EDIT: Today’s conversations were super helpful, so I’ve already decided to keep Dress to Impress as an official fan site. Check out the new post for details. Sorry to scare y’all like this, and thanks for putting up with me today.

Hey friends,

We’re considering removing Dress to Impress as an official fan site. That is, we’d like to stay online — but probably as an unofficial fan site.

I feel that being affiliated with JumpStart reflects poorly on my character, and makes me an accomplice to how they treat you. So, despite the problems it’ll cause, I think we need to end this affiliation, so that I can feel okay about who I am as a person.

Let’s talk about why.

The Neopets community brought me where I am today

It’s been a joy to be a part of this community for a decade now. The Neopets Hive Mirror World plots are what brought me here, which led me to the Neolodge and Jellyneo communities where I made some lifelong friends — and, all along the way, I coded things to help my friends. Then, one day, I built Dress to Impress just for kicks, and was super surprised that people were actually using it. So cool!

The Neopets community gave me the opportunities I needed to learn and grow into the person I am today. Thanks to y'all, I now get to be a small part of something even bigger: helping the Khan Academy folks bring a free world-class education to, well, the world. I don’t think I’d be doing that today if it weren’t for a decade of support from all of you. Thank you for letting me give back <3

But JumpStart consistently disrespects the Neopets community

So, because I grew up in this community, it makes me really angry to see someone yanking us around. And it’s all the more frustrating to feel this way about JumpStart, the company that I want to love and to trust with protecting the Neopets community long-term.

However, the JumpStart team have consistently demonstrated that they’re not interested in the community’s long-term health. Instead, when we get too loud about a mistake they’ve made, they do the bare minimum required to remove the fuel from the fire: rather than addressing the problem, or even admitting it, they just find a way to make people stop caring.

Case Study 1: Item Image Similarity Update

You probably remember hearing about the Spring Korbat Toy: a JumpStart artist blatantly traced Neopets fan art, and used it on the site without attribution. Folks got upset and made some noise, so JumpStart wrote an official response:

Hello! So we’ve heard quite a few rumblings about a similarity between a newly released item and a user’s fan art, and we wanted to clear some things up! First of all, we appreciate and really encourage Neopets fan art, and would never use it as our own, especially without permission from the artist. Now, the item in question was independently created completely by our in-house team. It was created based on references of the basic green Korbat image and other existing springy toys, particularly the Blumaroo toy, which is also in a similar pose. The two images do look very similar, but we promise you, it is just a coincidence.

It only takes one look at the overlaid images to see that most sections are pixel-for-pixel identical. It’s obviously not coincidence.

But the truth isn’t really the point of the post. Instead, this announcement simply follows JumpStart’s crisis management strategy: make a false statement that sounds good. Most users hadn’t really looked into this issue, so, because this post was believable, it got those users on JumpStart’s side. It’s a clever play.

(They also spent a weekend deleting every Neoboard thread about this issue. Hmm.)

Case Study 2: Lost and Pound’s IP ban

Remember how Dress to Impress got IP banned back in July? Modeling was down for a few weeks, and we tried very hard to get JumpStart’s attention, but eventually we got things fixed through a friend of a friend of a friend who got the message to the right person.

Turns out, other official fan sites like Lost and Pound and PetTP were also suffering from an IP ban, but were having an even harder time getting in touch. Thankfully, in August, Arden finally got a reply as a comment to her blog:

We at TNT have heard the concerns some have communicated regarding our banning of IPs. Let us assure you that this is being done on a case by case basis and only to help deliver the most optimized site experience to our fans and users. That being said, let’s break this down and clear up some of the confusion: Why is TNT blocking IPs? -We are blocking certain IPs to help alleviate the site lag and boost user experience. In other words, to make the site faster for everyone! Has TNT blocked the IPs of some fansites? – Yes, and not on purpose! This is something we are happy to work out with our certified fansites. If you are an admin of a certified fansite and this has happened to you, please do not hesitate to contact us at support@neopets.com! We will be happy to work with you to get to the bottom of this. How can I make sure my fansite stays unblocked? – Don’t cheat! Some activity may look suspicious and could possibly be flagged. And it is possible that some activity could be too much for our servers to handle. But please know that we will be working with our site administrators to make sure we can continue to support you, the Neopets Community, as best we can!

Now it’s November, and they’re still IP banned, and neither Arden nor I have ever received a timely response when we email support@neopets.com. We try pretty darn often, too.

So, all in all, this was a successful application of the JumpStart strategy: brag about serving the community, and make false promises that sound like solutions. This post made everyone assume that Lost and Pound’s troubles were practically resolved, so JumpStart went back to ignoring them.

Case Study 3: The more recent IP bans

Oddly enough, last week we got IP banned all over again, whoops.

It was an entirely forgivable mistake, too. The bot-detection system sometimes thinks that our server is a bot, so JumpStart added a special exception for us. When they upgraded this system last week, our exception got lost, so the Dress to Impress server was flagged as a bot and was therefore IP banned. Now we’re back, hooray!

But bot-detection and Flash are entirely unrelated. That’s what makes this Editorial response so baffling:

Could you please address the IP bans of officials recommended fan sites such as The Lost and Pound and, more recently, Dress to Impress? Many of us use these sites to have fun on Neopets, and it’s really discouraging that there appears to be a misstep in communication between TNT and the fan sites that ends up adversely affecting users. ~ gameboyknight Hi! So we totally agree that fansites add a lot to the Neopets experience for users! As we mentioned in the news on Monday, resolving the issue that came up over the weekend caused several fan sites to lose their access to us. This was necessary to fix the issue and keep you guys safe! As fan sites write in to let us know they’re now having trouble, we look into the IP (we have to check to make sure there was no unusual activity from that IP because security) and as long as everything is normal, they will be unbanned, as Dress to Impress now is!

This explanation is entirely false. JumpStart claims that fan sites lost access due to Monday’s fix. But, on Monday, we, Jellyneo, SunnyNeo, The Daily Neopets, and everyone else were running just fine. Yeah, we got IP banned, but that was on Wednesday and had nothing to do with Flash.

(Also, notice how they entirely ignore Lost and Pound in the question. The Lost and Pound IP ban started four months ago; how exactly did fixing a Flash bug last Monday cause that?)

IP banning us again was a tiny mistake. Owning up to it wouldn’t have caused any damage — in fact, it would’ve been incredibly encouraging to see JumpStart finally be honest for once. But JumpStart doesn’t talk to us like we’re actual people; they treat community management like a PR game. So, they crafted a story that makes the IP ban sound necessary and intentional, because, to them, admitting a mistake would’ve counted as losing.

Or maybe the person who wrote this response didn’t know what really happened. Instead, they chose make a false statement that sounds good, because it was easier than taking time to learn the truth. That’s not especially encouraging, either.

Case Study 4: Failure to cancel Premium

Did you know? When you cancel Neopets Premium, you might keep getting billed anyway. If you recently canceled Premium, check your credit card statement to make sure the charges actually stopped!

Or, if you haven’t canceled yet, sometimes you get double-billed, and your tickets to customer service go unanswered. Then, when you tell your bank to stop authorizing the charges, your Neopets account gets frozen.

JumpStart hasn’t actually bothered to make a statement on this one, because it only affects certain people, and talking about the issue would just bring more attention to it. And, because it’s a bug that makes them more money, fixing it seems to be an incredibly low priority.

Here’s references to a bunch of affected users, and that’s just what I could find on Reddit. (Be sure to count all the comments saying “me too!”) 1 2 3 4. Maybe the bug is fixed now, but, well, without an official statement we can’t really know — and what are the odds of that happening?

Next steps

So, this is the company we’re dealing with. When they make a mistake, they refuse to admit it. When they hurt us, they worry about damage control. When there’s a story that makes them sound good, who cares whether it’s actually true?

I know that leaving the official fan site list will have consequences, like not being able to mention us on the Neoboards anymore. It sucks, for sure, and it’s super unfair that y'all will suffer more than anyone else.

But, when I first made this site a few years ago, I promised myself that I wouldn’t let Dress to Impress run my life. I’ve given a lot over the years, and always been glad to do it — and it’s always paid off many times over!

But, if Dress to Impress demands my integrity… well, I think that might be more than I can give. It hurts a lot to say it, but this is where I am right now, and I want to give you the chance to change my mind before I make this kind of painful decision.



So, please, tell me how you feel. Is there a way for Dress to Impress to continue to have all the benefits of an official fan site, and for me to not feel like JumpStart’s accomplice? If so, let’s talk about it. Check out the comments section at the bottom of the page; I’ll be there all week, eager to learn more about your thoughts.

Anyway. Thanks for listening, and for showering me with love and support through all these years. It’s an honor to be a part of this community.

With love,

—Matchu