Hey everyone, I’m working on something with a fellow Redditor to try to bring RedditGifts back. It was a tradition we both loved, and losing it felt like a real loss. We’ve started a petition to bring it back, but just to clarify—this isn’t an official Reddit initiative. If enough people show interest and support, there’s a chance it could get noticed. If you miss RedditGifts too, feel free to check it out and sign if you want! Here’s the link.
Reddit knew they were shutting down something that was very popular.
I'm going to leave this up for now, but it's not coming back. =/
Lol - accurate. And a bummer.
Hiiiii! Huge bummer.
This might be a dumb question, but it was started by a regular user before Reddit took it over - I doubt many people would want the stress, but would/could Reddit block it from coming back as a privatized exchange again?
That already exists in r/givingifts which has just never taken off the same way Secret Santa did.
You mean like /r/givingifts?
As someone else mentioned, r/givingifts exists. But letting someone have the name Redditgifts or take over r/secretsanta would be a no.
Too bad, it sounds cool.
What if the petition manages to convince a Reddit admin?
It won't happen. I'm sorry. =/
But why? redditgifts was the best, it was more than just a site it was tradition. It brought people together, encouraged kindness, it had over 200,000 participants, won a Guinness World Record and even Bill Gates participated in it.
Reddit has made up its mind on this one. It was great while it lasted, and it had a good run! But sometimes the things we love just come to an end.
I modded Redditgifts starting in 2012. And to say I was devastated when it was decided to end it would be an understatement.
But with all of the new privacy laws, like GDPR, trying to be compliant for each individual country's requirements in regard to users' PII makes it pretty risky. It also could be a logistical nightmare.
Thanks for the clarification on this as I’ve always wondered and totally makes sense.
I was a ‘late bloomer’ so-to-speak in terms of active reddit use and missed the boat on it but had always had some fomo even before about it. Especially when buzzfeed would blast out the usual list of celebrities and others who have participated in it.
These petitions NEVER work. You're just wasting your time. Even if you somehow got millions of signatures, they'll just laugh and go about their day
Just go check /r/givingifts and join their exchanges. They’ve been around since 2021 and although smaller in size the people behind it have worked really hard to offer a great product in which you can enjoy secret Santa exchanges all year round. There’s even user-created exchanges if you aren’t interested in the official ones.
https://givin.gifts
I second this, they're a good crew of people who make it happen
Reddit gifts was shut down not for lack of popularity but because of trouble in managing it as well as cost/not enough profit.
Why use AI when you can absolutely find an image of a secret Santa exchange
To be honest with you, I hate ai too and I never even wanted the image to be ai generated. When I made the petition change.org generated it as default without asking me and I had no idea why it was ai and just left it. I appreciate the feedback and have updated the image and wish you a Merry Christmas :)
/r/givingifts is what you're all looking for. It's right there, doing exchanges on a regular basis, having a Holidays secret santa event at the end of the year and even a Christmas in July gift exchange.
Their subreddit, website, and Discord is where you can find all the information you need. Discord is usually where the developers and support spend most of their time and where you'd get a fast answer if you have any questions.
Please check out R/givengifts they are the spiritual successors to reddit gifts.
I have tried over and over to use givingfidts and it just requires too much of me. I like to buy gifts from Etsy but those usually take a long time to ship. I have Audhd and never remember where I put the things I receive to take a Pic... Also I just don't think I should have to take a Pic. Why can't I just say it was received?
I've had multiple people not post pictures of the stuff.I've gotten from given gifts.I don't know why you've had that problem. May reach out with support?
Although I don't know why you wouldn't want to share the present.Someone got you so they could see how nice your gifter was.
Not sure how it is for other 'versions' but a lot of the joy of Redditgifts was seeing what people got, seeing the little details a gifter might have put in like a decorated box, a unique handmade gift being given the spotlight, pets playing with gifts from pets exchanges, etc.
If someone didn't put a picture or just uploads a single photo saying 'they got the gift', I think it takes a lot away from the gifter's experience imo.
In this case sometimes people post to the gallery, thanking their Santa and describing what they received but the image processing doesn’t work properly and just shows a generic picture of the /r/givingifts mascots.
That makes sense, I can understand it being a tech issue thing, but not so much people actively not wanting to take photos of their gift(s) or finding it an 'effort' to do so for the sake of the process.
Yeah it’s not happening. Reddit just doesn’t care anymore.
We got givin gifts now sooo
Yes! Signed!
Thank you so much!
Done and done
Signed
Signed. Let's get this back up and running!
AI slop
Signededed