The beauty of neopets.com for creative and not-so-creative types was (and still is to an extent -- depending on where the beta goes with these areas) the user-created parts of the site: userlookups, pet descriptions, and petpages.
Default petpages are templates, one per neopets species, that function as a generic placeholder until tweaked or overwritten by the pet owner. The default petpages, most of which were created in the early 2000’s by whatever TNT staffer at the time had a spare ten minutes to roleplay as a Grarrl, are marked by extremely period-specific coding, language, and images. A whole generation of us cut our coding teeth making modifications to these templates, using the simple HTML editor to go wild with glitter graphics and starry night backgrounds, and engrossing tales of our emo Lupes. For those with an interest in the early web and neopets, the default petpages perfectly encapsulate a particular 00’s moment of gaudy graphics, questionable backgrounds, and exclamation marks used with reckless abandon.
The default petpages are the kind of material that has existed on neopets.com for so long that users -- including us -- almost forget that it exists and, frankly, take it for granted, since it has been such a constant. We were galvanized into doing something to save the petpages when we saw JumpStart’s announcement that they will be turning their attention to converting petpages to the Neopets beta. We do not know if JumpStart intends to port over the default petpages (broken coding, glitchiness and all) to whatever the new iteration of petpages is going to be, so we decided to take matters into our own hands and save all of the coding and delightful images ourselves. We haven’t found this content archived on other fan pages, but if it is, we are happy to have it backed up in an additional location.
We realize that this is an incredibly niche part of an already niche site -- in fact, while researching some additional tidbits about petpages, we came across the term fancruft," meaning “a selection of content that is of importance only to a small population of enthusiastic fans of the subject in question.” But we will now rest easy knowing that these vestiges of an era are preserved somewhere. Now, if only we could figure out how to save guilds…
Further ReadingIf you like old neopets stuff, check out Dr. Sloth’s Image Emporium and the WackyPackages archive.
Thank you for visiting!