"Ferdi Ozguner" <fozguner_at_ualberta.ca> typed valoriously:
> The auction was not to profit by any means, winners of the auction
> were not even charged anything for the information about the project,
> it was just an attempt to garner interest in the project and with such
> a large user base I felt it might be beneficial to use ebay. For
> those that commented, ebay did get back to me to let me know my
> "information" auction was completely acceptable.
Ferdi,
If I may, I would venture to say that using eBay as the platform for
gathering interest in the Frozen Newton project is probably the detail
that caused so much indignation from Newtontalk users.
With eBay being primarily a commercial marketplace, it seems to me like
a poor choice for an initiative which you intended only to disseminate
information and obtain feedback about an idea without generating
revenue. An auction by definition just doesn't seem like the right
forum for non-commercial information distribution and interest
garnering.
I think if I were doing this, I would set up a Web page (on my own
site, or perhaps on a free hosting site like Geocities) with a
description of the project and MOST IMPORTANTLY a Web forum where the
idea could be discussed interactively without the baggage of a
bid/win/pay auction environment.
When I go to eBay, I don't expect to engage a developer in conversation
about a project idea; I expect to buy or sell something. I suspect most
eBay users probably have the same expectation. So the perception was
created that you were trying to sell something that didn't exist --
understandably setting off many peoples' internal fraud detection
alarms.
Anyhow, it's too bad this topic devolved so quickly. I think a frozen
Newt would be cool. But to me it's understandable that so many reacted
negatively, and I think it comes down to your choice of forum.
-Jeremy
-
Jeremy Bond SHEPHERD | Americans practice different faiths in
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Phone: 415-929-0297 | at all.
ICQ: 72267083 | -- George W. Bush, finally gets it right
AIM: jeremybondsf | in his Easter Address of 2002
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