Nominations Guidelines 2024
Aug. 17th, 2024 12:24 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
fic_in_a_box_mod posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
ficinaboxNavigation: Rules/General Info | AO3 Collection | Mod Contact: ficinaboxmod@gmail.com OR Screened Mod Contact Post
This post is about nominations for tags that will be used in the fandom and relationship slots of your requests/tags. For opt-in medium nominations go to this post (link).
Before nominating, please read the "Nominations Guidelines" section of this post, even if you also read it last year. After you nominate, please keep an eye on the comm in case we need clarification from you before accepting a nomination.
How To Nominate
There are two methods of relationship nominations this year!
1) Google form
Go to the google form and follow the instructions provided to submit your nominations, filling the form out as many times as you want. (You don't need to disambiguate nominations when using the form; our spreadsheet will do that for you!) Your nominations will eventually either wind up in the tagset or show up in a nominations clarification post — please check back at this comm in case we have questions about your nominations. The google doc is anonymous.
Nomination Google Form: https://forms.gle/m9cxg6P2cKemY8RV7
2) AO3 tagset nomination
This is how most people are used to nominating! If you're confident that you understand the nominations guidelines (provided below!) Then proceed to the tagset and input your nominations as directed. You will have 10 fandoms with 12 relationship slots. We will automatically reject anything that doesn't follow the guidelines below, but will query for other problems/questions. Check your nominations page and this comm to keep up to date on the status of your nominations.
Tagset: https://archiveofourown.org/tag_sets/20083
Nomination Guidelines
Please read all guidelines below before nominating. Please continue to check back on the comm to read all the nomination clarification posts that will be posted, in case there's a problem with one or more of your nominations that we need your input to resolve.
Reminder: Incorrectly formatted AO3 tagset nominations will be rejected. You are welcome to re-nominate via the google form.
Fandoms
There are no specific rarity or media restrictions on fandoms. If you're nominating a new-to-the-Archive fandom, please either format the fandom tag based on AO3's wrangling guidelines (link) or comment on this post asking for help.
Other notes:
- RPF: All nominated characters must be famous in their own right and over the age of 18. We will reject RPF nominations for current political figures, serial killers active after 1900, controversial figures, and possibly others on a case-by-case basis if we feel they might be detrimental to maintaining the exchange's positive environment.
- Crossovers: Should be nominated under Crossover Fandom
- Original Works: Should be nominated under Original Work
- Megafandoms, franchises, etc: See next section
- Recursive fandoms: You will need permission from the fanwork creator to nominate unless the work was already nominated as a fandom in a past round. Additionally:
- If the fanwork wasn't successfully nominated last round, you must provide a link to the creator's public permission statement.
- If the work does not have an established fandom you'll need at least two people who intend to request and/or offer it.
- For recursive fandoms that were nominated in previous rounds and either A) had 3+ people requesting/offering or B) for which at least one work was created, we'll consider that proof of an "established fandom" and you don't need proof other people plan to request/offer it.
Nomination info for specific fandoms
- As a general rule, if your fandom/subfandom is already in the 2023 tagset please nominate in the fandom as it appears there.
- Assassin's Creed: Please nominate Assassin's Creed under "Assassin's Creed - All Media Types"
- Baldur's Gate: Nominate under "Baldur's Gate (Video Games)"
- Buffy: The Vampire Slayer and Angel: The Series will both be nommed together under “Buffyverse (TV).”
- Buffy comics: Nominate this separately from the TV shows.
- Critical Role: Please nominate all Exandria campaigns under "Critical Role (Web Series)", all Candela Obscura campaigns under "Candela Obscura (Critical Role Web Series)", and any other campaigns separately. The Legend of Vox Machina should be nominated under "The Legend of Vox Machina (Cartoon)"
- Danganronpa: Please nominate under the canonical Dangan Ronpa Series
- DC's Arrowverse: Please nominate characters from Arrow, The Flash, Supergirl, Legends of Tomorrow, Batwoman, Superman & Lois, and Black Lightning (plus the webseries tie-ins) under "DC's Arrowverse".
- DC Comics: All DC Comics nominations can go under that fandom, but please disambiguate which version of the character you want in parenthesis after each character if that information matters to you.
- DC Extended Universe: DCEU movies should be nominated under "DC Extended Universe"
- Dimension 20: Please nominate all campaigns under "Dimension 20 (Web Series)"
- Dragon Age: Nominate all video games under "Dragon Age (Video Games)" including Last Court. For comics, books, and tabletop RPG, use "Dragon Age (Comics)", "Dragon Age - Various Authors", and "Dragon Age (Tabletop RPG)" respectively. For all other media types, nominate each series separately.
- Friends at the Table: Please nominate under the canonical Friends at the Table (Podcast)
- Final Fantasy VII: The original game and the remake should be nominated separately. Please nominate Remake and Rebirth under "Final Fantasy VII Remake and Rebirth (Video Games 2020-2024)"
- Harry Potter, Rigel Black Chronicles, and Revolutionary Arc should be nominated separately. Please nominate Rigel Black Chronicles as "Rigel Black Chronicles - murkybluebatter (Exchange Disambiguation)", and nominate Revolutionary Arc as "Revolutionary Arc - kitsunerei88 (Fanfic Disambiguation)".
- Historical RPF: Please split these into subfandoms that indicate what time period the nominated people are in. If there may be confusion about the identity of a nominated person, please be as specific as is reasonable.
- Legend of Zelda: Each series or standalone game should be nominated separately, for example, "The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker" or "The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild/Tears of the Kingdom". Please make sure your disambiguation is unique to each fandom -- don't disambiguate with just "(LoZ)"
- Marvel Cinematic Universe nominations may be nominated under the appropriate movie subfranchise (Thor, GotG, etc) or in Avengers. If nominating in a subfranchise (for example, Thor (Movies)), all characters in the nom should have appeared in a movie from that subfranchise. Agents of SHIELD, Agent Carter, Wandavision, Falcon and the Winter Soldier, Loki, and the Marvel Netflix universe of shows are also all separate fandoms. The Marvel Netflix shows should be nommed together under The Defenders (Marvel TV).
- Marvel comics may be nominated by title or under the name of the appropriate Marvel universe (Marvel 616, Marvel Ultimates, etc). Nominations for “Marvel (Comics)” will not be accepted.
- The Mechanisms: Please nominate under "The Mechanisms (Band)" with a disambiguation of either (The Mechanisms) or the specific album.
- Naruto (Anime & Manga), Boruto (Anime & Manga), and Dreaming of Sunshine should be nominated separately. Please nominate Dreaming of Sunshine as "Dreaming of Sunshine - SilverQueen (DFE)". Relationship nominations that involve one or more DoS character and one or more Naruto/Boruto character should be nominated under the fandom "Crossover Fandom".
- Omniscient Reader: Please nominate separately by medium using "Omniscient Reader - singNsong & UMI & Sleepy-C (Webtoon)" and "전지적 독자 시점 - 싱숑 | Omniscient Reader - Sing-Shong (Novel)"
- Nominations for the webtoon should use the disambiguation "(ORV W)" and the webtoon's character names (eg. Yu Junghyeok, Demonic Judge of Fire, Han Suyeong)
- Nominations for the novel should use "(ORV N)"
- Star Wars movies & TV shows may be nominated under the appropriate movie, trilogy, TV show, etc (eg, Rogue One, Sequel Trilogy). "Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types" is allowed.
- Star Wars books may be nominated under "Star Wars: Legends Books" (Old EU) or "Star Wars: Extended Universe Books" (new/current books)
- Star Wars comics, video games, etc not covered above may be nominated either according to what's normal in the fandom or by individual title. Please comment below if you need help deciding what to do.
- Star Wars crossovers between different parts of the Star Wars universe should be nominated under “Star Wars - All Media Types.” You can nominate WB: tags in SW - AMT without additional disambiguation.
Relationships Field
Because of how AO3's matching system works, we have to put relationships, characters, and worldbuilding tags all in the same field in the sign up form. This section explains what kind of tags you can nominate, as well as specific guidelines for certain types of tags.
These tag formats can be nominated:
- / tags, such as Character A/Character B, which indicate a relationship that is sexual and/or romantic.
- & tags, such as Character A & Character B, which indicate a relationship that is platonic.
- Solo: tags, such as Solo: Character A, for single characters and groups.
- WB: tags, such as WB: Type of Magic, which are for non-ship/character/group worldbuilding concepts.
- You may also nominate tags in the format Character A/Character B & Character C for a request about two characters in a romantic/sexual relationship having a platonic interaction with a third character.
Tag examples:
- Elmo/Big Bird (Sesame Street) — these characters will be dating, having sex, etc.and the fanwork you receive will be primarily about that relationship.
- Elmo & Big Bird (Sesame Street) — these characters will be friends, neighbors, family, acquaintances, enemies, strangers, etc.and the fanwork you receive will be primarily about that relationship.
- Solo: Elmo (Sesame Street) — you will receive a work about/centered around Elmo, but other characters can appear.
- Solo: Muppets (Sesame Street) — you will receive a work about/centered around one of literally any Muppet, but potentially more than one.
- Solo: Elmo (Sesame Street) in Home Alone (Movies) – you will receive a crossover work about/centered around Elmo visiting or already existing in the setting of any of the Home Alone movies.
- Elmo (Sesame Street) & The Wet Bandits (Home Alone Movies) – you will receive a crossover work in which Elmo and one or more of the Wet Bandits meet or have some kind of pre-existing platonic relationship.
- WB: Sesame Street City Planning & Zoning Ordinances (Sesame Street) — you will receive a work about city planning and zoning on Sesame Street, which could include any or no characters
Guidelines for characters in /, &, and Solo: tags:
- Please properly capitalize all of your tags, otherwise we have to either fix thousands of tags ourselves or reject them.
- Correct capitalization: Firstname Lastname/Original Female Ship Technician (A Space Fandom)
- Incorrect capitalization: firstname lastname/original female ship technician (a space fandom)
- If nominating selfcest with a character who does not have distinct canon versions, please nominate it as "Blorbo/Blorbo (Disambig)"
Disambiguation
Participants who nominate via the google form don't need to disambiguate non-crossover nominations, but people who nominate directly to the tagset on AO3 do need to include a disambiguation with all relationship field tags..
"Disambiguation" generally means marking or changing two similar things to clarify their differences so you can tell them apart; it's a removal of ambiguity. In casual conversation, for example, one might need to distinguish between seeing a bear (animal) or a bear (gay man).
Tags in tagsets need to be disambiguated with their fandom(s) for a number of very boring technical reasons that basically boil down to "so that all the tags stay where we put them and don't confuse anyone and don't mess up matching."
Your nominations should look like one of the following:
- Character A/Character B (Fandom)
- Character A & Character B (Fandom)
- Character A/Character B & Character C (Fandom)
- Solo: Character A (Fandom)
- Solo: Group (Fandom)
- WB: Worldbuilding Topic (Fandom)
- Character A (Fandom A) / Character B (Fandom B)
- Character A (Fandom A) & Character B (Fandom B)
- Character A (Fandom A) in Fandom B
You can abbreviate the fandom name, although please think about alternate versions of your canon and make sure the abbreviation is distinct. For example, it wouldn't be helpful if both The Lord of the Rings - J. R. R. Tolkien and The Lord of the Rings (Movies) abbreviated their disambiguations to "(LotR)"! Instead, the book should be "LotR - Tolkien" and the movies "(LotR Movies)"
Group tags and "Any" or "Creator's Choice" guidelines
- Just to reiterate above, Solo: Group tags mean "One or more of this group" whether or not they have "Any" or "Creator's Choice of" in front of them.
- If you request an ambiguous group (eg: "Solo: The [fandom] ensemble" or "Solo: The Avengers") we will assume that any possible member(s) of that group fulfill that request.
- You may request "Any" of a character type. For example, "Mikhaila Ilyushin/Any Female Talos I Employee". Similar to original works, please make sure any important information is within the Any character tag.
- Where there is ambiguity created by a nomination, we will likely side with the creator. If you want to be sure that you'll get specific characters, please nominate them by name.
Original Work
- Ships in Original Work should be nominated as Character Type/Character Type, with any additional details you see as essential for the ship included. If the gender of the characters is important to you, for example, please include it in the character tags.
- You may nominate other kinds of tags in Original Work, for example ambiguous groups like "Solo: Cute Forest Animal(s) (Original Work)"
- Where there is ambiguity created by a nomination, we will likely side with the creator. If you want to be sure that you'll get specific characters, please nominate them by name.
- We prefer Original Work and Original Characters be in title case ("A Really Hot Vampire/A Wizard" not "a really hot vampire/a wizard") but we will accept sentence case as well ("A really hot vampire/A wizard").
Crossovers
- For crossovers, please disambiguate on the characters and nominate them within Crossover Fandom. For example: "Varric Tethras (Dragon Age)/Nick Valentine (Fallout 4)"
- Crossovers where a character from fandom A visits canon B should be nominated like this: "Solo: Shang Qinghua (SVSSS) in Lord of the Rings"
- If there's more than one version of the canon and you care about which version you receive, specify that version in parentheses, for example "Solo: Shang Qinghua (SVSSS) in Lord of the Rings (Movies)"
- You may nominate crossover WB: tags. The worldbuilding topics must all be things that would qualify in their own fandoms under the worldbuilding guidelines (listed below) and the tag should be as open to worldbuilding options as possible. For example, we would prefer "WB: Connection Between The Lazarus Pits (Batman - AMT) And Ectoplasm (Danny Phantom)" over "WB: The Lazarus Pits (Batman - AMT) Are Some Kind of Ectoplasm (Danny Phantom)"
- We know the actual AO3 nom page says you can put crossover tags in either fandom but please don't!
Guidelines for WB: tags
Worldbuilding is the process of fleshing out a fictional world with details that make it a coherent setting. In Fic In A Box, participants may request works focused on worldbuilding (rather than a specific character or relationship) by using the format “WB: Worldbuilding Topic (Fandom Name)” or by requesting “WB: Any (Fandom Name)”
Please do not nominate WB: Any. We will add WB: Any to all fandoms before sign ups open. If WB: Any is the only tag you want in a fandom, please comment on this post letting us know the fandom and we will manually add it to the tagset. (Don't nominate via AO3 because it will get mixed up with all the fandoms in which people nominated things incorrectly and got their tags rejected.)
WB: tags should meet these criteria:
- based on or easily extrapolated from canon.
- about something fictional.
- reasonably broad, not phrased as a prompt, and not easily covered under a relationship, character, or ambiguous group nomination.
based on or easily extrapolated from canon.
Worldbuilding tags are meant to request exploration of concrete facets of the requested canon. We wouldn’t accept “WB: Magic” in a hard sci-fi fandom. We also won’t accept tropes, plots/conflicts, moods/vague concepts/“vibes” or prompts.
We would accept something like “WB: Trans Healthcare” even if the fandom made no specific mention of healthcare or transitioning, because both of those things probably exist anywhere there are people.
We may accept popular fanon on a case-by-case basis, but we will usually ask that the WB: tag be phrased to focus on the canon aspect of whatever the fanon is about.
For example, if it were popular fanon that Oscar the Grouch (Sesame Street) is blackmailing the local garbage collectors and that’s why he never gets accidentally thrown away despite living in a garbage can:
- we wouldn’t accept “WB: Contents of Oscar’s Blackmail Against Sanitation Workers (Sesame Street)”
- we would accept “WB: Garbage Collection on Sesame Street (Sesame Street)” and ask that the nominator include their preference for the blackmail fanon in their optional details
about something fictional.
Worldbuilding involves making stuff up to explain why stuff is the way it is, so we want WB: tags that require creativity rather than straight research.
We also want worldbuilding tags to refer only to in-universe things, with in-universe phrasing, wherever possible.
- For example, if you're seeking worldbuilding about the way people gain skills and abilities in a video game where skill points are traded for in-game objects (say, books) which have a lore reason for giving new skills, we would prefer a tag like "WB: Magic Books of Esoteric Knowledge Imparting" (or whatever the lore calls them in-game) over a tag like "WB: Skill Point Books"
For secondary world canons (canons that don’t take place on Earth in the real world) everything counts as fictional. You can nominate something like “WB: Apples & Apple Orchards (The Lord of the Rings - Tolkien)” and we will happily approve that so you can find out what’s up with apples on Middle Earth.
For canons that take place on Earth in anything like the present time or a real historical time period, WB: topics must be something fictional in that setting. We want worldbuilding topics that require creativity over research, even if research might be necessary/helpful to truly flesh out the topic.
If one were brainstorming WB: tags for the fandom Home Alone (Movies):
- we wouldn’t accept “WB: New York City (Home Alone)” because there’s not much to worldbuild about there that couldn’t be accomplished by researching the real New York City.
- we would accept a tag like “WB: Law Enforcement Efforts to Arrest the Wet Bandits (Home Alone)” because the Wet Bandits are fictitious. Anyone filling this tag might need or want to do research on real-life law enforcement or burglaries, but they will also have to invent a lot of specific information about the Wet Bandits and their various crimes.
You may nominate WB: tags about things that exist in the real world but which are very different in your canon. For example, “WB: New York City (Marvel Cinematic Universe)” would be accepted, as New York City in the MCU has been invaded by aliens and has a bunch of superheroes.
If it isn’t obvious to us that something about the WB: topic is different from the real world we may ask you to provide clarification. We might also encourage you to be more specific if there’s a particular fictional aspect you’re interested in–for example, “WB: Public Opinion of Local Superheroes/Vigilantes (MCU)” or “WB: Emergency Response to Chitauri Invasion (MCU)”–but we wouldn’t insist if you’re really just interested in anything about NYC.
reasonably broad and not easily covered under a relationship, character, or ambiguous group nomination.
What exactly "reasonably broad" means will vary somewhat by canon and worldbuilding topic, but in general worldbuilding tags should be applicable or related to more than one character, and shouldn’t be or be phrased as prompts.
Character backstories/origins
We will not approve these. If the reason you want worldbuilding for a character’s backstory is because they were in a particularly interesting location or lived in a particularly interesting culture or something and that’s what you want worldbuilding about, then instead of a tag like “WB: Blorbo’s Time At [Backstory Location] (Fandom)” you should instead nominate “WB: [Backstory Location] (Fandom)” and mention Blorbo in your optional details. If getting a gift focused on Blorbo is more important to you than the worldbuilding, then please nominate character as a Solo: tag and prompt for backstory exploration in your optional details instead.
Scenarios, plots, worldbuilding phrased as questions
We will not approve WB: tags that name a specific scenario or plot, as that’s what optional details are for, and we find questions too ambiguous. You should phrase your WB: tag around the thing you actually want worldbuilding about.
For example, if you’re interested in a story where a Naruto character joins the Akatsuki, instead of nominating “WB: Character joins Akatsuki (Naruto)” you should instead nominate either something like “WB: Akatsuki Recruitment (Naruto)” or, if it’s important to you to specify which character(s) are involved in your gift, a non-WB tag with a prompt in your optional details.
Instead of “WB: How Many Types Of Magic Are There?” or “WB: What Happened During The Noodle War” we would prefer “WB: Types of Magic” and “WB: The Noodle War”, respectively.
Mentions of specific characters
If your WB: tag needs to mention a specific character, please consider posting a quick clarification below letting us know why and mentioning how the WB tag is or could be relevant to other characters, original or canon.
This might look something like: Just nominated WB: Blorbo’s Ship (Fandom)! The ship doesn’t have a canonical name. Only Blorbo pilots it, but there are unnamed spaceship techs on base and other characters spend a lot of time near the ship.
Or maybe: Just nominated WB: Blorbo’s Sex Toy Collection (Fandom) which is a common, canonical subject of discussion among Blorbo’s friends and enemies in several episodes.
Ambiguous groups, organizations, teams, clubs, superhero teams, religious orders, etc
There's often a lot of very interesting potential worldbuilding topics to explore around groups/organizations/etc, but we would like you to specify what worldbuilding topic(s) you'd be interested in, so as to avoid situations where we have something like "Solo: Council of Mages" and "WB: Council of Mages" both in the tagset.
Suggested additions to your WB tag (not a comprehensive list!): History of [Group], Rumors and Public Opinion About [Group], Daily Life in [Group], [Group] Internal Politics
Nominations evidence/explanations
In addition to the post functioning as documentation to explain our nominations rules, it's also a place where you can preemptively ask questions about our guidelines, explain edge cases you would like to nominate, or give clarification on confusing or hard-to-google subjects.
Fandoms
Most fandom tags don't need evidence/explanation posts.
You should post evidence or explanations below if…
- You are nominating a fandom with "- All Media Types" or "& Related Fandoms" in it and need to explain why you can't use/don't want a more specific tag.
- You are nominating a fanwork as a fandom and need to link us to a permission statement as well as have other people indicate their interest in the fandom.
- You are nominating a fandom that has a weird or ambiguous canon source, especially if it doesn't yet have a tag on the Archive and you need help formatting your tag.
&, /, and Solo: tags
Most &, /, and Solo: tags don't need evidence/explanation posts.
You should post evidence or explanations below if you're nominating a relationships field tag…
- that involves a character who might be mistaken for an inanimate object, location, platonic ideal of a virtue, etc. (Examples: a sentient weapon named something like "Greg's Sword"; a character named "Justice" who we might have problems googling)
- that involves a canonical alternate version of a character that we might have trouble confirming is actually canonical.
- that involves a character or characters that might confuse us for some other reason. (eg, if two characters canonically have the same or almost exact same name.)
WB: tags
Explanations for WB: tags are REALLY helpful and you are encouraged to post a short explanation of all of your WB: tags telling us what each one is so that we don't have to google them, as it will save us time on the mod end and potentially save you from having to answer a clarification query.
You should post evidence or explanations below if you're nominating a WB: tag…
- that you're not 100% sure we can easily google
- that's about something that exists in real life, and need to explain why your canon's version of it is different from the real-life version.
- that might seem like it only applies to a few characters (especially if it names a specific character) and you'd like to explain why it's actually general enough to be approved.
- that you think otherwise might be an edge case for one of the above WB: guidelines.
You're also welcome to post here if you need help formulating a WB: tag that will fit in the 100 character tag limit and abide by our rules.
no subject
Date: 2024-08-20 02:26 am (UTC)I'm going to nominate original work comic posted on ao3 as "Where is Trevor (ow comic) – sarriathmg"
and wanted to link you permission of the author in advance. It's on their profile https://archiveofourown.org/users/sarriathmg/profile and the author also said they are ok with recursive work based on this one shot in a thread on fffx clarification post https://fffx.dreamwidth.org/53664.html?thread=817056#cmt817056 :) The comic is this work https://archiveofourown.org/works/56203060
-c_art
no subject
Date: 2024-08-20 04:29 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2024-08-22 07:10 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2024-08-22 07:21 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2024-08-22 07:22 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2024-08-22 07:32 pm (UTC)Where is Trevor? – sarriathmg (DFE)
Solo: Megan Conaway (Where is Trevor?)
Trevor Conaway & Evelyn Conaway & Mark Conaway & Camellia Conaway & Megan Conaway (Where is Trevor?)
Unnamed Con Artist & Evelyn Conaway (Where is Trevor?)
Unnamed Con Artist & Trevor Conaway (Where is Trevor?)
Using "Where is Trevor? – sarriathmg (DFE)" for nominations but "Where is Trevor? – sarriathmg" (or whatever other tag, without the "(DFE)" on it) for posting works will help make sure that the nominations fandom doesn't get synned to anything, which can cause a whole bunch of backend tagset problems. ("DFE" stands for "Disambiguated For Exchanges".)
no subject
Date: 2024-08-25 03:23 am (UTC)