Hello, Lovely Alacrites!

We had SO much news yesterday that I feel like we may have slipped one large point by you unintentionally. I just want to take a moment to clarify one thing and make sure you all saw the biggest (for some of you) news of yesterday's many news posts!

Larthan is our newest Trial Administrator! Some of you may be asking what "trial" means--this means that Larthan, while learning the ropes of the administrative job here on Alacrity, will also get to interact with all of you and you can form the special staff relationship with her that you experience with our current admins! Additionally, it means that she will have a moment to get a taste for the job and make sure that she likes it before continuing :) As always, if there are any concerns about this or anything that she (or ANY of the admins!) have done along her educational route, please don't hesitate to submit those concerns to the mod issue hub - ask for the concern to be bumped to admins.

Many of you may be asking WHY? Why was Larthan chosen? On the forefront, it seems that Larthan doesn't have much experience--I mean, she hasn't been a member of the staff on Alacrity yet, has she? No, this is true, but our ever loved site owner, Robyn, and Larthan have a LONG standing professional relationship with Rob's previous sims. Along with being a long time member, this makes Larthan uniquely qualified to handle issues on Alacrity! For this reason, she has been chosen to help with the overwhelming number of administrative issues we must address each day <3 I hope you all welcome her as warmly as she deserves!

We are all dedicated to providing you with the best game play possible! We appreciate your continued support and kind words :)

With all of our hearts,
The Alacrity Staff <3

Okay. XD~

Today we had a little blip on Ala. >.>; Anyone who had ever trialled got a bunch of messages saying that a trial they had entered was cancelled. The reason is as follows:

Robyn asked me to auto-expire trials that are unrun and had been waiting for entries in the past week. Unfortunately instead of only selecting unrun trials it selected ones that had run from.. Well, the beginning of Ala.... and decided to mark them as cancelled and refund everyone. x3

So this was MY FAULT guys, and I'm sorry!! This is fixed for future occurances so UNRUN trials that haven't run in a week WILL expire like this in future. Just not trials that have already run, LOL

This is now fixed:
* Instead of an entire rollback of the site like I toyed with, I am fixing it all by hand instead.
* I mass-deleted all of the "Trial Cancelled!" messages so you don't have to.
* I deleted all of the user log notices saying a trial your dog entered was cancelled.
* Alongside these, I used the user log notices to find out how much money was given out, and then took it back from your account. That's because it's officially classed as "glitch" money. As a note, it can't take more than what was given. But if you think something went drastically wrong, please don't comment here, IM or post on the boards. Submit an issue to the bug department of the issue hub.

What else this means:
* Some people could end up with negative amounts on hand. This means you probably spent some of the glitch money before I took it back!
* The recent 30 day agility placings won't show up but your new ones will, so don't worry there.

I'll update this post when I'm done reversing money.

<3 Kitty

Hello all you lovely people out there! The Admin's and Artists have come up with a FANTASTIC idea for you guys to enjoy!


Custom Dog Marking Auction
**Two Week Auction**

Have you ever wanted to add a special marking to a dog? Think that white marking would be soooo much better if it had a little more coverage? Or maybe you think a cool permanent purple marking would be awesome that wasn't considered a glitch? Well, guess what?? Now you can have it!

Design your OWN marking for the breed of your choice on Alacrity. This has NO limits! These markings can be in the secondary, tan, or white category and can be absolutely anything you want. You can spell out your own name on the dog, and have it pass down to the pups!

The winning bidder will be able to have their design added to the site, as a selectable marking available to all, you can be as creative as you want to be!


Good luck to everyone!


**Post Bids Here**

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Yay! More exciting news!

The Robyn's Wedding Bundle donation promotion has been extended until September 10th! There will still be the new donation item release, so here's how that will work: a $25 - $39 donation will receive the new donation item (a lion cub plush!) and a $40+ donation will receive the Robyn wedding bundle! Additionally, the traditionally colored wedding items will be available in the Cash Boutique for a little while longer :) Items in the Cash Boutique rotate in and out, so if you don't see it - come back in a little bit!

Australian Puppy images are here! Yay for adorable little fluff-balls! Thank you, Xylax, for all of your hard work on these adorable pups! Everybody please be patient while accessory art is created for these beautiful babies.

Finally, September items are here! Our wonderful art team worked tirelessly for this awesome Africa Theme! Be sure to take a trip on over to the Monthly Shop to peruse the beautiful new items. Items and their respective artists are as follows:
Monthly Shop:
Young Striped Hyena (Xylax)
Young Brown Hyena (Xylax)
Young Spotted Hyena (Xylax)
African Wild Dog (random event, Xylax)
African Drought Background (Xylax)
Savannah Rain Background (Xylax)
Bleached Bones (Xylax)
Rhino Plush (Xylax)
African Waterhole (Xylax)
Spring Hare Plush (Nyctra)
Black Backed Jackal Plush (Nyctra)
Flamingo (Moriarty)
Long Tailed Paradise Whydah (Moriarty)
African Mapwing Butterfly (Wysper)
African Wild Grass (Wysper)
Rhino Beetle (Wysper)
Young Defensive Aardwolf (linework = Carni, colors = Kittybot)
African Sunset Background (Xylax & Kittybot collab)
African Theme Banner (Kittybot)
Zulu Shield (Carni)
Zulu Grass Legbands (Carni)
Lion Cub Plush (donation item, Carni)

Main Shops:
Alleyway Background (Xylax)
Scattered Trash (Xylax)
Armadillo Plush (Xylax)
Gold Studded Harness (Xylax)
Silver Studded Harness (Xylax)
Raccoon Dye (Nyctra)
Ant Hill (Wysper)
Pink, White, Blue, and Yellow Roses (Kittybot)
Puppy Plush Toy (Kittybot)
Back Yard Background (Deranged Hyena)

Please give a big welcome to our newest artist, Deranged Hyena #11650 who is currently in their trial period to become an official member of the art team here at Alacrity! We've also brought back GeistNoir #4246, who has done excellent work for us in the past, and will be our emergency/consultant artist helping everyone on the team with redlines as well as making his own contributions to the site when only his skills will do! We're very excited about our new members and hope they will enjoy themselves doing work for the site!

Aaaand, one final update to sneak in! Everybody please congratulate our newest trial admin, Larthan! :D