When you run a gift exchange on AO3 and generate matches you get several tabs: the list of potential assignments for that version of matching, people that don't have recips or authors for that version, and people that won't have any potential recips or authors no matter how many times you run matching.
It's those people that the mods are concerned about. People without authors get sent out as initial pinch hits, the people that don't get matched because their potential match is already assigned somewhere are either double-assigned as writers or also go out as initial pinch hits and none of that requires waiting for getting responses back from participants. It's the people that don't have any recips that need to be contacted and hear if they want to change their offers or drop out.
Re: Bets on When We'll Get Assignments?
When you run a gift exchange on AO3 and generate matches you get several tabs: the list of potential assignments for that version of matching, people that don't have recips or authors for that version, and people that won't have any potential recips or authors no matter how many times you run matching.
It's those people that the mods are concerned about. People without authors get sent out as initial pinch hits, the people that don't get matched because their potential match is already assigned somewhere are either double-assigned as writers or also go out as initial pinch hits and none of that requires waiting for getting responses back from participants. It's the people that don't have any recips that need to be contacted and hear if they want to change their offers or drop out.