Ok, I'm going to try to be a substitute for Bill, he's covered up this year doing really good stuff. Thanks to EvanB, here are the rules from the previous years:
The rules:
Something "automotive" or "laying around the garage" tends to be the norm (offerings to the gods of speed, random car parts, garage reading material, war trophies, stuff you just don't want, etc). You can deviate from this by buying something strictly for the game but you do so at your own risk. A gift that fits in a flat rate box (size of your choosing) has been the norm in the past, but is by no means a hard and fast rule. You may ship something bigger if the standard postal sizes do not fit your ideas.
We call this a "New Years Game" because we're all busy enough as it is around the holidays and there's no sense in adding to the cluster. In saying that, there is no real deadline to have your gift sent out but please be considerate of your giftee. Since we're starting a little later, I'm going to try to have names out by January 17, 2025. Having a box in the mail sometime before February 1, 2025 would be a good deadline to set if you were looking for a timeframe and ideally we'd like all the gifts to be received before February 28th. (It really makes the game drag on after that, so earlier is better).
Please note that I will not give you the screen name of the person you're gifting to. There has been some back and forth discussion on this in the past, but I believe this helps keep any on-screen bias from getting into the game. However, I'm not above sending hints (to help you tailor your gift), and many people in the past have used their detective skills with much success.
Since we're doing the lists and giftings in one batch again this year I think we can all post pics to this thread, as opposed to starting a new one.
Speaking of "pictures and threads": This part is mandatory please. It's fun for you to receive a gift, and possibly even to send one, but it's fun for everyone when you share your spoils online so please be sure to post pictures of the gift you received here.
There is no punishment for signing up and not participating. But I do have a non-participant list running from the last few years (these are people who received, but did not gift). If you're on the naughty list I'm afraid you won't be allowed to participate this time without some sort of... well, we can work something out. Just contact me for details or to check if you're on the list. The last few years we've had we had very near 100% participation, I'm hoping we can repeat that again for this year!
My e-mail for your info is my username at gmail. I don't have a list from previous years, but if you remember who you sent to or who you received from last year, I'll try to make sure I don't duplicate it this year. Thanks, and let the merriment commence!
