SFBB02: Suggestion Box
Aug. 16th, 2012 10:50 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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smallfandombangRound Two is scheduled to open for sign-ups on September 1 (the full estimated schedule for this round can be found on the community profile), but before that happens I wanted to give those of you who participated in our last round a chance to offer suggestions to make our second round an even more enjoyable experience. I’m especially interested in knowing whether the time frame allotted for writing and art in the schedule was deemed too much or too little, and whether the Author sign-up period was too long. (There’s still time to tweak the schedule!)
Also, I wanted to let you know that we have made some changes that will not be negotiable. This is because we learned some hard lessons last round. For example, we’ve instituted a check-in for Artists prior to the claim post going up so we have a more accurate count of participating Artists (rather than relying on the sign-ups only to discover that many Artists forgot about us after signing up). We have also made all check-ins mandatory. (I don’t want to have to send out 80 e-mails again to Authors we haven’t heard from. That was not fun.)
And there are some changes that will serve to make things easier for us (just me now!) when it comes to administrative-behind-the-scenes stuff, such as using a form for sign-ups so it builds the spreadsheet automatically instead of me having to add everyone manually.
I’ve revised the community FAQ to clarify/add the new rules. Please take a look at it, and if you have any questions you may ask them there or bring them here.
All comments to this post will be screened.
Thank you for participating last round, and for helping me make our next round an even better experience!
(P.S. As you can see I also changed the font size on the entries because, lordy, that smaller font was tough to read! *g*)
Also, I wanted to let you know that we have made some changes that will not be negotiable. This is because we learned some hard lessons last round. For example, we’ve instituted a check-in for Artists prior to the claim post going up so we have a more accurate count of participating Artists (rather than relying on the sign-ups only to discover that many Artists forgot about us after signing up). We have also made all check-ins mandatory. (I don’t want to have to send out 80 e-mails again to Authors we haven’t heard from. That was not fun.)
And there are some changes that will serve to make things easier for us (just me now!) when it comes to administrative-behind-the-scenes stuff, such as using a form for sign-ups so it builds the spreadsheet automatically instead of me having to add everyone manually.
I’ve revised the community FAQ to clarify/add the new rules. Please take a look at it, and if you have any questions you may ask them there or bring them here.
All comments to this post will be screened.
Thank you for participating last round, and for helping me make our next round an even better experience!
(P.S. As you can see I also changed the font size on the entries because, lordy, that smaller font was tough to read! *g*)
(no subject)
Date: 8/18/12 11:58 am (UTC)Going in last round we knew that the artists would have a hard row to hoe because chances were good that they would not be familiar with all the fandoms, which is why we tried to emphasize that they would have plenty of time to create artwork (6 weeks is more than other big bangs allow), that non-graphics artwork such as podfic and fanmixes are also welcome, and that if they did want to create graphics they could rely on their author to provide them with links to screencaps, etc.
That said, including title & chapter banners in the list of acceptable artwork is a good idea.
Also, we did post a list of fandoms to the comm after the mandatory check-in #3 for authors to give artists an idea of what fandoms were being written in. And I did make a note after last round to have the authors include a brief summary of the fandom in the header they include with their rough draft for artist claiming, so that might help artists that aren't sure about the fandoms.
One thing I did notice was that many of the authors ignored our urging to make the summary as detailed as possible, and instead used a one or two line summary like the one that they'd include in their posting. I think it might help if we emphasize that they need to include enough information to attract the interest of someone who might not be in the fandom.
Thank you for your suggestions!
(no subject)
Date: 8/18/12 12:00 pm (UTC)Thanks for commenting on the changes; I'm glad they sound good to you.
(no subject)
Date: 8/18/12 12:01 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 8/18/12 12:03 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 8/18/12 12:19 pm (UTC)I agree as I'm one of the worst procrastinators. The reason we set a three month writing period (before rough drafts were due) was that we were competing with NANO, other big bangs, and holiday exchanges over that time. I think it seems longer (and is ~technically longer?) because our sign-up period is a full two months. I think we'd have more trouble getting people to finish if our due date was December 31 rather than January 31. Did you have any specific suggestions for shortening the writing period?
I hate sitting on fic I've finished, as well. (I just had to sit on a fic for over 2 months because I had it finished by May 21 when the rough draft was due and posting didn't start until August. o_O) Unfortunately, there's no way to shorten that period and also give artists time to create their artwork.
6 weeks for artwork is longer than other big bangs, but we are a special case in that we are both multi-fandom ~and small fandom. It's not easy to find artists that are familiar with all the fandoms, so we wanted to make sure they had enough time to create their artwork. (Also in the last round some artists were kind enough to claim up to 6 fic to make sure that everyone got artwork, and they especially needed time to create.)
Also, January 31 is the due date for the rough draft. Many authors will still be writing for the next several weeks, or so, and possibly right up until their posting date (or at least finalizing and editing). Final drafts are due on March 31 and the sign-up post for posting dates goes up the next day, with posting commencing only 5 days later on April 5.
Again, if you have specific ideas on how to shorten the time between the rough draft due date and the posting date without shortchanging the artists, I'd love to hear it. I'm open to all suggestions because I really want this BB to be successful. And fun. *g*
(no subject)
Date: 8/22/12 02:54 pm (UTC)Thanks for commenting on the schedule. Yeah, the reasons you mention were some of the very reasons we didn't want to short change people on the writing period.
(no subject)
Date: 8/22/12 02:59 pm (UTC)I'm so sorry to hear that! We originally had over 200 authors sign up for multiple fandoms, but we tried to make sure we responded to everyone's comments or questions. I'm very sorry to hear that we missed someone. That said, we are human, and in future we would be happy if your friend (or someone else we inadvertantly miss) would nudge us and remind us that we have an outstanding comment. I hope we didn't come across as unwilling to accept a gentle reminder.
I'm also sorry to hear that other obligations will keep you from participating this round. Thank you, though, for your comments. We'll certainly try to do better this round.