About Lookups and Putting Your Picture On Them...

[everconfused]

I was doing my usual lurk on the boards a little while ago, and saw one of those It's Not Fair type of posts. Well, I always have to click on those!

Apparently, if you have a picture of yourself on your lookup (why do you need a pic of yourself there?), if someone from TNT sees it - warning and lookup cleared.

I know that some people got their lookups cleared for posting their LJ, etc., and it's never, ever a good idea to have your email/aim/im, etc. where just anyone can get their hands on it. I don't know if people posting email, etc. have had anything happen, haven't heard anything there. And to be honest, I also don't understand people putting their whole real name and/or a physical description of themselves, where they go to school, etc. Asking for problems, IMHO.

So, if you do have a pic of yourself, take it down before they do, save yourself a warning!

[Mystique]

that's why i am not having any kind of "decoration" for my shop and userlookup...too many undefined do's and don'ts there.

[raudf]

that's why i am not having any kind of "decoration" for my shop and userlookup...too many undefined do's and don'ts there.

And don't forget the fact that those "undefined" don'ts change with the Neowhims of Neosecurity.
Not to mention that after losing an account that had all that done.. I refuse to do more with this one. Playing games is one thing, but I take my art seriously.

As for why someone would want to put a picture of themselves in their lookups, I have no clue! I mean, geeze, it seems kind of silly to put that kind of info in the hands of the trolling New Member that haunt Neopets these days. (Not to mention the freeze-happy little snots that carry big grudges.)

[everconfused]

Well, in this specific case - clearing a lookup that has personal information/pictures of the person on them, I actually think it's a good thing. Just from a personal safety (and the site's compliance with COPPA probably). I don't know that an official warning is necessary, maybe something more along the lines of an official "advisory" of how unsafe it is to put things like that on a lookup or petpage.

It should be spelled out better - it's in the rules to not ask for anyone else's personal information - under #3:

information that might identify another user (including posting a link to your personal guest book)

, but it doesn't say anything about not posting your own information except for the personal guest book comment -- which it probably should. It looks like they're trying to enforce (a kind of vaguely worded or "unwritten") rule.

Yes, I decorate my shop and lookup...but I think I use common sense.

Common sense seems to be uncommon in people who will post their picture, add a description of themselves, where they live, go to school, their full name, etc.; post their aim/im/email on their lookup, petpage or the boards.

And in my opinion, from what I've seen these are mostly younger players doing this...it begs the question: where are their parents and why aren't they teaching their children internet safety? Neopets (and the internet in general) is not and should not be thought of as a "babysitter". That's not their job!

[raudf]

Yes, I decorate my shop and lookup...but I think I use common sense.

Common sense seems to be uncommon in people who will post their picture, add a description of themselves, where they live, go to school, their full name, etc.; post their aim/im/email on their lookup, petpage or the boards.

And in my opinion, from what I've seen these are mostly younger players doing this...it begs the question: where are their parents and why aren't they teaching their children internet safety? Neopets (and the internet in general) is not and should not be thought of as a "babysitter". That's not their job!

No, it's not. And yes, there does seem to be an overwhelming lack of common sense, not in just the younger generation, but in their parents as well. As you said Neopets isn't a "babysitter" site, for all that it's trying to push itself onto a younger and younger market. It doesn't have the tools to police itself in a manner that would make it a completely "child friendly/safe" zone. I know of one parent who does let her 6 year old have her own account, but.. She watches the child like a hawk and makes sure the girl knows that she's not to give out her personal info nor her password to ANYONE. Heck, not even me, and I've known them for years.

[Mystique]

common sense is pretty much the cause for some warnings actually. for example for the large number of fake REs that doesn't imply any material gains and are more joke-like, anyone with common sense would not relate it to scams after reading the content. then you can also get warned for covering your year shield with other pictures and many players with their common sense can't see why it's not allowed until they are told that scammers may make use of that.

[VirtualMetal]

To be honest. I think the rules are getting a bit too silly as well as completely un-clear. As if a picture of yourself if going to do anything. It's not like someone could find you based on looking at an image of you on a screen.

You'd have more chance of being stalked by the people who see you on public transport, Shops or walking in the park than on the internet. The only reference to where you live is the country. Anything else is up to the person who made the lookup to add or not to add.

However. I've never seen any rule against it and you can never really believe anything people tell you. Best bet is to email neopets and ask if it's against the rules and if it is, why isn't it stated anywhere. I'm sure many people have their pics on pet pages.

I got a warning earlier on for posting off-site links. I still don't know what I'm supposed to have posted since all I have ever posted on the neoboards is my neopets av help page. I did talk about ebay in a neomail though. So it was probably that.

[anti.]

I had one - and two other friends have them currently on there - but we never got warnings?

[Chaud]

I never put photos/off-site links anywhere, not my shop nor lookup. I talk a bit about myself, and make the page look attractive.

[Zero!]

I don't have any pictures of me... However, my userlookup is totally decked out. I even had music in there for a day, until I found out it lagged and sounded bad.

[everconfused]

Virtual, I think it's another of the mysterious "unwritten" rules...there seems to be an awful lot of those these days.

Will not get started on my rant about there not being a complete, clear TOS...

It most probably was ebay that got you the warning - typing that on my guild message board got me a warning and all my posts cleared.

I saw a few people post that they were going to move their pics to their petpages -- which could end up hurting the rest of us with even more rules! or not being able to customize our petpages.

Mystique - the shield thing...I've seen people with custom shields and no one blinks, and other people get so much grief over them. When I see someone post asking for one, I sugges that they're not a good idea, as it could be seen as trying to cover your user stats. Another unwritten rule, and one that really needs inclusion - not hiding/covering any user stats on user or pet lookups.

Those fake RE's! Oh how I loathe them. I actually saw someone get reported and frozen for having a fake fountain faerie RE on their lookup. Why? because someone (new) believed it was real, ran and bought what was asked for - a tin of olives - then threw a complete tantrum on the board when they found out it wasn't real. started reporting and got other people to report. Plus the topic turned into a major name calling flame war...So, um, no, no fake RE's please

anti? Yours hasn't been seen is the only thing I can guess. So, hush on that;)

zero, music shouldn't be working at all on lookups. The real music code was disabled awhile ago, I don't think they want us putting music on our lookups. Being on dial up (page takes forever to load) and sometimes having my speakers on listening to something, gotta say I'm not a fan of the music thing.

Last edited by everconfused on Wed Aug 11, 2004 1:12 am, edited 1 time in total.

[Zero!]

I found a code that works on userlookups. Don't worry, I don't have any good userlookup music anyway.

[Hpfan36]

You can get your user lookup cleared for having your LJ there? I didn't know that! I don't want my userlookup cleared, I worked too hard on it. *Runs off to take off LJ*

I'm glad I read this board...

[VirtualMetal]

Virtual, I think it's another of the mysterious "unwritten" rules...there seems to be an awful lot of those these days.

Will not get started on my rant about there not being a complete, clear TOS...

It most probably was ebay that got you the warning - typing that on my guild message board got me a warning and all my posts cleared.

Actually I found out what I got warned for. I'd been on the neoboards earlier,on that day. Explaining to a girl that offering to go into someones account to get an av for them will get her and the other person frozen. Also trying to explain how she looked like a scammer. She got really mad at everyone in there. Trying to justify her actions with her 3 year old status on her account. So I'm guessing she reported everyone for something just to get back. What I hadn't realised is that I'd left a coupple of web-radio links on one of my pets lookups. I did it so long ago, it wasn't hurting anyway but you know what they're like with all the legal team rubbish. I cleared it so hopefully it should be fine.

About the pictures in lookups. As I said before. I can't really take someone on the neoboards word for it since a good percent of them post indecent pics and talk smut. So you can't really be sure whether they did or didn't get warned for having personal images on. A lot of them lie, especially when they have been frozen a few times. So I'm not too worried about it (I don't have pics of me anyway. Well, I do post them off my house-elf I mean mate to wind him up. But very rarely.). If that is a rule then they should state it, if anyone gets warned then sort it.

[ZH!]

Hmm, I've seen a few people with pictures of theirselves in their lookups, not sure if they were frozen or not. I wouldn't personally do that (Neopets is waaaay too big to know who's going to see), but I don't see why it is a problem. Unless someone sued Neopets for something that happened to them because they put their picture up.

I dislike "unwritten rules." Or the stupid ones. For instance, when I was 12 I received a warning for my shop name being 7-11. I think it was for "endorsing outside businesses" or something like that. Yes, I'm telling everyone in my shop to stop playing Neopets and go to 7-11! MUAHAHAHAHH! -.-