Tag your friends

I got tagged in something the other day (I was Mr Burns from The Simpsons, I wasn't happy) and it got me thinking that we really need a Frontierville one! A few pleading conversations with Andy via Skype and hey presto! Thanks Andy!
I know I am going to have fun tagging my friends in this - feel free to do the same!

CLICK THE PICTURE TO DOWNLOAD THE FULL SIZE IMAGE

You have to allow us a bit of leeway with Jack - we didn't want to encourage you insulting people by calling him the more appropriate "The Overly Helpful Annoying One". In fact, you could probably come up with insulting ones for all of these, but that isn't really the vibe we were going for!

Pet Peeves - Pop Up!

Before I begin this blog I would just like to say this: I never moan about this game. I love it to death and 99% of it I wouldn't want to change. But there is one thing that really presses my buttons.....

Nope, It's not the glitches in the game, those cannot be helped. It's not people cheating in silly ways when they don't really need to, that is up to them. It's not even Zynga customer service who I have always found shockingly bad, but at the end of the day, it's a free game...what do we expect?

It's the blasted POP-UP's!

One word, WHY?

Why do I need reminding that I need to send gifts when I am in the middle of attempting to get unstoppable? I don't need telling that we have a hire function, I can work out who I want to hire, when the time comes!

And as for Humble Bob?! Is his "Limited Time Discount" only limited by the fact that I will have dropped dead by the time it ends? I don't mind that they want people to buy HS...but it wouldn't hurt to mix it up a little bit! Even something like "No Discount for YOU today Esta! Would grab my attention better than the same pop up they have had since the game started!

I know I should think myself lucky though, at least I don't play Pop-Up Worl....Sorry Cafe-World! Now THAT is bad!

So, with that little reminder to myself that maybe we haven't got it so bad...I am going to go and have a pop-up battle with Jack and my special delivery man.

This message is counter productive - I have never wanted to hurry less.

Penguins!

I am writing this blog solely so I can show off my new animated profile image (top right) and my St. Patrick's Day Shamrock Penguin that Mr Spencer made me!

FTV Penguins FOR THE WIN!

465 Free Horseshoes?!....Ummmm NO!

We all LOVE a freebie, right? The lure of getting something for nothing can turn even the most level headed surfer into a horseshoe blinded click happy fool!

Some very unscrupulous people have noticed this genetic desire we seem to have to be unable to stop clicking on something just because they offer us something we want. You may have seen comments posted like this -

As you can see, they don't post it just once...Have you ever wondered why they do this? Basically this is what YOU will be asked to do in order to "collect" your 500 HS.

Clicking on that link will probably (I haven't clicked) take to you to a website where it gives you a link to copy and paste in as many places as you can, X amount of times. They suggest that they are able to count how many times you do this, and once you have completed your mini mission the horseshoes will be added to your account.

Unfortunately, the Horseshoes never appear, but you might find yourself lumbered with is some lovely shiny Malware, Adware and other delightful viruses, just for visiting their website in the first place.

Of course, the more people they can get to their site, the more people get tracked and so the scam continues.

The ONLY way you can get free horseshoes is in-game by levelling up etc, and official Zynga competitions. (And trading in the Inn Collection)

However, it's not just Horseshoe links that are malicious - remember "OMG this girl KILLED herself after....." ? This was exactly the same thing; another devilishly clever way of flicking our nosey "buttons" to get us to click and hooked into a similar tracking scam.

When faced with an offer telling you can get something for free, it's probably a big fat lie - when faced with something that tells you have to go to a link and post up hundreds of the same link to get something for "free" it's definitely an even bigger and fatter lie!

At times like these I like to remember the wise words of one Judge Judy who said "If it smells like a rat....it's probably a rat."

Some of them are cleverer than others so if it doesn't smell like a rat, it's still better to check before clicking on anything. This is a good site for checking out the latest scams and viruses - Snopes.com - Click it if you dare! ;)

(It's ok, you can click on it)

Safe surfing everyone!

Online Friendships

Hello!

Since my first post the situation with technology got a lot worse. My trusty, yet pre-historic machine must have overheard my complaints about being unable to get onto Flash games, and decided to show me who is boss by breaking all together.

Thankfully I am an Iphone bore! I have to tell you guys and gals, that I seriously would have had massive withdrawls if I hadn't had my Iphone. Now, I know there are other makes/brands out there - but this happens to be the one I have - Iphone 3gs - and I am a massive fan.

I was even able to update the website with all the Valentines heads up stuff for you folks with it - yes it was a blummin nightmare - and if Aimee hadn't come along later in the day I would probably still be doing it now, but it worked!

ANYWAY, enough of all that tosh - the most important thing that I found was that I was able to keep in touch with my friends.


During this process of playing FTV, starting the fansite and then the website I have met some great people; I now consider a few of them to be close personal friends. In some cases I trust these people more than I trust people I have known in "Real Life" for a long time.

This got me to thinking about how the internet and particularly gaming has changed the way we form relationships.

I started chatting on the internet when I was about 21 - I was a young mother, my father had just died, I didnt have a car and I lived in the middle of nowhere. The internet was my social life. Of course there were one or two odd balls that freaked me out on occasion but my experience was overwhelmingly postive. I still keep in touch with a few people I met all the way back then. In fact I speak to one of them every day.

15 years ago you were classed as hopeless geek if you chatted online. Part of me wonders if there is still a stigma attached to it?- do people still assume you have no friends in real life? Does it matter if you haven't met the person you spend hours talking to?

I had a conversation with an close online buddy about this very subject the other day. We both said that we keep people at arms length due to our own insecurities - but since then I have re-considered. I actually feel that I am reaching out to as many people as I can - I am not adverse to meeting people that I feel comfy with - but it's hard when those people live on the other side of the world!

I'd love to hear about your experiences - Good or Bad.

I Surf. We Surf.

Finally, after 15 years of mucking around on the internet I have staked a small claim on the weird and wonderful world wide web.

It's better to be late than never turn up at all, but I feel I must warn you that stuff that I find and place here might not interest you in the slightest - then again it might make you fizzle and pop - but the most I can hope for is somewhere inbetween. (If it does make you fizzle and pop then - Whooop! Me too!)

I love to surf; I'm not ashamed to tell you that Google is one of my best friends. It has got me out of awkward questions, through a degree at university, and personally I don't know where I would be without it.

How did we ever survive without google? How did I know how to get to places? How did I know what was on at the cinema? How did I ever get any qualifications???

These are all questions that my 15 year old twins like to ask me from time to time to remind me how old I am. Sadly my only response is "Books" - to which I get cast a disbelieving look before they return to Facebook. I'm 34 years old - anyone would think I was around with the dinosaurs!

So, I am going to use this space to reignite my love for surfing. I have become a little complacent over the past couple of years, and certainly over the last few months because most of my online hunting has revolved around missions requirements, glitch updates and animal growth rates. I think I could actually type the word "Frontierville" in my sleep.
N.B You know you have it bad when your iphone wants to replace the word "From" with "Frontier".

So welcome to my little Library of all things internet related! I'm not going to be able to be geeky (That's Andy's blog) because basically I don't know enough, but I am hoping there might be one or two things here that might tickle your fancy; all I know is that I am going to try have fun, so I hope you do too.

First of all I have something to confess - TAKE A LOOK AT THE STATE OF THIS!

I didn't really want to start my blog with a gripe but seriously, a girl can only hold so much inside before she has to pop! -

Forgive me everyone, for I have sinned - I haven't played on my Frontier in over a MONTH! Yes thats right ladies and gents, I do call myself an Admin on a Frontierville help site, and yes I have been answering questions about Hobby Crates, Zynga's 50HS/20HS/50HS New Year Resolution drama and Yes I know the intimate details of how to trap a groundhog...but I must confess...I haven't done ANY of that myself. Now, before you come and remove yourself as a fan of our page and label us all charlatans, it isn't my fault - My Laptop has suddenly become allergic to any sort of Flash game.

So please - Spare a thought for me when you are getting your Net Status 32 messages - I would give anything for a refresh error right now....