Auxiliary questions: anon period, what is art?
I posted here (DW) and here (LJ) to ask for feedback on the dates for Jukebox 2014 and whether art should be included. Thank you for your contributions - more are welcome there. I'll post my decision on dates and art at the end of this week (approx Jan 12), and that should be the last post I make until the exchange runs. The votes currently favour schedule 2.
Two issues came up in the comments, and I'd like to invite further feedback on those.
One: Some of you mentioned that you prefer not to have anon periods where the stories but not the authors are revealed. A few others chimed in to say you do like anon periods. I personally like them, but since as the moderator I know who wrote what, I realise that's moot. My current plan is to have an anon period this year, but make it much shorter than it was last year - probably 5 days. Let me know if that's a useful compromise.
Two: I floated the idea of art fills - and a couple of people raised the point that I need to define what is meant by acceptable art. Um. As I think you can tell from the design of the comms - ^!^ - I do not have artistic skill myself. Checking f_fa's archives and some other exchanges' guidelines suggests the following:
Art must be:
-complete
-a single piece between 500 and 2000 pixels in either dimension or a set of 3+ smaller pieces
Media could include
-images physically drawn & scanned
-images created with graphic programs
Art would be posted by finding a place to host the final product and embedding your fill in a work posted to AO3, since AO3 does not host art itself.
I want to also say that manipulated images are acceptable, but I have no idea how to define "you have to know what you're doing and be able to use pretty layering things and have a cool idea you want to convey" vs. "No heads pasted on and weird collages." (collages have their place! But I'm not sure people agree that they're reliably equal to a 1,000-word story.)
If anyone could point me in the direction of a more detailed set of guidelines, I'd be grateful.
However, as I post this, 1 person has said they'd give art (but only as treats), and 6 people have said they'd request art (but with caveats), so I suspect we will not try art this year.
Again, thank you for your feedback.
Two issues came up in the comments, and I'd like to invite further feedback on those.
One: Some of you mentioned that you prefer not to have anon periods where the stories but not the authors are revealed. A few others chimed in to say you do like anon periods. I personally like them, but since as the moderator I know who wrote what, I realise that's moot. My current plan is to have an anon period this year, but make it much shorter than it was last year - probably 5 days. Let me know if that's a useful compromise.
Two: I floated the idea of art fills - and a couple of people raised the point that I need to define what is meant by acceptable art. Um. As I think you can tell from the design of the comms - ^!^ - I do not have artistic skill myself. Checking f_fa's archives and some other exchanges' guidelines suggests the following:
Art must be:
-complete
-a single piece between 500 and 2000 pixels in either dimension or a set of 3+ smaller pieces
Media could include
-images physically drawn & scanned
-images created with graphic programs
Art would be posted by finding a place to host the final product and embedding your fill in a work posted to AO3, since AO3 does not host art itself.
I want to also say that manipulated images are acceptable, but I have no idea how to define "you have to know what you're doing and be able to use pretty layering things and have a cool idea you want to convey" vs. "No heads pasted on and weird collages." (collages have their place! But I'm not sure people agree that they're reliably equal to a 1,000-word story.)
If anyone could point me in the direction of a more detailed set of guidelines, I'd be grateful.
However, as I post this, 1 person has said they'd give art (but only as treats), and 6 people have said they'd request art (but with caveats), so I suspect we will not try art this year.
Again, thank you for your feedback.