Swap
Info GuideA
short intro to swapping
How do I propose new ideas for swaps?
Who are the Swap Moderators and how do I contact
them?
All about being a PARTICIPANT in a swap
All about ORGANIZING a swap
Special
rules for Ongoing/Wishlist/Wistlist swaps
Swap structures that are not allowed
Items that are not allowed in swap packages
A short intro to swapping
Organized swaps take place on Craftster in the Craft Swaps board. Swaps are started when a Craftster member decides to take on the task of organizing one according to a specific set of rules.
Swaps can be lots of fun! They can help motivate you to create something really great and it's often a fun challenge because there's a certain theme to follow. And then you get something original in return!
Some kick-ass Craftster members have volunteered to help keep an eye on swaps and answer questions. They are known as Swap Moderators. But the member who decides to organize a swap (the Swap Organizer) is in charge of that swap. They can set up swap specific rules about age limits, communication requirements for the swap, etc. The swap organizer has the right to choose who may participate in the swap, and may exclude anyone for any good reason such as poor feedback comments, a history of sending late, etc.
Hopefully, these guidelines will help to keep swaps running smoothly. Swaps go really well most of the time but here and there we've run into problems with people flaking out on their swap obligations and so it's important to follow the rules below.
If you have any questions, suggestions or feedback, please submit a ticket at the Help Desk or contact one of the Swap Moderators.
How do I propose an idea for a new swap?
Go to this folder and post your idea and see what kind of response you get.
Who are the Swap Moderators and how do I contact them?
If you have a question, commment, or problem with swapping, the best thing to do is to submit a ticket at the Help Desk and be sure to mark it as "SWAP-RELATED" and a Swap Moderator will get back to you.
You can also send a PM directly to a Swap Moderator but the BEST way to reach them is to open a Help Desk ticket because if you select just one moderator you contact, they might happen to be unavailable. The moderators for Craft Swaps are:
rackycoo
crafty_dame
PinkMafia
taloola
SevsOnlyGirl
javastain
ALL ABOUT BEING A PARTICIPANT IN A SWAP
What are the conditions to be met in order to participate in a swap?
The swap organizer will check your Profile to see that you meet all of these conditions:
•1• You need to have been a Craftster member for at least 1 month to participate in a swap.
•2• You need to have posted at least 15 times on Craftster to participate in a swap.
•3• If you have never swapped on Craftster before, you can only sign up for ONE swap to start out with. Then when you complete that swap and get Positive Feedback, you can sign up for more than one.
•4• No matter how many successful swaps you've been in, the limit to how many swaps you can be in at one time is FIVE. Five swaps is A LOT of swaps. We really don't recommend doing that many at once unless a couple of them are very quick and easy.
•5• If you've neglected to fulfill your part in a past swap, you're not allowed to join any more until you fulfill those obligations. Swap Organizers will check your feedback (located in your profile) before letting you join any swaps. If you have a negative, you will be turned away.
•6• You must be at least 13 in order to sign up for Craftster and therefore you must be at least 13 to participate in a swap.
These rules are for the protection of everyone. The majority of people who swap are totally trustworthy and conscientious swappers. But after years of having swaps on Craftster, these rules have come about in an effort to make sure it all goes as smoothly as possible.
Joining a swap
When you see a swap you are interested in joining, send the organizer of the swap a PM (Private Message) saying that you want to join. In the swap signup, there is a list of questions you must answer and send to the organizer in order to join the swap. This form must be filled out in full. Remember, send the organizer a PM -- don't post the information on the swap thread.
Please think carefully before you join a swap about whether you will truly be able to fulfill your end of the swap by the deadline that is given.
And please don't take on more than you can handle by signing up for too many swaps. Carefully choose your favorite swaps so you don't get yourself into a position where you can't handle all the work involved.
What if I unexpectedly
can't make the deadline?
If for any reason whatsoever (and there may be any number of legitimate
reasons), you are unable to fulfill your commitment by the swap deadline,
please let the swap organizer via PM as soon as possible.
It is crucial to inform the person who is organizing the swap.
The swap organizer will give you a Negative Feedback if you don't meet
the deadline and you drop out of contact.
Mailing your swap item to your swap partner
You must use "delivery confirmation" (DC#) or package
tracking of some sort when you mail your package. And you must send the
tracking number to the swap organizer so that they can record it. This
way if the package gets lost, you won't get Negative Feedback because
you can prove that you sent the package.
There are two reasons why you might be allowed to skip delivery confirmation:
1. Some shipping places (like the US Post Office) won't do package tracking/delivery
confirmation on packages that are too thin
2. If you are mailing to another country and adding on package tracking/delivery
confirmation would be very expensive, then you can skip it.
If you must skip tracking, then for proof of mailing just keep the receipt
you get for shipping the item. The receipt should have information about
where the package is going to.
If you have a digital camera, you may want to snap a picture of your item
before you send it. This way, if the person you send it to doesn't have
a digital camera, you can still show it off in the "Swap Gallery"
for this swap (after the person has received it!).
When you receive your item from your swap partner
Send a PM to the person who sent the item thanking them and a PM to the
swap organizer to let them know that the item got to it's destination.
The swap organizer will create a separate "Swap Gallery" for
this swap. You should then post there describing what you got. Please
try to post a picture of what you got. If you don't have a digital camera,
ask a friend who has one to snap a picture for you.
Receiving "feedback" for your swap participation
After the swap is over, the swap organizer will post Positive or Negative
Feedback for your participation in the swap. As long as you fulfill your
end of the swap and keep in touch with the swap organizer as described
above, you'll get Positive Feedback.
If you don't fulfill your end of the swap and you don't let the swap organizer
know that you're going to be late, you'll get Negative Feedback and you
won't be able to sign up for any more swaps until you clear this up.
If the swap has been over for quite some time and you still do not have
feedback, please PM your Swap Organizer and ask them to update it as soon
as possible. If you do not get an answer, then contact a Swap
Moderators. This is especially crucial for first time swappers
who cannot swap again without their first Positive feedback.
More Helpful Information for Swappers
Please also read this for some more helpful
tips and hints for being a fantastic swapper: http://www.craftster.org/forum/index.php?topic=6553.0
ALL
ABOUT ORGANIZING A SWAP
Organizing a swap is a good amount of work and requires someone who is
conscientious and has good follow-through. Please don't volunteer to be
an organizer unless you are prepared to deal with the work described below.
What are the conditions to be met in order to organize a swap?
•1• You must read and understand all of the information above
about participating in a swap before you organize one.
•2• You cannot organize a swap if you have any NEGATIVE
feedback.
•3• You cannot organize a swap unless you've successfully
completed at least two swaps at some point in the past and you
have POSITIVE feedback recorded for those two swaps.
(It's important that you understand how they work from the vantage point
of a participant before you can organize one.)
•4• You can only be the organizer of THREE
swaps at once. We've found that more than that is too much for many people
to handle. As always, do not take on more than you can handle. People
are often surprised at how much work it is to organize a swap.
•5• If the number of participants exceeds 25 members, either
recruit a second organizer or PM your completed swap spreadsheet to a
mod.
•6• You must be at least 13 in order to sign up for Craftster
and therefore you must be at least 13 to organize in a swap.
Start the official thread for this swap
Start a new thread with a title like so: Hand Bag Swap (SIGNUP 6/1/04-6/15/04
; MAIL BY 6/30/04).
In the post, copy and paste the exact text you see when you click
here and fill it in with the appropriate details.
Approve members who want to participate
Members will contact you via PM (Private Message) if they want to join.
You need to check out each and every person who wants
to join by opening up their Profile and making sure that these five things
check out OK:
•1• They've been a Craftster member for at least 1 month.
•2• They've posted at least 15 times on Craftster.
•3• If someone has never swapped on Craftster before, they
can only sign up one swap to start out with.
•4• The maximum number of swaps a participant is allowed to
be in at once is FIVE. If they are already at their limit,
you are not allowed to have them join another one.
•5• If they have any Negative Feedback they are not allowed
to join any more until they fulfill those obligations.
All of this information is located in a member's Profile. To see a member's
Profile, click on their username in any message or PM by that person OR
search for their Profile by clicking
here.
Start recording who's participating
YOUR OWN RECORDS:
Save your own copy of this table to keep track of each person involved:
click here to find Word
or Excel formats
CRAFTSTER MEMBER PROFILE RECORDS:
Click
here to submit information to about who's participating in the swap
to the Craftster Swap Feedback System. At this point, all you need to
do is record that each member's status for this swap is "IN
PROGRESS". This information shows up in each member's Profile
so that others can see how many swaps this person is currently participating
in at any given time.
You must mark a member as IN PROGRESS as
soon as they sign up for the swap. Do not wait until the sign-up period
is over. We need for this to show up in a member's feedback right away
so that they don't sign up for more swaps than they are allowed to.
Match people up
You might want to match people up based on the answers to their questions
when they signed up. Or you might just want to do it randomly.
If you are allowing people from various countries to participate... There
has been trouble at the post office with getting delivery confirmation
on all packages being sent outside your own country. So please try to
pair up members who live in the same country!
If by chance there is an odd number of members from one country and you
want to pair them up with someone from another, you can choose allow them
to not use delivery confirmation. Instead, they can make a copy of the
receipt from sending their package as informal proof that they sent it
in case anything goes wrong.
Record who's matched up with who
When the sign up period has ended you match people up and record who's
trading with who in the Word document or Excel spreadsheet that you started.
Publicly announce who's matched up with who
To make it clear as to who has been matched up with who, edit the first
post of the swap thread (click the Modify button) to list the partnerships,
like so:
Sally -> Suzy
Suzy -> Sarah
Sarah -> Jennifer
Jennifer -> Sally
Occasionally people organize "secret swaps" where it's a secret
as to who you're getting your item from. In this case you must let one
of the Swap Moderators know who is matched up with
who.
Notify each
participant as to who to send their item to
PM each participant to give them the details (name, address, username,
any other details they need) about who to send their item to.
When the SIGN UP period is over
Move your swap thread to the folder called Active
Swaps Where Sign -Up Period Has Ended.
One week before the mailing deadline
Via PM, remind participants about this swap deadline one week before the
deadline. When you compose a PM, you can put multiple usernames in the
"To:" field separated by commas.
When packages have been mailed
Once the mail off date has arrived, participants are supposed to PM you
and give you the delivery confirmation or tracking number information.
Collect this and record it in the Word document or Excel spreadsheet.
If needed, you can refer to this to see who has sent their package, and
if it has arrived to designated person.
When the swap deadline arrives...
Start a "Swap Gallery" for this swap
There is a special folder
here where people can post pictures of what they received or sent
out for this swap. Start a thread there for this swap.
Record Positive or Negative Feedback for participants
Now that the deadline has arrived you need to leave Positive
or Negative Feedback for every participant. Go
to this form and fill it out. This shows up in people's Profiles.
If someone failed to fulfill their swap obligation and refused to communicate
that they have a good reason or that they just need to have the deadline
extended, then they get Negative Feedback.
If they communicated that they are going to be late, hold off on giving
feedback until they do or not come though on their word.
If the swapper has sent his/her item to the partner, they get a positive,
whether or not you feel they communicated poorly or failed to send a DC#
to you, etc. You may note these things in the comment section of the feedback.
If you have a swapper that flaked, please remember to find their partner
a Swap
Angel.
Personal swaps between just 2 members of Craftster are NOT eligible for
feedback.
Enter comments too if you feel like it's good information to have for
future reference. For example, if someone was a particularly great swap
participant, or if someone technically fulfilled their obligation but
there were problems that should be recorded. If someone stepped up to
be a Swap Angel (someone who makes up for a flaker), then you should note
this in the comment section.
More Helpful Information for Organizers
Here is a link to more suggestions
and helpful hints for organizers: http://www.craftster.org/forum/index.php?topic=47204.0
Special
rules for Ongoing/Wishlist/Wistlist swaps
Ongoing Swaps, Wishlist Swaps, Wistlist Swaps can only be started
if the organizer:
1. enlists the help of a backup organizer
or
2. provide the details of the swap to a Swap Moderator to be able to oversee
if necessary
Furthermore, these kinds of swaps can only be setup to last for a period
of one month.
Swap
structures that are not allowed
1. Unconditional Swaps are no longer allowed on Craftster. They
just don't fit into the system in a way where the Swap Moderators can
oversee them without causing way too much work.
2. Swaps in which all swapped items are sent to the organizer for distribution
back to the swappers. Swapped items must be sent directly from swapper
to swapper. No "middle man" is allowed.
Items
that are not allowed in swap packages
The following items are not allowed in swap packages:
- Anything that is illegal in the U.S. or wherever you are sending your
package to or from.
- Any items that have a legal age requirement to consume in the U.S. such
as tobacco, alcohol, pornography etc.
- Mixed CDs containing copyrighted music or similar, including copied
software, CDs, DVDs, etc.