 It’s that time of year again! With the holidays rolling in quickly (and holiday sales even faster!), Mycena Cave is excited to announce the arrival of our second annual Secret Santa! Signups will take place from November 15th - November 30th at 23:59 server time. Please be certain to read through the information at the link below thoroughly before signing up, as the rules have changed slightly since last year! In order to make our best effort at ensuring that Santas are active players who will live up to their holiday obligations, participation in this activity is limited to players who have been on Mycena Cave for over one month. However, if you are a new player who has proven yourself to be active since joining and would like to participate, exceptions can be made! If you feel that such an exception should be made for you, please contact glitch or Myla and provide a small explanation why. :) Also, we would like to stress that this is not an event, and you will not be missing out on any special new content or prizes if you decide not to join. Participation is entirely voluntary- we are just facilitating a little holiday gift-giving between those who would like to! As always, if you have any questions regarding the logistics or guidelines for this activity, we are more than happy to answer them! Happy gifting!  
Posted 11/15/15
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There are a few concerns I have about this, mainly centered around USPS. Last year someone sent me a package, her local post office point blank refused to scan tracking (so they wouldn’t be responsible, even though that’s questionable at best), and the package was lost. She ended up resending one immediately after the new year, but still. How do we deal with that? Post Office and Mailing Problems, Weather delays—these are all problems. USPS also has a very high rate of package problems, per their own report, even considering their lower standards.
Posted 11/15/15
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thupathupathupthupathupathupathupathupathupTHUPATHUPATHUPATHUPA I have questions actually I hope it’s alright. 2. there is no number 2 3. Is it possible to match regions at all? Shipping alone can easily exceed $10 if things are being sent across oceans (especially to arrive by the deadline), so an option to select “i’d prefer being matched with nearer santas” might be useful? 4. P R E S E N T S HOORAY edit:
Posted 11/15/15, edited 12/21/15
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Lala Unfortunately, problems with postage are not something we are able to assist in any way with. :( That’s part of the risk involved in choosing to send or receive physical gifts rather than something digital. In order to alleviate as much postal-related stress as possible, I would advise sending as early as you can and ensuring you sign up for a tracking number. If it just doesn’t seem worth it to you - there are many options for sending awesome gifts digitally! Last year some folks sent art or items/pets from Mycena Cave wishlists, which is also a great option if you’re unsure!
Posted 11/15/15
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Jacq: you’re encouraged to be very communicative with both your santa and your santa-ee, via the santa-mail service that’ll be set up :) So yes! riddle away, and ask about allergies and what-not. With respect to shipping, that’d be a super useful feature but we sadly aren’t equipped to match distances / origin countries :( It just makes the matching process a lot more complicated, and we don’t have the code to process that. It’s something we can try to work on for next year though! EDIT: with respect to super santas, basically selecting that just puts your name on a list of people we may contact if necessary. So if we reach out to you to be a backup santa, you can let us know if you’d be willing to do so multiple times :) Last time we ran this a very small number of santas flaked, so we’re hoping we won’t need too many super santas!
Posted 11/15/15, edited 11/15/15
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glitch asdfjkl; Not even origin countries? D: Because one of the nice points of the US is postage isn’t completely insane.
Posted 11/15/15, edited 11/15/15
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Lala Tracking codes are just a suggestion unfortunately - again, if it would cause undue stress to consider a physical gift through USPS, I would simply advise going the route of a digital gift! :( We simply aren’t able to insure or track physical packages sent until your Santa-ee confirms receipt.
Posted 11/15/15
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sorry if i missed it, but what are these “repercussions” of being a flake santa? i’m just wondering because that may affect people’s decisions to send physical packages, if lost packages could have them marked as such. edit: also, there’s a typo: ” If you sent a gift to your Santa-ee but they have not marked it as received or are unresponsive, don’t worry: staff will investigate all cases of being marked as a “flake Santa” before any reprercussions occur.”
Posted 11/15/15, edited 11/15/15
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baekhesten: that’s because I don’t know if it’s spelled “repercussions” or “reprecussions” so I compromised…. >> Edit: Edit2:
Posted 11/15/15, edited 11/15/15
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baekhesten “If you are marked as a “flake Santa”, staff will investigate and, if substantiated, you will be excluded from all future Secret Santa activities on Mycena Cave.”
Posted 11/15/15
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Madara: You can discuss things with your Santa! :D Also if you don’t want a physical good you can just leave the address part blank! Edit: I misread, oops. But you always, always have the option of giving digital - you do not need to give them a physical gift if you can’t!
Posted 11/15/15, edited 11/15/15
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whoops i did in fact miss it, thanks. xD how would you deal with lost package situations in that case, then? and how would you deal with instances of emergencies or illness getting in the way? i’m a little uncomfortable with the idea that i could be banned from all future instances of the event if my chronic illness gets ready bad again, as it does so unpredictably.
Posted 11/15/15
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How early will we be able to send gifts out? Over Christmas, from the 12th I am heading overseas, and whilst I know I will be able to get online throughout the Christmas period (I know I will have internet access specifically at Christmas), would I be able to send beforehand to super ensure that my Santa gets it? tldr; Will we be able to send after the correspondence period is over (10th Dec) or should we wait until the 24th to send?
Posted 11/15/15
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baekhesten: If you have a receipt / tracking number then staff will know that you aren’t a flaky santa: we do investigate individual cases before taking any action. With respect to illnesses getting in the way, I’d recommend just having e.g. 10 gems (or something worth roughly that) sitting on your account and giving a guest-key to a trusted friend. That way, in the worst case scenario, your friend can get on and gift the thing to your santa-ee.
Posted 11/15/15
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Jordii any time after you are matched on December 2 :) December 10 is just the last deadline to contact your counterparts, so that they can be sure you are actually active.
Posted 11/15/15, edited 11/15/15
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Actually USPS made some changes to their shipping designations. Priority mail (1-3 day shipping) automatically comes with tracking now, even with their flat rate boxes. If you don’t want to pay priority you can mail certified (adds tracking and you can specify you want a signature on delivery), and you can add “return reciept” which will mean once delivered they will mail back a green postcard date stamped when it was delivered. These are STANDARD USPS services which means all post offices should offer them, and certified is not expensive to add to standard shipping. Not to mention if they try to refuse to add these services at the post office window you can pay and print labels at home and just drop off at the post office or even give it to your mailman at the door!
Posted 11/15/15
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Lala no worries. If they refuse to scan I’d definitely recommend going with the return receipt option. All that’s really needed for that is for you to put your address on the card and affix it to the package. When delivered the receiving post office will rip the card off, stamp it as delivered and mail the card back. That way you have a physical receipt that the package was delivered and the post office can investigate if they recipient insists they never received anything. But that’s only if you decide to go with mailing something. ^_^ It’s totally up to you what/how you are comfortable gifting.
Posted 11/15/15
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Just a suggestion but for those who are concerned about giving out their address, Amazon wishlists allow you to send people things without disclosing their address. This would, of course, require setting up an Amazon wishlist and giving that to your Santa which you could only do if they asked so it might not be really helpful for this anyways, I just know it’s worked well for secret santas I’ve been involved in in the past. Also, can’t wait to start sending out presents!
Posted 11/15/15
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