Speak your mind about Neopets' new chat boards!

Recently, one of the most entertaining
features of a very popular website was
ruined for no apparent reason. The
website was Neopets.com, the feature:
its famous chat boards. While there are a few similarities between the old and new chat boards, there are massive
differences. For example, if you went on the old chat boards and clicked on
"General Chat", it would take you to a
page that, with no bells and whistles,
linked to several separate message
boards. People who created the
message boards could post in either
plain, italic, bold, or the former two
combined. There were no pictures on the board except for basic, unanimated
smiley faces that could be inserted into text.

It was a simple and beautiful system.
And now, out of nowhere, this new
system was shoved in. Instead of simple chat boards that let us just chat, we have boards that are so stuffed with unnecessary features that they load too slowly to allow the natural flow of conversation! We can no longer can customize our posts, they are all automatically bold. I ask you, do we really need things bolded for us? Do we need avatars to slow down the flow of conversation just for the sake of bells and whistles? Do we need every post to be outlined in its own box, when they were perfectly easy to read before? The answer is no. We need to send this message to
the Neopets Team: we want you to KISS
the chat...Keep It Simple Stupid(s)!
Why do we want it simple? Because chat
should be about chatting, about
communicating and sharing ideas, not
about showing off with a fancy chat
system or images! The internet itself
should be about creative pages that
express feelings and use images in
artistic ways, not about having pages that are jammed with so much clipart and fancy HTML that it cheapens the real meaning of the pages. We're not in favor of the internet returning to all text, but we feel these add-ons should be used to ENHANCE the purpose of the page, not lessen it. If Neopets, one of the post popular sites on the internet, gets away with changing its chat boards, other sites
will imitate. When will they stop? Maybe never, maybe pages will keep getting more and more crowded until only those rich enough to afford fast internet connections will be able to enjoy what is supposed to a global resource. The point is: We believe the simple fact is that chat boards should be about CHATTING.

So if you feel like we feel, if you are in favor of a KISS approach to webpage design, SIGN THIS PETITION. Even if you don't plan to use the Neopets chat boards, sign it for the principals we have presented. Because, really, aren't communication and free speech what the internet should be all about?
-Goldfish, Oldandrea, and Vicxy