What is a Cyberpet?

Cyberpets are very popular among people creating homepages and personal web sites. A cyberpet is usually a graphic image of an animal (and sometimes a plant, mythical creature or even a rock or mineral) with a name, history and background. The concept is that you are actually adopting this make-believe creature for your own and adding it to your web site. 

It's intended to be fun, and it more or less a social, sharing, creative thing. Some people like to create cyberpets, and others like to collect them. Many are fascinated with the stories and histories of their pets, and if these are missing they will create their own.

What you need to collect cyberpets

You need a web site - In order to collect cyberpets, you certainly need a web site. While you can download them to your own hard drive, that's not really what they are intended for. A cyberpet is a creation of love by someone, and it's meant to be seen and admired. It should be displayed lovingly on a web page.

Patience - Searching the internet for cyberpets can be a real blast. It can also be tedious and time consuming. This is because many cyberpet sites are not listed well in search engines. The sites are created by amateur webmasters who know nothing about how to get listed in search engines (and who really don't care). What they usually want to do is create something of beauty to share with others. So it can be a challenge to find these sites. But the payoff is when you find a good one - that is a lot of fun.

Have fun - Collecting and creating cyberpets is a lot of fun. Enjoy yourself and don't take it all too seriously.

Some of the Rules

Read the rules - Most cyberpet adoption sites post rules, which state the conditions under which a cyberpet may be taken for use. Read these rules before taking or asking for a cyberpet.

Follow the rules - These "creatures" were not created by you. Quite often a single cyberpet will require hours of labor to create, and when you consider that some sites have hundreds of them you can see how much work is involved These pets are being given to you based upon the understanding that you will follow the requested terms and conditions. Please do so.

Link back - Always (even if not requested to do so) provide a link back to the adoption site. Generally these sites will include a plaque or other graphic image which can be linked.

Respect copyright - Remember that cyperpets are creations and are protected by copyright laws. Don't steal them, and don't modify them and give them away as your own. This violates copyright laws.

Don't give away other people's cyperpets in your own adoption center - Virtually no cyperpet creator will allow this, and it's considered very rude to give away other people's creations (whether cited or not) on your site. Refer people to their site instead.

Don't steal bandwidth - Regardless of whether or not it's mentioned or allowed, download all cyperpet images to your own web site and load the images from there. Loading cyperpet images from other web sites is called bandwidth stealing, and it's the same as stealing money from the other webmaster (bandwidth costs money).

Don't modify the cyperpets - These are the creations of an individual. Don't modify them under any conditions. If you want to make cyperpets, then make your own.

Don't use other people's cyperpets in tubes, banners and collections - Again, this is not what these creatures are intended for. You can post cyperpets on your website, you can write stories about them if you want, but don't make them into tubes, don't include them in banners and don't give away collections of cyperpets on your web site (or by email or anything else).