Time to Update the Bonus and Ultra Zoa/Soft Coral - What qualifies?
- Thread starter Wlachnit
- Start date
RandyC
Supporting Member
Then why even have a bonus round. At that point, I'd venture to guess at least 50% of participants would be involved in the bonus round. Lots and lots and lots of coral is worth $30.
sfsuphysics
Supporting Member
who's value do you go by?
I mean I used to sell my RBTAs anywhere between $20 and free if you can get it off the rock or you could take LiveAquaria's valuation of 99.99 each, so ultra catagory?
I mean I used to sell my RBTAs anywhere between $20 and free if you can get it off the rock or you could take LiveAquaria's valuation of 99.99 each, so ultra catagory?
Kremis
Guest
ijn order to trade valuable corals for other valuable corals ?
the club can decide the value
sfsuphysics
Supporting Member
One was gone in the bonus round, the other two were gone throughout the first. *shrug* I didn't even try to fancy it up either by saying "green base if you blast it with enough UV light to make a Duggar sterile"
sfsuphysics
Supporting Member
Sure they go fast but they reproduce faster than a Duggar (wow two references in one thread). So maybe not so bonusy. Which is kind of the direction I wanted to go, is that some of these coral types grow very rapidly compared to others. Grab any random sps bonus coral and any random zoa bonus, both get the minimum size at a frag swap and I guarantee the zoas will have more bonus frags available by the next frag swap versus the sps frag. Some of that probably explained why the zoa section was so large and the acropora section so anemic.
So it comes down to what do we want the bonus section to accomplish? Does the larger zoa section represent more people are growers of that? Or was that just the easiest way to get eligible corals for bonus tickets? Or 3 eligible corals for entry into the general swap.
Another thing that just shot through my mind, bring only bonus zoas only be eligible for picking zoas during your bonus round, throw in an acropora as one of your three then you can mix things up. Not that I want to think of the logistics of making that happen. Overall this would be a very big change and I believe smaller changes are overall healthier.. just like in a reef tank But it just was a thought as I stare aimlessly at my students taking a midterm now.
So it comes down to what do we want the bonus section to accomplish? Does the larger zoa section represent more people are growers of that? Or was that just the easiest way to get eligible corals for bonus tickets? Or 3 eligible corals for entry into the general swap.
Another thing that just shot through my mind, bring only bonus zoas only be eligible for picking zoas during your bonus round, throw in an acropora as one of your three then you can mix things up. Not that I want to think of the logistics of making that happen. Overall this would be a very big change and I believe smaller changes are overall healthier.. just like in a reef tank
But it just was a thought as I stare aimlessly at my students taking a midterm now.
RandyC
Supporting Member
I see having too high a participation in the bonus round doing two things, lowering the significance of the bonus rounds and drawing out the length of the bonus rounds.
Saying any coral worth $30 applies will probably lead to getting less desirable coral in my opinion. Hell, even rastas still sell for $30 for a multiple polyp frag as does eagle eyes, scarfaces, and common green torches and hammers. The feeling of exclusively and really good stuff ("the hype") is probably what will bring out better coral.
Too many bonus round participants equals too long of bonus rounds. That makes for a bad experience for non-bonus participants. Having to wait around while a lot of bonus rounders pick coral may curb future participation.
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Kremis
Guest
yeah and a certain amount of xenia equals $30 too
im thinking more along the lines of a minimum $pp for zoas ($5?), then adjust polyp count as needed to get $30-40 (ex: utter chaos $10pp, 3 polyp required) that should weed out things like rastas and eagle eyes, fixes the issue of polyp counts and also bases things somewhat on value
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Flagg37
Guest
Any swap I’ve gone to has only had two bonus rounds. I’ve never participated in a bonus round and never felt it was too much to wait.
Proper valuation is difficult and balance is key. Low valuation does allow for more people to be involved (which I think is good) but, like randy said, it also devalues other more valuable corals. Too high and not enough people will be able to take part in it which means fewer (although arguably better) corals will make it through for the regular rounds.
I think having bonus and ultra corals be defined as approximately a certain dollar value and higher is a very solid approach.
This would NOT make us have to slavishly follow certain stores or people’s inconsistent pricing as was suggested with previous swaps when this was brought up. Rather, just a rough guideline that we can use to keep on target. This has the significant benefit of changing with the times and also of minimizing personal preferences and biases for certain types of coral.
The biggest downside is that we would need to have a rough idea of what various corals cost at any given time. I definitely don’t have that sense but it seems like a bunch of members do.
This would NOT make us have to slavishly follow certain stores or people’s inconsistent pricing as was suggested with previous swaps when this was brought up. Rather, just a rough guideline that we can use to keep on target. This has the significant benefit of changing with the times and also of minimizing personal preferences and biases for certain types of coral.
The biggest downside is that we would need to have a rough idea of what various corals cost at any given time. I definitely don’t have that sense but it seems like a bunch of members do.
Flagg37
Guest
Right, you can always find those outliers but there’s probably a price that comes to mind that you would say is reasonable for any particular coral. Think about what you would be willing to buy it for or what you think you’d be able to sell it for. I’ve seen (supposed) Walt disney frags for sale for $20. I’ve also seen utter chaos for $50/polyp. We wouldn’t use just any price out there as basis for its value. It would be more a feel of it’s average value.
We also don’t have to use a $30 bonus and $90 ultra valuation either. The dollar amount can be changed.
Kim Pattison
Guest
The list is the way to go corals can always be added or removed or size modified as a coral becomes more available locally.
The only real change I would advocate for would be colony added to the list. Bonus coral could be 10 polyp ( easier to regulate if we give it a size like 1 square inch) and 30 for regular (2 square inch).
I thought the idea was to keep it more or less how we have it with bonus and ultra lists, but to use the approximate dollar amount as a guide for how to update the list before the swap. Rather than updating the list based on subjective opinion, which is what it is now.
I would never advocate for a free-for-all where the poor desk person has to try to figure out how much each closed-up frag is worth.
The flip side is that people need to follow the spirit of the swap and not try to sneak in frags that don’t meet guidelines.
At this swap I got a bonus fruit loops zoa frag with very little living tissue, just an injured partial single polyp, much less the required polyp count. I understand things don’t always go to plan, I myself got busy with life and had a couple frags I had just fragged a couple days before instead of the normal 1+ weeks ahead.
But maybe give a couple extra polyps in case some of the macerated tissue doesn’t make it, to be sure to meet the minimum. It’s very hard for the desk person to tell the difference between health and unhealthy coral in this situation, and especially with how hectic it gets.
At this swap I got a bonus fruit loops zoa frag with very little living tissue, just an injured partial single polyp, much less the required polyp count. I understand things don’t always go to plan, I myself got busy with life and had a couple frags I had just fragged a couple days before instead of the normal 1+ weeks ahead.
But maybe give a couple extra polyps in case some of the macerated tissue doesn’t make it, to be sure to meet the minimum. It’s very hard for the desk person to tell the difference between health and unhealthy coral in this situation, and especially with how hectic it gets.
sfsuphysics
Supporting Member
Good idea Kim if an encrusting monti needs to be 1 inch then zoas should have to encrust an area of atleast 1 inch or a frag plug