Sorry again But!
Pepper-Dragon has persuaded me to run a mini secret Santa via Artcrossing. Because you're all awesome. And I love you. And I know you will all make amazing gifts for amazing people and not let me down. (She is also going to be helping me with the organisation, so we will be running this together. Thanks Pepper-Dragon! 
)
)However, having said that we have a lot of newbies in the group too and I think I should mention before you get any further that this is only going to be open to active and reliable members. You have to have sent at least five gifts that have been received to participate. (See at the bottom for full details of how to check.)
Sorry if you feel this criterium is too strict but if I didn't have it there I wouldn't be running this at all. I really just want to open this up to those people I already know are dependable; it's really easy for people to overcommit themselves at this time of year even if they mean well. Artcrossing is entirely built round the "send something before you receive something" concept, which means that if you have to cancel you haven't let anyone down; if you cancel in a secret Santa, you are getting something for nothing and your partner is making something and not receiving. So I am just being on the safe side here. The normal part of Artcrossing will continue as usual and the rest of you can still join in that - this is just a "project on the side" for our more active members.
Well that's all the killjoy stuff over and done with! 
Here are a few more things you should know.
- Partners will be assigned entirely randomly. I have a program that'll do that for me. Who you get is who you get!
- Your secret Santa will be given your usual Artcrossing profile and address. If you want to make an additional wishlist for Christmas, you can put one in a journal and give us the link to it (not now - more on that later!) and that will be passed to your secret Santa in addition to your profile.
- Unlike normal Artcrossing gifts, secret Santas will be given the username of the person they're making a gift for. For obvious reasons the recipient won't be given the name of the Santa until it's all finished!
- You need to be certain you can commit to this if you sign up for it. If for some reason an emergency happens, then of course let us know and I'll do my best to sort it out, but barring emergencies I want this to go as smoothly as possible.
- It's up to you how early you send the gift, but if you aim to get it finished in a couple of weeks you should have plenty of time for it to arrive even if it's over the other side of the world. That'll probably also give you some emergency time in case it turns into a bigger project than you expected or you're delayed for some reason. Remember the mail takes much longer at Christmas time.
So if you want to sign up:
- Comment below by 11 November saying you want to sign up.
- If you want to make an additional wishlist like I talked about, make sure to do that too: put it in a journal somewhere and give us the link (not yet - I'll post another journal telling you when). Your Santa doesn't have to follow the wishlist - if they're stuck they can just use your profile - but I'm sure they'll bear it in mind if they can accommodate it at all!
________
Do I qualify?
Go here and check your "Gifts sent" total.
If it's 5 or more, you can participate.
There is one special case, and that's anyone who participated in the "gifts for no return" thing in January/February 2011, as these gifts won't be included in your totals. If you think that might be you, talk to me about it.
Apart from that, if you don't have 5 or more gifts sent, you don't qualify I'm afraid. Keep sending normal Artcrossing gifts and don't let it put you off! There are loads of other secret Santas out there
Lots of people "support gay rights" but in actual fact have prejudices of their own that get in the way of truly helping equality. Someone who is gay is not just a "gay person", but a PERSON. A person who happens to be gay. As 
Chat event will start from 20:30 British time and last until midnight.
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