2017 Feedback Post

[fgemods]

We're extremely fortunate that the exchange went so smoothly this round! However, there are always things to improve. Below are some questions, which we'd love to hear your thoughts on. Please feel free to give feedback on things not mentioned below, as well.

1. How did the changes new for this round work for you? (Merging treats into the main collection, crossovers not counting for nominations eligibility, implied characters being permitted, revised art guidelines, rare characters being permitted.)

2. We're considering moving the exchange earlier in the year so that it has less overlap with other exchanges (e.g. Yuletide, Trick or Treat). Because of our late start, it wasn't possible this round, but perhaps next round FGE can be earlier. If you do favor FGE being earlier, what time(s) of year would you suggest?

3. What did you think of the schedule? Is there any period that you wish was longer or shorter?

Comments

[elwinfortuna]

I liked the changes, especially putting treats in the main collection and implied and rare characters being permitted.

I actually wouldn't mind the writing period ending a couple of weeks later, but I know that anyone who does NaNo won't agree. Earlier in the year seems absolutely jam-packed with exchanges of one style or another. Perhaps a move so that the writing period ended in late September might be okay?

I liked the schedule. I especially liked that there were two weeks between assignment due date and reveals, it saved my butt on the pinch hits I did!

[noxelementalist]

1. This was my first year participating, so I don't have much comment on the changes. It seemed smooth to me!

2. I definitely wouldn't a longer period of writing if starts a little earlier? I dunno. I know for many of the things I do there's an extreme writing challenge overlap from November clear through March- in part, I think, because those who are in college are well settled at school for most of that time, making it easier to write since they're away from home, which I know is an issue summer challenges can face. Maybe if sign-ups were moved into July so that assignment writing could start earlier in August?

3. I liked the overall schedule, definitely wouldn't change that.

[dirty_diana]

Overall thumbs up!

[evilmuffins]

1. Loved the changes!
2. Earlier would be best for me. If it overlapped ToT again, I think I'd have to sit out, I'm afraid.
3. Plenty of time for everything :)

[doranwen]

You definitely don't want it in the spring - and even summer into early fall seemed to have a ton of exchanges. Just looking at my works in collections pulls up the following, which felt almost as if they all ran together (this is in reverse order of posting): Innumerable Stars, Fic Corner, Genex, AUex, Everywoman, NPT, NoFM… (Of course, Innumerable Stars is a one-fandom exchange with a smaller minimum wordcount so that one isn't really necessary to take into account.)

Now, I'm probably not going to do all of those again! (I'm planning on AUex, Everywoman, probably Genex, and *maybe* NoFM, depending on if I can find someone to write for. And Fic Corner won't be running next year anyhow.) And I'd have to check actual dates to see when they overlap. I sort of liked when FGE was, actually - I don't do ToT, so it was actually in a "dead zone" otherwise as far as exchanges went for me, so I could write it without having other assignments hanging over me. (Of course, I'm also the person who tries to write their fic right away and get it out of the way - I know not everyone is that way!)

I definitely liked the rare character/ship element - nearly all my fandoms are Yuletide-tiny, but only a couple are ten fics or less, and it would have been difficult to participate otherwise.

[refu]

I had been part of last year's exchange as well, but have to admit, I joined so many exchanges, I don't remember which ran with which rules. So no comment on changes. It was fun as it was!

The timing of the exchange was perfect for me, it fit snugly between everything else I was part of. This year seemed like I had an assignment to work on pretty much all the time, but never really more than one. So if you ask me, leave it when it ran this year. The schedule worked well for me, too.

[shopfront]

Thank you for all your work, I had a great time! Schedule and rules all seemed good to me, though this was my first round so I can't compare any changes.

In terms of timing, the only real gap in my list of exchange deadlines was very early in the year, around April/May. But I would favour a due date thats anything up until maybe early-September. Part of that is unique for me, as I was modding something in Sept/Oct that took up a fair bit of my time. But also with Trick or Treat being so treat focused it was a bit hard to juggle. While there's still plenty of exchanges through summer, I could juggle an extra due date much easier then (as I'd usually only be doing one or two fics per exchange) than I could around something like Trick or Treat - or fandomgiftbox actually, which was late September - where I wrote much more.

[anoyo]

1. I haven't participated before this year, so I have no comment.

2. I would definitely appreciate it being sooner, it did overlap with quite a few other challenges.

3. I think the schedule was fine.

[graveexcitement]

1. This was my first year participating, but those things seemed good to me!

2. I do favor FGE being earlier - I ended up not signing up for ToT because the deadlines were so close together. Even just shifting it back by a few weeks would work well, I think!

3. Schedule was great - I especially liked the nearly-two-weeks period in between the deadline and the reveal date; I like having lots of time to polish! And it definitely made it easier to write the pinch hit I picked up.