Thanks for the nomination!


Just to clarify - this Rumble is for reviews published from April 1 to April 14, correct? I just want to make sure, since there's one I'd like to nominate from the 19th.

I think you've done a good job so far! After I drop off the cake I baked for an order, I'm going to pick out some reviews! THANK YOU for being awesome enough to start this up

Thank-you, what a compliment. Maybe in the future we can figure out more details for this (a schedule, prizes, etc.) We need to continue to recognize the community that is here!

This is great, thanks for taking it on! I will have to think about what reviews to nominate! And I think the two week window is actually a good idea.

WARNING, the following is a stream of consciousness type of comment, sorry:

Damn, I really wish we had the ability to transfer points or gift cards to others!! Maybe we can have everyone donate a dollar, or maybe a quarter to an account we set up on PayPal, or someone who has one and can be trusted (I'd do it). Then we could buy gift cards and put them aside. Anyone who paid and then wins the rumble, would win a gift card, say like a $5 one or whatever amount we decide on. If those who win didn't participate by donating money, then they'd just get the recognition, but no gift card and we'd only award the gift cards when the winner was a monetary contributor.

(I just wrote that off the top of my head and I haven't fleshed it out, but let's get the ideas going! These are just thrown out ideas meant to help get us thinking. )

If we kept a thread where people could record that they donated the minimal amount, then we would compare that list to the list the receiver has of actual money put into the collection account.

Now I would be willing to donate my points to whomever wins and then uses the gift card to place an order...here's how we can do that: If they put what they want in a public wishlist, I can use the gift card to buy them the item and then I will use my points to get them the full 15% off the order, so they are getting that free as well (lets's face it, I have about 200,000 points, so I can't possibly use them all, so let me donate some of them?) Since it's a gift order, I would never see their address or info, just their screen name and the item(s) and I would use their gift card to pay and add my points to it and then they would receive their item. And yes,, I could keep a tally of people's gift card earnings, so if they wanted to stockpile the giftcards to use all on a one time order, that's fine (they'd have the gift card number(s) too and if they preferred to not use my points, then of course they could order themselves, the usual way. I am just trying to think of something I can donate to help sweeten the pot, especially to newer members who don't already have heaps of points.

We just need ideas and feedback. I am willing to help or let whomever else wants to take on the burden, no problem. You know what? I am going to ask Ilya if there is a way for me to cash in my points to buy gift cards to give away, how does that sound? They wouldn't have to supply the money so maybe they would go for it?!

I'm not sure how your idea works but I do remember that we can't give others gift cards. how can the points be put into PayPal. I've never heard of that.

I think what WW meant was to set up a PayPal account that community members would donate a small amount of money. The money would then be used to purchase a Gift Card with cash, making it fully transferable and able to be used for the full face value.

However I thought GC's were only available in $25.00 and up denominations? Please let me know if not.

@BlackOrchid, you understood what I meant, thanks for trying to explain it to Edeneve!

As to the other issue of the gift card amount, I wasn't fully thinking, but yes, the minimum amount available for purchasing a gift card is in increments of $25. I didn't bother to go check as I was only brainstorming. but that sure would be a hell of an incentive to want to win, wouldn't it? (I realize if I donated points and the order was only $25, they would only receive and additional $3.75 off, but if they ordered more, or stockpiled gift cards and used more than one on an order, then the savings would go up if they used my points. I think I'll just make the offer to the winner and let them decide if they want to use my points or not.)

@Edeneve: When you buy a gift card, as opposed to get one with points, it's just a number attached to a certain amount of money that anyone can use to pay for their order at Eden -- it's not linked to an account, so anyone can use it. If everyone who was interested, donated an agreed upon amount to a special PayPal account, we could take that money and buy gift cards (even people without their own PayPal account can still use PayPal to transfer funds to others).

So, just for example...say we agree that $2.50 is the amount to donate and 10 people donate; we would have enough money to purchase one $25 gift card.

OK, I have been thinking on it a little more and I have a better idea about how to do this!

We could only have this gift card rumble once a month and the rest of the rumble wins would just be without prizes. We could have a special, once a month rumble (we'd specify the cut off dates) where the only entries are the reviews posted that month by those who contributed money. As long as they published a review in that previous month AND donated money, they would win the gift card if they won the special rumble. That way, we would have more time for people to donate and everyone who donated would be included in the special rumble and be ensured a chance to win back their money (and more, lol!). It's a lot like winning at poker...you ante up and if you win the hand, you win the pot! Those who don't ante up, don't get to play that hand, simple as that.

Now, if someone wants to sponsor a rumble and donate the entire gift card themself, that would be great, but I really doubt many people are going to want to give away that much money. I like the idea of anyone who wants to donate the minimum (or more if they wish, nothing says they can't donate whatever extra they want) having the chance to win all of it. If we accumulated enough to buy more than one $25 gift card that month, then the winner would win as much as we were able to purchase. Any extra amount left over that's under $25, would be forwarded into the next month's pot.

Now, let's say we don't gather enough money during one month to buy a $25 gift card. What do we do? I say we simply keep collecting and whenever we reach that $25 mark, then we have the rumble then and we include all the reviews published by contributors during that time. So, even if it takes a month and a half to reach $25, we would just include all contributor's reviews that published during the month and a half. That way no one who donated would ever find them selves excluded from the chance to win back their money! We are obviously not sure how this is going to work out, but I think this idea of mine is flexible enough to accommodate any changes we need to make. I wish I thought we had enough interest to be able to easily raise the $25 per week, but since this is a trial, I think the month time period might make it easier for people to get it figured out and arrange to publish a review and donate so they have a chance to win the money. If I had the funds to just buy the gift cards myself, I would try that, but in the end I think people would rather donate a little for a chance to win a lot. Let me know what you think!!

I would have no problem overseeing the PayPal account (we could use mine, I think people know they can trust me, at least I hope they do!) and I would be keeping a record of the names of people who donated. I would start a thread that would be a public place for those who donated to record their donation, the date and the amount. I would simply match the actual payments to the ones on the list (and any scammers would be weeded out, of course). I would simply need people to send me a PM with the email they would be using to send the PayPal account the money. We want to keep the emails private, of course. I would send the account info they need to send the money to and I would keep a list of who paid with what email address they used. I could then post on the thread in response (to everyone's comment about having paid) and acknowledge publicly that the money was indeed sent from them into the account. I think having this transparency will put people's minds at ease. Does anyone have any thoughts or ideas about any of this?

As much as I am open to feedback, I would also like to suggest that others come up with their own ideas instead of only going on mine. Did that make sense? Man, it's late and I am getting loopy! I think for now I have thought of a pretty good system and it takes into consideration ways to adjust depending on how long it takes to gather enough money, plus it only lets those who donated have the chance to win which I think is fair. If someone wants to donate the entire $25 gift card on their own for a rumble, then we would list them as the sponsor of that rumble and then ALL reviews published in that period would be eligible to win, as long as they got the most votes.

Now, how are we going to record and do the voting? I say someone (*ahem*, BlackOrchid, for instance ) posts a poll discussion listing each review as one choice. People can vote just like they take a poll. The person who starts the poll would have to set the closing date to be when the rumble cuts off, so there wouldn't be any way for people to vote after that time. The results would be publicly viewable (and I say we should be sure to keep the results anonymous, just saying) Then they can Post the winner either in that thread, or in a new one, though I say keep everything together so it's easier to find, but that's just my preference.

Well I hope I haven't put too many people off by such long posts!!! And if anyone doesn't understand, just ask me. I think this is a good approach, but i certainly would like to hear others (and see them fleshed out, as well). I really tried to think of everything, so let me know if this is something people would consider doing! I sometimes wonder if people would be willing to go to this much work, or if they are only interested in winning without participation beyond writing a review. of course, for now, unless we have generous sponsors who buy these gift cards, I don't see another way of doing this. I wish the lowest amount for a gift card was $5, then we'd have a MUCH easier time, but $25 is a sweet prize and just might lure more people!

Thank you and it's nice to hear form someone, finally, lol! I know the long posts can be a turn off, but I tried to address all the issues I could! And I was really just brainstorming at first and then something came of it...

wow, I sure like your thinking process. great ideas WW. now it's to decide on "what". hope we can come to a consensus.

Aww, I am sorry you had to cancel this, but I am still going to work on my idea and maybe if that gets off the ground, it will spur interest in all of this rumble business for the many people who aren't sure what it's all about. I also hope the chance to win a prize like the $25 gift card will encourage that interest, lol! I think we just didn't have enough of a way to drum up the interest with people not coming on the site every day like they used to. I know I didn't have time to even nominate some reviews with all else I am doing, so don't be discouraged, it's just bad timing, I think. And I thank you, BlackOrchid, for trying to get it all going!

Even if for my idea we just have several members participating, it would still be worthwhile entertainment for those of us involved (and others could certainly vote and ask to be included next time). I hope that seeing there is something going on that can win people a prize will get others interested. I think it's a matter of no one wanting to get behind an idea that takes work, but might fail. No worries, I have spend more time on my idea and I am preparing to send invitations to people, so perhaps the first few super rumbles (or whatever I decide to call it) will be invitation only, who knows? (Maybe I'll call it "The Invitational", lol!) I invite any ideas either on the thread here, or via PM!

I think the lack of interest is because there aren't many of us still hanging on. I just messaged 2 people this thread. hopefully they will read it & respond. and newbies are most likely not checking out the forum. probably only looking for free toys. then, when they find out it's not so easy, they disappear.

so don't give up your idea BO. it's still a good idea.

Thanks, Edeneve! I agree there needs to be a different time window for the reviews which is why I came up with the idea that we can self-nominate ANY review we ever wrote! Sure, only one nomination per person, but with the ability to use any of the reviews you wrote, more people can participate!

Maybe, in future super rumbles, we could limit the review to one written in the past 3 months or 6 months. I initially though doing the past one month might work, but it should definitely be longer, especially as those remaining and interested in doing this probably have larger collections and/or what we buy now tends to be expensive, so we tend to purchase more sporadically - and therefore, don't review as frequently.