Information & Rules

[wafflelate]

Navigation: AO3 Collection | Tagset | Nomination guidelines | FAQ | Information for Authors of Recursive Fandoms

This is a gift exchange for Naruto and Naruto-adjacent fandoms. Roughly half of everyone who's responded to the interest check so far has never done an AO3 exchange before, so here's a very short explanation that's elaborated on below:

• Participants who sign up will produce a fanwork for someone, and someone else will make a fanwork for them! You will probably not create for the same person you write for. Who you are creating for is a secret until authors are revealed.
• We will be matching on Naruto subfandoms (for example: Naruto or Boruto) as well as relationships/characters (for example: Akimichi Chouji/Nara Shikamaru, Akimichi Chōji & Nara Shikamaru, or Nara Shikamaru & None) and medium (fanfiction or fanart).
• This means you will both request and offer combinations of fandoms, relationships/characters, and mediums. Your gift will match one of your requests and your assigned recipient's request will match one of your offers.
• Requests also have "DNWs" or "Do Not Wants", which is a list of things that the creator is not allowed to include in the
• Fandoms, relationships, and characters need to be put into the tagset during a process called "nominations" (because you are nominating tags for me to approve!) so that when we sign up and then run matching we all have tags that will work with AO3's matching algorithm.

If this all sounds complicated, don't worry! I'm happy to answer any questions you have and we have a Discord server for the exchange where you can get help, too. Joining the Discord is optional (all important exchange info will be posted to this Dreamwidth and linked to on the exchange's tumblr) but we'd love to have you stop by. Here’s the link!

Schedule

Nominations: April 3rd-April 10th

Sign ups: April 11th-April 18th

Assignments out by: April 20th

Default Deadline: May 16th

Works due: May 22nd

Works revealed: May 29th

Authors revealed: June 5th

Contact

• Contacting the mod publicly is best done by commenting on one of the exchange posts. Anonymous comments are on!
• Contacting the mod privately is best done by emailing dreamingofexchange@gmail.com.
• Please do not contact the mod via Discord DM for exchange purposes because I will read your DM and then forget about it before I'm in a position to sit down and do anything about it.

Updates & Community

• Your assignment will come in an email from AO3, but all other communication will be done via posts to this comm and occasionally a direct email if there's a problem with or question about your sign up.
• If you have a Dreamwidth account, you can subscribe to this community and receive emails.
• I will use the exchange tumblr to post links to all posts here.
• If you want to talk to fellow participants, join the exchange discord! I will also post links to all posts there.

Basic rules

• I expect all exchange participants to be civil about ships, differing headcanons, etc. Don't be a jerk, you know? I believe in you. Any participant who cannot meet this basic requirement or who otherwise harasses their fellow participants will have their sign up deleted (if it's before assignments go out) or be banned from future rounds (if it's after sign ups have gone out).
• If you sign up and complete your assignment, you will receive a gift; if we do not have a main gift for everyone, I will hold the exchange until everyone has their gift.
• Do Not Wants (DNWs) included in participants' AO3 signups must be respected for all gifts and treats. Do not use DNWs to box your creator in, and please feel free to run your DNWs by me if you're unsure.
• If you default after the default deadline (May 16th), you will owe a makeup work to the collection before the next round begins.
• Commenting is not required but it is HIGHLY ENCOURAGED. Please at least say "thank you" to the creator(s) who made gift(s) for you! It's polite and easy. If you receive a gift that breaks the rules, please contact me ASAP.
• Participants shouldn't talk about their assignment publicly or contact their recipient directly because it risks de-anonymizing the creator and/or letting the recipient know what their gift will be about. "Publicly" includes in Discord servers! Please contact dreamingofexchange@gmail.com to reach your recipient if you need clarification, or you want to ask if they're okay with something.

Nominations — April 3rd-April 10th

• "Nominating" is basically us telling AO3's matching algorithm everything we want to match on — we put in fandoms and relationships and then when sign ups roll around we can request and offer those fandoms and relationships.
• Everyone can nominate 5 fandoms with 10 relationships each.
• If what you want to request/offer isn't nominated, you won't be able to request or offer it! So it's very important that you not skip this step of the exchange, especially if you like rarepairs, minor characters, or any of the more obscure subfandoms.
• The process is less complicated than it sounds!
  • You read the Nomination Guidelines and make sure you understand them — don't be afraid to ask me questions if you don't!
  • You go to the tagset and make sure you're logged in to your AO3 account.
  • You click the nominate button and fill in the nomination page with tags you want to request.
  • When I have time, I approve them... assuming you filled it out correctly/assuming that I understand your nomination.
  • If you did it wrong or I'm confused, I'll ask you about it in a nominations clarification post on this Dreamwidth community. You just have to comment on the post or email me to clear things up!
  • After nominations close and before sign ups open we all hunt through the tagset briefly for errors like duplicate tags and misspellings.

A Small Nominations FAQ

• Wait, what does nominating mean? Nominating is the act of going to the tagset and submitting tags that match things you want to request — someone who wants to request a story about Shino and Kiba in Naruto would nominate the tag "Aburame Shino & Inuzuka Kiba (Naruto)", while someone who wants to request a story about them in Boruto would nominate the tag "Aburame Shino & Inuzuka Kiba (Boruto)". After you have submitted tags, we approve them and then during signups, you and other people are able to request/offer the tags you nominated.
• What's a tagset? A tagset is a group of tags that were nominated by participants and approved by the mod. What tags are in the tagset determines what can be requested and offered during sign ups.
• Why do we need a tagset? Why not just use the tags AO3 already has? Exchanges often need tags that AO3 doesn't have yet, like rarepairs! Also, AO3's matching algorithm can only match exact matches ("Nara Shikamaru & Tenten" would not match "Shikamaru Nara & Tenten") and because without them we would only be able to match on tags already in AO3's system. This is why the mod(s) take time to delete duplicates after nominations are over. Because we have a tagset, we can only match on things you nominate within it.
• Do I have to nominate? Nominations are important because you can only match on tags/relationships that are in the tagset. Make sure everything you want is in the tagset before you decide to skip nominating.
• Why are there so many rules?/Why do I have to add the fandom after the ship? The Nomination Guidelines are there to help standardize the tagset, among other things! Adding the fandom after the ship is important because you can't add the exact same tag to two different fandoms and, uh, all our fandoms have lots of character overlap! Long story short, it’ll break AO3. Please feel free to ask me questions or ask people on Discord. People with the role “experienced AO3 exchanger” will be able to help.
• AAAAAAA I MISSED NOMINATIONS THOUGH? If you've arrived too late for nominations and you're desperate to have something in the tagset, email me!

Sign ups — April 11th-April 18th

• At minimum, you must make 3 requests and 4 offers, each with 1 or more relationships.
  • Each request can only have one subfandom.
  • Your request/offers can be all the same subfandom (example: all Naruto) or a mix of subfandoms (example: 2 Naruto, 1 Boruto).
  • At least one request must be for a larger subfandom (which for our purposes are currently Naruto or Dreaming of Sunshine based on the interest survey — this is about me making sure everyone is decently matchable!).
• At maximum, you can make 10 requests/10 offers with 20 relationships each.
• All offers and requests can be for the same medium or for different mediums. Allowed mediums are:
  • fanfiction
  • fanart
• You should use the optional details section to give your Do Not Wants (DNWs). DNWs on AO3 will be enforced but other details listed in optional details or letters will be optional.
• You can also put prompts, likes, etc in your optional details or in a letter.
• Requests will be visible during signups.
• You can edit or delete your signup as long as signups are open.

If you have no possible recipients at the end of sign-ups — meaning, no other participants are requesting any of the relationships you're offering so you're unmatchable — I will contact you via your AO3 account-associated email address. You will need to either add more offers or drop out of the exchange. If I don't hear back from you within 48 hours I will delete your sign up.

More information about Do Not Wants

A Do Not Want list lets you specify elements that would prevent you from enjoying your gift. A DNW could be a trigger, squick, something you really dislike, or just something you don't want to receive. This helps creators make a better gift for you!

• You should put all your DNWs in your AO3 sign up; otherwise I can't enforce them.
• The standard formatting is simply "DNW:" followed by a list separated by commas.
• Don't use your DNW section to try to force your creator to create a specific type of work.
  • Reasonable: "DNW: Clowns, sickfic, second person POV"
  • Unreasonable: "DNW: Fic where ninja exist; art that isn't a coffee shop AU"
• Clear and specific DNWs are most helpful, although creators can ask questions through the mod if they need clarification.
• If you find yourself needing to clarify your DNWs in your sign up or to me via email, please do so by explaining HOW the DNW can be avoided and not WHY.
  • Unhelpful WHY explanation: "DNW: dogs because they're gross and I hate them"; "dogs (this is a serious trigger for me)"
  • Helpful HOW explanation: "DNW: dogs (except canonical ninken)"; "DNW: unrequested dogs"
• If your DNWs are unreasonable they will not be enforced. Please feel free to run any DNWs you're unsure of past me!

More information about DNWs can be found on Fanlore.

Assignments — Out by April 20th

Your assignment will be delivered to the email address associated with your AO3 account. If you don't remember, you can see which email address you used at this link: archiveofourown.org/users/[YOUR USERNAME HERE]/change_email

(By the way, if your email reveals what your name is, where you go to school, where you work, etc...please change it! I won't ever share your email deliberately but accidents happen and AO3 isn't a very secure site.)

To find your assignment, you can also check your AO3 assignments page, at this link: archiveofourown.org/users/[YOUR USERNAME HERE]/assignments

To fulfill your assignment, you have to create a fanwork that:

• matches the subfandom, one medium, and one character or relationship from one of the requests.
• reaches or exceeds the exchange's minimums.
• avoids your recipient's DNWs.

Then you have to post it on AO3 — instructions for which you will find below.

Any other optional details are optional. This means you don't have to include your recip's exact prompts if they don't work for you. However, do your best to create a fanwork you think your recipient will enjoy.

Minimums for each medium

• Fanfiction: Participants producing fanfiction must write a minimum of 500 words in English. Multiple chapters is fine, but all fics must be finished and standalone. Please proofread your fic.
• Art: Participants producing artwork must create a new, original piece for the exchange that is completely their own work. Art doesn't need to be colored, but should look finished, and can't be on lined paper — a clean and detailed sketch or careful lineart would be fine. Unless prompted by the recip, graphics and manipulations cannot fulfill an art request.

You can create for things you didn't initially offer, as long as your recipient requested it.

Assignments are secret. Do not talk about your work or your recipient until author reveals. (Not in public; you can of course discuss it in private with a beta reader or brainstorming partner.) There will be a post for betas to offer their services.

You cannot change your assignment. If, by mistake, you have received an assignment that does not match your offers, contact the mod immediately.

Default Deadline — May 16th

• If you cannot finish your work, find your assignment under "Assignments" on your AO3 dashboard and click on "default."
• If you default and your creator defaults as well, you will not be assigned a pinch hitter.
• There is a default deadline on May 16th. You can default at any time, however, if you default after May 16th, you will need to create and post another gift to the collection if you want to participate in future rounds of the exchange. Makeup gifts must meet the exchange minimums, fulfil a request/be gifted to a fellow participant, and be posted before the next round begins.
• No-show defaulters (people who default by simply not posting when assignments are due) may receive a longer ban, asked to complete more makeup work, or — in the event that they make a habit of no-show defaulting — even be permanently banned from all future rounds of this exchange. If you decide you want to default after the default deadline, you should still default as soon as possible. I won't be mad!

Assignments Due — May 22nd

• Works are due on May 22nd, 2020 at 11:59 PM EDT. Please keep your timezone in mind!
• Extensions may be given on a case-by-case basis but you need to contact me before assignments are due.
• The hour before sign-ups closing and and the hour before assignments being due are pretty much the only time when things are time-sensitive enough that you should just DM me if you're having a problem. Sometimes AO3 posting is laggy and bad or your fire alarm starts going off right when it's time to upload, which I get!

Posting Your Work

• Post your finished work at on AO3 by clicking on "Assignments" on your AO3 dash, finding your Exchange no Jutsu assignment, and clicking "Fulfill."
• Clicking it will take you to a "Post New Work" form with the exchange info pre-populated. You can check the "Associations" section to make sure the assignment's checked off, the collection's filled in, and your recipient's filled in.
• You can post your work at any point between receiving your assignment and the deadline. Do not repost your work elsewhere (e.g. on tumblr) before reveals.
• You can edit your work after posting it.
• A saved draft does not count as a posted work. Make sure you have actually posted your work by the deadline.
• If you're posting in a recursive fandom, make sure to mention what fic your work is based off of! For anonymity reasons it's better not to use the "Inspired by" link until authors are revealed, though.

Pinch Hitting

• Pinch hits occur when a request needs a new creator to volunteer — either because the request was left over during the initial matching process (sometimes everyone who could have created for someone got assigned to someone else first!) or because the original creator defaulted.
• Information about needed pinch hits will be posted on the Dreamwidth community.
• You can claim a pinch hit even if you aren't signed up for the exchange; pinch hits are expected to be filled just like assignments except that they might have different deadlines as we approach work reveals. Please do not publicly claim pinch hits—contact the mod to claim them!
• The collection will not open unless everyone who turned in a gift has the gift they are entitled to. No gifts for any of us until there are gifts for all of us!
• Treats will not become main gifts.

Treats

• You may write/draw additional fanworks for other participants and post them in the exchange collection as treats.
• For this, just post your gift in the exchange collection and manually add in the recipient.
• Treats do not have to fulfill the minimum gift requirements.
• Treats do have to respect DNWs and match one of the relationship/character tags requested relationship tags.
• You can post treats even if you aren't signed up for the exchange.
• Treats will not be counted as main gifts.

Final Notes

• PLEASE COMMENT ON YOUR GIFTS. Again, this is not a requirement, but it is good etiquette to let your writer know what you thought!
• If your creator did not follow the rules (i.e. did not feature your requested pairing in your gift; included a DNW) please contact me at dreamingofexchange@gmail.com ASAP.
• Please let me know if you have any questions about rules or etiquette.

Comments

Art references

[(Anonymous)]

Considering how many OCs there are in this exchange, could a list with descriptions be put together for those of us who are offering art?

Or with a link to where the character description appears in the story?

Re: Art references

[wafflelate]

Hi anon, that's a great idea! It might be a little difficult (I'm not personally familiar with all the fic that have been nominated, plus Dreaming of Sunshine is 700,000 words long) but we can certainly try. I will try to rustle up a resource post for fanartists/people requesting fanart, although it might take a few days.

Re: Art references original goods anon

[(Anonymous)]

Thanks, I appreciate it! And I understand that you have a lot today do as a mod already. Maybe ask the authors and just slap it all into a Google doc? IDK what would be easiest for you.

Re: Art references original goods anon

[wafflelate]

We've reached out to some people! I think I'll be able to have some information up tomorrow with a call for other participants to add any resources I missed.

[stayloose]

Hi! I realise it's a little early to ask, but are you considering running the exchange again this year? I enjoyed it last year and I'm trying to make sure I have enough time to participate if it is. Thank you!

[wafflelate]

Yes, I plan to run it again! \o/ It was so much fun last time. It might happen a week or two later so the bulk of the writing period will be in May and reveals won't be until June, but it will be almost the same schedule. I hope to have the schedule firmed up by the end of February.