The Rabbit Hole

As I sit down to write this we're closing in on 400. Almost four hundred people who've signed up to be matched with someone whom they're engaged with on twitter but might have never met in person. It's pretty cool, if you ask us. 

To start, the www.TheGreatTwitterSecretSanta.com came out of a random brainstorming session. As with most ideas, turning it into a reality looked daunting until we enlisted a friend well versed in coding. After some back and forth on the layout and user experience, stress-testing and securing we managed to get the site live in a manner of just around 5 hours with nothing more than a couple tweets. I personally have a strong belief that working in this medium, digital that is, is about doing. So we did. It was by no means perfect, but instead of attempting to guess every single potential pitfall before launching, we decided to let the users tell us what they needed. People, as expected, voiced their concerns, 'who are these guys', being one of the main ones and 'why would I want to give some semi-stranger my address' being another. All very good questions; ones to certain degrees we thought we'd answered and others, we had completely overlooked. All of them, ones we hope to clarify.

First, we're just three regular guys, two are in advertising and one is in web development. Our names are on the page and a quick google search would give you more info than some of us would probably like.

On the second issue, this site is what you want it to be. We purposely made it so you could share any level of information. Instead of required fields, traditional address boxes and the like, we wanted you to decide the context and the forms of engagement with which you are comfortable. We've already seen some fascinating trends, from folks wanting in-person meetings to others simply asking for a charity donation and hello, there's more but that'd ruin those surprises. 

When we set out to make this, none of us really had any idea what it would all mean and still, we're pretty convinced that its just a fun little blip in internet land. But as things progress and sign ups continue to grow, we're also excited by the fact that this little machine is helping networks out there make their connections mean something a little bit more, a secret santa exchange has always been a bit trivial, but when you strip away the trivial nature, it's a wonderful, exciting way to recognize someone you respect, learn something new about someone you only slightly know or strengthen a bond with someone you hold dear. 

However way you slice it and however way you choose to participate is up to you. I know there are probably a million more questions to be answered and we'll do our best, so keep them coming. In the meantime, we just hope you enjoy it as much as we have.