Number says number?

[GillyTook]

Okay, going through a million shops, I keep seeing this.  The shopkeeper  is named a random number, and is saying a random number.  Is this like a thing I missed?  

[Scoobert_Doo]

If I remember correctly, the "numbers" are used for Neopians (user accounts) under the age of 13. May have to due with COPPA laws, but I'm not 100% sure. Don't know if the "numbers" signify anything, either.

[Greywindd]

I'm so confused. Are these in user shops?

[Mouseykins]

Yes, this would be in user shops. I've come across it a few times as well but never really paid attention.

[MysteryAF]

I've seen that before too, but didn't think anything of it.

[jellysundae]

I've seen this so many times too, and just been THOROUGHLY confused by it.

So I'm glad to know there's something legit behind it and it's not people cheating which is what I always assumed it was!

 

@Greywindd here's an example for ya, took me all of half a minute to find one, lol, there's LOADS of 'em!

[Duskitty]

They are indeed in shops owned by users under the age of 13, presumably a default thing.

If the account was created when the user was under 13, and they open a shop and they have these numbers, they don't automatically change to any other default greeting or anything once the user turns 13. Which is somewhat amusing to me if the owner of the shop never changes those description fields after they've turned 13, because it'll still be like that on accounts where the user is like 20 or something.

[GillyTook]

Ahhh, gotcha.  Well, that sort of makes sense, I suppose.  A way to sort of censor them, so they don't end up saying things they should not, then?

[jellysundae]

1 hour ago, Duskitty said:

They are indeed in shops owned by users under the age of 13, presumably a default thing.

If the account was created when the user was under 13, and they open a shop and they have these numbers, they don't automatically change to any other default greeting or anything once the user turns 13. Which is somewhat amusing to me if the owner of the shop never changes those description fields after they've turned 13, because it'll still be like that on accounts where the user is like 20 or something.

I'm guessing that all of the shops we see like that now are on abandoned accounts; the one I screenied definitely is, I checked their lookup out (not a stalker) and it doesn't look like they even played for very long at all; only got 4 avatars, and no trophies at all.

It's during CC - when the normally priced items have all been snapped up - that people start going into shops with "inflated" prices. The reality a lot of the time though is that shop stock has been sitting there gathering dust for years. This is what I've long believed is the main reason behind CC; clearing the mountains of bandwidth-hogging stock out of 1000s of long-abandoned shops. The fact that they've made it so nearly eveything can be donated now makes this so much easier, the previous method with specific categories couldn't really be sustained.

[Kute]

I always wondered this as well and see it a lot too! How funny. 

[GillyTook]

I just wonder why they don't delete the long abandoned shops when they delete user accounts?  Or do they not do purges THAT often?  I am not sure the abandoned shops will ever be clear of their stock, since a lot have really old prices (I've seen things like the cans of peas I'm buying for less than 30 np for well over 100. . .  It'll take years at this rate.)  

[Scoobert_Doo]

5 minutes ago, GillyTook said:

I just wonder why they don't delete the long abandoned shops when they delete user accounts?  Or do they not do purges THAT often?  I am not sure the abandoned shops will ever be clear of their stock, since a lot have really old prices (I've seen things like the cans of peas I'm buying for less than 30 np for well over 100. . .  It'll take years at this rate.)  

No, they do not do purges, THAT often. Take a look at this Neopian Times Editorial, Issue: 771, 3rd day of Running, Y19, Question #4:

Quote

Hey TNT *showers with cotton candy* What are the chances of a new purge happening? I feel that it's the only way to revive the site now and make users come back. It'll make the community and boards more active too! Hope you guys can at least give an ambiguous answer if it's not a flat out yes or no. Thanks! Please remove my username. ~ username removed

Hi! So it's definitely something we've acknowledged needs to happen eventually, however actually running one presents two struggles - 1. it's a big load on the servers and takes a solid amount of time. 2. (and this is the bigger one) we have to update how the purge works to include every database, table, place account info is stored that has been introduced since the previous purge several years ago. So I can say that it is definitely not a flat out no, but it's a somewhat ambiguous yes.

ref: http://www.neopets.com/ntimes/index.phtml?section=editorial&week=771

That question was asked in 2017. I'm not sure when the last purge happened, but it was well before 2014, when Neopets was still owned by Nickelodeon. As you can see by the response, "purges" take a big load on the servers and they have to configure how it works.

But, I agree, a purge would probably clear out a lot, from the servers. Then again, it might "break" Neopets completely.

[jellysundae]

I'm most confused by how that person thought a purge would revive the site and make users come back.

How? Why?

The average person who used to play Neo isn't going to suddenly get an irresistible urge to visit the site again just because a purge has happened...

NO-ONE WOULD KNOW.

Or are we talking Sloth mind-ray or something here?

And, if an old player DID come back, and found their old account no longer existed, how is THAT gonna make them want to start playing again... yeah the thought process behind that person's logic totally defies me.

That's an unexpectedly informative response there though, isn't it! Necessary though because most people aren't going to have any idea of the gargantuan task the prep for a purge would be.

They need a team of unpaid interns to check and delete accounts individually and manually.

[GillyTook]

Oh my.  I did not know that.  I figured it was a matter of writing a bit of code that said 'if player has not visited in X years, delete account/info connected to.'  I suppose I didn't think that the info for each player may be stored across different databases/servers.  That DOES seem a good bit more daunting.