- Remember the spirit of the swap is that we want to share (and thus "back up") our corals with each other, and of course to get a piece of something you don't have. The idea of "ultra" frags is understandable, but what makes them "ultra rare?" is it that they are extra beautiful AND hard to keep? Well consider that Bubble Tip Rose Anemones were once so hard to keep (and beautiful) that a single specimen would sell for around $200. But as time went on, some hardier specimens were introduced, that cloned well... I have one and have brought MANY of them to the swaps.
So .. it is no longer "ultra". If there was some "Nuclear Sunburst Acan" that everyone covets as "ultra", it's probably because when it was first discovered and harvested for hobbiests, each tiny frag was $100, so OF COURSE we consider it rare and ultra. But as time goes on and as frags are shared, it is less "ultra rare".... isn't this part of the goal of the swap? So that we can share beautiful pieces with each other and help the frags stay in the community? Like I've said before, I love GSP, it's colorful and looks so very cool ... but it's banned because it's so hardy and every one has them. Ditto with devil's hand and toadstools....common because they are hardy and almost everyone has them, but they are nice! Frogspawn and torch corals are great, but "common".
BUT ... who determines what's banned and what's ultra rare? and why are there rules for them at the swap? I think all frags should be welcomed...and to some extent I think ultra should be less ultra BUT I totally understand that if you paid $100 for a cool zoa colony, you want to swap polyps for other $100 frags... I get that.
So maybe there SHOULD be a ultra rare frag table ... but I suggest that maybe the ultra rare table be it's own side-swap... So along with the regular swapping, the few ultra bringers can simply gather at another table, put their frags down and just swap them among themselves if they want. OR they can put their frag into the common swap.
I'm just sort of against the idea that "These 10 people get to pick 5 times first because they brought five frags of Nuclear Sunburst Acans each". I'd much rather have those 10 people, if they want, swap their rare corals among themselves, but then for the common pool of frags, they simply take their place in their groups like everyone else.
- As for groups. I think the numbers can be spread out better with a less random group picking.
Currently, you show up, put your hand in a bucket and pick a group. That's great except ... you put the letter back into the bucket. A simple method to get a more uniform distribution is what we call a "greedy algorithm" in programming. After someone picks a letter from bucket A, they place the USED letter into bucket B. People pick from bucket A until it's empty, then they pick from bucket B and discard the consumed letter into bucket A, repeat. This way at the end, there is a uniform distribution of people in each group with only a few groups with at most one extra person.
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