YT19 Feedback Post
Thank you again for Yuletide 2019!
This is a post for feedback on the 2019 round. Feel free to raise your own topics (could you find things you wanted to find? Were specific things more confusing, or maybe even less confusing, than in previous rounds?), but we also have some topics we wanted to bring up.
Should we continue to post to LJ?
We last asked this question in 2018 (DW, LJ) but participation on the community has dropped further. We would like your views about whether it is time to cease posting to LJ. We will, of course, continue the notifications on Twitter, Tumblr, and Discord.
"And" Matching - Authors Must Include All Selected Characters
We don't propose changing the rules, but we bring it up because every year, people have trouble with this - even people who've been doing Yuletide for years. It bears repeating.
When writing a story for the Yuletide collection, you must include every character requested unless your recipient explicitly states in their sign-up form itself that characters may be left out, and in what circumstances. This applies to all sign-ups, regardless of the logistical difficulty of characters interacting. As a recipient, if you would be happy with a subset of characters for a particular story idea, you must expressly say so in your sign-up.
Clear permission
"I selected A, B, C, and D, but I'd be happy about a story about just A and B, or just C and D."
"I ship A/B and A/C, so if one of those ships is there, you don't have to include both B and C." (assuming you've selected A, B, C.)
"If you're following my circus AU prompt, you don't have to include C." (C, a selected character, must be included in all other cases that aren't the circus AU.)
"A's my favourite character, so I'd be happy with a story about them and any of the other characters I've asked for."
There are lots of different ways to say this and lots of different circumstances in which this might apply.
Insufficiently clear
-Selecting A, B, and C and giving prompts for A/B and A/C. Unless you SAY someone doesn't have to include a character, they must include all characters.
-Selecting A, B, C, and D and giving prompts that seem to relate to some characters but not others. That isn't permission to leave any out.
-Selecting A, B, C, and D when getting those four characters into a story together is a logistical or logical nightmare. Maybe it restricts the kind of story that can be told, but unless given permission otherwise, the author needs to try.
Every year, during Yuletide, we pass on the question, "Uh, did you really mean you wanted all these characters together?" Sometimes the answer is yes. Fair enough. Usually the answer, if we get one, is no. Please clarify early - or select fewer characters - and save yourself time, angst, and/or disappointment; and save mods double- and triple-checking, and late worried emails, and pinch hits!
DNWs - Please Put These in Your Sign-Ups
Do Not Wants (DNWs) must go into your sign-up and not just your letter. We do not enforce DNWs that appear only in letters. This is because sign-ups are visible to your writer immediately upon sign-ups going out, and because we check assignments against sign-ups to see if any DNWs have slipped through. If a DNW is for a canon event/theme/etc, please also explain how you want that handled (i.e. no mentions, canon level is fine, etc.).
These issues with character requests and with Do-Not-Wants aren't new; we bring them up for discussion because we want people to get stories that include all the characters they expect and don't contain DNWs. Which is also, we believe, what you want. So let's talk about this so that we're all on the same page.
Placeholders
Placeholders are works that are incomplete. Incomplete works can be (but are not limited to): a story missing half the tagged or requested characters, a story with a giant cliffhanger, a story without a beginning, middle, or end, a story that contains author notes about unwritten scenes, a story that consists of text copied from elsewhere, or a story that you have previously written with the names changed. These are not hypotheticals; they are all things that we see each year.
Placeholders are against the Yuletide rules. Do not post them. If you cannot post a complete story by deadline, please default.
Thank you in advance for your feedback!
The next admin post, before the middle of the year, will probably be a draft schedule for Yuletide 2020.
Schedule, Rules, & Collection | Tag set: AO3, App | Contact Mods | Community LJ | Community DW | Letters: LJ, DW | Pinch hits
This post on DW
This is a post for feedback on the 2019 round. Feel free to raise your own topics (could you find things you wanted to find? Were specific things more confusing, or maybe even less confusing, than in previous rounds?), but we also have some topics we wanted to bring up.
Should we continue to post to LJ?
We last asked this question in 2018 (DW, LJ) but participation on the community has dropped further. We would like your views about whether it is time to cease posting to LJ. We will, of course, continue the notifications on Twitter, Tumblr, and Discord.
"And" Matching - Authors Must Include All Selected Characters
We don't propose changing the rules, but we bring it up because every year, people have trouble with this - even people who've been doing Yuletide for years. It bears repeating.
When writing a story for the Yuletide collection, you must include every character requested unless your recipient explicitly states in their sign-up form itself that characters may be left out, and in what circumstances. This applies to all sign-ups, regardless of the logistical difficulty of characters interacting. As a recipient, if you would be happy with a subset of characters for a particular story idea, you must expressly say so in your sign-up.
Clear permission
"I selected A, B, C, and D, but I'd be happy about a story about just A and B, or just C and D."
"I ship A/B and A/C, so if one of those ships is there, you don't have to include both B and C." (assuming you've selected A, B, C.)
"If you're following my circus AU prompt, you don't have to include C." (C, a selected character, must be included in all other cases that aren't the circus AU.)
"A's my favourite character, so I'd be happy with a story about them and any of the other characters I've asked for."
There are lots of different ways to say this and lots of different circumstances in which this might apply.
Insufficiently clear
-Selecting A, B, and C and giving prompts for A/B and A/C. Unless you SAY someone doesn't have to include a character, they must include all characters.
-Selecting A, B, C, and D and giving prompts that seem to relate to some characters but not others. That isn't permission to leave any out.
-Selecting A, B, C, and D when getting those four characters into a story together is a logistical or logical nightmare. Maybe it restricts the kind of story that can be told, but unless given permission otherwise, the author needs to try.
Every year, during Yuletide, we pass on the question, "Uh, did you really mean you wanted all these characters together?" Sometimes the answer is yes. Fair enough. Usually the answer, if we get one, is no. Please clarify early - or select fewer characters - and save yourself time, angst, and/or disappointment; and save mods double- and triple-checking, and late worried emails, and pinch hits!
DNWs - Please Put These in Your Sign-Ups
Do Not Wants (DNWs) must go into your sign-up and not just your letter. We do not enforce DNWs that appear only in letters. This is because sign-ups are visible to your writer immediately upon sign-ups going out, and because we check assignments against sign-ups to see if any DNWs have slipped through. If a DNW is for a canon event/theme/etc, please also explain how you want that handled (i.e. no mentions, canon level is fine, etc.).
These issues with character requests and with Do-Not-Wants aren't new; we bring them up for discussion because we want people to get stories that include all the characters they expect and don't contain DNWs. Which is also, we believe, what you want. So let's talk about this so that we're all on the same page.
Placeholders
Placeholders are works that are incomplete. Incomplete works can be (but are not limited to): a story missing half the tagged or requested characters, a story with a giant cliffhanger, a story without a beginning, middle, or end, a story that contains author notes about unwritten scenes, a story that consists of text copied from elsewhere, or a story that you have previously written with the names changed. These are not hypotheticals; they are all things that we see each year.
Placeholders are against the Yuletide rules. Do not post them. If you cannot post a complete story by deadline, please default.
Thank you in advance for your feedback!
The next admin post, before the middle of the year, will probably be a draft schedule for Yuletide 2020.
Schedule, Rules, & Collection | Tag set: AO3, App | Contact Mods | Community LJ | Community DW | Letters: LJ, DW | Pinch hits
This post on DW