Secret Santa 2016! Pairings sent! Shipping early November, e.g. NOW!

XMIT · 11 Oct 2016, 17:59

I'm organizing Secret Santa 2016 here on DT! I had great fun last year and hope everyone else did as well.

Sign up is closed! It was here. https://goo.gl/forms/k95VPD6EmnVzgnuB2

No one else stepped up so I did!

I was in favor of restricting this to club members, or if nothing else, folks who are already pretty active here with good track records. Even very active members sometimes drop off for whatever reason so there is always some risk here. Everyone who signed up seems pretty reliable so I'm hoping for a fun time this year.

As of 2016-11-04, the pairings have been sent!

Photos will be posted on or soon after Festivus, 2016-12-23.

seebart · 11 Oct 2016, 18:01

My limited role in DTA16 is enough work for me although Secret Santa is a nice thing.

andrewjoy · 11 Oct 2016, 18:09

Can i recommend we do this as limited to club and trusted longer time members and people who can have a club or long term member speak for them.

I was burned a little last year and had to order a second gift as the first person i got something for went AWOL.

Please note if you are a trusted member or club member and you witness for someone who turns out to be a bad apple you will share there fate

http://memory-alpha.wikia.com/wiki/Witnessing

seebart · 11 Oct 2016, 18:14

I agree with Andrew, I wasn't burned but I sent some keycaps to a noob that never came back so basically a minor waste. Also there should be some guideline to the value of the gifts. One person sends a nice keyboard and the other some lousy candy, doesn't work well!

andrewjoy · 11 Oct 2016, 18:26

Don't get me wrong it was nothing super nice , it was a super cheap ( but new ) alps clone that popped up on amazon.

The idea behind it was i wanted to get it for somone and then hopefully they would report back and let us know what its like.

I am more annoyed we did not find out anything about the keyboard than the money, as its no longer available

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00G5 ... ailpages00

hypkx · 11 Oct 2016, 22:17

I would also be participate, if possible

Guideline of value would be nice, because my gift wasn't that useful (or nice in my opinion) for me and in the end I gave it to someone other for free.

chzel · 11 Oct 2016, 22:34

I'd like to participate this year too! A "soft" limit for upper value would be nice, if someone wants to splurge it's fine, but it shouldn't cause high expectations from the rest.

XMIT · 11 Oct 2016, 23:00

Since I'm excited about it maybe I'll organize if no one else steps up, so long as I don't have to do very much.

I'd propose a 50 EUR soft limit, though gifting something you already have on hand is fine. (So, don't buy someone a Topre, but if you have one that you want to get rid of, sure, fine.) How does that sound?

If I were organizing this I would limit it to club members and the discussion would happen in the members only area. I'd leave some time between announcing and starting, but, you'd need to be a club member by the time it officially kicked off. (Who is the secretary these days? No penalties for trying to sign up and being unable to do because the secretary is overloaded, within reason.)

But, still, I'm hoping someone else will step up, I have enough on my plate.

seebart · 11 Oct 2016, 23:11

XMIT wrote: I'd propose a 50 EUR soft limit, though gifting something you already have on hand is fine. (So, don't buy someone a Topre, but if you have one that you want to get rid of, sure, fine.) How does that sound?

Fine, could even be slightly lower IMO.

XMIT wrote: If I were organizing this I would limit it to club members and the discussion would happen in the members only area. I'd leave some time between announcing and starting, but, you'd need to be a club member by the time it officially kicked off. (Who is the secretary these days? No penalties for trying to sign up and being unable to do because the secretary is overloaded, within reason.)

Agreed!

XMIT · 11 Oct 2016, 23:25

So, 40 EUR? I want to leave enough room to get a set of key caps or some random board from China if that's what someone wants to do.

If I participate someone is probably getting a board that I'm not using anymore, likely a recycler find. Though, I don't know which!

scottc · 11 Oct 2016, 23:31

Remember that shipping from some places (Sweden, UK, anyone shipping across the Atlantic, etc) for many keyboards can cost almost 30 euro alone, or even more in the American case.

seebart · 11 Oct 2016, 23:45

XMIT wrote: So, 40 EUR?

Let's get some more feedback here. How many people even want Secret Santa 2016? How about a vote?

chzel · 11 Oct 2016, 23:59

I think about 40 EUR is fine if you consider shipping...

seebart wrote: How many people even want Secret Santa 2016?

We can have a mini Secret Santa!

seebart · 12 Oct 2016, 00:38

chzel wrote: We can have a mini Secret Santa!

I like that. The tought counts!

webwit · 12 Oct 2016, 00:57

On one hand, restricting it to club members is elitist, and should be frowned upon.

On the other hand, JOIN NOW!

seebart · 12 Oct 2016, 01:03

Ahh I love it when your "socialist strand" comes through webwit. Let the elitist-scumbag mini Secret Santa begin!

chuckdee · 12 Oct 2016, 03:08

In order to minimize the shipping concerns, it could be set up that you only get matched up to your general hemisphere, continent, whatever. A lot of the effectiveness of that depends on how many people join, however, so there can be a large enough pool to draw from.

seebart · 12 Oct 2016, 17:22

Good idea chuckdee, we might then need a minimum limit of participants.

ohaimark · 12 Oct 2016, 18:29

I'm in.

hypkx · 12 Oct 2016, 18:31

Would also be in, but no clubmember, so no

Ray · 12 Oct 2016, 18:57

As a secret santa from last year, I would advocate letting well known non-clubmembers participate.

I am probably not in this year, though.

XMIT · 12 Oct 2016, 18:57

I'll wait until the weekend before I decide if I want to step up or not.

If I do this, there will be a signup using Google Forms to make my life easier. I'll prefer club members but may include non club members who have a substantial number and frequency of posts.

What happens every year - the hard part - is that someone has to drop out for some reason. Then, that person receives something in exchange for nothing, and someone else is disappointed. I don't really have a way around this.

I'll say mean things about you in the forum if you don't keep up your end of the deal (such as: $USER is a mean person who ruined Christmas, don't do business with them). Also, I'll recommend that anyone who doesn't hold up their end of the deal without telling me won't be eligible for awards, giveaways, etc. for a year. Hopefully that is enough of a deterrent. I get that people need to drop out but you need to communicate when you do so or else bad things happen.

As for overseas shipping: I'd specifically ask if people want to receive/send an overseas package. You need to do both. Otherwise I'd divide up regions as I see fit based on respondents.

I want to make this awesome, and not a pain in the rear!

chuckdee · 12 Oct 2016, 20:22

I can't take it, XMIT, but if you're going to do it, and need help, I'd be more than happy to be in a supporting role.

Redmaus · 12 Oct 2016, 20:32

I really need to do my part this time around...

HzFaq · 12 Oct 2016, 21:31

I know I'm not around all that much these days but I'd like to get involved in the Secret Santa if there is one again this year

.

XMIT · 13 Oct 2016, 03:48

I'm thinking that, as a defense against flaky participants, I'll ask everyone to ship out in the first or second week of November. That leaves plenty of time for various workarounds if people drop out.

So, if you're interested in Secret Santa, start thinking about what you want to give, and start finding boxes!

If I end up running this I'll require that boxes not be opened until Festivus (23 December) unless local laws require opening the package for Customs. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Festivus

It's looking like I will pick this up, but, maybe someone else will volunteer yet!

7bit · 13 Oct 2016, 16:25

I will not organise it this time, because you should at least get your Secret Santa stuff before Christmas 2016!

seebart · 13 Oct 2016, 16:42

7bit wrote: I will not organise it this time, because you should at least get your Secret Santa stuff before Christmas 2016!

Sure you could organise it, for 2018.

Chyros · 13 Oct 2016, 17:29

This sounds like fun, I might well join up this year

.

andrewjoy · 13 Oct 2016, 17:52

seebart wrote:
7bit wrote: I will not organise it this time, because you should at least get your Secret Santa stuff before Christmas 2016!

Sure you could organise it, for 2018.

You mean 2020