Rules Clarification: External Wishlists

[greenwitch.livejournal.com]

Okay guys, the tribe has spoken.

This year (though subject to change in the future), we will disallow the posting of wishlists which contain links to multiple external wishlists. Though the numbers between allowing one wishlist and banning external wishlists entirely were relatively close during the voting process, the votes for the former safely outnumber that of the latter, and we are now comfortable with making it official.

YES: Wish #7: Anything from my Amazon wishlist.
NO: Wish #7: Anything from my Amazon, Hottopic, ThinkGeek, BestBuy, or Target wishlists.

Please note that if your concern about allowing external wishlists is along the lines of "But if I say I want used books or CDs, how do people know what artists or genres I like?" that there *are* alternatives for this -- i.e. "Wish #5: Used Sci-Fi books (you can see which ones I already have on my LibraryThing)." It's a bit of a loophole, but really, if you're concerned there's a way to go about it even if you don't want to link to your Amazon wishlists.

...

Now, I want to thank everyone who left comments voicing their opinion on the issue. Feedback is a *huge* part of the way this community is run, and even though not every comment will get a response from a moderator, we definitely read them all. That said, many of the comments on the feedback post regarding this issue ran along some common themes, and I want to take this time to make some things clear.

1. This community began in 2004 based on a meme running around LJ at the time. The instructions for the original meme are now, and have always been, on our community info page. From those instructions, I quote:
   
   

   The wishes can be anything at all, from simple and fandom-related ("I'd love a Snape/Hermione icon that's just for me") to medium ("I wish for _____ on DVD") to really big ("All I want for Christmas is a new car/computer/house/TV.") The important thing is, make sure these wishes are things you really, truly want.

   
   
   Emphasis on this: Posting of "big ticket" items such as laptops, televisions, digital cameras, diamond earrings, etc. are entirely within the spirit of this community. Most people include such items not because they expect people to send them such items, but because it is something they really, truly want. Thus, please do not berate anyone who's wishlist contains such items, calling them "greedy" or saying that they just want to take advantage of the comunity. Anyone caught berating or attacking someone as a result of interaction through this community runs the risk of being banned. This is a very large and high traffic community. Come November and December, the moderators will not have the time or patience to deal with wank. So please, please just don't start it. If you see it, feel free to report it and we'll keep an eye on it. If it gets out of hand, we will end it.
   
   
2. If you are new to the community, or joined during the last year (i.e. when we were featured on lj_spotlight), and have any questions as to regarding the motives of this community, read Point 1 again, and the information on the userinfo. If your mindset coming into this community is that you think this is a great way to get free stuff, this is not the community you are looking for. People who give gifts in this community do so because they want to. It is up to their discretion whether or not they would like to fulfill any "wishes" posted to this community, and in whatever idiom they wish. While of course contributing is not required, this community wouldn't be much without it so it IS highly encouraged.

Please know that Point 2 is not directed at anyone in particular, however, many people voiced concern about people coming into the community with that mindset, and yes, there are a few of those people every year and we can't prevent that. So all we can do is just encourage everyone to be as much in the holiday spirit as possible, and hope that we can all be friends and get along :)

As always, if you have any questions or comments, feel free to comment here or contact the moderators directly at wishlist.project (at) gmail (dot) comm.

And again, we are still looking for suggestions for Frequently Asked Questions, and we are always open for suggestions for community affiliates. If you have a holiday gift exchange or themed community and would like to promote it here, just drop us a line and we'll either allow you to submit a promotion post or talk about affiliating.

Comments

[artfuldodger.livejournal.com]

If someone does post more than one outside wishlist (Amazon, then five others) will their post be deleted without warning, or will they get a chance to change it (by being told in the comments)?

Just curious. :)

[greenwitch.livejournal.com]

We'll probably approve the post, and then ask them to delete the others. I'll have to talk to the other mods first, but as of right now the only posts that will be rejected outright will be ones containing numbered lists of more than 10 wishes (because that just means they didn't bother to read the rules at *all*!), or posts that contain glaring adult content (i.e. pornographic icons -- because we can't wait for several hours for the poster to change their icon, and yes, we have run into this problem in the past.)

[greenwitch.livejournal.com]

Oh, and on that note -- deletions "without warning" are *highly* unlikely to happen since the community IS moderated, so unless one of the moderators has had a *really* long day and accidentally lets something glaringly in violation of community rules slip through by accident, the chances are that a post worthy of immediate deletion is slim. However, if a post IS deleted "immediately," whichever moderator is doing the deletion *should* comment on the post saying why it is being deleted. So we shouldn't have a situation where someone's post is rejected/deleted and they're not notified of why.

That's not really addressing your question, but I just wanted to clarify it for anyone else reading :D

[alchemia.livejournal.com]

personally, Unless i'm pressed for time, I will tell the person in such a case why I rejected their post and how to change it so it will be approved with reference to the rules/guidelines. I'm just one mod though of several; its something we need to be sure everyone understands. if a post is rejected and the person doesnt understand why, there's no harm in their asking. We usually ask eachother s for input if we are confused about what one is talking about when incomes to such things.

[but_can_i_be_trusted]

Thanks for clearing all that up. It was pretty confusing last year, so I appreciate the past few posts about the issue.

[greenwitch.livejournal.com]

Absolutely :D We wanted to address the issue last year, but wound up addressing it already after it became an ACTUAL issue where people had already posted, and then there was drama where some people edited, then some people re-submitted, then some people left multiple wishlists in there and we said that was OK, etc. etc. I'm sure you remember that ;D (I vaugely remember you being stuck in the middle of it early on, LOL!)

[alchemia.livejournal.com]

last year a lot changed; we went from being basically a "meme" that a fan started to something that was in the lJ spot light. We've had to really struggle with the comm rules and the change in who was participating to keep things fair and in the spirit of the original 'meme'. Because this comm if one that is active for just the holidays of every year, if we implement a rule, it needs to stick to be fair for the duration of that year (few months ) but we WILL come back to it and address it if there were questions about it to make sure it is fair (or to change it to make it fair) to the majority of participants and in the spirit of the original meme the next year.

[mischief-wa.livejournal.com]

Happy with the result. Even happier to have it settled in advance this year.

Last year I linked one list, my (now 2 year old) son's amazon list.

I was incredibly tickled to receive a surprise delivery from amazon for him.

I intend to do the same this year. :D

[pixiebelle.livejournal.com]

I am confused...so one wishist is fine? Or none? lol

[greenwitch.livejournal.com]

You can post one external wishlist (i.e. amazon), but not more than one.

[gi-janearng.livejournal.com]

Thank you for doing a great job at being mods and clearing all this up. I understand that there will always be someone out there that will try to spoil it and be greedy, unfortunately, but I'm confident the spirit of the community will shine through. I had a wonderful time participating last year and am counting down the days until this comm officially opens for the 2007 Holiday season!

[peaceinyou.livejournal.com]

I had a question pertaining to this, because I'm new to the community and I haven't posted yet. :) I was wondering if a link to one Wishlistr.com (http://www.wishlistr.com) wishlist is okay? It's one wishlist, but mine does have links to items from a few different places (Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, etc.). Would that be acceptable, or no?

Thanks in advance. :)

[greenwitch.livejournal.com]

Yes, that's fine. Just make sure it's only one link for the one wish.

[peaceinyou.livejournal.com]

I'm really sorry for still being confused, but just--to clarify, linking to one Wishlistr.com wishlist is okay, even if it has multiple wishes on it from multiple sources?

[greenwitch.livejournal.com]

Yes :)

[trialia]

It's okay to say "any Amazon wishlist under this email address", right? Only, I have my wishlist at Amazon separated into four because I keep them sorted by media, it makes my OCD less twitchy, but I wouldn't be expecting anything from more than one.

[greenwitch.livejournal.com]

If you just want to provide your email address to search for, that's fine.

[trialia]

That's perfect. Thank you!