Back in the end of the year 2001, Aatheus proposed a contest for a Furbid Mascot. The idea was well received generating five major Participants and a total of 501 votes. On January 1, 2002 Aatheus tallied all the votes and gave us all a list of things. The winner was Caribou, with her creation Sheckles the Bat with a total of 161 votes. Runner up was Kacey Maltzman, with her character Breeze the Spotted Skunktaur with 122 votes. Flinthoof created Jake and earned 102 votes, Iron Badger submitted Fiona with 61 votes and Silverwyvern created Tyler bringing in 55 votes.

Since then Sheckles has fallen to the wayside due many previous commitmnents of Caribou's, mostly being too busy to create Mascot material, and in Sheckles place Kacey has created some images that have been used on official Furbid merchandise. Yes, Aatheus can often be seen brandishing his Breeze Tote bag at conventions, clutching it tightly as he patiently awaits his turn at reading a page in: "The Eye of Argon".

However, the last two years have still seen Furbid without an official mascot. Recent communication with Caribou has resulted in her agreeing to withdraw Sheckels as the official mascot of Furbid. As runner up, Kacey has also agreed to withdraw Breeze as the default mascot, both giving their full blessing on a new Mascot Contest.

Yes, a new Mascot Contest. A chance for you to make a permanent mark on the Furbid Community. To have your creation be part of Furbid history forever. A chance to have your creation be part of representing the Furbid Community.

This is not just any ordinary mascot contest. Normally a few artists submit their ideas before the deadline, everyone votes, and one is chosen. Not very exciting, is it? Especially when Furbid is not a One Fur Show. Furbid is a community. And as such, Furbid should have a community of mascots that represent the community it serves. That means not just one winner will be chosen. Not two, but more, with the total being based on the total number of entries and the amount of bids each receive.
Will it be three? Will it be five? Perhaps even ten. You the community will decide by participating as a community. Sound like something you want to be part of? Do not answer yet, because there are some guidelines.

• 1). The contest will be open to all registered members of the Furbid Community who are registered before the deadline. Voting will take place over a period of one week after the deadline and will be open to all Furs belonging to the Furbid Community.
• 2). All entries must meet the guidelines for the G-PG section of the Furbid ToS, found here. Any entry that is submitted that does not meet these guidelines will be returned to the submitting artist. The reason for returning the submission will be explained. If the artist so chooses, they may resubmit their creation again after updating the returned piece, or they may submit an entirely new entry.
• 3). Only one entry per artist will be allowed. If an entry is made and the artists decides they would like to submit a different creation in their original entries place, they may do so up until the deadline for submissions has been reached. In that situation, the original submission will be removed from the official ballot.

In order to continue with the community design of this whole contest, the following guidelines are being put into place regarding the winning entries.

• 1). The winning entries will become the property of the Furbid Community in terms of ownership. As such they may be drawn, painted, sketched, sculpted, or expressed through any art medium by any member of the Furbid Community.
• 2). In order to guarantee the characters do not violate the guidelines set forth for their creation and use, the winning entries may never be sold in any form without the express written consent of Furbid. This includes, but is not limited to, their original entries and any derivative entries made using the same characters by either the original creator or any future artists using the same.
• 3). No mascot, regardless of who is creating them, is to ever be created in any situation (regardless of medium) that would be outside of the Furbid Guidelines for the G-PG posting section of the Terms of Service.
• 4). Furbid reserves the right to use any and/or all of the winning mascots in promotion and/or marketing.

We will have a five week window for submissions. There will be a thread opened up on the Furbid Discussion Board [here] on the 20th of June, 2004. All submissions for the mascot competition will be placed there. This thread will be closed on the 25th of July, 2004. The specifics follow:

• 1). Ayukawataur will open the discussion on the 20th of June, 2004. This thread will be open to all registered users of Furbid.
• 2). Submissions can be easily made by replying to the parent topic. Place your submission in the reply.
• 3). Applicants are encouraged to tell the community about the character they are submitting. Personality of the character will weigh heavily in the placement of the winning entries.
• 4). If an applicant enters a potential mascot early on and later decides they have another they wish to submit, place the submission for the new mascot in the thread. Afterward PM Ayukawataur telling her so she may remove the previous entry.
• 5). If you wish to have community involvement with the development and creation of your mascot entry, feel free to use the Technique & Help - Non-Adult board [here]. It would be nice to see such being done; Sharing is a very wonderful thing.
• 6). Acceptance of submissions will be closed on the 25th of July, 2004. This will be no sooner than 8pm PST (2000 hours). At that time the thread will be locked and no more submissions will be accepted. There will be no exceptions to this part.
• 7). When the thread is closed, copies of all submissions will be placed in a web accessible directory on Furbid. Those copies will be used for the actual contest. These will be arranged in random^*1 equal groups of ten (or less). Each group will have a separate poll arranged and will allow one vote per user per poll. This is being done to give each user a chance to vote more than once. Please note, you do not have to vote if you do not like any in a particular group. Victors will be determined by total number of votes.
• 8). The polls will remain open for a period of one week. Date of closure will be announced when the polls officially open.

As usual, if you enter any of your art into this competition, you are giving tacit agreement for the guidelines as listed in this document. You understand that your work may or may not be chosen by the Furbid Community as a member of the chosen mascots. You also understand that even if your entry is chosen as a member of the mascot community, its placement on Furbid will be the domain of the Furbid Administration (ie: not all mascots can be a title banner on the opening page, and therefore it is up to the Administration to choose the best placement for each of the mascots). Obviously we will be using the play nice rule here, so please check your ego's (if you have one) at the door.

Thank you and good luck.