OpenNeo Blog

Hi, everyone! We’ve got big news coming up: we’re partnering with Neopets to add “Login with NeoPass” and some other integrations to bring our sites a bit closer together! Here’s what to expect and why.

Login with NeoPass

Over time, Neopets is planning to send more users our way, and we want them to have a smooth experience when they get here!

So, new users will be able to click “Login with NeoPass” and use their existing Neopets account, instead of creating a new DTI username and password. Existing DTI users can also link accounts if they want, too!

All of this functionality is optional, and removable at any time! Usernames and passwords will still work as before—and unlike official Neopets accounts that need long-term permanent linkage, we intend to offer both linking and unlinking, so you can always have options.

We also know that a lot of the pain points in Neopets and DTI right now come from transferring info between our sites by hand. It’s possible this could set us up for other smoother experiences in the future, too! (Nothing like that in the first release though—we’ve just been chatting with TNT about what might come next!)

Links to NC Mall

We’re also planning to add a few links from DTI to the NC Mall, which we’ll do our best to make thoughtful and unobtrusive. There’s two main reasons for this!

First off, when Neopets sends users our way, we don’t want them to get confused and stuck here. Existing DTI users know their way around NC, but new users probably won’t, so we’ll add a couple hints for how to get their designs onto Neopets.com.

The second reason is: we believe Dress to Impress is a critical part of the Neopets economy, and we want TNT to be able to see that, too. We’ll include a lil referral code in the link so TNT can know which shoppers came from DTI, and can evaluate accordingly. (We expect this to be important for us long-term!)

Why now?

Dress to Impress has always been a very small-staff volunteer project, and it’s been clear to everyone over the past few years that we’re struggling to balance DTI with the rest of our lives 😖 Work and life and family have their own needs, and they’ve been increasing!

And so… there are reasons we’re being careful talking about details right now, but the gist is: we’re hoping that partnering with TNT will not only help us fill gaps in the customization user experience, but can also be part of a more sustainable future for Dress to Impress long-term. I hope we can tell you more about it soon!

I know full well, and I’m sure you do too, that partnerships between companies and fan projects can be complicated. I promise I’m doing my best to represent you all, focusing on securing what’s right for the community, and keeping in mind the importance of autonomy! We’ll keep DTI independent, only do things we believe genuinely serve everyone, and keep a critical eye as we go.

So, yeah! It’s NeoPass time! We’ll be working on this in the coming months, and I’ll let you know more along the way. If you have questions or thoughts, please email me at matchu@openneo.net, and I’ll do my best to listen and help!

Thanks as always, everyone. We’ll talk more soon! 💖 —Matchu