fullonparanoid

While there was no SHH announcement (or NM from TNT)...the new Caption Contest avatars were awarded a couple days ago (it just showed up on my avie list).

I will probably be using it for a while because it matches my 'quip' (Random Silliness) quite nicely. /grin

Good luck to all in the hunt for avatars...TDN helped me a ton a few years back (I took part in the awesome lending program).

I love Galleries!

Hands down, my favorite part of Neopia.

I have 2 Galleries.

My main is all about sand, sand, and more sand: It's Just Sand

My side Gallery is just 'stuff I like' (please excuse the mess, I've not sorted my 'View All Items' in ages): Miscellaneous Marvels

Bravo! to everyone's Galleries...best of luck to each of you in tracking down the items you need (the chase is part of the fun!)

/facepalm

I am SUCH an EEEEDYOT!

I saw that I had gifts so I clicked to "show all events" then once that popped up I kinda glanced and saw several items (codestones, a staff or walking stick of sort)...and with that glance saw what I PROCESSED as 'click here to open all'

/sigh

THIS is what I clicked here on:

To simply delete every event you have, click here.

I'm a numbskull.

Sooooooo, if you gifted me an item and it got returned (or ends up being returned...I don't know where the items actually go when you delete the event)...that is what has happened.

Thank you for trying...Please forgive my idiocy.

So, yah, I am a super duper idiot. The items were still in my 'Transfer Log' and I was able to accept and add the wonderful gifters to my Thank You's on my initial post to this board.

It's late. I'm going with that as my excuse.

I bet it is not as near in the future as the average Neo-buyer's attention span and that while those items will go up in the short term...they will drop again before the actual CC begins.

Just my prognosticating. 

Admittedly this one has not inspired many ideas from me thus far.

If it helps any...it is a Snuffly wielding the Ray Gun of Freezing and a Gabar running away (also Gabars frozen in ice).

I'll just keep lookin' at it over the next week and see if anything in particular comes to mind.

Good luck!

I have a hastily thrown together JN wishlist. A few of the items are totally pie in the sky items that have not even been SEEN in ages, but most are reasonable. /grin

https://items.jellyneo.net/mywishes/fullonparanoid/163694/

I also have my Side Gallery of 'Stuff I Like' with items sorted within Categories. Tons to still add so anything missing from those any of those categories would be awesome!

http://www.neopets.com/gallery/index.phtml?gu=furiousbandersnatch  -- The 'View All' is a mess, I have 37 rows to organize, but items ARE organized within each Category.

I'll be keepin' an eye on the lists posted here...Happy Holidays to all!

Cheers!

Wow! Santa has some Uber-fast Elves on TDN! 

Thank you!

I'd do that fancy hide contents box but I don't know how...(I learned something new today!)

Thank yous below in the Spoiler Box (because they've spoiled me!) /smile

 

I made a significant purchase for my Father for X-mas and was sooooo stoked/proud of myself...then remembered that I'd already made a significant purchase for my Father for X-mas. /facepalm

Ah well...perhaps next year I will remember I have a gift in the wings (or perhaps 20 years down the road I'll find said gift still tucked safely away).

 

Here is the the new/current image for the Caption Contest!

Congratulations to all of last round's winners!

The planned CC schedule for this month (per Scrappy):

Dec 4 - Submissions begin!
Dec 11 - Submissions close, Judging begins! 
Dec 18th - Captions are posted for voting! 
Dec 27th - Winners are posted (we give an extra couple days due to the holidays)

I will try to update image/schedule each month. Please note the word 'TRY'! /smile

Good luck to all who enter captions and remember to HAVE FUN!!

CC GUIDE: http://www.neopets.com/~Bonkin

This topic has been edited by a member of staff (Mouseykins).
Please do not post duplicate topics. There is already a news post here for the new round.
Please check your user inbox to see if you have been contacted regarding this topic.
Per the reason above, this topic has been LOCKED.

Seems a current theory about the missing Ectoplasm is that it IS supposed to be one of the Prize Drops for the SnapJaw Wraith.

HOWEVER...the Snapjaw Wraith is SUPPOSED to be in the New Dome (that has not been activated). Instead he is in the  Rattling Cauldron (Haunted woods) Dome so it is those prizes that are being dropped.

My guess is that the 'fix' will require activating the NEW Dome and putting the SnapJaw Wraith in it...THEN the prize drops will include the Ectoplasm (and other ingredients needed to mix Potions).

Hopefully won't have to wait until Monday (but probably will)

You have to click on each individual letter in the puzzle...you can't type it in. If you have the right word/s it will autofill at the end and give you the next step.

Good luck!

From Scrappy in the new Editorial:

Quote

2. CAPTION CONTEST TIMING UPDATE: So, I've talked to a lot of people about timing and the CC Charter Board has come up with a great solution I think everyone can agree on! So, we are going to still post each Caption on the first of the month, you will have a week to send in submissions, then we will take about a week to go through them and get them out, then you will have one week to vote. At the end of that week, winners will be posted. That means there will be anywhere from a week to a couple days of downtime, and then on the first- the new one will be posted! This new flow will start in December!

Also, I just noticed from an earlier News post:

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A new Caption Contest has launched! Now you can submit your best lines or vote for your fellow Neopians to take home a trophy of their own. We've got all new prizes in the prize pool so this is a caption contest worth winning!

I'm happy the prizes have been worked on, HOWEVER, "ALL NEW PRIZES"? Does that mean we no longer have a shot at the HIGH end prizes of the original prize pool? No more Candychan? Blobikins? Paint Brushes? Or did they just remove the cheapy ones? Hopefully they just removed the cheapy prizes and left the nice ones.

Guess we will find out at the end of this contest!

I buy 1000 shares a day from a single stock at a time. I pay 15-17K (if there are none available in that range I don't buy).

Over the years I've also purchased 1 (ONE) share from each one of the available stocks. That way I can look at my portfolio and see the values of ALL of Neopia's stocks. I never sell the single share. So all my stocks shares are like 12001, 8001, 16001, 2001, or, if I've sold off in full for profit...just 1. Hope that makes sense.

I've been using this method for years. I usually don't SELL until it hits 90+, so my Stock Portfolio is like another bank account. 

Buy Low Sell High!

Good luck!

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The current set up makes this contest entirely about how many people you can get to vote for you, and nothing to do with the quality of the caption. 

When you get right down to it...a contest decided by voting is always entirely about how many people you can get to vote for you. No matter how many times each user is allowed to vote.

So I don't see that it would be FAIRER to limit votes to 1 per user.

While I could see one vote each maybe being EASIER...it would require the entire set up of the CC to be altered.

Since it is one of the longest running and most popular contests, I just don't see that happening. 

I think there are ways to make the CC BETTER...but, imo, they are minor tweaks: setting a schedule and sticking to it, removing cheap prizes from the prize pool (for ALL contests), allowing only 1 caption per user into the voting round, actually CLOSING submissions once the voting round begins (as it stands, you can still fill in the submit field and enter them once voting has begun and lots of folks don't know that those submissions are futile), remembering to announce in the News every time captions go up for voting and every time a new image goes up, and putting a clear and concise list of rules on the CC page.

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Speaking of advertising, do you have any advice for that? I'm not doing so bad in terms of votes, but I'm not doing so great either. I always hoped that when I got in the CC that I'd be able to advertise here, but then they changed that rule.

So far as the signatures go...I find them less intrusive than the BC boards (but, tbh, the BC boards don't bother me...if I don't want to read a board I skip over it). The Quest boards are actually a great place to use your sig AND help out others at the same time. Just be careful to NOT mention the CC/voting IN your replies. ONLY in your signature. Pretty much any board on the NeoBoards is ok, so long as you stick to the subject at hand (avoid things like "GL!", "BUMP!", or just random smiley...you WILL get dinged for such).

If I am replying more than once on a given board, though, I only use my CC sig one time then swap my sig out for my other replies. That is TOTALLY personal preference on my part, there is no rule that says it is to be done that way.

While I used to advertise HERE myself, and have long appreciated TDN'ers for their support, I totally understand why TNT wants the garnering of votes to be limited to Neopets.

Now, as far as winning? Unfortunately top 5 (Gold) seems pretty hard right now because (imo) some users are still using outside influence to drive their vote counts up. That having been said, the top 25 get trophies (1-5=Gold, 6-12=Silver, 13-25=Bronze) and all get a random prize...so you should be able to place w/o too much advertising effort. You don't have to flood the Neoboards w/ commentary to place in the CC. 

Good luck!

 OR 

 

Flower Shaped Bottle of Sand AND/OR Star Shaped Bottle of Sand.

Would LOVE LOVE LOVE to add them to my Sand Gallery.

They are UBER Rare and I've not seen either in the Neopian wild for many years.

A man can hope!

/smile

HAH! Just noticed the avatar of user above me...too funny.

Great minds think alike?

That was Scrappy's reply to an NM from a longtime regular CC'er. I'm hoping to see it mentioned in this week's Editorial. /smile

I got a semi-cheapy petpet...a Werhond as my prize in the last contest. Not my best prize, by far...but not my worst either!

We were hoping that Scrappy was gonna remove the items from the shallow (cheap) end of the Prize Pool...but I guess that is further down her list of things to do.

Somewhere on my old computer I have a list of the CC prizes I got. Several Codestones, Dubloons, and Petpets worth only a few hundred nps are on it. It really is RANDOM. In the same contest one winner might get a Candychan and another might get a Mazzew. At some point Scrappy mentioned she was gonna see about removing the cheap items from the Pool but I don't think that has happened yet (I think she said it in an Editorial answer, actually)

Part of the fun of it IS the random nature of it (thought admittedly, I wouldn't miss the cheapy prizes!) /grin

I just have fun with it...win or lose. 

I just noticed a few minutes ago that someone actually has 2 captions in this contest. That used to happen now and again in the past...but I thought Scrappy said they were gonna prevent it from happening with the CC reboot (because the first image had like 3 users with double captions). I might shoot a question to the Editorial about that.

Good luck all!

:D

 

Congrats on losing your membership! /grin

So far as the best time to enter captions goes...my experience since the reboot says it is pretty random.

I know that the FIRST image that was posted with the return of the CC, the captions chosen were those entered right off the bat. HOWEVER, that image was only up for a few short hours before they posted captions to vote on. So, really, the ONLY time captions COULD be posted/chosen were right off the bat.

Since the first image, I have been in a couple of the voting rounds. I know for a fact that WHEN I entered my chosen captions was different for each contest.

So, for now...there is no real 'solid' advice as to when to submit captions. What I do is try to enter them here and there over a few days rather than all at once.

Also, the timing of when they post captions to vote on has been pretty willy-nilly. It was supposed to be 1 week to submit captions and then the rest of the month for voting (which many of us voiced concern over...that is a LONG time to deal with advertising/voting).

Yesterday, however, Scrappy replied to a long-time CC'er NM request that the timing of the contest be changed to:

1 Week to Submit Captions

1 Week for CC Judge(s) to Choose Captions

1 Week for Voting,

1 Week Off

Rinse/Repeat

Scrappy's reply:

Quote

You know what, I think that's a great idea. We were a little worried about having a week strictly of off time but I love that time frame! I'll announce it in the editorial and we will start doing that in December

-Scrappy

So, hopefully we will see that change noted in this week's Editorial!

Good luck to everyone with captions being voted on and good future luck to everyone trying lose membership in the OP's club!

---just for grins, here are a few of my entries that were not chosen:

Unlit Candle: You're hot!                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               Lit Candle: You're wicked!

Lit Candle to Unlit Candle: I guess any chance of a love connection just went up in smoke.

Balloons: Imagine how WE feel!

Ahhhhh!!! Thank you so much for your reply! I thought I was somehow missing something in my face.

Hopefully the compatibility issues get hammered out cuz this place is mighty BRIGHT!

/looks for sunglasses

I may be a total ignoramoooose...but, I'm not seeing a 'paintbrush' ANYWHERE to click?

Help?

You are most welcome, Deb! I want folks to enjoy the CC so that it sticks around and is not put out to pasture again!

I try to put in a couple a day from the day the image is posted until captions are up for voting. Of late, this means I have run out of 'good ideas' LONG before the captions go up. /grin

Rather than putting in the same caption more than once...try re-wording it. Or presenting it from the viewpoint of another of the 'characters' in the image. That way it is still the same idea but NOT a duplicate that might 'annoy' any of the judges.

The only other 'bit' of advice I can think of is to try to come up with captions for EACH of the characters in the image. That way, IF they base their decisions in part on how many captions from each character you are covered (and it is TOTALLY an 'if'...I have NO clue if they do so).

Good luck! and...most importantly...HAVE FUN!!

Hey there! 

First and foremost...DON'T GIVE UP!!!

I've been a regular CC submitter for a long while...while I have wins, I have way more losses!

They get TONS of entries...so many that I have NEVER been convinced that they all get read. As such, it just comes down to WHEN you entered your submission and what 'chunk' of submissions the judge(s) decides to read through.

When it comes to submitting captions, I try to mix it up. I've not yet come across any sort of 'best time' to enter (and I'm really bad about remembering WHEN I have entered any particular caption), but spreading your submissions out might help?

There are always going to be great captions missed (and, the other side of the coin, captions that 'we' may not find that funny will always make it in). Don't take it as personal offense, though, it is probably more about the timing than about the caption.

So, yah, I will close as I started...

DON'T GIVE UP!!

(and good luck!)

 

Off the bat...good on 'em for doing it. A little gift never hurts.

That having been said...why did it have to be not only species specific but gender specific as well? I feel like males pets already get the short end of the stick so far as wearables in Neopia and this just reinforces it.

Ah well...again...they do get an 'A' for effort. Perhaps it is a sign of more effort to come?

Thank you for the welcome back, Angelo! /smile

I've pretty much been stuck in the Neopian 'just do dailies' rut for MONTHS (years?).

I was frozen 'for my own protection' for 6 months in 2015 and that sorta kicked off my long absence here. I missed a Charity Corner event (and avatar) while frozen and was kinda bummed/bent with Neopets in general. That lasted until last Fall I guess...and I've gotten more and more involved since. 

I'm excited by the return of the CC. I hope they also decide to return Key Quest to us (though that might be being a bit too optimistic!).

I'm also happy with the small improvements they have been making (such as the Gallery fixes that removed the apostrophe glitch and the sorting glitch).

I'm seeing slow but steady improvement after YEARS of stagnation and it gives me hope for the site.

Hope this finds everyone happy and healthy!

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On another note, any Premium members frequent the Charter Neoboard? It seems Scrappy has appeared there a few times. She did post on the "Site Events" Neoboard during AC, once on the "Games" Neoboard and, I think, once on the "Ideas / Suggestions" Neoboard, but it seems she is making "home" on the "Charter" board.

I'm a regular Charter Board participant and I'm pretty sure the only place Scrappy has shown up is on the Charter CC Board when in the midst of the CC relaunch a couple weeks back. I don't see her 'making home' on Charter (though she is always welcome!)...I've seen her more in Q/A sessions on the regular Neoboards.

My experience with her has been overwhelmingly positive...she answered every question posed about the CC and even with the hiccups/kinks/gremlins/glitches that plagued the first round back, she has followed through with everything she said.

I'm neither a Neo-Optimist nor a Neo-Pessimist...I'm a Neo-Pragmatist.   As such, I say we give her credit for putting herself out there in the Community. It has been a long time since we had as much direct contact with TNT and I, for one, am appreciating it.

I've seen more positive forward movement in Neopia in the past few months than in the 2 years prior...I'm hopeful it continues. 

Well, while I TOTALLY agree that 3 weeks seems long for voting (even if the contest is once a month)...since the ONLY advertising allowed is via your sig, at least the site won't be inundated with vote boards. That having been said, I think 1 week is plenty for voting even if the contests are monthly.

So far as folks 'constantly reminding' ANYONE to vote for them...if it is on a board, it will be considered SPAM and they will be dinged by the monitors. If it is via NeoMail, they will either be blocked by individual users (even NFs might get sick of it!) and/or reported to the aforementioned monitors.

I think it will actually have a LOWER profile in the long run than the BC does.

I'd not be surprised AT ALL if there were more tweaks to the contest during the first few months.

All we can do is wait and see!

Hey y'all! 

In case ya didn't know, the Caption Contest has returned! 

Currently we are awaiting the fix of a glitch (the captions up for votes disappeared 2 days ago and they are SUPPOSED to be returned 'soon')...but, I PROMISE it is back! 

Captions are back up!  

With its return came a new set of rules.

Last week's Editorial had an overview of the new CC rules. Also, Scrappy stopped by the Charter CC Chat and added some more info.

I will post the new rules, but wanted to highlight a couple other things first.

 

1. Both July AND August CC Contests are to be avatar rounds (Hurrah!)

2. Going forward only ONE caption per user will be eligible for voting (but you can still ENTER as many as you want)

 

Caption Contest Rules:

- New image released on the 1st of each month.

- 1 week (7 days) of caption submissions before chosen captions are posted for voting.

- Voting open on captions for the last 3 weeks of the month.

- Winners announced end of month/before new image is posted.

- Avatar round every 10th contest (approximately once a year)

- CC vote advertising allowed in signatures ONLY. NO boards allowed (not even on Charter or Games). NO SPAMMING (you WILL be warned and dinged by the monitors).

- Advertising NOT allowed on Neopets Social Media (Faceplace/Twitplace/Instaplace/etc)

- Advertising NOT allowed on other Neopets sites (whether sanctioned sites or not) (yah, that means boards/sigs here on TDN are now frowned upon)

 

Now, I see the last rule as being the hardest to police...however, I do think there are ways to discourage it (beyond just asking users to play fair). One of the obvious would be for TNT to freeze the votes or remove the caption of a user guilty of it. Community policing and a sense of fairness will be key here, I think.

Hope this finds everyone happy and healthy...

Cheers!