It's the Great Art Exchange, Charlie Brown

Yes, it's here! Yes, I'm running it, with permission by some people (thank you Gaffsey, dude who ran the last one). So! Let's waste no time. Here are the rules and shiz below — what this is, how to join, all that shtuff.

Some General Information

What is this?

This is the Christmas Art Exchange, seventh annual! It's where cool people on this website get to be secret santas for other people on the site, and exchange their talents, and get cool gifts, and what not, all in the Christmas spirit. Secret santa means that people don't know who is making whose gift. That's part of the fun!





What Kind of Gifts Can Be Exchanged?

Well that's the fun part. Tons of things! Anything that you can reasonably get to someone over the internet, you can do. Art, writing (free form prose, or you can go SCPs or GoI formats, or whatever you want to write), poetry. Any and all applications of these, as well. Music, game systems, shiz, I don't know if it's happened but you might be able to get a stuffed animal or something from this. As long as it's something that can be given over the internet (no hugs I guess), it goes.





Cool, How Do I Participate?

You can participate simply… You can respond to this thread with the following format:

**What I Can Give:** What you can give **What I Am Looking For:** What you are looking for

This isn't strict of course. If you can intuitively include this information within your post, it counts. I doubt anyone will get this wrong. After you sign up, you've basically promised to follow the rules of this art exchange, and participate.

Don't sign up if you are iffy on being able to make the deadlines, laid out below!

That being said, we understand if you can't make the deadlines because something popped up. There are two things that could happen… Firstly, you could submit a WIP of the finished product and promise to finish it later, or we have this cool thing called a Pinch-Hitter! More information on that in a bit.

How It Actually Works, Y'all

Stage 1: Signing Up (Nov. 15th to Nov. 27th)

Starting at this post being posted, this is people signing up. Just people responding to this post with what they can give and what they want. Pretty simple. At some point on Nov. 27th I will post on this thread saying that no one else can sign up.





Stage 2: Names Given Out, Working On The Stuff (Nov. 29th to Dec. 22nd)

There's a delay between signing up ending and names being given out simply to ensure that I have time to figure out who can give what to who. So what will happen is that if you signed up you will receive a PM from me on Nov. 29th telling you who you are making a gift for!

After you get your name, you will find their post in this thread and read what they are looking for. To make something that fits their parameters will be your project, due on Dec. 22nd.

To turn a project in, send a PM to me, hopefully with a subject that makes it easy for me to spot it as a gift submission (I suggest something like "Art Exchange Gift for [Who You Made It For]", that would make things real easy on me). After Dec. 22nd, no more gift submissions will be accepted (or, they will be, but with a sneer and disappointment because they were due earlier).





Stage 2.5: Last Minute Making-Everyone-Happy (Dec. 23rd to Dec. 24th)

This is where our pinch-hitters come in (yet again, I'll explain that at the end of this forum post). These two days will be all the time that pinch-hitters will have to fulfill people's gifts whose secret santas have dropped off the face of the earth. These are "due" on Dec. 24th, but if a gift requires more time than that then we can extend that time and I'll simply tell people who have no gifts that pinch-hitters are handling it.

Don't be the person that a pinch-hitter has to fill in for! It is lame, and supremely uncool. If you have to drop out suddenly, then tell me. I'll figure something out, and that's still okay. Don't just drop off the face of the earth. It is not cool.





Stage 3: Receiving the Gifts (& Wondering Who Gifted It) (Dec. 25th or Dec. 26th to Dec. 28th)

On Dec. 25th (or Dec. 26th) everyone will receive their gifts via me! If you signed up, I will PM you with the gift that someone gave you, while keeping it anonymous. You get to enjoy your gift, and wonder at who gave it to you! Pretty simple stage.

You may be wondering why it's either Dec. 25th or Dec. 26th. I definitely can't get things out Dec. 24th because of work, but I don't celebrate Christmas so I might have Dec. 25th open. If I do (there's a non-zero chance that family sucks us up into something), then it will happen then because that's thematic and cool. However, if we go all through Dec. 25th and you haven't gotten your gift then that is because life happened and I'll do it on Dec. 26th. Also to note: Time Zones.

I am on the West Coast of the United States, and I can't commit to doing things at specific hours, so of course there is a little wibbly wobbliness on the dates. Just something to keep in mind.

Now, a friendly reminder… I said anonymous up there. Make sure you didn't, like, sign your gift or something. Posting it on the site means that you signed it, because you posted it and we can see who the author is. Just, make sure it's anonymous, and everyone else… if you know things about who is making what, don't spoil it for people! Just don't! It's the second-worst thing you can do in the event, the first being dropping out without warning.





Stage 4: Lifting the Veil (Dec. 29th)

On this date, I will make a forum post on this thread that reveals who gifted who! And then everyone will see who made them their things, and it'll be cool and fun! Yay!





Stage 5: Optional Posting of Things (Any time after Dec. 29th)

Now, if your gift that you wrote is something that could be posted to the site, then you can do it! Post it to the site, and add a link to it under the "The 2018 Holiday Art Exchange" at this page. You should also tag your thing that you posted with "art-exchange".

If it's not something that could be posted on the site, but you still feel like sharing, then you can edit your forum post here (or reply to the person it's for) and add a link to it! That is, if your gift receiver didn't already link the gift on their forum post after they get it, which has been a fairly common practice in art exchanges prior. And that's about it!

Pinch-Hitters & Friendly Reminders

So You Want to Go Above & Beyond?

Become a pinch-hitter! You'll probably have intuited it already, but basically you will be signing up for making gifts for people in the absence of their secret santa (if I don't get their gift on the due date). You will have roughly 48 hours to make those gifts, which means…

Only sign up for this if you are very confident in your ability. Oh, and I have the right to refuse you being a pinch-hitter, if I don't think you could do it. It sorta sucks I gotta say that, but it's true. If you want to be a pinch-hitter, then please say so at the bottom of your forum post.

Please try and make the deadline, but, like, of course, if you can't make whatever the gift is in 48 hours, then that's probably pretty understandable. In which case, I will PM the person who is being handled that their gift is currently being worked on by a pinch-hitter (or we can give them a WIP and promise to finish it later). This is sucky, but it's better then someone just not getting a gift.

So yeah, please if you are a very confident creator (and have material to back that confidence) then consider signing up to be a pinch-hitter! It would be a great help.





Some Final Friendly Reminders

Keep it anonymous. Don't tell the person you are making a gift for that you are the one making a gift for them. Don't tell someone who is making their gift if you know.

Don't drop out. If you must, keep it formal, and tell me. Don't make me have to figure out that you were unable to finish your gift just by not PMing me a gift by the due date. That would suck.

Just don't ruin the fun. Don't make joke gifts that don't really address what the person wanted. That would be horrible, and it would not be funny.

In summary, don't be a grinch! It would make everyone unhappy. Most importantly, everyone, have fun! Go wild!

Holiday Art Exchange 2018 is Go!

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1fi0EDuOFr98oedrNXHWksHYfzCJ_LZjA-Yx3MKKKTPc/edit#gid=557940255 for the future