Neopets

A highly addictive virtual pet site that started out small and close-knit, with the staff caring a lot more about the users and the rules were not so strict. There were no advertisements or sponsor games/items. In about 2004 they started to get a bit more greedy and money hungry, so they started to make mcdonald's meals, plushies, books, magazines, keychains, even clothes. This caused a bunch of little kids and n00bs to run wild all over the site, and the deletion of the GC (General Chat) caused them to infest the regular boards, like Help Chat and Avatar Chat. Then they started to put ads all over the site, some being innapropiate, and sponsor games. The rules became a lot stricter, and now you cannot post any picture of you on the site, doesn't matter how you are dressed, you can be wearing a snowsuit and you would still get frozen. There are absolutely NO swear words, not even 4 letter words like hell or damn, and if you make a board relating to anything in real life, you will be warned. Many users have gotten frozen for no reason, and TNT (The Neopets Team) often makes big decisions (like the layout change in 2007) with no consideration of the users. Neopets is still a fun site, with games, items, pets, guilds, chat, graphics, and so much more. It is very enjoyable to unwind for a few hours on Neopets after a long day, but the site isn't what it used to be. Nowadays Neopets has a premium service for almost 100 dollars a year just for a few more random evens and an extra mailbox. They have the NC Mall (Neocash Mall), with special clothes and trinkets that move. You can buy Neocash cards for up to 25 dollars, or if you have paypal, you can spend as much as you'd like. My conclusion is Neopets is still a very fun site, but it used to be better without the addition of ads, more rules, and merchandise galore.