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Panel Author:
witchqueen
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Before You Open For Business
- Prepare the website or LJ community:
- Set your due dates in stone (include the time and timezone in the due date.)
- Make the graphics and pick the colors (or bribe someone to do it for you.)
- Write the FAQ (have clear and stringent consequences for defaulting; do not back down for death, disease, or dismemberment.)
- Create the sign up form:
- Restrict the qualities by which you are going to match participants together: fandom, characters, pairings, and other datum suitable for manipulating with a spreadsheet.
- Restrict the amount of things participants are allowed to reject. (Personally, I'm in favor of no opt-out at all. If you say you can write in that fandom, you should write any character in that fandom. If you say you can write that character, you better be happy writing the character paired with anyone or doing anything. If you say you can write happy, that better be anything from curtainfic to crackfic. Some people are not the draconian dictator I enjoy being.)
- Restrict the amount of prompt participants are allowed to sign up with. They should not be giving story summaries and stage directions. Premise and situation, or possibly just a noun or a concept. If they want to run rampant with ideas, remind them that that's what the Dear Santa letter is for.
Once You Open For Business
- Advertise your Secret Santa in your fandom newsletter
- If you set up your secretsanta as an LJ community, make one of your interests secret santa, so people can find you.
- Ask for pinchhitters when people sign up to participate. Make it clear
that you can sign up to be a pinchhitter without requesting a story. There
are
crazywonderful people who dig that. - If you are a procrastinator or one of those people who turns in stories to challenges at the last possible minute, do not request a story in your own challenge. If you do decide to request a story in your challenge, pick the request you want to write. If you randomly throw yourself in the pot, you can be stuck with some WTF request. You don't have time for WTF.
- As soon as you get your first sign up, start throwing your participants in a spreadsheet with their name and the characteristics by which you are going to match them.
- Keep in contact with your participants. Send them reminders that they have a story due, send them tips for working on their story, host 'Dear Santa' letters. Every time you contact your participants, include the due date.
Once Stories Are Due
- Do not give extensions for any reason. If it's late, send the request out to a pinch hitter right away, no matter what excuse they give you.
- Everyone who turned in a story on time must get a story. This is both because it's the right thing to do (you enticed them to participate in the challenge with the assurance that they would get a story), but also because people will stop participating in your challenge if they turn in a story and don't get one. They may stop participating in gift exchanges all together.
- Post late work if it is turned in before the posting date. No one is upset to get the story they were supposed to get and a pinch hit.
After the Stories Are Posted
- Thank your pinch hitters. A lot.
- Take notes on how things can go better next year.
- If you don't want to run the challenge again, let people know. Someone
just may be
crazykind enough to take it off your hands.
no subject
Date: 2007-03-30 09:15 pm (UTC)Since you like the Draconion Method, I think I know what you'll say to this, but just in case you're not as predictible as all that...
I ran an exchange in a small corner of a big fandom. Everyone did WONDERFULLY, getting things in or at least letting me know that it was coming in the next day or two.
Except the person who had my request.
How do you suggest, as a mod, that you go "Hey slacker, where's my f---ing story!". I've got no problem going to bat for anyone else in the exchange, but I couldn't seem to find a way to phrase the "hey slacker!" letter without sounding all "It's all about MEEEEE! I managed this whole thing so someone would write for MEEEE!" about it.
(BTW, this person did eventually come through, but I'm still curious how you or others would handle something like this.)
no subject
Date: 2007-04-02 11:19 pm (UTC)As for the question of whether or not I would get a pinch hitter for a story for me ... it would depend on how badly I was hurting for pinch hitters and whether or not any of the pinch hitters would be people I particularly wanted to write me a story. I mean, herding pinch hitters is work too, and at the point where I'm trying to get stories, I'm all about reducing work. So, it really would depend on whether the trouble of assigning a pinch hitter to me (having something else to track, not being able to use the pinch hitter for someone else who needs a story) would be worth the story I'm getting in return.
If I did send a 'yo, slacker!' letter, I'd be using a template, and I'd just cut and paste the same text as I did for everybody else. It's not so much a question of "I did this for meeeeeeeeeeeeeee!" as "Fucker, somebody wrote you a story, you have to play the game, too!"
no subject
Date: 2007-03-30 11:07 pm (UTC)So very, very important with any kind of gift exchange. This has happened to me twice. I gave up on both fandoms, because if you don't want me to ask for my favourite obscure characters, don't say you'll do "anything".
It also makes me very angry with mods. Sure, the person assigned to write my fic may have a personal drama, fair enough, but when the mod fails to put it right I walk... Eh, I'm not normally a drama queen, but I hate feeling let down when I've put the work in.
no subject
Date: 2007-04-02 11:23 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-04-04 03:25 pm (UTC)This winter my life was crazy, and I ended up only participating in two exchanges. One was yours. So, I wanted to say, you definetely make the trains run on time.