TopDogBidZ BETA Contest

[Viper]

Welcome to the TopDogBidZ BETA Contest. During the course of the BETA you will be given free bids everyday to try and win as many auctions as possible. After the Contest is over we will put the players with the most wins(top 25%) into a raffle to win the Apple Ipad 16GB Wi-Fi. We are increasing the number of auctions the closer we get to the end of the BETA to give new users the same chance of winning as users who have been playing for a while.

Need To Know:

1. You will not be winning any of the auction items that you win DURING THE BETA.

2. You cannot buy bids during the BETA, please do not attempt to do so.

3. This is a BETA as well as a contest and we would appreciate your feedback at support@topdogbidz.com

3a. If you are sending a new suggestion for the site put "NEW DOG" as the subject.

3b. If you are reporting an error put "BAD DOG" as the subject.

4. The winner will be notified that they won through the forums and email and have 14 days to claim and pay shipping if applicable.




Poll Details: What we would be doing is provide php with an error. First to provide a correct fix will be given FREE bids for when we go live(i.e. us bids to win real items unlike BETA)

[TerranceN]

Penny auctions are immoral in my opinion, you capitalize on the irrational escalation of commitment. There is a good example of this here. People can't control this, it's a psychological defect to our rational thinking ("the only winning move is not to play"), and the fact you would want to make a profit out of it bothers me.

[Viper]

I totally entitle you to and respect your opinion on the subject of penny auctions in general. What I cannot agree with is that all sites are maliciously designed to disadvantage the users. For example many penny auctions donate massive amounts to multiple charities and we intend to do the same. Also what you do not seem to mention is that; although with every win there are multiple losses that is only one auction, and the person that did win more than likely got a good deal compared to even retail sale prices. Like any other game it does require some skill or strategy to win excessively but winning in general only requires at most a few days of observation to determine high and low traffic times during the day. To be good at soccer you have to practice and invest in equipment, to be good at football you have to practice and make and investment in equipment, to play penny auctions you need practice and an investment in bids; Penny auctions are no different than other games except we provide real prizes. Even though people can make largely irrational decisions and ultimately not win any thing, its the same for anything and everything - nothing can't be abused or is impervious to irrational decision making in its processes. Now to address your "here" link that is a totally different concept than our and many other sites. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bidding_fee_auction Is a better example. Lastly you seem to have based your argument on the "fact" is it a psychological defect please direct use to a charity, school or group we can review as one of our places we can donate to.

Thank You For Your Comments And Feel Free To Contact Me Personally If Your Have Any Other Site Inquires Or Issues CodeyBurdett@TopDogBidz.com

Thank You And Have A TopDogDay.

Sincerely,
Codey Burdett - Vice President - TopDogBidZ

[Dan]

Viper @ 14th October 2010, 8:52 pm wrote:

For example many penny auctions donate massive amounts to multiple charities and we intend to do the same.

Which ones and what %?

[Viper]

http://www.swipeauctions.com/world_vision_charity.php

[rdrake]

1. Your site's banner is so ridiculously huge it hurts my head.
   
2. I see on that sponsorship page the company is sponsoring 163 children. Are there any dollar figures instead?
   

[Viper]

Im not a part of their business so I wouldn't know any numbers like that but im sure if you contacted them they might release the information.

[jafar25]

it's an interesting deal, but after all, i would have to say no due to my beliefs against gambling. you're right, it is no different from studying how to succeed in a game, and i like that you're donating some profits to a charity, but this is still a betting game, and that's the fact that makes it immoral for me, sorry...

i dont mean to force my opinion on ppl, just giving my reason for disagreeing lol
good luck with the business tho.

[Dan]

How is TopDogBidZ linked to swipeauctions.com? I asked (or meant to ask) which charities you will be donating to and what % of your profit will the donations make up.

Secondly, dispite what you and swipeauctions.com say, this looks alot like gambling. I wonder if this would even be legal in Canada.

And fianly some googling around for swipeauctions.com seems to indicate that it is a scam by kown internet spamer and scamer, Jesse Willms:

http://www.webcops.net/just_think_media_spam_scams_8001.html

http://www.complaintsboard.com/complaints/new-name-same-old-scam-c371264.html

http://www.pennyauctionwatch.com/2010/02/swipebids-penny-auction-review/

http://strangelyperfect.tv/7108/jobs-at-just-think-media/

http://www.pennyauctionwatch.com/2010/05/swipebids-jesse-willms/

http://bloggerboon.com/2010/06/23/how-swipe-bids-scam-works/

http://onlinescamwebsites.com/2010/09/swipe-auctions-scam-how-swipe-auctions-actually-works-the-secret-is-out/

http://www.sitejabber.com/reviews/www.swipeauctions.com


And in more general issues with penny auction sites:

CBC: Penny auction sites prompt consumer warning

Coding Horror: Penny Auctions: They're Gambling

[Viper]

1. TopDogBidZ and Swipeauctions are not linked in any way which I though I was clear on in a previous reply.
2. Try Looking into sites like, swoopo, beezid, quibids. Honest and Successful.
3. Since we have not officially opened and therefore have not gained anything at all are not donating yet. To what organizations and how much will be determined when we are able to do so.
4. This is not gambling a user in a penny auction is less affected by chance and can apply more skill to increase win frequency than in gambling.
5. Yes this is Legal in Canada

Once again I totally respect all opinions but wish to ask that the discussion we are having about the integrity of penny auctions end since I can only speak on behalf of TopDogBidZ. Secondly I am intending on hiring programmers fresh out of school looking for steady employment in the near future and was intending on using the bug fix contest to fish out a few possibilities. What im asking is that I not be targeted for the wrong doings of the penny auction industry and that you only post in this thread if you are interested in the BETA Contest , Bug fix contest or have a question or comment about TopDogBidZ.

Also just want to remind everyone we are giving away a 100% free iPad for our BETA, no shipping cost. Visit www.topdogbidz.com and sign up today.

Thank You And Have A TopDogDay.

[Dan]

I think our questions are only fair considering how corrupt your industry is and how close this topic comes to being spam.


Where is the venture capital coming from to hire the programmers and buy the first auction items?


Edit: Also about it being gambling, you may want to check with the OLG (assuning you are in ontario) before you continue with the site. Canada/Ontario has stricker laws about "contests" and you may need a licenses for this.

[Viper]

Here is login.php so you (DanShadow) can complete your fix.

[DanShadow]

Here is the "fix" for the registration and login.

In the registration, when a user is registered the page will set session variables for ['uid'] and ['objregmsg'].
When the page is reloaded there will be an if check for whether or not these variables are set (thus checking whether or not a user has been registered).
If so, this page will redirect to the login page.
The login page will check if the session variables ['uid'] and ['objregmsg'] are set, and if they are - display the text stored in the session variable ['objregmsg'] on top of your "Welcome" text.

I always added 'session_start();' to the start of both pages so that session variables would work.

[Dan]

You realy should take Amailer's advice from the other thread and use some kind of framework, esptaly if this is for a project that is going to be handling money.

At the very least you should have some kind of template system so your html is not mangled in with your PHP and some framework to help you with the SQL queires (i am prity sure there is a SQL injection vector in their).

Also if other pages on your site are coded like this, you likey have XSS vulnerabilities all over the place.


Edit: Also i still want to know where the VC is coming from to buy the items in your auctions.

[TerranceN]

Kind of off topic, but a possible answer to Dan's question:

The venture capital can actually come from the auctions themselves. Depending on the price for bids and how much a bid increases the auction price, the auction price only has to get to a fraction of the retail price of the item in order for the house to make a revenue great enough to cover the cost of the item, and as long as it seems like a good deal, people will keep bidding (giving the house a sizable profit). Then the item can be bought after the fact, and shipped to the winner.

I don't know if thats how Viper plans to do it, but with the amount of profit that can be made it's certainly possible.