Pink Poogle Toy Forum

Wind, The way I see it, that in the long run, it IS a matter of cost or effort, but that effort is spread over many, many people. We just keep trying lots and lots of things. The "luck" involved is just for now, while we're working on the puzzle; once we can see a pattern in our efforts, it seems this will be one of the easier ones to get.

I think the problem is that many folks are thinking of it in terms of trying to figure it out all by yourself, and yet here we are on a forum, pooling our knowledge. Yeah- if it was just you trying it, you could be on Neo for ten years and with the av only available one day you'd only get ten "checks" of whether it worked or not. That would be pretty darn near impossible to figure out, and yes, until we figure it out, the only people who'd get it would get it by accident/luck. And at that stage it IS luck.... but when others help, it becomes effort of everyone in the community - trying things and sharing with each other, and then USING that knowledge - trying different combinations than other people have done.

Yes, if you were alone and could only submit a chance once each year, you'd be in trouble. It would be pure luck for you to get the right number. But, with people helping each other, all of a sudden you have as many guesses per year as the number of people who conferred together (because each of their numbers is a chance for you to figure it out).

With 100 people participating, their input will help you narrow down what does and doesn't work, just as if you were getting 100 chances per year. It's as if you can try as many times as you want, but only the first try will actually GET the prize, and the subsequent tries will merely tell you whether you got the right answer. Then, you HAVE the right answer, you just can't use it until next time.

Ok, we might not get it this year, or even next year, but with this many people keeping track of their actions, eventually it will come to light.

To answer your question, Cranberry, I don't have that sidebar. I would like to diversify a little; the only one I do have is the Altador one, because I forgot to get up halloween night... I think sidebars are fun, but not IMPORTANT, if you understand my distinction. Ridiculous is a strong word and when someone gets angry at someone else about what color they're seeing their favorite computer game website in... how important is that, really? I personally think it is not important enough to get upset about.

They give us the chance to accidentally get something cool, then, cool, if I accidentally get it, I'll be happy and do a little dance of celebration. (*chants "Fountain Faerie Quest!" Please! someday!*) But I do not feel that I have a god-given right to have one just because it exists, so if they set it up so I could never get it, or it's just so dang hard to figure out that I'll never get it... that's life. It's their imaginary thingy-do, and if I don't get to be a part of the fancy imaginary thingy-do, I can live and be happy without it, just as I was before it was released.

So, I guess you have to interpret by your own scale whether I'm someone that cares about sidebars. I think I am, but I don't care enough about them to think about it once I leave the site.

I don't think that "100 tries" thing really stands up, because a lot of people here have the sidebar, and even though a thread attempting to figure it out has been around for a year, nobody knows what all those people have in common. Maybe we'll figure it out during our one day this year; who knows? Some avatars take days to figure out... and some still aren't figured out months after their release, even though many people have been trying those over and over and pooling their knowledge. Some kind of sidebar hint would be nice, even an obscure one. "It's not random" is not a hint.

Also, I don't think I have a God-given right to anything on Neo. I've been playing since August 2000 and I've worked hard for all the nice stuff I have. And I don't think sidebars are terribly important, either. Yes, I like collecting them, but I'm not going to go nuts trying to get one. It's actually because I think they're not that important that I think they should be relatively easy to obtain. Like I said, they're not like avs or items; they're not status symbols. They're just browsing options. And I don't think any browsing option should take literally 2+ years to get. That's all.

I never said that TNT should just give me the sidebar here and now because I said so. I was just stating that I'm annoyed at how this sidebar (this one, not *all* of them) is hard to get. I think I have a right to be annoyed, if I feel like it, though I realize that other people might care less about sidebars.
Now that we have seen that some people are mildly annoyed, some are throughly annoyed, some are annoyed at the people who are annoyed, some don't care, and maybe some are not annoyed at all (probably the ones who are ignoring this topic), could we move on? I recall a petpage that tried to list theories for the sidebar, but it was outdated (still listed stuff like having a Xmas pet or visiting the AC every day). Isn't there a newer one?

We're all humans, getting annoyed is one of our many many feelings. So it's no surprise people are getting annoyed over the sidebar.

I suppose everyone here is after the same goal, yes? Getting the Wintery Sidebar?

Calming down and running through the ideas again could probably help. I think everyone is just thinking way too hard about this. The answer may just be under our noses.

And no, for the record, I don't have it. XD

I'm wondering if the reason we can't narrow down the specific requirements for the Winter Sidebar may be because we just need to fulfill one of several types of requirements. For example, many people who got the sidebar seemed to have all of the Advent gifts in their inventory. But some people got it without having all the gifts on hand. Maybe you get it if you either have all the advent items or you've donated to the Money Tree or you've completed a Snow Faerie quest, etc.

Forgive me for my rattling on, but I'm so perplexed on what requirements are needed for this sidebar...

I would like to have the sidebar so I could use it during all of December. The only sidebar that I have that I like is Altador. One of the sidebars I have I can't see the amount of NP in the top right corner- I wrote to NP about this but nothing came of it. Another that I have has the writing all in what may be or is supposed to be Egyptian letter and I have to mouseover to see what they are. The yellow one is too bright.

This challenge may not be solved this year, or next year, or even by the time I quit playing Neopets. That's what bugs me about the whole situation. I don't want the sidebar to use it, or even to tell other people. I want it because it's a challenge, but I've grown frustrated because there are too many possible requirements and only the memories of other people to go by. We weren't even sure there WERE requirements until the Editorial confirmed it. If they had it available on the 1st or the 15th or whatever as well as on the 31st, we would have a much better idea of the requirements, because we'd have time frame of a month or less. Expecting people to remember what they did all year on Neopets is a little silly, IMO.
Challenges are fun as long as they're solveable. This one, as it is, is not reasonably solveable. How many users visit the Neoboards each day? If all of them, working together, were unable to see a pattern, that's a clear indication to me that we deserve at least another hint as to what the requirements are.

(Another thing that frustrates me is that, if I get the sidebar before we have even an inkling of what the requirements are, it's not going to feel like a victory so much as a lucky roll of fate's dice.)

I think there may be more than 1 requirement to get the sidebar.

I have re-read posts and chat boards and 2 things stick out:

SNOW and GAMES


I think having a Snowball or something with the word 'snow' in it, in your inventory and playing a game/s on Terror Mountain - ie, Winter Games (including Taelia Quests).

Also a theory of 'showing Christmas Spirit' - give someone a present ( a snowball) or let your pets play with the toys or put Christmas furniture in Neohome.

This was posted on the boards:



At this point, I have played every winter game every day after collecting my Advent items just after midnight nst. I have a couple of different snowballs and snowflakes in inventory as well as my Advent items. I am using the Plastic Fir avatar. I plan to throw some snowballs at guild members very soon and on the 31st.

I am going to add another couple of Christmas items to Neohome very soon.

I think I have my bases covered.

Come to think of it, at that point I wasn't a battler and my main pet had fire snow and dirty snow equipped as a weapon... I may have been carrying a snowball around too, I tend to just leave them there when the water faerie gives me one and then empty out my inventory only when it gets too full...

I didn't play with/read/use/sell any of my advent caledar items, they all went straight in my SDB.

EDITS: I always pick mine up at random times, as friends and family find it odd that I feel the need to log onto a website to pick up christmas gifts. Plus midnight is 8am for me, way too early to be awake during the holiday season (I'm going to have to be extra sneaky and use my phone's internet browser this year as I'm staying with someone who most definately will not be happy with me running off to check my prizes.)

For those who have the avatar: do you have any high scores in winter games?

I've played most, if not all of them but I've never been on a high score table for any of them.

I've gone and done a lot of snow-related things around Terror Mountain... but if it's sending/receiving a snowball, could someone hit me at ledrane? I'll be happy to send a snowball back again, but it would just be an interesting experiment. ^^

Wait, this may be a stupid suggestion, but it could work, so yeah.

The people who got the sidebar in the previous years, did they do their dailies beforehand? If so, did any of you guys do the King Hagan/Grumpy King stuff?

I noticed the words 'Christmas' and 'Snow' in some of their choices this morning when I was flying through.

Like, perhaps using those words in a saying/joke on that day is part of the 'requirements'?

Sure! It's just sitting in my stuff not doing anything anyway!

What if the solution was to buy Advent items from the Shop Wiz? I know that I bought an extra of each Advent item last year because a friend wouldn't be around for the month of December. Maybe this has a role in the sidebar, which I did receive. Did any other people who got the sidebar purchase extra Advent items?