Announcing the Monthly Character Showcase

[rhombus]

Beginning on February 1, 2019 we will be trying something new on the forum to celebrate our favorite Land Before Time characters – a character showcase!    Each month one of the major Land Before Time characters will be showcased on the forum’s news header, will be featured in our active topic buttons, and will have a special showcase topic dedicated to them.

These showcase topics are not meant to be overly formal matters but rather are supposed to be open for fanworks and discussion about these characters.  That being said there are some basic rules for posting in these topics that will be enforced to keep things moving smoothly:


Rules:
1.Within each showcase topic, people can discuss the characters, post fanart of them, or post short fanfics concerning them.

2. To prevent the topic from being overburdened with long posts, any fanfic concerning the featured character should either be limited to less than 1500 words, or, if the story is longer than that, you should host it on a fanfiction hosting site and link it here with a brief description of the story. 

3. There will be no set contest for the resulting fanfics and fanart in the showcase topic (this is just for fun), but they can be cross-submitted to the respective prompt challenges if they also qualify for the active monthly prompt for that challenge. For details on those challenges, and to check what the requirements for those are, you can find the fanfic prompt challenge rules here, and the fanart prompt challenge page here. Also, regardless of qualification, the resulting showcase fanfics will be added to the fanfic prompt challenge masterlist as an addendum so that they can be recorded for posterity.

4. The showcase topic will not prevent the discussion of other characters elsewhere in the forum, but the discussion and fanworks in the showcase topic should be limited to the featured character.

5. And, of course, the usual forum rules shall apply.


Schedule:
The schedule for showcase topics this year shall be as follows:
February 2019: Littlefoot 
March 2019: Cera 
April 2019: Ducky 
May 2019: Guido 
June 2019: Petrie 
July 2019: Spike 
August 2019: Shorty (What? No Shorty emotes?  )
September 2019: Chomper 
October 2019: Ruby 
November 2019: Ali 

We look forward to seeing what everyone comes up with in this new feature of the forum.  If you have any questions feel free to leave a message in this topic and we will get back to you as soon as possible.

Edit by Mumbling: added links to existing Character Showcase topics.

[Sneak]

No Mo? :O
No Tinysaures?

No Rhett and Yellowbellies? XD

and the most important: Where is Sharptooth?
You're brave enough to not include him...

[rhombus]

No Mo? :O
No Tinysaures?

No Rhett and Yellowbellies? XD

and the most important: Where is Sharptooth?
You're brave enough to not include him...

Not this year, though those are possibilities for subsequent years if this ends up being a success. For any given year we could have 7 months dedicated to the Gang of Seven and five months for other characters.

[The Chronicler]

Now a couple days into the first feature month, and the active topic icons do not reflect the featured character. Is it just taking longer than expected to get that started, or have you simply forgotten about that being part of the monthly featured characters you just promised?

[rhombus]

Now a couple days into the first feature month, and the active topic icons do not reflect the featured character. Is it just taking longer than expected to get that started, or have you simply forgotten about that being part of the monthly featured characters you just promised?

We are actually in the process of trying to figure out how to change those icons.  Unfortunately it is not as straightforward as it was with Invisionfree or Zetaboards.

Update: Thanks to James the new icons are now up.  The process should go more smoothly in future months. If you are not seeing the new Littlefoot icons then you may need to clear your browser's cache.

[OwlsCantRead]

Hey! I saw this mentioned first on Discord, but this is sweet! By any chance, was the order decided arbitrarily or is there a specific reason why a certain dinosaur is tied to a specific month?

[rhombus]

Hey! I saw this mentioned first on Discord, but this is sweet! By any chance, was the order decided arbitrarily or is there a specific reason why a certain dinosaur is tied to a specific month?

That's a good question.  We actually separated them somewhat randomly so as to have some alternation between major characters and secondary characters month to month.

[Vojeds]

I cant wait for September
 

[Mumbling]

I cant wait for September
 

Guessing Chomper is your favorite character?

[Sneak]

My favorite month was February.

Now I can't wait when month of Sharptooth and then month of Littlefoot's mother comes.


(hey, psst! What about Sharptooth eats Spike and comes this July instead? *evil Sharptooth's smile from future emotions challenge*)

[Anagnos]

What a happy coincidence that the month I was born features my favorite character of all time, Ruby. 

[Sneak]

So, what's new year's schedule?

What characters?

I guess constant characters are first. Grandma and Grandpa Longneck, Topps, Tria, Tricia, Petrie's mom, Ducky's mom, Thicknose.

Then gold couple from original movie: Littlefoot's mother and Sharptooth (not THAT kind of couple  they are trying to rip each others' throats)

Then major guest appearances? Doc, Mo, Bron, Bullies trio reappeared later. Then comes Pterano, Etta, Tinysaurs, Yellowbwllies, and others...

[UnionRags123]

When they eventually get a showcase...will Grandma and Grandpa Longneck share a showcase month? 

[rhombus]

Don't worry, guys, we will have an explanatory post up in the near-future.