Save the date: The Femdom Hunt VII 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? That's an easy one:

Femdom

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

Here's the details:

Date: Saturday October 14th

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 13th") 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 coming

Just a little reminder that the second walk-through is happening this Friday (6th). At some point during Friday 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.

Shoe Fetish VII

Here we go again!

TFHVII: 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:

• No later than Tuesday (October 3rd) 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 4th, 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 6th we'll be doing a second walk-through. We'll be expecting to see that you've got your v2.0 hunt sign out (many of you already have; thank you). 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 12th, 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 13th (just to be clear, because it can cause confusion: we're talking about the midnight between the 12th and the 13th) 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 VII are now closed. Before the end of the week 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 Thursday or 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 or AnnaCreed Resident and we'll do everything we can to help.

Announcing... The Femdom Hunt VII

Z&A Productions are excited and delighted to announce that the dates for The Femdom Hunt VII have been decided and that applications are now open.

The hunt will run from October 13th until October 30th 2017, inclusive. As with the previous six hunts we'll be taking applications from a mixture of vendors and Femdom regions and hangouts, making the hunt a journey through the wider Second Life Femdom community.

Applications are now open. Please note that applications are made online and that vendors and Femdoms have separate forms. If you have any issues or problems filling out your application please don't hesitate to contact Antony Fairport or AnnaCreed Resident.

We will start processing applications (sending out welcome packs, etc) early next week at the latest and, once processing has started, an application will probably be processed within 24 hours -- a little longer at weekends. If, once the processing of applications has started, you make an application and don't hear from us within 48 hours, please do make a point of getting in contact with Antony.

And, as always, if you have any questions about the hunt, any at all, just get in contact with us and we'll do our very best to help out.

PS: If you are fairly new to hunts, either as a location owner, or as a hunter, we'd like to recommend a read of this post from Evelock. There's some great advice in there.

About The Femdom Hunt

The Femdom Hunt VII is a grid-wide treasure hunt created by and organised by Z&A Productions. It was first thought of around September 2010 and six hunts have taken place since (in April 2011, October 2011, October 2012, October 2013, October 2014 and October 2015).

The idea behind the hunt is to interweave a traditional grid-wide hunt (one that includes shops of all types (fashion, household, fetish, RLV toys, etc...)) with a hunt that links together and showcases many of the Femdom sims and locations to be found in Second Life. To this end the Femdoms who are supporting the hunt are spaced evenly throughout the location list, and the hunt itself is designed as a circular hunt. The last location in the hunt points to the first and we encourage everyone to treat any Femdom region (or indeed any location on the hunt) as their starting location.

The hunt starts at midnight on October 13th (the midnight between the 12th and the 13th, Second Life time) and runs until the end of October 30th (Second Life time).

There is a group for the hunt:

secondlife:///app/group/4ca9753e-395a-0d59-ec7c-a9c72233a896/about

The group will be used to keep people informed of hunt-related news and everyone will be encouraged to use group chat to support and help each other -- and possibly have some Femdom-related fun along the way.