Over the last few months I have participated in several swaps. As a general rule, all have been pleasant experiences. I love the idea of "stalking" someone and trying to figure out what would make them happy. Finding new friends and discovering new blogs are all a part of the fun. That is why I do swaps and why I will continue to swap.
By nature I am a rule follower. Lay out the guidelines and I will follow them to a T, breaking them only to exceed. Tell me I have to have an active blog, I do it. Post to a special blog? Check! Reply to my upstream partner and let them know how much I love their gifts? Got it! Send nice goodies to my downstream pal in a timely fashion? Yup! Brag publicly on my blog and a group blog about goodies I've received? Roger!
How do I feel about people who don't follow the basic rules? Mean. Grumpy. Unwilling to acknowledge subsequent contact due to an inability to be nice while feeling not so nice.
My feelings about Angels? Love them! I've volunteered to be one in the past but had to be Angeled myself in two recent swaps. I promise to volunteer to Angel in future swaps. No one should feel unappreciated because their partner bailed on them.
Both upstream and downstream partners have responsibilities and should fill them so that all parts of a swap feel appreciated. If you don't like your gifts? Fake it! Sometimes you take a chance and it is all a part of the fun of the exercise.
My thanks to all my wonderful partners and Angels. You guys are all great!
5 comments:
I sometimes just can't wrap myself around HOW much you do. I think it would be impossible for the normal person to keep up!
I so hear you, though, on keeping up your end of the deal. It's always crummy to get behind a slacker.
Myself - I KNOW I hate it when life happens and I start feeling those slacker vibes. I wanna be like you when I grow up!!!
*hugs*
I have had only good experiences with the swaps overall, but feel terrible when I see people posting that their package hasn't shown up yet, or their pal is MIA. And the worst is when the swap organizers get flack from the slackers, when they are just trying to check in. I don't understand that.
I have been in one swap and will never do another where just anyone can join. I've seen too many greedy lazy people out there to ever try it again. If you can't follow the rules, you should not sign up.
I keep thinking a private swap would be fun. One where everyone knows and trusts everyone else. More importantly, where everyone knows how to mail. /sigh
I think I'm the cranky to your grumpy. ;^)
I've only been in two swaps and both went really well..sorta. The first time I was the sender, my recipient spoke a different language and although I checked her blog and saw my stuff posted, I had NO idea what she was saying about it LOL. The second one, I knew the person I was sending to (Cat), and oddly enough the one sending to me was a friend also (Ann). The fooling that went on! *G*
I liked having you as as swap partner. It was cool that I knew you before.
As for other swaps and other people... I have had extremes. Good and bad. The negative feelings make it less fun so I'm taking a break from that at the moment.
It also just sucks when you see how much the people running it have to go through to make up for the sucky people. And the people who get hurt by being taken for granted. That really pisses me off and I see no excuse for being flakey at all.
I hope your future experiences are positive from both sides.
*HUGS*
Post a Comment