A Little Update

So my last post stirred up a good bit of controversy. That's fair, and I expected it. My suggestion to start deleting most of the posts from the past few years was an overreaction, but let me try to explain my perspective.

I'd like this blog to be a place people can look back on to read about everything that happened in Animal Jam over the years. If a portion of the posts are off topic, rambly, or just poorly written it takes away from the legitimacy of this blog as a reliable archive.

When I first came back this week I saw a lot of these posts (such as this one, this one, and this one). I was pretty disappointed because Slidoo and I put a lot of work over the years into making this a reliable, respected blog. I'm sure you can go through our older posts and find some really bad ones that I wrote when I was young, but let's not revert back to that.

Now that I've looked through more posts I realize most of them are just fine - this has always been a site run by kids and teenagers so no one's expecting the posts to have college-level writing proficiency.

The solution that I've come to is that I will go through all of the posts and delete the ones that don't belong. I want to emphasize that most of the posts here will be kept. The ones that will be deleted are the following:

1. Posts that are not related to Animal Jam or updates to the blog
2. Posts that are of excessively poor quality (there aren't very many of these)
3. Posts that are needlessly offensive or that push an opinion on readers in a disrespectful way

In addition, going forward, I need to ask authors not to add segments to your posts that break these rules, either. Topics unrelated to Animal Jam or this blog should be kept to a minimum.

This sin't going to be a popular decision, but I am going to limit religious topics as well. This isn't a "christian blog" and authors need to remember when they post they are representing AJC, and not just themselves! You are free to write this stuff in the comments or on your own blogs (maybe we can set up a blogroll to link to your personal blogs?)

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I'm not sure when I'll have time to go through the posts, but I promise you guys I'll do my best to keep as much of your work as possible. I really appreciate how the AJC authors have kept this place going for so long.

I have to ask the authors not to post anything new for a few more days while I get things sorted - sorry! As soon as I'm done we can get together and talk about ideas for how things will work going forward.

I'll be replying to comments below if you want your voice heard, but please be nice! We're all friends here. Let's try to make this the best place it can be.

-Pumaa-

(formerly known as geckoguy :)

Is anyone still here?

I was feeling a bit nostalgic today so I popped in to see how AJC was doing after all these years. I was pretty shocked to see someone had posted today! I made Arcticstar an admin before I disappeared, and it looks like she's been adding authors here and there to keep things from going completely silent.

It's been so long since I designed this blog and everything is terribly out of date, and the post quality has gone steadily downhill since I left (no offence guys!) I'd really like to start over with a clean slate - deleting all the more rambly posts after about 2014 - but I'm not sure if some of the authors would like to keep them up. I think the blog should either be kept up to date or brought to a close, in a state where we can all look back to it as a piece of Animal Jam history. That's what it is, after all, the second Animal Jam blog ever made!

Anyway.

For what it's worth, Animal Jam and this blog were a big part of my childhood and it means a lot to me that it's all still here waiting. I get pretty lonely thinking about my old AJ friends. Roughly in order of when I met you: Budgie, Abercrombiepricess, Snowygem101, Sheesh4, TheSlidoo, Kinyonga, BubblegumBee, and all the rest of you who I'm forgetting. We had some really good times even if we never saw each other's faces.

I'd love to talk with anyone who is still hovering around here. Hit me up in the comments and we can talk about the good ol' days.

-Pumaa-
(or geckoguy, way back when)

"If Animal Jam Had A Theme Song..." Contest!

Heyyyy jammers! I hope you're having a fantastic day so far! Spring has sprung where I live! We've been working outside all day today, and now I'm pooped. XD We have two plants with purple flowers on them, and they were getting way too huge. So I took a few sprigs from the plant and replanted it in a cute little pot. I love tiny little plants. It's a weird obsession...

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Today's post is actually going to be a contest! A song contest! I'm looking for the cheesiest song you can do... The theme of the contest is "if Animal jam had a theme song". So, I want you guys to write a cheesy Animal Jam song!

Here's an example,

1. Have a title

2. Write the song

Have at least one verse and one chorus:

Animal Jam is oh so fun

Animal Jam is oh so great

Animal Jam is a great place

Where eagles soar high

Bunnies crawl low

Oh Animal Jam is the place to go

Animal Jam!

Animal Jam!

Everybody loves Animal Jam!

ANIMAL JAAAAAAM

...Or something to that effect. Think, "eagles soar lions roar non members deserve so much more". That kind of stuff. XDD

Here are the contest rules!

1. Must be your own work

2. No inappropriate or rude content, such as language, bullying a jammer, etc.

3. Have fun! If you think your work is too silly, don't worry about it! The sillier the better! Don't worry too much about it. :)

Here's how you submit your work,

You CANNOT submit your work through Animal Jam Community, you can submit it by commenting on my blog theanimaljamfriendshipcommunity.blogspot.com, Jam-A-Gramming me (Graciepopstar91) on Animal Jam, or commenting a link to your song on my blog (The Animal Jam Friendship Community). Just make sure you say your username! I'll be giving the winner of the contest a little prize.

I wish you all good luck! If you have any questions, you can ask me on my blog! :) When you comment with your song, I will only publish it for a second so I can copy and paste it into my writing program, then I will delete the comment so no one can take your idea.

Have fun!

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Here's todays Bible verse!

1 Corinthians 16:13

Be on guard. Stand firm in the faith. Be courageous. Be strong.

God made you. Uniquely. Beautifully. Intentionally. Purposefully. Wonderfully.

Comparing Animal Jam 2013 to Animal Jam 2019!

Heeeeeeeeyyyyyoooooooo Jaaaaaaaaaaammmmmmmeeeeeeerrrrrssssss! How was your weekend?!

Today's post is going to be a little different than normal. Today I'm going to be comparing what 2013 Animal Jam design was like, compared to today's designed. I joined Animal Jam in 2013, so it'll be fun to look back and see what's different!

Since we obviously can't access 2013 AJ through animaljam.com, I'm going to be using a website called Wayback Machine (web.archive.org). You can't log into your Animal Jam account through this website, but you can see the homepage, and things like that.

Let's get started!

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This is just a fun picture to get us started... It was the only Animal Jam picture I could find in my email. It was a month after I joined Animal Jam, and uh- wow. Look at that den. Oh wow. XDD During 2013-2014, I was super obsessed with horses. I guess that's why I had about a billion horses in my den?

Just for fun I looked at my very first den to see if it was still decorated like that, and it wasn't.

It was a crazy Christmas den, and on the inside was a dog bowl, which reminded me that me and Coolcat used to roleplay as her being a very mean dog, and me being the owner... Pretty sure I neglected the dog a lot. It was interesting. Hehe

Ah, back in the good ol' days where every time you logged onto Animal Jam you hurried, because you thought Liza was spying on you and actually taking your picture. And also the phantoms were taking over your screen. Mmm.

Below The Daily Explorer ad, is a sign that says 10,000,000 jammers! I checked, and for some reason I don't have this banner anymore. I must of traded it at some point in time.

Now lets compare 2013's homepage to 2019's homepage.

I just feel like it's way too busy. No slam on AJHQ, but on animaljamstream.blogspot.com, a conversation has been going on about how Animal Jam has stepped farther and farther away from being an educational game, to really just asking for more money. It's sad, but true.

Sorry the pictures weren't loading!

Ah, The Daily Explorer! This was back when they were "blog.animaljam.com", and not "dailyexplorer.animaljam.com". On the right hand side, there was links that would take you directly to all the Rare Item Monday's, or would take you to a page about the alphas! Stuff like that made the blog something special.

They for sure have modernized it quite a bit, and they now have something called "PopJam" on the right hand side, which is basically a kids social media that Animal Jam uses. I do have to say I like the new Daily Explorer better though.

*screams* ANIMAL JAM OUTFITTERS!! My mom got me a Sidekix plushie for Christmas in 2013, and I still have it! It's still one of my favorite plushies that I own. If you remember, this is back when they also sold the wild cat bracelets, and I'm pretty sure all the profits went to help actual wild cats in real life! So cool!

If I could get another Sidekix plushie, I would probably get the tiger. It's so cute!

Here is today's Animal Jam Outfitters. Not a big fan if it if I'm being honest... The prices have gone up a lot for certain items. However, there is some cool new Animal Jam merch!

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What old parts about Animal Jam do you like, and wish could come back? What new parts do you like? It's crazy how much things can change in of 6 years! For that matter, how have you changed during these 6 years? Let me know in the comments!

I know comments haven't been approved in a while, but when they do approve, I'll be sure to go back and read what you guys have to say! :)

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Here's todays Bible verse!

Psalm 97:11

Light shines on the godly, and joy on those whose hearts are right.

God made you. Uniquely. Beautifully. Intentionally. Purposefully. Wonderfully.

Dropping In On Completely Random Dens...

HELLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.....

Hehehe, how's it going? I hope you all had a great weekend! Did you survive daylight savings?! It was pretty rough for me, but I made it! XD

Today I decided I was gonna do something random. I was gonna go to random people's dens, look and them, and see what happens. A social experiment? I guess? But if the person comes to their den, how would I explain that I'm writing a blog post and screenshotting their den? *Dun dun dun*

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First person I see is having a giveaway in their den...

Very tempting, but I resisted the temptation. XD

Our first den is Littlecutepuppy16's den!

Looks like a Lucky Day den, with lots of portals, and a shop!

However, the shop was kinda expensive on some things.

Upstairs is a portal that I went through,

And it took me to Audenthedoggy's den!

Another shop!

I had to buy the gumdrop chair. I just had to. I should of bought the pets too...

Then the owner of the den came, uh o... Thankfully they didn't question me, they just said hi back.

Here's the inside of the den!

There was another portal outside the den, so I went into it, and thankfully the person wasn't online.

Brynthepiggy's deeeen!

Some Lucky Day items, and a wolf topiary (or is that a direwolf...).

The inside of the den is a homey feeling den, with some plushies in the corner!

Next was another random pick from Aldan, Divinefaithful.

Yet another shop!

I swore the tiara was still for sale in Epic Wonders, but I looked and it isn't... Oops.

Above the shop is a cute masterpiece, that says "Be a good human". Yes peoples, be good humans. (:

This den is a Valentine's Day den! Which I don't hold that against them, since I haven't changed my Valentine's Day den...

Uh oh- the owner of the den came...

Uh oh uh oh uh oh

After I said that, they didn't reply so I left...

Oops

Uh

Awkwardness

Eek

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Well... I hope you enjoyed this completely random post. (:

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Here's todays Bible verse!

Proverbs 12:22

The LORD detests lying lips, but he delights in those who tell the truth.

God made you. Uniquely. Beautifully. Intentionally. Purposefully. Wonderfully.

Animal Jam Servers In The Real World!

Heyyy guys! How's it goin'?!

For school I had an assignment to label what parts of the world are home to certain famous mountains. As I labeled them, I realized that the servers on Animal Jam are named after a lot of these mountains! They're also named after rivers that we hear about in the Bible! So in this post, I'm going to be showing what these server names actually look like in the real world. So, with the help of Animal Jam and Google (XD), let's get started!

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The first one might be pretty unexpected as being a real life place. Lo and behold...

I was completely shocked that Aldan is a real life place. It's actually called the Aldan river, and is located in Russia!

The more you know, right? Aldan looks like a beautiful place, with a river in the front, and mountains in the back. I'd totally love to visit there some day!

Next up being,

Chimbu! Kinda a unique name, but let's take a look at where this place is located.

Chimbu is located in Papua New Guinea, and it actually a province. But it is home to the tallest mountain in Papua New Guinea!

Let's take a look at Elbe! Is that even a real place? XD

And sure enough it is! It's a river located in central Europe, right near Germany. Looks like it runs right through a town, and from the picture almost looks like a huge road going right through it. That'd be so cool to live somewhere like that, with the water right outside your door! (Or who knows, it could be the most frightening thing ever since I still don't know how to swim 😳)

Desna is probably my all time favorite server, because there's so many great memories I have of roleplaying with Coolcat there. Of course, every server is basically the same, but there's something special about this one. There was hardly any people ever there, so we always went to Desna. Let's look at the real life Desna!

First a soccer team popped up, and I knew that probably wasn't the Desna AJHQ was naming this off of... So I saw Desna River pop up, so I searched for that. And boom.

This river is another river in Europe, and is 702.1 miles long! That's super long, and I didn't know rivers could even be that long.

Let's take a look at one more!

I know most people know that this is a mountain in Europe, but I thought we should take a look at this!

The Alps are so beautiful, and I'd love to go to some of the famous mountains like the Alps, Matterhorn, and Mount Everest!

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What places would you like to visit, that AJHQ named their servers after? Let me know!

It's always fun looking up these places, and doing a blog post with the information I find. But always remember to stay safe on the internet! You never know what you could come across, especially on Google. One bad image could totally ruin your fun. I know while doing this I ran into something bad, which is always upsetting. If you're going to do something like this, it helps filter your results if you look at what other people have searched, because it normally will say stuff like, "Desna River", or whatever. And only search things using your parents permission! Stay safe guys. :)

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Here's todays Bible verse!

Proverbs 2:11

Wise choices will watch over you. Understanding will keep you safe.

God made you. Uniquely. Beautifully. Intentionally. Purposefully. Wonderfully.