Random Saturday Ep 63: AJHQ Instagram Contests

Hey all, Jade here with this week's Random Saturday! Today, we'll be talking about Animal Jam's Instagram contests!

 

On February 5, 2016, AJHQ introduced a new feature to their Instagram page- contests! These contests were a sort of replacement for the now-discontinued Daily Explorer contests (including Jammer Snaps, Epic Dens, and News Crew).

AJHQ's Instagram contests are typically a den or outfit contest, centered around a specific theme. Participants post their entries for the contest with a specific hashtag, then AJHQ goes through the hashtag and picks a set of winners. The winners are then featured on the AJHQ Instagram and receive a special prize in both Animal Jam Classic and Animal Jam. Past themes have included "AJFriendshipDen", "AJPWcastle", "AJLemurs", "AJDayAtTheBeach", and many more!

The number of winners for each theme does not appear to be set, but AJHQ will typically run each contest for at least three days and pick at least five winners per day. Prizes are also random, but tend to be relatively rare items.

Overall, I think this feature is a pretty cool one! If you have an Instagram account or can make one, these contests are a great way to have fun on Animal Jam and possibly win some rares! (Please keep in mind that you must be at least 13 years old to use Instagram.) 

Have you participated in or won any of these contests in the past? Feel free to leave your thoughts in the comments!

Agent Insights Ep 55: Auto-download and how to stop it

 

What's up everyone! Today, I bring you your next episodes of Agent Insights! Today's topic isn't necessarily AJ or PW related, but it could be good to know nonetheless. Without further ado, let's start!

Auto-downloading occurs when something online gets automatically downloaded into your computer. This can happen without the user clicking a button on the screen that says "download". This is because the download could have been triggered by other means such as entering the website itself. Hence, entering malicious sites could result in a virus being auto-downloaded into your computer. There is a way though, to stop such auto-downloading from happening. 

One way to stop it is to enable the function of getting your browser to confirm the download location. For this post, I will use Google Chrome as an example. When that function is enabled, a popup will show whenever something is downloaded onto your computer. That popup will ask you where you'd like the file to be downloaded. If you wanted to download the file, you can select which location in your computer it would be downloaded to. If you didn't intend to download it, you could instead click "cancel" and stop the download. Next, I will run you through how to activate it.

First, click on the three dots at the top right hand of chrome. It should open this list. Click settings.

After you click "settings", the following options should show up. Click "advanced" followed by "downloads".

Finally, you should see these options. Toggle the switch for "ask where to save each file before downloading" on, and you're done!

That's all from me today. Stay safe and jam on!

-Dew

Random Saturday Ep 62: Tiki Trouble

Hey everyone! This is Clover with a new edition of Random Saturdays! This week, we are focusing on the adventure Tiki Trouble on AJPC.

This is one of Animal Jam's seasonal adventures, which means that it only comes out once every year. Tiki Trouble is a Summer adventure, first coming out on July 20, 2017. It most recently came back out on August 13. The adventure can be played by all jammers, however certain prizes are only available as a member.

Whenever you click on the adventure, you will likely be put with a few random jammers, or maybe even nobody, however, if you go to an empty server with your buddies, you can play with them! This adventure is best played with a group of other jammers, since whenever I played alone, I wasn't able to finish.

Once you enter the adventure, Tavie will explain that you need to earn 3 pearls from the Tiki Statues in order to complete the adventure. There is also a 17 minute time limit to complete the adventure, so you have to be quick to complete it.

Whenever you find one of the Tiki Statues located on the island, you will have to complete a set of tasks. For this, I used the "Koa Tiki Statue" as a tutorial on what to do.

Once I clicked the statue, I got a popup that said that I had to find jewels in order for the statue to speak to me.

Most of the time, you only end up mining fossils, however, there is a chance that you will mine blue crystals, which are the jewels that the statue is looking for. Once you complete this task, you will be asked to collect 3 different pieces of fruit for the statue before receiving the pearl.

When you receive the pearl, it will appear as an item next to your animal (shown below) and you must bring it back to Tavie in order to receive your prize.

Once you bring the pearl to Tavie, you will receive 2 treasure chests that contain the prizes. Unfortunately, I'm a nonmember, so I could only collect one of the prizes.

Whenever you receive all 3 of the pearls, you will receive your final prize. The nonmember prize is simply one of the tiki statues, however members receive random clothing items, and have a chance of receiving a Rare Spiked Collar or Wristband.

There are also other things you can do in the adventure besides collect pearls! For example, there are different Trader NPCS (animals not played by any jammer) on the island that you can talk to. They will explain that they love to collect different items, and if you bring them one, you will receive some gems.

Once you bring them an item they want, you will receive 25 gems. The items they want are the common drops from doing any action that has an item the Tikis want as a rare drop.

There are also different treasure chests located around the island, which usually contain a random number of gems, though they can also contain Octopus Archways. Some chests can be found rarely when mining, fishing or digging in the shallow water. These chests can drop Gold Bricks, Diamond Encrusted Gauntlets, or Giant Sea Shells respectively.

Finally, there is a passageway that can only be opened by Arctic Wolves. I'm unable to open it, since I don't have an Arctic Wolf. However, if the passageway is opened, you can enter a cave that has a few of the crystals that you use to mine inside it, as well as a treasure chest. If you open it, the treasure chest will either give you a Palm Tree, a Mangrove Tree, or a Pineapple Plant.

Another thing worth noting is that flying animals (eagles, owls, etc.) are able to fly above cliffs and deep water, while land animals have to walk around them, making it easier for flying animals to collect certain items!

That concludes this Random Saturday post! Stay safe on Animal Jam, and have fun playing this adventure!

-Clover

Agent Insights Ep 54: "Golden" Pet Pigs

 

Hello everyone. Flint here, to talk about a minor point that's still worth bringing up.

Golden pets are usually worth a lot. These gold-colored variants of other pets range in value from only 2 being confirmed in the game in the case of Golden Armadillos to a decent short at minimum for Golden Bunnies.

You may have seen or heard of Gold Pet Pigs before. These pigs are colored gold, and wear a top hat. These are not real gold pets, however, and aren't worth anything. This is because the top hat and the gold color are an accessory that can be obtained by visiting the Pets Only Party or the Play as Your Pet Party. All you have to do to get one is buy a pet pig from the diamond shop, and wait until one of those two parties rolls around. There are no Golden Pet Pigs besides these ones.

Anyone who claims that they have a Golden Pet Pig and that it's worth a lot is lying. Don't trade anything more than what you'd trade for an in-store item. There are no Golden Pet Pigs, only regular pigs with an accessory.

That's all for today. Just remember that Golden Pet Pigs aren't real gold pets and aren't worth anything. Bye!

Random Saturday Ep 61: Color Cloud and Color Coordinator (AJPW)

 

What's up everyone! Today, I bring another episode of Random Saturdays! The topic for today is about the color cloud and the color coordinator in AJPW. Without further ado, let's get started!

Both the color cloud and color coordinator are features that can only be used with a membership. Both are features that allow you to pick colors that are not readily available on the palette. We have a separate Random Saturday (Tuesday) that touched on secret colors. You may find it here.

On to the main topic. I will touch on the color cloud first. The color cloud can be found in your pack hideout. The color cloud is run by Arthur's (the travelling salesman) buddy, Hugh.

Hugh is the raccoon and the paint palette is the color cloud. In order to use it, all you gotta do is to step inside the color cloud like so. 

After that, you can walk out and view your new colors! The color cloud allows you to get random colors that are not on the palette as shown below.

The top color is neither in the list of secret colors nor on the readily available palette.

As you can see in the palette, there is a button that says "Color Coordinator". What is does is that it allows you to pick colors that are similar to the accessories that you are wearing at the moment.

This is the screen I see when I hit the Color Coordinator button:

Some of the colors in this palette are not available in the normal palette.

So, if you want to get funky with your colors and are a member, you can use those two methods anytime to get colors not on the palette. Do bear in mind though, that the colors from the color cloud are completely random! You may not get the same color combination on two different occasions!

That's all for this post! Stay safe, and Jam On!

-Dew

Agent Insights Ep 53: Suspension Giveaways

Hey all, Jade here with this week's Agent Insights! Today, we'll be talking about another kind of fake giveaway- suspension giveaways.

Suspension giveaways are often aren't technically a scam, but they're still a fake giveaway with the intention of hurting other Jammers, so it's important to know what they are and how to avoid them.

Most suspension giveaways start out relatively normal- the host will ask you to repeat some phrases after them, and whoever repeats them all fastest/most accurately will win a prize. This will go on for a while, but eventually they will ask you to repeat two final words, after which they will announce the winner. There are a few different things that they may tell you to repeat, but two of the most common combinations are "as" and "whole", or "bit" and "cheese". If you repeat either of these word combinations after them, your account will be immediately suspended. (Please do not test this out in game- I can guarantee that you will be suspended.)

Now, why does this happen? If you look closely at the word combinations in the previous paragraph, you'll notice that the words can be combined to form curse words. As Animal Jam is a children's game, AJHQ doesn't want anyone using vulgar language in the game, so if you say anything that could be construed as a swear, you will be suspended. 

But, if saying these things will get you suspended, then why can the host of the "giveaway" say them and not have any consequences? Well, if you look at suspension giveaways such as this one, you'll notice that the host is splitting up the two words with other phrases. Because the words aren't said together, the chat filters don't pick them up, and therefore the host isn't suspended. However, the attendees of the giveaway will only be saying those two words, without anything between them. So- the attendees will be suspended, and the host won't be.

Finally, how do you avoid suspension giveaways? All you need to do is think before you act. If you think about what you're saying before you say it, you are much more likely to notice if somebody is trying to trick you into saying something bad. It can be tempting to type as fast as you can in order to win the giveaway, but it's not worth the potential risk of losing your account. This rule also applies to any other giveaways- think before you do anything that the host is telling you to do! If whatever they say could pose a risk to you or your items, don't do it.

Well, that's all for today! If you have any more questions about how to avoid these giveaways, feel free to leave them in the comments. Stay safe out there, everybody, and Jam On!

Random Saturday Ep 60: Secret Epic Dens Shop

Hey y'all! It's Queen here with a new edition of Random Saturdays! This week's post will be all about the secret Epic Dens shop in AJPC.

In November 2015, AJHQ introduced a Featured Epic Den to the Epic Dens list. This den appears at the very top of the list and is created by AJHQ. The den changes every two weeks, and is often a recently released den or a den that is related to the current time of year. 

In October 2016, AJHQ began including another feature in the Featured Epic Den- a hidden shop. Somewhere inside each featured den, there is an item that can be clicked on to access a secret shop. In the shop, there is one item that has never and will never be released anywhere else.

The currently featured den is the Bounce House, so I will be using it as an example of how to access the shop.

First, click on the Bounce House den at the top of the Epic Dens list. When you get to the den, head north-west until you see a pond with a stump by it.

Once you get to the pond, all you have to do is click on it, and a secret shop will appear! 

The shop should be titled "???", and should consist of one item for sale- the Fishing Pond!

After two weeks, the Epic Den on display will be changed, so if you don't get the item while the den is on exhibit, it is unobtainable without trading. Make sure to reach the shop and get the item before it becomes unobtainable!

The location and item of the secret shop will change depending on which den is on exhibit. The best way to find it is by looking at the page for the secret shop on the Animal Jam Wiki, which is located here- there should be an expandable list of items on the page that will show you what to look for. 

Alternatively, you can simply explore the den and click on items until you find the item that will activate the shop. The item will vary depending on the den, so make sure to click on each and every item! 

After you find the secret shop in the currently featured den, make sure to still keep an eye out for when the den on display changes, so that you can find the secret shop in the new den!

That's all for today, jammers! Stay safe, everyone, and thank you for reading the newest edition of Random Saturdays!

Agent Insights Ep 52: AJ Outfitters Scam Link

Hello, everyone. Flint here, to talk about something I just heard about, and thought you all should know. 

EDIT: This problem has been fixed by AJHQ. The link no longer leads to a scam site.

Just recently, meaning within the last day, the link to AJ Outfitters that is accessible when you log into Animal Jam Classic on the website got hacked. If you click the image that's supposed to link to AJ Outfitters, it instead links you to a scam site that steals your password. If you click the link and you don't immediately disable your account via parent controls, and then change your password and possibly your parent email/parent email password, you will be hacked.

A picture of the link that now leads to a scam site

Additionally, we have discovered that clicking this link may affect your whole computer or your non-AJ accounts. One of our agents clicked the scam link, and they reported that their Epic Games account was likely hacked, as when they launched Fortnite, all their currency and many of their items had been transferred out of their account. Their Epic Games account had the same password as their AJ account, but not the same username.

Additionally, this agent's antivirus stopped working. They had to contact the antivirus company in order to get instructions to reboot the antivirus, which likely removed the hack from their computer, as there have been no other signs of hacking. It's not certain that their antivirus and Fortnite account were the result of the AJ Outfitters link, but as both experienced problems only after the scam link was clicked, it's very possible that the link caused the problems.

DO NOT click the link. Even if you try it on an alt, or incognito mode, or whatever, it may affect your other accounts and computer programs too. Clicking on the link out of curiosity is a bad move that may give your computer a virus. To be especially safe, either download AJ from the AJ site and play on that, or refrain from playing AJ for now. This problem will hopefully be fixed soon, but in the event that it isn't, you should know to not click that link. I assume AJ will tell us when the link is fixed.

Logging into Animal Jam won't hack you, just clicking that link will. Be especially careful to not accidentally click that link, but you don't need to avoid playing AJ unless you think you will accidentally click the link.

If you clicked the link, disable your account via Parent Dashboard, and change your password. Also look around for any suspicious activity on other parts of your computer, and try to run a virus scan with your antivirus. This link contains some helpful tips for getting rid of viruses and making them unable to do harm, though it does plug its own program as a good antivirus.

Remember to never click strange links, and keep an eye out for news of hacks such as these. That's all for today. Bye!

Update Post - July

Hey all, Jade here with your update post for the month of July. Let's get right into it!

First of all, we're happy to welcome two new agents to the team- Sunny and Aqua!

Next, we were finally able to get ownership of our Discord server transferred! Since we now have the ability to edit all roles, we have made major edits to our society ranking system, which you can read about here.

We are also still continuing testing of our new events for our Discord server. Once we are done with the testing, we will begin hosting an event once a month in the server. If you would like to participate, you can join our server at this link! We have also added reaction roles to the Discord for post pings, pronouns, and event pings.

Recently, there have been multiple incidents of people posing as others on our blog in order to attempt a scam or frame someone else for scamming. We would like to remind all of you that we review each application and comment carefully, and that we aren't going to fall for schemes such as these. Please, do not impersonate anyone on this blog, no matter what your intentions are.

Finally, we would like to remind you all to be careful when trading. There has been a recent influx of attempted S14 scams on the Animal Jam FANDOM page, using a variety of items. Please, do your research before trading, and don't put your trust in any trade that seems too good to be true!

Well, that's all for today! Thank you all for reading. Stay safe out there, and Jam On!