I would like to share 2 piece of editorial from the Neopian Times Issue #299.

Question: I was wondering, is there ever going to be a way that you can play games to earn NC instead of buying it? No offense, but it is a rip off to spend real money for fake cash. x_X Seriously, has anyone? O.O ~bannanamouth
Yup, people have spent real money for "fake" currency before, and we're not the first website to implement such a system. But to answer your first question: no, we have no intention of offering ways for people to acquire Neocash other than real-life money. (The last thing we want to do is allow people to buy their way through the game of Neopets.)

TNT Answer: Also, though many of you may hiss at people that "pay for pixels," they are helping to keep the site free for you, so please don't harass them for you not agreeing on how they spend their money. To them, obviously, it's not wasteful and they enjoy it. They are entitled to that opinion. On the other side of the coin, anyone "rubbing it in" that they are supporting the site (via Premium or the NC Mall) and therefore think they are a superior Neopian because of it is just as bad. There's no need to make a fuss either way. Everyone has their own opinions, and one is no better than the other.

Question: Hi! I'm really not trying to complain, because I know you have put a lot of hard work into making the site better. =) And I think we all appreciate it. However, I (as well as many other people) have noticed that you have been adding a lot of new features lately, when there are already so many problems that need fixing. The Pound has been down for months, the Petpet avatars don't work, the new Neopet pictures at the Rainbow Pool haven't been updated, and I know a lot of people have been getting "page missing" errors a lot. I know that many of us would really appreciate it if you could try and fix those problems (as soon as you can get around to it, that is). ~teme_la_pinguina

TNT Answer: Trust us, we're just as frustrated about it all as you all are. We can honestly tell you guys that we are working like nuts trying to get everything done, but alas, we're only human (well, except for Lawyerbot). There are people working 12-14 hours a day (in case you aren't aware, a standard work day is 8 hours). These are real people who are doing their job the best they can. They can't work 24 hours a day.

And before it gets asked, no, we can't stop making new content (we have deadlines and goals to meet) and we can't just hire new people. (First of all, it costs more money, and secondly, we can't exactly hire a new programmer and say, "This is Neopets. This is how you make a Neopet. Now, recode the pound by Tuesday, please!") We seriously have not forgotten about all we need to get done... in fact, we have nightmares about it. We're working as fast as we can.