This will be the eleventh annual Secret Santa event for Smack Jeeves so I can assume most of you know the general rundown by now, sign up in this thread to help spread some holiday cheer to your community. Once your hat is thrown into the festivities and the sign up period ends you'll be randomly (and secretly) paired with some other lucky Smack citizen, then the real fun begins! You'll have until Christmas to use your unique talents to create a digital gift for the person you've been paired with! This can be an illustration, a comic, or even a sculpture, creativity goes a long way. Simply make sure that your gift is specific and personal to your recipient. Read their comic, look at their online art galleries, and check their posts to get a read on their personality! Having your own comic, gallery, or other relevant information about yourself and your interests listed on your SJ profile would certainly be a big help to your Santa in creating your gift!
So now that you hopefully understand what Secret Santa is about and how it works, let's get to some specifics!
SJSS DATES OF NOTE!
Secret Santa sign up Goes from today (December 2nd) until December 8th. Private messages containing your giftee will be sent no later than December 10th! (note: failure to have your gift ready by this deadline will result in you being considered a scrooge, a title which will be explained further down.)
Magical gift elf sign-up begins Saturday December 10th and goes until December 24th!
Gifts are due, by December 24th 11:59 pm US Alaskan Time! (note: failure to have your gift ready by this deadline will result in you being considered a scrooge, a title which will be explained further down.) Magical elf gifts are due by (edit)JANUARY TENTH 2017!
Now let's set up some rules!
-Make a Gift! Create an original piece of art in the form of a single picture/comic (one image file) OR a flash animation (yup, we're accepting SWF files) for your giftee after you receive your assignment by December 10th (you will get a gift in return from your Secret Santa!) It should go without saying, but NO ART THEFT! All art must be original!
-Check it twice! Art is subjective, but if we believe you can do better, we'll ask you to make something new if there's still time. Give gifts you'd like to receive! Pictures/Comics should be specific to the person receiving them. E.g., if they have written a story posted on sj or posted comics on sj, you should try to make your gift specific to that content. Submitting a gift that does not fit this criteria will still put you at risk for being listed as a scrooge!
-No Stealing! Plagiarism / theft will not be tolerated, and will earn you an immediate spot on the scrooge list.
-Sprites are okay, BUT they must be 100% original (not recolors)
-Safe for Work (and kids) Be respectful of your giftee and their work. Borderline NSFW content is okay, but remember, we're a family friendly site and a lot of people are going to be looking at your gift, not just your giftee. Fully NSFW content won't be posted (this is a change from the past years).
-Smack Jeeves Rules and TOS Apply If in doubt, refresh your memory!
-Make Santa's Job Easier! You don't have to have a comic, but you do need to help your Secret Santa out a little bit. Update your Smack Jeeves profile with some information about your interests. Link out to other sites and profiles you may have (if you feel comfortable doing so).
-Submit Your Art! by December 24th (11:59PM CST). See submission instructions below.
And finally, don't be afraid to Ask Questions! Ask in this thread and Santa will answer!
Submission Guidelines!
Here's some simple guidelines for how to actually submit your gift. Failure to follow these instructions could cause you to miss the deadline, which again, will result in you being a scrooge so PLEASE follow them. Their is a system to managing this event, and failure to even title your email correctly will disrupt it. Please follow these instructions to the letter. Please?
Gifts MUST be emailed to me as an attachment by December 24th CST (look it up if you aren't sure - time zones matter). I will post it on this site for all to see. See details below for how to do this. DO NOT PM me your gift.
-IMAGES/FLASH FILES SHOULD NOT EXCEED 900 PX WIDE.
-Images and flash files cannot exceed 5MB. You will be asked to fix them and resubmit them before the deadline if they're too big.
-On the 25th, you can reveal your identity as the gift-giver. (optional)
-Don't sign your work with your SJ username. It's Secret Santa, remember?
Email format for submissions:
Email: smacksanta@gmail.com
Subject: Secret Santa 2016 Submission from [YOUR FORUM USERNAME]
Body: A Gift for [your assigned recipient]
Attach: Your image/flash file. If it's already online, link to it in the body. Please take the time to resize your files to no wider than 900px wide and no smaller than 300px wide (they can be up to 10000px high). Files cannot exceed 5MB.
If you would like to include a hi res version of your artwork, please make sure it is clearly named and submitted in addition to the file that meets the above requirements. We will post a link to the hi res file on the site when we post your gift. This is NOT required, but it is very nice of you to do.
Scrooges and Grinches
Now to cover what happens in you make the naughty list, and how that list is made...
A scrooge is someone who does NOT come through with a gift. Failure to meet the deadline results in becoming a scrooge. We understand that commitments come up and missing deadlines happens to the best of us, but you also need to understand that being left out feels pretty lousy so we're sorry, but there's, sadly, no leeway for scrooges. If you make the list then there's nothing to do but accept it. You will be asked to apologize to the individual who was scrooged and will be not be able to participate in the next Secret Santa.
Grinches are another thing entirely. A grinch is any individual who deliberately breaks the rules of Secret Santa or shows disrespect to the other participants by making only a minimal effort. Art that violates the rules, is stolen, or art that is clearly devoid of effort and not corrected when requested will result in you being listed as a grinch and banned from Secret Santa for the next TWO years.
Magical Gift Elves
Truly magical, these are the champions of Secret Santa because they accept the duty and responsibility of creating make-up gifts for individuals who were scrooged, and this is done selflessly as gift elves are not receiving extra gifts but volunteering their time to help someone who has been left out, and for that reason Gift Elves are an important part of this event, the sign up thread to become a gift elf will open December 10th the day after giftees are sent assigned!
In Conclusion
This will be the ELEVENTH annual Secret Santa for Smack Jeeves, that's OVER A DECADE of holiday cheer in this little webcomic community, and I think that's pretty special, so let's work together to make this another great year!
