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'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!