I think the Sticky Bump auction system could use some quality-of-life improvements. Right now, it heavily rewards being online during the final minutes of an auction.
For example, I was recently outbid with around one minute remaining. It took me a little while to realize why I kept losing bids every week, but it seems like a lot of people deliberately wait until the final few minutes before placing their bid. Once you understand how the system works, there is a pretty obvious incentive to wait until the last possible second rather than bidding normally.
At that point, there is basically no realistic opportunity to react or purchase more Bump Coins in time (since I had to wait for crypto to confirm and such). In theory, someone could even wait until the final second to place their bid, which gives an advantage to automated bidding or bots over normal users who cannot sit there refreshing the page until the exact moment the auction ends.
This is especially awkward when auctions end late at night or early in the morning depending on your timezone and you might not be online for various reasons.
I saw that proxy/"hard bidding" has been suggested before, and I think that would already help a lot. For example, let users enter the maximum amount they're willing to pay and automatically increase their bid when someone else bids, up to that limit.
Another option would be a simple anti-sniping system. For example, if someone places a bid within the final 10–15 minutes, extend the auction by another 10–15 minutes. If someone bids again during that extended period, extend it again until there are no further bids.
For example, I was recently outbid with around one minute remaining. It took me a little while to realize why I kept losing bids every week, but it seems like a lot of people deliberately wait until the final few minutes before placing their bid. Once you understand how the system works, there is a pretty obvious incentive to wait until the last possible second rather than bidding normally.
At that point, there is basically no realistic opportunity to react or purchase more Bump Coins in time (since I had to wait for crypto to confirm and such). In theory, someone could even wait until the final second to place their bid, which gives an advantage to automated bidding or bots over normal users who cannot sit there refreshing the page until the exact moment the auction ends.
This is especially awkward when auctions end late at night or early in the morning depending on your timezone and you might not be online for various reasons.
I saw that proxy/"hard bidding" has been suggested before, and I think that would already help a lot. For example, let users enter the maximum amount they're willing to pay and automatically increase their bid when someone else bids, up to that limit.
Another option would be a simple anti-sniping system. For example, if someone places a bid within the final 10–15 minutes, extend the auction by another 10–15 minutes. If someone bids again during that extended period, extend it again until there are no further bids.
