BBMMO

electric_blue_kirby · 2008-06-30 22:16:04

I was told to share these here, so here goes.

I have located two factual errors in the review of Zetapets on this site, one of which, if I understand the scoring system correctly, would result in a different (lower) score for Zetapets if factored.

I'll start with the not as critical one.

Your review claims that Zetapets first opened in 2004. This is not so. That day is when Zetapets reopened. They had been open previously, but then closed the site for what was supposedly a large rehaul. This process lasted for at least a year (likely more). During this time, Zetapets mainly featured a blog listing the progress being made on the new version of the site. Sorry that I can't provide you with the date when Zetapets actually first opened. When I first found them, they were still in their blog phase, and many months away from reopening.

Now, as for the more important one.

In your safety section, you praise Zetapets for their COPPA compliance. This is a delusion. As someone who, at a time, worked for Zetapeets, I can tell you that this simply is not as you have described it. Yes, admitting to being under 13 will get you muted. However, one cannot send in a "consent form" as you have claimed. There is no one you can send it to nor anyone who will review such a thing. When I worked there, if I mentioned any such "consent form" to my superiors, I'd basically get back the textual equivalent of them rolling their eyes. And that is because if you are underage, you cannot send in a consent form to display that you have permission from your parents to fully use the site. And all that does is encourage underage users to lie about their age rather than having the potential for parents to decide if they are comfortable with their children accessing the forums and mail system. Zetapets may on the surface appear to be fully COPPA compliant, but this is little more than a mirage. These elements detract from Zetapets' overall safety level for minors.

And that covers both of them. Best of luck with your site.

Last edited by electric_blue_kirby (2008-07-01 09:04:33)

Roy · 2008-07-01 02:18:04

I thought that you were gonna tell that Zetapets is better than what the review told. But the opposite happened instead. Anyways, thanks for sharing!

Emmy · 2008-07-01 07:20:34

Wow. yes, thank you for coming forward with that. Wow...I wonder how our reviewer got the idea there was a consent form?

Rowena · 2008-07-01 08:26:39

*prop'd*
Well done for reporting on that ^^ That's something a reviewer wouldn't neccessarily know when being on there for a short amount of time. I hope the review can be modified to take this into account.

Leah · 2008-07-01 09:09:33

The date in which the site opened in my review is for the site itself, not the original blog/forum development part of the site. I am aware of the blog being there before the site itself opened. The site itself, the actual playable part, opened in 2004, which is why I used that date instead of the opening date of the blog.

And as for the Parental Consent form, I was told otherwise by a Zetapets Moderator. I checked this before writing my review, as I always do. I was told a parent could email them at: parents@zetapets.com and their child could gain access to the chat features of the site.

I will mail another staff member later on and check once again, but I didn't think one staff member would lie to me about the issue.

mrdweedles · 2008-07-01 09:53:34

this is why I love that these boards exist! the dirty laundry is coming out!

Leah · 2008-07-01 10:05:23

If that one staff member lied to me about the Consent Forms, then their Community and Safety ratings will go down greatly.
I have mailed 2 other staff members, and as soon as I get a reply, if needed, I will change the review.

Thank you for bringing it to my attention EBK.

electric_blue_kirby · 2008-07-01 16:41:08

I was more or less ridiculed by my superiors when I asked an underage user if they had sent in a consent form rather than simply going straight to the process of having them muted, and warned that my activity was not the best way to address the situation. If you can e-mail that address, that's nothing they ever bothered to tell the staff when I was there.

They certainly didn't seem to put much stock into the idea of any consent form, but it's your call to accept their word on the matter.

A quick look through Zetapets' current privacy policy (a section key in COPPA compliance) only lists that address as one which you can e-mail to have your child's information removed. Nothing about the functions they apparently told you. So, even if one does choose to believe that contacting that address from an e-mail address (which could just be done by the underaged party theirselves), Zetapets still does is not compliant with COPPA as it does not list in its privacy policy the information you happened to glean from a staff member, information not commonly known.

So, again, assuming that what you heard is true, Zetapets still is not COPPA compliant and does a poor job of even making an attempt to be.

Secondly, I thought that previously there had been an earlier, almost beta like version of Zetapets? I never personally saw it but I had heard from those who claimed to have been part of it and whose profiles, which listed how long they had been a member, indicated that they had been members since well before January 1st, 2004 (such as Peta, if anyone happens to know who he was). I'm sure some of the people who were there for early Zetapets could verify this. Unfortunately, I don't think any staff member you'll find yourself able to reach will have been around long enough to be able to verify this (most of the old, long time staff members quit because the site wasn't going anywhere and they felt everything was going south, and good luck getting through to someone like Ironwulf).

Last edited by electric_blue_kirby (2008-07-01 16:41:54)

Leah · 2008-07-01 19:49:06

I ended up having to get in contact with 5 staff members before getting a definite answers.
I mailed 4 moderators on Zetapets, 3 of which told me there was a consent form, one said there was not.
With any doubt whatsoever, I was not comfortable leaving the review as it is. I finally ended up finding Tigress online and emailed her. She said that some of the staff allowed parents to personally mail them a consent form, but some do not. I also found out from her that Zeta originally opened in the summer of 2003, closed for a bit, then "officially" opened on January 1st 2004.

I have edited the review stating they are not COPPA compliant, docked points in the Safety Section, but I did leave them with a two (it was a 4) as they do attempt to mute underaged users and also have filters on the forums/mail/clubs.
I also docked a point from their community section of the review for the staff being disorganized as they are. I fully explained my reasoning behind all of it.

Thank you once again for pointing this out EBK.

clipperchipper · 2009-08-08 14:20:45

As confusing as I thought this would be, I learned a lot of information just now reading all of your posts and learned a lot about Zetapets and its history. I just have one question... is it like Marapets or Sensipets? Or even Neopets?

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Query #	Time	Query	Data Size	Extra	Error

#1 2008-06-30 22:16:04

Factual inaccuracies in Zetapets review.

#2 2008-07-01 02:18:04

Re: Factual inaccuracies in Zetapets review.

#3 2008-07-01 07:20:34

Re: Factual inaccuracies in Zetapets review.

#4 2008-07-01 08:26:39

Re: Factual inaccuracies in Zetapets review.

#5 2008-07-01 09:09:33

Re: Factual inaccuracies in Zetapets review.

#6 2008-07-01 09:53:34

Re: Factual inaccuracies in Zetapets review.

#7 2008-07-01 10:05:23

Re: Factual inaccuracies in Zetapets review.

#8 2008-07-01 16:41:08

Re: Factual inaccuracies in Zetapets review.

#9 2008-07-01 19:49:06

Re: Factual inaccuracies in Zetapets review.

#10 2009-08-08 14:20:45

Re: Factual inaccuracies in Zetapets review.