PPT Blog

Over the past year, the comments on the PPT news have been randomly disappearing. Today I’ve fixed it… tentatively. This means I’m not sure if they’re actually fixed but they seem to be working fine now after a little code tweaking.

Over the next few weeks, the news posting team will be consolidated and a few more people will be added. The PPT teams will now be contacted via email to make things easier for everyone.

Update: The comments problem is not fixed. Worse still is that the people who created the script seemed to have stopped providing support for the script so this means I’ll either have to wait for an update from them, or go out and search for a new script. Anyone have any suggestions? I’ve looked at fusionnews but changing everything over is such a hassle…

I’ve also been looking at phpbb and it looks like they are going to release the next version soon. Great news!

A general announcement to writers working under John for the first PPT book, please check the project board for chapter assignments and further details regarding literary cycles for expected completion dates.

A while back, I suggested we create a FAQ in order for people to refer to rather than post the same old questions in Neopets Help and the General Forum (or at least, if people do post them, we can simply refer them to the FAQ and lock the thread). When I suggested it, I was mainly thinking of stopping the constant flow of questions regarding accounts and what is allowed, what is not allowed etc.

My original suggestion was that we assemble a crack team of experts to trawl through the editorial archives and find as many references to commonly asked questions as possible then compile them into clear cut rules which we could state in our own words and link to the answer in question. My intention for the not-so-clear rules was to quote them and link to the answer in question.

But, that seemed a lot of work and it tended to put people off the idea from what I gathered from the thread. Luckily, however, some helpful wee beaver posted this on the General Chat board

http://www.neopets.com/~atheneum

Which has done all the hard-yards for us

My suggestion now is that we contact the person, ask them if its ok for us to use their page as a reference (I can’t imagine them saying no as its public info) and then using their groundwork to assemble a list of what TNT have said is alright, and what they have said isn’t. Then link to the Neopian Times Issue in question for each statement

For example, you are allowed to…

1. Collect your newbie freebie packs on side accounts [1]
2. Partake in Von Roo’s Deadly Dice on side accounts [2]

etc etc etc
The basic goal of this is to have a definitive list of every relevant thing TNT have said about the commonly asked questions and have evidence to back it up. It should (hopefully) stop the influx of common questions to both us and the Neopian Times and it’ll also make our job a lot easier in terms of finding Editorial Answers to quote to people.

So basically this post is to report the status of what’s going on (I for one think this is a great idea and would be hard pressed to be swayed on the issue of making one… save for one of the bosses stepping in and kicking sand in my face).

1. Thanks to amigurumi’s ground work, I’m happy to plug through and create the FAQ myself (unless somebody really has a burning desire to do so as well). However, to do this, I feel we need to:
   • Contact her and ask permission (as I said, can’t imagine a problem here).
   • At the very least, link to her page with one of the buttons she has created on the FAQ.
2. I can start on this as early as tomorrow, but it probably won’t be up for a while (ETA: Thursday??) due to time constraints.

And to ask two questions to all applicable parties:

1. Whether you think I should even create the FAQ.
2. If I do, should it go in General, Neopets Help or Both?
3. What topics should be covered in the FAQ.

So anyway, that’s my poorly worded (Hey, its late and I’m tired [/standard excuse]) report to satisfy Kym’s demands. Questions? Comments?

I’d like a discussion regarding the advanced oekaki. Having a look at some of the posts today, I think we’re losing people to other oekakis because there’s a sense of achievement in being able to access an advanced oekaki. If an advanced oekaki is open, it needs to be on the premise of non-segregation but to ensure that high caliber artists can work there without risk of their work being bumped down quickly. The advanced oekaki is still open to regular members to view per se to learn how the advanced artists do it.

Anyway, can I petition for the return of the advanced oekaki? I think the main problem with it’s death last time was that there was no link to it from the main oekaki, or possibly anywhere on PPT for that matter.

I was actually hoping for it’s return too. XD It’s still listed in my favorite. :3 And I agree, not many people could get to it, and it seemed secluded. But I’d love for it to return with a link to where everyone could get to it.

If an advanced oekaki would open, a system for accepting people needs to be in place. For example, opening up auditions at the start or end of every month etc.

I’d also suggest opening up staff applications at the oekaki. Open up staff applications that are mailed via the oekaki. (I’d recommend this to have people get used to using the mailing system and options in the oekaki.) I would aim for approximately 5 staff members who are active at the oekaki.

I’d like to push this oekaki into the largest oekaki community in the world.

Firstly, welcome to the PPT Staff Blog. I created this because the staff number at PPT is soaring, and with all the projects that the members are undertaking, we need a central place to maintain contact and keep everyone up to date on what is happening so if you’re a staff member, this blog is completely open to you to make posts. If you sign up, you can start making posts.

So with the articles system changed at PPT to go first through Pink Ink, become edited and then sent to me, all future articles on PPT will go through a review process so only quality articles will appear on the site. This means quite a number of things. Firstly, Pink Ink will now have a constant flow of articles; Pink Ink teams will now be finalized; and Pink Ink will become a bigger part of PPT in terms of publishing only the best articles and being featured on PPT Main.

Now with the article problem fixed (I was being swamped to be honest with emails), I was finally able to clear my inbox today! So I’ve been able to take a step back, and focus my energies on other PPT projects.

First off comes the first PPT published book on Neopets which John is heading up. Once all the articles are in and we’ve got all the edited versions finished, we’ll publish this magazine/book. Hopefully this will allow us to familiarize everyone with the publishing process, so from there we can publish more magazine/books and then eventually diversify into other genres and games. Hello PPT Publishing House.

Also, I’ve updated the Oekaki and as the PPT Oekaki is one of the most active oekaki communities out there, I want to start featuring the PPT Oekaki a lot more on PPT and develop this community. We’ve started with including avatars, ShiPainter and upload flags. Next will be a complete revamp of the oekaki tutorials, the design, establishing an oekaki staff team, and possibly opening up one more oekaki board; PPT Oekaki Advanced. I’m working through the details with Izzy (PPT Oekaki Admin) at the moment.