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.

[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. ♥

[luvscharlie.livejournal.com]

My biggest problem with a kink meme is it makes stalking so hard. They're usually anonymous and then someone goes and fills something beautifully, and I have no idea whose journal to stalk because the fill was anonymous.

[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.

[sternflammenden.livejournal.com]

This is true (I've been frustrated over at Dreamwidth w/this recently). Maybe just a general prompt meme with an "anything goes" option would be fun.

No, I appreciate the attention to detail. I was nervous on the other exchange because it wasn't as thorough (but it did work out).

[linndechir.livejournal.com]

Yes, I hate anonymous memes as well. We could try to make it non-anonymous, especially for not-kinky comment fics that shouldn't be a problem.

[linndechir.livejournal.com]

I was also considering a commentfic post with a limited number of threads, so basically you have to fill another prompt before you get to post a new one. But then probably nobody would ever participate. ;)

Yep, I think especially the "do not want" category is important because many people really have things they can't stand in fanfic.

[sternflammenden.livejournal.com]

This is a good point! Seconded.

[bela0103.livejournal.com]

Not only that, but sometimes you get a ship or a character you're not particulary good at, so it actually makes you improve your writing technics.

[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!

[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!

[keeper-of-stars.livejournal.com]

I just have to say that I don't like the idea of not allowing cross-posting. At all. If I've written soemthing and I've waited for it to be posted to a fest, I want to be able to post it to my fic community ASAP. It's not like I'm trying to steal your reviews or anything like that. But I can't help it, I want to get it out there!

Also, I know when I cross-post things for fests I ALWAYS link back to where the fic was originally posted on said fest. I also make sure to include a link to the community. So that's a little advertising for you.

[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. ^^

[linndechir.livejournal.com]

I understand, I'm pretty much the same. As soon as I've finished the fic I just want to post it everywhere, so I thought that allowing people to crosspost once their fic has been posted here would be a good compromise. But if the result is that people only read this stuff elsewhere and nobody comments here, well, that's not really the point either. :/ I'm not sure what to do.

Advertising is always good, I appreciate that. ^^

[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.

[onthethruway01.livejournal.com]

Awesome, thanks!

[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.

[lydzi.livejournal.com]

I love your work bb <333

[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 :).

[onthethruway01.livejournal.com]

awww.....I would draw GoT characters even if there wasn't a challenge. I love the show and hope to read the books someday.

[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!" ^^

[linndechir.livejournal.com]

I think the more limitations there are, the less people participate. :/ (Otherwise I'd be over here in my corner doing a Stannis only exchange. ;))