I think your analysis is fairly spot on. I learned all of this from poking around the boards and reddit, but to add some info you might not have, they were apparently acquired by another company -- Jumpstart -- from Viacom circa 2014. I understand that a large amount of members of the TNT we used to know got laid off shortly after. Content production plummeted & the horrid gitchy-ass site began to limp towards its death as poor JS was not equipped to deal with the spaghetti code they inherited. (idk, frankly, calling it spaghetti code is an insult to spaghetti; it's more like...poo.)
Now the team seems to consist of 2 overwhelmed people with appalling grammar (seriously, the copy is just PAINFUL to read). And a small but more-or-less efficient support team trying to keep up with various site issues & unfreezing as many users as ask in a vain effort to keep the clicks on the site coming. Guesstimates for the active userbase range from 5k to 10k max. (the active user counter that used to be on the front page was removed long ago)
As for what could be done to save it, the current discourse revolves around going mobile. They are in the process of converting the whole site to html5 right now 'cause Flash support ends in Jan 2020. Do you know how much flash content is on this site? Jesus Christ. I feel bad for the JS peeps.
Now if only they'd listen to users waving their credit cards at them asking for an unconvert PB in the NC mall, they'd have a juicy-ass revenue stream...
Larkspurlane's art thread
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Re: Larkspurlane's art thread
Imagine if they did that: brought out an "unconvert PB" that let you unconvert LITERALLY EVERYTHING that had a converted form (you want a UC green mynci? sure.). That'd be so cool.
I don't know what you'd do to not have the UC traders feel like they got ripped off though. Maybe have the PBUCs should have orange spots or something so they're still badass but not perfect.
5k-10k users? Cray. I remember when multiple make a wish kids went there.
I used to be on the neopets reddit - the second mod - but then the first mod (who is no longer there) removed me for no apparent reason and I stopped posting. I think that was probably what stopped me using neopets, actually!
I don't know what you'd do to not have the UC traders feel like they got ripped off though. Maybe have the PBUCs should have orange spots or something so they're still badass but not perfect.
5k-10k users? Cray. I remember when multiple make a wish kids went there.
I used to be on the neopets reddit - the second mod - but then the first mod (who is no longer there) removed me for no apparent reason and I stopped posting. I think that was probably what stopped me using neopets, actually!
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Re: Larkspurlane's art thread
Ah, so beautiful! It cheers me up that people are still making Neo art.
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Re: Larkspurlane's art thread
Larkspurlane wrote: ↑27 Sep 2019 02:12 am
Now if only they'd listen to users waving their credit cards at them asking for an unconvert PB in the NC mall, they'd have a juicy-ass revenue stream...
Still waitin' on it 12 years later!
![Very Happy :D](./images/smilies/icon_biggrin.gif)
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Re: Larkspurlane's art thread
I want to chime in here to say (belated):
I estimate it went down in like, 2010, right? Aka, right about when smart phones became absolutely ubiquitous and online browsing became a thing people did from their phone. I can tell you from my peer social group (born circa 1990) that anything requiring a computer dwindled around that time; computers were for college assignments and major things, and idle time was spent on smart phones or tablets.
Imagine doing a major redesign in 2007, revamping it for the first time in years.... only to realize that you completely failed to optimize it for mobile browsing. Wonder how those project management meetings went...
The logging out thing also made sense from a security perspective, but in practice it meant that the flex between devices that became significantly more common (not just smart phones, but decreased prices of consumer electronics like iPads and laptops have meant that the target demographic has a lot of devices they can hop between) creates this slight barrier of entry that I know stopped me from playing.
I have a smart phone, a laptop, a desktop, a tablet, a work computer (I'm spoiled, I know, can you tell I don't have kids?). Having to log in every device switch, only to find a site that was nearly impossible to navigate on a mobile device, quickly killed my enthusiasm. Well, also I was in college and like, made friends in real life and no longer used the internet to satisfy the lonely gap in my soul, but I suspect I would've kept up on Neo a lot more if I could have played it from my smart phone the same way my friends did their mobile games.
Also, damn, Lark, that's stunning. I am envious of your patience, dedication, and mad skillz. Thank you for sharing!
I feel you, only in Photobucket terms. I need a new system.Welp, looks like I used to use only tinypic to host images. RIP this thread.
I think specifically the key is that it failed to do anything on mobile. AND if you tried to be logged in on two devices at once, you'd be logged out on the other.I wonder what could be done to save neopets? I wonder what actually killed it? The Great Conversion of c.2008 must have had something to do with it, but it was still popular for a while after that - I guess in the end it was probably a failure of innovation - it doesn't look like anything's changed at all, and the ads are horrible.
I estimate it went down in like, 2010, right? Aka, right about when smart phones became absolutely ubiquitous and online browsing became a thing people did from their phone. I can tell you from my peer social group (born circa 1990) that anything requiring a computer dwindled around that time; computers were for college assignments and major things, and idle time was spent on smart phones or tablets.
Imagine doing a major redesign in 2007, revamping it for the first time in years.... only to realize that you completely failed to optimize it for mobile browsing. Wonder how those project management meetings went...
The logging out thing also made sense from a security perspective, but in practice it meant that the flex between devices that became significantly more common (not just smart phones, but decreased prices of consumer electronics like iPads and laptops have meant that the target demographic has a lot of devices they can hop between) creates this slight barrier of entry that I know stopped me from playing.
I have a smart phone, a laptop, a desktop, a tablet, a work computer (I'm spoiled, I know, can you tell I don't have kids?). Having to log in every device switch, only to find a site that was nearly impossible to navigate on a mobile device, quickly killed my enthusiasm. Well, also I was in college and like, made friends in real life and no longer used the internet to satisfy the lonely gap in my soul, but I suspect I would've kept up on Neo a lot more if I could have played it from my smart phone the same way my friends did their mobile games.
Also, damn, Lark, that's stunning. I am envious of your patience, dedication, and mad skillz. Thank you for sharing!
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