We all know the community auctions I hope? The place to buy and sell items in specific quantities. The advantages should be obvious, it's well organized which makes sure that a deal is a deal. However, there's also a small disadvantage: sometimes an auction can take a long time before its completed. And that got me thinking about organizing in-game auctions. With the same amount of attention for regulations and protection as there is on the forums. The advantage here should be obvious: you'd have the opportunity to either buy or sell items in bulk relatively quick. Sometimes cheap and sometimes more expensive. How would this work? If you're looking to buy stuff in bulk (or more expensive items such as promo's) you'd simply attend, bid and if you won you're required to pay the owner of the items (not the auction house!) after which you'd be given access to the items and can pick them up. Sellers would need to apply to have their items auctioned off, probably also paying a small fee for our efforts. You'll get a DC assigned to you in which you can place your items and which the audience can view (preview sign). During the entire auction the owner of the items will keep access to the chest. So in case of a conflict (say the bidder doesn't pay) no items will be lost. Also the auction house won't come "in between" so even in case there's an argument with us you'll still have access to your items. Note that these are rough ideas right now and more details need to be worked out. Especially those to prevent any foul play and which protect both the bidders and the sellers (very important). As to the items, we'd closely follow the rules set in place for forum auctions but with a few differences. A minimum bid increment for example won't fully exist but the auctioneer can dictate it ("We have 400, do I hear 450?"). Payment and pick-up would be instant; the moment you win the auction you're required to pay the owner of the items and failure to do so would result in a ban from the auction house, just like with the forums. The advantages First the speed. With a little luck you'd have your items sold in approx. 15 minutes time or, if you're buying, you have the option to quickly obtain several items in bulk. Second the organization. You simply buy or sell items, and don't have to worry about details such as making sure we don't spam town chat, making sure that you get your money (to some extend) and in case of any arguments the auction house will be the "bad guy" and not so much you. We'd prevent spam from happening, we'll take action the moment someone actually does spam and within time this would also (hopefully) result in an auction house where you can be sure that only serious players would come along. Third; payment. We'd all get something out of this (but not too much of course). I'm thinking to request an access fee for selling items and using part of that to hire / compensate people who help out. For example; someone would be charged with making screenshots during auctions (on precise moments of course; like winning an auction). In case of a dispute we'll have solid proof. And the person would get payment for his help. Disadvantages $bidder claims to have paid the $seller his money and now demands access to the chest(s). But the $seller denies having received any payment. Obviously the auction can't be completed but now what? The auction house should now take care of plenty of screenshots but these issues won't be easily solved without the interference of staff, which is not ideal. Troll $sellers. During the auction all items get removed, and the winner of the auction ends up with nothing but an empty promise (which can cause annoyance, but no rupees would be lost of course). Obviously this would result in the seller getting banned from the auction house. But even so; it can cause drama / frustration. Troll $bidders (also see item 1) who simply refuse to pay after winning the auction. This can also cause annoyance and drama, but its also solvable. The troll gets banned and the person who made the second-highest bid will now get a chance to buy the items. A lot of work I don't expect to make money out of this to be honest; building a nice build for 100k worth of blocks and then, say, charging 50 - 100r per auction? My main intent is fun and providing a service for other players. If you can think of more disadvantages then please share them! And if you'd be interested in helping out with such a project then I'd also really like to hear from you
First, 'cause why not . If yours doing it, I'd definitely help out. If in-game auctions were even somewhat organized they'd get a lot more use. Expect edit, because typing on a phone is unproductive.
I love the idea. I too find the forum auctions long and annoying, however the in-game ones are quick and painless. There is many more advantages than there are disadvantages, and I totally support the idea. +2
If it was an event similar to Friday Night Miners (Saturday Night Auctions) and people actually showed up, I feel it would be pretty cool. Ideas are exploding in my head. Here are some In each row of seating, there is a redstone lamp in front of them. During an auction, they can turn off their lamp at any time to X out of an auction. Weekly/Monthly Event I do worry about spam. EDIT: I would love to help with such an event!
I know of A: A place to build this B: A person to host this Me and my res. I'd be willing to help with the build process too.
I've already got the residences covered, but I'd appreciate any help you could give. The reason I'm planning to use one of my own residences is because it'll be dedicated to this project. And that will be a requirement because this project can't be easily mixed with others. I looked you up and noticed that you have 1 residence right now, so that would mean you also couldn't easily set up a shop, build a house or do other stuff. The reasoning behind that are possible offenders who would end up banned. If you'd also run a shop on the same residence then people would get banned from both the auction and the shop, I don't think that would work: "I'm banned from the auction but also from your house, why can't I look at your house?". Another issue: if we'd use someone else's residence then all you can do is hope that this person won't go derelict. That's also a major disadvantage for me. So although I really appreciate the offer I'm not going to be following up on it. But like I said: If you'd like to help with other things (like building) then you'd be more than welcome to! I am also aware of some players holding in-game auctions, but that's not what I'm thinking of. These wouldn't be simply ad-hoc auctions but recurring ones which also specifically follow the current set of regulations. I think that's where we could gain the advantage; making things semi-official (so not something official but we'd be following the official rules and will also actually enforce them). One example can be seen above; a dedicated residence which will have dedicated rules.
I've a friend I vote for, he's inactive, so no big builds, and I have admin perms for his res. His user name is calhencha.
My eyes are so tired from the homework from tonight. Why do you have to type such long posts? So, I just read the first 2 paragraphs. It sounds like a pretty good idea!
Well, we got 13 votes in favor (at the time of writing) which isn't exactly a lucky number. So I suppose the best thing to do is give up and think of something else (sorry, couldn't resist) Nah; there are currently 3 of us talking and planning this whole project and we're definitely going to give it a try. I'll be starting a project thread later this week with more detailed info.
To make me look more important and also trying to impress people at the same time Seriously this is relatively short for me Nah; more seriously: basically making sure that you guys realize that this isn't simply 'some idea' which I think we can pull off "just like that". There are a lot of issues to keep in mind here, so I wanted to make sure that its clear that we're trying to address all of them (when done wrong this project could cause unwanted in-game drama, a lot of spam at least, and after last April first I'm very careful with that). Thanks for your comment!
