of problems. ~felicity437
Please report accounts that have been accessed by someone other than the actual owner! You're doing them a favour. The best way to protect an account that has been stolen is by having it frozen. Once an account is frozen, the thief can no longer bring further harm to the account. The actual owner can then write in to support to reclaim their account. So please, report what's going on if you see any account that this is happening to. If the thief is already trying to deactivate the account then it may already be cleared out, but reporting still helps us to get the account back to the true owner.

I hate it when Person A says "I'm reporting you" to Person B because Person B adopted Person A's Neopet from the Pound (or some other event that may be disappointing but is still totally within the rules)! However, supposing that Person A were to go through with a report like that - does TNT send warnings for clogging up the system with false reports like that, or do you just laugh? Please don't print my name, and thanks for all your hard work! ~[username removed]
Sending false reports can get a player into trouble, especially when that player understands that the other person has not done anything wrong, and that revenge is really what they seek. Neopets in the Pound are fair game for anyone to adopt.

Here is my question: I sometimes go to shops that have banners saying things like "I am a Fire Faerie! Click here to see what kind of faerie you are!" or "I am a Cybunny! What kind of Neopet are you? Click here to find out!" When I click on the banner, it takes me to a Petpage. The Petpage isn't customised, though! There's nothing on there! It's just a generic Mynci page or a Uni page with no edits! On one occasion, I clicked on the button and it actually said that no Neopet existed with that name! What is going on here? Has the account been frozen? You can have a peanut butter Elephante cookie if you want. Those are my favorite kind. ~egyptgrl662
Those banners have been around for quite some time and could be from outdated Petpages. Over time those Petpages could have been reverted by the owner, the Neopet could've been abandoned and picked up by another player that cleared the Petpage, the user could've been frozen, or deleted due to inactivity... pretty much just about anything could've happened.


We are a faerie Niptor!
Click here to take the official Neopian Petpet quiz!

Hey TNT! (: *waves frantically* I was just wondering about the Petpet species known as the Meowclops! Why is it called MeowCLOPS? I thought clops relates to a horse sound or something. xD ~o0o_craznido_o0o
In this case we are referring to a cyclops, which is a giant from Greek mythology that only has one eye, just like a Meowclops!

Hi TNT! The other day, when I tried to download a Neopets screensaver, I looked at the file and it said .exe at the end. After it downloaded, I was about to open the file and it said something like "This file is an .exe file and may cause your computer to get viruses." Now, as a result, I am really unsure if I want a Neopets screensaver or not. Please help me because I thought Neopets was safe! ~fuzzeah
Yes, Neopets content is safe. Depending on your computer you may get that warning whenever you download an executable file. While viruses can be contained in exe. files, that does not mean all exe. files contain viruses. The Neopet screensavers are perfectly safe to download and contain no viruses.

I like playing Wingoball, and am pretty good. Just about every game that I play, I make it to level 20. So today, after I played, instead of getting the send score screen after finishing level 20, I was sent to level 21! Did you guys add some new levels, or is this a glitch? I hadn't heard anything about it, but if they are permanent levels, then cool! ~courage7856
Yep, they are permanent new levels! There are now 25 levels of Wingoball for you all to enjoy.

Hello there! Yeah, anyway, so I was wondering how you're able to tell the difference between a side account made solely to claim the 150 Free NC and a perfectly legitimate side account that just happens to claim the free NC. I made 2 already, but I froze them both soon thereafter because I thought you guys at TNT would freeze my main if I got the free NC. And... umm... could you block out my username? ~[username removed]
Players can have up to 5 total accounts, and you are welcome to collect your 150 NC on all of them. Please do not create accounts solely to claim the 150 NC, though.

Hi, I know that you can't play games and stuff on your side account, but I was wondering if you are allowed to do the Qasalan Expellibox on side accounts, since you can't profit from NC Mall items? ~snapsi
Qasalan Expellibox is a site game that, in addition to giving out NC from time to time, also gives out Neopoints and items. As such, playing this game on side accounts is not allowed. Please do not confuse the 150 NC giveaway with this game.


Besides you'd clog the tubes if you played it
on more than one account.

TNT... I'm sorry, but it distresses me that, despite this being a kids' site, you are allowing "gossip" pages to be made. In some of these pages, people are being called names, ridiculed, and are being told to be shunned. I believe this is a form of internet bullying (harassing), which should not be allowed. Can you clear this up please, so the silly gossip pages will stop? ~valleyofashes
Umm, stuff like that isn't allowed. Harassment is very much against the site's Terms and Conditions. Please report any Petpage that is encouraging the harassment of a single player or group. Also, when reporting stuff like this to the Editorial, it's extremely helpful if you provide us with a link to such a Petpage so we can better deal with the issue.

Hello TNT, I have another Pound question. Let's say you're transferring a Neopet to someone... except you used up your transfer for this month. The person still transfers the Neopet to you, and then says that he's willing to catch the Neopet from the Pound. If you say, "Remember, if you lose the Neopet from the catch, it's YOUR FAULT since you didn't want to wait until the next month and I don't owe you anything," do you still owe that person a Neopet? Thanks! ~kangin
This is an expected risk when using the Pound to move Neopets. Unless there was some sort of foul play involved, you are not responsible for compensating that person. Foul play would include anything dishonest, or purposely attempting to lose the Neopet or block it from getting it to its owner.

Hey TNT! In last week's Editorial you said that extreme Petpage applications are no longer allowed. At one point you said, "What we mean by extreme includes requests for Petpages to be made for the Neopet as part of the application." Does this mean Petpage apps are no longer allowed, or that you're not allowed to ask for people to make your Neopet a Petpage? I'm asking because I thought the latter, while my friend though it was the former. Can you please say which of us is right? ~ralph89170
No one may require/request/hint that an extreme Petpage application is required. If, for whatever reason, you really love making Petpages for Neopets other than your own, then well, more power to you. However, we suggest giving the attention to your own Neopets rather than using it in hopes of getting another one. We really love to see people cherish their Neopets and enjoy them as if they were real, which is why it breaks our heart to see them often treated like pixels, but sadly we can't force people to care about their Neopets.

Some people who restock say [a certain browser addon] is illegal. Others say only [a certain function of this addon] on [the addon] is illegal. Can you please clear this up? Thank you. ~masterxed2
We'll answer as soon as we're done smashing our faces repeatedly into our keyboards. Okay, done. We know it's only human nature to tweak, squirm through loopholes, interpret things in a way that supports your actions, etc, etc. When we say, "don't use programs or funky things to help you restock," this does not mean, "try to find a way to do it that is as close as you can come to cheating without breaking the letter of the Neopian law." You guys should all understand the spirit of the rule of not giving yourself an advantage in restocking aside from basic internet speed and personal skill. Just please restock in the way you know you are all meant to so we don't need to buy more keyboards.

[eilu]

Neopian Times Editorial
Some people who restock say [a certain browser addon] is illegal. Others say only [a certain function of this addon] on [the addon] is illegal. Can you please clear this up? Thank you. ~masterxed2
We'll answer as soon as we're done smashing our faces repeatedly into our keyboards. Okay, done. We know it's only human nature to tweak, squirm through loopholes, interpret things in a way that supports your actions, etc, etc. When we say, "don't use programs or funky things to help you restock," this does not mean, "try to find a way to do it that is as close as you can come to cheating without breaking the letter of the Neopian law." You guys should all understand the spirit of the rule of not giving yourself an advantage in restocking aside from basic internet speed and personal skill. Just please restock in the way you know you are all meant to so we don't need to buy more keyboards.

So this is it, once and for all, [add-on] moves from the gray area of disapproved and discouraged to illegal. Technically, it's a script for the add-on (and add-on for an add-on?), but who am I to quibble? Well, glad they put it in black and white now and I hope they don't re-do the shop wiz incident.

for people with no idea what I'm talking about:

the add-on is greasemonkey for firefox. the questionable script for it was the "better shop wiz" (not sure about the exact name)