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trickortreatex2017-09-13 10:45 pm
pumpkinkingmod) wrote in trickortreatex2017-09-13 10:45 pm
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Character Matching in Trick or Treat
Character matching does not work in Trick or Treat the same way as it does in Yuletide. Yuletide is an AND exchange, where the offer has to match every requested character. Trick or Treat is an OR exchange where the offer only has to match a single requested character.
This is PumpkinKing's OTP
PumpkinKing adores this pairing. They request it in every exchange. This year PumpkinKing will sign up for both Trick or Treat and Yuletide.
Now after sign-ups close all the sign-ups become assignments. Think of it like a river.
If we just let assignments flow like a river that would make things super easy on AO3's matching algorithm and moderators as anybody could match to anybody. We'd never have initial pinch hits. This is where the offered characters come into play. Think of each character you are offering is like a gate.
When the assignment river comes to your gate it checks to see if the requested character matches the character the gate lets through. If it doesn't match then the gate stays closed, the river stops, and the sign-up doesn't become an assignment for that person.
If the character matches the one the gate is looking for then the gate opens and the sign-up is allowed to become an assignment.
If you're only requesting a single character it works like that in almost any exchange. What happens if you want two or more characters like PumpkinKing? The sign-up has to pass through one gate for each character requested. There are primarily two ways that the gates can be laid out with multiple characters in exchanges.
In Yuletide the gates are in succession. All of them need to be open for PumpkingKing's sign-up to successfully become an assignment. A person would need to offer both Moss Covered Unicorn and Doritos to be matched. If they offered only one of the two the sign-up would be stopped and wouldn't become an assignment.
When participating in Yuletide PumpkinKing can be safe in assuming that anybody who matched them on that fandom had to be willing to write both Moss Covered Unicorn and Doritos.
How is Trick or Treat different?
In Trick or Treat the sign-up still has two gates to pass through, but they are no longer in a row. Now they are different paths that the sign-up can take. Only one needs to be open for the sign-up to become an assignment.
This means that someone who only offered one of the two characters could get PumpkinKing's sign-up. While PumpkinKing should still be hopeful of getting their OTP, they should also keep realistic expectations that someone that only wants to write one or the other is matched to them.
This is PumpkinKing's OTP
PumpkinKing adores this pairing. They request it in every exchange. This year PumpkinKing will sign up for both Trick or Treat and Yuletide.
Now after sign-ups close all the sign-ups become assignments. Think of it like a river.
If we just let assignments flow like a river that would make things super easy on AO3's matching algorithm and moderators as anybody could match to anybody. We'd never have initial pinch hits. This is where the offered characters come into play. Think of each character you are offering is like a gate.
When the assignment river comes to your gate it checks to see if the requested character matches the character the gate lets through. If it doesn't match then the gate stays closed, the river stops, and the sign-up doesn't become an assignment for that person.
If the character matches the one the gate is looking for then the gate opens and the sign-up is allowed to become an assignment.
If you're only requesting a single character it works like that in almost any exchange. What happens if you want two or more characters like PumpkinKing? The sign-up has to pass through one gate for each character requested. There are primarily two ways that the gates can be laid out with multiple characters in exchanges.
In Yuletide the gates are in succession. All of them need to be open for PumpkingKing's sign-up to successfully become an assignment. A person would need to offer both Moss Covered Unicorn and Doritos to be matched. If they offered only one of the two the sign-up would be stopped and wouldn't become an assignment.
When participating in Yuletide PumpkinKing can be safe in assuming that anybody who matched them on that fandom had to be willing to write both Moss Covered Unicorn and Doritos.
How is Trick or Treat different?
In Trick or Treat the sign-up still has two gates to pass through, but they are no longer in a row. Now they are different paths that the sign-up can take. Only one needs to be open for the sign-up to become an assignment.
This means that someone who only offered one of the two characters could get PumpkinKing's sign-up. While PumpkinKing should still be hopeful of getting their OTP, they should also keep realistic expectations that someone that only wants to write one or the other is matched to them.