So, it is party time again, folks!

[wiseheart]

Each year this time, we launch my virtual birthday party, which starts on October 1 and ends on October 9 at midnight, sharp. The goals of the party are to post as many comments and collapse as many threads as possible, on as many new pages as we can. It is always great fun, as you can see if you check out the similar entries of the last few years.

This year, I'll also throw the real party at mid-time - and post the recipes of all the food that will be there for you, so that you can all participate if you want to. Virtual food has no calories.

Fandom-related discussions are as welcome as the ones about coffee or chocolate (just to name a few favourites from previous years), and, of course, pictures and recipes of birthday cakes. ;)

So, drop by, tell your story, post your pics or silly poems, ask questions you always wanted to ask and have a good time!

Soledad, in excited expectation




Oh, and by the way, to provide birthday gifts hobbit-style, I've got a revived story and a Kansas 2 update for you.

Enjoy!

Comments

[espresso-addict.livejournal.com]

Thanks for all the effort you are putting in! There seems to be quite an admin burden associated with hosting nominations on AO3, but perhaps in the pre-AO3 years it was always much smaller. The first year I participated (2004) I think there were only a few hundred of us! As you write it does allow bringing in a big pool of tag mod volunteers.

I must admit I'm really looking forward to seeing this year's tagset. I shall be interested to see what effect reducing noms to three has had -- beyond an increase in dental services. And obviously what fandoms I might want to offer.

[jenn-calaelen.livejournal.com]

Thank you! :)

I'm not sure how much work it was pre-AO3 - I know it worked differently, for example there was a list of banned fandoms that was automatically coded, so they didn't need anything doing. However, I got the impression that it was still a lot of work - and I have no idea how Elyn and Shalott managed it all themselves.

My overall impression this year is that there has been a lot more coordination in nominating, and the tag set is a bit higher than 2012/2011, but lower than last year. However, splitting up rpf fandoms will have had some of the impact. It will be very interesting to see how well matching works, especially as it turned out very well last year (but some people didn't like having to request at least 4 fandoms) and work out the numbers for next year from that.

[espresso-addict.livejournal.com]

I can't imagine how Shalott & Elyn managed; they must be superhuman! It's easy to knock the current system, but the ability to edit stories without having to e-mail Elyn is worth a lot of hassle.

I get the impression (I read coal when I'm having trouble sleeping sometimes) there's been a lot of sock-nominating -- there are multiple anons talking about having used 3 or 4 socks to nominate. I think the most useful thing for matching might be persuading people to check that someone (other than them) has requested at least some of the fandoms they've offered; most people I know check obsessively but I suspect others don't know how to or don't realise how important it is.

[jenn-calaelen.livejournal.com]

I don't think there have been a lot of people using socks. I suspect it is a very small group of people, but there is no way to confirm this with the current info. I'd love it in the future if we could see who had nominated, and what (as I suspect some of the really not rare noms come from socks eg Buffy). As far as I can see from everything, most people do try to follow the rules and participant in good faith - it is just a pity that some people don't, especially given how much time ends up being used trying to sort out the problems.
*nods* Encouraging people to check is the signup summary is good and possibly emphasising that if there are people with no possible recipients that it will hold up everyone getting their assignments. Hopefully explaining more agout how everything works will help.

[espresso-addict.livejournal.com]

It's never clear how many people are replying to coal and how far the culture spreads among ordinary participants. I'm relieved the knowledgeable view is that it's a tiny minority. Some of the big fandom noms were weird -- someone really seemed to be arguing for Teen Wolf, of all things! At least those are easy to discount.

More explanation is always good, I think. It's easy to forget that there are newbies every year and not everyone is particularly savvy with AO3.