PPT History

The third year, a year of consolidation, continual growth, friendships and mile stones: January 2003 - December 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 were 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 most 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 fansites found themselves under threat of having their websites removed unless the were in line with the Terms and Conditions set forth under Neopets. PPT went offline for a period of four days coincidentally 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 far without 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

- Yukio