Auxiliary questions: anon period, what is art?

[morbane]

I posted here (DW) and here (LJ) to ask for feedback on the dates for Jukebox 2014 and whether art should be included. Thank you for your contributions - more are welcome there. I'll post my decision on dates and art at the end of this week (approx Jan 12), and that should be the last post I make until the exchange runs. The votes currently favour schedule 2.

Two issues came up in the comments, and I'd like to invite further feedback on those.

One: Some of you mentioned that you prefer not to have anon periods where the stories but not the authors are revealed. A few others chimed in to say you do like anon periods. I personally like them, but since as the moderator I know who wrote what, I realise that's moot. My current plan is to have an anon period this year, but make it much shorter than it was last year - probably 5 days. Let me know if that's a useful compromise.

Two: I floated the idea of art fills - and a couple of people raised the point that I need to define what is meant by acceptable art. Um. As I think you can tell from the design of the comms - ^!^ - I do not have artistic skill myself. Checking f_fa's archives and some other exchanges' guidelines suggests the following:

Art must be:
-complete
-a single piece between 500 and 2000 pixels in either dimension or a set of 3+ smaller pieces

Media could include
-images physically drawn & scanned
-images created with graphic programs

Art would be posted by finding a place to host the final product and embedding your fill in a work posted to AO3, since AO3 does not host art itself.

I want to also say that manipulated images are acceptable, but I have no idea how to define "you have to know what you're doing and be able to use pretty layering things and have a cool idea you want to convey" vs. "No heads pasted on and weird collages." (collages have their place! But I'm not sure people agree that they're reliably equal to a 1,000-word story.)

If anyone could point me in the direction of a more detailed set of guidelines, I'd be grateful.

However, as I post this, 1 person has said they'd give art (but only as treats), and 6 people have said they'd request art (but with caveats), so I suspect we will not try art this year.

Again, thank you for your feedback.

Comments

[senmut]

I prefer anon periods for the sole fact that without them, people tend to be less likely to read a story by lesser known writers... and miss out on some gems. Anon makes all stories equal, in a way. (Yes, stylistic choices can give away the writers, but in theory, anon helps some writers 'get a break')

Not doing art would be fine. Hammering out requirements is sometimes a headache. I have a rule of thumb for when I run them, but have seen art standards vary hugely by exchange.