Secret Valentine... With a Twist!

Hello there everyone!

After bringing you Secret Santa... With a Twist!, ProjectComment and alwaysmotivated are back once again to bring you a similar experience. We present to you, Secret Valentine... With a Twist!

It works much like any Secret Santa or Kris Kringle, only that the fun is now centered around Valentine's Day. Those who decide to sign up will receive another participant's name, drawn at random from the list. With that, will come a special message, hinting to the gift creator what the recipient might want. These small Valentine gifts are then collected one by one and delivered on Valentine's Day, 2010 (GMT, approx.)!

If you choose to participate in this event, you'll end up creating a gift for someone special (whether it be a friend or a dA lover, we're here to spread the love) and end up receiving one for yourself as well!

Rules of Secret Valentine

Each player will be sent the name of another deviant.
The player then has two weeks to create a small art gift for that deviant.
All gifts must be sent to ProjectComment by 10/02/10

All forms of art accepted, including, but not limited to, photography, traditional art, literature, digital art and stock.

All gifts must be centered around the theme of love or Valentine's Day. We don't mind how you interpret the theme though, so there's plenty of room for your imagination to run wild!

This events is for male deviants too! Both genders are capable of love, so how do you interpret it?

The art must be your own work and must not contain any Copyrighted material. Collaborations are not permitted. This, however, does not restrict you from Fanart for Fanfiction. It simply means that you have to create the work you give. Please make sure you give credit to the owner's of the characters though.

You must not disclose the name of the person you are giving the gift to to anyone at any time

No mature content (e.g. nudity, violence, racial discrimination) accepted. We want everyone to be able to participate and have fun.

All gifts must be submitted to the player's own deviantART gallery and be sent to ProjectComment via a note (the gift is then passed on to the recipient).

Once you have been assigned a name you cannot pull out. Consider carefully if you will have enough time to do this. It is not fair to other players if you end up not giving.

All gifts must be art gifts. Anything of monetary value is too hard to handle and for your own giftee to match.

All participants must respect the organisers (that's all the staff at both groups) at all times. Please be understanding and patient, even when we make mistakes. Any display of disrespect and the participant will be immediately removed from the event and banned from any future events held by our groups.

Oh, but we bet you're eager to hear the twist! Here are the extra rules and the extra fun...

Extra Rules

Just like last time, we have included commenting! So not only will you give and receive art but also comments! It works like this.

Upon receiving their gift, each player will give a constructive comment on the deviation.


All players must comment.

The comment should be 50-100 words in length

The comment should be in-depth and should focus on the positive aspects of the artwork as well as a few hints for improvement

The comment should not put down the artist in any way. Be nice and keep it happy, it's the time of the year for love!

Feel free to comment on some of the other gifts as well!

How to Send

Firstly, submit the artwork as a deviation into your own deviantART gallery (not Photobucket or any other image hosting website)

Next send the deviation to ProjectComment. Once you receive a reply from ProjectComment, you are ticked off the list. If you do not receive a reply within 24 hours, then we have not received your note and you will have to send it again.  

ProjectComment will then pass your gift to the recipient in another note.


Got all that? Great! Sign up!

How to Sign Up

If you would like to participate in this event, we strongly recommend that you both groups, at least for the time it is running. This will keep you updated on any announcements, features and issues we may come across.

Send a note to alwaysmotivated with the following details:

Subject Line: Secret Valentine
I am [male/female], I am comfortable with giving gifts to [males only/females only/both genders] and I would like to receive my gift from a [male deviant/female deviant/any deviant]. I am best at [insert forms of art e.g. traditional art, literature] and would like to receive [insert forms of art e.g. I don't mind, traditional art].

[insert a small message here, one or two sentences long]


What should you include in your little message? Well, have a think about the way you interpret love or what you might like to see in your gift. Don't boldly go in and give them instructions on what to do but perhaps share a small thought or hint at what you like. An example of a message is: I think love sometimes reminds me of summer. or Love is something very special to me, it's a bit like life and we should treasure it everyday. So basically, just a little line to nudge your gift creator in the right direction.

Yup, simple! But make sure you do it quick and do it right, we're only allowing 1 week for sign-ups and we're going to stop accepting participants after about 100 (so the project is more manageable). This time, late sign-ups will not be accepted.

Dates

Sign-up opens: 14/01/10
Sign-up closes: 21/01/10
Names distributed: 24/01/10
Creation Period: 25/01/10 - 10/02/10
Gifts delivered: 14/02/10
Comment Period: 14-21/02/10
Both groups feature in news article: 16/02/10

Guidelines

To create the perfect gift, consider these tips:

Not everyone interprets love in the same way so if you can, go for a unique interpretation.

Put time and effort into it, you wouldn't be too happy if you received a scrappy gift.

Have a look at the person's page, favourites and gallery and consider what they might like and the way they might interpret love.

Put a bit of thought into the artist's comments section as well. Give the person a kind greeting and who knows, maybe you'll be meeting a new friend?

Have a real think about the message that they wrote and then perhaps base your gift around what they have said.

Which Club?

Just to clarify, so you don't get confused:

alwaysmotivated will take care of all your sign-up notes and name distribution

ProjectComment will take care of all your gifts and gift distribution


Don't get muddled up!

Additional Help

We bring in this new addition section in hope that it will rectify two problems that occurred during the Secret Santa project. The first being lack of inspiration and motivation which eventually led to late gifts and forgetting the deadline. The second is the fact that many gifts were left without comments by the end of the project.

Inspiration Helpline
The first addition is brought to you by alwaysmotivated. During the gift creation period, if you find yourself with a completely blank slate with absolutely nowhere to go, we're asking you to come to us! Simply send a note to either Anjellyjoy or tanniecookie (we're the admins) with the subject line of 'Please Inspire Me'. In the message, include who you're creating a gift for, in what medium and your valentine's secret message. The reply will be magic. We'll give you three paragraphs of inspiration and advice! This helpline is 100% confidential and nobody but us will know and we'll be sure to keep it a secret between ourselves (if we happen to remember afterwards, that is).

Comment Week
The second addition is brought to you by ProjectComment. This will ensure that every single gift gets a constructive comment. If, at the end of the Comment Period, you do not get a comment from the person you are giving the gift to, then we insist you to submit it to our Comment Week where submissions are open for a week starting from 22/02/10, one day after the end of the Comment Period. You will be guaranteed one constructive comment on your gift by the end of Comment Week, and if you do not receive one then, we will feature you in both our blogs and our news which will definitely result in a constructive comment. Either way, it’s better to take part in Comment Week than not take part.


If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to contact either ProjectComment or alwaysmotivated.


Have fun!

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Brought to you by ProjectComment and alwaysmotivated, sister groups here on deviantART!