Here are my guesses:
1. Fixed end date. We need to know when we'll get our seeds, and will ALL the seeds offered in any one swap ever be requested?
2. Requests-per-day or other throttling methods need to be a special rule for each swap. For the Beta swap? "Whatever".
Maybe no limit. If Dave does set a limit, it should be more to test the way it works than to enforce Beta-fairness.
This Beta Swap is to test the software and RAISE design questions, I think.
But it is an interesting question for each host in each swap! And perhaps "fairness" will be created here more than by being vigilant for Greedy Seeders.
If it were me, I would limit the requests (it's hard to stop saying "Oinks"!) to 5 per day for the first 20% of the swap. Let the cognoscenti duel for the rarest of the rare until those are grabbed up, but then let everyone do what's easiest for them, like do all their "shopping" in one big burst.)
If it were a really specialized and rare-seed swap, you could even stretch it out and make it a real social game, like limiting people to ONE request per day for the first week, then two requests for the second week. That would NEED a dedicated thread for people to moan and crow on!
Perhaps combine it with ongoing lotteries, where you not only requested 1-3 seed types per day, but then had to WIN them away from everyone else who requested that seed. To reduce frustration, maybe the winners would have to sit out one day. Or maybe that would just make people crazy-competitive.
3.
First-come, first-served basis seems to be widely regarded as the only way. I dunno ... but have no counter-suggestion.
If there needs to be way to balance the scales for people with limited online access, maybe issue 5 "flags" or a variation on "Dibbs" to each member. They can flag certain offers as "must have", and then "First-come Must Have requests get served before "Meh Requests".
Dave hinted he had something simmering for "priority" of requests, so I look forward to some exciting and cool better idea on that front. And it might vary from swap to swap.
4.
More rules needed for the Beta? Well, maybe. If they serve the purpose of learning and testing the software.
Maybe a way to get that learning is to pick examples. Have you found any things in others' Offer lists that you wish you could call Dibbs on, or flag "Must have", or would poise with finger over mouse on the very minute that the swap opens so you could use up your first-day-priority oink ? If so, does anything come to mind as a method of dealing with that urgent desire?
I think my first idea is a bad one: allow pre-swap pre-requesting and priority-resolution. Maybe shoe-horn in a phase where the point is not easy-going free-for-all, but rather "see who wants what the most, and negotiate for Must-Haves".
In some swaps, that might also be a "recruitment" phase, where people see Wish Lists and entice peopel to join by offering them "If you join and offer X, I'll add a pkt of Y and pre-dedicate it just for you".
But now "fairness" would need some counter-balance to such one-on-one favoritism.
