Viewing post #985513 by DogsNDaylilies

dave said:It sounds like the consensus for this beta swap is that this'll be a free-for-all piggy type swap. You offer up the stuff you're willing to get rid of, and you jump at whatever you see that you want. There will not need to be parity between what you're offering and what you're getting, and by participating, you're accepting that.

It may be that I'll have to program it so that in future swaps, the host can decide what kind of swap it'll be: free for all, or strictly regulated and "fair." But in that case, I can't even begin to imagine how to make it "Fair." A packet of seeds that are worth $50 each obviously can't count the same as a packet of backyard collected marigold seeds.

By 'fair', I don't mean dollar-wise. 'Fair', to me, is that a trade is agreed-upon. It isn't a "here's everything I have" and "I hope there's something remaining that I want". In some ways, I picture this a little like trading in the board game, 'Monopoly'. In Monopoly, a trade is offered and the other player can accept it, reject it, or make a new offer. That's how I see this happening and, to me, that's fair. Something might be worth $1 to me and worth $50 to someone else, so monetary value doesn't seem as appropriate here as just making sure that *both* parties in the individual trade are happy with what they are getting.

...and before some people say "then trade in the Plant Swap" forum or something similar, keep in mind that I was hoping that this trading system would allow for large quantities of trades among many individuals who agree upon individual trades: http://garden.org/thread/view_...