Round 2 - tentative schedule etc.

[worldbuildingmod]

A very happy New Year to everyone using Pope Gregory's centuries-later patch to Julius Caesar's worldbuilding.

Here are my initial thoughts about a schedule for the 2018 round:

Tag set nominations: Fri 5th Jan - Mon 15th Jan
Sign ups: Fri 19th Jan - Mon 29th Jan
Assignments out by: Thu 1st Feb
Default deadline: Fri 9th Mar
Assignments due: Fri 16th Mar
Works revealed: Fri 23rd Mar
Authors revealed: Fri 30th Mar

The time on each day these things will happen will be 2355 UTC (a change from 0800 UTC last year).

Please let me know what you think - there is definitely room at this stage for adjustment.

This is all a little bit earlier than last year (and a slightly shorter writing period), mostly to fit better with my work schedule, which is also the reason behind the change to 2355 UTC. (I might open things earlier, but definitely won't close anything ahead of time.) I have tried to avoid too much overlap of crunch periods with other exchanges I'm aware of, but I make no claim to be aware of all possibly relevant ones.

One thing that is a fixed decision is the gap between nominations and sign ups. This is deliberately on the long side, as some exchanges have recently experienced significant problems with approvals. It seems to be a function of tag set size, so may not affect things too badly unless we end up with many more tags than last year, but I'd rather be safe than sorry. If it goes well, I can open sign ups earlier.

There are a few other small changes I've been mulling since last round. They are presented here in order of how likely I am to make them, from most to least:

• Instead of using "Worldbuilding:" to preface the "Relationship" tags, it would be easier to just have "WB:" - saves everyone's typing fingers, and provides a few more characters for longer tags. (Inspired by everywoman's "CH:" canon helper tags.)
  
• I've been wondering if changing "No Characters" to "Any or No Characters" might express the intended meaning ("I want to receive/write worldbuilding and which, if any, characters are involved is very much secondary to that") better.

• Last year there was no penalty for defaulting, but this year I might institute a rule that people who default after the default deadline have to sit out the subsequent round. I am very much in two minds about this, though.

• I'm not convinced the distinction between "Fanfiction" and (in-universe) "Meta" was all that helpful in practice last year, so I might just use "Fanfiction".
  
• It would be possible to add freeforms for podcasts and vids in addition to fic and art. However, I'm not really sure that there's any great demand for these for this exchange, and I'm a bit worried about matchability and/or the potential difficulty of getting pinch hitters for any requests that only wanted one of these rarer formats.

If you have thoughts on these or any other matters, let me know in the comments.

Comments

[meatball42.livejournal.com]

I've seen coms that allow you to offer podcasts, vids, etc., but don't let you solely request them, to avoid the issue you mentioned. I think it would make sense to require someone offering vids to also offer fic or art as well, but I don't work in either of those mediums, so *shrug*

As someone who wrote in-universe meta last year, I found it pretty valuable. Hazy memory, but I think maybe the distinctions within that category were a bit more confusing than the broader idea of it, if that makes sense.

Not entirely sure why relationship tags need any sort of preface, but I'm going to assume it's a code monkeying thing.

[worldbuildingmod]

Thanks for the feedback! Will definitely think about the idea of allowing more media but not allowing people to sign up for them exclusively.

The relationship tags need prefacing because they're not really relationship tags: for this exchange, we take advantage of the fact that you can have two separate sets of tags associated with a fandom. The way AO3 is coded means that they're called "Character" and "Relationship" tags but we're using them for Characters and Worldbuilding elements - the preface is there to make it nice and clear that it's not really a relationship. Last year's tag set shows how it works in practice.

[(Anonymous)]

- I like the abridgment of "Worldbuilding" to "WB"; it's less typing and a smaller potential for error while nominating.

- If you want "No Characters" to indicate "the characters involved in the worldbuilding is secondary to the worldbuilding itself", then "No or Any Characters" is indeed clearer.

- I agree that the distinction between "Fanfiction" and "Meta" was minimally helpful at best; the idea of the Meta category could easily be incorporated as prompts for the other categories. I have no opinion on the inclusion of podcasts or vids.

[worldbuildingmod]

Thanks for the feedback!

[lirin_lirilla]

I'm a fan of the "WB" and "Any or No Characters" changes.

Another possibility on defaults is to require that the defaulter write a treat, although I guess that would be a bit difficult since you close the collection. I have no strong opinion on defaulting rules but wanted to toss that other option out there.

I think the thing I liked about Fanfiction and Meta being separate was that it was possible to know who only wanted something with a plot and who would be happy with things with no plot or only a tiny pretense of a plot. For example, last year one of the treats I wrote was a book review of an imaginary book. If we combine the tags, we'll have to find other ways to make clear who would be interested in that sort of thing. (Which is okay, except that I worry that fewer people would express that interest without the reminder in the signup tags.)

On the topic of alternate formats, would you consider including interactive fiction at all? Not necessarily as a separate media tag; it could just be an opt-in post, along the lines of the one for Yuletide. It's a format that seems to me as if it would be quite well suited to worldbuilding.

[worldbuildingmod]

Thanks!

On defaulting: I did think about that, but I decided that I prefer to have a definite finish date.

Interesting point about the amount of plot distinguishing between fic and meta; I think that probably is the key. I do think that can potentially be handled in optional details, but I see what you mean about people not necessarily remembering to include it without the freeform prompting them to remember it's an option.

IF is an interesting one, and I agree definitely has potential as a format for worldbuilding works. On the other hand, I've definitely seen people indicating an openness to it in their ODs in many exchanges, including last year's round of worldbuildingex, without there being the central co-ordination to it that there is in Yuletide. Perhaps a general "optional extras" post during sign ups with separate comment threads for IF, and also things like podfic and vids, might be the way to go.

[raininshadows]

I've maintained the IF spreadsheet for Yuletide for the last two years, and would be willing to do the same here.

[worldbuildingmod]

That would be extremely helpful, thank you!

[raininshadows]

I am entirely in favor of the WB: shift. I like the idea of condensing Any Characters/No Characters into one. I would probably lean more towards making post-deadline defaulters write a treat, or possibly even their original assignment - they could email you to let you know, or you could make a separate collection for post-reveals treating - but I can also see that that would be extra effort, and I'm not the one who'd have to put it in. I have no particular opinion on the Fanfiction/Meta merge, or the addition of podfic and vids as mediums, although I wouldn't request or offer them myself.

[worldbuildingmod]

Thanks; I think I'm leaning in the direction of no default penalty at all. I like the idea of an always-open treats collection in theory, but I think I like more not having to check the mod email very often once the exchange is over ...