How would you host a BJD giveaway for people trying to enter the hobby?

I think reddit, facebook, tumblr and instagram can be great ways to find that specific person! Maybe upload with the bjd hashtag and people will surely see it. People that see the posts can then redirect you to someone they *know* that aren’t doing well financially etc.

 

I know theres a fb group that does giveaways, of course you can limit it to newbie within (x years or x months etc). ive given stuff away there though of course that is limiting otherwise using a sale group or something can do the same thing with it being free and just hope people are honest.

I dont know if im allowed to post the link, so anyone can feel free to pm me unless someone lets me know i can post it.

 

This reminds me of an event when i first joined doa where newbies and veterans paired up to send little welcome packs to the newbies (in my case i was sent some very cute clothes)

But maybe you could tackle it like that? Not same set up sure, but have a google form to sign up maybe and have a question being all: super noob(no dolls), newbie(doll but no stuff), veterans(has doll/s and stuff)

If you did a "share this post/link and fill form to enter" way of spreading the giveaway, it could be a two to three pull for each teir of being in hobby? With newest getting best goodies and maybe highest being a gift card to dealer of choice?

 

That's a very nice thing to do. I've thought about giving maybe a doll head away too, but I didn't think up of this. Hmm, this is a hard question. I think this generosity will be abused very badly I used to watch a korean plastic surgery show where they give free plastic surgery for the saddest stories or people who really needed it, but I think i heard it got canceled because the system was abused by liars wanting free surgery. How would you go about this... without people lying to get a free item. Maybe spread the word out and only allow people who know someone is having a hard time to enter for them... no that wouldn't work they can collude together.

There is also the problem once you do this some might expect you to keep giving because in some people's mind you have more so you are obligated to share. It might bring out some people's entitlement.

Once you give something some people might expect more bigger tthings. I Used to give stuff away, but this one time this stranger at school he always beg for coins. I felt bad for him, so all year I gave him money whenever I could. I didn't expect anything from it i just liked helping, but i learned later what can come from interactions like this. I guess he felt entitled and maybe his ego was hurt, but he always took with an air of attitude and treated me with scorn. That's fine maybe he felt insecure, but it was at the end of the year that really hurted me I gave him the money he asked because he knew I would give him what I could.

Afterwards he screamed loudly so the entire vicinity could hear about me being yellow because i am Asian and everyone laughed at me. I can't recall he might have said something about me being dirty because since that day i feel like no matter how much i try i have dirty skin color. It doesn't help at all soom afterwards a nurse unrelated to this said its normal for asians to have dirty looking skin. It just cemented my feeling of being dirty looking ( it's actually because of bjds i learned to like my skin color and darker shades before i didn't have a problem with how my skin looked and others. I realized skin colors other than white is beautiful too. I just forgot because of that experience.) He looked... I think satisfied maybe it was a smirk. People will take advantage of kindness and generosity. I'm worried you will get hurt due to your kind nature like I was. I forgot about this until I read this post. I tend to block bad memories until it comes flooding back due to a trigger.

I'm sorry I tried thinking of ways you could go about this, but i can't think of anything. I just started rambling because I recalled a memory I've forgotten. Maybe if I think of something I wjll get back to this post if I remember.

On a side note don't spend hours scrubbing away at your skin. It's bad for the skin, but I was younger so I didn't know any better. Everyone skin color is pretty don't let others make you feel dirty and less than because of how they view your race or skin color. Just don't forget that because the media and the world brainwashed you to think like them. It is easy to get swayed by hate, but harder to find your way back. Just listen to your voice and don't let the people outside deafening you to think like them. The longer you hate the harder it is to go back to what you once were. It's possible, but hard. It takes a long time to find yourself again and go back on the right path of kindness and respect to everyone. Does that make sense? Maybe I am a horrible person? I'm confused.

 

I like to approach such things with the mindset of: them lying about this while I try to do something nice for them, says more about them than about me.
You want to do a good thing, and of course you want it to go to the right person, but there is no guarantee the other party doesn't turn out to be a liar or ungrateful or whatever. The most important thing is that you tried to do something nice.

I did a couple giveaways in the past. I would check the entries and remove people I could already tell were giving off "bad vibes"/I would ask people I know that seemed to follow them or live in the same area what they think of them.
However, that just works for people that are already somewhat in the hobby.
I think all you can do is post a giveaway, check any entries, and go with your gut feeling when some people feel off. Everything afterwards is out of your control.

 

This is a tricky one.
The idea is super sweet, but as both you and others have mentioned, it has potential to backfire.

Spoiler: Experience from a different hobby.

So, here is a real life example:
I am a long time larper and thet is a very equipment heavy hobby. To be fully emersed you need everything your caracter needs, be it clothes, camp gear and so on and all of it need to be usable, functional and be right for the world the game takes place in. Not something you just pull out of a hat. It takes time and effort to build up.
And that's both the beauty of it and the problem.
On one hand it does make it tricky to get started, it does sometimes make beginners very obvious and it does favor those who have plenty of storage space and craft skills. But on the other hand, it also means that when you go to an event, just about every one there have invested a lot of time an effort in the hobby and so tend to take it very seriously and are not very likely to intentionally break the illusion or do anything else that ruins the experience for everyone.
Now, throw someone who is not already inversted into this, give them everything they need to get started and let them have fun... Only they have not invested, so they don't experience the value of the whole the same way the regular larpers who had to make every stitch themselves does. The term "hobby tourist" has been used to describe that type of person. They want the experience, but only on a superficial level.
Many people can only see the value of something if they had to invest into it themselves. I have lost count of times when people have disrespected, lost or failed to care for clothes and other stuff thev have borrowed or been gifted. They simply do not know what it feels like to save up and spend the time crafting to make something that can actually function, outdoors in a semi-historical setting. The people who are crafters themselves and simply borrow something because it better fits the character they are playing this time never behaves like that.

Because of this, I would much rather give a very nice piece of equipment as a gift to someone who is allready invested, someone who understands the value and who can take care of the gift properly, rather than to a beginner.
Now, a beginner who wants to learn how to make something, that's different and I happily donate my time to teach and help them do it themselves, but I will not do it for them.
Experience have taught me that, that's a much better investment of my time for both the individual beginner (who gets the experience) and the hobby over all (that gets an invested participant).

To bring it back to the BJD hobby, what I am trying to get at is this:
In an individual case, where I know the hobby interest is genuine, where the beginner really would have goten into the hobby themselves if they could and there is a real, identified reason why they can't get started, in that situation I would be happy to remove that obsticle if it was within my power to do so.
In any other case: I'd answer questions, I'd give advice, I'd let the person familliarize themselves with my dolls under supervision, I'd cheer them on and I'd sympathize with their frustrations, but I would not simply buy them a starter kit.

Something that I have done several times, is to make a basic outfit as a gift for someone who has just goten a new doll. Especially if it's their first and they are bogged down by finding the right eyes, wig and everything else. I find that getting a few basics at that stage works well to give them a head start and at that point I know they are already invested and are unlikely to loose interest and just wander off. At that stage I also know that they have done enough of their own ground work to have an idea of whet thay want, making it a lot easier for me to gift them something they can actually use.
But these have been to real life friends, not to strangers.

I did participate in that DoA event where we could send a package to a new member of the forum. That was a nice one and of course all the newbies there either had a doll, or a doll on the way (IIRC) and they had made it to DoA by themselves, so clearly they had some investment into the hobby allready. It was part of the anniversary celebrations, I think. They haven't done much for those the last years, sadly. They were fun.

 

IIRC when DoA hosted the "help a newbie" event, the newbies had to have been on DoA less than a certain time. That would be a rough but not foolproof way of sorting it out. As others have said, it always has the potential to backfire, but I agree with @Ara that it says more about them than you.

 

I 100% agree with all that has been said here! People need to put in their own effort beforehand to be able to really appreciate anything you do for them. Otherwise you just get the people that jump onto anything as long as it's labeled "for free", and those tend to lose interest quickly or act rudely in hobby spaces as soon as they got their quick fix of the week.