Feedback post & poll

[linndechir.livejournal.com]

That's it,  the exchange is over, everything has been posted. A masterlist has been compiled [Poll #1796008][Poll #1796009][Poll #1796010]

Since this is the first time I've organised an exchange, some feedback about what you liked or disliked would be nice. Did you dislike anything about the organisation? About the sign-up form? About the posting schedule? About the way I generally ran things? Just let me know. I'm not saying that I will agree with every suggestion, but I definitely want to hear and think about them. ^^ Feel also free to leave any other sort of feedback on the exchange, if it made you discover new pairings, if you want to tell people about your favourite fic/art, whatever.

Oh, and one last question: depending on how much time will pass until the next exchange, would you be interested in participating in a kinkmeme or commentfics or writing challenges here on this comm to tide us over until the next exchange? I'm just asking because I wouldn't mind organising something, but there's no point to it if nobody wants to participate anyway.

Comments

[sternflammenden.livejournal.com]

I'd be all for challenges, especially a kinkmeme, as robellion has been dead for some time.

Positive feedback- The signup forms were the most complete of any exchange that I've seen, especially the option to list who we'd prefer to write about. That definitely helps to pair gifter/giftee up, especially if someone wants something eclectic.

[linndechir.livejournal.com]

Problem with kinkmemes is just that everybody posts prompts and nobody fills them. I mean, I'd be happy to have one here, but it's just frustrating when nothing ever gets filled.

Thanks, I'm glad that worked out. I suppose they were so ridiculously long because I felt like I should know as much as possible to give everyone the best possible gifter and giftee.

[lydzi.livejournal.com]

Maybe we could make a "special" exchange. All kinki stuff. Then again I can't write kinky stuff. I barely can't write anything in english let alone smut.

[bela0103.livejournal.com]

I'm all for this. it's fun not only to read a fic you want, but also because it makes you try harder to make something worth submitting.

[linndechir.livejournal.com]

Yay new participants! :) I know what you mean, you just try so much harder to make your giftee happy.

[luvscharlie.livejournal.com]

The only suggestions I would make is that if we didn't know who wrote for us right away, it might be a little more fun with the guessing of who the culprit might be and then the big reveal at the end is always fun.

And maybe not allowing people to cross post until the fest was over would keep your comment count up. I know I saw some of these appear in other communities before the fest was over and some of the comments may have ended up there rather than here.

Also, I'm sorry that you had people continuing to reassure you that they were still contributing only to disappear. That makes modding insanely hard because you want to believe that people will come through, so you give them every chance to turn in, and then when they don't it sends you scrambling to find a pinch hitter and a pinch hitter scrambling to churn something out quickly so that no one gets left without a gift. RL things happen, but stringing a mod along in such a manner is so frustrating.

The only thing I would add to the sign up form for the next round is a slot so we can tell you who we wrote for this time, so we'll get someone new the second time--although I'll request that my gifter not be allowed to do that so that she can be stuck with me again because my gift was lovely! *wink*

This was my first exchange in this fandom and it could not have been a more welcoming and lovely experience. ♥

[linndechir.livejournal.com]

Mhm, I see the point of the guessing, but anonymous posting is one of my biggest pet peeves. I just really, really hate it. ;) It's just so frustrating when someone comments on your fics, and you can't reply properly or have a proper discussion with other people because you have to be so careful that you don't tell anyone you write that fic. It's annoying. Also, in the past exchanges that I have been in, I felt like anonymous posting made people comment even less, because they just saw the fic without thinking about the person who wrote it.

I could ask people not to crosspost before the entire exchange is over, that's a good idea. But of course I have no way of keeping them from doing it, and if posting isn't anonymous, they probably do whatever they want anyway.

Yep, I was so ridiculously angry about that. I wrote a huge angry rant on my personal LJ because I didn't want to ruin the mood here on the exchange comm, but I was so angry. It's okay to drop out, I don't blame anybody for having more important things to do in their lives. But stringing me along like that and then not even having the decency to reply to my emails, that's just disgusting behaviour. It's why I'm so incredibly grateful to the pinch hitters.

I don't think I have to add that to the sign-up form because I know about it anyway. ;) I'll try to have some variety next time, but at least people who want rare pairings may end up together again. I don't have that many Greyjoy and Bolton fans to choose from. But I promise I'll take it into consideration when I assign the prompts next time.

Thank you. :D I'm so glad you enjoyed yourself, and I'm very grateful for your feedback.

[onthethruway01.livejournal.com]

I'm not the best artist, but I could use the practice. I'm not that familiar with GoT only having watched the show and not read the books, so I would only draw the characters I was familiar with. Otherwise, I'm up for a challenge!

[linndechir.livejournal.com]

I love your art. ^^ I'm glad someone would like to participate in challenges and such. Then again, if the next round happens really soon, there will probably no need for extra posts. Huh, I'll see about that once a date for the next exchange has been set.

[lydzi.livejournal.com]

I love your work bb <333

[keeper-of-stars.livejournal.com]

Congrats on a most excellently run fest! I've done many fests and exchanges like this, and this is definitley one of the smoothest I've seen. So great job! :D

My one thing has to do with the signup form. I REALLY wish that there had been a place to specify if you wanted book or show verse (or either). And the same goes for what you'd be willing to create. A lot of us only know this or that, or have seen the show and read only a book or two. So I wish that that would have been one of the questions. I mean, I did specify what I wanted, but I wasn't able to put it in it's own little spot. :P

As for commenting... :(. There was a lot I wanted to look at or read. But I couldn't because of book spoilers. Sorry!

I wouldn't participate in a kink meme or commentfic thing. Those just aren't my cup of tea. :P

Thanks again!

[linndechir.livejournal.com]

Thank you for the compliments. :) It's the first time I ever ran an exchange, and I'm so glad everything went well.

I did include a question about whether people have read the books, or not, or only some of them, but maybe I should have made it a bit clearer when people want only show-verse. I could add that next time, maybe something like "Have you read (all) the books? Please specify if you have any book vs. show preferences." But I did include it, and I told everyone whether their giftee had read the books or not.
As for the creation part ... the problem is that the large majority of all participants had at least read some of the books. I think there were only three or four people who hadn't read any of the books, so most people ended up asking for at least a few prompts that require knowledge of the books. I tried to make sure that everyone had at least two or three prompts they could actually work with, but I can't promise that everyone gets only prompts they can fill. :/

I understand, I wouldn't want anyone to spoil themselves, or to read things they don't want to read. It just makes me sad when people DO read fics, and then don't bother to leave a comment.

Okay, cool. :) Looking forward to having you around again for the next exchange. ^^

[lydzi.livejournal.com]

Oh oh you already know what I think of your work linndechir ^^. It was so smooth and nothing hurted.

I love how (almost *sight*) everyone participated and was in a really good spirit. First time I did something like that and it was very very pleasant :).

[linndechir.livejournal.com]

Thanks. :) I'm so glad everything went well. Almost everything, but still.

And I'm really happy that so far in the poll a lot of people are like, "let's do this again right away!" ^^

[tiptoethrough.livejournal.com]

I didn't participate this round (but I wish had) but I would maybe suggest adding a more official beta readers section with what type of works they'd prefer to beta, what their strengths/weaknesses are. It's so awkward just posting a list, we have no idea what sort of person those names are attached to, and contacting one of them seems a bit daunting.

[linndechir.livejournal.com]

That's a good point. I guess I was being lazy, telling people to go and check the sign-up form for themselves. I'll do better next time, ask people to specify what kind of fics they prefer to beta and then do a proper beta post that includes more information. You'd still have to contact some stranger from the list, but at least you'd have more info to go on. Thanks for the suggestion. :)

Glad you want to participate next time. :)

[oparu.livejournal.com]

I think the exchange went great! I loved how organised you were, with the detail in the form and the reminders...pretty much everything. You rock as a mod.

[linndechir.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much, it's great to hear that. :) Looks like I've found my purpose in life. ;)

[midnightblack07.livejournal.com]

I didn't participate in this round, but I've been watching the community and I really thing you did a wonderful job, congrats!! =)

&& I'd love to participate in the next round whenever you choose to have it (I think after January would be ideal as I'm working on an ASOIAF big_bang that's due then, but even so I'd make room for this hehe).

[linndechir.livejournal.com]

Thank you. :) And I'm looking forward to having them around next time.

Right now it looks like a lot of people want the next exchange to be right away, I hope that'd work out as well for you. If not, I'm fairly sure that if the next exchange happens in December/January, there will be another one in spring or so. When exactly is the big_bang due?

[ddelline.livejournal.com]

i was out late for this one, so i didn't participate. but i'm so excited at the prospect of a second exchange, and i'm definitely participating then, whenever it'll be. and congrats to a job well done on the first one!

[linndechir.livejournal.com]

Thank you. :) Looking forward to having you around for the next exchange. I need to improve my advertising, what with all these people who didn't hear of the exchange until the sign-ups were over. ;)

[janie-tangerine.livejournal.com]

It ran awesomely! I've done a lot of exchanges and really, this was one of the ones that was best-run objectively. And I had a lot of fun so I'd totally do it again.

The only suggestion I'd have/second from the list up there is having the beta readers list with a couple of lines specifying what/who they won't read (and whether they're okay with books too) so that it makes the process smoother. :) but really, that's the only improvement that comes to mind because the rest was very well done.

I'm sorry that the people who dropped out didn't contact you at all :/ that's just rude. If you can't do it, there's no shame in dropping out.. if you give enough notice so that pinch hitters have enough time to write their thing.

Also: I'd totally do a kink meme or fic meme or whatever - anonymous or not, no issues. (I usually can't be bothered to anon half of the time.)

[linndechir.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much. :) It's good to hear that people were happy with the way I ran things. :)

The suggestions about a better beta list really makes sense, I'll try to put up a more informative next time. I was really rather lazy this time. Thanks for the suggestion.

Exactly. I mean, I tried to be a friendly mod, not the kind of mod who's going to bitch if you drop out, as long as you do it in a civilised way. But just disappearing and ignoring me ... that's just low.

I don't get the whole anon thing anyway, unless you're really asking for crazy kinky shit (doesn't bother me either, but I see how it can bother other people). We'll see about the fic meme, considering that it looks right now like the next exchange will be fairly soon. But I can always post the fic meme, and then we'll see if people want to write or not. *shrug*

[rachel2205.livejournal.com]

First, THANK YOU for running the fest. It was awesome. :)

Second, I vote for slightly longer to do assignments, largely because my life tends to be so hectic during term time. If it's during the vacations it's less of a problem.

[linndechir.livejournal.com]

I'm glad everything went well, everybody seemed to be having fun. Thank you for participating. ^^ I mean, I just organised it, but all of that wouldn't help much if it weren't for the participants.

Right now it looks like the sign-ups may just happen in December, i.e. assignments would be sent out in mid-December or so. Now I know that Christmas is almost more hectic than school/work, but maybe that helps a little?

[rachel2205.livejournal.com]

ALSO I worked out who didn't fill their assignments, and what do you know, they also didn't give feedback on the gifts they received. Classy! Bleh.

[linndechir.livejournal.com]

Yep. Two really classy people, one of whom I see happily commenting in other ASOIAF comms, and every time I feel a little surge of rage and want to tell her what I think of her. I don't, but, hell, I want to. In very colourful words.

[ex-yaakov825.livejournal.com]

I very much enjoyed this exchange, and I'd like to participate in another. However, I signed up for a holiday fic exchange, and it's sapping my creative juices for the month. >.< I'll stick around, though, and jump in if there's a round three. :)

As for feedback, the six-weeks format worked very well. I haven't been in many fic exchanges before, but I loved this one. Everything ran very smoothly. Thanks so much for your hard work (AND my awesome fic!)

[linndechir.livejournal.com]

Pity you won't participate again right away, I need my fellow Stannis fan. ;) I mentioned it in the newer poll - if getting an extra week or two at the beginning of February would make a difference, I'm sure that'd be possible. If not, then there'll hopefully be a third round, yes. :D

Glad you enjoyed the exchange in general and your fic in particular. You know how much I adored the fic you wrote for me (which is why I'm so sad about you not participating next time ;)).