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]

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.

It is my ambition to be able to do a 'Down the Chimney'. I've joined in on some of the other MFU challenges - it's just I always seem so short of time...but I love MFU (don't think I have to sell you on that one !)

My usual response to a missing story on the due date is to email the authors in question to see what the situation is. If they are confident of being done in a day or two, or just forgot to post the completed story and left it as a draft, then we're good and I can override a default. This year there were five stories not uploaded by the due date and I nearly had a heart attack. I usually give people 24 hours to respond to my inquiry, after that, I do default them. That gives a pinch hit author only six days, maybe five, to write a complete story.

I know 'pinch-hit' writers are dexterous devils - but I can see how that's a tall order (I don't think I'm cut out to be a pinch-hit writer - I think I'd have to have a store of already written fic in a tub somewhere 😊)

Perhaps the instructions could be amended to have authors keep their stories in draft form (or not uploaded at all) but they would have to contact me directly via email to tell me the story is ready to go - and then they could actually post their stories to the collection on the 24th or VERY early on the 25th (it goes live at 10 am US Central time). I'm a little nervous about this option because I think there's a real potential for too many stories not to be in the collection when it goes live, which results in disappointed participants and readers. It is a very busy time of year and things are easily overlooked.

Hmm, did that make sense?

Yes it does, the Pros BB, which was my example, runs in October, but Pros challenges which run just a month later run into that 'nobody has any time/everyone is distracted because of the season' buffer. Maybe as well as pinch-hitters for no-shows - the authors could email the full story to the Admin - and the Admin could ask pinch-hit posters to post the story if the author is a no-show. The author would have to agree to that, but from other posts I've seen on AO3, I don't think it breaks the AO3 rules as long as you can show the author agreed if asked by the abuse team (I've run across some disabled authors who have had their works put up like that - their stories have an explanation in the notes about why someone else has posted - maybe there could be a standard note of explanation that could be cut-and-pasted, with just the author's name changed).

[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 puts it back in its right place in the queue - but I'm not sure if that would work for Down the Chimney - even anonymously...

I actually do allow authors to post later than the due date IF they contact me well in advance and I feel confident they will actually post within a reasonable time. That happened this year. Someone contacted me regarding a 'life happens' issue and promised to have the story done before January 1, the author reveal date. I know this person and knew she would deliver so that was okay. I contacted her recipient, who was very gracious and generous about the delay.

Yes, with 'gift' challenges that is a particular pressure. I know I write well in advance for frau_flora's mfuwss Easter Egg challenge - because it's mortifying to let someone down. At least with a general story challenge, it's just a gap in the posting schedule, no specific person is let down.

I have no idea what you mean by a bingo card/advent calendar. Are you meaning something where a different person posts their story each day for a set time period? I don't think that would work with an anonymous gift exchange on AO3. They are designed to work with a single 'go live' date. When DtCA was only done on LJ we did it that way - one story per day in the run up to Christmas Day - but I doubt anyone wants to go back to using LJ only. The readership would be even lower!

I concede it might work better with a 'gift a day' approach. It might be too logistically difficult to get a recipient's name on each door all on the same day, so that when they clicked through their anonymously gifted story awaited them. No one is doing this professionally - it's all taking up 'free' time...

Finally, about the 'set a different date' option - I did that experiment. Yesterday I took an old drabble, one I wrote and posted to AO3 back in 2012, put it back into edit mode and changed the date to the current date (i.e., yesterday) and then reposted it. Lo and behold, when I did a fandom search by date updated, my old old drabble was at the top of the 'front page'. I discuss the steps in detail over on muncle in the post linked above. This would be another option. If people upload their stories by the due date (thus sparing me and any pinch hit authors undue stress), they can use this process to change the story date to something a little more current for the Collection 'go live' date.

A ha! Obviously great minds think alike, I must confess I discovered that option far less scientifically - I made a pig's ear of posting something and stumbled on that solution while trying to rescue myself ! 😊

I'm open to discussion and/or other suggestions. Thanks for jumping in and offering up ideas. Lots of good thoughts in there.

Well, most of them are random thoughts, but you're very welcome - and who knows - they may inspire genius in someone else ! 😄

[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 😊