Introduction

Thank you for purchasing your new Seymour Plant, another fine product of the Chindogu Happiness Industrial Concern.  We hope that this genetically engineered marvel will bring you much happiness and joy, at least as much as it did our mad scientists who created each one.

Life Cycle

1. Each plant begins its life as a living crate. At this point, its genetic code has been sequenced and is ready for the owner to initiate its life cycle.  Care should be taken when proceeding past this point as it is irreversible. To continue, the owner of the plant should simply touch it.
2. After the crate is touched the plant will change to a pot, a stick and some soil.  The plant will chat some options on how to set up Plurk and/or Twitter (no worries if you miss them you can get the option again at any time) or capture your chat text.
3. Over the next several days (optimally around 4) the plant will, in this order:
1. Sprout leaves at the base of the plant
2. Sprout a stem with a flower bud at the top
3. Sprout leaves on the stem
4. Bloom

Feeding and Watering

Feeding and watering your plant is as simple as touching the plant and selecting either 'Water' or 'Feed'.

Watering should be done at least once per day, but twice per day will cause your plant to grow faster.  Watering more than twice a day or not at all will cause your plant to grow more slowly.

Feeding is optional but if it is done once per day your plant will grow faster; more than once per day will cause your plant to grow more slowly.

Buying Supplies

Buying supplies can be done through the 'Supply Vendor' in the package.  Each 'unit' of supply (enough for one watering or one feeding) starts out at 10L with discounts for purchasing more at the same time.  Simply rez the vendor, touch it and follow the prompts. Note, you will have to grant permission for this vendor to take money from you.

After Blooming

After your plant blooms one of two things will happen. 

The most likely scenario is that your plant will be a unique species and because of that you will be able to name your species whatever you wish.  When your plant is ready for this to occur, you will receive an instant message (IM via SL) with the instructions to say your species name on channel /123.  You will need to be close to your plant to do this, but once you do the rest of the process is guided by the plant itself. 

The other, less likely scenario is that someone has already grown a version of the plant you have been caring for.  In this case the plant will simply inform you of the species name.

In either of the two above scenarios if you are the original purchaser of the plant and your plant has not gone through the life cycle before, a new crated version of your plant will rez and you will be able to transfer that item to another avatar at will.  Once you re-pot a plant and go through the growth cycle again, the plant will not be able to reproduce again.  The spawn of plants from this stage cannot reproduce and cannot be re-potted.

Re-Potting

At any point during the plant's life cycle you may re-pot the plant (assuming of course it is a first generation plant and not an offspring).  To do this simply touch the plant and select 'Re-Pot' from the menu that appears.  All genetic information will be lost and the growth cycle will begin again.

General Questions

1. Q: Is it possible for a plant's flower to die? Is it possible for a plant to progress backwards in the growth cycle?
   A: Yes, once the plant has bloomed you must keep it watered.
2. Q: Why didn't my plant bloom exactly when the status messages said it would?
   A: Many factors can play a part in this ranging from genetics to environment to how much your plant was fed and watered the final day of its growth.
3. Q: I just fed/watered my plant and the estimated time to bloom did not seem to change.  Why not?
   A: Seymour Plants do not update their 'time to bloom' constantly, it could take up to twenty-four hours for this metric update.
4. Q: Are there other features and add-ons planned?
   A: Yes, the geneticists who incubated Seymour have several add-ons planned and have engineered the plants to be as compatible with future devices as possible.   
   
5. Q: Why doesn't Seymour do X?
   A: Could be a combination of several reasons including time involved, complexity, or simple 'I didn't think about it'.  If you IM Alidar Moxie with your idea and make yourself available for beta testing and a lot of questions, there could be a free plant (or a dozen) in it for you.
6. Q: Once again, how many offspring will a plant create? How does re-potting, etc work?
   A: Each plant will actually make two more plants.
   
   You go through growth cycle and get another plant.  Then you can either let your original sit their and grow forever or hit 'Re-Pot' on the menu and do it again (including getting another plant).  At that point you have the same option, either letting your plant grow forever or hitting 'Re-Pot', at which point the plant will not be 're-pottable'.

Twitter Setup

When a plant is started for the first time a message similar to the following will be chatted to the owner

To enable Twitter chat 'enable twitter' on channel 123 (i.e. /123 enable twitter)

To begin using Twitter you would simply chat type '/123 enable twitter'.  Once this is done you will be be presented with prompts for the following information

• Plant Name, this is how the plant will identify itself on Twitter and how you will send food and water commands to the plant (more on that below)
• Twitter User Name, this is the Twitter account name the plant should use
• Twitter Password, this is the password for the plant's Twitter account
  

Each prompt should be answered on the same channel identified in the initial 'enable twitter' command.  Once each prompt has been filled in, the plant will attempt to connect to Twitter and send a status report. If it fails, it will inform you of that and return to the 'enable twitter' step.

Twitter Commands

In addition to your plant talking to you via Twitter, you can talk to your plant via Twitter Direct Messages.  The commands your plant currently understands are  'feed' and 'water'  and will respond to each command it receives preceded by its name.  The format for commands are

Plant Name: feed

Note that your commands have to be via Direct Messages, which for most Twitter Clients means the full message would look similar to this

d plantaccount Plant Name: feed

This also means that the plant's account must be following the account you are sending the message from and vice versa.

Twitter Questions

1. Q: Why does the channel for Twitter setup change and not match the example?
   A: The channel changes every time so that if you have multiple plants near each other you can configure them without them 'overhearing' each other.
2. Q: What if I forget the channel I'm supposed to use for Twitter set up or I want to reset my settings?
   A: Simply touch the plant, once it looks like a flower pot, and choose 'Rst Twitter'
3. Q: Why do the plants only respond to direct messages?
   A: This keeps your plants from being watered and fed through the actions of others.
4. Q: I sent my plant a command and I know it went through to the plant's Twitter account but the plant has not responded yet.
   A: Plants only check for Twitter messages once every hour, please be patient.
5. Q: Isn't there a way to more quickly set up Twitter?
   A: Follow the steps above and when you are prompted for the plant's name you may enter all of the Twitter set up information in one shot by typing it in the following format (on the Twitter setup channel)
   
   plant name/twitter account name/twitter password
   
   
6. Q: Should I get a separate Twitter account just for my plants?
   A: It's not required, but it would make things easier. The use of separate plant names for each plant mean one Twitter account can handle many plants.
   

Plurk Setup

Your plant can keep you informed of what's going on in its life though Plurk. We at the Chindogu Happiness Industrial Concern aren't exactly sure what a Plurk is, but judging from the pictures on their website, we'd get along with their creators just fine.

Basics

When a plant is started for the first time, a message similar to the following will be chatted to the owner

To enable Plurk chat 'enable plurk' on channel 123 (i.e. /123 enable plurk)

To begin using Plurk you would simply chat type '/123 enable plurk'.  Once this is done you will be be presented with prompts for the following information

• Plant Name, this is how the plant will identify itself on Twitter and how you will send food and water commands to the plant (more on that below)
• Plurk User Name, this is the Plurk account name the plant should use
• Plurk Password, this is the password for the plant's Plurk account
  

Each prompt should be answered on the same channel identified in the initial 'enable plurk' command.  Once each prompt has been filled in the the plant will attempt to connect to Plurk and send a status report, if it fails it will inform you of that and return to the 'enable plurk' step.

Plurk Commands

In addition to your plant talking to you via Plurk, you can talk to your plant via Plurk Private Plurks.  The commands your plant currently understands are  'feed' and 'water'  and will respond to each command it receives preceded by its name.  The format for commands are

feed Plant Name

Note that your commands have to be via Private Messages, which to do via the Plurk website means you need to choose 'Private plurks, languages, and other options' and then choose your plant's account in the 'only' box (the presence of other accounts will not matter).  A full message to your plant will look similar to this

Alidar says feed Plant Name

Flooding

The scientists at Plurk have limitations on their creature to keep it from getting overfed.   Some of these measures include keeping you posting the same URL with every message, others include keeping you from posting similar messages over and over.  To keep this from happening your plant will post similar messages (randomly selected) and will not post a URL to their location like it does to the Twitter service.

Plurk Questions

1. Q: Why does the channel for Plurk setup change and not match the example?
   A: The channel changes every time so that if you have multiple plants near each other you can configure them without them 'overhearing' each other.
2. Q: What if I forget the channel I'm supposed to use for Plurk set up or I want to reset my settings?
   A: Simply touch the plant, once it looks like a flower pot, and choose 'Rst Plurk'
3. Q: Why do the plants only respond to Private Plurks?
   A: This keeps your plants from being watered and fed through the actions of others. This, of course, assumes your plants are not friends with jerks.
   
4. Q: I sent my plant a command and I know it went through to the plant's Plurk account but the plant has not responded yet.
   A: Plants only check for Plurk messages once every hour, please be patient.
5. Q: Isn't there a way to more quickly set up Plurk?
   A: Follow the steps above and when you are prompted for the plant's name you may enter all of the Plurk set up information in one shot by typing it in the following format (on the Plurk setup channel)
   
   plant name/plurk account name/plurk password
   
   
6. Q: Should I get a separate Plurk account just for my plants?
   A: It's not required, but it would make things easier. The use of separate plant names for each plant mean one Plurk account can handle many plants.
7. Q: Why do the Twitter status updates include a URL to the plant but the Plurk updates do not?
   A: See the section on flooding above.