Thread: 2014 Australia Day Pen Swap - Suggestions and Ideas

Scott,

The person's real name, address and email address is already made available to the forum owners upon joining and has to remain current and there is an optional method of allowing emails from forum members.

Maybe a condition of entry should be that the forum owners is granted an authority to allow the organiser access to those email addresses. As a safeguard against abuse the organiser should be granted a Moderator status or be an existing moderator.


Peter.

Originally Posted by Sturdee

The person's real name, address and email address is already made available to the forum owners upon joining

Peter this is not correct, the only requirements on joining are birthdate, a Username, a valid email address and Location.

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I have no issues with an organizer having access to my full name, email address or real life geographic address. (In my case, my real life address is easily determined by my email address anyway.) A number of fellow forumites know all these things already and there is no guarantee they have accidentally or deliberately divulged this info to others.

I have always kept a few "disposable" email addresses for use on websites that are dubious. I consider my gmail addresses in this category.

There is no reason people can't create a gmail account for the swap purpose and there's no way anyone would know any better.

For others who want to remain more anonymous, perhaps there could be a category of swap that was something like "complete contact detail unknown" and swapees could elect to be in this category and/or swap with another in this category.

My 2cents.

Originally Posted by Sturdee

Scott,

The person's real name, address and email address is already made available to the forum owners upon joining and has to remain current and there is an optional method of allowing emails from forum members.

Maybe a condition of entry should be that the forum owners is granted an authority to allow the organiser access to those email addresses. As a safeguard against abuse the organiser should be granted a Moderator status or be an existing moderator.


Peter.

Thanks for your input Peter. Good suggestions. The pen swap was organised be me with DJ doing the moderator stuff, I think it worked well. I also think that Neil would like to protect the integrity of the Forums by minimising user access to sensitive details. Which is why I'd like to ask for an email address as a condition of entry. No email address, no participation.

I have made this thread a "sticky" so that it is seen by the maximum number of people.

Some points:

I don't see a real need for people to divulge their physical/geographic address, except to their partner. Quite a lot of people, myself included, have a PO Box mailing address.
Even if the organiser knows the address it won't help to make people complete their swap.
I have had several partners, not only on our swap, where we have exchanged addresses and the swap didn't complete.

It isn't necessary for the organisers to collect email addresses, these are already on file (through the sign up process).

I've never seen "numbers" of participants as a goal.

As for minimum numbers of posts, 20-25 posts is a rather high target, particularly for our overseas participants.

I don't think it is necessary for a moderator to organise the swap, even though I have done a few as moderator. The way Scott, and others, have organised the swap with backroom assistance from a mod (eg DJ or myself) has worked fine.

The number of swaps that people sign up for should be clearly stated. I have had several people commenting on this years' interpretation of OS/DOM as being a two swap sign up. So please ask people to sign up for OS or DOM or OS & DOM.

As was discussed in Amos' thread, communication is the single most important part. Without communication the whole thing falls in a hole.

There are probably some other points to be made, but this will do for starters.

Originally Posted by Big Shed

I have made this thread a "sticky" so that it is seen by the maximum number of people.

Thanks Fred, appreciated

Originally Posted by Big Shed

As for minimum numbers of posts, 20-25 posts is a rather high target, particularly for our overseas participants..

The issue here is that some OS users who have just signed on have a minimal allowance for PM's. Once they sign on for the swap, they don't contribute to the forum and are gone. Having this set amount lets regular users get to know the participant and to a certain extent, trust them. What's the number of posts a user has to make before they get the full allowance of PM's? I sent close to 50-60 PM's to users last swap, close to 50% were rejected because the in box was full and the other 40%, the user ignored the PM. When I did have the user's email address, nearly 100% of the time the user replied.

Originally Posted by Big Shed

The number of swaps that people sign up for should be clearly stated. I have had several people commenting on this years' interpretation of OS/DOM as being a two swap sign up. So please ask people to sign up for OS or DOM or OS & DOM.

Yup, big problem and in part my fault. I think the original call for swaps wasn't clear enough. I'll work on this one and it will be clearer next time.

Originally Posted by Big Shed

As was discussed in Amos' thread, communication is the single most important part. Without communication the whole thing falls in a hole.

What a nightmare, I think the biggest single problem with the last swap were people not communicating. Don't know how to fix this. See my response above for email addresses.

Originally Posted by DJ's Timber

Peter this is not correct, the only requirements on joining are birthdate, a Username, a valid email address and Location.

Sorry guys for the misinformation. I thought the correct name and address was necessary but it's been a long time ago that I joined.

Peter.

My personal opinion is that all participants meet the same qualifying requirements that the monthly free give-away draw has. This would stop people joining up at the last minute just to get into the swap. But I would also like all participants to acknowledge in there sign up post that they are agreeing to abide by the rules of the swap and that they make a commitment to comunicate by PM on a regular basis with their swap partner. Obviously this will not solve the all the problems that have occured in the past but I think it may stop some that are not really in it for the intended purpose.

Originally Posted by tdrumnut

My personal opinion is that all participants meet the same qualifying requirements that the monthly free give-away draw has. This would stop people joining up at the last minute just to get into the swap. But I would also like all participants to acknowledge in there sign up post that they are agreeing to abide by the rules of the swap and that they make a commitment to comunicate by PM on a regular basis with their swap partner. Obviously this will not solve the all the problems that have occured in the past but I think it may stop some that are not really in it for the intended purpose.

Good suggestion there Rumnut, worth thinking about.

As a very new turner I worried about signing up to one of these - I have seen the $$$ value of some of the kits being exchanged and also Ppls skills and generosity, I would be worried that my hard work was not enough and that I had some how let people down by not "exchanging" similar gifts.

Can we have three classes / groups .... Beginner , Intermediate, Advanced or can we set a MAX $$$ value on the swap (at the end of the day it's about meeting people and swapping gifts ..Right.? )


I would also like to see everyone post a photo of there swap and maybe for the advanced group they should be made to make a kit-less pen... HaHa...

As I am the original creator of this Australia Day swap, I see no need to pull the reins in on members that have only one or limited posts. this swap was designed to be open to the world and create new friendships, I do see a need to stop people entering that have not previously completed their swap after receiving a pen from their partner.

Number is not the main objective here.

It is a good idea to open it up for beginners, intermediate and advanced with people also choosing to swap witjh a partner of any skill. I think it is good to swap with anyone that way people get to learn off others.

It would be nice to have a more international friend taking part to celebrate Australia Day

That's my two cents worth for what its worth

Iwould have to agree with Simomatra,


I would hate to see the swap limited to people who don't post frequently on theforum.

I began turning with the Mackay Woodturning Club in Mackay, Queensland. TroyGeisler (mkypenturner)has been teaching me the art of penmaking. It was Troy who encouraged me tojoin the forum and take part in the Australia Day Swap. Thanking Troy forstearing me in this direction, I have made a couple of great friends this yearas well as opening the door to buy some specialised timbers and tools throughthe market place and other forum members.

I dont alway use the forum to post or comment, but I have learnt and taken onboard advice from other pen makers experiences. I have also used the forum as areference point to raise the bar within my own pen making skills and to striveto extend my ability to create a pen that I would never have thought possible.

Simomatra in correct in saying the swap should to be open the world and tocreate new friendships. My experience has been exactly that and I applaudSimomatra for his initiative in initially setting up his idea.

It is from the swap this year that I will be meeting my international swappartner in person when I travel to the UK in September. My correspondance withmy swap partners has been through personal emails or the odd phone call. Againnot through this social medias forum.

It is my belief that the forum should continue with Simomatra's initial intentof the swap respecting his intended purposes.

Originally Posted by Simomatra

As I am the original creator of this Australia Day swap, I see no need to pull the reins in on members that have only one or limited posts. this swap was designed to be open to the world and create new friendships, I do see a need to stop people entering that have not previously completed their swap after receiving a pen from their partner.

Number is not the main objective here.

It is a good idea to open it up for beginners, intermediate and advanced with people also choosing to swap witjh a partner of any skill. I think it is good to swap with anyone that way people get to learn off others.

It would be nice to have a more international friend taking part to celebrate Australia Day

That's my two cents worth for what its worth

Ive been involved in a few swaps on other forums, youve hit the basics on the head

minimum posts
real name
real address, physical and email

some personal details to be forwarded to the maker of your item can be good for a personalised item
some swaps give a time to make the item then a pic as 'Proof of life' then partners are organised (I don't particularly like this one but it seems to work)
Set a rule about communication, updates about progress etc. If the recipient does not know who is sending them their item then communication would need to be to the organiser. Some swaps are straight swaps, others are a rotation swap where you know who to send to but do not know who is sending to you till it arrives.
I like the mystery swap

On other forums where we had the mystery swap someone kept tabs of who had received what and from whom till all had be recieved. Also recorded was when someone had sent there item.

Pictures were posted as soon as practical after the item was recieved.

hopefully with this discussion/argument doesn't turn any of the current or new members from joining in these swaps , sorry to offend anybody but as mostly woodturning has always had the old persons name attached , but I know that there is now a lot more younger taking it up male and female but there is always going to be some that have limited computer skills my mother is 82 and I laugh at how even sometimes she can't even find the cursor on the screen and thanks mez aka ( mlloy23 ) for the kind words and yes if it wasn't for me pushing her to join the forum and join in in the swap to make her learn more and challenge herself and guide her in pushing the boundries to create a great pen that when made that anybody would be great full in receiving and she did and it has made her so proud in what she has achieved and im happy that she has learnt from my skills and tutoring and has been able to learn from all threads and posts on here and if I can say one more sentence BRING ON THE 2014 AUSSIE DAY SWAP