[Foundation-l] Wikimedia Secret Santa … and Environment

[phoebe ayers]

On Mon, Dec 14, 2009 at 5:20 PM, Gregory Maxwell <gmaxwell at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Mon, Dec 14, 2009 at 6:51 PM, phoebe ayers <phoebe.wiki at gmail.com> wrote:
>> Hello Wikimedians,
>>
>> Austin and I thought it might be fun to have a Secret Santa New Year's
>> drawing among Wikimedia friends! We're basing it on the MetaFilter
>> community Secret Santa drawing, which has 256 participants and uses a
>> website called Elfster.
>>
>> Totally optional of course, but totally fun to get random things in
>> the mail from other community members.
>
> http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/blogs/freakonomics/pdf/WaldfogelDeadweightLossXmas.pdf

LOL. Is this the dreaded "sweater return problem" in economics? :)

Anyway, such economic analysis make the assumption that the gift is
worth a fixed, intrinsic value to start with. A piece of paper,
envelope and (domestic) stamp costs about 50 cents, but a letter from
a friend is, as the commercials say, priceless. I like to sign up for
gift exchanges, send postcards when on vacation, and keep penpals
because all of these activities help build community and friendship,
and it's a lot of fun to receive something that you know someone
thought about and wanted to surprise you with, and to do the same for
someone else.

I blogged my thoughts on gift-giving, from a U.S.
non-religious-but-still-celebrates-Christmas perspective, last year at
this time: http://www.phoebeayers.info/phlog/?p=566

But the reason I said this exchange was optional is because,
obviously, it's optional :) only people who find such things fun and
valuable should sign up.

I also forgot to mention that I can set up do-not-draw lists for
people if you're concerned about not getting paired with someone.

-- phoebe

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