Sign ups!
Signups are open! Go to the collection here (link) to sign up!
Signups will be open until August 31st at 9:59pm EDT (Countdown)
You must be 18+ to sign up.
Other links:
What Are Sign Ups?
Sign ups are how we figure out who wants what and who's creating for who! The process is this:
- Participants fill out a sign up form on AO3. The sign up form is split into requests and offers, both of which use tags from the tagset.
- Participants who want to make non-fic mediums email their offer details to the mods (more on that below).
- AO3's matching program works out who can create for who based on the tags selected for requests and offers.
- If any participants have no one to create for, they get emailed by the mods to add offers or drop out.
- Assignments are sent. Optionally, participants who are interested in creating smaller works for multiple recipients can ask for swaps–but swaps will have their own post and aren't covered here!
You are allowed to sign up with one well-behaved sock (i.e. a maximum of two accounts per person).
You can email us Do Not Match requests, instructions for which are in the rules and info post (link).
Request Instructions
Requests are for saying what you would like to receive. They are visible to everyone. You must use only tags from the tagset. Each request is a set of tags that go together: a fandom, relationship tag(s), and (if you want them) medium/length opt-ins.
You must have a minimum of 1 request. You may have up to 10 requests. If you are requesting less than 3 fandoms with distinct lore, you are not guaranteed a pinch hit in the event that your assigned creator defaults in full or in part.
If you are unmatchable as a recipient (i.e. no one is offering anything you are requesting), your requests will be posted to the Dreamwidth community for claiming as a pinch hit.
Your creator will be matched to you based on one fandom and one relationship/character.
You should therefore request as if you will only get ONE of your requested relationships/characters.
Fandom field
- Each request has 1 fandom.
- You may repeat fandoms.
- The order you put your requests in doesn't matter.
You cannot DNW significant parts of the fandom you are requesting. You can't DNW "pirates" if requesting Pirates of the Carribean, and you can't DNW The Return of the King if you're requesting The Lord of the Rings (Jackson Movies).
(Also, this kind of unenforceable DNW is hard for us to catch during sign up checks since it requires that we know the fandom, so DNWs along these lines might be unenforceable even if we don't email you about them.)
Relationships
- You may select 1-20 tags per request in the relationships field.
- The order you put your tags in doesn't matter.
When you request a group, you're only guaranteed one member of that group. Groups take the place of characters in relationship-field tags, allowing you to request a category of characters instead of explicitly listing every character, for example, "The Losers Club" or "Batfamily" or "Original Male Characters".
If you request a relationship-field tag that involves an ambiguous group or character description, we will accept your creator's interpretation. If you request "Solo: The Avengers (Marvel Cinematic Universe)" your creator can pick any character who fits the broadest possible definition of canonical Avengers. If you request an original character, Original Work, Reader, or other tag that could specify gender but doesn't, your creator can pick any gender.
You can't DNW parts of tags you've requested. You can't request "Creator's Choice of Jedi & Han Solo (SWOT)" and then try to DNW some Jedi. You can't request "Creator's Choice of Lannister(s)/Any Characters" and then DNW incest or poly ships.
(Also, this kind of unenforceable DNW is hard for us to catch during sign up checks since it requires that we know the fandom, so DNWs along these lines might be unenforceable even if we don't email you about them.)
Length/Medium Opt-Ins (the "Additional tags" and "Optional tags" fields)
Fanfiction is the default medium requested in Fic in A Box.
- You cannot opt-out of receiving fanfiction, which for FIAB is defined as narrative fiction.
- You may receive one 10k fic, ten 1k fics, or something in between.
- You can skip selecting any opt-ins if you are only interested in receiving fic.
- Length Opt-Ins let you opt-in to receiving works of less than 1,000 words (or equivalent).
- Medium Opt-Ins let you opt-in to receiving mediums other than fic.
- You can request 0-20 Length/Medium Opt-ins in the "Additional tags" field.
- You can request as many Length/Medium Opt-Ins as you want in the "Optional tags" field. You must copy them directly from the tagset or use this sheet (link) to create your list.
- The order you put your tags in doesn't matter.
- The app that we use for viewing requests has both of these fields linked for easy searching!
Opt-ins contained in your Optional Details field (or your Letter) also count, so if you usually have "epistolary" in your likes list but don't want it for FIAB, you should remove it.
Anything you opt into has the potential to be your entire gift. While it is unlikely you will receive 100 drabbles if you choose "Length Opt-In: Drabbles", it is technically possible!
Medium Opt-Ins have wordcount equivalents which you can view here (link).
Letter
Dear Creator letters may be linked to in your signup in order to give your gifter further details on your likes and dislikes. These are optional as long as you have something in your AO3 signup saying what you like.
- If you're using Tumblr we would like to remind you not to change your URL before the end of the exchange.
- If you're using Google Docs we would like to let you know that your letter will be much more accessible to your fellow participants if you use the Publish to the Web function.
- If you have multiple linked letters, the mods will only use the link given in the Letter field of the signup for the purpose of checking for opt-ins within your optional details.
Optional Details
- List likes, prompts, and Do Not Wants for your potential creators in this long text box.
- These are called optional details because your creator(s) are not required to follow your likes and prompts (although they do need to avoid your DNWs) when creating your gift(s).
You must include something in your optional details to indicate what you like or have an unlocked letter before signups close. This can be short (for example: "I really like h/c and fluff!") or long, but it needs to be present. If you're linking to a letter which already has publicly visible information to this effect, that is also acceptable.
Do Not Wants (DNWs)
- Do Not Wants (DNWs) are a list of things you absolutely don't want to receive in your gift(s). They go in the Optional Details box, but are not optional for creator(s) to follow.
- You need to use the label "DNW" or "Do Not Want" at the beginning of your list.
- Do not label them or anything else "Dislikes" or anything simlilar as that's too confusing for potential creators.
- Only DNWs in your AO3 requests will be enforced.
If you have no DNWs, please put "No DNWs" on its own line somewhere in your requests. We expect to get a number of people new to multifandom events, so we want to make absolutely sure people without DNWs mean to be doing that without needing to email them.
New to DNWs? They're important, but a little tricky Click here to re-read our DNW explainer from the rules post.
DNWs should be phrased and understood to be value-neutral. For example, one might DNW dogs because...
- they find dogs upsetting
- they find dogs boring
- they just spent the past week reading every fic about dogs in the fandom and are a bit tired of dogs now
- they really like works with dogs sometimes and really hate them other times and it's easiest to just DNW them instead of asking their creator(s) to thread a needle
- for personal reasons, thinking about dogs is very painful right now
It's impossible to tell which explanation above is true for any given participant with "DNW: Dogs" on their request, so the only sure thing you can know is that that participant just doesn't want dogs in their gifts. This ambiguity is a feature, not a bug.
Never explain why you DNW something, but definitely explain how to apply the DNW and if there are any exceptions.
- Unhelpful "why" explanation: "DNW: dogs (they're gross)" — this isn't relevant to avoiding putting dogs in a gift, and also might make people who like dogs feel bad
- Helpful "how" explanation: "DNW: dogs (canonical werewolves are fine, but please no normal wolves)" — this answers a question that a creator might have about how best to apply the DNW!
In the event that a DNW is included in your gift, only reasonable DNWs noted in your AO3 requests will be enforced. DNWs cannot be used to box your creator into producing a very specific work, and should be clear and specific in scope. You cannot DNW part of something you've requested. If you believe an enforceable DNW has been broken in your gift, please email us immediately.
FAQ: DNWs (Click here for yet more info)
What makes a DNW "unreasonable"?
The goal of DNWs is to state, as unambiguously as possible, what specific things one doesn't want in a gift. It's not the job of DNWs to prevent a recipient from getting a bad gift (although we hope everyone will get only good gifts) or to ensure that a recipient gets exactly what they want. Requests aren't commissions, and we value the creative freedom of our participants.
An unreasonable DNW might contradict a requested relationship or medium, try to force the creator into a very narrow set of options, be phrased too vaguely or broadly or confusingly, and/or seek to prevent the creator from creating works about a large part of canon.
- Example: Requesting a pirate canon like Pirates of the Caribbean or One Piece and then listing the DNW "pirates"
- Example: Requesting the medium opt-in "Medium: In-Universe Epistolary/Journals" and then listing the DNW "first person POV"
- Example: DNWing "OOC writing" (How is a creator supposed to ascertain what counts as OOC to the recipient? How could the mods make a decision about if something is OOC when they probably don't know the fandom?)
- Example: DNWing "dead dove content" ("dead dove" has many possible meanings, so no one can be sure what this DNW means; you need to list the actual content that you don't want.)
- Example: DNWing "CBT/wax play/gun kink/etc." (We can't enforce an "etc"!)
What happens if I have an unreasonable/nonspecific/otherwise unenforceable DNW?
If we notice it, we will ask you to remove it (or to remove the tag it contradicts, if it's something like the epistolary example above) or rephrase it. If we only realize you have an unenforceable DNW because you've received a gift you feel hits that DNW and would like a replacement gift, we will unfortunately have to refuse.
Why are you making such a fuss about DNW phrasing?
Broadly speaking, we think DNWs are an important and wonderful part of multifandom exchange culture and learning to create and identify good DNWs is imperative for good exchange etiquette. This exchange attracts a large number of new exchange participants, so by explaining in detail we can set our newbies up for success in the wider exchange circuit! If we could do so by just saying "list stuff you don't want in your Do Not Wants" then we would do that, but years of experience has shown that a lot of the information offered above on DNWs is absolutely not intuitive and needs to be explicitly stated for newbies.
Also, and more immediately, we will be on the hook for assuring some of you get gifts via pinch hits, including sending out emergency pinch hits if someone gets an unacceptable gift! Bad DNWs make it harder to find a pinch hitter and more likely one of those DNWs will be hit by accident. We'd prefer not to have to tell anyone that their DNW is too confusing for us to give them a replacement gift.
Help! I don't know how to phrase a DNW! / What if I think a DNW I want might be unreasonable?
Don't worry, there are people who want to help! Many people on the FIAB Newbies Discord server will be happy to help you figure out how to phrase your DNWs in the #sign-up-discussion channel.
Offer Instructions (On AO3, For Participants Offering Fic)
Offers are for saying what you would like to make. They aren't visible to anyone but the mods. You must use only tags from the tagset. Each offer is a set of tags that go together: a fandom and relationship tag(s). You can't offer specific mediums on AO3; look at the next section of post for information about offering specific mediums.
You must have a minimum of 1 offer. You may have up to 10 offers. For matchability, we recommend you make at least 3 offers.
If you are unmatchable (no requests match your offers) when sign ups close, we will email you. All participants need someone to match to in order to participate, so if you're unmatchable and don't reply to our email, we'll have to delete your sign up.
Your will be matched to your recipient based on one fandom and one relationship/character.
You should therefore offer as if you will only get ONE of your requested relationships/characters.
When you get your assignment, it will list all of your recipient's requests, but you're only required to create for one of them. If you would like to create for a request you didn't match on, or if you'd like to create for multiple requests, that's fine!
Offer Instructions (Non-Fic Mediums)
Everyone who signs up is by default offering 10k of fic unless they email us at ficinaboxmod@gmail.com–click here if you're wondering why.
Fic is the exchange's default medium because that's what it's most easy to find pinch hitters for. We don't want to be in a situation where the only way to open the collection is to get someone a gift in a rare medium because that could cause months of delays.
Ideally, we would just make everyone request a medium tag for fanfiction…but there's no way to make participants do that when they sign up. We would have to edit potentially thousands of individual requests to fix people who'd forgotten to request fic, and that's just not something we have the time for. It's actually easier for us to just handmatch people who are doing other mediums.
We do really, really want you to make non-fic things! Think of it like a concierge mod service, hand delivering an appropriate assignment to you. The VIP treatment, because we're so excited about mediums.
To make your non-fic offers, please include the following in your email:
1. The username you are signing up with.
(If you're also signing up with a sock, you can put information for both accounts in one email.)
2. A list of usernames of participants who are requesting something you can make.
For each username, include:
- What relationship-field tag you can create for
- What medium tag(s) you can create for.
We need the info about relationship field tags and medium tags not because you will be obligated to create that exact thing, but because we will double check during matching that the recipient we’re matching you to is still requesting what you need. We will check that your match hasn’t, for example, removed the ship and medium you said you can create from their request.
Please do not skip giving us usernames! Matching you by hand to a specific username is super easy and quick, and anyway since we're making you email us we want to give you an assignment you'll definitely be happy with. You will not be obligated to create the exact tags you've told us you can create for your recip.
Other Notes
You can update your offers by emailing us again if things change during the sign up period.
You will probably find the automagic app helpful for finding recipients, as it lets you search requests by medium.
FAQ: How to Use the Auto-App
How do I use the automagic app to look at requests?
Follow the link to the app above. The "Grouped Requests" tab defaults to showing requests grouped by fandom. You can use the "Filter" field on that tag to search the fandoms so you don't need to scroll through all of them to find the one you're looking for. You can group by other fields, or you can use the "Search All Requests" to do advanced searching, like searching for a request that has a certain combination of fandom and medium.
How do I use the automagic app to find recipients if I plan to make things that aren't fic?
To find medium matches, go to FIAB's Automagic App and then do one of these things:
- Browse by fandom and look at all the stuff in each fandom, if you're open to creating a lot of different mediums
- Change the "Group By" drop down to "Freeform" to browse by length/medium opt-in.
- Go to the "Search All Requests" tab and use the filters there to search in more detail. For example, you could put "Star Wars" in the fandom field and "Art" in the freeform field and you will be shown all requests that have "Star Wars" in the fandom and at least one medium tag with "Art"
- If you want to give your recip a specific medium, check to see if they've opted into the tag you're thinking of making.
Do I need to search use the Optional Tags field to search for mediums?
No, for FIAB's version of the app all Optional Tags are counted as freeforms and included in searches of the "Freeform" field, so you can just search that one field!
Is there a way to bookmark things on the automagic app?
Yes, there is! While sign-ups are open, you can browse requests and use the heart icon next to fandoms to create a bookmark for a whole fandom. Once sign-ups close, you can use the heart button to bookmark specific prompts/requests.
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