The Hirsute Swine's Guide To Not Screwing Up a Tree or a  B+P

Questions and answers for the newbie Tree Participant

You've gotta wonder what a hairy pig could possibly care to know about trees... Frankly, I was stunned.  Looks like he's done this a few thousand times :8) Our resident expert fills you in on the right way to hold up your end of the deal!

Q: What is a tree?
A: A tree is an efficient way of distributing copies of shows to people. Efficient because there is no burden placed on one person to burn and send out a large number of shows. It is a way to distribute the burning to different people and getting shows sent out faster. Say I have a show, it would be faster for me to burn 5 copies, send those off to 5 people, who turn and burn for 5 more people, so on and so forth, than for me to burn 50 copies of a show.

There are three main parts to a trading tree. The master branches, the branches and the leaves. A master branch has the responsibility to distribute the show the all branches in a given geographic area. Having burned a certain number of copies of show, the master branch sends these out to branches, who in turn burns copies of the show for their leaves.

A typical FRP tree structure will look something like this:

1.Master Branch – Euro Pigland masterbranch@email.com
1.1. Joe Blow joe.blow@email.fr France
1.1.1. Bill Barr billb@email.fr TRADE
1.1.2. Karl Marx karlthecomy@ifrance.com TRADE
1.1.3. Noal Chomsky farleft@biased.net TRADE
1.1.4. Emanual Kant noicant@paris.hilton.fr B+P

1.2. Mary Shelly mary@frankenstein.fr France
1.2.1 igor lacky@frankenstein.fr TRADE
1.2.2. jimbob themonster@msn.com TRADE
1.2.3. Pat Buchanan ridicule@righteous.net TRADE
1.2.4. Rush Limbaugh junkie@rehab.fr B+P

Each master branch will have many branches to serve. In the example above Master Branch – Euro Pigland will be trading the FRP show to 1.1 Joe Blow and 1.2 Mary Shelly and most likely many more branches. Joe and Mary will each trade (or B+P) with the 4 people below them.

Q: So what does a branch do?
A: You can join a tree as either a branch or a leaf. If you would like to take on the responsibility of burning shows and have the right equipment to do so, then sign up as a branch. Most people have burners now so normally more people sign up as branches then are required for the tree. Some of these people will be put on the tree as leaves. This isn't a personal thing, it's simply how a tree works, only so many branches are required. FRP tries to limit branches to 4 leaves. We also try to evenly distribute the none trading leaves so every branch gets a fair number of trades.

Q: If I sign up as a branch can I end up being a Master Branches with lots of branches to serve?
A: No, the Master Branches are hand picked. Only time tested reliable trades are selected as FRP Master Branches. These folks really have a clue and are seriously dedicated to making sure that the tree is executed flawlessly.

Q: Are the requirements to be a branch?
A: You must be able to burn both SHN and audio discs without errors. The show will be distributed to the branches in SHN format so you must be able to convert SHN to audio for any leave who needs audio discs.

Q: So what about leaves?
A: There are two kinds of leaves, leave who can trade and those who can't. If you have the ability the trade FRP expects you to signup as a trading leaf. If you can't work out a trade with your branch then doing B+P is fine.

Q: What if I really can't trade?
A: Leaves that can't trade need to do a B+P deal with their branch. These leaves are identified in the tree structure above as B+P. B+P simply means (B)lanks plus (P)ostage. If you can't trade you need to sends blanks and a pre-paid mailer to your branch. The number of blanks send must be exactly equal to the number of discs required for distribute the show, e.g. the branch can't turn a profit in blank discs. FRP makes every effort to make sure the branch and leaves are in the same country so the postage part of this is easy. If you are in a different country than your branch you will need to work something out. Either sending extra blanks or something else the branch agrees upon to cover the postage. Again, the branch should not make a profit on the exchange, only the value of the postage should be exchanged.

Q: OK, I signed up, so now what:
A: If you appear on the tree structure as a branch then contact your Master Branch. If you are a leaf then contact your branch. Once you've done this wait patiently for a response.

Q: OK, I was really patient but make branch never contacted me. What now?
A: Try contacting the other other people being supplied by your branch. If your branch isn't doing his job contact me at freerangepigs@msn.c*m and let me know. I will replace your branch and added him to our Bad Branch list so he never gets a change to flake out again.

Q: What format does FRP distribute show in?
A: The master branches receive the show electronically as SHN files. All branches will receive the show in SHN format. Leaves may request either SHN or Audio discs from their branch.

Q: This all seems very complicated, why don't you just weed your shows?
A: One of the goals of FRP is to encourage trading. Weeding doesn't require any trading at all. Trees require trading each time the show moves down the tree. This means people have to exchange trade lists and setup trades. This gives everyone a chance to build their collection of shows and gets shows moving around the trading groups.

Q: What do all those taping abbreviations mean?
A: AUD: Audience (Microphone-Sourced Recording)
DAE: Digital Audio Extraction
DAO: Disc at Once
dSBD: Digital Soundboard
EAC: Exact Audio Copy
ISO: In Search Of
SBD: Soundboard
TAO: Track at Once

More to come in a future installment, but this should answer the vast majority of questions. If you're still confused or would like to contribute more to the FAQ, Contact Us here!