Feedback Post

[slashmarks]

Now that the exchange is complete, I'd like to hear your opinions on what went well and anything you think might be better changed in the future.

Some subjects I'm particularly interested in:

-Did the ratings matching help you? Was it confusing? Would you like to have ratings matching, but change how it works?

-I'm considering a no modern RPF rule next round. How do people feel about this idea?

-Were the freeforms helpful? Would you like to add, remove or rearrange any freeform tags?

-Anything else you feel strongly about!

Comments

[lailah_tov]

- No opinion on ratings matching, since I went right for E and my recipients' signups were unambiguous on that front.

- That sounds like a great idea.

- I thought the freeforms worked very well.

- I wanted to specifically say that I really liked the schedule, and the two weeks between deadline and the collection opening. That felt so kind and accommodating both of people who needed to default and of pinch hitters, plus those of us who were happy to have extra editing time. Thank you for that! And for the whole exchange, what a blast!

[sirvalkyrie]

Did the ratings matching help you? Was it confusing? Would you like to have ratings matching, but change how it works?

I don't recall the ratings making things easier or harder for me for matching.

I'm considering a no modern RPF rule next round. How do people feel about this idea?

I don't do modern RPF so this doesn't impact me. I can definitely understand the desire for the rule. If such a rule were implemented I'd want to see what is modern being defined as well as guidelines on how fictional versions of real people should be handled, for example Billy Murry in Zombieland or individuals whose entertainment persona is distinct from their real one like pro wrestlers.

Were the freeforms helpful? Would you like to add, remove or rearrange any freeform tags?

The tags helped me as a writer since I knew my recip was fine with character death. I'd love standardized tags with broad gore categories in it instead of or in addition to gore+genre.

[evilmuffins]

I'd love to see more freedom with freeforms, letting participants add their own like in Smut for Smut. :) I find that particular style of exchange not only helps me come up with ideas to write more easily, but also lets me better express what I want to read as well!

[(Anonymous)]

-Did the ratings matching help you? Was it confusing? Would you like to have ratings matching, but change how it works?

I thought it was slightly confusing. I noticed that many people (including myself) selected both T and E; I'm personally not sure how many people would benefit from keeping the ratings matching.

-I'm considering a no modern RPF rule next round. How do people feel about this idea?

I don't have a strong opinion since I don't request RPF. I agree with RC that if you do implement this rule, you should make it clear both what "modern" is and what counts as RPF when edge cases occur.

-Were the freeforms helpful? Would you like to add, remove or rearrange any freeform tags?

I enjoyed what freeforms we were given this year. I feel like it gave me a good enough idea of what my recips might want while giving me freedom to be creative.

-Anything else you feel strongly about!

I would personally like it if the minimum word count for authors was raised to 1k but I understand if you disagree. I love this exchange and am looking forward to next year!

[(Anonymous)]

SA

I think what I said may be easily misconstrued re: RPF. I don't think my opinion is extremely important and you should listen to RPF fans above whatever I think, and I see there being more potential issues in disallowing modern RPF unless you are extremely clear in what you're banning.

[darkrosaleen]

I'm considering signing up next year, and I would strongly oppose a modern RPF ban. Most of the RPF fandoms popular in the exchange scene (and in general fandom) would count as modern, so the majority of commonly requested RPF fandoms would be banned under this rule. I also agree that grey areas like wrestling personas and fictionalized biopics would be difficult to arbitrate.

Nonconathon, Darkest Night, and Smut4Smut all allow RPF with similar rules to the ones in Goreswap (must be 18+ and famous in their own right, no nazis or serial killers). Anyone who requests or offers RPF for goreswap is by definition comfortable with that content. If there were other concerns this round that weren't covered by the rules, I would suggest adding to the RPF restrictions before blanket banning all modern RPF fandoms.

[ungefug]

Did the ratings matching help you? Was it confusing? Would you like to have ratings matching, but change how it works?
I requested and offered both. It didn't do much for me.

I'm considering a no modern RPF rule next round. How do people feel about this idea?
I am not personally affected but I would understand if you feel more comfortable with that.

Were the freeforms helpful? Would you like to add, remove or rearrange any freeform tags?
Yes, it was very helpful to get an idea of the vibe people wanted. If it's not too much effort (and it might be) you could consider having a tagset like in smut4smut or nonconathon which is user generated and would include things like "Blood", "Woundfingering", "Amputation" or "Scenario - Torturted by Villains". I don't think it is strictly necessary though.

Anything else you feel strongly about!
Not strongly, but I saw some DNWs that were a bit of a hassle to work with. If people DNW like 20 different types of goring it can be a bit creatively stifflig and daunting (having to double check each idea against a seemingly arbitrary list).

The event was super fun and I got to read many nice fics!

[theodwulf]

-Did the ratings matching help you? Was it confusing? Would you like to have ratings matching, but change how it works?

I'm not sure the teen distinction works for the gore part, but I'm also not sure how many people even asked for it.

-I'm considering a no modern RPF rule next round. How do people feel about this idea?

I don't write this, but I think the suggestions above make sense ie no under 18 or RL serial killers. I definitely think there needs to be a distinction between the actual person and a role they play, given how terrible AO3 is right now about some fandoms where that's not clear IE basically any gaming youtube fandom where the wranglers refuse to canonize anything but the real-life name.

-Were the freeforms helpful? Would you like to add, remove or rearrange any freeform tags?

Freeforms are great! It might be nice to open the tags up to allow for participants to submit suggestions, like Consent Issues / Id Pro Quo / etc do, but I don't know how much work that is on the back end.

-Anything else you feel strongly about!

The schedule was good, I'm glad it opened on a Friday and not in the middle of the week. You might bump the minimum to 1k.

[(Anonymous)]

- For ratings, I picked E and M for all my requests, and didn't think they were especially necessary nor especially unnecessary.

- I have no opinion on modern RPF.

- Freeforms were helpful.

- One thing is the schedule was a little long for 500 words. The long editing period was nice, but (and this might just be a personal thing) I felt like it was easier to put off the deadline with 39 days to write only 500 words. I think it would have been helpful if some part of it was shorter.

Another thing is that Goreswap (Jan 30 - Mar 26) conflicted with Kink Lucky Dip* (Feb 22 - Mar 26), which may sadly have been related to the decrease in graphic depiction of violence-kink fills for kinkluckydip2022. So I'd prefer if it were moved or shortened so it wouldn't conflict, though there might be trouble depending on what the rest of the exchange schedule looks like.

*Also conflicted with WorldbuildingEx (Jan 4 - Mar 25) but that one will not be running next year.

Running late, whoops

[(Anonymous)]

-Did the ratings matching help you? Was it confusing? Would you like to have ratings matching, but change how it works?
The ratings matching seemed fine, but tbf I would have been more nervous if I'd gotten something T rated, but next time I'll probably just keep it E rated. I don't entirely understand how it works, tbf, but I got to write what I wanted to, so that's what matters!

-I'm considering a no modern RPF rule next round. How do people feel about this idea?
Honestly, I'm fine and even happy with it, but it doesn't impact me. As long as there's an option to say "no X fandom" in Creator's Choice of Fandom, it's fine. There's also some weirdness when it crosses over around movies portraying IRL modern people (e.g. the Mark Zuckerberg movie, the Jonathan Larson movie, both of which have relatively modern people who are alive/could still be alive today), but honestly, as long as I don't have to read it I'm fine. The rules as they were put up seemed to handle them pretty well.

-Were the freeforms helpful? Would you like to add, remove or rearrange any freeform tags?
I think they worked well!

The timing seemed fine to me - I crunched it in thr last week+an extension, but that's because I don't have the ability to work without an imminent deadline hovering over me.