🦆 Hive Rubber Ducky Racing 🏁 Coming Soon..... (🫵 Feedback/Suggestions Wanted 🙏)
I have been working on my rubber ducky racing idea the last few weeks, and finally some solid ideas are beginning to take shape.
👨🔧 A Work In Progress
In a previous post I mentioned my acquisition of 40x rubber duckies from a roadside shop 30 kms from home here in the lovely Cardamom Mountains of Cambodia. The sight of the duckies and the fact that a whitewater river forms the back border of our backyard made me instantly want to arrange some sort of blockchain-based rubber ducky races.
The river is subject to flash foods that would kill a swimmer in seconds, and also there are dry periods where the river is only ankle-deep for weeks at a time. In the photo above you can see my wife in the background at the river's edge. Just to the left of her is where I imagine the finish line because it's the narrowest part of the river. I could easily stand there with a net or strainer of some kind and catch the ducks as they float downstream.
I have been trying to give each duck a unique style with some Sharpie art, hoping this will make it easy for Hivers to identify their duck as they meander downriver. It would be much more exciting to follow your specific duck during the race instead of watching 40x identical ducks race, with the only excitement being awaiting to see if your number was on the bottom of the winning duck. A quick float test today showed me that our ducks prefer floating on their side, even with partially filled with water to weight the bottom.
Ideas So Far 🧠 Feedback Please
As I adorn ducks with my daughters' trusty Sharpies I think of the rules/parameters that will govern the the rubber ducky races. I would love to hear more feedback and ideas from you all, so please read what I have so far and feel free to offer some advice/additions of your own.
40x Ducks Per Race
The store I found the ducks in only had 40 available, but I am open to buy more ducks in the future if the interest is there, and this would also increase the prize pool)
1x Race Per Week
With post monetization timespans of 7 days, it makes sense to do things on a weekly basis, and a 7 day period would also hopefully be enough time to spread the word around on Discord and various Hive communities to ensure all ducks are claimed and the prize pool is as big as possible.
The Prize Pool
I had initially planned for the ducks to be $1 HBD each, but after @wwwiebe stated I should charge $2 HBD per duck because of time and effort that will be involved, I totally agree. I would like to keep half of the entry fees to feed the family and half of the fees to be used as a prize pool. With 40x ducks available at $2 HBD each, this would be $80 HBD in total, $40 HBD for my family and $40 HBD for the prize pool, perhaps dispensed as a 1st, 2nd & 3rd prize.
$40 HBD IN PRIZES
- 1st Prize $25 HBD
- 2nd Prize $10 HBD
- 3rd Prize $5 HBD
⛵ A Possible New Hive Community 🏁
I have been tempted to create an entirely new community for the rubber ducky races, perhaps the Hive Rubber Ducky Racing Community, but eventually I think it would be more exciting to build boats from scrap wood or bamboo and give them paint jobs that would make them identifiable from very far away. I could film from the bridge above with such visibly different racers. With this in mind perhaps the potential new community could be the Hive River Racing Community. What do you all think? Would a new community be worth the time and effort and also increase participation and engagement?
6-Day Registration Window
I could use the post countdown timer to close registration for the races 24 hours before the planned race start, or perhaps leave registration open until all ducks are claimed. Some innate feeling tells me I will have no trouble finding Hive racers to claim each of the 40x ducks though, hopefully easily filling the prize pool each race.
The Good Ole' Duck Chart
I want to make the race posts just as engaging and entertaining as the races themselves, and I think the backbone of the race will be the duck (info)chart. I've become rather skilled with creating and customizing markdown tables within Hive posts via my weekly ASEAN Hive Delegator Raffle posts, so I am constructing one that should be an entertaining feature.
ID # | Hive 🦆 Ducks | Lore | Wins | Availability | Claimed By |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mrs. Mindhorn is rumored to have once been married to Bruce Mindhorn, a legendary English detective. She uses mind control to win ducky races via a hidden cybernetic eye. |
This chart is just something I am tinkering with at the moment. I plan to use different background colors for each duck photo, and perhaps eventually replace these pics with animated GIFs of each racing duck. There are 40 ducks, so I will have to create a backstory for each one to go along with the unique style, but so farI am having a blast putting this all together despite having 39 more ducks to plug into the above chart.
When a racer sends me their $2 HBD, I will instruct that they write in the memo section which duck name or duck ID# they want to claim. As funds come in and ducks are claimed, I can edit the race post and update the chart to let other Hivers know what ducks are still available to claim. Displaying a little lore and the total number race wins should keep things entertaining and maybe provide a chuckle or two.
🗣️Feedback Please
Okay ASEAN Hivers and the broader Hive community, if you're still here and a potential racer, I'd love to hear any thoughts/ideas/suggestions/feedback before the races officially begin sometime next month. Stay tuned......
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I see that this idea was already structured, I like how you put it.
I like that detail of the history of the origin of each duck, I will share this on my Twitter account so that more people find out about this good idea, count on me for those races
Gamification will be key to make this entertaining and keep participation up. Right now the rain won't stop and the river is too dangerous for any ducky racing, so we're still working on decorating ducks and creating their origin stories.
That pretty much sums up the entire race. Some of the details you may need to put in as terms and conditions to avoid dispute.
If more than 40 people send in before the cut off time, do we make it a bigger prize pool? Or overflow to the next race?
Each has their own pros and cons. Understood "the company" is charging 50% on each race. If you divide the "administration fee" at 50%, 25% for 1st, 15% for 2nd, and 10% for 3rd. This way, the prize pool grows, even the insignificant 3rd prize could be lucrative as well. Dispute, appeal and complaints are almost guaranteed when prizes are big enough. On the flip side, if one of these races has less participants, the prize pool become too small and it will feel insignificant, "the company" business is bound to be downward spiral.
On the other hand, by limiting the entry can guarantee your schedule, your prize pool is fixed, and therefore save the hassle of doing calculation. But you may have trouble when the overflow participants can form another pool 😰 are you going to do 2 races each week? That's only 80 people I'm talking about, what if 160 participants? 🤪
Cardamom we have a problem
I know I know. Mr.Mindhorn, the covered eye is the good eye 🤪
You make some good points, especially for claiming ducks with sending HBD. I think it would work well to have the racers leave a comment after they send the HBD and write the name(s) of the ducks they're claiming. Like this it would give later racers a chance to see what's still available in the case that I haven't updated the racing table yet.
Surely there will be hiccups and possibly disputes, but hopefully nothing concerning the finish line 😉. Haha, well I guess if the interest there I would do daily races, it would be far more profitable and fun than my blog, so who knows. In the beginning I will aim to do a weekly race, and if the ducks constantly sell out I'll be left with no choice but to have more and/or bigger races and prizes.
I think a massive fishing net on a hoop handle will be a crucial tool for the finish line duck catcher. If any ducks make it past the last human, it will be a dangerous mission to catch up to it in the whitewater. You've seen Mindhorn, beautiful, that was a movie I found by accident and laughed a lot watching it.
This is a good idea @justinparke I bet this could be entertaining. I think I do not have suggestion will just be waiting for the awesome race to begin.
Thank you stopping by, I am encouraged by all the interest, and right now I am anxiously awaiting for the flash foods to stop so we can use the river.
I'm really excited and looking forward to claiming my favorite duck, everything feels right to me. So no fresh advice from me.
Thanks, I look forward to seeing many ASEAN Hivers participate. This community will be the first to know and the first to have a chance at claiming a duck. I think the first will be free, and I will award 100% of the post beneficiaries as rewards, with top 40 ASEAN Hive delegators getting 1x duck each, so you already have a free duck 😜.
I love it and will definitely be involved. I'll keep an eye on this thread and will get one for sure.
Darn flash floods won't recede in order to make this a non-lethal activity. I think I'll make sure and tag everyone in future racing posts that have showed previous interest. I am not sure whether or not to make a new account for the races, I'd rather work on building my own rep score from my personal account. However, I think a community for Hive Racing might be a good idea, would probably increase awareness and participation.
Obviously we will have to create a rainy season alternative if it's a hit, perhaps indoor marble racing 🤔. One month from now the weather will be somewhat okay until May of next year, so I'll have plenty of time create the rainy season alternative.
I don't think anyone would have a problem with you using your personal account. There are already so many groups on here with very little in the way of actual participation. I would use your personal account at first and if it really takes off, then make another account. just my two cents.
That's kind of what I'm thinking, if it becomes successful and races become more than weekly, I guess that would be a signal a new community/account is needed for the ducky races.
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My opinion is there will be an issue when lets said got 3 persons want the same duck and send registration fee in the same time. Is it possible in memo write in at least 3 or more options of duck to claim? First come first serve basis then.
For example, I and @tommyl33 want Mr Sexy Duck and we register this event for the same time frame. However, I'm the first sending the registration fee, so I will be the one getting Mr Sexy Duck. Thus, @tommyl33 will have to get his 2nd or 3rd option of duck that he requested in memo.
Hmmm, good point, I have thought about this, possibly multiple people claiming the same duck(s). The best I idea I have so far is to require racers to leave a comment first on the race post and claim the ducks, then send the HBD with memo after. I will have to emphasize that all racers check the comments section first to make sure their desired duck hasn't already been claimed.
The new PeakD chat feature may be a useful tool for coordinating and keeping things organized too, I should integrate it into the race somehow.
Like you said too, if there is duck confusion it should be easy to solve because I will initially only do a weekly race, and this will allow for 7 days each time to iron out all the kinks and problems. When we have a well-oiled machine and the system seems to be user-friendly, perhaps there could be daily races, that would sure be fun for me and the kids.
Can I join? I ask @tampilyne sponsor me 🙈
Of course you can join, it will be open to all. The first race is still likely a week away because we've had some heavy flooding and I also haven't finished the posting format or race tables yet.
I like the idea of top three prizes, personally, but I'm trying to visualise myself in your shoes or, more appropriately, in your river, and I wonder about the logistics of that if the race happens to be really close. Your time is certainly worth something, too.
If it were me (and it's not; it's you) I would do the first couple races with either only a top prize or a top three and make a decision how to proceed after that. This is a really fun idea and I hope it works, but shouldn't cause you excess stress or time either.
Thanks for your concerns, this is why I will always bounce any Hive ideas off of fellow Hivers first. I tend to undervalue my time and stretch myself thin in life, and my idea of $1 HBD per duck just wouldn't create a big prize and also make it sustainably worth my time.
Thanks to my fellow Hivers I now will sell the ducks at $2 HBD a piece, and I know this will change my attitude greatly on race days. I really want this whole thing to work, perhaps even a racing community and daily races down the road. Firstly though I need to nail the rollout, so my main focus has been creating a very engaging post format for the races.
After that is done it will probably take a few trial races to nail the camera angles, start, photo finish, etc. All in all though I am excited by the whole idea, and making even menial progress is very exciting.