Feedback Post

[littlefics]

Hi, everyone! Now that the dust has settled, we wanted to solicit your feedback on a few things. We also wanted to mention some planned changes for future rounds, as well as mention which things we do NOT plan to change (we still welcome feedback on these aspects of the exchange but are unlikely to change our minds). If you have feedback on something not mentioned in this post, that's welcome too.


Specific inquiries:

• The next round is set to run sometime between December and February. In practice, January or February is much more likely, though we'd be open to beginning nominations toward the end of December. Each round takes about a month from the beginning of nominations through author reveals. If you have a preference as to when the next round should run, please let us know! If all timings work for you, please let us know that as well! We don't promise to go with the majority opinion, but we'll do our best to choose a schedule that works for the mods and a decent percentage of participants.

• For the first round of this exchange, you could request/offer Any for characters. Since Any is defined differently between requests and offers (Any offers being for any character in the tagset and Any requests being for any character in the canon), this could be a little confusing. In order to make it less confusing, we're considering disallowing Any offers for character tags. Is this a good trade-off, or would it be better to give people a few more rounds to get used to the differences? (Please note we are not planning to change the definition of Any for requests.)

• We're considering letting in Worldbuilding as a character tag. Is this something you'd be interested in? Does your answer on this change if we keep Any offers for characters?

• Did the 48-hour anon period seem long enough? We think a week is much too long for a drabble exchange, but would be open to a 72-hour anon period instead.

Planned changes for upcoming rounds:

• We will be using moderated submissions for future rounds due to its convenience when we're checking basic things like length and completeness. Note that we do not check DNWs or other nitty-gritty stuff unless we have a reason to for that specific fic.

• We were originally planning to use the same tagset for all future rounds, but it's come to our attention that very large tagsets can become unwieldy. We are now planning to create a new tagset at the beginning of each year (every four rounds). Since we started in the fall, the current tagset will remain in place through 2022 (or for five rounds total).

Aspects of the exchange we do not plan to change:

• Character OR matching.

• The existence of the anon period.

• Requesting "Any" character means you are requesting any character in the canon (NOT the tagset).

Comments

[ultra_fic]

Okay, since you asked, here are my thoughts...

- Noms for the next round beginning late Dec/early Jan would be fine with me, or after that, if you prefer. I certainly wouldn't want another exchange to take part in before Christmas, as I have too much other stuff going on.

- I never choose 'Any' for requests or offers, so it doesn't really matter to me what you do with those option, tbh.

- It's unlikely I would request or offer Worldbuilding, so I have no preference on it's inclusion. It's cool that you're considering adding it though, because I know a lot of people do like it.

- 48-hours for the anon period worked for me, but 72-hours would be fine too. I certainly don't think it needs to be any longer than that, but I do like having an anon period.

Thanks for a fab exchange :)

[muccamukk]

Later would be better for me. Late December is a zoo.

I though 48 hours was lots of time, especially as one of the days was on a Sunday.

I found the whole any thing somewhat confusing, and just avoided it.

Don't mind one way or another about worldbuilding tags.

[senmut]

January would be nice. I like a small fest to kick off the year.


I am not strongly opinionated on the Any situation.


I ask that world building NOT be allowed. It just got added to Yuletide, it has its own exchange, and I think it is far better as an optional detail to request. Possibly due to the fact that every time I run into it in a an exchange, the persons who request it are far more hype for it than any actual character, and I find it difficult to portray without SOME character POV to look at it through.


48 hours was AWESOME!

[exceptionallyunfortunate]

Thanks for hosting this event! I ended up missing the signup deadline, but I participated in noms and treats and I hope to actually do the exchange the next time around. With that grain of salt, these are my thoughts:

• No preference on when the next round happens.
• I think it makes more sense to give it a few more rounds on "Any" for people to get used to the difference. Being able to request Any is really useful when the fandom has a large tagset but you want to include all the characters.
• I don't care much for worldbuilding, but I would like it if there a non-character-based option.
• I'm not a fan of anon periods, so I thought 48 hours was alright, maybe even on the long side. But since I didn't actually receive anything to read through and comment on, I think people who had several gifts would probably be the most relevant voice.

[peaked]

Thanks for running the last round. I had a lot of fun and got to read drabbles on fandoms I never thought I'd ever get to read fanwork from!

• Nominations opening up towards the end of December would probably suit a lot of schedules (hopefully including yours!). I'd love to participate again, but I'm worried December is too busy of a period. A January/February round sounds perfect.

• I didn't use Any (I added in additional characters who didn't have a tag in the tagset in my Optional Details section as Any didn't interest me), but I do agree with exceptionallyunfortunate to perhaps try it for a few more rounds and see if anyone has any major hiccups with it.

• I'm not interested in Worldbuilding so I unfortunately can't give you any useful feedback. (My only suggestion would be to try it for the next round and see what comes from it.)

• 48 hours was long enough imo. I enjoyed not knowing who posted what and getting a surprise after the anon period ended. I think 72 hours should be the longest you'll keep anon clicked on for, otherwise, it'll just feel too long for the length of the material in the collection.

• Keeping the tagset around for each year and then wiping it clean for the next four rounds sounds super good!

[zdenka]

I prefer a January/February schedule.

I love world building, but I tentatively think it works better as a like than a matchable tag for this exchange.

I personally would like a 72 hour anon period.

No preferences on "any" right now.

[pauraque]

- January or February would work for me.

- I didn't use Any so it didn't affect me either way, but I do have a question about it. If Any means "any in the canon" for requests, then doesn't it effectively mean the same for offers? If I offer Any then my recipient can be anyone who requested that fandom, whether they requested tagset characters or Any, right? So what's the difference?

- I have requested and offered worldbuilding tags in exchanges that allow it, but I probably wouldn't for a drabble exchange even if it were an option, just because the short length of the works seems less suited for worldbuilding to me. It wouldn't bother me, I just wouldn't make use of it.

- The anon period seemed fine to me.

[octahedrite]

• I think Jan/Feb would be good.
• I like the "Any" option, it works well for canons with many characters, as another commenter said.
• I have no opinion on the worldbuilding tag.
• I thought the 48 hour anon period was fine; 72 seems a little long imo.

[flowerdeluce]

I see that the existence of the anon period is not up for debate, so my only feedback would be that 48 hours felt more than long enough for me. I have no opinion on the other things and look forward to taking part whenever this exchange runs again!

[aphrodite_mine]

My few opinions:

- 48 hour anon was just perfect
- I only use Any when I know it is limited to the tagset
- Worldbuilding doesn't seem like a good fit for a drabble exchange, I'm inclined to avoid it
- January is much better than December

[(Anonymous)]

+1 on "I only use Any when I know it is limited to the tagset." That's the way it is in most exchanges, and I don't like the version where "any" means "any character in the canon, period."

Feedback

[angswin]

Thanks for asking!

I would say that Jan would be great because the holiday fests will be over and none of the Feb "Love" fests would have started, yet.

I have no opinion of the "Any" option. It is not a tag that I would personally request, however.

Since drabbles, by definition, tend to be short fics, I would not personally request a "Worldbuilding" tag. I also would not like to receive one as an assignment because such a story usually requires more depth and detail than most drabbles would be able to provide...unless it was a sequence, of course.

I'm not a fan of anon periods, so for me, the shorter the better.

[silveredeye]

December would work for me, or February. In January this fest would pretty much happen during Chocolate Box' writing period and I try not to have two simultaneous open assignments (even tiny ones). But December is a minority opinion, and it would not be a dealbreaker, just less convenient.

I avoided Any, so no thoughts on that.

I think Worldbuilding works better as a like than a matchable character.

Anon period was perfectly fine.

Would you consider making an official treatless/"people who have 0-1 gifts" spreadsheet in the next round? It'd be extra work for you, so perfectly understandable if not. I've just always loved those "let's try to treat everyone" challenges and I think it'd work well in a drabble exchange.

[quihi]

I like being able to use "Any" for character tags. It makes it easier for me to offer small- to medium-sized fandoms where I'm willing to write any character. I'm less likely to use it for requests, but there's some small fandoms with fewer characters where I'm open to receiving fic about any character as well.

[alchemise]

I love that "Any" for requests meant any character in the canon. I got a fic with a character I wouldn't have thought to request, so that was really neat.

I like being able to offer "Any" as well, for certain fandoms.

I'm curious what kinds of Worldbuilding people might request for drabbles, so I'm all for trying it out.

48 hours anon was just right.

[(Anonymous)]

I think I'd like a 72-hour anon period slightly more. 48 just seemed a tad short but I agree that a week is too long. I didn't hate the short period though; it's really just a mild preference.

The yearly tagset is an interesting idea! I don't like eternal tagsets at all and have bailed on exchanges where the tagsets got overwhelming, so resetting every year seems like a great middle ground.

January would be the perfect time for round two for me.

[kalloway]

- January would be fine. (No preference, really.)

- I liked Any for requests and offers and thought it was explained clearly. I'll probably continue to use both options if they remain available. (Removing it from offers wouldn't bother me though.)

- I'm fine with Worldbuilding and I'd keep it/the tagset in mind if offering Any. I have a few fandoms where it'd be tempting to request.


- For some reason I had thought the anon period was 72 hours anyway and was surprised when it wasn't. That said, no preference.