Secret Santa 2014 input wanted

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I'd love to participate in something like this but the whole aspect of trading sub/sample items to get goodies for your partner makes me feel a little uncomfortable - I'm a fairly private person, and It doesn't make me wholly comfortable to give out my address to many different people.

I feel bad saying such a thing because it makes seem as if I don't find the members of this board trustworthy which isn't the case at all! :flowers: I've always been a cautious person.

I saw several people mention how much fun the trading for items is, but if one were able to get such goodies without trades, would that exclude them from joining the Secret Santa? To be honest, I just love giving gifts and my family is 90% boys and 10% women who aren't interested in cosmetics. I would LOVE to shop for this type of event!

 
Shalott said:
I'd love to participate in something like this but the whole aspect of trading sub/sample items to get goodies for your partner makes me feel a little uncomfortable - I'm a fairly private person, and It doesn't make me wholly comfortable to give out my address to many different people.

I feel bad saying such a thing because it makes seem as if I don't find the members of this board trustworthy which isn't the case at all! :flowers: I've always been a cautious person.

I saw several people mention how much fun the trading for items is, but if one were able to get such goodies without trades, would that exclude them from joining the Secret Santa? To be honest, I just love giving gifts and my family is 90% boys and 10% women who aren't interested in cosmetics. I would LOVE to shop for this type of event!
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You absolutely don't have to do trades to get items for your person! I don't think I did any for this round. It was all stuff I either purchased or had in my own stash. :) /emoticons/[email protected] 2x" width="20" height="20" />

ETA: I hope you join! We'd love to have you!

 
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I completely agree about posting a reveal! I didn't even realize this was an issue!! I would be really bummed and feel my gift wasn't appreciated if my person didn't acknowledge the gift as such.  

I have no preference with regard to the length of the sign-up/buying/shipping windows, as I haven't had any issues in the past. I will say that I would like to be able to take full advantage of black Friday/cyber Monday deals!!

I don't disagree about the posting requirements. My two cents is just to be mindful of those who are more shy like I am.  :blush:

 
 As long as I can shop Black Friday/Cyber Monday sales before the ship-out I'm fine on dates. I want to maximize my dollars so I can spoil my lady rotten! 

One thing I am not fine on is rudeness.

  No one should have to beg, or post repeated hints to get a simple acknowledgement that a package arrived safely. People put a ton of time, energy, and thought into the gifts they send out. If the receiver cannot be bothered to post it arrived within 24 hours, they should not sign-up at all. I saw more than one case of this in Midsummer Swap, it causes deeply hurt feelings and anger.

  Mandatory reveals, written or photos. I want to know what everyone got, it spreads the happy around.

 
allistra44 said:
You absolutely don't have to do trades to get items for your person! I don't think I did any for this round. It was all stuff I either purchased or had in my own stash. :) /emoticons/[email protected] 2x" width="20" height="20" />

ETA: I hope you join! We'd love to have you!
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Thank you! I've actually been somewhat lurking the Summerswap boards and it looks like a lot of fun. I will definitely keep an eye out for the timelines and all, to make sure I will be able to meet deadlines! ^_^ /emoticons/[email protected] 2x" width="20" height="20" />

 
OK, so I'd written this ridiculously long post about why we shouldn't have a minimum requirement (mostly because I'm not sure how we'd avoid "hi, busy, post more later" type posts to meet the letter of the requirement, if not the spirit). Then I realized that if we have a "question of the day" or a "topic of the week" that everyone is expected to chime in on occassionally -- X (maybe 5 or 10) times from beginning of sign-ups to the beginning of the mailing period -- that might address the issue.  New/shy people might find it easier if there's a topic we're touching on, and if we have a requirement of a certain # of posts overall that isn't frequency related (life happens!), if someone is away for a week or two, but pops in before/after, would that work?

I'm just thinking (selfishly) about the last 2 weeks for me -- issues at work and with the house; a flare-up of an old knee injury that's involved appointments and tests and physical therapy -- it was hard to even read posts, much less post myself.  But if there had just been a topic we were "all" talking about -- it would have been easier to post a reply with my $0.02 (or $2.00, more likely).

I also liked the lengthy survey we did for Midsummer, both in terms of demonstrating commitment and giving helpful shopping information.  I know some are concerned that it becomes a "gimme" list -- but I didn't see that in those lists this summer.  I'd say that we should try to get the survey up by the beginning of sign-ups and everyone should complete it by the day before names are sent out, or they would be ineligible to participate. 

Time: 4 weeks from when we get the names until the close of the shipping window seems about right.

As for posting reveals -- in my personal experience, it wasn't the fact that no reveal was posted that bothered me; it was that the person didn't even reach out privately to let me know she'd received it, much less to say "thanks."  If a Secret Santa and her "good girl" (or boy) are OK with a private exchange of thanks and the Santa lets the moderators know all is well, I can respect that.  I may not like it -- because "ooohing" and "aaahing" at the pretties is part of the fun -- but I'd be OK with it.

And somehow even with editing, this is still ridiculously long.  See what I mean about answering questions?

 
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Shalott said:
I'd love to participate in something like this but the whole aspect of trading sub/sample items to get goodies for your partner makes me feel a little uncomfortable - I'm a fairly private person, and It doesn't make me wholly comfortable to give out my address to many different people.

I feel bad saying such a thing because it makes seem as if I don't find the members of this board trustworthy which isn't the case at all! :flowers: I've always been a cautious person.

I saw several people mention how much fun the trading for items is, but if one were able to get such goodies without trades, would that exclude them from joining the Secret Santa? To be honest, I just love giving gifts and my family is 90% boys and 10% women who aren't interested in cosmetics. I would LOVE to shop for this type of event!
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I have never done a single trade here, including for my summerswap buddy. I just used promo codes, GWPs, shopped my stash, and used discounts when avaliable to keep my overall costs down. You can totally do it without swapping if you want!
Edit: I agree with mandatory reveals. Even if on the off chance someone gets a REALLY crap gift and doesn't feel comfortable posting it, they at least need to PM a swap coordinator or something and let them know they got it.

 
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In the beginning I was against the length of the survey. But after I saw how it worked in this swap, I have changed my mind. I think the survey was/is great idea.

And I like the idea of a question of the day in the discussion thread in addition to the survey.

That being said we can't make a person post. But I think there should be a rule or guideline that if you don't post your reveal you can't participate in the next one.

 
So how did everyone think the admin side of things went?  Was it good or bad that there were three of us behind the scenes?  And were the surveys/godchild directory/fairy threads helpful?  

(Yes, I know the survey was looooong, but I pulled most of those questions from the Secret Santa discussion thread back in November/December.  I absolutely could not keep up with the questions ans answers during that original time and had a bit of a meltdown, which is why I was a *major* proponent of the survey thread this time around:  Let's have a list to fill out up front and be done with it.  It had a lot of editing issues, but I couldn't figure out where to cut any more, so I figured we might as well put all of the questions out there because it's easy to just skip a question in a survey, but trying to get to everything in-thread was a nightmare.)

(The directory basically came about because of the forum migration and *major* changes that had happened right before signups.  It took me weeks to figure out how to search by member name, and I think I still hadn't learned how to do it quite yet when things started rolling around here, so it was a selfish move on my part:  I'm just going to gather all of the names in this one place so it will be easy for me to find my godchild once I get my assignment.  I have no clue whether it was useful for anyone else or will be useful next time around.)

 
 The survey was extremely useful. Sometimes people never really post, so without the survey the FGM would have been sool. I thought having 3 admin. was brilliant, the job would be just too much for a single person.

  Is there an easy way to make the survey part of the sign-up process, so that the info comes in at the same time? Thanks to all the admin. and moderators who make these swaps possible.

 
My quick two cents about the posting requirements- as someone who LOVES being a part of these but currently is in an intensive grad school program and barely has any free time (I'm sitting at the hair salon as I type this- my hour of freedom!!!) I worry about the amount of posts in a certain time- I guess as long as they're reasonable. I haven't been around for 5 weeks and it's killing me! I check the reveals and go "oh how pretty!" And move on. Killer.

 
I liked the seperate threads for this round.  The fairy thread, the wish list thread, the discussion and reveal.  It made it easy to subscribe to the threads and get updates!  Plus on the fairy thread having them all listed with the @ then user name made messaging them so easy!

I vote for longer shopping, less shipping.  Although for this round I had bought all the stuff and waited to send till last minute but that is my own fault!

It makes me super sad for the people who were deprived of a reveal from the FGC or even a message!  I PMd my FGM before I posted in the thread as I thought she deserved first acknowledgement of her efforts!

I am not sure of best way to keep that from happening but think it should be considered for the future swaps. 

 
They survey was totally necessary! It helps so much! And I really liked the longer time because it gave me time to craft! I wouldn't have been able to sew the headbands for my FGC otherwise. I struggle with posting frequently because I never feel like I have something interesting enough to say. Doing a question of the day for everyone to answer would help a lot though! It would definitely motivate me to post more and would be exciting to see my buddies answers.

 
As far as a question of the day/week goes, is everyone talking about something directly related to the swap (for example, what's your favorite flavor of lip balm?), a general topic of discussion (say, what movie are you most looking forward to seeing in the next month and why?), or something else?

 
meaganola said:
As far as a question of the day/week goes, is everyone talking about something directly related to the swap (for example, what's your favorite flavor of lip balm?), a general topic of discussion (say, what movie are you most looking forward to seeing in the next month and why?), or something else?
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I think it could be either, although especially early on, it might be helpful to be swap-related. Jessica and Babs did a great job kicking off the Summerswap thread that way. It lets people jump right in. And people were good about keeping it going.

Having a few mods seemed to work well. Maybe more important is how it worked for the moderators!

And the directory was handy so the surveys didn't get buried. Maybe instead of a sign-up thread where we just say "signed up," we could post the surveys there. They'd all.be together and we could look without anyone knowing.

 
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I'm happy for at least a month for shopping because I craft.  I had to rip @@puppymomofthree's afghan out and start over when I ran out of yarn and couldn't get more.  I managed to get it done just in the nick of time.  I don't know if I'd ever make another afghan for someone but I'd need a good month for it.

The admins in both swaps are awesome.  You guys put a lot of work into this and I can't thank you enough.  You make it fun for all of us!

I respect that people are busy.  I have gone days without logging in but I make a point of looking at the threads at least once a week.  I don't think it's too much to ask that a person actually participate once a week.  And for real, after having myself twice dealt with no show buddies and having to have a mod basically make my ss person acknowledge my pm's and having seen several other girls have their hearts broken by swap buddies who can't even say thanks much less post a reveal, I'm not feeling very understanding of people with "I'm busy" excuses.  If you're that busy that you can't muster even 10 minutes a week for the threads, then don't join.  Seriously. 

 
That last post makes me sound really mean.  I don't mean to be.  I try to keep a good heart...really, I do.  I guess  I'm the type of person who shows hurt as anger.

No show buddies make us sad...I guess that's what I really want to say.

 
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I think the mods did a great job. I loved the way the threads were organized. No thread got overwhelming and nothing got lost.

 
DonnaD said:
I respect that people are busy.  I have gone days without logging in but I make a point of looking at the threads at least once a week.  I don't think it's too much to ask that a person actually participate once a week.  And for real, after having myself twice dealt with no show buddies and having to have a mod basically make my ss person acknowledge my pm's and having seen several other girls have their hearts broken by swap buddies who can't even say thanks much less post a reveal, I'm not feeling very understanding of people with "I'm busy" excuses.  If you're that busy that you can't muster even 10 minutes a week for the threads, then don't join.  Seriously. 
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To go off your point, if someone is spending a month of their life obsessing over every detail of a gift for someone, the very least the receiver could do is take 10-20 minutes to post a reveal. Even if there's no time for photos, or a huge detailed explanation, just a few minutes to acknowledge the person publicly and thank them I think would be sufficient for me. I think most of us spend a lot of time and energy on this, and to be "too busy" to post a reveal, even a small one, is unfair.

 
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