Before we begin - feedback wanted!

[rsoi_mod]

First - I'm waiting on an invite before I can create the AO3 collection. I'll probably go ahead and open nominations as soon as I'm able to do that, which should be earlier than the date listed above.

Second - before I finalize the rest of the information in the welcome post above, I wanted some feedback on a few things. Please feel free to discuss on this post - anon commenting is on! - or shoot me an email at rareshipsonice@gmail.com if you'd prefer that.

Update, April 16: warning matching is off the table! Thanks for chiming in, everyone :)

Update, April 17: commenting will be required, with a three-week deadline after works are revealed. I've also settled on 3 to 20 requests and offers. Still open to input on additional mediums, as well as anything else you'd like to ask or suggest :)

Update, April 24: I'm adding podfic! The rule updates may take a day or two. I'm still thinking about graphics. There wasn't enough interest in a separate graphics category, so I'm not adding one. I'm open to reconsidering for next year.

Mediums
I'm currently planning to allow matching on fanfiction and fanart. Do you want any other mediums available? If so, what would be a good minimum equivalent to 500 words of fanfiction?

Match on archive warnings?
Would being able to match on archive warnings be helpful for you, or just confusing? I personally liked it a lot for Smut Swap, since there are some pairings I don't want aged up or aged down.

I'd allow everyone to make multiple requests, so you could group your Noncon pairings in one request and your No Warnings ships in another request, for example.

The main confusing element here is the existence of "Chose Not to Warn," which is useless for matching. I'm toying with the idea of explicitly stating: "Do not request or offer CNTW" and asking anyone who did so anyway to change their sign-up, or I'd change it for them. A bit more work on my end, but I think worth it to eliminate weird matching confusion.

Commenting
Should non-commenters be banned from future RSOI exchanges? If so, what do you think is a reasonable timeframe to expect comments within?

# of requests and offers
What do you think is a reasonable minimum number of relationships to request and offer? I'm leaning towards minimum 3 for each.

Maximum would be 20 or something at least. Exact # would depend on whether I end up allowing multiple sets of requests and offers to facilitate archive warning divisions.

Anything else?
I'm all ears :)

Comments

[darkages]

i do not want to refute the validity of all the points you've made, so please don't take it that way, but i want to provide a counterpoint to some of these.

i know from experience that a lot of people like to receive "like-for-like" in an exchange, and i'm also like that; i'll be offering fic, and i'd like to receive fic in return. the more unusual the medium, the less likely it is there'll be other people offering/requesting it. i'm certainly not saying this is the case for everyone, but it's definitely something to take into account.

re: elitism and whether graphics/manips count as fanart, i can't speak for the mod but if they were to be included, i'd make them a category in their own right, primarily to avoid confusion. whether or not the mod wants to allow that is their prerogative. even things like fanvids would need their own category. all of this is fundamentally to account for the fact that people have very particular tastes and you want to be as specific as possible to avoid disappointment (as with this exchange's excellent DNW policy.)

onto your final point: personally i would never allow crafts or baked goods in an exchange, or indeed anything handmade & tangible, because the very nature of those media is that although they can be gifted to someone in spirit, except in rare cases they will remain the physical property of the person who created them. you can't exactly "post" them to ao3, except in the form of photos, and at a certain point if you want to create something like that then an ao3-based gift exchange is not the place for it.

podfic is a separate point, because as is stated in the exchange's rules, this is for new works, not sequels to your previous works, etc. podfic by nature requires a fic to already exist, so you would need to either write a fic from scratch and pod it, or allow a special exemption for requests like "make a podfic of this fic" but... you can see how that'd get messy easily, right? especially because the ships here are so rare, there's not exactly much to choose from to pod. it's easier just to exclude it from this exchange.

one more note, about making new rules for new categories of media: i think this is a very sensible idea, but it's also worth noting that the more categories you create, the more rules you're going to have to create, and that adds more potential for confusion. and for some things, it's hard to judge how much effort went into them. for fic you can make a simple statement like "word count greater than" and for art you can say "no lined paper" etc, but how do you quantify effort for graphics? for fanvids? idk. i don't really have a conclusive statement for this point but i'm leaving it here as food for thought.

[yue_ix]

I'd first like to clear one big confusion: when I said "I don't expect to be able to choose between all of that, but might we offer and request them nonetheless?" I meant that I wanted to be able to specify these in my "additional details" section. NOT have every medium type as a separate category. That would, indeed, be impractical in this fest's scale, as you've described.

I agree with the "like calls to like", but my experience of this is that, as a (drawing type) fanartist myself, I've always wanted and expected to be able to receive graphics and manips as fanart if that is the only visual art category. This is why this exchange's rules were so surprising to me. As I answered the mod bellow, fics have not had this specificity imposed on them; one could offer roleplaying, poetry or meta, and any of these could equally disappoint or overjoy the receiver.

If the goal is to make sure people are offering or requesting exactly what they want, this can be done by a small line saying: "If requesting/offering fanart, please specify whether you prefer hand-drawn, graphics, manips, or all". This clears up any possible confusion while affording wide liberty for a variety of artists, which leads to more fanworks for these deprived rare ships. \o/

Baked good and crafts: sorry, I have trouble understand this point. As a traditional artist, when I draw fanart, the physical painting remains my property and I submit, on tumblr and AO3, a photograph or scan of it. Fics may also be written down by hand in a notebook and transcribed on AO3. I cannot conceive how that would make them unsuitable gifts?

Podfic by nature doesn't require text. My friend Opalsong and I made a YoI Mafia!AU podfic that doesn't have any source text - we chatted plots, she recorded a not!fic, I recorded a reply to her that furthered the story, and there is large chunks of this work that is un-transcripted. Furthermore, there are no rules in this fest about creating a fanwork part of a pre-existing universe (ie: using Kurage's Older!Yurio/Otabek art as ref for many, many fics), only that each piece cannot be part of a series. As the podfic community considers each work to be a stand-alone and not a sequel to any source text - which has been the source of many, many podficmeta - anyone requesting such would know what they are getting.

In my opinion, exchanges with low threshold such as this one are the most perfect place for varied fanworks *because* of the very limited quality control effort required of the mods. I've offered "5+ minutes length, clean seams, finished look, contain more than 5 images used, ect." in my initial comment, but in past fandoms I've seen several challenges say "completed 500 words or clean sketch not on lined paper. Other medium are expected to have equivalent effort put into them." In case of doubt, letting the other media regulate themselves will work, because no one can quantify efforts better than people making those fanworks. This isn't a Big Bang, where it is very important to set clear minimum so that everyone gives an equally big performance.

Example of a very inclusive yet specific rules: "All fics must be at least 1,000 words. Fanvids must be at least 45 seconds long. Fanarts must be a complete piece and more than a sketch or preview (lines inked or seams blended). For icons, it must be a batch of at least 10 icons with a tying theme. There is no upper limit as to length or quality. If you are unsure about the “value” of your fanwork, please feel free to ask the mods." - Merlin Holidays

As I see it - what is the harm in allowing people to offer or request these as a bonus while knowing that if no one takes them up on it they'll receive or do written fic/drawn art instead? People who don't want these medium won't ever receive them, but people who do might have an added possibility. Exactly like the rule's excellent DNW policy, which I also love. :)

[darkages]

thank you for your reply! there's definitely some stuff here i haven't considered. i don't have the spoons to leave a long reply right now but i might get back to you later :)