• What is GiftList?
• Terms of Service
• How do I get an account?
• How do I get in touch with you?
• Why did you write this site?
• What's with all the purple?

What is GiftList?

GiftList is a web application that is primarily useful for three things:

1. Keeping track of what gifts you're getting for whom when, and upcoming occasions for which you'd planned to acquire gifts;
2. Avoiding gift duplication - ie, when you and 4 other people all get someone the same gift, ususually because it's just so appropriate;
3. Maintaining a web-based list of things other folks can get you as gifts that you'd enjoy (and/or things you'd rather they not get you as gifts).

#2 requires many people to participate in the system in order for it to work, but #1 and #3 can be used regardless.

Terms of Service

As should be obvious, but perhaps isn't, I built this site in my spare time and maintain it as a hobby. I can't provide any guarantees that the site will be up constantly, do exactly what you want it to, or be bug-free. It's running out of my home, not a colocation facility, so if our DSL goes down, so will the site.

In addition, while I don't expect to use it, I do reserve the right to boot any user at any time, for any reason or none at all. This is my hobby, and if I feel uncomfortable that a particular person has access to the system, I will remove that access rather than stressing about it. Likewise, it is possible - though not likely after all the work I've put into it - that I may choose to stop offering this service altogether someday.

I'm not currently charging for use of GiftList, and don't forsee doing so. However, if you think it's keen enough to throw money my way, I certainly won't object. :-)

See also the site Privacy Policy.

How do I get an account?

Presumably, if you're at this site at all, you know somebody who has an account on here. Talk to them - they may be able to make you an account themself, and if not, they can pass the request along to whomever gave them their account.

If you just found this site through random surfing, sorry - this site is based around an N degrees of separation notion, where N is (a) measured from me, and (b) relatively small.

How do I get in touch with you?

First off, if you're inquiring about getting an account, go read how to get an account.

If you need to contact me about bugs, feature requests, compliments, suggestions, or administrative tasks...well, for those of you who know me, you can just send email to me. For those who don't, send email to gifts (at) wiremaze.net. Note that that email address will change if/when spammers get hold of it.

Why did you write this site?

Primarily to avoid gift duplication - while I really like knowing what sorts of things my friends would enjoy getting as presents, I'm always worried that I'll end up getting the same thing as everybody else who's read their list of gift ideas. The other site functionality came up as either necessary, useful, or easy to implement in the course of that main objective.

What's with all the purple?

Hey, it's a UI, and it works. I'd prefer nicer-looking buttons (both on-page and in-nav) than I ended up with, but once I got them Good Enough To Be Useful (And Present Something Resembling A Coherent Look-and-Feel), I stopped fiddling with them and concentrated on implementing functionality.

If you really don't like the look, but want to use the system, you have two options (other than "shut up and cope"):

1. Use a text-based browser or turn off image display - all of the non-spacer images have alt tags, so you should be fine, though I haven't tested it that way;
2. Make your own imageset. The back-end functionality for having multiple display schemes is in place; I'd need to spend a bit of effort programming it into the web layer, but not too much, as I did plan for it in advance. If you're interested in doing this, get in touch with me; you'll need to make your own version of every graphic on the site, and that'll be easiest if I provide you with the existing img/ tree.

--Eric the Darker