exchange_no_jutsu | Sign Up Instructions (Reply)

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Sign ups are open until 11:59PM EDT April 18th. Here is a countdown. To sign up you need an account on Archive of Our Own. Please comment here or email me if you need an account.

Also important: We will be able to see your email if you sign up. Please make sure your AO3-associated email won't divulge any information you don't want me to know (for example, your wallet name or the name of your school) and check your AO3-associated email frequently after you sign up in case I need to contact you about a problem with your sign up or a question from your creator.

Important links for sign ups:

PLEASE NOTE: The tag(s) you enter must be from the tagset and they must match exactly. If the tag you want won't autocomplete, that's a known bug! Copy the tag directly from the tagset and it will be accepted. We've done our best to make sure tags on the gsheet above match those in the tagset, but please check the tagset version of the tag you're trying to nominate if you have any problems.

Short Matching Tutorial

"Matching" is the process of giving all participants someone to create for! Understanding how matching works is key to figuring out how to fill out the sign up form, so here is a short explanation of key facts. Please read this if you've never done an exchange before or if you've only done exchanges where the mods personally matched everyone.

We will be using AO3's matching algorithm — it will look at the fandom, medium, relationship, and freeform tags on our offers and requests and use those to decide who will create for who.
It's important to understand that AO3's matching algorithm is pretty basic and can only match on exact tags, which is why we have a tagset!
- To the algorithm, "Uzumaki Naruto & Uchiha Sasuke (Naruto)" is a totally different tag from "Uchiha Sasuke & Uzumaki Naruto (Naruto)", even though humans can immediately tell that they mean the same thing!
- The algorithm can't tell what individual characters are involved, it can just tell that the letters aren't all in the same order.
- If you find duplicates like "Uzumaki Naruto & Uchiha Sasuke (Naruto)" vs "Uchiha Sasuke & Uzumaki Naruto (Naruto)" please let us know ASAP.
Only one of your requests will be filled and inside of that request only one of each kind of tag will be used by your creator.
- This means that if you are matched to a request where the recipient has requested Sasuke/Naruto, Sakura/Hinata, and Kakashi/Gai, you only need to create a work with Sasuke/Naruto OR Sakura/Hinata OR Kakashi/Gai. You do NOT have to create a work with all three ships.
- This is called OR matching.
Therefore, please look carefully at both your offers and your requests and make sure there are no combinations of tags you would be unhappy with. Say you want both fic and art for Sasuke/Naruto, fic only for Sakura/Hinata, and art only for Kakashi/Gai.
- INCORRECT: putting all three ships in the same request with both fic and art mediums selected and then telling your creator your preferences in the optional details. No! Your creator might have only offered Gai/Kakashi and fic, and if that's what they offered that's what they'll make you because your optional details are optional.
- CORRECT: making three different requests! Request 1 would be Sasuke/Naruto with both art and fic selected. Request 2 would be Sakura/Hinata with just fanfiction selected. Request 3 would be Kakashi/Gai with just fanart selected.
If no one offers anything you request (or if the algorithm matches everyone who could create for you to someone else) you will be an initial pinch hit and someone will volunteer to write your gift.
If no one requests anything you offer, you're unmatchable and will receive an email asking you to offer more things. If you don't reply or can't find anyone to create for, your sign up will be deleted.

You're now a matching expert! Or maybe you're still confused. Please feel free to ask us questions.

Requests

Requests are for things you want to receive! They're visible to everyone here.

Something to keep in mind is that you can match on any combination of tags from inside a request, but not on combination of tags across requests.

The requests on the sign up form will have the following fields:

Fandom

You can only select one fandom per request, and at least one of your requests needs to be a Naruto or Dreaming of Sunshine request.
You can have up to nine other requests with the same or different fandoms.
(You will see some filler fandoms in the drop down — sorry! They were necessary for esoteric AO3 reasons.)

Character

This is where you select the fanwork medium(s) you want to receive.
We know that it's kind of confusing that this slot is named "Characters", but such is life on AO3.
You need to select at least one medium, but can select both.
You will only get ONE (1) of these mediums — so, if you select both art and fic, you will recieve art or fic from your assigned creator, not both.

Relationship

Each request can have between 1 and 20 relationships.
Like mediums, you will only get ONE (1) of these relationships from your assigned creator.
If you're requesting all Naruto or all Dreaming of Sunshine, you'll just have to split your relationships across three requests in any manner that makes sense to you — which we know is a little annoying but it means the mods don't have to check to make sure everyone has at least 3 requests and that makes our lives easier!

Additional Tags

You will see two tags with checkboxes. You must request one or the other for each request.
I am 18+ years old and willing to give or receive explicit (NSFW) works in this exchange. — Selecting this tag on one of your requests means you're confirming that you're over 18 and are open to receiving explicit content (such as smut!) for the request. It is not a guarantee that your gift will have any rating in particular. You must be over 18 to select it.
I am not willing to give or receive explicit (NSFW) works in this exchange. — Selecting this tag on one of your requests means you're not open to receiving explicit/NSFW content for that request. Any participants under 18 should select this tag only, but participants over 18 who are simply not interested in works with explicit content can also use it! Please still try to DNW explicit content you specifically don't want for the sake clarity.
If you are younger than 18, all of your requests need to have the "I am not willing..." tag selected.
If you are 18 years old or over, you can select a mix of these two tags across your requests.

Optional Details

Your Do Not Wants (DNWs) go into the optional details box. We will only enforce DNWs that are in your AO3 sign up.
- DNWs can be anything you don't want in your fic, for any reason, so long as it's reasonable and isn't boxing your creator into a corner.
- DNW clarifications should focus on HOW to avoid your DNW, not WHY. It's none of our business why you don't want something and in most cases we'd honestly prefer not to know. All DNWs will be treated with equal weight.
You should also maybe put some other stuff in this box to help your creator make the best possible gift for you! I would suggest a list of things you like in fic/art, and also maybe some prompts. If you're struggling to think of things you like:
- Wait for other people to sign up with their like lists and then steal from those!
- Go look at your favorite fics' tags and write down everything else you write about the fics.
- You can leave this box totally blank if you want, but if you want a fic tailored to your likes I would suggest you put something in it.
Please keep in mind that optional details are optional, so your creator may choose to ignore everything in this box except for your DNWs. They probably won't, because usually creators sign up with the intent to give people things they like, but you will have a better chance of getting something you like if you provide a range of details.
- Like, maybe your ideal Naruto fic would be about a canon divergence where Sasuke goes into accounting...but your assigned creator might not know anything about accounting! So letting them know a few of your other favorite things will mean it's more likely that you will be asking for something that you like and that they can write.
- You're not commissioning a fic, so open-ended is better! "What do you think would happen in an AU where Sasuke discovers a love of accounting?" is easier for your creator to work with than a plot summary of the accounting!Sasuke fic you've been imagining in your head for months.

Letter

Some people like to put only their DNWs in the optional details box and put their optional details in a Dear Creator letter on a different site — usually Dreamwidth, but Tumblr or another blogging platform would work too. (Google docs is sometimes used too, but not everyone can open gdocs, it can expose your email to random people, and in my experience some creators feel nervous about their recip being able to tell when their letter is being viewed, so use at your own risk. If you're going to use gdocs, consider publishing the letter instead of sharing it.)

Letters are great for better formatting, longer like lists, and more prompts! You can see an example of a letter on my Dreamwidth — here's the letter I wrote for the Trick or Treat exchange, where you can see that posting a letter let me include three long, bulleted lists of likes that would be annoying to scroll past on the AO3 requests summary. A lot of people who make treats (extra gifts produced on top of official assignments) prefer letters so that they can bookmark potential treat recipients.

You do not have to write a letter, it's completely optional, but I think that they're fun! During my last exchange, I wrote a tutorial about optional details and letter writing. The details of the signing up section don't match up with this exchange, but the letter advice is all relevant!

Offers

Offers are for things you want to give! No one but the mod can see them.

Like with requests, you can match on any combination of tags from inside an offer, but not on combination of tags across offers.

The requests on the sign up form will have these fields:

Fandom

You can only select one fandom per offer, and at least one of your offers needs to be a Naruto or Dreaming of Sunshine offer.
You can have up to nine other offers with the same or different fandoms.

Character

This is where you select the fanwork medium(s) you want to offer.
You need to select at least one medium, but can select both.
You will only be required to make ONE (1) of these mediums.

Relationship

Each offer can have between 1 and 20 relationships.
Like mediums, you will only have to create a work with ONE (1) of these relationships for your recip.

Additional Tags

You will see two tags. You must check at least one of them. If you're 18 or older, you can select both.
I am 18+ years old and willing to give or receive explicit (NSFW) works in this exchange. — Selecting this tag on one of your offers means you're confirming that you're over 18 and are simply opting in to being matched to someone who might have explicit requests in their optional details. You are not required to make anything explicit if you select this tag. You must be over 18 to select it.
I am not willing to give or receive explicit (NSFW) works in this exchange. — Selecting this tag on one of your offers means you're not open to matching to an explicit/NSFW request for that offer. Any participants under 18 should select this tag only, but participants over 18 who are simply not interested in works with explicit content can also use it!
If you're under 18 years old, all of your offers should have the "I am not willing..." tag selected.
If you're 18 or older, you can mix and match as much as you want — we figure this will make it easier for people to make themselves matchable even though it's a little odd to be able to select both.

Please let us know if you have any questions. If your question involves your offers, please email me instead of posting publicly to preserve that whole anonymous creator deal.