yuletide_coal | The Dirty Energy Source

The Dirty Energy Source

Do you want to make a spreadsheet about spreadsheets?
Do you still need to figure out what two other fandoms you should request beside the only one you really want fic for?
Or are you trolling ALL the letter posts for placeholders, just so you can write those people some nice, dry coal?

We want to know all about it.

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This is why I wish Yuletide was year round or happened more often in a year's span. Plenty of people only do Yuletide as their only exchange or only look to Yuletide for small fandoms. I'm selfish and want that attention more than once a year. Only Yuletide can provide that. Look at the terrible turnout and lack of readers for Night on Fic Mountain.

To be fair, this was NOFM's first year. As time goes on it will probably grow.

I'd love to do Yuletide two or three times a year. And they could just keep the nominations for the entire year so it's not always that much work.

+1

Keeping the nominations for an entire year would bring its own wank but it'd cut down on a lot of work for the mods and my fandoms would be in for the three Yuletides a year.

ayrt I suppose a case could be made for adding new fandoms that didn't exist when the year's nominations were made (i.e. a new TV show or new book), but we could simply keep the existing nominations to cut down work for the mods. And once a year the nominations are done from scratch as they are now. It would be greaaaat.

1st year rule can come back!

The mods are on coal so please PLEASE think about doing this!

Ew, no.

What's 1st year rule?

DA

I think it's that if something's been out for less than a year (or is being offered for the first time maybe? unclear) it is eligible regardless of how many fics it has.

I could be making shit up there, though.

NA

There used to be a rule that if it was the canon's first year, it was in no matter how many fics it had. But they did away with that a couple years ago.

You know, remembering that, I am even more annoyed at those people yelling that Guardians of the Galaxy with its 250 eligible fics isn't "in the spirit of Yuletide."

Re: The one thing I hate about Yuletide

(Anonymous) - 2014-10-19 21:26 (UTC) - Expand

Re: The one thing I hate about Yuletide

(Anonymous) - 2014-10-19 21:39 (UTC) - Expand

If it'd be the first year for a fandom, whether or not they're eligible by numbers, they're allowed in. If a fandom had 5k fics before Yuletide rolled around, but it's the first year for it, it'd be allowed into Yuletide. It's stupid.

NYR?

I mean, that's basically Yuletide year-round, keeping the nominations. If you really want to *write* fic for YT all year, you can.

If all you want is to *get* fic year-round, then sorry, you're out of luck.

No one cares about NYRs. They barely get written and barely get attention on them.

I wrote a NYR once and the recipient loved it - made me a new fandom friend. But yeah, it doesn't get the broader Yuletide attention.

Thank you for proving my point. People say they want YT year-round, but given a partial opportunity to do it, they don't bother. Few people read NYR, few people write it. Seems like the fannish enthusiasm for the small fandoms isn't there enough to make year-round YT worth the effort.

NYRs are not an exchange, nonnie! After Yuletide is over, they're akin to comment_fic and the attention is off. I want to sign up, write another letter, get matched to someone, write, and get a fic in return. An exchange, nonnie! That's where the magic of Yuletide happens!

+ 1

I want to be given an assignment and a deadline. That's the main sticking point for me. NYR gives me neither.

If there was a coal thread where someone picked a prompt from the last years signups and handed it to me with a "DUE IN TWO WEEKS, JERK" note attached, that would be good enough for me.

Name your fandoms and I'll pick a prompt for you. I will even make a post in namespace shaming you for not finishing it, if you want.

Re: The one thing I hate about Yuletide

(Anonymous) - 2014-10-20 01:46 (UTC) - Expand

Re: The one thing I hate about Yuletide

(Anonymous) - 2014-10-20 02:45 (UTC) - Expand

Re: The one thing I hate about Yuletide

(Anonymous) - 2014-10-20 02:47 (UTC) - Expand

Re: The one thing I hate about Yuletide

(Anonymous) - 2014-10-20 01:48 (UTC) - Expand

I know it isn't an exchange. It's just that if people are theoretically motivated by small-fandom love, rather than the YT publicity, then NYR ought to get more traction. Since it doesn't...

I freely admit I'm motivated by the YT publicity and squee. I haven't written an NYR yet myself, though I've thought about doing it a few times. I'd totally be on board with a more structured NYR thing, though, with assignments and deadlines, if some coalie wants to organize it.

I don't think people are motivated by YT publicity. People are motivated by an assignment and a deadline as well as the promise of also receiving a gift in return.

Re: The one thing I hate about Yuletide

(Anonymous) - 2014-10-20 02:33 (UTC) - Expand

Re: The one thing I hate about Yuletide

(Anonymous) - 2014-10-20 02:36 (UTC) - Expand

I wrote a NYR fic once. It's the only fic I've ever written that never get a single comment. *tear

Re: The one thing I hate about Yuletide

(Anonymous) - 2014-10-20 02:30 (UTC) - Expand

Re: The one thing I hate about Yuletide

(Anonymous) - 2014-10-20 02:36 (UTC) - Expand

Re: The one thing I hate about Yuletide

(Anonymous) - 2014-10-20 10:34 (UTC) - Expand

Re: The one thing I hate about Yuletide

(Anonymous) - 2014-10-20 14:04 (UTC) - Expand

Re: The one thing I hate about Yuletide

(Anonymous) - 2014-10-20 02:38 (UTC) - Expand

da

NYR don't have the same exchange aspect that really forces people to meet deadlines, though. If there were two Yuletides a year, that would be different from one Yuletide and "yeah maybe write some NYR if you feel like it".

The problem with NYR is that we're talking about really rare fandoms. Look at the number of people who have trouble scraping together four offers. For YT to work it has to be assigned writers. There's genuinely not an audience for most of this stuff.

That said, I am not on the year-round train. Once is plenty for me, and I've been participating since the beginning.

There are other exchanges that have a pretty good hit to comment ratio. If NoFM wasn't attractive to people, maybe that's an issue with that particular exchange.

I do make Yuletide a priority because it is once a year. If it started being held more often, I would skip many rounds thinking "Oh, the next one is soon". I would probably do less for Yuletide overall.

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