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Serebii Yuletide: Fan Fics Hub (Info and Discussion)

AmericanPi

Write on
I guessed right! :D

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday season. I had so much fun participating in this year's Yuletide, and I'll definitely want to participate in upcoming Yuletides. PikaBones, thank you so much for the fic, and I'm really looking forward to commenting on it. ChloboShoka, I'm glad you enjoyed the fic I wrote for you, especially because it was quite a challenge for me to write. Finally, JX Valentine, Psychic, and xEryChan, thank you all a billion for all your work in organizing this Yuletide. Great job on making this year's Yuletide a wonderful experience.

While I'm here, I might as well drop my suggestion on how to make next year's Yuletide even better. I'd suggest there to be a requirement for recipients to list at least three prompts and three pairings. This way, there's a far less likelihood of people dropping out due to not liking the prompts they were assigned.

Overall, this has been an awesome event. Happy Holidays! :)
 

JX Valentine

Ever-Discordant
While I'm here, I might as well drop my suggestion on how to make next year's Yuletide even better. I'd suggest there to be a requirement for recipients to list at least three prompts and three pairings. This way, there's a far less likelihood of people dropping out due to not liking the prompts they were assigned.

I'll leave this one up for discussion for a couple of reasons. First and foremost loops into the discussion I've been meaning to have about how Yuletide's a gift-giving event, so it's just kinda bad form to drop out just because you don't like your prompt. Like, if you're having trouble, that's why we have mandatory check-ins and really emphasize communication. (As a disclaimer, yeah, we apologize again for last year's failure to communicate. That was our bad.) Check-ins, in part, are the times when you're encouraged to send questions both to the organizers and your recipients (through your organizers) to see if you can resolve any issues you have, so if you, for example, are really having trouble with your prompt sets, you should be hitting up your liaisons and asking if you can ask your recipient for more information about your prompts or for the possibility of another prompt. (You can't actually discard your entire prompt set to get a new one. Once you get your recipient, you're locked into said recipient. But there's no reason why you can't ask questions, is what I'm getting at.)

Second, if your recipient says no or if they're otherwise uncomfortable with that question, then the other thing to note about Yuletide is that half the point is writing outside your comfort zone for the sake of other people. So part of signing up is you agreeing to push your personal boundaries and expand your creativity to craft a gift someone else will like. The WILL WRITE part of the event's entry form is meant to help with this by minimizing the likelihood of you being paired with a prompt that you absolutely cannot write and maximizing the likelihood of you being paired with a prompt that's absolutely within your abilities and is probably something you wouldn't mind writing.

Third and final reason has more to do with the recipient than the author. Some folks actually took advantage of it this year, but long story short, the reason why there's no minimum is because it offers the flexibility of saying, "idk, guys, just have fun writing." What this means is that some folks like to say, "I really don't care so long as it's a fic that [insert vague prompt here that could be interpreted multitudes of ways]" because not only does this give their writers the freedom and flexibility to write whatever they'd like (so long as that vague concept is touched upon), but it also is a signal that the entrant is pretty much just in the event to write for other people. And that I can't argue because if you sign up for Yuletide but decide to make the most people happy by writing a gift fic and letting other writers roam free all over a vague prompt or two, then I like you.

As an alternative, I'm going back and forth about the idea of writing a guide—specifically, one that covers some aspects of Yuletide in more detail. This could include a detailed description of how prompts work and what the best sorts of prompts are. (I.e., "for best results, don't be too specific, or offer at most ten prompts that are specific but give your writer a wide selection to choose from.") Other things that could be covered include how to plan for your Yuletide fic, how best to write for Yuletide (because this is not an event you should be procrastinating on, but it is an event you can do if you literally just write a paragraph a day), what to do during check-ins, and so forth. This could be included as a link in the next Yuletide opening post as a helpful heads up. Problem with this idea is would anyone read it if it was technically labeled optional reading?
 

AmericanPi

Write on
Personally I'm not sure how effective the Yuletide guide would be. If it were just a nice little resource that Yuletide participants can refer to if they're having trouble, then I definitely support it. But if it's more of a mandatory reading thing... IDK, I just feel that there are enough things to read as it is.

What I would do is make it clear that people can ask for help if they're having trouble with their prompts, I guess. I personally enjoyed stepping out of my comfort zone to write my recipients' fics, but yeah, I think it would be a good idea to make it clearer that you can ask for help if you're having trouble.
 

JX Valentine

Ever-Discordant
(As a side note, sorry if the last post seemed super-serious. It's totally not you or anything. I love how helpful you've been in general so far, so don't be afraid to make suggestions. ;_; )

Personally I'm not sure how effective the Yuletide guide would be. If it were just a nice little resource that Yuletide participants can refer to if they're having trouble, then I definitely support it. But if it's more of a mandatory reading thing... IDK, I just feel that there are enough things to read as it is.

That's true. The first post does tend to be lengthy, and I'd like to see if I can pare it down a little next year. In the meantime, it probably would be a lot easier to include some of the aforementioned stuff I'd like to cover as sort of short notes in the relevant sections. So! Huzzah compromises!
 

DeliriousAbsol

Call me Del
You're welcome, Poetry =D I'm glad you liked it. It was fun to write!

Thank you, The Teller. That story was sweet =) I liked the little Wynaut! I also really liked the art to go with it =)
 

The Teller

King of Half-Truths
Thank you, The Teller. That story was sweet =) I liked the little Wynaut! I also really liked the art to go with it =)

Santa told me you were extra special good this year, so you were given an extra special gift to go along with your story. The same person who drew my signature drew that art. I told her about the Yuletide and she decided she wanted to contribute as well (but not as a forum member, as she isn't one), so she asked for a scene from my story to draw. I was hoping, as I was writing, that the whole thing wouldn't end up too depressing for you. Looks like it didn't, so hooray!

And to football fans: For the record, I didn't NOT like the football entry, or consider it "invalid" for a Yuletide theme; I just was amused that such a non-wintery, left-field topic was thought up in the first place, either by the giver or recipient (from the looks of it, it was American-Pi's idea). I typically think of snow and harsh cold, which I typically think hinders the enjoyment of playing football (and by this point, I'm using the word to collectively mean both football and soccer), but I don't follow sports, so I wouldn't know. And yes, American-Pi, those sports don't take over my life, so I had no idea who was supposed to be who or any culture-specific shout-outs or references were going on. Sorry! Anyways, I did like the story, I was just surprised, that's all.
 

JX Valentine

Ever-Discordant
And to football fans: For the record, I didn't NOT like the football entry, or consider it "invalid" for a Yuletide theme; I just was amused that such a non-wintery, left-field topic was thought up in the first place, either by the giver or recipient (from the looks of it, it was American-Pi's idea).

Haha, no harm done!

But! Just want to give you a head's up in case you want to get a head start on planning your prompts for next year, but Yuletide isn't necessarily a write-a-fic-about-winter event. It's legit a gift-giving event, so folks can totally ask for whatever type of fic would make them the happiest, regardless of whether or not it's winter-themed. In Pi's case, that's soccer. ;)
 

AmericanPi

Write on
^ Yep! Soccer/football always makes me happy. Except for when it doesn't (like when my team loses or when my favorite players get injured). 8D And the major European leagues have games during the winter, and sometimes it even snows.

When I gave my prompts, I thought we were allowed to give non-seasonal prompts. So that's what I did. :)
 

JX Valentine

Ever-Discordant
Since this thread is still hanging out (until y'all can get your fics and crosspost them to the forum, anyway) as a plan-for-future-Yuletides thread, the discussions over in the awards thread got me thinking. Now, I know I went on a long spiel about how we should probably not be concerned with the awards when it comes to Yuletide, but I just want to put it forward that it's entirely possible to change anything about the way Yuletide is run. Y'know. Unless there's a good reason for it working like that.

Specifically, there's a bit of concern about the awkwardness that is "well, technically, the fics do exist, but they're not on Serebii, so..." HOWEVER! What if I told you it's entirely possible to create a system that gets your fics onto the forum as early as Christmas Day, leaving you plenty of time to be nominated (if ... that's something that's on your mind)?

In fact, there are a few systems that can be set up:


Option #1
[spoil]Here's the thing. On historical and smaller-time Yuletides (i.e., the ones run/still running on LiveJournal and Dreamwidth, rather than the one on AO3), mods do the posting. Now, I'm sure you're thinking, "Well, no duh," but I mean posting to the space. As in, if you have a blog dedicated to Yuletide, where all the participants congregate, mods will post fics and art to the blog, rather than an off-site depository. The author reveals still happen a couple days later, but the fic itself is up and able to be commented on the proper space as early as Christmas. (Confused? Check here for an example.)

What I'm proposing is pretty simple, given the above. Instead of using the Google Drive as an anonymous depository, mods can simply post your fic to the proper forum and create a link list leading to all of the individual threads.

Now, there are naturally downsides to this. For starters, mods will be posting your threads. I mean, on the mod side of things, that kinda costs us our anonymity unless we create a sock account, which miiiight not be too much of an issue. Likewise, given the automated nature of the awards, I can't guarantee this would not mess things up or create more of a headache for anyone running said awards. Lastly, while anyone can just strut onto the Google Docs and read there, I know some folks would rather have time to edit their fics before posting to the forum proper.

On the positive side, besides the fact that this means your fic is technically posted to the forum within the eligibility period (meaning it's eligible ... period), it's good for the mods because you can easily just PM your fic to your mod liaison, which allows your fic to be more of a surprise if your recipient is also a mod. Likewise, anyone can come on and comment to your fic as soon as it's posted—which you could technically do via Drive, I know, but it's probably going to be a lot simpler and easier to do it on the forums.[/spoil]


Option #2
[spoil]You're told to post your fic on Christmas Day. This not only eliminates the Google Drive element but also eliminates the reveal period. The moment you post your fic, the moment everyone knows who wrote that gift fic.

Oddly enough, as simple as this is, it's the system I'm less confident about using. The reason why is all about timing. First off, Christmas morning for one person might be the day after Christmas for other people or Christmas Eve for others. Second, given how busy people normally are on Christmas and given the fact that I've had people submit their fics at two in the morning on Christmas, ngl, it'd just be easier and less risky if we didn't pass the responsibility of posting onto writers. That and mod posts = all fics get posted within roughly the same amount of time, rather than scattered throughout the day.

Of course, that isn't to say there aren't pros to this option. As I've said under Option #1, I'm not 100% certain that the mod system won't create a headache, but I'm 100% certain giving you the ability to post your own threads can avoid that problem ... assuming you post on time, anyway. That and there are no author reveals, which kinda takes away a little bit of the fun (of guessing who your author was) but at the same time means there's one less thing for the mods to do. In all, this option is the "make mods do less work" one, but it's a trade-off because it's also the "make you do more work lest you face the consequences of disappointing someone on Christmas by way of being a no-show" one.[/spoil]


Option #3
Your suggestion here. Idk.


Option #4
Ooooorrrrr if folks agree with what I said on the awards planning thread, we could keep the system as-is, with its Google Drive-ness. Pros to this? Anonymity, author reveals, and the fact that there is literally always going to be a backup copy of your fic should the forums do anything weird because Google is a considerably more reliable host than Serebii (sorry to say). Negative is... *motions above*


Your choice, folks! Feel free to voice your opinions or suggestions below~! b)'')b
 

AmericanPi

Write on
In all honesty, I think everyone is over-complicating things. My suggestion is, if the fic is posted here on SPPf between January 1, 2015 and December 31, 2015, then it's eligible for the 2015 Fanfiction Awards, period. That's the way things have always been anyways, and there's no need to make exceptions for Yuletide fics. If an author posts his/her Yuletide fic in 2016 then it's eligible for the 2016 Fanfiction Awards. The Yuletide itself doesn't have to be changed at all; it's great in its current format.

Just my two cents on the matter.
 

Dragonfree

Just me
*hops in*

JX Valentine said:
Likewise, given the automated nature of the awards, I can't guarantee this would not mess things up or create more of a headache for anyone running said awards.
The author of a fic is always autodetected as the author of the first post in the thread (or, if it's a single-post fic, the author of that post). So the fics would initially show up as being by the mod who posts them, which could be confusing. But the awards staff can then pretty easily go in and edit the fic to have the correct author.

(This isn't necessarily an endorsement of that setup, just a technical note on the feasibility of it. I don't really have an opinion on this; I don't feel like it needs to be changed, personally, but if there's a setup people would be overall happier with than the current setup, I'd be in favor of switching.)

*hops out*
 
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