An Unofficial Vote- On the Aution Procedure

So my choices are: instrunental, Seal, or Roxy? Hmmm, I'll choose Seal - he should have gotten more votes than he has!

Fellow Lifers- We are now closer to There, (My greatest fear!!!!)
"where the Rich get richer!"
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"Today I accidentally put instant coffee in the microwave, and I went back in time."

I think it's a given that auctioning of new lands will be part of SL from now on, rather than pure land rushes. (Though Cory did say last night that some would be land rushes.)

Given that, we're looking at ways to improve the auction process. This applies for both RL$ and L$ auctions. I submit proxy bidding for the auctions page since they last days and are tied to your internet access. If one is able to set their max bid and have the $1 bumps done automatically it makes it much more usable, as you don't have to refresh the page, be online at 3am when the auction ends, etc. It's not meant to help make it "fair" just make it easy. In fact, it might make prices go up a bit, as the likelyhood of an auction ending nearer to your maximum self-imposed limit rises. If we all gathered around Realestate Linden while he said "onedollaronedollarIhearonedollarnowtwodollartwodollar..." then proxy bidding would make no sense.

For smaller parcels (less than a whole sim) I vote sealed auctions, but second bid (can't quite remember the term I'll explain myself. For whole sims I like standard bidding with extensions, seems the best way to get to the true "market" price, and no sniping

With second bid, it's a normal sealed auction with the highest bidder paying the second highest bid. It can encourage bidders to bid their perceived worth of the the item (technially the value of the item to them + $1), but only pay where the overall market is going. If the land is in high demand, the high bidder will likely pay close to their perceived value of the land, for uncontested land there is less of a risk of feeling they left money on the table. It's been a long time since my games theory courses, so forgive any lakc of clarity.

Alternate vote for smaller parcels is proxy, probably easier to implement and easier for folks to understand (given the Ebay experience).

Boomp

Proxy

Proxy Bidding with short extensions after last bid.

kk

proxy

For the 'proxy with extensions' people: you don't need extensions with proxy bidding, just enter your genuine maximum in the first place... If you are willing to pay more, then make a higher proxy bid in the first place, if you have extensions then the whole thing will remain almost as ridiculous as it is currently.

Yeah, God forbid anyone change their mind at the last minute.

kk

Then change your bid at the last minute. You don't need a 5 minute extension to do that. Now if you change your mind AFTER the last minute ... thats just your own problem.

oh and PROXY.

Proxy


Briana Dawson

Proxy.

I beleive that it would effectively curb the land trader's current advantage.

Proxy

I've said it before, and I'll say it again:

Proxy bidding

Proxy bidding

(better for all those international users too )

Proxy bidding the same style as Ebay. It works for them.

I like the current system.

I just seen this old thread was brought back up and I am now after the other night with the new auctions a staunch supporter of Proxy Bidding.

Shadow

Does it matter what type of bidding? Those with all the money will always outbid those without.

What I am unclear of is why Linden labs allows people to shut other people out. Linden makes more money if we own more land. If I am unable to get more land I will not go up to the next tier, there for, they will not make more money off of me until I am able to obtain more land.

Maybe Lindens just aren't in it for the money, and that leads me to believe, from experience, a company that is not in it to make the most amount of money they possibly could, will not be around for a very extended amount of time.

Beau,

Yes, it does matter.

SL is an international site, which means that people have vastly different time zones. So many people cannot hang around waiting for an auction to end, and the currect extensions make that problem even worse.

Proxy bidding would allow you to potentially bid the maximum amount you were prepared to spend, without others being able to see it. Your actual bid would be just enough to give you the high bid. You could bid, and go to bed, secure in the knowledge that if the bidding went higher you could still be in the running.

It would minimise 'sniping' - after all, if you try to come in during the last few seconds, you could find you had been outbid nevertheless.

All in all it would seem to me to be a fairer system, and I'm surprised it hasn't been implemented.

Proxy bidding

Sealed bids

Shadow Weaver asked folks to vote. I voted and got told my suggestion was ridiculous. When I try to point out that someone might want to change their mind I'm told that's "my problem".

So much for just listening to everyone's opinion.

Why don't I just say, "Everyone who has a problem with the auctions well that's YOUR problem."

kk

My opologies.

Please re-read what I wrote. I said if you changed your mind AFTER the last minute, ie after the auction ended, then that is your problem. I realize I was not as clear as i should have been.

My real point was that there is nothing in proxy bidding that prevents you from changing your mind at the last minute. What it doesn't allow is for you to change your mind after the auction is over.

I actually thought my remark was just kind of silly, because of hindsight is 20/20 kinda thing where after the auction is ended you may have wished to bid differently. I guess that isn't the case and people legitimatly wish to change their bids after the end of an auction. My opologies then.

Apology accepted.

However, I'm really talking about the last minute. Let's say I decide that L$1000 is my maximum bid. I bid on a parcel. The auction is due to end in 30 seconds and I am the highest bidder at L$750. Someone else bids L$1020 at that instant. The proxy system arbitrates the bid up to L$1001 and I see that I am no longer in the lead. I've been salivating over the land for days and I decide, "Oh the heck with it, I'll pay as much as L$1500". Without the extension I won't have the chance.

I don't see what the extension harms since the auction will go to the highest bidder. If someone else is already out of the running what do they care if the auction is extended for 5, 10, 15 minutes?

I look at the proxy system as a means for me to get a bargain on a bid not to turn it from an auction into a guessing game. Because of the lack of a proxy system I inadvertantly bid about US$40 more than I planned for a parcel. I winced but let it stand and won. Sure would've been nice to have gotten the bargain though.

I don't know why folks want to view the auction system as a means to get land to the disenfranchised. It's a system for people who have bucks to fight over land. If you don't want to get into a bidding war then maybe an auction isn't right for you.

Was I ranting? I hope not. I know land is an issue for lots of folks. It was for me until I came to grips with the idea that I was not entitled to land just because I signed on. Right or wrong, that's the way it is. If that's an issue, petition LL to issue all new players 40 acres and a mule.

In the end, I ponied up US$72 in an auction to get my little piece of prim heaven.

kk
"Trying to be VERY friendly in expressing an opinion. "

Having taken part in both sets of auction methods to date, I think that proxy bidding does offer a good way forward. Having spent both Lindens and US, I think the big difference would be in wondering just what to bid on. ie..... if a person proxy bid on 10 parcels...at a rate that was a possible winner, then there would always be that nagging worry that ALL of them would be succesful, leaving a person seriously out of pocket. Persoanlly, if it were proxy bids, I'd probably be more inclined to bid well on only one plot.