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fic_in_a_box_mod ([personal profile] fic_in_a_box_mod) wrote in [community profile] ficinabox2025-09-06 01:10 am
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Assignments out!

Navigation: Rules/General Info | AO3 Collection | Posting Guidelines | Medium Rulesets | Google Forms (Defaulting, Extensions, Assignment Summary Requests) | Mod Contact: ficinaboxmod@gmail.com OR Screened Mod Contact Post

Assignments are out! Thank you very much for your patience. Please refer to this part of the rules for an in-depth refresher on assignment minimums and expectations, but the short of it is: 10k of complete fic (or equivalent opt-in) is due on October 19 at 10:00 EDT (countdown). Email us immediately if you cannot create anything your recip has requested.

Default/Extension/Assignment Summary forms: These aren't quite up and running yet; they'll be ready by tomorrow night.

Rule reminders/clarifications:

  • All gifts are required to hit at least one of the recipient's relationship/character/worldbuilding tags and it should be reasonably clear which tag is being hit. What this means will obviously vary by medium; tarot cards have very different expectations than a capella filk. This applies to all gifts, including treats, unless the recip has said something to opt themselves out or has requested something else in their details.
  • If your DNWs directly contradict your opt ins they will be unenforceable. We tried to email everyone affected by this, but if we missed you and it comes up later, this still applies to you. This was issues like DNWing 1st person while requesting epistolary or requesting an "Any" tag while DNWing a medium that clearly falls within that tag.
  • Remember that works will be anonymous for two weeks after work reveals! Even if you're making something that is inherently unanon in some way, you still may not link to your outside social media on the work until after author reveals.
  • For recursive works: Your work still must fill your recip's requested relationship tags (unless your recip has opted out of that). The work you are recursing does not need to originally hit those tags.
  • If you have a question for your recip email us so we can pass it on to them anonymously. Do not ask them any other way, including passing the question through someone else, asking an anonymous question on their tumblr, etc. This is so that if they give you a DNW or medium exception or something we can keep track of that!

If you are creating multiple works:

  • Each work must fulfill one of your assigned recipient's requests, but they do not need to be the same request and do not need to be connected. Filling all 10k of your assignment using the same request is also fine.
  • If you choose to create multiple gifts, you should fill the first one using the Fulfill button on your assignment page! The other ones will need to be posted directly to the collection by going to the profile, clicking "Post to Collection", and manually adding your recipient on the "Gift this work to" line.

If you cannot complete all or some of your assignment:

  • If you have not yet posted any works, you can default by hitting "Default" on your assignments page. This will remove the assignment and release you from any obligation.
  • If you have completed part of your assignment and wish to default on the rest, please email the mods and let us know! You will still be guaranteed up to the amount of approved works you submitted rounded down to the nearest 1k (e.g. if you post 3.5k, then default, and then your creator defaults on their entire assignment, you will go out to PH for 3k). If you posted multiple works, those wordcounts/equivalents are added together before the total is rounded down.
  • If you have defaulted on all or part of your assignment, you may "earn back" the amount of gifts you are guaranteed by submitting works to your original assignment or by picking up pinch hits. Please check the "Defaulting" section of this post (link) for more information.

Posting

  • Everyone is requesting fanfiction, in addition to their medium opt ins.
  • All works must be at least 1k or equivalent unless the recipient has opted into a lower amount, in which case they must be 1k or equivalent or fill a length opt-in tag.
  • You can find extended posting guidelines here (link).
  • If you are filling a Worldbuilding or Original Works tag and don't wish to tag your work with that exact tag, please mention in your top author's note what tag you're filling.
  • All medium tags have a prefix telling you what ruleset they follow, which will tell you the minimum and the wordcount equivalents of that medium. Any non-fanfiction mediums must fit into one of those rulesets or they will not be accepted into the exchange. "Unique Rules" means that a medium has unique minimums and equivalents which are also on the ruleset page. You can find the rulesets here (link).
  • If you believe that how you're tagging your work may be confusing for the mods when they check, please just make a note in the top authors note! This also goes for any other information you think may be useful! We will post an all clear notification here on DW a few days before reveals reminding everyone to swap their work from "helping the mods out with notes" mode to "looking nice for reveals" mode.

Treating

  • Treating is encouraged!
  • Any treats posted to the exchange should meet the assignment requirements! This means that they should be at least 1k or equivalent (unless the recip has opted into lower) and must fill their requested fandom, tags, and medium opt ins if not fanfiction.
  • If you have treated your recipient prior to picking up their pinch hit, any treats you have given them that meet the assignment requirements will be automatically counted towards your assignment! This is a side effect of how we're automating the tracking for this exchange. If you have given your recipient a treat that you do not want to count towards your assignment, please let us know when you post to the DW to claim the pinch hit.

Other reminders:

  • If you post any part of your assignment from an account other than the one you signed up with, we need to know in order to count that work towards your 10k. We'd super prefer you post from the account you signed up with and transfer the work after we've processed it, though.
  • You must remain anonymous until creators are revealed. This means you should not contact your recipient or state who you are creating for. If you have any questions for your recipient, you should contact the mods and we will pass those on.
  • Those of you hoping to create works with complicated HTML may find this collection of workskin and HTML guides helpful for creating things like twitter, mission reports, etc.
  • If you create an AO3 workskin/tutorial for something that doesn't already exist you can post it to the collection for others to use! We will reveal it immediately. If you need to earn back minimum after defaulting a community workskin/tutorial counts for 2k. If you'd like to confirm if what you're making will count prior to making it, please contact us!
  • Don't miss the post about Assignment Swaps!
  • Initial pinch hits will be out after swaps.
  • If you're confused about anything at all, hit us up!! Email ficinaboxmod@gmail.com OR comment on the Screened Mod Contact Post
lightbird: http://coelasquid.deviantart.com/ (Default)
lightbird (she/her/hers) ([personal profile] lightbird) wrote2025-09-05 06:49 pm
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New [community profile] ladiesbingo card just dropped!

I flopped last year. Here's hoping I do better this time, lol.

Episode Tags and Missing Scenes Wabi / Sabi Journalist / Chronicler Midnight Found Families
Sacrifice / Letting Go Neutral Colours Revelations and Concealments Kinetic Energy Information is given off the record
Street Food Truth or Dare Wild Card Landscape/Panorama Superpowers
Ritual Marks and Body Decorations Slice of Life Pre- Slash / Femslash / Het Coffee Shop AU If only you'd notice me: Yearning and obliviousness
Documentation Hopelessly Devoted Epistolary fic: Emails, letters etc. Loss of Faith Flesh and Bone
galerian_ash: (Jess)
galerian_ash ([personal profile] galerian_ash) wrote in [community profile] bethefirst2025-09-05 12:52 am

Fandom Promos

Have you already decided what fandom(s) to write for? If so, how about doing a little promoting? :D

We've all chosen tiny obscure canons, needless to say. But by posting here you might be able to entice someone else to give it a try — or perhaps you'll even run into a fellow fan, who can't wait to read your coming fic.

Your promo can be long or short, and contain whatever you feel like. Want to post a couple of intriguing screencaps from a movie? Quote a few paragraphs from a book? Rec the best episode of an anime or a TV series? Talk about why you love your favorite character and/or pairing from your fandom? It's all good; anything goes!
galerian_ash: (Blank Pages)
galerian_ash ([personal profile] galerian_ash) wrote in [community profile] bethefirst2025-09-03 10:13 pm

Flash round sign-ups

Hi, and welcome to the fourth flash round of Be The First! This is a low-pressure challenge to write a fic, of any length, for a fandom that previously had none. That's it! If you want to take part, just reply to this post :)

This flash round works exactly the same as usual, with the exception of one thing: instead of having two months to write, you now only have two weeks. The deadline to submit your fic is at 23.59 GMT on the 17th of September, and the archive will go live at 00.01 GMT on the 19th of September.

The AO3 collection for this flash round is here, and I'll be putting up a fandom promo post in roughly a day.

Good luck to everyone who's challenging themselves with this! Write like the wind :Db
queen_ypolita: Books stacked to form a spiral (Bookspiral by celticfire)
queen_ypolita ([personal profile] queen_ypolita) wrote2025-09-03 09:12 pm
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Wednesday reading

Finished since the last reading post
Omon Ra, which was a short novel that did a great job of depicting the performative in the Soviet space programme and the disillusionment of a young man's dreams of space

Aristotle and Dante Dive into the Waters of the World by Benjamin Alire Sáenz, a sequel to the YA novel I read earlier in the year, continuing the protagonists' story into their last year of high school, growing up, making friends, and figuring out how they can be together

Salatun rakkauden historia by Heidi Airaksinen and Tiina Tuppurainen, a Finnish non-fiction book about glimpses into queer lives from about the middle of the 19th century. Some of the historical pieces were very brief and amounted to not much more than hearsay or reading between the lines; the second half of the book is based on interviews with people active in various LGBTQ+ circles since the 1960s. Interesting, but the overall impression for me was superficial.

Sinkkipojat (Цинковые мальчики) by Svetlana Aleksijevitš in Pauli Tapio's Finnish translation, devastating because of the simplicity and number of the personal accounts from different ordinary people involved in the war in Afghanistan.

Currently reading
Pohjoinen tanssi by Petter Kukkonen, which takes the protagonist to Macedon just in time for Philip II and Alexander.

Reading next
Mum and I went to the library yesterday and I made her borrow a few books for me, so one of the those, probably.
fic_in_a_box_mod: (Default)
fic_in_a_box_mod ([personal profile] fic_in_a_box_mod) wrote in [community profile] ficinabox2025-09-02 09:10 pm
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Request checks finished! Check your email!

We've finished request checks and sent a ton of emails!

If your username starts with A, B, C, D, E, F, I, J, K, L, M, N, P, R, S, T, V, W, or Y you need to check your email.

...yes, that's most of the alphabet. We sent a lot of emails about a lot of problems. Some of these emails concern things that will make us remove things from your requests or even delete your sign up altogether if we don't recieve a reply. We don't want to do this! Please email us back! You all have until 10:00PM EDT on September 4th to reply. We suggest checking your spam folder just in case.

Other notes/reminders:

  • While we contacted people about a lot of things, we did not generally contact participants about unenforceable DNWs unless we felt they were DNWs that were DNWing a requested tags or DNWs attempting to force creators into making something very specific. Some of you might still have DNWs that we would have a hard time enforcing because they're phrased too vaguely or something like that.
  • Please unlock/finish your letters asap.
  • If you're requesting swaps based on username rather than AO3 matching (like, if you've given us a list of usernames to swap with) make time after assignments come out but before swaps end to double-check that everyone you're requesting is still requesting the fandoms/relationships/mediums that you think they are.
yuletidemods: A hippo lounges with laptop in hand, peering at the screen through a pair of pince-nez and smiling. A text bubble with a heart emerges from the screen. The hippo dangles a computer mouse from one toe. By Oro. (Default)
yuletidemods ([personal profile] yuletidemods) wrote in [community profile] yuletide_admin2025-09-02 07:33 pm
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A 2025 Experiment: Increasing fandom slots for nominations & requests

As we all start planning our nominations and requests, mods have been reviewing our rules around the number of fandoms that can be nominated and requested.

Traditionally, Yuletide has allowed participants to nominate a maximum of 3 fandoms to the tagset, with up to 4 characters each. We increased that to 4 fandoms in 2023 and got positive feedback about that change.

During signups, participants have been required to request at least 3 fandoms, and up to 6 fandoms if they choose. They must offer a minimum of 4 fandoms.

We've needed to limit the tagset size due to a combination of AO3 technical limitations as well as the logistical effort to confirm each fandom is eligible while avoiding duplicate fandoms. The good news is that we’ve found AO3’s tagset interface loads the moderation tools a bit faster lately. We've also developed more scalable processes and a group of wonderful, experienced volunteers to help with that checking. We think we can handle more nominations this year, but we won’t know until we try!

Change to nominations:


For 2025 only, we are going to increase the number of tagset nominations from 4 fandoms to 5 fandoms per person. The maximum number of characters will remain at 4 per fandom.

We’ll see how this goes, and whether the additional workload seems manageable to us, before deciding whether to keep the increased limit in 2026.

Change to requests:


For 2025 only, we are also going to increase the maximum number of fandom requests from 6 to 8. The minimum of 3 will not change. This means you must request at least 3 fandoms, and up to 8 fandoms if you choose.

Everything else remains the same: for each fandom, you will still be able to request up to a maximum of 4 characters. You will still be required to offer at least 4 fandoms with a minimum of 2 characters each.

Again, we will evaluate how it goes, and how this affects our workload, before deciding whether to keep the increased limit in 2026.

We hope this opens up some exciting possibilities for you in the 2025 round! Please stay tuned for our usual eligibility and evidence posts.
switchbladeeyes: (Default)
switchbladeeyes ([personal profile] switchbladeeyes) wrote2025-09-01 08:45 pm
Entry tags:

t'is nearly the season of PSLs and spooky stories

It was 102°F here today so physically I'm not ready to bust out the scarves, sweaters, and pumpkin spice. But emotionally, I am THERE.

PSL skelly understands.


I enjoy the fall very much and with it come some fun fannish challenges.

👻 I am looking forward to [personal profile] spook_me for spooky and fun stuff with ghoulies and ghosties and long-leggedy beasties, and things that go bump in the night. Since it's a zero pressure challenge, I'm sure I'll sign up this year once sign-ups open. Not sure if I'll keep plugging away with Grantchester or return to FK for it.

☕️ Meanwhile, another zero pressure option is this month's [community profile] trope_of_the_month, which seems like a fun one and appropriate for PSL season. Theme is "Coffee Shops." That sent me down the internet rabbit hole about Coffee Shop AUs. I'm more of a canon divergence AU kind of person. But I can also see the appeal, and never say never. For the challenge, it doesn't have to be AU though, that's just an option. Canonical coffee shops work too. Because a cafe featured prominently in season 7 of Grantchester, I'm noodling through what I might do with that.

🎃 [personal profile] thefruitbat reminded me about [community profile] ficortreat, a low pressure option for which you set the parameters of the types of "treats" you'd like to give out. I'm not planning to participate, but it's a fun concept!
delphi: A shot of Fang hugging a distraught Izzy from behind, with text reading "Somebody love me" (fangizzy hugs)
Delphi (they/them) ([personal profile] delphi) wrote in [community profile] historium2025-09-01 02:08 pm

FIC: Fidelis (Our Flag Means Death)

Creator: [personal profile] delphi
Title: Fidelis
Fandom: Our Flag Means Death
Rating: Teen
Word Count: ~5600
Characters/Pairings: Fang/Izzy Hands, Fang's dog
Notes/Warnings: Inspired by the ‘Fang’ and ‘Water’ squares of my 2025 Izzy Hands Bingo card. This fic is set in the afterlife; there is major character death referenced, but the characters in question are still present in the story. Also available on AO3.
Summary: Izzy has spent the last decade on a small island in the middle of nowhere with only a dog for company. One day, an old friend comes to call.


DW Link: Fidelis
brightknightie: Midna, in imp form, and Link grin at each other (Zelda)
Amy ([personal profile] brightknightie) wrote2025-09-01 10:37 am

Seasonsofdrabbles summer '25 reveals

[community profile] seasonsofdrabbles has revealed its creators (very short anon period for very short fics). I wrote these two:

"Even the Smallest Possibility"
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
(G, gen, 100 words; Link, Revali; Minish | Picori legend)

"Reasons to Visit the Library"
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
(G, gen, 100 words; Link, Zelda; King Rhoam's secret study)

The folks who wrote so nicely for me, as previously posted, are now known to be [archiveofourown.org profile] kay_obsessive ("Legacy") and [archiveofourown.org profile] samifer ("Refuge"). Many thanks to them! And also thanks to [personal profile] senmut for generously beta-reading for me.