Trudy

update added to post 2

My space for updates CHECK DAILY I CAN NOT STRESS HOW IMPORTANT IT IS TO GO BY THE INFO IN YOUR 'MY PACKAGES' TAB DO NOT GO BY WHAT SHOWS UP IN YOUR INBOX OR YOU MAY HAVE THE WRONG MATCH INFO GO BY WHAT IS IN YOUR 'MY PACKAGES' TAB If you select (or keep the default) of no preference for your shipping destination, you could end up being matched to all overseas people. Be sure you select your destination for each package you enter if it is important to you. Overseas shipping is going to be more $$$ because it is already the end of October and surface mail takes forever. Also - same country shipping means just that... we don't have a US or Canada option yet - we'll look into that for the future SS FORUM has been created - here round of matching done 10/25 - I've noticed one person was matched to the same person twice - I'm going to leave it like that for now so the developer can see that bug if he needs to. If you see something wrong with your match, submit a ticket. 10/26 - Another round of matching has been done. I looked through quickly and it seems to be okay as far as people not sending multiple times to the same person. If you see an issue with your match, please open a ticket and I'll look at it tomorrow night after I'm home from work. Be aware I'm not likely to answer tickets/PMs about SS too quick... I hit my 40 hours this afternoon and the week still isn't over - this is what it will be like for much of the rest of the year for me with a week of slower time here and there - so I'm not ignoring you, I'm just busy Somebody asked today, but I can't find who or where it was asked (maybe I was dreaming??) - they received an email about a match today... that we deleted with the system yesterday... GO WITH WHAT SHOWS UP IN YOUR "MY PACKAGES" - that is who you are supposed to be sending to 10/27 To see the member name of your match, CLICK on their name In the match you receive, it will tell you the names of the pets you are shopping for. You buy for THOSE pets (or pet) - that could be one name, that could be 10 names - the gift you send covers ALL names for your $20 before shipping price I matched 10/25 and 10/26. I'll do another round tonight and then I'll likely wait a few days before matching again. Not everybody is aware of the match right away as not everybody visits the board all the time, so it could be a day or two before a match is acknowledged 10/31 - another round of matching was done tonight Next round will likely be after the weekend as sign ups are slowing down a bit. 11/4 comments will now be a mandatory field for new entries I'll make another match by the end of the weekend. 11/5 - Next matching will not happen today, waiting for a few bugs to be worked out (some of you don't see the comments you added to your own package - so far your SS sees them, but we'd like to fix whatever is causing you to not see your own comments) - when you send your packages... if you are sending out small teasers, you don't need to mark the package as sent - I'd like you to do that when you send the real package. If you are sending your package a piece at a time, then you can mark it as sent when you send the first piece. - Also - make sure with everything you send, you mark it as a SS package and make sure you reveal yourself so people know who to thank (if you are sending teasers and stuff, you don't have to reveal until the last package - but you do have to let them know who you are) - if you don't, I will, and I'd prefer not to answer 98 PMs asking who their SS is, so PLEASE... reveal yourself at some point. - and please send a private thank you to your person... even if you post it on the board, not everybody sees all the posts. You can do that via PM and you can track it so you know it has been read or you can send emails through the board (to some, not all elect to have email sent to them through the board) 11/8 Matches have been made again. 2 remain unmatched for now. We'll leave signups open through this weekend and match again and then close the signups. 11/15 Last of the matches have been made. I had to unmatch a few people as the first matches made by the system had issues. PLEASE check your "MY PACKAGES" tab - that's where your real match info is - ignore the 2302 emails you got as a result of match, unmatch, rematch I did. MY PACKAGES - that's where it's at

People were confused as to if they needed to sign up again after we dealt with the last bug. So some signed up again and didn't see where I asked everybody to please check their entries to be sure they were signed up the correct number of times They didn't notice until after I made the first 260+ matches. 2 entries were made that had no user associated with them. We are unsure of why. I forgot to delete them before I made matches. One of those messed up entries was matched to another user. Those issues we were able to fix. Unfortunately, those that discovered they now had more entries than they bargained for - when I unmatched them and deleted their extra entries, I didn't realize the system would not automatically un-match them if their name was already given to somebody. Not knowing who I made those changes for, I couldn't go back and fix it. There were also some bugs where people got the same person multiple times. That should not happen. So, I asked Jeff to please just delete all the entries - from the august exchange and the current SS since the august info was confusing some people still. Yes, I realize that some of you may have started shopping and I am very sorry. But I'd rather inconvenience a few of you rather than find out in December 32 people didn't get packages they signed up for and 32 others got something they weren't signed up for. I will see if there is anything I can do where people went out today and purchased something for a specific entry that can't be used for another hound, but I can't promise you anything as I'm not too sure I want to deal with doing this by hand. I'll reopen it shortly and you can all re-enter again. Please check the initial posts DAILY for updates - I will update the first thread when I have an update for you all.

NO GUARANTEES WILL BE MADE. Unmatching people and deleting entries after the matches were made because people didn't check their entries like I asked is what led to this problem to begin with. So I am very against changing anything after the random matches have been made. For those that went shopping today, I will see what I can come up with, but I will not promise anything

Long story short - the only way to fix the issues with SS is to delete it and start over. IGNORE ALL MATCH INFO YOU RECEIVED. We'll open it again later. Unfortunately this means those that want to send overseas won't be able to do so cheaply.

Ok, I just unmatched a bunch of entries because of issues with some entries in the DB that I forgot to delete before matching. Please check your packages again as you may have been unmatched with one or more of them. I did NOT rematch yet.

For those still waiting to sign up and for future reference, if you select no preference for your shipping option on all packages, it is possible that all your packages will be matched with somebody outside your country Also, if you need info for something you'd like to send, please ask somebody on the board to get that info from the other person for you. I'm very busy at work for the rest of this month, much of November and much of December as well - I do not have the time to send out PMs for info for 300 packages. We may consider adding a temp forum for this stuff, but haven't decided yet.

I see two issues, so please do not send out any packages just yet. I want to look into them further before saying all is okay with the match.

I just matched all the entries to date If something doesn't seem right (as in you were matched with somebody with no username, let me know... I forgot to delete a few things before I started. Also, if you received JackIE, let me know... she should not have been included in the match as she is going to be a backup SS - forgot to delete her entry as well (she's on another list )

I see two entries for you, so I'm guessing you are looking in the wrong place If you click on my packages, there should be entries under the outgoing packages

If those that would like to be a backup, please send me a PM and I'll stick you aside and hope I don't need to call on you in December/January

I don't sign up either... I play as backup

Please make sure you have the number of entries you would like to have... you can add more later, but if I decide to do a round of matching soon, I'd rather not have to go in and unmatch people because somebody decided after getting all their matches they entered too many times. So please, go look at your list now and make sure your SS entries are what you wanted number wise.

One package was sent today, the other should go out tomorrow

If I match them this week and the overseas people don't send their packages in time, I can send them nasty grams without feeling guilty If I wait a few weeks and people have to send the expensive way to get their package overseas, then I'll feel bad when people don't get their packages before April! Just covering my own rear

I will likely do a round of matching some time this week so people shipping overseas can get on that

Go to the Events tab just below the banner and have at it! If you sign up, you MUST send out your packages - ON TIME (if you can't for some reason you MUST let me know and let your person know as well) Sign up any number of times you wish - each ticket you submit will receive a gift (so you can enter one grey or 10 in one ticket) Package limit is $20 PLUS shipping (yes, you can spend more if you wish, but you are not obligated to) If you are shipping overseas, get your package sent early or send something from the destination country Packages MUST arrive by December 20, 2006. I suggest you have packages mailed by December 12 if you are shipping within the same country If you need to back out, let me know ASAP so I can make changes Packages can be for the greyhounds/pets or the humans You can sign up for non greys - if you are entering a non-greyhound, please indicate that in the comments Unfortunately, we are not able to match/not match based on the type of pet being entered, so it is possible you could be matched up to a non greyhound. If this is a very serious problem for you, let me know, but I won't be able to do much as I'm not going to go into the system and unmatch and rematch people by hand - leaves it far too possible for me to screw it up and somebody not get a gift PLEASE keep track of things in the events system - UPDATE it as you go I strongly suggest delivery conf and insurance if using the USPS - packages have known to be lost or missing Signups are open until Nov 30 - but can (and likely will) be closed early if the sign ups slow down greatly This list of rules can be added to... so please check back often If you have questions, please post them here so I can answer them here and others can see the answers. Now get shopping! and have I mentioned that I happen to have 25 pounds of chocolate greyhounds for human consumption sitting on my counter from Dewey that can be purchased 10/24/06 match update: I see two issues, so please do not send out any packages just yet. I want to look into them further before saying all is okay with the match.

It is far too early for a secret santa forum - it is october You are dealing with 2 grinches here

For all of you that think you are in... you will have to resubmit your entries once the bug has been fixed.

STILL BROKEN

There are NO email confirmations with this - there wasn't for the August exchange either If you see your info listed in your packages, then you are signed up. You won't get anything until we match people

Ok... good to go again

No - does not have that ability - will make the matching take far too long to have to go through all past events. We discussed this evening allowing a few more "do not match" options

Jeff is working on something in there for me... so you may get blank screens now and then - try again later

Kari - don't break it already! Bev will shoot you if you break it before she gets to it