2024 Sign-ups are open!

[rarepairmod]

Sign-Ups are now open! They will close on May 11th, 11:59PM EDT [ Countdown ] [ In your timezone ]

HELPFUL LINKS: | Tagset. | AO3 app | Exchange rules.

An AO3 account is required to participate. If you need an AO3 invite, please reach out to the mods via email.

Regarding requests:

• You can request a minimum of 3 unique fandoms with a maximum of 10 fandoms, with 1-10 ships and a choice of fiction, art, or both.


• There is a known bug with AO3 where the ship may be in the tagset but might not appear in the drop-down option. If that is the case, copy the ship from the tagset, paste it into the box (press enter afterwards), and AO3 should accept it.


• You can edit/delete your sign-up until the sign-up period closes. We will not be editing sign-ups when the sign-up period closes, so please make sure your sign-up contains the fandoms/ships you want and all the information your creator will need to create you a fanwork!


• If a sign-up does not include the required number of fandoms, it will be deleted when sign-ups close.


• Optional details can be added in the box provided. We encourage you to list your likes and do not wants and put prompts for your creator. This will give your creator a better picture of what you would/wouldn't enjoy.
  
  We strongly advise against using this as an opportunity to box your creator into making a specific type of work. (You risk having your sign-up deleted if you do this.)


• If you're requesting more than one ship, please do not express preferences for one fandom/ship over the rest in your optional details and/or letter. Your creator will be matching to any of the fandoms you select, so please make sure you request fandoms and ships you'd be happy to receive a fanwork for!


• Please make sure you list your do not wants (DNWs) clearly. We will not be upholding DNWs in the instance where one is violated if the DNWs are not clearly stated and are unreasonable. DNWs in letters will not be upheld if there is a violation in the fanwork you receive, so please ensure these are in the optional details of your sign-up.
  
  "Do not wants" are tropes, subjects, plots, etc. that you do not want to have incorporated into your gift because it would ruin your enjoyment of the work.
  
  Please avoid using defamatory language when expressing your dislikes and dealbreakers. What you dislike may be something someone else likes.


• If you're open to treats, please make a mention of this in the optional details of your sign-up. You're welcome to request only art and opt into fic treats and visa versa (as well as opt into both). You are also welcome to opt out of treats. Please remember stating you're open to treats does not guarantee you a treat.


• We also encourage you to write a letter to your creator if you wish to expand on your likes and prompts. This is optional and not at all mandatory. If you choose to create a letter, it must be completed by the time sign-ups close so you can to give your creator the maximum amount of time to work on your gift.


• All fandoms and ships requested and offered in this exchange must be chosen from the approved 2024 tagset.


• You will match based on one fandom, ship, and medium.


• If there aren't any offers that match your requests, you will go out for claiming as an initial pinch hit.


• Pinch hits will be posted after assignments are sent out.

Regarding offers:

• You must offer a minimum of 3 unique fandoms with at least 1 ship. You can offer a maximum of 10 offers and 10 ships per offer.


• You can offer a choice of art, fic, or both.


• You will be matched on one fandom, ship, and medium, so please review the requests carefully.


• If for some reason that you are not matched to what you offer, please contact the mods immediately. We will only change your assignment after they've been sent out if this occurs.


• You cannot swap assignments, so please ensure you offer what you are eager to create.


• Once sign-ups close, if there aren't any requests that match your offers, the mods will contact you at the email address associated with your AO3 account to see if there is anything else you can offer. If you do not reply within 24 hours, or there is nothing else you can offer, your sign-up will be deleted. Please check your email's junk/spam folders!

Regarding do not match requests:

• We accept do not match requests for this exchange and will accept them until sign-ups close.


• If you wish to not match to a participant, please email rarepairexmod@gmail.com letting us know your AO3 name, the AO3 name of the participant you would like not to be matched to, and what you would like us to do in the instance where you are their only match as a creator, you are their only match as a recipient, and you are a pinch hit. We don't need to know the reasons for this request. We'll do our best to uphold your request.


• Please do not use this as an opportunity to try and match to a specific creator.

A reminder about mandatory commenting on your assignment:

• Please be aware that if you sign up for this exchange, commenting on the fanwork you receive is mandatory for you to be able to participate in the next round.


• If you participated in our 2023 round and did not comment on your gift, you will not be able to participate in the 2024 round.

We may contact you if your sign-up breaks any of the above rules or is found to be in bad faith. We hold the right to delete your sign-up without warning if you act in bad faith. We want everyone to have fun enjoying their rare pairs!

If you have any questions or comments, you can either leave a comment here (anon is on, screening is not) or email the mods at rarepairexmod@gmail.com. Please allow us two business days to respond to you before following up.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

The request summary appears to be disabled right now, so no way to check if we're matchable.

[rarepairmod]

The Request Summary is an AO3 function that will display the requests after a handful of sign-ups have been submitted. We did just open sign-ups, so give it some time before checking!

[rubylily]

There are five people signed up so far, and I can't see the Requests Summary either, just the Sign-Up Summary.

[(Anonymous)]

The request summary should be a toggle you can enable in the collection settings, vs the sigh-up summary which AO3 generates.

[teddyaltman]

this may be a technical question for ao3 but: on the signups page, it asks what pseud i want to sign up with for my account. some of the fandoms i'd like to sign up for are ones i'd like to keep on a particular pseud when authors are revealed.

is it possible to change your pseud after matching or after posting? would it be against the rules to change pseuds after work/author reveals?

[rarepairmod]

I don't think it's possible to change your pseud after matching, but you can after posting. You can add an author to your work and then remove the first. However, if you try to edit your work once you do that, it may show up as defaulted on our end. It isn't against the rules, but please do reach out if you do that, just so we can keep track on our end.

I hope that answers your question! :)

[teddyaltman]

awesome, great to know!

[(Anonymous)]

Maybe a bit late, but saw another duplicate under The Magnus Archives (Podcast):
Georgie Barker/Melanie King (The Magnus Archives (Podcast))
Georgie Barker/Melanie King (The Magnus Archives)

[rarepairmod]

Thanks! "Georgie Barker/Melanie King (The Magnus Archives (Podcast))" has been removed from the tagset. :)

[kryptophaps]

Hello! I've never one one of these before, so I just wanted to double check, but am I correct in assuming that editing your sign ups means that you can edit or remove an offer as long as you don't go under the the minimum amount of offers? For example: if you offer A/B (X fandom), but then the requestor's outline turns out to be something you don't think you can pull off in a way that's satisfactory for them.

Thanks! =)

[rarepairmod]

Hi! It means you can edit any details on your sign-up, and that does include adding/removing fandoms or ships, only as long as sign ups are open. However, once sign ups close, you won't be able to do so anymore, and you won't be able to drop an offer once you've gotten an assignment if that is indeed what you matched on. You can either focus on the recip's other requests if possible or you will have to default, but that does mean you are no longer guaranteed a gift. I hope that answers your question.

Please feel free to reach out if you have any more. :)

[(Anonymous)]

Hi! I've run into the issue mentioned where pairings don't display despite being in the tag set. Ao3 is not, in fact, accepting these when I try to submit my signup. I get blocked with error messages that say:

These relationship tags in your request are not allowed in this challenge: (lists of pairings).

What now?

[rarepairmod]

Hi,

Did you copy the tag from the tagset or just write it out? If it doesn't match exactly, whether it's just an extra space, AO3 won't accept it. If you have, please let us know what ships are having an issue and we'll look into it further. :)

[(Anonymous)]

Can we offer (or request) more than 10 ships per fandom, through multiple offers/requests (with 3 fandoms minimum of course)? It's a bit unclear.

[rarepairmod]

Yes, as long as you have 3 unique fandoms requests/offers, you can repeat others. :)

[(Anonymous)]

what's going to happen to the requests and offers after the exchange ends? will they be visible? (thanks for organizing this!)

[rarepairmod]

Yes, they will remain visible after the exchange ends. If you want to see what it will look like, our 2023 collection (from last year's exchange) is here. I hope that answers your question. :)

[soryenn]

Hi,
The signup form says you can't have more than 10 requests, but you can in fact have more. Was this done on purpose to allow duplicate fandoms?

[rarepairmod]

Hi,

AO3 does allow you to keep adding fandoms once you hit 10, but if you try to hit submit, it won't be accepted because of the settings of this particular exchange. If, in fact, it is allowing you to submit, please let us know.

[merryfortune]

hiiiii I'm trying to do some requests for Delicious Party Pretty Cure and Star Twinkle Pretty Cure but none of the relationships I know I nominated are coming up when I select either of them. Any advice? I'm only setting bucket requests with a simple scenario which would suit any ship.

I also noticed weirdness with the Healin' Good Pretty Cure tag where only one ship comes up and I know i nominated more than one ship.

Any ideas?

[rarepairmod]

Hi,

That is actually a known bug on AO3's part that we warned people about at the top of this post. What you can do is copy/paste the exact tag from the tagset, hit enter, and AO3 should accept it. It has to be an exact match though - extra spaces or punctuation marks will cause a rejection.

[badwrongmrss]

Hello! I'm trying to submit for Twilight | Akagi Towa | Cure Scarlet/Shut (Pretty Cure) under
Go! プリンセスプリキュア | Go! Princess Pretty Cure. I also tried it the way it appears on the tagset: Shut/Twilight | Akagi Towa | Cure Scarlet (Go! プリンセスプリキュア | Go! Princess Pretty Cure) but i keep getting the message that its not allowed in this challenge.

I've taken it out for now but I would like to know if this ship and fandom is allowed in this exchange or not.

[rarepairmod]

Hi,

Any ship that is in the tagset is allowed in this exchange. I would recommend that you copy/paste it directly from the tagset rather than typing it out, if you haven't done so already. I just tested it out and it accepted my sign-up. If you still have issues, please let us know.

Error 500

[emylilas]

Hi! Thanks for setting up this great event.
I just wanted to check if anyone had encountered the same problems as me. After filling out the form (and checking I hadn't forgotten to fill a box), as I try to send it Ao3 keeps saying "Error 500". I've completed the request form they suggested to see if they could fix that issue after retrying to sign up a few times and I'm waiting for them to reach back. Just wanted to know if it was a me problem or an Ao3 problem some of you may have encountered.

Re: Error 500

[rarepairmod]

Hi,

It's our pleasure. I'm sorry you're having issues signing up. You're not alone in dealing with that particular issue. We're not sure what triggers AO3's error 500, but we can recommend that you clear your cache, make sure you don't have any other AO3 tabs open, and don't click too quickly. Hopefully that does the trick or support gets back to you soon.