Strange Thumbnail Pics Found in NT ~ What are they?

[downrightdude]

Last week, my new series debuted in the NT and some of my nfs were confused about the picture.

Here's the series: www.neopets.com/ntimes/index.phtml?section=575571&week=804

If you notice, THIS is the thumbnail pic chosen for it. And as you can tell from the address, THIS IS NOT FROM ANYWHERE ON NEOPETS! So how could the NT find such a weird pic and why in Neopia and all things Snaw was it chosen for MY series?

This week the mystery deepened when this story was published: www.neopets.com/ntimes/index.phtml?section=575721&issue=805

If you also notice the thumbnail of DOOM, this image is also not from Neo!

The final piece of this mystery puzzle is this pattern: Both stories (i.e. the first part of my series) received quote of the week upon their releases. Could it be a conspiracy? An accident? NT shenanigans? Or a part of the upcoming plot?

I tried messaging Scrappy, but I haven't gotten a reply yet. Regardless, I will keep this thread updated if this odd pattern keeps repeating. So share your thoughts below and let's solve this possible mystery!

[Shinko]

URLtarget (the second image) appears to be a source of free-use public domain images, or at least it claims to be. Walldevil is a hosting site for wallpapers. I can't find any explicit information as to if the images on the site are free-use or not, though they seem to be. I wonder if this was the work of Jade rather than Scrappy, as Scrappy seems savvy enough to know better than to get random free-use images off the internet. Technically no laws broken here, but it's still a lil weird and hopefully not a trend that'll continue. XD I miss the custom NT images but I understand why they're not around anymore and I'm cool with it, this is a little more on the "Um" side, though.

[Jae]

I agree that this could be the work of Jade. Scrappy made a point to emphasize that Jade was new on one of the boards after people discussed the strange names given to the BTY characters. Could take that to mean that Jade is new to Neopets itself, let alone to the staff, and how things are done around here.

As for why the picture for your series was chosen, that appears to be stock art of an Asian witch, and your story is titled Hitomi the Witch. Hitomi sounds like a Japanese name, as do the names of many of the other characters in your story. The second story, Hostage, has a scene where Baelia is taunted by shadow monsters. So the picture - a creepy shadowy figure - makes sense from that angle.

Putting it together, they are fitting pictures... if these stories were not on Neopets. If I didn't realize NT stories were supposed to have Neopets images (or custom thumbnail art submitted along with the story) I might choose similar thumbnails for those story themes. Perhaps Scrappy is in charge of picking the NT entries and writing the editorial while Jade is responsible for putting it all together (inserting stories, choosing thumbnails, etc...)

[downrightdude]

Thanks for the responses, guys!

*twirls in Sherlock cape*

[Herdy]

While its true URLtarget is free use, Walldevil's Terms of Use very much states that any wallpapers uploaded to the site are not - and expressely forbids the kind of hotlinking to the image that's happening in the NT. So that one is breaking the law.
That said I'm sure it's an innocent mistake, perhaps even intended to be a perk of getting QotW, by Jade - though, frankly, it's one of many mistakes Jade is making - and that Scrappy can put it right once she's less busy with the plot and can check her mail.

[Duke Pikachu]

The second image is from the famous scene in "Nosferatu" where we see the shadow of Count Orlok coming up the stairs:


Eitherway, yeah, this is likely Jade's doing. Someone needs to point her toward JN's Dr. Sloth Image Emporium.

I kind of feel sorry for Jade. She's obviously new to Neopets yet has been given a rather notable position (questionable if JS sees it that way, but personally I think any position where you're dealing with content that fans of the site see is a high one). Would be no problem if TNT were still around, but they aren't, it's JS and they seemed to have not told her ANYTHING. I'm going to assume most of the JS staff prior had worked along with TNT so they knew enough and were able to learn the rest via us users, but that's all second hand knowledge that now has to be passed to Jade.