trickortreatex | Creator Reveals!

Creators have been revealed! Thank you everyone for a great round, you all did amazing work.

Community Challenge Results
At last count, the community treated 234 people—85% of participants. Congratulations! The prize badges for Tiers 1 and 2 can be found at this post.

Thank you again to the anonymous artist for the custom badges, and thank you to shadowsapiens for running the treating spreadsheet.

2021 Feedback
I would love to get feedback on how the exchange went for participants this year, including:

- In general, is there anything that could be better clarified in the FAQ for next year?
- How was your experience with the community challenge?
- Did the addition of relationship matching negatively or positively impact your matchability, finding people to treat, etc?

Note: I won't be replying to every comment here but will get to questions as I can. If you'd prefer to give feedback privately, my email is halloweenmod@gmx.com.

I'll confirm whether TOT 2022 will include the option of relationship matching by the end of this month, so everyone has time to plan their 2022 exchange calendars.

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Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From: (Anonymous)

Thanks so much for running the exchange! I personally was very happy with the relationship matching.

From:

plaid_slytherin

This was me, sigh. Also, always love the community challenge being trying to get treats for everyone and the tier pictures were adorable.

Edited Date: 2021-11-08 01:04 am (UTC)

From: (Anonymous)

Please do not include relationship matching next year.

Please do not open the collection at midnight on a Sunday. Was there a reason it didn't open at noon on Halloween?

From:

pumpkinkingmod

Yes—I was keeping the schedule the same as the previous two years, which also opened at midnight UTC. I do plan to change that for next year.

From:

ashling

it went well! I enjoyed the relationships tag aspect, it did make it easier for me to slide in one last minute treat, but I don't feel terribly strongly about it one way or another

From:

ashling

oh and oh my goodness i forgot to say thank you. thank you! i know it must've been a lot of work with such a big one!

From:

vervulf

Thank you for running Trick or Treat this year! I had a great time. It felt like a real return to form. Last year I think everyone was a bit wrung out - the number of people left treatless at the end was super high. This year brought back that energy, excitement, and community-oriented feeling that really makes Trick or Treat what it is to me.

I enjoyed the community challenge and I think it pushed me to create more! I liked that it was simple but ambitious. I'd look forward to another one like it next year.

I think adding relationship matching made it easier to ask for what I really wanted. My signup was 90% characters, with only one ship, because I was interested in a broad variety of stories about the single characters I asked for but really only wanted shipfic for the ship I asked for. And I got exactly what I wanted! So from that perspective it was a success. I also found it made it easier to find people to treat, not harder. I wrote a mix of gen and shipfic, and some of that shipfic was for single-character requests. But I feel like generally the addition of ship-matching made it easier to find out exactly what people wanted and give it to them. So I hope ship matching is part of ToT next year as well!

From: (Anonymous)

- In general, is there anything that could be better clarified in the FAQ for next year?

PLEASE keep the relationship matching! It makes requesting so much easier!

- How was your experience with the community challenge?

Had a lot of fun! Got some ideas I been holding in out!

- Did the addition of relationship matching negatively or positively impact your matchability, finding people to treat, etc?

Nope!

~Kameiko

Thanks for running an amazing exchange!

From:

klutzygirl

Despite my initial hesitation about relationship matching, I think it worked out rather well and we should keep it for next year!

From:

firecat

I would prefer relationship matching to remain an option.

The community challenge encouraged me to write a treat!

From:

sodium_amytal

Please keep relationship matching next year! It makes it so much easier for me to request and treat. ^_^
The community challenge was fun and encouraged me to create treats~
Thank you for running the exchange!

From:

shadowsapiens

I'm strongly in favor of keeping relationship matching as an option for next year! I requested both characters and relationships, and I appreciated not having to drop the characters I only want in a specific ship. I've been in a lot of danmei fandoms recently, where I get very OTP-focused ;)

On offers, this might have been the most matchable I've ever been in Trick or Treat. I was able to offer some fandoms that I'd previously had to drop due to interest mismatches that were impossible to avoid with character-only matching.

Trick or Treat was my first ever exchange, and I've been participating since 2015. I have a great time every year, and previously didn't have a strong opinion on character vs. mixed matching. But it was fantastic for me this year, and I would like to have it again for future TOTs :)

edit: because I was curious and had the CSV, I ran some numbers on requests. I don't believe mixed matching led to relationships taking over the exchange -- most people wanted a mix.

Participants requesting just relationships: 25 (9%)
Participants requesting just characters: 41 (15%)
Participants requesting a mix of both: 209 (76%)

edit 2: I was also curious about concerns that mixed matching would make people think requesting characters was inherently a gen request. Looking at the gifts received by the 41 people who requested only characters, I think the numbers may be reassuring for that concern. Of those 41 people:

8 (20%) received just ship gift(s).
14 (34%) received just gen gift(s).
18 (44%) received a mix of both gen and ship gifts.

Edited Date: 2021-11-09 06:29 pm (UTC)

From:

anaisonfire

I loved the community challenge! Getting everyone a treat was an awesome goal to work towards.

I'm not particularly attached to character or relationship matching either way. I find ships easier to write, so that definitely pushed me towards actually treating instead of just thinking about it, but I got an awesome gift for a character request, so I'd definitely sign up even if relationship matching goes away!

This is my first year doing ToT and I had a great time, so thank you for running this :D

From:

anaisonfire

I reread and I wanted to clarify - I meant that I don't particularly whether ship matching stays or goes. I like the character matching and I want it to stay, whether alone or alongside ships.

From:

meinterrupted

I enjoyed the relationship matching and would prefer it be kept, in addition to the character matching. Using the character field rather than trying to do "Character & None" in the relationship field was the right choice as well. It didn't hinder anything and made it easier for me to see at a glance whether someone wanted shipfic or gen or a mix. Unfortunately I wasn't able to contribute to the treating in the end, since my main gift ended up being, uh, MANY times the minimum, but the point stands.

From:

snickfic

I appreciate your asking for feedback! I'll reiterate what I said at the beginning, which is that ToT was special for being a character matching exchange, and that really affected how I was able to approach the exchange both as a recipient and a writer. I chose to sit this round out, but I would really like to see the exchange return to character matching only for 2022.

From:

kore

I agree 100% with this, you said it perfectly.

(no subject)

From:

shinsengumi - Date: 2021-11-08 02:09 pm (UTC) - Expand

From:

fleetsparrow

I thought everything went well, and I loved the relationship matching aspect, because it just helps when looking for treats for most fandoms.

From:

peaked

I just wanted to say a big thank you to you for running this year's exchange! I wasn't intending to participate for personal reasons, but I'm glad that I was able to. This was my first time participating in Trick or Treat and I had a blast.

I only participated as a pinch hitter and treater, so I can't give any feedback regarding the matching when it comes to nominations and signing up. I did end up writing ships or gen pairings based on those tags vs. individual character tags.

I loved the community challenge! It encouraged me to write a lot more than I would've. I thought it was a great activity for the community to do at large, and I had a lot of fun as I got to write in new fandoms and write new characters, too. I thought it was really good to encourage treats and I would love to see it come back next year. (The badges were also so cute!) I think it would be great to have some emphasis on the community challenge at the beginning of the writing period so that we might not have a big rush towards the end of the exchange and the anon reveals.

Thank you again!

From:

isis

I completely don't care about having both ship and character matching, but if you keep ship matching, please don't get rid of character matching. I really like having character matching available in this exchange.

I was one of the 15% but I'm okay with that :-)

From:

kimaracretak

I sat out this round because of relationship matching, in terms of signing up as well as treating, pinch-hitting, and ultimately reading, and will continue to refrain from participating in any way as long as relationship matching remains. Like

snickfic, I stand by what I said at the beginning of the exchange - that character matching was special, and ToT becoming just like any other ship-matching exchange on the calendar is a loss to both the specific exchange as well as the general multifandom exchange scene.

From:

zdenka

I chose not to be involved this year because of the last-minute changes. I would participate again if it went back to only character matching. I agree with

kimaracretak that the character matching is important to Trick or Treat and part of what made it unique. There are many other relationship matching exchanges that I happily participate in, but it feels like a loss if all exchanges become homogenized.

From: (Anonymous)

Please go back to character matching. I echo snickfic and kimaracretak's sentiments. OR Character matching was unique and special for this exchange.

From: (Anonymous)

I had a great time this year! I only asked for characters because I prefer character matching, but I don't think people asking for ships negatively affected me in any way. I was still matchable and still had plenty of people to treat. The community challenge was an excellent choice and I enjoyed that as well. Thanks for running things!

From: (Anonymous)

Thanks for running the exchange! I don't have any preference regarding relationship matching vs character matching - it didn't have any noticeable effect on my experience this year. The only thing I'd like to change is the time the collection opens. Making it earlier in the day would be great.

From:

meteordust

Please count me in as a vote for going back to character matching! It's one of the things I love most about Trick or Treat. I love the unique atmosphere it gives the exchange. I love the flexibility of having a character be the focus, and being able to mix it up with different prompts for gen relationships, shippy relationships, and solo character stories. I've happily written and received all three under the original matching system.

If I know I only want relationship matching for a particular fandom, I save that for Chocolate Box or Shipoween or another exchange that matches on it. Trick or Treat is the exchange I go to for character matching, and I look forward to it every year.

This year, I had no problem matching on my offers, but I did have some issues matching on my requests. It's impossible to pinpoint any one cause. But I do wonder if the changes to matching this year meant the participant pool was skewed, away from people who like solo character matching, and towards people who like relationship matching?

In future years, I'm going to continue to request and offer solo characters regardless, because that's what makes Trick or Treat appealing to me. But obviously my matchability is affected by what proportion of other participants request and offer solo characters too.

Thank you for running this round! I especially enjoyed the community challenge and its cute Halloween themed rewards.

From:

theladyscribe

I sat out this year because of my disappointment about the shift to adding relationship matching. The unexpectedness and short notice of that change really soured the event for me. Like others have mentioned, the fact that TOT was character-matching is part of what made it special, especially given how ship-focused the vast majority of exchanges are these days. I'm still pretty bummed about the change, and I hope you're considering changing it back.

From:

sheliak

Please, please, please go back to character matching only next year.

I participate in lots of ship-matching exchanges, but what was special about this one for me was that it was character OR matching. The trick/treat aspect, whatever; the low wordcount is nice but not really important to me. Character matching made the exchange for me, and ship matching broke it.

That sounds awfully dramatic. But I sat the exchange out this year because of this change, and if it stays I'm pretty sure I won't be coming back.

I didn't sign up this year because I realized that I was sad rather than excited about the exchange; didn't treat for the same reason. I actually unfollowed the comm because it was making me sad seeing it on my reading list. I didn't read anything in the collection. Or even look at art, and Trick or Treat art is usually one of the highlights of my autumn.

I feel like something I loved died, and I didn't realize how much I loved it until it was gone.

From: (Anonymous)

Chiming in to say that I'm disappointed with the switch to relationship matching. I've been doing Trick or Treat on and off since the beginning, but I sat this round out because I was disappointed by the matching change. For me, character matching exchanges have a number of advantages that are lost with a ship matching exchange, even one where character matching is still possible. I'm a multishipper who likes a number of ships, poly ships, and gen scenarios for my favorite characters. The character-matching version of TOT allowed me to pool everything for one character under a single prompt, including all my (many!) ships and polyships + all the friendships and platonic relationships I like + all the non-shippy spooky/autumnal/Halloween scenarios I'm interested in. While I can still prompt and request all these with ship matching, I would have to request dozens of ships instead of a single character. Also, the norm in ship matching exchanges is that single character requests are used for gen or solo requests rather than "any ship with this character," and some writers are uncomfortable writing unrequested ships. Character matching normalized requests that might be open to lots of different ships or gen scenarios, and I feel like that openness is lost with a ship matching exchange.

From:

azurrys

I loved having relationship matching as an option this year, and I would like to have it for future rounds as well! I was inspired to request and create for both individual characters and ships, and the addition of ship matching and shippy requests made my experience even better.

I'd like to add another vote for changing the collection opening time too. Noon would be great.

Thank you for another fantastic round of Trick or Treat!