Secundi Secret Santa?

[CutieePiee]

I've been participating in Secret Santa every year in RL and it's always been such a fun event during Christmas. So I thought maybe we could have the same thing here on Secundi?

I know a few agencies have sent up their own secret santa's in the past but wouldn't it be more fun if we include all the agencies/adoptable shops?

My thoughts...
- I would like to start a Secret Santa (non-gaming) account.
- Whoever wants to participate, may pm a simple list of Secundi adoptables, items, etc. that they wish for.
- I will then gather all the pm'd lists and post a master list of all the items wanted in a thread.
- In order to participate, each person must submit at least one item from the posted list. The more you give, the more you get. For instance, you spot Gypsy Vanner Quinsta and Mountain Okibi on the list. You might have 2 of those adoptables sitting in your account that you may not want anymore. You may have them kept under the Secret Santa account until they're ready to be distributed and maybe include a nice little note in the 'pet description' area, if it's an agency pet. Customs from shop owners will be noted instead.
- When Christmas comes closer, I'll distribute the gifts through pm or on a thread. Random.org will be used if there are multiples of similar gifts.

Anyway, it's just an idea I came up with just now. Please let me know if it's stupid, too complicating, whatever. xD Since I don't own any adoptable shops, just thought I'd participate in the Secundi community more in some way or another. 

And of course if you'd like to help with this, feel free. I love Christmas elves! xD

Let me know your thoughts/ideas. 

[red_uni387]

omg yes a million times! secret santas are so fun

the only little snag I see is that sales history is recorded, so it isnt very secret XD

[YourLoveOnly]

Secret Santas are fun indeed, but I am not sure your way will work because if it's just one massive wishlist you may find several matches to one person but none to another, leaving them without a gift they really want. So if you this I'd recommend just getting wishlist from people and assigning them a random partner (and of course switch them around, for example if I get runi, runi should get Ravv and then Ravv could get me again, but it's no fun if I get runi and runi also gets me).

Problem for Agency pets would be the sales history as runi pointed out, so sadly that kinda removes the guessing element, otherwise I would suggest like we do another forum and leave hints (can be sentences or even pictures or riddles) so the other person can figure out who you are.

I am thinking of doing White Elephant again as well, it's always so fun ^^ That would be neat to play with multiple shops as well someday, but at the same time as a Secret Santa seems a bit too busy/insane XD

[Saturnalia]

I would certainly be interested in that!

[BabyKittenCandy]

Potentially interested in this.

Would love to hear more ideas on it.

[Bunraku]

The only other snag I see is if we can't obtain what the person really wants from their list within the time limit >< I'd really hate to receive something from someone, but not be able to get the thing the person I'm assigned to really wanted, and they end up with something they don't like or don't need.

[CutieePiee]

After looking through all your comments, I only wish the process could somehow be simplified. I really do love secret santa. But until I think of a better way to do it, I'm not sure how it would be pulled off flawlessly.

[Winged]

I love secret santa too and think a secundi secret santa would be awesome! But i think you would have to check with the different adoptable shops that this was okay, especially if customs were availiable. And i agree it does seem a little complicated. Also the issue with pet sales history, the only solution i see to that would be for Silv to blank the last owner of that pet, if she's willing for this.

[YourLoveOnly]

I'm not even sure that can be done with the coding Winged..

If Secret Santa is too complicated I would be willing to do a large White Elephant game instead if people want. Either way I don't think you can do a secret santa where the gifter stays secret.

Like I said, assigning partners like Secret Santas have been run in the past on Secundi seems like it would work and you'd just not reveal the gift and gifter until Christmas (I'd be willing to color present boxes that hint towards the colors of the pet and they wouldn't open until Christmas).

People who enter just need to be prepared that you can't get the perfect gift always. Because obviously almost everyone loves Quinsta, Feli, FCFC and Noms for example and it is not realistic to expect everyone will be gifting those. I think it is a good idea to make sure a sign-up form includes a section where you can list adoptables you like a lot, but also a section with colors you like AND colors they hate to avoid giving them something they wouldn't like at all. So if you don't have that you could at least find a premade pet with colors they like or if you run your own adoptable you could color them something with those colors.

[Saturnalia]

I think YLO brings up a really good point.

Going into a Secret Santa Swap-- online OR in real life, with tangible gifts-- you HAVE to be prepared to not get your Most Wanted Bestest Ever DreamThing. At the end of the day, it's about the spirit of giving and having some fun. If not getting a Quinsta is going to make you unhappy, then, in all honesty, it's probably best not to participate in something where you are getting a gift that you aren't choosing (and, by extention, paying for) yourself.

There are also the sorts of swaps where you don't get assigned a person,  but, rather, everyone puts something in, with a certain "value" in mind, and then the "boxes" are numbered, and everyone picks one in a random order. (Or are assigned one randomly.) Not as personalized, but also if you're disappointed, you have nothing but random fate to blame

Regardless of what people end up doing, I DO actually think it would be neat for people just to have wishlists posted up on Secundi-- with specific pet types, but also colors & color schemes that people like. I find this useful just for gift-giving in general, secret or not!

[Kadana Sorano]

Secret Santa with no sales history for Agency pets..

This can be accomplished, but it would take cooperation with the adoptable shop owners/runners.  Instead of gifters giving pets that they already own, adopt shop owners could set up premades, semi's, full customs for purchase. 

Once the orders are completed then there are a couple different options for getting them into the system with the receiver not knowing who the gifter was.

Using my shop as an example..

1. The SGA account receives an order for a premade breeding pair from YLO to be gifted to Cutie.  Breeding pair is colored up, and uploaded to the system directly into Cutie's account.  Upload is done as if the pair were foals, with a grow date set for Christmas.  The image uploaded is a Christmas box (taking YLO up on that offer perhaps) or whatever other "place holder" image each shop wants to use.  SO Cutie see's she has a gift, and gets to stare at it every day until Christmas wondering what's inside lol  Christmas day the system "grows" the image into the adult SC's and the breeding pair is revealed.

2. The SGA shop receives the order for the breeding pair, colors it up, and sets aside a block of time on or very near Christmas day to come online and upload the order into the gift receivers account.  (I imagine this is the least likely to happen though, because most people will be rather busy around then)

3. The SGA shop receives the order,colors it up, uploads it (with a place holder image as a "foal" in the system, scheduled to grow on Christmas day to reveal the gift, or without the place holder image and everyone can just stare into Santa's account and wonder).  The gift gets uploaded into the Secret Santa non-Gaming account, and "Santa" can go through them and distribute them to their new owners by whatever method She chooses.

As for people not getting anything they like and what not, I think were all mature enough here to realize we can't/don't always get what we want,and to be grateful for our friends taking the time to think about us and go out of their way to get us something.  So I don't "think" there would/should be too much whining over not getting the one gift we really want.

That said, I think there should be a general understanding going into the thing that some people just completely dislike an adopt,or a color, or a breed, or.. whatever.  And other people may love (example) Arabian Quinsta's and be an avid collector of anything arab/quinsta related.  But that doesn't mean that they won;t one day find that ONE arabian quinsta that just doesn't click with them.  In such cases where a person receives a gift they just can not see themselves keeping for whatever reason, there should be no hard feelings on the giver's part if the receiver wishes to trade it away.  This is one of the great things about stores in the real world, we can take our gifts back and exchange them for things we can use/want, without hurting any one's feelings.  Only here, everyone will see and know, so we have to keep these things in mind,and be understanding and mature about it.

[YourLoveOnly]

*nods* I agree, you can't be upset if any pet gifted by you in a Secret Santa is traded by their new owner. You can't always predict people's likes. For example, with Panda Shrimps there are a lot of different markings and I know some people have a couple they dislike. So even if you get them all their favorite colors but by accident include one or two markings they don't like they may end up trading it anyway.

I do think putting all the work on the adoptable shop owners is a bit of a recipy for disaster, because if one of them is suddenly too swamped with real life and poofs the gifter doesn't have anything to give to their partner. I don't think it's okay to take such risks, so I do think people should gift one of their own pets or color up something for their partner themselves if they want to and have that option.

Maybe shops are willing to offer CYO templates, that could work for those who don't have their own adoptable shop. Another thing I could think of is people donating premades to pick from, but I know from previous Secret Santas on Secundi and similair sites that this tends to get VERY disorganized because multiple people often request the same pets. I know one time people gave a top 3 or top 5 to a shop and the shop owner would hand out the pets on first come, first served basis and they still had to PM a bunch of people asking for a new choice because all the ones from their list weren't available anymore. Doesn't seem like a good way to do it.

[CutieePiee]

I do really like Kadana's first idea, though agreeing with YLO that it would put a lot of pressure on the adoptable owners, which I don't want. I don't think CYO is favorable to people like me as I don't have the programs to color, except for MS paint, which would mean more work for the shop owners to edit. This is the reason why I never participate in CYO.

As of right now, I think the best options so far are these:
- Everyone pm's a list of what they want to the secret santa host, several options so it makes it easier for the gifter to choose one thing without getting flustered.
- The host will randomly distribute the lists back to the gifters.
- With permission and agreement from shop owners, gifters will have the option of buying a custom based on the wishlist or choose an adoptable they already own that is shown on the wishlist.

The only problems I'm facing now is how exactly will the gifts be distributed with these two options of buying vs giving a premade of your own.

The other would be, would people end up buying from shop owners more than they would gift a premade from their own inventory? That would defeat the purpose, as I said before, I would rather not put so much work on the shop owners.

I will continue to gather ideas on how to make this work, as it seems a few people are as interested in secret santa as I am.

[YourLoveOnly]

I didn't mean just CYO, I meant it as an extra option for those who don't have their own shop. They could also just give away one of their premade pets, but I know some people like to color but don't own a shop so I thought maybe it'd be nice if people could pick between giving away one of their pets or coloring something new. I defenitely didn't mean all CYO, I agree with you that is a bad idea.

And I do think people are more likely to go to a shop owner if given the choice between that or their own premade because it's easier to get something custom tailored to a wishlist if it's colored with specific likes and dislikes in mind versus picking from your own pets.

[CutieePiee]

Can someone refresh my memory as to how a White Elephant works?

[YourLoveOnly]

I've run White Elephant a couple times on several sites including secundi and last year Ryuu copied my idea as well. Here's an old Luminaria thread with the rules: http://www.secundi.net/forum.php?topic=3454.0
Basically you take sign-ups and make sure there is an amount of gifts equal to the people who signed up. Then people take turns, the first person opens a box, the next person can open another one or steal the already opened gift. If a gift gets stolen the person now without a gift can go again, but they can't take back the gift that was just taken from them. Those are the most basic rules.