What's happening with the MN Christmas Appeal this year?

People have to have been around for 12 mths or more to be nominated (you can nominate anyone and we will have a look) and we can see name changes so we can still match that way

I'd just like to point out that I started a whole brand new account after heartbleed, and again after JefferyGate. So as far as MNHQ are concerned I would be a new user - not that I would be nominated as I'm barely here these days - but I think it's an important point to consider.

Jeremy and the bridge dwellers won't stop me spreading Christmas cheer. I'm very happy to send a gift and can think of some wonderful people on here who deserve a little treat.

Do you have to have been around for a year to send a gift as well as receive?

I was nominated last year.
Not a chance I would give my address this year unless the gifts were sent to MNHQ to be sent out again.

Lots of people have dereg and re registered.

Let's face it anyone could offer to send a gift, get your name , address and some family details and not send anything

What I liked about the appeal was that it wasn't just hard luck stories, but thanking kindness or hard times. Maybe categories would work - you wouldn't know which one you were in but you could nominate under a category.

I never managed to get reading the thank you threads but am very happy to give a gift again this year BUT I agree with other posters that it will be tricky to know who is who when lots of people have re-registered. Equally though I don't want the Christmas appeal to be buggered up by twattish hackers / trolls. So I'm happy to give a gift and if it means a troll gets a gift off me, then so be it, because I'd be hoping someone who deserves it will be getting it.

we can see name changes so we can still match that way.

Quite a few MNers have re-registered rather than name changed, though. Not least because they couldn't get back into their old accounts.

I do think something charitable would be better, for any number of reasons.

I found last years secret santa seemed to have lost some of it's sparkle tbh, I can't put my finger on why, it just all seemed a bit formal in a

'Mumsnetter 465390 has given some vouchers to Mumsnetter 876529'

'Mumsnetter 876529 would like to thank Mumsnetter 465390'

I'm sure there are extra concerns, Simurgh!

You could argue that, BIWI - but I suspect that there are some extra concerns this year because of recent events and if the Xmas Giving were to be a damp squib because of them, Jeffrey and the Fan Club could chortle on those grounds alone.

I know that there have been some issues raised in previous years so maybe the time is in any case ripe to re-consider the arrangements?

Ps - I agree that charitable donations would be better

Could we have a situation where the thanks were sent by email or PM or letter to MNHQ who then passed them onto the sender. Basically keep things totally off the boards.

Not sure what can be done about the usual suspects turning up with their annual sob stories apart from ignore them

Surely not doing it will be giving into Jeffrey?

ItsAllGoingToBeFine

That sounds quite good, actually. I think there are some charitable causes - eg Women's Aid - that might take gifts as well as cash donations?

I mean donate.

I'm afraid I don't want to get involved this year, I didn't last year either after all the threads about missing gifts, moaning about unjust nominations etc and hackergate has only made things worse. I would nominate to a charity in lieu of it though.

I agree Gloria.

Perhaps instead of doing the traditional Xmas appeal (which many have pointed out could have issues this year) people could donate money/vouchers/gifts/whatever to a nominated charity/charities (refugees?) instead? That way people could still get the warm fuzzies from giving, people in need would still be helped, and no-one would have to give out personal addresses?

Personally, I like doing something a bit extra at Xmas and you have to make provision for eg those MNetters who may not be able to afford a cash donation but would still like to participate and might have a specific item that would be a great present for someone.

I do appreciate that there might be some anxiety following Jeffreygate but isn't it the case that you could always just give an address (maybe even a name?) you 'feel comfortable with' rather than necessarily where you actually live? Besides which, only MNHQ know who has been nominated or is donating and can tie in the names to nicknames. Donors know only that they can send something to a name at an address - they have no idea which poster it might be.

I'll think on it some more, though. It will be interesting to hear other people's views.

Thank you! Not sure why I thought it would be different.??

I assume that they've tightened security and I am not concerned about posting here.

That is however vastly different from giving out my name and address so that someone who I know only as a username can know where I live.

Fwiw I wouldn't have a problem with giving my address to mn hq if I e.g. won a competition, but I wouldn't want it to be passed on to a random mumsnettter, because, lovely as I'm sure the majority are, there really is just no way of knowing.

IMO the only way The Christmas appeal could work would be for the givers to send to a specific address which was an mn hq address, and for the gifts to then be distributed to the nominees. perhaps some london based mn'ers could even volunteer to go down to mn hq and lend a hand.

the charities idea... we could either nominate certain charities (that works well enough with giving week) or perhaps individual mn'ers could donate items for hampers or such like to be made and then people could still be nominated as per my suggestion above...

Am thinking on the fly really so a bit disjointed but ykwim.