14 DAY TRIAL // One of the things Dropbox has done better than most of its competitors has not been technical, though it does that better too, but rather the way it engages with users and makes fans out of them. The simplest example is the viral nature of the site, getting people to sign up means bonuses for both you and your friends.
Another more specific example is the Dropquest, a scavenger hunt of sorts which has people solving several increasingly difficult puzzles for prizes and the bragging rights of being first, of course.
Last year's Dropquest was a huge success, yet Dropbox took its sweet time before coming up with Dropquest II that is set to take place 10 days from now.
Dropbox promises this year's quest will be harder than last year's and that it won't tolerate any outside help, from the forums, blogs and so on. That said, the prizes are quite alluring, if you're a Dropbox fan anyway.
The fastest solver, or solvers, will get a Dropbox employee hoodie, a limited edition Dropbox Hack Week t-shirt, a Dropbox drawing autographed by everyone at the company and even the ability to help create the next Dropquest. Oh, and you also get 100 GB of free space added to your account.
The other prizes are interesting as well, there seems to be some confusion over whether anyone that completes the quest gets 1 GB of free storage, as Dropbox says in the announcement, or just the first 100, as Dropbox also mentions in the announcement.
Everyone got free storage last year and it would be rather annoying if only some 171 people won anything this year, given that close to half a million people completed the quest last time (and got free storage).
The contest will start on May 12th, at 10AM PST, that's 17:00 GMT. The team believes they've got a serious challenge lined up this year and says that it should take the winning team some 5 hours to complete, so be prepared to spend quite some time with it. Dropbox also put together a short FAQ.