Again, recall that those who end up at the end of the day (I use a random number generator to assign launch times) will be screwed out of participation, based solely on their short straw pull. I’m trying to do groups to emulate a bit of the first few years, where it was ‘manageable’ to discuss the offers, buy them, and nobody was forgotten. With 150 offers, I either reduce them, and limit it to the 50 ‘best’ offers, or find a way to properly, efficiently manage so many deals, trying to give an even spread of wealth to all of them.
As far as the last offer posted gets the least action I have two thoughts.
Literally draw them out of a hat, like a lottery for the merchants making the offers.
Or weigh the discount and the better offers get posted first-some killer deal goes up sooner as opposed to ‘ten percent off a full case’
Just a thought.
Edit: I posted before I read post #21, sorry.
To your latter point, the ‘value’ of the discount is often subjective. I might think 10% off is not very good, but when the winery almost never offers a discount - or never - it’s better than a winery that perhaps offers some discounts, frequently, but has a massive one this time. Judging the value of the offer is a slippery slope, I’ve found…and the wineries love to argue if I ever point out that I feel the offer is not good enough, trust me.
Just don’t do alpha because then Ryan Zepaltas gets hosed.
This might come down to “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it” simply from a consumer pov I think everything works fine. As far as orders getting “avalanched”, seems to me people always find the ones they are truly interested in. And personally I always hold a little back in case a good offer comes late.
For the record; I really hope Arcadian has an offer this year. I think it was one of the most talked about last time.
Todd,
Up above, you said and the time limits create a sense of urgency. The last thing I need on 27 January is to feel additional pressure. There’s enough of that on my wallet (credit card). ![[wink.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/0/04707e6a7bbb03e0153e349d8a9270d30e1e9525.gif "wink"){kind=small}
As for prioritizing the offers, you have to think like the airlines.
Offer 3 different categories for the vendors (and charge them a fee). ie Platinum vendors pay more than Gold, and Gold pays more than silver. This way, you can send out the offers according to categories. Basically pay to get your offer uptop.
I’m just sayin.
The problem is, however, the system IS broke - we have so many offers now that many get completely buried, either because they are unknowns, or they got a late launch time, or both.
Pay to play has been suggested in the past, but it takes away from the core fundamentals of how this community was created, and how it continues to thrive. It also puts the smaller wineries at a great disadvantage, as they don’t have the same marketing budgets as larger wineries (or airline vendors). Also, how much attention do you think the Bronze category will get, once Platinum and Gold have already gone? Would you take the time to look them over very seriously?
I look at every offer on Berserkerday. I also do my homework by searching here and on Cellartracker. Sometimes, I take a flyer on something if a friend here posts on an offer saying he/she just bought in.
I would advise anyone that’s not a contributor/subscriber, to pay Todd so that you can get on the preview list. (not a suck-up). ![[whistle.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/8/87d24eb81ec6dc01d84f3d6c19fa9a357e90218e.gif "whistle"){kind=small}
I hate the groups idea with limited time
If I have a two hour block in the afternoon for example I’m basically unable to buy 2/3 groups And only the one group is possible. As I understand the groups disappear once their time is up? That seems silly. It is a work day still.
How about regions by the hour, repeated 3 times as below? To avoid selling out in the first segments, there can be limited amounts offered for every time period— or the sellers can create different offers for each of their three allowed times. If a producer has for instance SV Pinots from OR and Nor Cal, they get to offer in one of the time rota, but are allowed to post a reference to this in the preview, and a reminder in the other applicable time sector .
All PST
9AM Nor Cal
10AM All retailers
11AM OR-WA
12PM Central & Southern Cal, and rest of U.S.
repeat below
1PM
2PM
3PM
4PM
repeat below
5PM
6PM
7PM
8PM
Or something like that. ![[cheers.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/0/0ff9bfcdb0964982cd3240b6159868fbdf215b1a.gif "cheers"){kind=small}
If I understand it correctly, the issue is new listings dropping off the main page too fast. If so, why not disable the feature where new posts bump the topic to the top of the forum? Each new listing would have a certain amount of time at the top of the forum, but would gradually sink down as new listings are added.
Regarding fairness for late-in-the-day listings, start the day off with those listings that were added late the previous year (assuming there are returning offers). E.g., start off with the last 10-20 from the previous year, and then randomize the rest. At least that way, if you get stuck at the end, you know you’d have a better spot the next year.
Last year was the first time I participated, and I thought it was fun to dig through the pages to find interesting offerings, but can certainly understand it being a problem.
The idea is that groups will have a timeframe, i.e. 9:00 - 10:00 am, then it shuts down while the other groups, in their timeframes go, then at the end of each group’s time, everything will be opened up at once, thus keeping the randomness and excitement of multiple offers, along with the ability to see them ALL at the end (this is outlined in the first post)
Is this in any way different from the ‘groups’ I outlined in the OP?
If you will have a group for Pinot and a group for cab/Merlot, why not have ‘domestic Rhones’ instead of one for ‘syrah’ and then just 'others ’
Also, if I have a few offers, and one is for all whites, one is for all reds, and one is mixed, will they all be separated?
Personally, I thought last year went really smoothly. But perhaps it’s just me 
Cheers
If you really have that many offers, why don’t you call it Berserkerdays and have it over two days?
If I recall correctly, I have participated in every BerserkerDay since BDIII and have loved them all as they unfolded as imperfect events. I’ve always managed to find new wines to try, stock up on favorites, and have a lot of fun at the same time. My comments are offered with appreciation for all of the hard work that goes into this event and the difficulty in pleasing a majority of Berserkers.
My vote is for minimal tweaking if change is needed to address perceived shortcomings recognizing that a solution for some is a new problem for others. For the buried Newbies problem, it seems that a Newbie thread is all that is needed. If that is what you want, you know where to find it.
Someone will have to be at the end. Anyone who regularly presents papers at meetings has been in the last session of the last day where the audience is just the presenters and some of their friends. I second the idea that you rotate those to the top the next year and then randomize; don’t know how to make it more fair than that. You could also hold back some of the most popular offers for late in the day knowing they will still do well.
I’m amused at how this concept that we can replicate the fun/excitement of a generally spontaneous earlier time/event by prescribing behavior through artificially constructed rules and constraints permeates the human condition. I also dislike the idea of groups with limits, expiration times, reappearances later in the day (if there is wine left). All of that would create more stress and work trying to keep track of it all and would not encourage me to spend more time discussing.
I suppose this is just part of the spirit of the event, but it occurs to me that the problem of offers being buried is caused by using a message board thread for posting them. So whenever people post replies, it changes the order of the offers. You could avoid that by not using board threads (e.g. use a simple wordpress site or something, that would keep things in the order that they were posted, regardless of how much attention they get). I’m not sure I’d strongly encourage that approach, but it does kind of feel like some of this is a workaround for using an imperfect tool for the job of posting limited-time deals…
Could you pin most recent offers to the top so they don’t get buried with discussion on older offers
I think wineries that end up in multiple groups may end up with more work on their hands and this could be less valuable as purchasers will want to combine offers to save on shipping, thus leading to the winery juggling things on the backend.
Could it be possible for the lesser known or new participants have their offers pinned on the first page for a couple hours then rotated? Maybe a max of 10 pinned offers at a time?
I’m not liking the groups idea and I like to do my purchases at the end of the day. If I fear something I want will sell out, I can purchase on preview day.
Todd, forum favorites will always get the most discussion. That’s why they’re favorites.
My vote is to keep it the same. Wineries that participate year round will get the most chatter, others will sink or float based on the offer. I’m not sure why you’d try to help folks that participate one day only over the favorites that always contribute anyway!
Michael