Count me in, please!

poisondartfrog said:First come, first served?

That's my figuring. It's the only fair way.

I have put a list of "have's" and "wants" on my "Managing your list infobox" at the top of the page of my plant lists

OK, so that's where we put our lists and Dave takes it from there?

Edited to add, I have daylily seeds. Do I need to list the crosses and how many seeds of each I have?

For those asking about a wish list. I see no point in having a wish list. If I understand how this is going to work, then it is a blind trade. You go to someones list and if you see what you want you request it. There is now option for bartering. You don't get to go to someone and say "I see you have plant A on your wishlist. I have that plant and will trade you for Plant B on your have list."

Your swap list is separate from the Plant Lists feature here at ATP. To learn how to setup the swap list, go here:

http://garden.org/thread/view_...

I'm game for whatever the rules are in this Beta Seed Swap. This type of swap is a great way to trade with many at one time.

I've been in several group seed swaps over many years and have enjoyed them all, all different. Probably none of them are perfect by everyone's standards. For sure I do enjoy sharing my saved seeds. And, it's always fun growing new things; there have been times I found seeds I've always wanted to grow but, some of my favorites have been seeds offered for things I'd never even heard of.

Definitely, first come, first serve is good.

dave said:
I've thought about this scenario, and the only fair way to do this is that if nobody selects any of your seeds, then you can't get any from other people. The participants have to have things that other people want in order to swap.

If you can get 10 packets "spoken for" then you will be allowed to select somewhere around 10 packets for yourself.

It is at that phase where, if you haven't gotten enough people to want your seeds, then you may be disappointed. The burden will be on each gardener to put up seeds that will be attractive to others.

After having counted, packaged, and labeled thousands of seeds in almost a hundred packs it would be more than disappointing to be told that I don't get any seed or just a couple of packs. Rather than saying you don't get any seeds it might be better to say your name goes to the end of the line, since it is first come first serve. Here is an example scenario.

The member request 100 different packs of seeds but only has five packs requested from his/her list. Rather that say you can only have five packs, given him/her the first five packs they requested. For the remaining 95 request they get them only if there were any of those seeds left after all the other claims were given out. If there were 10 packs of a particular seed offered and 12 request then the member would not get any. But if 10 packs were offered and only 5 were requested by other members then there should be no reason deny them the seeds.

That's a good idea, Jay. The one possible problem might be what if there are no extras? Or I guess we could encourage all traders to try to send a few extras of each item they are sending?

dave said:That's a good idea, Jay. The one possible problem might be what if there are no extras? Or I guess we could encourage all traders to try to send a few extras of each item they are sending?

There doesn't need to be extras, it's still first come first serve. But the person who has exceeded their quota (requested more than they are giving) would still have a chance to get the seeds they want as long as they have not all been given out.

I understand, but in that scenario, could the person receive (in this example) 100 packets of seeds even if they are only sending 5 into the swap?

If you still have room for another, you can count me in Dave. I'd like to help test the system.

dave said:I understand, but in that scenario, could the person receive (in this example) 100 packets of seeds even if they are only sending 5 into the swap?

Exactly, but only if there are unclaimed seeds for whichever ones they wanted. I might add you should only be allowed to request as many packs as you have to offer. So you can't request a hundred packs of seeds if you only have 20 available on your swap list.

Will this be our discussion thread as well, or is it just the signup thread? I already have questions about how the lists will display...among others.

chelle said:Will this be our discussion thread as well, or is it just the signup thread? I already have questions about how the lists will display...among others.

I found the answers in another thread.

This is so exciting!

@Dave @Trish
Would it be possible for you to edit the first post in this thread to show who has signed up for the first swap?

Thanks Jay, I think I understand that thoroughly now.

We have room for 7 more participants.

Yes greene, it would. Are you signing up?

THANK YOU for creating the feature, and for this swap!

I would like to sign up, but most seeds I have to offer are only vegetables, or getting old.

If that seems too limiting, save my space for someone with seeds likely to be in higher demand.

So we won't see any kind of wish lists, right? We can't add to our "Offered" list after we see what someone wants?

Are you setting a specific guideline for what's too old to offer? Usually I make up a bigger packet if vegetable seeds are older than 3 years. And I try to list the age prominently in my "Offered" list if it is getting on in years.

Would you consider adding a flag for each trader? They could decide at the beginning of the swap to allow their seeds to be given away even if the requestors did not have any takers for their offerings. I suppose that would break your design intention of only allowing reasonably balanced trades among people with widely popular seeds, so you might not want to offer that.

Have you considered the case in a large swap where someone finds out at the very end of the swap that he or she is only going to receive or give away a very small number of packets, due to their requestors not being able to give away enough seeds? Some people might want to pull out instead of spending the postage to get fewer than (say) 5 or 10 packets. If that did happen, there might have to be a second round of "balancing" after the dropouts dropped out.

If the seed is still good, I wouldn't have a problem with offering 3 year old varieties. Especially if you've tested them for germination. You could add in the comments what year they were harvested, so the "buyer" knows what they are getting.

Can we add to the offered list as the swap is underway? I don't really see a reason why we couldn't.

I do imagine we'll have a chat thread throughout the process, where people can post their specific wants and discuss amongst themselves what's being traded.