Five Figure Fanwork Exchange

Most required works are in! Thank you, pinch hitters! However, two pinch hitters are still working, and to take some pressure off I have decided to delay the collection opening by one more day. Condolences to everyone hoping for Saturday, and congratulations to everyone who can make use of the breathing room.

While you can only be so sure about the future, I do not expect I will need to delay again. ETA: All required works are in.

The 2023-2024 / Round 4 FFFX Collection will now open at:
- 5pm EST, Sunday 3 March
- See countdown

Creator reveals will now occur at
- 5pm EDT, Sunday 17 March


I'm delighted that several of our pinch hitters have treats... but not all do. If you're twiddling your thumbs at the moment, please consider checking out their prompts! Or even a treat for a past pinch hitter (tag is linked). Thank you SO much, pinch hitter treaters.

Treats can be any length/size and can be posted indefinitely, but for those who prefer deadline motivation, consider how nice it would be to post a pinch hitter treat during the two-week anon period.

All signed-up prompts are here.

Check-in week - NOW OVER

Hello to the valiant and enduring! And to anyone who doesn't feel that description suits them but happens to be along for the fffx ride.

It is check-in week. If you have any* open or incomplete assignments, please consider which of the three scenarios below describes you, and check in accordingly.

1. Things aren't great. You don't think you can complete your assignment(s).
Please go to AO3 and press 'default' on your assignment(s). You don't need to comment here, or contact me with a reason; whatever reason you have is good enough, and I wish you well. If you default on your assignment(s) before the end of the check-in period, you are welcome to sign up to future rounds, assuming you also fulfil any commenting requirements.

2. Your situation is complicated and you want to ask a question.
Sure! Please contact me at mod.modzilla@gmail.com. Please include your AO3 name and your recipient's name(s).

3. You expect to complete your assignment(s).
Great! Please comment below with the following information:

<strong>Your AO3 name</strong>: <strong>Your recipient's AO3 name</strong>: <strong>Do you intend to complete your gift(s) for this recipient by January 20, 2024</strong>? (Yes) <strong>Any other notes</strong>:

You do NOT need to give me any details of your progress or any samples of your work as part of your check-in. Different people have different creative processes. I don't need to know where you're up to right now (though it's interesting!) as long as you have a plan that works for you. If you want to amuse me/yourself, consider including a line from your fic or telling me about something that happens in your fic or comic. Or a thing you've researched, or a thing that you've had to cut.

Or just fill out the form. That's good.

If you have more than one recipient on the go (thanks and good luck), please give check-in information for each recipient. They can be in the same comment.


If you have completed your assignment(s), congratulations! You don't need to check in but you're welcome to say so, so I can congratulate you directly. Please take this moment to double-check that your work is fully posted (not in Draft status) and that you posted the right version.

If you currently hold one assignment for a recipient, but you're planning to fulfil the requirements with two half-length works, please let me know so I can send you a second assignment to fulfil.


Comments are screened. I will not start replying immediately, but I'll reply to comments from logged-in DW users, and if you ask me to reply by email, I will do that.

Please leave your comment by 11:59pm EST, 18 November (see countdown).

If you do not comment confirming that you are still an active participant in the exchange, I will default you and send recipients to pinch hit by approx November 20.


*The person who claimed pinch hit #32 does not need to check in because you just claimed that and I told you you didn't need to check in.

Sign-up instructions

Sign-ups are open at AO3. They will remain open until 11:59pm EDT, August 6.

Basics
-Ask for 4-10 fandoms, 1-10 "relationship" tags in each, and in each of your requests, tick at least one of the additional tags that specifies what kind of gift you're interested in.

-Offer 1-10 fandoms, 1-10 "relationship" tags in each, and in each of your offers, tick at least two of the additional tags that specifies what kind of gift you're willing to create.

-In fffx's tagset, the "relationships" field covers characters, relationships, and worldbuilding. fffx uses OR matching - you will get, or create, a gift focusing on one of those tags. If you want specific characters to interact, select a single "relationship" tag that names all of them and uses & and / as appropriate.

-You can repeat fandoms in your requests - ie, you can ask for Original Work twice. You still need 4 unique fandom requests. Offers can be be as minimal as you like, but you will need someone to create for in order to receive an assignment.

-Please list dealbreaking Do-Not-Wants in your sign-ups. You must also put some other, positive information about your interests in each request - this can be a likes list, some prompts, or just talking about what you like about the canon & characters.

Please consider your DNWs carefully. "DNW: unrequested relationships" might suit a 1k relationship-based exchange that also matches on freeforms like "trapped together in an elevator", but may cause stress to someone considering a longer plot. DNWs should give guidance but not constrict your author to a plot that is exponentially narrower than the possibilities of the tag you requested.

-Participants must be aged 18 or over.

-There is a space in Offers - Title - for "Notes to Mod". You can use this space to tell me more about your matching preferences, if you like. You can also leave it blank. If you have Do-Not-Match requests, I may follow up with you for more information - ie, how pinch hits will be handled.

-You are not eligible to sign up if you have not commented on previous gifts or discussed the situation with the mod. You are not eligible to sign up if you either defaulted after check-in, failed to check in during check-in, or posted a placeholder for which I banned you, unless you've posted a make-up work. If you simply defaulted at any time in rounds one or two, you are now welcome to sign up again whether or not you've posted a make-up work.


How the Additional Tags Work
If you request Fanart: 1 x 10-Page Comic, you will receive 1 gift that is a comic of at least 10 pages or at least 40 panels. (Ie, if there are 40 distinct panels, it can have 9 pages. If there are 10 full pages, it's okay if there are only 36 panels.)

If you request Fanart: 1 x 10-Page Comic OR 2 x 5-Page Comics at Artist's Discretion, you may receive 1 gift that is a comic of 10 pages or at least 40 panels, or you may receive 2 gifts of 2 comics that are each half that long. (If selecting that option, I recommend also selecting Fanart: 1 x 10-Page Comic - there are no drawbacks. But you don't have to.)

If you request Fanfic: 1 x 10000-Word Fic, you will receive 1 gift that is a fanfic of at least 10,000 words.

If you request Fanfic: 1 x 10000-Word Fic OR 2 x 5000-Word Fics at Author's Discretion, you may receive 1 gift that is a fanfic of at least 10,000 words, or you may receive 2 gifts of 2 fic that are each half that long. (If selecting that option, I recommend also selecting Fanfic: 1 x 10000-Word Fic - there are no drawbacks. But you don't have to.)

It is possible that if you select both Fanart: 1 x 10-Page Comic OR 2 x 5-Page Comics at Artist's Discretion AND Fanfic: 1 x 10000-Word Fic OR 2 x 5000-Word Fics at Author's Discretion, you may get two gifts, one of which is a 20-panel comic and 1 of which is a 5,000-word fic. It is possible that if you select "2 x 5" tags for more than one fandom, you will get half-length gifts from two different fandoms. This is up to your creators.

You have to offer two Additional Tags. If you are someone who creates only in 1 medium, you can select both the Fanart tags, or you can select both the Fanfic tags.


Groups
Groups & Creator's Choice tags works like this:
"Gribbles/Splonks"
This means a sexual or romantic relationship including at least two Gribbles and at least two Splonks.

"Gribbles & ALL: Splonks"
This means a story featuring platonic relationships between at least two Gribbles and all of the characters who can be defined as splonks.

"Creator's Choice of Gribble & Splonks"
This means a story featuring platonic relationships between ONE Gribble and at least two Splonks.

When ALL is part of the tag, all members of the group must play significant roles in the work. If it isn't, the creator gets to choose which character feature. Requesters may not select within the tag or DNW members of the group.

Groups that are nominated in this way should be discrete and clearly defined.

If an existing group or Creator's Choice tag doesn't work for you, please use your supplementary nominations slots to nominate a tag between specific characters.

If requesting a group, I recommend using your prompts to talk about who you see as part of the group, just in case your creator has a different idea.



Unusual Things fffx Is Doing
Please be aware before you sign up that:

-Letters left incomplete or locked on August 25 will be removed from your sign-up. Please don't link to a letter (an external document containing prompts, general preferences, etc) unless you're confident you can complete it. Of course, you can't predict the future, but if you can't finish your letter ~3 weeks after sign-ups end (preferably earlier!), I believe it's better for everyone if your creator is set free to go ahead with their own ideas. I will send a reminder before removing your letter, but depending on what communication channels I can use or you can check, you may not see it. Letters, of course, are optional - you don't have to link one at all.

-This exchange requires you to put prompts, or general likes, or something you like about the canon, in the AO3 form. It doesn't have to be long or eloquent, but something other than your DNWs is required. Ie, Optional Details are only optional for creators - they are not completely optional for requesters.

-Please sign up with one account only.

-There are also extra deadlines - August 25 for asking to swap your assignment for any other assignment & for finishing your letter, and November 18 for confirming you're still committed to your assignment, as well as the posting deadline of January 21.

-You must comment on any gifts you receive or, if you cannot, discuss the situation with the mod.

Additional nominations

The tag set is open again. You have 4 fandoms with 2 slots in each. Please only add nominations that you, personally, plan to request, or where you are adding them for a friend who intends to request them. Please note I will not be posting round-ups of new tags. I may need to ask for more information about your tags, especially if they're new fandoms or involve large groups.

Errors in tag set

There will inevitably be some. Feel free to let me know and I'll do what I can to sort them out (this may not be until sign-ups close). I mostly care about errors that could cause confusion.

Here we are again! Time is truly the most fearsome kaiju of all. I will have the sticky post & the full collection rules up soon.

For now:

Nominations

Nominations are open! See the tag set. Nominations close at 11:59pm EDT on July 21.

Everyone starts with 8 fandoms to nominate and 5 characters or relationships per fandom. You can ask me to make a limited number of additions to the tag set during sign-ups. (Note: If you find it helpful to keep a record of your own nominations, I recommend noting your initial nominations elsewhere, because personal nominations will be cleared early in the sign-up period.)

Please check this community before nominations end, because I'm bound to have questions about the nominations. If I don't get answers, I may mess up and approve them wrong.


FFFX uses the Fandom and the Relationship tag slots for nominations. Relationships, single characters, and a worldbuilding option can be nominated in the Relationship slot - please read further for how to format each of these.

In the Fandom field, you can enter a canonical or non-canonical fandom (yes, it's okay if there's no work for it yet on AO3). There are tips on labelling new fandoms here.

If you want to nominate a relationship, please enter it as Character/Character (Fandom) (for romantic or sexual relationships) or Character & Character (Fandom) (for platonic relationships).

Do NOT put "Group" or another prefix in front of a relationship nomination.

The punctuation / and & is very important to indicate what sort of relationship it is.

Putting the fandom at the end of the nomination is really helpful to stop the tags misbehaving.

Larger groups of names are OK - ie, "Character/Character & Character/Character" means you're asking for two sets of pairings who are doing something together or otherwise relate to each other. Please also see discussion question at the bottom of this post for larger groups*.

If you want to nominate a character, enter them in the format "Char: Name (Fandom)" - that is, actually type out "Char: ", but swap in the appropriate name and fandom, such as "Char: Lucy Pevensie (Narnia - Lewis)". Nominated characters should explicitly exist in the fandom where they're nominated. Original characters are also OK as long as you describe a character who could have existed in canon, such as "Char: Original Force-sensitive Character (Star Wars Original Trilogy)".

If you want to nominate Worldbuilding for a canon, to offer or request it, please nominate it as "Oth: Worldbuilding (Fandom)" (filling in the relevant fandom). Not "Other".


Some fandom notes:
Please separate out Marvel movies and separate TV shows - ie, Iron Man (Movies) rather than MCU.

I will not approve "Star Wars (All Media Types)". Trilogies are fine. Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types is fine.

Arrowverse TV shows and DCU and Marvel comics will be approved as discussed in a previous post.

"All Media Types" fandoms will probably be approved last, overall, because I'll want to see if there's a more specific version of the fandom that's in conflict. And I don't know many fandoms. So if you already know that All Media Types is what's right for your fandom, consider dropping me a comment to clarify so that I can confidently approve it faster. For example, I'm happy to approve Assassin's Creed - All Media types.

I'd prefer not to approve both a larger set of fandom and a subset that is covered by the larger set, but am open to discussing specific examples.

Where you want to nominate a relationship between characters who appear in different fandoms, please nominate them under Crossover Fandom and include the fandom for each. For example: Arya Stark (ASoIF)/Elsa (Frozen - Movies). Please be specific if the fandom name could refer to different versions and adaptations. You can ask for general crossovers between fandoms by nominating "Oth: Worldbuilding (Fandom 1 & Fandom 2)"

You can also nominate characters and groups under Original Work. Please indicate the genders of the characters if that is important to you. If someone requests Original Work characters or relationships with ambiguous genders, the preference of the person requesting takes precedence over the preference of the person offering. (But you can ask to add a more specific version to the tag set during sign-ups if that is an issue.)


When it comes time for the offers and requests of sign-ups, the following factors may be relevant to how you plan your nominations:

-You need to request at least 4 separate fandoms with at least 1 relationship in each - so every nominated fandom needs at least one character, or one relationship, or one worldbuilding tag nominated underneath it

-There is no minimum requirement on what you have to offer, you just have to be able to offer for someone else's request

-It's fine to request or offer a fandom more than once using different tags.


Please feel free to use the comments to ask questions or brainstorm with others.

*Character group handling

In previous rounds, there has been enthusiasm and interest for nominations that describe sets of characters rather than naming individuals. I'm talking about "[W] Siblings", "Crew of [X]", "[Y] Gang", etc. Those nominations have also engendered creative requests and fills.

I can see benefit where:
-you don't have strong preferences about the internal relationships within a group, or just want canon-typical
-you want to include a lot of characters who are a recognizable unit, but you don't want to type them all out or they won't fit
-you want to combine two such groups in a flexible way
-you want one specific character interacting with some or all members of a group (often in a crossover)
-you want one member of the group to be the focus but for the rest of their crowd/family/colleagues/?? to be involved
-you want to ship a character with any [character who is part of X category].

I want:
-to enable people to make & match on requests that inspire them
-to have a clear idea of what each tag covers, first so that different people selecting a tag are likely to be on the same page about what is meant, and second so that I can adjudicate fairly and constructively if there's a misunderstanding
-to make it easy for myself to check tags, while not putting unreasonable limits on people's fun
-to deal with tags in a consistent way.

Some questions that have arisen for me in the past:

-Does [random set label] have an agreed-on meaning within the fandom?
-If you're asking for X Group & Y Group & Z Group, would one person from each suffice? Or do you mean all characters in each of those groups?


Some possible ideas:
-If you nominate a group that has 6+ members, I could ask you to also comment to say who those members are
-Use Creator's Choice of... labels where those suit your needs. Ie, "Tom Riddle (HP books)/Creator's Choice of Pevensie Sibling (Narnia books)" or "Falkor (Neverending Story movie) & Creator's Choice from the Gaang (Avatar)"
-Potentially use something like "ALL: " when you really want all members of the set to appear
-Something else?


I'd love to hear from people who might request or offer nominations of this type. I see it as my job to remove unnecessary ambiguity from tags, because tags set the requirements for gifts. But I also don't want to make unnecessary rules.