I was dreaming when I wrote this...

If you are looking for my smutty_claus mod journal, I've moved it over to Dreamwidth. It's just an attempt to centralize a bunch of different things in one place. Everyone is welcome to follow me over there.

Some basic statistics for the takingitinturns Harry/Ginny exchange, now that (almost) everything has been posted...

This was the first round of the exchange which was hosted on this community, but I hosted another exchange last year on my own lj which was a precursor to this. For reference, the statistics on the earlier round (theme: changing seasons):
48 people signed up
33 pieces of fic and 8 pieces of art were produced
7 people never completed their assignments (14.6 %)


for this round (theme: in motion)
42 people signed up
35 pieces of fic and 7 pieces of art were produced
Of the original 42, 30 posted their pieces on time (71.47%)
8 posted late (19%), and 2 posted very late (4.7%)
[late= 1 to 14 days after the deadline. very late=15+ days after the deadline]
2 people never completed their assignments (4.7%)
2 pinch-hitters filled in (these are not counted as late submissions)

1 commenter was banned for flaming, and 1 commenter was issued a warning for an inapprpriate comment (and will be banned if it happens again).

( some thoughts on the statistics )

Anyway, those are my thoughts on the fest. I'm open to suggestions not involving anonymity and not from people who go around calling me names, if you have them. ;)

I've imported all my fest-meta posts into my new DreamWidth account, along with all the recs from my lj recs journal. I won't completely convert over until the beta period is complete, and after that I don't really have a totally coherent plan either. But if you want to read my navel-gazing-y thoughts on fests on DW, you can! :)

So. I recently had a small problem with some reviews on my H/G exchange fest, takingitinturns. And after all the yelling has died down (ok, I'm not sure it's totally died down yet, but I've been backing away slowly for long enough that it's at least receeded into the middle distance), I was able to look at the situation a little more objectively/analytically.

Here's what I've learned from this situation:

• Before there's a problem, a mod should have a criteria for what makes an inappropriate comment. Are you going to leave everything standing and censor nothing? Respond to flames but nothing else? What about comments that aren't technically flames but are rude, mean, or insulting? Think about this in advance.
  
• Select the best way to respond to these inappropriate comments. Do you want to screen comments? Freeze threads but leave them visible? Let authors deal with problems on their own? Reply to offending comments with a modly reprimand? Send private messages explaining the situation? Again, determine this in advance.
  
• Don't let anger get the best of you. Step away from the computer and take some deep breaths. Stay logical and fair. Assess each comment individually, and respond consistently.

What I eventually did was to respond on-thread to the review that I determined was inappropriate. I told the reviewer that the comment was inappropriate, and that if the reviewer could not be civil and respectful in the future, she would be banned. I did not screen or delete the comment, but I did freeze responses to it. In this instance, I felt that a public response would be best (largely because there had already been so much public discussion of the review), and I tried to be firm but not reactionary. I didn't ban her outright, but gave a warning that if there was one more inappropriate comment, I would ban her. Although I was personally frustrated with the other 3 critical comments posted after the first one, I reread them objectively and determined that they were critical but also civil and respectful, and thus not inappropriate. I did not reply to those commenters with warnings as I did the first one.

My initial reaction to the situation was a public post in my lj to vent my frustrations, and some people were unhappy with that. I do agree with my critic who said that in an ideal world, fest mods would act professionally. And I'm sorry that I can't be the ideal mod all the time. But at the same time, fests do not exist in a professional environment -- we are in a fannish environment, where squee and enthusiasm are our currency. At least, that's the way I feel. And since it's my fest, and I can run it the way I want to, I'm going to be more firm in the future about creating and defending an environment where squee and enthusiasm are valued, and where criticism remains civil and respectful.

I don't run fests only for my friends, and I don't require my participants to fawn and flatter me. But if readers or participants dislike my fests so much they feel the need to attack me personally, on-thread or off, they should find another community where they feel more comfortable.

( this post should probably be ignored in future, because it seems to have done more harm than good, resulting in reviews that adhere to the letter of the law and are still really harsh. Just be nice, all right? )

Dear reviewers,

You are commenting on a piece of artwork on a community dedicated to a single pairing. Please, try not to badmouth the pairing that we are all here to celebrate. Seriously, you look like an ass and this moderator is very tempted to comment back to you and tell you that if you "OMG always hate [this pairing]" that maybe we don't want you here.

Good thing for you I've only had one beer tonight, jackass. Now go back to whatever hole you crawled out from.

No love,

Me
[someone who is actually a fan of this pairing,
you know the one for which you obviously feel the need to announce your hatred]

Posting at my new Harry/Ginny exchange takingitinturns is well under way now -- we have 4 stories and 2 pieces of artwork up on the community. I'm pleasantly surprised by all this, since it's only been about 2 weeks since the assignments were sent out.

For takingitinturns, I decided not to use the submission system I use for smutty_claus. That system is awful. It's completely labor-intensive and stress-inducing for the mod, and it allows participants to take total advantage of the mod while the system inherently protects them from blame unless the mod wants to complain (and risk coming off as a shrieking, blame-casting, mud-slinging harpy). Basically, there are a thousand downsides to the anonyfest model and only one small upside: anonymity. I know that people really like anonymity, and that makes it worth it for them. But I'd never advise anyone to use that system in a fest, and in fact I have often advised people to find another way.

The system that I AM using for takingitinturns is a compromise between a typical exchange system (like smutty_claus) and the ficathon format that's often used in other fandoms (and which was used in the hpgw_ficafest, which many of my participants are familiar with). Participants sign up with a form where they detail their requests and contribution offers, and are then matched up with assignments just as in smutty_claus. Participants are then instructed to post their work to the community whenever they're ready, by a certain date. At the end, I will make a master list, but the stories and artwork will already be up on the community and easy to find to anyone who wants to read.

I think that this system provides good motivation to participants to complete their story quickly and submit it to the community early -- after all, it is an accepted fact that the earlier a story is posted in a fest, the more attention it gets. Under the smutty_claus system, participants have no motivation to turn in their stories early other than achieving a general sense of satisfaction. In fact, late submissions generally go entirely unpunished and so participants often do not feel they must be on time.

It would be nice to be able to apply this system to smutty_claus, but I don't think there is a way to keep the anonymity (which is an essential component of SC no matter how un-worth-it it is) while motivating early posting. The Christmastime exchange dearsanta has a system in place similar to this, with a posting journal that participants can log in to and post their stories with, but I did not find it efficient enough to use in a larger fest. The public humiliation of being late under your own identity may be an essential part of the motivation. :D

In the guide to participating in exchange fests I wrote about ten thousand years ago, my instructions for responding to your gift story or artwork are:

Someone made you a gift. Say thank you. Whether it's your great-aunt Mildred's fruitcake or a new iPod, someone worked hard on that gift. Try to find something nice about it, even if it's something basic like the pairing or the setting. The #1 complaint of participants after the fact is ‘my person didn't even bother to comment on the fic I wrote for her.' ...Notice you do not have to say anything about the parts of the fic that bugged you, even if that part was 'every time the characters thought, spoke, or interacted with each other.'

...Seriously. Say thank you. You do not have to gush on your lj or rec the fic, or acknowledge it in any other way. If you really hated the fic, you do not have to lie and say you did (although this is nicer and no one will hold it against you).

I am a big proponent of constructive criticism, and when I first began smutty_claus I was very hesitant to screen comments of any kind. However, I came around to it pretty fast when the first mean-spirited comments were posted. The reasons I've come to screen harsh criticism are these:

• the author or artist is anonymous, and can't respond to "defend" herself like she normally would be able to.
  
• the piece is a gift, made by request. Oftentimes, the criticized element might be something that the author would never have included if not for the request. I've seen comments like "I hate these awful stories in igloos, I wish authors would never write about igloos, why would you do this you sick fuck?" The reviewer has no idea that the recipient may have said "If you write sex in an igloo I will love you forever!!" Heck, the writer might hate igloos too and could just be trying to do something nice for their recipient. As the mod, I want to avoid an enormous debate about the recipient's own tastes on their gift post.
  
• as mod, my first priority is to create a fun and enjoyable experience for my participants. Frankly, mean comments insulting igloos and calling igloo-lovers names just ruin the fun for any igloo-loving fans who are enjoying the fest (not to mention the author/artist whose work you've insulted).

My idealistic self from 5 years ago would cringe at the third point there, but I'm a bitter old fangirl now and that's what I've come to believe. However, this is not about all critical comments. The sample review above is paraphrased, obviously, but it's basically the same as a few comments posted on fest fics over the years. A review like that offers no helpful advice or encouraging words -- all it does is tear down the story and impose the reader's own opinions onto a story that was not written with them in mind at all. It also is personally insulting to the anonymous author. If and when such a comment is posted on a smutty_claus story, I typically screen it from view.

If a comment includes both good and bad points, delivered diplomatically in a way that both highlights weak areas and encourages the author to improve, I will leave it up. Something like "Wow, great job with Hagrid and Maxime here, the characterization is flawless and Hagrid's dialogue sounds just right. I thought the igloo scenario was kind of farfetched, but it was fun anyway!" is obviously not a problem. Or even, "I liked the beginning of the story, but I just couldn't get past the igloo thing. It was too weird." I would leave that in place. And of course, comments alerting me to broken HTML tags, missed warnings, and easily-fixable things like that are completely welcome.

None of this is new territory, and it's already been discussed ad nauseum. Recently, though, I've seen some discussion about comments posted OUTSIDE the original gift post. If you disliked a gift you received in an exchange, is it ok to talk about it elsewhere? Are fest submissions fair game for critique?

The short answer is yes: this is the internet, you can say whatever you want. OF COURSE. When you post a mean comment on my fest, as the mod I may choose to screen it for the reasons above or for any other reason I may have. But on your own journal, in your own space, of course everyone has the RIGHT to say what they want. Is it rude and tacky to insult a gift someone made, for you or someone else? Yes. But it's well within your rights to do so. Of course, other people have the right to react negatively to what you say as well, and they probably will.

Any fest mod who attempts to impose regulations on what participants can say or do on their own journal is overreaching, in my opinion. This is an attempt that is doomed to fail. We all cruise by our participants' journals from time to time -- I check them regularly during smutty_claus looking for recs, and if someone is late I check their journal to make sure they aren't dead in a ditch (because surely they'd update about that). And I've been tempted and prodded into responding a time or two when I probably shouldn't. But overall, I believe that it's a losing proposition to attempt to interfere with what people post on their own journals. It's just not going to work. Mods are control freaks by nature, but it's best if we stay within our own sphere (ie, the community) where we may actually *have* control.

Most fest mods, contrary to the impression we may try to present, are in fact human. And as humans, we make mistakes from time to time. (I know, you're shocked. Try to contain yourselves. Maybe sit down, breathe through a paper bag.)

Sometimes a fest participant might notice one of these small, nearly-insignificant oversights on the part of a mod. What to do in this situation? Ignore it, and figure it'll resolve itself? Contact the mod? Board up the windows, batten down the hatches, and prepare for a zombie apocalypse? OK, we should all be prepared for the inevitable zombie apocalypse. But otherwise...

( Becca presents, a small guide for participants to approaching problems in your fest )

In general, just try to remember that your mod is doing this because she wants a successful fest, wants her participants to enjoy the fest. But she's a human being who makes mistakes, and probably a fairly busy and stressed-out human being, since running these fests can be very time-consuming. Be nice, give her the benefit of the doubt. And try not to freak out if something bad happens.

My mom has a sign up in her kitchen that says:

ANNOYING THE COOK WILL RESULT IN SMALLER PORTIONS.

The same is true in fests. Don't piss off the mod if you can possibly help it. The quality of your assignment and/or gift may suffer.

I just uploaded a new layout for smutty_claus that I coded, both on the LJ and JF sites. It keeps the same concept as the old 2004 layout, but updates it for 2009 with a sidebar listing the pairing tags and with some more functionality on the posts.

I'm pretty pleased with it, but then I am still pretty new at coding layouts and this was my first time experimenting with the blogger style.

penknife (a first-time smutty_claus participant this year, and a mod of fests herself) has a great discussion of fest signups here. Her discussion centers on what not to say in your signup. I pretty much agree with everything she says, but the one thing that I agree with MORE than anything else is this:

Don't bash pairings, characters, or genres -- or, really, anything -- in your request. I am always amazed by how many people do not seem to realize that if they request "X/Y, slash, no kittens" they may wind up matched with a writer who also writes X/Z het kittenfic. Getting a request that reads "X/Y slash of course, no nasty het, and none of those disgusting kittens" isn't a fun way for that writer to start the ficathon.

If you don't want to see something in your story, just say so: "Please no het," "Please no kink," "Please don't focus on character Z," "Please don't pair X and Y." If you feel very strongly about an unusual squick, you may want to intensify your request enough so that your writer knows you mean it -- "Please do not include kittens in my story in any way, they are a major squick for me" -- but your request is not the place to go on an anti-kitten crusade.

I'd add that if your moderator is a big fan of a particular character -- just for example, let's say Ginny Weasley -- it might not be wise to go ON and ON and ON about how much you hate Ginny and how awful and horrible she is. It might irritate your mod, and she might not be as gracious and accepting and generally wonderful as me.


Another useful and interesting post about signups is this one, posted as an instruction to participants in the sshg_exchange on how to request artwork. It looks very useful, and I plan to use it (along with the input that I solicited from some SC artists) to formulate some instructions on requesting artwork for smutty_claus.

Everyone on lj is freaking out about this gawker article that says SUP has laid off 20 of 28 livejournal employees, "leaving only a handful of finance and operations workers — which speaks to a website to be left on life support."

If anything happens, I'll have my pretty little JF account all waiting for me. *hugs it*

And hey, the smutty_claus mirror community will be here, too.

In case participants needed some extra motivation....

Average number of comments
Works submitted on time: average 23.0 comments
works submitted late: average 14.1 comments
works submitted very late: average 7.5 comments

"On Time" means on or before the deadline date. "Very Late" means 2 weeks or more after the deadline. These are for 2008 only.

This is most likely due to the time of posting. All works submitted on time were posted on or before December 17. Last year's comment statistics showed a relatively even pattern of commenting throughout the month, but this year reviewers seem to have suffered from comment fatigue to a greater degree.

( more comment statistics )

Last year I posted a reflection on the things I did well and the ones that needed improvement in the fest. That was helpful, but this year I feel like I did most of the same things as last year, but with some minor tweaks in places. So I'm not so inclined to navel-gazing. But hey, all those things I said I needed to do better? I think I did better on them!

Some general ideas for next year's fest...

• Decrease fest size to 75?
  
• edit signup post/form to encourage more art-friendly requests?
  
• Remember to promote the fest on erotic_elves, which I forgot to do this year.
  
• Prod people to give more details in their request at signups.

One change for next year -- I've decided to toss the appearance of fairness out the window. From now on, I'm totally playing favorites with fanartists. We had the most fanart ever (16%) this year, and it just makes me happy. Who doesn't love some good fanart? Plus, artists are (usually) model participants: they're enthusiastic, flexible, and prompt. Seriously, from now on I'm using my modly powers to recruit and pamper fanartists.

Also, since I'm about to make the last post, this is a good time to mention that I welcome feedback and suggestions of any kind! Anything you weren't happy with in the fest, or thought could use improvement, or whatever? Send me an email or leave me a comment.

I downloaded a trial version of Bento tonight, which is a personal database program. I've been sitting here with my laptop for about 3 hours straight, just messing with the program and experimenting with how to organize the fest data.

I'm having entirely too much fun with this. Seriously, it can't be healthy.

The next statistic I should run is probably the number of times I'm thanked for my "patience" or "understanding" in the author's notes, based on day/week of posting. It was never noticeable before, but now that I'm posting more in order of receipt... you can really see a difference, huh?

I've been keeping up with the reading and commenting pretty well, but there are still 2 long stories that I haven't had a chance to even start. GAH. But I will get to them. I will read and comment before I post the master list, if I have to call in sick to do it. *grits teeth*

Starting tomorrow, I will be making 2 gift posts a day for the rest of the month. Hopefully this will give readers time to go back and catch up on some of the stories and artwork already posted.

As probably most everyone has already noticed, this has been a year for lots of new pairings and characters in the fest. Considering that in the first 4 years we had already featured 121 pairings... finding this many new ones is quite an achievement.

13 characters made their smutty_claus debut this year:
Angelina Johnson, Professor Binns, Charity Burbage, Lily Potter II, Lorcan and Lysander Scamander, Michael Corner, Madam Pince, Rose Weasley, Scorpius Malfoy, Teddy Lupin, Theodore Nott and Victoire Weasley

Despite her fabulous showing this year, Rita Skeeter has been around the block before -- she was featured with Viktor Krum in 2006's The Interview by anjenue.

... and 23 pairings appeared in smutty_claus for the first time this year:
Binns/Pince, Cedric/Angelina, Charlie/Luna, Draco/Rita, Draco/Rose, Lysander/Lily II, Lysander/Lily II/Lorcan, Michael/Hermione, Oliver/Hermione, Ron/Lavender, Ron/Susan, Scorpius/Rose, Seamus/Lavender, Sirius/Rita, Snape/Charity Burbage, Snape/Hermione/Draco, Snape/Hermione/Lucius, Snape/Pansy, Snape/Rita, Teddy/various, Teddy/Victoire, Theo/Pansy and Tom/Minerva

Those 23 new pairings account for 25 posts (1 per pairing except Scorpius/Rose, which entered the fest with a bang, at 3 stories), or 30.8% of the fest.

I mentioned before that I am trying to post earlier-submitted stories earlier in the fest, and late submissions later in the fest. I'm not posting in a strict chronological order, but that's the general pattern.

Today I posted the first of the stories submitted during the month of December.

Wait until posting starts to turn in your assignment, wait until the last week to see it posted. I like that.

I've noticed that some fests do not allow revisions: once a story is submitted, that's the final version come hell or high water. In a lot of ways, I think this is a mistake.

Far from encouraging writers to submit perfectly polished stories, I think it just results in people holding onto their story until the last possible minute, checking it over one last time just in case of problems. Me, I'd rather get the story in early and then let someone make a change later. Stories turned in equal less mod stress. Stories not turned in are potential dropouts.

Also, in a no-revisions system, once the story is submitted the author won't be able to fix any mistakes they find and the story posted won't be as good as it could be. I'd rather have the best quality stories that I can in the fest, for the benefit of readers and gift recipients, but especially for the authors. An author who feels she did great work in a fest is an author who will come back to that fest. (And an author who really did do great work is one that I always want back!)

BUT-- I totally understand why other mods set this rule. Freakin' revisions are driving me nuts! It's December 23, people! Just accept that the story is done and GIVE IT UP ALREADY.

Civilized fangirls agree: flames are not cool.

And here's another tip: flaming a story when the author is anonymous and can't possibly respond or change the story is pointless, and doing so when you have NO IDEA who that author even IS, is beyond stupid. Could be a friend of yours for all you know, genius.

Maybe click back to the community and read a different story instead. You might like it. Remember that, reading stories because you LIKE them, not just so you can say something mean and pointless?