Reveal of Contributors' Names & Wrap-Up

[morbane]

I have made creators' names visible on the archive. Feel free to promote your work under your own name.

Thank you to everyone, especially to Measured_Words for tag wrangling, to silverr, Flamebyrd, fleurlb, Zdenka, seekingferret, Merfilly, merryghoul, and IShouldBeWriting for pinch hitting, and to seekingferret and Measured_Words for discussing rules with me before the start of this round. Thanks also goes to paraka, chestnut_filly, originally, and akamine_chan for discussing podfic with me, and hm_f for discussing art.

As usual, I really enjoyed running this exchange and I'm glad about everyone who participated. However, everything can be improved, and if the exchange didn't work for you in some way, I'm interested in hearing about that too. Feel free to comment on this post - anonymous comments are enabled, if you prefer.


So - there's a bit of a difference between running this while working more than full-time, and running this while working part-time, who'd have thought? :) I was sad I didn't write any treats or pick up any pinch hits, despite saying I intended to be the last-resort pinch hitter. Next year I should have a little more time. Don't worry, though I intend to keep commenting on this year's works.

(I should also confess that when I said "it seems like one pinch hit has been held up," that was due to a miscommunication. My fault, not the pinch hitter's.)

I think next year I will make the period between deadline and reveal a full week. That is easier on pinch hitters, and allows for more treating.

I know anon periods don't work for everyone. At present, I would like to keep one in this exchange, because I enjoy them a lot and they help me comment swiftly. But if there is a clear preference from participants that this should change, I will listen to you. And for those of you who dislike anon periods, if there's something else I can do that would make them less annoying, please suggest it.

This year, I included art and podfic. Do you have any thoughts on how that worked out?

Any general thoughts are welcome.

ETA

Please remember that if you defaulted and you do not comment on the gift(s) you received, you may not sign up to Jukebox again. To reverse that ban, comment on your gift. If there are extenuating circumstances, like unexpected triggers, please talk to me.

I expect to run this exchange at about the same time next year, though I may start one or even two weeks earlier.

Another general question: what kind of preferences do people have for the times of day, or time of week, that deadlines happen or collections are revealed? If you could name the perfect time for a deadline or reveal for you, what would it be? (Please state the region, of course.)

Don't forget to check out any thoughts people may have posted on the parallel journal, jukebox-fest.livejournal.com.

Comments

[senmut]

Always going to be a fan of anon periods here. I feel it is encouraging to those who are first timers, or shy in their fannish activity. Less pressure, because no one KNOWS they made it, and more apt to get an honest review.

(Also, I see it as leveling the playing field. I've found some great fanworks because I was not seeing the person as their reputation through anon fests.)

I had a lovely time. Hated that I couldn't help more on pinch hits, actually, but that's what I get for being old and out of touch with the music scene.

Thank you to all participants and to our wonderful mod.

[dhampyresa]

I like anon periods! And I had a great time during the exchange.

[sirvalkyrie]

I prefer anon periods. I find it a lot more fun to read something without knowing who wrote it. It makes me just consider the work on its own.

[elanya]

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

[moetushie]

First of all, thank you and all the tag wranglers and pinch hitters. You all make this exchange such a lovely experience, year in and year out.

Now, I will cop to be a person who isn't that fond of the anon period -- although I think it was shorter this year than previously? I was happy about that! I have two basic reasons for that -- one is that we're essentially writing original fic here, and ofic is a very hard sell on AO3 in the best of times. To have it anon, on top of that, makes it even harder. Because, well, I'm dying to talk about this story I just wrote. I want to tell my friends, I want to tell the world! Waiting for a week or so do it is hard, especially if your work isn't particularly popular, which, given the tininess of the fandoms, wouldn't be a surprise.

Anon periods let me brood over the perceived flaws in the story too much, and in the end, I don't enjoy sharing it as much as I would've without waiting. But that's me, and I'm aware that I'm weird and strange.

As a reader, I don't care one way or the other. I barely look at who the author is anyway -- my eyes are usually trained firmly on the fandom, summary and tags and whether they're relevant to my interests. If the story impresses me, then I look for who wrote it.

But I know anon periods will be a thing! Because democracy! And I'm honestly okay with that. But that's just my two cents.

[alias_sqbr]

Well I for one am glad you included art because it meant I got to participate! Plus I got to see other people's art, hooray! I'm not into podfic but it's inclusion didn't do me any harm. Overall I had a great experience, thank you for making that possible.

[hagar_972]

Thank you for running this! And another thanks to Measured_Words for the wrangling.

I like the anon period, myself. As others already noted, there's a value to not knowing who created what. I find it heightens the gift-exchange feel, and contributes to the social aspect. I do agree the anon period should be kept to 1-3da - long enough to give people a fair chance to go through the works, but no longer than that (as that's liable to make people antsy and fidgety).

I like the mixed media thing. I'm fond of that sort of work in general, and it seems it really enriched things for this exchange in particular. The podfic option may needs a bit of reworking, though. I wonder if it would be possible to work a pod_together-style option, i.e., a writer and a podficcer signing up together. This might significantly up the number of podfics created for this exchange. (On the AO3 end - possibly have only one member of the team submit a signup form, with the other member confirming on PM or email?) I know that if such an option was available this year, I'd absolutely volunteer for it.

[raspberryhunter]

Thank you so much for running this -- I always super enjoy it!

Big fan of anon periods, here. I'd even like it to be longer, say a week, but that's because I try to read all the stories and get all my comments in by the end of the anon period. (One of the things I love about jukebox, actually, is that it has what I consider to be a great comment ratio to hits -- participants really do try to comment on stories, and I appreciate that.) I also like being able to approach the story without having preconceived notions because of who the author is. (ETA: I know no one else wants it to be a week! Having a shorter one is fine too, it's not a big thing.)

I didn't ask for art this year, but I really enjoyed seeing the art so I'm glad other people did :)

I have no opinion on when it runs.

[ardyforshort]

This was my first Jukebox and I had a fab time. Thank you so much for organizing it! I'm looking forward to reading all the fic.

I like anon periods and would not say no to a longer one next time - I really wanted to do some treating but didn't have the time. I personally also like having deadlines/reveals on a Friday or Saturday as that gives me the weekend to read, but obviously people have different work patterns so this may not be the same for everyone.