Creator Reveals!

[pumpkinkingmod]

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.

Comments

[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.

[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.

[(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.

[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!

[(Anonymous)]

This was my first Trick or Treat so I can't speak for if ship matching changed anything, but I had a great time and hope Trick or Treat stays the same next year! Though I am another vote for the collection opening earlier. Maybe 3-ish hours earlier than this year if that's possible? Either way, thank you for running the exchange!

[alchemise]

I'd prefer going back to character matching only. I loved that that was one of the things that made this exchange special. I still participated this year, and had a nice time, but I had fewer matching options sticking only with characters.

[positivelyvexed]

Relationship matching definitely improved my experience this year. I'd love to see it return next year.

[kore]

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

[allekha]

I did not participate this year because I did not like the addition of relationship matching or how it was implemented suddenly and last minute. It really soured me on what had been my favorite exchange. Having only character matching was one thing that made ToT a unique exchange to me, and looking at the requests, I would've had a much harder time matching this year if I had tried to participate with only character matching, because as I expected, many requests in fandoms I am familiar with only selected relationships this year. If relationship matching stays, I will continue not to participate.

[(Anonymous)]

As an exchange newbie - I've only done yuletide once - I was planning on joining ToT for the first time this year, because I really wanted to try character OR matching. The switch to relationship matching made me decide not to bother. Even though technically character matching was still allowed, it felt like gen writing was being devalued and turned into a second class citizen tolerated on sufferance but not really wanted. Which maybe just is the reality of how fandom feels about it...

[nrgburst]

I matched on a ship but chose to write for an individual character prompt in another fandom instead. I got two shippy treats. So I would say the ship matching worked for me as a recipient and didn't negatively affect the single character focused fic I came up with myself - what mattered more were my recip's prompts and how they inspired me.

Also what a great community challenge! It was awesome to see so many treats! 🧡🖤🎃

[(Anonymous)]

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

I'd appreciate a little more clarity on the sock rule! It says if one account is banned, both will be - does that mean people are expected to declare their socks? Also a little more explanation about OR matching would be appreciated! I know how it goes from previous years but I do think that section is a little confusing for newbs.

- How was your experience with the community challenge?

Spectacular! I had a lot of fun treating people. I love the spreadsheet especially, it makes it so easy to find people.

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

I matched on a character, same as always, so no changes there! I think people requesting ships made it a little easier to find people to treat - I treated &, /, and single-character requests, but having the clarity of knowing at a glance when people wanted a focus on a specific relationship made things easy.

[desertvixen]

I was okay with the option to have relationship-matching but nominated characters only. If the relationships do stay, please leave it do characters and relationships are separate fields (i.e. no "Madame Leota & None")

[greerwatson]

Thank you so much for taking over as mod this year. I didn't find the new option for relationship matching affected things much. I basically nominated/requested/offered mostly characters anyway, with a few & relationships tossed in. So my experience in that respect wasn't all that different from in previous years.

Except that this year I got three treats! They and my main gift were all delicious, so I'm pretty thrilled.

[sandrine]

I didn't participate in the last couple of years because of the character matching and did Shipoween instead, but I returned to Trick or Treat this year and had a fantastic time! I feel very strongly in favor of relationship matching, and I really hope it's here to stay. I'd love to do Trick or Treat again next year, and character-matching-only would make this very unlikely.

Like others said, I would have preferred a slightly earlier opening time on Halloween, but that's my only quibble.

[(Anonymous)]

- Did the addition of relationship matching negatively or positively impact your matchability, finding people to treat, etc?
It made me feel a bit bored, so I sat this round of the exchange out. I liked the only-character matching as a less common feature for TOT.

Still, I did enjoy going through the works. A lot of great fanworks were produced this year too.

[(Anonymous)]

I was extremely happy that ToT finally included shipping matching as an option. As someone who likes ship matching for some fandoms and character matching for others, it was great that I could actually ask for what I wanted in every fandom and offer things I wanted to write without having to game around people whose ship/gen preferences were different from mine. It was great to have both those things in one exchange instead of having to do two separate, otherwise identical exchanges. It made the exchange experience much more enjoyable and relaxing for me. Please keep relationship matching.

The community challenge was great!

It would be nice if the collection opened earlier next year so it's still Halloween in more timezones.

[chicago_ruth]

This was my first time participating in ToT. I usually sat it out due to the lack of ship matching, so I'm strongly in favor of keeping ship matching.

I even surprised myself by requesting individual characters in some fandoms. I think having both options is the best of both worlds.

[(Anonymous)]

FYI, that's not actually possible to do with AO3 exchange matching when you're also trying to match on medium (art or fic.) You have to either choose the Character field (thus requiring ships be nominated as something like Group: Character A/Character B) or the Relationship field (this requiring characters be nominated as something like Character A & None) for all characters and ships, and then use the spare slot for art/fic. Most exchanges pick the relationship field for characters/ships, because relationship tags tend to be longer in general and AO3 has a hard 100-character limit on all tags, so having to add "group" creates more problems.

[(Anonymous)]

I treated &, /, and single-character requests, but having the clarity of knowing at a glance when people wanted a focus on a specific relationship made things easy.

I liked this for treats and for offers! It's much quicker than clicking on the letters or reading the requests just to see if somebody wants gen I can write or a ship I can write.

[(Anonymous)]

My only issue was the opening time, as others have said. I'm glad to hear that this will be different next year!

[shadaras]

I liked the community challenge! It was simple and cute, and I think that was a good choice. :)

I still prefer character matching only for this exchange, for the reasons snickfic, kimaracretak, and others have listed. I personally felt less into looking around for treats when I'd need to sort through all the relationship requests instead of going "I wanna write about X character, who's interested in them?". I don't mind writing relationships, but I find it easier to treat when I'm not locked into any specific relationship. (Especially since almost every other exchange does relationship matching!)

Also, I see people talking about the timing of reveals. I have zero problem with when reveals currently are, but tbh I really have no feelings about when reveals happen so long as the reveals time is clearly stated. (And, especially for a long-running exchange like this, any change in that time is mentioned well in advance and highlighted for people running off habit.)

[tehexile]

its been fine for me, I liked what I received, my gift seemed to go down well

[naryrising]

I very much preferred having the relationship matching option available. It makes me more likely to continue to participate if relationship matching remains an option alongside character matching, as I think it helps people who want relationships match with one another and people who want character-centric fic or gen to match with one another, improving the chances of people getting something they enjoy.

The community challenge was fun and I did write a treat for it!

[shinsengumi]

+1 to everything said here.