In the immortal words of TheDustyZebra:
Do you want me to take it away? Because if you're going to fight over it, I can just throw it out now.
If you all want these Secret Santa things to continue, I rather suggest everyone calms down a bit.
Presumably you would like this SSX to be a success. In my view, that means enticing as many people to join in --
and complete their assignments -- as possible. To me, as an outsider here, it's self-evident that the more esoteric the requests -- especially those which have the appearance of being outright demands -- the fewer participants and the fewer stories available at the end.
To maximise participation and enjoyment of the process, both as writers and readers, it makes sense to go for the fewest possible constraints. Those who want to write zany, can write zany on the basis of a couple of words, as Starbeast has shown on innumerable Challenge entries. Those who want more restrictions than given on their allocation can stick pins in a dictionary to come up with another half-dozen words they need to include and write the story on that basis. Those who want to challenge themselves can do so;
imposing challenges on other people is another matter entirely.
My suggestion for moving matters forward is very simple. Phyrebrat draws up a list of potential participants and their requests at this point. Those who have put forward alternatives by way of requests should have them listed as "preferred: [blah]; will accept: [blah]". Those members who haven't given alternatives to esoteric requests might now think of doing so, in the hope that something less restrictive might encourage participation. Contrariwise, those who have given plain requests might think of adding esoterica by way of their "will accept" option. Every so often Phyrebrat can update the list with the extra/alternative requests. In that way, everyone can see what is available and can make a decision whether to take part, and accordingly throw their hat into the ring, or ask for it to be returned. The beauty of giving preferred and acceptable requests is that those who eventually receive their assignments can choose which of the two to write, increasing the chances of the assignments actually being written and not left half-finished, or even not-started.
Accept my solution or not, as you wish. Frankly, though, from my mod's perspective it's time to draw a line under this debate which has been less than edifying at times.
