yuletide_coal | Burn it down

They probably checked out who both of the involved accounts were assigned to write for (looks like the socks previously gamed the system by getting one assigned to write for the other) and went through the people who defaulted so far. These two AO3 accounts had similar names, signed up very close together, have bare bones accounts with nothing on them but Yuletide gifts, and LJs that were created at the same time with letters using the same format. Wouldn't be hard to spot others that look similar.

In fact, just looking at accounts that signed up at the same time these two I can see several that look pretty suspicious, though I won't name names in case I'm wrong about any of them. (I assume the mods have access to more info that confirms things further, since they know whether any of the dodgy-looking accounts have defaulted and can see all the signup details and check out their Yuletide letters as well.)

At least two other suspicious-looking accounts (signed up around the same time, similarly constructed username, no works on AO3) already have gifts. :(

AYRT

Yup, I noticed that. :( I feel so bad for the assigned writers. Not sure how the mods can really sort it out unless by sheer chance there's someone else asking for the exact same thing that they can regift the stories to. (I guess they could just reassign them to The Yuletide Fairy or whatever instead of the banned sock, but it still sucks to have written something and have no actual recip.)

AYRT - of course, it's possible that those are gifts from other of that person's socks, since the past pattern is of that person writing gifts for themselves. In fact, I think it almost likely that at least one is, considering what a small proportion of gifts have been posted so far.

DA

I hope that's the case. I'd hate to be an enthusiastic writer who had been working on my story for any one of those names only to be told they were banned and I had to write something else. I hope no one is done or had written a lot and hadn't yet posted. I do hope they're allowed to post what they have to the Yuletide fairy or something and aren't required to write anything else.

I'm sure attention can be brought to those stories without recips so they get plenty of love from Yuletide at large. Because I'd be seriously bummed if I'd even given much thought to the story and *record scratch* nope, sorry.

NA

The post says they were given a list of choices. At a guess I'd say Yuletide Fairy, pick another recipient from the letters post, or no fault default. Any other ideas, coalies?

I would guess it would not be to pick from the letters post, but to pick from a list of potential recips for your offered fandoms. Possibly they also offered their current list of people to go out in the next batch of pinch-hits.

It would suck, though, if you had most of a story written, to not post it. Even posting it as a gift to the Yuletide Fairy would be less satisfying. I generally believe (and do this, in the exchange I mod) that defaulters who are not defaulted upon should still get their gifts (I hate the 'gift to the community' thing) but that seems rather unfair in this case where the dentist ring has clearly not acted in good faith.

You may hate the "gift to the community" thing, but that's not a universal hate. I've got no problem with the Yuletide Fairy at all, as I've read many, many stories written to someone else's prompts that could easily have been for me--and some of them were things I never would have thought of, but deeply enjoyed reading.

If someone wants to use the Yuletide Fairy, they run the risk of no one in the fandom liking their work, but that can happen when you're writing to someone's prompt, as well. For me, it's all about more fic for small fandoms.

as I've read many, many stories written to someone else's prompts that could easily have been for me

I do that every year! For a several days! That's why I love Yuletide--not just my one gift story. I don't care who the stories are written for. I make a special effort to thank my gift writer more profusely, but I often love another story more and give them a lot of love.

NA

You may hate the "gift to the community" thing, but that's not a universal hate. I've got no problem with the Yuletide Fairy at all, as I've read many, many stories written to someone else's prompts that could easily have been for me

I've been in the position of having fic I wrote reassigned to the community when my recipient defaulted, and I'm also not a fan. My main issues with it are:

1) Sometimes your recipient has requested something completely out of left field, e.g. a Galaxy Quest/Stark Trek crossover in which Spock is secretly a cannibalistic serial killer. You want to make her happy, so you do your best to write a fic incorporating those elements and trust that other readers will understand that it was done out of good will. Under ordinary circumstances, you might even write an author's note quoting bits of your recipient's prompt, so that those other readers will know for sure why you made certain questionable choices in your fic. If the fic is regifted to the community, though, then any connection between your recipient's request and the fic you wrote is broken. Instead of looking like a generous and caring writer, you instead look like a weirdo who wants to infict her cannibalistic serial killer Spock headcanon upon an unsuspecting fic exchange community in order to get more page hits.

2) In a less extreme fashion, sometimes your recipient has requested something that's on the surface unobjectionable but that you personally are opposed to, e.g. your NOtp, or a common bit of fanon that you happen to hate, or an element of canon that you prefer to ignore. It's nothing that most readers would look askance at, but it's also something you'd prefer to have a little distance from, especially if any fault lines have formed in your fandom around canonical interpretation, ship wars, etc. Again, if the fic containing that element is written explicitly for a specific recipient, then it's a lot more obvious that you wrote it to spec rather than out of a burning personal desire.

tl;dr The more a gift fic reflects what I might write independently, the happier I am to have it gifted to the community. When I go further out of my comfort zone in writing for a particular recipient, though, then I want that recipient's name to stay attached to the gift fic.

There's nothing to prevent you from mentioning in your author's notes that the fic was a gift for whomever, even if it's officially gifted to the yuletide fairy. Personally, if I knew that I'd been writing for the socker mom, I'd specifically call them out by name and say I was writing for so and so who had been banned.

I bet the only choice any of them were given was firing squad.

... we're talking about the authors who had these socks as recipients, coalie.

Although the other way barely makes any sense either.

AYRT

I was talking about both the people the mods think are socks and the authors who were assigned to the people the mods think are socks.

AYRT

Okay then I genuinely don't understand you.

Um, what do you mean?

AYRT

Sorry, what I mean is that I don't honestly believe that the mods did anything of the sort.

They're making a big noise over nothing so they look like they're doing something. They're too lazy to actually do some detective work and hunt down all those authors with socks in Yuletide so they've decided to frighten us all into submission before the defaulting deadline.

Surely the mods aren't dumb enough to think this case is a stand alone issue. I know for a fact there is one Yuletider who has no fewer than a dozen AO3 accounts and uses all of them for nominations and usually at least six or seven of them for Yuletide itself. Half these sign ups are regularly defaulted, but never the same accounts at the same time.

All the aliases have works under them and none of the accounts were created around the time.

Quite the crafty dental practice. But it's no skin off my nose so why should I care?

I wish the mods would focus on something useful, like discouraging placeholder posts. Maybe an unofficial pinch hit list needs to be set up, so that if an author thinks they might be in trouble with the deadline approaching but isn't sure they need to default, another author can step in to ensure they recip gets at least one full story for Yuletide?

AYRT

Well, you should care.

Saying you know of someone who abuses the system this much and you don't care doesn't make you look good either. It doesn't make you look like the kind of person who ought to be handing out advice to the mods.

Dumb question. How do you tell when someone sighed up?

Everyone who signed up is listed in order on the profile page of the collection.

Burn it down

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