FS Secret Santa Discussion Post

[case]

⌈ FS Secret Santa Discussion Post ⌋


This is a discussion/suggestions post only. Do not sign up or anything here!

So after getting some of your input yesterday, here's the current plan!

FS can run two separate Secret Santas:

1. Fanwork Secret Santa
2. General Secret Santa

Everyone who wants to participate can sign up for one or both, and both will follow the same structure and timeline. The only difference is in the kind of gifts that each will encompass!

In the Fanwork Secret Santa, no money is involved. The idea is to get creative! Any and all types of fanwork can go here: fanfic, art, readings, essays, journal themes, icons, gifsets - even if you can't write or draw, there's plenty of other things that would qualify!

The General Secret Santa is for monetary gifts, but these are limited to those that can a) be sent anonymously and b) don't require p2p money transactions or anything. Basically anything that can be sent in the form of a transferrable gift code, counts! Gifts can include games from Steam or GoG, Amazon and Etsy cards (with an attached gift recommendation, or something!), and so on.

The prospective min-max of the General Secret Santa is $8.00-$15.00. That should cover most small things nicely, and if you find something on some massive sale for $4.99, finding another $5 item shouldn't be too hard! Also if something is like $6.49 or $15.99 or something, that's fine - just expect to receive something in the 8-15 range.

(Note: If you have other suggestions as to fanworks or possible online gifts, comment with them please! It'd be a good idea to list everything out for suggestions, because like yesterday showed, someone might be more than open to receiving a reading of their own fic or something for a fanwork gift but never mention it because it hadn't occurred to them to ask!)



The current timeline is as follows:

DECEMBER
1st-7th: Sign-up posts go up for both Secret Santas!
8th-10th: Matchups are determined/sent out and gift hunt begins!
20th: Gift period ends! All gifts should have been sent to the primary FS Secret Santa email by this date.
21st: If gifts are not in, pinch-hitters notified of assignments and have until the 24th to help out!
25th: Gifts are sent out to recipients!
26th: Response post goes up!



For people who are interested in participating, here's what you need to know:

- You will need a LJ/DW/tumblr/etc (whatever your site of choice is) account and an email address to join!

- You can join either or both of the Secret Santas!

- In the application, you will be asked something like the following:

Will be sent to Santa:
Name/Handle
Email
Fandoms (+ preferred characters/ships)
Other likes / dislikes
Gifts that you DO want
A note for your Secret Santa (optional)

For matching only:
Gifts that you DON'T want
Gifts that you can provide
Whether or not you can pinch-hit

- If you are a pinch hitter, you might be asked help out if a Secret Santa goes AWOL or can't get a gift by Christmas. Pinch-hit notifications should go out by Dec 21st if that's necessary, so you should have 5 days to get back to us!

- If you are a Secret Santa who has something awesome in mind but can't send it in by Dec 20th, just let us know! The recipient can be informed anonymously (through us!) about the delay.




Questions, comments, suggestions?

I've recruited some people to help with the organizational stuff, so don't worry about that!

Comments

[badass_tiger]

10 whole US dollars? Wow, now I know I'm a cheapskate, haha. It's a good idea, though! If only I had more money on me. Fanworks Secret Santa it is.

[(Anonymous)]

Could we use Amazon wishlists to send people physical gifts? I know several subreddits (and the Santa Exchange) do this. You just give your wishlist link and people can send you things that way.

[case]

I figured 10 would be a good number because most games (that aren't app-sized) go for ~8.99+ or so.

But the minimum could be lowered if people want it to be! This isn't all set in stone yet.

[case]

Something to consider, definitely! Shipping times and all kind of lose the impact of "here is an immediate present for everyone at the same time" though.

[galerian-ash.livejournal.com]

Wait, why must participants have a DW account? It's obvious why people can't be completely anonymous, but I thought having an account on LJ would suffice...

[case]

Oh, LJ works too, yeah. I'll edit that in.

[galerian-ash.livejournal.com]

Phew, that's good to hear. I was so excited for this yesterday, so I got all bummed, haha. Thanks!

[case]

It's just something for some measure of accountability, that's all! (Like so some anon can't ask for 10 gifts and stuff, I mean. Not so we can chase you down if you can't get a gift in. Life happens!)

[badass_tiger]

Oh I think it's an okay amount when you talk about gifts like that. A lower amount would be too cheap and might lead to people getting disproportionate gifts since its digital and all. It sure puts my $7 care packages in perspective though!

Chiming in to vote yes.

[tkeylasunset]

I think this will be great fun! Thank you for taking it on, case!!

[queerwolf]

Just wanted to add fanmixes as a thing for the fanwork one. I've seen those in other secret santa exchanges. I'll def. be participating.

[fingalsanteater]

I've never done a Secret Santa before, so I don't know it usually is, but everything you've laid out looks pretty good. I only wish we had a little more time to "find" gifts, especially if we are writing or drawing, but I suppose 10 days will have to do to allow for for the pinch hitters to do their thing.

I like the above comment regarding amazon wishlists too, just because not everyone has a steam account.

[(Anonymous)]

How about a section in the fanworks signup sheet for preferred characters/ships?

[diet_poison]

I wouldn't mind lowering it to like $8-$20 though, or even $8-$15. Not everyone can afford a $25 gift and it might end up being really disproportionate.

[error]

Hello! We're definitely still considering what a good minimum / maximum price range would be. We'd rather not be fussy, when we said $10 then a $9 thing will still count. The $10 amount initial minimum was because we were figuring some people might want to spend a bit, and it wouldn't be fair if they got like a $5 gift in exchange, though limiting the range more would work. $8-$15 does sound reasonable so we might change it to that.

[error]

The reason we're still considering the Amazon wishlist things is the same as why paid time isn't up there- it'd be a great gift to send, but involves real addresses (IIRC with Amazon gifts the sender does see the recipients address) and also it's harder for us to confirm that someone is sending a thing, although I suppose we could tell the sender to send us the receipt / notify us if they do something like that. If we can work out a way around it, it's something that we'd like to add.

[error]

Will throw that in as a suggestion on the full post, thanks!

[error]

Sounds good, will edit that in.

[galerian-ash.livejournal.com]

I forgot to ask this in my previous comment, but how will the "25th: Gifts are sent out to recipients!" bit work? Does it mean that participants will receive their fic/art/whatever in their email? If that's the case, I think it'd be cool if instead a collection was created on AO3. That way it will still retain anonymity, but also enable everyone to check out other people's gifts. I for one would like to see what other FSers end up creating :3

[yanjara.livejournal.com]

Hmm, some more ideas for fannish works maybe: manips, photosets, fanvids, recorded reclists or reviews/essay about whatever fannish theory out there (for people who don't like to write), recorded plays, explanatory designs to VERY important question (like, I would kill for a good philosopher overview, hopefully with some humor), small comic strips, hell even a well done christmas card with fannish associations, also of course games or designs for well known board or cardgames (like a nice fannish version of chess, or the goose game or romée...), even a nicely done recipe book would be cool...

so yeah, went overboard, but maybe some of that could be doable

[diet_poison]

Yeah I think limiting the range is a really good idea, since it eliminates the awkwardness of giving/receiving a gift of more than twice the value of the one on the other end of the exchange.

[error]

Well, we're asking the senders to send us their stuff (gifts, games, etc.) instead of sending it directly to the recipients. That would be under '20th: Gift period ends! All gifts should have been sent to the primary FS Secret Santa email by this date.'. We'll then send the gifts out to the recipients either via email or via PM, to make sure everything goes out at the same tim eand everyone gets a gift.

I was thinking that it should be up to the recipient as to whether they show off their gift- some people might want to, other people might not. The current plan is to have another post the day after Christmas for people to show off the gifts if they feel like it and to leave a message for the people who sent the gifts to them. Would something like that be ok?

[error]

All of those would definitely be welcome! The ones we listed were mostly just suggestions, but we'll definitely include the ones you suggested on the final post to give people more ideas. Those sound pretty awesome too.

[error]

Copypasting the comment from above:

The reason we're still considering the Amazon wishlist things is the same as why paid time isn't up there- it'd be a great gift to send, but involves real addresses (IIRC with Amazon gifts the sender does see the recipients address) and also it's harder for us to confirm that someone is sending a thing, although I suppose we could tell the sender to send us the receipt / notify us if they do something like that. If we can work out a way around it, it's something that we'd like to add.

[dethtoll]

I know I suggested Steam yesterday but I'm a little unsure of how to make it work with Secret Santa. Whenever you send someone a gift -- either to someone on your friends list, or to someone's email -- they'll see who sent it, even in the notification email (which you get regardless of the source.) Complicating matters further would be the requirement that the gifts be sent to the F!S staff first.

I'll contact Steam about it, see if I can get this cleared up.

[error]

Hi, Steam actually doesn't have anonymous gifting immediately built in. What we plan on doing is setting up an FS Steam account for this purpose, then having the gifts be sent there. We'll then later send out the games on Dec 24 to the recipients. That way the original sender's name or identity is kept secret.

[dethtoll]

That works. Let us know when the account is set up so I can add it.

[error]

Will do! :D

[lunabee34]

Icons, wall-papers, and meta about a fandom are things I've also seen exchanged in gift fests. :)

[thecrazyalaskan]

I could definitely do the general secret santa. The fandom one sounds hella fun but I just don't have the time right now.

[ginainthekingsroad]

Um, I have a question. Since f!s is going to be distributing the gifts, should they not have the names of the recipient and gifter? I am 99.9% sure I will be drawing fanart, and would like to be able to personalize it and sign it as I normally do, for example by having on it "for case, Happy Holidays, ginainthekingsroad".

Or will we not know who our recipient is, just their fandom choices?

[error]

You will know who your recipient is! Including names and lj and/or dreamwidth account.

At this point, though, we're thinking that the giver shouldn't include their names until the Dec 26 response post, where senders can talk about what they received and givers can reveal themselves if they want to, so as to keep the whole 'secret' part of the 'secret santa' thing.