It's that time of year again!

~The general event overview~

This is the GWA variant of the traditional Secret Santa played many places around the world.

By signing up you opt-in to create an audio based on the preferences of another user and post it on GWA for that user's (and others) enjoyment and post it by the deadline. Using the form provided you also create a set of your own preferences to be distributed to another user to do the same.

The registry is open to all qualifying users from announcement until closing time (see below).

Once closed, the elves pull all the names out of the internet barrel and start pairing them off (it's not completely random, they're carefully instructed to make sure people who opt out of certain things aren't asked to perform those same things).

Once the matches are made, the elves send out PMs announcing the pairings and the users have until the deadline to create and post their audio to GWA.

No huge changes to the usual terms, but please take the time to review them carefully before you sign-up. We want this to be a very merry event.

~Terms & Conditions~

• All participants must be aged 18 (or age of legal consent in their country) or older.
• All participants must hold a verified account aged 30 days or greater (from date announcement posted). While we regret this bars our newest users from participating, we feel it is necessary to prevent users from creating additional accounts to sign-up multiple times. (Yes, this happens. A lot.)
• "Joke" sign-ups will be discarded completely, as will sign-ups with requests to be matched with specific users.
• You are signing up with the expectation to make and post an audio on GWA and the hope of receiving the same.
• Sign-ups must be made through the provided registration link.
• There is no guarantee that you will receive an audio in this exchange. If you do not receive an audio, the elves will attempt to rematch you with another Santa, however, delivery of audios are solely the responsibility of the individual participants.
• Participants who do not follow through with an audio as agreed will not be permitted to participate in such events again. Note: If you must cancel and contact /u/Lio9 prior to name selection, there will be no penalty for withdrawing your name.
• Any participant who willfully creates an audio with the intent to offend or "troll" their match will be barred from participating in all future exchanges and/or subject to other action as deemed fit by the Moderators.
• Rematches only occur when someone is left without an audio and only if available. We do not hold a list for "swapping" recipients around and don't "trade" amongst yourselves (that defeats the purpose of the event). You will be matched with someone in a semi-random fashion, taking into account your stated preferences.
• All other Reddit and GWA rules apply.

~Other important stuff~

Want to do a holiday audio or script? Go for it! You don't have to be participating in the Secret Santa to spread the jolly!

The preference list collected from you gathers things you don't enjoy. Folks generally enjoy more things than not. By eliminating things not enjoyed, all Santas are given a broad opportunity to create from all the other goodness in the world.

Sign-ups are open until 11:59:59PM (NYC time) on Thursday November 30, 2017. Late registrations are not guaranteed a place in the event.

The elves require a bit of time to sort through all the registrants and make the matches. How long this takes varies by the number of registrations received. The elves are planning to drink a lot of coffee and attempt to get all matches sent out on Saturday, December 2, 2017, but it will be no later than Midnight (NYC time) Sunday December 3, 2017. (Unless there's a freak internet outage...)

Audios are to be posted on or before Monday, December 25, 2017. Be sure to use the tag [Secret Santa], your santee's username and any other applicable tags in the title.

If your Santa doesn't deliver, send a note to /u/Lio9 to be placed on the list for a new Santa (if available).

Please do not create and publish a list of users you suspect have (snow)flaked out on the event! Every year we have a handful of folks who use the event as "cover" to make an audio for someone they admire and it's not cool to assume every person tagged with a gift audio is participating. ;)

It's totally cool to record a script as someone's gift! (Remember to give the script author credit as normal!)

If you're uncomfortable with any of the terms and conditions of this event, it's best if you wait until you find an event that you're more comfortable with. Don't do things that make you unhappy.

Still interested? Awesome! Sign-up here (link removed as sign-ups are now closed. Take your time and check your answers for accuracy for best results.

Feel free to ask questions in the comments if you have some, but please understand there may be some delay with answers as I am tethered heavily to a work project that is consuming my life (incl. weekends) at the moment. I'll get to you as soon as I can and I appreciate your patience!

Edit sign-up link disabled. The elves are now working on the matching. Thank you!