2017 Rules and Schedule Updates - rare characters!

[fgemods]

Thank you, all, for your comments! We've made some decisions. These changes are all in the new FAQ and Rules.

1. Treats will be merged into the main collection this year.
2. We already say that non-English, incomplete fics in a fandom do not count against the fandom's rarity. We have added that crossovers will also not be take into account.
3. Going forward, no-show defaulters must complete a gift by next round for one participant. Otherwise, they will not be allowed to participate next round.
4. Previously, the rules said that while mentioned characters were permitted, implied characters were not. We have changed this rule to the following:
   • Mentioned and implied characters are allowed, so long as you prove they are mentioned/implied in canon. Implied characters are characters that exist, but are not individually named/seen/referenced (e.g. the Minbari before Valen in Babylon 5; the Bothans in Star Wars: Episode VI; Lily Evans's grandparents in Harry Potter).
5. Artists now have the following clearer, more specific minimum requirements:
   • You must submit complete art—sketches are not permitted. Art must be a minimum of lineart with basic colors/tones as well as background OR two lineart drawings. Lineart may not stand alone as a gift without colors/tones/background. Art may be traditional or digital, but cannot be drawn on lined paper. Manips and other graphics are not permitted.
6. One of the biggest changes we've made is that rare characters will now be permitted. Following are the most relevant additions to the FAQ and Rules:
   • A character qualifies for the exchange if they have no more than 10 complete, English-language fics OR no more than 5 contributing authors on AO3.
   • A fic only counts against the character if they are a main character in the fic.
   • If you want to nominate or sign up for a single character, you can do so through the relationship tag 'Character & None'. This will make matching on characters or relationships possible.
   • AO3 limits the number of relationships you can request/offer to 20. In order to make sure participants can still request/offer up to 20 relationships as well as up to 20 characters, you can use up to 2 slots for each fandom.
     
     • You must still have the minimum number of unique fandoms (3 requests and 4 offers).
     • If you repeat a fandom, the tags used must be different: you cannot repeat characters or relationships under the same fandom. We hope no one will misuse this new option, and will adjust this rule next round if necessary.

As for the schedule, we'll be trying our best to balance it between the exchange-heavy summer (including NOFM) and Yuletide. Here's this year's schedule:

Nominations open: July 17th at 11:55 PM UTC

Nominations close: July 31st at 11:55 PM UTC

Sign-ups open: August 3rd at 11:55 PM UTC

Sign-ups close: August 17th at 11:55 PM UTC

Assignments sent: August 22nd at 11:55 PM UTC

Default deadline: October 8th at 11:55 PM UTC

Assignments due: October 22nd at 11:55 PM UTC

Works revealed: November 3rd at 11:55 PM UTC

Authors revealed: November 8th at 11:55 PM UTC

Keep an eye out for a nominations post! If you have questions, leave them in the comments.

Comments

[scribblemyname]

Would Character & None work for both character only and character + any type requests? Aka, I wouldn't mind anyone else in the fic as long as character is focus.

[fgemods]

Indeed, it would be both; just the same as if we were using "official" AO3 character matching, it could be that character solo, but other characters appearing within the fic would be absolutely fine.

In other words, the "& None" means that the character doesn't have to be part of either type of ship (& or /), rather than "no other characters should appear at all".