Secret Santa 2014 Feedback Thread

[A Link In Time]

Hey, everyone. With the Secret Santa event all wrapped up and certain people revealing what they received and who they sent a gift to, it's time to hear your feedback about how everything went this year.

This year Secret Santa sign-ups began on December 1st and ended on December 7th. The event traditionally starts before this time; however, this year I didn't want to post the thread before American Thanksgiving had begun.

PMs stating who was whose Secret Santa were dispatched on the 11th.

A reminder PM was sent out on December 16th to all participants pointing out the December 23rd at 11:59 PM EST deadline once more. Originally, I planned to give another 72 hour reminder on the 20th, but I never got around to it.

Gifts were sent out to their recipients between 5:00 and 7:00 AM EST on December 25th.

A few questions I have to guide discussion:

1. Did you feel you had ample time to make up your mind whether or not you wanted to participate in Secret Santa?
2. Did you feel enough time was provided between the sending of giftee PMs and the submission deadline?
3. Was the reminder sufficient to get you on track for the December 23rd deadline?
4. If you've participated in ZD's Secret Santa before, how did this year compare to previous year?
5. What did you like about this event?
6. How can we improve this event in the future?

Again, these questions are here to guide discussion, not limit it.

The Forum Volunteers will take your feedback into consideration for the 2015 Secret Santa gift exchange! Cya then!

 

[Vanessa28]

Personally I thought this year was a succes. I know less people participated than the previous years but how things were going was great. In previous years we announced Secret Santa earlier. So more people signed up, got a pm a week or two before Christmas and then when Christmas was about to start volunteers had to make tons of gifts because of those not participating after all. How things went this year was just great. We signed up in the first or second week of December and we got a pm like a week after that which I thought was good. Yes it might have been less time but members who signed up were reminded and worked on their gifts like right away. One week after the reminder and a few days before Christmas we received another reminder. My opinion on this is the longer the deadline the more people tend to forget about it and decline because they are not in the mood for some reason or they lost inspiration. When people sign up and get a reminder like 1 week later they are doing things faster. That's what happened to me. I was like okay I'm going to work on it right away. So yeah I thought it was a succes.

 

[Azure Sage]

1. I felt I had plenty of time. I pretty much joined in on a whim, anyway.
2. Yeah. I procrastinated until the 21st, but I didn't feel that rushed. I had plenty of time to make the gift.
3. Yes.
4. This was my first time participating in one.
5. It was a fun way to anonymously make someone smile, and be given a smile yourself.
6. I don't know if I can offer any suggestions on this. Sorry.

It was definitely fun. I might participate next year, too.

 

[Justac00lguy]

Just my thoughts, I think we need to change it up next year. I didn't even know it was a thing, but I'm guessing it was the same format as last year, which I thought was ok, but it can get bland.

 

[Mellow Ezlo]

1. I didn't even hesitate to sign up.
2. I didn't even start until the 22nd... oops So I would say yes. I was able to make something in just one day, so I think the time allotted was plenty.
3. Ya, I actually kinda forgot about it before that.
4. I thoroughly enjoyed it both years I participated. It wasn't much different from last year overall, but that's OK, because don't touch what isn't broken.
5. I really liked being able to have fun making something anonymously in hopes of putting a smile on somebody's face, and also looking forward to seeing what others did for me. Then actually seeing the end result for both my gift and the one sent to me, and being really pleased with both.
6. Not sure if there's really anything to fix. This event was fun and everything you mentioned worked really well. I don't think any real changes are really necessary.

Definitely gonna be participating next year too. Thanks for hosting it, ALiT! ^^

 

[Pen]

This was my first time taking part in ZD's Secret Santa event and I'm very glad I chose to join. When I saw the sign up thread I thought for just a little while before deciding to join. The amount of time we got to make the gift for our giftee was definitely enough in my opinion. The gift I made was completely finished three days after I learned who my giftee was. The reminder was not necessary for me in particular, but I definitely think it was a good thing. One can never be too careful.

I really did like this event, but I'm having a hard time thinking of what made it so fun. Making the gift was fun because I do not know the giftee I got (Aurelia), so when I had decided to make a Pokémon based christmas rhyme for her I started to sorta look back at her old threads and in her Deviant Art account and stuff like that to see which Pokémon she seemed to like the most and whatnot (I felt quite like a stalker...). Anyway, writing the Pokémon christmas rhyme was super fun! I dunno, but I've always loved to rhyme. Because I thought making the gift was so much fun it went by pretty quickly. Getting a gift of my own was also a pleasure of course. Since I had written down plenty of different interests in the sign up thread I was really excited to see what my the person who had me as their giftee would make for me. And yeah, the Sherlock christmas story I got from the_miserable on christmas day was terrific! It was a really nice gift.

Personally I'm very satisfied with this year's Secret Santa event, so I cannot really think of any way of improving it. It was simply great! Thanks ALIT! I'm already looking forward to joining the Secret Santa next year!

 

[Malia]

1. Did you feel you had ample time to make up your mind whether or not you wanted to participate in Secret Santa?

I think I was one of the last to sign up and I did so on a whim, so oui, sure!

2. Did you feel enough time was provided between the sending of giftee PMs and the submission deadline?

ja

3. Was the reminder sufficient to get you on track for the December 23rd deadline?

sí

5. What did you like about this event?

I've participated in other S.Santas on multiple forums, and almost always -every- year there's someone who doesn't do his gift, and the poor giftee goes into the show-off thread all super-sad/left out. As excited as I am to see everyone's gifts, I'm always weary that's gonna happen. But as far as I can see, there hasn't been anyone who has said they've received nothing. I'm legit impressed.

I also appreciate that this was globally promoted through out the forum because I wouldn't have otherwise seen this thread and tried to participate.

Further, there was a mistake earlier on in which I wasn't listed in the final list, despite signing up, but aLiT was very prompt/efficient and fixing that, which I appreciate very, very much I mean, this isn't me dogging on the botch-up--mistakes happen! What matters is how you deal with patching it up, and it was done in a very timely manner.

6. How can we improve this event in the future?

Naw, this is all pretty standard which is fine! It was run efficiently and I like that. Though, if you wanna change it up next here, here are a few alternative ways to doing S.Santa:

1) I've played this elsewhere where everyone makes a gift first, then sends it to the organiser--if you like, you guys can set a theme beforehand. Then everyone picks a number, and whichever gift is listed that number, is the gift they get. There's no thread saying what you're into or what you want or whatever--it's people making random stuff, or common-themed stuff, and getting what's given to you (beforehand, you're told also what number you -can't- pick so you don't end up picking your own lol). It was fun when I played this! Because tbh I don't often get to make lists for gifts irl anyway, so what I get for Christmas is more often than not a mystery, and I rely on people to go with their gut to do something nice. It was also a cool way to switch up the game some.

2) I've also played this where those who signed up are divided into two teams, and both teams basically make a gift for the other team, and surprise each other with the group effort-gift on the last day. This is actually more focused on community-building, and we ended up making tag walls for the other team one year, and another year, we wrote a children's story featuring the other team, with MSPaint illustrations xD, but it was pretty fun all in all. The PROBLEM with this is it can be a bit difficult if you end up with someone who doesn't really wanna do the work, or you end up with clashing personalities, but if you can get past that, it's actually pretty fun.

3) Twice, I've played this as "Secret Role" Santa: basically you pick a theme (one year I had "family" and the other it was "the Legend of Zelda"), and you're given a role from that theme (family year I got "weird foreign kid who lives next door but always comes over and acts like he's part of the family despite people being unsure whether they like you or not" xD and for Z, I got "Tingle" LOL). Theeennn, we're given the person we have to make the gift for, but you gotta make the gift as if you are the actual role, and they are the actual role (for family, I had "Mom" so I made her a Happy Mother's Day card that had the "Mother's Day" scratched out, with "Merry Christmas" written over it, and the rest of the message written in Spanish lmao, and for Zelda, I got "Link" and I drew an image of Tingle dying Link's hair pink before sending him out for his adventure in a Link to the Past). Themes gotta be broad though because everyone will need to understand it. Also I think this variation of S.Santa is my fave as it had some of the most hilarious results.

Yep! I don't really have any criticism here because I think it was done pretty well, but those are just some ideas you guys can consider for another time.

Thank you for putting this together and letting us have fun, btw. I appreciate dearly the work and organisation

 

[Doc]

1. Did you feel you had ample time to make up your mind whether or not you wanted to participate in Secret Santa?

Yeah, I'd say so. I saw that the event started I think a day or so after it was posted and, at the time, was very unsure about signing up. In the end, of course, I did. I'm a very hesitant person, so I'd say the time to decide to participate was perfect.

2. Did you feel enough time was provided between the sending of giftee PMs and the submission deadline?

Yes. I had to rush mine a little bit, but thats only because I am a lazy procrastinator. Nothing to do with the system.

3. Was the reminder sufficient to get you on track for the December 23rd deadline?

Yeah, that reminded me that it needed to get done. I think having a second reminder like you said would also be very helpful. Personally, I would have completely forgotten about it had I not seen that reminder.

5. What did you like about this event?

i thought it was just cool to see how artistic and creative everybody can be. I love looking through the reveal thread because some people on this forum are just so talented, its incredible.

6. How can we improve this event in the future?

I can't think of any. Although what Malia is describing does seem pretty interesting to me.