The concept of DSN seems hard to grasp for some people. The recent comparison to the Subscribe-o-Matic system, as wrong as a comparison could actually be, showed the need for a simple explanation. So Rika and myself had some fun with the wonderful sculpted noob avatars, and here we go:

This is where it starts

In our little example we have two content creators – Rika on the left and yours truly on the right – who have freshly joined the network. Each of us has their dropbox ready and the sample in. And the huge number of subscribers – in this sample the white newbie avatars – wait eagerly for our respective samples.

First samples sent out

The next DSN cycle at 5am UTC the next time randomly selects a number of subscribers to receive our samples. Then Rika’s dropbox sends the sample to the red recipients, and my dropbox sends the sample to the blue recipients. Please note: since every recipient only gets a maximum of one sample per channel a day, none of the subscribers get both Rika and my sample (from the same channel). One fraction gets Rika’s, the other fraction gets my sample.

Now some avatars have a sample already

Next day, next cycle. The grey avatars have received a sample the previous day already, so new recipients will be chosen.

Important to note:

• An avatar who has received the sample of a specific designer already will never receive a sample from that designer again!
• For the sake of the tutorial completely new avatars have been chosen. In reality avatars who have received Rika’s sample the day before could very well receive my sample today.

Even more samples sent

This cycle repeast daily. New recipients get chosen among the ones who have not yet received a gift. That way, a content creator gets daily and continuous exposure to potential new clients, and subscribers will meet a whole variety of content creators.

Questions and answers

Question: Will this ever run out?

Answer: In the hypothetical case that no new subscribers and no new content creators sign up, then eventually all subscribers will have received all samples from all content creators. As soon as one single new subscriber joins the network, they will start to receive daily samples. As soon as one new content creator joins the network, existing subscribers will receive items again.

Question: I saw that gorgeous skin on that freebie blog, but I did not receive it. What went wrong?

Answer: If you did not receive it today, you might receive it tomorrow, or next Tuesday, or Friday in three months. There is no way to tell when you will receive the item.

Question: The freebie blog said I should use the redelivery terminal if I did not get it?

Answer: We are sorry to say, but this advice stems from a fundamental misunderstanding of how the system works. Requesting a redelivery will only attribute to the samples you got that very day. If the skin designer was not among them, you will not be able te get a redelivery of the sample.

Question: So nothing I can do about this skin?

Answer: Why don’t you visit the shop where the sample came from? We encourage content creators to submit regular items to the DSN – chances are good the skin is for sale in the shop.

Question: But this does sound a lot like the subscribe-o-matic system?

Answer: Not at all. The only similarity is that objects are sent in an automated way. A subscribe-o-matic is owned by a specific desgner, and once this designer decides to send something out, it is sent to all subscribers at once.  In most cases subscribers can also access a past history of deliveries from any of the subscribe-o-matic kiosks.  And finally designers can specifically remove recipients from the system With the DSN, a participating designer has no influence on who gets a sample and the date someone gets a sample. While a designer can see each day who got a delivery, there is no way a designer can determine or even influence who will get one next – or when. Also a designer can not remove any recipients by themselves.