Get ready to flame me...

[GrayFal]

As others have stated, I think the real problem here is COMMUNICATION. Stress levels can be kept down by just communicating when there is a slowdown or disruption on the sender side of this community activity.

YupO! ​

( a secret word among the PlapLaper Cruisers)​

 

[bubbasmom99]

Just wondering... what if swaps were taken offline to a Yahoo group (similar to what is done with circle journals)... or is that too much work? On the other hand, on a yahoo group, you can privately post your address & phone #, and email the group your status.... though maybe that's just a moot point anyway because we had a flaker in our CJ group that did register for the yahoo group but pretty much never said a word after that...

 

[sweet maxine]

I'm not sure if it's a matter of either on this board or over on Yahoo.

The point is, right now I'm wondering what is going on with my swap things that I took time out from my family to work hard on, spent money on the supplies, and also money on postage to, and also money for the return postage.

I look at it this way. Either you will be up front with everyone involved, or you won't. It really has no bearing on where the swap originates. I just really think I'm done at this point! To not even have the decency to provide a logical explanation for the current status of the swap is just inexcusable. I couldn't be that dishonest with people.

 

[American Scrapper]

I am just trying to help to make swaps go easier. I don't know of an easy way or not, but maybe the hostess should have to "earn" his/her way to becoming a swap hostess. I think we get all excited that there is a new swap forming that we really do not pay attention to the person hosting the swap. I don't know how it could work, but maybe there could be a seasoned hostess who could buddy up with a new hostess and guide them. This way if there are problems or the swap becomes too much for the hostess the experienced hostess could jump in and help. I am sure it is overwhelming to do a swap and with the personal help from someone else maybe people would pull through. Some criteria to hosting may be that they can host as long as the 1) have joined other swaps and completed them or 2) have the help of another. Also, after looking at the character swap's hostess, she had only posted on the disboards about 20 times before trying to host a swap and the posts before that she was joining other swaps. I wonder how many she actually followed through with.

I really hope that you all receive your swap items. I know how excited I get when I know my items have been sent, I can only imagine your disapointment.

Kathy

 

[Spinning]

Actually for the most part I follow who is posting, how many post they have under their belt and if they have swapped before. I just joined another swap because I loved doing a bazzill swap and I have to say I did think twice about it. But the person hosting just seemed for real......

I don't know who you would regulate who can and who can't host a swap. Would be wonderful if we had a swap "godess" who did all the swaps on here but that isn't going to work.

I think for the most part we need to realize that most on this board are for real and will follow through with swaps. Even the late ones have kept people updated.
I hate to beat a dead horse but I knew this was coming. Back when all of us tried to tell people too many swaps were happening at once. But all of us get so excited and love getting things in the mail we jump on. Or I should say many jumped on.
I don't know I guess we need to just move on.

 

[LindaBabe]

which shall remain namelss. It's been a horrible 6 months with two weddings and a devastating illness amoung our circle, but I guess I'm too soft too. We're evenly divided between experienced scrappers and novices - and the experienced can turn over a book in a few days but now they're beginning to pile up at two or three people and I don't know how to get them moving again. Is there any tried and true ex-lax for lagging circles? What do you say?

This is a great thread because I think a lot of us start things without really knowing what the requirements are. Far from flaming you, Maxine, I think you deserve a medal for having the guts to bring up the topic!

 

[TPCShauna]

Back when all of us tried to tell people too many swaps were happening at once. But all of us get so excited and love getting things in the mail we jump on. Or I should say many jumped on.

I'll admit it. The Epcot Swap is one of the ones that Spinning and a few others warned against and I seriously considered their advice before starting the swap. But for every person that said wait, I had several that were chomping at the bit. I, for one, was not in any other swaps (save one that I had completed) so I started it and several others joined. Yes, I could have waited, but as one person pointed out to me when I was trying to decide what to do, it's up to the hostess to pick the date and others can choose to join or not. I also chose not to join the character swap because I knew I had too much going on although I really wanted to. I think Spinning is right when she says that we all get excited. I've just gotten a lot more savvy about knowing my limits and saying no way.

I don't have an answer to the dilemma although I do think mail by and received by dates would help. I set my due date for 11/15 and a lot of people mailed on that day. I can't say anything about it because "due date" didn't specify mail or receipt. Maybe we just have to be more specific.

 

[Grumpy's Gal]

I am fairly new here and I just participated in my first ever swap. It was great by the way. We mailed directly to the person who's name we drew. We didn't send them in for someone else to forward. It worked out great! I am looking forward to my next one.

 

[tubachick]

although I have been here for about a year, and lurking way before that, I always enjoyed looking at the pics of some of the final projects of the swaps. I knew that I was too busy at the time when swaps would come up that interested me, so I stayed away. But now that life is a little more stable, I was looking for one that would be interesting to me. So although I understand the concerns, I do hope that we could contiue the swaps, maybe limit them to so many every two months or so?? just a suggestion.

 

[MazdaUK]

Now I've got my CM stuff I'd really like to do a swap once I've had a bit of practice (I can't see anyone thanking me for what I produce at the moment )

 

[piratesmate]

Have you looked at the links to the items from past swaps? I thought the same as you when I first saw what others were sending in...but everyone was so nice about joining in, that I finally tried it. I did an awful lot of checking back to see what others had done before committing myself to paper, but in the end felt "okay" with what I sent. According to the people who received my items, I was much harder on myself than need be.

My suggestion is to just start with something simple the first time. Of course I didn't stop to think that while embellished squares seemed easy enough, that doing anything for 24 people was insane! (esp since it's 4 squares per person)

 

[American Scrapper]

My suggestion is to just start with something simple the first time. Of course I didn't stop to think that while embellished squares seemed easy enough, that doing anything for 24 people was insane! (esp since it's 4 squares per person)

So true piratesmate! My first swap I did squares also thinking it would be simple. I ended up doing about the same, 24 or 25 sets of embellished squares (4 in each set). I didn't want to see another square for a long time!! lol!!

Kathy