TNT Favortism, and Doug Dohring, Neopets Corporation owner and cult member
by Mandy
It wasn't the blatant staff favoritism that made me quit Neopets. It wasn't the lazy, belligerent board monitor nazis. It wasn't even the complete lack of support by the so called "support staff." In the end, it was Doug Dohring.
A couple months ago, I got my first taste of the dark side of Neopets. On the EMS board, tons of people were complaining about how their accounts had been frozen unfairly, or for no reason at all, and how they hated TNT's hypocricy. The evidence of unfair account-nuking is easy to see on EMS- the "regs" frequently have a different username every other day. I also noticed another trend with these boards- every one was being deleted. Looking at the posts, one saw absolutely no good reason for the destruction of these boards. Just complaining about the perfectly good account they lost, and suggesting that TNT actually do their job and look into reports before freezing. But apparently, this was grounds to delete the boards- and probably freeze a few people yet again. So, I made a board with this observation. And guess what- mine was deleted, too. No rules broken, just poof, gone. "This topic does not exist! Bummer, eh?" So I made another one. And another. I had nothing better to do, why not rant against a corrupt system for a while? After all, I'm not breaking any rules. Well, apparently, TNT hated being criticized so much, they invented another rule just for the occasion. And I got the most ridiculous warning- "If you would like to contact Neopets, please do so using our contact forms!" An official warning. Well, this pissed me off to no end. But still, I stayed.
Then, one day, I saw someone on EMS talking about how a certain person should be boiled in hot oil. Curious as to why this guy would deserve such a fate, I checked Google. This was when I first heard about Doug Dohring. I'd known previously that Neopets had been bought by some corporation, but it didn't seem all that important. But when I read further about Dohring, I realized why some people think he should be deep-fried. And I realized that Neopets had been bought by Viacom.
First of all, I've got a long-running animosity towards Viacom. The company that owns both MTV and Nickelodeon. But I won't get into the details of that. More about this Doug Dohring. Apparently, he is a corporate member of the World Institute of Scientology Enterprises, and claims that "As a business executive [he has] enjoyed many successes thanks to [his] knowledge and use of L. Ron Hubbard's administrative technology." This administrative technology being scientology, a religious cult. Is it just me, or does anyone else find it a little odd that a site on which absolutely no discussion of religion is allowed, is now owned by a scientologist? Also, apparently Dohring funnels much of the money made by his business enterprises back to the church. One has to wonder where all the advertising money and money from premium accounts goes- it certainly can't go to improving staffing or user service or support. Dohring is also behind "immersive advertising" where advertising is buried in the content of the site, so it is virtually indistinguishable from non-advertising content, especially to children. Neopets is even trying to register "immersive advertising" as a trademark, when it is really nothing more than subliminal advertising which has been used by corporations for years. Children would have no idea they're looking at advertising, when generic apples or Neopet-related items are sitting next to McDonald's items in a shop.
It really is all about the money, but now apparently the money is
funneled to a religious sect. Just one more reason to leave the unfair,
hypocritical, totalitarian dictatorship that is Neopia.
KMFDM- New American Century
Count your blessings, walk the line
Don't move too fast or fall behind
There are rules you must obey
They get rewritten by the day
Don't do this, don't say that
Your every move is logged and tracked
By the all-oppressive eye
Spy satellites in friendly skies
The New American Century
Has only just begun
No one exempt from the tragedy
Counter-attack start pushing back
Fight the power that chokes your speech
Fight the power that makes you bleed
Fight the power that propagates lies
To keep you weak, keep you in line
No one dares to say a word
Our panic drives all human herds
In the land where cash is king
Our silence bought and sold for free
The future's banging on our door
When real I.D. will be the law
Love thy neighbor turn him in
It's called patriotism
You can't be bothered or concerned, you see no reason for alarm
Prejudice, religion hate usher in the new mandate
Absolute and resolved, one nation under one god
Lack of interest has its price as we're stripped of all our rights
Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it