How Some Coders are Nurturing Neopets.com in 2023
Mar 20, 2023 16:30:40 GMT -5
Kengplant and Breakingchains like this
Post by Stephanie (swordlilly) on Mar 20, 2023 16:30:40 GMT -5
I've just submitted this article to the Neopian Times without links to the scripts mentioned, but I figured to post a fuller version as well in case anyone here is interested in actually downloading and trying out the scripts for yourself. ^^ First, you will need a browser extension that manages userscripts, like Tampermonkey for Firefox or Chrome. Then, install individual scripts from the GitHub links I've provided below and use Tampermonkey to run them.
Re: the legality of these scripts, back when Scrappy was with TNT, she said in an editorial that userscripts are not approved by TNT. But since then, later staff members have shown a more open mind about these scripts, and Mac in particular is known to have used the Neomail one. In general, I trust Dice (diceroll123)'s judgment on the use of scripts, which is that if the script doesn't automate any gameplay actions or provide you with an unfair advantage over others, then it's fine to use. (For those of you who may not know, Dice is the head of the largest Reddit and Discord Neopets communities, works in web development professionally, and has a cordial relationship with most members of TNT. He has done some volunteer quality-assurance testing for TNT including figuring out a glitch with treasure map redemption.)
How Some Coders are Nurturing Neopets.com in 2023
Neopets.com, originally founded in 1999, will turn 24 this year. In that time, it has uniquely nurtured a whole generation of creative thinkers and coders, many of whom are now professionals of their own right in various aspects of web development. By contrast, the site itself has slowly faded into a shadow of its former glory.
In this article, I will showcase some modern coding projects done by members of the player community, in order to show that a significant section of the playerbase 1) still cares about the site; 2) is knowledgeable about coding; and 3) would be eagerly receptive to developer patch notes, should the team choose to provide said notes in the future.
Over the past year, the dev team did make some player-facing updates, including converting the world maps to HTML5, making UC pets compatible with HTML5 customisation, implementing a "Book All Pets" option at the NeoLodge, and applying a bandaid fix to the problem of the auctions getting stuck (though we were never directly informed of this fix). But there is a lot of potential for further improvement, as I hope these player-led projects will show.
1-2. Neoboard Enhancement Suite by Maya (sunbathr) and Robbie (rawbeee); and Pet Image Enlarger by Harvey (tanukijiru)
The Neoboards are woefully outdated compared to modern forums. To make them work slightly better, Maya and Robbie created a script to add a "reply" button, which is sort of like a tag button. When you click "reply" next to one of my posts, for instance, it automatically populates the reply box with "@swordlilly" - tagging me. Maya and Robbie's script also adds a row of interactive buttons under each Neoboard poster's username, allowing you to Neomail the poster, check their trades and auctions, and visit their shop and gallery. Players using Neoboard Pens can tap a "remember" button to use their favorite Pen; they can also opt to randomize selection between different Pens. For NC trading purposes, all tradelist links become direct clickable links. And finally, the script restyles the "report" button, making it less obnoxious.
By default, everyone's pets look small on the Neoboards. Harvey's script enlarges the pet images to enhance the Neoboard-browsing experience. Below are two screenshots showing what the Neoboards look like without intervention, and what they look like after enabling these scripts.1
3. Neomail Enhancer by Juvian (juli0123456789482)
The default Neomail system is rather confusing. There is no Sent folder, and messages are organized strictly by time received, which makes it hard to keep track of conversations.
Juvian's script comes to the rescue by storing messages locally and displaying them in a chat-like interface where you can view complete conversations you have had with distinct players.
4. Search Helper by Dice (diceroll123)
When completing a Kitchen Quest, Coincidence Quest, or job at the Faerieland Employment Agency, it can be annoying to have to copy and paste each requested item's name. Dice's script makes questing a little easier by adding a neat row of clickable icons adjacent to the picture of the requested item. Next time you have to find something for a quest, just click the Shop Wizard icon, and the Shop Wizard will open with the item's name already filled in. If the item is a more expensive one, like the sort asked for by Illusen or Jhudora at the later levels, you can use the Trading Post, Auction House and Safety Deposit Box icons to try to find the item.
Inventory management becomes easier with this script, too. Let's say you've just obtained a wearable item from a gambling capsule, and you want to know more about it. Clicking the Fish Negg icon takes you to Jellyneo's Item Database where you can read about when the item was first released and in what context. Clicking the Monocle icon takes you to the fansite Dress to Impress, where you can try the item on various pet models and also check to see who has the item up for trade and who is seeking the item. Finally, the Closet icon allows you to check if you have the item in your Closet already.
5. Active Pet Switcher by Snack (drracket)
Switching active pets can be a hassle. When doing Kitchen Quests, I'll want to have my battle pet active so that all the stat boosts go to him, but when browsing the Neoboards, I may want a different pet active instead, one that matches my font and avatar. Fishing at the Underwater Fishing Cavern with all pets is particularly tedious; I have to make each pet active, one by one, and toggle between the Fishing Cavern and Quick Ref.
Snack's script adds a nondescript star button next to the pet image in the navigation bar. When you click it, a drop-down menu appears showing all of your pets' names. Clicking each one will make that pet active; no need to open any other tabs. Fishing has never been easier!
In summary, there are many improvements to the user experience that could be made around the site. Most of the projects I've mentioned are open-source and easily searchable; if TNT wanted, they could take the code and implement it on their end so we don't have to run userscripts on our end to enjoy the results. Larger-scale improvements beyond the scope of what players can do would include things like making the Closet load more efficiently, adding organisational layers to the Safety Deposit Box, improving the search function at the Neopian Pound, and porting the "Favorite Games" and "Scores Sent" features over to the new Games Room from the old layout. The backend tools of the site could use improvement as well. Kikocat, the Art contest judge, for example, has shared with us that when she is selecting entries, what she sees are small thumbnail images sorted by time of submission, with no additional layers of organisation whatsoever. Although users opt to put their submissions into categories like "Chomby Day," "April Fool's" and so on, there aren't actually any categories seen on the judge's end.
As players, we have lots of ideas regarding how to improve the site, but we also believe that the developers have ideas of their own, and we are very eager to see what's in development. Illusen Day is a time of growth and change; here's hoping that this old site will continue to receive the nurturing care that it's given to so many of us all these years.
---
Footnotes
1. For readers unfamiliar with the concept of userscripts, I would describe it like putting on a pair of blue sunglasses to change the way that a public park looks to you. You aren't actually changing the park itself, like painting the benches blue or anything like that; all you're doing is changing how the park looks to you personally. To further understand the nature of this intervention, you can try this exercise: on www.neopets.com/water/fishing.phtml, right-click on the words "Ye Olde Fishing Vortex" and select Inspect Element. A box will pop up showing some code. Look in that code to find where it says "font-size: 20pt;" and manually change it to "font-size: 30pt;" Now what will happen is the title will suddenly look bigger. But you haven't actually changed anything on the Neopets site itself. If you close the coding box and refresh the page, it will look just like it did before. That's essentially the sort of thing userscripts do. They change the way that your browser (or your eyes, in the analogy) displays the site to you.
Re: the legality of these scripts, back when Scrappy was with TNT, she said in an editorial that userscripts are not approved by TNT. But since then, later staff members have shown a more open mind about these scripts, and Mac in particular is known to have used the Neomail one. In general, I trust Dice (diceroll123)'s judgment on the use of scripts, which is that if the script doesn't automate any gameplay actions or provide you with an unfair advantage over others, then it's fine to use. (For those of you who may not know, Dice is the head of the largest Reddit and Discord Neopets communities, works in web development professionally, and has a cordial relationship with most members of TNT. He has done some volunteer quality-assurance testing for TNT including figuring out a glitch with treasure map redemption.)
How Some Coders are Nurturing Neopets.com in 2023
Neopets.com, originally founded in 1999, will turn 24 this year. In that time, it has uniquely nurtured a whole generation of creative thinkers and coders, many of whom are now professionals of their own right in various aspects of web development. By contrast, the site itself has slowly faded into a shadow of its former glory.
In this article, I will showcase some modern coding projects done by members of the player community, in order to show that a significant section of the playerbase 1) still cares about the site; 2) is knowledgeable about coding; and 3) would be eagerly receptive to developer patch notes, should the team choose to provide said notes in the future.
Over the past year, the dev team did make some player-facing updates, including converting the world maps to HTML5, making UC pets compatible with HTML5 customisation, implementing a "Book All Pets" option at the NeoLodge, and applying a bandaid fix to the problem of the auctions getting stuck (though we were never directly informed of this fix). But there is a lot of potential for further improvement, as I hope these player-led projects will show.
1-2. Neoboard Enhancement Suite by Maya (sunbathr) and Robbie (rawbeee); and Pet Image Enlarger by Harvey (tanukijiru)
The Neoboards are woefully outdated compared to modern forums. To make them work slightly better, Maya and Robbie created a script to add a "reply" button, which is sort of like a tag button. When you click "reply" next to one of my posts, for instance, it automatically populates the reply box with "@swordlilly" - tagging me. Maya and Robbie's script also adds a row of interactive buttons under each Neoboard poster's username, allowing you to Neomail the poster, check their trades and auctions, and visit their shop and gallery. Players using Neoboard Pens can tap a "remember" button to use their favorite Pen; they can also opt to randomize selection between different Pens. For NC trading purposes, all tradelist links become direct clickable links. And finally, the script restyles the "report" button, making it less obnoxious.
By default, everyone's pets look small on the Neoboards. Harvey's script enlarges the pet images to enhance the Neoboard-browsing experience. Below are two screenshots showing what the Neoboards look like without intervention, and what they look like after enabling these scripts.1
3. Neomail Enhancer by Juvian (juli0123456789482)
The default Neomail system is rather confusing. There is no Sent folder, and messages are organized strictly by time received, which makes it hard to keep track of conversations.
Juvian's script comes to the rescue by storing messages locally and displaying them in a chat-like interface where you can view complete conversations you have had with distinct players.
4. Search Helper by Dice (diceroll123)
When completing a Kitchen Quest, Coincidence Quest, or job at the Faerieland Employment Agency, it can be annoying to have to copy and paste each requested item's name. Dice's script makes questing a little easier by adding a neat row of clickable icons adjacent to the picture of the requested item. Next time you have to find something for a quest, just click the Shop Wizard icon, and the Shop Wizard will open with the item's name already filled in. If the item is a more expensive one, like the sort asked for by Illusen or Jhudora at the later levels, you can use the Trading Post, Auction House and Safety Deposit Box icons to try to find the item.
Inventory management becomes easier with this script, too. Let's say you've just obtained a wearable item from a gambling capsule, and you want to know more about it. Clicking the Fish Negg icon takes you to Jellyneo's Item Database where you can read about when the item was first released and in what context. Clicking the Monocle icon takes you to the fansite Dress to Impress, where you can try the item on various pet models and also check to see who has the item up for trade and who is seeking the item. Finally, the Closet icon allows you to check if you have the item in your Closet already.
5. Active Pet Switcher by Snack (drracket)
Switching active pets can be a hassle. When doing Kitchen Quests, I'll want to have my battle pet active so that all the stat boosts go to him, but when browsing the Neoboards, I may want a different pet active instead, one that matches my font and avatar. Fishing at the Underwater Fishing Cavern with all pets is particularly tedious; I have to make each pet active, one by one, and toggle between the Fishing Cavern and Quick Ref.
Snack's script adds a nondescript star button next to the pet image in the navigation bar. When you click it, a drop-down menu appears showing all of your pets' names. Clicking each one will make that pet active; no need to open any other tabs. Fishing has never been easier!
In summary, there are many improvements to the user experience that could be made around the site. Most of the projects I've mentioned are open-source and easily searchable; if TNT wanted, they could take the code and implement it on their end so we don't have to run userscripts on our end to enjoy the results. Larger-scale improvements beyond the scope of what players can do would include things like making the Closet load more efficiently, adding organisational layers to the Safety Deposit Box, improving the search function at the Neopian Pound, and porting the "Favorite Games" and "Scores Sent" features over to the new Games Room from the old layout. The backend tools of the site could use improvement as well. Kikocat, the Art contest judge, for example, has shared with us that when she is selecting entries, what she sees are small thumbnail images sorted by time of submission, with no additional layers of organisation whatsoever. Although users opt to put their submissions into categories like "Chomby Day," "April Fool's" and so on, there aren't actually any categories seen on the judge's end.
As players, we have lots of ideas regarding how to improve the site, but we also believe that the developers have ideas of their own, and we are very eager to see what's in development. Illusen Day is a time of growth and change; here's hoping that this old site will continue to receive the nurturing care that it's given to so many of us all these years.
---
Footnotes
1. For readers unfamiliar with the concept of userscripts, I would describe it like putting on a pair of blue sunglasses to change the way that a public park looks to you. You aren't actually changing the park itself, like painting the benches blue or anything like that; all you're doing is changing how the park looks to you personally. To further understand the nature of this intervention, you can try this exercise: on www.neopets.com/water/fishing.phtml, right-click on the words "Ye Olde Fishing Vortex" and select Inspect Element. A box will pop up showing some code. Look in that code to find where it says "font-size: 20pt;" and manually change it to "font-size: 30pt;" Now what will happen is the title will suddenly look bigger. But you haven't actually changed anything on the Neopets site itself. If you close the coding box and refresh the page, it will look just like it did before. That's essentially the sort of thing userscripts do. They change the way that your browser (or your eyes, in the analogy) displays the site to you.
