Talk:Gift Exchange

Overlap with Challenge?

This does rather overlap with the Challenge page, which has a lot on Secret Santas, so figuring out how to organize them will be a, well, challenge. --Msilverstar 01:53, 25 October 2008 (UTC)

Yeah, I noticed that, after I created the entry. On the one hand, not all gift exchanges are challenges, and not all challenges are gift exchanges. On the other hand, as you say: overlap. My automatic instinct is to clip out some of the definitional language in challenge, and make its exposition about specific gift exchanges rather than explaining the concept. (I also noticed that whoever created that page made a lot of wikilinks to pages not yet created, so it seemed in some ways like a first blurty draft of something that would be whittled down once all those individual pages are made. Thoughts? --Vee 04:36, 25 October 2008 (UTC)

Well, I'm the person who wrote most of the challenge page. I don't care where the information ends up, but what I initially envisioned was that the particular pages would have even more details about variations in form, controversies, popular or famous or definitional ficathons/exchanges/fests in various fandoms. But if people would prefer the "Challenge" page basically just to wikilink to pages about specific types, that would work too.

What I'd like to see on this page is more about how *gift*exchange ficathons are different from straight up ficathons -- with the emphasis on "gifts" and pleasing the recipient/thanking the writer, the comparisons to meatspace gift-giving, the holiday spirit, etc.--Ari 04:49, 25 October 2008 (UTC)

I don't have a problem with getting granular in this entry; I kind of figured that customs vary widely so I didn't (yet) tackle my perception of those customs except in general fashion. I think the challenge page can offer a short, contrast-y sentence about each challenge-type, a la "X-type of challenge [link] is unique for Quality Y [possible link]. History of one or two examples." So, the challenge entry would be about how each type of challenge differs from the others, rather than about the nitty gritty of each type. Which I think means we're both thinking in the same direction?

I do want to keep the sense in each page that a basic definition be front and center, because I am a glossary nerd. --Vee 13:49, 25 October 2008 (UTC)

Info to add

• prompts
• explain nominations more fully
• explain sign ups and matching better

(sorry for leaving this here but I don't want to forget!) Hoopla (talk) 03:51, 20 April 2019 (UTC)

"List of Active Exchanges" a good idea?

First, we definitely want to make it clear that it's not a comprehensive list. I'd suggest calling it something like "examples of active exchanges". Second, is it a....useful feature for the page? Exchanges are often pretty short-running, even if they're annual they might not come back next year, or be run by a different group of mods on a different blog/dreamwidth/etc. It would just be a fair amount of effort to keep the list up-to-date, i think, and is someone willing to keep on top of that over the long term? -- Quaelegit (talk) 21:23, 23 April 2023 (UTC)

I don't think we should have any list of exchanges on this page. The sections are for talking about different kinds of exchanges, and if people want a list of exchanges then that's what the exchanges category is for. It might be worth writing something up about how people find exchanges to sign up to, I guess? But you're right that a list of active exchanges is pretty useless. Hoopla (talk) 01:38, 24 April 2023 (UTC)

Very much +1 for having a section about how people find exchanges!! I know there's places like FFA where general chatter/keeping up with active exchanges happens, and there's also blogs and maybe websites that are more formal and organization for tracking active exchanges in various fandoms. -- Quaelegit (talk) 10:22, 24 April 2023 (UTC)

Yeah FFA has or had that nonnie who'd list all active exchanges (unsure if they're still doing it) and also on Dreamwidth there's Fandom Calendar which is the big hub for AO3 Exchanges. Probably also worth mentioning the Yuletide discord server and Exchanges After Dark for AO3 exchanges. Naruto Events is a page we happen to have that's an example of a single-fandom event tracking site (for tumblr based exchanges in this case) and I'm sure we have others. Hoopla (talk) 15:49, 24 April 2023 (UTC)