AI:SS 2023 - Filling Up Your Christmussy With Broken Car Parts

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Automotive Insanity > AI:SS 2023 - Filling Up Your Christmussy With Broken Car Parts

Big Taint: Oct 19, 2003

Hey folks, I know what you're thinking - where the gently caress is slothrop? His Christmas present this year is getting a break from dealing with this. It's a bit of a late start this year so spread the cheer to every thread so we can get this rolling!

I will now copy/paste from last year's thread, for the most part:

Pay it Forward

If ya broke, but wanna participate, tick the box. You�ll receive a gift and someone else will take care of your gifting.

If ya feeling flush, tick the box. I�ll assign you two (or more) Santees based on your preferences.

If I have more people willing to donate than people who need it, I don't know what I will do, open to ideas! :V

Important Dates:

Wednesday, November 22nd - REGISTRATION CLOSED.
Thursday, November 23rd - All pairings will go out by the end of day.
Friday, December 15th - Ship-by Date: Ideal ship-by date. PLEASE do everything you can to have your gift on its way on or before this day. International may require earlier shipping
Friday, December 22nd - Deadbeat Cut Off: If you have not provided proof of shipping by this date, you will be considered a deadbeat and will be banned. No bans for late gifts, simply supply the proof-of-shipping and you�ll be fine

HOW DO I SIGN UP?

Please fill out the google form located at the link below. This form will significantly reduce the admin burden on me.

Once you have filled out the form, please post in the thread using the template below.

FILL THIS OUT FIRST

https://forms.gle/XCGt3STDxyKbi5tn9

In order to make it easier to pick gifts that suit your Santee, use the template below. Please copy/paste the following and alter it to suit your needs:

Big Taint
My vehicles: '21 Sprinter, '17 Bolt, '01 740il, '74 GTV, '71 GTV, '69 MB 250
The tool I most commonly use/wish I had: a magnet for stainless steel
Something small I would really like: your dick, tasty treats
Hobbies: sailing, wrenching on shitboxes
Shirt size: no more shirts thank you
Food Allergies: i'm not allergic but coconut is gross
Junk/No Junk: yes, junk me
Comments: Certified Sticker Slut
A local merchant option: i never leave the house so i dunno, surprise me
Dicks/No Dicks: Inside packaging only thanks

------------------------------------------------------

Comments on the above:

Do not have unrealistic expectations about what you may receive. This is a nice guide to help your Santa out, not a wedding registration.

Junk is defined as: Tacoma water pump gaskets, other assorted broken automotive ephemera, 16 gearboxes welded into the best sex robot that hillbilly engineering can achieve. You get the idea.

Dicks/No Dicks: Refers to artwork or other gift wrapping of the gift. Consider it a NSFW/Family filter.

SENDING YOUR GIFT

In addition to the template above, you may wish to refer to your Santee�s post history/threads to choose a gift.

Please bear in mind postal systems around the world are ~~overwhelmed due to COVID~~ generally lovely (especially FedEx). Please plan accordingly. One option is the �hybrid� method of buying something for you Santee using a local-to-them online retailer. This is not a necessity, but may be helpful in keeping costs down in terms of shipping as well as getting gifts to Santee�s promptly.

It has been traditional in the past to include a personalised letter with your gift. Please consider sending this as well via snail mail. We�ll all excuse you if it arrives after your gift does. Perhaps include a note with your Online Retail order indicating that a letter is incoming. Since these can be mysterious when they arrive try to have something identifying it as part of an AI:SS gift.

Please feel free to be super creative with your letter, or your gift, if you are close enough to your Santee.

RECEIVING YOUR GIFT

You may wish to wait until a letter arrives, if your Santa has been able to indicate one is on the way. I understand the holidays are a busy time for us all, but please make an effort post to thank your Santa and give a walkthrough of your lovely gift.

IMPORTANT INFO

Proof of shipment rule

No proof and your santee doesn't get a package? You're a deadbeat. When you ship your gift, you must provide proof of shipment to bigtaint@gmail.com with the username of the person you're buying for and the tracking information. If anything goes pear shaped, at least we can figure out where. If you live near your Santee and want to drop it off yourself, email me and tell me that you did.
You must provide proof of shipment before the deadline. Please put the tracking number in your email. If you do not have a tracking number, you must EMAIL me a photo/scan of the shipping receipt.
If you hit any speed bumps, have any questions, or need anything at all you can email or PM me.

Accepted types of proof:

Tracking number from UPS, Fedex, USPS, Canada Post, whatever
Photo or scanned image of your shipping receipt with your username written on it. Most receipts have the zip code of the recipient, so this is how I will check these.

GIFT COST

If your Santee is open to receiving junk, please exclude the cost of any junk from your budget
Try and keep your gifts in the $20-40 range. Make sure you account for shipping costs
Please do not spend stupid amounts of money on gifts for someone on the internet. Unless you're incredibly wealthy, have some sort of personal relationship with them, or it's loving hilarious and fills you with joy
If you will be moving or traveling a lot during a gift time, please say so in your email and/or post so that I/your Santa knows when and where is the best time to send your gift.

If you have ANY questions, concerns or anything you need at all. Please PM or email me! This is my first time running this so hopefully I don't gently caress it up!

Donations of empathy, the spirit of forgiveness or the milk of human kindness for facilitating AISS are welcome!

AI:SS 2023 EMAIL = bigtaint@gmail.com

Somebody fucked around with this message at 23:42 on Dec 5, 2023

# ¿ Nov 11, 2023 22:27

Adbot: ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ¿ May 9, 2024 23:46

Big Taint: Oct 19, 2003

Advent Horizon posted:

What I really need is more last minutes. If it weren't for the last minute I'd never get anything done..

Fuckin A man.

Speaking of, we're getting close to the deadline of Wednesday, 11/22 to sign up! We've got 22 brave goons so far, and I just spammed a bunch of threads again so we'll see if we can pull in any more folks. At some point on Thursday I will send out the matches. I will assign myself to InitialDave and he will switch with someone else so I am blind to who my Santa is.

We have many generous goons that have chosen the 'pay it forward' option and no recipients, so I'm open to suggestions of ways to spread even more holiday cheer?

# ¿ Nov 20, 2023 20:01

Big Taint: Oct 19, 2003

Ok I accidentally live-fired my script, I am still debugging and will resend hopefully only one more time with the for-real matches, disregard anything you have received until now. Sorry!

EDIT: Real matches have been sent, email or post here if you have any questions.

Big Taint fucked around with this message at 19:46 on Nov 23, 2023

# ¿ Nov 23, 2023 18:47

Big Taint: Oct 19, 2003

This is ChatGPT�s response to �create ASCII art of Santa waving out of the window of a vintage car�:

code:

               ___________
            / |          |`\
           /  |__________|__\
          /   |          |   \
         /    |          |    \
        /     |__________|     \
       /______|__________|______\
      |       |          |       |
      |       |          |       |
      | (o)   |          |   (o) |
      |       |          |       |
      |_______|__________|_______|
       | |    |          |    | |
       | |    |__________|    | |
       |_|____________________|_|
      /___\ /___\  /___\  /___\ /___\
     Santa Waving Out of the Window

So I gave it a sample image, a photo of Santa, and it came up with this:

And then one with Santa waving out the back window or roof:

Ok, one more try, the one that I used in the match emails I sent out this morning:

ChatGPT also helped me write the email script, which was obviously seamless.

Next deadline is December 15 to mail those packages!

# ¿ Nov 23, 2023 23:32

Big Taint: Oct 19, 2003

Final ship-by date is this Friday 12/15! I have gotten some shipping confirmations, if I didn't respond it's because we have been moving and dealing with the old house full of 60 years of junk, I will be more on it this week.

# ¿ Dec 11, 2023 17:35

Big Taint: Oct 19, 2003

Another day, another AppScript misfire. I *tried* to only send the reminders to people who haven't confirmed yet, but I fear it went out to everyone, or at least to some people that have confirmed. So, if you have already confirmed with me, thanks! If you haven't, DO IT.

FAKE EDIT: I think I figured out how I hosed up my testing, the script uses the active spreadsheet and active sheet for its data, I was switched to the fake sheet for testing but I had clicked on a cell in the real sheet which made that one the live one.

Big Taint fucked around with this message at 17:21 on Dec 19, 2023

# ¿ Dec 19, 2023 17:16

Big Taint: Oct 19, 2003

Safety Dance posted:

I thought I should have checked this thread before responding to your email. Please enjoy my "PER MY LAST MESSAGE" energy

I deserve all the Secret Karen responses that I get.

# ¿ Dec 19, 2023 19:19

Big Taint: Oct 19, 2003

Ok nerds, today is the deadbeat deadline. I think I'm only missing a couple people now, if you haven't sent me any tracking or some sort of assurance that you have something cooking the banhammer will start to fall this weekend. I will send out more gentle reminder emails MANUALLY.

In other news, I received a package and will post tonight!

# ¿ Dec 22, 2023 18:20