And I was a teenager at the time. Still bugged me.
I've gotten back into it this past year. I've got all four of my main pets mutant (Ixi, Lenny, Lupe, and Zafara), got a few lucky zaps with the Lab Ray... and only really rely on luck to get NP. I stay the hell away from the non-Pound forums, though.
I will say, the Tale Of Woe was the best plot they ever had, and I still regret not finishing it up (the potion-mixing was where I gave up).
Oh, god, Neopets. I joined in July 2003, apparently, so I suppose this applies to me. I used to absolutely love that site; I pretty much spent all of my free time there for a while. I was never really successful at anything though, and I don't think I ever had over 100,000 neopoints until I found a purple paintbrush and auctioned it (and this was the end of any serious accumulation of wealth). I was never really "into" it, too, and I don't recall seriously participating in any plots. For some reason (maybe it was because I didn't want to read guides) I pretty much sucked at all things neopets. But boy, I absolutely adored that place for a few years. I've started going on a little more lately, and just happened to do a Neo-binge today for no apparent reason. I feel kinda sad now that I didn't get into it more back then since I spent so much time on it, but oh well.

The person who made it was a teenager. Some darker and edgier is to be expected.