The Neopets Site Community

What is a Neopets site?

A Neopets site, as the site community has come to know it as, is a pet page that offers its visitor a service. That service can be anything, from premade layouts for user lookups and guild layouts to game guides and tutorials. Basically, any pet page that can benefit its viewer is deemed a site.

Though not extremely popular, sites have had a long-standing presence on Neopets. However, the site community is fairly new. As the number of Neopets site owners increased, the community itself began to emerge. Now, it is very present in the backbone of Neopets, even if some users are unaware of its importance (or existence)! Sites that have offered their services for years, and as time went on, the users who managed these sites (called "site owners") began to interact with each other. Soon, sites would affiliate with other sites that offered goods for visitors, and the site community was born.

Like any other community, the site community is home to a wide range of people: artists, graphic designers, coders, writers, you name it! These players may not have very much in common in terms of their Neopets hobbies—some may be collectors, while others are writers, and still others may only be interested in Neopets for the site community itself—but their interest in being useful to others ties them together. Some examples of sites in the site community are, but are not excluded to:

Premade sites

These sites offer premade goods for the free use of the visitor. Such goods can art, graphics, web resources, layouts, etc. These sites are usually frequently updated with new material so the visitor can choose from a variety of goods to use. Most popular premades sites offer user lookup and petpage layouts.

Request sites

Owners of request sites offer their talents in creating custom-made requests for visitors. Usually this involves the visitor neomailing the owner a form with their request desires, and receiving a neomail back when the request is finished. Some request sites include, but are not limited to, graphic requests, layout requests, and art requests.

Guides

Sites can often be guides. The subject matter of such sites is limitless. Some sites offer help on games, while others offer tips to collect avatars. Still others may be graphic or coding tutorials!

Although very many Neopets sites offer premades, requests, and help, there are still many other pet pages that offer different services. Some sites offer fun and games, an escape from the stresses of everyday life. There are also sites that focus on the site community itself, and strengthening it. In brief, there are countless sites and site categories, so briefly explaining a few of them does no justice!

Why I love the site community

As an experienced site owner, I've had many wonderful experiences in the site community. I simply love the people that site owners are, and have come to call many of them my friends. I recognize myself with several communities on Neopets, and the site community would be a major one. I admire its goal in spreading generosity and service to others, and I hope I can exemplify that sort of community by doing so myself.

How can I become a part of the site community?

If you have become interested in becoming a part of the site community, you may be asking yourself how exactly this is possible. Surely you can't just whip up a pet page and call it a site, right? Wrong! This is exactly what you can do! To join the site community, all you have to do is have something to offer and then offer it! First, you must consider your talents. Are you a good artist? Designer? Coder? Writer? Think about what you can do well, and how you can transform that into a service for others. If you are good at earning game avatars, you may consider creating a site that specializes in helping Neopians achieve their dream game avatars! Or if you have exceptional skills at writing, you may open a writing request site and offer stories to other Neopets player. The possibilities, as I have often mentioned, are endless! Once you've thought long and hard about what you can offer, you can start getting your site's name out there. You do this by looking for affiliates who can support your site by linking to it, as well as listing your site on link directories!

A group of such talented individuals may seem daunting, but in reality the site community is extremely friendly. Everyone supports one another, and new faces are always welcome—even encouraged! So if you have any inkling of joining this group of people, by all means do it, because you will be welcomed with open arms.

Final Thoughts

Although there are many communities on Neopets, few are like the often overlooked site community. Not many other communities are devoted solely to offering services for others without any form of payment in return. If the spectacular talent the site community possesses is not enough to convince you that they should be appreciated (and this is evident by beautiful coding and design skills, gorgeous art, great writing, etc.), then the sheer generosity and kindness of such site owners must be! Thus, we should celebrate site owners, because Neopets may be in shambles without this special community of players!