white_lotus | ATLA Lunar New Year Exchange: Rules Draft

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ATLA Lunar New Year Exchange: Rules Draft

We want more of your feedback about the proposed gift exchange! We took the results of the poll about an avatar gift exchange and comments and wrote a set of preliminary rules. This is just a first draft, so please let us know if there are any changes you think we should make or if there are places where the rules don't make sense. (There are a couple of places here where we have missing information, like email addresses or URLs; we'll fix that by the final draft.)

The Rules:

1. The basics: This is a gift exchange that will include Avatar: The Last Airbender fic, vids, art, icons, crafts, and (potentially) other stuff. (Edited 11/23:) Gift posting will start on the first day of the Lunar New Year and will be anonymous for the fifteen days of some Lunar New Year celebrations, after which they'll be un-anonymized. Anyone can sign up; you don't need a dreamwidth account to play.

2. The schedule: signups are coming basically as soon as we hammer out the rules! Main fanworks will be due to the mods at [email address] by midnight GMT January 27th and will be posted daily between February 3rd and February 18th. (For information on dropping out and treats scheduling, see below.)

3. How matching will work: You can make three requests with different (or overlapping) characters, genres, and ships (edited 11/23: or gen/no ship), each with its own free-text request. We'll try to match as many of those things, and as many of your requests, as possible, but we only promise to match one request on characters, types of fanworks, and maximum ratings. You might ask for art for a ship and receive gen or friendshippy art instead.

4. Request language: Requests are (optional) longer free-text details about the kinds of things you would like. As you're writing your requests, please consider that you might be assigned to someone who typically writes/vids/draws different characters, ships, or sex acts than you do, and please try not to shame or bash anyone's fanwork preferences. It's fine to list the things you don't want (e.g. "I don't like Yue/Katara fic" or "I prefer gen fic to het or slash"), but please don't say things like "because it's gross" or "everyone who writes X is a loser." If your request includes shaming or bashing language, we might screen your comment to the treats post and ask you to reword it, or contact you about your signup and ask you to reword a request.

4a. If you need more information about your assigned person/their requests: If you have questions about your assigned person, contact a mod at [email address] and we'll act as intermediaries to maintain your anonymity.

5. Types of fanworks: You can make or request any combination of art, vids, fic, icon sets, and crafts. We'll also have a write-in space to request or offer other types of fanworks; you could list things like banners for dw or lj layouts, podfic, recs sets, or anything else that we haven't listed. If you like your gifts to really be a mystery, you can check the "surprise me!" category -- you might get anything on the list plus anything that anyone writes in.

5a. Crafts and non-digital artwork: If you make or ask for things like costumes, knit items, or paintings, your part of the exchange might be a little more complicated! For people who plan to create physical objects: please contact the mods for our addresses, and send us your fanwork in the mail; we'll send it on anonymously. Edited 11/23: (One of us is in the USA and one in the UK, if that makes a difference to your signup plans.) We'll also ask you to make something that can be posted to the community: a digital photo of your work, the pattern for your embroidered element symbols, etc. If you request crafts: be aware that you might get a physical gift, which will involve one of the mods contacting you for your snail mail address. If you're not comfortable with one of the mods knowing your address, please don't request this category.

6. Minimum fanwork size: fic must be at least a thousand words, vids must be at least one minute, fanart must be [how do people measure fanart?], iconsets must include at least twenty icons, and crafts must be completed pieces (not sketches or initial designs). Anything you make for the "other" category should be equivalently sized.

7. Posting: Posts should be sent the mods ([email address]/PM to either of us) as ready-to-go html that fits the

white_lotus posting template, edited 11/24 including content notes section. Please indicate your username and your recipients’ username in your email or PM. If the challenge gets big, we might post to a different community and post a daily roundup to

white_lotus.

8. Dropping out: If you sign up to make a fanwork for the exchange and are unable to do so for any reason, please let the mods know. Dropping out before midnight GMT on December 27th can be done without penalty. If you drop out after December 27th, we'll ask you to post a fanwork to the community before the next round of the exchange if you would like to play again. To drop out, send an email to [email address] with the following information: "I signed up for the white_lotus lunar new year exchange under [username] and will not finish my fanwork before the deadline." You don't need to give us any additional information. Edited 11/23: And regardless of whether you default before or after the penalty deadline, we still would like you to play if you would like to do so, even if it takes you a year past the deadline.

9. Pinch hits: Pinch hits are requests that don't go through the matching process; they'll happen if we have difficulty matching someone or if someone drops out. Pinch hit information will be sent to an email list; people subscribed to the list can ask to be assigned a request if they see one they like. (To sign up for the pinch hit list, email [possibly a google/yahoo group?])

10. Treats: Extra presents are always fun! If you're signing up, we'll put up a post where you can link to your requests or talk more about what kinds of things you like; posting a comment to that post might get you a treat! Or it might not; it's a mystery. Treats will be due by midnight GMT February 10th, but the sooner we get them the easier they'll be to slot into our posting schedule. Treats don't have to meet the minimum wordcount/vid length/art size/number of icons for main fanworks.

11. I don't want to sign up; what can I do? If you'd like to participate without signing up, you're welcome to make treats for any requests that catch your eye, or to follow the pinch hit list if you'd like to be assigned a recipient. If you don't want to make anything for the challenge, you can offer to beta people's fanworks in [this post]. And of course you can comment on, discuss, or rec fanworks!

We also have a draft sign-up form; signups won't open for another few days, but if you'd like to poke at the form or submit a test signup and give us feedback, please do! (We'll be clearing all the test responses before we open signups, though, so remember that this is only a test version -- if you want to sign up for real, you'll have to fill out the form again later this week or at the beginning of next week.)

We populated the lists of characters, ships, and genres directly from the

white_lotus tag list, which is not a complete list of possible characters/ships/genres -- please let us know about things we left out! If we're still missing things on sign-up day, you can list as many things as you want under "other."

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

My feedback is inane and positive - those seem like sensible rules to me, and the signup form worked well for me as well - very clear and intuitive, at least for me.

That is useful to hear too! It's good to know you think we're on the right track.

I'd suggest changing the drop-out deadline. Between Christmas and New Years generally isn't the best time for it, what with holidays, travelling, family, Yuletide, etc. people might be too busy.

Also, it would be helpful if the time was in UTC.

GMT is UTC...

*is confused*

Didn't see it above. It's only added the first time.

Thanks for pointing that out! I'll edit it in.

I have to agree with not making the drop-out deadline between Christmas and New Years. Lots of people aren't going to have (easy) net access then.

It's not even just about access. People tend to forget stuff during that time. I should know; my birthday's on the 30th.

I'll talk to

such_heights about what we can do about that, but off the top of my head, part of the problem is that some kinds of fanworks require much longer prep times. Vidding often involves waiting for source to be available, and a lot of clipping, and any physical crafts will have to be sent through the mail twice (possibly internationally). Once we're less than four weeks from the final deadline, it might be very difficult for pinch hitters to finish vids or crafts in time. (For comparison:

festivids, a vid gift exchange, has a nearly six week period between the penalty-free deadline and the final deadline;

yuletart leaves just over three weeks.)

If we pushed the deadline earlier, it would still be in the Christmas and Solstice and Kwanzaa and Pancha Ganapati season, and closer to Hanukkah, and it would be very soon after assignments go out. And we can't push it much later, because we need the longer dropping out with penalty period; it's partly an acknowledgment that after December 27th, people who make certain kinds of fanworks would have to scramble to get a pinch hit in!

SQUEE. (And I am so glad it is Lunar New Year, as that is both fandom-appropriate and allows some recovery time for those of us doing YT.)

A possible problem with the form: since for each request you MUST select both a pairing and individual characters, it is impossible to request gen only (it is also impossible to request romance-only, but I don't foresee that being as much of a potential problem).

(Also, I suppose it gets unwieldy, but Katara/Aang/Zuko/Mai? It makes me sadfaced how either Aang or Mai always seems to get left out.)

Oh, hey, thanks for pointing that out -- there's actually an option in the signup form to select "none (gen only)" under ships, but we didn't make it clear in the rules! I'll edit that in.

Also, I will absolutely add Katara/Aang/Zuko/Mai!

Oh, derp, I didn't read closely enough. Cool.

I added it to the rules after your comment!

Comments on the signup form:

Link to the rules post?

With the "What sites do you use this username on" question, I'm alias_sqbr on most relevant sites but sqbr on deviantart, I'm not sure how to fill that in.

There seems to be no way to differentiate people who are willing to make/like gen AND various ships and those who will ONLY do shipping stuff.

I don't have any particular requests in mind, just general preferences, which made it a bit repetitive to fill out. I guess I can come up with specifics before signups.

We will absolutely link to the rules post, once we have a final draft up!

I'll change the "what sites" question to make it clearer that you can put stuff like that distinction in that space.

I also find the requests section a bit repetitive -- I wish there were a way to copy responses over from one request to the next! But I don't know of any way to make it happen.

The rules make sense to me and the sign up form worked, but Zuko/Aang and Jet/Zuko aren't on the pairing lists. I know there is an 'other' option, but it was just a bit odd to me that those two aren't on there yet rarepairs like Katara/Smellerbee and Katara/Yue are.

Other than that, SQUUUUEEEEE SO EXCITED. :D

I will add those! Like I said, we just took the list from the

white_lotus tag list -- I guess nobody's posted an Aang/Zuko story yet!

The rules seem sensible and straight-forward to me!

In #1, the season is referred to as "Chinese Lunar New Year" - may I ask that it is referred to in more general terms (Lunar New Year) so as to be inclusive of non-Chinese cultures? I'm unsure of the reasons for this wording, and I'm unsure of others' feelings about this, though. ^^;

Well, the reason we said Chinese Lunar New Year there is that we're going to be posting for just over two weeks, so posting will happen over the fifteen days of celebration for the Chinese New Year (rather than the three day celebrations for Seollal), but we planned on calling the overall challenge a Lunar New Year Gift Exchange since it will start on February 3rd. We just didn't want to imply that everybody who celebrates Lunar New Year celebrates for the same fifteen days, but I'll see if I can reword it to make that more clear.

(I initially said Tết was also three days, but that was a mistake -- it's also fifteen, I think?)

Edited (*facepalmy* mistake about Tết) 2010-11-24 05:00 (UTC)

[nods] I thought the length/dates of the celebration might have been the reason. I think Tết is also 15 days. Thanks for considering and listening.

No problem, it was my mistake not trying to find a better wording. Does the current version work for you? It's currently:

Gift posting will start on the first day of the Lunar New Year and will be anonymous for the fifteen days of some Lunar New Year celebrations, after which they'll be un-anonymized.

I think that sounds good!

(I speak as a Chinese person with the privilege of being a really visible minority, so other participants may well disagree with me. I will not take offense if that happens. ^^)

Really excited about this exchange!

Could you add Suki/Sokka/Toph to the pairing list?

My preferred name isn't my journal username--I'm assuming I would put my journal URL in the "what sites do you use this username on?" box?

SO EXCITED. :D

Yes, that makes sense -- and we'll reword that box to make that more clear.

And yes, I'll add that to the pairing list!

Please specify figurative art (containing recognisable depictions of characters/places). [This is just that I get distracted by the idea of submitting abstract art to fulfil request.]

Art can be measured by size, by the level of detail, by the number of elements (number of characters or large objects or specific distinguishable settings), and by the media (although this 'scale' is also partly completely made up and based on assumptions that don't necessarily hold up).

Does art have to be in colour? If it's not, does a black and white picture have to be more detailed or have more figures in it than one that is colour? [I still hold the stupid, but strong, sense that a black and white pencil drawing is not good enough. So specify that art can be produced in any medium or combination of media.]

You don't actually have to specify size in that much detail, but some arbitrary guidelines could help as a starting point, or let an artist think, "well, I've got one fewer things so I'll be more detailed".

Or examples of art that the mods things is commensurate to 1,000 words of fic would be very helpful. [Actually, I should look at the McShep_Match art for equivalent art.]

I was fearing that the art I drew for Kink Bingo would be rejected for being less than "medium". Especially as it's hand drawn and therefore doesn't look as smooth or finished as computer aided or computer produced works. I would have liked to draw something smaller but more detailed (and in fact probably will).

Are the originals of a physical piece of 2D art expected to be sent to the recipient? (That would be really cool.)

(I've not seen AtLA, and won't before it'll be too late to sign up for this year, but I have a great interest in how to measure art.)

Thanks for the advice! We'll think on ways to phrase it. I think part of the problem is that there are so many different kinds of art, and they scale differently.

They do scale differently. And also, some of the idea of the scale/value of art comes from outdated ideas. Water colour v. acrylic v. oil v. drawings (pastel v. crayon v. conte/charcoal v. pencil).

(I'm starting an Art History course next year, and this has just piqued my interest in the "hierarchy" of art and the emergence of the celebrity of art. Why do we persist in forming mental hierarchies of everything?)

Anyway, thanks!

This looks totally awesome omg yay; query, though, do you guys have a warnings policy/et cetera?

We do! It's part of the standard community posting template; I tried to make that clearer in the rules.

This is super exciting and I'm so glad y'all are doing it! I can't wait to sign up :D

\o/ yay!

All of this looks good! I'm very excited.

Re: measuring art, I usually judge the approximate quality of my work (and I'm not a particularly skilled artist) by how long it takes. For example, this took about four hours from sketch to completion; I'm pretty sure I spent maybe 45 minutes on this.

On the other hand, obviously that's subjective and variable, and once I spent two hours trying to get a nose right. BUT NOSES ARE HARD!

Noses are definitely hard! And yeah, time minimums could be tricky -- I think it varies a lot depending on the skill of the artist and on what counts as "work." Like, some people spend hours planning in their heads, other people spend those hours making preliminary sketches, etc. But it's a good thought, we might end up going that way.

PS: That Delenn is awesome!

I'm missing the cross-generation Zuko (incest) ships (Ozai/Zuko, Iroh/Zuko, Hakoda/Zuko, Zhao/Zuko, etc) - but I guess that's what "other" is for.

Also, I realise I'm in the minority here, but 1000 words minimum for a fic is too much in my opinion. *wince*

I'll add those to the list! And I'll talk with

such_heights about the minimum.

Thank you for taking it into consideration anyway.

I've only seen a little bit of ATLA so I won't be playing, but I just wanted to let you know that I really like the way this is set up. In particular I'm excited about the possibility of CRAFTS, and the item about participating without signing up. I've been having some trouble with deadlines lately and it is really neat to see that welcome for less formal commitments spelled out for a fest.

I'm glad to hear that! I also am not having much success with deadlines lately.

I usually see art requirements in exchanges as "art must be finished/cleaned up, not a rough sketch."

Oh, that's a great idea! Though we would also accept pen or pencil drawings, so I'll try to make that clear.

As someone who's never participated in a fandom gift exchange before, I thought the rules and sign-up form were very intuitive. (I feel a lot less nervous about participating than I did).

*SQUEE! So excited to play!*

Edited (Added opinion about the sign-up form) 2010-11-24 20:06 (UTC)

That's great, exactly what we'd like to hear. Glad you're excited, so am I! :D

*squee* I'm excite!

I was kind of surprised Avatar Roku isn't listed. Can I haz Roku? Also needs June/Iroh. For the lulz. I'm just saying.

Roku! Absolutely, we'll add him in, and June/Iroh too.

Umm, can I have Ursa/Hakoda or both as single characters?

We can do both!

I realize that one of my offers was perhaps way too vague. If it seems weird and you're unsure about matching, just email me?

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

ATLA Lunar New Year Exchange: Rules Draft

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On measuring fanart

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