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Welcome to the Auction News Page! $19,605.00 Raised in the auctions/raffles since July 1999! That's in barely over 12 months(as of October 1st, 2000) everyone....see every $ DOES help, doesn't it!?!?! No one of us could have done this alone, but TOGETHER....hey...we sure can make a difference......let's keep it up! We intend to keep some information on "changes" and "news" to the auction on this page so that we can inform everyone of such changes! We want to keep striving to bring you the BEST auctions we can, and so your input is greatly welcomed on any and all points! See the points below! October 2000 News: Raffle Bar Added: This is similar to the "Auction Bar" we have been using since January. The new Raffle bar allows you to navigate WITHIN a given raffle easier! Since raffles have gone from just a couple items to nearly 15+ lately, we needed to break the pages up some, and this allows us to do so easier. We are changing the Raffle format slightly, so that it is VERY similar to the auction format, and should be quite familiar and comfortable for those used to the auctions! Please see Further below in the January News details, or see the "Auction Guide" page to learn more about the Raffle/Auction Bars. September 2000 News: NEW MAILING LIST ADDED: We have added a new feature for our fundraisers with a new mailing list. Pat had been manually adding/removing individuals from the daily auction updates and raffle announcements. Her list had gotten HUGE! We decided to look into some possible solutions and came up with this list idea! We are utilizing a Smartgroups mailing list, and anyone can add/remove themselves from the "EskieFriends" list as they like(just follow the directions noted on the mailing list page!). Our new list is "announcement only"...it is NOT a discussion list...it is ONLY for distribution of auction news/updates/etc. This should make it a little less work on Pat's behalf to keep everyone informed! We have done a little bit of testing of the list, but it's still new, so if you have ANY problems joining, etc., please let Michael know....he's the one setting the list up, and will do his best to help you if you let him know! We will continue to post to individuals and the Eskie_Owners(EskieHugs) mailing list for the time being, but if you'd like to be on our "formal" list, please see the Mailing List page for further details! NEW SIDEBAR BUTTONS: In conjunction with the new mailing list, we have made up new sidebar buttons! We needed to make one, and decided it was time to make ALL new ones! We kinda like 'em, but we hope you do too. These are just the buttons you see at the sidebar(to the left of most pages), with the auction sections accessible! The new buttons are lighter and more unified(we made 'em all at one sitting instead of many sessions!). Just a new little "touch", but thought we'd tell you about them as we like how they turned out! Enjoy! August 2000 News: "DONATORS" NAMES ADDED to front listing page: We have added donator's names to the listing page. Various reasons, but mostly for appreciation to those who help with donating items, and more ease in finding particular donations for everyone! We hope our format for adding this info is helpful to everyone....we could have added this in various ways, but doing a "sub-note" under the Item Name seemed to work best! GENERAL INFO UPDATE: As you can see by the listings below, we haven't updated much to the news section for months. For the most part, the auctions haven't changed a whole lot in that timeframe. And, also for the most part, it's probably because things have been happening pretty smoothly with the auctions. We do have some ideas and possible changes up our sleeves yet to come in the near future, but we'll take each step as it comes. We are constantly trying to maintain the good of what we have accomplished(and $18k in just over a year is a lot to hoot about!), but also seeking to improve in minor ways along the way. We'll continue to do so, and if anyone has any thoughts or ideas for the auctions or site format, please feel free to let us know. Pat's and my emails are at the bottom of this page....for those very purposes....please contact us if you have any "auction thoughts". All in all, our "first year" has developed very well....if you've had ANYTHING to do with any of the auctions(donation/bid/raffle tickets/etc.), you deserve a big THANK YOU...and don't forget it.....it's only by coming together as we have that we can make such a difference!

January 2000 News:

AUCTION BAR ADDED: (see above, but links are not active in this bar...it's just for viewing) A "new" feature to the pages started with the January auction! It is a navigation bar near the top of all pages(except general auction pages)! Thus, it is more auction "specific" than previous links in the side bar! Side bar links are more "general" and the bar links are more "specific" to a particular auction. The links on the auction bar will take you to the four main areas of any auction, starting with this one! You'll find more info in the "revamp" news below too! However.....here is what the "Bar" allows:

-Auction Front: takes you to the Auction Home page from anywhere you are!

-Item Listing: takes you to the "main" listing of items! This is the thumbnailed listing that USED to be at the bottom of the front page! Along with thumbnail images of all the items, items titles, item numbers, opening bids, AND most recent updates are kept here! To check bids, get quick access to ALL items in an auction, this is the page to use!

-Description: takes you to the "front" description page....this replaces the former main description page. Though it might not be as noticeable, the pages are in different locations, and adding the bar allows less maintenance to pages before/during/and after any auction. With item numbers increasing so much, we needed to take a different approach to the description page, so this is where it is now! Similar to before, but a bit "new"! Hope it works well!

-Information: takes you to the "front" information page. The "information" page for any given auction tells you WHO the auction is being held for, and sometimes more! Very important stuff here, as without a "purpose", the auctions wouldn't be....this is what they're for! As with the "description" page, this is also in its final location from the beginning, making less work, and similar access, so we hope it works well!

Adding the bar will hopefully help you navigate around for any given auction....do let us know what you think of it!

SITE REVAMPED: Ok....some of this might not be noticeable, but some of it is! The format is somewhat streamlined, yet expanded, so that we can continue to develop the auctions as best as possible! The front page is now not an "all in one" page, but rather a "gateway" to the rest of the auction site! It is VERY important for any current auction, and you can access ALL the important pages for current listings and such, as well as other areas, from this page, so we do hope it serves you better, AND that it will hopefully load faster too, so you can access all the areas you need better!

Also, the large main "description" page is taking a back seat, leaving the "individual" pages and item "listing" to be more productive. The "description" page is now also moved to the final place it will be, and NOT in the main directory! Thus, if you access older(past) pages, and click on the "description" or "info" links, they will most likely take you to the forward page. The "description" page may return with the next "regular" auction, but we're splitting it up for the January auction, as it's easier to divide up the description by rescue group rather than put 123 items on a single page(hey, and you thought 52 items was a long load.....this would be murder on the network!). The "info" pages are also now in their final location, but accessible from the auction bar as well! This will allow us to concentrate better on the auctions and less on the page setup/changes for each auction, AND we hope that it will provide better navigation for the site! Please let us know what you think of the new arrangement of things!

RULES ADDED: We have added auction "rules" to the site, so that we're all on the same page when it comes to what is expected of ALL of us! This is merely meant to help the auctions and make less work and misunderstandings for everyone involved! Please read these rules and understand that by participating in the auctions, you are agreeing to these rules!

December 1999 News:

AUCTION BUTTONS: We now have a couple of "buttons" that you can use to connect(link) to the auction site with. So, if you have your own web page(s) or site, and want to spread the word on these cool auctions, you now can! We hope to add more "buttons" in the future, but we have a couple neat ones to start with. Check out the "buttons" page for further details!

AUCTION SKIN: If you have MS Internet Explorer for a browser, you might want to take a look at this! Though we're still(at least Michael is) firm believers in Netcaptor being the most useful browser on the market, we found this option rather neat. Hotbar allows you to "skin" your browser(IE only right now), so you can have your OWN unique image(or one of a huge archive) across your browser bars! You can get rid of that bland "grey" and have a cool texture or image there. In fact....we even put together one with an "auction" theme....of course there's a darling eskie on it, so you HAVE to check this out! Take a look at the Hotbar page we have setup for further details!

NEW INDIVIDUAL PAGES: We started something a little different with the last auction. We added "individual" pages for the auction items. This way you could view them individually instead of the huge(and potentially overwhelming) main description page! This seemed to work pretty well, with only one problem(which we fixed early on in the last auction). We were using a separate email address(auction@eskie.net) for this as well, and merely having mail forwarded to Pat, which she would then process, and reply via her normal email! The only "problem" was that when you hit the "bid now" button, some folks thought it would tell us what item you were bidding on, but initially it didn't! After realizing this was a problem, we took care of it and fixed it! This way, at least from the individual pages, you could just hit the button, enter the amount you want to bid in your email window and hit send! We SUGGEST, however, as a mere courtesy to Pat that you STILL note the item NAME AND amount you wish to bid in the email note! Less confusion this way! We're going to try this method again with this auction and will probably continue it in some form....it's worked pretty well.

Note also.....as with last month, the individual pages are linked from the FRONT auction page...click on either the item's "thumbnail" picture or "item title", and it will take you to the individual page. If you "right click" on that choice, you can open the page in a new window(try NetCaptor web browser for this and you can have a whole slew of the pages open at once!). Of course, the "regular" format of "all on one" page remains for now, but we want to try this individual page format and see what you think of it! You can "navigate" back and forth on the individual pages as well, by using the previous/next links! Please let us know what you think!

AUCTION ITEM NUMBERS: Last month we actually started this, but mostly "behind the scenes". With 50+ items, it has become almost necessary to begin organizing by more than mere item names! This month, it will be more noticeable for two reasons. You will see the item number at the bottom of each item's description! You will also see it if you hit "bid now" from any individual page, as we've added this to help Pat process bids that are sent in! The notation is fairly self-explanatory, but here's a little about it. We actually number in "reverse"....item#1 being LAST, and FIRST item having highest number. This way, if any items are added to the auction(which often happens), they can easily be added to the TOP and not messing up the rest of the pages or numbering! The full number includes a fair amount of information. Item #9912_a08 is the Suki Package for the Special Christmas auction, for instance. So far, we've maintained about an auction a month, so 9912 is for December 1999! The a08 is merely item#8! If we were to have two auctions in a month, the second auction would have the letter "b" replacing "a" for numbers. This will also be used for the special RescuER auction coming up in January, 2000! EACH organization or group participating will be assigned a "letter", and instead of using 00 for the year, we will be using 2K for the year notation(we figure 00 might be confusing to some of our own file uses, so 2K was chosen). Thus, a number from the upcoming January auction will probably look like 2K01_a03. This is for group "a", item number 3(not sure what that is yet, but it should be cool!). Anyway....you don't need to "know" a lot of that, but in case you want to decipher the numbering, that's what it is. You do NOT have to use the full number when mentioning a bid item(as long as you refer to it by name), but it doesn't hurt. You could merely mention "item #6" or whatever....if you understand the numbering, you can figure that out! However...we still ask that you mention item name AND bid amount in your bid email as it really helps Pat process things better! She does a LOT of work for these auctions, and the more help we can all be to her the better!

November 1999 news:

NEW AUCTION EMAIL ADDRESS: In addition, a couple other "tests" are being done with this. We are looking to make the "auction mail" more efficient and so have setup an account for the auctions! For now, these will merely be "forwarded" automatically to Pat for processing, but if it works well, we may make this a regular mailbox for auction communication! This "auction" mail addy (auction@eskie.net) is behind the bid buttons on the "individual" pages! Pat's "regular" email address is on the rest of the auction pages! Thus, if you bid from the "individual" pages, your mail will go via the auction addy! We hope this works well, but again, right now, this is a TEST! Sooo....PLEASE NOTE...if you bid on an item from these pages and have NOT received a reply from Pat within about 24 hours of your bid, please use her regular email addy to check on the bid! We expect there won't be problems, but if any are, we'll address them early on in this auction! Also note that replies to your bids to the auction addy will be from Pat's regular email and NOT the auction addy! Just so you know! Please give this a try early on, and let us know what you think!