SantaThing sign-up closes in 24 hours

SantaThing (LibraryThing's version of Secret Santa) is open for sign-ups until December 1, 4 pm EST (about 24 hours from now).

We already have over 400 members signed up to participate, and tons of helpful suggestions posted! If you don't want to be a Santa yourself, you can always help out by looking at the list of Santas and posting book suggestions.

To sign up, just go here and click "become a Secret Santa".

Tuesday afternoon, we'll match up Santas. We'll let you know via profile comments who your Secret Santa is, and you'll be able to pick books for them. Remember, if you signed up a gift recipient, you're responsible for picking their Santa's books. You'll get a profile comment for each Santa you signed up.

Picking will be open until Saturday, December 12 at 10 pm EST.

We're also planning a virtual soiree Saturday night and Sunday when the picking officially closes, to pick books for anyone whose Santa hadn't picked for them. I imagine it will involve LibraryThing members cozied up with eggnog by a toasty fire with a kitten* at their feet, making sure there are books picked for everyone. If you're interested, look for more information on the Talk thread for it.


* or whatever your preferred seasonal beverage, ambiance device and power animal may be

SantaThing and Giving

In this year of a down economy, two developments with SantaThing, our "secret Santa for booklovers":

First, there was the Talk thread started by a member who got help last year to participate, when she needed it and, now that she doesn't, wanted to pay-it-forward and help someone else. This started a chain reaction, with more and more members offering to pay for someone. Other members have been asking for help, for themselves or sometimes for relatives, either in Talk or privately. The whole thing is pretty awesome.*

Today I was contacted by a member (who would like to remain anonymous) offering to pay for 20 SantaThings ($500), again for members who were planning to skip it because money was too tight. The money came out of the blue, and, despite the crescendo of giving, was quite a shock to us.

So, if you're interested in learning more about either giving or receiving SantaThing, read here.

Second, with all this giving, we're changing our mind. The SantaThing deal was $25 for $20 of books. The $5 was for shipping, and a little to cover staff time. But most of our shipping is now free. (We get it from from Amazon and the Book Depository, and Powell's is doing us a favor.**) And we're starting to feel seriously privileged to be involved in this!

So—to heck with it—we're getting rid of the margin. SantaThing is now $25 for $25. We'll make a little money when people can't quite fill the $25, and we'll spend it on the countries and bookstores that don't have free shipping. It's the least we can do.

You have until December 1 to sign up for SantaThing.

Sincerely,

Sonya and Tim

Links: SantaThing; Talk thread.

---

*I think "community" is an overused word online. Most "online communities" aren't. All those sites with employees known as "community managers" tick me off particularly. We like to think we're better than those sites, but, despite tons of friends, a marriage, occasional flash-mob cataloging, Legacy Libraries and even a group of members who now vacation together, I wouldn't even say LibraryThing is a real "community." It's more of a large, long-running cocktail party with a lot of rooms and some good friendships. But I can't help feeling cheered again by Clay Shirky's Love, Internet Style. Shirky writes that, looking forward, "You will make more accurate predictions about software... if you ask yourself not 'What's the business model?' but 'Do the people who like it take care of each other?'" Well, you do. And it's a pleasure to be part of it. — Tim
**We have Amazon Prime, and the Book Depository has free shipping. We're grateful to Powells for giving us free shipping for this effort. (Thanks to Darin for making it happen.)

SantaThing has arrived!

Now in its third year, I'd like to announce SantaThing!

What is SantaThing, you ask? SantaThing is Secret Santa for LibraryThing members.

The idea is simple. Pay $25. You play Santa to a random LibraryThing member, and find them up $20 worth of books, based on their library or a short description. Someone else does the same for you. LibraryThing orders the books and pays the shipping, and you get the joy of giving AND receiving!

You can sign up for yourself, but you can also buy in for anyone else–LibraryThing member or not. If the person doesn't have a LibraryThing account, make sure to mention what kinds of books they'd like, so their Secret Santa can choose wisely.

Even if you don't want to be a Santa, you can help by suggesting books for others.

New and exciting twists this year:
This year, we're offering you the option of some independent (and for some people local) booksellers, and WAY more countries can participate (see the full list). For the first and second annual SantaThings, we used Amazon as our bookseller, and registration was limited to those living in the US, UK, and Canada.

This is a huge new experiment, so please be understanding. We're trying to make SantaThing inclusive for other booksellers, with the hopes that next year we can throw the doors wide open.

In the United States, you can choose between Powell's (Portland, OR), Harvard Book Store (Cambridge, MA), The Book Table (Oak Park, IL), and Amazon.com. In Canada, your choices are Chapters Indigo, The Book Depository and Amazon.ca. In the UK, you get The Book Depository or Amazon.co.uk. All other countries get to use The Book Depository.

Here are the important notes:

The sign-up will close Tuesday, December 1st at 4pm Eastern time. Once the sign-up closes, you'll be able to use the same page to pick for your Santa.

Picking closes Friday, December 12th at 10pm Eastern time. Once the picking ends, the ordering begins, and we'll get all the books out to you as soon as we can. There's no guarantee that we'll have books out by December 25th, but we're going to try our darnedest.

Go sign up to become a Secret Santa now!

Questions? Ask them in this Talk topic.

SantaThing: LibraryThing's Secret Santa

Back by popular demand, I hereby announce LibraryThing's second annual SantaThing!

SantaThing is Secret Santa for LibraryThing members.

The idea is simple. Pay $25. You play Santa to a random LibraryThing member, and find them up $20 worth of books, based on their library or a short description. Someone else does the same to you. LibraryThing orders the books and pays the shipping, so no addresses are exchanged and no members are stalked!

Now, this doesn't have to be just for you. You can also go in for someone you know—a relative or a friend. Describe their library a bit and someone will find them the perfect present. And you can become a Santa as many times as you like.

Lastly, even if you don't want to be a Santa, you can help by suggesting books for others.

Crucial dates. This is going to end very soon.

• Monday, December 15th at 12 Noon Eastern. Santa-signup ends. Shortly thereafter, we will tell you who you are matched up with. Then you go crazy trying to find the perfect books to give them.
• Friday, December 19th at 10pm Eastern. Submit gifts to LibraryThing. LibraryThing buys everything.

Go sign up to become a Secret Santa now!

Questions? Ask them in this Talk topic. Unfortunately, for various reasons, this is only open to people with addresses in the US, Canada, or Britain.

SantaThing: Secret Santas for LibraryThing!

UPDATE: We just (9pm) hit 100 Secret Santas, and a lot of interesting comments on them. Some users are confused about the money. The situation is this. When you sign up, you pay $25. When you get someone you pick out up to $20 worth of books, and tell us what they are—by ISBN presumably. We buy the gifts and pay the shipping. I suspect we'll make or lose about $1 per Santa. This is hardly about the money.

It had to happen and here it is: SantaThing!

SantaThing is Secret Santa for LibraryThing members.

The idea is simple. Pay $25. You play Santa to a random LibraryThing member, and find them up $20 worth of books, based on their library or a short description. Someone else does the same to you. LibraryThing orders the books and pays the shipping, so no addresses are exchanged and no members are stalked!

Now, this isn't just for you. You can also go in for someone you know—a relative or a friend. Describe their library a bit and someone will find them the perfect present. And you can become a Santa as many times as you like. So, for example, I entered myself and my wife. Heck, I might outsource all my Christmas buying to the LibraryThing community! :)

Lastly, even if you don't want to be a Santa, you can help by suggesting books for others.

Crucial dates. This is going to end very soon.

• Thursday, 12 Noon Eastern. Santa-signup ends. Secret Santas are picked.
• Friday, 10pm Eastern. Submit gifts to LibraryThing. LibraryThing buys everything. According to Amazon, if it's ordered before Tuesday it will make it by December 24.

Back story. I wanted to do this last year, but couldn't get it out in time. This year I aimed low. You'll notice it's very basic. (You can make suggestions, but you can't delete past suggestions, use touchstones, etc.) But, what the heck? It's going to be gone in a week—it's good enough!

Addendum: I haven't even blogged it yet, and one user has already signed up. The "tastes" section was filled out as follows:

"Please refrain from choosing anything involving wizards, elves, dragons, swords, etc... or anything Oprah demands be read."