I love learning about why people craft, what they’ve tried and how they enjoy their craft. I’ve included a small section so your partner gets to know you because I think that often helps when we answer other questions.

Section 1 – Tell Us About Yourself

Name and Swap-Bot ID

Who lives in your home with you?

What is/was your secular job?

Who do you interact with on a daily basis (include by IRL as well as phone, email and pets)?

Where do you live? Location and type of home.

Section 2 – Swap-Bot

How did you find out about Swap-Bot?

How long have you been a member?

What was your favourite swap?

What is your favourite group? If you aren’t in any groups, what type of group would you like to start or belong to?

Least Favourite swap?

How many times have you been flaked on? What was the most time intensive or expensive swap you were flaked on?

Did anyone ever try to pass off something they didn’t make as their own?

How did you pick your username?

How many swaps are you typically in at any one time?

Have you ever seen a message saying you cannot sign up for a swap because you are at the maximum (20)?

Have you ever personally messaged Rachael (founder)? If yes, about what? If no, what would you say if you did write to her? (hopefully thank you?)

What changes would you make to the site if you ran it?

Have you ever hosted a swap? If yes, what was your favourite? If no, why not?

Have you made friends here? Have you met any IRL?

Any enemies here (probably a good idea not to name names)? What happened?

Do you read the Swap-Bot blog? Have you visited any of the links posted there?

How much do you spend on postage for your SB swaps? (Per month, week...)

Section 3 – Your crafts

What crafts have you tried?

Which is (are) your favourite(s) and why?

Which is (are) your least favourite(s) and why?

Any you hated? Why?

Which do you do on a regular basis?

What did you do with any supplies you purchased for the crafts you didn’t like?

Do you have any crafty goals/New Year’s resolutions for yourself?

What craft would you like to learn?

Have you ever done crafts for a company for payment (in kind or money)?

Section 4 – Craft Classes

Have you ever taken a craft class? What and where? If not, why not? (Online counts)

Did you enjoy it?

Have you ever taught a craft class (even informally)? Taught your kids?

Ever take a class you hated? Describe it.

Ever take a class where you knew more than the teacher and could have taught the class?

If you could take your dream class, what would the topic be, where would you take it and who would teach it?

Who would you like to teach your craft(s) to? This can be a dream like teaching a celebrity or more realistic like teaching friends or family.

How would you teach your craft(s)? (In person, online, video, written tutorial etc...) Would you create a project or just practice techniques?

Have you ever been to a craft convention or festival?

How do you learn best?

If you could choose how long a class would be, it would be____? Why?

Section 5 – Travel and Crafting

Do you take any crafts with you when you travel (anything from waiting room at the doctors to airplane travel)? If so, what and if not, why not?

Does what you take with you differ depending on the type of travel? How?

Have you ever traveled somewhere specifically to visit a particular shop, take a class or go to a craft convention?

Do you look up stores near to your vacation destinations?

Ever have trouble with crafts while traveling? Messes, issues at airports…

Ever met with a crafting friend or met a new crafting friend while on vacation?

Section 6 – How You Craft at Home

How much time do you spend crafting?

Where do you craft?

What time of day do you craft?

Do you wish you could spend more time crafting? How much would be enough?

Do you let other things slide to make time for crafting?

Do you craft while you do something else? (watch TV, listen to music…)

Is your space permanent, temporary or one you set up each time you craft?

Are you organized?

What are your best tips?

What types of storage do you use?

Do you wish you had more space?

Do you need to destash/reorganize?

How would you describe your space to someone who can't see it?

Describe your dream space? You could send a photo if you already have it!

Does anyone in your home craft with you? Who and what do you do together? If no, who do you wish would craft with you?

Does anyone in your home steal your craft supplies (for crafts or other household use)?

Do you ever make things to sell? How do you sell them? Give us a few examples of what you charge on average. List any links to your store(s).

What do you do with what you make? Keep it? Gift it? Give it away to charity? Stash it? Something else?

Do you use your craft to make gifts? For what occasions? What do you make? Or what would you make if you had time?

Do you think people really appreciate what you make (whether they just see what you make IRL/online or you give it to them)?

Does anyone else in your family or who lives with you craft or have crafty type hobbies?

Section 7 – Reading and Internet

Do you buy magazines about your craft? Online or print?

Do you buy/borrow books about your craft?

Do you read blogs or visit internet sites about your craft?

Is this mainly for inspiration or to learn?

Do you have a blog? If so, what do you post and how often do you post? Please give us a link. If not, why not? If you had a blog, what would you call it? What would you post?

Do you enter any contests online? For a craft challenges or for prizes? Ever win?

Do you ever look up instructions for your crafts? Where?

Whose work do you admire?

How long do you spend doing crafty things on the internet?

How long do you spend reading crafty magazines (paper or online)?

Do you think paper magazines are becoming a thing of the past?

Do you subscribe to any magazines? In what format?

How many crafty books do you own?

How often do you buy crafty books and where?

Section 8 – Shopping

Where do you shop for supplies?

Ever shop online? If so, where and for what? If not, why not?

Favourite shops? Maybe share some links!!

What do you spend on crafting? (Per month, year etc)

Ever gone into debt to buy crafty items or things for your crafting space?

Do you save money by making things you’d otherwise buy?

Ever buy craft supplies at a garage sale or second-hand sale?

Ever have supplies given/donated to you?

Ever donate supplies to a charity?

What was your most expensive purchase?

Section 9 – Crafty Thoughts?

What motivates you to craft?

How long is too long without crafting?

How do you feel if you can’t craft for a while?

Do you ever get frustrated crafting?

Have you ever lost your mojo (lost desire to craft or lack inspiration or hate everything you make)?

Ever had a long period of time when you had to quit crafting? Why? How Long?

Ever thought about quitting?

Can you imagine a life without crafts?

Ever get angry at how someone spoke about your crafts (like putting it down, calling it home ec-y, 'I could totally make that'?

Ever argue with someone you live with about the amount of time, space or money dedicated to your crafts? Or feel guilty about what you spend?

How does swapping make you feel? What do you get out of it?

Anything ever threaten your ability to craft (physical, situtional or…)?

How do you feel when you gift something you have made? Or if you haven't given a gift of something you've made, why not?

The End

The Business

I've tried to construct the questions so they aren't simply yes or no. Please answer with at least one sentence. (Consider multiple questions listed together with no space in between as one question. They are designed that way to avoid yes/no answers.) There are actually more than 100 questions so that allows you some room if you miss or wish to skip a few. You must rate a 5 if you get 100 well-answered questions sent on time.

I'm allowing newbies (with well-filled out profile) and low-ish ratings as this is an easy swap to angel. Please let me know right away if you don't receive this swap or have any troubles. It's courteous to rate right away or reply to your partner so they know it was received as emails sometimes go astray. Please do not rate your partner down for a no-send until you've checked with them. Maybe they just typed the addy in wrong!