What to do about the PYO swap – updated with a poll

[dragonmedley]

Ok, we have awesome ideas here! So far, the ship date (which came up more than once) is probably the best solution for the January swap. If we hit snags with it, then we can try the other solutions.

Now, just to make things more interesting… (’cause this is way more fun than what I have to do at work right now) I added a poll! We have griffins, wolves, dragons, kirins, unicorns and muses. I was wondering if said muse should be included in the swap…

So, should the muse be part of the swap? Only on demand?
____________________________________
Thought I’d post this here…

To date, 3 people haven’t received their swap:
Arlla, from Nirvanacat
Nirvanacat, from Whippetluv
Whippetluv, from Ryliecat

Now Nirvana can’t finish hers and GB is helping her out. Thank you so much, Greater Basilisk. I can’t wait to see the piece. Arlla, you just hang in there.

Here’s what Whippet told me:

Quote:

No I did not get my piece…

(from Ryliecat)

Quote:

but I have also not had a chance to mail Nirvana’s. It should be going out this week though as I have finished it!

That’s why I was calling out to everyone. I can’t seem to get a hold of Ryliecat.

I want to know your thoughts on this. Last swap, one person did not get a painted piece. We compromised with an unpainted one. This time, 2 people are still waiting. I think Whippet will be able to pull through, but I really don’t know about Ryliecat. She had said she was done in the PM she sent me at the beginning of July, but obviously, she hasn’t sent it.

What do we do about participants who do not do their part? What irks me the most is if someone receives a piece, but does not send one… the swaps are meant to be trades, fair and square.

It would be really sad (in my eyes) if someone who painted and sent a piece did not receive one in return. I want the swaps to continue, but if 2 months after the deadline I’m still hounding people down, the fun’s kind of gone, especially for the ones waiting. Any suggestions on how to fix/prevent this?

Read my books! Volume 1 and 2 of A Dragon Medley are available now.
http://www.sarahjestin.com/mybooks.htm
I host the feedback lists, which are maintained by drag0nfeathers.
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[dragonmedley]

Read my books! Volume 1 and 2 of A Dragon Medley are available now.
http://www.sarahjestin.com/mybooks.htm
I host the feedback lists, which are maintained by drag0nfeathers.
http://www.sarahjestin.com/feedbacklists.htm

[KoishiiKitty]

there is one way I can think of..and that would be for people to be paired up so person A and person B are trading together and know it. that way they can mail thiers at the same time and it will be known if one person is NOT doing thier part. if person A has painted one but person B has no and can not be contacted for some period of time..then they can switch to another partner who would be willing to fill in.

every one does not have to know who got who as a partner..only the two people trading with one another so it still is a surprise.

this is not the same as the current swap..but it would elliminate these instances easiest in my opinion.

[Kaylalily]

I’ve never done one of these swaps, so my suggestions could be completely off the mark, but I thought I’d give it a shot helping out. As far as I know, there isn’t a set deadline for when a PYO must be done and shipped for a PYO swap, is there?

I agree that Koishi’s idea would work, but if you want to keep that secret santa element to it, there are a few ways I can think of that might work, though there are flaws. If you don’t match people up from the beginning, but have each participant paint one then send a picture to an organizer, they can try to match them up with the recipient by color preference. That way you know there’s a PYO ready to be sent, the disadvantage is that it isn’t painted for anyone specifically from the get-go.

I think with this group of people, who seem generally reliable, you could probably just impose a ship-by date with notification to an organizer that it has been shipped, then you’d know early on who needed a bit of pestering to finish. If you know early enough that someone isn’t going to finish on time, or close to that, then you could bypass them with the one originally meant for them going to the next, so you don’t have a break in the chain. For this, you could have a date that everyone needs to be done by, and a ship-by date a little later, so you could find where the holes (if any) are and correct them before the PYOs are shipped. Of course it could be flexible if someone contacted the organizer with a scheduling problem or something like that.

I’m hoping that was helpful, I just thought I’d add my two cents to the mix.

[Maria]

I thought I painted for ryliecat?
I worked on Nirvana’s today. If I do more tomorrow and Monday I should be able to finish it before I leave. She’d started it, so I’m working with her colors. It may not be my best piece ever, unfortunately…

[KoishiiKitty]

Kaylalily wrote:

If you don’t match people up from the beginning, but have each participant paint one then send a picture to an organizer, they can try to match them up with the recipient by color preference. That way you know there’s a PYO ready to be sent, the disadvantage is that it isn’t painted for anyone specifically from the get-go.

that could work real well actualy. have a deadline for painting to end and before anything is shipped they have to send a photo of it to the organizer. is some one is missing one and does not give a good reason, then some one else can easily be asked to fill the spot. then all can be shipped realitively at the same time. it would be a bit more work but it could work very well.

[Tintaglia]

Another option would be to have the participants send a PM to organizer when their piece is ready to mail (including a picture is a good idea too). When the organizer has at least three ready to mail, then they can have those ready to mail, send their pieces to the others that are ready to mail. Having a minimum of three, you won’t have to have straight across swap. When three more are ready to mail, send those names out. This would allow those that got their swap ready to send earliest to get a piece back fairly quickly. If someone needs to drop out, then the organizer doesn’t have to try to re-assign a swap partner. The organizer can still take preferences and try to match them up. And still have mailing deadlines so everyone knows their goal date.

I’ve only been in the forum a few weeks, so I know very little about the PYO swaps. This may or may not have already been tried in the past.

[Skigod377]

I think we should be able to rely upon each other to paint and send out a peice. If there is a chance you cant do it, then dont join in the swap. To have people waiting months after the deadline (Yes there is a deadline) is just not fair no matter what the excuse. Except death. 😕 How to prevent it? I dont really see a way except paypaling someone $40 at the beggining, and when they get their peice, they paypal the money to the painter. This way everyone either gets their money back, or a sculpt, and only serious/reliable people will do it. I dunno know though. The whole situation is very unfair.

[Rose]

I don’t know how to prevent it, but maybe we should trade names like normal, but when done hold the PYO till a certin date. Send whoever oranised it the pictures of the PYO or just confirm that it’s done then you’ll know if someone has finished or not then you can take action then.

You shouldn’t sign up for something if you can’t handle the resposibility of finishing it. If you can’t finish (things do come up suddenly) you should tell someone. Don’t just stay silent.

[dragonmedley]

Greater Basilisk wrote:

I thought I painted for ryliecat?

You did paint for Ryliecat. I think she’s the first one who received hers! She didn’t send in hers.

And yes, like Ski said, there was a deadline, June 30th. While I encourage communication, some people just won’t!

Your ideas are really good. I really like the swap, I truly enjoyed organizing this one and would like to continue. What I will do it take into account everyone’s suggestions and give you my thoughts in October or so, that way, we can come to a consensus for the swap in January.

Right now, the sending money thing is very appealing. It would mean that if someone didn’t get their piece, at least they got funds and they come out even.

Read my books! Volume 1 and 2 of A Dragon Medley are available now.
http://www.sarahjestin.com/mybooks.htm
I host the feedback lists, which are maintained by drag0nfeathers.
http://www.sarahjestin.com/feedbacklists.htm

[boskydragon]

What about doing the swap the same way, and sending in money so that when you send yours you get your money back. BUT, if you don’t send yours, then the money you would’ve gotten back would go to paying someone to paint a PYO for the person who didn’t get theirs. (So instead of getting $$ you would still get a PYO.) There could be a PYO donation pool so that there would be 1 or 2 PYOs on hand to be painted in case something falls through again.
Sound good?

[Pegasi1978]

My thoughts are if someone commits to the swap, receives a piece and then fails to send one on to their person then either:

a) they should ship the piece they received on to their partner
b) be barred from participating in the next (and possibly all future) swaps

Probably not very popular thoughts, but they are mine.

[Adaneth]

pegasi1978 wrote:

My thoughts are if someone commits to the swap, receives a piece and then fails to send one on to their person then either:

a) they should ship the piece they received on to their partner
b) be barred from participating in the next (and possibly all future) swaps

Probably not very popular thoughts, but they are mine.

I think those suggestions are perfectly fair, though those people seem to be hard to get in contact with. (But I’m not a part of the swap myself–I want to be with the next, though!)

[Pegasi1978]

Adaneth wrote:

I think those suggestions are perfectly fair, though those people seem to be hard to get in contact with. (But I’m not a part of the swap myself–I want to be with the next, though!)

Thanks. Hmmm, maybe we need to include phone numbers when we provide shipping addresses so that way there’s another way to contact people.

[Skigod377]

I agree that if someone didnt finish a swap they should not do it again. The deadline gives you months to finish. There is really no excuse.

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