I am fond of the anon period - I do think a week would be good, but I also like to try and read/comment as much as possible before reveals (I didn't get super far this year though - I'll keep working through it though :)

I don't know about an ideal time. It actually worked out okay for me this year, but I always try to have things done well in advance, so the writing deadline is less of a concern. The archive going live happened at a time when I was pretty well set to take advantage of it (though my circumstances this year are kind of chaotic!), so I liked all that!

Anyway, thank you, as always, for running this exchange because it is the beeeeest :D