Proposal - Round Robin Gift Exchange

[jack]

Several people have suggested gift exhanges, or secret santas, or the like. The idea being, for people who don't know, that a group of people who would like to get each other presents, but don't have time, money or ideas enough, buy and receive one gift from people chosen randomly. (Normally by drawing names, so no-one occurs twice.)

I would use a computer algorithm, making the procedure:

* Sign up on a website listing 5-10 people you would buy a gift for one of.[1]

* You or it emails them and invites them to do the same.

* Next week, everyone is conveniently matched so they get an email giving them one person to buy a present for (ETA: from the list of people they specified they knew!), and will get one gift but they don't know who from yet.

* ETA: the matching may start from a friends list, but would probably need to be confirmed by hand.

I like the idea, and the tech necessary should be minimal.

Yes, I know a website that does that. (Comment with details.)
Jack should write one.
I'd do it.
Your algorithm isn't going to work because [comment].
Comments:

[1] Or more if you like, but there shouldn't be much point. And don't choose your best friends necessarily. Miss out anyone you're buying for anyway, and anyone you can't think of anything for. And choose randomly so no-one's offended.

Comments

[chess]

So you sign up on the website and list 5-10 people you'd like to spam. The website obligingly spams them for you, and invites them to come and spam other people and/or agree that they'll buy a present for some random person. The whole thing gets out of hand and you find that you are shipping your present to Outer Mongolia.

Um. You first need to think about things like 'how are the least-connected of the people likely to end up signed up connected and how is the gift going to get between them' and 'how much should each person spend' and 'are there any appropriateness limits / allergic reactions we will need to take into account'.

[cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com]

Doh! I'm sorry, it seems I *am* an idiot when it comes to explaining things. The point is that you're matched to one of the people you listed "I would buy a present for this person". So it might be a big network, but that doesn't matter except that you can join when you know some but not all of the people involved.

Obviously there are existing websites that let 50 people exchange gifts.

Does that it less stupid?

[yrieithydd.livejournal.com]

Does that it less stupid?

No!

[cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com]

ROFL. OK, my brain is just completely dead tonight. Nevermind.