Zetapets Help

Goodbye to z e t a p e t s * h e l p . . . .

2004-08-12T15:17:00.000-07:00

Hello, Zeta Review! The site has been completely revamped, with new content and a great new (completely hand coded) look. Please update your links and linkback buttons (I have a bunch of new ones for you to pick from *grins*)

Whew! Whole lotta Reviews!

2004-08-11T11:01:00.000-07:00

Well, Kitaro is going to be working his poor paws to the bone reviewing all the new sites that are cropping up thank the new fansite competition announced by Amanda. So today we are bringing you three: Crazy Zeta, a return to Zetaholic, and All Zeta. Tomorrow there should be more . . . or later today, if we have time. *grins*

Oh, and have you noticed the loverly new pets that are out??? and the redraw of the Plato?

All Zeta . . . All the Time(review)

2004-08-11T10:27:00.000-07:00

All Zeta, a new website by wicked_wicked186

Alrighty, so we have another new webbie to review (man they are popping up quickly with the contest going on *grins*). All Zeta is a lovely site, with a layout modified from one by FFWarpzone. I like the way she has the links that are pending crossed out on the main navigation bars, but the way the nav bar moves down as the images load kinda bothers me, but that may be just because she has posted all the avatar images on her front page, and I had to keep scrolling down, chasing the nav bar *grins* More good points: she has the images hosted on PhotoBucket, and the appropriate copyright notice (including one for her layout desginer, good job!) One thing I kinda like that is unique on this site is her item list. Yeah, I know ZetaPets Help has one too, and is much more complete, but ZPH seems to have been abandoned (no news since January, and no forum activity since the beginning of July) whereas All Zeta has at least been updated since Monday (August 9, the day all the avatar winners were released). I also really like the way she made sure it was obvious that she is hosting the images offsite by modifying of them with their names.

Well, as pretty as it is, I would like to see a homemade layout for a perfect review. And, of course, I am eager to see the promised graphics. *grins* Other than those points, nicely done.

A Return to Zetaholic (review)

2004-08-11T10:24:00.000-07:00

Zetaholic, a website by pinnapple36 (recently revamped!)
Well, after some trials and tribulations with his host, pinnapple has finally got Zetaholic up, running and looking prettier than ever! I told you I would get back to this site, and now the navigation is such that Mozilla sees it just fine! :)

So the good points: A huge amount of information, great guides, downloadable graphics coming soon, nice clean layout, good navigation. I really like the blue scheme. Images are hosted by Photo Bucket, and there's the required copyright notice. In fact, pinnapple is so fanatical about the copyright notice, he even placed one in the code for his linkback button. :) And yes, that gives him extra credit.

Bad points: The header image needs a little tweaking (there's some pixelation around the edges of the individual images where the transparency isn't quite transparent). I hate waiting for graphics, so I hope he's working hard on them - I WANNA SEE EM! *grins*

Okay, so even though I would usually give one paw up for all the graphics that are promised but not delivered, I'm giving pinnapple extra credit like I said for his zealousness with the copyright notice. But I still wanna see those graphics, pinnapple! :) And yeah, I'm gonna be rethinking whether I should be not giving a perfect review when the main problem is that the creator made a place holder page for something that is in the works. I maybe changing some review scores tomorrow.

Crazy Zeta (review)

2004-08-11T08:53:00.000-07:00

Crazy Zeta, a new website by white_raven
Well, this is a nice site. It looks like Raven is going to be working hard on making some graphics for others to use on their various lookups, as well as club layouts, backgrounds, and adoptables. I can't wait to see them! So far she has only gotten up some user lookups, but (while they are not my style) from what I see, her lookups will be very popular.

Other good points to the site, of course, lots of great help articles, including gaming guides; copyright notice and images hosted on her own site; clean layout; and something I really like: on her "hidden areas" pages, she states that the various images are hidden or old and may be getting a makeover for future use. I have seen a lot of sites which show the older world maps and claiming that they are "new" and will be going up on the site in the future, but this is simply not supported by the facts. All of these images were on the servers before the downtime, and the staff don't tend to put images on the servers until just before they announce it.

Okay, so the bad points: Part of this is beyond her control. Apparently Tripod does some weird stuff with their hosted sites and the page reloads several times while you're looking at it, which means that if you want to use your browser's Back and Forward button to navigate (as I like to do), you end up getting annoyed by having to click back through three versions (or more) or every page. Raven has tried to alleviate this by having very comprehensive navigation, including Back links. I also wish the page layout was a little more original. I know that it's hard to come out with a layout that doesn't look like a half a dozen other websites on the web, but this particular layout reminds me of hundreds of other petsite fansites I have seen. Nothing really bad, it just irks me a little. And lastly, there's a lot of things still left in the under construction phase, which is a problem that will of course be cured by time, but it would be nice if these linked to an "Under Construction" page, instead of back to the same page or a blank page.

Overall, great page. I would heartily recommend it. One paw up, prolly two once the rest of the downloadables get up.

From our special guest columnist, Loki!

2004-08-09T17:25:00.000-07:00

Dear Loki, How do I make Zetapoints on this site???

Well, I am so glad you asked! Not only are there the usual games (Random ZP, Keno, and Sealed!), voting (Top RP, Top Web Games), and referrals, but now with a little real life skills you can earn some cash entering in some great contests! Amanda just closed the Avatar Contest, where users were able to submit avatars to become actual avatars on the site (as well as winning 20,000zp or 10,000zp), and has announced that the next contest will be for fansites! Oh, do I think my brother is going to have a busy time reviewing all the new fanistes that are going to be popping up. So how does one go about making a great fansite? Well here are some things to get you started:

First of all, find a host: Free ProHosting, 50Megs, FortuneCity, Bravenet.com, Freewebs, Doteasy, and those are just the ones that come up on the first page of a google search for "free web hosting". There are literally THOUSANDS if not MILLIONS more. I highly reccomend checking out FreeWebSpace for reviews on tons of free web hosting sites, telling you which ones are ad-free, 100GB, whatever you need to know. :)

Second, find an image host: PhotoBucket, ImageShack, Village Photos, and tons more. This is a very important step, so NOT skip it. Chances are, if you are making a fansite, you would like to put up some Zeta images. If you simply link to the zetapets image server YOU ARE STEALING. You have permission to use all images on the servers, but you must upload them to your own server (and post a copyright notice saying that they belong to zetapets and not you, but you knew that, right?).

Third, if you are new to html, find a help site: HTMlite, Lissa Explains it All, or one of the hundreds of other great sites out there.

Fourth, GO WILD! Have fun, this is your chance to tell how great your pet is, how amazing your club is, or how fantastic you think zetapets is! Do something different, something that's just you. :)

Just follow these four easy (and not so easy) steps and you are well on your way to a great fansite, and possibly an award of zetapoints!!

Cool Newsiness!

2004-08-04T09:38:00.000-07:00

So if you haven't check out the news on Zetapets yet, you should go look! There are a bunch of fan sites listed, including Zetahelp.net! And members of the club have their sites posted as noteworthy as well: pinnapple36's Zetaholic and clearkid's Homepage with her adorable adoptables! *sniffle* Why wasn't this site noted?? *grin* Also newsworthy, two sites Kitaro reviewed previously and gave two paws up: MewsHangout and Alpha to Zeta.

And it's Avatar Madness Time! There are 11 new avatars since I last posted, and Amanda has announced a great new contest for all you artists out there. Make an avatar, have it win, earn big bucks! Avatars must be 64x64 pixels or 65x65, enter by mailing it to amanda@zetapets.com by August 11, 2004. The best avatar will be awarded 20,000ZP and a rare item, and ALL GOOD AVATARS WILL BE MADE OFFICIAL AVATARS and be awarded a small prize! :) Hrmmm . . .*goes to beat her graphics program into submission and try to make some avvies* :)

Also, all you artists out there: Zetapets is hiring! Read the news for full information about what type of artists is needed and what the requirements for application are. :)

YeeeeeHaw! New Avatars!

2004-07-30T09:21:00.000-07:00

Well, in the midst of the celebrations of the 100,000 user signed up there was another ubercool update . . . New Forum Avatars! Here's a brief selection of the new ones, and from what is said in the news, there may be some hidden on the site? Or maybe just hidden among the other avatars under forum settings . . .I'll go check . . .be back in a jif, and while I'm gone, why don't you look at four of the new avvies?

Okay, it looks like there's about 4 or so on the forum settings that aren't listed on the news page, so the search for secret avatars may have to wait a little longer. :) Like for when they get the avatar chat thingy set up. :)

By the way . . .NEW STUFF ON THE SITE!! YAY!! KEEP IT UP!!

Oooooh . . . . A list of Top Zeta Sites!

2004-07-30T08:03:00.000-07:00

So the ever industrious pinnapple36 has brought you a new goodie to look at. A list of Top Zeta Sites, based on which ones YOU go to! :) Coolness, huh? So make sure you visit here everyday, so we can be number one! Oh, and to get the lastest news, commentary, help, and zeta fansite reviews, as well. :)

ERG. . .erk . . .ugh . . .where's the pics?!?!?!

2004-07-29T12:27:00.000-07:00

Imperius has now forbidden us access to the images server. ACK! How are we to know when new stuff appears on the database now? How are we to know that something way cool is brewing in the wind??? You mean we have to look at the NEWS?!?!? Dang. If someone knows of another way in, lemme know. Unless it involves something like cracking into the site. . . .I'm not that hard up for images. :)

Are you a Zetaholic? (review, sorta)

2004-07-27T14:15:00.000-07:00

Well, I wanted to go back to zetaholic.com and try to get a new review for it. Pinnapple36 is in our club and has been telling us all about the changes done to it and updates and stuff. He's been working really hard on it, and I wanted to take a look and give him a better review than the one I did earlier this month. Unfortunately, as many of you may know, I am on a linux system running Mozilla as a web browser. This tends to cause some problems. Well, apparently Pinnapple's navigation system is too cool for Mozilla. :) The front page looks good, and I could do a lot of work, look at the source code, and copy and paste the links from it indiviually and look at all the goodies, but frankly, that would make me irritable, and I want to give the site a fair shot. So hopefully, we can get this cleared up and I can give it the review it deserves soon. :) Until then, go check it out for yourself, and feel free to zmail me YOUR review of the site. Or of any site you might find for that matter. :)

With Zetapets Down again . . . (Review)

2004-07-25T07:25:00.000-07:00

I decided it was time once again to let Kitaro do his thing. Here he is:

Alpha to Zeta
Finally! A website that is just a fansite, not devoted to a club! Kind of like this one . . . :) I happened upon it while looking at my new tracking site (there really are people out there!! I'm not talking to myself, YAY! *grins*). I noticed that someone had been referred to me from that website, and I said to myself, "Let's go take a look!" And I started wandering around. From the news on the site, it's either brand new (less than a week old) or just had a total revamp. . .I'm thinking brand new. If that is the case, way to go, Brechan! There's a lot of good content on the page. For instance, many of the old world images off the image server (By the way, Brechan, Tecton was originally where you went to play games, which is why it looks like a joystick *grins*), Pheorn images, old shields (the ones that were replaced by banners showing how long you had been on zetapets), etc. etc. etc. There's also a page on scamming avoidance, which isn't something I've seen yet on a zeta page . . .I don't think it's as big a problem yet. but good information nonetheless. I'm just sad to think it could happen on zeta . . .*sniffle*

Other good points: My message is getting out!! All images that I looked at on this page are hosted by PhotoBucket. And this is what is one the bottom of every page:
"Codeing, content, and images are (c) 2004 Alpha To Zeta and brechan. Zetapets-related media is copyright (c) 2004 Zetapets.com. Yay to freewebs for hosting me! ^^"
Yay to you Brechan for following the Rules! And the site is very readable, with a ncie clean layout.

So good content, isn't doing anything illegal, and links back to me . . .what could I possibly have to say about this site that's bad?? Well there are some stuff, I am not going to slam the site because it's not finished. I never do (even if it may sound that way), and the things that aren't finished yet have nice notes telling you they aren't finished yet (good thing). However, this site needs to be gone over with a spellchecker and then a human spellchecker. I'll help you out on some of them "Coding" not "Codeing", "Avoiding" not "Avoideing", "to anyone you MEET online" not "MEAT", and the mythological firebird that rises from it's own ashes is called a Phoenix - that's an icky one and I prolly wouldn't know it if I didn't have relatives living in Phoenix, AZ. :) The above is not meant as a sarcastic attempt at belittling Brechan spelling abilities, but as a help in finding some of the errors. But ummmm . . .other than spelling and being light on content (which will cure itself in time) . . .oh, yeah! I wanted to say, that while I really like the name, I thought an even funnier play on words would be "Alphus to Zeta" . . .hrmmm, that doesn't look so good in print as it sounds in my head. . . .nevermind, go with Alpha to Zeta.

Anyways . .Two Paws up! But you better keep up the good work, because I am coming back to check on progress and if your new content either a) isn't there or b) isn't up to the same level as your old . . . those paws are changing positions! :) Great site, though . . good job.

Easy ways to make your site better . . .

2004-07-23T10:09:00.000-07:00

So I was thinking that's really not fair of me to tell people that their site isn't that great looking, without telling them some easy ways to fix it. So these are not in complaint of any particular site, repeat I AM NOT SLAMMING ANYONE'S SITE HERE! These are just my impressions from surfing the web, zeta sites and not.

1. Image Hosting - Okay, so stealing bandwidth is called stealing for a reason. There are so many free image hosts out there that you don't need to link to images from someone else's server. My personal favorite is Image Shack, because you don't even have to sign up for anything. But there are also Photo Bucket, Village Photos, and many many more. And of course, you can also host them on the server your site is on.

2. Copyright Infringement - Okay this is for zeta sites and not. If you use information, srticles, text, or images from another site, you have to give the original authors credit! Remember in school how your teachers constantly harp on plagiarism? Well, guess what? That's what you're doing if you don't give them credit. And it can get your website yanked from its servers. Specifically if you take anything from Zetapets.com, you have to post a copyright notice on every page something of theirs is on. If you use a pet image and modify it and then turn it into a banner for every page, then every page needs to have that notice on it somewhere where it is not obscured. Not only can your site be yanked from its server for not complying, but your account on zeta can be yanked, too.

3. Spellchecking - You do not have to be a spelling champion to create a nice looking webpage, but spellcheckers are wonderful things. If you know you're not a good speller, check every page, and then double check for things that are not spelled "wrong" but are wrong for the sentence. A few mistakes are not a big deal, but lots of them start glaring in the eyes of viewers, and they start playing "Find the Spelling Errors" instead of reading the info on your site.

4. Readability - This is a difficult one. There are some of you out there who absolutely LOVE graphics as backgrounds. I'm not a big fan of them, because it is so hard to put any text on them that is easy to read. And if you put text on a webpage, I am assuming it is because you want the viewer to be able to read it. So do your viewers a favor and make sure that it isn't a strain to read it. And this is not just concerning graphics backgrounds, plain colored ones can be hard to read, too, if the font color doesn't pop off it. To fix it, first take a look at the page, as a viewer and not the creator, and see what looks hard to read. You can lighten up graphics in an editing program so that black text will be seen, or use large bold white text for a darker graphic background. Or put a table on top, with a solid color background, and put the text in this.(for an example of this, take a look at my zeta homepage).

Okay that's a good start. Notice I am not saying anything about how you should layout your page, or what you should talk about. Content is up to you. I'm only explaining what I think helps viewers concentrate on the content and not on aspects of the page that look "wrong" to them. I may scrounge through the web this afternoon and find some examples to show you of these.

New Website Review!

2004-07-21T13:14:00.000-07:00

Well, we have another installment of Kitaro's Fansite Reviews, but Kit will tell you all about it:

Greetings and Welcome! If you have ever wanted to be a student at Hogwarts, then have I got the club (and website) for you! Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry is a fantastic website devoted to the second largest club on Sentrion. It is fairly obvious from the site that this club was very active with lots of activites for its members, and by virtue of the numbers the club has gained since the database problems shows that the members themselves are active and want to continue to make their club a pleasure to be in. While I can't tell you which club to join if you are undecided (but my sister might), I can say, that if a club has an awesome website, that is kept fairly up to date, then the club is probably worth looking into. But, back to the site itself!

This website has excellent graphics, and a plethora of places to visit. Someone put a lot of work into this site. There is a questionairre for new members to answer in order to get "sorted" into the four HP houses, there are common rooms for each house with information about the members of the house and for the members of each house, there is a four page newsletter (that has some really great writing in it), and there is a lot of great sections of content for members. There are a lot of interesting links devoted to the HP books, and links to external games. And the really cool part - they realize they have to host their images on their own server. Yay, Hogwarts! :)

Now, the not so great aspects (every site has them, even our own dear zetahelp.net!): They have some broken links (including some that were caused by the database problems, which I don't blame them for) that look like future planning to me, but it would be nice if there weren't links yet. The top left menu bar is hard to read against the dark background, although the rest are very readable. The top right menu bar is hard to read because of the icky geocities banners. I know you have to have them, but can you move them, or move the links in that menu bar? And the big no-no: There are Zetapets images without the copyright notice (at least not that I could find). Yes, I am going to keep harping on this until every site has it, especially the good ones! You have to have this, according to the legal information page. Please, please put this on your pages! This site looks too wonderful and has too much to offer its members to be yanked from its server.
Overall I give this website, two paws up! What a great site. Just make sure it gets updated, and that notice put on it, and make sure you keep me informed of when it does get updated!! I can't wait to go back.

BTW - You might be asking yourself, look at all those bad comments, how can he give it two paws up?? I try to look at overall when I actually put a rating on these sites. There is no such thing as a perfect website, and I firmly believe that every site designer can benefit from some constructive criticism (and if you ever want to zmail me with some, feel free!). I don't write things I don't believe, and I don't write things to be mean. I may say that I don't like something, but remember that is my opinion, and take it as you wish. Okay, that's all from the soapbox. I think I'll sell it to lily. She'll like it. Happy surfing!

EDIT: Way to go, guys! (and a small pat on the back to me) After reading this review, Naliara went through and fixed a lot of things (making this a nearly perfect site *big grins*), such as the broken links, the geocities ads have been moved (woohoo, I thought THAT was impossible!), and the copyright notice was placed on the pages (Naliara basically said this was a brain fart on her part). This site is officially on my Zeta Sites to See List (which will be a permanent part of the new revamp, coming soon!)

The Treasure Hunterz (Website Review)

2004-07-19T08:21:00.001-07:00

So, while I was trolling the zetapets forums, I found a website that I thought Kitaro should tell you all about, so here's Kitaro:
It's another installment of Fansite Reviews by Kitaro! And have I got a goodie for you:
The Treasure Hunterz
This is a club website with a lot of really great features (especially for its members, as it should be) like an up to date news journal (I like weblogging myself for keeping things up to date *grins*), a nice storyline (great for RPG), a handbook for its members explaining a lot of things that are going on in their club, and a really nice layout with a good color scheme and easy readability. There aren't any broken links, and there are tagboards on all of the journal based sections, which makes feedback easy.
The downsides: background music that can't be turned off. It's pretty music, but I don't like not having any control over it. Also, they need to change their "Classic Banner". It's very nice, but the images are linked off the zetapets image server, a big no-no according to the Rules. I like Image Shack for free image hosting. And, it needs a well defined Home page that you can find on the club main page. Fix these three things, and add content (which will happen, I'm sure, as time goes by) and you've got a great website!
Overall I give this site one paw up. I'm looking forward to revisiting this site in a couple of months and giving it 2 paws up. It's a great site with a great start, and I prophesy that it will be on my List of Must See Zeta Sites very soon!

The Official Word . . .

2004-07-15T06:30:00.000-07:00

Here's the official word on what happened and what will happen, according to an email most of you have prolly already seen:

"We`re sorry about all the time. But,Now we`re back in buisness. Heres the story
of what happened. The database became corrupted: We had to split the databases
into 50 different files. So, Now since we`re back. We`ll be having
contests,giveaways,etc. In the upcoming days/weeks/months. You`ll see new
layouts,New items,New pets,New worlds,Etc. So, Dont forget to visit
www.zetapets.com again :) Welcome back everyone."

IT'S BACK!!! :) :) :)

2004-07-13T21:28:00.000-07:00

Great News! After a month of downtime, zeta is back!

Bad news! They had some major problems moving the database apparently, and you will have to re-create your account, your shop, and your pet(s). The good news is that although you will be a "newbie" according to the profile banner again and your pets will be babies again, your shop and your bank account are safe!

More bad news! Forums are down, and nothing new seems to be up yet, but I am sure they are working on it . . .and besides, you can now get your random zp fix again, so who cares!?!?!

Edit: New News! for those of you thinking about it, and since someone has already tried, I know some of you are, if you try to recreate a staff member's account, you will be IP banned! It's already been done once, so don't bother trying it.

More editing (as I find out new things about the changeover): apparently all the swaps were lost or just haven't been put back up yet. Erg. And the holzet I had attached to Loki_wolf is gone, too. Dang.

And yet more editing: So none of the shops are working right now. And I think there is something different about the Shrine in Emestar. Didn't it use to face to the side?? Or am I just getting my hopes up? Anyway, it will be a month before we know for sure if there is anything new with it. Remember? "::Baby pets have no business being here. There is too much energy, and it may hurt them.::"

Okay, one last thing and then I am off to bed!!! Take a look at someone's pet profile. Notice anything new and different? Like a "Battle" section? looks the battle stadium should be coming online fairly soon, or at least theya re definitely getting ready for it. :) Yeah for all the fighters!

Okay, I know I just posted, but . . .

2004-07-12T20:25:00.000-07:00

I had to show you the fantastic little adoptable that Clearkid made for me!! It's a pic of Loki, my red fenrir, wearing her reading glasses:

Isn't clearkid amazing?!?!? She's making adoptables of all the pet species in all the colors available. So far she has fenrir, clawfur, and kitsu. Check out her website to see them, they are so cute you just want to hug them and kiss them and pet them and call them George! :)

Great Rant!!

2004-07-12T20:05:00.000-07:00

Well, as many of you (if there are any you and I'm not just talking to myself here) may know, the club I am a part of on zetapets has a very active forum (for a zetapets site, it's active! *grin*). Well, one of the sections we have there is the "Rant" section, and while most of the stuff is . . . .well, very ranty, sometimes there are jewels there that just have to be shared, and I have received permission from Kakuloo to repost this. Enjoy!!

"Everyday, for a few short moments in the morning, I am filled with elation. While wallowing in bed I think to myself, "Perhaps today will be the day. Yes, surely today will be the day!" I bounce out of bed, full of pizzaz and sit in my swivel chair at my desk. I spins myself dizzy, using the counter clockwise spinning technique and turn on my monitor. I bring up internet explorer, whistling a happy tune to myself, and pull down my favorites menu. Right at the top I click my most used link, Zetapets. I click, never realizing that the next few moments my computer takes to load up the Zeta page will be the last happy ones I will have for a while, (It takes at least twenty minutes to think up a new diversion) for when the page loads...BAM! Like the inexorable tide rolling over a carefully contrived sand castle dispair melts my happines reserves away, dragging any hope of even the mearest update from me, like the decorative sea shell of the castle ramparts. I pout longingly at the screen for a few more moments, reading the message on the screen. Zetapets is Down. Not even the slightest change. I sigh, then get distracted 20 minutes later by the numerous distracting and shiny objects on my desk. I vaguely consider cleaning them off, then decide to do it tomorrow. Such are my mornings. *Sighs and starts to make a giant jello mold for flinging at unsuspecting forum goers*

(And if you hadn't noticed, I'm back from being Internetless! Yay! *Flings Lime jello at you*)"

Hosting problems

2004-07-08T21:20:00.000-07:00

Okay, so I am having some problems with the site that is hosting the pages off blogspot for this site. I can't log on, and apparently my pages aren't loading, either. This is not a major problem right now, since most of those pages are help articles for zetapets and since zetapets is down right now . . . . you do the math. So I think this means that there is a revamp of the site coming in the not too distant future.

Ummm, okay . . .so I just checked and the pages DO load. Weird. I think that I will still be revamping the site. It's been the same for quite some time now. I crave change! :)

Vote for Zetapets!!

2004-07-07T06:28:00.000-07:00

Hey, guys, I know that zetapets has been down for quite some time, but let's get zeta back on top, so when it comes back, the admins will have a nice surprise . . . .or maybe not a surprise since I put it up here. :) *shrug* you know what I mean!!

Top Web Games
Top RP Games
Apex Web Gaming
Unlimited Web Games

I know, not all of these are the usual TWG & Top RP, but let's make zetapets the top of every list, because it is the BEST!

So get out there and vote! Vote Early and vote often!! :) :)

Now . . .things to do while you're waiting for zeta to come back online (because I know you need your zetafix, just like I do! *grin*):

1. Chat on the ZetaHelp forums.
2. Listen to the radio.
3. Read, improve your mind . . .or at least roll on the floor with laughter. :)
4. Drool over all the STUFF you want to buy once zeta comes back up!! (brought to you by zetapetshelp.com)
5. Visit a zeta fansite! Here's a list of some I like:

(kitaro gives this site 2 paws up, and not just because we're a member of this club. There is a lot of information, a lot of interactive things to do, and a great forum section! Wonderful for getting your zetafix.)

(kitaro gives this site 2 paws up, good info, lots of stuff to download, oh, and they link back to us here *grin*. No forums, but still fun stuff! Oh, and Mewkitty gives us the straight info on the Pheorn!! Apparently I was wrong, and all the different colors were available - I just couldn't remember seeing them. Pheorn eggs used to be given out as a referral prize - now replaced by the staff doll - which would hatch into a baby Pheorn, and then grow into an adult Pheorn.)

(kitaro gives this one a paw up for information, but he says that the forums aren't very hopping, lots of tumbleweeds . . .)

(kitaro gives this site one paw down. It looks like it may end up being really cool, but unfortunately I couldn't find any links that work, except the ones which link to zetapets.com, and we know what shows up there! *grin* It may be something with my system, though, so check it out and make up your own mind.)

Okay, hope I have given you lots of places to go and lots of things to do while you wait, anxiously, with baited breath, sitting on the edge of your chair, screaming and throwing a fit until zeta comes back on!!

Okay, so the downtime continues, but . . .

2004-07-06T12:28:00.000-07:00

Well, it has been about 20 days since Zetapets went down, but at least now I have some information to give you! The major problem was that they were upgrading to a new server, and loading the system. And discovered that it was bigger than they thought, therefore it was taking longer than they thought. Also, as you can tell from the message they have up, they are apparently working on the battle arena. At least they have been calling for artists to help them get the poses out there. So our prayers of cool updates when they go back online may be answered!

Other interesting things that have been found:

A new pet??? Meet the Armageon . . . .I think :)

And the Pheorn might actually be a pet you can get sometime soon . . .
Here are the Baby Girl and Boy Pheorn, Arctic, Gold and Shadow Pheorn:

And here are two varieties which may herald new colors, the Fire and Water:

From what I can tell, just by looking through the image server, the Pheorn was an older pet, like the Chippy (you would recognize the Chippy as the "Purple!" chat avatar. Until just recently, there weren't any baby pics of the Pheorn (I think), but there was an item called a "Pheorn Egg". There are also pics of the Pheorn in the OLD battle arena screenshots (so old, the layout was bright red and yellow!), which is what makes me think the Pheorn is an older pet that didn't get integrated into the site at some point. Now, with new colors showing up, it may be a possibility.

Battle Poses!! Get your Battle Poses!
I'm not going to post all of the poses available, because there quite a few, but I will show you enough to get some neat ideas!! First of all, it looks like there are going to be 4 different attacks available: a "standard" attack, an explosive attack, a flying (or leaping for non-winged pets) attack, and a magic attack. Or at least that's what the images look like. They are all on a black background (which makes the Shadow pets look just EVIL! :) And now without further ado, here are the pics, a Shadow Actaeon using a "standard" attack (whatever that will be called later on), an Orange Swifte tossing dynamite, a Pink Theron leaping to attack, and (what has to be my fave pic, almost enough to make me want to get a treicho when Zetapets is back up) a Blue Treicho casting a spell:

So far, it looks like they have the Swiftes, Therons, and Treichos completely drawn (at least these 4 types of poses). There has been a lot of work on the Actaeons and Venoms as well, but you can see most of the Venom poses in the message the Zetapets Team posted, and the Actaeon has only one pose completed.

I know a lot for today, but I figured you deserved it! And if you are bored and would like to chat with a bunch of nice but weird people who completely understand your addiction to zetapets, come on over to our club forums! We are open while zetapets is down, and we're would love to chat with you! Have a very Zeta day!

Okay, so at least SOME people can get on . . . .

2004-06-17T08:38:00.000-07:00

So, apparently some of you lucky people are able to get onto Zetapets and get your fix! :) And from what I have heard on various grapevines, they aren't putting up a really cool game or anything (well, they may be doing that, too). But what they are doing will vastly improve life on Sentrion. They seem to be uploading to the new server they have been talking about in the news lately. How do we know this (especially me who hasn't been on)??? Well, someone who has been able to get on has noticed that the total number of users has been growing steadily all day, which sounds like they are loading user accounts from one server to the other. And they seem to be doing it in order of activation, because the person I know who can get on started a couple of months before I did. Hmmm, maybe there will be a neat surprise for us once they have that finished as well. Faster speeds and maybe a new game? Nope, I'm not even relying on rumor for that particular one, but just expressing my own private hopes. Cross your fingers!!

Downtime . . . . . still down . . . . .still down . . . .

2004-06-16T12:14:00.000-07:00

So I keep checking. And checking. And CHECKING! But zetapets has been down for over 12 hours now (withdrawal symptoms are coming on). So, no you're not crazy, your interent connection is working fine, and yes, we're all crossing fingers and toes that this is something the zteam is doing rather than their hosting service. One thought that has been expressed is that maybe they are uploading something big, something wonderful, something that people have been waiting for for months, something like a . . . .Battle Arena?!!?!? Maybe. Hopefully we will see soon. Afterall, the programmers are out of school, have been for a while now, and hopefully that means that they have gotten some stuff done for the site, which they are uploading now. Allright, gotta go now and find something to sublimate my zetapets withdrawal into.

SCHOOL'S OUT!!

2004-06-09T09:52:00.000-07:00

So not only are we seeing more people sign on, more people sign up, and more, more, more! More anticipation - the programmers are out of school, too. More fun - with more people to chat with and play with, more fun is a sure thing. More new stuff - since the programmers are out of school, new stuff should be appearing soon.

So get out there, hug your pet, and let's make this a great zeta summer!!

Whew . . . What a week for problems!

2004-05-19T06:58:00.000-07:00

Ick. Servers down, attacks reported. What a way to start the week! I just don't understand why people do it. I mean, I understand the true hacker mentality: "Information wants to free." I understand that. I understand wanting to hack in to a system to get something good from it: "Now if I do this, I'll get a zillion zetapoints." I understand that. I think it's pretty stupid, but I understand. What I DON'T understand is hacking into a system to shut it down. I mean it's not like there's anything to gain from shutting down Zetapets, it's just a game!

I would like to say though, kudos to the team for getting the servers back up so quickly. I hope that whatever was going wrong the past couple of days is fixed, and that it doesn't happen again. I LIKE this game and I would like to continue playing it. From all that I have seen, this site has very responsive admins and really good programmers. What a change! All of us Zetapolitans need to do our part to make sure it continues in the wonderful way it has begun!

Back again!

2004-05-04T08:33:00.000-07:00

Well, that was fun. Being sick and visiting family with my daughter (who was also sick). Yay.

Anyway, on to zetapets news. Top story of the day is the new icky ad banner stretching across the top of every page. I understand they are trying to make money to pay for servers and I applaud their efforts to try and make it any way possible that doesn't make us feel like this is only a commercial venture for them, like some other sites do (here's a hint: they have a complete line of merchandise including, but not limited to: tshirts, card games, electronic toys, and all kinds of other overpriced geegaws). I like the fact that the admins get on the site, talk to people, get involved in the day to day activites on the boards, and don't look at us like cows to be milked.

But an ugly ad banner across the top of the page?? Come on people. I liked the little google ads down on the bottom of the page. They were unobtrusive, elegant looking, and didn't try to make anything pop-up on my computer or make me hit some stupid monkey. I would be willing to click on them all day long if it would bring them back and take the top banner off. Please!!

Other news - Have you had your morning coffee sludge and newspaper yet today? If not, here's a virtual cup, now go to the Town Hall and click on your copy of the Sentrion Chronicles. Oh, and in case you haven't figured out the secret to reading the paper (and it is kind of wonky), click on the portion of the image that shows the doors with "Sentrion Chronicle" over it. I know, I know, it doesn't look like there's a link there - your cursor doesn't turn into a pointy finger or whatever you set yours to, but it IS the link. Trust me, a little pop-up will open with the newspaper in it.

Now go to the Stories tab. Scroll down until you see a story called "Lost in a Story" by yours truly! Woo hoo, I'm published! Please read it, and let me know what you think. Zmail me at scoutd, or gmail me at scoutd@gmail.com.

Have a very zeta day!

Out of town . . .

2004-04-29T06:11:00.000-07:00

This is just alittle note to let you all know that I am going to be out of town for a few days, so even if something really cool, or really horrible happens on zetapets, I won't be around to report it. Sorry!

Fonts!!

2004-04-28T05:40:00.000-07:00

Well, the fonts are back up and running. And there was much rejoicing on the forums. I didn't post this earlier, because I didn't think they were completely back up. I mean the font dolors and sizes looked changed to me, but I didn't see the usual overload of shadowing and glowing and whatnot. Now I realize that it really is just me in this case. Stupid penguin!! Apparently Mozilla (the web browser most commonly used on Linux, and the one I am currently trying to figure out) does not like those extra font enhancements. *Shrug* I didn't like them much either, but Guess I will have to start highlighting all text again so that I can read it. Mmmmm, especially those white ones. Grrrrrrrr.

On a personal note, the baby and I are sick right now so you will prolly will not be seeing a whole lot of me on the forums today. And then we're going out of town for the weekend. So everyone have a great weekend!

thedarknemesis is Back!

2004-04-27T06:32:00.000-07:00

And he's giving away zetapoints!! For those of you who don't know who this is, his staff position is "Global Overlord, King of the Hill, Manager-of-managers, Crazy-person, HALO-CHAMPION, etc." And as he says, "Scared yet?" Well, maybe you should be and maybe not. Especially since his first act as a returning admin was to give everyone ZP! In the news, it says he gave everyone 2000 (because there has been a lot of complaining that people are randomly losing money for no reason, *shrug* I've had it happen, that's why I keep my money in the bank). However, I know that I got 3000, and so did some other people, and I think I saw that some people only got 1000. Hrmmmm, well, mine's in the bank, and I suggest you do the same, however much you got!

Coffee Sludge!

2004-04-26T09:45:00.000-07:00

Okay, so I was hoping to get this up a little earlier this morning, but unfortunately, my husband just switched me over to linux from windows. And I have yet to figure out all the ins and outs of the Gimp, whereas I knew Paint Shop Pro well enough to put it to good use (I'm not a major graphics artist - yet!). So, anyway, good morning (8 minutes till noon here, so I can still say that!) and have a cup of coffee sludge! Or possibly some blackberry sage tea. And definitely a donut! Have a great day.

Oh, and original images are copyright Yoko Katagiri & NihongoWeb. Pretty grayscale drawings!

Forums are now easier to read!

2004-04-20T12:07:00.000-07:00

For a little while, anyway. There's a glitch right now causing all fonts to not be saved, so if you have a really uber-cool glowy shadowed tiny font in your settings that is absolutely impossible to read, you're gonna have a bad time until it is fixed. You can still have weird fonts in your posts, but you have to code it in every time. Can you tell I'm more a fan of being able to read a post than look at it and say, "Wow. That is one cool font." Toodles for now, zetas.

Whoa, 50K . . .

2004-04-16T06:28:00.000-07:00

So there are no over 50,000 users on zetapets. And we're having a party today! Cool new 50K cakes are available in the Food Shop. Luckily, they don't cost 50K, just 1750 (minus wiggle room).

Good news for me and my little zetafamily - Kitaro is all grown up! Isn't he pretty? - I mean, isn't he big and fierce? heeheehee . . .

And there's a whole bunch of new images up in the Artist Hall. Dang I wish I could draw. And had a scanner. 3000Zp would be very nice to put in the bank. Hint, hint, nudge, nudge - if you can draw and get it to Amanda's email, you can get soopah-stahdom (to quote blogskins), 3000ZP, and a neato trophy.

And then, just to continue the total goodiness of the day, the zetapets staff came out with 3 new shop mascots, 2 new forum avatars, and 3 new word banners for your profile - as well as birthday gifts - a softball and archery set. Okay on the word banner front, is it just me or did I see people with the Explorer banner before today? I may be just seeing things (remembering things?). Hope everyone has a great zetaday!

Easter Egg Hunt . . .

2004-04-11T21:18:00.000-07:00

So it is Easter, and the easter bunny has been very busy on Sentrion! First of all, did anyone besides me notice that there were a whole bunch of renadom events popping today - and that most of them were GOOD??? I mean, I got Easter Baskets, and Chick Toys, and Gummy Bunnies, and Bunny Ears up the wazoo. I even got another Holzet for my gallery (I'm waiting for my pets to grow up and become more responsible before they can have pets of their own *grin*)! And the only bad one I got was one that took away a BUNCH of ZP (over 200), which luckily came right after, and I mean the next screen right after!, I deposited all my loose change into the bank.

And I loved the Egg Hunt! Amanda came up with such a great and creative way to distribute the eggs. And weren't they well drawn?

Also, here's my Easter Card to my club, but you can enjoy it, too! *big grin*

And on a more personal note, all relatives are now gone for awhile! It was very nice seeing them, and I'm sure they loved oohing over the baby, but I can now get back to my life. Or at least that's what it feels like. *grin* So my posts here may be a little more frequent. On the other hand, they might not be - I'm working on an up date ot the site. Please, if you know of anything that YOU would like to see added to a help website, please zmail me and let me know!!

Sorry I've been busy!!

2004-04-06T09:07:00.000-07:00

What with relatives visiting, spring springing, and all kinds of good stuff, I've been pretty busy around here. I've also been coming up with a better version of this website (which will not launch until I am totally happy with it, so it will be a while *grin*). However, to catch up on some neato cool zeta news:

There is now a starting guide, hosted by amanda's own baby treico, Tiggles! Yeah!

There new moderators, new shop mascots *eyes the illuminaire wench and grins*, and new artist pages!! Check out the news link for details.

Talk to you guys later!!

Get a shiny new button . . .

2004-04-02T09:45:00.000-08:00

Come one, come all! Get yer shiny new zetapets help buttons right here!! Link to yer fav'rit zeta fan site and decorate your profile or website all in one go! Grab one fer yerself, one fer yer friend, and one fer a stranger ye've never met! And th' best thing is, they're FREE! Just copy and paste this code wherever ya want to put yer button!!

Oooo, Sponsors!

2004-04-02T07:29:00.000-08:00

So there's a brand new page of sponsors out there. On your mark, get ready, sign up and earn zetapoints!!

Well, wait a minute. . . You need a credit card for some of them. Ooops, not giving out that information. Have to be 18 for others. Ooops, most of the people on Zetapets aren't. And the rest want your address. Ooops, not giving them that info, either, and I wouldn't suggest anyone else do (especially without their parents knowing about it).

I may be overly suspicious of things on the internet, but I don't really want to make it easy for people I don't know to find me. And send me junk mail. I know that at this point, it is extremely easy for anyone with half a clue to find out who I am, what my real name is, what my address and phone number are, and anything else they want to find out, but I would like to make it harder for them. So why not lie, you say? Tell them my address is 1234 Main Street in Anytown, USA? You may. I'm not big on lying. I've tried it my moderately checkered past, and it never really paid off.

So I guess I'll just wait and hope that Zetapets finds some sponsors out there who are happy with just my email address. Just my 2 cents. ;)

Site update

2004-03-30T11:06:00.000-08:00

This site, guys, not Zetapets. *grin* If you actually are there, you will now notice that there are links to various help articles . . .hmmm, need to change "help blogs" to "help articles". All the stuff I've listed in various posts will be collected together if it of lasting value into categories, so you can get to them quickly.

Forum Questions

2004-03-30T08:08:00.000-08:00

So I was trolling through the forums, and found a couple of questions occuring over and over again, and thought I'd go ahead and put them up, as well as a few cool new links.

::From Dawna straight to a moderator straight to the forums: Once your pet is 30 days old, you need to go to the left sidebar, click on pets, and make that pet your active pet again. Then it will be all grown up!

::As far as anyone can tell, books are not available on the site yet, but they will be. Prolly soon, as they have images for them (see the link below).

::It is believed that you gain experience by referring people to zetapets.

::To put an avatar on your profile, go to settings, under the login-logout bar on the left sidebar. This is where you can do all your profile modifications, including adding backgrounds, avatars, and changing the banner.

::Some help near and dear to my heart! If you can't read someone's really fancy, really shadowed, dshadowed, glowing, or otherwise unreadable post in the forums, try highlighting it with your cursor. It should show up in normal text. I know everyone has a right to express themselves, and the more artistic the better, but come on, people. If you want us to read your posts (and why would you post them if you didn't), at least make them readable! Thanx!

::Wanna see what all items look like? Check this out.

::Neat help websites - The ZetaHangout has adoptables, blogs, and a bunch of other stuff. Feel free to check it out.

The Zetafiles has a great start going, with interviews with mods, a place to request backgrounds, as well as site tips.
Are you evil? If so, check out Christina's Evil Plans.

That's all for now, folks.

New way to get ZP

2004-03-30T06:12:00.000-08:00

Okay, I'm not sure if this is a NEW way, but I just found it. You know how you can get 500ZP for voting for Zetapets on Top Web Games once a week? Well go here and vote for Zetapets once a day on Top RP Games and get 100 ZP each time. Woohoo, free money!

Hmm, doesn't seem to be working right now. Will keep trying and I'll let you know when it gets you something.

Hmmm . .Keno Testing

2004-03-29T07:23:00.000-08:00

well, I tried the 1 +4 +4 +4 . . . keno method. Had great hopes, got 8 numbers the first time, then hopes came crashing down with 2 the second time, and 4 the third time. Same average score as my usual diagonals from the corners route. *shrug* Will test more, I guess.

Woo Hoo, check the news!

2004-03-29T06:37:00.000-08:00

Town Hall is up!! And it's gonna be cool! So far there's only the Sentrion Chronicles and places where there will be stuff in the (not *too* distant) future: fan site listings, sponsors page, contests (where we can get ZP - Yeah!), Hall of Honor, and a Help Desk (Yeah, see I told you they knew their help sections weren't very good yet).

Speaking of a help desk, they are looking for someone to make an easy to use help section, maybe with a friendly guide. Me, I'm not that good an artist or html artist. But if any of you out there (there IS someone out there, right?) are, and know the site pretty well, send it to Amanda@zetapets.com, and if you are the lucky person whose entry is selected, you will get 5000ZP!

Also the profiles have apparently been fixed, with only the goody portions left to do: uploading all the images and making the pet images transparent.

One last thing to report which hopefully will help someone out: DON'T PLAY SEALED! RIGHT NOW!!! There is a bug which may get you iced. They are working on it, but don't play it until you read in the news that it has been fixed.

Games Help Links

2004-03-28T17:05:00.000-08:00

So I was cruising the forums, and happened upon an interesting game link:
BOBOFON's Sealed! Tutorial

Since Sealed!is down right now, I can't determine whether the advice is any good or not. However I will let you know if it is once the game is going again (and I'm a good test case, since I suck at that game!).

Bobofon also on the forums some advice on how to get several numbers on Keno:"My tactic in keno is so: pick 1, then add 4, add 4, add 4... Ex.: 1, 5, 9, 11 (...)
It's logical, that these numbers are more likely to win. Don't you think?
Of course, you can also pick such numbers as 2, 6, 10 (...) or 3, 7, 11 (...), it's your choice . Good luck and great winnings!" I'm not sure about the logic, but it's worth a try . . .tomorrow, played my 3 today already ;)

Swap Center!!

2004-03-27T09:31:00.000-08:00

So the Swap Center is online! I'll have to remove the link from the sidebar now. It looks kinda interesting - very heavy on the roleplay. Imagine yourself in the midst of the T'enelm desert, a caravan kicking up sand off in the desert. You find yourself in the middle of what appears to be a small village made entirely of canvas instead of wood or brick, garish colors blending to look like flowers in the yellow desert sands. There are stands set up all around you, with various wares for sale or trade, depending on the nature of your coin. Luckily there appears to be a friendly Fenrir to help guide you through the maze of stands, showing you things that are of interest to you.

Sounds pretty cool, eh? The above is from my own imagination, go to the Swap Center to see what Zetapets' imagination came up with.

Wow . . .Look at all the new stuff! O.o

2004-03-22T07:13:00.000-08:00

So if you have checked the news lately, you will have noticed the new layout . . .Ummm, I'm not sure. It looks cool, but in a way it totally reminds me of the cheap printing paper everyone used to get to make invitations and letters look cool, like proclamations from a king or something. I guess it adds to the RPG-flair of the site, but it looks a little incongruous next to the slick clean lines of the rest of the layout.

Also the Soup Kitchen has been retired. It is now the Food Pantry. Yes, I edited the link below for it. The location in Zetapolis is the same, but the link is different and the old one is now a 404.

Shopkeepers and Lag

2004-03-20T06:08:00.000-08:00

Okay, so I like the idea of all of the shopkeepers being humans playing with pets. I can understand how that might enrich the RPG aspect of the game.

But what I am really excited about is that they said they have fixed the lagtime! Now if only it is true . . . I"ll have to check back at some point when there are more than 55 users on. *grin*

New Forum Avatars

2004-03-18T12:39:00.000-08:00

Woohoo, they just put out 9 new avatars - just what we all need, more decisions to make! *grin* Here's a brief description (sorry, no image hosting here):
::Heroic - a shadow Balt
::Cuddly - a Fuzzles (an adorable petpal, who looks like a teddy bear)
::Foxy - a pink Kitsu (you were expecting maybe a Rhypher?)
::Lazy - a blue Plato with something on its head??
::Lucky - a mythica (a rare petpal that looks a lot like a mystoc)
::Pure - a white actaeon
::Rich - the front door of the bank (mmm . . animated)
::Strength - an Illuminaire soul sphere
::Warlord - a whole bunch of zetapet figurines, I'm sure it's taken from something on the site, but I don't know the site that well yet

Shop Help

2004-03-18T11:15:00.000-08:00

:: You will need a lot of ZP to get a shop. You start off by paying 500ZP to open a shop, then you haveone, but it will only hold 5 items. Not a lot for a gallery, or enough to make any kind of ZP. So now it is time to upgrade. Each time you upgrade, you will increase the space available in your shop by 5. The first time you upgrade it costs 50ZP, the next 100ZP, then 150ZP - you get the picture??

:: If you are buying items to resell in your shop, food is your best bet. Other than that, I don't know. Generally though, the newer an item is, the more people are willing to pay for it, especially if it is hard for them to get.

:: If you would like an item in your shop to be only for show (i.e., a gallery item), simply put 9999999 as the price, and when other users look at your shop it will show "-Gallery-" as the price. When you look at your stock, it will show 200000 as the price, but trust me (or don't and check for yourself *grin*) it is now a gallery item.

ZP Help

2004-03-18T11:05:00.000-08:00

:: So, easy ways to get ZP - Random ZP every 2 hours, Keno three times a day, vote for Zetapets on Top Web Games once a week, get referrals. Notice that each of these has a link to the left (except referrals).

:: Trickier ways to get ZP: Play Sealed! (I'm no good at Mastermind, and this is harder, ergo, this is a tricky way to get ZP *grin*), buy stuff and sell in your shop (tricky because you have to learn what people want and what they are willing to pay for it).

Forum Help

2004-03-18T10:43:00.000-08:00

:: If you would like to change your avatar, add a sig file, or make your text go all wooshy and purple, go to Forum Settings. There are avatars for pretty much every type of pet, plus some that are just cool, like my "Magical" one. This is also where you can change your standard text style, whether it is itty bitty or gigantic and flaming red.

Pet Help

2004-03-18T09:43:00.000-08:00

:: To create a pet, go to this link. Pick the species you would like to have as a pet.

:: You may have up to 5 zetapets.

:: When your first have your pet, it will be a baby. If it is a girl, it will be pink; a boy, blue. This is regardless of the color you chose when you created the pet. It will "grow up" in about 30 days. Then it will turn the color you chose.

:: If you are having problems keeping your pet fed, visit the Food Pantry. You can only do this is you are "poor", though, with less than 2000 ZP.

:: If you aren't poor, or just like one-stop shopping, visit the Shining River. This will heal your pet, make it happy, feed it, and make sure it is not thirsty. So far I have not found any limitations to this, but I haven't been playing that long. When/ if I find any (only available to babies, newbies, poor owners, etc.) I will post it.