rarepairexchange | Rules & Guidelines

Here are the rules and guidelines for the community/exchange. Please feel free to leave any and all questions in the comments (anonymous commenting is on) or you are welcome to email rarepairexmod@gmail.com. (If you email us, please allow two business days for a response before following up.)

Eligibility:

You must be 18+ to participate in this exchange. Only one sign-up per person.

A pairing must fill the following criteria to be eligible:
1. Be a "/" ship
2. Have no more than 250 works works on AO3, completed (no WIPs), and written in English, while using the otp:true filter

Nominations:

Will be done on AO3. An AO3 account is required to participate.

A nominations post will be made once it is time for them to open.

Each participant may nominate up to 10 fandoms with up to 10 relationships in each. Ships must be disambiguated with their fandom tag (e.g. Maria Hill/Sam Wilson (MCU)).

All fandoms and ships requested and offered in this exchange must be chosen from those nominated into the tagset. Should you miss nominations and are able to message the mods in between the time that they close until the time that sign-ups open, additions can be made on your behalf.

RPF: RPF is permitted, subject to eligibility as outlined above. Non-famous family members are not eligible. Under-18s are not eligible for modern RPF.

Threesomes/moresomes: are allowed, as long as they are eligible.

Crossovers: Crossover ships are permitted, subject to the eligibility rules above. These should be nominated under 'Crossover Fandom' with the fandom name for each character in brackets, e.g. Natasha Romanov (MCU)/Leia Organa (Star Wars: Original Trilogy).

Original characters in non-original canons: You may nominate Character/Original Character(s) and are welcome to be as specific or as broad as you wish, e.g. Leia Organa/Original Jedi Character (Star Wars) or Steve Rogers/Original Male Character (MCU). If you don't state the preferred gender and you are matched on that ship, you can not box the creator in on one type of ship so please keep that in mind while nominating.

Original Works: Original ships are permitted. These must be nominated under 'Original Work' in the format 'Character Type/Character Type' e.g. ‘Princess/Maid', 'Pilot/Soldier/General', etc. Again, please be specific if you would like a preferred gender combination.

We do not allow Reader/Canon Character pairings to be nominated for this exchange.

We do not allow recursive fandoms to be nominated in this exchange. (Update added as of 16-May 2023.)

Sign-Ups:

An AO3 account is required to sign-up/participate.

You can request 3-10 fandoms with 1-10 ships and a choice of fiction, art, or both. While you can repeat fandoms, you need to have 3 unique ones.

You can offer 3-10 fandoms with 1-10 ships and a choice of fiction, art, or both.

If you requesting one or the other and are open to treats (e.g. requesting fic but welcome art treats), please make a mention of it in the details of your sign-up.

You can edit/delete your sign-ups until the sign-up period closes.

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

All fandoms and ships requested and offered in this exchange must be chosen from those nominated into the tagset. Please nominate to make sure what you want to request/offer appears.

If there aren’t any offers that match your requests, you will go out for claiming as an initial pinch hit (IPH).

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.

Dear Creator letters: There will be a section in the sign-up where letters can be linked give your gifter further details on your likes, dislikes and other request details. Dear Creator letters are optional.

In the optional details and in Dear Creator letters, please do not place preference for one ship over the others, as there isn't a guarantee you will be matched on that ship.

Please include anything you absolutely don't want to receive in the Optional Details field in your AO3 sign-up and label this clearly as "Do Not Wants" (DNW). In the event that a DNW is included in your gift, only reasonable DNWs in your sign-up will be enforced. Please remember that DNWs cannot be used to box your creator into producing a very specific work.

If your sign-up breaks any of the above rules or is found to be in bad faith, the mods will contact you and without a response, your sign-up could be deleted. We want everyone to have fun enjoying their rare pairs.

Assignments:

Assignments are only guaranteed to match on one fandom, one ship and one medium.

Minimum requirements are a complete work of fanfiction of at least 1,000 words of a piece of clean lineart on unlined paper.

AI/AI assisted works are not permitted in this exchange.

Your assignment must focus on one of the requested ships. Your recipient may have anywhere between 3-10 requests but you are only required to create for one. This doesn’t have to be the one you matched, as long as it is one they requested.

If your assignment does not match the fandoms/ships/medium you offered, contact the mod as soon as possible. It will not be possible to change assignments for any other reason.

Please do not discuss or post about your assignment in public in a way that will reveal who your recipient is. Creators should remain anonymous until it is time for reveals.

If you would like to seek clarification from your recipient about your assignment, please email the mods at rarepairexmod@gmail.com with your AO3 username and your question. We will send it to your recipient on your behalf.

Posting:

To post your fic/art on AO3, navigate to your AO3 dashboard, click on 'Assignments', find your Rare Pair Exchange 2023 assignment, and click 'Fulfill'.

Works containing excessive spelling or grammar errors (enough to hinder comprehension) will not be accepted.

Gifts must be completed at the time of work reveals to fulfill the assignment requirements. WIPs/half-finished art (e.g. a fic posted as "1/?" and a piece of art posted as "1/?") will not count as a completed gift. If you are posting a chaptered work, all chapters must be posted by the time works are revealed. If your work is not complete, your recip will be immediately sent out as a pinch hit and you may be banned from future rounds.

As works should remain anonymous during the collection's anonymous period, do not post your work elsewhere before the creator reveals or discuss the details publicly.

You can edit your work after posting it until the collection is revealed, but your gift must be complete enough to stand as it is by the deadline.

Saved drafts do not fulfill assignments. Make sure you actually post your gift!

If you create a gift that intentionally crosses your recipient’s DNWs, stir up wank/drama, or harass any other participants during the process, you may be permanently banned from the exchange.

Defaulting:

If you cannot finish your gift, please default.

To default, navigate to your AO3 dashboard, click 'Assignments', locate your Rare Pair Exchange assignment, and click 'Default'.

If you default and your creator also defaults, you will not be assigned a pinch hitter and are not guaranteed a gift.

There is no penalty for defaulting before the deadline.

If you need an extension, please email rarepairexmod@gmail.com, including how long you need (no more than 72 hours will be granted) and your AO3 username. We don't need any explanations regarding why you need an extension. Extensions will not be given once the deadline has passed.

If you have not posted a gift by the deadline, the mod will default you. This may result in a one year participation ban.

Pinch Hits:

Pinch hits will be posted to the Dreamwidth community (this community!).

Please reply to the pinch hit post with the pinch hit number and your AO3 username. If you are successful, the mods will reply to your comment or email to confirm and will officially assign the pinch hit to you through AO3.

You can claim a pinch hit even if you aren't signed up for the exchange, but you will need an AO3 account.

If you do claim a pinch hit without logging into Dreamwidth, we will not be able to respond to your comment. If you don't have a Dreamwidth account, please email us.

Treats:

You can write/draw additional gifts for other participants and post them to the exchange collection as treats. These do not have to be for your assigned recipient.

If you would like a treat, we recommend including a note in your sign-up to indicate that you are open to receiving treats. (Doing this does not guarantee you will receive a treat.)

If you would like a treat, please check your preferences to ensure you accept gifts from unassigned creators. You can check this setting by navigating to your AO3 page, clicking 'Preferences', and clicking 'Allow anyone to gift me works.' under 'Collections, Challenges and Gifts'. (Doing this does not guarantee you will receive a treat.)

You are welcome to create treats even if you aren't signed up for the exchange.

To post treats, navigate to the collection and click 'Post to Collection'. You will need to manually add the name of your intended recipient - please check this very carefully!

Treats do not have to fulfill the minimum word count. They must, however, include a fandom, relationship and medium requested by the recipient.

Treats will not become main gifts for this exchange.

Commenting:

Please comment on your gifts. If you cannot comment on your gift for any reason, please contact the mods before creator reveals via email at rarepairexmod@gmail.com. If you do not comment on your gifts, you will be ineligible to participate in the next round.

Miscellaenous:

We accept do not match requests for this exchange. Please email us before sign-ups close at rarepairexmod@gmail.com letting us know your AO3 name, the AO3 name of the participant you would like to not 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 adhere to your request.

Please don't be an asshole. We're here to have fun with our rare pairs.