A method includes transmitting a solicitation message to target storage units of a plurality of storage units of a storage network, where the solicitation message solicits the target storage units to store encoded data slices of a first data segment of data, and where the message is not sent to other storage units of the plurality of storage units. The method further includes receiving favorable responses from at least some of target storage units, and determining an error coding function based on an amount of the favorable responses and data storage requirements for the first data segment. The method further includes encoding the first data segment in accordance with the error coding function to produce a plurality of encoded data slices. The method further includes outputting the plurality of encoded data slices to storage units of the at least some of the target storage units for storage therein.