The White Rose Conventicle

Cut to the Chase

Run EVE Central's "Contribtastic" in the background, open your in-game browser, and click any of the "Short Form" links below to iterate through a limited EVE Central "upload suggestion" list of your choice.

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The Rationale

The quantity, timeliness and, hence, value of Eve-Central market data must necessarily depend upon aggregate capsuleer contrbutions, through the use of the cache file parser and uploader Contribtastic, running in the background while the in-game market window is searched. The program runs periodically, harvesting the market cache files for the same information displayed on screen but uploading it to Eve-Central's central database where the results collected by individuals can be processed and shared with all

The more EVE capsuleers use Contribtastic, the more extensively and regularly each uses it, and the more diverse and far-flung the places in New Eden they do so, the better tool EVE Central Market Data becomes.

And not just a tool for those who browse to Eve-Central.com itself. There is not a single third-party offline or online tool that does not depend on aggregator data, be it Eve-Central or some other, to reach beyond the trail of the individual pilot's economic activities to the broad EVE market and economy as a whole. There is simply no other way to marshal that order of data, than via collections from many individual game client programs.

The Logic of Collective Action

Unfortunately, but inevitably, it is here that Eve-Central and the few other aggregators run afoul of what was dubbed The Logic of Collective Action by Mancur Olson in an infamously troubling little piece of political theory written in 1965.

Wikipedia's brief summary is worth quoting in whole, as the The Logic of Collective Action applies to so much that occurs, socially and politicaly, as well as economically; more so among players in MMOs than in "real life," as in virtual game worlds, there is essentially no Law -- little effective apparatus of social or political compulsion or constraint -- only the broad common field established by game mechanics for varied, fluid consensual activity or, as is as frequently the case, its refusal.

The book challenged accepted wisdom in Olson's day that if everyone in a group has interests in common, then they will act collectively to achieve them; and in a democracy, the greatest concern is that the majority will tyrannize and exploit the minority.

The book argues instead that individuals in any group attempting collective action will have incentives to "free ride" on the efforts of others if the group is working to provide public goods. Individuals will not 'free ride' in groups which provide benefits only to active participants.

Pure public goods are goods which are non-excludable (i.e. one person cannot reasonably prevent another from consuming the good) and non-rivalrous (one person’s consumption of the good does not affect another's, nor vice-versa). Hence, without selective incentives to motivate participation, collective action is unlikely to occur even when large groups of people with common interests exist.

The book also noted that large groups will face relatively high costs when attempting to organize for collective action while small groups will face relatively low costs. Furthermore, individuals in large groups will gain less per capita of successful collective action; individuals in small groups will gain more per capita through successful collective action. Hence, in the absence of selective incentives, the incentive for group action diminishes as group size increases, so that large groups are less able to act in their common interest than small ones.

The book concludes that, not only will collective action by large groups be difficult to achieve even when they have interests in common, but situations could also occur where the minority (bound together by concentrated selective incentives) can dominate the majority.

Quality aggregate market data in EVE is precisely the type of "pure public good" to which Olsen's "Logic" applies: it is of benefit to all, "non-excludable" and "non-rivalrous." It is achievable only through collective action, and the more widely participatory that action, the greater the achievement. But, as night follows day, it suffers, and suffers severely to the point of threatened extinction from the "free rider" problem.

As convenient as it is to consult Eve-Central data, it is inconvenient to be always starting and running (and too often reconfiguring) Contribtastic. And so people whine that the data is old or missing; cry for the creation of other, better aggregators, where the same "free rider" problem repeats; and most oddly sing the praises of market data in non-aggregating tools, most of which actually tap and use Eve-Central or other aggregator data!

The Altruism of Watching Paint Dry

And on to this stage struts Eve-Central with its appeal to pure altruism. The failure of the vast horde of free riders to contribute will be offset by the saintly few, by those truly noble souls willing to dedicate their game clients to running Eve-Central's "Upload Suggestions" javascript at every opportunity, in every corner of the universe they visit.

Now, it is not as if the saintly and occasionally noble do not exist. Long distance freighter pilots, moving market goods across regions have particular incentive to survey and upload wide-ranging price data for the regions they travel and serve. And, often running on auto-pilot, the changing market views occupying their screens are less an inconvenience. The same is the case for anyone sitting AFK in station, waiting for gangs and fleets to gather.

But if remembering to run (and let us not forget to reconfigure!) Contribtastic is a minor pain, watching the paint dry as Eve-Central's "Upload Suggestions" rolls on and on, randomly, through the near 20,000 and growing number of items in EVE's database is positively excruciating.

Let me just slit my wrists. Lord, come take me now! Vegas nickle slots have better payoff. How utterly useless, of interest to almost nobody, is near 90% of the items that pop to the screen. It's not that bad, in fact, but it seems that way when you're watching, tearing out your hair, going mad. But how could it be otherwise, so long as the selection is polled randomly from EVE's vast data table of invTypes?

Selective Incentives to the Common Good

Thus these "Short Forms" and a little amelioration to The Logic of Collective Action as it applies to Eve-Central data, in the form of "selective incentives" to contribute to the distant common good by serving, first and foremost, one's own and one's corporation's narrow, special interests.

The "Short Forms" break down the unreasonable mass of EVE items into manageably selfish chunks. Players can run these at various stops and while in flight and, though these lists still take time to run, there's the satisfaction of knowing that most of the information rolling by and on up to Eve-Central approximates something you or your corpmates have some interest in buying, selling, or trading.

If you have an idea for a "Short Form" type that does not appear here, write and let us know. We'll think about adding it. By The Logic of Collective Action that applies here, the more miniority "special interests" can be immediately serviced via "Short Forms," the better the collective payoff for all.

That Stuff at the End

No, don't worry, we're not saints either. You'll notice when you run them that each "Short Form" list concludes with some additional items, which may vary from time to time, that help us keep our Market Indexes and Planetary Production Advisories up to date. If you haven't time, you may always close your browser or click another "Short Form" when the display reaches these concluding items, the last of which polls the local price of PLEX and PI items.

Privacy Note

Unlike EVE Central's "Upload Suggestions" page, the javascript on ours solicits NO information about your character, corporation, in-game location or any other account information. Thus, EVE's security features will NOT prompt you to "Trust" our site when you click a choice. This is not a mistake. We're just not that into you.

EVE Central's Contribtastic, on the other hand, necessarily uploads location information to EVE Central, as well as having access to a great deal more via your game cache. But that implied trust is between you and EVE Central. Their source code is "open" and available for review. The truly paranoid are free to edit and compile a personal version of Contribtastic to run on their machines.