Looking Ahead ... Our Timeline

Greetings, everyone! We wanted to send out an update to let everyone know where we stand with the Hope Hunt + Race.

We are finalizing our testing on the new database design, which has been revamped to more efficiently handle the volume of traffic the the Hope Hunt + Race generated. Below is the "schedule" of what you should expect in the coming weeks.

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Friday, August 7 through Monday, August 10

We will conduct a "live" test of the new system--final testing before the Hope Hunt + Race resumes. If you would like to be a part of this test, please let Sidda Jubilee or Arete Diplomat know; we welcome your participation as we put the final "tweaks" in place.

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Saturday, August 15 through Friday, September 4

We will be re-registering all of the participating merchants. We will not use the parcel names (YAY!!!), but we do need to verify business names and landing points for each location. If your business has moved, you will be able to update your information at that time. Also, if you know of other merchants who would like to participate, have them contact Sidda Jubilee or Arete Diplomat.

You should receive, on August 15, a notecard containing the information that we have on file. We need that notecard returned. If the information is correct, return it unchanged; if anything needs to be corrected, return it with the correct information.

Note: No late registrations will be accepted. If the notecard is not returned by September 4, we will assume that you choose not to participate.

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Saturday, September 5 through Friday, September 25

On Saturday, September 5, you will receive your new Roses. You will have three weeks to place those Roses and register them in the database. The registration process will be different (and easier!), and instructions will be included.

Note: All Roses must be registered with the database by Friday, September 25. No late registrations will be allowed.

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Sunday, September 27 through Saturday, October 17

The Hope Hunt + Race will be conducted. This will be a 3-week Hunt.

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We do have some nice additions for the Hope Hunt + Race ... including a website (which will be updated daily) to provide merchants with information on the number of avatars who have found a Rose at your location (a "traffic report"). We hope that this will be beneficial to you, and will help to offset the inconvenience of having to postponse the Hunt while the database and communication issues were addressed.

Thank you, and please don't hesitate to ask Sidda or Arete if you have a question.

Status Update--We're Getting Ready

We apologize again for the "malfunctions" that caused the Hope Hunt + Race to be temporarily suspended. In the spirit of forthrightness, we want to keep everyone abreast of what happened and, more importantly, the steps that we are currently taking.

As we have stated before, the problem was directly related to the success of the Hunt; literally, the system was overwhelmed by the participation. This primarily affected four things.

1) We had rented space on a shared server to host the database. The volume of traffic that was generated over-utilized our rented "allotment" of system resources, and the web hosting service we were utilizing raised some serious concerns. We have securing a dedicated server that the Hope Hunt + Race will utilize when we restart, so that problem has been addressed.

2) The database itself was of a good design. However, analytics show that there were some optimization issues; the database was "bogging down" a bit--again, because of the success of the Hunt. We have restructured the database so that it will function more efficiently, and we are in the testing stage now. That problem is being resolved.

3) There were communication breakdowns between the database and SL. Once again, this was due to the success of the Hunt. In the redesign of the database, this communication issue has been addressed, on both the database side and the SL side. That problem is being resolved.

4) Finally, some of you experienced Roses that were malfunctioning. This was a symptom--the Roses were "locking up" because of the issues mentioned in #2 and #3 (above). As the database is being restructured, the script(s) in the Roses themselves are also being optimized, to ensure that they will continue working correctly. That problem is being resolved.

The point: we have identified the issues that led to the problems that were experienced. Each of those issues was related to the resources and the success of the Hunt. And each of those issues have been addressed. We are looking forward to a smooth and successful event as we get started again.

So what can you expect? Within the next couple of weeks, we will be setting up the merchants in the database. There is good news here--we will NOT be using those parcel names which caused problems for many of you. You will receive a notecard verifying the "location" information where you will be placing Roses--we will make certain that we have correct information on every participating merchant as we go through this process.

Following that, we will issue new Roses. Again, you will be given (at no additional cost) the same number of Roses you originally purchased. We will let everyone know if vendors are available for the purchase of additional Roses. Again, there is good news here--we are going to make sure that it is easier to load your give-away items into the Roses when they are placed.

Please know that we are working diligently, and we are making progress. We will resume the Hope Hunt + Race as soon as possible. At the same time, because of the wonderful participation, we are taking every precaution to make sure that everything runs smoothly and we have a successful event, regardless of how many avatars join the Hunt.

Thank you for your patience.