Auctions end later than Bersekerday (as with this year), but maybe by less (i.e. one day later, not 4)
Offers
While it might be a little less fun/exciting, posting the offer schedule in advance would make things much more manageable (for users at least). Could be a subscriber benefit.
It would be great to be able to easily see each offer in posted order with posting time (unlike the forum which resorts by most recent post). Perhaps a post / page with entries like “3:05 EMH” and a link to the EMH thread. Each time a new offer is posted, the thread would be created and a link to the thread would be in the master page/post. IF the schedule was released in advance (per above suggestion), it could just be posting the thread and link on the schedule as each offer went live. Or (alternatively, if technically possible) each thread name would start with the posting number and time, and the forum would sort by that, not by most recent post.
That all said, this was my first BerserkerDay, and it was pretty awesome, so I’d echo the folks below who asked for guidance on what needs fixing. As a newbie subscriber, I found the experience fun, a bit much, but definitely manageable. I think it would have been pretty unmanageable without the preview, to be fair, but I’m ok with that - subscription price is not super-high and overall the level of pressure to be a subscriber is quite reasonable.
As a buyer the past three years I’m not really adverse to any of the suggestions Todd put forward, particularly grouping of the offers by category. To me the big ones are: winery direct, wine shops (offering wine, not other stuff), wine-related goods (you could further split this into durable goods and consumables, if needed) and auctions. Even just making those all subforms within the main Berserker section would seem to clear up a lot of clutter, though that might eliminate views in an unwelcome way.
My one big ask would be at least an OPTION to sort the forum by new threads, vs just new posts to threads, so that I can more easily see all the offers. I say “option,” because those who prefer it as is, could still sort how they wish. It would make shopping the offers are lot easier for me if sorting by thread posting was available.
Also, as I’m sure the sellers want as much exposure as possible, I wouldn’t institute mandatory offer time limits since, as many others have noted, most people can check in once or twice, but can’t hang around the forum all day. Now, if the sellers themselves want to impose an offer time limit, I think that’s totally fine, but I’d hate to see it become required as part of the process.
Oh and, I’m not a subscriber but I have zero issues with subscribers receiving extra Berserker day buying advantages, and even increasing those. Makes perfect sense to me.
First, another thank you to all who ordered. Your response has been overwhelming and wonderful.
Years ago, I started with my 3-hour window for ordering, and mostly it has worked well for me. My web guy is babysitting the server to ensure everything flows smoothly. As it was, the offer was up over 5 hours, because of the sheer volume coming in. There are certain parts of my admin process that need to be done while the offer is live. It is my commitment to be “live” as well to handle questions, comments, issues. And to enjoy the fun! Over 5 hours working that end, plus all the clean-up, which I have just completed (I think). No complaints - just trying to answer the question “why the 3 hours?” My production is tiny and my inventory fairly small. I want to be sure I don’t oversell (not be able to provide you the wine you committed your dollars to). I’m pretty maxed out at 5 hours. And I am well aware that if you thought you were not going to get the wine you wanted, there were plenty of other wineries offering great deals.
The top dollar spender was a fairly new subscriber. Does not mean he has not been lurking, but low number of posts.
Maybe (just guessing) more than half the customers had never ordered from me before.
Probably less than 10% are women (this is not new news - BerserkerDay or otherwise).
The auction seems to have lost steam with being open a few days. It seems to have calmed the usual excitement. Brig and Todd did an awesome job with something that just snowballed. No criticism, just an observation.
And I said “a few quick thoughts.” I’ve been around here for quite awhile (I didn’t check to see if I hit 6000 posts!) and most folks know I rarely keep it short .
Agree. Unsure what the benefit would be of offers expiring anyway? If some producers want to close their offers after a certain period of time based on their own unique circumstances (such as Merrill) then they should feel free to do so but those willing to keep them up all day should also be accommodated. I will say that it would be helpful if those who sellout would change the subject headers to reflect that, such as Merrill and Jean Edwards do. Some producers did not do that and I wasted some time sifting through comments of sold out offers.
The whole thing worked well for me, a newbie. But then again, this ain’t about me! It was fun, constantly refreshing the screen while at work, including sitting through a technical webinar with colleagues. Not sure they knew what I was up to. But since things did not sell out real fast, as far as I could tell, I could have checked in a couple times and been okay. I guess the question though is how to manage this as the administrator. Maybe drop in offers in blocks, at less frequent intervals, say every 30 minutes? Or something like that?
That would be true if each order triggered a thread bump. But it doesn’t - it relies on people to say “in” or something similar, which not everyone does (clearly - because otherwise BD was a dud) and also do so in an intermittent fashion.
Not sure if it has been suggested – I will admit that I only skimmed the posts above – but I would be all over a Berserker day sampler case that included one bottle each from 12 small wineries. Or you could have several – one ‘rookies’ case, one white, one red, one ‘aged,’ etc. I’m sure it would cause serious logistical hassles but I suspect they could be overcome with the right retailer partner, and it seems like it would (1) be wildly popular and (2) allow some newbies to get broad exposure. On the other hand you would not want it to cannibalize other sales.
This was my first BD. It will not be my last. The preview day was great. Didn’t feel to overwhelmed on BD. Keep it simple and the same format. Thank you for your efforts.
This ‘event’ really has grown in stature over the last couple of years and it’s awesome to see.
As a producer, it’s an ‘honor’ to be taking part in an event such as this. I could only imagine how ‘kid in a candy shop’ it must be for the WB community to see such fantastic deals.
I really liked the subscriber pre-launch day this year. There should be advantages of being a ‘subscriber’ and this is a great one indeed - and hopefully it will prompt others to join that have not in the past.
That said, I do wonder if we might not use this special day in a slightly ‘different’ way that could have a ‘broader appeal’ to many, and actually may make it a bit more ‘meaningful’ . . .
What if a percentage of all sales was ‘required’ to be donated to a specific cause or two, and those causes could be chosen by the WB community as a whole via a poll?
With the volume of sales steadily increasing each year, whatever percentage is chosen could begin to add up nicely for worthy causes.
I love this idea, and have done a bit of it behind the scenes over the years, and some of those OFFERING the auction items have chosen charities for their listing, but it would be best to pick one and advertise it accordingly, throughout. Laura’s House is well covered with Falltacular, but I do plan to ask Jen if she has a charity she’s passionate about, perhaps have her choose, or we can figure out a way to announce it as a prize, too, for the person who bought the most on BerserkerDay, or the best deal offered, etc.
Todd — as a pre-Berserker Day offer – maybe get one of the shipping/storage places to offer a BD special. That way, people in non-ship states can prearrange to have their wine handled and shipped. I didn’t order a few of the offers because I knew they wouldn’t ship to monopoly PA.
I have participated in the auctions when living in both the East and West time zones and would make the following suggestions:
Limit the auction period to one day, but offer a preview of all the items the day before. This way people can decide if there are items they want to bid on, and if so, can adjust their schedule for Auction day such that they are in a position to bid.
It’s pointless having the bidding open all day as it’s only in the last half hour that you absolutely have to be there to make sure you have the winning bid. Why not limit the bidding time to the last three hours of the day…maybe 7:00 to 10:00 pm Eastern time. This would help generate excitement and maybe increase the bids.
End the bidding at 10:00 pm Eastern, I know by 10:30 a lot of people in the East have gone to bed!! 7:00 pm may mean West coasters have to make sure they leave work early enough to get home to bid, and that’s why we need the preview day so they can make those arrangements the day before.
If you really want to generate excitement consider shutting down the rest of the board during the bidding period.
I like a lot of ideas here, thanks all, but this one made my laugh a bit - you can’t imagine the rage that would occur from those who DON’T do BerserkerFest, if I shut it down for it
Another thought on the auctions is that whilst bidding would halt at 10:00 pm, if a bid is entered at exactly 10:00 then the bidding on that item is extended by one minute till 10:01 etc etc. That way you can’t steal an item by putting in your bid at exactly 10:00 pm and everyone gets their chance to put in the last and winning bid.
I really think numbering each offer–or the tick-list as Nola suggested–solves this problem.
Groups I strongly encourage simple groupings: wineries, retailers, Food and other goodies, full stop. Themes within each, I’m already dizzy. Creating themes means we wineries would have to figure out what we’re going to do well in advance, and you guys would have to sort into the groups - sounds like way too much work to me.
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