MAL SECRET SANTA THE GREAT REVEAL! First of all, A BIG THANK YOU to all of our SECRET SANTAS. After confirmations, we had: ♫ 145 total Secret Santas for the Rec Edition; ♫ 94 total Secret Santas for the Image Edition; ♫ 39 total Secret Santas for the Review Feature; ♫ 41 Secret Santas that participated in both events; ♫ 198 unique Secret Santas; and, ♫ 239 gifts sent out by our elves! We managed to break last year's record with 44 more unique participants, 18 more Rec Edition Santas and 34 more Image Edition Santas. Thank you to everyone who participated for the second year in a row and all of the new faces! Second of all, please take the time to give A BIG THANK YOU to all of our ELVES. ♫ ihateeveryone ♫ Loxaris ♫ Luna_ ♫ Naruleach ♫ Pennytration ♫ prez-anna ♫ Ramen ♫ Ranoom ♫ Snaxia ♫ Snow ♫ Tachii ♫ tingy ♫ Verumir ♫ vodall ♫ Zelot ♫ _Ghost_ They took the time to compile all of the lists, randomise them, send hundreds of PMs, organise all the gifts, send hundreds more PMs, give advice on images, write backup recs, quality check and improve gifts where necessary, and generally suffer through the chaos created by running an event of this size on such a short time limit. Without all of them, I would have gone stark-raving crazy trying to put this together. Finally, please be sure to: ♫ Pass your Secret Santa(s) a big thank you, and possibly, some feedback on your rec/image. Please remember that it's near impossible to get a gift 100% to your liking from a person who knows nothing about you; I'm sure your Santa tried his best! ♫ Post in this thread, telling us what you thought of the event! And how we possibly could improve it for 2015. Now onto the lists! Rec Edition (Part 1) a.k.a. Elf-pyon Rec Edition (Part 2) a.k.a. Elf-chama Rec Edition (Part 3) a.k.a. Elf-hime Image Edition (Part 1) a.k.a. Elf-tan Image Edition (Part 2) a.k.a. Elf-rin A final note for the Review Feature: Please remember that you must: ♫ complete your recommendation and write a review on the title (which meets the Review Guidelines) by January 10th, 2015; ♫ PM your completed review to Elf-hime; and, ♫ refrain from uploading your review to the site until we have organized all the reviews for the showcase. More details on how the reviews will be showcased will be given at a later time. Look forward to it! See You All Next Year~ Edit: Some people renamed themselves! |
KinetaFeb 5, 2015 7:34 AM
| Thanks again to my Secret Santas - I'm still very happy about both gifts and will also send you a personal message about them soon now that I know who you are! (I guessed wrong in both cases) Also a big thank you to Kineta who did a lot of work in this event and a great job with organizing and always helping the rest of the elves when help was needed :) |
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| Huge thanks to everyone who helped in the event, the elves and Kineta, as well as to everyone who participated. It was a lot of fun, and certainly a challenge to pick out something for someone I didn't know at all. :D I also had a lot of fun viewing my gift - which was something that at first I had an inner groan about having to watch because I was super skeptical, but ultimately it was incredibly enjoyable and I probably wouldn't have been given the nudge to watch it without this event. Also highly entertained that, of all people, my fiancee was my secret santa. :) |
| Thanks to my secret santas. I'm surprised it was Pirating_Ninja. I usually see a lot of her/his discussions. What are the chances man.. the recs were great! Thanks to OParadise, the sig was cute and you even made it the size I usually use for my sigs :) Thanks to everyone who put together this event. Had a lot fun. Edit: Ah yes, I renamed myself as well xD |
RothDec 30, 2014 8:20 AM
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| Thanks Dolphy! I was looking for an excuse to watch that show for a while. |
| "My tables-meet it is I set it down That one may smile, and smile, and be a villain." |
juungi said: Wow! That's pretty amazing. The lists were mostly randomised, though we did a little adjustment - especially for the Review Feature - to make sure everyone would have something to rec. Crazy result and somehow very sweet :)Also highly entertained that, of all people, my fiancee was my secret santa. :) |
| First off, thank you very much to both Secret Santa on the recommendation and the image - both are amazing! There's still the review left to write, but I'm sure there will be a lot to write about. ;) Now, regarding the event overall. Well, yeah, it is sweet and all, but I might just not find it worth it. In comparison to the Maloween event which was held recently, this one appears to require quite a lot more of dedication and work, for the result being, in most cases, by far not as great. The Maloween event brought up a ride with constant hip & happening on every corner, while this was more or less all work for two gifts. Do not get me wrong, gift exchanging is awesome and highly encouraged at this time of the year, but the ratio between the effort in-put and the outcome just doesn't seem to add up in my eyes. The reviews might potentially end up as a hot-spot of the entire event, and that's it. Although I'm a fan of originality and different approaches, I would have to say that if we don't come up with something better, I would re-create the idea of the Maloween mansion for Christmas as well, with other hosts setting up and running the event. There's enough staff members for it to be executed, and the theme would change from a scary mansion onto a snowy iceland, or anything of the kind. Of course, I say that as a huge personal fan of the Maloween event 2014, so there might be is quite some subjectivity in these points shared. ;) Thank you everyone who has participated in this event as it was, however! The number of participants is beautiful~ Hope to see you next year! |
| thanks to my secret santas for the profile pic and rec! and of course thanks to all who organized the event, it was once again really sweet and fun :) |
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| I'm in full agreement with minusatwelfth. The review limitations are not the only obstacle on the way. There's also user restrictions and their completed as well as plan to watch lists. If a single factor isn't met, such as a smallest preference, the gift wasn't accepted and was rejected. This not only makes it hard to recommend something good, but makes it hard to recommend anything at all. I would say you loosen on the sending of the gifts back if the explanation why you are still sending it is good enough. Expanding from that, i thought you were going to kill me when completing your gift, minus. xD Thankfully, I'm still alive, so it wasn't that bad, teehee. |
| I was only able to check one of the recs I recieved, but I absolutely loved it. I can't believe I missed Indigo Blue. Really enjoyed it, thanks Brynhildr! I'll be looking into the second one soon enough ^^ Thanks to all the elves for their hardcore work & thanks to everyone for participating! |
minusatwelfth said: Though maybe cut some slack on the review feature criteria a bit, the aim should be to create new bonds and enjoyment, not purely promote the completeness of the website. That's my two cents anyway. Personally I appreciated the restrictions, since it is really easy to find popular shows to watch but a less well-known recommendation is harder to come by and can surprise easily. |
| "My tables-meet it is I set it down That one may smile, and smile, and be a villain." |
| Forgot to do this in the earlier thread. Though thanks elves for all the hard work. As mentioned without you the event wouldn't have ran it's course so smoothly. The event was fun and I'll probably participate again next year. |
AstrosDec 30, 2014 9:03 AM
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| Had a lot of fun preparing the gifts and getting my own this year. |
| Thanks PentaFlare, and thank you Zelot for helping him/her out. Also a big thanks to all the people that were in charge of the event, it was fun to take part in and i'll hopefully sign up next year as well if there's another one. |
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| Thanks Cigarette! Thanks NavyCherub! Hope you both got great gifts too + all the best for the coming year~ Subpyro said: -snip- Speak for yourself. It's a tad offensive to suggest that "we come up with something better" for next year or simply remake the Halloween event. This was pretty great and it was very well handled. |
| the official MAL hall of fame/cursed comments is now open for business - you are welcome to PM me any potential quotes to include |
vodall said: All of the elves who participated seemed to know exactly what they signed up for – that is, not much more than voluntary work. I'd go as far as saying that we had fun addressing the numerous challenges along the way, even if it was stressful at times. I personally see it as more of a showcase of passion and joy than an actual event, and that's what convinced me to help out with all of it. There's not many things that make me as happy as putting feelings into words and sharing those with the world, so why not help others accomplish the same? If you're speaking on behalf of the users, I'd disagree; I don't think anything asked was particularly time-consuming or outside the bounds of reason. It's just a nice little surprise for the participants to look forward to. Since everyone who participated both gave gifts and received them, no one was an exception. Maybe I'm wrong. Good to know. If the elves were okay with it, I have nothing to say. Also, I strongly agree where you've said that this cannot be seen as an event. It was just gift exchange. So anti-hyper and boring in comparison to, as said, Maloween 2014. You use strong words such as "passion and joy" and "putting feeling into words" as well as "sharing them with the world" like you're trying to impress someone here, but that's none of my business. Will be a part of it next year if we decide to set this up, just my 2 cents on the matter: I would by far prefer to see an actual event with hip & happening going down than have something chilly as this up. I've explained my reasoning in the previous post already - although having gift exchanges is appropriate and sweet, why kill the potential of greatness if it could be something more? |
| Thanks a lot Astros477 for the gifts~~~ I was really happy when I got it, you chose some cool pics! And thanks for the effort as well, I hope you had some great holidays! And also a very big thanks on the elves for helping us have such an enjoyable event for holidays. I have to say it was really organized, the image one at least. Hope my gift was OK as well ಥ_ಥ |
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| I really appreciate the efforts given by Elf-chama, Kineta, and most of all my Secret Santa ! This event was very enjoyable to particapate in, and I couldn't be happier with my gift rec. Thanks again everybody and happy holidays ! |
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| Oh! I gifted for an elf? And my recipient was a DB Admin. Didn't expect that. XD I'll have to thank my SS for recommending the series to me. I had ditched it before, but I was determined to finish it entirely. And it turned much better by the end of the series. (I still hated the first few episodes, but I persevered!) It's a series I wouldn't have otherwise bothered to complete. :) And as for the event, I thought it was fine overall. I signed up for the recommendations version. I did feel, however, that it lacked some kind of formatting/structure? I was browsing all the entries for the event and I noticed that the length for answers varied quite a bit from person to person. But they all had sufficient information for a recommendation, so maybe I'm just nitpicking. I would have also appreciated some points that should be covered in the paragraph that is sent along with the present as well, or again a bit of formatting. I didn't really know what to write, and the paragraph from my SS was very different. (I do think this is me nitpicking more than actual complaint/problem though.) Lastly, I want to note the mix up for my recipient. I confirmed for my first one, but I was later sent my correct recipient, which I didn't confirm for. It didn't bother me that much, but I didn't like that I was given my (2nd) recipient without having to confirm again. I had taken the time to see whether I could find good recs for my 1st recipient before confirming, and I would have liked to do the same for my 2nd. |
| I don't know how you are planning to showcase the reviews, but I have a couple of suggestions. These might already be your plans but I'll share my thoughts anyways. First, if you plan to put the review showcase in a forum post like this one (as links, fill reviews, or however), I think it would be best to group them by the genre of the work being reviewed to allow users to navigate easily to reviews of series that might interest them. Second, I'm sure that I'm not the only one who would love it if people reading the showcase gave feedback on my review. However, I think that you should specify a way to give feedback to the reviewer (pm them, comment on their profile, etc.) so that reviewers know where to expect any feedback. I feel that although simple, these small things would help out the users involved with the feature and those who read the feature. Thanks for taking the time to organize and run this event! |
Be like this seal. It is a happy seal. ~Review Guidelines~ | ~Recommendation Guidelines~ | ~Mafia Society~ |
| I was surprised when I received my gift, and kind of knew already who made it, but still wanted to be sure before thanking. THANK YOU, REN-SAN! Love the DP so much. <3 And it was fun to make and receive gifts, so I also want to thank the hard-working elves for making this event! A big thank you, guys and girls! :'D next time I will be sure to enter the rec edition too ^^" |
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| Thank you, Naruleach! I'm glad you picked Gintoki for my image gifts :> Pretty funny that I made an image gift of the same character. Also thanks to the elves and admin that made sure the event processed smoothly. |
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| Thanks TO all Elves for their time and happy new year and special thanks to mayukachan for DGM signature |
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| Welp, my secret santa is one of my best friends - unsurprisingly, as I recognized her recommendation and her writing style immediately. These elves should probably be more careful about that, I guess. xD Still, it got me to finally start watching Nana, which I have been enjoying very well! But she's already been hearing all about it as I've been watching, so I guess this isn't coming as any surprise... hahaha. |
 ☩ Discord: the.path.to.pathos ☩ RateYourMusic ☩ last.fm |
| Really thank you for your hard work, elves and admin. A thought for 2015: Make more events ;; |
| Eheh, thanks lupadim, i love Kaiji so much ! :3. I'm currently watching it, and it's pure gold. Thank you too, _Ghost_, for Agaki, since i can't review Kaiji ! And thanks to everyone who organised this Santa event. It would be a real pleasure to participate again. |
| I want to thank my secret santa TFO1013 for recommending me a COOL manga! I rarely find something...unique in manga and this one hit the spot haha~ The characters are awesome..the story is SUPER interesting and the art is good!! Thank you very much!! I truly appreciate the work done by the elves....This is my first time participating is this event...and i`ll SURELY take part in it next year too woo~ :))) |
This is where I`d put my signature...If i had one. |
| Thanks to all the users that participated in this awesome event! Thank you iMKunt for the awesome avatar, im even using it on Steam really loved it. Next year will put more time in work since this year i got "problems" that didn't let me . Cheers and a happy new year! |
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| After going to Ryugen's profile, I can totally see how my profile picture was able to be of such high quality. I feel pretty lucky that I got someone who was really amazing at image editing to do my picture for me. They did an excellent job. Vexper, I've been meaning to watch Uchouten Kazoku for a while now, so having that be my anime rec definitely has inspired me to pick it up. I'll probably start it either today or tomorrow, and I'll be getting a review up for it shortly as well. This was a really, really fun event! Thanks to everyone who helped and participated, I definitely enjoyed it. |
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| Thank you, SparkleBunnies and TheOneOtaku for my gifts c: I promise I'll start reading my recs sometime soon x) I love my Taichi profile/avvie~ Thanks, Elves for your hard work!! (◕‿◕✿) AllenVonStein said: and special thanks to mayukachan for DGM signature No problem! |
| Well, it was supah dupah fun making and getting stuff Thank you to all of the efs and organizers for all that they contributed~! |
"Fuck this shit, fun things are fun!" |
| Thanks to TheDerpMan for my gift! You met my criteria perfectly; I'm not sure why I've overlooked the series until now, but it's definitely what I was looking for. ^-^ Thanks to the staff and elves running the event as well. It was a lot of fun. |
| Thanks TripleSRank for the Recommendation! Spice and Wolf is pretty nice. And thanks Bryce101 for the profile pic, its awesome! |
| I've been here way too long... |
| Thanks to everyone who participated and especially thanks to my secret Santa who recommended me two awesome anime! Both are quite long but I'm excited to start them both. :) |
 Central Time (US) |
vodall said: While the first suggestion is a nice idea, I feel some of the reviewers may be disappointed for a lack of recognition - people will be likely to go for the most popular genres and read little of the rest. I do completely agree about the constructive criticism, though, if Kineta would be willing. That is definately worth mentioning. Maybe if there were only three to five large categories such as romance or action, then there won't be anything completely left out of the spotlight. Might be trickier with some unique works though. |
Be like this seal. It is a happy seal. ~Review Guidelines~ | ~Recommendation Guidelines~ | ~Mafia Society~ |
| My elf recommended me something that I had already watched |
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lupadim said: My elf recommended me something that I had already watched Rather interesting that the elf who was in care didn't notice that. Mine has kept a sharp eye on what to return as soon as a slight detail was off. :p |
| My gift was surprisingly good, I never would've tried it if I didn't enter this thing (I never even heard of it before). I'll be sure to enter again next year (if I'm still around). |
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| Thanks quukii for the rec! I really enjoyed Kobato. And thanks to the elves c: |
minusatwelfth said: Thanks for your input. While the goal is to have you interact with new people and enjoy the event, this is already achieved through the regular recommendation event. The review feature was intended to be something special, with the end result of the showcase being a key factor. As I wrote in the sign up thread, "We hope to both challenge and recognise our reviewing community with this feature...". Writing a review for a series that just aired and already has 30 reviews would likely be passed over in a showcase, and isn't much of a challenge. By limiting the rec to lesser-known series, we hoped to increase interest in the final reviews written and give the writers a bit of a challenge in the meantime. Since many of the users who signed up already write reviews regularly, a feature without these restrictions wouldn't have been anything special... or at least so I think.I thought it was a pretty well-organized and thoughtful event. Though maybe cut some slack on the review feature criteria a bit, the aim should be to create new bonds and enjoyment, not purely promote the completeness of the website. That's my two cents anyway. It was interesting to see the variety of lists that joined up for the feature though. One user had a list of less then 80-90 anime and had seen many series fitting the requirements; in contrast, some people with 300+ series had barely seen anything. I understand that this made it difficult for both us to pair up people and for some of the users to give recs. Hopefully after the showcase, there will be many lesser-known series that will catch your interest and you can add to your list :) Mirorin said: Perhaps next year we could include an example post to help people. In the end though, some people are quite picky while others aren't, so there will still be variation.I did feel, however, that it lacked some kind of formatting/structure? I was browsing all the entries for the event and I noticed that the length for answers varied quite a bit from person to person. Mirorin said: The confirmation wasn't a confirmation for the recipient you were given, but rather a confirmation that you were still participating in the event. It's a way to weed out people who forget about signing up or become busy before the last minute where we're forced to make backup gifts. In your case, your recipient never confirmed, so he was removed from the list and you received his recipient (there was no mix-up). Even with confirmations, we still had to make a number of backup gifts again this year.Lastly, I want to note the mix up for my recipient. I confirmed for my first one, but I was later sent my correct recipient, which I didn't confirm for. It didn't bother me that much, but I didn't like that I was given my (2nd) recipient without having to confirm again. I had taken the time to see whether I could find good recs for my 1st recipient before confirming, and I would have liked to do the same for my 2nd. @Pentaflare: Thanks for the suggestions! Fine details need to be worked out still (luckily we got a healthy variety with the recs and minimal dupes), but we'll definitely be keeping those things in mind. Zadion said: Yeah, we didn't check friends lists... with so many users and a mostly randomised match-up, you'd think things like this would be avoided.Welp, my secret santa is one of my best friends - unsurprisingly, as I recognized her recommendation and her writing style immediately. These elves should probably be more careful about that, I guess. xD ihateeveryone said: Please don't post your review until the showcase! We'd like to collect them all first :)... and I'll be getting a review up for it shortly as well. lupadim said: It wasn't (and isn't) on your list, so there's no way that could have been avoided. If you actually have seen it :PMy elf recommended me something that I had already watched |
KinetaDec 30, 2014 4:28 PM
| My recipient was changed right before the deadline :C Otherwise I enjoyed the event. |
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| Thanks to all the elves and Santas, this was a great event! I'm glad I signed up for it. I'm wondering, what's with the question about whether you have problems receiving PMs on the sign up thread? I don't think anyone put yes for that, so I wonder why it was included. |
| Want to thank my SECRET SANTA Zelot who actually worked harder than other santas? i mean i see his name mentioned in image editions five times? for the gift, effort and time he spend. Also a big thank you to all elves and of course Kineta just because! And yes, I'm always glad to take part in this event, at least in the image edition. && I was surprised when I got my recipient since I know this person pretty well so it was more like a Christmas present for a friend. I suppose match-ups weren't that random at all c': See you again next year! |
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