Some notes on claiming -- begins tomorrow!

[smallgiftsmods.livejournal.com]

Claiming is almost here! The 11th year of R/S Small Gifts is almost upon us. As the often brilliant Magnetic_pole has pointed out – if this fest were a witch or wizard, they’d be getting their Hogwarts letter!

You can sign up for small gifts until 10:59 a.m. EST tomorrow/Sunday, October 30. At 11:00 a.m. EST, sign-ups close, and prompt-claiming begins! Claiming will be open for 24 hours.

We're delighted to have several new participants this year (welcome, welcome!), so a few quick words about claiming.

* When claiming begins, reply to the prompt/recipient you want. You can just leave a simple comment, like “I’d like forever_sirius’ wish number one, and I will try to add in their wildcard.”

* There is only one claim per recipient. It is first come, first served, so take a look today and see where the prompt you want is in the comments. If someone claims the one you want two seconds before you do, you will need to pick a different one. If the time is very close, you might not see the other comment first. If that happens, we will look at the time stamps and assign the wish to the first person and ask the second person to claim another. It’s a good idea to have a few prompts in mind.

* In case it wasn’t obvious, you have to sign up to claim. Everyone who plays gets a gift and gives a gift.

* Make sure you have joined the community and logged in so that you can see all of the entries. Also, sometimes LJ marks a comment as spam. Don’t panic. We can still see when you left the comment and will unscreen it so others can see that you claimed the recipient. If your comment is marked as spam, it would help us if you send us an email letting us know.

* We'll be around tomorrow to answer any questions; just leave a comment here or send us an email to rs.small.gifts@gmail.com.

* Usually folks match up within a few hours of the appointed prompt-claiming hour. Are you working/traveling/asleep/otherwise unable to be at the computer? Your mods are happy to claim on your behalf. Just send us an email with a list of your top three choices, and we'll do the claiming.

Remember, prompt-claiming begins tomorrow/Sunday at:

8:00 a.m. in Vancouver
11:00 a.m. in New York City
3:00 p.m. in London
4:00 p.m. in Berlin
8:30 p.m. in Mumbai
11:00 p.m. in Hong Kong
12:00 midnight (between Sunday and Monday) in Tokyo

Folks in Australia, New Zealand, and the Pacific, sorry prompt-claiming begins at such an awkward time for you. We're happy to claim on your behalf!

Thank you all for joining us again this year!

Your smallgiftsmods
rs.small.gifts at gmail dot com