Secret Santa - Christmas In July 2017 Edition

[Blah!?]

Hey everyone, earlier this weekend I remembered that we've done a "Christmas in July" Secret Santa at least once in the past, and I figured it would be fun to do it again. This is going to be pretty much exactly the same as the regular Secret Santa, just with the dates changed around. Here's what I'm thinking in terms of schedule:

May 14 - Sign up begins.

May 31 - Deadline to sign up. Unfortunately this is a hard deadline, so any entries I receive after this date won't be counted.

June 9 - I'll try to get all assignments sent out by the end of the first full week of June.

July 31 - You can post your gift at any time in July once you finish it, but let's try to have everything in by the last day of the month.

Again the rules will be pretty much the same as always, but in case there are any new people, or if anyone needs a refresher, I'll paste in the key points again, courtesy of Junia:

1. First, for written gifts, as with previous years, a rough 1000 total word count is a good guideline to ensure that everybody receives a substantial gift. If you prefer writing drabbles, that's totally fine (unless your receiver doesn't want them!) - just try to make sure that your drabbles total around 1000 words. It's also absolutely okay if you go above and beyond this limit and decide to write a novel, as long as you feel like you can get at least the first part in within the deadline. If you can't manage to write 1000 words, you'll be marked down as a flaker. For art, I don't think there's an easy way to make sure things are equal, so I will leave it in the very capable hands of our artists.
2. No 18+ content – it adds a layer of difficulty into the organization process and I'm just not sure I could accommodate everybody's preferences this way, so it's easier if we just leave it to stuff everybody can enjoy.
3. You may not request real person fiction (stories written about real people as opposed to fictional characters) for your gift. This is not because I have some kind of specific vendetta against RPF in general, but there are vanishingly few people willing to write it, and it's much too difficult to handle matchmaking because of it. Sorry if your heart's desire was some kind of RPF this year, but I just can't accommodate that kind of thing to anybody's satisfaction, unfortunately.
4. This goes without saying, but please make sure you respect your recipient's preferences. They're listed both to make sure it's easier for you to write and more likely that it will be something your recipient really enjoys!
5. If the idea of writing or receiving original works makes your soul curdle, please try to keep an open mind. There are only so many people and so many fandoms; you may end up having to give original your best shot or be cool with receiving it. This shouldn't be a huge issue, but I wanted to mention it just in case.
6. Please try very hard to post your gift within the deadline date. I understand completely that things pop up, but if you are going to be late or need to drop out, please let me know as soon as you possibly can so that I can let your recipient know and try to make other arrangements for their gift.

If you have any questions, please either post them here or send me a PM. If your question is about the person you're giving to, please send it in a PM so you don't spoil the surprise before giving your gift. For example, if you'd like more information about your recipient's preferences, send your questions to me. Then, I'll ask your recipient and send their answers back to you.

Also, if you cannot send PMs but would still like to participate, make sure your email address is listed in your profile, and then post here to let me know. I'll send an email to you, and we can communicate that way. If you're not okay with having your email address in your profile, I'm afraid I can't help you. Do not post your email address in this thread. If your email address is not in your profile and you'd like to add it, send the staff an email at "staff at sneezefetishforum dot org" and ask them to edit it into your profile.

Alright, now we're finally at the fun part. If you'd like to participate, please fill out both of the following forms and send them to me either in a PM or an email. Please include "secret santa" somewhere in the subject line of the PM or email so I know what it's about.

Giving

• Preferred medium to gift. Typically the Secret Santa involves mainly writing, but you can request art if you would like. I can't guarantee that you will receive what you request because it's partially dependent upon who signs up, but I will try my best to honor your preference here.
• Tell me what you prefer to write/draw, original or fanfiction/fanart. If you like doing fanfiction/fanart, please list the fandoms you'd be most comfortable creating for. Try to be as inclusive as possible, just so we can cater to as many people as possible. Please also specify whether or not you're willing to write/draw original and whether you're willing to write/draw fanfiction/fanart.
• This is partially covered under the above bullet point, but also specify what gender(s) you would prefer to write stories/art of.
• If there is anything you absolutely cannot stand to draw/write, tell me here. I would hate to match people if someone's likes make someone else uncomfortable so again, be as inclusive as possible – anything that makes you uncomfortable, be it specifically fetish-related or not (so things like mess, or certain fandoms or ships – just anything you don't feel comfortable with writing, for any reason).
• Anything else you think I should know about your preferences that doesn't fit into any of the above categories.

 

Receiving

• Preferred medium to receive. Again, there's no guarantee your preference will be fulfilled here but of course I will do my best.
• Tell me if you prefer original or fandom, and what fandoms you would be happy to receive if you're into fandom at all. Tell me what characters (or kinds of characters) you would like to see, too. If you have some kind of genre preference, feel free to state that as well (something romance-oriented, action, whatever – no guarantee your giver can fulfill it but I'll put it out there for them to give a whirl).
• Let me know what gender(s) you would like to receive stories/art of.
• List your likes, fetish-wise. Be as detailed as you can with this so that your giver understands exactly what you'd like! Anything you particularly like is totally fine to list with the exception of 18+ content. (And don't be embarrassed or anything - the only people who will see this are me and your giver.)
• Conversely, detail your dislikes. Again, be specific. Anything that squicks you out or makes you uncomfortable that has the possibility of being involved in a story/drawing here should be listed.
• Again, anything else I should know that doesn't fit into the above.

 

Now, just a few final things. Same as regular Secret Santa last year, but it bears repeating:

1. When you PM me your info, please post in-thread that you have done so. This also has the benefit of keeping this thread active and bumped up so as many people as possible see it so they can participate!
2. When you put your gift up, again, post it in this thread that you've done so. It just makes it a little bit easier for me to keep track on who's posted what for who so far, so I would really appreciate it if you could do this for me.
3. When you post your gift, tag the person you wrote for in your post! All you have to do is type an @ followed by their username with no spaces. That way people don't have to keep their eyes peeled so much. Make sure you make the title of your thread something along the lines of “Title (Secret Santa for [username])”.

I think that's about everything, but if there's anything you want to ask or anything you think I forgot, please go ahead and either send me a PM or ask in this thread. I know this is kind of sudden since we haven't done it this way in a few years, but I hope enough people are interested to get this going. Thanks for reading!

[PropertyofCora]

Info sent!  Thanks for doing this.  I can't wait!

[Mr. Black Cherry Berry Tea]

Just sent it to you! Excited for this! Thanks for organizing!

[Oolia]

Count me in! I couldn't do the last two Secret Santa and I missed it a lot. So happy we're having a July edition this year

I'm surprised not more people have signed up yet. We need to spread the word!

[Via]

Sent! Looking forward to it.

[matilda3948]

Thanks for organizing! Just sent mine  

[Blah!?]

Hey everyone, I wanted to give this a little bump for visibility, and also post a reminder that there's a week and a half left to sign up if you want to participate. Sign up closes on May 31st.

[Chanel_no5]

Hmmmm.... I haven't yet decided if I'll jump onboard; I'm trying to cut down on my public fic posting lately, but.... part of me wants to sign up, yet the other isn't confident enough... hm.

I'll probably be back and leave a definite reply May 30.  The best I can do right now is "likely".  

 

[Chanel_no5]

After careful consideration...

HELL YEAH I'm in!  

 

 

[Oolia]

So glad to see you join Chanel

Only a week left guys! Summer is the perfect time to write fics

[black_mage]

Thank you Blah, I sent a message since I missed the last one.

[SleepingPhlox]

Just for the record, this idea rules.  I'm SO in.

[Blah!?]

Hello again, I just wanted to post another reminder that signups are going to close this coming Wednesday, the 31st. If anybody would still like to join, please make sure you send me your information by the end of the day then.

[HideAndGoSneeze]

EEP!!! Just sent mine!!! SO EXCITED!!!!

[HideAndGoSneeze]

Also, THANK YOU for organizing this!!! You are awesome!!!

[facet]

.

[RachTheCool]

ooohhh! Yayyyy! I want to participate!!!

Hang on, lemme see what i can do about the email thing

[RachTheCool]

I... think my email is in my profile?

If it isn't, oh please oh please let me know!!! I am so excited this sounds like the funnest thing ever and I've never done it before!!!

[Blah!?]

Hey @RachTheCool, thanks for your interest! Unfortunately your email address doesn't appear to be in your profile. Maybe it takes a while to refresh, so I'll look again later. If you contacted the staff about it already, it'll probably take them at least a couple minutes to get it, assuming they saw it right away.

[RachTheCool]

7 minutes ago, Blah!? said:

Hey @RachTheCool, thanks for your interest! Unfortunately your email address doesn't appear to be in your profile. Maybe it takes a while to refresh, so I'll look again later. If you contacted the staff about it already, it'll probably take them at least a couple minutes to get it, assuming they saw it right away.

ohhh. I'll have to contact the staff then. (i wasn't sure how to check if it was visible) I'm so willing to participate!!! Can't I just tell you my email? I honestly have no problem with it being visible: am I going to get hacked if that happens or something?

[Blah!?]

It's simply against the rules of the forum, so if you did post it you'd probably get in trouble. As long as your giving and receiving forms are ready, I can wait through tomorrow to get it sorted out. There's no rush.

[RachTheCool]

28 minutes ago, Blah!? said:

It's simply against the rules of the forum, so if you did post it you'd probably get in trouble. As long as your giving and receiving forms are ready, I can wait through tomorrow to get it sorted out. There's no rush.

Aww, okay. I sent them an email and im waiting for them to get it.

[RachTheCool]

1 hour ago, Blah!? said:

It's simply against the rules of the forum, so if you did post it you'd probably get in trouble. As long as your giving and receiving forms are ready, I can wait through tomorrow to get it sorted out. There's no rush.

I recieved an email saying that it should be up, so yeah!

[Sneezingnonstop]

Just sent my pm to you!!! Thank you so much for organizing this!!

[Blah!?]

This will be the last bump, I swear. And the reason for that is entries are closing today! If you would still like to join, please make sure you get in touch in the next few hours! To give a hard deadline, the official cutoff is going to be midnight tonight in CST. Anything not in my inbox by then will not be counted.

Also, I'd like to thank everyone who decided to sign up! I hope we can make this a regular thing for the summer going forward!