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Welcome back for Year 4!
Mar. 9th, 2019 11:49 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sholioHere we are, back for another round! Can you believe we're in our 4th year already?
I'm thinking we'll have a similar schedule to last year. This was last year's schedule:
• March 12-18: Nominations.
• March 20-30: Signups.
• April 1-ish: Assignments go out.
• June 1: Fanworks due.
• June 8: Archive goes live.
• June 15: Reveals.
Possible changes this year:
* Should we skip the "nominations" phase and simply use the tag set from last year? It seems like there's not much need to keep doing it new every year, since the characters and relationships are unlikely to change much. I can re-open nominations on the old tagset so people can add new tags for a short period; I can also add tags manually if anyone wants something that's not in there (or already used your nomination slots). Here is the list of all of last year's tags.
* I never followed through on the "games" last year. I'm really sorry about that. Lesson learned: I'm really not good at keeping up with things like that. I appreciate the work everyone put into it and I apologize for dropping the ball on it. That's totally on me.
* That being said, things that did work from previous years include prompt-submission posts and discussion posts, so I will plan to do more of those!
* I'm thinking about dropping the number of required requests/offers to one, to make it easier for OTP people to participate. This would make matching potentially more difficult. So far, in a small exchange like this one, I really haven't had too much trouble matching people, and I don't know how many people would actually only have one option in their signup even if the possibility was available. Last year there were a couple of participants who had trouble with having to offer multiple characters/ships, or opted not to participate due to this. (I should mention that gen relationships/friendships are also an option; you can request and offer individual characters, ships, or friendships.) Thoughts on this?
* Should we keep the minimum word count at 1000, or drop it to 500 this year? I've participated in several exchanges lately with a lower minimum word count (e.g. Trick or Treat and Chocolate Box) and it seems to help encourage more people to participate if the barrier to entry is lower, while at the same time the stories don't seem to be significantly shorter even if the requirement is less. I am on the fence about this, and would love to hear what you think about it.
* Are there any other rule changes anyone would like to see this year?
I hope you're excited! I'm excited! :D The participation in this fest has been really enthusiastic, and I'm thrilled it's still going strong for a 4th year.
I'm thinking we'll have a similar schedule to last year. This was last year's schedule:
• March 12-18: Nominations.
• March 20-30: Signups.
• April 1-ish: Assignments go out.
• June 1: Fanworks due.
• June 8: Archive goes live.
• June 15: Reveals.
Possible changes this year:
* Should we skip the "nominations" phase and simply use the tag set from last year? It seems like there's not much need to keep doing it new every year, since the characters and relationships are unlikely to change much. I can re-open nominations on the old tagset so people can add new tags for a short period; I can also add tags manually if anyone wants something that's not in there (or already used your nomination slots). Here is the list of all of last year's tags.
* I never followed through on the "games" last year. I'm really sorry about that. Lesson learned: I'm really not good at keeping up with things like that. I appreciate the work everyone put into it and I apologize for dropping the ball on it. That's totally on me.
* That being said, things that did work from previous years include prompt-submission posts and discussion posts, so I will plan to do more of those!
* I'm thinking about dropping the number of required requests/offers to one, to make it easier for OTP people to participate. This would make matching potentially more difficult. So far, in a small exchange like this one, I really haven't had too much trouble matching people, and I don't know how many people would actually only have one option in their signup even if the possibility was available. Last year there were a couple of participants who had trouble with having to offer multiple characters/ships, or opted not to participate due to this. (I should mention that gen relationships/friendships are also an option; you can request and offer individual characters, ships, or friendships.) Thoughts on this?
* Should we keep the minimum word count at 1000, or drop it to 500 this year? I've participated in several exchanges lately with a lower minimum word count (e.g. Trick or Treat and Chocolate Box) and it seems to help encourage more people to participate if the barrier to entry is lower, while at the same time the stories don't seem to be significantly shorter even if the requirement is less. I am on the fence about this, and would love to hear what you think about it.
* Are there any other rule changes anyone would like to see this year?
I hope you're excited! I'm excited! :D The participation in this fest has been really enthusiastic, and I'm thrilled it's still going strong for a 4th year.
