What is your opinion regarding giving or receiving gifts that for all practical purposes necessitate a financial outlay by the recipient?

For example, Bubby buys a toy for the kids but the parents have to go out and now buy 4 AA, 6 AAA, and 2 9-V batteries to operate the toy and its remote control. Or a mezuzah case of an unusual size and now the recipients have to buy a klaf. Or a digital camera or digital picture frame without a memory stick.

Are you makpid to include the accessories when you give gifts? Does it annoy you when people give you such gifts are does the additional outlay not bother you since the main expense is gifted?

Including batteries doesn't change the situation, as they will eventually die and need to be replaced.

In the case of a digital camera, including a memory card is a nice touch, but on the other hand perhaps they want one with a higher capacity then the one you will decide to get them? I'd say that if you want to do it right, buy them a card with a higher-end capacity, or don't include one at all. Also, how do you know they don't already have their own memory cards, perhaps from their older camera (though the memory capacity is probably an order of magnitude lower, if it's an older model). Including batteries is definitely a nice touch, but by no means required. A good moshol is the requirement involved in Mishloach Manos - that the foods should be ready to eat - so too you should do whatever possible so that the gift should be ready for immediate use.

A car should have a full tank of gas.
A camera should have batteries and some form of memory (either internal or a card).
Glasses should include the lenses.
A wallet should include some cash and photos. Stolen identity with fake SSN is a bonus but not necessary.
A watch should be set to the right time.
Shoes should include feet.
A pot should include some food in it.
A tie rack should include a tie or two.
A house should be furnished (nice gift BTW).

It's about showing that you care enough to pay attention to the details.

True. It's the gift that keeps on costing.


You could say that about the camera itself - maybe the person wanted one with a higher resolution. At least a memory card at worst is a useful extra.


Agreed. I agree in terms of giving. But do you have negative views of someone who gifts incompletely?


Agreed.

Edit:

Sorry, I really messed up the thread title. It's supposed to be Gifts That Involve Financial Outlays By The Recipients

OH! Well in that case please disregard my whole post.

Yes. No. (some times I prefer it doesn't come with battery so that I can have kids play with it on shabbos)

Topic Title Changed.

Thank you. Now imagine if there were a board feature such that all the mods could be contacted at once to request such an edit. Or better yet, imagine if opening posters could edit their own thread titles.
And that way I could request efficiently that the other typo you opted not to fix is corrected as well.
http://www.hashkafah.com/index.php?s=&...st&p=978736

I changed the title again.
As for your point about admins/mods being notified, I agree. It would be nice to have one area where an admin/mod can view all outstanding issues/reports. I think though that the work involved to get that working is too much for a free bulletin board system. So for now, it's back to either reporting or PM'ing.

Thank you kindly.


It's not that hard. There are other solutions that aren't difficult.
In theory a member could post in the feedback forum, but that's for public issues, obviously.
As for members editing their own thread titles, I'm sure the mods have better things to do than correct typos. Their time is valuable and shouldn't be wasted.

In the Request a Change thread, I was thinking of posting that, but then I decided it's not a good idea because someone can change the title after a bunch of posts, which isn't fair to the people who posted.

I don't think it's required, but I do think it's a bit unfair if someone gives me an incomplete gift knowing that I can't afford to buy what's necessary to use it (batteries, memory card, charger, etc).

As far as memory cards go, you CAN use a small-capacity memory card to get yourself started. To demand a higher-capacity card when something smaller DOES work (but may not be up to your personal standards) is being a chazer.



How about having a private mod forum, and you can post PM'd issues if you don't have the time or desire to deal with them, allowing another mod to take care of it?

Not to get too OT, but we do have a private mod area, and if I'm already posting about a PM I might as well take care of it. There are times where a post will be discussed first. The issue is that when you report a post it gets sent to our email. Right now, my email is not open, so I have no idea if there are any open issues. That, and the email adds time to the whole situation. It's not perfect, but I guess it works.

You could say that about the opening post as well, that the opening poster can go back and change the opening post which isn't fair to the people who posted. The most extreme example is when poll choices get changed after members have voted. I'm assuming people would use the ability to go back and correct typos rather than to go back and change the title in such a way as to change the entire direction and implication of the thread in a malevolent way.