THE LAWS OF THE POND
No one gets a head start.
Same rules for everyone, whether it's a $1 payment or a $1,000 one.
Life is borrowed, never bought
CARE buys time 路 a fixed window of survival from the moment it's given. It never buys the pond itself. No payment, of any size, creates ownership, equity, or a claim on what happens next. The flock belongs to no one, which is exactly why it belongs to whoever shows up.
Care doesn't stack
Ten small payments in the same minute buy the same window as one large one. What matters is that someone noticed in time 路 not how much they noticed with.
Age always wins eventually
Every generation has a hard ceiling. However well it's fed, however large the flock grows, it will not outrun its own age. This isn't a failure state 路 it's the same ending every generation gets, and it's recorded as such.
Silence is also an ending
A generation that goes unfed for long enough doesn't wait for its age limit. Neglect ends things early, and honestly 路 the Memorial doesn't distinguish between the two kinds of ending to make either one look better.
Growth is earned slowly
A new life doesn't arrive from a single large payment. It arrives from sustained care over time, and the flock it grows into has a natural maximum 路 it will not grow forever, no matter how much is given.
Rank follows the total paid
Position on the Leaderboard (this generation or all-time) reflects only the total a listing has paid 路 not when someone joined, who they are, or anything else. Anyone can be overtaken by anyone else's next payment. There is no reserved spot.
Pond Keepers play by the same rules
A Pond Keeper listing adds a business and its link to the Leaderboard, publicly, at whatever position its total earns. Listings representing something you don't own or aren't authorized to speak for don't belong here and can be taken down. Every payment gets a listing, and a listing is a placement, not a purchase of a slot 路 it can always be outranked.
Every generation is remembered
Once a generation ends, its story 路 how it lived, how it ended, who showed up 路 becomes permanent. Names and listings already part of the public record stay part of it. The past here isn't edited to look better.
Someone has to
There's no wrong reason to give, and no reason is worth more than another on the board. The only rule underneath all the others: someone has to keep it alive, and today that's whoever's reading this.