Rules and FAQ

[wintermod]

Adapted with some changes from summertimesadnessexchange (thank you).

All participants must be over 18 and have an AO3 account.

Matching will be done on: fandom, relationship, medium, and freeform. Archive warnings are included as opt-ins on the sign-up form, but will not be matched on.

Minimum requirements: 500 words, or a sketch on unlined paper. The fanwork must not have a happy ending.

Nominations

Nomination clarifications will be posted to this Dreamwidth community. If a clarification query is unanswered by the end of nominations, the mod may edit or reject the tags.

Relationship Tags

You may nominate 1-10 fandoms with 1-10 relationships each.

Please disambiguate all nominations: add the fandom in parentheses to the end, e.g. Harry Potter/Draco Malfoy (Harry Potter - J.K. Rowling)

Nominate relationships under a specific media type or fandom instalment if possible. Nominations under an All Media Types and/or Related Fandoms fandom will be queried.

Will be accepted:

& relationships, / relationships, and relationships of more than 2 people

Crossovers and Original Work

'Character & none' and 'Character & any' relationships

RPF. All people involved should be over 18 and famous in their own right.

Will not be accepted:

Inanimate objects and abstract concepts, e.g. Draco Malfoy/His Inferiority Complex


Freeform Tags

You may nominate 1-10 freeform tags.

Freeform tags should be canon-agnostic, i.e. can be applied to any canon and do not require a [specific canon] AU to fulfill. For example, 'fatal duel with energy swords' is OK; 'fatal lightsaber duel' will not be accepted.

Freeform tags should relate in some way to an unhappily ever after. For example, 'Regency AU' will not fit the exchange theme; 'forced to marry against their will in a Regency AU' is fine.

Tags cannot exceed 100 characters long (this is an AO3 limit). If your tag exceeds that length, it may be too specific or detailed; consider including it as a prompt instead.

Sign-ups

The minimum you may request/offer is: 3 unique fandoms with 1 relationship, 1 medium, 0 archive warning tags (request only; all participants are opted into No Archive Warnings Apply by default), and 4 freeforms each.

The maximum you may request/offer is: 10 unique fandoms with 10 relationships, 2 mediums, 4 archive warning tags (request only), and 20 freeform tags each.

You may request/offer the same fandom multiple times with different ships/characters/freeforms, as long as your overall requests/offers include 3 unique fandoms.

Each request in the sign-up form will include an Optional Details text box where you can provide likes, prompts, or other optional guidance for your creator.

If there is content you do not wish to receive, list these clearly marked as Do Not Wants/DNWs in the Optional Details box. Your creator will be required to respect these DNWs.

You may link an external Dear Creator letter if you wish.

A note on DNWs and 'Any':
If you choose the 'Any' tag for relationships, this means you are requesting/offering any relationship in the tag set, not the fandom. Do not select Any Relationship and then DNW a particular relationship, or Any Freeform and then DNW a particular freeform. Similarly, do not DNW archive warnings you opt into.

If your DNWs contradict your request, the mod will send you a message first but may delete your sign-up if you do not respond or correct it.

Archive warnings in the sign-up form are opt-in. For example, if you are fine with Major Character Death, select the MCD archive warning and the creator will have the option of including character death or not (they are not required to do so).

Everyone is opted into No Archive Warnings Apply by default.

A note on archive warnings:
Your archive warning selection must align with your sign-up. For example, if you pick freeform tags that include noncon, please opt-in to the noncon archive warning. Additionally, do not DNW archive warnings you have opted into.

If your selected archive warnings do not align with the request they were selected for, the mod will send you a message first but may delete your sign-up if you do not respond or correct it.

Matching

Matching will be done on fandom, relationship, medium, and freeform tags. Matching will not be done on archive warnings.

You will be assigned a sign-up containing at least 1 fandom you offered, and that request will also include a relationship, medium, and freeform tag you offered within that fandom.

You will be matched to a creator on at least 1 of your requested fandoms, on a relationship, medium, and freeform tag in that request.

Assignments

Please create a gift of at least 500 words, or a sketch on unlined paper, fulfilling one of your recipient's requests.

You can create for any request in your assignment, which does not need to be the request you matched on.

Do not include any of your recipient's Do Not Wants/DNWs.

Do not include archive warnings your recipient has not opted into.

If you have a question about your assignment, please contact the mod (DM wintermod, or email wintertime.woes.exchange@gmail.com), who will pass on your question to your recipient. Please do not contact your recipient directly.

Assignments are anonymous. Please do not discuss your assignment work in public, share snippets of the work, or include identifying information (such as links to your social media) until the anonymous period is over and creators are revealed. It is OK to credit your beta(s). Artists: It is OK to watermark or sign your gift work.

Please treat your assignment with the care you hope to receive in a gift. All works posted to the collection should be complete and ready to go live if you are unable to make further changes to it. If you post work that is incomplete, has been posted before wholly or in part, has excessive spelling or grammar errors, or is AI-generated, you may be auto-defaulted from this round and/or banned in future rounds.

Defaulting

If you are unable to complete your gift by the assignment due date, please default as soon as possible so that we may find your recipient another creator. To default, go to My Assignments on your AO3 profile, locate your Wintertime Woes assignment, and click the Default button.

Once you have defaulted, you will not be guaranteed a gift in the exchange.

If you do not submit a gift and did not default before the deadline, you will be barred from signing up to this exchange in the future until you either write a treat fulfilling the minimum requirements, or post your original assignment as a treat.

Post-deadline defaults or treats to summertimesadnessexchange will not count for this exchange.

Pinch Hits

Pinch hits will be posted to this Dreamwidth community.

The collection will not open until all signed-up participants who have submitted their assignment have also received a gift.

Pinch hitters do not need to be signed up to the exchange, but they will need an AO3 account.

Treats

Treats are welcome! If you are open to receiving treats, please also enable the 'Allow anyone to gift me treats' option in your AO3 profile.

Treat creators do not need to be signed up to the exchange, but the treat should be gifted to someone signed up to the exchange.

Treats do not have to fulfill the minimum word count requirement, but should still be for a requested combination of fandom, relationship, archive warning, and media type, and should not have a happy ending.