Pink Poogle Toy
PinkPT
PinkPT (formally PinkPoogleToy) is a Neopets help site, which has branched out to include many different topics.
History (Introduction)
Pink Poogle Toy, also referred to as PinkPT or PPT, was originally designed as a fan and help site for Neopets, a site in which users take care for virtual pets.
Started in February of 2001 by Yukio and Alicia, a young woman he happened to know over the internet, the fan site started with a meager two people per day and displayed answers to a small fraction of the Neopets games, but as its content grew so did its size and by the end of February over 200 hits were recorded per day.
The peak for the site during this early stage was when Alicia created a PPT Oekaki; unfortunately with over 2,000 new pieces of artwork created very day it had to quickly be shut down as the young site owners could not afford to pay for the insanely high amounts of bandwidth that was being used by this image-driven feature.
By the end of 2001 Yukio was receiving an average of 8,000 unique visitors per day, unfortunately it was at this stage that Alicia left turning entire control of the website over to Yukio which was once considered by many to be PinkPT's worst move.
He sure was overwhelmed!
The website has continued to flourish to this day and with new content being added many times per week there is no end in sight to the juggernaut known as PPT.
History (2001)
This website started as a small website that contained only Poogle Solitaire answers. It started off by gaining only 2 visitors a day. The next day, it grew to 23. Cliffhanger Answer where then added. Two weeks on, word went around somehow and PPT was starting to go into the 200 mark. The content grew every day.
Alicia then created the oekaki, an online art board. Oh my, it proved so successful. It grew into an online community with many people using it, far beyond my expectation. With at least 2,000 pieces of artwork are created there every day, there was bound to be at least 3 people online at the same time whenever the oekaki was visited. Created on the servers of unixdaemons, the oekaki quickly became a popular feature on the site. Due to the popularity, Sako's oekaki was created alongside PPT Oekaki, to compliment to extremely talented artists that were emerging from the oekaki. Unfortunately, the oekaki grew to the extent that no host could host it anymore as it was consuming a large amount of bandwidth (mainly due to the fact that the oekaki was image driven). Sadly, the oekaki was never re-created after unixdaemons emailed Yukio telling him that they can no longer host PPT's oekaki due to its "insane amount of generated traffic".
In March 2001, one month after opening, PPT was reaching visitors of up to 2000. In April 2002, 8,000. It was also during this month that Alicia, decided to leave. She had her reasons of course, her life was busy as everyone's is, and that was a blow to me as she was the person that pushed me further, to help people. I couldn't of done so much without her behind and supporting me. 2 months down the track, she returned though and everything was once again set in motion :) Unfortunately, a further two months proved Alicia could not juggle her daily life with PPT so she resigned.
Nearing the end of April 2001, PPT was receiving 25,000 page views a day. In August, a representative from the peel networks approached PPT with a deal. In exchange for state of the art hosting on superior servers, PPT would advertise their US based magazine company. This offer was instantly approved as PPT was beginning to experience host troubles with hosts such as Virtualave, Hypermart and Geocities. During April 200, PPT reached 145,000 page views a day and have past the milestone of the 2,000,000 hits.
In September 2001, the world opened its eyes to a pleasing deep blue colored layout. Created by a mate by the name of Ben Williams from www.hologramdesigns.com in an attempt to spiffy it up, the new layout created organization for the site, something much sought after as the content volume had grown to over 100 pages.
I love this website because I am working with people who I love working with. We have fun when we do stuff, when we chat, when we tease each other. I love this website because so many people email me and send things in to help contribute and help all the people out there who play this game. In its own right, I love this site because it has brought a group of people closer together, irrelevant of the differences, where skin color, race religion and origin does not matter at all. This website is dedicated to providing people with many helpful hints and tips to a great game and it will always be dedicated to just that. All things here are original and are never copied. However, you know what? I believe that this site does more than provide hints and tips to a game, I believe that it does something a million times more special, bring people closer together :)
History (2002)
In January 2002, the world once again opened its eyes to sky blue layout. Re-designed by Ben Williams from www.hologramdesigns.com, this layout became the epitome of the playful, cheery, mischievous and fun atmosphere this site.
Early February 2002, marking the first birthday of PPT, Mike joined to head the Battlepedia department, providing in depth information and statistics to all Battledome related aspects on Neopets, the Battlepedia proved to be a big hit instantly. Quickly growing into a large site itself, Mike leant towards the direction of PHP programming and MySQL database work where he quickly learned the ins and outs of programming.
The site forums opened up to the general public proving to be a big hit instantly. With over 600 signups in one week, Bob, the epitome of a good role model, with quite an exhaustive and extensive vocabulary quickly proved himself of administration quality and while guiding Yukio with many little problems in regards to the forums, was quickly picked to take over admin-ship of the forums. Alongside Bob supporting the smooth running of the forums were the friendly Michelle, a lass who once sent in a sign saying "PPT rox my sox!", Janie, a stunning model with two beautiful children, passionate ChromeFox, somewhat a celebrity for her run ins with the infamous Mari Jhane saga and all the mods with impeccable skill. The forums were riddled with problems however. The first host, powweb, proved an excellent host for the beginning. As the forum sign ups increased, PowWeb was forced to cancel PPT's account under their hosting company because PPT simply used too much bandwidth. In a bid to solve this problem, PPT was approached by an admin at YaBB with an offer to host PPT's forums under the consideration that it would change to the mysql version. This host however proved unable to handle PPT's visitor load so the account was frozen after one day. PPT then found a new host called a plus. However all the membership information was inadvertently lost. Deciding to start fresh, the MySQL version of YaBB was once again used but due to many false information about 'unlimited system resources' claimed by a plus, PPT forums were constantly down because like other hosts, they were unable to accommodate the growing fan base and visitor load. Once again reverting back to Yabb CGI in the hope that the forum problems would be solved, the forum once again went down after one week.
With the implementation of the news feature generously installed by NeoFan who worked with Neo-Net, site updating became a simple task with a little click on a button. Joining the team were three extremely charming ladies with wit to match, Amanda, Sarah and Silver!
With the tremendous growth in all the emails the site was receiving, robot_blumaroo offered to take care of all NeoPet related questions. He stayed with PPT for approximately three months before opting out. The help link was then redirected to the forum help boards.
In the month of July 2002, (Yukio's birthday), PPT was introduced to a fine young man who would later shape the future of PPT. Skilled in many programming languages, the bloke under the name of Sam quickly became one of the team, sharing ideas, creating extra features on the site and in many regards, co-webmasters the entire site itself. His uncanny ability to be able to fully grasp any concept explored and put pen to paper or fingers to keyboard left the entire team staring open mouthed at his deftness, precision and timely responses to any emergency arises.
In September 2002, NeLLa joined PPT as a guide writer surpassing over 200 applicants in the first 24 hours of the notice being posted. With guides such as Swarm and Evil Fuzzles From Beyond the Stars under her belt, her writing skills possessed a jovial quality, which was a major factor in deciding the final application.
Also in this month, Harry joined PPT to head the NeoDaq, a department providing information related to the stock market game in Neopets. During this time, PPT's new host a plus was experiencing trouble's with handling PPT's Battlepedia and forum load. Reflected in constant down times and numerous forum restarts, Yukio approached Ted from simgateway and bought dedicated hosting from www.doublehost.net.
Well there you have it! Despite many hosting problems, PPT still remains one of the most popular gaming resource on the net due to its personality, its voice, and its ability to provide in-depth information on all aspects of Neopets reflect its love for the game. Until then, I'll see you around the site!
History (2003)
The third year approached and with it, many milestones and history recorded. Everyone consolidated within the "PPT Empire" had their own individual story to tell, and while this year, many feats were able to be achieved, there was also a fair share of disturbances. There was great times of joy and friendship, and even times when friendships were tried and tested, some with favorable outcomes and some not so good, watching the backs of various members leave.
Once again, many issues took place around the forums, a section when started by Yukio, had no idea that it would become quickly, a very large community of online people with close bonds of friendship. The new year saw a total revamp of the administration system at PPT, with the administrators Janie and Bob leading the crew of Global Moderators and moderators into a period of banging out the kinks in the system. Unfortunately, an issue involving ChromeFox saw her demoted to a normal member, and a furious uproar took place within the Forums over the facts and points of "the case". Forwarding another two months and ChromeFox was came back into the PPT forum Crew as a moderator again, and once again Forum life continuing as usual.
Nearing the end of January, Bob, the first ever employed forum admin for PPT aka 'man-with-big-stick' resigned. Although many were taken completely by surprise, the forum crew was to see it coming. Bob had achieved his goals of a forum admin, changing the little forum it once started out with into the largest, safest and most friendly forum in relation to Neopets. Many well wishes were given alongside many thanks, and it is safe to say that Bob had clearly carved his name into the minds and hearts of the PPT members. Even now, his legacy remains. After much deliberation, Bob handed his reigns over to big Jim, another British co-incidentally. Handling the day-to-day affairs of the forum alongside the now longest running admin at PPT, Janie ala model, the new dynamic duo have paved over and strengthened the dirt road Bob and Janie together dug with the help out the global moderators, moderators and members. As of April 4th 2003, the forum line up is as follows. Forum administrators Janie and Jim, Global Moderators CoolKau, Fiddelysquat, Kagome, Michelle_Belly and V3n0m0us, and moderators Airglo, atamand, Bno, Charisma, CheezieHottie, ChromeFox, Count Von Roo, CragHack, CSK, Cyanna, FaerieGirl, Hunter Lupe, Infernobanjo, Lina Blade, MarcoBMG, Magax, Marching Duck, Mina, Neko, Nshade, Platypus, Raiden, Sam, Shy Divine Dragy, Stephy, Stodder, Werepup, White_Wolf and Winnerliu.
This year also began a string of Forum competitions, and fads such as the "lets-all-post-wav-files-of-our-voices" to "let's-make-silly-movies-of-each-other". The first ever large-scale forum competition began late 2002 and was dubbed the "PPTBIES". Modeled after the logies, the forum saw a frenzied and enthused approach by all members with well known members and often, less known members stepping up into the lime light to take out well sought awards. The winners were as follows. Most Valuable Person - Shoyru_Lover, Outstanding Contribution - JanieJanie, Most Influential - JanieJanie, Best Moderator - Chromefox, Best Female Member - Fiddleysquat, Best Male Member - CoolKau and Bob, Click That Topic - MichelleTheGoth, Best Newcomer - Hunter Lupe, Most Helpful - Cyanna, Funniest Member - FiddelySquat, Happiest Member - Sonchynne, Most Generous - V3n0m0us, Best Artist - Stephy, Best Avatar - Stephy, Good Grammar - Knitting Knut, Bad Grammar - Yuvs, President - Chromefox and JailBird - MichelleTheGoth. Now considered an annual event, it led to other creations such as "PPT Survivor" which unfortunately still hasn't finished, Mina's MMAC (Mina's Monthly Art Contest) and Hunter Lupe's PPT Staff Sacrificers, which unfortunately saw all the PPT guys voted out first (bah!).
Early 2003 saw Hunter Lupe heading the new department at PPT called the In-Depth NeoQuest Guide. Growing very quickly, it is now one of the largest detailed sites out there, which contain complete walkthroughs, and maps of the entire game. This department was created in anticipation of NeoQuest 2, which many people believe will take a long time before the actual game is released.
March 2003 saw the Work Shop department open at PPT. Encompassing tutorials on how to make models of various Neopets aspects; the idea quickly took on and received overwhelming support and good responses from the Neopets community. It is still currently being established and built.
During March 2003, the visitors of PPT one day saw a dramatic look on PPT. Opting to forgo the generic "blue" look that all other sites seemed to now possess, PPT had it's layout redesigned into an eye catching red, this time with the logo of the PPT Crew, drawn by Mina, as it's welcoming image. Once again designed by www.hologramdesigns.com, the new layout expressed a more cleaner, professional and slick version of PPT. During this time, the first ever member to reach 10,000 posts was ChromeFox! A huge accomplishment considering the next biggest poster was behind by a few thousand posts!
Alongside all these new changes, came new staff. Magenta, Alex, Mermaid Hil and Swedevil joined the News Crew while PPT adopted the incredible talents of Mina Kim and Lina Blade as the artists! Stephy soon joined as the graphics artist at PPT designing banners and buttons for various purposes. What PPT didn't anticipate this time however was the range of talents it was now adopting. It seemed each staff member at PPT had more than one single talent. Magenta, while posting excellent news also was very well versed in graphic design, while Stephy, who was originally founded as a forum moderator was soon found to also be an incredible graphics artist. Hunter Lupe, who was also modding the forums was soon discovered to be a phenomenal scripter and after critically looking at the staff again, PPT soon found that each staff member was directly contributing to more than one aspect at PPT! As a result, the PPT forums started taking on a more otaku-ish path, everyone lapping up the design atmosphere fueled by stephy's creations and Mina's art contests.
While these new developments were taking place, more somber issues were occurring outside of PPT. Late 2002 to early 2003 saw what would take place in what is commonly known as the "Fan Site Wars". Many new neopets related fan sites quickly sprang up and due to more than one website's immature attitude towards the entire game and taking the game way too seriously, a series of attacks on other websites, accusations, hackings, slander and libel quickly took place. PPT attempted to stay away from this as much as possible, only standing up for itself when the other website in question made a direct false statement against PPT. After the incident was finally resolved and a tentative 'peace agreement' was made between the other websites, PPT once again distanced itself from those websites for it did not wish to be a party to such events if they should occur again. PPT was created for the fans, and that's the way it will always be. It decided never to take part in any petty politics, which should never take place between fan sites. Just when everyone starting breathing again, another round of rumors began circulating. Many of them unfounded. However this time, the threat came from Neopets itself. Many fan sites found themselves under threat of having their websites removed unless they were in line with the Terms and Conditions set forth under Neopets. PPT went offline for a period of four days coincidently during this time, which started a fresh batch of rumors that PPT was removed which was untrue. However PPT once again opened up after its short down time and put a definite stop to the rumors.
In April 2003, forum moderator 'werepup', fresh from a trip to Spain, joined the main PPT site as the newest webmistress of PPT. Dubbed Elle by the crew, Elle has given PPT the much needed female touch, as PPT was beginning to become too male orientated due to the over abundance of testosterone which was flying around everywhere.
Well there you have it. The third year so far has had many triumphs and tribulations while also its fair share of small problems, which were easily taken care of. I, Yukio, could not have taken PPT this without with the dedication and support of so many people. The forum mods, and GMs, the admins, the separate help of individual people, to list them all here would take forever. However some do stand out in my mind and I would like to take this opportunity to thank certain people. Janie and Bob for always being my "second parents" even though they didn't mean to. Elle for always being there to help out whenever she could. Jim, for spending countless hours talking about nothing with me. Sam, Hunter and Mike, the programming wiz kids with a "all-for-one-and-one-for-all" attitude. The news crew Magenta and Alexa, for being the anchor of the team, and CSK, V3n0m0us, Stephy, MichelleTheGoth, Mina, Lina, Pheny, Charisma, Cheezie and Michelle for just those random fun and crazy talks which seems prevalent among the PPT members. Lastly, Cyanna. While we hardly ever talk, you've always struck me as a very sensible, kind and fair person :). THANK YOU ALL
History (2004)
What do you remember?
History (2005)
September 2005 saw the overhaul of PPT. Now with over 1,400 pages of content, the site re-organized itself into self contained categories (in contrast to a billion links on the front page) to make the site friendlier for the site visitors. PPT additionally made a vow to itself to serve the visitors, by getting rid of all the pop up advertising and download prompts that once plagued the site.
With a brand-new redesign by Ben Williams over at www.hologramdesigns.com, PPT now exuded a confidence in its bright colors. The Forums grew to new heights, breaking its record of most online users at once (since the forum reset) of 149 on 12 Sep 2005 during the early days of the new Neopets plot, the Lost Desert.
PPT also saw Neopets staff members posting on the forums from Donna Williams to Adam Powell. Some of the programmers have been known to drop in from time to time to interact with Neopets players. This would eventuate to Neopets changing the description of the Pink Poogle Toy on Neopets to "This lovely pink poogle moans about banner ads and frozen accounts when you squeeze it! :P".
2005 also saw PPT open its doors to other Neopets fan sites. With the advent of all the new Neopets fan sites, PPT welcomed them by creating a large link database for everyone to join.
The PPT top sites, which opened and then closed due to hosting problems, re-opened.
The PPT Oekaki during 2005 flourished to new heights.
The Current Site
The site has been growing ever since, but by far the most popular area of the site now is the large community hosted on the phpBB forum. Since the forums unfortunately crashed in April 2004, the community has rebuilt itself, and nearly 4,000 of the 10,000 members that had joined by this time returned, many under different names. Since this, PPT has grown immensely. Under the stern, yet loving eye of the three administrators, the community has flourished. Jim, the weird guy, handles the disciplinary side of things. Hunter Lupe handles the technical side of it. Runevalkyrie is more a watchful eye over the staff, as many things have gone wrong in its past. A bi-weekly paper, called the Pink Ink has also been hosted on the site.
With the help of a forum, a lot of content, and a great community PinkPT, and the PinkPTers (a person who often visits the site) along with it have developed their own little slice of online culture. Expanding into sites dedicated to other big things, like Harry Potter and Subeta, The PPT Empire shows little sign of slowing down. PinkPT has also expanded into the online gaming world itself. A new section of the site, Kaimon, a game unlike any other text-based RPG online is being developed.
As of the 15th June 2005, PPT has further expanded its reach, opening up two new sub-channels. One regarding a popular anime, Sailor Moon, and another on Dance, an enjoyable hobby of the webmaster.
Enemies
Despite the fact that PinkPT has such a wide fan base, it has also ranked up a number of enemies. As the largest Neopets fan site, many runners of other sites claimed that PinkPT is a site that encourages a multitude of problems, including spyware, viruses and hardcore pornogrophy. Of course, this is not true. Though the websites sports a number of advertisements, the management makes sure that no illegal content makes its way onto the computer. Not only other site runners have grudges, as many older members of the community come back to antagonize the forums. Still, with over 4,000 members, it could be considered the largest fan site for Neopets.
Mascot
The most noted celebrity on PinkPT is the chicken, Arrow. In the beginning, it started out as an Emoticon, but this chicken has been officially raised to the 'mascot' of PPT. At the top of the forum, one can see the banner. There is a picture of Arrow, painted by the resident artist, the wonderful Yoshi. In various forms, during the holiday seasons, one can see Arrow in such forms as the roast chicken during Thanksgiving, and a Cupid arrow, during St. Valentine's Day Influences
The Pink Poogle Toy item on Neopets has had its description changed to "This lovely pink poogle moans about banner ads and frozen accounts when you squeeze it! :P", a playful reference to the members of PPT forums, many of whom frequently complain about various aspects of Neopets.
PinkPT's Lost Layout
PinkPT had a fourth layout, a pink one that briefly appeared for a few days before being taken down. It make a brief re-appearance during a template switching system Hunter installed but after a the unfortunate server reset where a lot of data was lost including all the forum files and databases, this template never re-appeared.
Conclusion
Although PPT is a Neopets help website, it has expanded into a wonderful community run by our awesome Yukio. Many PPTers are hard-working fun-loving insane people, as the site is meant to be. In conclusion, PinkPT considered by many to be one of the best Neopets help sites with a multi-topic forum.