FORUM EVENT: "I-MOCKERY'S 2007 SECRET SANTA EVENT!"

[Mockery]

YO HO HO HO! WELCOME TO...

SIGNUP THREAD

It's that time of year again. Time for I-Mockery's 3rd annual Secret Santa Event! This is the commemorative holiday event in which Mockers leave their computers for a few minutes to send ZANY and HILARIOUS gifts to other Mockers at random, who then post the results of the exchange on the forums in this thread. Then the Mockers who sent out gifts will receive gifts of their own to post on the forums. What this holiday commemorates exactly is lost to history, but tradition is tradition, and if there's anything internet addicts hate, it's change. So are you ready to send gifts to and receive gifts from people who, in all likeliness, are complete strangers? You bet you are!

So here's how it works: You sign yourself up in this thread. On or around November 27th, you will be PMed with the name of the Mocker whom you will be SENDING A GIFT TO. You should NOT share this information with anyone else. You will then buy a present with this person in mind - if you don't know anything about this person, don't worry about it, just buy something you think would be fun for just about anybody to receive and post pictures of. Make this a good present, but don't spend too much on it (between $15 and $20 USD, not including shipping costs). Send them their present WITH YOUR FORUM NAME IN THERE SOMEWHERE by December 5th. Shortly thereafter, you will receive a present from your very own Secret Santa! Take pictures of your gifts, import or scan 'em in, upload them, and share them with us by posting them this thread by December 20th. Feel free to create a fun story about your gifts with the photos. During this time, you should also buckle yourself up for jingle bells of jubilation.

Also, when you do post the pictures of the gifts you receive, we strongly encourage you to make a story/adventure out of it just like we've done in previous years. But at the very least, you should post photos of all the gifts you received along with your thoughts on them.

If you want to SIGN YOURSELF UP, you must do so by MAKING A POST IN THIS THREAD BY NOVEMBER 27th.


By signing, you agree to the following terms and conditions:
· Signing represents a contract. If you fail to uphold your end of the contract, you will be permanently banned from the forums, and possibly tracked down and sodomized.

· You MUST observe all deadlines and follow all of the instructions.

· You MUST spend the required amount of $15 - $20 on the gift for your recipient. This amount does not include any shipping charges.

· You MUST have a working camera (buy a disposable digital camera if you don't own a regular digital camera) and some means by which to transfer the images to your computer and upload them for others to see. We've been lenient about posting photos in the past, but there's no reason why anybody wouldn't have access to take a picture and post it on the web these days, so you will be banned if you fail to post your photos by the deadline unless you received your gifts late. If that happens, contact us and we'll work something out for you so you can post your photos a few days later.

· If you want to be lame and make/build something, that's fine and dandy, but please keep the spending minimum in mind and throw some other goodies in there. If you think parents really like it when their kids give them a crayon drawing as a present, you're wrong. DEAD wrong. If you're making something, we strongly suggest sending it in addition to the $15 - $20 worth of gifts that you buy for the person.· Your mailing address CANNOT be a P.O. Box. No gifts will be sent to P.O. boxes nor will anyone with a P.O box as a mailing address be allowed to participate in the Secret Santa event.

IF YOU'VE BEEN REGISTERED LESS THAN A YEAR:

To prevent misuse, any member who has been registered and active with these forums for less than a year MUST do the following:

1. Provide a picture of themselves with a sign that says both "I-MOCKERY SECRET SANTA 2007" along with their message forum name/name in plain view.

2. Post this picture in this thread for all to see.

3. Send a PM to Mockery, who will then provide you with a mailing address for you to send a test/verification letter to. (the sooner you do this, the better)

4. Send a test letter to Mockery at the mailing address he provides you with. The letter needs to include your full name, return mailing address and your name here on the I-Mockery forums.

These steps are necessary to verify that you have a working camera and the motivation to get your ass to a post office.

DEADLINES:
· The cutoff date for SIGNUPS is November 27th.

· The cutoff date for SENDING GIFTS is December 5th.

· The cutoff date for POSTING PICTURES ON THE FORUMS OF THE GIFT(S) YOU RECEIVED is December 20th.


WHEN MAILING YOUR PACKAGE:
· You should probably observe federal law regarding what can and cannot be mailed.

· You MUST send your gift via Priority mail or your country's equivalent to avoid delays in people receiving their gifts.

· You MUST purchase a tracking number with your transaction. If your package is not received within a week, you will need this information to prove that it wasn't your fault.

· Do NOT send a PM or email to the person who you are sending a gift to in an attempt to let them know that you're their Secret Santa. It's called "Secret" Santa for a reason, people.


WHEN RECEIVING YOUR GIFT PACKAGE:
· You MUST take photos of all the items you receive and post them on them in this Secret Santa thread no later than December 20th, 2007.

· You MUST post some comments so everybody knows what you thought about the gifts you received. Creating a fun holiday story with your photos is also recommend, but not a requirement.

· If it's getting close to the posting deadline and you still haven't received your own Secret Santa gift package (say by roughly December 15th) please send a PM to Mockery so your Secret Santa gift sender can be contacted to see what the hold up is.

IF YOU LIVE OUTSIDE OF THE UNITED STATES:

· You can still participate in this event, but we will do our best to pair you up with somebody else who lives outsite of the U.S. as well. This is to avoid one person getting stuck with higher shipping charges. However, if we have an odd number of foreign participants, we'll obviously have one person who has to send his/her gifts out of the country. But hey, it's all part of the Secret Santa game and we expect everybody to live up to their end of the deal and not squabble over petty things like a few additional bux for shipping.

CONFIRMED PARTICIPANTS:

-Mockery
-RaNkeri
-Sethomas
-Uncle_Sham
-MarioRPG
-Microshock
-Protoclown
-Bigtimecow
-MattJack
-Darklycan
-J. Tithonus Pednaud
-Sam
-Grislygus
-Mburbank
-Chojin
-Poppers620
-Noob3
-MLE
-Schimid
-Nothing4buddha
-Zomboid
-Jixby Phillips
-Doopa
-Dr. Boogie
-Fathom Zero
-Draw A Sidewalk
-AlliSabbah (new user: confirmation letter received. user has been approved)
-JackSchmidtKnifeThrower (new user: confirmation letter received. user has been approved)
-aj2217 (new user: confirmation letter received. user has been approved)
-Vila (new user: confirmation letter received. user has been approved)
-Captain PirateFace (new user: confirmation letter received. user has been approved)


USERS WHO FAILED TO COMPLETE THE REQUIRED SIGN-UP TASKS ON TIME:
-Womti (never received confirmation email)
-Angryhydralisk (never received confirmation email)
-Seven Force (never received confirmation email)
-Misdemonar (never received confirmation email)
-saltshakermaniac ( confirmation letter received 2 days late)
-HungryWantBiddy (never received photos, pm and confirmation letter)
-Thanos (never received photos, pm and confirmation letter)

*note: to any of you who failed to complete the tasks on time, if you would like to coordinate a gift exchange with each other, that's fine by us. We'll be happy to help you set it up if needs be. Send a PM to "Mockery" if you have any questions.

***NOTE***
Once your name appears on the participants list above, please send an email to santa@i-mockery.com which includes the following information:

-Your Full Name
-Your Full Mailing Address
-Your Name/Alias here on the I-Mockery Message Forums
-Your Age

This information is ONLY being collected so we can assign somebody to send you your Secret Santa gifts. It will NOT be used to send you junk mail or add you to any mailing lists.

If you have any questions about the Secret Santa event, please post them here in this thread and one of the moderators will answer your question as soon as possible.

[RaNkeri]

I'm definitely going to join, but there are few questions I'd like to ask first:

1) I do not have a digital camera, but I have smart cam on my laptop, is that good enough?

2) What do you mean by address being P.O. Box?

3) I have no idea how long it takes for a packet to ship from US to Finland and vice-versa, and I'm spending the Christmas at my folks (Onward from the 23rd of December). So, in case my packets haven't arrived then, is it possible for me to post pictures of 'em later?

If question 3) is ok for you/can be arranged, then feel free to add me as a participant.

Question 1) can easily be taken care of.

[Mockery]

1) Is the "smart cam" like a web cam? If so, that should be fine as long as it can take clear enough photos of your gifts. If not, you can buy disposable digital cameras for really cheap nowadays. Just remember, your Secret Santa is taking the time to send you some gifts, the least you can do is clearly show everybody what you received from him/her along with posting your thoughts on the gifts.

2) A P.O. Box is a Post Office Box. (IE: it's a mailbox that isn't where you actually live).

3) All you have to do is make sure that your gifts are sent out on time. The person who sends a gift to you must send them on time as well. As stated in the rules, if you haven't already received your gifts by roughly December 15th, please let us know so we can contact your Secret Santa gift sender to see what the hold up is. If for some reason you receive your gift on or after the 20th, we will probably allow an additional 1 week grace period (from when you actually receive the gifts) for you to get the photos posted here on the forum. Out of fairness, I will try to pair up people who live in foreign countries with each other, so no hopefully single person gets screwed into additional shipping charges. Not making any promises though on that one heheh.

Let me know if you have any other questions. If not, tell me if you want me to add you to the list as a participant.

[RaNkeri]

Well in that case, add me to the list, I missed last year's secret santa and I don't want to miss this year's

Oh and the photos are quite clear, because it's a 1.3 megapixel's camera. I can send few photos if you want to be sure.

[Mockery]

Ok cool, I'll add you to the list. And if you want, just post a test pic here in the forum and I'll letcha know what I think. Thankee.

[RaNkeri]

Here's the test pic:

[Sethomas]

I WILL DO THIS OPERATION.

HOWEVER: can we seriously strive for separating exchanges between the old regime and the neophytes? I mean, last year I had to SEND a gift to a kid who came from nowhere (I'm not saying he isn't a swell guy) and RECEIVED a gift from someone new as well (who had already accrued a merited reputation for lameness, incidentally). I know this might sound like the kind of elitism that we're striving to do away with, but seriously I think there's much more potential greatness if we distinguish between the classic vanguard and the incoming horde.

Oh yeah, and age should be listed too. I kinda sent a cigar last year with hopes of seeing pics of it being smoked, and he ended up being like 14. Oops!

[Misdemonar]

I will do this,

[Uncle_Sham]

Im up for it.

i guess i need a pic.

[zeldasbiggestfan]

Ill do it this year spending a minimum of fifteen dollars and will send the reciept if necessary. I'm not screwing you all like last year, which was a majorly retarded move. And, I could, I would go back in time and kick my own long haired, stupid ass.

I got something good for this year too. Not stuff I found around the house.

[MarioRPG]

Originally Posted by zeldasbiggestfan

Ill do it this year spending a minimum of fifteen dollars and will send the reciept if necessary. I'm not screwing you all like last year, which was a majorly retarded move. And, I could, I would go back in time and kick my own long haired, stupid ass.

I got something good for this year too. Not stuff I found around the house.

No offense, but I think that's not wise based on your reputation. You gave crap and received gold, man... But whatever, it's the organizer's decision.

I'm signing up! Hopefully I'll get to ship on the same continent this time.

And seth, how new is too new?

[zeldasbiggestfan]

I really was a dick last year in this event. After I realized that it was an actual person and a really fun event that I had just ruined I felt terrible. So I spent the whole 3/4ths of the year trying to fix it while I, in my stupid little head, thought I was when in reality, I wasn't. And now I'm here and I would try to make up for at least one thing I did on here.

[Angryhydralisk]

I'd like to participate. Giving is always a pleasant thing. But I do need to think on the fly when it comes to getting pics up (as I have no scanner or digital camera.). I'll figure something out.

[Mockery]

Originally Posted by Sethomas

I WILL DO THIS OPERATION.

HOWEVER: can we seriously strive for separating exchanges between the old regime and the neophytes? I mean, last year I had to SEND a gift to a kid who came from nowhere (I'm not saying he isn't a swell guy) and RECEIVED a gift from someone new as well (who had already accrued a merited reputation for lameness, incidentally). I know this might sound like the kind of elitism that we're striving to do away with, but seriously I think there's much more potential greatness if we distinguish between the classic vanguard and the incoming horde.

Oh yeah, and age should be listed too. I kinda sent a cigar last year with hopes of seeing pics of it being smoked, and he ended up being like 14. Oops!

Ok you're signed up. I'll generally try to pair up new users with other new users, but again, if there's an odd number, some new users will obviously get paired up with older users. It's all for the fun of it, so just make the best out of it with whomever you get paired up. And I doubt we'll be listing ages for this thing...

Originally Posted by Uncle_Sham

Im up for it. i guess i need a pic.

Yes indeedy.

Originally Posted by Misdemonar

I will do this,

Ok you're signed up.

Originally Posted by zeldasbiggestfan

Ill do it this year spending a minimum of fifteen dollars and will send the reciept if necessary. I'm not screwing you all like last year, which was a majorly retarded move. And, I could, I would go back in time and kick my own long haired, stupid ass.

As stated last year, you're not eligible to participate this time. You're simply too much of a risk after what you pulled last year and we don't want any of the other participants getting screwed over.

Originally Posted by MarioRPG

I'm signing up! Hopefully I'll get to ship on the same continent this time.

Ok you're signed up.

Originally Posted by Angryhydralisk

I'd like to participate. Giving is always a pleasant thing. But I do need to think on the fly when it comes to getting pics up (as I have no scanner or digital camera.). I'll figure something out.

Ok you're signed up. As for the no digital camera thing, again, you can buy a disposable digital camera just about anywhere and most photo places will put all the images on a CD for you so you can import them onto your computer back at home.

[Womti]

I would like to sign up.

[Microshock]

Sure , i'll join.

I don't need verification right? I did the event last year.

And give zeldasbiggestfan another chance.

He doesn't seem like the type of person to screw someone over again.

[Emu]

Uh, he did it twice last year, if I recall.

[zeldasbiggestfan]

Originally Posted by Microshock

Sure , i'll join.

I don't need verification right? I did the event last year.

And give zeldasbiggestfan another chance.

He doesn't seem like the type of person to screw someone over again.

It'd be nice if they gave me another shot but rules is rules.

[AlliSabbah]

I will be signing up as soon as I figure out how to get my pic to show up on here. Might take a few days but I will be working on it.

[Protoclown]

I'll play your game, rogue.

[Uncle_Sham]

Fixed it

[Seven Force]

I'm in.

[bigtimecow]

I AM FUCKING IN

[MattJack]

I'm gonna do this so hard

[Mockery]

Originally Posted by Uncle_Sham

can somebody make this bigger?

You need to handle that yourself. You can't scale up a tiny pic like that and expect it to be readable. That looks more like a thumbnail than a normal size photo. You sure you have the right URL?

Originally Posted by zeldasbiggestfan

It'd be nice if they gave me another shot but rules is rules.

You'll have another shot next year, unless we somehow end up with an odd number of people overall this year, then you might have a chance of getting in.

Originally Posted by Emu

Uh, he did it twice last year, if I recall.

Yes he did, and he was lucky not to be permanently banned at the time. Not only that, but he also acted very ungrateful for some very cool gifts that were sent to him. Wasn't exactly a shining example of "the holiday spirit" if you know what I mean... :o