General questions

• Q: How does this work anyway?
• A: It’s actually quite simple. Subscribers click the kiosk and register for a channel. Content creators register for a channel and set up a free sample in a dropbox. Every day, the system creates new, unique random creator-subscriber-channel records and marks them unfilled — there can only be one record like that ever. A random designer is picked for every subscription individually, so while every subscriber will eventually get a sample from every designer, the order the samples will arrive in is completely random and different for everyone. The dropboxes check in with the server every few hours and ask if there’s any pending deliveries. The server gives them a list of pending deliveries and marks these deliveries as filled in the database. Dropboxes actually perform the deliveries.

1: Subscrition, 2: Content creator registration, 3: Dropbox, 4: Pending transaction, 5: Executed transaction.

Content creator questions

• Q: I’m getting a certificate error when trying to log into the designer interface, what’s wrong?
• A: Nothing. We cannot, at the moment, afford a certificate from a more supported authority (These things cost money and take days) so we’re using the CAcert service, which is still better than a self-signed certificate. Please visit their site for instructions on how to get their root certificate and install it into your browser.

• Q: What do I do if I need to move the dropbox to another sim?
• A: Taking it offline first will ensure minimum snags and that it’s location is up to date in the web interface, but otherwise, when it reregisters in the system to handle a channel, it will knock out whatever dropbox was registered for this channel previously, so it’s not much of a problem. Just try to avoid doing that when it’s busy — if you catch it working, wait a few minutes after it stops to be sure.

• Q: Does my free sample have to be a full product, or a demo version will do?
• A: It is your call entirely, but according to the rules, it must be something that you have made yourself. People offering services are also allowed to participate just like everyone else, and they can often send nothing but a bunch of notecards in their package — well, maybe a gift coupon. Technically, you could just send a landmark, however, imagine how interested would a subscriber be if yesterday they got a full product and today it’s just a landmark in your box. And if they don’t get interested, they don’t come. You only get one chance to impress a single potential customer, don’t waste it. If you think you can impress them with a demo version, you’re welcome to try, but it’s unlikely you will succeed. In fact, here’s an interesting tactic for you: Pick suitable items from your normal for-sale range, and only keep them in the dropbox for a few days at most. This way, potential profit losses are minimal, since only a limited number of randomly picked subscribers gets them, and they cannot get them in any other way. Should they come to your shop and buy something else, you win. Should they blog about or otherwise recommend the item they have received in this manner, people who come to you from residual exposure wanting the item will have to pay you, so you still win.

• Q: What is that mention of a running charge I see? Will you wait until enough people buy in and then slap them with a monthly rate?
• A: We definitely won’t do anything of the sort and the rules are written clearly expressing that, but we anticipate that eventually server upgrades will be required. To only connect one content creator to one subscriber in one channel and never do it again, the server needs to keep records of every connection ever made. Even though only N of them get made every day, where N is the number of subscribers in each channel, they get made every day. They will pile up, and pile up rather fast, and once the subscribers number into thousands, the total number of possible records reaches millions. That is hundreds megabytes of database storage, but storage is not a problem. Memory required to shuffle these records every day kind of is, and it will eventually run out and slow the system to a crawl. We estimate that this server will be capable of chewing the records for about six months with no significant snags, but you know what happens to the best laid plans of mice and avatars — it could be more than six months, it could be less, and it’s hard to tell. In any event, should the running charge be instituted, it will be suitably small — the usefullness of the network to improve Second Life in general directly depends on how many designers can afford it.

Subscriber Questions

• Q: I received this awesome sample today, but my friend who subscribed to the same channel received something completely different. Is this an error?
• A: The network creates random subscriber/creator pairs each day for every single transaction. There is no “creator of the day” who’s samples get sent to all subscribers. Instead, the system tries to cover as much creators as possible with the daily transactions. Provided the designer does not change their sample, your friend might receive the item tomorrow, next week, or even in a couple of months. They are guaranteed to be sent a sample from that designer eventually, unless the designer pulls out of the system, but there’s no guarantee they will receive the same one, as the designer may change it at any time.

• Q: I did not receive a sample today. What went wrong?
• A: It may so happen that you have received all possible items from this channel already — which is currently possible for a few of the channels. In that case, you will only receive a new item in it when a new content creator signs up for that channel. In any case, we would like to refer to the rules and point out that you are not entitled in any way to receive an item.

• Q: I have received an offline IM telling me about an item, but no actual item. Where is it?
• A: Sometimes, offline deliveries get stuck within SL. Try logging out and back in again. In extreme cases, it might take many logins for the offline queue to show. In cases when your offline message delivery actually gets capped, SL sends you an instant message notifying you of this and the items should appear in your inventory anyway, though sometimes they do not. If you were actually online and in “Busy” mode while the sample was sent, the item is likewise irrevocably lost. As with all other remote delivery systems, we cannot possibly be more reliable than the underlying mechanisms of Second Life itself. There is a Redelivery Terminal system in the Clever Things main shop in Takalo which you can use to request redelivery of the samples, though there are some restrictions — you can only request redelivery of the samples sent in the last 24 hours and you can only do that once per day.

• Q: My friend received a sample yesterday and it is cool. Today I received a sample from the same designer, but it is something completely different. Why did this happen and can I have the old one as well?
• A: This happens if the content creator has changed the sample since yesterday’s delivery. There is no way for the network or the DSN team to reinitiate a delivery of an item that is no longer in a dropbox. Why don’t you visit the designer’s shop and see if the old sample is available for sale? If it is not, politely asking them if they would sell it to you might have the desired effect as well.

• Q: I’m planning to go on a vacation, and won’t be able to log in during that time, so my deliveries will inevitably get capped. Should I unsubscribe for that vacation?
• A: Yes. When you unsubscribe, the network remembers which designer’s samples you have already received and will not send them to you a second time when you subscribe again, so you can continue exactly from where you left off. You can unsubscribe using any of the kiosks all over SL — selecting a channel you are already subscribed to will unsubscribe you from it. In case you have subscribed to the Adult Content channel, you will need to find an adult kiosk to unsubscribe from that channel.