Geek Secret Santa 2009 Begins (details here)

VHunter · **Geek Secret Santa 2009 Begins (details here) -** 19-10-09, 12:41 PM

You CAN be from anywhere in the world. Any member of the site can participate. Regardless of which forum you belong to, or where in the world you live, you are invited to play along. Hair Geek, Nail Geek, whatever. EVERYONE can play.

Please find below, the Guidelines and Notes on how this works.

Please read the ENTIRE post and avoid asking us a question for which the answer is found here. There are A LOT OF GEEKS.. that means a LOT of pm’s for us.

GEEK SECRET SANTA

CUTOFF To Participate:November 15th 2009, Midnight GMT. We do appreciate that it doesn't give too long to add your names, but we all need time to shop!!

Names will be assigned no later than Monday the 23rd , depending on number of participants.

If you know a geek that is not frequently on the forum, but can reach them by another method PLEASE contact them to give them the chance to participate.

ASSIGNMENT OF NAMES
The cutoff is November 15th. Santa will mix everyone's names up, and reassign them randomly. It will be a random assignment of names.
The number of participants received this year will determine how fast we can fire off the pm’s with everyone’s assigned geeks. We will send out pm's with the details to all participants. Keep in mind, the number of participants is the number of pm's we have to send. PLEASE be patient.

WHEN we have finished sending the pm's with details, we will post a notice that the pm's have been sent. IF after that time you have NOT received a pm. PLEASE let me know right away! DO NOT PM ME BEFORE THE THREAD IS POSTED, indicating that we have finished, if you have not received your pm.
We all work, like many of you. ... so it takes time. LOL
Once we have started receiving names, I will start a thread for everyone to verify that they are indeed on the list.
PLEASE don’t pm me within hours saying “I’m not on the list”. I can not always get to it the same day. Patience is KEY!

RULES:

You may NOT tell anyone about who's name you were assigned, and what you are buying them. Santa will be royally ticked at any cheaters LOL It's a SECRET. Only the receiver may know WHEN they receive their gift, and only THEN may they divulge who their Santa was.
We would PREFER that you did NOT send Nail/Beauty/Industry related products.. . It's xmas, it's about love and fun. Although we allllllllll love nails.. let's put nails aside for a change.
When you send your gift, PLEASE send it in time for xmas. Please do not post it any later than November 30th. If you are participating, I'm sure your Santa will be in a rush to send yours. You know how the postal service can be during the holidays, INSANE.. Please keep this in mind. PLEASE put a return address JUST IN CASE and please let them know who you are in the parcel, NOT here on geek before they receive it, so they can thank you. Please indicate your ‘geeky’ name as well, not all of us know everyone’s “real names”.
PM me with your stats:

A) Full name
B) Full address incl. country
C) your list of likes, interests and hobbies. NO ONE wants coal. The list is necessary as someone may get a name of a geek they know nothing about and need help without soliciting the assistance of another geek. Also, some people are just generally shopping-challenged. So please, don't say "I like everything" or I'll tell your santa to send coal or rubber dog poo (We are fully stocked with rubber poo and coal, BEWARE)

Suggestions:
You may wait until Xmas to open your gift if you want to, but PLEASE let your Santa know that you received it, as soon as you get it. Many geeks are like kids about giving gifts, let’s not torture them needlessly, ok??
Do not change your geek name after you have signed up. This caused some confusion one year, when it came time to pm’ing people. We had to harass the mods.
Insure your parcels. This alleviates the headache of extra expense if the Post office loses it. Then at least the “Santa” can get reimbursed and send out another gift to their geek. I believe insurance for parcels is as little as 1 or £2 in many cases.
Please do not make me waste time pm’ing you to ask you for info you forgot.

NOTES:

PLEASE do not overspend. Precious Spending limits have been changed due to the differences in exchange rates and costs of living, from one end of the planet to another.. this didn’t work. I prefer that you keep it to a minimum of £5 to £8 keeping in mind, there is still shipping to pay for. This is about spirit, and holidays and appreciating our geeky mates. This is NOT a gift-giving contest. Remember: whatever you buy, that person is likely to share with everyone what it is. If it’s costly, those that sent ‘budget’ gifts might feel uncomfortable. “Uncomfortable” is NOT geeky spirit. We want everyone happy and cheerful. THAT IS geeky spirit. If items cost very little, then odds are that they are 'small'. Small things are cheaper to ship. :-) Gag gifts, humourous gifts, senseless cute trinkets, chocolate (chocolate is always good LOL) etc….. These are the types of gifts I have in mind.

Special requests will be DENIED. This is completely random. Also, we do NOT want any pm's of "I don't like so-and-so, please change the name". Guess what? At christmas, we love everyone. Sooooo whoever you get is who you shop for and be a good boy or girl, and be nice. Anyone who doesn't play nice, gets crossed off the list next year.
Yes, this evil elf will do it. Don't doubt for a second that we wouldn't.
Also, it’s far too complicated and time consuming to make sure that so-n-so only gets someone from such-n-such a country or whatever

Please do NOT pm me before February 1st if you have not received your parcel. If you pm me before the 1st, It will be ignored and deleted. Sorry.. but we have been inundated in the past…
If the postal service is what it usually is at Christmas.. (and of course it will be) I'm sure it's likely to happen that someone will get a parcel late.
If by February 1st, you've received nothing, ONLY THEN will we contact your Santa to find out what's going on
There will be NO reassigning of Secret Santa’s this year. This is the 4th Secret Santa, and over the years the others have been a learning experience. It’s unfair to ask others to send out more than one gift. We greatly appreciated the geeks that stepped out to help out those that didn’t receive, but it’s not fair to them to pick up the slack.
So, if you get assigned a “dud” in terms of a Secret Santa and that Santa never sends their gift, we're truly sorry. That’s the risk we take. In any case, this is about giving and not receiving. It’s unfortunate.. but… as they say “**** happens”.
NOTE: We still have last year’s list. WE KNOW who didn’t send last year AND the previous years. They are NOT allowed to participate this year.

Now, we have made a LOT of requests and been very specific. We would GREATLY appreciate your help in keeping this simple to limit the amount of work we have by doing as we’ve requested and following the rules.

This should be fun for us all including Santa's helpers!!!

Now have fun and stay outta trouble and we're sure Santa will be good to you.
(except for those missing part C in their pm's, they're getting rubber dog poo! hahaha listen for Victoria's evil laugh LOL)

TIME TO GET INTO THE FESTIVE SPIRIT!!

I will announce the helpers this afternoon. I have to run my daughter to the clinic this morning.

Violet Star · 21-10-09, 11:04 PM

V..Where you been? Are you hiding in santa's grotto? lol

VHunter · 22-10-09, 01:51 PM

Santa's been running around, and took daughter to clinic for allergic reaction to crab meat, and prepping for both daughter's bday party this weekend

No one had posted any questions.. so I figured all was great

Anyhooooow.. tomorrow is a VERY quiet day..
I will post the list of those that have submitted their names so far and other related news

Sorry peeps!!

VHunter · 22-10-09, 08:46 PM

Can someone PRETTY please 'sticky' this thread and the list of participants thread?
I've just received a pm enquiring where this thread was.

THANKS in advance, if you're able to

VHunter · 17-11-09, 01:25 PM

UPDATE:

In the hopes of having more names, I have pushed back the cuti-off until Midnight (my time, Eastern Standard) tonight.
I do have 8 messages in my box to add names to the list.
But our list is still very short.

Cheer up and old elf and get your names in.