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ETA Feb 2019: AO3 Change Log 0.9.232-0.9.235 suggests that the issues referred to in this post should now be fixed; however, since the bug was always intermittent (and very rare), I would continue to recommend caution until some time has passed with no reported issues.
Recently, AO3 exchanges have been hit by a problem where, occasionally, works behave when posted as though they are not part of the exchange. This has become known as the "Reveals Bug", as it results in the work and its creator being visible immediately, and the recipient receiving a notification email. This is an issue that AO3 is aware of, but until it is fixed a workaround is possible - this post explains it.
It seems that the bug can hit whether the work is posted via the "Fulfil" button on your Assignments screen, the "Post to Collection" button on the Collection home page, or simply filling in the collection manually while posting.
The problem can be reversed if the collection is moderated (which WBX 2018 is, for this very reason) by a mod toggling the work's status between unapproved/approved, which seems to make the work pick up the correct settings. The good news is that it's possible for the creator to find out in advance whether a work is affected if they save it as a draft first. If you do this, and the work does not get the "This work is part of an ongoing challenge and will be revealed soon! [...]" message across the top, please do not proceed any further and contact me (via any method of your choice, though email to worldbuildingmod@gmx.com is most likely to be seen quickly), as I can then toggle its status and make the bug go away. I will let you know when I've done this and you can then go on to post.
Below the cut is a step-by-step guide, complete with screenshots, written by
morbane, to whom many, many thanks. (Please note that this solution is not the same as the method used by Yuletide 2017 to deal with the bug, but an improvement on it, not least because when followed it should completely avoid the risk of a non-anonymised notification email going out early to your recip.)
( Step-by-step guide to avoiding the bug )
Recently, AO3 exchanges have been hit by a problem where, occasionally, works behave when posted as though they are not part of the exchange. This has become known as the "Reveals Bug", as it results in the work and its creator being visible immediately, and the recipient receiving a notification email. This is an issue that AO3 is aware of, but until it is fixed a workaround is possible - this post explains it.
It seems that the bug can hit whether the work is posted via the "Fulfil" button on your Assignments screen, the "Post to Collection" button on the Collection home page, or simply filling in the collection manually while posting.
The problem can be reversed if the collection is moderated (which WBX 2018 is, for this very reason) by a mod toggling the work's status between unapproved/approved, which seems to make the work pick up the correct settings. The good news is that it's possible for the creator to find out in advance whether a work is affected if they save it as a draft first. If you do this, and the work does not get the "This work is part of an ongoing challenge and will be revealed soon! [...]" message across the top, please do not proceed any further and contact me (via any method of your choice, though email to worldbuildingmod@gmx.com is most likely to be seen quickly), as I can then toggle its status and make the bug go away. I will let you know when I've done this and you can then go on to post.
Below the cut is a step-by-step guide, complete with screenshots, written by
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( Step-by-step guide to avoiding the bug )