Dragon Share

[center]I was reading through the forums, and the question struck me: What makes a subspecies official? A thread? Popularity or publicity? Defined qualifiers? Advertisement? Buttons? Breeding pairs? A discord server? Maybe a registry? The whole subspecies thing is really cool, don't get me wrong - I have a number of subspecies dragons myself (the Hive, the Creep, Chernobite, Quetzalcoatl, Raptors Reborn) - but it always confused me a bit. Is there some sort of 'transition' between a subspecies becoming 'official', or is that terminology just a moot point? It also makes me wonder about the state of my personal subspecies, Radiation Monsters. I made it as a lore-based subspecies that could tie all of my nuclear-themed dragons together into one cohesive lore subsect, while still retaining qualifying factors. It's one I debated 'opening' to the public, but decided to keep private after I came to the conclusion that there are very few here interested in the true nuclear/radiation sort of things. I even had a budding history and a few gene interpretations, too XD For my part of the dragon sharing, here are the said dragons in question. [url=http://flightrising.com/main.php?dragon=24502822] [img]http://flightrising.com/rendern/350/245029/24502822_350.png[/img] [/url] [url=http://flightrising.com/main.php?dragon=36733541] [img]http://flightrising.com/rendern/350/367336/36733541_350.png[/img] [/url] [url=http://flightrising.com/main.php?dragon=47477967] [img]http://flightrising.com/rendern/350/474780/47477967_350.png[/img] [/url] -- [url=http://flightrising.com/main.php?dragon=53357611][img]http://flightrising.com/rendern/avatars/533577/53357611.png[/img][/url][url=http://flightrising.com/main.php?dragon=53337061][img]http://flightrising.com/rendern/avatars/533371/53337061.png[/img][/url] [url=http://flightrising.com/main.php?dragon=39127768][img]http://flightrising.com/rendern/avatars/391278/39127768.png[/img][/url][url=http://flightrising.com/main.php?dragon=44238047][img]http://flightrising.com/rendern/avatars/442381/44238047.png[/img][/url][url=http://flightrising.com/main.php?dragon=37044584][img]http://flightrising.com/rendern/avatars/370446/37044584.png[/img][/url] [url=http://flightrising.com/main.php?dragon=48437516][img]http://flightrising.com/rendern/avatars/484376/48437516.png[/img][/url][url=http://flightrising.com/main.php?dragon=52125919][img]http://flightrising.com/rendern/avatars/521260/52125919.png[/img][/url] So, is my 'subspecies' considered unofficial because I don't have a thread, public qualifications, or any sort of public background for it? Or is every subspecies official, but simply vary in popularity? Keeping in the spirit, I want to hear your thoughts, and see some lesser known subspecies dragons. They don't have to be 'official' ones, they can be ones you thought of/toyed with yourself! I want to see cool subspecies c:

I've been kinda thinking about a subspecies but it's like barebones at the moment. I got the idea since one of my pairs gives pretty consistently colored hatchlings with small variations but I have no clue where to take it. These are what the hatchlings look like, and they're split fairly evenly between Mirrors and Ridgebacks: [url=http://flightrising.com/main.php?dragon=52934543] [img]http://flightrising.com/rendern/350/529346/52934543_350.png[/img] [/url] [url=http://flightrising.com/main.php?dragon=53513965] [img]http://flightrising.com/rendern/350/535140/53513965_350.png[/img] [/url] [url=http://flightrising.com/main.php?dragon=53513966] [img]http://flightrising.com/rendern/350/535140/53513966_350.png[/img] [/url] (I've already sold one to someone and they seemed to like the color/gene combo)

@ahzidal a subspecies can be considered official if it’s got clear lore and clear gene / colour standards. Often it’s also registered with a flight subspecies hub, but usually only if it’s actually associated with a flight. All-flight subspecies are a bit more vague but otherwise if it’s part of the hub it’s official.

@FelinaeFatale
Interesting, thank you for sharing that. I thought it was something along those lines - I've seen enough subspecies threads through the years to notice a trend. This opens another question: what's the real difference between an official subspecies and an unofficial one? I'm not expecting you in particular to answer this lmao, I was just thinking beyond. Are official subspecies held as more credible than unofficial ones?

@ahzidal
I know there is a Subspecies Guide in the Guide section of the forums that people will register all manner of subspecies with (especially helpful for subspecies that are all-flights, like mine, that don't have a particular flight hub to register with).
I believe the idea behind "official" is that there are generally more people involved with the upkeep of the subspecies itself, and that there is less chance to the subspecies to die out/ become obsolete if there is a measured interest in keeping the subspecies going, whereas an "unofficial" one might be more liable to start up and die off fairly quickly.

@ahzidal mainly how accessible it is I think. Can anyone hop in and participate, or is it just a personal thing? Is it being updated and maintained?

@contagioushazard
I see. Yeah, that would definitely impact it heheh
A couple of the subspecies I own ended up dying out, but I'm not sure if it was a lack of general interest, a lack of thread traffic, or both. Makes me wonder now :thonk:

@FelinaeFatale
So a subspecies must keep relevance, like being updated every time a new gene or breed comes out. Makes sense. I've also seen subspecies die out because they were too complex or hard to understand. Gotta be engaging and user-friendly, huh?