Introduction to the Neopian Site Community

      The Neopets site community is the answer to your questions.

      You may be aware that each pet has their own, exclusive page. Say that your pet’s name is PET_NAME; then their page URL is designated as //www.neopets.com/~PET_NAME. You may have seen users use petpages to keep track of the avatars they have not yet acquired, to construct portfolios to show off their achievements, and to craft character profiles for the pets themselves. However, besides personal projects, some users also share their work on these pages for public use, including, but not limited to, graphics, layouts, fonts and guides on how to make your own designs. In this article, I aim to introduce those not as familiar with community sites to the various types of sites and the purposes they serve.

     Some things you need to know:

      Keep in mind that community sites are run by other users, and different users have different ideas on what rules you should follow when using their work. One common rule is to keep credit, in the form of a visible link back to their site. So do remember to read the terms of use thoroughly every time you visit a site!

     Layout Sites

      There are many pages in Neopia that you can personalize, including userlookups, petlookups, petpages, and more! This is achieved through user input of CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) and HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language). If you're not familiar with coding layouts, fear not! There are plenty of layout sites that offer premade layouts for you to use. Do note that some require credit to the creator should you decide to use their code: however, it is only fair to acknowledge the hard work they put into making the layouts!

     Graphic Sites

      There are many types of graphics sites in Neopia. Some popular formats include banners, buttons, icons, and adoptables.

      Banners are pretty straightforward: usually wider and relatively large, they are often used for headlining a page and for advertising.

      Icons are what you might expect: usually 100 by 100 pixels in size, many use them as they would a profile picture, or to decorate their otherwise lengthy-looking paragraphs.

      Adoptables are user-created art, often inspired by existing Neopets, that you can “adopt” to spruce up your own pages. As always, follow the creator's guidelines for using their work and give credit where due!

      Buttons are the small, rectangular shapes you can sometimes see on userlookups, often linking to users' portfolios, lookbooks, or sites. Uniformly 88×31 in size, a button is usually an exclusive graphic that is representative of a specific page, whether it be a personal project or community site. For that reason, many users opt to visit request sites to get a custom button of their own instead of grabbing a premade, on which I’ll go into more detail later.

     Font Sites

     If you frequent the Neoboards and haven’t opted to turn off font effects and Neosignatures, you’ll have seen users boasting pretty, avatar-matching siggies. Just like not everyone is a coding guru, not all are familiar with font code. Font sites can remedy that! There are two main types of fonts – block fonts and text fonts. Text fonts put emphasis on the text that the user chooses to represent themselves – sometimes it’s a famous quote, other times it may be a song lyric. Block fonts aim to build a larger picture with symbols: you may be surprised by how stacks of symbols and keyboard characters can come together to resemble a Kadoatie! Some font sites specialize in block fonts while others focus on text fonts; still, others offer both. Even though there is a limit of 120 characters (150 if you have a Neoboard Pen!) for each one of the two bars that make up a siggy, you’ll definitely be awed by how much font makers can achieve within this strict restriction!

     Request Sites

     Do you ever wish that you could use a design that is exclusive to you, but isn’t familiar enough with image programs or coding to make your own? Well, that is where request sites come in. Request sites are where users offer to make fonts, graphics, layouts, or other designs for you, the requester, specifically. More often than not, site owners provide forms that you can fill out. This allows them to become more well-acquainted with your preferences, which in turn helps them build a custom design that you would like. As you can imagine, request sites are remarkably high-maintenance, so many owners close requests to take a break every now and then. However, there are usually a few sites with open requests at any given time, especially for graphics: you just need to look around! Be sure to go through each of the rules carefully before submitting a request: you may run the risk of having your request rejected if you don’t pay enough attention to their guidelines. The site owner is taking their time to make a custom design exclusively for you, after all!

     Guides

     You have probably read a petpage guide at some point. There are many types of guides: guides for restocking, games, customization, pet trading, NC mall trading, graphics-making and lots, lots more. These helpful sites aim to provide insight into various areas of Neopets. If you have any questions or concerns on any aspect of Neopets, it is more than likely that an existing guide addresses it!

     Resource Sites

     This is a category that is harder to define, but think of graphics and layouts as “processed goods.” That is, they take basic elements such as source images or backgrounds and implement them in their final product. For example, buttons and banners are often edited from existing images. Resource sites provide creators with the pieces that they need for their designs, such as fullscreen backgrounds, PNG renders, patterns, textures, and so on. These high-resolution images derive from wearables, plot comics and various other places, and they allow users to create layouts, graphics, and other designs without needing to start from scratch. Other resource sites offer small graphics that are often used in community sites: these include neomail envelopes, request status signs, back/next buttons, and placeholders. All in all, resource sites are mostly concerned with helping you build your own content.

     Community Sites

     There are many community sites for the site community. The purpose of these sites is to facilitate interaction between sites, as well as between site owners and visitors. Some community sites challenge site owners to create graphics with certain limitations. Others allow visitors to rate and leave feedback for sites so the owners can improve their work.

     Directories

     Last but not least, there are directories. As the name implies, directories are sites that aim to direct you to sites that you are looking for. Think of them as bridges that connect people to all kinds of sites – after all, not all of us are community site gurus! Running directories requires herculean effort and immense dedication: sites open and close all the time, so the owners need to actively seek out new ones as well as check if old ones are still up and running. Categorizing sites in a comprehensive, intuitive way so that users can easily find what they’re looking for is also easier said than done. Despite the difficulties in running this type of site, directory owners strive to make all kinds of sites readily accessible for everyone!

     Miscellaneous

     As the category indicates, these are sites that don’t really fall into any of the other categories listed above. There are simply too many kinds of sites in Neopia that it’s impossible to cover them all! I encourage you to explore the site community: there is no lack of amazing sites just waiting to be discovered!

     And there it is, my introduction to the site community! I hope this introduction was helpful in initiating you to the structure of the Neopian site community. Now, it’s time to embark on your journey to this world of wonders! And who knows: perhaps one day you’ll be running a site or two of your own!