Yes, that's understandable. It wasn't my intent to be offensive and I am truly sorry. Some "pour decisions" were made with regard to my first post; I really just shouldn't have made it. Then I was helpfully quoted in full so I couldn't even retract it when I thought better of it, oh well, my own fault.

My point (that I am not making particularly well) is not that "hey it's fine, he was cool" but rather that there has been - and still is - substantial American propaganda regarding this bit of history circulating and I had been led to believe he wasn't a particularly controversial figure, therefore I honestly didn't see the harm in naming a virtual pet after him and I find TNT's response to have been really unreasonable. Even the current official nasa.gov biography of von Braun just glosses over his involvement in the Nazi party, vaguely implies he was not totally cool with it and only states his responsibility for crimes is "controversial" and doesn't go into much depth. I recall his portrayal in the movie "October Sky" as being pretty much heroic and his Disney film presentations appear wholesome as can be.

There's also a point to be made that naming a virtual pet or character after someone is not an implicit endorsement of their actions. Complex characters and even downright evil villains are integral parts of our stories, both real and imagined. You yourself said you appreciate that we can talk about the real world like adults on this site; I'm glad we can do that here too. I still don't think it's inherently wrong to discuss him or his contributions or his crimes...but obviously Neopets wasn't the place for that and Subeta really probably isn't either.

Anyway, I'm still mad at TNT over it. If they had just deleted the pet instead of my account and then not added literal insult to injury, I wouldn't have been so upset about it that I would feel the need to rant about it all these years later and majorly step in it. ._.;

I understand your point, but also know that as a Jewish person we have been aware of his involvement in the Nazi party since the beginning. It may have been unknown to you and others, but those who were familiar with the events of the holocaust know well who he is and where he came from.

I get as a child it's easy to make a mistake like that and not understand the implications, I wanted to name a toy Swastika one time bc i thought it was a pretty word and my mom had to teach me why it wasn't okay.

It's more that years later you're still kinda talking about it defensively instead of being like "yeah i named my pet after a dude who turned out to be a nazi lol oops sorry" like.....maybe it's not the time anymore to be defending his good contributions to science and his legacy, we been dealing with that for the past 50 years until people started to care that the dude was a Nazi

Point taken. I hope you have a great day.

and to you as well! thank you for the thoughtful dialogue

In 2008, I came from Neopets as well. My account is 12 years old. I joined when I was in college. I got an account frozen, another account frozen for warning people about what ridiculous thing got me frozen, and I can't remember if it was one of these two accounts or not, but I got at least a warning for saying "boy" once. Either that third account was frozen, or I rage quit. I can't remember. So I Googled alternatives, and found myself here.

And... I'm not perfect. I fled for a while because I was not the better person that I am today, got people upset, I felt like hiding in a hole forever for how guilty I felt, but apparently this account stayed up. So I came back a few years ago, and then life got busy again, then just the other day, my partner and I got on the subject of Neopets somehow... I felt nostalgic. Almost tempted to make an account.

So I logged back into my Subeta account instead, and I feel a lot better. XD

This thread is a wild ride and I'm glad I never joined Neopets.

I just recently got back into my old account so I’ve been using it lately. It’s astonishing how it’s been what... 20 years? And the site is still how I remember it. There could be so much potential if TNT would stop entertaining the idea that children are using the site. We are all adults or close to it and the site would thrive by being more geared towards adults. There’s SO much about subeta that they’ve done right, like being able to trade csc/sp, no crazy filters, and allowing the user base to have some creative freedoms. People literally spend thousands of dollars supporting the NC mall and premium, and we should feel like our hard earned dollars are worth it! I wish they’d get rid of gift boxes for trading and start a NC trading post. I wish they’d have a ping feature on the boards. I wish for sooo many things, but in the end I’m afraid the site is on its way out as it seems to be in the wrong hands. It’s a shame, because like you said, nostalgia is a hell of a drug. They could really make bank by catering to their older users. Lol

It only really took like a week or maybe two at the most of playing Subeta when I was still on that place to just up and never log in again, lol. And here we are god only knows how many years later. I have put so much time, energy, and money into this site, it's probably not healthy. Doesn't mean I'm leaving any time soon. If this is the only vice I have, I'll take it, lol. Subeta is my drug.

Oh man I recently found a place to look at all their old magazines and considered making a new account on there, but then remembered how much it sucks since whenever they got bought. And I’d probably have an awful time saving enough to get the things I want on there and the pet art sucks now anyway.

Neopets is like a stinky old bear you had when you're a kid, and its eyes have fell off and it's got lumpy arms, but you can't throw out the damn thing because when you hug it you're allowed to go back to the safe place of childhood and nostalgia. I quit it 'for good' (lol) back in like, 2006? when they converted all the pets to the new artwork, and I didn't get a choice about some of my pets and I thought they looked stupid AF. I used to pay for premium and everything, wow I was pretty obsessed with it and would spend ages on the Help chat (mostly helping, often being a needless snark). But then I was in my teens and didn't have much else going on so it was a great place to hang out, and in all fairness I'd never have got into coding without Neo. But then I'd kinda left it and would check in once a year or whatevs - whenever I could get free stuff, or like Halloween and Xmas time coz I get super nostalgic around then - buuut then for the month I was furloughed from work this year I was like HIDE ME FROM THE REAL WORLD and lo and behold there it still was. And the economy had gone beserk so suddenly I could afford all the pets I wanted. I don't really engage with the boards or anything, I like to lurk, it was good fun for a bit again, now the rose-tinted specs have worn off though and I can't be bothered with it. I've been back on for Charity Corner and witnessed the same old nonsense/incompetence. All in all, it makes me glad to always have Subeta here as a refuge, even though I don't doooo a lot here either, there's just something sane and orderly about it, the art is cute, the items are funny, the site works so well and it feels like it's run by people instead of dictatorial robots. But ya know. The stinky bear is still there. I wonder if it will survive moving over to mobile and without flash. Kinda surprised they're bothering. Amazed it's still going.

I used to be pretty hardcore into Neopets. I joined first in 2002, I think, based on the recommendation of a high school friend. But I quit and joined several times before it really stuck, and I got involved in a really swell guild that had an off-site presence and I really got into the site and everything.

All was well and good for a few years, and I really started to "make it" on Neopets, when all that hard work came to naught and all my accounts were frozen. This was in 2013, and I vaguely remember it had something to do with having a premium account and trying to get more random events. Essentially I was refreshing by just holding my finger down on the button and watching Netflix and then checking back every now and then. I had checked the rules up and down, and according to the editorials, you could refresh manually as long as you want, but you couldn't use something else to refresh for you, so I figured I was golden. Still, Neopets accused me of cheating, and even though I tried to appeal and get my accounts back twice, it took them years to essentially reply, "...no."

I made a fresh set of accounts and with the help of my friends tried to get back to normal. But it never quite felt the same after that. Definitely got more into Subeta in the ensuing years. I had a sort-of revival of interest in Neopets a few years back, and I joined a different guild for a few months, but then stopped for whatever reason. Now I log in every now and then out of nostalgia, and log right back out again out of disinterest.

I don't think I'll ever delete/freeze my accounts and give my pets away, but neither will I ever really get back into the site again. It makes me a little sad, but also a part of me...just doesn't care.

Sometimes I wonder when that day will come for Subeta. Thus far I've "quit" or "hiatus'd" multiple times, but it hasn't really stuck.

Neopets is a mess, they won't let me access my 12 years old account. I even downloaded a dta lak that included everything I needed to know, but Neopets still isn't convinced that the badly named account with the badly named pets that is completely empty is mine. All because I only played for five minutes and couldn't confirm my parents' email.

I miss playing Neopets though. After that I made a new account and played for a while. I deactivated it, but I sent in a ticket hoping to reactivate it. I like the avatar customation here, but after "losing" everything it feels tough to get back into it. I don't necessarily feel the same way about Neopets. But tbh I wish I could get into Flight Rising because it seems like the best most active community, but I don't like dragons...

I've had really nice things on Neopets, and I've also had them taken away from me for no reason. IDK if its just the fact that I've grown up, or because I'm not as socially active there anymore, but I don't really have an issue w/ TNT these days. I haven't had an unwarranted warning or anything in years. One of my side accounts got frozen for my protection a few months ago and it only took me 3 days to get it back. I mean, I did have to email them several times and post on the highway to help board, but still.

These neopets experiences are wild.....

I'm still on neopets. I wanted to join when I was little, but I couldn't because every name I tried was taken! ARGH!

About 5 years ago, though, I finally managed to join the site! I was so excited! My hopes started to wane when I saw how expensive certain colors were...and realized how hard it was to earn currency. I like the games, but I'd get so little NP after submitting my score.....

Thankfully I have managed to get a couple of dream pets on there thanks to good luck with quests. But since you can't earn more pet slots on Neo, I sorta lost interest.

Hearing about people getting banned for ridiculous reasons means that I don't interact on there with other users much for fear I'll get a warning.

Yeah, I heard Krawks and Draiks were crazy expensive to get in the past.....that doesn't seem to be the case anymore. :)

I stopped playing a long time ago. I feel like you can never get ahead in that game. So when I found this site, I stopped paying neopets.

I cannot believe that website looks exactly the same as it did when I joined...I think I was 13-14 at that time. Nothing has changed, even the pets. I tried to look up my account, changing password - but even after changing the password, they wouldn't let me in. From the login page it takes me back to the, ta-da, login page. I know my accounts are still there, I used to check on them every year or so, but at this point it's redundant. I liked to look at my pets reminiscing of the "good old times".

I honestly prefer how this website is set up and different possibilities we've got here. That place needs to wake up and remember most of us aren't kids anymore, so updating the games, website etc. would be in their interest if they wanted to keep players.

I don't have good times with Neopets, they banned me without warning because my user was 'DizzyHunter' I was like...14? The mods there are really intimidating imho... alsooo grinding is a pain haha

Anyway this is really unrelated but thought I'd just say it here

Neopets is just getting worse and worse. Its sad. I really like my pets and i put a lot of effort into them (Akumie__ if you wanna check em out) but i won't socialize at all on that site. They're just going to ban me if i say anything. So why would I?