All the rules of the Rules of Conduct apply
2. General Rules
- Bumping is allowed once per calender day. The mods will use EST to determine when one day ends and another begins, with midnight as the dividing line. A bump has to be a post with nothing but the word "bump" or "update" in it, as well as reposting an offer in one of the stickied threads in the general MD section.
- Once a creature is offered in the MD, buying it is only allowed by posting in the respective thread. Giving it to someone who contacts you via another thread, PM, email, personal contact, telepathy or any other way is expressly forbidden!
There are two exceptions to this rule; the Official opposite gender trading thread and the Official same gender, new lineage thread, which both specifically require offers to be made by PM. - A sale (i. e. trade for gold or another creature or creatures) of one or more creatures has to be completed within two days after the order is placed or the auction is completed. If after 48 hours, the sale is not completed, either side in the deal is allowed to ask a mod for assistance. For orders on creatures that have yet to be bred and/or hatched, the seller must initiate the trade within 48 hours of hatching them.
- The only people allowed to post in an MD thread are the owner(s) of the thread and customers (and obviously the moderators). If you are none of these, you are not allowed to make any post at all.
3. Merchant District
- The following kinds of thread belong into the general Merchant District area:
- quicksale
- LTB
- raffles
- gifting threads
- creature swaps
The following will detail these types of thread - A quicksale is a thread selling one or more creatures on stock. A quicksale may not have its stock updated regularly; that would be a shop and needs to go into the Shop subsection. This kind of thread must state a price for each creature on stock. Both buyer and seller are bound to the price listed. The seller is allowed to change listed prices if there is no request for any of the creatures he changes the price of. The seller can list creatures he accepts in payment.
A quicksale operates on a "first come, first serve" basis. If there are multiple people asking for the same creature, the one who posted first takes precedence. This kind of thread may have conditions set on the sale (e. g. "only non-donors"). In that case, the first eligible person asking for the creature takes precedence.
Asking for offers is expressly forbidden in a quicksale thread. If it happens regardless, either the first offer has to be accepted or a mod must be asked to declare the thread as invalid.
Locking a quicksale is only allowed by express permission of a mod, unless there is no stock left. - LTB stands for "looking to buy". An LTB states one or more creatures the owner is willing to buy. The owner can state what he is willing to pay but he is not required to. Sellers are allowed to make offers to the owner of this kind of thread. However, you are not allowed to offer more than the owner is looking for. For example, someone is looking for a Rewin Dragon, offering 50k. You are allowed to say "I'll sell you one for 40k", but you are not allowed to say "I'll give you a Quetzalcoatl on top of the Rewin". Likewise, the owner cannot demand additional creatures or gold on top of what he was looking for in the first place. This ensures that bargaining will be about the price.
Locking a LTB thread is only allowed by express permission of a mod. - Raffles are threads that give away creatures by random chance. The tickets available in a raffle may be limited or unlimited in number. Every ticket must have the same price and the same chance of winning. A raffle that holds new raffles regularly is considered a shop and belongs in the Shop subsection.
As per the Rules of Conduct, raffling of donation pets is not allowed. Any thread doing so is immediately closed and the gold paid so far must be refunded. - Gifting threads are threads that give away creatures for free. Any thread asking for gold or creatures in return for its service is not considered a gifting thread. A gifting thread updating its stock regularly is considered a shop and belongs in the Shop subsection. Gifting threads are allowed to decide not to give a creature to a person, even if it is the first person asking for that specific creature.
- Creature swap threads include gender swaps and lineage swaps.
Gender swap is the trading of a creature against another creature of the same species but opposite gender. This kind of swap has to take place in the Official opposite gender trading thread.
Lineage swap is trading a creature against another creature of the same species and same gender. This kind of swap has to take place in the Official same gender, new lineage thread. - Any other kind of thread requires the express permission of a moderator to be posted in the general Merchant District area.
- The following things are allowed to be posted in these threads:
- "Bump" by the owner of the thread (once per day)
- a post detailing new updates to the service by the owner (counts as bump)
- orders by a customer
- confirmation of an order by the owner
- announcing the thread closed by the owner, including winners in raffles
4. Shop
- In the following, a thread in the Shop subsection is referred to as a "shop"
- A "shop" is defined as one of the following types of threads, or a thread that combines multiple of these features:
- sales threads that update their stock regularly
- threads that lend out creatures for breeding
- gifting threads that update their stock regularly
- raffles that hold new raffles regularly - A shop is allowed to have multiple posts for the owner to detail his services in. This is an exception to the multi-post section of the Rules of Conduct.
- A shop is required to list prices for the service(s) it provides. These prices may be changed regularly. Both buyer and seller are bound to the prices listed when an order is placed, unless both sides agree amicably to the new price.
- Shops have to operate on a "first come, first serve" basis. If multiple people apply for a specific creature, the first one to post is the one who has to get it.
- Once a creature is ordered, this is considered a contract. The seller has to deliver, the buyer has to accept and pay for it. Cancelling an order is not allowed by either side.
- Raffles and gifting threads in the Shop subsection follow the same rules as detailed in 3. Merchant District above.
- The following things are allowed to be posts in shops:
- "Bump" by the seller (once per day)
- a post detailing new updates to the service by the seller (counts as bump)
- orders by the buyer
- confirmation of orders by the seller
- announcing an order complete by the seller
5. Auction House
- In the following, a thread in the Auction House is referred to as an "auction"
- An "auction" is defined as a thread that allows bids and sells the creature(s) in question to the person with the highest bid.
- The Auction House does not allow for edits; therefore make doubly sure not to make any mistakes
- The following information is mandatory for auctions:
- description of the creature(s) involved in the auction
- starting bid
- minimum increase
- autobuy
- ending time
The following will detail these requirements. - The description of a creature must either include a link to the creature in question, or the following information:
- species
- gender
- generation
- whether it is named or not - The starting bid defines the minimum amount of the first bid. The lowest starting bid possible is 1 gold.
- The minimum increase defines the minimum amount a bid must be higher than the previous bid. The lowest minimum increase possible is 1 gold
- Autobuy defines an amount that will immediately win the auction if it is offered. An autobuy can be put in creatures, gold, or a combination of both. Several autobuy options may be given, with the first offer that uses one of these options being the winner. If creatures are accepted, the exact name of the creature(s) must be given to prevent confusion; shortcuts and abbreviations are not allowed and will make that autobuy option invalid. The autobuy may be set as "none", which means there will not be an option to autobuy.
- Ending time must include the following information, which must be written down in the post:
- day the auction ends
- hour and minute the auction ends
- timezone of that information
It is also allowed to give ending time information as a span of time, given either in hours or days. That span of time has to start at the time the post has been made (e. g. 24hours from now, 3 days from now). In this case, timezone information is not necessary. - The following information is optional for every auction; if it is given, it is binding for that auction but it may be left out:
- maximum increase
- creatures accepted
The following will detail these options. - The maximum increase defines the maximum amount a bid may be higher than the previous bid. The lowest possible maximum increase is 1 gold.
- A list of creatures accepted in bids can be given. If this is done, each creature must be listed with full species name to prevent confusion. Any creature not given its full name is an invalid bid. The seller must give an amount in gold that each creature he accepts is worth in a bid; that amount may be different for different species of creatures. This list also applies to autobuy.
- Any creature auctioned off must already be in the possession of the seller at the time the auction is started.
- One thread may only contain one auction. If you want to auction more than one creature, they either must be offered in a single auction or in multiple auction threads.
- Each bid in an auction must be higher than the previous bid by at least the minimum increase and at most by the maximum increase (if any). Any bid not fulfilling this requirement is invalid and has to be ignored.
- A bid has to be given in gold and/or creatures accepted by the seller. A bid cannot have conditions set on it. Examples for conditions are "if it hatches a certain gender" or "if I don't have one by the time this ends", but are not limited to these.
- Bidding just to increase the price of an auctioned creature is considered scamming and forbidden. Bidding on an auction by the seller itself is always considered this kind of bid.
- An auction ends either when the end time has been reached or when autobuy is used, whichever comes first. Any bids after that have to be ignored. An auction may not be ended earlier.
- Magistream time (the time given for each post) is used to determine whether the end time has been reached. The winning bid is the last post that lists the end time. For example, if the end time is 9:00, the last post listing 9:00 contains the winning bid. The first post listing 9:01 will be the first invalid bid.
- An auction and the winning bid are both mandatory and form a contract. The seller may not withhold the creature and the highest bidder must pay for it.
- The following things are allowed to be posts in an auction.
- "Bump" by the seller (once per day)
- bids by the buyers
- announcing the end of the auction and the winner by the seller
6. Daycare
- In the following, a thread in the daycare is referred to as a "daycare"
- A "daycare" is defined as a thread that provides sitting service for eggs and/or hatchlings. For purpose of these rules, a thread asking for sitting service is considered a "daycare" as well.
- The "eggspam" section of the main Rules of conduct are in full effect for daycares. It is allowed to post the codes of creatures, but not links to these creatures, whether embedding an image or not. This goes for both the owner of the thread and for customers.
- The following things are allowed to be posts in daycares
- "Bump" by the owner (once per day)
- sitting requests by customers
- confirmation of requests by the owner
7. Violations
- If the owner of a thread commits an infraction, the thread in question will be locked in most cases. A warning may or may not be issued depending on the severity of the infraction
- If a customer commits an infraction, the post in question is subject to editing or deleting. A warning may or may not be issued depending on the severity of the infraction.
- If a creature was sold to the wrong person, the trade has to be undone. If that is not possible, both sides involved will receive a warning!
- Repeated violations of these rules are punishable by revoking of Merchant District privileges. That means you will no longer be able to create new topics or reply to posts in the Merchant District or any of its subforums. This punishment can be temporary or permanent, as we see fit.
