Since the past one week,I have been organising a sponsorship project.
I wished to get some financial support while I offer a credit.
It seems that it did not turned out what I thought it would be.
I have carefully examined why it failed.
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@1 Contradiction between the nature of sponsorship and auction
I chose auction as the form because I thought market can bring benefit to both party.
The "seller" can have the most profit and the "buyer" can get what he wants.
Sadly,I ignored the nature or spirit of sponsorship.
People do not always sponsor someone or some organisation for sole purpose of having something in return.
This is because people are doing this out of some recognition on what someone or some organisation is doing.
The implementation of auction completely removed this kind of favor.
This is exceptionally severe when you only accept the one that offers the most.
People are not here to bet to sponsor someone or some organisation.
This is considered as the fatal mistake by me.
According to one of the potential sponsor,there are people supporting me.
However,the form of auction kept him away.
This is an example that market cannot solve everything.
And that sometimes market system repels other values,such as respect,recognition,honour etc.
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@2 Imperfect commercial platform
You may have noticed that I wanted the first try to be simpler.
This is because the original one is quite complicated.
I have lots of economical measures behind its regulations,rules.
I have made a system to prevent lots of trubles.
One of the reason why a forum in general is not a desired auction platform is that you can edit your posts.
That means lots of trouble,to both "buyer" and "seller".
You can edit at the last minute to win or you can cut your price at the last moment to save money.
This shows that starting an auction here may not be a good idea.
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@3 Little incentive to sponsor
There are two reasons for that.
#1 Little return
Just as another one of my potential sponsor stated,
you do not have to sponsor to be in my posts.
There are really not much difference in sponsoring a post or just reply.
Not to mention the extremely limited views.
#2 Public good
Posts here are public goods,which means it is impossible to prevent people from viewing it and one individual's use does not reduce availability to others.
This reduces the incentive to sponsor me.
You do not need to sponsor me to see my posts.
It would be normal that you do not do so.
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Conclusion:
It seems that although market governs our society,it is not applicable in this situation.
There are something not given a price but still matters a lot.
When making decisions,it is important to consider the invisibles.
I hope you all learn from this campaign and what it reveals.
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Reference:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_good