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sgareversebang2015-01-30 06:14 pm
A New Bang!
Hello everyone – your mods have been thinking about the SGA Reversebang, and we wanted to tell you our ideas and get some feedback.
We still want to have an annual challenge that offers the chance to create a good-sized fanwork (art, fic, etc.), but we’d like to manage that differently.
There was some feedback during the last round in 2014, and your mods have had some thoughts, based on the inherent difficulties with the Reversebang’s structure when pinch hitters are needed. These are the issues that have cropped up, and our suggestions.
- Some people thought the 10,000 word count minimum for fics was too long and we should drop it to 5000.
- Your mods are keen to move the challenge to the AO3 for final posting, as coordinating many different people posting to DW and LJ is pretty difficult. We’d provide clear instructions for AO3 posting and tech support if anyone new to AO3 had problems, but it does get rid of the html formatting issues, and makes it a lot easier to do links between primary and complementary works. So the organizing, sign-ups and claiming would still happen on Dreamwidth (with admin posts and notices mirrored on LJ) but the final works would be posted to AO3 (to a specific Collection for the Bang).
- As mods, we also want to suggest making it a more varied Bang – not just about art and stories but including almost any other type of fanwork people want to do. This is a structure that works really well in some other fandoms and it adds variety and diversity, and makes it easier to manage pinch hits because they don’t all have to be 10,000-word stories, which are really hard to pull out of a hat at the 11th hour (speaking from sleep-deprived experience here!) We’d need to change the challenge’s name if we do this, and create a new site for it, linked to the current Reversebang site.
- The way this new challenge would be organized is in two stages. First there’s a “comment party” post put up by the mods on Dreamwidth that calls for people to respond who want to do a more major or “primary” work – could be art, fic, a vid, a podfic, a major craft project, etc. etc. The creator planning a primary work would give some details about their idea – a brief summary of the type and focus of an artwork, or some details about the fic they plan to write, or their amazing plan to build a macaroni sculpture of a puddlejumper. It doesn’t require any of the primary work to be completed, but you do have to decide on a project and describe it in enough detail to get others interested in doing complementary works. Each of these primary post comments then becomes a focus for others to reply (in the same thread) who are interested and want to create some sort of complementary work – again with a wide variety as to what type of complement that might be (fic, art, a vid, a knitted P-90, etc.). So the party post is for ideas, chat, squee, and for people to join in around a primary work. Sometimes there’s a small team of people doing various complements for a primary work, and sometimes it’s more like the Reversebang with a primary work and one main complement being planned. You can see an example of this in The Losers fandom.
Then once the party post has had time to gather in a number of primary creators and their planned complement-makers, there’s a more formal sign-up post – initially just open to the primary creators who give pretty much the same information about their planned primary work – maybe firmed up a bit after the interactions of the party post. We’d also want people at this stage to say whether their work would be gen or pairing-centered and to give the usual warnings as for the Reversebang (they might well already have mentioned this in the party post, but it’d definitely be needed here). A bit later, these primary works posts are opened up to complementary creators to add a comment making a commitment to create a complementary work. So that’s the more definite sign-up post for everyone, whereas the party post is a looser brainstorming place and doesn’t commit people to producing a work. All of this would be happening on Dreamwidth – it needs to be on one site, as otherwise it’s too confusing. - Your mods would also make it clear what sort of minimum size is expected in a primary work or in a complementary work. Your mods’ initial ideas for this are in this Table about the size and variety of works. You can offer to do more than one complement, across more than one primary work.
- The other thing to figure out is when to run this new SGA challenge. We’re going to poll you about that part but it’ll be somewhere from July to September.
So, a lot of new ideas and a few things we want to ask you about – here’s the poll!
The Reversebang's likely to change to a new model as above:
I would definitely want to do a primary work
8 (21.6%)
I would definitely want to do 1 or more complementary works
7 (18.9%)
I might want to do a primary work
19 (51.4%)
I might want to do a complementary work
18 (48.6%)
I'm not interested in taking part
0 (0.0%)
I have other questions or issues with this which I'll put in a comment
4 (10.8%)
I don't want to join in as a creator but I like the sound of these ideas - go for it!
3 (8.1%)
I just read and look at the art, and I don't like this - leave it as is
1 (2.7%)
The new challenge wouldn't just be a "Reversebang" so it'd need a new name - here's my suggestion! (if you suggest more than one name, separate them with semi-colons)
The "comment party" and sign-up posts leading up to the new Bang would take about 3 weeks, then there'd be a further 3 months for works to be created and posted as final drafts. After that there’d be another 3 weeks before the go-live. It’d work for me if the final go-live on AO3 happened in:
July
9 (29.0%)
August
19 (61.3%)
September
15 (48.4%)
Some other or more specific time-period which I’ll explain in a comment
0 (0.0%)
I've seen the proposed table of different types of primary and complementary works:
That looks fine
11 (31.4%)
For a primary fic the minimum word count should be 10,000 words
6 (17.1%)
For a primary fic the minimum word count should be 5,000 words
13 (37.1%)
I don't care what the word count minimum is for fics
6 (17.1%)
I have other suggestions which I'll put in a comment
3 (8.6%)
The "comment party" and sign-up posts would be on Dreamwidth:
Great – Dreamwidth's what I prefer
12 (33.3%)
Dreamwidth's okay
24 (66.7%)
I won't take part – I only use Livejournal
0 (0.0%)
I can use OpenID to join in on Dreamwidth (the mods will explain how)
0 (0.0%)
Final posting of works would be to AO3. (What if you’re not a member of AO3? AO3 has temporarily ceased accepting new members from the automated queue, as an antispam measure, but your mods can still give you an invite code which WILL be accepted):
Yay! - I much prefer using AO3
20 (57.1%)
I'd have posted to AO3 anyway so that'll save me a post
24 (68.6%)
I haven't joined AO3 yet and despite what you say I'm worried I might not be able to enroll
0 (0.0%)
I dislike using AO3 so I won't join the challenge
0 (0.0%)
I've got a different issue that I'll put in a comment
1 (2.9%)
Stargate fandoms aren't as big as they used to be - should we be more inclusive?
Sure, make it an all-Stargate Bang (SG1, SGA and SGU)
18 (50.0%)
No, I just want it to stay an SGA Bang
5 (13.9%)
It can be for SGA and SG1 works, but not SGU
4 (11.1%)
It should focus on SGA, but SG1 and SGU are okay in crossovers
13 (36.1%)
I'm going to discuss this in more detail, in a comment
3 (8.3%)
Thanks for giving feedback! Feel free to ask other questions and raise anything else, in the comments.
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Mific is the one with Ante Up Losers experience, so I'll defer to her, but I do know that for this year's AUL there was one writer who posted the first few chapters of a WIP for the bang, and finished at over 100,000 words. If someone is inspired and on fire, that's wonderful! Surpassing the minimums is more than possible. However, one of the reasons we are making changes this year is that it is always hard to find pinch hitters who can write a 10,000 word story (sometimes in as little as a week). We really want to take (some of the ) the pressure off and increase the fun for participants! - busaikko
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The "comment party" and sign-up posts leading up to the new Bang would take about 3 weeks,
then there'd be a further 3 months for works to be created and posted as final drafts.
After that there’d be another 3 weeks before the go-live.
We haven't set actual dates yet - we're polling about that.
There's not so much difference in this new model as to how much time the primary work creators get as opposed to the complement makers. The primary works creators need to keep their group of complement-makers up to date and send them drafts in progress, or outlines, or nearly-completed art, or the rough-cut of a vid, etc. etc. so the complementers have enough to go on to be inspired for their own work. That happens off-screen, via email updates etc., with the fully finished works - primary and complementary - only being revealed in the final go-live.
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What if the first roster of claimers gets 10K minimum, and pinch hitters are required a complete story of 5K minimum and/or an advanced date posting?
Thanks for remember me to watch the place, clearly I totally forgot. ^^;
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