Crossworks 2021 Schedule & Sign-Up Combo Thoughts

[morbane]

Hello all! I had a great time last year with this exchange and I'm looking forward to running it again.

Schedule
Nominations: 1-9 June
Sign-ups: 12-23 June (ends 11:59pm EDT)
Assignments due: 14 August (11:59pm EDT)
Works revealed: 27 August (5pm EDT)
Creators revealed: 4 September (5pm EDT)

This year there are just over 7 weeks in the creation period and the period between deadline & works reveals is 13 days instead of a week. This is to make it easier for pinch hitters to pick up post-deadline pinch hits, since they may be reviewing two canons at once or even picking one up.


Putting fandom combinations in your sign-up
I had trouble writing the instructions for this last year and they weren't the easiest to grasp. Here's what I said at the 2020 collection:

You will use an AO3 account to sign up to the challenge. Your sign-up must contain between 3 and 10 requests, and between 3 and 10 offers. Each request and offer must contain a group of 2-10 fandoms. Although you can repeat fandoms between offers, your requests must include at least 5 distinct fandoms and 5 different possible combinations between two fandoms. You may not enter the same fandom in each of your requests along with a single fandom, in such a way that your giver has to know your favourite fandom in order to create a gift for you. None of your requests may use identical tags to another request.

Putting three fandoms into a single request doesn't mean you'll get a work that combines all three fandoms (though you can suggest that as an optional prompt). It means you could get a work that combines any two of the fandoms, out of three total possible combinations.

What I'm trying to do is set minimums that make matching and pinch hits easier while not requiring so many fandoms that people are discouraged from signing up. For example, a sign-up like:

A/B
A/C
A/D
A/E

could cause difficulty if there aren't available writers or artists for A. So the current rules, at minimum, mean that someone has to have a request like:

A/B
A/C
A/D
A/E
D/E.

(Or like this:

A/B
A/C
A/D/E

-in this version, A appears in all the requests, but since someone could match on just D/E, the request doesn't require someone to know A.)

I also ask you not to put two fandoms into the same request if they are so similar that the combination wouldn't be a crossover or fusion.

Thoughts welcome!


Retrospective
Here is the spreadsheet of last year's requests and the works at last year's collection. Go there to refresh your memory on fandoms and combinations you'd like to see again, or works you meant to (or now want to) look into.

Previous sticky post, for reference

Comments

[ultra_fic]

Oh, wonderful! So glad you're running this for another round this year - it was so much fun last time :) I wish I could help you with your wording on the requested fandoms thing, but it's just so complicated. I kind of know what you mean, but putting it into words in the basest terms that everybody is almost guaranteed to understand? Never easy and so not my forte. I wish you luck with that. Anyway, so looking forward to playing in this exchange again :)

[morbane]

Thanks, I'm glad you're excited too!

And you reminded me that someone else sent me a draft on discord which went:

You will use an AO3 account to sign up to the challenge. Your sign-up must contain between 3 and 10 requests, and between 3 and 10 offers.

Each request and offer will contain 2-10 fandoms.

You must have 5 distinct fandoms across your requests. "Distinct" means they must be different enough to constitute a crossover/fusion. [Note here about not putting fandoms that are too close together in the same request?]

You may repeat fandoms across requests, but you must have 5 different possible combinations of two fandoms. None of your requests may use identical tags to another request. The possible combinations also cannot all involve the same fandom — meaning if Fandom A is your very favorite, you could request Fandom A/Fandom B in your first request, then Fandom A/Fandom C, Fandom A/Fandom D, Fandom A/Fandom E, and then Fandom D/Fandom E to meet the minimums.

Also, please remember that you are only going to match on two fandoms from each request, so putting three or more fandoms into a single request doesn't mean you'll get a work that combines all three fandoms (though you can suggest that as an optional prompt). It means you could get a work that combines any two of the fandoms, out of three total possible combinations.

And another person suggested just making a list.


More thoughts welcome from anyone who's reading!

[ultra_fic]

Hmm, that does indeed read more clearly :) Maybe where you have your note in the square brackets after the explanation of 'Distinct', an example would be a good idea. For instance, Star Wars Original Trilogy and Star Wars Prequel Trilogy can't be requested together, or Marvel Cinematic Universe and Agent Carter can't be requested together. (Assuming I'm understanding correctly and that is what you mean by that! lol)

[hiddencait]

I. AM. EXCITE!! And yeah, that definitely seems complicated to explain, but I think having the listed options helps for sure. Now to just figure out how to narrow down mine since my brain tends to go "I love ALL of these fandoms - toss them in a blender at will!" LOLOLOL

[morbane]

Belatedly, welcome back!