DoA Anniversary and COVID-19

Hello DoA members!

As Den of Angels' 16th Anniversary is this August, the mod team has unfortunately decided that we will need to cancel our celebrations for this year.

This is regrettable for us all, but sadly, the global COVID-19 pandemic has effected our hobby a lot this year. We cannot in good conscience ask doll companies and artisans to donate prizes to us this year.
Many of them have been impacted financially this year as a result of various issues hindering work and sales, and donating prizes would be an unnecessary strain and burden for them at this time.

Additionally, staff availability and scheduling issues mean that the mod team would not be well-equipped to organize bigger contests, even if pandemic concerns were not the case. Due to staff availability, we will not be hosting the usual event chat.

So instead of our normal contests and challenges, we would like to introduce some new and different threads for our members this year.

--Pay It Forward--
We will have a thread where members can share BJD related giveaways or free item offers offsite.
This will be replacing our Adopt a Newbie event this year - members can decide the specifics and any rules and requirements for their giveaways. The exceptions are: no recasts, bootlegs, or other counterfeit items should be given away.
[DoA moderators are not responsible for member-run giveaway prizes, results, nor how they are run]

--Artist Promotion--
There will be a thread where BJD artists and craftspeople may make a post specifically for the purposes of self-promotion. This is the one time and place that we will allow any kind of self-promotion outside of the Marketplace.
[Any transactions started from this thread should be taken off-site]

We will also have a few Just for Fun threads and challenges themed around Sweet 16! Keep an eye out for those!

We know that these threads and discussions are not really a good replacement for our challenges and full-on contests of previous years, but we do hope that everyone will still find something to enjoy.

Best wishes, from the whole DoA staff!