Random Saturday Ep 36: Guides

Hey everyone! Welcome to another Random Saturday, this week's episode with your host Shade! Today, we are gonna be going into a lesser-known fact about the beginnings of Animal Jam. That is the Guides, found around Jamaa during 2010 and early 2011. 

Guides were Wildworks (then called Smart Bomb Interactive) 

 employees that were found around Jamaa during the beta days. Their main purpose was to interact with Jammers and help out new players getting used to the game. These guides are similar to AJHQ's Animal Jam account today, except it was more than one person interacting with the AJ community. Their accounts were very similar to normal Animal Jam accounts, being able to do basically the same type of things a normal account could do. There were a few differences, though: Jammers could not buddy them, jam-a-gram them, or go to their den, like you could with a regular AJ account. 

Guides also had a green tint to their chat boxes, so Jammers could know where they were and wouldn't get them confused with others. They were also noted to have an AJ badge next to their name tag, something that wasn't available to other members. Sometimes, guides played games with jammers around Jamaa, most notably a game called "Shaman Says," 'shaman' being what alphas were called in the beta days. The winner of this game would be gifted gems. 

Another cool thing about Animal Jam guides were their ability to become alphas (or shamans, as they were called back then). As seen in the photo above, one AJ Guide was sighted as Graham in the Lost Temple of Zios. However, this is the only alpha (at least that I've been able to find) that has been seen as a Guide. Sadly, there isn't that much information out there about Guides, partly due to the fact that had so little of a presence in Jamaa until they disappeared. But they are an interesting and cool concept! I believe it could've grown into a much bigger thing if given the time to, especially with the concept of Alpha Guides. What do you think about this feature? Should AJHQ have kept it in the game?

Agent Insights Ep 27: Super Sapphire Scam

What's up everyone, I'm here with your next edition of Agent Insights. Today, I'm gonna talk about a possible scam in AJPW. I'm not sure if it has a name yet, but for convenience, I will call it the Super Sapphire Scam, or SSS for short.

So, as you probably can guess, this scam involves a super sapphire potion. I've seen people advertising before that they will drop a super sapphire potion when others trade them good items. Trading others well is usually not a problem, but we must always know the value of the items on trade. If the items are of low value, then it probably isn't worth trading them a good item for a bad one.

The thing that makes this a possible scam is that we do not know if they really have the potion. AJHQ has made it so that potions can't be traded. Therefore, they could claim to have the potion when they may not. There is also no way for us to prove that they don't have the potion, because we can't ask them to put it on trade. As a result, they could get good items for bad items, and leave without dropping anything.

So, how do we avoid this scam? One way is to trade fairly. You could trade them stuff that is of equal value to the item on trade. If they reject, then it's fine. I do not recommend you to push the value of your trade higher, because you may get scammed. If you really want the sapphires, you could watch the ads on AJPW. They give you a good amount of sapphires, if you're lucky.

Alternatively, yes, AJHQ, if you're reading this. I'm speaking to you (again). To prevent such scams from happening, you can make it such that potions can be traded. This way, people can trade items directly for the potions and get it for themselves through a fair trade.

That's all from me for now. Have fun, but remember to stay safe too!

-Dew

Agent Insights Ep 26: Impersonation

Hey everyone, Flint here to talk about impersonation scams in another Agent Insights. 

Impersonation scams are when someone pretends to be someone they aren't to trick you into giving them items. This scam takes many forms, which are listed below.

Famous Jammers

Sometimes, people will pretend to be famous jammers to try to get people to gift them items. To avoid this one, only give gifts to the main accounts of famous jammers/known alts that have been confirmed by the famous jammer.

Random jammers claiming to be alts are most likely lying. Look closely at the username and make sure it's spelled correctly. And, of course, anyone who says they are famous whom you haven't heard of should be ignored. They're probably lying for attention/items. 

Hackers

Sometimes, people will claim to be hackers, and tell you if you don't give them your items, they will hack your account. This is a scam because, if they really are hackers, they could just hack your account anyways without asking anything. Plus, if you get hacked shortly after, you'd know exactly who it was and would be able to report them.

 The only reason people would claim to be hackers and ask for items is if they were not hackers and just wanted to scare you into giving them items. Ignore anyone who says they can actually hack your account (they almost certainly can't), and keep your passwords secure. 

AJHQ

Sometimes, people will claim to be AJHQ, and then tell you to give them items. Reasons vary, but they include "your items are glitched and we need to check on them", "do it or we'll suspend you", "your items may have been hacked in and we need to check on them", and more.

AJHQ does not need you to give them items. If items may be hacked/glitched, they can just look at them and delete/fix them without your permission. AJHQ will not threaten you either, as they can just spawn in items and thus don't need yours. Ignore everyone who says they're AJHQ unless they are the username "ajhq". (Note that individual staff members whom you don't like can't ban you for no reason)

If you want to avoid these scams, a simple way is to just not give anyone items unless it's in exchange for a fair trade. If anyone demands items, ignore them. Stay safe out there, jammers!

Update Post - November

Hey all, Jade here with your update post for November! 

First, we’d like to extend a thank you to our Gammas Cat and Shade for their first posts on the blog! 

Next, the team event, “The Search for Moku’ahi” is still going on our Discord! Anyone can participate, if you want to join or just to watch, you can join our Discord through the link in the sidebar! 

We’ve also made good progress this month in revamping and updating many of our documents, mainly thanks to our very own Delta Dew! 

Finally, we’ve decided that for this upcoming month of December, we will be cutting off posting halfway through the month in order to give our agents plenty of time for the holidays. We’ll still be following our typical schedule up until then! 

That’s about it for this month! As always, if you want to be an agent, head to the joining tab up above and fill out the form there! Stay safe, and jam on!

Random Saturday Ep 35: Feral (leaks!)

Hey all, Blue here with today's Random Saturday!

Today, I am going to be talking about what has changed in relation to Feral since I made the last Random Saturday about it. And yes, a lot has changed.

Since I last talked about Feral, a couple new things have come out. I'll start with the biggest one yet: Feral beta signups!

Feral has posted the signups for its beta testing, which is speculated to be happening sometime around late December. You have to be over 13 to sign up.

The next awesome thing is that a bunch of new leaks have been released,  including what some of the animals are going to be! There are a lot of pictures, so the rest of the post is under the cut!

Agent Insights Ep 25: Gifting Wars

Hey, Jade here, with a new Agent Insights. Today we’ll be talking about another type of scam- Gifting wars.

As the name implies, gifting wars are a sort of contest where two Jammers gift each other items, each item better than the last, to see who can gift the best. The items may or may not be given back at the end of the contest, it’s up to the participants. This kind of contest can be a fun game to play with friends. However, it can also be easily turned into a scamming scheme. For example:

One day, in Jamaa Township, you see a Jammer dancing and saying “gift me, i gift back better!” Intrigued, you gift some item to them, maybe a Rare Item Monday. You wait for a little, then get a Jam a Gram: They gifted back a den beta! You decide you can trust them, since they gifted back a better item, so you trade them a Spiked Wristband. They gift back a better color of the Wristband, so then you gift them a long Spiked Collar! Maybe they’ll even gift you a Headdress back..... but then, as you’re waiting for their gift, you see them log off of Animal Jam without gifting anything back. You’ve just been scammed out of your spike!

As shown in the scenario above, scammers will repeat the cycle of trading a few times in order to build up your trust, until you’ve gifted them a rare enough item that they want to keep: then, they’ll disappear. 

Luckily, this scam is relatively easy to avoid! Simply use the trade system instead of gifting, and they won’t be able to take an item without giving anything back. Don’t fall for scams like this! Stay safe, and jam on!

Random Saturday Ep 34: Speedo Sands and Sandy Shores

Hello everybody, and welcome back to another Random Saturday; today's episode hosted by yours truly, Gamma Shade! Today, I decided to bring up something a little bit different: the two unreleased lands originally discovered by jammers in 2017, Speedo Sands and Sandy Shores. The news of this came out only two years ago, but somehow, I didn't find out about it until now!
So, here's a quick overview of the topic. In 2017, a group of hackers had gotten into AJHQ's files of Crystal Sands and had somehow leaked the concept art out into the public.

Some believe this concept art was the original ideas for the Crystal Sands remodel that we see today. For those who don't know, the first Crystal Sands looked pretty different than today's, with it a little bigger and (in my opinion) way better than the one we have now.

The old Crystal Sands was remodeled into today's in 2011, with the concept drawings above being the possible early ideas for what the modern version of Crystal Sands would look like.

Jammers were able to get into both Speedo Sands and Sandy Shores by following any buddy who had gotten access to it, similar to how people got into the Untitled Room, another unreleased area. 

They were also able to walk around inside of these lands, getting to see the early sketches of how Crystal Sands changed into its final project. See a video about this here.

For awhile, jammers were crowding into these rooms, eagerly wanting to look into what these unreleased lands were and what was around them. But AJHQ found out and quickly put a stop to all of it. 

Every jammer who went into these rooms were suspended. According to the AJ Wiki, this suspension often depended on how long people spent inside these rooms. The rooms were quickly removed from the game and that was the end of all of it. 

Hearing about these lands now, I think it's pretty interesting, not only realizing the lands existed but also hearing what it takes to create the lands in Animal Jam. It's pretty cool that we're able to get a glimpse of how it all works. What do you guys think? Were any of you guys able to get into Speedo Sands and Sandy Shores when they were available? 

Welp, that's all I gotta say for this topic. Hope everyone has a spectacular Feast of Thanks!

Adios,

      Shade

Agent Insights Ep 24: How Not to Confront Scammers

Hello everyone. Flint here to do an Agent Insights, talking about what you shouldn't do when confronting scammers.

Hopefully, we all know scamming is bad, and you should respond negatively to it. However, some methods of responding to scammers are unhelpful, counterproductive, too extreme, or unnecessary. I'll tell you some things you shouldn't do in order to be the most helpful. These go for agents and non-agents.

Note that you can't convince scammeres they're wrong right at that moment. That really needs to be done organically, by the scammers. They need to do it themselves. Yelling at them that scamming is wrong won't work. Have you ever changed your mind after being yelled at or snarked at?

Do Not Harass the Scammer

Harassing includes insulting, demeaning, snarking at, threatening, or spamming the scammer. Doing this isn't actually going to help anybody. You aren't warning anyone, you aren't gathering evidence, you aren't investigating the scam, you aren't even making the scammer regret scamming. You're just being mean. I think people might do this because they want to be mean anyway, and have found an acceptable target. Either way, harassing is unhelpful and mean, so don't do it.

Do Not Scam the Scammer

This makes you a scammer. Even if you scam back your items, you're still scamming. Scamming is never justified for any reason. Don't.

Do Not Go Undercover

While this is especially a rule for our agents, this also applies to you. There's a very good chance that if you try to go undercover as a scammer, you will get reported/suspended, outed as a non-scammer before actually doing anything, and/or end up actually scamming someone and being unable to return their items. For these reasons, you should not go undercover as a scammer/part of a scam team.

Do Not Stalk the Scammer

Every so often, I see people who follow the scammer around long after the scam is complete and they have stopped scamming. They aren't anonymously tracking a known serial scammer and only making themselves known when they are actively engaged in scamming. They aren't remaining in the scammers' den or following the scammer after they left a world to make sure they aren't still scamming. The people I'm talking about here randomly show up where the scammer is hours, sometimes days, after they've scammed someone and harass them or scream about how they're a scammer during their FNAF roleplays. This is ultimately pointless. You're wasting your time. You aren't helping anyone, you aren't convincing the scammer. You're just being mean.

In summary, a checklist of things you should make sure of before confronting a scammer.

• Will this gather evidence, warn others, or impede the ability of the scammer to scam?
• Am I being mean? If I were the scammer, what would I think of this action?
• Do I truly want to help, or do I want to look cool?

Goodbye, everyone!