BonanzleUp 2009

I just wanted to give a quick shout out to thank everybody who was able to attend the first inaugural BonanzleUp this weekend in Seattle.  By all accounts, a great time was had by all, and I know that I seriously enjoyed getting to put faces to the names that I'm able to interact with on Bonanzle so often.  It took a huge effort from a number of people to make the event possible, but it couldn't have ended up better, with everything from the orange Bonanzle flowers to the Bonanzle-stamped cookies to the ghost Tootsie Pops.  Many great touches, none of which I can take credit for.

If you'd like to see pictures, videos, stories, and etc. about the event, the ongoing story is well chronicled in this forum post.  

For the 50-odd thousand of you that weren't able to attend, I'm attaching below the Bonanzle Trivia Challenge sheet given to the attendees.  The top score for the room was a 13 of 15.  Give it a shot and we'll see how you do :)

Warm up round

1.     Is Bonanzle awesome?

a.     Yes

b.    No

c.     Could you please repeat the question?

2.     What was Bill's day job before joining Bonanzle?

a.     Schwan man

b.    Stunt double

c.     Designing the Boeing “Dreamliner”

d.    Programming something or another

3.     During his first few months at Bonanzle, what did Mark have to do to supplement his income?

a.     Sell flowers

b.    Sell girl scout cookies

c.     Sell cars

d.    All of the above

The Early Days

4.     When did Bill start work on Bonanzle?

a.     January 2007

b.    June 2007

c.     December 2007

d.    March 2008

5.     Name the author of the first (glowingly positive) review of Bonanzle? 

a.     Auction Wally

b.    Scott Pooler

c.     Vangie Beal

d.    Whatever the name of Bill’s mom is

6.     How many unique visitors came to Bonanzle during its final month of beta?

a.     Less than 1,000

b.    1,000-10,000

c.     10,000-20,000

d.    20,000-50,000

7.     What month did Bonanzle start offering memberships?

a.     September 2008

b.    October 2008

c.     November 2008

d.    December 2008

Community and User Experience

8.     What's “tarantism”?

a.     A dancing mania or malady of late medieval Europe

b.    Possessing the qualities of an arachnid

c.     Taking an intense pleasure in all things related to Quentin Tarantino

d.    A cousin of Scientology

9.     Who has posted the most messages in the Bonanzle message forums?

a.     Paceset9999

b.    yellowsand1964

c.     attheboutique

d.    KimsKorner

10.    Which of the following has NOT made an appearance on Bonanzle's "strangest items" list?

a.     Charles Manson hand-signed letter

b.    385,000 pounds of industrial waste 

c.     “Lightly used” alien toilet paper

d.    Hairy bald eagle statue

11.    What is the most common question received at Bonanzle support?

a.     How do I upload pictures?

b.    Could you add a category for me?

c.     How do I setup my Google Base feed?

d.    How could a dreamboat like you be single?

Miscellaneous

12.  Which of the following people has not had a part in building Bonanzle?

a.     Jordan

b.    Harry

c.     Zac

d.    Alex

13.  Which potential Bonanzle endorsement has Mark spent the most time brainstorming ways to acquire? 

a.     Techcrunch

b.    New York Times

c.     Wired Magazine

d.    Oprah

14.  How many times has Bonanzle had to double its server capacity leaving beta?

a.     2

b.    4

c.     6

d.    8

15.  Which of the following features does Bonanzle NOT expect to add by the end of 2009?

a.     Paid referral program for those who send buyers to Bonanzle

b.    Facebook integration

c.     Toolset to allow third parties to build plugins & apps that hook into Bonanzle

d.    A robot that tells jokes to amuse your booth visitors while you’re away