Pink Poogle Toy Forum

I don't really know where this goes.
A few months ago, I opened a neopets help site.
It hardly has any content though, and it's amazingly hard to get staff.
Everyone keeps saying it needs more content, but they don't really tell me what it needs.
http://firefaeriedoll.com/
I need to know what to get on my site.
Can you guys help me, by telling me what it needs?

Alot of neo hlep sites contain premade graphics (shields, lookups, banners, shop blogs, guild layouts, etc). So that is a section that seems to be a must for neo help sites. I know there are others, but I can only think of this one atm.

Off the top of my head, these seem to be important things to have:

Avatar info
Links to "hidden" places (like Jelly world?)
How to get Krawk or Draik pet
Secret info (WOE chances, Coltzan times)
Game guides

To me, premades don't really define a Neopets "help site." But if they're well made, then it's cool.

Don't forget to write to TNT if you're putting a link on your site

Yeah, you really need some articles.

I'd suggest writing some game guides - they're relatively simple to write, and are helpful to others.

There's an Ice Cream Factory one I wrote for PI that you can use, as long as you credit

I always give credit.
I'm gonna start working on stuff!

How about a "Submit Content" link on the website?

Most asked for info:

avatars
battledome
When things are open / closed
Game guides / cheats

Adam, you need to carve out a niche for yourself. Like other sites have done. For instance, when you think of Soup Faerie, you know you will be able to find tons of graphics to use on the site. When you think of NeoItems, you know that you will be able to find a complete listing of all items. When you think of Neocolours, you know that you will be able to find all colors of pets and petpets there.

So, you need to find something that other sites either don't have or aren't doing very well. Or something that maybe a site was known for, but now that site is closed down. And make that the focus of your site--so when people need that particular bit of info, they think of your site.

Personally, I think a great detailed guide on how to play the game is sorely needed. A Beginner's Guide to Neopets. NeoNonsense used to have one but that site has been down for maintenance since August 2004. That site was known for its Newbie Guide. Neo News Now has one, but, first, it is quite hard to find on their site. And, second, I find it to be rambling, confusing, not at all comprehensive, and quite condescending (Quote: "There is just one last basic thing you need to know. You will get hacked/scammed, eventually. It happens to everyone, and it's not worth crying over." DUH? I haven't ever gotten scammed or hacked and find no reason to scare a newbie to death with that statement--otherwise, why bother even playing the game?)

A new person doesn't need pages and pages of pets and their descriptions or a full page of all of the smileys available. But, they do need to know all of the basics and how to stay safe on the site. In a simple, user-friendly format. And in a prominent place on the website--where a new person can find it easily.

You cannot imagine the number of people who write me asking me simple questions. Like how are pets painted, where do you get neggs, why is nothing in my shop selling. One sweet girl wrote me to say that she didn't know anything about shops or items and didn't want to go on the chatboards to ask because people were mean there. She knew how to play the games and that is what she stuck to because she was afraid to do anything else. Another person wanted to trade something for one of my neggs. When I agreed, she then asked if she should just send the item to me. She was totally unaware of the trading post. If I hadn't been me, a nice person, she could have easily gotten scammed out of her item. Most people who start don't know about the dailies or the quests. And, I am at a total loss when trying to help these people--because there is no "great" guide out there.

If you were to create a guide like that and put it on the front page of your forum, you would get tons of business on your site. And, your site would be know as the place for a newbie to go to for help and advice. A comprehensive step-by-step guide on what to do from day 1 on the site. And all of the possibilities that can happen while on the site. How to stay safe. The various ways to make nps. Broken down into chapters (kind of like the way Lissa's Guide to HTML is broken down).

And, with your artistic talents, Adam, sprinkled in there to set it apart from the rest of the guides.

Not only the premades but guides on how to use and code them. And please make sure that people can UNDERSTAND the guides. I know that I have been searching everywhere for a guide on how to do this and can't seem to find one.

Yeah! What she said!! I know when I started neopets I felt foolish asking what seemed to be "serious" questions for me but when posted I was made fun of. Being called a "n o o b" when really I was a Newbie was very disheartening. Sometimes I even see it here on PPT...... (i.e instead of thanking a New member for their thought or comment and nicely letting them know that info has been out for awhile, some of us VERY bluntly say oh that's OLD news - or something similar.)

Like Morningstar I get some very good questions that if I were a "person of lesser integrity" I could easily scam someone. I don't, but others will. So to sum up my thought, a GOOD newbie guide would be great but what would be a good combination with a newbie guide would be a contact/forum area that newbies could ask questions/post comments and not be made fun of!

It would be great if you had a very good list of scams that are used so if anyone had any doubt, they'd just check your list and see that it is there. and a newbie guide should move at a snails pace, but be easily navigateable if you're slightly more experienced. Most of the guides i've seen basically say, buy stuff, play games, get money. not very helpful at all

So true. The guides that I have seen forget what it was like to be a newbie. They tend to talk down to a new person and gloss over things that seemed so mysterious to me at the time. Personally, I had the hardest time just navigating the site. The side bar made no sense to me. I actually was afraid to do any of the quests because one of them had "yelled" at me for not doing the prior one. And that was 2-1/2 years ago. Think how much has been added since then.

I think a good guide has to be a step by step thing. So basic that is the person writing it is bored to tears with the baby steps it provides. But, you have to put yourself in a new person's shoes. If you think about it, the site is overwhelming. And, not only do you have to learn the game, but you have to look out for scammers and hackers and deal with ridicule from the "oh so wise players" who know everything l33t thing out there. I honestly don't know how new people do it.

I have almost talked myself into writing a Beginner's Guide.

Hey! Count me in for helpful advice if you do! You always do such a great job of being thorough in your responses here that I really enjoy reading them!

Oh...ahhh... haha, Adam you can count on me too!!!

I added a newbie Q&A.
It has alot of things I wondered about when I signed up.

http://firefaeriedoll.com/newbiequestions.php