pouët.net

No, because I grabbed it right before I started work for the day, but now I know who it's from, thank you. 🙂

Didn't know about xxd.

(I would've tried myself after work with some other tool.)

I'm 3/5 (with a bonus free one :) ) and the two i'm waiting on are both UK, so hurray for our postal service here locally I guess

@Starchaser

A proposition. I was thinking.
What about adding a function which could check last year's contacts in order not to have the same correspondance every year and have a possibility to write to the new contacts? ;)

Like, trying to ensure you got new people over ones you've already had?

I like that idea and was in an exchange that tried to do that, by trying to give everyone a person they'd had before but otherwise go for mostly new people.

There are a few challenges to that, though.

First, I'd have to keep names and assignment connections between years. I decided for personal well being and general legal compliance to delete all personal data between exchanges since I started this. (I am just one person.†)

It's possible I have backups of the assignment connections from past years, but that's only IDs and country codes. Nothing identifiable, unless some future person joins as the sole scener from Antarctica and widely publicizes this. 😄

Anyway, what really holds up assignments is the "local" option. Theoretically, if enough people joined (more than the < 60 we get now), anyone who asks for a local card would be assured to get someone from their own country, but I mention on sign-up that I may use directly adjacent countries since that never really quite works out.‡

This option only sticks around because enough people keep using it. Removing it would allow me to return to automating matching, which might even improve matching rates.⹋ It would also free me up to considering other constraints.

Anyway, I have given it thought before, I just would have to simplify the options before adding back in complexity.

--

† I do make sure to run updates, etc. but I am self-hosting an app I wrote myself. The server is Germany this year, and should remain so in future years.

‡ One person got unhappy they only got their international assignments because I couldn't magically assign them an equal number of people from their Oceanian country.

⹋ Though I think I'm doing pretty good as it is. Stats say the match rate is 89%. 🙂

Alternatively, people could provide a list of people on sign-up that they would prefer to exclude, so it's up to them to keep track of who they received cards from.

Thank you OhLi for the lovely card and the fantastic lino print! <3

Got also card from OhLi, thanks a lot!

Reindeer Pig! Reindeer Pig!
Does whatever a Reindeer Pig does
Can he pull Santa’s sleigh?
No he can't, he's a pig
Look out!
He is the Reindeer Pig.

@Starchaser

Thank you for your kind information.
It was a thought and proposition.
And yes, you are doing really good with this project =).

Yeah, that would probably work, but then I'd have to manually match up whatever people put in that box to the names people actually entered when they signed up. 😄

I'll think about it.

I'll add it to my general thoughts/TODO list I keep around somewhere.

This project is iterative. I didn't used to have the email option, and I also added the country dropdown since some people accidentally(?) left theirs off.

The exchange site isn't OSS, but not because I'm trying to keep it secret. It's really only because I don't think anyone would care. It's not like I get inundated with people asking how to run their own exchanges or to make direct contributions. 🙂

(Everything is simple and works well enough that this is fine with me!)

First of all, thanks a lot for doing this, Starchaser! You're doing a great work here and the card exchange is one of my demoscene highlights each year! (I try to get more creative with my cards again, I promise)

Here's an option for you if you like to store the assignments, without storing any personal data:
* concatenate the addresses or nicknames and hash them (eg. md5, sha, etc)
* then delete the data, but keep the hashes. Since hash-functions are one-way functions the original data is safe (esp. if you concatenate - for extra security you could add a word as "salt" in the end, but not really needed)
* next year you use the same hash-function when doing the assignments and compare with this year's hashes
* if people sign up next year with the same mail-addresses or same nicknames (whatever field you used for the hashes) you'll get the same hash and know that it's the same assignment

Just an idea, I personally don't mind much to get the same assignment, also it doesn't happen often.
Thanks again! Cheers!

Got a nice card Saturday from steffest including a couple extra goodies and a drawing. 🙂

Nice three-dee card from Jtruk popped through the letterbox today, no worries on the delay :)

Cool card and a bunch of stickers from RaccoonViolet, thanks a lot!

Got nice postcards from from Squ and Atanua today, thank you. 🙂

We're almost in February so I don't think I should expect new cards now (especially since the one I am missing are from people who did not check 'sent' ) but I got 8 out of 10 this year it 's not bad !
I believe my stuff should have reach you already (hopefully it even get to Norway safely)

Thanks to the people who participated!

I think I'm at around the same numbers. Given that stuff gets lost in mail and also that the bigger these anonymous exchanges get, the more likely it is that someone is signing on just to get free stuff... it's an okay success rate.

I would hope not, but a couple or so people did note they sent their cards out really late (after Christmas).

The data all goes away at the end of January so that's the technical end of the exchange, but I have gotten a card way after that. 🙂

I think I'm only missing one, and they're one of the admitted late senders. Looks like I got the rest based on teh stack of cards I have... I ended up participating for 6 cards.

This weekend I went to my parents to pick up the letters which arrived after christmas.
Hooray, the hilariously uberengineered Coffmas 2025 Pro from PotcFdk, a lovely linocut from OhLi, 1bit art from HappyDude and a nice card and stickers from FRaNKy. Thank you all!
Together with the ones I got before christmas I received all seven cards and letters, a whopping 100% fulfilment rate :o)

post is funny. in a weird way. I sent my cards on 15th of December. I only got report back from v3nom 3 days after. But I also got an off-pouet info that in SK same card arrived like only 3 days ago... 6 weeks later, and they are freaking neighbours... mere 400km between source and destination.

also, got jtruk card last week. beautiful work. thanks! that's 10/10 for me. case closed for this year <3

On my side I got 7/8 cards so pretty happy about it!

Again thanks a lot to Angelo, Franky, Jtruk, Mermaid, Olympian, Shantee, Silvia!
Cards were all different, full of great vibes and simply awesome!

I'll do it again! ♥️

I got 8/10 of the official senders (and the ones that I didn't get haven't marked them as sent, so I'll just assume life got in the way). Thank you Steffest for the lovely sketch! Then Silvia went above and beyond the call of duty and sent me an extra card ❤️, which was also extra awesome! Thank you all!

Next year I will come up with a new idea, I promise! Or not 🤞! If the previous years are any indication, the sudden impending deadline always catches me off-guard, but fortunately I seem not to be alone 🤣

Well I doubt I'll receive my last card
So I received 4 out of 5, thank you unknown Canadian scener for the 3d printed floppy, unknown person with a 3d printed atari/amiga christmas tree with machine code, Ohmego with a cute card and a kitschy german card from Atanna I think the card says.
Hope I can try this again next year and not get caught up in making super fancy cards.

Greetings from Canada Harekiet! (yeah yeah... I was so into making the card I forgot to sign it :D)

I managed to solve Silvia's puzzle finally, more of a challenge than I expected :)