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Old 11-09-2015, 04:20 PM   #1
Hanatori
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Delibird Secret Santa Survey: Would you like more time to work on assignments?

Secret Santa will continue this year, and with each new Secret Santa comes another pre-game period with a lot of head-scratching over rule changes. Usually, these questions are confined to the ArtChat thread, but this year, I figured the prospect of a deadline change deserved its own thread. In quotes is a proposed change to Secret Santa scheduling:

Quote:
NOVEMBER 24: Secret Santa thread goes up, volunteer sign-ups and requests open (usually 12/1)
DECEMBER 3: Deadline for all volunteer signups and requests, assignments go out, wild card prompts posted if all volunteers receive assignments (usually 12/10)
DECEMBER 25: Presents thread goes up, all received work will be posted (no change)
A fair number of Secret Santa assignments don't get finished because something inevitably comes up in the two weeks provided for volunteers to complete their work. Giving volunteers a third week to finish assignments seems like it would help, as the two weeks usually allowed can be rather hectic, but I don't know if this actually helps you - whether high school/university/work scheduling would make the first week of December any better than the next two for working on assignments. Similarly, would pushing the week for volunteering/requests back to the last week of November have a negative impact? Black Friday and Thanksgiving fall on that ten-day period, and let's be honest here, it feels weird to have Secret Santa start before Thanksgiving. But having a little extra breathing room should trump feeling weird in this scenario, and the question is: Would adding a third week for working on requests be helpful for volunteers?

It's a question that could use your help in answering, if you're a prospective Secret Santa participant on either end of the equation (volunteering or requesting!), so any thoughts on the matter would be quite appreciated. If you have no idea what you just read, last year's main thread has the full rules and a link to all of the previous Secret Santa threads. Last year's presents thread, meanwhile, is over here.
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Old 11-09-2015, 04:26 PM   #2
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YES to the extra time, because if I'm doing anything this year, it's in Paint. Sorry, but my Photoshop expired and I didn't use it enough to warrant a renewal. I really wish we could go back to just buying it once and being done, but NUUUUUPE. So I no longer have it. Or maybe I do and just don't get updates? Idk. If it's the latter, Idc about updates anyway, so!

Speaking of Secret Santa, though: Whoever received my request last year? YOURE LATE, PUNK! Not that it matters.
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Old 11-09-2015, 04:39 PM   #3
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A third week might help but I'm not majorly fussed either way. Kinda wondering if I should sign up as an artist this time.
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Old 11-09-2015, 07:03 PM   #4
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EMI PLS DO. Also am completely fine with these changes. My drawing hand is covered in rust ew.
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Old 11-14-2015, 05:45 PM   #5
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Jumpluff

If there isn't any strong opposition to the new schedule, sign-ups will go ahead on 11/24. Is it fair to assume most of the people reading the thread are okay with it?

>Myles re: Photoshop expiring

Have you scouted out any free alternatives? It's not Photoshop at all, but Fire Alpaca looks like a fairly solid free program if you need something other than Paint.
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Old 11-14-2015, 08:12 PM   #6
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@Hana: Thanks much for the suggestion. I'll look into it when I get a chance.

Just never ask me to draw Sceptile again I had to make my sister make that raptor smile
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Old 11-15-2015, 03:07 PM   #7
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For those of us who procrastinate heavily, the extension is helpful only if it's given after some arbitrary pre-determined deadline. I feel the existence of the deadline itself is what motivates people such as myself to get working.

Maybe we could add an extra cutoff date in there? So perhaps anyone who gets 2 requests to fulfill has to submit the first one 1 week before Christmas, or their second one goes into a backup pool. Then any would-be artists and writers who missed the signup date - or those non-procrastinators who finished all their requests by the cutoff date - can take any remaining ones from the backup pool. It also gives a second chance to any requests which die because someone's computer exploded or whatever.

I don't want to make things too complicated, of course. I like the idea of getting more time. However, I have to admit that I will most likely use the extra time to procrastinate. =3=
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Old 11-19-2015, 11:45 PM   #8
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>Morg

You've addressed one of the other concerns in the back of my mind, which is that a lot of us (myself included) procrastinate and a third week would just be for more procrastination. What makes me hesitant on implementing an extra cutoff date for people with multiple requests (besides the question of making things just a bit too complicated) is more of a workflow question than anything else - whether people who get two or more requests like to work on both of them simultaneously and freely switch between the two. I do my requests this way but can't really speak for anyone else.

Thank you for indirectly reminding me to write up a pinch-hitting system, though. People have brought up the idea of allowing volunteers unable to complete their work to let somebody else pick up their request in previous years, either on the side of the requester or as the volunteer looking to pinch-hit. Since I post an early rules writeup every year anyway, here's how it looks right now:

Quote:
FOR VOLUNTEERS
There are two ways to pick up requests for Secret Santa. One of them, the Wild Card, will be detailed in a separate section below. The other way is to be a volunteer.
-You may sign up for Secret Santa as an artist, a writer, or a spriter by posting in this thread.
-Volunteers are required to answer three questions in addition to which request medium they would like to pick up: Whether they would like a maximum of one or two requests, whether they would like first pick of the Wild Card requests in case they do not receive a request from the RNG, and whether they would like to be notified if another request in their medium is abandoned. (The form will be in the main thread OP before the sign-up list, don't worry.)
-If you don't think you will have time to do two requests, you are encouraged to ask for just one - if you finish, still have time, and would like another request, there will always be Wild Cards.
-NEW THIS YEAR! IF YOU ARE UNABLE TO WORK ON YOUR REQUEST DUE TO TIME CONSTRAINTS AND WOULD LIKE SOMEBODY ELSE TO PICK IT UP: ...just PM me by December 18th and I'll notify the people who agreed to be asked if another request is unable to be completed, provided they have completed at least one request at the time. If nobody has agreed to pinch-hit (either because nobody said so in their volunteer posts or because nobody took the request), it will be posted in the main thread as if it were a Wild Card request - anybody can claim it, though they will obviously have to stick to the specified medium.
-Speaking of Wild Cards, in the event that there are not enough requests in a medium for every volunteer to receive a request, anybody who asked to have priority on Wild Cards will be PMed with a list of the Wild Card requests. If 72 hours pass and somebody who elected to pick a Wild Card still has yet to claim, the Wild Cards will be posted in the main thread.


FOR REQUESTERS
As there are two ways to volunteer for Secret Santa, there are two ways to request for Secret Santa. The Wild Card will be covered in the following section, but this section covers the more traditional Secret Santa requesting route.
-You are allowed one request, which must be in one of three media: Art, writing, or sprites.
-Requests here are to be worksafe, not too complicated, and vaguely Pokemon-related. They never have to be holiday related (though they can be.)
-Crossovers with other games, books, shows, comics etc. are allowed, but if you make such a request, you should provide some reference material and/or give your prospective volunteer another option, in case they don't have any clue what you're talking about when you ask for Peridot eating snacks with a Torterra.
-And no, you don't have to volunteer in order to make a request.
-This should finally go without saying, but PM your request to me. Don't post it in the main thread. That's what makes Secret Santa secret.


THE WILD CARD
The Wild Card is the second way to do Secret Santa, one that can be experienced separately from the above request-volunteer model or as a supplement to it. Wild Card request submissions are open to all members of UPN, regardless of whether they want to request for "normal" Secret Santa. Conversely, you do not have to be a volunteer in order to claim a Wild Card request. Everybody is allowed up to two Wild Card requests, and they differ from regular requests in the following ways:
-Requests must be about a general theme or subject (does not have to be Pokemon) and must be in the form of a short, nonspecific phrase. (Format examples: "Doduo," "Safari Zone," "Argument" but not "Doduo having an argument" or "Doduo arguing with itself in the Safari Zone." See last year's Wild Card post for more.)
-If you'd like to request characters from other fandoms, it's probably better off here, as somebody who likes the same thing can seek out your request.
-After PMs are sent to volunteers and any volunteers who receive no requests pick a Wild Card, a complete listing of Wild Card requests will be posted in the main thread. From there, everybody can claim up to two requests each. Requests are to be made via PM (hey, it's still Secret Santa), with the post to be updated a couple of times per day as requests are claimed. All claims will be on a first-come first-serve basis, and if you take a request that somebody else PMed me about an hour before you, I'll let you know. Wild Card requests can be carried out in any medium you can imagine - art, writing, sprites, music, theatre, gifs, photography, just anything. If you specifically want a drawing, you might want to go for the normal request.
Any thoughts on this? The two big non-deadline changes are on the volunteer side - allowing volunteers to get first pick of the Wild Cards if they don't get a request, plus the pinch-hit system.
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Old 11-21-2015, 12:48 AM   #9
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I am pumped!

I've been wanting to suggest this for a while, but I keep putting it off. I think that the sprite category should be merged back into the general "art" section. It was more of an experimental category and has been pretty minor during its stay. Maybe we can just say that sometimes art requesters will receive pixel art?
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Old 11-21-2015, 01:45 AM   #10
Hanatori
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Delibird

It's something I've thought about a bit given that volunteer/request numbers have dropped off almost completely from the first year or two that the category was in place. What I briefly had in mind (but didn't write in) was to rename it Graphics, which would at least expand its domain beyond pixel art and spriting. Whether that helps activity in the category would be anyone's guess, though.
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Old 11-21-2015, 08:02 AM   #11
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The thing is is that while I can make poorly drawn art, I can't do pixel art or sprites for the life of me. If sprites and the like were placed in the general art category, and I ended up with that kind of job, it would suck all kinds of ass, and that's no good.
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Old 11-21-2015, 11:34 AM   #12
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Yeah, that's kind of why I would like all art to be just one category. Requesters can't specify a medium, so nobody is going to specifically tell you to make pixel art. Right now people are getting everything from drawings to MS Paints, and a lot of the fun of Secret Santa is not knowing what the result is going to be.
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Old 11-21-2015, 09:21 PM   #13
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Delibird

I've always been under the impression that people requesting sprites and graphics are more likely to request with the specific intention of using the end result for forum-related functions like sigs, avatars, or RP summary posts. You can make art requests for that purpose ("Draw my FB trainer...") and stuff that would generally be considered art request material can be great sig/avatar graphic material (like battlecuts), but they're not usually requested specifically to be used. Between that and a not-great overlap between people who post art and people who post sprites and banners (despite skills for either one being important for the other, like being able to work with color), I've always felt that the art and sprites/graphics sections in Secret Santa should be separate despite the blurry lines between illustration and design.
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