An opening and an apology

[tentaclesock]

The collection is finally open.

Before I say anything else, I would like to apologize for all the delays. The first was caused by something going awry with my computer, the second by a familial obligation, and the third by...well, my own indecision and lack of exchange-moderating experience. And, of course, I aggravated the situation by accidentally setting the reveal time for today at twelve a.m. instead of 11:59 p.m. (though that was an honest mistake). Worse, for some reason, the fics ended up not being anonymous—I swear to God I did not intend for that to happen; I did check the box next to "[t]his collection is anonymous," just the AO3 FAQ tells you—but all but five of the works have the writers' names attached. What I should have done, I think, was open the collection on the seventh (or the fifteenth) but leave the participants anonymous until the fifteenth (or the twenty-first). My idea was that although people would have to wait longer than they expected to read their gifts, the participants would have more time to edit their work, and I wanted to err on the side of benefiting the writers most. You all must be frustrated with me, and I swear not to do anything like that again.

With some reservations, I do intend to run the exchange next year. While I cannot promise that nothing will go awry, I am seriously considering soliciting a co-moderator, someone who knows how to communicate with people and can counter my flakiness. Is anyone interested? This experience has taught me that while I may have the enthusiasm of an exchange moderator, I was wrong to try to run the entire fest alone. Or maybe I should just do what the originator of the Fandom Growth Exchange did and hand over the reins to someone who knows better what they're doing; I might be best suited to signing up for other people's exchanges instead.


Thank you for your patience and for participating (if you participated), and may you all enjoy your gifts.

I'm deeply sorry.

Comments

[batman]

Hey, it's cool! AO3 has been weirdly buggy of late: I've run into a bug where I had the same person for two exchanges and AO3 kept saying that I had completed both assignments with the one story (when obviously I had not!). It is still a beta project and sometimes really weird bugs happen. Have you done up a report for AO3 support? They might be able to work out what happened with the code so that it doesn't happen for other exchanges! (Which reminds me, I should actually do that for my own bug.)

As for the reveal bug, none of my works are affected but it might just be easier for you as a mod to unselect the anon ticky box in the Challenge Settings page and reveal the last five.

[morbane]

I'm baffled by the pattern of which stories have authors appearing and which don't. That might be something to check with AO3 Support. It doesn't seem to be related to the date posted or to whether the story is an assignment or treat. I think you might as well make everyone's name visible, since most names are.

I don't think you need to beat yourself up quite so much. Everyone seems to have a gift, which is the main thing. Mine's nice! However, not changing the dates around so much would be strongly recommended, or giving clearer reasons for doing so at the time.

I'm not sure what you mean by "counter your flakiness". Co-mods are effective together if the co-mods can rely on each other and know in what circumstances each person is expected to perform their roles. If not, then having co-mods doesn't help much. Maybe figure out which parts of the moderating you liked best, first? I hope there were several of those.

Thank you for your work - we did get there in the end! And there are exciting works to read.

[tentaclesock]

Some people anonymously lost their tempers at me, which is understandable. For one thing, I'm not good at communicating with people, which I really should have considered before I decided to start an exchange. By "counter my flakiness," I meant that I hope that a co-moderator—or a substitute moderator, even—would be able to fill the communication niche. I've discovered the hard way that exchange moderation is not for everyone, or at least not every one person. How do you manage to do it? I'm always impressed with how you stay calm under pressure.

One of the major reasons I kept changing the dates was to try to please everyone: those who wanted more time to write, those who had written and posted their works but wanted time for editing, and those who wanted an anon period (which ended up not happening, obviously). But, as Aesop informed us, try to please everyone and you'll end up pleasing no one.

And thank you for your comment. I can hardly tell you how much I appreciate it.

[tentaclesock]

Thank you! I had no idea that a bug might have caused the lack of anonymity—I followed the collection FAQ to the letter but thought what happened with the reveals was just attributable to my incompetence. Maybe I should contact AO3 Support.

[morbane]

Well, as someone who has had many people lose their tempers at me anonymously, I can both understand that that is discouraging, and encourage you not to take it personally. Sometimes people use anonymous spaces to vent feelings that follow the moment. Those feelings change.

(I sometimes vent anonymously, and sometimes vent at my friends, and sometimes poke my tongue out at the screen. Mostly, I ask if I'm doing okay by my own standards. You could have modded a bit more consistently here, but you did try to keep people informed, you got everyone a gift, and you weren't rude to anyone. Good on you for all that.)

Yeah, it could work to have someone else handle the email or journaling side! I recall that when this exchange started, you were not particularly keen on the need for a journal, but you went with it when several people asked for it. Thanks for giving it a go even if it didn't necessarily match your preferred communication style.

And I'm sorry I was part of the crowd suggesting you extend things. I gave into temptation to encourage that, because I wanted to write an extra fic. And hey, I wrote an extra fic. But it might have been wiser for me not to chime in.

Thanks again.

(I have to apologise in advance: I am not likely to sign up next year, for the sole reason that I do too many exchanges at the moment. I need to cut down.)

[tentaclesock]

Thank you. Amusingly enough, I hadn't even considered that anonymous venting did not necessarily mean anything permanent. Again, how you hold up under duress is a marvel.

Honestly, if not many people are interested in participating again, I just won't run it. If I ever decide to start another fic fest, it will be a comparatively straightforward prompt community, a format that avoids many of the potential pitfalls of gift exchanges.

Yes, having someone who knows how to communicate would be wonderful. The beginning of the exchange seemed to stir up positive feelings in the few people who commented on the original posts, and I fear that enthusiasm may never be recaptured unless I can reasonably convince people that their stories won't be delayed unnecessarily again. I'm passive, not social, and bad at communication. Someone who has none of those characteristics would be a godsend.

(You don't have to apologize; I don't mind. Exchanges abound so much that no one could possibly fit them all in. They're addictive, but I'm not going to participate in any more this year except for Yuletide and possibly Trick or Treat.)

[batman]

Yeah, definitely let them know! If you're following their instructions to the letter and something as strange as this happens, then there's probably a bug that they'll want to catch before the larger exchanges start to reveal their stories. It'd suck, for example, if Yuletide were caught in it because fifteen hundred support queries may drive them to drink!

[ariadnes_string]

It's very thoughtful of you to write this note, and I just want to tell you I enjoyed the exchange--enjoyed writing for it, and enjoyed the fic I received. The first time you do something is always a learning curve! thank you for all your work putting this together.

[tentaclesock]

Thank you. It's not thoughtful of me just to announce that the collection was opening, but I'm glad you enjoyed your experience.

[reeby10]

AO3 has occasional bugs, it's a bit annoying but nothing too terrible to stress so much over imo. The schedule changes were confusing more for the fact that I don't check DW very often (maybe an LJ mirror next year?) so it was hard to keep up with. A co-mod would probably help with keeping up with everything and consistent communication. But I got a really wonderful fic and got to stretch my writerly muscles with a new fandom, so I'm very happy :)

Thank you for modding! I look forward to next year.

[tentaclesock]

I was considering starting a mirror community on LiveJournal, and of course a co-mod would be great. In any event, I'm glad you enjoyed the fic-writing and reading.

You're welcome, and I also look forward to doing this next year.

[senmut]

Please don't be harsh on yourself. Thank you for taking the time to run it. And if you do choose to run it again next year, I will likely be there.