[Matt]

The beloved ALP off-topic board has arrived once again. After a random blip that made our original board disappear into the deep realms of the internet vaccum, we'll just say what this topic is all about again.

This is the place you should come to get your questions about the Avatar Lending Program answered by either the staff of the ALP or the TDN public. Please, don't talk about avatars or anything else here; there are other boards for that. This board is for questions regarding the ALP and it's processes.

Ok. Thanks. Have fun!

[The Daft Punk]

i think we should have a rule about BD avvie Pets

[Dillon]

Hmmm being the 3rd post is a big deal So Lets see. My favorite Avvie is Plushie one right now

[Awesome_Paul]

Dillon Matt said not to talk about your favourite avvie, its only for the ALP questions etc

whats the current point off (ie how much have we got/how much do we need)

[Matt]

We're a horrible soundind 1689K off of our target, so lets say we're 321K closer to our target.

Battledome avatars aren't something we will look into. Considering we are an avatar lending program, I think we should just stick to pet and item lending.

[Zac]

But don't you need a good battledome pet to get some avatars?

And, I still think we shoud do the number 6 avatar

[Matt]

If you can find a way to easily transfer Neopoints over from one account to another be my guest. Oh, and how will we do collateral for it?

Hey, if it's logical, we'll go for it.

[Superfly]

Since you seem open to suggestions, I might aswell say it.
In todays day and age with cheat and hack programs, lending avatar pets is really scary. As most of you know I am a proud premium neopets user. On one of the premium boards they have a board titled 'Pet Lenders Anonymous'. On this board, premium members post something like this:

------------------------------------------------------------
Lending: *type of pet lending* IQ, Snow Pet, ... and so on

*lending requirements go here*

Looking: *type of pet you're looking for* IQ, Snow Pet, ... and so on

*why you should be lent, if you know the QAL, and wether or not you have AIM/MSN/Yahoo and all that fun stuff*
----------------------------------------------------------

Anyway, this system was set up, so that avatar pets names were not released on boards. Now a days if you were to go on to the neoboards and post lending Pink pet, name: *name here* or something like that. Or even worse, posting lending Pink pet... and then you have that pet on the account your are using to post. Cheaters have developed a program that will automaticly adopt pets, they find a pet name on the neoboards and put it into the program and it will automaticly refresh the QAL until that pet is "lent" and then they snatch it up.

Here is a petpage that is posted in the intro posts of ALL the 'Pet Lenders Anonymous' neoboards: http://petpages.neopets.com/~Macky

They have brought awareness of AA'ers to neopets. TNT has viewed this petpage and contacted them reguarding some of the items and suggestions on this petpage. So we know that TNT is aware of the problem, and are "thinking" of a way to fix it, but as of right now, they can't think of any possible solution that would be fair, and not incourage the selling of pets.

Now, what does this all have to do with the ALP, you ask? Upon viewing the 'Available to Lend' subforum, and on every topic the pets names are just listed there for anyone to see. When viewing the rules of the ALP there is a direct link to the main account of the ALP which has 4 avatar pets on it, and as all userlookups have the pets names. From the ALP main userlookup there are 3 links to all the ALP side accounts, which have every single pet and name on it. So in 5 minutes time, if I was an AA'er, aquired every single pet name that the ALP lends out. When making one simple search on google 'Neopets Avatar Lending'. TheDailyNeopets Avatar Lending Program came up 3rd on the list, and it leads right to the ALP forum, which then gives you access to all the information I listed above.

What can be done to protect the ALP pets, you ask? I would like to propost to the owners of the ALP that all pet names are removed from the forums, I think the link should stay to the ALP main account, but all links to the ALP side accounts should be removed ASAP. Pet names should only be given out on a Need To Know Basis (when someone is lending them) and there should be no avatar pets on the ALP's main account, in order that people use that account to neomail requests and such. I know this seems like a lot of work, but it should only take 1 week to do, technicly 3 days, becuase that is how many pets need to be moved.

I hope it all that didn't sound demanding or mean, I just wanted to raise the awareness about AA'ers and also protect the ALP and all it's pets. This could save the ALP having to save up for more PB's and pets in the future if any were to be stolen or lost in the pound.

Thanks for listening and have a SUPER day, if you have any questions please feel free to PM me or just post here.

=) TJ

[Zac]

Good site TJ!

Well, I got to thinking but maybe, you should only lend the NP to really trustworthy people...like staff and FMs..that would mean I couldn't get it but oh well....

[Matt]

Technically, can't someone do that anyway? I mean, with all links to avatar pets around the Avatar database here at TDN, along with other sites with similar things. Just because we're more likely to lend out pets than, say, the owner of the Darigan Pteri that's needed for the latest clickable avatar, doesn't mean that these so called people will do this to us.

Unlike the Neoboards, we don't announce that we're going to lend to someone in the near future. People contact us, privately, and arrange something. While these people could be refreshing that name all the time, surely they wouldn't take the risk of getting caught and frozen to do that, would they?

And it's not the people we lend to that we don't trust. We lend to the people we do trust, because we can't accept collateral for pets.

[Superfly]

Completely understood Matt, and I'm not arguing, the decision is up to you and eric, I'm just giving my opinion. Wouldn't you rather be safe than sorry, you never know what those dumb people would do. I just don't want to see the ALP shut down, because it helps people, and it's a great service.

[Matt]

I suppose so. But up to this date, we have had no problems transferring pets, mainly because the people we lend to know what they're doing. If a pet were to go missing, it states in the rules that we will suspend pet lending to iron out any creases in our system. If that did happen, your suggestion would be the first thing we did, TJ.

[webpixie]

actully im kinda on the side of removing the pets names from the site as well. even if they dont know when they pet will goto the pound it dosnt matter. they can run the programs for as long as they want weather they are infront of their computer or not, so they dont really need to know when it will be pounded jsut that that pet will eventully end up there.

[Matt]

Wouldn't TNT get suspicious, though, that there's a guy refreshing 1000 times a second at this one pets direct adoption link for days on end?

[webpixie]

if they find/see them yes but that dosnt mean that tis a perfect syestem and that they find them all or within a short period of time. theres too much stuff going on on the site for them to cover everything.

was actully a petpage of a guy talking about it warning everyone, the person who got his pet had multiple accounts and have multiples of avi pets and it took along time for TNT to get him, and when they did the pets were frozen withthe pets and lost forever

better safethen sorry in this situation

[The Daft Punk]

i toke a while to read that WHOLE post but i completely agree where TJ is going

[Zac]

I think you should just go ahead with the pet lending, if something happens, move on because things like that can (and will) happen.

[The Daft Punk]

the fire pet has now aged

[Matt]

Whoops. I didn't forget... *cough*

Well yes, it's true, our Fire Blumaroo has aged sufficiently! Hoorah!

[Fyreseer]

So, what exactly are the rules you guys use for lending avatar items and pets? I have seen reference to "trust points" and all sorts of mess, and I looked for a topic on the rules, but I seem to have missed it...

Why am I asking? Other than the fact that I'd like to borrow a few of those pets... I actually have a meowclops that I am willing to lend. It is not currently set up in my trades for the world to see, because I don't generally like to advertise the fact. However, I can put it up there for people to go look at if you wish.

I don't mind being the lender for a guild (I lend to my own guildmembers on occasion - and I'm not looking to move, thanks ) and that way you can put your building purchase-np towards another high-price item. I tend to lurk and read more than post, but I do check my neopets account (same name) at least once a day.

Anyways, if someone could make a "rules" post, PM me, or sticky the one that is already there (?), I'd appreciate it. Thanks!