Sunflower Auction - personal thoughts

[yuuago]

So. sunflower_auction is now complete.

We raised €7503 to support Ukraine. That's just over 10K in Canadian dollars. Many people donated more than their high bid; I'm amazed and grateful for how generous people are. I really appreciate that so many people signed up, placed bids, and promoted the auction.

I'm also really glad that I volunteered to help run this project with dhampyresa. Originally, I was hesitant, because I don't have any experience moderating large multifandom events. The only mod experience I have is running Nordipalooza, which was a niche single fandom prompt fest that never had more than, I dunno, 30 people singing up in its busiest year. Sunflower Auction was very different.

I was initially supposed to have a very background role. Keep an eye on the DW comments, run the tumblr, deal with the occasional email, that sort of thing. But then Dhampyresa got sick, and we ended up having to reverse things. They handled the code, and I stepped into a primary communication role. Would say maybe 90% of the interaction that people had with the mods was actually me. I'm glad that people were patient with my occasionally slow responses.

There are some things that I wish we'd been able to do differently. Dhampyresa and I have almost no time zone/availability overlap, so collaborating was hard. We should've taken that into account ahead of time. (Though of course we couldn't have planned for getting sick.)

And in hindsight, I would've liked to have been more selective with the org list, and done a little more research - I'm sure there are some great organisations that we missed because they weren't included in the source we got our list from. And again, in hindsight I would have liked to include at least one primarily Romania-based org on that list - I know two people who I'm sure would have been happy to make suggestions, but I didn't think of that until way late.

Also - I'd like to extend special thanks to my pal Tik, who helped us check that the instructions in our automatic emails were newbie-friendly. I've participated in so many fan auctions by now that I forgot how obscure some details can be if you haven't done it before. (And also he was very good with the emotional support when I was being absolutely neurotic over tiny details, as per usual.)

Anyway... Overall, I think it went pretty smoothly, even with the unexpected bumps that we encountered! Once again, I'm very happy I helped with this. The war in Ukraine was weighing heavy on my mind and I'm very glad that I was able to do something, even if in the grand scheme of things it's a drop in the bucket.

However, I don't see myself moderating any other big multifandom events in the future. This ended up being quite a time sink! Though a good use of my time, to be sure.

Comments

[hokuton_punch]

♥ Hell yeah! I'm glad you could both see it through, even with the bumps, and that's a fantastic amount to have raised.

[yuuago]

<3
My biggest worry was this would be a huge flop and nobody would want to sign up, so with that in perspective, it was a huge success! xD

[rocky41_7]

Well done on running the event, I'm glad to hear it went so well! It feels like there's not much we can do from here but you guys did something <3

[yuuago]

<3 <3
When I think about the amount of people who were involved in some way, it makes me feel really good about it. So many people wanted to help!

[muccamukk]

From a participant's perspective it went really well!

[yuuago]

I'm glad to hear that. :D Sometimes it was nerve-wracking (probably because, like I mentioned, I have no mod experience!!), so it's good to know that on the outside everything was going smoothly. xD

[eggsbenedict]

Somehow I missed that you were involved in running it - great work on getting through it all, and for raising so much! :D

[yuuago]

Oh yeah! It was mainly Dhampyresa's project, but I was helping.

It's so awesome that so many people donated and helped make it a success.

[allekha]

Excellent work running it, and thank you for doing so <3 As a participant, it was a smooth experience.

[yuuago]

I'm glad to hear that. :D I tend to worry a lot when things go differently than planned, so it's good to know that there were no issues on the outside!

[kanadka]

AMAZING. Just absolutely amazing, Yuu. Massive congratulations to both you and dhampyresa - you guys did splendidly and you raised so much!! It sounds like it was a massive effort and a lot of work too, but imo it was so worth it and I hope in your opinion too. ❤️🌻️❤️🌻️

[yuuago]

<3 <3

A lot of work, but definitely worth it! And a lot easier than I expected in many ways - it's just that there was a lot of it. xD <3