Followup on Down the Chimney Posting Dates

[vysila]

Just a heads up for those who've not seen it - I posted about the response I received from AO3 regarding the posting dates for our Down the Chimney Affair. If anyone has any ideas or suggestions on ways to improve readership for all the entries, I'd love to hear them.

Do check out the post over here.

Comments

[fiorenza_a]

I've never participated in the Down the Chimney Affair, although one day I hope to, so I'm speaking from a position of ignorance. So this is a brainstorm of ignorance:

There is the 'set a different publication date option', which you've mentioned. The AO3 info-blurb on that says: When posting a work, you have the option to set a different publication date - in other words, to backdate the work. You can also set publication dates for individual chapters. Please note that in both cases, this affects whether and where your work appears on your dashboard and the works page, etc. These pages which show the date when your work was last updated - the publication date of your work or of one of your chapters, whichever is the most recent date.

Any subsequent chapters you add will have that date pre-set on the form, though you will still have the option of overriding that date. This means that if you don't know or care exactly when each chapter was originally published, you can still backdate your work conveniently.

ETA: The 'set a

[vysila]

OK, lots of things to talk about! :-) And we would be thrilled to have you join us, whenever the time is right

[fiorenza_a]

First off, the option to upload your story as a draft and hang on to it for a length of time. Unfortunately, when a story is held as a draft and not actually posted to the collection, it does not show up in the admin panel as having been completed. It displays as an 'open' work and the assignment remains unfulfilled. If the 'due by' date goes by and a story is not actually posted to the collection, then the author is assumed as a default and a pinch hit writer is assigned. This can cause all sorts of problems for everyone.Oh, I see how that works - thank you for explaining, how frustrating. I wonder if there's a way that AO3 could let the collection Admin see the draft story if they were given the link? The story link doesn't change between the draft and posted copy - but it comes up as an inoperable link for anybody but the author until it's posted - maybe if the author put the Admin as a co-creator? I don't know if that would work - I've never co-created

[fiorenza_a]

I'm a little confused on what you mean by announcing the story due date on LJ. The due date is always announced on LJ when I advertise for the signups. Usually here and in muncle, which is the community sponsoring Down the Chimney. It is also in the FAQS and instructions in the Collection on AO3. I include it when I make the signup announcements on the facebook slash group, on dreamwidth and on tumblr. It is included in the email that goes out when the assignments are made. I also post reminders as the due date comes closer. Are you talking about something other than that?Yes, that'll be me not explaining it very well. The author announces on Lj that they've posted their story on AO3 at whatever time/date the challenge says they should - presumably anonymously for the purposes of this excercise. So, for example, if you've posted your story on AO3 on 23rd December, but it was due to be posted on 25th December, you (or someone you've nominated) announces on Lj on the 25th December that you've posted (with a link to AO3) - that kind of

[vysila]

I definitely would love to have others weigh in with ideas, sometimes others can just cut through the chaff and go directly to a simple solution. Me being so close to the issue, it's harder for me.

Unless the fandom as a whole wants to change the gift exchange format or the AO3 platform, I'm thinking that following our usual process of uploading no later than the due date and then the authors can change the story date just before the collection goes live may be the simplest solution. The benefit will be explained to the authors and then it is up to them. And as the admin I am spared a stress stroke on the due date.

Thanks so much for thinking all this through!

[vysila]

I wonder if there's a way that AO3 could let the collection Admin see the draft story if they were given the link?

That is most unlikely as it would require reprogramming the site software to automate that functionality. They are way too busy to manually do that for every gift exchange (think about Yuletide!). And I'm not sure how the co-creator idea would really help in any way. And it would shift the credit from the author to author and Admin, which is not deserved.

The idea is simply to put all authors on a level field as far as posting date is concerned, and not overcomplicate the situation. Some of these suggestions, while inventive, feel more complicated than necessary.

As far as pinch hit authors are concerned, we have been pretty lucky to have several names to draw on in years past. Some of them even thrive on that short deadline (lucky them)!

[fiorenza_a]

Some of these suggestions, while inventive, feel more complicated than necessary.

Certainly happy to concede that may be the case 😊