Welcome to Gaia! ::

Whenever you post for a breeding (through the monthly breeding thread, a special event, or in a colorist's thread), it is not guaranteed that you will receive a breeding until it is crossed out and confirmed by a colorist.

We select breedings as we have time. We will make every effort to be fair in picking breedings. In addition to CC, we will pick breedings via dice roll. We may also open speed slots, or low-luck slots, or some type of event slots.

BUT. IF YOU POST FOR A BREEDING, IT IS NOT GUARANTEED THAT YOU WILL GET IT. We will do all the breedings we have time for, but we will probably not have time to do every single breeding as soon as it gets posted. You may not be chosen in a particular event or raffle or whatever. It happens. Please do not assume that just because you have posted, you are guaranteed to receive that particular breeding at that time.

We do not want to hear any type of complaints in-thread about:

• Your breeding being 'skipped' or 'forgotten'. Again: Breedings are generally CCed and rolled. Not every breeding will be picked up immediately.
  
• Your breeding not being picked for several months. We are keeping an eye on this and we will open up low-luck slots or hire additional colorists if this becomes an issue.
  
• Someone else's breeding being picked before yours, even though yours has been posted for longer. Unless a colorist opens breedings and specifically states that they are first-come first-served, breedings will be chosen via CC and rolling -- not the exact order in which they are posted.
  
• Your breeding only getting 1 or 2 babies. Baby amounts are rolled fairly and publicly and are the same for everyone. There are options available to boost litter sizes if you need to.

We also do not want anyone being bugged to gift someone with babies. Please do not hang around dropping hints about how you wish you had a baby and you haven't gotten any babies in a long time and if only you had one of those cute babies if someone should post pictures of their litter.

We don't mind if you post something like "Too bad they only rolled one baby, they are such a cute pair! XD" or "I hope my couple gets lucky this month, they've been waiting a while!" That's cool. That's fine. That's a-okay. What we mind is a bunch of passive aggressive whining along the lines of "Sigh... another month that my breeding didn't get picked :" or "I guess I got skipped again :", etc etc. DON'T DO IT. It makes the colorists and other owners feel uncomfortable and guilt-tripped, and also makes us much less likely to want to do your breeding because we don't want to give anyone the impression that we were bullied into doing it.

If we see you posting passive-aggressive complaints and/or trying to guilt trip people into giving you cubs/coloring you things, we will ask you politely to stop or tone it down. If we have asked you to stop and you continue doing it, all of your breedings and customs for the month will be taken down and you will be grey-listed from staff events for the month as well. So don't do it.

When you post for a breeding, you must also post this form to acknowledge these rules. Breedings posted without the form will be taken down.

This can be summed up as:

If you don't win, don't whine about it.

Whining about not winning something is Not Nice. No one is obligated to give you anything -- this includes colorists and other owners both. Staff run free raffles, games, and contests to be nice. Other owners run free contests also to be nice. If you don't win this time around, don't make the person who did win feel bad and don't make the person who gave away the pet(s) feel bad.

What's fine:

• Oh crap, I just missed the raffle! Oh, well.
  
• Congrats winners! I still need to get one of those pets someday. XD
  
• Damn you dice! XD

ETC. Good-natured comments, cursing the dice, etc, are all totally fine. If in doubt, just add a "Congrats!" to whoever won at the end of your post.

WHAT IS NOT FINE:

• Ugh, I never win anything.
  
• Oh well..... sad
  
• Damn it, I never win anything from raffles.
  
• Sigh, I guess my entry was skipped...
  
• So-and-so won? confused
  
• Ugh. I would have won that if I remembered to enter.

Seriously. Don't. Post. This. s**t. Complain to your friends in AIM or off-site or whatever. But we do not want to see passive-aggressive crybabying about any kind of contest. DO NOT DO IT. If we see you doing it IN ANY STAFF-RUN OR OWNER-RUN EVENT, we will politely ask you to stop. If you do not stop, you will be temporarily greylisted from the shop and banned from receiving pets for 3 months.

We are serious. Do not pull this crybaby s**t in here. Do not try to make people feel bad. b***h all you want off-site, but do not b***h in-thread or in-guild.