minusatwelfth said: 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. 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.
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: 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. 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.
Mirorin said: 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. 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.
@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: 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 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.
ihateeveryone said: ... and I'll be getting a review up for it shortly as well. Please don't post your review until the showcase! We'd like to collect them all first :)
lupadim said: My elf recommended me something that I had already watched 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 :P |