A message from Slanted Fish, creator of the PHB
Wow. Ten years. A whole decade of the PHB.
Ten years since a little girl of 11 (me from the past) discovered the untaken WordPress URL that started this blog — poptropica.wordpress.com. Ten years since the release of Super Power Island, the fifth Poptropica island, and the first island to get a guide on the PHB. Ten years since she started blogging about a then-small game and clicking publish, many times over—the words traveling from an apartment in Hong Kong to reach millions of kids all over the world. The rest, as they say, is history.
We’ve shared a lot of fun memories over the years—this blog has celebrated in Poptropica parties like the one we just had, hosted contests (like the Poppies), and gotten to talk with some cool Pop Creators. We’ve brought you exciting news of island releases over 50 times and grieved with you when Poptropica wasn’t shaping up. And we’ve had the delight of sharing your amazing creations, making meme faces out of your Poptropicans, publishing your guest posts, hanging out on the chat… and more.
Perhaps it sounds clichéd, but it’s much more than I dreamed of when I first started blogging. I simply started out of a desire to write—to help others with the power of words, which I put into guides that, back then, didn’t even have pictures; to share a joy for a simple game that I watched become a pretty big and beautiful enterprise. I couldn’t imagine where it would go, and I still don’t know where it will go. And that’s okay.
Ten years ago a kid who’d just finished elementary school started a website for fellow kids to share in a common joy. Today I’m just a couple of semesters shy of an English degree, in part because this community gave me a platform to nurture a little creativity and love for the written word. And I hope it’s been a place of joy for you, too.
Thank you to every Poptropican out there who’s been a part of the PHB journey. It’s been pretty great, and 32 million views later, we’re still making history. There is good in the world, and we can all be a part of it. Here’s to a poppin’ decade. ❤️
Slanted Fish
Editor-in-chief, Poptropica Help Blog
During the party, the PHB staff hosted a livestream to announce the winners of this year’s Poppies. You can revisit it in the video above, or look down for the results:
And the Poppies Awards for 2018 go to…
- Best Poptropica Worlds Island: Greek Sea Odyssey (runner-up: 24 Carrot)
- Best Poptropica Worlds Character: Dr. Hare (runner-up: Beatrice & Hazel)
- Most Educational Island: Time Tangled (runner-up: Mythology)
- Best Accessory: Shrink Ray Gun (runner-up: Lightning Staff)
- Most Evil Poptropica Villain: Zeus (runner-up: Myron Van Buren)
- Best PHB Author: Brave Tomato (runner-up, by one vote: Lucky Joker)
- Best PHB Series: Community Creations (runner-up: Pop Fan Artist Spotlights)
- Best Ask Blog: Your friendly neighbor art thief, blackwidowpoptropica (runner-up: Welcome… Eh Whatever, ask-director-d)
- Best Fan Art of 2018: “Alice and Fierce Fox” by POP-whitewolf (runner-up: “Train to Zomberry Island” by ANNE14TCO)
- Best Poptropica Portfolio: Jessica Devine, aka Skinny Moon (runner-up: Mitch Krpata, aka Captain Crawfish)
That’s 10 for 10 years, folks! Thanks for all your nominations, votes, joining us at the party—and, even if you didn’t do those things, thanks, at least, for being a part of the Poptropica community and our PHB adventures. We’re glad you’re here. 💙
Best Fan Art nominee gallery
One visual representation of the wonder of the Pop community is the fan art it produces. To celebrate that, we’re including this gallery of this year’s “Best Fan Art” nominees:
Thanks for popping by on the Poptropica Help Blog!
Here’s to ten years. Cheers. 🍻
— the PHB —
🏝 Poptropica Help Blog 🗺 
10 years has gone by so fast! I may not have been around for the full decade, but I can still easily see how much the PHB has grown. I love writing in general, but I love writing for this site in particular. The community that the PHB has made is amazing, and I must say that the art is one of my favorite parts of it. Thanks for letting me come along for the ride. The livestream and entire party was a blast! Here’s to another decade? 😀
It’s been awesome having you along for the ride! Congrats on Community Creations for Best PHB Series—it’s always amazing to see what Poptropicans are creating. I definitely relate to the writing part, and through Poptropica’s own ups and downs, your posts have been well articulated. Thanks for all you do, SD! 😁
Lol, I felt like I should have saw myself a lot more than I did because of how much times I was next to Fishy ( I had Vampire Hair, Narf Follower and Beach Umbrella ) anyways, great to actually remember this time and not like the past 2 years xD
I think I see your character a few times in these pictures 😉 but I also wanted to give some picture space to other Poptropicans who were there. Glad you made it this time—thanks for being there! 🎉
I didn’t have anything particularly profound prepared prior, but I’ll just say it’s been fun being here for 6 of those 10 years, and I hope this blog will stay here. At this point, I think I’ve made quite some nice friends and nice memories. It’s not something I’ll be forgetting. Stay amazing, PHB.
It’s been fun having you around for more than half of the PHB’s lifespan, so thanks for sticking around, you clown. 😜
Congratulations on ten awesome years! Such a wonderful community.
Thank you so much, Mitch! You’ve made so much of it possible, and Poptropicans everywhere are inspired and grateful. 😊
Wow, 10 years! I’ve been here for 6 of them, and it’s been an amazing experience. I still remember my first day in the community. Here’s to hoping for more years to come! 😄
Six years, still impressive! Thanks for all you’ve done for this blog and the Pop community at large, Wolfy. 😁
10 years… Wow, has time passed. It’s been an honor making the friends I have in the community, and while I may not play the game much anymore, I’ll always be a member of the community!
Vampi, it’s great to have you! Happy to know you’ve made good friends here — I think many of us can appreciate that sentiment. 🙂
Happy 10th B-day to this awesome blog! (No one told me the silly streams did that I.I)
The colors of the silly streams really matched the 10th birthday hat, as I discovered while putting the collage together. 😛
Congrats on your tenth anniversary! And thank you so much for the “best Poptropica portfolio” award. ❤️ You guys are amazing. Miss you all!!!
Thank you, Skinny Moon! ❤️ Congrats on getting over half the votes on “Best Poptropica Portfolio”—we’re still waiting to meet another Poptropica community manager as good as you. 😉 (Really. We’re not getting many updates… 😬 Anyway, we definitely miss you too!!)
Dang, The Poptropica Help Blog is 10 years old. The Poptropica Help Blog has had so many changes over the last 10 years from different PHB authors, to different PHB layouts. To everyone reading this comment you should go back to the first Poptropica Help Blog post ever and comment a big long and beautiful comment about the PHB. People say that people mainly quit blogging around 1 or 2 years. But oh my the PHB is still blogging after 10 years! It has been with the PHB for about 3 years and those 3 years were great. And also I recorded the PHB Poppies party and for anyone who wants to see a 2 hour recording of the party then watch this video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hUFQTv5y3YQ
Thanks for supporting the PHB and sharing your recording, Tall Melon! Hope you got a chance to catch up on the livestream, and hope you enjoyed the party! 😉
I did not watch the livesteam but I did enjoy the party.
Congragulations! Really proud of this blog for a decade! Wow!
Thank you, Sporty Runner! Wow, indeed. 🙂