<p><strong><a href="https://stats.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/1486">For the third year running</a>, the Stack Exchange team is organizing a "Winter Bash".</strong>  Users earn "hats" for their gravatars by completing novel tasks (analogous to badges). Certain specific actions will trigger access to a (graphical) hat, which their gravatar can then "wear" at the user's option.</p>

<p>This event will run from 15 December 2014 to 4 January 2015. Individuals who don’t want to participate, don’t want to see hats, or are generally anti-hat will have an "I hate hats" option available (which will cause you not to see hats at all). The only visual change to the site itself will be the presence of the hats and the "I hate hats" button in the footer. Participation on one site does not affect accounts on other SE sites.</p>

<p>Two answers aim to collect votes for a community poll: <strong>Please, indicate whether you think Cross Validated should participate in this event or not</strong> (1 vote per user). Responses from the community are due by November 30.  Moderators will inform the SE team of our collective decision.</p>
