Nominations Open!

[chocolateboxmod]

Hello, everyone! Welcome to our exchange and, more importantly, welcome to nominations!

Nominations are open over here. We do not have any restrictions on what can be nominated in terms of fandom size, type, and so forth, and we also allow crossovers and original fandoms to be nominated. Please nominate crossover relationships into the Crossover Fandoms tag, and original characters and relationships into the Original Fandom tag.

In terms of how to nominate characters versus relationships, please follow the format below:

• "Character A (fandom)" - this means that you are nominating Character A on their own. AO3 may suggest a tag to you - please do not use it for nominations and instead nominate as above. Save your mods and help prevent tag migration!
• "Group: Character A/Character B" - this means that you are nominating Character A/Character B in a ship, inside their own fandom.
• "Group: Character A & Character B" - this means that you are nominating Character A and Character B in a gen configuration, inside their own fandom.
• "Group: Character A (Fandom)/Character B (Fandom)" - this means that you are nominating Character A/Character B shipfic, and that it is a crossover. Please be specific about fandoms, especially if there are a lot of adaptations featuring Character A and/or Character B.
• "Group: Character A (Fandom) & Character B (Fandom)" this means you are nominating Character A and Character B in a gen configuration, and that it is a crossover. Please be specific about fandoms, especially if there are a lot of adaptations featuring Character A and/or Character B.

We are not familiar with every fandom! As such, we are taking guidance from you, our participants, on how you want fandoms to be split up. Please comment below if your fandom is a little different to “one tag relates to one self-contained instalment of canon”. We are especially interested in how tags should be split up or combined for the following fandoms:

• Star Wars;
• Tolkien;
• DC and Marvel’s television and cinematic franchises;
• Gundam;
• Doctor Who;
• Star Trek;
• X-Men (Movieverse);
• Stargate;
• Power Rangers;
• Pokemon;
• Kamen Rider.

Finally, there has been some discussion about whether genre tags are necessary and whether it makes more sense to require people to fill in optional details. Thank you for your feedback! Requiring participants to provide a prompt would necessitate going through every fandom for every signup and checking that letters are complete and unlocked, which is too much micromanagement. On the other hand, we don’t want anyone to be assigned a blank signup or a locked/incomplete letter and have nothing to go on for a 5,000-word story. We’re happy to listen to suggestions about the number of genre tags required or whether other genres should be added, but we’ve decided requiring genre tags is a necessary compromise. Based on how things go in the first round and on your feedback, we’ll consider changing things up next time.

All that done, nominations are open! Go forth, nominate, get excited about writing and receiving longfic for your fandoms, and tell all your friends!

EDIT: Could the nominator for Pretty in Pink please confirm what characters you nominated? We lost your character noms during the approval process. Thanks! Never mind, found them!

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

I think you might have posted this using the wrong account?

[chocolateboxmod]

Nope! There are two of us - longficmod, and chocolateboxmod.

[badass_tiger]

According to the last post, we need to offer a minimum of 5 fandoms, but the sign-up form only lets you nominate 4 fandoms? Is that intentional?

[chocolateboxmod]

Yes, it is! The minimum number of requests is four, hence that being the minimum number of nominations as well.

[badass_tiger]

Oh I see. So we just have to hope that someone requests a fandom and characters/relationships that we can offer, huh? That's a bit ... hm ... Well, I guess I'll just nominate and see how it goes during sign ups then ><

[craterdweller]

Sorry I get a little confused by Ao3's nomination form -

It complained when I used crossover as a fandom so I submitted as no media (crossover) was that correct?

[chocolateboxmod]

It should be" Crossover Fandom", but that's okay; I can fix that up for you at my end.

[craterdweller]

Thank you!!

[(Anonymous)]

Hello! Two quick questions:

-Will requests be visible on AO3 during the sign-up period?

-Will there be an anon period after works are revealed? I was assuming there would be, since the collection seems to be anonymous, but the rules say stories must remain anonymous until the authors are revealed (May 13th) and May 13th is also listed as the story reveal date.

Thank you!

[longficmod]

Hi!

- Requests will be visible during the sign-up period.

- There will be an anon period. Stories will be revealed on May 13th (we're leaving two weeks for pinch hits because of the minimum length) and authors on May 20th. I've updated the rules and the timeline on AO3--thank you for catching it!

[(Anonymous)]

Awesome. Thank you so much! I'm excited about this exchange.

[muccamukk]

Do you want to do comics by universe (DCU and Marvel 616) or by title (Batman (comic) and Avengers (comics))?

And what ARE you doing with DCTV?

[chocolateboxmod]

My personal view is that it makes more sense for the Big Two to be nominated as DCU and Marvel 616, in recognition of the shared universe setting, but we're open to being persuaded regarding nomination by individual titles.

I'm not familiar with the DCTV verse, so really we want to hear from the participants: how should it be approved?

[muccamukk]

That makes sense to me on comics.

I'd rather have them separate by show. I'd def want Supergirl separate even if Legends of Tomorrow/Arrow/The Flash are listed as Arrowverse or something.

[shopfront]

Seconding, separate makes more sense to me too. Even as someone who knows/watches pretty much all DCTV it would feel unwieldly to me to have them merged. Yes, there's a decent amount of canon crossover contact with some characters but I feel like there's also plenty of plot and characters who are one show specific.

Edit: ditto for Star Trek. Can't speak to the other fandoms, though.

[slightweasel]

I'd suggest splitting X-Men movies into Original Timeline Movies and Alternate Timeline Movies.

[slippy]

Seconded!

[(Anonymous)]

I've just put some nominations in for Marvel Secret Wars Battleworlds* as its own fandom, since it's its own distinct (albeit shortlived) universe rather than part of any ongoing Marvel. Hope that's all right.

*I hate the plural, but that's the canonical

[longficmod]

It has been approved as a separate fandom. Thanks for checking in!

[sirvalkyrie]

I'd prefer if the X-Men movies are combined. People can still specify in their nominations if they want it to be a specific version of the character and then the crossover section isn't filled up with characters from the same movie franchise. It also makes it confusing to figure out what to do with the future portion of Days of Future Past if you split it up. Do those characters go under Original Timeline Movies because they are from the same timeline as the original movies and it is after Last Stand or do you put them in Alternate Timeline Movies for being part of the new trilogy? Where do the characters from the Wolverine movies fall? By combining them you also allow the possibility of someone requesting an relationship between the original and alternate version of the same character.

I personally think Power Rangers should be combined. Most of the seasons are explicitly in the same universe and there are a lot of crossover episodes.

[slightweasel]

I didn't have an issue with X-Men Movies being under the umbrella category for Chocolate Box - but in that case, the minimum wordcount was very low at 300 words. Personally, think the 5k minimum changes things, and that it makes more sense to clearly delineate between canons - especially as, in my experience, the people who are requesting ATM are generally not going to request OTM. The streams really don't seem to cross that much.

I'd say the future portion of DoFP would generally go under ATM - unless the requester felt OTM was more appropriate, for whatever reason.

The Wolverine movies should be their own category as well, imo.

ETA: I'm also not sure it's even possible to nominate/request ATM/OTM crossover pairings WITHOUT having the categories be separate? For Choc Box, for example, all the pairing are like Charles/Erik (ATM) and Charles/Erik (OTM). Mods, is it even possible to nominate, for example, Charles (ATM)/Erik (OTM) underneath the X-Men Movieverse umbrella?

[(Anonymous)]

RE your edit: Not a mod but I think one of the X-Men requests from ChocBox was listed as Betsy (Apocalypse)/Clarice (DoFP) so it *should* be possible to create an OT/AT ship under the Movieverse umbrella.

[sirvalkyrie]

My preference is entirely motivated by not wanting to have to use three fandoms slots to nominate when we only get four.

[craterdweller]

Is there a limit to how many characters or pairings per fandom on Ao3? If not, since unlike doctor who or the star treks - I think all three stargate could be lumped under one fandom because

1. There isn't a lot of time between the series (Star Trek: tos ran late 60s where as Star Trek: TNG ran twenty years later -- the three stargate series ran either concurrently or close enough)

2. Sharing of characters among 3 stargate shows -- for example Jack O'Neill, Sam Carter appeared in all 3 (even if briefly)

Mind you I am not at all opposed to having them all separate- because some might strongly favor or exclusively watch one or two.

Guess it depends on what will likely give better matches.

[chocolateboxmod]

There is no limit in terms of the number of pairings per fandom. It is, however, not a fandom that we are in and so we want to know what the fannish convention is in terms of grouping.

[craterdweller]

I've seen it both ways -- A03 has a Stargate -All Series tag. Most exchanges I've participated in have split them as Stargate SG-1, Stargate Atlantis, and Stargate Universe.

Personally, I'm comfortable with it either way.

Hope that helps at least a little ;-)

[(Anonymous)]

For pairings are threesomes allowed? A/B/C? What is the limit on the number of characters in a pairing (if more than two are allowed?)

You might want to link the most current or important Dreamwidth posts to the AO3 profile since some people will find the event through AO3 first but won't necessarily look for a Dreamwidth.

[chocolateboxmod]

You are allowed as many characters as you can fit into the character box. I know I've approved all of the Sens8, for example. If you can fit more in there, all the more power to you.

We'll definitely drop a link to the comm on the introduction section of the AO3 community. Thanks for reminding us!

[longficmod]

A link has now been added to the intro section! We'll also be putting a FAQ up soon.

[jiokra]

For Star Trek, I think the TV shows as their own fandom and the Alternate Original Series (AOS) as its own thing is good. Separate it into The Original Series, The Next Generation, DS9, AOS, etc. I don't know for the movies besides AOS.

For Star Wars, I thought the Chocolate Box separation was good. :)

[muccamukk]

There are the ToS and TNG movies, but those can just be included with their shows.

I like having the shows split up into series.

[soundandcolor]

I nominated Romy and Michele's High School Reunion. It's a movie, but it's been sorted under Uncategorized Fandoms. Could that be because I forgot to put the 'h' in School in the title? Sorry about that by the way, there should definitely be an 'h' there.

[longficmod]

Fixed! That fandom now appears under Movies. And it's no trouble. :)

[(Anonymous)]

are you going to advertise on fandomcalendar?

[longficmod]

Yup, posted yesterday! We'll probably post again midway through signups.

[shadowcat]

With Tolkien, I have seen things caregorized in exchanges as The Hobbit (Jackson Movies), The Hobbit (All Media Types), The Hobbit - J.R.R. Tolkien, Lord of the Rings (Movies), Lord of the Rings (All Media Types), Lord of the Rings - J.R.R. Tolkien and The Silmarillion and other histories of Middle-Earth - J. R. R. Tolkien.

The way that Hobbit and LotR are separated can be confusing, but I have found that it is easier to specify whether I want/offer movie canon or book canon since in more than a few ways, things are different between the two.

[(Anonymous)]

It might be too late to ask this (and if it was already answered, apologies for the inconvenience!) but - do we need to write one 5k fic? Or can it be interconnected drabbles/one-shots, that together reach 5k?

[(Anonymous)]

I really hope the answer to this is no. The main appeal of this exchange is getting a fic with a plot or that at least feels like one ongoing narrative.

[(Anonymous)]

Op here.

My ffs always have a plot. I just can't write quality with a word count of more than 1k hanging over my head. But I get what you were worried about ^^

[chocolateboxmod]

You do, unless your recipient makes it clear that they would be open to a series of interlocking shorter stories.

[(Anonymous)]

OP here.

Thank you for the answer. That means I'm out. Good luck! :)

[abluestocking]

Hi! I'd like to nominate Lady Justice/Lady Liberty from the group of cartoons in this Tumblr post. What would be the best way to do that? Currently I'm leaning toward nominating them as a fandom called ""Justice Girlfriends" (group of cartoons)", but I could also just put "Group: Lady Justice/Lady Liberty" under Political RPF - US 21st c. if that would be better. (My hesitation there is that they aren't really "real people".)

[longficmod]

Hi! Okay if we approve the fandom as "Political Cartoons (Ilic; Beeler; Sousa, Machado & Rodgers)"? The tumblr post comes up if I google that.

I hadn't seen those before, and they're fantastic. :)

[abluestocking]

That would be wonderful! Thank you. <3

[(Anonymous)]

Not a mod, but the canon tag for Lady Justice/Lady Liberty generally is http://archiveofourown.org/tags/19th%20Century%20Civic%20Allegory

Which is a bit unwieldy. You could lump it under "Anthropomorphism" generally?