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The Indie Stone Community Secret Santa

Connall

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Connall

Connall

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THIS IS NOT AFFECT BY THE CHANGE IN STEAM RULES SEE THIS POST FOR DETAILS: http://theindiestone.com/forums/index.php/topic/11502-the-indie-stone-community-secret-santa/?p=147394

 

Hey folks.
 
So it’s that time of year, christmas is just around the corner and who couldn’t be excited? Well plenty of people, but that’s not the point. Christmas is usually a time when people get together and give each other presents, and isn’t that just swell? So I figured why don’t we get involved in this little tradition of exchanging gifts, we’re all a great and friendly community, so why not have our own little secret santa program going on in the forums. To make it even better (and cheaper) we’ll be exchanging Steam games!
 

So while the prospect of getting free games might be exciting there are a couple of things that you need to do in order to qualify, first off you need to sign up here: http://secretsanta.theindiestone.com/
 
We were originally going to do this through Google Docs but I thought, bugger it. I’ll build a website to handle this. So I did, after four days of work I’m happy to say with approval from TIS (thanks guys) I was allowed to go ahead with the site. This makes the overall process much simpler for people, however I’ll quickly explain what will be asked of you, what information will be stored and how the information will be handled.
 
So first off, when you arrive you’re going to need to be signed into Steam, the purpose of this is so that we can grab your Steam information such as your Steam alias, profile url and a couple other things (mentioned below) it’s all automatic to make sure that there are no mistakes made by people. Pretty simple!
 
After you have signed in, if you don’t already have an account (and since everybody is signing up, you won’t) you will quickly be asked to fill out a form. It will take in your TIS username (We need this to confirm you’re 1. from the indie stone community and 2. a quick background check.) If you don’t have at least one post on your profile, you’re credentials will be deleted immediately. If this isn’t the case however, you’ll recieve a PM from me (unless you post in this thread) asking you if you signed up to the site, so that we can confirm you are who you say you are.
 
You will be asked if you want to be a backup buyer, this means that should something go wrong for someone else's Secret Santa, you are volunteering to be called upon to help buy another game (on top of the game you buy for the person you were assigned) should the problem come up. DO NOT SAY YES TO THIS IF YOU AREN’T CERTAIN THAT YOU WOULD BE ABLE TO DO IT!
 
You will also be asked whether you want a game from your wishlist or if you’re willing to get any game from the store. Doesn’t matter what you choose, it’s all up to you. (Keep in mind someone might find a gem of a game for you if you choose anything from the store) If you choose wishlist please make sure to have a game that is within the ranged price we talked about (if you only have high priced games you will be removed from the list). After that you got to agree to a couple of things then you’re good to go. Read everything on that page as it explains what will be happening during the process of this secret santa. We also have an extra information box where you can put in your likes and dislikes when it comes to games. Can be very helpful to the person you are assigned to!
 
I will also be adding anyone involved onto my friends list (to handle the exchange) so don’t be surprised when you get a friend request from me.
 
What information is stored/how is it handled?
 
The following information is stored in a database for the site:
 
-Steam ID
-Steam Alias
-Steam Profile URL
- Steam Profile Visibility
-Steam profile state (whether created or not)
-TIS Username (as provided)
-Backupbuyer information/who your secret santa is.
 
I’m not going to be selling the information (who on earth would even buy it? :P) and once the secret santa is over the database will be wiped soon after. We will give things like Alias, Profile URL, TIS Username and preference for wish list or non wishlist game to whoever is assigned to you and that’s it.
 
Come the day of the exchange, games will be sent to me through the trading system and I will pass on the present to someone else. Some people may be called upon to wait until they can receive their gift (in the event we have people disappearing) but I’ll be sure to make sure it doesn’t affect too many people.
 
Now, if you do not trust me (which hey, hurts a little. :( but I can understand) you can choose to organise another intermediary on the Moderating team. You need to tell me this as SOON as possible, if you leave this until after the first phase of this, I will potentially remove you from the list.
 
List of Intermediaries
-RoboMat
-Nasko
-Rathlord
 
IMPORTANT DATES
 
9th of December - Applications Closed.
 
14th of December - Wishlists must be updated by this point. If you don’t have at least one game in the $6.99-15 (See currency conversion below) range. It’s fine if it’s under, but if you have only high priced games and you specified wishlist only, then you will be removed from the secret santa list.
 
15th of December - Secret Santas assigned.
 
20th of December - Start of distribution process.
 
If you think you won’t be around for the distribution dates, this is something you need to let me know in advance as soon as possible. Preferably before the 15th of December.
 
Now all that business is out of the way here’s a couple of guidelines.
 
--------------------
-Recommended spending is at least $6.99-20 (Currency Conversion below), you are allowed to go over this limit and slightly under, but go too low and you’ll get my ire. Just be sensible ;)
 
Note: Due to the timing of all this, odds are Steam sale will be happening. So if games are all ridiculously cheap, then the best way to know you’re in range is how much the game is usually sold for outside of sales.
 
-If the person has indicated that they want a game from their wish list it MUST be from their wishlist.
 
-Steam only. Sorry, we’ll look at other stores next year if this year goes well.
 
-If you don’t give a game, you will not receive your game. Simple as that.
 
-You are allowed “Joke Gifts” but they don’t count towards your actual game.
 
Anyway! Remember to sign up, and remember those dates, thanks everybody. :D
 
http://secretsanta.theindiestone.com/
 
====CURRENCY CONVERSIONS====
 
We talked about a $6.99-15 range here, so for perspective here’s how that breaks down.
 
USD $6.99-15
EURO €5-11
GBP £4-10
CAD- See USD.
 
Any others, just go and use XE currency converter to check.
 
Website Credits
 
-Connall (AKA Me) for building the site and actually developing the systems in place.
-Kirrus for hooking me up with the subdomain and helping me troubleshoot the Forums API to get forum usernames automatically instead of asking for it. (Maybe next year.)
-nasKo for pointing out the spelling error I should have noticed.
-Rathlord for having a bash about the website so I could make sure it was working for others.
-RoboMat & EnigmaGrey for helping in the discussions about the Secret Santa.
 
Huge thanks to the developers for letting me use the subdomain and giving me the go ahead to do this. :) <3
 
Of course <3 to The Indie Stone community in general. :)

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Connall
Connall

Wishlists should be updated by now, I'm going to start rolling assigning Secret Santas now.

Connall
Connall

So I have decided to open source the code that was used for the website this year. If you want to look at a nice page go here: http://connall.github.io/SecretSantaWebsite/   If you want to look at the

Connall
Connall

Alright so here's the list, I removed people who eventually dropped out or didn't provide a game for the person so here it is:   Connall(As backup buyer) Gifted to: Tooks, Rathlord, Cdr. Keen, Dramocl

Connall

Connall

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Hey Connall, since I do not tend to get money for Steam until about Christmas eve, would it be possible that I could donate some Team Fortress 2 items to be distributed throughout the Secret Santa program to my fellow TF2 players?

 

I'm strictly trying to keep this games based, since I'm able to gauge them a lot better than I do TF2 items. The nature of Secret Santa is that it's completely random and I feel it may be unfair if someone gave away a game only to get a TF2 item.

 

I'm going to default no on this stance unless someone convinces me otherwise.

 

 

Can we just give a game (or two)

i have games sitting around in my inventory that are not getting played.

and i don't need more games (i have 80+ on my to play list just sitting there)

 

If the game is on their wishlist or one of the games you have is something they would be interested in, then sure. Otherwise no. I would rather people are actually thinking about the game the person they would want, rather than using this as an exercise to offload unused games for the sake of offloading games.

 

It's the exact same reason I decided no to humble bundle keys for the most part. I don't want people just to dump the games. As for not getting any games, again I don't want this to be a game dump so I don't encourage you to sign up if you don't want to be receiving a game.

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Connall

Connall

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so, how exactly is this distribution process gonna work? will we gift the game through steam? if so, wint we need to add the person we're giving to so we are able to gift them?

 

You gift the game to me, I send it on to the person who needs to receive it.

 

Come the day of the exchange, games will be sent to me through the trading system and I will pass on the present to someone else. Some people may be called upon to wait until they can receive their gift (in the event we have people disappearing) but I’ll be sure to make sure it doesn’t affect too many people.

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Ewok

Ewok

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"All new games purchased as a gift and placed in the purchaser's inventory will be untradable for 30 days. The gift may still be gifted at any time."

 

So it would be OK if everyone purchases as a gift for Connall, but could go sideways if not... Is that right?

 

I'm well up for this by the way, a great idea - and I get a new Steam friend! Wooo!

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Connall

Connall

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"All new games purchased as a gift and placed in the purchaser's inventory will be untradable for 30 days. The gift may still be gifted at any time."

 

So it would be OK if everyone purchases as a gift for Connall, but could go sideways if not... Is that right?

 

I'm well up for this by the way, a great idea - and I get a new Steam friend! Wooo!

 

I was about to sign up when I saw the issue with steam trades. I'll gladly participate if a workaround is figured out :-)

 

People are going to be required to follow a very specific way, so yes. We can do this.

 

The game is going to need to be gifted to me, which I will in turn place in my inventory then gift on to the correct person. I just tried it out and it does indeed work. So we're all good. :)

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