Help an old fella out :)

Some help please with how 2017 survival works.

(I do understand that giving kissies = candy hearts)

Could anyone be kind enough to answer these Q's

1. What is a Volunteer applicant.
2. How do you know if your already infected
3. What is an infection specialist and how do you become one....
4. How do we know which option to buy/choose... between 2009-2017 or take the virus for free...what are the differences?

1. you can 'apply' to be infected with a virus, which when it reaches its final stage you can then unlock as a skin in the wardrobe so you can take it off and put it on whenever you want.

2. you will know you're infected when you get this message on the volunteer infection program page:

3) to become an 'infection specialist' all you have to do is bite other users. you can only do this if you've achieved at least the third or fourth stage of the same virus they're trying to get infected with. you can bite users by clicking the 'bite' link under their avatar in the survival forums; users will often create threads asking for bites for the virus they're trying to get. the more bites someone gets, the faster their virus progresses to the first stage.

4. you can see a list of each year's infections here, along with the keywords given on the VIP page so you know which one is which. we don't yet know what the infections for this year look like, as they haven't progressed enough. if you've chosen a previous year's infection, you can then go to the survival forums to request bites from people infected with the same virus so your infection progresses faster. the free option will give you a random infection.

[topic not found]

The FAQ goes into more detail, but I'll try to answer the questions you listed anyway.

1. It just means you volunteer to select one of the infections for yourself.

2. When you are infected, it will say this on the VIP page while you're waiting for your infection to develop all the way to the end stage: "Thanks for your interest in becoming an Infection Specialist! Unfortunately, your strain hasn't progressed far enough for your bite to be effective, but try again later!"

3. An infection specialist is anyone who has a mature stage of one of the infections. You have to be wearing the skin on your HA and then you can bite people who want that infection to help get them started.

4. http://www.subetalodge.org/page/name/great_pandemic_overlays Subetalodge has a list of all of the infections by year, what they look like, and the description on the VIP page that they correspond with. If there's a particular infection you want, you can choose that one. If you don't care, you can choose a random one. Or if you want one of this year's new strains, you can select a random one of those as well and have the first stage applied to you instantly.

Thank you for taking the time to reply to my questions. And helping me understand further. I couldn't quite understand the fact links, but you have both helped narrow it down a bit simpler for me. so thanks a bunch :)

Enjoy the event <3