Winter Sidebar...

[ginevra]

I think this is monumentally unfair. How are we supposed to be able to figure it out? This happened two months ago, and a lot of people can't even remember the little details of their account and what they did that day. And what good are theories if we can't test them until December 31, 2006? If we're wrong, we'll have to wait another full year for the sidebar. Why can't just one stupid sidebar be a gift for everyone and not subject to "requirements?"

I'm actually sort of relieved. This is far better and perhaps more interesting (yay puzzles!) than having it randomly received.

More of a cold case than a puzzle at this point. Given how difficult it's been to figure out the Vex avatar, something for which new data points can be added at any time, it's going to be extremely difficult, if not impossible, to figure this out with the information we have right now.

Now if they would make it a real mystery and drop some additional clues... that I could get behind.

[Medusa]

I'm still harrassing my sister for more info. She's pretty sure she had the Plastic Fir avvie active. Maybe you had to use an Advent Calendar avvie?

I think I was using the Seasonal Attack Pea avatar at the time and didn't get the sidebar....

[CrewWolf]

I think this is monumentally unfair. How are we supposed to be able to figure it out? This happened two months ago, and a lot of people can't even remember the little details of their account and what they did that day. And what good are theories if we can't test them until December 31, 2006? If we're wrong, we'll have to wait another full year for the sidebar. Why can't just one stupid sidebar be a gift for everyone and not subject to "requirements?"

I'm actually sort of relieved. This is far better and perhaps more interesting (yay puzzles!) than having it randomly received.

More of a cold case than a puzzle at this point. Given how difficult it's been to figure out the Vex avatar, something for which new data points can be added at any time, it's going to be extremely difficult, if not impossible, to figure this out with the information we have right now.

Now if they would make it a real mystery and drop some additional clues... that I could get behind.

Still, at least it's possible we can figure it out. And once you figure it, there's a better chance for you to get it. It's better than random is all I'm saying.

[Officer 1BDI]

I'm going to relist everything I remember in one neat post for comparison's sake.

I DID get the Winter Sidebar

* I used Firefox
* My account was, at the time, only three months old
* I was using the Haiku avatar
* I was using the default sidebar, as it was my only choice
* I own a Christmas Bori (not active)
**** The Bori is over a year old (I adopted him from the pound)
**** I do/did not own a Snow painted pet
**** I do/did not have the Let It Snow! avatar
**** None of my other pets were painted "special" colors
* My active pet had 6 letters in its name (A-D-V-E-N-T ?)
**** My active pet was a yellow Acara
* I had an Abominable Snowball (may have been in inventory, or on active pet, but was probably zapped something different if the latter is true)
**** I did not own a Christmas/snow painted petpet
* I had collected every gift on every day, at inconsistent times (though usually in the Neopean morning hours)
**** All gifts were sitting in my SDB; I had multiples of some gifts thanks to the Money Tree
**** I do/did not own a neohome, so there were no Christmas/Advent items in it
**** I may have had some past year AC items in my SDB, because I was collecting random junk for the Packrat avvie; but none of it was in my inventory, as far as I can remember
* I had 40-50 items in my inventory (mostly junk)
* I did some/most of my dailies before I visited the AC (Omelette, Tombola, Lost Temple, WoM, etc.).
**** I don't think I visited the Snowager beforehand.
* I accessed the AC through the Explorer > Terror Mountain > Happy Valley map
* I watched the animation in full once, then clicked on the button at some point during the second viewing (towards the beginning, I assume)
* I clicked on the button to recieve my gift between 7:00 and 8:00 am NST
* I had less than 2000 NP on me at the time (and probably more than 1k)

[Ric]

Jeeezzz... this is so annoying!! What I'm gonna do is...

Get a Christmas pet
Get a Snow pet
Get a Christmas petpet
Get a Snow petpet
Buy all last years AC items...

What else?

[Huggles]

I didn't get it and I don't remember anything else I did that day. I probably didn't have a Christmas or snow pet, but I'm not sure. I didn't have the let it snow avatar, but I did collect every single day.

I think it's utterly ridiculous how few sidebars we do have to choose from. NONE of them are freely available. The Maraquan and Qasalan sidebars are retired. The Valentine's, Halloween, and Christmas sidebars can only be obtained once a year. The Premium one can only be obtained if you pay for Premium and manage to refer not one or two, but five people and convince them to pay once you do. We've got avatars coming out of our ears, and although they're easier to make, I have to say they're far less significant. Sidebars completely change how you view the site, but if you signed up today, barring Premium, you'd have to wait until Halloween for your chance to escape that horrific shade of yellow. There's no good reason that in all this time we don't have different colored versions of the default one that aren't laden with bandwidth eating images.

So yeah, I'm a bit miffed that they didn't give this one away to everyone that day.

[everconfused]

I'm not seeing a clear pattern here so far.

I did NOT get the sidebar.

No, I don't have a christmas painted pet, no I don't have a snow/christmas/wintery petpet attached to any of my pets.

Yes, I visited advent every day, usually anywhere between on the dot of 12 nst to about 12:20 - depending on the lag.

Yes, I watched the animations (when they loaded)

Yes, I have a stash of advent items from previous years in my sdb. This year's items mostly went straight there too. A few things went into my neohome.

How I got to advent depended on the site speed - sometimes through the news page, sometimes through explore.

Can't think of anything else. The few people I know who do have the sidebar have no idea how or why they got it when so many of us didn't.

Huggles, the idea of just different colored regular sidebars is a good one. If for no other reason you could set different colors for your accounts ... i.e. green for your main (as in Go for it), red and yellow for sides - like warning/stop, don't do any dailies/play any games, etc.

[Ric]

I didn't get it and I don't remember anything else I did that day. I probably didn't have a Christmas or snow pet, but I'm not sure. I didn't have the let it snow avatar, but I did collect every single day.

I think it's utterly ridiculous how few sidebars we do have to choose from. NONE of them are freely available. The Maraquan and Qasalan sidebars are retired. The Valentine's, Halloween, and Christmas sidebars can only be obtained once a year. The Premium one can only be obtained if you pay for Premium and manage to refer not one or two, but five people and convince them to pay once you do. We've got avatars coming out of our ears, and although they're easier to make, I have to say they're far less significant. Sidebars completely change how you view the site, but if you signed up today, barring Premium, you'd have to wait until Halloween for your chance to escape that horrific shade of yellow. There's no good reason that in all this time we don't have different colored versions of the default one that aren't laden with bandwidth eating images.

So yeah, I'm a bit miffed that they didn't give this one away to everyone that day.

I would LOVE another plain sidebar... just any plain colour... or... anything! I have all sidebars bar winter and am not a big fan of any. Something simple. Something that doesn't confuse me ore hurt my eyes.

[gidget]

I did NOT get the Winter sidebar.

I was using Firefox at the time
I was using the Maraquan sidebar
I have the "Let It Snow" avatar, but was not using it
I have the "Plastic Fir" avatar, but was not using it
I have the "Not For Wreathale" avatar, but was not using it
I have the "Seasonal Attack Pea" avatar, but was not using it
I have a Christmas pet but not as my active pet
. . . . . He has been Christmas for over three years.
I had a Christmas petpet attached to a non-active pet
. . . . . He had been Christmas for over two years.
I had as my active pet either:
. . . . . My lab pet (probably a yellow Poogle at the time) with a Halloween Symol
. . . . . My Mutant Koi with a Slorg
I collected every day
I generally collected during the first 4 hours in the neopian day
I generally collected after I did all my other dailies
I visited the advent calendar through bookmarks
I watched the animation all the way through (on collection page)
I probably had more than 10K on hand (I usually do)
I probably didn't have any advent items in inventory
I have no clue how many items were in my inventory, however it's never empty
I had a few Advent items in my neohome, the rest were in my safety deposit box.
I have most Advent items from the last 3 years in my safety deposit box.

[lady_n_thread]

[quote="stinkyllama"]I'm still harrassing my sister for more info. She's pretty sure she had the Plastic Fir avvie active. Maybe you had to use an Advent Calendar avvie?[quote]

It seems certain the Let It Snow! avatar is not it -so maybe the Plastic Fir or the Seasonal Attack Pea?

[guardiandevil]

i got the winter sidebar and i did go every day of the advent calender usualyl after midnight and thats all i remember not sure if the lab turned my pet snow one of those days tho and i was using my ghost krawk avie at the time i think it has to go with going every day

[neobeth]

I got the winter sidebar, went to the calender at various times all 31 days.
My 3 pets are all unpainted (wocky, grundo, lenny) and my account is under 13( to keep me out of the boards and getting frozen), so I cant change avie's.

[lucifer]

Face it - it could be just about anything.
Maybe your pet has to be delighted or something like that... go figure.

[apranum]

perhaps as evil as the halloween bar... 1 min per year

[myname7772]

Is it related to how much np is in your bank like the soup faerie?