ADMIN: SEASON THREE NEWS
We had planned to open the community up in late August, to begin Season 3 of maleslashminis. However, both your mods have had eventful summers, full of RL issues, and we've realized that we simply aren't going to be able to do that. We need a few more weeks, I'm afraid, so that we can have some time to devote to the comm. (We will catch up on tagging and indexing eventually, we promise.)
We *are* going to go ahead and make a few announcements regarding the upcoming season:
(1) Due to low interest, we are eliminating the Oz and Lindsey rounds, as well as the Featured Minor Character round in each season. That will limit our "regular" rounds to ten: Angel, Giles, Gunn, Spike, Wesley, and Xander from BtVS/AtS; and Jayne, Mal, and Simon from Firefly, as well as the "minor characters" round. We're also likely to do bonus rounds from time to time, focused on a theme rather than a character, as we've done in the past.
(2) We're making a few changes to the schedule. Between Season 1 and Season 2, we opted to lengthen the sign-up period by one day. That really hasn't changed anything; hardly anyone signs up on that last day, and it makes it harder for the mods (one of whom has night classes, and the other a long commute) to get the assignments out on time. So we're going back to a 48-hour (approximate) poll period, and a 48-hour (approximate) sign-up period. ("Approximate" = "we promise you'll have at least that long.")
(3) The other change to the schedule is the introduction of an "off week" in the schedule. Traditionally, we've finished a round on Sunday, and put the poll up on the following Thursday. That gives *participants* some time off (it doesn't take much work to vote in a poll, for example, and there's about ten days between posting your fic and getting your next assignment), but has meant that your mods' schedules tended to be filled; we spent Sunday-Thursday tracking down late fic and arranging backups, and then we put up a new poll.
From now on, we'll end a round on Sunday, and then put up a new poll on Thursday of the next week. That gives your mods some time to do something fannish that isn't these ficathons, from time to time. We love this comm, but were starting to feel a bit burnt out in May.
The first round of Season Three, Round 27, will begin on Thursday, September 18. The schedule will be as follows:
Thursday, September 18: poll posted
Saturday, September 20: poll closes; signups posted
Monday, September 22: signups closed
Wednesday, September 24: assignments sent (may be earlier)
Sunday, October 5: round 27 fic due
Thursday, October 16: Round 28 poll posted.
We'll start pimping the ficathon again when it gets closer to time, but we wanted to let y'all know about this decision as soon as we made it.
We *are* going to go ahead and make a few announcements regarding the upcoming season:
(1) Due to low interest, we are eliminating the Oz and Lindsey rounds, as well as the Featured Minor Character round in each season. That will limit our "regular" rounds to ten: Angel, Giles, Gunn, Spike, Wesley, and Xander from BtVS/AtS; and Jayne, Mal, and Simon from Firefly, as well as the "minor characters" round. We're also likely to do bonus rounds from time to time, focused on a theme rather than a character, as we've done in the past.
(2) We're making a few changes to the schedule. Between Season 1 and Season 2, we opted to lengthen the sign-up period by one day. That really hasn't changed anything; hardly anyone signs up on that last day, and it makes it harder for the mods (one of whom has night classes, and the other a long commute) to get the assignments out on time. So we're going back to a 48-hour (approximate) poll period, and a 48-hour (approximate) sign-up period. ("Approximate" = "we promise you'll have at least that long.")
(3) The other change to the schedule is the introduction of an "off week" in the schedule. Traditionally, we've finished a round on Sunday, and put the poll up on the following Thursday. That gives *participants* some time off (it doesn't take much work to vote in a poll, for example, and there's about ten days between posting your fic and getting your next assignment), but has meant that your mods' schedules tended to be filled; we spent Sunday-Thursday tracking down late fic and arranging backups, and then we put up a new poll.
From now on, we'll end a round on Sunday, and then put up a new poll on Thursday of the next week. That gives your mods some time to do something fannish that isn't these ficathons, from time to time. We love this comm, but were starting to feel a bit burnt out in May.
The first round of Season Three, Round 27, will begin on Thursday, September 18. The schedule will be as follows:
Thursday, September 18: poll posted
Saturday, September 20: poll closes; signups posted
Monday, September 22: signups closed
Wednesday, September 24: assignments sent (may be earlier)
Sunday, October 5: round 27 fic due
Thursday, October 16: Round 28 poll posted.
We'll start pimping the ficathon again when it gets closer to time, but we wanted to let y'all know about this decision as soon as we made it.