Admin Post: Welcome to Space Swap!

[skieswideopen]

space_swap is a multimedia exchange for space fandoms of all sorts, including television series, movies, and books. The only criterion for a fandom to be eligible is that it somehow be related to SPACE.

We'll be running this along typical exchange lines: participants will sign up with requests and offers, will be matched via AO3, and will receive an assignment. By signing up, participants agree to make a fannish creation for their assigned participant. In turn, someone will make a fannish creation for them.

We'll kick off the swap with a fandom recruitment phase in which everyone can wax poetic about their favourite space fandoms in the hopes of recruiting new fans. Following that we’ll hold nominations to get a set of fandoms and characters for our swap, and then we’ll have sign-ups and be off and running!

Requests, Offers, and Matching

When signing up, you will need to request at least 3 fandoms, and can request up to 6. You'll also need to offer at least 3 fandoms, and can offer up to 10.

For each fandom, you can request up to 4 nominated characters. If you select 0, the person assigned to you may make something with any nominated character or the fandom in general.

For each fandom, you must offer to write 2 to 8 of the nominated characters. You can also offer 'any.'

Requests and offers will also contain media type(s), which will be used in matching people.

There will be more information about prompts and matches when we open sign-ups.

Fannish Creation Requirements

The minimum requirements are:

Fic, podfic, or meta - 1,000 words
Vid - 2 minutes
Art - 1 original illustration or 2 graphic pieces
Other - Something of equivalent effort to the above

You are, of course, welcome to do more and longer.

Interested in making something else? Leave us a comment about it. We'll poll the community and if there's enough interest, we'll add it in.

Schedule & Contact Info

You can see the complete 2014/2015 schedule here.

If you have any questions or concerns, please comment on this post or PM the mods, skieswideopen and colls, and we'll do our best to address them.

Comments

[skieswideopen]

Yeah, I'm not sure how they decided which name to canonize. But I certainly don't envy the Doctor Who wranglers!

[skieswideopen]

Awww! I guess no one's written about him yet?

[skieswideopen]

Oops, they've changed the canonical to reflect fannish preference. It's now The War Doctor (Doctor Who). So I guess we'll go with that? At any, we'll clean it up during nomination approvals if necessary.

[sirvalkyrie]

I actually noticed that when helping a friend with her nominations. We were doing the "Eeeek, my net is gone log in as me and nominate" thing.

[cantarina]

AO3 matching is ususually by fandom/character/pairing, right? I'm super interested in playing, but I'd really rather podfic. Is there anyway to be sure I'd get a recipient who'd be happy with that? (Assuming, of course, there are relevant sign-ups to match on!)

[skieswideopen]

We're matching on medium as well, so I think you're okay. If we run into problems getting enough matches, we'll drop character matching before media matching. I guess if it still fails, we'll have to rethink things, but in that case, we'll post to the comm about it. But hopefully it won't come to that!

[cantarina]

Brilliant. Thank you for being so accommodating!

[skieswideopen]

:)

[sexycazzy]

Am a little lost in the sign up form, hope you can help me out!

I see that I have to make at least 3 requests and up to 6 requests - clear..I think!

But not sure about the description part - do I put in here - what kind of fanart do I want; spicks/likes etc? Or is that for the Dear John Spacer posts only?

Also can I request extra characters or must be only these characters mentioned in the sign up forms? example: Star Trek - doesn't have Pike :( Stargate Atlantis - doesn't have David Parrish :-( lol

[skieswideopen]

You can write those things (likes, dislikes, prompts, etc.) in the description, in a Dear Spacer letter, or in both! It's up to you. Some people use one, some use the other, some copy and paste the same information in both, and some write shorter prompts in the sign-up form and use the letter to elaborate more, or to include general likes and dislikes that apply to all of their requests. :)

You can only officially request the characters in the tag set. You can definitely mention other characters in your description/letter as an option, but your creator isn't obligated to include them since we can't match on characters not in the tag set, so please don't make it sound like you won't be happy unless you receive those characters. But do mention them if want them!

[sexycazzy]

LOL! I will be hugely happy to get anything so don't worry these characters are not the 'MUST' characters to have! lol

Thanks for answering my questions! Am still a bit confused with the Sign Up forms but will try my best to fill it out and if you see anything wrong with it, just let me know, once I have submitted! :-D (never signed up on A03 before so a bit daunting! lol)

Thanks again and I'm so excited!

[skieswideopen]

I'm sure it will be fine! Usually AO3 won't accept your sign-up if something's not right. But if you run into problems, just let me know.

[czi]

I realise that assignments aren't out just yet, but I've been trolling the Dear Spacer letters that have been posted and have a few ideas for pieces to exchange or have as extras if I don't get that person. My question is, as long as the piece isn't posted before the reveal date, may I use it in another challenge?

(I have just received a card from cottoncandy_bingo and the due dates there are after reveals here, so if it fits for both is it okay?)

[skieswideopen]

For extras - absolutely go ahead and do whatever else you'd like for them.

For main assignments - I'm a little worried that recipients might feel like whatever they receive wasn't really created for them if it starts showing up in other challenges, so I'd kind of prefer if they could be kept just for space_swap. If it's just a matter of linking something for points, I think that's okay, but otherwise I'd rather not see these things re-used. Does that make sense?

Of course, you can repost your work wherever you like once everything's revealed!

Questions for my signup

[ghiaccio]

Hello, I'd like to sign too up but I've just found out this gift exchange, that means that I didn't get to nominate my favorite characters/ships, so I've some concerns and I'd like to ask some of questions before I confirm my signup.

1- What if on the Requests I select for example the nominated character Hoshi Sato (fandom Star Trek Enterprise), then on the description box I ask for a gift about Hoshi/Mayweather/Reed ship. Since Mayweather and Reed aren't nominated characters is it fine? Is it what I'm going to get?

2- I'd like to get a First Time fanfic for my gift. Is that what I'm going to get, or the description box and the tags are just optional? I hope this wasn't a question already answered to, as I read the rules and I don't recall it being already said. Sorry if I missed it.

3- How the matching works? If I use for example "romance" on the tag box on my offers section, does it count more than the characters, or less, or the same?

4- Again about the offers. What if I select Leonard McCoy and Spock for TOS fandom. Is it possible that I get an assignment about for example James Kirk and Leonard McCoy instead? Or none of the offered characters because I get matched to an assignment requesting for a tag I've offered instead?

Right now I'm very engrossed with some fandoms, one in particular, and it's making me really frustrated that there's finally a gift exchange for my top favorite genre, space scifi, and I can't pick my favorite characters (Steve Rogers, Malcolm Reed, Tuvok...) for those fandoms because they weren't nominated. :(

Re: Questions for my signup

[skieswideopen]

Hi! I'm glad to hear you're thinking about signing up. I'm sorry to hear you missed nominations.

Because of the number of fandoms involved, we can't match on more than fandom, media, and (hopefully) character. And we can't run the matching on any characters who aren't in the tagset. What this means is that while you can definitely mention characters who weren't nominated and say that you'd love to see them included (or say that you're okay with works focusing on them instead of the nominated characters), we can't require your creator to focus on them. We'd also prefer that you not tell your creator that you won't be happy unless you receive someone who wasn't nominated.

Specific answers:

1. You can definitely mention a Hoshi/Mayweather/Reed ship as something you'd like to receive, but no, there's no guarantee that's what you'll receive. We're matching on 'or' not 'and,' so even if all three of those characters had been nominated, there's no guarantee you'd receive a creator who had offered all three. And even someone who offered all three might not have been thinking of shipping the three of them, so there'd still be no guarantee of Hoshi/Mayweather/Reed ship. If you do request Enterprise, I would strongly recommend not making that the only thing you ask for. It's generally better on both sides if the creator has a few options to choose from.

2. You can definitely ask for a first time fic, but optional details are optional, so there's no guarantee you'll get one.

3. Matching occurs by fandom, media (fic, art, etc.), and (hopefully) by character. I'm afraid that with the range of fandoms in the tag set, we can't use any more criteria than that without risking our ability to match people. So tags like 'romance' will not be used in matching.

4. We will be matching on 'or,' so yes, you could offer McCoy and Spock, and get matched on someone who wants Kirk and/or Spock. In that case, you'd be allowed to write a fic that focuses just on Spock (since you're only required to include one character). This is why it's important to provide your writer with options--you don't know what they may have offered when they get matched to you!

I completely understand being disappointed that we can't guarantee your favourites and I'm sorry. We'll probably run this again next year, so hopefully you'll get a chance to ask for your favourites then!

Re: Questions for my signup

[skieswideopen]

By the way, if you're interested specifically in romance and ship fic, you might want to check out shipswap (sign-ups currently open) and rarepairfest (which I think runs in the spring/summer).

Since you missed nominations at shipswap, that one may not help you much either, but rarepairfest might work for you? (rarepairfest also usually allows threesome requests, if that interests you.)

Re: Questions for my signup

[ghiaccio]

Ok, thanks for the accurate answers. :)

Certainly I'd never say I disliked the gift! D: That would be terrible and so rude! So that's something you haven't to be worried about. ;)

I'll think out a few prompts and mention several ships for every request. Hopefully the person who gets matched to my requests will like one of them at least.

Now going to reply to your second comment.

Re: Questions for my signup

[ghiaccio]

Thanks for the heads up. :) I'm all signed up already to the rare ship swap, though I didn't hear about rarepairfest so I'll be checking it.

About the shipswap I have missed the nominations there too, and because of this I was planning to ask mods on there a very important question too. As I'm at it, I hope it's fine if I ask you this on this comment though it's a different exchange (you are a mod to both, am I correct?).

Like I said I missed the nominations, and because of this I was forced to select for both my third request and offer a fandom I know next to nothing about. Is it possible for you to remember this when you get to do the matching? I'd really prefer to not get a gift from my third fake request.

I'm fine with get to make a gift for the third fandom I know little about (that is The Hobbit... I didn't watched the movies, but there's a lot of info around on the internet about them so I think I could put together a gift if I have, as I know *nothing* about the rest of the fandoms, except for my favorites that are just 2 up on there).

Please, let me know. Thanks in advance for your answers. And sorry for asking more questions! D:

Re: Questions for my signup

[ghiaccio]

Oh, too bad, it looks like rarepair is just for fic exchange. :( I can't write sadly, I only draw and paint.

Re: Questions for my signup

[skieswideopen]

Matching is done automatically by AO3. I've never run a challenge on AO3, so I don't know what it will look like, but I suspect that manual adjustments will be a challenge since it will throw a lot of other matches off. I will try to remember your situation when we check the matches, but I offer no promises that I'll be able to do anything about it. Sorry!

Re: Questions for my signup

[skieswideopen]

Oh, that's too bad!

Re: Questions for my signup

[ghiaccio]

Oh I see. Sorry for the mess that I imagine it would generate. If it's not too an hassle, yes, I'd like if you still could take a look at my request matching, but I totally understand if that would mess the things too much and I have to get a gift for the third Request.

If it's of any help, one of my requests is Avengers MCU that fortunately has a lot more offers than Requests.

Anyway, I've just took a look at the fandoms again just a moment ago, and found out that I missed the Star Trek fandoms when I signed up, though I'm not interested in any of the offered ships. Still it'll make the things more simple when I'll get my assignment (as I'm sure I'll get that, since TNG has no offer for the time being).

Btw, I'm signed up to the exchanges as "LePeru (Nizah)" over AO3. :)

Thanks again for offering to check, but again, don't worry if that'll become too complicate. I realize how that could mess the things.

[raktajinos]

Hi, I was hoping I could get a teeny extension. I finished my stuff a while ago and I've been tinkering with it. I forgot that the due date was also on Easter so I'm out with family and don't have my computer. I'll be back tomorrow and can post them then.

[skieswideopen]

Absolutely! Tomorrow is fine. :)