AF Secret Santa 2004 Repost

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Hello potential Santas and Santees!
Now is the time to sign up for this year¹s Secret Santa exchange!
Many of you are very familiar with how Secret Santa works, but I would
REALLY appreciate it if everyone, newbies and old pros alike, read the
guidelines below. It¹s pretty comprehensive (in other words, long–winded!)
and may have some info that you didn¹t know or forget about.
I¹ll be using my primary address for sign–ups and questions. It¹s in the
guidelines below.
Have a blast.
–––––––––––––––––––––––
Welcome to this year's Secret Santa!!!!
EVEN IF YOU HAVE DONE THIS BEFORE, READ THESE GUIDELINES!
HOW DOES SECRET SANTA WORK?
You are assigned the name of another alt.fashion poster. You buy her/him a
gift, and in return, you receive a gift from a different a.f.er. To be more
specific: You send the organizer (me) your name, address, screen name(s) or
email(s) you post with, and your non–spam–blocked email address, and I'll
reply to you acknowledging that I got your info. In a week or so, I'll send
you the name and address of the person you'll be buying for (your "Santee").
Mail your gift in late November/early December, and reveal your identity in
the card or on the package. When you receive YOUR gift from your Santa, post
it to the group!
CAN ANYONE PARTICIPATE?
Almost. If you feel you are a part of the alt.fashion community, and you
have posted and contributed to the group in a positive manner in the recent
past, then you are welcome. You don't have to be a frequent poster, or even
a "regular," but I should be able to find you via Google and/or recognize
your name (don't be shy if you aren't that prolific).
However, there are some that I will have to exclude, including:
–– anyone on any "bad swapper" list, or anyone who I have heard through
the grapevine as being a bad swapper (but you do NOT have to be a swapper to
participate)
–– anyone who has never appeared on a.f. before
–– anyone who participated in this event in the past, but intentionally
burned your Santee by not sending a gift, and never explaining why. If that
describes you, don't even THINK about signing up this year you big jerk.
–– anyone who has to stop to ask themselves, ³hm, am I troll?² If you
think you MIGHT be a troll, then you are. Please don't try to sign up and
make me tell you this. Trolls, please understand, most people are not
comfortable in giving their personal information to you.
HOW IS THAT FAIR? YOU MIGHT THINK SO–AND–SO IS A TROLL, BUT I LIKE HER!
That is a fair question. Those of you who have been around a while know
that I was vigorously criticized for this issue in the past. There is no
easy answer. I vow to be as fair–minded as possible. I will not be hurt or
upset if you disagree with these guidelines and decide to run your own
Secret Santa.
I will do my very best to keep this exchange among only good–hearted, sane,
decent people. (If you know that your behavior on AF in the past year has
not been good–hearted, sane, and decent, please spare me the task of telling
you. Just don't sign up.)
CAN YOU PAIR ME UP WITH A SPECIFIC PERSON?
Sorry, it's all done randomly. I do double check to be sure nobody had the
same Santee as last year, and that nobody gets a Santee right across town.
The one exception to the random pairing is fairly new, and again, caused
much criticism last year. But I am sticking to it, as many people let me
know they are comfortable with this: for the MOST part, females will be
paired with females and males will be paired with males. (See caveat,
below!)
This is in response to a number of requests; many of the women on AF have
indicated that they would not feel very comfortable giving their address to
an unknown man. This seems like a fair solution; plus, it makes shopping a
bit easier for each party.
The caveat to the above guideline is this: For those female posters who are
a–ok with any of the AF males as your Santa, please let me know – that
doesn't mean your Santa will be male, but it means you are open to that
possibility. For those male posters who share our girly obsession with
cosmetics and feminine clothing, you are welcome to sign up, though you may
want to let me know your preference so you can be paired accordingly.
I would caution those of you who have ongoing flame wars with other a.f.ers
– there is no guarantee that you won't be paired with someone you hate. I
do not keep track of who hates whom, so if you hate your Santee, don't blame
me. And anyone who sends a crappy gift just to be spiteful will not only
never be allowed to participate in this Secret Santa again, but they'll
guarantee themselves decades of bad karma!
BUT I DON'T WANT A SANTEE OUTSIDE OF MY OWN COUNTRY!
I will take that into consideration. When you sign up, please indicate if
you *only* want a Santee in your own country. If I randomly pair you with
someone in another country, I'll toss his/her name back in, and draw again
until I've found a match. I'll do my best to match you with Santees in the
country that you request, however, I cannot promise that everyone's request
will be met. I will check with you before I pair you with a "geographically
undesirable" Santee.
Please realize that if you're in, for example, Swaziland, there may not be
another Santa in Swaziland, so a little flexibility is appreciated.
I GOT A SANTEE I DON'T KNOW AT ALL. WHAT DO YOU KNOW ABOUT HER/HIM?
Probably not a lot. If you get a Santee that you do not know, please don't
email me asking for info on that person. Use Google or ask someone who
seems to know that person.
CAN I SEND YOU A LIST OF MY LIKES/DISLIKES/COLORING/WISH LIST/ETC.?
No, I can't possibly manage all that information, plus it takes away from
the fun. A great part of this event is to do some detective work on your
Santee and find out what s/he likes. However, if you have allergies to
certain products, I will take that information and pass it on to your Santa.
If you still want to let your Santa know what you want as a gift, you are
welcome to start a thread on alt.fashion but be warned that some a.f.ers
find that tacky (others find it helpful, it's your call).
WHAT IS AN ACCEPTABLE SECRET SANTA GIFT?
Your gift should be at least vaguely related to the subject of this
newsgroup. It should be a NEW gift, purchased explicitly for this event.
Gift–with–purchase items, freebies, swap items, or used things are *NOT*
considered appropriate for this event.
Many Santas in the past have thrown in samples and freebies as *extras* with
the NEW gift they purchased for this event, and that is fine. But, keep i

May I just say, if all US corporations, schools and elections had Dellapina
making and explaining the rules––they would run very well!
Go Santa go!
––Anne–Marie

"Fdish" <fd...@aol.com> wrote in message
news:20041124135842.08281.00001...@mb–m04.aol.com...
Dellapina
totally agree. next time, let's elect Dellapina to the white house or some
ceo type post. then a bunch of us can be cabinet members and the priorities
will be totally straight!
and everyone will look GREAT . who wants to be head of fashion police?
Stevie
––
ebay auctions – fragrance, skincare, cosmetics, mens!
armani, dorf, kanebo, cle de peau, fekkai, guerrera +++
hhttp://tinyurl.com/5gjka
if you are an af'er and win one of my auctions, let me know!

On Wed, 24 Nov 2004 15:57:52 –0800, "Stevie"
<privilegemagaz...@charter.net> coughed and sputtered, and
managed to choke out these words:
just wanted you to know that the link above would be clickable if
you took out one of the H's. like so: http://tinyurl.com/5gjka.
david
––
http://members.ebay.com/aboutme/derbarbier/
(ebay sales)
http://shops.half.com/derbarbier
ten tod labolgcbs ta reibrabred