Recruiting Secret Santa Helpers!

[Netphlix]

Hi there! I'm nearing getting the Super golden mailbox. I think now is a good time for me to start to recruit people to help with the event.
What I'm looking for is someone who is super active on TBT, preferably with high wifi ratings.
Responsible, committed and not flaky.

Here is a description of what I need help with :

I'm going to be hosting a Secret Santa thread, it will be only in-game presents!
I live in America, my timezone is CST. I need people that live in different timezones, or people that are up later hours than I am, to monitor the threads and keep track of who wants to participate.
What I plan to do for Secret Santa is get every individuals TBT ID and set their ID up with another individuals ID. I will try to avoid making two individuals mutual secret santas, but if the thread is unpopular, I will really have no choice!

Ideally, people who want to participate will list what item they want or provide a MoriDB wishlist link. I will PM an individual who is participating : "Hello! You are the Secret Santa to [USERNAME], here is a list of items that they want/here is their MoriDB wishlist"

I would also try to match up people who can afford high priced items to people who want high priced items, and people who only want to spend a small amount, with people who want cheaper items.

I am not sure what to do about people who list wanting DLC items, so that is another thing I will need help with. I will need help with graphics, setting up a proper form for people to fill out. I will need help conducting the entire thing.

If you just have suggestions and can't supervise the thread, please do not hesitate to comment.

My own questions are;
What do I do about people who want more than one gift?
Limited to one gift per person, or should people name how many gifts they can give to their Secret Santee?
When should I start, when should I end it?
When do we reveal who is whos Secret Santa?
Also how the heck will i do this?

Spoiler: How to see a persons TBT ID

 

[Mairen]

For something as big as this, in order to keep it a little less complicated, I would limit it to one gift per person. You should start on December 1st (christmas month). Reveal the secret santa after everyone's unwrapped their gifts. It will take a lot of organization, but I know you can get a good system going!

 

[Netphlix]

For something as big as this, in order to keep it a little less complicated, I would limit it to one gift per person. You should start on December 1st (christmas month). Reveal the secret santa after everyone's unwrapped their gifts. It will take a lot of organization, but I know you can get a good system going!

Thank you for this, I appreciate your input :>

 

[Jaebeommie]

Ahh you finally have a thread going for this! I'm so glad! I'd love to help out.
If you need help matching people up or something I'm around.
I also think that people should be made aware that you must give at least one item to participate, and to not expect to receive more than one item. But if they feel so inclined to get more than one item for another person, they should be allowed!
And for people who want DLC, you could match them up with people wanting to buy DLC? Maybe you should make an application form asking whether or not someone is willing to buy DLC, how much they're willing to spend, etc.

 

[Netphlix]

Ahh you finally have a thread going for this! I'm so glad! I'd love to help out.
If you need help matching people up or something I'm around.
I also think that people should be made aware that you must give at least one item to participate, and to not expect to receive more than one item. But if they feel so inclined to get more than one item for another person, they should be allowed!
And for people who want DLC, you could match them up with people wanting to buy DLC? Maybe you should make an application form asking whether or not someone is willing to buy DLC, how much they're willing to spend, etc.

Good ideas! And yes I will definitely need help matching people up. If you can supervise/monitor things, please make sure your inbox is not full during the event, I would like the supervisors to be available to communicate with the participants! I was thinking of a form saying stuff like "How many presents do you want to give to your secret santee/receiver" still not sure on what word to use for that.

 

[Hypno KK]

This is such a cool idea! I'd love to help and participate but unfortunately, my wifi in ACNL is very hit-or-miss. There are towns I can't connect to at all.

What do I do about people who want more than one gift?
If you want to allow this option, you could calculate the value of the gifts they want combine and match them with someone who wants a gift (or gifts) that are in the same price range. For example, if someone wants two medium-value gifts and the two combined would be worth as much as an expensive gift, you could pair them up with someone in the expensive gifts category.

Otherwise, you could make it a separate category.

I don't think there should be an option for people to be forced to give others multiple gifts. It would be nice if everyone could participate, and it might be hard for people to find multiple gifts, especially if they are expensive or rare. It would work best as an optional feature for someone who wanted to be extra nice to their match. You could just allow people to post wishlists with options for others to choose from. If you're worried about someone cheating that way and getting multiple items and giving something cheap, you could add some criteria, like checking the average price range and rarity of their wishlist items.

Limited to one gift per person, or should people name how many gifts they can give to their Secret Santee?
I think that price/rarity would work better than number of gifts. It would be a big hassle for me to give someone a full reorderable set, for example, while it would be harder for me to track down and buy something from an unorderable or DLC set that I don't have.

The minimum should be one, and multiple could be an option for people who want to be nice or if they need to add up to a certain value.

When should I start, when should I end it?

I think sign-ups should start soon. That way, there's time for people to join and start looking for things to give to others. People signing up and then forgetting or flaking is a possibility if you start too early, but you could make it a rule that after signing up, people would have to check in before the gift-giving timeframe starts.

The gift-giving part could take place during December or start sometime during that month, and end in early January. Keeping it restricted to only one or two weeks in December could make it more difficult who are busy with work and family responsibilities during that time.

You could also add an extra week or two for people whose matches "flaked". During that time period, they could report with you, and then volunteers who are willing to step in (this could be in the sign-up form, I've seen this done in Secret Santa events) would make up for the loss.


When do we reveal who is whos Secret Santa?
It would be great if reveals took place after the gift-giving period, or people could reveal who they are right after giving things. That would make more sense because of the way the game works, since you need to swap FCs to visit each other. That is, unless someone is going to go round collecting and distributing the gifts.

Also how the heck will i do this?
First: after you get some more suggestions and ideas, if enough people are interested, start a sign-up thread. Then, sort people into categories and put them on a spreadsheet or list to keep track of the pairs. Make regular reminders and announcements whenever a new stage (telling people their match, gift-giving, reveals) starts. It would also be nice to have a thread where people could thank their Secret Santas and talk about the gifts they've received.

Give people an option to sign up to also step in for flakes or to be matched with more than one person if there's an odd number of people. Some people might be generous enough to be willing to do this. It would also be a good idea to let people whose pairs have flaked tell you, and have a system to check if that's true or not.

 

[Netphlix]

Spoiler

This is such a cool idea! I'd love to help and participate but unfortunately, my wifi in ACNL is very hit-or-miss. There are towns I can't connect to at all.

What do I do about people who want more than one gift?
If you want to allow this option, you could calculate the value of the gifts they want combine and match them with someone who wants a gift (or gifts) that are in the same price range. For example, if someone wants two medium-value gifts and the two combined would be worth as much as an expensive gift, you could pair them up with someone in the expensive gifts category.

Otherwise, you could make it a separate category.

I don't think there should be an option for people to be forced to give others multiple gifts. It would be nice if everyone could participate, and it might be hard for people to find multiple gifts, especially if they are expensive or rare. It would work best as an optional feature for someone who wanted to be extra nice to their match. You could just allow people to post wishlists with options for others to choose from. If you're worried about someone cheating that way and getting multiple items and giving something cheap, you could add some criteria, like checking the average price range and rarity of their wishlist items.

Limited to one gift per person, or should people name how many gifts they can give to their Secret Santee?
I think that price/rarity would work better than number of gifts. It would be a big hassle for me to give someone a full reorderable set, for example, while it would be harder for me to track down and buy something from an unorderable or DLC set that I don't have.

The minimum should be one, and multiple could be an option for people who want to be nice or if they need to add up to a certain value.

When should I start, when should I end it?

I think sign-ups should start soon. That way, there's time for people to join and start looking for things to give to others. People signing up and then forgetting or flaking is a possibility if you start too early, but you could make it a rule that after signing up, people would have to check in before the gift-giving timeframe starts.

The gift-giving part could take place during December or start sometime during that month, and end in early January. Keeping it restricted to only one or two weeks in December could make it more difficult who are busy with work and family responsibilities during that time.

You could also add an extra week or two for people whose matches "flaked". During that time period, they could report with you, and then volunteers who are willing to step in (this could be in the sign-up form, I've seen this done in Secret Santa events) would make up for the loss.


When do we reveal who is whos Secret Santa?
It would be great if reveals took place after the gift-giving period, or people could reveal who they are right after giving things. That would make more sense because of the way the game works, since you need to swap FCs to visit each other. That is, unless someone is going to go round collecting and distributing the gifts.

Also how the heck will i do this?
First: after you get some more suggestions and ideas, if enough people are interested, start a sign-up thread. Then, sort people into categories and put them on a spreadsheet or list to keep track of the pairs. Make regular reminders and announcements whenever a new stage (telling people their match, gift-giving, reveals) starts. It would also be nice to have a thread where people could thank their Secret Santas and talk about the gifts they've received.

Give people an option to sign up to also step in for flakes or to be matched with more than one person if there's an odd number of people. Some people might be generous enough to be willing to do this. It would also be a good idea to let people whose pairs have flaked tell you, and have a system to check if that's true or not.

Thank you so much for the detailed answers. I'll refer back to this often. I was thinking that I could also look for people who are willing to be Santas and deliver peoples gifts, this would probably take a long time though, but I know that I would personally be willing to deliver, I don't think it would be impossible to find other people that are willing to deliver. I think the biggest issue would be people flaking or forgetting and leaving their match disappointed.
I'll sell some stuff for BTB and try to get the mailbox as soon as possible so I can start signups. I want to start supervisor and delivery people sign ups first though to make sure everything is covered. :> Thank you again!

 

[Hypno KK]

Thank you so much for the detailed answers. I'll refer back to this often. I was thinking that I could also look for people who are willing to be Santas and deliver peoples gifts, this would probably take a long time though, but I know that I would personally be willing to deliver, I don't think it would be impossible to find other people that are willing to deliver. I think the biggest issue would be people flaking or forgetting and leaving their match disappointed.
I'll sell some stuff for BTB and try to get the mailbox as soon as possible so I can start signups. I want to start supervisor and delivery people sign ups first though to make sure everything is covered. :> Thank you again!

No problem! I'm glad my post was useful. If people flake (which I think is always a risk in this sort of thing), it's always good to have some people who are willing to be back-up Santas so that nobody ends up too disappointed. I hope it goes well! I might try to participate if I can

 

[Tinkalila]

This is such a cute idea, I'd participate! But it's a lot to take on. If a lot of people suddenly sign up and it becomes too much, I'd consider trying just pairing up two people to trade gifts. (Just in case, though! I like the idea of it being secret way better too!)

 

[Netphlix]

This is such a cute idea, I'd participate! But it's a lot to take on. If a lot of people suddenly sign up and it becomes too much, I'd consider trying just pairing up two people to trade gifts. (Just in case, though! I like the idea of it being secret way better too!)

Im thinking about having delivery people, maybe like 5, plus me, to deliver the gifts to people :> I could provide Santa outfits and all that cute stuff.