Frequently Posited Enquiries

What on earth is this thing?
Hello there! Thank you so much for dropping by! We understand that the concept of Sweeties may be an odd one, so this document will take you by the hand and reassuringly lead you through what it is that's going on here.

A Gentle Introduction

So what are Sweeties?
Sweeties are a kind of free gift currency for Ning apps. You can give a sweetie straight to someone to say that you appreciate them, or you can drop a sweetie on something they've created to show your approval.
How do I get sweeties?
Simply land on the front page and you'll be given one for free! The first time you arrive you're given a new Sweetie Bag with a starter ration of three sweeties, and then one sweetie every day. You can also be given sweeties by other people who appreciate your amazing feats of brilliance and loveliness.
Sounds like hard work. Can't I just sit back, do nothing and accumulate sweeties?
Not quite, but almost. All it takes to collect your daily ration is to visit the front page and click the "free sweetie" link to pick it up. (Note that you can only pick up a free sweetie once a day.) But it's much more worthwhile to get out there and earn sweeties with the things you create and contribute around Ning.
How do I give sweeties to someone?
If you have sweeties in your Sweetie Bag, then you'll see a little text box on the front page into which you can type the username of the intended recipient. Hit the return key and you'll be taken to the gift form, which also lets you contribute a special message to accompany the gift. It'll be greatly appreciated!
What do you mean by "drop a sweetie on something"? How do I do that?
Some Ning apps have special facilities that let you show your appreciation for particular pieces of content that have been submitted by users. For example, the PhotoSharingWithSweeties app has a little "Give Sweetie" link below each photo. Clicking that link will take you to the sweetie-giving form, letting you give the contributor of that photo a sweetie to show that you appreciate their work. Furthermore, the gift will be linked to the content they created, showing them what it was that you appreciated so much.
How do I find out if someone's given me a sweetie?
On the lower half of the front page there's a list of all the sweetie gifts you've received in the past week.

These Marvellous Little Delicacies And Their Movements

What's this list I see if I click on a linked sweetie?
Sweeties always remember where they've been. Click on a sweetie and you'll see a complete account of the journey it's been through to get to you.
Are these sweeties bad for my teeth or my waistline?
Not at all! On the contrary, Ning Sweeties bring an extra sparkle to your smile and a wiggle to your hips. Plus, it's perfectly fine to enjoy them between meals. (We still recommend regular tooth-brushing.)
Hey! When the Sweeties app relaunched in November, all my old sweeties disappeared!
Our apologies - code upgrade, major refactoring, recalibration of the glucoid matrices... actually, no. The truth is, we had more kids trick-or-treating this Halloween than ever before, and we got desperate for supplies. But the kids are all gone now, so it's safe. Really.
Why do we only get jellybeans on Fridays?
For that special Friday feeling!
I was wondering because my friend, see, she has two candy canes and five bubblegum jellybeans, and I only have one candy cane and no bubblegum jellybeans...
Sweeties are handed out entirely randomly, but some are... more random than others. Cross your fingers when picking them, and you might get just the right ones!
I want to keep my toffees for really special people! Can I choose which sweetie to give when I hand them out?
Not quite yet, but we're working on super-powerful new sweetie-choosing technology that will let you do just that - soon.
The supply of sweeties is skewiff! I think you're giving out too many/too few!
You may well be right. Certainly, the current starter and daily rations may be too high or low, and will likely be tweaked in future when we have a better idea of the shape of the growing sweetie economy.
This "Sweeties" idea looks quite familiar... where have I seen it before?
The idea of a gift economy based on rationed items with only nominal value and used to track popularity is not a new one. The Sweeties project is based on various systems seen in other communities on the web, with some new ideas thrown in.
These sweetie icons are so cute, so unique! Surely they could only be the work of Denise Wilton?
You are obviously a well-travelled person of taste and distinction. Congratulations!
It's a shame that such fine design skills were not applied to the rest of this app.
Well, yes. But the man responsible is a programmer first and a designer, um, seventeenth. Plus, he insists that black-on-white Times New Roman is due for a renaissance. (The rest of us have not the energy to argue with such a clod-hopping buffoon.)

Cogs and Crankshafts

How easy is it to include sweetie-giving features in my own Ning app?
Remarkably easy. It just takes the addition of a single link underneath each content object display. For further details, look here.
Can I build an app that makes use of the objects created by the Sweeties app?
Of course! One of the key features of the Sweeties project is that all the details of the sweeties and their movements are openly-auditable, especially because there's lots of potentially-interesting data to be mined. We're very eager to see what the Ning developer community does with it!
What happens if I clone the Sweeties app?
If you're thinking of cloning Sweeties in order to influence the existing supply of sweeties (especially to give yourself more), it's not going to work. The Sweeties app only tracks sweeties and transaction objects that it has created itself. However, if you're looking to use Sweeties code as a basis for other virtual economy experimentation, feel free. But note that the underlying logic, as with much created by eager but tired humans, is still not of perfect quality and likely has some exploitable holes.

A Final Request

This app of yours, it's all very well, but it's missing the one feature that would raise it to an altogether different plane, which is...
Stand fast, but keep that idea held warmly in your cupped hands! Click on this link and send it to us post haste, so that we may implement it! Oh, thank you so much. Where would we be without you?