I thought I posted about this the other day but I must have fallen asleep. I really want it to happen this year, I have stuff that I need to get rid of. Do we have any volunteers to run it???
@Kidsandliz any updates from anyone as we are now in January and we’re going to do this we need to do it otherwise I for one need to throw out all the packing material that I’ve saved up
@Cerridwyn@Kidsandliz
I’ve been looking at different platforms to use bc people complain about elfster but it really is the best one. I should have something this weekend.
@Kidsandliz@Star2236 okay sorry to be a bit of a nag but any updates. I have this bag that I really have to sort through and make some decisions about as to whether it’s going in a box for this or going to donation or what so. Updates would be good
@Kidsandliz
I know you said you won’t do the secret Santa if it’s on elfster but I can’t find another generator that lets me just send out a sing up link like elfster does. Every other platform I’ve seen requires me to manually invite everyone through email and that’s a lot of work. I want you to be able to participate so please see if you can find another generator by the end of the weekend that lets me send out an invitation link, has a wishlist and a way for people to say that they’ve sent packages, I’ll use that. I’ve really been looking
@Star2236 What I did was set up a google docs “survey” for people to sign up on and downloaded it in excel. Then yes I had to send out an email but that only took about 2 hours tops. I used a random number generator to match however if someone was from Maine and their match was South California I did a bit of switching around by location so people wouldn’t be killed by postage.
I used the spreadsheet to make sure the receiver posted and if a receiver hadn’t gotten their box kept track of that then nagged both first with an email and then publicly in a post by - not sent user names, not posted user names (also earlier sent an email if you haven’t received let me know if your recipient hasn’t posted let me know).
I then could let old timers at this send and receive up to 3 boxes as some want to do (although I suspect you could figure out a way to do that on elfster). And I kept a list of those who only wanted to send if someone got screwed. One year several who wanted to send but not receive still wanted to send even though they weren’t “needed” so they agreed to a random draw of lucky winners of a second box (geographic limits applied, due to cost, if the sender wanted that, not all cared).
If you set it up with elfster is there a way to download the pairs? It would make tracking who has not sent and who has not posted way easier. I could deal with that. I could gather names of people who just want to send and not receive.
Is there a way to make a required entry their meh user name? If not on the later then their “name” should be their first name, their meh name attached to the end of that as if one word, then their last name.
@Kidsandliz
That’s just to much work for me. Elfster does it all for you and that’s why I’m using it. I don’t know what you mean by the pairs thing. I will say something about signing up to elfster with your meh name. When we did this a couple years ago most people did sing up with they’re meh name.
@Star2236 You will need to make sure people post what they get and that everyone sends. Each one I ran we’d have one or more who didn’t send and even more who didn’t post until reminded, sometimes more than once. You’ll have to take that off of the reveal thread.
I’d suggest create yourself an exchange email address on yahoo or something. Post that for people participating in the exchange to use (so you aren’t buried in whispers which makes it so much harder to sort it out that way) if they haven’t received, or if someone sent and their receiver hasn’t posted so you can go back into elfster to nag them. You will also need to post reminders to prompt people to post or send (a general reminder rather than a personal one helps with the situation).
You can also use that email address to have anyone who wants to send but not receive let you know so that when you need someone to send to a person who got screwed because their sender never sent you have people to send. You just then email them the information.
Also One or two years I had some people who wanted to send even though they weren’t “needed”. So I just did a random number choice and a couple of people got a random second box. I did make sure those sending people though weren’t going to be killed by postage if they wanted that taken into consideration. All you’d need to do is ask them what state they were from and if the “winner” was 2500 miles away, grab another “winner”.
Also make sure you get the list of banned people from whomever ran it last. I am sure they learned a few things the hard way and can give you good advice.
I have stuff to get rid of as well. I am sorry the ball got dropped last year. Real life stuff, death stuff, distribution of worldly effects stuff… just a lot of stuff. Who ever chooses to be the exchange scapegoat, I can gladly pass on my notes from the last exchange.
What has anyone passed up this year that someone is going to gift them? It doesn’t make sense. This is not Greta’s account (otherwise I would be monetizing the fuck out of life) but for meh to ship absolute shit, the recipient thinks, hey, instead of the trash bin, I will send out this shit to other people.
Seriously. Shipping shit that was shit? Am I missing something? Or do mehtizens actually ship stuff that didn’t come from this dumpster fire?
@KNmeh7 One of the rules is that you can’t ship trash, broken things, etc, to others. And yes many things people get didn’t come from meh originally. Some did. For example one year I sent someone a set of knives I got in my fuku I didn’t need, some meh stickers, a fuko bag. Someone sent a hand made by them, beautiful, I think it was cutting board… Some stalk their recipient on meh and send them things related to their posts. For example one person said they were a big fan of a sports team and they got an item related to that that the sender actually bought (no expectation though that you buy anyone anything just for them). Of course there are joke things and working meh junk they didn’t want after all…
@KNmeh7 There’s always the possibility that someone got something in an IRK that wasn’t shit that they don’t have a use for. It happened to my friend’s brother’s cousin’s ex-wife me.
@KNmeh7 If you so strongly object to what you apparently perceive as the heart of the tradition, might I suggest simply not electing to be a participant?
@KNmeh7@werehatrack
One year I sent a 55lb box of different types of pasta sauce, oils, bread, 20lb bag of pasta from pasta drop and that kind of stuff bc the person wasn’t big on irks.
I’m all in. I’ve got a bundle of stuff to ship… and not just Meh stuff. I got ghosted last time, but thankfully I had a side hustle and ended up with some really thoughtful things. Including a ceramic penguin. His name is Earl. Here is Earl, standing on my 80’s boombox with a two dollar bill. Yeah, you weren’t expecting that today! Booyah!!
@Pony In my opinion there are pros and cons. Having run it several times without Elfster we do lose some useful “functions”. On the other hand that program saves the organizer a lot of time.
Below are my thoughts (those who ran it using Elfster likely have other things to add).
It is free to us and they make their money through advertising on their site, purchases on their site and one place I read selling our information to marketers although when searching on that right now that doesn’t come up directly. The kind of information we have to disclose there is valuable though. What they say now is: “Our revenue model is through advertising, partnerships, and the programs and services we provide for our retail partners.”. They give examples of what I italicized that doesn’t include selling our info, but certainly selling our information could fall under that. It is not a public company so they don’t have to disclose.
The other thing Elfster doesn’t let you do is participate in more than one exchange (generally when I ran it not using Elfster I had a least a dozen people - newbies were limited to one - wanting to exchange 2 or 3 boxes. Plus to get the list of people who don’t want to exchange but are willing to provide a box to anyone who is ghosted you have to deal with that separately. Two years of the years I ran it several of those wanting to send but not receive wanted to send even if not ghosted so excel randomly picked some lucky winners. Can’t do that on Elfster either (although you could manually do it going through the list of participants and picking).
The other thing you can’t do is make sure that someone from Northern Maine isn’t stuck sending to, say, Southern California. When I ran it I’d flag those and swap out people so that the postal zone they were sending to was not the most expensive on the map. Wouldn’t matter if using medium priority mail boxes (the size generally suggested when people want a prompt for quantity to include) but some/many don’t use those and send regular boxes via a different shipping route like Pirate Shipping (uses UPS but way cheaper).
The alternative to Elfster is more work for the person running it but excel spreadsheets and google forms solve that. I’d just give everyone a number and have excel randomize. I’d then check to make sure that no one who was doing more than one exchange got themselves or the same “other” (eg with someone else doing more than one and get them twice), and I’d check for parts of the country to make sure someone wasn’t sending 1000 miles or more due to expense (I’d just go by state). I’d also search the list to make sure we didn’t have someone banned for ghosting, sending pure crap or don’t post about what they got (those of us who have run this have shared that list). When it’s all over I delete everything except the banned list.
Those who have run it with Elfster can give more information about what happens doing it that way.
@Pony forgot to put the italics and instead had quotes for privacy issues.
"Our revenue model is through advertising, partnerships, and the programs and services we provide for our retail partners.”.
Their privacy policy leaves the door open for releasing our individual information beyond the purpose of the site and the company’s own personal use (eg they state they are not in the business of selling it - which is not the same as not selling it on occasion). The information we give them for free use of their services is very valuable - name, address, email, phone… and they “integrate” with social media like facebook which opens a big door since they state they have no control with what facebook and other social media does with all your personal information. Makes me wonder if social media pays them to allow logs ins via social media so they can get that info. We all know facebook’s “issues” with that.
@Kidsandliz FYI Pirateship uses multiple shipping options not just UPS.
Medium flat rate is often not the cheapest rate. USPS rates by weight, distance and size and if you are using an online option the discount rate can be much cheaper than flat rate for a box of similar size. I just sent a 5 pound box a little larger for under $7 to a close zone. The online calculators can show you the options for your particular packages. Use a bathroom scale to get a weight and round up to the nearest pound.
@Kidsandliz Got it- thanks for explaining. I am not very good at paying attention to privacy policies and such. I should work on that. @speediedelivery I loves me some Pirateship. I do all my shipping through them.
@speediedelivery Here at least you drop off Pirate Shipping at UPS. Good to know they have multiple carriers they use. When I use it I go to UPS and see what the regular rate is and weight. Then I check pirate shipping. Since I pass the UPS store on a regular basis I am not “paying extra” postage via gas.
@Kidsandliz@Pony late to this party but from what I see elfster’s main revenue model is by letting people build wishlists on the site and then using affiliate links when people go to purchase those items. Since we don’t buy stuff for this that’s not relevant.
They probably sell some of our data, but it doesn’t appear to be to mailing lists or spammers. I haven’t noted any junk mail or email from them other than from elfster itself trying to get me to run another gift exchange. But good on everyone that uses fake names or other subterfuge (I do use a +elfster on the Gmail address I gave them, and I think the name in there is DJ Slack).
@djslack Sigh. That kind of spam is too frequent. I presume no opt out of their spam? I guess I’d make a fake email address just for this and give them a fake name if we used it. This is sounding less and less optimal. It is missing some key functions we need and encouraging lists is not what we do as it isn’t actually a secret santa activity and it may imply to participants that they have to buy stuff for whom they are sending to which is not part of the exchange.
@Kidsandliz it has all kinds of email settings. Turns out this one is “remind me of my gift exchange anniversary”. I think you’re overthinking it. Use it or not, it made my life easier when I did it, but they don’t seem to be evil people out to spam you or even sell anything but their free service. And if people think they have to buy stuff then they’re not followers of this forum so what are they even doing?
But whoever volunteers to take this on should do what they see fit.
@Star2236 All of them. Even the ones with the vowels edit - I will say December would be a tight turn around. January would let folks deal with the holidays and then with the nonsense
@Star2236 January because at this point in time by the time people get things packed up and ready and shipped in December you’re going to end up with the whole issue of frantic holiday shipping and lost packages which are much more common in December
I’m in to participate! Alas I won’t be much help in running it as life is crazy right now, but I very much wanna participate! I participated during the last one and it was so much fun, both on the giving and receiving side!
@mycya4me It’s free to us. Their public information is ambiguous about whether or not they sell our information and choose not to address that either with a denial or admitting to doing that which makes me think likely they do and are side stepping that as they’d lose users. Earlier when we first used them I searched and found something credible that said they did sell our information but I can’t find that now, just their statement I put in another post which leaves open that possibility. I’d suspect if they didn’t they’d explicitly use that as a selling point since that matters to so many people. They skirt that when talking about how they make money.
@Kidsandliz@mycya4me if we use Elfster, I may deliberately get my name misspelled and see if anything comes to the misspelled version of my name. Or have it addressed to one of my cats.
I havent done that in a long time (given a cats name to a company instead of my own) but it is a technique I have done in the past. Several months ago I ended up on Spokeo, or one of that type of site, trying to locate an old friend. Out of curiosity I looked myself up and found listed that one of my family members listed was a cat (who has been dead for years, but was never listed as a family member back when he was alive). I’m not sure where they got that data, I’ve long since forgot where I supplied that misinformation.
@OnionSoup Entertaining about your cat on Spokeo. I use variations of my name or an outright fake one. If the consensus is to use Elfster I am not running it (well unless someone else does all the Elfster end of things). I refuse to create an account. Instead I’ll collect names of people who want to give and not receive, get a list of who is signed up who is not on the “banned list” and keep track of whether or not they post, etc. from whomever has at the elfster account. Also if people who have participated before (so we/I search meh and the reveal threads for that since I don’t save that information when I use excel) can sign up using their name and a 1, 2 and 3 after it (or make fake names that will be delivered) to make it different - so they can do more than one exchange.
I’d be down to exchange but I can’t host this year. The murder shed is about to be demolished and I’m working with a contractor on the new building (sadly way less murdery) as well as working full time in an elementary school. I would be stoked to do it again with @ironcheftoni next year but I definitely can’t commit to organizing this go round.
I’m also getting a new CO2 and a diode laser in the very near future so I can make some super fun hilarious pieces for the swap!
@OnionSoup In West Texas, the penguins have been wiped out by the rockadilloes. Nasty little bastards, they lurk in the middle of gravel roads and Jeep trails, jumping up to take a bite out of diff housings, oil pans, or the like. They are absolute masters of camouflage.
@Cerridwyn@werehatrack by pure coincidence I just came across this picture on a list of funny signs . Amusingly, it fits well here.
They’re probably not trying to say the penguins are going to bite your ankles, but it will add to my fear of the possibility of attack penguins hiding under my car.
we chatted about January last year too and it never took off, so lets do it! My box will track your usb chargers, phone loops and craft paint like no other.
@jchizmar so whoever’s organizing this can get the sign ups going because I know it’s not something that happens overnight. So if we can get the sign ups before Christmas or like the next couple of weeks. And then the week after Christmas who you’re supposed to get send your stuff to can go out.
I would love to participate if someone (who is not me) organizes/runs it. I’ve never done one so I don’t know how it works but I’m in if it happens!
On an earlier thread I said I’d run it (ran it several times in the past) if no one else volunteers. There was some discussion of doing it in January.
@Kidsandliz any updates from anyone as we are now in January and we’re going to do this we need to do it otherwise I for one need to throw out all the packing material that I’ve saved up
@star2236
@Cerridwyn @Kidsandliz
I’ve been looking at different platforms to use bc people complain about elfster but it really is the best one. I should have something this weekend.
@Kidsandliz @Star2236 thankies
For some tasks there’s no good platform
@Cerridwyn @Kidsandliz
Aunt that the truth.
@Kidsandliz @Star2236 okay sorry to be a bit of a nag but any updates. I have this bag that I really have to sort through and make some decisions about as to whether it’s going in a box for this or going to donation or what so. Updates would be good
@Cerridwyn @Star2236 I am still sick with some nasty not covid not flu thing. When I am better I’ll deal with it - with star2236 if she wants.
@Kidsandliz
I know you said you won’t do the secret Santa if it’s on elfster but I can’t find another generator that lets me just send out a sing up link like elfster does. Every other platform I’ve seen requires me to manually invite everyone through email and that’s a lot of work. I want you to be able to participate so please see if you can find another generator by the end of the weekend that lets me send out an invitation link, has a wishlist and a way for people to say that they’ve sent packages, I’ll use that. I’ve really been looking
@Star2236 What I did was set up a google docs “survey” for people to sign up on and downloaded it in excel. Then yes I had to send out an email but that only took about 2 hours tops. I used a random number generator to match however if someone was from Maine and their match was South California I did a bit of switching around by location so people wouldn’t be killed by postage.
I used the spreadsheet to make sure the receiver posted and if a receiver hadn’t gotten their box kept track of that then nagged both first with an email and then publicly in a post by - not sent user names, not posted user names (also earlier sent an email if you haven’t received let me know if your recipient hasn’t posted let me know).
I then could let old timers at this send and receive up to 3 boxes as some want to do (although I suspect you could figure out a way to do that on elfster). And I kept a list of those who only wanted to send if someone got screwed. One year several who wanted to send but not receive still wanted to send even though they weren’t “needed” so they agreed to a random draw of lucky winners of a second box (geographic limits applied, due to cost, if the sender wanted that, not all cared).
If you set it up with elfster is there a way to download the pairs? It would make tracking who has not sent and who has not posted way easier. I could deal with that. I could gather names of people who just want to send and not receive.
Is there a way to make a required entry their meh user name? If not on the later then their “name” should be their first name, their meh name attached to the end of that as if one word, then their last name.
@Kidsandliz
That’s just to much work for me. Elfster does it all for you and that’s why I’m using it. I don’t know what you mean by the pairs thing. I will say something about signing up to elfster with your meh name. When we did this a couple years ago most people did sing up with they’re meh name.
@Cerridwyn @Kidsandliz
I’m assuming you saw the update I posted about it on Friday
@Star2236 You will need to make sure people post what they get and that everyone sends. Each one I ran we’d have one or more who didn’t send and even more who didn’t post until reminded, sometimes more than once. You’ll have to take that off of the reveal thread.
I’d suggest create yourself an exchange email address on yahoo or something. Post that for people participating in the exchange to use (so you aren’t buried in whispers which makes it so much harder to sort it out that way) if they haven’t received, or if someone sent and their receiver hasn’t posted so you can go back into elfster to nag them. You will also need to post reminders to prompt people to post or send (a general reminder rather than a personal one helps with the situation).
You can also use that email address to have anyone who wants to send but not receive let you know so that when you need someone to send to a person who got screwed because their sender never sent you have people to send. You just then email them the information.
Also One or two years I had some people who wanted to send even though they weren’t “needed”. So I just did a random number choice and a couple of people got a random second box. I did make sure those sending people though weren’t going to be killed by postage if they wanted that taken into consideration. All you’d need to do is ask them what state they were from and if the “winner” was 2500 miles away, grab another “winner”.
Also make sure you get the list of banned people from whomever ran it last. I am sure they learned a few things the hard way and can give you good advice.
@Cerridwyn @Star2236 Yes I saw you are running it with Elfster.
I have stuff to get rid of as well. I am sorry the ball got dropped last year. Real life stuff, death stuff, distribution of worldly effects stuff… just a lot of stuff. Who ever chooses to be the exchange scapegoat, I can gladly pass on my notes from the last exchange.
@ironcheftoni On a new thread @Star2236 said she is running it so that would be whom to pass your notes to.
@Kidsandliz @Star2236 will do when I returned from vacation
/giphy no
This is a serious question.
What has anyone passed up this year that someone is going to gift them? It doesn’t make sense. This is not Greta’s account (otherwise I would be monetizing the fuck out of life) but for meh to ship absolute shit, the recipient thinks, hey, instead of the trash bin, I will send out this shit to other people.
Seriously. Shipping shit that was shit? Am I missing something? Or do mehtizens actually ship stuff that didn’t come from this dumpster fire?
@KNmeh7 One of the rules is that you can’t ship trash, broken things, etc, to others. And yes many things people get didn’t come from meh originally. Some did. For example one year I sent someone a set of knives I got in my fuku I didn’t need, some meh stickers, a fuko bag. Someone sent a hand made by them, beautiful, I think it was cutting board… Some stalk their recipient on meh and send them things related to their posts. For example one person said they were a big fan of a sports team and they got an item related to that that the sender actually bought (no expectation though that you buy anyone anything just for them). Of course there are joke things and working meh junk they didn’t want after all…
@KNmeh7 There’s always the possibility that someone got something in an IRK that wasn’t shit that they don’t have a use for. It happened to
my friend’s brother’s cousin’s ex-wifeme.@KNmeh7 If you so strongly object to what you apparently perceive as the heart of the tradition, might I suggest simply not electing to be a participant?
@KNmeh7 @werehatrack
One year I sent a 55lb box of different types of pasta sauce, oils, bread, 20lb bag of pasta from pasta drop and that kind of stuff bc the person wasn’t big on irks.
I’m in! If you need help running this, ping me.
I’m in!
Mehbe
I’ll participate.
I’m all in.
I’ve got a bundle of stuff to ship… and not just Meh stuff. 
I got ghosted last time, but thankfully I had a side hustle and ended up with some really thoughtful things. Including a ceramic penguin. His name is Earl. Here is Earl, standing on my 80’s boombox with a two dollar bill. Yeah, you weren’t expecting that today! Booyah!! 
Count me in- Elfster seemed like it worked pretty well, is there a reason we don’t just use it again?
@Pony In my opinion there are pros and cons. Having run it several times without Elfster we do lose some useful “functions”. On the other hand that program saves the organizer a lot of time.
Below are my thoughts (those who ran it using Elfster likely have other things to add).
It is free to us and they make their money through advertising on their site, purchases on their site and one place I read selling our information to marketers although when searching on that right now that doesn’t come up directly. The kind of information we have to disclose there is valuable though. What they say now is: “Our revenue model is through advertising, partnerships, and the programs and services we provide for our retail partners.”. They give examples of what I italicized that doesn’t include selling our info, but certainly selling our information could fall under that. It is not a public company so they don’t have to disclose.
The other thing Elfster doesn’t let you do is participate in more than one exchange (generally when I ran it not using Elfster I had a least a dozen people - newbies were limited to one - wanting to exchange 2 or 3 boxes. Plus to get the list of people who don’t want to exchange but are willing to provide a box to anyone who is ghosted you have to deal with that separately. Two years of the years I ran it several of those wanting to send but not receive wanted to send even if not ghosted so excel randomly picked some lucky winners. Can’t do that on Elfster either (although you could manually do it going through the list of participants and picking).
The other thing you can’t do is make sure that someone from Northern Maine isn’t stuck sending to, say, Southern California. When I ran it I’d flag those and swap out people so that the postal zone they were sending to was not the most expensive on the map. Wouldn’t matter if using medium priority mail boxes (the size generally suggested when people want a prompt for quantity to include) but some/many don’t use those and send regular boxes via a different shipping route like Pirate Shipping (uses UPS but way cheaper).
The alternative to Elfster is more work for the person running it but excel spreadsheets and google forms solve that. I’d just give everyone a number and have excel randomize. I’d then check to make sure that no one who was doing more than one exchange got themselves or the same “other” (eg with someone else doing more than one and get them twice), and I’d check for parts of the country to make sure someone wasn’t sending 1000 miles or more due to expense (I’d just go by state). I’d also search the list to make sure we didn’t have someone banned for ghosting, sending pure crap or don’t post about what they got (those of us who have run this have shared that list). When it’s all over I delete everything except the banned list.
Those who have run it with Elfster can give more information about what happens doing it that way.
@Pony forgot to put the italics and instead had quotes for privacy issues.
"Our revenue model is through advertising, partnerships, and the programs and services we provide for our retail partners.”.
Their privacy policy leaves the door open for releasing our individual information beyond the purpose of the site and the company’s own personal use (eg they state they are not in the business of selling it - which is not the same as not selling it on occasion). The information we give them for free use of their services is very valuable - name, address, email, phone… and they “integrate” with social media like facebook which opens a big door since they state they have no control with what facebook and other social media does with all your personal information. Makes me wonder if social media pays them to allow logs ins via social media so they can get that info. We all know facebook’s “issues” with that.
https://www.elfster.com/content/privacy/
@Kidsandliz FYI Pirateship uses multiple shipping options not just UPS.
Medium flat rate is often not the cheapest rate. USPS rates by weight, distance and size and if you are using an online option the discount rate can be much cheaper than flat rate for a box of similar size. I just sent a 5 pound box a little larger for under $7 to a close zone. The online calculators can show you the options for your particular packages. Use a bathroom scale to get a weight and round up to the nearest pound.
@Kidsandliz Got it- thanks for explaining. I am not very good at paying attention to privacy policies and such. I should work on that.
@speediedelivery I loves me some Pirateship. I do all my shipping through them.
@speediedelivery Here at least you drop off Pirate Shipping at UPS. Good to know they have multiple carriers they use. When I use it I go to UPS and see what the regular rate is and weight. Then I check pirate shipping. Since I pass the UPS store on a regular basis I am not “paying extra” postage via gas.
@Kidsandliz @Pony late to this party but from what I see elfster’s main revenue model is by letting people build wishlists on the site and then using affiliate links when people go to purchase those items. Since we don’t buy stuff for this that’s not relevant.
They probably sell some of our data, but it doesn’t appear to be to mailing lists or spammers. I haven’t noted any junk mail or email from them other than from elfster itself trying to get me to run another gift exchange. But good on everyone that uses fake names or other subterfuge (I do use a +elfster on the Gmail address I gave them, and I think the name in there is DJ Slack).
@djslack @Pony That is good to know. How often do you get spammed from elfster to run another gift exchange?
@Kidsandliz @Pony I think they just started when Christmas season started ramping up, so like weekly since mid November.
@djslack Sigh. That kind of spam is too frequent. I presume no opt out of their spam? I guess I’d make a fake email address just for this and give them a fake name if we used it. This is sounding less and less optimal. It is missing some key functions we need and encouraging lists is not what we do as it isn’t actually a secret santa activity and it may imply to participants that they have to buy stuff for whom they are sending to which is not part of the exchange.
@Kidsandliz it has all kinds of email settings. Turns out this one is “remind me of my gift exchange anniversary”. I think you’re overthinking it. Use it or not, it made my life easier when I did it, but they don’t seem to be evil people out to spam you or even sell anything but their free service. And if people think they have to buy stuff then they’re not followers of this forum so what are they even doing?
But whoever volunteers to take this on should do what they see fit.
I’m in! I had a blast last time it ran.
I would do it!
I could also help this year since I’m not doing craft shows. I think elfster worked very well last time also.
******First we need to decide if we’re gonna have it in December as usual or wait till January.
Please reply what month works best for you.
@Star2236 All of them. Even the ones with the vowels
edit - I will say December would be a tight turn around. January would let folks deal with the holidays and then with the nonsense 
@capnjb @Star2236 - I’d be down with January.
@Star2236 January would work best for me.
@Star2236 January should be less frantic for me. Theoretically.
@Star2236 January because at this point in time by the time people get things packed up and ready and shipped in December you’re going to end up with the whole issue of frantic holiday shipping and lost packages which are much more common in December
I’m in to participate! Alas I won’t be much help in running it as life is crazy right now, but I very much wanna participate! I participated during the last one and it was so much fun, both on the giving and receiving side!
Won’t have time to help organize but would like to participate!
One year we used Elfster they were kool… but I don’t know how much on the Back end it was or cost.
@mycya4me It’s free to us. Their public information is ambiguous about whether or not they sell our information and choose not to address that either with a denial or admitting to doing that which makes me think likely they do and are side stepping that as they’d lose users. Earlier when we first used them I searched and found something credible that said they did sell our information but I can’t find that now, just their statement I put in another post which leaves open that possibility. I’d suspect if they didn’t they’d explicitly use that as a selling point since that matters to so many people. They skirt that when talking about how they make money.
@Kidsandliz Yes, you know they are making money some how. Many times it is in the “BIG DATA” they get. so I would guess they sell a lot of the Data.
@Kidsandliz @mycya4me if we use Elfster, I may deliberately get my name misspelled and see if anything comes to the misspelled version of my name. Or have it addressed to one of my cats.
I havent done that in a long time (given a cats name to a company instead of my own) but it is a technique I have done in the past. Several months ago I ended up on Spokeo, or one of that type of site, trying to locate an old friend. Out of curiosity I looked myself up and found listed that one of my family members listed was a cat (who has been dead for years, but was never listed as a family member back when he was alive). I’m not sure where they got that data, I’ve long since forgot where I supplied that misinformation.
@OnionSoup Entertaining about your cat on Spokeo. I use variations of my name or an outright fake one. If the consensus is to use Elfster I am not running it (well unless someone else does all the Elfster end of things). I refuse to create an account. Instead I’ll collect names of people who want to give and not receive, get a list of who is signed up who is not on the “banned list” and keep track of whether or not they post, etc. from whomever has at the elfster account. Also if people who have participated before (so we/I search meh and the reveal threads for that since I don’t save that information when I use excel) can sign up using their name and a 1, 2 and 3 after it (or make fake names that will be delivered) to make it different - so they can do more than one exchange.
@Kidsandliz there’s a “banned list?”. Is that people who signed up and never sent anything?
@OnionSoup yes. Don’t send you are banned. Don’t post more than once same thing.
I’m in
I think I’d be in, too.
i would be in, done it twice and its a fun time…and whoever gets my box will really feel meh or their money back
I’d be down to exchange but I can’t host this year. The murder shed is about to be demolished and I’m working with a contractor on the new building (sadly way less murdery) as well as working full time in an elementary school. I would be stoked to do it again with @ironcheftoni next year but I definitely can’t commit to organizing this go round.
I’m also getting a new CO2 and a diode laser in the very near future so I can make some super fun hilarious pieces for the swap!
I’m in if it’s pushed to January.
I will mostly like be in too… one vote for January.
Specifically, I vote everyone plans to have a reveal on Jan 20th/boxes should plan to arrive by then.
@OnionSoup In West Texas, the penguins have been wiped out by the rockadilloes. Nasty little bastards, they lurk in the middle of gravel roads and Jeep trails, jumping up to take a bite out of diff housings, oil pans, or the like. They are absolute masters of camouflage.
@OnionSoup @werehatrack
The heat did it.
@Cerridwyn @werehatrack by pure coincidence I just came across this picture on a list of funny signs . Amusingly, it fits well here.
They’re probably not trying to say the penguins are going to bite your ankles, but it will add to my fear of the possibility of attack penguins hiding under my car.
I’m in for January. I have lots of… stuff
@ybmuG
The more I think about it the more I cackle
I’d love to participate!!
I’m in for January as well.
January, please! Thank you!
Hey, I’m down.
we chatted about January last year too and it never took off, so lets do it! My box will track your usb chargers, phone loops and craft paint like no other.
@jchizmar Beware, you might get a restock in exchange - but then, there’s the chance that the paint will at least be a different color.
@werehatrack fair point…paint seems valuable compared to TrackR or 12volt chargers…oh the fun of an exchange
@jchizmar so whoever’s organizing this can get the sign ups going because I know it’s not something that happens overnight. So if we can get the sign ups before Christmas or like the next couple of weeks. And then the week after Christmas who you’re supposed to get send your stuff to can go out.
This Thread has gotten awfully quiet
I’m going to have to drop out; the rest of the month just got overloaded with crap I absolutely have to get handled.
@Star2236. How do I get signed up for the exchange? Thanks!
@sawaustin That hasn’t been posted yet.
@sawaustin
Sign up is posted. Look for “unofficial meh exchange”
@sawaustin @Star2236 It’s easy to find. It’s right below the goat thread up top.