Today I logged onto PPT for a pleasant surprise. The chat box on PPT Main had 146 users online simultaneously, something which I haven’t seen in a long time. This made me think about the days when Neopets was at the peak of their popularity and the community was everything. Playing the game had a sense of personal enjoyment and a sense of purpose and sites like PPT were able to provide Neopets information and Neopets cheats; the community was something that inadvertently developed and drove the site to bigger success.

Now that new Neopets websites spring up every other day and that the original founders Adam Powell and Donna Williams are no longer at the site, it seems to many that the spark that initially drew the crowds, the degree of personality behind the website is no more; this is something myself and the hosts of The PPT Show have discussed at length in the podcast episodes.

So it it with this frame of mind that I was pleasantly surprised to see the community pick up again; can Neopets regain the community that it lost of die-hard fans and core supporters? In truth, the heart of every website is the community, and I feel like I need to invest more time into my site’s community and encourage it to grow which is what I’ve begun to do now. I’m just thankful the site already has such a rich diversity of members from all around the globe who I now call friends. (If you see me online, give me a bell! I love chatting.)

Let’s see how Neopets does over the next few months OK?

No. Freakin’. Way!! The Laboratory Ray at Neopets just turned my freakin’ Darigan Aisha into a stinky Green Aisha!! That’s it. I will take up arms and protest at Neopian Headquarters in Glendale, California by running around butt naked.

So I’ve been a big fan of Microsoft FrontPage since I started PPT about 7 years ago. In actual fact, FrontPage was what taught me HTML coding. Starting with the WYSIWYG (what you see if what you get) editor and then moving onto the coding panel, it was an easy transition… now if only I did that with PHP too.  Anyone got suggestions?

As I installed Windows XP to my MacBook Pro so I could work on PPT from the comfort of my own notebook, I discovered to my surprise as I was upgrading all my applications was that the line of FrontPage was discontinued! Noooooo! Despite the general public consensus that Dreamweaver blew Frontpage out of the water in terms of superiority, I did my training wheels on FrontPage and had a tendency to use it for so many years because it let me update PPT with ease.

So I installed FrontPage’s successor, Microsoft Expression Web, which is basically a vamped up software package that makes sure all the coding P’s and Q’s are adhered to. I had my first go with it last night and I everything went along swimmingly until I discovered a couple of bugs this morning. (Hence the teething issues.)

No matter, as with any new program, there is always a period of transition and learning the ropes again so as the great Buzz Lightyear would say, “To infinity and beyond!”

Alright I’ll admit it. I’ve been an Apple-nazi for years. I love it. I breathe it. I live it. I identify with it. I love it (again) and I whisper sweet, sweet words of nothingness like careless whispers of the wind to it every night before I go to bed. Just kidding … but really.

Alas, I found that with a MacBook Pro, updating PPT was near impossible. All the programs that I use on the PC were just not there! What was I suppose to do?? With the backlog of PPT articles sitting in my inbox growing at an exponential rate, I had to do something quickly before the world turned topsy turvy again, and I only just fixed it the other day. (Can’t you people keep it fixed just for a second!!)

Ladies and gentlepeople, if you look up, I have installed Windows XP into my Mac OSX using the great platform called “Parallels”. This means I can now run Windows concurrently with OSX! (Previously, I tried doing this via Apple’s Bootcamp but I didn’t like the option of running either/or. I wanted to run both at the same time!!) Isn’t that just sweet or what?

To celebrate, I added a couple of new articles into PPT, got roaring into how PPT is formatted now, and added some great SEO techniques to the main site for some good measure.

Love ya’ll!

So I was thinking the other day (and I didn’t strain a nerve whilst doing it too … score!) that people often forget that behind the website, there is a real human being tapping away at the keyboard and clicking that mouse to make sure you all get your daily fix of your favorite websites.

Believe it or not, these people have real lives too! They eat, they breathe, the laugh and they even have their own personal hobbies. (Shock… horror… gasp!) In an ideal internet world, we would really be robots but this is simply not the case people!!

So what do I do when things get a bit busy at PPT and I need a little bit of a break? I call my little sister, we pick up a few surfboards, head to our favorite beach and hit the waves for some happy times … because out there in the waves, it is impossible to surf and not be happy; I highly recommend you try it anytime you’re feeling a bit blue.

On another note, it looks like applications for admin positions at the PPT Oekaki Advanced have closed and two applicants have been selected. Personally, I don’t even know who they are yet! (Ohhhh how exciting!) Congratulations to the two who were successful in their application and a big thanks to all who applied.