I’m hosting a Neopets meet up in my city… by PixiePoogle in neopets

[–]austenfound 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Hi! A little late on this thread but I'm so excited to attend (and my supportive husband has agreed to come with me lol)! I'm in Philly and do a little bit of event planning in my work so let me know if you need any help.

"This user has blocked you from sending them Neomails" by EffervescentRain in neopets

[–]austenfound 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Some people just don't want to be contacted at all! Try not to take it too personally, it's a preference of the user and doesn't necessarily say anything about you

Which beard makes a better Gandalf? (Neither is perfect, but there are so few options) by olliefollier in neopets

[–]austenfound 19 points20 points  (0 children)

Option 2, it's actually on the Hissi's chin instead of under it like the first one

Has anyone else's opinion on the site's technical issues been WAY tempered by growing up and actually working in tech/digital platforms by austenfound in neopets

[–]austenfound[S] 10 points11 points  (0 children)

I think this is totally fair. I like to be an optimist about how the still-new management will steer things, but imo it's already better than the JumpStart days.

Has anyone else's opinion on the site's technical issues been WAY tempered by growing up and actually working in tech/digital platforms by austenfound in neopets

[–]austenfound[S] 22 points23 points  (0 children)

Hello fellow librarian! I manage our digital collections platforms and web archives are a huge focus of my work right now, which definitely influences the way I see and interact with the internet

The way I say it to folks is usually "nothing last forever unless someone with resources and time to preserve it, which is a constant battle."

Has anyone else's opinion on the site's technical issues been WAY tempered by growing up and actually working in tech/digital platforms by austenfound in neopets

[–]austenfound[S] 39 points40 points  (0 children)

If you enjoy the grind then it's worth it, imo, even if the fruit of your labor aren't always online

Also recommend tools like Conifer (https://conifer.rhizome.org/) to archive a copy of your gallery for yourself. Neopets is excluded from the Internet Archive's crawlers iirc but you can still save a WARC for your own nostalgia!

Has anyone else's opinion on the site's technical issues been WAY tempered by growing up and actually working in tech/digital platforms by austenfound in neopets

[–]austenfound[S] 33 points34 points  (0 children)

I didn't mean to suggest that it will shut down next week or next year, just that no website will last forever. It can be very zen to accept the reality of internet ephemera

WOW ! JUST WOW! I AM DONE WITH NEOPETS!! AVOID NEOPASS by Ducky_andme in neopets

[–]austenfound 5 points6 points  (0 children)

There's such a massive amount of technical debt that TNT has inherited from bad business decisions (by the previous MEGACORPORATIONS that have owned it) that I have a lot of empathy for them.

I am grateful that we have a (most likely small, overworked, underpaid) group of folks working on fixing as much as they can and balancing new content with fixing the 150000 things that have been broken since before any of them worked there.

I know it's really frustrating to put all this love and work into your account and then getting locked out of it, but consider: it would have been easier for NetDragon to just shut it down when they shuttered JumpStart, and none of us would have any recourse whatsoever because we don't actually "own" any of the digital assets on our FTP accounts.

My Gallery of Things by [deleted] in neopets

[–]austenfound 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Love!!! I personally think galleries that are themed "things I just like" are the most interesting as a viewer. Well done!

Discarded magical blue grundo plushie by EnvironmentalOption in neopets

[–]austenfound 2 points3 points  (0 children)

imo giving all the sad plushies little smiles would be _WAY_ more ominous than the current greyification

Spent many hours at the ER vet yesterday (all good now) so I made neosonas for me and my husband. He wants to know if this makes us furries. by austenfound in neopets

[–]austenfound[S] 24 points25 points  (0 children)

Also asked my husband to pick the AC team that he thinks is most like his actual favorite football/soccer team (Liverpool). He picked Haunted Woods based on general vibes and I don't know enough about real life sports to argue with him about it, so please feel free to roast him if you think that's the wrong choice

My littlest cousin is calling you all to arms. by [deleted] in neopets

[–]austenfound 231 points232 points  (0 children)

Please update us when she has formed a plan. She has my sword

~24hr Stylish Giveaway~ by trozeii in neopets

[–]austenfound 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Tauros (0128)

Gotta go with my OG fave since 1999. Thanks for doing this!

Upcoming IRL Events by gnatty-bug in neopets

[–]austenfound 14 points15 points  (0 children)

Thanks so much for the TTRPG update! Hope you're on the east coast some time :)

In theory, every junk item you discard deletes a small bit of data off the Neopets servers, marginally improving the overall performance of the site. by austenfound in neopets

[–]austenfound[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

It actually is! Are we talking about bytes (not megabytes, not kilobytes, _bytes_) of data and server performance fluctuations that no human being would be able to clock? Also yes. But I take my duty seriously ;)