exols-silver-christmas

[exols-silver-christmas]

No apolgies needed.

A snake biting it's own tail.....that's a good way of putting it.

As for this^^ there's been some interest in a more interactive community, as evidenced by those who've commented and replied, so we start there. Sort of a "if you build it they will come" type of deal. We try and spread the word and if it doesn't work at least we tried.

To that end....I..and I'm terrible for just jumping in feet first, but I've already started putting together sort of community focused hub blog to go hand in hand with the Tumblr community I applied for the other day after a couple of people mentioned it.(I have no idea how long they take to be approved which is why I jumpstarted that particular process, but I haven't heard back yet.) I figured there were enough good ideas to be starting with and hey! no time like the present? So uh yes...that's kinda already in motion. Blame the adhd.

So to combine the things people were suggesting: I used your suggestion of a transit blog and event blog combined. A one stop shop for all of exols needs. The blog could track a specific tag and add everything in the tag to the queue...maybe once or twice a week to minimize the amount of work needed. It'd have the directory...which...if it's submission based to be put on it just send a dm or an ask (i also really like the idea you said of blogs having an about me post that could be linked) of ...it shouldnt take too much effort to maintain...adding a few links here and there after the initial rush wouldn't be a big hassle and updating it every six months...would really only involve checking the links and the time stamp on the blogs latest post.

It would have a library masterpost, where we could compile fic or even all fan creation masterlists; again submission based for ease of maintenance and checking the links work once every 6 months or so. The monthly event masterposts could also go in here.

I also thought a resource post would be good. Links to the offical group media accounts and the members personal ones. Maybe some links to make finding thier acting appearances easier, there's a good blog out that that's compiled many of the videos and I have a few google doc links saved for the downloaded lives that got saved. And whatever else a new or old exol might need to find. (Ideas?)

And as for events...I mocked up a calendar....subject to change of course but just something to get an idea of things and a starting point. I figured a poll for things like day and time to run events wouldn't go amiss.

But the events I tentatively have blocked out are

The monthly prompt, drop it on the 1st of the month and have the deadline set for the last day of the month to be included on the months masterlist. (Wondering if there should be a minimum requirement? Or just so long as it includes the prompt?) [This would help generate new content]

Weekly thematic prompts that are at least tangential to the monthly prompt, for those that want to do shorter drabbles or quicker fanart edit pieces. [Another way to get people back into making things]

Book club! People can submit fics they'd like for participants to read, a poll to decide which one and at the end of the month we could discuss them. Could also include shorter works ....we'd just do a couple of them instead of just one. [Would divide into shipping fics and reader insert/oc] [this would get people talking about our writers and thier work maybe even encourage them to comment more]

Art Gallery Night. Similar to book club but fanart and edit focused people wouldnhave the opportunity to share thier favourite pieces and what they enjoyed about them, what draws them to it etc. [Again something to spark discussion between blogs. Still contemplating logistics]

Workshop Wednesdays. This one heavily depends on how the tumblr community function works, but the idea behind it is to metaphorically gather and share about our ongoing fan creation projects, or ask for advice from other creators or share a life hack that you found that works. That sort of thing. [Would hopefully help to motivate people to continue or even pick up creating.]

Exo watch alongs. What it says on the tin, we'd have a poll on what to watch and every one watches it together and talks about it as it goes on. [Another idea to get people talking to each other.]

Holidays and birthdays. Have a valentines day exchange for example or spooky stories at halloween etc. People can share posts about the member whose birthday it is.

Sleepover Saturdays. This is kinda similar to something....I think it was @prettywordsyouleft used to do. Again logistics would depend on how the tumblr community function works, but the memes and tag games and the questionnaires and mad libs etc that @ffff7777 suggested would go here. Just an hour or so of fun once a week. People could submit stuff like uquizzes they found or made and whatever we don't use could go towards the next week's activities.

Potentially? Like....a lot of the exo content I see crossing the dash...when I see it...it's all older posts. I have recently developed a habit of checking the original timestamps on things and if you ever look....we have posts still making the rounds that were originally posted from 2017, and that's just the oldest one I've seen lately.

This isn't a bad idea at all, anything that helps alleviate some of the mental labour is a good thing imo. Another option would be to take submissions for prompts and use those to power the polls.

Yes! It was during one of their concert ments! One of thier live streamed ones...it kinda became a bit if a meme at the time...but he was teasing exols about thier phones and posting to social media and he specifically mentioned posting to Tumblr. So yeah our precious leader knows about us. As for the analytics....it's a real possibility especially when you consider that back when Tumblr was hosting celebrity ama, side note does Tumblr still do those? I haven't seen a notice for one in a while. Anyway, the websites been used in the past as part of movie or music promotions, Dennys had a Tumblr blog as part of thier marketing strategy until like 2019. TikTok might be the most popular social media atm but that doesn't mean companies are gonna disregard all other sources of data. Truthfully it's probably just a matter of percentages.

Anyway. Like I mentioned above...I've got a jump start in organizing things, as for help it'll be a matter of potentially finding a few admins to help run the events themselves, because there's definitely gonna be days id miss simply because of work, and to get people to help spread the word to the active blogs out there. Honestly it might be a good idea to reach out to some of the popular writers and see if they'd be willing help out and promote the idea once the blogs details are polished.

And I don't know if I've said this yet, but thank you, to you and to everyone else who's thrown in ideas. I'm starting to have hope again for our fandom, I know I definitely feel much more enthused being proactive about things. So thank you for the help and input.

So I can't be the only one who's noticed the decline in fanmade exo content here on Tumblr. We've gone from a fandom who's new posts could be measured in hours to a fandom who's posts have days....to weeks....to months....to even years for some specific tags.

We have had 6 solo album comebacks this year, 3 fancon tours, 2 solo concert tours, a myriad of festival concert appearances, youtube videos, magazine shoots, instalives, etc. Yet if you go to the exo tag it's mainly populated by archive blogs. And the nude bots, which....that's a whole other problem on its own. I digress. My point being, the tags, at least from what I've seen (I admit I haven't looked into the shipping tags) are being filled by the same handful of blogs yet given the high amount of source material, no one seems to be doing anything with it beyond archiving it.

Again this could just be because I didn't delve too deep or too far back, but it does have me wondering if part of the reason participation this year was down was simply because there's hardly anyone left.

There's been instances in the past where others have attempted to inject new life into the fandom so to speak, with....varying...level of success. The exo revival project being the first and most successful that comes to mind. I'm wondering what everyone else's thoughts are on the matter and if holding new fandom events might be a way to involve more people year round because I really do want to continue holding this event next year but if things keep going the way they have been there won't be anyone signing up.

Let me know what you think, ideas you might have, reblog this and tag your mutuals to get them involved in the discussion. I have a few ideas that I've pilfered from other fandoms, watch alongs. Fic bingo. Theres valentines exchanges. Fandom sleepovers. Heck I'd set up a Tumblr based scavenger hunt if I thought people would play. Like....we dont have to be monoliths in a placid sea of we don't want to. Fandom can be fun. It should be fun.

[exols-silver-christmas]

It's a good thing then there hasn't been talk of forcing anyone to do anything, though if you could direct me to what part of the previous conversations made you have that impression? I'd appreciate the chance to look over it and potentially edit the post or comment.

As for the rest, building a community is kinda becoming the point of all this, getting more people involved in keeping the fandom from dying, because a lot of the great content you mentioned...is older posts that keep circulating. And while there are definitely still people making and posting new things, there seems to be less and less as the years go on.

It's my hope that by encouraging both new content creation and interaction between exols that we can at least establish better community ties and stave off the end.

You mentioned you'd be interested in events, are there any particular types that you'd like to see happen?

So I can't be the only one who's noticed the decline in fanmade exo content here on Tumblr. We've gone from a fandom who's new posts could be measured in hours to a fandom who's posts have days....to weeks....to months....to even years for some specific tags.

We have had 6 solo album comebacks this year, 3 fancon tours, 2 solo concert tours, a myriad of festival concert appearances, youtube videos, magazine shoots, instalives, etc. Yet if you go to the exo tag it's mainly populated by archive blogs. And the nude bots, which....that's a whole other problem on its own. I digress. My point being, the tags, at least from what I've seen (I admit I haven't looked into the shipping tags) are being filled by the same handful of blogs yet given the high amount of source material, no one seems to be doing anything with it beyond archiving it.

Again this could just be because I didn't delve too deep or too far back, but it does have me wondering if part of the reason participation this year was down was simply because there's hardly anyone left.

There's been instances in the past where others have attempted to inject new life into the fandom so to speak, with....varying...level of success. The exo revival project being the first and most successful that comes to mind. I'm wondering what everyone else's thoughts are on the matter and if holding new fandom events might be a way to involve more people year round because I really do want to continue holding this event next year but if things keep going the way they have been there won't be anyone signing up.

Let me know what you think, ideas you might have, reblog this and tag your mutuals to get them involved in the discussion. I have a few ideas that I've pilfered from other fandoms, watch alongs. Fic bingo. Theres valentines exchanges. Fandom sleepovers. Heck I'd set up a Tumblr based scavenger hunt if I thought people would play. Like....we dont have to be monoliths in a placid sea of we don't want to. Fandom can be fun. It should be fun.

[exols-silver-christmas]

I definitely like some of these ideas, though having individual blogs for them most likely isn't going to be feasible or sustainable simply because at this juncture we'd need people to run them amd we barely have active posters which....it's why I even brought up this discussion tbh.

Based on the conversation amd input so far, it's looking like i might have to turn the nebulous idea for an event blog into maybe more of a community hub. Give people a place to do that reaching out as you've put it.

This has definitely given me more than a few ideas, hopefully I'll get some more if this post spreads.

And as a reminder to those that see this: feel free to Chime in! Or if you don't have ideas reblog this so others can find it. Send it to your mutuals even.

So I can't be the only one who's noticed the decline in fanmade exo content here on Tumblr. We've gone from a fandom who's new posts could be measured in hours to a fandom who's posts have days....to weeks....to months....to even years for some specific tags.

We have had 6 solo album comebacks this year, 3 fancon tours, 2 solo concert tours, a myriad of festival concert appearances, youtube videos, magazine shoots, instalives, etc. Yet if you go to the exo tag it's mainly populated by archive blogs. And the nude bots, which....that's a whole other problem on its own. I digress. My point being, the tags, at least from what I've seen (I admit I haven't looked into the shipping tags) are being filled by the same handful of blogs yet given the high amount of source material, no one seems to be doing anything with it beyond archiving it.

Again this could just be because I didn't delve too deep or too far back, but it does have me wondering if part of the reason participation this year was down was simply because there's hardly anyone left.

There's been instances in the past where others have attempted to inject new life into the fandom so to speak, with....varying...level of success. The exo revival project being the first and most successful that comes to mind. I'm wondering what everyone else's thoughts are on the matter and if holding new fandom events might be a way to involve more people year round because I really do want to continue holding this event next year but if things keep going the way they have been there won't be anyone signing up.

Let me know what you think, ideas you might have, reblog this and tag your mutuals to get them involved in the discussion. I have a few ideas that I've pilfered from other fandoms, watch alongs. Fic bingo. Theres valentines exchanges. Fandom sleepovers. Heck I'd set up a Tumblr based scavenger hunt if I thought people would play. Like....we dont have to be monoliths in a placid sea of we don't want to. Fandom can be fun. It should be fun.

[exols-silver-christmas]

There's definitely plenty of reasons Tumblr exol fandom has slowed down and I don't think we'll ever get a definitive answer unfortunately. But we can make the most of what we've got and who knows maybe a better interaction culture in our corner of the internet may draw more people back. Or thisnwhole effort may be futile. Won't know until it gets tried lol.

You said you think conversations are a good way to bolster the fandom and I agree, do you have any suggestions for things you'd like to see, ways you think would appeal to make that happen?

The community function as far as my awareness goes is still in beta testing so you gave to apply for one first, they're not letting us make them willy nilly but I may take preemptive liberty and apply for one. It may be putting the cart before the horse but at least we'll have one up and running if we have need of it. I haven't seen a community made for exo yet unless you or someone else knows of one?

Yeah tumblrs p*rn ban didn't really do much good and caused more harm than anything what with everyone and their brother leaving in protest. Like the main problem was always the bots and they've clearly found a work around tumblrs guidelines to continue operating so all the ban did was cause tumblr to lose a large portion of its user base.

So I can't be the only one who's noticed the decline in fanmade exo content here on Tumblr. We've gone from a fandom who's new posts could be measured in hours to a fandom who's posts have days....to weeks....to months....to even years for some specific tags.

We have had 6 solo album comebacks this year, 3 fancon tours, 2 solo concert tours, a myriad of festival concert appearances, youtube videos, magazine shoots, instalives, etc. Yet if you go to the exo tag it's mainly populated by archive blogs. And the nude bots, which....that's a whole other problem on its own. I digress. My point being, the tags, at least from what I've seen (I admit I haven't looked into the shipping tags) are being filled by the same handful of blogs yet given the high amount of source material, no one seems to be doing anything with it beyond archiving it.

Again this could just be because I didn't delve too deep or too far back, but it does have me wondering if part of the reason participation this year was down was simply because there's hardly anyone left.

There's been instances in the past where others have attempted to inject new life into the fandom so to speak, with....varying...level of success. The exo revival project being the first and most successful that comes to mind. I'm wondering what everyone else's thoughts are on the matter and if holding new fandom events might be a way to involve more people year round because I really do want to continue holding this event next year but if things keep going the way they have been there won't be anyone signing up.

Let me know what you think, ideas you might have, reblog this and tag your mutuals to get them involved in the discussion. I have a few ideas that I've pilfered from other fandoms, watch alongs. Fic bingo. Theres valentines exchanges. Fandom sleepovers. Heck I'd set up a Tumblr based scavenger hunt if I thought people would play. Like....we dont have to be monoliths in a placid sea of we don't want to. Fandom can be fun. It should be fun.

[exols-silver-christmas]

I wouldn't say your opinion is unecessary Tana, every viewpoint helps round out the larger picture. For instance; I'm not super caught on other kpop fandoms, so the info on it not just being exol that's experiencing the slowdown is definitely new info, though the info about new writers even in big fandoms not getting seen....isn't surprising most big fandoms have or had the same issue in the past.

As for being back to a few dedicated fans.....it's a fair sight better than fandom death.

I'm glad you've got a spark to flame....I look forward to whatever comes of it even if it's just renewed interest in other people's content.

Other than new events and active networks....is there anything else you can think of that you'd like to see?

So I can't be the only one who's noticed the decline in fanmade exo content here on Tumblr. We've gone from a fandom who's new posts could be measured in hours to a fandom who's posts have days....to weeks....to months....to even years for some specific tags.

We have had 6 solo album comebacks this year, 3 fancon tours, 2 solo concert tours, a myriad of festival concert appearances, youtube videos, magazine shoots, instalives, etc. Yet if you go to the exo tag it's mainly populated by archive blogs. And the nude bots, which....that's a whole other problem on its own. I digress. My point being, the tags, at least from what I've seen (I admit I haven't looked into the shipping tags) are being filled by the same handful of blogs yet given the high amount of source material, no one seems to be doing anything with it beyond archiving it.

Again this could just be because I didn't delve too deep or too far back, but it does have me wondering if part of the reason participation this year was down was simply because there's hardly anyone left.

There's been instances in the past where others have attempted to inject new life into the fandom so to speak, with....varying...level of success. The exo revival project being the first and most successful that comes to mind. I'm wondering what everyone else's thoughts are on the matter and if holding new fandom events might be a way to involve more people year round because I really do want to continue holding this event next year but if things keep going the way they have been there won't be anyone signing up.

Let me know what you think, ideas you might have, reblog this and tag your mutuals to get them involved in the discussion. I have a few ideas that I've pilfered from other fandoms, watch alongs. Fic bingo. Theres valentines exchanges. Fandom sleepovers. Heck I'd set up a Tumblr based scavenger hunt if I thought people would play. Like....we dont have to be monoliths in a placid sea of we don't want to. Fandom can be fun. It should be fun.

[exols-silver-christmas]

Well. The bit about answering tags is something I get, like a lot of times imo tags or comments especially like the example you used they don't leave room for expansion. There really nowhere else to go without, like you said, fishing for further compliments. But this example you've provided is just another symptom of people not really conversing with each other.

And like...yeah our exo fanbase is aging and adulting is brutal and draining and horrible, and starting and maintaining new conversations is frankly daunting, and no one is ever gonna have the time to keep up with every single other person in our fandom on a personal level. This makes it super easy to leave comments like the example or to even just.....consume with out reblogging; which is a reason I've seen given as to why reblog culture is down. People are tired and they don't want to waste more energy. Including myself. I work...so much. Anywhere from 45 to 60 hour weeks depending on the season and it was and still is super easy to fall into the post and ghost habit. The culture on here....was and is severely disheartening as a fan creator. But something I try to remind myself of....is...if we don't change there's not gonna be anything to enjoy anymore.

Like you said, no one wants to invest hours of work into something for it to be basically ignored. And people aren't. With everyone moving on from the website or to other more interactive fandoms....eventually there will be no one. And thats a potential problem.

Not just because we won't have fandom content to enjoy in between source content. But because clearly, the companies? They're paying attention. Not just sm either and I doubt hybe is the only other one keeping an eye on both exos activities and the fandom. The Tumblr portion of exol is most likely part of thier analytics whether we like it or not. If Junmyeon is aware of the website there's no reason to assume it's an isolated knowledge. Granted, we probably aren't a large portion of those numbers when platforms like Instagram and Twitter are more globally oriented, but it's something to consider when we have a hard enough time getting sm to let exo out of thier basement to make an album.

Anyway this is starting to delve into extreme tangential territory. So let me move on.

I see your point about transitional blogs...a lot of time the dash is where people get thier content rather than trolling the tags, especially since the nude bots are prolific right now. However I'm personally leery of relying solely on networks for this purpose. Networks in my experience either start out exclusionary or become exclusionary. Whether that is in terms of content shared, or making people jump through figurative hoops in order to join limited membership spots, it may start off with good intentions but....I'm not sure it's a long term solution if that makes sense. Although I acknowledge, personal feelings aside, it may be a good jumping off place to start getting people more involved.

Maybe even just a...directory of sorts would be helpful do you think? A list of active blogs, whether fandom creators or just people who reblog things. Maybe include what they post or make? That could work to help people find mutuals at least. And it would help alleviate reliance on nothing but networks for post distribution.

One of my main concerns with having singular bias or constellations of members networks is it feels like it would deepen the bias divides even further. Already we have many creator blogs that only create for one or maybe even two of the exos at most.

Though, I have to say I like the second example you gave a lot more, simply cause at its heart....that's just good reblog culture at work.

Now as for the link...I checked it out and it's similar in nature to the fic bingo idea I borrowed from the Harry potter fandom. A set prompt with required elements but the rest open to interpretation. I could easily set something up like this....maybe for a monthly basis versus weekly simply because good fan content does take time. And maybe have a weekly theme for smaller scale works?

If anyone else has thoughts feel free to chime in or send it to someone you think might have something to say, this is open to the floor for ideas and what have you.

So I can't be the only one who's noticed the decline in fanmade exo content here on Tumblr. We've gone from a fandom who's new posts could be measured in hours to a fandom who's posts have days....to weeks....to months....to even years for some specific tags.

We have had 6 solo album comebacks this year, 3 fancon tours, 2 solo concert tours, a myriad of festival concert appearances, youtube videos, magazine shoots, instalives, etc. Yet if you go to the exo tag it's mainly populated by archive blogs. And the nude bots, which....that's a whole other problem on its own. I digress. My point being, the tags, at least from what I've seen (I admit I haven't looked into the shipping tags) are being filled by the same handful of blogs yet given the high amount of source material, no one seems to be doing anything with it beyond archiving it.

Again this could just be because I didn't delve too deep or too far back, but it does have me wondering if part of the reason participation this year was down was simply because there's hardly anyone left.

There's been instances in the past where others have attempted to inject new life into the fandom so to speak, with....varying...level of success. The exo revival project being the first and most successful that comes to mind. I'm wondering what everyone else's thoughts are on the matter and if holding new fandom events might be a way to involve more people year round because I really do want to continue holding this event next year but if things keep going the way they have been there won't be anyone signing up.

Let me know what you think, ideas you might have, reblog this and tag your mutuals to get them involved in the discussion. I have a few ideas that I've pilfered from other fandoms, watch alongs. Fic bingo. Theres valentines exchanges. Fandom sleepovers. Heck I'd set up a Tumblr based scavenger hunt if I thought people would play. Like....we dont have to be monoliths in a placid sea of we don't want to. Fandom can be fun. It should be fun.

[exols-silver-christmas]

I agree that we've had many people move on and you're right Tumblr culture has changed in regard to reblogs. We're never gonna get back to the way things were before. But like...lemme you ask you this. How many people on here do you talk to? Like have actual conversations with. Whether it be dms or like this in the comments and reblogs. I ask because beyond fandom creation I also noticed a lack of open conversations as well which, leads me to believe part of the issue is we all, myself included, are kinda solitary at this point with each of us having only maybe a few close mutuals that get interacted with the most often. I'm wondering if maybe a few comradery based events would help cement stronger community ties. Maybe we could jumpstart reblog culture that way. It doesn't have to be completely wide spread. It just has to be a matter of getting people involved enough that they want to support thier friends.

And yes I know this isnt going to be easy. Nothing worthwhile is unfortunately. But I do think it can be done. It's just not something I can do alone, I'm not Atlas. People would need to actively be involved.

That being said. The idea of having prompt weeks like they did a couple of years ago during the exo revival project is one of many that I've added to the potential ideas list. If something like that were to happen what would you like see from it?

So I can't be the only one who's noticed the decline in fanmade exo content here on Tumblr. We've gone from a fandom who's new posts could be measured in hours to a fandom who's posts have days....to weeks....to months....to even years for some specific tags.

We have had 6 solo album comebacks this year, 3 fancon tours, 2 solo concert tours, a myriad of festival concert appearances, youtube videos, magazine shoots, instalives, etc. Yet if you go to the exo tag it's mainly populated by archive blogs. And the nude bots, which....that's a whole other problem on its own. I digress. My point being, the tags, at least from what I've seen (I admit I haven't looked into the shipping tags) are being filled by the same handful of blogs yet given the high amount of source material, no one seems to be doing anything with it beyond archiving it.

Again this could just be because I didn't delve too deep or too far back, but it does have me wondering if part of the reason participation this year was down was simply because there's hardly anyone left.

There's been instances in the past where others have attempted to inject new life into the fandom so to speak, with....varying...level of success. The exo revival project being the first and most successful that comes to mind. I'm wondering what everyone else's thoughts are on the matter and if holding new fandom events might be a way to involve more people year round because I really do want to continue holding this event next year but if things keep going the way they have been there won't be anyone signing up.

Let me know what you think, ideas you might have, reblog this and tag your mutuals to get them involved in the discussion. I have a few ideas that I've pilfered from other fandoms, watch alongs. Fic bingo. Theres valentines exchanges. Fandom sleepovers. Heck I'd set up a Tumblr based scavenger hunt if I thought people would play. Like....we dont have to be monoliths in a placid sea of we don't want to. Fandom can be fun. It should be fun.

[exols-silver-christmas]

So I can't be the only one who's noticed the decline in fanmade exo content here on Tumblr. We've gone from a fandom who's new posts could be measured in hours to a fandom who's posts have days....to weeks....to months....to even years for some specific tags.

We have had 6 solo album comebacks this year, 3 fancon tours, 2 solo concert tours, a myriad of festival concert appearances, youtube videos, magazine shoots, instalives, etc. Yet if you go to the exo tag it's mainly populated by archive blogs. And the nude bots, which....that's a whole other problem on its own. I digress. My point being, the tags, at least from what I've seen (I admit I haven't looked into the shipping tags) are being filled by the same handful of blogs yet given the high amount of source material, no one seems to be doing anything with it beyond archiving it.

Again this could just be because I didn't delve too deep or too far back, but it does have me wondering if part of the reason participation this year was down was simply because there's hardly anyone left.

There's been instances in the past where others have attempted to inject new life into the fandom so to speak, with....varying...level of success. The exo revival project being the first and most successful that comes to mind. I'm wondering what everyone else's thoughts are on the matter and if holding new fandom events might be a way to involve more people year round because I really do want to continue holding this event next year but if things keep going the way they have been there won't be anyone signing up.

Let me know what you think, ideas you might have, reblog this and tag your mutuals to get them involved in the discussion. I have a few ideas that I've pilfered from other fandoms, watch alongs. Fic bingo. Theres valentines exchanges. Fandom sleepovers. Heck I'd set up a Tumblr based scavenger hunt if I thought people would play. Like....we dont have to be monoliths in a placid sea of we don't want to. Fandom can be fun. It should be fun.

[exols-silver-christmas]

Afternoon! For those who signed up for the secret Santa this year, I will be sending out your giftee assignments later this evening around 7 or 8 est.

I apologize for the partial delay but unfortunately work has decided today was a good day to test Murph'ys Law.

You will still get them today...just not as soon as I'd anticipated.

Thank you in advance for your patience!

[exols-silver-christmas]

Last Day For Secret Santa Sign Ups!

Sign Ups Close tonight @ 11:59pm est.

[exols-silver-christmas]

Last Day For Secret Santa Sign Ups !

Sign Ups Close Tonight @11:59 pm est.

[exols-silver-christmas]

Last Day for Secret Santa Sign Ups!

Sign ups close tonight at 11:59 est.

[exols-silver-christmas]

Last Three Days to Sign Up for the Exol Secret Santa!

[exols-silver-christmas]

Seeing as we are currently 5 days out from this years deadline, I now have a good idea on this year's participation and have a question for exol.

Participation over the last couple of years has quite literally halved and then halved again. As of today only a little over a handful have siged up. I have mostly been relying on word of mouth to encourage participation to avoid flooding the tags and people's dashes with recurring posts. The other more personalized method of personally inviting people to join seemed to result in more active participation, however it also resulted in a few nasty anons which is why I abandoned that method after the first year.

Now for my question(s)

Would shortening the gift making time and potentially opening the sign ups in November instead be a better option for you guys?

Do any of you have any suggestions to offer that might boost exol involvement?

Cause frankly I am at a loss as to how to proceed from here. There doesn't seem to be enough interest to continue the event next year, so that would be the final question. After this year do we throw in the towel?

Please feel free to leave your thoughts if you have them however you'd like. Comment, dm, anon, whatever works. I'll even take a messenger pigeon if it comes to that.

[exols-silver-christmas]

EXOL SECRET SANTA SIGNUPS ARE CLOSING IN LESS THAN A WEEK, IF YOUD LIKE TO JOIN THE FUN NOW'S YOUR CHANCE

[exols-silver-christmas]

THERE IS A WEEK LEFT IF YOU'D LIKE TO SIGN UP FOR THE EXOL SECRET SANTA

SIGNUPS CLOSE AUGUST 31ST!

[exols-silver-christmas]

You Don't Have To Search The Universe! Sign Ups for this Year's Exol Secret Santa Are Open!

COME JOIN THE FUN