I agree. It's almost like Shadow's trying to enforce his own rules, ones outside the Naruto world, just to further his cause.
@Bocchiere: Problem with that is that if I were to create my custom, animal summoning, and let it hold its contract. Other people could just say that they "somehow" found a way to meet my summoning, and that it allowed them to summon it.
These rules are open to modification by the community. In no way are they going to be enforced by me alone.
I don't like to think that either, but in this case I have to see it that way.
Snakes, slugs, and toads are all on the same level. In which you and Kage say one contract claims them all then all sage mode users would need to sign a contract. However that is not enforced and anyone can have. I'd like to be able to have all contracts free to everyone.
I already have snakes from Kayenta, I just need to be trained by Zanto. I no longer need to fight this battle, but I will cause I feel that it's hypocritical that one sage mode is free and the others aren't.
I'm off for a bit ~
Toad sage mode, for all intensive purposes, is free because those who do have contract with it have not bothered trying to do otherwise. Their reasons vary from it's an in-game reset to laziness, but all the same, they choose not to heavily try to enforce who signed what as far as toads are concerned.
Most of the rest are not like that, and do enforce who does and who does not have the contract. Some more liberally than others.
The in-game reset -as I see it- are the level at which your char is at on their way to sage mode. 3rd reset is when you can finally start using imperfect sage mode, and so on and so forth. The fact that it is toads is in line with the Naruto vs Pain time period of the series.
Similarly, custom dojutsu tended to have to be backed by in-game eye technique resets. For obvious reasons, as time dragged on and the sharingan got more powerful, custom dojutsu almost became pointless in the face of such competition.
In short, the resets are more like frames of reference for advancements, custom or canon, not the definite. You do not have to RP sharingan even if you reset into it; some folks even would interchange it for byakugan, which is totally accepted by some folks.
Community? Look around. You will only see 8 people here at most. Any rp rules here will never be official. So just go ahead, and claim snake sage if you wish. I won't stop you. Your judges will be the rest of the 100-something members of SL that you'll encounter in rp. They'll either accept you or void you.
As such, the rules are about as official as folks on SL make them. Even if there are only eight people here putting their input in, if SL people accept it, it is about as "official" as it gets in practice.