Save the date: The Femdom Hunt VI dance

As usually happens the opening weekend of The Femdom Hunt coincides with the regular fortnightly Raven Park dance. So, once again, we're turning the dance into a celebration of the start of The Femdom Hunt.

Everyone is invited to join us in the Raven Park Mansion ballroom, to come and enjoy a great selection of music provided by Miss Eve, and to come and enjoy what should be a pretty simple theme.

That theme?

We're going back to the first Femdom Hunt dance and going with:

Femdom

Yup, that simple. Join us dressed in anyway way that lets you express that theme.

Here's the details:

Date: Saturday October 17th

Time: 3pm to 5pm SLT

Where: Raven Park
Music by: Eve Terr

How To: Set the hint in your hunt sign

By now everyone will have their v2.0 sign out and visible at their locations. You've probably already noticed that the main difference between the v1.0 and v2.0 sign is that there's some hover text that is designed to show the hint for your location.

At some point soon you'll be wanting to set your hint. What you set it to is, of course, up to you. You can make it nice and easy, or you can make it rather tricky. It really depends on just how hard you want to make it for the hunters who come to your location. No matter what you decide to do in that regard, you'll need to set the hint so that it shows on the board -- here's how to do it:

Right click on the sign and select "Edit" from the menu. This will give you the usual edit dialog:

Now select the content tab in the edit dialog. You'll get a list of all the items that live inside the sign:

At the top of the list you should see a notecard called Hint. Double-click on this to open it so you can edit it:

At this point you want to delete the text that's in there (by default it says "All will be revealed by October 16th") and replace it with your hint. Please note that the hint can be multiple lines so, if you really do feel the urge to pen a poem or something similar, you can -- we'd advise not making the hint too long though (if only because you can only have so much text in hover text).

Once you've made your change hit the Save button.

Once saved you can close the notecard. When you do you should find that the text you wrote in the notecard is now hovering above the shoe that is on the face of the sign.

Congratulations: the hint is set.

PS: If you intend to use your own hint-giver (we appreciate that very large locations often use them) can you please set the hint on our board to say that? This is a great clue to the hunters that they need to look there. It also means that it doesn't look like you forgot to set a hint.

Reminder: Second walk-through is tomorrow

Just a little reminder that the second walk-through is happening tomorrow. At some point during tomorrow we'll be taking a walk through your location and looking for the following:

1. Version 2.0 of the hunt sign on display at your landing point.
2. Your hunt object (the shoe) rezzed out with the sign.

Please remember: you don't need to do anything with the shoe yet. Please don't go putting your hunt gift inside it, the hunt doesn't start until next week. This is just our way of making sure that everyone got their shoe, that they still have it, that everyone got sent the right one and that the landmark inside it is correct and still working.

It's a great way for us to check that we got things right and you're all still out there. ;)

Also, please keep in mind that we're just over a week off the start of the hunt. If you have a group that is associated with your Femdom location or store, now might be a great time to start promoting the hunt. If you have a blog, now would be a good time to write about it there. If you know of any related groups or blogs that would welcome information on the hunt please feel free to pass them a copy of the publicity pack (if you lost your copy please let Antony Fairport know and he'll drop you another copy -- a copy was included in the update pack you recently received).

Also, don't forget: this hunt is designed as a circular hunt. The last shoe contains a landmark to the first. We fully encourage you to encourage people associated with your Femdom or store to treat your location as the start location. Do keep that in mind when promoting the hunt.

Oh, yes, and now's a good time to be getting your build/creation done if you've not done so already. ;-)

As always, if you have any questions about the hunt, no matter how small or simple, please don't hesitate to contact us. We'll do everything we can to help.

TFHVI: This year's shoe

Each Femdom Hunt has used the same hunt object: a shoe. While the shape of the shoe has remained the same we've always textured it a little different each time. For The Femdom Hunt VI we felt it was high time that we retired the original sculpt-based shoe and started afresh with mesh.

So, this year, you'll be hunting for a brand new shoe that was made specially for the hunt by Reven Rosca of Meshopotamia.

We think that it's a great "reboot" of the original Femdom Hunt shoe, used back in 2011. Many thanks to Reven for the work she did on this. Please do take a look at her shop; these days there are even full-perm shoes for a well-known mesh foot brand available.

TFHVI: What happens next

Now that the first walk-through has taken place, this is a good time for us to outline what'll happen next in the hunt, how the gift will be packaged and hidden, who's responsible for what, etc.

Over the next couple of weeks, here's what'll happen:

• Before the end of the weekend (the 4th October) you'll receive v2.0 of the hunt sign. This is a version that will let you set and display your hint -- there will be a post early next week that details how you set the hint (don't worry, you don't need to decide your hiding location or hint just yet).
• No later than Tuesday (October 6th) you'll receive an update pack. Please watch out for it and please let us know if you haven't received it. If you don't have it by Wednesday 7th, and we've not put out a note to say there's been a delay (there shouldn't be, but you know how SL and RL can be), let us know. This update pack will include your hunt object (the shoe -- this is the object your gift will be placed in and which you'll hide) and some items that will help you publicise the hunt.
• The hunt object (the shoe) will be pre-named for you and will have a script and a landmark inside it. Please do not change either of these things. The name is set so that hunters can easily organise the folders they'll receive from your object when they hunt. The landmark inside the shoe is the landmark for the next location in the hunt after you (in earlier hunts we've had a couple of people "fix" the landmark because it was "wrong", doing this will break the chain of the hunt so, if you think there is a problem with the landmark, please contact us first).
• On or after October 8th we'll be doing a second walk-through. We'll be expecting to see that you've replaced v1.0 of the hunt sign with v2.0. We will also be expecting to see the hunt object (the shoe) rezzed near the sign so we can see it. Do not put your gift inside it yet. We just want to see it so we can be sure that you've received it. It also lets us double-check that we sent you the correct shoe and that it has the correct landmark inside it.
• After that the next key date is October 15th, the evening before the hunt starts. By this time we require that you've built your gift and have placed it inside the hunt object. The hunt object itself should then be hidden at your location.
• At midnight on October 16th (just to be clear, because it can cause confusion: we're talking about the midnight between the 15th and the 16th) the hunt starts. By this time your object should be set so that people can get their gift. More on this below.

As with the last few years, the shoe now uses a script to give the gift to the hunters (they get the gift by simply touching the shoe). The script will give a copy of the gift every time it is touched. If the owner of the shoe touches it it will also give a count of how many gifts have been given out.

This approach sometimes raises a few obvious questions so we'll try and answer them here:

• Doesn't this mean that people can take multiple copies of my gift? Yes, it does. If your gift has no-transfer permissions (common for clothing, vehicles and other worn items) this isn't an issue. For some it can be a concern if your item is no-copy/transfer. Most vendors handle this by, if possible, making the item no-copy/no-transfer. It should be said that, in many years of taking part in hunts, we've often used this system and have never seen anyone abuse it. 
• Can I replace your script with one that tracks who has had a copy of my item and which doesn't give duplicates? If you wish, yes. We won't be providing such a script and we do ask that you let us know so we can note this in the location list (this helps stop hunters getting confused and it also helps us know which locations might be a problem -- these sorts of scripts can and do fail, especially if a hunter doesn't successfully get their first copy). We also ask that you have your script give the gift and landmark inside a folder that's named as per the name of your shoe when you received it.
• Does this mean that people who aren't in the hunt can get my item? Yes, it does. However, it's worth noting that there isn't really such a thing as "in the hunt". Many hunters will do the whole hunt. Some might only do part of it. Some people might be at your location, shopping or visiting, and might stumble on the gift and take a copy. In the latter case that might mean that they either get to try your build and will like to come back for more, or they might not have known about the hunt and your contribution pulls them in and they join in. Either way, they'll be walking away with something that might pull them back to your location at a later date.

Hopefully the above answers most of your questions about how the hunt will start. As always, if you have any questions, no matter how small, please don't hesitate to ask us. Just IM or drop a notecard on Antony Fairport (sending an IM with details is best, they go to email if he's offline and he'll be able to read and reply, if required). He'll reply as soon as he possibly can.

Applications now closed

Applications to be a location in The Femdom Hunt VI are now closed. Before the end of the weekend we'll be sending an update pack to all contacts given for all locations in the hunt. This will contain an updated copy of the hunt board. This differs from the v1.0 board in that it contains information about the hunt for potential hunters (the current boards contain information for potential hunt locations). It also has a copy of the shoe attached so people will know what they'll be looking for once the hunt is under way.

Please note: Your actual shoe, the one you'll hide your gift in, will follow next week. We'll be sending out more details of what'll happen over the next couple of weeks in a day or so.

Please don't forget that the first walk-through takes place at some point this today (Thursday) or tomorrow (Friday, depending on how RL goes). This is simply so we can check that your SLURL is still correct, that you still exist and that you have a sign on display.

We'd really like to thank everyone who has helped get the word out about the hunt -- if you've blogged about the hunt already do please let us know. We'd especially like to thank everyone who has applied to be in the hunt; without your support this wouldn't be the fun event it always is.

As always, if you have any questions about the hunt, please do drop a line to Antony Fairport he'll do everything he can to help.

TFHVI: Last couple of days for applications

Just a little reminder to everyone that applications to be in The Femdom Hunt VI close at midnight on the 30th (Second Life time).

We're processing the applications as they come in and, generally, nobody has had to wait more than 48 hours to receive a reply. So if your favourite Femdom or Femdom-friendly store isn't displaying the hunt sign you might want to prompt them to check if they'd like to apply.

Also, as we do each year, we're maintaining a page where we keep track of blogs where the hunt has been mentioned. If you've blogged about the hunt, or you know of a mention somewhere, do please drop Antony Fairport a line and he'd be delighted to add it to that page.

Vendors and Femdom owners: expect to receive a package from Antony some time in the 24 hours or so after applications close. This will be a small update pack that will include the next version of the hunt sign (the one that contains information for hunters) ready for the first walk-through. More information about this will follow.

As always, if you have any questions about the hunt, please don't hesitate to drop Antony a line.