Pepper-Head

@Aminirus

I wish I could offer more advice, but I've only just been starting! Right now, I'm just trying to establish myself on social media. I only just started to get serious on dA and Twitter & very recently made a new Instagram and Tumblr. I'm trying to figure out how each platform works and what is worth my time, meanwhile I'm trying to get into the habit of posting nearly daily. I've only just recently hit 1k on Deviantart, and all my other follower counts are below 100. It's been slow progress and feels hard to get myself out there, but now that I've rebranded as Pepperish Studio, I've gotten more likes/favorites and new followers every time I post. I just need to keep it up along with my art improvement!

If you're thinking about printing on products to sell, I'd recommend checking out pawprinting - I follow them on Twitter and they've just started their business so you might find some competitive pricing (they do offer bulk quotes through email.) Of course research other options, but it's worth a try! You can ask if you have anything in mind you'd like printed that they don't offer yet, since they're still getting more equipment in (acrylic charms are next!) http://pawprinting.tictail.com/ 

And last thing, I'll drop this! It's a PowerPoint on "Art as a Business" by a furry artist who lives off their work. I've kept the tab open for weeks as a guide haha. I hope it helps you too!

https://www.dropbox.com/s/de3mg0nvjyft1pa/Art as a Business.pdf?dl=0 

WOW

Man has it been a while!

Good luck selling, it was cool to see these again 

Noticed it and loved it as soon as I logged in!

It wasn't bad before, but these changes are very fresh and welcoming. 

@kami - Yeah, I heard about it last year, but didn't have time to participate D: 

Finally was able to start on revenge for those who drew for me already! I hope to have some more done tonight c: 

YEESSS another adopt!!! I need to catch up so I can start hatching this one

@Digital - I wouldn't be surprised if they only answered one question about NetDragon or just rehashed that there's more things coming for Neopia - the "most buzzed-about questions" text is reused almost weekly so I'm not getting my hopes up for too much information  

@LuciBeingLuci It's working just fine for me now?  Whatever was up with the server must be smoothed out now.

@kami- Ah I see what you mean!
Yeah the Altador Cup thread got a number of complainers (that really wasted space when Scrappy already addressed that she couldn't help with flagged accounts) but it was made very clear in the suggestion thread that negativity would get the whole thread closed. I've seen some threads dedicated entirely to ranting and stuff though so people get their outlet somewhere!

Those are some great points @Digital ! As old and dated as Neo is, I really would love to see some life breathed into it and see how it would play modernized. Hopefully NetDragon does value it! They happened upon the acquisition around the busiest time of the year (besides the Advent Calendar, I'd imagine)

They didn't have an editorial this week, so hopefully by next week we have some more answers.

Is anyone participating in Art Fight this year? It's basically a month-long team vs team art trade battle.

I'm waiting for my next day off work to buckle down on returning attacks and sending out some others, but here's my art fight if you wanna link me yours too!

http://artfight.net/~PepperHead (team sun!)

Wow, thanks so much @Digital !!! You're the best! Time to go be creative~

@Digital Would be cool if our adopt's leveling info could also be seen on their page! Power still displays  

https://thegaminglist.com/adoptable/146-Fin/

@kami For someone who claims to "only pop in to read the news" I sure do spend a lot of time digging into this stuff x'D

I think the reason the thread didn't fill up faster was because it was announced on Friday that Scrappy would be making a thread sometime over the weekend, a pretty vague timeline. It was posted on Saturday around noon.  

A few people pointed out that they suspected something was afoot since apparently, Viacom's TNT started asking for suggestions and talking about the app literally just before JumpStart bought Neo. But JS DID actually follow through on some suggestions immediately. So hopefully NetDragon can do the same.

@runeowl - I've seen it happen, people usually recommend specifying as much specific identifying information as you can to help match up the account to you!

Buuuut there has been a notorious backlog on account restoration. ESPECIALLY since last year's Altador Cup when many accounts were wrongfully frozen for being suspected cheaters. This year, accounts were just flagged and players no longer earned points, but maaaaany people were affected and sent in tickets.

Usually they don't recommend sending in multiple tickets, but if it's really been that long of a time ago it might be worth bumping it (if possible?) or posting a new one. People used to spam the FB page asking for their ticket to be looked into but I think the social media manager left LOL

Often I find myself wanting to post art or creative related threads that isn't a guide... but it also doesn't fit in the marketplace. Throwing it in off-topic or entertainment just doesn't seem to fit, either. I know there's the gaming development forum, but I have had a few ideas that aren't really game-specific either.

Is it possible to have a creative forum added? Possible things to discuss:

• smaller art tips, tricks, suggestions
• art related news
• style related questions (could tie into games!)
• dev questions for artists / about art
• questions about making art assets
• critiques
• art challenges
• official/unofficial contests
• and honestly a lot more!

As a largely creative community, I feel this forum could have a lot of potential. If it might come later with more activity, or should already go somewhere, could I know where (and possibly have a little clarification on the forum description text?) @Digital

Thanks so much!!!

This is the official notice posted in the Neoboards by Scrappy. Hopefully there's more news soon. I find it a little worrisome for Neopets' future, since the site needs a LOT to keep the attention of a modern new audience. I don't know how much Jumpstart actually did, or planned to do.

Quote

Hi Ya'll!! Scrappy here. I know there's been a lot of talk about this acquisition so I'm here to set the record straight. Yes, Jumpstart has officially been acquired by NetDragon but there is no reason to worry. We are very excited to be a part of the NetDragon family! This will lead to great things for Neopets in the future and it is something all of us here at TNT are very excited for! That's all I have for ya! Enjoy this lovely summer day in Neopia  - TNT 

 

I know there might be a hard period transitioning with the new company to align with their goals and understanding of Neopets. There is little discussion so far in the boards from what I've glanced through, but generally people aren't optimistic at all. The lack of mention of Neopets as valuable IP isn't very comforting  

During the month of June, Neopets had their annual Altador Cup (which Kiko Lake won again after winning last year). From feedback, they tried a new scoring and cheater detection system. It wasn't all successful, but the new Neopian Times editor, Scrappy, has really made an effort to answer questions and help in the community where she can. Before the final rounds, she posted a thread in the boards to answer questions (which apparently hasn't been done in a LONG time) and could be seen occasionally commenting in other Cup and suggestions threads. 

Just recently, she posted a thread in the suggestion forum specifically dedicated to hearing what the players want! This thread reached the max 25 pages in about 2 hours.

One thing that was teased at was the possibility of a battle based plot, soon. (this time for real soon)

Something that may help or delay this is a recent aquisition of JumpStart by NetDragon, who was very interested with their IP (specifically mentioning Dreamworks and School of Dragons)
http://www.pocketgamer.biz/asia/news/66139/netdragon-buys-jumpstart/ 

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I always have a soft spot for the game that started it all, so monitoring its news is interesting! What do you think will happen to Neopets?

On 6/6/2017 at 3:28 PM, MasterDaye said:

Oh man, that spotlighting though....

 Well... Since I've kind of lost my obsession with VP sites, my only regular go-to site is Novilar.

I should find other sites, but mehhh...

I LOVE the festival skins you do <333 Helps motivate me to explore and stock my shop so I can get the gold for it!

Otherwise I really only do my dailies on FR (~5mins, but I'm starting to get more into it), check Neopets' news page, and I'll pop in on Marapets and Novilar every few weeks just to see what kind of updates there are. I've had a little more time in the summer than I usually do to stick around on sites more though!

Love this idea! I love when sites give you customization options like this.

@Anoua No problem! I'm really glad that posting this helped someone (and confirmed that it wasn't just me having issues with their ads!)

I honestly don't know where they pulled $40 a month/ $400 a year from. If they're trying to appeal to businesses or what, since that price is NOT obtainable by the mass of their users when they could very easily move to a free site.

Awesome, thanks so much for this update! Can't wait to test it out as I grow my last few adopts

@kami I know what you mean For a while there, it was the most convenient for me to do mobile uploads, but always impossible to navigate on the desktop due to ads. It's only gotten worse. I honestly don't see how they thought this was a great move.

I don't know if anybody uses or has used photobucket in the past, but here's an important update for you all.

Photobucket recently updated without warning, disallowing third party hosting ((which is basically what photobucket was built around)). Any images uploaded to photobucket and linked with an [ img] or <img> tag to any website besides photobucket itself will now display as an ugly image prompting you to upgrade your account to allow third party hosting.

Their new paid plans that support this are either a whopping $40 a month, or $400 for a year.
Read more about their change and upgrade here: http://photobucket.com/p500/ 

I don't know if this change will stick around for long, but if you use photobucket, look for another image hosting service!

That's okay, glad to hear there's a big adopt update coming along!  

Looks like only some adult physical goods are allowed. Nothing digital: https://www.paypal.com/us/selfhelp/article/what-is-paypal’s-policy-on-transactions-that-involve-sexually-oriented-goods-and-services-faq569

You might get away with it for a while on Paypal, but if they catch wind or someone reports you, the account and money will be locked. 

It looks like there may be an option through partnering with Epoch but I saw somewhere that it could be over $1k in fees to join? (scroll down just a little if you want to read more on it) 
https://www.paypal-community.com/t5/About-Payments-Archive/Paypal-Now-OK-With-Adult-Sites/td-p/1006413?profile.language=en

This thread lists some alternatives and the challenges or benefits around them: https://forums.digitalpoint.com/threads/paypal-alternative-for-adult-website.216838/

I don't know to what extent you can loophole things (or if that's safe), but I know toyhou.se allows you to upload nsfw content and they offer Premium accounts (maybe for you, a purchase of that could get you credits for / or free custom pets). However I recently joined and their news today said "The site is back on speaking terms with Paypal" so I couldn't tell you how much that's related. BUT toyhou.se sounds like might be a similar concept to what you're pursuing, so it may work.

If you want a hard answer though, you might need to contact paypal. Just be sure it's clearly posed as theoretical. While googling I saw some people who had their accounts frozen just for asking :C

As for avoiding chargebacks .... I couldn't find much of anything there. Seems to be a small percentage of success if you call and say they purchased and received an intangible item. I know many petsites list that chargebacks are NOT allowed, and that the account will be banned as a preventative measure.

I had forgotten about FelisFire!

I wish them the best of luck finding a new owner, and I hope the game doesn't rot or isn't taken down due to a lack of sale. It's always sad to see a game in our niche go. It had an interesting premise but I was younger and pretty confused by sim games. I had some pretty basic and garrish lil alien cats but I loved them haha! It would be neat to give it another try later.

Petsites usually don't have the best of luck when reselling to a new owner, so I can understand staff being picky and I'm glad they looked within the game's community first.