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Welcome!

We wrote a handy dandy guide for those of you who wish to participate in this yearly event.

Please read the guide carefully. We spend a lot of time answering questions that are detailed within this guide! It takes less than 10 min to read this guide!

If you are having issues reading this, please download this presentation and use Acrobat Reader or Google Slides and use the screen reader of your choice.

For speakers of another language, you can upload this to Google Translate.

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Table of contents

Gift Ideas &�file Hosting

Posting 101

Porchlights & Witching Hour

Extra bits

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Gift Ideas & File Hosting

Figure out what you’re going to make �and where you’re going to host it!

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Gift Ideas

Simblreen participants usually give out the following

Custom content for sims 2, sims 3, and sims 4
Themed look books with links
Builds (rooms and lots)
Short stories
Sim dumps
Render rooms, renders, and edits
Halloween inspired games or challenges
Riddles and jokes
Anything Halloween or spooky wise will do!

NOTE: Please do not link gifts behind locked patreon posts or via adfly links. If you are going to have paywalled Simblreen content, do not use the Simblreen tag for advertising. Do not make the content paywalled after the event is over either. Do not force people to sign up for your patreon (even if it’s free) for gifts.

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File Hosting

Host your files at one of these FREE file sharing sites.

Simfileshare*** - preferred file host of choice. invite based but you can always find an invite somewhere. ***If you decide to use simfileshare, PLEASE host your file in a secondary location. Simfileshare is prone to outages during simblreen.
Dropbox - easy and no ads. You can create a free account
Megaupload - if it asks you for a encrypt code, right click on the link and copy it into your address bar
Googledrive - comes with your google account
Mediafire - great for hosting
We Transfer - great for HUGE files like sim dumps and builds
Patreon – make sure the link is not paywalled. It must be freely available DURING AND AFTER THE EVENT! Do not force people to sign up for your Patreon for a free gift. This isn’t LinkedIn.

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Posting 101

The ins and outs of posting for simblreen!

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Now that it’s hosted, let’s post it!

Creating a private post

and sharing that link.

Creating a secret section �of your tumblr and linking your private post in that section.

Method 1

Method 2

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Method 1�Creating a �private post

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Making a Private Post

First things first…make one private post with a gift (or lots of gifts, on account of you being generous and the rest of us being greedy lay-a-bouts).
Click POST PRIVATELY.
Check your dashboard and locate the post (it should be the first post you see)
Click the three horizontal dots in the top right hand corner of your post to copy the link to your private post.
This is the link you will distribute to people.

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Making a Private Post

Protip - Make a draft post, save it, test your links, edit it, THEN save it as a private post. You’ll be less likely to edit the private post and break the link!

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Method 1

Pros	Cons
Great for blogs that do not anticipate a large amount of traffic	If you edit the private post, you will break the link as tumblr forces a new hash to privatize the link. This forces those who didn’t download immediately to ask you for the link again.
Quick and easy	Sometimes you’ll get asks throughout the week even with a “porchlight closed” graphic posted. Unfortunately, people are quicker to ask instead of reading like…2 words.
	Simblreen trick or treaters will send asks, even if you made a porchlight closed post. Remember, not everyone sees your post directly and most likely are coming via a reblog link.
	High risk of posting your gift publicly when you didn’t mean to (someone does it EVERY year)

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Method 2�Creating a�secret section of your tumblr

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Creating a secret section �of your tumblr

If you don’t know how to set up a custom theme, just go with method 1.

Follow all the directions in method 01 and save that link (notepad)
Go to https://www.tumblr.com/settings/blog/(yourusername)
Click the giant grey button that says EDIT THEME
Scroll ALL THE WAY TO THE BOTTOM and click the words that say + Add a page (or whatever it translates to in your language)
In the text box under the formatting bar, enter your cute graphic and link the private post we made in the previous slide
Remember to hit SAVE when you’re done.
Link trick or treaters to this page.
More info on editing your theme here

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Method 2

Pros	Cons
Great for blogs that anticipate a flood of asks	Remembering to update that section with a “porch closed” graphic
If you need to make an edit to your private post, you can update that post and repost the link in your private section. Your followers that have already received the link will only see the updated link and don’t run the risk of following a dead link.
When trick or treating is over, you can remove the link and replace with a ‘porchlight closed’ graphic (great for those in different time zones)
Low risk of accidentally posting your gift publicly or breaking the link

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Porchlights and �witching hour

How to shine on the big day!

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Turning your porchlight on�(ie how to yell come and get it, effectively!)

When you’re ready to give out treats, make a new post announcing this with the words “porchlight is on.” If you use an image, be sure to include an alt tag and some text in the bottom section for those who are visually impaired! If you want, you can include a timeframe and time zone for when you’ll keep your porch light on. A lot of us forget we all are scattered in different parts of the world!
Specify if you prefer asks (off anon) or direct messaging (DM) using tumblr chat. DMs work a bit better if tumblr eats a link or if you don’t want to run the risk of answering publicly, however, you will get constant DMs.
Tag your post accordingly! As you can see, it is tagged “Simblreen”, “Simblreen 2024”, “sims4”, and “ts4″, as that is the game Jack O Lantern is offering treats for. If you aren’t offering gifts related to those games (older games or a spooky but non sims related gift adjust your tag accordingly
For the 18+ crowd - If you have adult / NSFW, content �with excessive gore / blood / etc., PLEASE specify that in your porchlight on post.

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Answering Asks

Cut and paste the link into your reply. I highly suggest having a notepad file or notepad ++ with the link and your script. This way you can cut and paste if you receive a lot of asks!
Remember to thank the person for their ask! A lot of us are shy and this is the one time we can interact without fear!
REMEMBER TO SELECT “ANSWER PRIVATELY”. I’M REPEATING THIS. REMEMBER TO SELECT “ANSWER PRIVATELY”
If tumblr eats your link, delete the URL up to the word “/private/privatelink” and let the trick or treater know to cut and paste that portion next to your tumblr URL

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Answering Direct Messages (DMs)

Make sure your Tumblr IM settings are set to receive messages from everyone. �See image on the left.
Cut and paste the link into your reply. Again, I suggest having a notepad file open with the text.
If you’re overwhelmed with IMs, you can turn off tumblr’s IMs to “receive only from followers”
If you do turn off your DMs, just let your followers know. This way you won’t be answering the same question in your inbox repeatedly.

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Turning your porchlight off�(ie how to shut down shop with ease!)

When you’re done giving out treats �for the night, make a new post announcing this with the words “porchlight is off.” You can turn off asks/DMs at this point or announce when you’ll have your porchlight on again (be it that night or the following weekend)
Delete your “porchlight is on” post or reblog with “porchlight is off” or put in the comments that your porch light is off. Remember to put some text in the post and the alt tag if you’re using an image for visually impaired folks.
If you’ve set up your private post via method 2: you can take the private link off the private section and repost your “porchlight off” image there as well.
Be polite to stragglers! Porchlight is off posts tend to get buried beneath your other posts. Either pin your post or be polite in answering that your porchlight is off.
If you’re not swamped, consider leaving your porch light on for longer so others in different time zones can see your post
If someone asks after you’ve turned your light off, be patient and remind them that you are not accepting asks (or turn off your inbox)

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Witching Hour

Some creators choose to do witching hour posts! These are first-come, first-serve treats (usually exclusive and not posted again on simblreen weekend).

We’ve written up a post explaining this on tumblr.

>>> Click this link to read it.

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Extra bits

Extra bits you NEED to know!

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When to post your treats publicly

Usually, when simblreen is over, you can post your gifts publicly making your private posts public. If you want to post them immediately and not wait until the event is over, go for it!
If you did “witching hour gifts” you can choose to make those public or not.
We’d like to ask that you do not harass or argue with the creator over how and when they choose to distribute their treats***
Everything will be available at the end of simblreen. If you missed anything you can grab everything then. Simblreenofficial will be reblogging as much as we can so you don’t miss a thing!

***unless it’s some tiring bullshit like forcing people to watch youtube or a twitch stream for treats, watching a tiktok, or a “subscribe to my patreon for your treats” type of scam.

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Simblreen Etiquette

Please be POLITE.
Please have PATIENCE. You will not die having to wait an hour or so for a FREE GIFT.
If you do not want to engage with any of the generous creators here and just want free shit, please wait till the end the event, ask for help or get it elsewhere.
If you missed a porchlight, you can ask the creator (POLITELY) if they’d be willing to send you their gift. If not, just wait till it’s free, ask for help, or get it elsewhere.
We try to make this event as accessible as possible. But please convey your needs as we are not mind readers and we don’t personally know you or your issues.

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For Patreon Creators�(ie LinkedIn Simblr)

DO NOT promote patreon paywalled simblreen gifts in the simblreen hashtag

DO NOT use simblreen anywhere in your advertising if your gift is paywalled. Use Halloween or any other of the words English (or whatever language you speak) has to describe Halloween.

If you are participating in Simblreen, please make sure your gift is FREE and DO NOT paywall it DURING or AFTER the event.

DO NOT force people to sign up to your Patreon for a free gift. This isn’t LinkedIn.

If you find any Patreon creator breaking these simple rules, feel free to leak their content (I am not playing around this year – xldkx).

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Thanks!

Do you have any questions?

Any additions? Send an ask to simblreenofficial! Please be detailed and do not send DMs!

CREDITS: This presentation template was created by Slidesgo, and includes icons by Flaticon, and infographics & images by Freepik

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