Creators revealed for 2024/2025 round & Feedback Post

[tavina]

And with that, creators are revealed for the 2024-2025 round of AU5k! Thank you all for a tremendously fun inaugural round of AU5k. We made so much stuff and none of this could’ve been possible without you guys!

I’m hoping to run this exchange again next year, with about the same schedule as this year - mid-November to mid-March, but I’ll update once the year’s schedule becomes clearer! (I will likely know much more about my Fall/Winter schedule for 2025/2026 by August.)

In reviewing my notes for next year, there are a few items I would like some feedback on that I am leaning towards implementing for next year:

1. I think I’ll rename the default deadline (not actually a default deadline with any penalties this year) to something more like “One Week Til Deadline Reminder” with similar penalties of a one year ban if this leads to a no show default at deadline or extension deadline. I think this will clear up some of the confusion surrounding this particular part of the schedule that cropped up a few times this year. Do we have ideas for a better name for this on the schedule/suggest dropping it off of the schedule entirely/etc?
2. I’m leaning towards an automatic two week period between works due and works revealed to give our valiant post deadline pinch hitters some more time to work, and for all of us to have a more relaxed editing period. We did coincide with several other large minimum exchanges this year such as Five Figure Fanwork Exchange and High Adrenaline Exchange, so that may have been a contributing stress factor, but I think even if we didn’t, having a longer editing period might be really beneficial. How do we feel about this?
3. It’s been brought up a couple times that our Friday deadline(s) have been somewhat stressful, and the two day extension to Sunday night has been really helpful - do we want to move the deadlines to Sunday night in the coming rounds (with two day extensions to Tuesday night) instead?
4. I would like some feedback also on the nominations phase (if we have clear memories of the nominations phase of this event haha): was the documentation for how to nominate clear? Confusing? Are there places where this documentation can be updated to be more clear?

Any other general comments, concerns, questions, and feedback for the next round will also be helpful! Feel free to either comment them down below or email the modmail at TavinaFanfiction@gmail.com to communicate them to me for what you’d like to see in the next round!

Comments

Feedback

[krzeslicko]

Firstly, thank you for such tremendous work, Tavina! Loved having the opportunity to write for this Exchange, definitely coming back for the next one (if you decide to run it, I'd be overjoyed) :))

Re Deadline/Default deadline - I think having a default deadline is a good idea, since it gives Pinch Hitters more time to work, were anyone to drop the assignment, and as it is a longer exchange, it could possibly remind people about it. That being said, naming that "faultless" deadline period something more descriptive, or just expanding on what it means in the rules should be fine?

Re period between works due and reveals - another splendid idea. One week is a tight squeeze for 5k (for me), especially if one picks up a pinch hit on a later date, or needs more time to edit. I know from experience that editing on a weekday can be difficult to schedule, haha

Re deadline - Sunday sounds fine! Reveals on Friday/Saturday are nice, if they could stay like this, I'd be stoked.

Re nominations - I think it would be beneficial to add examples of how to tag characters or freeforms in the rules, just one or two random pairings to show what's acceptable and what's going to cause issues. Other than that, as you wrote, my memory of that phase already succumbed to time.

Re other comments -
* If I could suggest one thing - maybe putting a link to dreamwidth community in the ao3 collection? There was a link in the tagsets, but I try as I might, I couldn't find it in the collection itself (if it was there, I apologise!). I find it useful, especially if I want to check out the newest PHs or news. I have a DW account now, but before I got one, manually typing in the link was the way to go for me (yes, I memorised it).

* Also, putting the rules in the ao3 collection itself, maybe? Could be copy-paste from here, so that peeps don't have to search the web to find them.

* I remember seeing a post about commenting on our gifts, but no official rule about leaving comments, so if the 5kAU exchange does run by that rule, it'd be nice to know, especially for newbies like me (just to know if I can expect for a comment to pop up, or let it be if there's no feedback from the person who received my fic). (And if there is a rule like that, and I'm just a mess, I apologise!)

* I think ao3 recently changed its rules regarding gifts and the option to allow them has to be manually turned on; I know for this exchange gifts for specific users are an opt-out, so maybe adding a sentence about checking if the user has that option turned on would be useful?

Again, thank you so much for running the Exchange! Had so much fun and writing for my recipient was a great experience!

[primeideal]

Two ideas, possibly more trouble than they're worth:

-Would it be feasible to separate out freeforms that are fusions/crossovers/setting changes based on a specific canon from the other "ANY" tags? Like, "FUSION: Witcher AU." I think this could be helpful for cases where the canon name is generic enough that it might not be clear for someone who doesn't know it. (Witcher AU/Witch AU, Supernatural (TV Show 2005)/Supernatural (werewolves and vampires).)

-There are some relationships/characters that I'm really only interested in in one or two particular contexts. I would have enjoyed being able to make a request that had only one freeform, including with the understanding that this wouldn't count towards the minimum number of "unique fandom" requests in order to guarantee a gift.

Thanks for running!

[(Anonymous)]

I think Sunday deadlines are better than Friday for most people (chance to write on the weekend if the week is busy with obligations).

Also, I was wondering if there could be a requirement to comment on the gift(s) you receive (either just official fills or treats as well).

Although I've seen many people explain in the server that they haven't gotten around to commenting yet, I still know of multiple fics that don't have a comment from the person it was gifted too (and who have not said anything about it in the server). Idk just a thought.