2020 Schedule & FAQ

[pumpkinkingmod]

General Links

2020 Collection
Tagset
Letters Post
Sortable Requests Spreadsheet from Firebird
List of Requests Sorted by Recipient in Alphabetical Order, from Firebird
Trick or Treat requests app from karanguni
Beta Post

Community Challenge Links

Battle of the Bands Community Challenge
Battle of the Bands Tagset
Battle of the Bands - Song List
Battle of the Bands - Spreadsheet of Songs
Battle of the Bands Playlist

Schedule

Sept 1 – Nominations Open
Sept 8 – Nominations Close
Sept 11 – Sign-Ups Open
Sept 18 – Sign-Ups Close
October 24 – Assignments Due
October 31 – Reveals
November 7 – Author Reveals

Times are 23:59 PM UTC, or 7:59 PM EDT.

Trick or Treat comes again this year, now with a new mod. The rules remain unchanged, and so does the FAQ written by Pumpkin King I, aside from minor cosmetic differences to account for it being a new round. Credit goes to sirvalkyrie for it.

FAQ

General Exchange FAQ by bridgetmkennitt

Trick or Treat is an exchange in the style of exchanges like Yuletide or Purim Gifts. It is inspired by a real world holiday. You do not need to celebrate Halloween to participate in this exchange. Each person will receive at least one gift. The gift will be a trick or a treat. A trick should be more horror, occult, supernatural, or scary. A treat should be more sweet, sexy, or fluffy. These are a bit vague to give the writer/artist room for how they interpret trick or treat.





What is exchanged?

You can exchange either fic with a minimum of 300 words or a piece of artwork at the nice sketch stage. The sketch cannot be on lined paper. There is no upper limit.

Why is the minimum so low?

This exchange is inspired by Halloween. On Halloween children typically get small pieces of candy from adults. Based on this it is only appropriate that a Halloween based exchange have a lower requirement than other exchanges.

What fandoms are eligible?

There are no rarity requirements for this. Traditional fandoms, RPF, and some fanworks are eligible. You can also request Original Works.

There are three rules for RPF:

1. Non-famous friends and family are not eligible.
2. The person in question can be removed from the tagset at the request of the individual.
3. For contemporary RPF the individuals must be over the age of 18.

While rarely invoked, PumpkinKing can choose not to accept a nomination that is in bad taste. An example of this would be Nazi RPF. If this were to happen it would be posted to the community to give the nominator a chance to switch it for something else.

What are nominations?

Nominations is where you nominate the fandoms and characters that you are interested in receiving in this exchange. Each person can nominate six fandoms with six characters from each fandom. This means a total of 36 possible characters. All nominations must be disambiguated.

Why is the tagset called eternal tagset?

We are experimenting with using the same tagset every year and just adding to it.

What is the minimum/maximum for signing up?

You must make 3-10 requests. Each request has one fandom, 1-40 characters, and 1-4 medium/preference tags. You must make 4-10 offers. Each offer has one fandom, 2-40 characters, and 1-4 medium/preference tags. Any can be selected for characters and medium. Any means any nominated not any character in the fandom. If only one character is nominated for a fandom you want to offer then just select any to make sign ups work.

There are also four freeform tags where you can opt out of receiving extra gifts (you may still receive multiple gifts if more than one person is assigned to you), one to allow people to ignore your medium preference for extra gifts, one to ignore your trick/treat preference for extra gifts, and one to ask that your medium and trick/treat preferences be respected. Ones that ignore your preference can not become main gifts if your giver defaults. These tags are not used for matching and their use is completely optional.

You also have the option to add optional details or a letter. These can be very useful to give your writer/artist ideas for possible tricks and treats. It can also be invaluable for telling them what you do not want at all. Authors/artist should respect the do not want list, however the requester should not abuse it to try and force the author/artist into a corner.

What is the mod stance on socks (multiple accounts)?

You may sign-up with up to three accounts. If one account is banned then all of your accounts are banned.

What if no one offers what I request?

Then you will go to the pinch hit list and someone will claim you.

What mediums are allowed?

Fanfic or fanart can be selected for matching purposes. Even if you only request one is your sign up form you can give people permission to treat you the other in your letter or sign-up.

I only want a Trick or a Treat, not either. Is that okay?

Yes.

What if I can't complete my assignment?

Then please default ASAP. The sooner you do the sooner a pinch hitter can take over your assignment and make a gift. If you default then you will not go to the pinch hit list if your writer/artist defaults.

What is the Community Challenge?

Ever year a challenge is given to the community. The specifics change from year to year. Last year it was a battleship game won by filling a certain amount of select tags. To check out previous community challenges click the tag. Community challenges are revealed before sign-ups start.

Other questions? Ask them here.

Comments

[littlestclouds]

Yesss! I'm so happy this is running again!

[falkner]

The amount of happiness this exchange gives me is unrivaled.

[aicqt]

Hype for the exchange! Just wanted to point out though that there doesn't seem to be a link to the dw on the ao3 profile/FAQ (though it is on the tagset), idk whether that's intentional but you might want to add it for ease of navigation

[pumpkinkingmod]

Thank you! The collection profile has been updated.

[philstar22]

I think I might be participating this year, depending on if a fandom I can write for can be used. I'm feeling in the mood to write something.

nomination queries

[doxian]

hello, tysm for running this event, i just found out about it a few days ago and i'm excited about it

just wondering if this would also be the correct place to ask questions about nominations? thanks!

Re: nomination queries

[pumpkinkingmod]

It's absolutely the right place to ask questions! Apologies for the delayed response.

Re: nomination queries

[doxian]

no worries!

i tried to nominate Hubert von Vestra for the fandom Fire Emblem: Three Houses which somehow got changed to The 10 Elites, is there any chance i could change it back? my AO3 account username is doxian

Re: nomination queries

[doxian]

ah, i realized someone else nominated him since, never mind!

Re: nomination queries

[pumpkinkingmod]

That's great! Thank you for letting me know though.

[entwinedlove]

Why do some disambiguation tags have random words, for example, characters in the Agent Carter fandom have the words (Awesome Cod)? Is this some sort of way to prevent cross-media tags or something?

[pumpkinkingmod]

That is the main reason, yes. Sometimes a tag gets attached to more than one fandom on AO3 and goes wandering all around the tagset.

[philstar22]

I'm completely new to participating and have no idea what I'm doing. How exactly do I sign up? I clicked join on AO3. Is that signing up? It didn't let me select characters or fandoms or anything.

[pumpkinkingmod]

That is not signing up. Signups are in an hour and four minutes from now. At that time, the AO3 profile will have the sign-up form listed on the side, and there will be a sign-up button in the same area where it says to "join."

When signups open, I will post to this community with all the relevant links.

[philstar22]

Ah, okay, thanks.

[(Anonymous)]

Sorry, I've never done this challenge before, so I'm about to ask a dumb question. What does the sign up mean when it says trick/treat preferences? Is that like DNWs or something else? Also, where in the sign up do you list your media preference? In the details and DNWs section? Or is there something more official that I would need to do?

[pumpkinkingmod]

Your medium preferences are combined with your trick/treat preferences. Tricks and treats are how gifts for this exchange are (roughly) categorized, to go with the title and theme. A trick might be a scary or angsty story, and a treat might be a sweet or funny one. You can use this to point the way to your creator when it comes to the subject matter and tone of the story you want. It's a general indicator. For example, if you want something spooky and you want art, you would tick the "Trick - Art" box in the relationships field. I am aware that the form was not showing your options there, and that has been fixed now.

Your details and DNWs are something else, though they can provide more information on what you actually like and don't like and thus what you want when you select trick, treat, or both.

[(Anonymous)]

Thank you for fixing that! It makes perfect sense now!

eligible art formats

[podcalendarmod]

Hi! Are art formats other than visual art eligible, like podfic?

Re: eligible art formats

[pumpkinkingmod]

Sorry, at the moment only written fic and visual art can fulfill the minimum requirements of this exchange.

Re: eligible art formats

[podcalendarmod]

OK, thank you!

[nrgburst]

Is there a tumblr promo post for this exchange?

[pumpkinkingmod]

No, the exchange has no tumblr. You are free to blog about it there if you wish to, of course.

[narya_flame]

Mods, I haven't the slightest idea what's happened but somehow my signup appears to have registered twice? My requests are in the list twice, at any rate. Maybe an AO3 bug - let me know if there's anything you need me to do to fix it.

ETA - sorted - sorry!

[pumpkinkingmod]

No apologies necessary! I'm glad it worked out.

treat question

[(Anonymous)]

hi! are non-participants allowed to write/post treats? i didn't sign up, but some of the prompts are definitely catching my interest...

Re: treat question

[pumpkinkingmod]

Absolutely! Please do treat if you’re interested.

[(Anonymous)]

Will there be a beta post?

[pumpkinkingmod]

I hadn't thought to make one, but since you showed interest, sure!

[(Anonymous)]

Thanks!