« IT'S HARD TO SWAP STUFF, YOU KNOW THAT? | Main | IT SHOULD BE WORKING NOW »

March 19, 2007

OPERATION HAREMAIL RETURNS

----> SIGN UP FOR OPERATION HAREMAIL HERE <----

Back by popular demand (okay, by polite request), it's time for another round of Operation Haremail!

For those of you who didn't participate last time, Operation HAREMAIL ("Help A Rabbit Explore Many An Interesting Location") is the one and only officially (dis)organized swapping event that is hosted (semi-) annually here at Polka Dot Mittens. It is an opportunity to make some new friends, meet some new people, and eat some new chocolate, and most importantly, make a LOT of really bad rabbit puns!

This year, all signing up and sorting out will be done by Swap-Bot, where a very nice person called Travis was kind enough to let me set up a swap even though I haven't done one yet. Which means that more people can participate, because I don't have to keep track of all of you! (Hooray for Swap-Bot! Hooray for Travis! Hooray for not having to be more organized!)

It's very easy. And very fun. And has no redeeming moral value. This is what you do:

Step One:
Cut a hole... oh, never mind... Go over here to Swap-Bot to register. You'll have to set yourself up an account if you don't have one already. Swap-Bot is going to sort you out into pairs of hares so that I don't have to. They're very nice, and they won't spam you or anything. You can fill in any special information you have, like if peanut butter bunnies make you break out in welts or something, that might be a good thing to mention. If you keel over dead from your Haremail, we are all going to be really depressed, so help a brother out and pipe up.

However, do keep in mind that "I only allow Godiva chocolate truffles to pass my royal lips" does not qualify as special information. Calm down, your majesty.

DEADLINE FOR REGISTRATION - TUESDAY, MARCH 27.

Step Two:
On Wednesday, March 28, your new Bunny Buddy's name and address will be emailed to you.

Step Three:
Put your Haremail package together, and mail it by Friday, April 6 at the latest. That gives you ten days to put something together. Maybe you wanna mail it earlier in the week so your partner gets it by Easter. That'd be nice, but I know we have a slightly more accelerated time table than we had last time, so you'll have to be quick like a bunny to get it there that early. But if you absolutely can't make it before then, like if you are making a gold bunny sculpture out of spray-painted macaroni and it take until April 6th for your glue to dry, that's ok.

Questionably tasteful, but ok. (Package guidelines below.)

DEADLINE FOR MAILING - FRIDAY, APRIL 6 (GOOD FRIDAY).

Step Four:
Wait anxiously for your mailman/woman/rabbit to deliver your package from your bunny buddy. Once it arrives, have yourself a little Haremail party. Dance in your pants. Or, you know, eat yourself into a chocolate coma. Whatever makes your leg thump.

Step Five:
Say thank you. Email, snailmail, blog entry, however you want to do it. I'll set up a special entry here for posting Haremail results, and y'all can leave links to your blog entries if you want to share your goodies with the rest of us. But do say thank you, or at least acknowledge that your package has been delivered so your partner knows you got it.

This is what I've decided on the bloggers vs. non-bloggers issue: I would prefer that participants have blogs. It's not a slight against non-bloggers, it's just that last time, almost all of the people who didn't come through with their packages were people who didn't have blogs, and therefore didn't have any good way to be contacted outside of email, which I found had a strange tendency to be ignored when it involved questions like "dude, where's your haremail?"

That being said, since those people were the vast minority, I'm going to say it's also open to
- anybody who did it last time.
- anybody I actually know, either online or in real life (that way I know you're loopy instead of merely suspecting it).
- anybody with a positive history on swap-bot.
- anybody who is a regular commenter here.

Of course, if you really want to participate but maybe you're shy and you don't leave comments, or you don't have a blog, email me and say hi. I'm a friendly sort of person, and I'd be happy to include you if I at least recognize your name. I am mostly trying to filter out the people who drop by out of the clear blue and sign up with no intention of sending anything back.

Unfortunately, I am going to have to say that it is NOT open to:
-anybody who did it last time and didn't send a package. (There were a couple that were sent out late, and if you were one of them, that's okay. You can still play. I understand about the lateness... I meant to do this last week.)
-anybody who does not provide their full name. First name AND last name. Unless you are Madonna. Or Cher. If you're that worried about someone finding out who you are, maybe a mail swap is not the thing for you.
-anybody I just plain old get an bad feeling about. Last time I really just wanted to include everybody, and I did, even when I thought "you know, this person says his name is "Pea" and s/he lives in Singapore and that just strikes me as sketchy and peculiar" and danged if ol' Pea didn't stiff his/her swap partner. I don't even think they HAVE peas in Singapore.

And it's an international swap, so if you live somewhere that is not the US, you can participate as long as your bunny buddy is cool with it. Me, I like international haremails, but some people just might not want the extra postage. And I have NO idea what the rules are about mailing chocolates and bunnies internationally, but y'all are very smart and attractive, so I am sure you can find that out on your own.

If you have any questions, please email me at that address over in the sidebar there, and I'd be happy to answer them.

Happy Haremailing!

Posted by tammy at March 19, 2007 12:53 PM

Comments

Posted by: Jewels at March 28, 2007 08:43 AM

Posted by: drewzel at March 22, 2007 07:41 PM

Posted by: Jennifer at March 21, 2007 09:50 AM

Posted by: rachel at March 21, 2007 12:42 AM

Posted by: Becca at March 20, 2007 04:15 PM

Posted by: Jennifer at March 20, 2007 12:03 PM

Posted by: Fran at March 19, 2007 10:11 PM

Posted by: Mariko at March 19, 2007 06:53 PM

Posted by: Petra at March 19, 2007 05:08 PM

Posted by: kristin at March 19, 2007 02:52 PM