The map

above was started by user, kassrose, on Buddymapping.com. It shows the location of all the Swap-bot users who have added themselves to the map. You can add yourself to it by visiting BuddyMapping and clicking on the “Add yourself to the map” link in the bottom right of the screen. It is fun to see where everyone is located. We are excited that there are people from all over the world participating on Swap-bot!

For comparison, here is the visitor map generated by our site statistics. It maps every traceable* location where someone has visited Swap-bot.com in the last thirty days. (We haven’t posted a user map like this since May of 2006

!)

*Not every location is always mapped by our site statistics. If your area is not represented, add yourself to the BuddyMapping map asap!

We have been working hard this weekend to release some pretty cool site updates for you today. The site changes/improvements are listed below. Check them out and let us know how you like them or if you notice anything weird going on. Thanks! xoxo

• Most important: The automatic account suspension system is now completely operational. This means that if a swapper receives four, or more, “1” ratings within the past six months, their account is automatically partially suspended by the Swap-bot computer. They are dropped from all swaps in which partners are not yet assigned and they are not able to sign up for new swaps until they get their low ratings rectified. This means that if you have four, or more, “1” ratings from the past six months on your account right now, you will not be allowed to sign up for any new swaps until you are able to improve some of those ratings.
• There are three new email notifications that you will be receiving: (1) when/if your account is partially suspended due to four, or more, “1” ratings; (2) when a rating you have given receives a response; (3) when you receive a comment on your profile. The last two email notifications have been requested by many users, but we have also made them optional if you prefer. To “opt out” of the rating response and profile comment email notifications, go to the new Preferences section of the profile edit screen. You can also choose not to receive the email notification for new ratings on this screen. The default is set so that you DO receive all email notifications. You must edit your profile preferences to stop receiving any of the three optional notifications. (Many Swap-bot email notifications, such as those for swap deadlines, are not optional at this time.)
• Your country is now listed on your profile page under last login. This is NOT optional at this time. Your country is listed exactly as you typed it in you account address.
• Your current swaps on the “Your Swaps” page are now listed by mail deadline instead of sign up deadline. This makes it so that the “Your Swaps” list matches the “Currently In” list on the profile pages.
• You can now mark swaps as NOT sent if/when you accidentally mark them as “Sent” before you mean to. This option is located in the swap’s info box on the swap’s main page to the right of the “Sent Items Status:” field. You cannot perform this option from the “Your Swaps” page; you must view the individual swap page to do it.
• The date that each participant marked a swap as “Sent” is now visible on the “View complete list of swap participants” page. This information is visible for both participants and coordinators of the swap. However, this new bit of information cannot be displayed retroactively, so all swaps that have been marked “Sent” prior to today will not have a date associated with them. Sorry.
• Lastly, the list of recipients you have sent messages to in the Swap-bot message center are now listed in alphabetical order. However, the alphabetical ordering system is not perfect as users who have not logged in for months (and still only have their old display names) are not sorted alphabetically. Their names will appear at the end of the list.

[Secrecy download](http://www.barryshamis.com/?secrecy)

We hope you enjoy the new changes. Happy swapping!

Hi swappers! This Friday Link Love is coming at you from Saturday because I just have way too much good stuff to share and I don’t want it all to wait until next week. Enjoy!

• Rise of the Dead movie download

• Adorable mushroom ornament tutorial from Poopscape. (Found via One Good Bumblebee)
• Heather Bailey patchwork pincushion pattern/tutorial on the Better Homes and Garden website. Heather Bailey is a fabric designer and her blog is just about the most beautiful thing ever.
• Want to make new crafty friends, but don’t know how? Check out Whips Up’s Craft with others – a guide (or 5 ways to find new friends).
• Design*Sponge has a cool new site design and a bunch of great indie design gift guides. The “Buy Handmade” gift guide is great!
• I know that a bunch of Swap-botters will go nuts over these sequined bird ornaments made by paperblubird on etsy. (found via Modish)</a>
• The recently unveiled mascots of the 2010 Vancouver Olympics are amazingly adorable. All of you kawaii fans will like them. They were designed by an equally amazing and adorable design studio, meomi.
• And lastly, A unicorn eating a bowl of glitter. (found via Boing Boing)

I think everyone has noticed that Swap-bot is super slow today. Travis has been trying to figure it out. He first thought it could have to do with the recent site changes, but it turns out that our hosting company (MediaTemple) is having <a href=http://weblog.mediatemple.net/weblog/category/system-incidents/web-latency-on-gs-gridcluster1/”>“latency issues”</a> with the server Swap-bot uses. We are sorry for the inconvenience. Hopefully things will be running fast again soon!

We have just released a few site changes. We added total number of completed swaps to everyone’s profiles and we changed it so that the swaps you are currently hosting are not removed from the corresponding profile list until the mail deadline has passed. (Travis also made some changes that should speed up the entire site a bit.) However, the most important change is the addition of an **automatic account suspension system**.

This computerized system will automatically partially suspend questionable swappers if they compile too many **”1″** (did not receive swap items) ratings. Partial suspensions means that the user is dropped from all open swaps (in which partners have not been assigned) and the user is no longer able to sign up for new swaps. They can still complete current swaps and leave ratings, and when/if they reduce their number of “1″ ratings their account will automatically be UN-suspended.

Right now the suspension criteria used by the system is very lenient. Only users who have received **ten** “1″ ratings in the last six months will be automatically suspended. We plan to change this criteria soon, but we wanted to give everyone a heads up that the system is now in place before implementing the actual criteria. In a week, or so, we will change the automatic suspension criteria to just **four** “1″ ratings in the last six months. If your account fits this criteria, I would suggest trying to rectify some of your bad ratings. Contact old swap partners and re-send packages if necessary. I believe that four “1″ ratings is still quite lenient, but we will see how the system plays out before making it more strict.

Also, if you have over a 4.9 rating you will never be considered by the computer for the automatic suspension. However, anyone with under a 4.9 rating and who has had four “1” ratings in the last six months will be partially suspended. We added this high rating “safety” so that users who participate in many, many swaps have more leniency in the number of “1”s they can have on their account at any given time. (FYI: A user has to have completed almost 200 swaps in order to “beat” the system with a 4.9 rating.)

Thank you all for your feedback on this issue. (Check out the original discussion of this feature here.)[Barbie as the Island Princess dvd](http://utero.pe/?barbie_as_the_island_princess)

Till Death Us Do Part ipod

Hi, hi, hi! Life is getting busy around the Swap-bot HQ, but I managed to scrounge up a few interesting links for you to check out. (Also, we plan to release a few site changes/improvements on Sunday, so stay tuned!)

• A fun and helpful holiday gift guide from Design is Mine. It features independent designers and craft people. Tons of great stuff!
• Vintage Sewing Patterns wiki created by Erin from A Dress a Day. (A wiki is a community-edited website.) The plan for the wiki is that it will include links to sellers who have particular patterns in stock, reviews by people who have made the patterns, links to blog posts about particular patterns, a wishlist of people who want to buy or trade particular patterns, and searchable ‘tags’ on patterns (like ‘cocktail’, ‘wrap dress’, ‘peter pan collar’ or whatever). (via Craft:blog.)
• Softies Central was hosting a Holiday Softie Contest and the results are up. There are some really cute and creative holiday characters! (via <a href=http://whipup.net/”>Whip Up</a>.)
• If you are into print design like me you might be interested in the Best Magazine Covers of 2007 as chosen by the American Society of Magazine Editors. (via kottke.org.)

Have a great weekend! xoxo

We made a change to the partner assignment system last week. The Swap-bot computer no longer automatically assigns partners three days after the sign up deadline. The swap coordinator must manually hit the “assign partners” link in order for the partners to be assigned no matter how long after the sign up deadline it is. We have had many complaints about coordinators who have gone missing before swaps even begin. This new indefinite partner assignment delay will prevent swaps from starting if the coordinator is not actively participating.

The Swap-bot computer still does the random partner assignments, the process just has to be initiated by the coordinator. We are sorry for any confusion.

We are not sure at this point if we are going to continue this change, or go back to the old way of only a three day delay. What do you think?

(Also…I am behind on responding to user emails. I did a less-than-stellar job keeping up with them while I was traveling last week. If you sent me something and I have not responded, you should hear from me by the end of today. You can always drop me another note if you are concerned. I should be totally caught up by the end of today.)

(I was out of town last week and could not keep up with the ol’ Swap-bot blog. I hope you are not suffering from swap-of-the-week withdrawal!)

For this week I have chosen to feature the Ghost of Christmas letter swap, hosted by Chickpea The Game psp . I don’t think I have ever featured a letter swap before and this one is quite creative.

For the swap you are assigned two partners, to whom you must send a letter detailing things you might see if you were visited by the three ghosts from A Christmas Carol. The three things you must write about are as follows:

• The past. Tell your partner about a past Christmas. Did you receive the Easy Bake Oven for which you were longing? Or did something sad, surprising, or magical happen?

• The present. What are you doing this holiday season? Are you making an extra special gift for a friend or family member? What’s going on now to make this holiday stand out?
• The future. What would be your dream Christmas? Would it be a Mini Coop in the driveway or two tickets to Japan? Or would the dream Christmas mean that you wouldn’t have to travel at all, and you could avoid the hustle and bustle of the airports and freeways?

What a nice way to share your Christmas memories and traditions and to learn about Christmases from all around the world! Your letters should be at least two pages long, and handwritten if possible. This is an international swap. You must have a 4.7 [Abilene Town buy](http://utero.pe/?abilene_town) rating to participate. Newbies are welcome as long as they have a filled out profile.

• Vicky Howell is a knitter, crafter, DIY Network hostess, and founding member of the Austin Craft Mafia who is on a campaign to make crafting cool. Her <a href=http://www.vickiehowell.com/index.html”>website</a> <ul style="display:none">
• Mysterious Mr. Moto divx

</ul>

is amazing, with great podcasts, news, photos, and tutorials.</li>

• Need to find a new hobby? (Probably not, if you are into swapping as much as me…) Hobby Archive has information about all sorts of different hobbies. There are a lot of ads on the site, but you might find some helpful info.
• If you are a ribbon collector, you must check out the <a href=http://www.ribbonjar.com/Default.asp”>The Ribbon Jar</a>. The site sells a very wide variety of quality ribbon, but the special collection jars are the best.
• Swap-bot is currently looking for advertisers who match our viewers’ interests (to replace all those boring, generic Google ads). If you are interested, check out our advertising info page or email rachel [at] swap-bot.com.</ul>

<a href=http://www.swap-bot.com/swap/show/8173”> </a>

Come join the best swap ever! (Ok, I may be a little biased since I am the one hosting this swap…) If you like making matchboxes, and you are looking forward to the winter holiday season, the Christmas (fun) Time Matchbox Swap is perfect for you! The swap is international and it is open for signup through November 16th. Each participant has just one partner to whom they send one decorated and filled matchbox. The theme, of course, is the Christmas holiday, but any winter-type themes would also work. However, you must be open to receiving Christmas items in the mail. Each participant must have above a 4.6 rating to join. I am allowing a few new users, but they have all checked with me before joining. I will ban anyone who looks questionable. (BREAKING NEWS: I plan to make a good number of extra Christmas matchboxes and I will angel for this swap starting two weeks after the mail deadline. That should still give enough time for matchboxes to arrive before Christmas.)

Some fun resources for this swap:

• The Mirkwood Designs matchbox template I use to make my matchboxes out of cardstock.
• Fun Christmas chipboard embellishments from Making Memories.
• Perfect <a href=http://www.scrappindaisy.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductID=99147&cat=”>Christmas colors grosgrain ribbon</a> at ScrappinDaisy
• Cute Doodlebug Christmas buttons, <a href=http://www.scrappindaisy.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductID=99153&cat=DOOD”>sequins</a>, and <a href=http://papercents.com/papershop/catalog/product-2280-Doodlebug-Sugar-Coated-Brads-Assortment-Christmas-New-Pre-Order-cat-357-Brads.html”>brads</a>.
• Get inspired by the <a href=http://www.flickr.com/search/?w=all&q=swap-bot+matchbox&m=tags”>matchboxes on Flickr</a>.

This should be a really fun swap and I can’t wait to get started on my matchbox!