Auction Courtesy. Your Thoughts

[Wendi Lavendel]

I always show up late to the Nacht auction because Charles and I have another commitment on the same evening, so we divide our time between the two equally, as we didn't want to neglect one in favour of the other and we do want to attend both. When we tp in, there are always a lot of greetings and stuff back and forth but it never seems to last very long - the Nachts are really good at getting the focus back on the current panel and Charles and I try not to steal the focus of the chat, plus people who have more to say than "hi Wendi/Charles" continue with us in IM rather than the public chat channel. I think it's an effort made by all parties, but particularly for the auctioneers who need to moderate and know when a discussion or greeting has run its course and it's time to get back to the seller's cat, so that every single panel has equal, quality time (regardless of the cat appearing on the panel or the person who owns/bred it). It's one of the many duties of an auctioneer that makes the job about 10 times more work than it actually appears to be...

I wouldn't have the patience to do it myself and admire any auctioneer who can stay educated (know the traits and how they work, know the cats on the panels and their sellers, know their audience and their typical moods, know the market); stay patient, diplomatic, and good-natured in the face of griefing, conflicts and arguments, unrelated IMs, legitimate IMs, and general chaos and silliness; ensure they're spending an equal amount of quality time on every single panel so that every cat has a fair and equal amount of exposure and attention and every participant has a good chance to focus on each cat; keeping everyone happy and entertained; doing all the administrative junk and preparation before and after each auction; all the other stuff I've either forgotten or just don't know about.