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Post by Kaiser on Apr 1, 2020 22:18:09 GMT -6
01 April, 2020 - No jokes here, we've revamped the title system!
[/b]With our most recent roster changes, mentioned in the previous news post, we felt it was time to give our titling system a bit of a fresh update. Nothing we've done is overwhelming or should drastically change how titles are earned on the forum. We simply wanted to make obtaining some of the less unattainable titles more accessible, while also balancing out the desire for those more prestigious ones to feel like a challenge. Increasing the necessity for story and progression-driven activity is also of importance to us and so we were looking for ways to make kennel ownership more involved than just entering dogs every month! When looking at the new thread, you will see that the participation requirements have changed. Each have had their participation requirements increased or decreased depending on current demand, rotation, and difficulty. As this is a new change, we ask for your understanding and to hold your opinions until it has been out for a few months! We anticipate that we will see much more title accessibility as whole, but it may take a short while for that to present itself. We've got new titles available!If you check our new official SIKC Points and Titles thread, you will see that it has been updated to include 24 titles! Some of these have been around for a while now, whether only in mentions or after having their first trial hosted. They simply never were added to our handy little cheat sheet. Now they've all been updated and we've also included the requirements for a few events we haven't been able to host yet. Stay tuned on those, as they all have been added to our roster and will make their debut soon! Generation Locking, what is it and why have we included it?The main point of dog showing is to improve whatever breed you've decided to work with! We wanted our forum to reflect that. We also wanted people, whether a new or long-time member, to have something to build toward over several generations. Beforehand, it was possible for a foundation dog to earn the highest titles we have to offer. That seemed just a bit too easy and a touch boring! Now, certain tiers of titles will be locked behind a generational requirement. This means that foundation dogs simply will not be able to earn those most coveted titles. We want our breeders and show-folk to improve their stock over several generations, making smart breeding decisions that lead to generation-after-generation continually getting better. Conformation Changes.With the new update, we have included two new Conformation titles for your dogs to earn! The first one is the Junior Champion, something that dogs can only earn when they are under two years of age. This title uses points completely independent of Conformation, as puppies grow and change so much in their youth and it doesn't always reflect how well they will be structurally once they achieve adulthood. They will still be encouraged to earn their adult Conformation title, though! Both each have their own merit and reflect different qualities in terms of showmanship. The second title we have added is Bronze Grand Champion! This title is earned after Champion, but must be acquired before Grand Champion can be awarded. In order to qualify for the new BGCh title, dogs must earn at least 20 points and pass a judge evaluation. This will be the highest Conformation-related title that a foundation dog can achieve. The judge evaluation is a new part of the SIKC title system and only applies to Conformation. Dogs with minor to moderate faults are permitted to earn their Conformation titles in order to reflect that they may make suitable breeding stock when properly matched with another dog. Any titles beyond Champion, we really want to only include dogs that do not possess any glaring flaws - much as you would see in Specialties as a real-world show. For this reason, we have decided that all dogs requesting anything at or higher than Bronze Grand Champion must pass a judge's exam. This includes looking at images of both sides of the dog, as well as a frontal view to confirm that structure, coat color and pattern, and all other important factors line up.
You will have until the end of 15 April 2020 to apply for titles under the old titling system. [/ul] |
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Post by Kaiser on May 22, 2020 16:06:57 GMT -6
22 May, 2020 - Changes, big and small: CGC, new additions, and more!
[/b]As many of you are aware, the Canine Good Citizen Test is a way of assessing how well-mannered your dog is in a public setting! Over time, the team has been doing some reflecting and have decided we want to make passing more challenging, so we've added some new exercises and a brand-new requirement. Starting today, 22 May 2020, dogs will be required to have health testing from an endorsed health tester in order to participate!Health tests generated by individuals not on the SIKC list will not be accepted. We will be regularly adding testing centers to this page we discover how evaluators give scores, so don't fret if your own personal services are not currently added to the list. They may be in the future! You can find up-to-date endorsed testers: here. We will be including some more roleplay-heavy elements to the way testing works.A generator will determine a dog's performance for the day! Dogs often fail simply because they have an off day, so this will be a factor in the testing moving forward. Not to worry though, much as it is in the real world, dogs may retake the test at a later date if things don't go the best their first round. SKA CGC Advanced ChangesThe CGC title is universal between both SIKC and SKA. As such, SIKC handles the more frequent version of the test. CGC does, in fact, have more than one level to it though! As we implement our changes to the current CGC program, SKA will begin hosting the advanced tests. Each additional level of CGC will improve upon the base title, while also challenging your dog more than the previous tier. We hope everyone looks to strive for that top CGC title into the future and look forward to seeing those well-mannered pups around the club![/ul] [/b]We are a little behind in updating here but please formally welcome the following new breed clubs: Alabai Breeder's Association, Australian Shepherd Breed Club, Lovni Medvjed Breed Club, and Pointers United Breed Club. You will find all of their threads conveniently located in the Breed Clubs section of the forum![/ul] [/b] The Falkhund, Ticinese Wolfhound, and Villhund have all recently undergone some Breed Standard renovations and been updated! We also welcome the addition of our latest Novus Breed, the Lovni Medvjed, a working class breed formerly renowned for bear hunting. New AgencyPlease welcome Storsjön Lake Training Facility to the forum! They're the latest organization to pass our tough application process and be endorsed by the kennel club. Please check them out in the future for any of your board and train needs; they cover a wide range of services, with a special affinity for bite sports. Check them out: here. Handler ShowmanshipYour handlers are an important part of your kennels too and with that in mind we've got some stuff around Showmanship, for various levels, in development! We've worked out a series of ideas, but what we really want is to hear from you about what you'd like to see! Let us know in Feedback on here or the Discord. World Show Results DelayWe want to take the time to say thank you to everyone that has had patience for the results of this show! We wanted to ensure you that we have not forgotten and are working on it. Results will hopefully be out shortly, but be aware we have other things going on surrounding this show that make it more time consuming than the rest. Thank you! [/ul] |
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Post by Kaiser on Nov 19, 2020 0:55:04 GMT -6
18 November, 2020 - Potential Changes and New Goodies!
[/b]As we come up to our third anniversary we’d like to broach an important topic with the community as a whole. In any community where a currency is involved, there’s always a balance that needs to be achieved in how much of that currency is directly pumped into the community, transferred between community members, or removed entirely from the community. And when the admins are also active members it can make it hard for us to keep a clear grasp on what needs to be adjusted – it’s no secret that we (the admins) and those who have been in the community and active for a couple of years are sitting on a decent chunk of cash. We have some major changes and introductions coming in the near future, and goals to continue to develop more currency sinks and ways to earn money to help balance that – but before we keep going down that path we need to make a couple of hard choices. It’s been a long topic of conversation between us, one that we felt it was important to sit on and be sure before ever even brought it up to the community. It’s a decision that we will not make without the community behind us on this. But first, a sneak peek at one of the bigger things that we’ve been working on for y'all . The SIKC Shop It’s a bit rough still, as you can see, but we’re very hopeful that it’ll be a neat and interactive way for y'all to obtain custom CC, timed event exclusives, and a storefront for those who have shops of their own within the forums! More on the store will be revealed on launch but we’re very open to suggestions at this point in time so please don’t hesitate to drop some feedback or ideas y'all would like to see implemented. [/ul] [/b] Secondly, we’d like to put forward the option of us hosting a Patreon Page. Functionally of this page will primarily be for donations that can be put towards Game Packs as rewards, commissions for custom forum themes, paying for a domain name, and potentially commission exclusive CC (poses, items, ect.) from others to offer to our community. To be clear, anything that would be offered on our Patreon page would be basically an “Unlockable”, once the donation tier has been reached to pay for a commission/game pack/ect. It will be unlocked for everyone and offered to the community – think of it as a community effort. Obviously, we’re well aware of the age range that our community hits and with the current state of the world not many have extra bucks to spare but, as much as we’d like to, the admins can’t fund everything on our own. If the community doesn’t feel like this is a good idea we’ll scrap it! We just figured it would be lovely to be able to offer some unique extras more frequently and this is a way that we could fund that. Economy ResetIt’s coming up on 3 years of our community being up and running and, we think it’s pretty clear, that there’s a bit of discrepancy currency-wise for those that have been around the longest. Me, for instance, I spent a long time before being appointed an Admin as the only one competing with Doberman and as such placed frequently with multiple dogs and was awarded high payouts often. As such my wallet is pretty stacked even though I’ve long since stopped claiming money earned through various services I’ve offered and stopped taking prize money I’m awarded for placing. Our overall goal here would be to help even the playing field for everyone and to make things a bit less daunting for newcomers or those struggling to place in very active breeds. The balance would be adjusted in tiers. - Overall Balance
- BC/GC Leaders
- Those with active services
The above will all be considered and then your balance would be adjusted accordingly. All prices and monetary rewards will be adjusted to hopefully help keep that inflation down going forward. FeedbackWe need everyone's feedback now more than ever, so please let us know your opinions on these ideas through Discord or the forum feedback sections! It's important for us to hear from everyone so we know where to spend our time on bringing everyone new content that will actually be enjoyed. We can't do that without hearing from you! [/ul] |
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Post by Kaiser on Dec 31, 2020 16:29:26 GMT -6
31 December, 2020 - Countdown to the Monetary Reset
[/b] This is a friendly reminder to ensure you've taken care of all current monetary actions in the next 10 hours or so. Our reset will be occurring at approximately 12:00AM PST 01 January 2021. [/ul] |
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Post by Blue Rivers on Jun 23, 2021 7:04:37 GMT -6
23 June, 2021 - General Updates
[/b] The SIKC Store is now open!!We've done a lot of work to get this up and functional and hope to have a good chunk of varied things to offer. Delivery dates are every THIRD TUESDAY of the month, though specific items may be sent earlier if our stock allows for it, so please try not to hassle our staff if your items are not delivered immediately. If you're unsure of how the ordering process works our Shop Keeper has a guide for you here. Our Pride Month discount is currently running so be sure to head over to the Store Front and get your orders in while that's active! [/ul] |
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Post by Blue Rivers on Dec 2, 2021 11:19:33 GMT -6
02 Dec, 2021 - General Updates
[/div] Our 4th anniversary is quickly approaching!
In light of the snags we hit last year in regards to scoring and getting results out we're switching things up this year to hopefully make the process a bit smoother for both members and staff!
The Fidget Nationals for the All-Breed Conformation, Agility, and Junior All-Breed Conformation shows will be starting THIS MONTH! We'll have the site updated and a schedule out of what you can expect to see once we get the shows posted in the next few days so stay tuned! We've got a lot that we're excited to share and we can't wait to see sim and dog alike showing off all their hard work at these prestigious events. [/ul] [/i][/h2] [/b] [/b] - My bad, I dropped the ball on this and everything got a tad lost in how busy this year has been. The second half of this show will be posted in the next day or two and will run either until the end of the month OR until all dogs from the first leg have entered. Judging will be done ASAP and titles/rewards given out so that we can wrap this up and start fresh come January. In light of the turn out from last years show, this coming January's show will be tweaked a bit to make it a wee bit more accessible to everyone's Novus breeds! Alpine Race - That's on me, again! This race will be wrapped up and closed as well so that we're able to start fresh with the race in Jan. And I do want to reiterate that Sled Racing is one of those trials that does heavily, heavily depend on overall turn out! These races will be hosted more often if we see decent turn out - and keep in mind, your dogs do NOT have to be Huskies or similar to compete! Heck, John Suter has completed the Iditarod with his mixed standard poodle team; finishing is what matters for these longer races, not necessarily winning. If you've got a team of dogs you think are hardy enough to make the race, enter them! [/ul][/ul] [/b] [/ul] [/b] [/a] applications are open to those who have shown a good knowledge of the breed as well as a clear desire and dedication to work with the breed. While we're always happy to see people apply for these leaderships please keep in mind that we're looking for someone that is currently and has been working with a specific breed. If you've only just started out with a breed take some time to settle in and heck, host a couple breed-specific shows to let us know that you're serious about them, before sending in a Breed Club leader application! [/ul][/ul] [/b] [/ul] [/ul] |
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Post by Madison Wyatt on Feb 17, 2022 13:11:35 GMT -6
17 February, 2022 - New Application Process & Promotion
[/b] Hey everyone! This will be a short little announcement regarding our new application process. If you'd like to become a Judge or Registrar you will now need to fill out the form found on our registration page, which can be found here. This means that applications for these positions are now official open again! Head Bookkeeper
We'd also like to welcome our very own France Morningstar/ Shelly Morgan as Head Bookkeeper! While she was previously a registrar, she will now be heading our registrar team from this point forward. Be sure to keep an eye out for any future news, as we have some exciting things coming!  [/ul] |
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Post by Madison Wyatt on Mar 26, 2022 21:24:50 GMT -6
26 March, 2022 - Worlds Wrap-Up & New Trial Judges
[/b] We'd just like say congratulations to our worlds champions this year! A big round of applause to Don't Pan-ic of Macabre (Worlds), Aughisky of Rivers (Junior Worlds), Wild's Morgenlys ó fjell (Agility), and Wild's Poulí o Aetós (Novus Worlds).  Junior ShowmanshipWe have a new event for y'all! This time it's a sim-based test for your juniors to compete in and show just how much they're meant for the ring. Check it out here. CGC & BST ChangesWe heard y'all loud and clear! CGC will no longer require health test results, but instead require dogs to be vaccinated through an approved service and have proof of this. Keep a lookout for services that offer these! We also want to announce that the Breed Stability Test (BST) will be closing as the Spring CGC is being hosted until the CGC Advanced is open. New Trial JudgesLet's give a warm welcome to our two new trial judges Deen and Amaranthine Kennel ! We're excited to welcome them to our team. We're working on some exciting things for y'all to participate in and work towards! As always, we'd love to hear any feedback on what you all would like to be added or changed, so feel free to message us! [/ul] |
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Post by Kaiser on May 21, 2022 20:59:31 GMT -6
21 May, 2022 - Group Clubs & Title Updates
[/b] You read right, Group Club applications are back and open! We've been working hard to figure out just what it is we'd like to see out of our Group Clubs and hope that everyone finds them to be an enriching part of the community as more progressively pop up. All leaders of these majors clubs will have a pretty big part in working alongside their respective Breed Clubs, in addition to the upcoming additional of Regional (RP) Clubs. If you are interested in running one of our open Groups, please be sure to visit our website to familiarize yourself with our application and the requirements that we'll expect out of leaders! For the first time ever, we will consider people running these by themselves but please be advised it is still heavily preferred for people to work together to run them! You can find the application on our main website, located here. Title UpdatesWe have launched a poll on the Discord regarding some possible new inclusions to titles as we start to work on adding more content! Please be sure to check it out and voice your opinion so we can do what the community as a whole is most interested in. [/ul] |
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Post by Kaiser on Jun 1, 2022 14:32:48 GMT -6
01 June, 2022 - Pride Month Festivities & New Additions
[/b] Hello, hello everyone and most happy tidings for Pride Month! As you might've noticed, events are starting to populate the forum with our annual festivities. You will notice that some of what we're offering is new. We have recently added the new event type and respective titles for Toss 'n Fetch! Check out the first official event, here, for more in-depth information and feel free to poke Admin, Kaiser , if you have any questions regarding this new season-based trial. As one small note, please ensure you speak with Admin before launching a league of your own as there is some additional criteria. Regional ClubsIn addition to having Group Clubs, we now have added the ability to own unique RP-based regional clubs that can govern a number of different things. These will be locked to a specific location, you can find an example here. Ultimately, every regional club will fall under the jurisdiction of one of the major Group Clubs, who will be responsible for approving their events and their frequency of hosting, titles offered, sub-clubs, and so on. Each regional club or its derivative must have a focus either on a specific breed or a specific event type. Events should be hosted in that country each time with limited exceptions! Regional clubs do not act in any official staff capacity and are primarily available to allow people to add compelling story opportunities as well as event-hosting privileges. In order to secure a Regional Club, please get in contact with our Admin team and inform us of your plans, in addition to which Group Club you would like to fall under. There is no formal application at this time as this is more of a discussion and very much roleplay based. Please do not ask for a club of the same location and purpose as one that's already been claimed unless there's extenuating circumstances!Gemstone TitlesThey are finally here and ready to go! A while ago, you might've noticed we poked and prodded the Feedback portion of our Discord for ideas on how we could continue to build upon our current Titling System. Between this and some of the suggestions we've received in our inboxes, we've come up with a whole slew of new titles to keep our system both challenging, fun, and long-lived! We would like to extend a personal thank you to our lovely community member, Deen , for coining the idea of using UKC's Gemstones. SIKC has added its own unique twists, of course, and it is our hope everyone will enjoy and appreciate the addition. Of course with anything new, there may be a bit of a trial and error period in which we tweak things. Please let us know in particular how everyone finds the Double, Triple, and Quad level title requirements as these are open to adjustments as needed. One new feature these titles bring is the addition of earning non-stackable titles to the line-up. Whenever you earn a Quad tier (earning the respective gemstone four times), you will be granted an extra set beyond the traditionally stacking CH -> BGCH and so on. Keep an Eye on ShopsThings may not be up right this moment but be sure to keep your eyes peeled on some of our official SIKC merchant shops as they add all sorts of new custom content! Some of it will likely be Pride themed for this month, but there will also be additions that can fit into your more day-to-day entries and activities within the community as well.[/ul] |
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Post by Kaiser on Oct 1, 2022 23:10:49 GMT -6
01 October, 2022 - SKA has moved!
If you might've noticed, SKA has been awfully quiet lately. Why? It has been undergoing a massive overhaul in preparation for it's brand new relaunch -- effective today! Much of the core pieces that made SKA unique still stand true today but they've been more fully fleshed out to create a more distinct kennel club from what it has been over the years. Over the next few days, you will see lots of new events, gifts, and so on appearing. With that said, you will start seeing SKA's influence around the SIKC forum begin to fade. The club is still fully affiliated with SIKC and it will continue to be as all of the people involved are still eager to bring our community fun, collaborative events such as our annual Pride celebrations. Without further ado, The new SKA FORUM // DISCORD |
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