YDC Rules - Open Discussion

[tjsprinting]

oh heck the YDC and I have to be serious
I think that the p&p should be shown separately, I know the majority of peeps that donate items to auction do cover the postage costs themselves, however not everyone is in the position to do so, if the p&p is extra it is then up to the seller as to whether to donate the amount paid or not, if we buy anything online we expect to pay for postage so buyers are prepared to pay anyway.
Regards the nomination of auctions, yes it seems apropriate to spread the funds raised over the year across different charities , so to only allow the YDC to run once in 2010 for any particular charity is reasonable, we can still auction and raise money for our chosen charities outside of the YDC and pimp on the KT once a day.
Themed auctions proved very popular when we ran the Pink Fridays for BCC last year, perhaps we could arrange a few more within the YDC this year.
One last thing I would like to suggest is a new thread
TO ALL OUR NEWBIES- letting them know about the YDC, it took me a couple of months to figure out what it was all about because I didnt read all the threads, where as if a newbie sees a thread , kind of , addressed to them they might well click and find out about the fun they have been missing, what a great way it is to boost feedback and get rid of their awful glasses whilst helping worthy causes and finding absolute bargains too boot ( just warn them away from the Jelly Babies!!!)
Right, off to put my thinking cap back on for more thoughts on the subject.

[leadhillsonline]

I realise that not all YDC auctions are for the nominated charity, many (most?) are, so even though it doesn't affect you personally, it's still an issue worth discussing. For example, I love Help For Heroes and support them, but if Huddy won every time and proposed H4H for every single YDC I think that would be a shame, because smaller, less well known charities would miss their chance at the big cash.

I never know what the nominated charity is.

[PoppyGrove]

I think a mechanism to prevent one or two charities from dominating would be a great idea. And I say that despite being an RNLI official! One of the things I loved about YDC when I first started using it was the variety of causes, large and small, that were benefiting. And how a small charity could receive a really significant amount of cash by their lights.

Something to keep the nominations fresh would be good. I like the idea of not being able to nominate the same charity two times running - that could be either over-all, or per "winner", I suppose?

There also seems to be an issue with the repeat "big ticket" items, as I see it. It's lovely that things like the signed t-shirt are so popular, but the rules do say that you should not expect your item to raise more than £10 if you wish to be included in the competition side... yet the same few items win over and over - the person selling cannot honestly say they thought it would make less than £10, can they? So it should, by the rules, be excluded (not from selling & fund-raising, just the competition element to win the right to choose next month). That looks to me as if the rules need to either be enforced more vigorously, and these items not be included, or the maximum expected amount needs to be revised.

Some very valid points - especially re the 'big ticket' type listings that are guaranteed winners.

It would be an idea to exclude these from the 'winner competition' that way allowing other participants at least a glimmer of hope of winning the YDC and being able to nominate their preferred charity. Whilst the 'big money' items are great for the charity that they are intending to raise money for, I personally feel that they do a 'take over bid' and overshadow the smaller equally valuable donations from other participants who have their own preferred charities and perhaps not the money to compete with the 'big ticket' items.


We could increase the top book figure from its current £20 - but then, would we be pushing participants out of the YDC by doing that - sellers may think that their little bag at say £2 isn't worth bothering with because we have a worth value of say eg £50. It may end up with the YDC charity auctions only being a rich mans / womans activity and other members who wish to participate but maybe who are not so well off would feel as if their efforts are not welcome.

But - in truth given that they have reached such astronomical totals in past YDC's, I should enforce the rules to the effect that as they have an expected value of greater than £20 (as its is currently set) these items should be excluded from the winners competition.

[tjsprinting]

I never know what the nominated charity is.

as so many different charities are being supported in each months YDC it can be difficult to figure the Nominated charity without reading back through all the posts.

[bykimbo]

as so many different charities are being supported in each months YDC it can be difficult to figure the Nominated charity without reading back through all the posts.

It's always in the announcement.

[meebo1]

I am one of those that has included p&p and I have to admit it is laziness. (I don't have to weigh and check the postage)
I am also one that prefers a £1 to 99p.
A different charity each month - yes, I am for that too
A post in the Welcome thread could be useful to point newbies in the right direction

[tjsprinting]

It's always in the announcement.

yeah but we all get carried away and we end up with an announcement thread 10 pages long and some of us dont read EVERY post- I know Im a lazy bug

[bykimbo]

yeah but we all get carried away and we end up with an announcement thread 10 pages long and some of us dont read EVERY post- I know Im a lazy bug

Sorry, I should have been more clear. It's always in the announcement, which is the very first post of the thread, and stays there. You can always get to the first post of a thread easily by clicking on the title of the thread, so there's no excuse for not reading the first one.

[meebo1]

Just read post 1 that should help

[meebo1]

...... must type faster