This is a thread for me to dump any Fundraising related thread things into!
**Notes**
KickStart! Countdown Rules AURB, A History Goals Accomplishments Special Thanks Contests Contest Winners Affiliates, Banners and Fwiends Reserved Open!
Posted: Sat Sep 26, 2015 11:04 pm
Ladies and Gentleman!
First of all thank you so much for dropping by and a big, big, big welcome to you into our Kick Start!. This is the gateway for all fundraising things for preparation for the14th Annual User Run Ball. As usual we are here beseeching all of those who are generous for items, gold, and game-thingies that you can spare to help us afford another year of amazing prizes at the AURB. Everything that is donated goes straight to the funds to help us hit the ground running in preparation of the next year's ball.
There is so much planning and execution for this event to be held, and with our ever rising expectations of ourselves we always strive to make the next ball bigger and better! We strive to give away more, incorporate more fun, and of course splatter our Gaia-Online love all over the place.
So everything that can be spared is appreciated. No donation is to small to deserve a gigantic thank you! After all, this User Run ball would be nothing without all of Gaia community that makes this event one of the longest running and most memorable User Run events in Gaia's History.
So, in summary, this thread's existence is to seek aid in our search for: gold, bugs, ink, fish, flowers, paper/trash, GoFusion Charms, any other game item that I can't think of, trash that can be sold and any items that you feel you are able to part with.
What we do is we amass these in bulk, and sell for the Ball in the Summer/Fall. Again, everything we collect goes straight into the benefit of making the ball the event of the year on Gaia Online. And we appreciate everything you can give. And for those of you who give us awesome presents of uber pretty items worth quite a bit of Moolah, we keep those as actual prizes itself!
But...how do I give these items or gold to the ball?
Well, you give it straight to the AURB Mule.Just click the link provided right there, and it will take you to the profile where you can initiate trade.
This ensures that your donation goes nowhere but the Ball for your peace of mind. Again, anything you are willing to give goes a long way, and we appreciate everything that you do, and we hope we see you the Weekend of the User Run Ball!
If you could direct gold donations to the Annual Ball, our AURB Mule, and item donations to Vyite, that would be wonderful!. Again, the help you provide us is heavily appreciated. We hope to see you at the 13th Annual User Ran Ball!
Special thanks to Vyite and Derpy Seviper for reference of the old Kick Start!
-Insert hopefully operative count down clock... cuz awesome sauce.-
Posted: Sat Sep 26, 2015 11:45 pm
As always, follow the gaia TOS, Rules& Guidelines, and the ever-obvious common courtesy rules that to social situations.
Please refrain from having ginormous quote trees. It can get a little confusing and clutter-ific. Keep your posts neat as possible please!
Occasionally there are some kind, wonderful souls who like to give away free art. Please do not solicit these people in PM or the thread for free art. If you would like art, please feel free to submit a request to them, but do not harass them!
One thing that will not be tolerated here is soliciting the kind people who donate to the ball for gold or items. They already have already given to this wonderful community event for everyone on Gaia, so leeching off of their generosity is unforgivable. If you are Sponsor (someone who has donated) to the ball, and someone PM's or Quotes you begging for handouts, please letDJ Hope 1990 or Derpy Seviper, know immediately.
If you wish to become an affiliate of the AURB, please PMDJ Hope 1990 or Derpy Seviper, and they will ensure that the proper channels are directed your way!
Any advertising done must be Gaia-Online related. This is a great place to draw attention to guilds or RP's, however please do not link anything outside of GaiaOnline!
Please do not quote the front page. If you need to get a hold of one of the thread mods you can directly use this code to do so:
Please do not be argumentative or hostile to others in the thread. Do not flame, abuse or be a butt-monkey to people here. Having a friendly debate is different, however rude behavior will result in DJ Hope sending you a scolding PM, and may even result in banning from the thread depending on the severity of the argument.
RPing is fine in here, I do not mind if you have a little spin off or two. However please note that if anything starts to become even a little R-Rated, we will have to put an end to the shenanigans. This falls in line with following TOS and Rules.
If you post Art, Graphics, or Literature in here, please ensure that it is your own work (excluding those in posting formats and whatnot).
We reserve the right to edit these rules, but hopefully it won't be necessary.
xx- - -k i r a hoshi's beautiful little magical shop of graphics! She provided the graphics within this Kickstart! thread, so if you like them, please go check her out!
Posted: Wed Sep 30, 2015 11:08 am
The AURB Kickstart! Graphics Contest!
Hello one and all! To make Fundraising a little more interactive this year with the community for the AURB, we decided to host a graphics contest for those who are PC artistically inclined to create us some Banner Graphics for the Kickstart! Thread that will be up and coming to the Gaia Threads soon!
So what does this contest entail? Simple. We are looking for a Thread Layout graphic theme for the kick start this year. So let me get on with the rules and then I will tell you about the Prize!
Rules!
First, foremost and most obviously...Please follow all TOS, Rules& Guidelines in this thread.
Graphics may not be gigantic. Here is the link to the old Kickstart! Thread for examples of what we are looking for. Graphics should not be any smaller, but should not be much bigger either. However there is no set dimensions to keep it free for artists.
The graphics may be L shape or Banner. There may be side bars or buttons (little mini graphics). It's all up to the artist.
The final graphics will be voted on by the AURB planning community, so please do your best!
Do not flame anyone in this thread. This contest is open to all people who are either experienced or not in the terms of creating graphics.
There will be only one Winner, however all others who contributed are will be in referenced in a the Special Thanks in the KickStart Thread.
AURB planning community has the right to potentially use all art given to us in the future.
All artists will receive a special invitation to help us in the future to a fundraising art shop!
This is an Open Theme contest, meaning the theme, colour scheme and font chosen are all up to the artistic freedom of the artist. However it must be appropriate of nature. No anime, vocaloids, people or characters from any show, or dirty things please!
These rules are subject to change.
This contest will be open for until DJ Hope 1990 wakes up on October 3rd.
Please post submissions in Spoilers in a post in this thread, and Quote DJ Hope 1990 and Derpy Seviper.
Rules are subject to change at anytime.
Each of the following must be included within the graphics: KickStart! Countdown Announcements Rules AURB, A History Goals Accomplishments Special Thanks Contests Contest Winners Affiliates, Banners and Fwiends Reserved Open!
Little Lucie 3rd Gen Summer 2014 Men's Collection Astra: Mournful Breeze
Newsies Boy
Can I get approval on these prizes? I already told you about the contest I want to hold in the kickstart.
Sure go ahead. with both the contest and the prizes.
You're sort of like the best heart
Posted: Sat Oct 03, 2015 11:25 am
Every day of month of October, participants will need to draw a designated figure from the image. They need to send the photobucket URL of the image every day of the month to the DJ Hope 1990. They may post if it they like in the Kickstart! (Link to Kickstart TBA). The first three people to submit the last image of the last day to the mule will get prizes (that you will be giving at the moment since I don't know what we have lewl). Any others afterwards will get 1mil gold.
Rules: Participants must send me the proper drawing of everyday of the month, on that day In order to qualify for the prize. Participants must follow gaia TOS. Must participate every day to qualify. Since the contest started late, sending me a picture of the First through third is optional
This year will be the fourteenth Annual User Run Ball. It started from what started out as a single person who had a great and generous idea, to an entire collective that remains dedicated throughout Gaia in collaborating to create a huge event every year. Every year, those of us who join the planning committee work hard, work together, stress, laugh, cry, celebrate and support one another all year long. We bicker and quarrel, make up, motivate and pep talk each other and the entire community.
We are a family of sorts within our community. And we are not closed to specific members only. Anyone can become a member of the planning guild. In the first post, I have provided a link to the guild. All you have to do is join, and find somewhere that fits your talent.
But why do we go through so much, for an entire year, for just three days of an event? Because the User Run Ball is important that’s why. We, who are a part of the planning every year, feel as if this event is vital not just for us and our efforts, but for the entire Gaian community! Below, the 2007 main host Pritchard’s words have been memorialized. And personally, I find it a great motivator when I am feeling discouraged.
”Pritchard”
"What about the Gaian Annual Ball is so important?
Gaia Online is a Community Run Site. Yes, the administration may make all the big site decisions, but they do so as users and as people who are interested in our community. Imagine, if Gaia Online wasn't created by the original administration, do you think they'd be users of the site right now if someone else created it? I think so, but then again, who could have done it better than they did? I think a better question is if they could have done it without us!
As the site began to sprout, the community came together for one event. The Annual Ball. Completely user-run. It wasn't planned by the administration nor known to users the wonderful event that was to come. This is the essence of the Gaian Community. Whether it be a single thread, or a single piece of art, it comes from the user. Gaia Online may have grown tremendously over the years it's been online, but I think a large part of its tradition remains the same, even as a larger amount of the original users and the original community begin to fade (not necessarily a bad thing, as this is a result of change). Users continue to work hard towards making the site better, and most of the input comes from us. How often are events run by administration anyways? They wouldn't be worth announcing if they were all so common now would they!
The Annual Ball's goal is not to be elitist or talk about how long you've been on Gaia. I think people who use it just for this are truly mistaken, and have lost their Gaian Spirit. Think about it, what did they talk about during the first Annual Ball? It couldn't possibly been about how long people have been on Gaia, but perhaps it could have been about how amazing it was to see such a tightly knitted community come together and work towards a single goal, even though Gaia had not even been around as long! The Gaian Annual Ball takes a lot of work and effort to set up. You have to worry about prizes, themes, getting advertisements across Gaia and other forms of support. Simply having your own forum or area to hang out isn't enough.
Besides being a place to hang out and talk to people on Gaia that you wouldn't normally have been able to talk to, I think the Annual Ball is proof that Gaia is still here. Gaia is still a site for the community. The day the Annual Ball fades away is the day that Gaia no longer has a community that cares and supports it, as the Annual Ball takes strong will and community togetherness to make happen.
Why stop with a forum, though? Why simply be happy about the fact that you were able to get a few people together and chat? Gaia Online has grown to epic proportions. We need to think about the future of our community. We need to take our new member groups and backgrounds into consideration. Gaia still has a lot of the role players and story tellers, but Gaia's audience has traveled abroad, and has come back with ships full of people from all over the world.
We need to begin thinking about the future of the Annual Ball, and we need to begin taking advantage of the new user base! From the new artists and musicians to hobbyist flash developers, our new community has a lot to offer. I think that because of this, the Annual Ball will only become stronger. This is why it's so important. It is *the* ultimate representation of the Gaian Community. Without it, we have nothing. Gaia Online would just be another internet site with a "community", but one that doesn't give a darn about each other.
We need to begin thinking of the future of Gaia. What do you see in Gaia's future? What is the ultimate form of Community Input? I think creation. Can you see the day when a new type of Annual Ball occurs, or a new type of user input comes flowing through the site, where users are actually creating areas of its content? We already do through forum posts and profiles, but what about flash and other areas of output that we can give? If it's going to happen, we need to show we're capable of it. We need to come together and work towards making the user run events the greatest of all.
Will you collaborate with the rest of Gaia and share your talents and abilities with it? You can make it a better place. You already do every day when you give feedback to the site. Let's take it a step further. Let's keep the Annual Ball going on forever, and continually growing in size and diversity. Live on."
Thanks for your Time, Pritchard -- 2007
So, where has the ball been before? For those of you who are interested in attending for the first time, or you simply haven’t paid much attention to the years before, blow in the spoiler we have provided a history of the AURB. It is summarized as much as possible, but we have had 14 years of fun behind us. And hopefully many more!
In 2003, Misao made the first ever Annual Ball. The admins were so impressed with what she'd done that they released the red rose corsage and black bow tie for her ball. Note that these were the first non-store items on Gaia ever!
In 2004, Misao refused to make the next annual ball convinced that the greed on Gaia was far too much to yield it. In light of that challenge, Setzer appeared. He made a topic in QnF calling for people to help out and make the 2nd Annual Ball. This year, instead of one host there were many each with their own distinct rooms. It gained so much popularity amongst the users that Setzer decided to ask for our own forum to party in. As some of you know, the answer was yes. This was the first time Gaia had ever opened a Forum up for a user run event. Really this ball is extraordinary. Not only that, but again the admins seemed to be impressed and decided to release the G-pins (much to everyone's surprise since we (the hosts) didn't think there would be ANY items involved.
In 2005, it was that time again. Setzer passed the torch onto Razumi Yazura to host the 3rd Annual Ball since Setz thought that it would be best to change the main hosts every year (a very wise decision). That year we developed a theme which was planetary. All the rooms were based off of planets, but they each had their own underlying themes. Again the ball gained popularity and of course we asked for a forum. But this time we were getting the mansion! This of course was the first and last time the mansion was going to be opened for a User event. No items this year, but it was still a HUGE success!
In 2006, the fourth annual ball was hosted in a guild , due to unforseen complications, and the fact that the admins didn't want to open up the mansion for the ball. The slim staff of 16 worked day and night a mear two months before the official date of the ball, to keep this seemfully dying tradition alive. No official host was named this year, and command was shared between all those who were involved. Needless to say it was a quiet year that year, but it was the first ball that had a plot totally made by the users! Quiet, but still a success and fun!
In 2007, Leyna hosted this year's ball and the moderators allowed the ball the have it's own forum for the 5th Annual Ball for the public to join in on the fun. The Ball's theme this year was Elements and it was quite exciting being able to make it public once more to a new generation of Gaians. It was a huge success and helped to open up the Ball to more people to help.
In 2008, with the Ball so successful as the year before everyone wanted to make this year's the biggest and best of them all. This year's host was chosen to be Freaksrus! Again for the 2nd time in a row the Ball was able to successfully gain a forum for the 6th Annual Ball. The ball was able to gain new ideas with the publicity of the last year and the ball's theme was chosen to be Time Periods after a quick change. Despite being a previous theme chosen for the 2nd Annual Ball all that participated had a ton of fun especially with a fun twist on the plot and the Ball's first time have it drawn out Manga style!
2009 was a library filled with magical books, each room being one fairy tale or another. As one of the largest balls in the history of the Annual Ball, there were eight role-playing room and a newsroom! A fun fact about the newsroom: this was back when the Annual Ball still had permission to use actually Gaiaonline NPCs and settings, hence the Gaia Action News reporting on all the action in each of the rooms.
In 2010 the Ball was, once again, a huge success. It was perhaps the biggest success that the Annual Ball had reached up to date. With its theme of Mt. Olympus and the greek gods, it was a heavenly delight for everyone involved. This ball was a more educational ball as each of the hosts did their research and played an authentic figure from Greek Mythology. Everyone had a blast at this ball, setting a new standard to achieve for all the balls to come.
2011 featured a new theme: the 7 Deadly Sins. Princess Angelishia hosted as the princess of the pride palace, and each of the seven rooms featured a combination of sins and their opposites. It was a lot of rooms, but it was successfully pulled off thanks to all the hard work from everyone involved. It was concluded by a large after-party in towns for all the guests, hosts, and co-hosts to go nuts (and they pretty much did!)
2012 presented a story about dreams. With Broken_Bleeding_Angel as the main host, playing the Dream King, and LilChibiUsa as her CO and the Dream Queen, all the rooms were tied together with one plot about the failing worlds of dreams. Each room's plot resolution was one more step towards saving all of the worlds from being lost. This was the 10th Annual Ball and a milestone for the AURB.
2013 began the next decade of the AURB with Robayn and Spottedteddybears at the head of it. The story for this year's ball centered on prominent characters from Classic Literature like Dorian Gray, the Mad Hatter, Rose Red, Merlin, Don Quixote, and many, many more. This was one of our best staffed years, with many strong and able hosts and co-hosts. Though it featured fewer rooms than its predecessor, the 2014 ball had great attendance from Gaians who had lots of fun partying with their favorite characters from literature. Thank you so much to everyone who attended and donated to make 2013 a huge success!
2014 brought us a ball of astronomical proportions. Led by PinkieKitty and Violet the Maestro, this ball featured a Western Zodiac themed plot in which the Twelve Zodiac competed in teams of two, with help from some of their loyal constellations, to create the best party in order to see who would be the next leader of the Zodiac. Of course the ball was not without conflict and Ophiuchus, decided to create some chaos in each of the parties, which led to quite the angry mob before he explained that he just wanted everyone to work together. This year also brought us quite the surprise when Gaia decided to create a kickstarter for us. This was the first time this had happened for a user-run event! Because of it, we were able to open up many more games and contests to make this one of the best balls yet, even with it’s slow start due to a late announcement on Gaia.
So there you have it. I hope you enjoyed this almost brief AURB History lesson, and I hope to see everyone working hard together to create a not-brief-at-all future for the AURB!
xx- - -k i r a hoshi for giving us beautiful Kickstart! Graphics. They turned out simply fantastic, and they look beautiful as our thread!
The Entire AURB staff without whom the ball would not continue to be as amazing year after year!
The Gaia Community! Even with a staff, there would still be no ball without you guys coming in and making it a blast! Your participation lets us know that our hard work is not in vain so we thank you!
To the entirety of everyone who donated, big or small. Again, you are an important, vital resource for the AURB, and it is your generous souls that make this event as successful as it is every year.
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