fic* in a box!

Pinch Hitter Post 2026

Mon, 12 Oct 2026 04:17:06 GMT

Pinch Hitter Requests

Instructions for Filling PHer Requests

Pinch hitters work hard to help us with our exchange, and this event wouldn't be possible without them. As such, we ask pinch hitters who are interested in receiving treats to post below outlining what they'd like to receive, and ask participants to consider treating them!

Pinch hitter treats should follow all FIAB assignment/treat requirements. Post using the instructions under "Posting Anything Without An AO3 Assignment" on the Posting Guidelines.

Instructions for Pinch Hitters

Requirements for requesting:

You have picked up a pinch hit, including receiving a swapsignment without signing up.
You are not signed up to the exchange under any username.
You would like the chance to get treats!

If the above all fit you, then this is where you make requests as a pinch hitter so that treaters can see them!

Guidelines:

You should post your requests as a reply to this post. If you want to split your fandom requests into separate comments, please reply to yourself after your first post.

Since the mods will be checking works to confirm they fill requests, there are some guidelines to help us out!

Each request should include the following:

Fandom:
Relationship/Character/Worldbuilding Tags:
Medium/Length Opt-Ins:
Details: (DNWs should be labeled clearly as "DNW" or "Do Not Want".)
Letter link: (Optional.)

Medium and Length Opt-Ins must be in the tagset and must be requested using the exact wording of the tag.
If requesting relationship/character/worldbuilding tags which are not in the tagset, please double check the nomination rules to make sure they are allowed characters. Most importantly any RPF/SMP/Vlogging/Kayfabe/Gray Area RPF requests may only be for provably famous adults.
Please don't remove or significantly change the tag part of requests after you post them, unless adding additional requests/tags.
If linking to more than one letter (or any other link that contains multiple subposts/links), you must still list any requested fandoms/tags in your comment to this post so that mods can easily verify gifts fill your request. This doesn't apply to the auto-app as long as it's clear and easy to verify what you're requesting.
Link to the Tagset (click here)
Link to the Medium Explanations (click here)

comments

Pinch Hits PH 61-73, and repost of PHs from 51 (Post 2 of 2)

Mon, 12 Oct 2026 03:57:35 GMT

Posted by: fic_in_a_box_mod

Pinch hits are participants who are without creators; pinch hitting is the practice of volunteering to make a gift for a pinch hit. These pinch hits are all due on October 25 at 10:00 PM EDT.

Fic In A Box has a very unusual set of assignment requirements: everyone is owed (and is asking for) 10k of fanfiction, which by default can be given as one 10k+ fic or several 1k+ fics. Participants have also had the option to opt-in to other minimum lengths or to other formats of fanwork. The other fanwork mediums are given word count equivalents, which you can view on the medium ruleset post.

Additionally:

Fic In A Box creators may default after partially filling their assignment—say, if they discover that they can only write 9k of fic—and PHs can be picked up in 1k increments!
You may always swap all or part of your assignment for a PH, just let us know that's what you're doing when you post to claim the PH.
In order to keep post size down we are including the details in a link to each PH's requests on the app!

In order to pick up a pinch hit you need to either email us or comment on this post (comments are screened) with:

The amount of wordcount you would like to claim (even if you're going to do fanart or some other non-fic opt-in medium! If you aren't sure what the equivalent would be, we'd be happy to help you convert it!)
The exact username of the AO3 account you will be posting your fill(s) from (if you post from a different account from the one you give us, we won't be able to count the PH as filled unless you update us!)
An email where we can reach you (you might not be getting the AO3 assignment when you pick up a PH, so we need to know where to send the assignment!)

( PH 51 - 7k - Hermitcraft SMP, Life Series | 3rd Life SMP Series, Stargate - Live Action, Formula 1 RPF )

( PH 53 - 2k - It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Downton Abbey, Jake and Amir (Web Series), MASH (TV), Oxventure (Web Series), Phantasmagoria: A Puzzle of Flesh )

( PH 56 - 2k - G Gundam, Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters (Anime & Manga), DCU (Comics), Teen Titans (Animated Series), Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon | Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon (Anime & Manga) )

( CLAIMED PH 58 - 0 - 괴담에 떨어져도 출근을 해야 하는구나 - 백덕수 | Even If I Fall Into a Ghost Story I Still Have to Go to Work - Baek Deoksoo, 전지적 독자 시점 - 싱숑 | Omniscient Reader - Sing-Shong (Novel), 헌터는 조용히 살고 싶다 - 백삼 | The Hunter’s Gonna Lay Low - Baek Sam, Turning | 쿠유 - Kuyu (Webnovel), 明日方舟:终末地 | Arknights: Endfield (Video Game), X -エックス- | X/1999, Pocket Monsters | Pokemon (Main Video Game Series), Pocket Monsters | Pokemon (Anime 1997-2023), Pokemon Colosseum & XD )

( PH 59 - 4k - The Gilded Age (TV 2022), Sanditon (TV 2019), To All the Boys I've Loved Before (Movies), Why Didn't They Ask Evans? (TV 2022), Friday Night Lights (TV), Cotillion - Georgette Heyer, The Musketeers (2014), Schitt's Creek )

( CLAIMED PH 61 - 0 - Deltarune (Video Game), Dream SMP, The Locked Tomb Series | Gideon the Ninth Series - Tamsyn Muir, SEVENTEEN (Band), Undertale (Video Game), 미스터리 수사반 | Mysterious Crime Squad (Web Series) )
( CLAIMED PH 62 - 0 - Bang Dream! Yume∞Mita (Anime), Digimon Adventure Zero Two | Digimon Adventure 02, Ensemble Stars! (Video Game), Fire Emblem: Kakusei | Fire Emblem: Awakening, ふつうの軽音部 | Girl Meets Rock! (Manga), さよならララ | Sayonara Lara | Goodbye Lara, Twisted-Wonderland (Video Game) )
~~( CLAIMED PH 63 - 0 - Warhammer 40.000 )~~
~~( CLAIMED PH 64 - 0 - Warhammer 40.000, Warhammer 40.000, Warhammer 40.000, Warhammer 40.000, Hades (Supergiant Games Video Games), Mass Effect: Andromeda )~~

( PH 65 - 3k - 南部档案 | Archives: The Nanyang Mystery (TV), 永夜星河 | Love Game in Eastern Fantasy (TV), 淮水竹亭 | Love in Pavilion (TV) )

( CLAIMED PH 66 - 0 - Persona 5, 魔道祖师 - 墨香铜臭 | Módào Zǔshī - Mòxiāng Tóngxiù, 逆転裁判 | Gyakuten Saiban | Ace Attorney, 原神 | Genshin Impact (Video Game), Crossover Fandom (Ace Attorney &/ Persona 5 [P5])(Persona 5 Tactica & P5)(Knives Out & P5)(Ghosts TV 2019 & P5)(The Magnus Archive & P5)(Genshin Impact & P5)(Ace Attorney & Módào Zǔshī - Mòxiāng Tóngxiù [MDZS])(Ghosts TV 2019 & MDZS)(The Magnus Archives & MDZS)(Knives Out & Ace Attorney) )

( PH 67 - 1k - Warhammer 40.000 )

( CLAIMED PH 68 - 0 - QSMP | Quackity SMP, SMPEarth, Philza Hardcore Season 4 Lore (DFE), Minecraft (Video Game), One Piece (Anime & Manga), Crossover Fandom (One Piece &/ SMPEarth)(QSMP | Quackity SMP & One Piece), Crossover Fandom (One Piece & Minecraft)(QSMP | Quackity SMP & One Piece)(DSMP & Stardew Valley)(SMPEarth & Doctor Who)(DSMP & Philza Hardcore S4)(Philza Hardcore S4 & QSMP | Quackity SMP), One Piece (Anime & Manga) )
( CLAIMED PH 69 - 0 - Star Trek: The Original Series (TV), Stargate - Live Action, Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Crossover Fandom (Jurassic Park & Jurassic World Trilogy)(Journey to the Beginning of Time 1955 & Jurassic Park Original Trilogy), Jurassic Park Original Trilogy (Movies), Original Work, Jurassic World Trilogy (Movies), Heated Rivalry (TV), Original Work )
~~( CLAIMED PH 70 - 0 - Original Work, Inglourious Basterds (2009), DCU (Comics), Les Misérables - Victor Hugo, The Old Guard (Movies 2020 2025) )~~
( CLAIMED PH 71 - 0 - Wiedźmin | The Witcher Series - Andrzej Sapkowski, A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types, Mass Effect Trilogy, Game of Thrones (TV), Bleach (Anime & Manga), One Piece (Anime & Manga), Naruto (Anime & Manga), House of the Dragon (TV) )
( CLAIMED PH 72 - 0 - Outlast (Video Games), Game of Thrones (TV), The Attic - A. M. Burrage, The Collector Series (Movies), Project Hail Mary (2026), Dune (Movies - Villeneuve), Cthulhu Mythos - H. P. Lovecraft, Piranesi - Susanna Clarke, 괴담에 떨어져도 출근을 해야 하는구나 - 백덕수 | Even If I Fall Into a Ghost Story I Still Have to Go to Work - Baek Deoksoo, Naruto (Anime & Manga) )

( PH 73 - 5k - Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, Marvel 616, The Magicians (TV), Supernatural (TV 2005), Teen Wolf (TV), Crossover Fandom (Teen Wolf TV & Supernatural)(Magicians TV &/ Supernatural)(Doctor Who 2005 & Magicians TV)(Marvel 616 & Spider Man - Garfield)(Marvel 616 & Spider Man - Holland)(DCU Comics & Arrowverse)(Titans TV / Arrowverse)(Titans TV / DC Extended Universe)(Percy Jackson & Marvel Cinematic Universe)(Imposters & Leverage)(Frozen &/ Tangled TV)(Sherlock & James Bond - Craig)(Hannibal TV & Prison Break), Crossover Fandom (Critical Role: Exandria & Critical Role: Aramán)(The Grisha Trilogy & Critical Role)(Red Queen & The Grisha Trilogy)(Marvel 616 & Marvel Cinematic Universe)(DC Comics & The Hunger Games AMT)(DC Comics & The Magicians TV)(Prodigal Son & Hannibal TV)(Prodigal Son & The Following TV)(Doctor Who 2005 & Legends of Tomorrow TV)(DW 2005 & Star Trek: Alternate Original Series)(DW 2005 & James Bond Movies - Craig)(DW 2005 & Star Wars)(DW 2005 & The Magicians TV) )

comments

Pinch Hit Reposts through 50, new fandom for PH 33 (Post 1 of 2)

Mon, 12 Oct 2026 03:57:31 GMT

Posted by: fic_in_a_box_mod

Pinch hits are participants who are without creators; pinch hitting is the practice of volunteering to make a gift for a pinch hit. These pinch hits are all due on October 25 at 10:00 PM EDT.

Additionally:

Fic In A Box creators may default after partially filling their assignment—say, if they discover that they can only write 9k of fic—and PHs can be picked up in 1k increments!
You may always swap all or part of your assignment for a PH, just let us know that's what you're doing when you post to claim the PH.
In order to keep post size down we are including the details in a link to each PH's requests on the app!

In order to pick up a pinch hit you need to either email us or comment on this post (comments are screened) with:

The amount of wordcount you would like to claim (even if you're going to do fanart or some other non-fic opt-in medium! If you aren't sure what the equivalent would be, we'd be happy to help you convert it!)
The exact username of the AO3 account you will be posting your fill(s) from (if you post from a different account from the one you give us, we won't be able to count the PH as filled unless you update us!)
An email where we can reach you (you might not be getting the AO3 assignment when you pick up a PH, so we need to know where to send the assignment!)

( PH 1 - 3k - ジャックフロスト | Jack o' Frost (TV), 魔進戦隊キラメイジャー | Mashin Sentai Kiramager, Kamen Rider Zero-One, 名探偵プリキュア！| Meitantei Pretty Cure! | Star Detective PreCure! (Anime), Crossover Fandom (Timeranger & Timeforce)(Donbrothers & Zenkaiger)(Pretty Cure & Zenkaiger), Toy Story (Movies), 王様戦隊キングオージャー | Ohsama Sentai King-Ohger (TV), The Hundred Line -Last Defense Academy- (Video Game) )

( PH 2 - 6k - TRIBE NINE (Video Game), The Hundred Line -Last Defense Academy- (Video Game), Persona 5, 단간론파 어나더 | Danganronpa Another Series (Video Games) )

( PH 4 - 5k - Stranger Things (TV 2016), Heroes (TV 2006), Off Campus (TV 2026) )

( PH 5 - 2k - The Locked Tomb Series | Gideon the Ninth Series - Tamsyn Muir )

( PH 6 - 4k - Love Live! Sunshine!!, BanG Dream! Girl's Band Party! (Video Game), キミとアイドルプリキュア♪ | You and Idol Precure (Anime), わんだふるぷりきゅあ! | Wonderful PreCure! (Anime), 崩坏：星穹铁道 | Honkai: Star Rail (Video Game), 原神 | Genshin Impact (Video Game), 氷属性男子とクールな同僚女子 | Koori Zokusei Danshi to Cool na Douryou Joshi (Manga) )

( PH 7 - 6k - ベイブレードバースト | Beyblade Burst (Anime), Metal Fight Beyblade | Beyblade Metal Saga, Bakugan Battle Brawlers, Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's, Yu-Gi-Oh! GX, Noi siamo leggenda (TV), Pocket Monsters | Pokemon (Main Video Game Series), Pocket Monsters | Pokemon (Anime 1997-2023), Teen Titans (Animated Series), Depois do Universo | Beyond the Universe (2022) )

( PH 10 - 7k - Riverdale (TV 2017), Yellowjackets (TV), Sterling Point (TV), Something Very Bad Is Going to Happen (TV), Euphoria (TV 2019) )

( PH 11 - 4k - The Goblin Emperor Series - Katherine Addison, Blue Castle - L. M. Montgomery, 薬屋のひとりごと - 日向夏 | Kusuriya no Hitorigoto | The Apothecary Diaries - Hyuuga Natsu, The Longing (Video Game) )

( PH 12 - 9k - Crossover Fandom (Return of the Mount Hua Sect/The Scum Villain's Self-Saving System) )

( PH 14 - 7k - Children of Time Series - Adrian Tchaikovsky, The Expanse Series - James S. A. Corey, Uplift Series - David Brin, Star Wars Legends: Knights of the Old Republic (Video Games), Star Wars Legends: The Old Republic (Video Game) )

( PH 15 - 10k - All Elite Wrestling )

( PH 17 - 4k - 鹿鼎記 - 金庸 | The Deer and the Cauldron - Louis Cha, 鹿鼎記 | The Duke of Mount Deer (Hong Kong 1984), 老洞 | The Old Miao Myth (TV), 神鵰俠侶 | The Return of the Condor Heroes (TV 1983) )

( PH 18 - 6k - The Librarians: The Next Chapter (TV 2025), Crossover Fandom (The Librarians TV 2014/The Librarians TV 2025), Young Wizards - Diane Duane, Doctor Who (1963), Star Trek: The Next Generation (TV) )

( PH 20 - 7k - Found (TV 2023) )

( PH 25 - 5k - 新世界狂歡｜NU: carnival (Video Game), Les Misérables - Victor Hugo, Valmont (1989), Les liaisons dangereuses | Dangerous Liaisons - Choderlos de Laclos, A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, MADK (Manga) )

( PH 26 - 4k - Doctor Who: Scream of the Shalka, Doctor Who (1963), Doctor Who (1963), Doctor Who (2005) )

( PH 27 - 4k - 방탄소년단 | Bangtan Boys | BTS, Ordem Paranormal (Web Series), QSMP | Quackity SMP )

( PH 28 - 7k - 내가 키운 S급들 - 근서 | S-Classes that I Raised - Geunseo, 전지적 독자 시점 - 싱숑 | Omniscient Reader - Sing-Shong (Novel), Crossover Fandom (Omniscient Reader - Sing-Shong & The Scum Villain's Self Saving System), 崩坏：星穹铁道 | Honkai: Star Rail (Video Game) )

( PH 30 - 10k - Cartouche: Prince des faubourgs | Cartouche: Prince of the Streets (Cartoon), Keroro Gunsou (Anime), The Spectacular Spider-Man (Cartoon), Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines (video game), Crossover Fandom (The Spectacular Spider-Man/Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines), Cartouche: Prince des faubourgs | Cartouche: Prince of the Streets (Cartoon), The Spectacular Spider-Man (Cartoon), Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines (video game) )

~~( CLAIMED PH 33 - 0 - Welcome to the Game (Video Games), Sovereign Tower (Video Game), Sleep Token (Band), Carrion (Phobia Game Studio Video Game), Original Work, Dispatch (Video Game) )~~

( PH 34 - 2k - Persona 5 )

( PH 35 - 10k - 重返未来: 1999 | Reverse: 1999 (Video Game) )

( PH 37 - 10k - Hallo itt Mátyás király! - Bogáti Péter, Crossover Fandom (Vlad 2003/Vlad Tepes 1979), Men's Football RPF )

~~( CLAIMED PH 38 - 0 - Eye Candy (TV), In the Flesh (TV), The Firm (TV), The Accountant (Movies), DCU (Comics) )~~

( PH 40 - 7k - Green Hornet (TV), Crossover Fandom (Grimm & Criminal Minds), Ghost Whisperer (TV 2005) )

( PH 41 - 10k - Astreiant Series - Melissa Scott & Lisa A. Barnett, Crème de la Crème - Harris Powell-Smith, Jolly Good: Cakes and Ale - Kreg Segall )

( PH 45 - 8k - Original Work, Original Work, Original Work )

( PH 47 - 1k - 老九门 | Old Nine Gates (TV), 南部档案 | Archives: The Nanyang Mystery (TV), 雨霖铃 | Zhan Zhao Adventures (TV) )

( PH 48 - 10k - Tales of Berseria, ヒプノシスマイク | Hypnosis Mic (Albums), Bleach (Anime & Manga) )

( PH 49 - 5k - The Amazing Digital Circus (Web Series) )

comments

Pinch Hits PH 51-60 and repost of others

Mon, 28 Sep 2026 03:58:35 GMT

Posted by: fic_in_a_box_mod

Pinch hits are participants who are without creators; pinch hitting is the practice of volunteering to make a gift for a pinch hit. These pinch hits are all due on October 25 at 10:00 PM EDT.

Additionally:

Fic In A Box creators may default after partially filling their assignment—say, if they discover that they can only write 9k of fic—and PHs can be picked up in 1k increments!
You may always swap all or part of your assignment for a PH, just let us know that's what you're doing when you post to claim the PH.
In order to keep post size down we are including the details in a link to each PH's requests on the app!

In order to pick up a pinch hit you need to either email us or comment on this post (comments are screened) with:

The amount of wordcount you would like to claim (even if you're going to do fanart or some other non-fic opt-in medium! If you aren't sure what the equivalent would be, we'd be happy to help you convert it!)
The exact username of the AO3 account you will be posting your fill(s) from (if you post from a different account from the one you give us, we won't be able to count the PH as filled unless you update us!)
An email where we can reach you (you might not be getting the AO3 assignment when you pick up a PH, so we need to know where to send the assignment!)

( PH 1 - 3k - ジャックフロスト | Jack o' Frost (TV), 魔進戦隊キラメイジャー | Mashin Sentai Kiramager, Kamen Rider Zero-One, 名探偵プリキュア！| Meitantei Pretty Cure! | Star Detective PreCure! (Anime), Crossover Fandom, Toy Story (Movies), 王様戦隊キングオージャー | Ohsama Sentai King-Ohger (TV), The Hundred Line -Last Defense Academy- (Video Game) )

( PH 2 - 8k - TRIBE NINE (Video Game), The Hundred Line -Last Defense Academy- (Video Game), Persona 5, 단간론파 어나더 | Danganronpa Another Series (Video Games) )

( PH 4 - 5k - Stranger Things (TV 2016), Heroes (TV 2006), Off Campus (TV 2026) )

( PH 5 - 2k - The Locked Tomb Series | Gideon the Ninth Series - Tamsyn Muir )

( PH 6 - 5k - Love Live! Sunshine!!, BanG Dream! Girl's Band Party! (Video Game), キミとアイドルプリキュア♪ | You and Idol Precure (Anime), わんだふるぷりきゅあ! | Wonderful PreCure! (Anime), 崩坏：星穹铁道 | Honkai: Star Rail (Video Game), 原神 | Genshin Impact (Video Game), 氷属性男子とクールな同僚女子 | Koori Zokusei Danshi to Cool na Douryou Joshi (Manga) )

( PH 7 - 8k - ベイブレードバースト | Beyblade Burst (Anime), Metal Fight Beyblade | Beyblade Metal Saga, Bakugan Battle Brawlers, Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's, Yu-Gi-Oh! GX, Noi siamo leggenda (TV), Pocket Monsters | Pokemon (Main Video Game Series), Pocket Monsters | Pokemon (Anime 1997-2023), Teen Titans (Animated Series), Depois do Universo | Beyond the Universe (2022) )

( PH 10 - 7k - Riverdale (TV 2017), Yellowjackets (TV), Sterling Point (TV), Something Very Bad Is Going to Happen (TV), Euphoria (TV 2019) )

( PH 12 - 9k - Crossover Fandom )

~~( CLAIMED PH 13 - 0k - For All Mankind (TV 2019) )~~

( PH 15 - 10k - All Elite Wrestling )

( PH 18 - 6k - The Librarians: The Next Chapter (TV 2025), Crossover Fandom, Young Wizards - Diane Duane, Doctor Who (1963), Star Trek: The Next Generation (TV) )

( PH 20 - 7k - Found (TV 2023) )

( PH 26 - 4k - Doctor Who: Scream of the Shalka, Doctor Who (1963), Doctor Who (1963), Doctor Who (2005) )

( PH 27 - 4k - 방탄소년단 | Bangtan Boys | BTS, Ordem Paranormal (Web Series), QSMP | Quackity SMP )

( PH 28 - 7k - 내가 키운 S급들 - 근서 | S-Classes that I Raised - Geunseo, 전지적 독자 시점 - 싱숑 | Omniscient Reader - Sing-Shong (Novel), Crossover Fandom, 崩坏：星穹铁道 | Honkai: Star Rail (Video Game) )

( PH 30 - 10k - Cartouche: Prince des faubourgs | Cartouche: Prince of the Streets (Cartoon), Keroro Gunsou (Anime), The Spectacular Spider-Man (Cartoon), Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines (video game), Crossover Fandom, Cartouche: Prince des faubourgs | Cartouche: Prince of the Streets (Cartoon), The Spectacular Spider-Man (Cartoon), Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines (video game) )

( CLAIMED PH 32 - 0k - 第五人格 | Identity V (Video Game), Limbus Company (Video Game), Deltarune (Video Game), One Piece (Anime & Manga), 僕のヒーローアカデミア | Boku no Hero Academia | My Hero Academia (Anime & Manga) )

( PH 33 - 4k - Welcome to the Game (Video Games), Sovereign Tower (Video Game), Sleep Token (Band), Carrion (Phobia Game Studio Video Game), Original Work )

( PH 34 - 2k - Persona 5 )

( PH 35 - 10k - 重返未来: 1999 | Reverse: 1999 (Video Game) )

( PH 37 - 10k - Hallo itt Mátyás király! - Bogáti Péter, Crossover Fandom, Men's Football RPF )

( PH 38 - 7k - Eye Candy (TV), In the Flesh (TV), The Firm (TV), The Accountant (Movies), DCU (Comics) )

( PH 40 - 7k - Green Hornet (TV), Crossover Fandom, Ghost Whisperer (TV 2005) )

( PH 41 - 10k - Astreiant Series - Melissa Scott & Lisa A. Barnett, Crème de la Crème - Harris Powell-Smith, Jolly Good: Cakes and Ale - Kreg Segall )

( PH 45 - 5k - Original Work, Original Work, Original Work )

( PH 47 - 1k - 老九门 | Old Nine Gates (TV), 南部档案 | Archives: The Nanyang Mystery (TV), 雨霖铃 | Zhan Zhao Adventures (TV) )

( PH 48 - 10k - Tales of Berseria, ヒプノシスマイク | Hypnosis Mic (Albums), Bleach (Anime & Manga) )

( PH 49 - 5k - The Amazing Digital Circus (Web Series) )

( PH 51 - 3k - Hermitcraft SMP, Life Series | 3rd Life SMP Series, Stargate - Live Action, Formula 1 RPF )

( CLAIMED PH 52 - 0k - Original Work, Arsène Lupin - Maurice Leblanc, Poker Face (TV 2023), Columbo, The Nice Guys (2016), とんがり帽子のアトリエ | Tongari Boushi no Atelier | Witch Hat Atelier (Manga) )

( PH 53 - 2k - It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Downton Abbey, Jake and Amir (Web Series), MASH (TV), Oxventure (Web Series), Phantasmagoria: A Puzzle of Flesh )

~~( CLAIMED PH 54 - 0k - Ordem Paranormal (Web Series), QSMP | Quackity SMP, Hollow Knight (Video Games) )~~

~~( CLAIMED PH 55 - 0k - Karate Kid (Movies), Cobra Kai (TV), The Long Walk (Movie 2025), True Detective (TV 2014), Dune (Movies - Villeneuve), The Magnificent Seven (2016) )~~

( PH 56 - 2k - G Gundam, Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters (Anime & Manga), DCU (Comics), Teen Titans (Animated Series), Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon | Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon (Anime & Manga) )

( CLAIMED PH 57 - 0k - Original Work, Hunger Games Trilogy - Suzanne Collins, DCU (Comics), The Magnus Archives (Podcast), Fallout (Video Games), World of Darkness (Games), All Night Laundry (Webcomic) )

( PH 58 - 3k - 괴담에 떨어져도 출근을 해야 하는구나 - 백덕수 | Even If I Fall Into a Ghost Story I Still Have to Go to Work - Baek Deoksoo, 전지적 독자 시점 - 싱숑 | Omniscient Reader - Sing-Shong (Novel), 헌터는 조용히 살고 싶다 - 백삼 | The Hunter’s Gonna Lay Low - Baek Sam, Turning | 쿠유 - Kuyu (Webnovel), 明日方舟:终末地 | Arknights: Endfield (Video Game), X -エックス- | X/1999, Pocket Monsters | Pokemon (Main Video Game Series), Pocket Monsters | Pokemon (Anime 1997-2023), Pokemon Colosseum & XD )

( CLAIMED PH 60 - 0 - Trusty Bell: Chopin no Yume | Eternal Sonata, Palia (Video Game), Lost Odyssey (Video Game), The Last Remnant, Fallout (Video Games), Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, Dishonored (Video Games), Baldur's Gate (Video Games), Berserk (Anime & Manga), Dragon Age (Video Games) )

comments

Initial Pinch Hits PH 30-50 (Post 2 of 2)

Mon, 14 Sep 2026 02:54:46 GMT

Posted by: fic_in_a_box_mod

Pinch hits are participants who are without creators; pinch hitting is the practice of volunteering to make a gift for a pinch hit. These pinch hits are all due on October 25 at 10:00 PM EDT.

Additionally:

Fic In A Box creators may default after partially filling their assignment—say, if they discover that they can only write 9k of fic—and PHs can be picked up in 1k increments!
You may always swap all or part of your assignment for a PH, just let us know that's what you're doing when you post to claim the PH.
In order to keep post size down we are including the details in a link to each PH's requests on the app!

In order to pick up a pinch hit you need to either email us or comment on this post (comments are screened) with:

The amount of wordcount you would like to claim (even if you're going to do fanart or some other non-fic opt-in medium! If you aren't sure what the equivalent would be, we'd be happy to help you convert it!)
The exact username of the AO3 account you will be posting your fill(s) from (if you post from a different account from the one you give us, we won't be able to count the PH as filled unless you update us!)
An email where we can reach you (you might not be getting the AO3 assignment when you pick up a PH, so we need to know where to send the assignment!)

( PH 30 - 10k - Cartouche: Prince des faubourgs | Cartouche: Prince of the Streets (Cartoon), Keroro Gunsou (Anime), The Spectacular Spider-Man (Cartoon), Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines (video game), Crossover Fandom, Cartouche: Prince des faubourgs | Cartouche: Prince of the Streets (Cartoon), The Spectacular Spider-Man (Cartoon), Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines (video game) )

~~( CLAIMED PH 31 - 0k - Original Work, Original Work, Original Work, Original Work )~~

( PH 32 - 7k - 第五人格 | Identity V (Video Game), Limbus Company (Video Game), Deltarune (Video Game), One Piece (Anime & Manga), 僕のヒーローアカデミア | Boku no Hero Academia | My Hero Academia (Anime & Manga) )

( PH 33 - 4k - Welcome to the Game (Video Games), Sovereign Tower (Video Game), Sleep Token (Band), Carrion (Phobia Game Studio Video Game), Original Work )

( PH 34 - 2k - Persona 5 )

( PH 35 - 10k - 重返未来: 1999 | Reverse: 1999 (Video Game) )

~~( CLAIMED PH 36 - 0k - Doctor Who (2005), DCU (Comics), Mr. Student Body President (TV) )~~

( PH 37 - 10k - Hallo itt Mátyás király! - Bogáti Péter, Crossover Fandom, Men's Football RPF )

( PH 38 - 7k - Eye Candy (TV), In the Flesh (TV), The Firm (TV), The Accountant (Movies), DCU (Comics) )

~~( CLAIMED PH 39 - 0k - Ladyhawke (1985), Slow Horses (TV), Slow Horses (TV), Widow's Bay (TV 2026) )~~

( PH 40 - 7k - Green Hornet (TV), Crossover Fandom, Ghost Whisperer (TV 2005) )

( PH 41 - 10k - Astreiant Series - Melissa Scott & Lisa A. Barnett, Crème de la Crème - Harris Powell-Smith, Jolly Good: Cakes and Ale - Kreg Segall )

( CLAIMED PH 42 - 0k - Trigun (Anime & Manga 1995-2008), 吸血鬼すぐ死ぬ | Kyuuketsuki Sugu Shinu | The Vampire Dies in No Time (Manga), Project Hail Mary (2026), Original Work, Pocket Monsters | Pokemon (Main Video Game Series) )

~~( CLAIMED PH 44 - 0k - The Goblin Emperor Series - Katherine Addison, Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, DCU (Comics), Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen, Numb3rs (TV), Kingsman (Movies) )~~

( PH 45 - 5k - Original Work, Original Work, Original Work )

~~( CLAIMED PH 46 - 0k - Hannibal (TV) )~~

( PH 47 - 1k - 老九门 | Old Nine Gates (TV), 南部档案 | Archives: The Nanyang Mystery (TV), 雨霖铃 | Zhan Zhao Adventures (TV) )

( PH 48 - 10k - Tales of Berseria, ヒプノシスマイク | Hypnosis Mic (Albums), Bleach (Anime & Manga) )

( PH 49 - 5k - The Amazing Digital Circus (Web Series) )

~~( CLAIMED PH 50 - 0k - Mystic Messenger (Video Game), Blue Eye Samurai (Cartoon), Ouran High School Host Club - All Media Types )~~

comments

Initial Pinch Hits PH 1-29 (Post 1 of 2)

Mon, 14 Sep 2026 02:54:43 GMT

Posted by: fic_in_a_box_mod

Pinch hits are participants who are without creators; pinch hitting is the practice of volunteering to make a gift for a pinch hit. These pinch hits are all due on October 25 at 10:00 PM EDT.

Additionally:

Fic In A Box creators may default after partially filling their assignment—say, if they discover that they can only write 9k of fic—and PHs can be picked up in 1k increments!
You may always swap all or part of your assignment for a PH, just let us know that's what you're doing when you post to claim the PH.
In order to keep post size down we are including the details in a link to each PH's requests on the app!

In order to pick up a pinch hit you need to either email us or comment on this post (comments are screened) with:

The amount of wordcount you would like to claim (even if you're going to do fanart or some other non-fic opt-in medium! If you aren't sure what the equivalent would be, we'd be happy to help you convert it!)
The exact username of the AO3 account you will be posting your fill(s) from (if you post from a different account from the one you give us, we won't be able to count the PH as filled unless you update us!)
An email where we can reach you (you might not be getting the AO3 assignment when you pick up a PH, so we need to know where to send the assignment!)

( PH 1 - 3k - ジャックフロスト | Jack o' Frost (TV), 魔進戦隊キラメイジャー | Mashin Sentai Kiramager, Kamen Rider Zero-One, 名探偵プリキュア！| Meitantei Pretty Cure! | Star Detective PreCure! (Anime), Crossover Fandom, Toy Story (Movies), 王様戦隊キングオージャー | Ohsama Sentai King-Ohger (TV), The Hundred Line -Last Defense Academy- (Video Game) )

( PH 2 - 8k - TRIBE NINE (Video Game), The Hundred Line -Last Defense Academy- (Video Game), Persona 5, 단간론파 어나더 | Danganronpa Another Series (Video Games) )

( CLAIMED PH 3 - 0k - Interview with the Vampire (TV 2022), Vampire Chronicles Series - Anne Rice, Crossover Fandom, A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, Game of Thrones (TV), Fire & Blood - George R. R. Martin, House of the Dragon (TV), Война и мир - Лев Толстой | War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy )

( PH 4 - 5k - Stranger Things (TV 2016), Heroes (TV 2006), Off Campus (TV 2026) )

( PH 5 - 2k - The Locked Tomb Series | Gideon the Ninth Series - Tamsyn Muir )

( PH 7 - 10k - ベイブレードバースト | Beyblade Burst (Anime), Metal Fight Beyblade | Beyblade Metal Saga, Bakugan Battle Brawlers, Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's, Yu-Gi-Oh! GX, Noi siamo leggenda (TV), Pocket Monsters | Pokemon (Main Video Game Series), Pocket Monsters | Pokemon (Anime 1997-2023), Teen Titans (Animated Series), Depois do Universo | Beyond the Universe (2022) )

( CLAIMED PH 8 - 0k - Bionicle (Generation 1), The Protomen (Rock Opera), Minecraft: Story Mode (Video Game), Rockman | Mega Man Classic (Video Games), Hoshi no Kaabii | Kirby: Right Back at Ya! )

( CLAIMED PH 9 - 0k - Thor (Movies), Thor (Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Crossover Fandom, Cthulhu Mythos - H. P. Lovecraft, Cthulhu Mythos - H. P. Lovecraft, Old Gods of Appalachia (Podcast) )

( PH 10 - 7k - Riverdale (TV 2017), Yellowjackets (TV), Sterling Point (TV), Something Very Bad Is Going to Happen (TV), Euphoria (TV 2019) )

( PH 12 - 9k - Crossover Fandom )

( PH 13 - 1k - For All Mankind (TV 2019) )

( PH 15 - 10k - All Elite Wrestling )

~~( CLAIMED PH 16 - 0k - Dispatch (Video Game), 전지적 독자 시점 - 싱숑 | Omniscient Reader - Sing-Shong (Novel), The Hobbit (Jackson Movies) )~~

( PH 18 - 6k - The Librarians: The Next Chapter (TV 2025), Crossover Fandom, Young Wizards - Diane Duane, Doctor Who (1963), Star Trek: The Next Generation (TV) )

( CLAIMED PH 19 - 0k - Blue Lock (Manga), SK8 the Infinity (Anime), Haikyuu!!, ヴァ二タスの手記 - 望月淳 | Vanitas no Carte | The Case Study of Vanitas - Mochizuki Jun (Manga), Wind Breaker - にいさとる | Nii Satoru (Manga), とんがり帽子のアトリエ | Tongari Boushi no Atelier | Witch Hat Atelier (Manga), Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan )

( PH 20 - 10k - Found (TV 2023) )

~~( CLAIMED PH 21 - 0k - Dreaming of Sunshine - SilverQueen (DFE), Naruto (Anime & Manga), Beware of Chicken - Casualfarmer, Persona 5, Crossover Fandom, Original Work )~~

~~( CLAIMED PH 22 - 0k - 阴阳师 | Yīn Yáng Shī | The Yin-yang Master (Movies - Guo Jingming), 陰陽師 | Onmyouji (Anime 2023), 밤에 피는 꽃 | Knight Flower (TV) )~~

~~( CLAIMED PH 23 - 0k - 9-1-1 (TV), Charmed (TV 1998), The Pitt (TV), Sheriff Country (TV 2025), Tracker (TV 2024) )~~

( CLAIMED PH 24 - 0k - グノーシア | Gnosia (Visual Novel), 我家大师兄脑子有坑 | Wo Jia Dashi Xiong Naozi You Keng (Cartoon), 人渣反派自救系统 - 墨香铜臭 | The Scum Villain's Self-Saving System - Mòxiāng Tóngxiù, 二哈和他的白猫师尊 - 肉包不吃肉 | The Husky and His White Cat Shizun - Meatbun Doesn't Eat Meat, 小蘑菇 - 一十四洲 | Little Mushroom - Yī Shí Sì Zhōu, 名探偵コナン | Detective Conan | Case Closed )

( PH 26 - 4k - Doctor Who: Scream of the Shalka, Doctor Who (1963), Doctor Who (1963), Doctor Who (2005) )

( PH 27 - 4k - 방탄소년단 | Bangtan Boys | BTS, Ordem Paranormal (Web Series), QSMP | Quackity SMP )

( CLAIMED PH 29 - 0k - The Murderbot Diaries - Martha Wells, Homestuck, Long Live The Black Parade - My Chemical Romance Tour, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Spider-Man: Spider-Verse (Sony Animated Movies), Deltarune (Video Game), Persona 5, Pocket Monsters | Pokemon (Main Video Game Series), Scholomance - Naomi Novik )

comments

Swaps out!

Sun, 13 Sep 2026 04:09:24 GMT

Posted by: fic_in_a_box_mod

Navigation: Rules/General Info | AO3 Collection | Medium Rulesets | Mod Contact: ficinaboxmod@gmail.com OR Screened Mod Contact Post

Your swapsignments have been sent out via email! If you're signed up, the email has gone to the email associated with your AO3 account. If you're not signed up, it's gone to the email you provided when you volunteered to be a secret swapper. If you signed up for swaps and did not receive an email, please contact us so that we can get that information to you. Both people who successfully swapped and people who we couldn't swap got emails, so everyone who tried to swap should have an email. Someone with a username starting with N had their swapsignment email bounce, and will need to email us!

If you requested swaps despite not being signed up, keep your eyes peeled for the pinch hitter request post. Your secret swaps count as pinch hits, so we'd love to see you make some requests. That post should go up tomorrow or the day after, and will be pinned just below the rules post on the comm.

We would also like to thank those of you who signed up to receive extra wordcount. Some of you simply held extra words while we shuffled swaps around, others of you will receive more than 10k in assignments when your swaps email arrives, and in all cases swaps wouldn't have been successful without you!

Here's what you let us do:

1182000 words were swapped! (1,299,000 last year!)
there were 2149 potential swaps (where one swap is a request from one of you create for someone!) (Last year: 2406)
541 swaps were made between 243 participants (Last year: 621 swaps; 260 participants)
3 participants wanted to swap, but unfortunately couldn't; these participants will be prioritized to the best of our ability next year if they sign up for swaps again (Last year: 2)
We now have 861 combined assignments and swaps out, most of them waiting to be filled! (Last year: 957)

Finally, thank you very much to everyone for your patience. Please refer to this part of the rules for an in-depth refresher on assignment minimums and expectations, but the short of it is: 10k of complete fic (or equivalent opt-in) is due on October 25 at 10:00 PM EDT. Email us immediately if you have any problems with or questions about your assignment(s).

Initial Pinch Hits:

Initial Pinch Hits will probably go up tomorrow-ish. Mentally schedule it for ~24 hours after your swaps email, to give us time to get all these swaps into the mod sheet and verify all of the pinch hit amounts.

comments

Assignments out!

Sat, 05 Sep 2026 05:01:57 GMT

Posted by: fic_in_a_box_mod

Assignments are out! Thank you very much for your patience. Please refer to this part of the rules for an in-depth refresher on assignment minimums and expectations, but the short of it is: 10k of complete fic (or equivalent opt-in) is due on October 25 at 10:00 EDT (Countdown). Email us immediately if you cannot create anything your recip has requested.

Default/Extension/Assignment Summary forms: These aren't quite up and running yet; they'll be ready by next week.

Rule reminders/clarifications:

All gifts are required to hit at least one of the recipient's relationship/character/worldbuilding tags and it should be reasonably clear which tag is being hit. What this means will obviously vary by medium; tarot cards have very different expectations than knitting patterns. This applies to all gifts, including treats, unless the recip has said something to opt themselves out or has requested something else in their details.
If your DNWs directly contradict your opt ins or relationship-field tags they will be unenforceable. We tried to email everyone affected by this, but if we missed you and it comes up later, this still applies to you. This was issues like DNWing 1st person while requesting epistolary, requesting an "Any" tag while DNWing a medium that clearly falls within that tag, or DNWing M/F while requesting an OW tag that doesn't specify the genders of the characters.
Remember that works will be anonymous for two weeks after work reveals! Even if you're making something that is inherently unanon in some way, you still may not link to your outside social media on the work until after author reveals.
For recursive works: Your work still must fill your recip's requested relationship tags (unless your recip has opted out of that). The work you are recursing does not need to originally hit those tags.
If you have a question for your recip email us so we can pass it on to them anonymously. Do not ask them any other way, including passing the question through someone else, asking an anonymous question on their tumblr, etc. This is so that if they give you a DNW or medium exception or something we can keep track of that!

If you are creating multiple works:

Each work must fulfill one of your assigned recipient's requests, but they do not need to be the same request and do not need to be connected. Filling all 10k of your assignment using the same request is also fine.
If you choose to create multiple gifts, you should fill the first one using the Fulfill button on your assignment page! The other ones will need to be posted directly to the collection by going to the profile, clicking "Post to Collection", and manually adding your recipient on the "Gift this work to" line.

If you cannot complete all or some of your assignment:

If you have not yet posted any works, you can default by hitting "Default" on your assignments page. This will remove the assignment and release you from any obligation.
If you have completed part of your assignment and wish to default on the rest, please email the mods and let us know! You will still be guaranteed up to the amount of approved works you submitted rounded down to the nearest 1k (e.g. if you post 3.5k, then default, and then your creator defaults on their entire assignment, you will go out to PH for 3k). If you posted multiple works, those wordcounts/equivalents are added together before the total is rounded down.
If you have defaulted on all or part of your assignment, you may "earn back" the amount of gifts you are guaranteed by submitting works to your original assignment or by picking up pinch hits. Please check the "Defaulting" section of this post (link) for more information.

Posting

Everyone is requesting fanfiction, in addition to their medium opt ins.
All works must be at least 1k or equivalent unless the recipient has opted into a lower amount, in which case they must be 1k or equivalent or fill a length opt-in tag.
You can find extended posting guidelines here (link).
If you are filling a Worldbuilding or Original Work tag and don't wish to tag your work with that exact tag, please mention in your top author's note what tag you're filling.
All medium tags have a prefix telling you what ruleset they follow, which will tell you the minimum and the wordcount equivalents of that medium. Any non-fanfiction mediums must fit into one of those rulesets or they will not be accepted into the exchange. "Unique Rules" means that a medium has unique minimums and equivalents which are also on the ruleset page. You can find the rulesets here (link).
If you believe that how you're tagging your work may be confusing for the mods when they check, please just make a note in the top authors note! This also goes for any other information you think may be useful! We will post an all clear notification here on DW a few days before reveals reminding everyone to swap their work from "helping the mods out with notes" mode to "looking nice for reveals" mode.

Treating

Treating is encouraged!
Any treats posted to the exchange should meet the assignment requirements! This means that they should be at least 1k or equivalent (unless the recip has opted into lower) and must fill their requested fandom, tags, and medium opt ins if not fanfiction.
If you have treated your recipient prior to picking up their pinch hit, any treats you have given them that meet the assignment requirements will be automatically counted towards your assignment! This is a side effect of how we're automating the tracking for this exchange. If you have given your recipient a treat that you do not want to count towards your assignment, please let us know when you post to the DW to claim the pinch hit.

Other reminders:

If you post any part of your assignment from an account other than the one you signed up with, we need to know in order to count that work towards your 10k. We'd super prefer you post from the account you signed up with and transfer the work after we've processed it, though.
You must remain anonymous until creators are revealed. This means you should not contact your recipient or state who you are creating for. If you have any questions for your recipient, you should contact the mods and we will pass those on.
Those of you hoping to create works with complicated HTML may find the collection of resources for work skins on the Medium Ruleset post helpful for creating things like twitter, mission reports, etc. (This is in a dropdown box you'll have to click to show the links.)
If you create an AO3 workskin/tutorial for something that doesn't already exist you can post it to the collection for others to use! We will reveal it immediately. If you need to earn back minimum after defaulting a community workskin/tutorial counts for 2k. If you'd like to confirm if what you're making will count prior to making it, please contact us!
Don't miss the post about Assignment Swaps!
Initial pinch hits will be out after swaps.
If you're confused about anything at all, hit us up!! Email ficinaboxmod@gmail.com OR comment on the Screened Mod Contact Post

comments

Please Check Your Emails!

Thu, 03 Sep 2026 02:59:45 GMT

Posted by: fic_in_a_box_mod

If your AO3 name starts with A, D, K, M, or S please check your email! You are either at risk of being a cascading unmatchable or have at least one request that is in danger of deletion.

Additionally we have finished signup checks! Everyone please check your email in case there was anything we needed to contact you about!

comments

Sign ups closed! Check your email!

Mon, 31 Aug 2026 06:41:31 GMT

Posted by: fic_in_a_box_mod

Signups have closed! There is one unmatchable! Please check your email if your AO3 name starts with M!

There are six people who are not open to extra gifts, if your name starts with H, P, or T please check your email!

We will be checking requests over the next few days, so please keep an eye on your emails in case we find any issues we need to contact you about.

comments

Medium Resource Update!

Tue, 25 Aug 2026 23:44:37 GMT

Posted by: fic_in_a_box_mod

Medium Resource Update!

What is it?

The medium information that we've mentioned working on a few times this round are finished and available!

This sheet has several columns:

Explanations & Notes: These are meant to both let you know generally what the mediums are, and give you an idea of what the moderator expectations are for each medium tag. If there was anything we thought might be confusing or might be an easily forgotten requirement we tried to include that.

Examples: We included links to specific examples for many of the mediums! These are all examples from past rounds, examples the nominators gave when nominating, or examples that were volunteered. When we had multiple options we tried to pick examples that showed various styles or methods. The examples should be treated as options that have been used before and not something you're required to emulate.

If you would prefer your work not be used as an example, just let us know and we will remove it!

Where is it?

The explanations & examples currently live on the second tab of the "Medium/Length List Generator & Information 2026" spreadsheet! It's permanently linked home is from the Medium Rulesets page.

Disused Mediums

While setting up this list, we found that there were a lot of mediums that hadn't been created in Fic In A Box before or had only been created a few times. We picked out a few of those to highlight here! Maybe you'd be interested in offering or requesting one of these?

List of select mediums which have been created never or rarely

Medium Opt-In: Art - Adaptation Concept Art
Medium Opt-In: Art - Body Pillow Cover Style Art
Medium Opt-In: Art - Character Possessions
Medium Opt-In: Art - Isometric Room/Cityscape
Medium Opt-In: Art - Landscape
Medium Opt-In: Art - Murder Tableaux
Medium Opt-In: Art - Point - Voxel
Medium Opt-In: Art - Remix - Art Remix of Recipient's Art
Medium Opt-In: Art - Ship Schematic (ship as in a boat)
Medium Opt-In: Art - Tapestry Style Art
Medium Opt-In: Art - Zodiac Sign
Medium Opt-In: Audio - Filk Set To Public Domain Music (A Capella)
Medium Opt-In: Audio - Tarot Card Reading
Medium Opt-In: Combined Media (Art & Writing) - Fictional Adaptation Artifacts
Medium Opt-In: Combined Media (Art & Writing) - Ship Schematic (ship as in a relationship)
Medium Opt-In: Instructions - Solo Journaling TTRPG rules
Medium Opt-In: Instructions - TTRPG Supplement
Medium Opt-In: Poetry - Double Abecedarian
Medium Opt-In: Poetry - Elegy
Medium Opt-In: Typographic Design - Calligraphy & Handlettering
Medium Opt-In: Typographic Design - In-Universe Material Safety Data Sheet (MSDS)
Medium Opt-In: Typographic Design - In-Universe Playbill/Program
Medium Opt-In: Typographic Design - In-Universe Restaurant/Catering Menu
Medium Opt-In: Typographic Design - In-Universe Ship Manifest (the transit kind)
Medium Opt-In: Typographic Design - In-Universe Style Guide
Medium Opt-In: Typographic Design - Warning Label or Sticker
Medium Opt-In: Unique Rules - Conspiracy Board
Medium Opt-In: Unique Rules - Gifset
Medium Opt-In: Unique Rules - Map: Country
Medium Opt-In: Video - Fake Trailer
Medium Opt-In: Writing - Creepypasta
Medium Opt-In: Writing - Fictional Adaptation Artifacts
Medium Opt-In: Writing - In-Universe Material Safety Data Sheet (MSDS)
Medium Opt-In: Writing - In-Universe Screenplay
Medium Opt-In: Writing - In-Universe Ship Manifest (the transit kind)
Medium Opt-In: Writing - Remix - Fic Remix of Recipient's Art
Medium Opt-In: Writing - Ship Manifesto (the relationship kind)
Medium Opt-In: Writing - Tarot Card Reading

comments

Swaps open!

Thu, 20 Aug 2026 01:59:53 GMT

Posted by: fic_in_a_box_mod

Navigation: Rules/General Info | AO3 Collection | Sign Up Info | Medium Rulesets | Mod Contact: ficinaboxmod@gmail.com OR Screened Mod Contact Post

Swap Requests

Swaps is the part of the exchange where you can trade in 1k increments of your assignment for 1k increments of other assignments!* Requests for swaps are open until September 6th and the mods will finalize the swaps over the next few days. Swaps are voluntary, so you don't have to give up any part of your assignment if you don't want to. We also can't guarantee that you'll be able to swap, although the more people who send in swap requests the more likely it is!

Non-participants who want to pick up swaps are invited to join in.

(* The rest of this post is going to talk about wordcounts in increments of 1k, but obviously if you are a fanartist or podficcer or something it's equivalent wordcount. Just, that would get really wordy to write every time...and we need a sheet to do the swap math for us...)

Swaps FAQ

Click for answers to questions like:

What & why are swaps, in more detail than above?
What happens if I don't submit any swap requests?
Why are Swaps open when I don't know what my initial assignment will be yet?
If it turns out I like/dislike my initial assignment more than I thought, can I change my mind about my swap requests?
The instructions below ask for usernames for swap requests. Can't I just tell you what fandom/ship/medium I'd like to swap for? How do I find requests I'd like to submit swaps for?
I just want to make lots of stuff for lots of people, but I'm not picky about the details. What's easiest?
I'm extremely picky, can I give you a specific max swap wordcount for every swap I request? How do I increase my chances of getting one or more swapsignments? How do I increase my chances of swapping away more of my initial assignment?
I definitely want to keep a full 10k assignment, can I still participate in swaps?
I'm not signed up, can I submit a swap request and get a swapsignment?
I submitted swap requests, but I've changed my mind and don't want to swap anymore. How do I let you know?

What & why are swaps, in more detail than above?

Fic In A Box allows participants to split their 10k assignments up into multiple gifts – ten 1k fics, or five 2k fics, and so on. We also allow pinch hits to be picked up in 1k increments. In this way, you can think of every full 10k assignment as actually being made up of smaller 1k assignments, since each gift needs to be 1k or more unless certain length opt-ins are selected.

It's definitely fun to make a bunch of small works for the same person, but it's also fun to make a bunch of small works for a whole bunch of different people. Especially because there might be requests out there that you could make 1k for, but not a full 10k.

Swap requests let you tell the mods, "Hey, I actually don't want to do all ten of my 1k assignments for the same person, can I trade some wordcount in?"

For example:

After sign ups end you might find that your initial assignment is for X. You know you could create a full 10k for X, but maybe they haven't opted into any extra mediums, and you wanted to do some art for FIAB.
Looking around the requests, you see that A, B and C are all requesting art mediums you can do for fandoms/relationships you're interested in.
You submit a swap request form telling the mods:
- You'd like the following swaps:
  - 1k for A
  - 3k for B
  - 1k for C
- You need at least 2k for B because you want to make them a comic at least that long.
- You want to keep at least 7k of your initial assignment for X.
- You don't want more than 3 recipients total.
The mods get a whole bunch of swap requests like the one above and then do a huge spreadsheet puzzle to figure out who can actually swap what.
In the end, you will either get an email letting you know we couldn't make any of your swaps happen…
…or you will get an email with telling you about your swapsignments, which might be any of the following:
- You've kept 7k of X, and now have 1k of A & 2k of B
- You've kept 7k of X, and now have 1k of C & 2k of B
- You've kept 7k of X, and now have 3k of B
- You've kept 8k of X, and now have 1k of A & 1k of C
- You've kept 8k of X, and now have 2k of B
- You've kept 9k of X, and now have 1k of A
- You've kept 9k of X, and now have 1k of C

What happens if I don't submit any swap requests?

You will get your initial assignment email from AO3 and that will be your full and only assignment. You'll need to make 10k worth of gifts for your recipient. This is a perfect fine and normal way to participate in Fic In A Box! Swaps are completely optional.

Why are Swaps open when I don't know what my initial assignment will be yet?

Some people know they'll want to swap no matter what their initial assignment is. Other people will be traveling for the rest of sign ups, or only rarely have access to the internet, so they wouldn't be able to submit any swap requests if we only had them open after sign ups close.

If it turns out I like/dislike my initial assignment more than I thought, can I change my mind about my swap requests?

Yes! Swap requests aren't final until swaps close, so if you change your mind about something just submit a new swaps request form. We'll use the most recent one.

The instructions below ask for usernames for swap requests. Can't I just tell you what fandom/ship/medium I'd like to swap for?

We have to handmatch swap requests, so it's too complex/time consuming for us to figure out which users are requesting the things you want to make for you. The big swaps puzzle spreadsheet we use only shows wordcounts and usernames.

If you really don't want to look through all the requests to find ones you really like, then you can select the "I would like to be able to swap to anyone I might be matchable to on AO3" checkbox and make your AO3 offers as broad or narrow as you'd like. Please remember swaps aren't guaranteed, so you shouldn't offer anything on AO3 which you can't make 10k for.

How do I find requests I'd like to submit swaps for?

Since the AO3 requests summary is terrible, use the Automagic App (link) to search requests! There's a short tutorial about how to use the autoapp at the very bottom of the sign ups post, under the "Other Notes" section.

I just want to make lots of stuff for lots of people, but I'm not picky about the details. What's easiest?

Use the google form to tell us the following:

I want to be assigned a total max of 10,000 words after swaps.
I want to keep at minimum none of my initial assignment.
I would like to be able to swap to anyone I might be matchable to on AO3
[Either skip the "I would like to swap to one of the following people:" question or input a list of usernames if you have them]
My swap assignments should be a max of 1k each. (OR My swap assignments should be a max of 10k each, if you prefer.)
I would like at most 10 recips after swaps, including my initial assignment.
[Skip the last question, probably]

You may keep 9k of your initial assignment and get a 1k new swapsignment, or you may keep none of your initial assignment and get ten new 1k swapsignments for different people, or anything in between. Do not make AO3 offers for anything you can't make 10k for.

I'm extremely picky, can I give you a specific max swap wordcount for every swap I request?

Yes, and we're glad to have you do so! The last question on the answer form lets you give this kind of granular detail, as well as any other miscellaneous info you think we need to know.

How do I increase my chances of getting one or more swapsignments? How do I increase my chances of swapping away more of my initial assignment?

Getting swaps is mostly about luck, since you can't control what other people are or aren't willing to swap, but the more usernames on your swapsignments list the higher the likelihood that at least one of them will have word count available to swap around.

More flexibility will also help you get more assignments, as will checking your swaps math — if you only don't want to end swaps with more than 3 assignments and then only ask for swaps of 1k each, then at most you will swap away 2k of your initial assignment no matter how many potential swaps you have. If your goal is to keep 8k of your initial assignment, then obviously mission accomplished! But if you only wanted to keep 3k...well, there's nowhere for me to swap that extra 5k of your initial assignment, so you're stuck.

(Also, if you're struggling with swaps math, feel free to reach out with questions! It's not just you; this is not super intuitive.)

I definitely want to keep a full 10k assignment, can I still participate in swaps?

Yes, in two different ways!

If you don't want to make more than 10k but you'd be happy to swap your initial assignment for a full 10k assignment to someone else, you can tell us:
- I want to be assigned a total max of 10,000 words after swaps.
- I want to keep at minimum none of my initial assignment.
- I would like to be able to swap to anyone I might be matchable to on AO3
- [Either skip the "I would like to swap to one of the following people:" question or input a list of usernames if you have them]
- My swap assignments should be a max of 10k each.
- I would like at most 1 recip after swaps, including my initial assignment.
- [Skip the last question]
If you're sure you'll be able to make 15,000 or 20,000 words before works are due, you can tell us you want 15k/20k total after swaps and you want to keep all 10k of your initial assignment, then fill out the rest of the swaps form however you'd like.

I'm not signed up, can I submit a swap request and get a swapsignment?

Yes! Please do, in fact. There's more information about this below under the header "Swaps for Non-Participants"

I submitted swap requests, but I've changed my mind and don't want to swap anymore. How do I let you know?

Please email us at ficinaboxmod@gmail.com! Include your username and just ask for us to throw out your swap requests, we'll do the rest.

Swap Form

The following forms will walk you through the information we need. You may fill these forms out as many times as you need, but only your final request will be used to make your swaps. These forms are identical except for the email part.

Swap Form (link)
Swap Form that asks for your email so it can email you a summary of your inputs (link)
Non-Participant Swap Form (link) (Please read "Swaps For Non-Participants + Initial Pinch Hit Info" below before clicking!)

Manual Swap Requests

To enter into swaps without using the above forms, we need the following information emailed to ficinaboxmod@gmail.com. If you send multiple emails or use both the form and send an email, please make sure each submission contains your entire swap information. Only the most recent email or form submission will be used for your swaps.

Please copy the tiny form in this text box to your email:

(Click here for instructions about the tiny form above!)

Your AO3 username exactly as it appears on your sign up.
If you aren't signed up, note that the numbers below are assuming you're signed up so you will need to adjust accordingly.

What is the maximum amount total you would like assigned?
This is the absolute max we will assign to you in total, including your initial assignment (if you have one) and swaps. This amount must be at least 10k if you are signed up.

What is the maximum number of assignments you would like?
This is the maximum number of people you will be assigned to create for, including your initial assignment, if you have one.

What is the minimum amount of your current assignment that you want to keep?
If all your swapping dreams come true, we'll make sure you have this amount of your original assignment still assigned.
You can keep as much as 10k (if you picked a max of over 10k) or as little as 0k. If you have no preference, put 0k. You can only keep wordcount in 1k increments, even if your assigned recip has shorter length opt-ins.

What other participants would you like to create for, how much would you like to create for them, and do you have any special notes?
You can provide either the exact AO3 username of the participant(s) you would like to create for as it appears on their FIAB requests, or say "I would like to swap to anyone I might be matchable to on AO3"

We need to know the amount of wordcount (in increments of 1k) that you would like to create for each participant listed. If opting to any match, please provide the maximum you'd like to be assigned to any single swap recipient.

If you have any special notes, we need those too! For example if you want to swap to someone to make them a map, we'd need to know you need to swap for a minimum of 2k, not 1k.

Please format the swap request information in the following way:

New Recip's AO3 name, Max amount you want to be assigned to this recip, Special Notes

Example:

Asymptotical, 2k
fencesit, 5k
tuesday, 5k, I need at least 2k to make a map

Swaps For Non-Participants + Initial Pinch Hit Info

Initial pinch hits won't come out until after Swaps because IPHs are of course super useful for swapping!

If you:

aren't signed up but intend to create something for one of our participants regardless OR
are signed up but intend to do additional treating on top of your assigned wordcount

...then you can get a pinch hit swapsignment!

If you're signed up, then you can indicate that you're willing to take 15k or 20k in the swap form.

If you're not signed up, then you can use the Non-Participant Swap Form (linked above) to get a pinch hit swapsignment!

We also would like to make people taking pinch hit swapsignments aware that swapsignments are likely not going to be like regular pinch hits:

regular pinch hits are recipients who genuinely have no one to create for them and who will go without a gift if no one steps up
swapsignment pinch hits are used to help make participants' swaps dreams come true.

Some of the Swaps puzzling does end up reducing or completely eliminating IPH wordcount, but that's not really the main goal. No one will go without a gift as a result of us having fewer or no swapsignments, so we'd like to encourage folks to only offer to take on that extra wordcount if they're very enthused to do so and feel it would be relatively easy for them to complete.

If you only want to pinch hit for requests who otherwise would have no one creating for them (entirely reasonable) you can simply wait for us to post our real initial pinch hits to the comm after Swaps conclude.

Final Note!

The FIAB Newbies Discord Server (link) is a great place to ask questions if you're still confused!

If you have any questions about swaps or sign ups that would give away what you're offering, please email us at ficinaboxmod@gmail.com or use the screened mod contact post to keep that info secret! You can also contact us via these methods if you're new to exchanges and have a question about exchange norms, appropriate sign up details, or other concerns.

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Late Relationship/Solo/WB Nominations

Mon, 17 Aug 2026 02:02:13 GMT

Posted by: fic_in_a_box_mod

During signups we're willing to take late nominations in comments on this post! Please only nominate tags that you intend to immediately request.

Late Relationship/Solo/WB Nominations

Limitations

We will add at most 10 fandoms per person.
We will add at most 10 relationship/Solo:/WB: tags per person per fandom.*
Tags must meet all of the below requirements.
We will not be workshopping, fixing any nominations, or researching tags at this point.
If you are not logged in, you will need to sign your nominations with your AO3 name.

(*We will add in WB: Any tags to any new non-RPF fandom free of charge, though.)

Requirements:

Late nominations must be in batch load format: Fandom,Tag,Tag,Tag(...)
Each fandom should be on a separate line.
Fandoms which are already in the tagset must be exactly as they appear in the tagset. If you're nominating a fandom that isn't in the tagset please let us know which fandoms are new.
Relationships and characters must be in the format listed in the guidelines. If you think a character may be confusing (such as characters that canonically have more than one version and need to be distinguished, or characters who have names that make them sound like inanimate objects or abstract concepts) then please include an explanation.
Worldbuilding tags must be in the format listed in the guidelines and adhere to all of the guidelines for WB tags. In addition, please include an explanation separate from the list for each worldbuilding tag for what it is (This doesn't need to be complicated, just enough that we'll know it fits the rules!). We will not be accepting worldbuilding tags that need workshopped, though you're welcome to workshop it yourself (or on the Newbie Discord Server if you need help!) and try again. You may find the nominations queries a useful reference.
RPF and RPF-adjacent fandoms (including Minecraft SMPS) must provide evidence of famousness and age (18+) for any RPF characters who are new to the tagset. Linking to a Wikipedia article would satisfy both of these requirements. If all of the RPF characters you're nominating are already in the tagset, please tell us "These characters are all already in the tagset" or something similar so we know they're already checked.

Late Relationship/WB Nominations will close on August 29th at 10:00PM Eastern (Countdown)! Make sure you request them before then! No new tags will be added after that point.

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Signups open!

Mon, 17 Aug 2026 02:01:40 GMT

Posted by: fic_in_a_box_mod

Sign ups!

Signups are open! Go to the collection here (link) to sign up!
Signups will be open until August 30th at 9:59pm EDT (Countdown)

You must be 18+ to sign up.

Other links:

Tagset
Mediums Ruleset Post
AO3 Automagic App (for browsing requests!)
Sheet to help you select medium opt-in tags that produces a list you can copy/paste into AO3
Late Nominations (These close on August 30th at 10:00PM Eastern)
Fandom Promo
FIAB Newbie Discord Server (we'll answer all your questions!)

What Are Sign Ups?

Sign ups are how we figure out who wants what and who's creating for who! The process is this:

Participants fill out a sign up form on AO3. The sign up form is split into requests and offers, both of which use tags from the tagset.
Participants who want to make non-fic mediums email their offer details to the mods (more on that below).
AO3's matching program works out who can create for who based on the tags selected for requests and offers.
If any participants have no one to create for, they get emailed by the mods to add offers or drop out.
Assignments are sent. Optionally, participants who are interested in creating smaller works for multiple recipients can ask for swaps–but swaps will have their own post and aren't covered here!

You are allowed to sign up with one well-behaved sock (i.e. a maximum of two accounts per person).

You can email us Do Not Match requests, instructions for which are in the rules and info post (link).

Request Instructions

Requests are for saying what you would like to receive. They are visible to everyone. You must use only tags from the tagset. Each request is a set of tags that go together: a fandom, relationship tag(s), and (if you want them) medium/length opt-ins.

You must have a minimum of 1 request. You may have up to 10 requests. If you are requesting less than 3 fandoms with distinct lore, you are not guaranteed a pinch hit in the event that your assigned creator defaults in full or in part.

If you are unmatchable as a recipient (i.e. no one is offering anything you are requesting), your requests will be posted to the Dreamwidth community for claiming as a pinch hit.

Your creator will be matched to you based on one fandom and one relationship/character/WB: tag.

You should therefore request as if you will only get ONE of your requested relationships/characters/WB: tags.

Fandom field

Each request has 1 fandom.
You may repeat fandoms.
The order you put your requests in doesn't matter.

You cannot DNW significant parts of the fandom you are requesting. You can't DNW "pirates" if requesting Pirates of the Caribbean, and you can't DNW The Return of the King if you're requesting The Lord of the Rings (Jackson Movies).

(Also, this kind of unenforceable DNW is hard for us to catch during sign up checks since it requires that we know the fandom, so DNWs along these lines might be unenforceable even if we don't email you about them.)

Relationships

You may select 1-20 tags per request in the relationships field.
The order you put your tags in doesn't matter.

When you request a group, you're only guaranteed one member of that group. Groups take the place of characters in relationship-field tags, allowing you to request a category of characters instead of explicitly listing every character, for example, "The Losers Club" or "Batfamily" or "Original Male Characters".

Where there is ambiguity in a tag, we will likely side with the creator. If you request a relationship-field tag that involves an ambiguous group or character description, we will accept your creator's interpretation. If you request an original character, Original Work, Reader, or other tag that could specify gender but doesn't, your creator can pick any gender.

You can't DNW parts of tags you've requested. You can't request "Creator's Choice of Jedi & Han Solo (SWOT)" and then try to DNW Yoda. You can't request "Creator's Choice of Lannisters/Any Characters" and then DNW incest or poly ships.

Length/Medium Opt-Ins (the "Additional tags" and "Optional tags" fields)

Fanfiction is the default medium requested in Fic in A Box.

You cannot opt-out of receiving fanfiction, which for FIAB is defined as narrative fiction.

You may receive one 10k fic, ten 1k fics, or something in between.

You can skip selecting any opt-ins if you are only interested in receiving fic.

Length Opt-Ins let you opt-in to receiving works of less than 1,000 words (or equivalent).
Medium Opt-Ins let you opt-in to receiving mediums other than fic.
You can request 0-20 Length/Medium Opt-ins in the "Additional tags" field.
You can request as many Length/Medium Opt-Ins as you want in the "Optional tags" field. You must copy them directly from the tagset or use this sheet (link) to create your list.
The order you put your tags in doesn't matter.
The app that we use for viewing requests has both of these fields linked for easy searching!

Opt-ins contained in your Optional Details field (or your Letter) also count, so if you usually have "epistolary" in your likes list but don't want it for FIAB, you should remove it.

Anything you opt into has the potential to be your entire gift. While it is unlikely you will receive 100 drabbles if you choose "Length Opt-In: Drabbles", it is technically possible!

Medium Opt-Ins have wordcount equivalents which you can view here (link).

Letter

Dear Creator letters may be linked to in your signup in order to give your gifter further details on your likes and dislikes. These are optional as long as you have something in your AO3 signup saying what you like.

If you're using Tumblr we would like to remind you not to change your URL before the end of the exchange and to double-check that participants without a Tumblr account will be able to see your letter.
If you're using Google Docs we would like to let you know that your letter will be much more accessible to your fellow participants if you use the Publish to the Web function.
If you're using Ellipsus you need to use a Reader link so that participants without an Ellipsus account can view your letter.
If you have multiple linked letters, the mods will only use the link given in the Letter field of the signup for the purpose of checking for opt-ins within your optional details.

Optional Details

List likes, prompts, and Do Not Wants for your potential creators in this long text box.
These are called optional details because your creator(s) are not required to follow your likes and prompts (although they do need to avoid your DNWs) when creating your gift(s).

You must include something in your optional details to indicate what you like or have an unlocked letter before signups close. This can be short (for example: "I really like h/c and fluff!") or long, but it needs to be present. If you're linking to a letter which already has publicly visible information to this effect, that is also acceptable. Just saying that you like what you're requesting or that you'll like "anything" is not enough; if you don't want to include a likes list in your sign ups you can instead mention something you like about your requested canon, like your favorite scene.

Do Not Wants (DNWs)

Do Not Wants (DNWs) are a list of things you absolutely don't want to receive in your gift(s). They go in the Optional Details box, but are not optional for creator(s) to follow.
You need to use the label "DNW" or "Do Not Want" at the beginning of your list.
Do not label them or anything else "Dislikes" or anything similar as that's too confusing for potential creators.
Only DNWs in your AO3 requests will be enforced.

If you have no DNWs, please put "No DNWs" on its own line somewhere in your requests. We expect to get a number of people new to multifandom events, so we want to make absolutely sure people without DNWs mean to be doing that without needing to email them.

New to DNWs? They're important, but a little tricky Click here to re-read our DNW explainer from the rules post.

DNWs should be phrased and understood to be value-neutral. For example, one might DNW dogs because...

they find dogs upsetting
they find dogs boring
they just spent the past week reading every fic about dogs in the fandom and are a bit tired of dogs now
they really like works with dogs sometimes and really hate them other times and it's easiest to just DNW them instead of asking their creator(s) to thread a needle
for personal reasons, thinking about dogs is very painful right now

It's impossible to tell which explanation above is true for any given participant with "DNW: Dogs" on their request, so the only sure thing you can know is that that participant just doesn't want dogs in their gifts. This ambiguity is a feature, not a bug.

Never explain why you DNW something, but definitely explain how to apply the DNW and if there are any exceptions.

Unhelpful "why" explanation: "DNW: dogs (they're gross)" — this isn't relevant to avoiding putting dogs in a gift, and also might make people who like dogs feel bad
Helpful "how" explanation: "DNW: dogs (canonical werewolves are fine, but please no normal wolves)" — this answers a question that a creator might have about how best to apply the DNW!

In the event that a DNW is included in your gift, only reasonable DNWs noted in your AO3 requests will be enforced. DNWs cannot be used to box your creator into producing a very specific work, and should be clear and specific in scope. You cannot DNW part of something you've requested. If you believe an enforceable DNW has been broken in your gift, please email us immediately.

FAQ: DNWs

What makes a DNW "unreasonable"?

The goal of DNWs is to state, as unambiguously as possible, what specific things one doesn't want in a gift. It's not the job of DNWs to prevent a recipient from getting a bad gift (although we hope everyone will get only good gifts) or to ensure that a recipient gets exactly what they want. Requests aren't commissions, and we value the creative freedom of our participants.

An unreasonable DNW might contradict a requested relationship or medium, try to force the creator into a very narrow set of options, be phrased too vaguely or broadly or confusingly, and/or seek to prevent the creator from creating works about a large part of canon.

Example: Requesting a pirate canon like Pirates of the Caribbean or One Piece and then listing the DNW "pirates"
Example: Requesting the medium opt-in "Medium: In-Universe Epistolary/Journals" and then listing the DNW "first person POV"
Example: DNWing "OOC writing" (How is a creator supposed to ascertain what counts as OOC to the recipient? How could the mods make a decision about if something is OOC when they probably don't know the fandom?)
Example: DNWing "dead dove content" ("dead dove" has many possible meanings, so no one can be sure what this DNW means; you need to list the actual content that you don't want.)
Example: DNWing "CBT/wax play/gun kink/etc." (We can't enforce an "etc"!)

What happens if I have an unreasonable/nonspecific/otherwise unenforceable DNW?

If we notice it, we will ask you to remove it (or to remove the tag it contradicts, if it's something like the epistolary example above) or rephrase it. If we only realize you have an unenforceable DNW because you've received a gift you feel hits that DNW and would like a replacement gift, we will unfortunately have to refuse.

Why are you making such a fuss about DNW phrasing?

Broadly speaking, we think DNWs are an important and wonderful part of multifandom exchange culture and learning to create and identify good DNWs is imperative for good exchange etiquette. This exchange attracts a large number of new exchange participants, so by explaining in detail we can set our newbies up for success in the wider exchange circuit! If we could do so by just saying "list stuff you don't want in your Do Not Wants" then we would do that, but years of experience has shown that a lot of the information offered above on DNWs is absolutely not intuitive and needs to be explicitly stated for newbies.

Also, and more immediately, we will be on the hook for assuring some of you get gifts via pinch hits, including sending out emergency pinch hits if someone gets an unacceptable gift! Bad DNWs make it harder to find a pinch hitter and more likely one of those DNWs will be hit by accident. We'd prefer not to have to tell anyone that their DNW is too confusing for us to give them a replacement gift.

Help! I don't know how to phrase a DNW! / What if I think a DNW I want might be unreasonable?

Don't worry, there are people who want to help! Many people on the FIAB Newbies Discord server will be happy to help you figure out how to phrase your DNWs in the #sign-up-discussion channel.

Offer Instructions (On AO3, For Participants Offering Fic)

Offers are for saying what you would like to make. They aren't visible to anyone but the mods. You must use only tags from the tagset. Each offer is a set of tags that go together: a fandom and relationship tag(s). You can't offer specific mediums on AO3; look at the next section of this post for information about offering specific mediums.

You must have a minimum of 1 offer. You may have up to 10 offers. For matchability, we recommend you make at least 3 offers.

If you are unmatchable (no requests match your offers) when sign ups close, we will email you. All participants need someone to match to in order to participate, so if you're unmatchable and don't reply to our email, we'll have to delete your sign up.

You will be matched to your recipient based on one fandom and one relationship/character/WB: tag.

You should therefore offer as if you will only be able ot create for ONE of your offered relationships/characters/WB: tags.

When you get your assignment, it will list all of your recipient's requests, but you're only required to create for one of them. If you would like to create for a request you didn't match on, or if you'd like to create for multiple requests, that's fine!

Offer Instructions (Non-Fic Mediums)

Everyone who signs up is by default offering 10k of fic unless they email us at ficinaboxmod@gmail.com–click here if you're wondering why.

Fic is the exchange's default medium because that's what it's most easy to find pinch hitters for. We don't want to be in a situation where the only way to open the collection is to get someone a gift in a rare medium because that could cause months of delays.

Ideally, we would just make everyone request a medium tag for fanfiction…but there's no way to make participants do that when they sign up. We would have to edit potentially thousands of individual requests to fix people who'd forgotten to request fic, and that's just not something we have the time for. It's actually easier for us to just handmatch people who are doing other mediums.

We do really, really want you to make non-fic things! Think of it like a concierge mod service, hand delivering an appropriate assignment to you. The VIP treatment, because we're so excited about mediums.

To make your non-fic offers, please include the following in your email:

1. The username you are signing up with.

(If you're also signing up with a sock, you can put information for both accounts in one email.)

2. A list of usernames of participants who are requesting something you can make.

For each username, include:

What relationship-field tag you can create for
What medium tag(s) you can create for.

We need the info about relationship field tags and medium tags not because you will be obligated to create that exact thing, but because we will double check during matching that the recipient we’re matching you to is still requesting what you need. We will check that your match hasn’t, for example, removed the ship and medium you said you can create from their request.

Please do not skip giving us usernames! Matching you by hand to a specific username is super easy and quick, and anyway since we're making you email us we want to give you an assignment you'll definitely be happy with. You will not be obligated to create the exact tags you've told us you can create for your recip.

Other Notes

You can update your offers by emailing us again if things change during the sign up period.

You will probably find the automagic app helpful for finding recipients, as it lets you search requests by medium.

FAQ: How to Use the Auto-App

How do I use the automagic app to look at requests?

Follow the link to the app above. The "Grouped Requests" tab defaults to showing requests grouped by fandom. You can use the "Filter" field on that tag to search the fandoms so you don't need to scroll through all of them to find the one you're looking for. You can group by other fields, or you can use the "Search All Requests" to do advanced searching, like searching for a request that has a certain combination of fandom and medium.

How do I use the automagic app to find recipients if I plan to make things that aren't fic?

To find medium matches, go to FIAB's Automagic App and then do one of these things:

Browse by fandom and look at all the stuff in each fandom, if you're open to creating a lot of different mediums
Change the "Group By" drop down to "Freeform" to browse by length/medium opt-in.
Go to the "Search All Requests" tab and use the filters there to search in more detail. For example, you could put "Star Wars" in the fandom field and "Art" in the freeform field and you will be shown all requests that have "Star Wars" in the fandom and at least one medium tag with "Art"
If you want to give your recip a specific medium, check to see if they've opted into the tag you're thinking of making.

Do I need to search use the Optional Tags field to search for mediums?

No, for FIAB's version of the app all Optional Tags are counted as freeforms and included in searches of the "Freeform" field, so you can just search that one field!

Is there a way to bookmark things on the automagic app?

Yes, there is! While sign-ups are open, you can browse requests and use the heart icon next to fandoms to create a bookmark for a whole fandom. Once sign-ups close, you can use the heart button to bookmark specific prompts/requests.

Do I need to search umbrella tags separately?

Yes! If you don't know, umbrella tags are tags like "Medium Opt-In: Any - Any Nominated Medium" or "Medium Opt-In: Video - Any Nominated Video Medium" which opt a recipient into a whole category of mediums. You need to look these up separately from specific medium tags if you want to see everyone you could possibly create something for.

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Nominations Clarification 3

Fri, 14 Aug 2026 06:08:39 GMT

Posted by: fic_in_a_box_mod

Nominations Clarification 3

This is the last nominations clarification! Except for queried/rejected tags, all tags should now be in the tagset. If you think your tag has gone astray, please comment on this post ASAP. We do our best not to lose anything, but it's definitely possible.

Surprise Medium Update

While finalizing mediums we realized that the following merged tags covered some very different types of personal documents without allowing for them to be requested specifically, when someone may reasonably want one without the other:

Writing - In-Universe Excerpts from a Character's
Journal/Notebook/Diary
Combined Media (Art & Writing) - In-Universe
Journal/Notebook/Sketchbook Page

We've split those back up into the following:

Writing - In-Universe Excerpts from a Character's Journal/Diary
Writing - In-Universe Excerpts from a Character's Notebook
Combined Media (Art & Writing) - In-Universe Journal/Sketchbook Page
Combined Media (Art & Writing) - In-Universe Notebook Page

Also, click here for a list of new medium tags!

Medium Opt-In: Art - Book Cover - Vintage Erotica
Medium Opt-In: Combined Media - Any Nominated In-Universe Media That Fit the Canon Setting
Medium Opt-In: Combined Media - Any Nominated In-Universe Media That Fit the Canon Setting
Medium Opt-In: Combined Media (Art & Typographic Design) - In-Universe Postcard
Medium Opt-In: Combined Media (Art & Video) - Animatic - With Canon Audio
Medium Opt-In: Combined Media (Art & Video) - Animatic - With Music
Medium Opt-In: Combined Media (Art & Writing) - In-Universe Epistolary
Medium Opt-In: Combined Media (Art & Writing) - In-Universe Journal/Sketchbook Page
Medium Opt-In: Combined Media (Art & Writing) - In-Universe Notebook Page
Medium Opt-In: Combined Media (Art & Writing) - In-Universe Propaganda
Medium Opt-In: Combined Media (Audio & Typographic Design) - Podfic with Cover Art
Medium Opt-In: Instructions - Miniature Prop DIY Tutorial
Medium Opt-In: Poetry - Etheree
Medium Opt-In: Poetry - Ninette
Medium Opt-In: Poetry - Nonet
Medium Opt-In: Typographic Design - Book Cover
Medium Opt-In: Typographic Design - Cover Art of Recipient's Fic
Medium Opt-In: Typographic Design - Cover Art of Recipient's Podfic
Medium Opt-In: Typographic Design - In-Universe Lecture Slide/Presentation Aid
Medium Opt-In: Unique Rules - Art with Pop-Up Elements - Any Nominated Art Tag
Medium Opt-In: Unique Rules - Art with Pop-Up Elements - Comics
Medium Opt-In: Unique Rules - Art with Pop-Up Elements - Fanart
Medium Opt-In: Unique Rules - Craftwork - Clay Figure
Medium Opt-In: Writing - In-Universe Excerpts from a Character's Journal/Diary
Medium Opt-In: Writing - In-Universe Excerpts from a Character's Notebook
Medium Opt-In: Writing - In-Universe Lecture Notes
Medium Opt-In: Writing - In-Universe Satirical News Article

Queries

Google Forms nominations

Crossover Fandom: Bruce Wayne & Peter Parker (Holland) — Nominator, we need some kind of disambiguation for Bruce Wayne here! Do you want Batman - All Media Types (includes live action, cartoons, comics, video games, literally any Batman media ever) or are you looking for something more specific?
Crossover Fandom: Camila Noceda — Nominator, we think you might have nominated this in the wrong fandom because it doesn't seem to be a crossover. Could you help us out?
Crossover Fandom: Johanna/Hilda's Mum — Nominator, we can't figure out how to disambiguate this for you because we don't know who Johanna or Hilda are! Could you help us out?
Crossover Fandom: WB: Lovell family connections (Spyflyers) (Biggles) (Worrals) — We would love to approve a "crossover" tag for these three fandoms (they take place in the same universe, we remember!) but we're not sure what this tag means and are worried that this phrasing with three disambigs is just plain confusing, so we're hoping the nominator can elaborate about what they're looking for.
Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling: WB: First War Death Eater Training Recruitment Strategy and/or Politics (HP - Rowling) — We would like to rephrase this slightly to match with our other WB: tags where we just use / between worldbuilding topics when they're listed like this. Nominator, should this be "WB: First War Death Eater Training/Recruitment Strategy/Politics (HP - Rowling)" or "WB: First War Death Eater Training/Recruitment/Strategy/Politics (HP - Rowling)"?
Hermitcraft SMP: Solo: S10 Magic Mountain (Hermitcraft) — This appears to refer to a specific location in season 10. Did you want the group of seven hermits who lived on the mountain (the wiki offers "magic mountain crew" or "cherry mountain people" as options) or is the location canonically thinking/feeling?
Ordem Paranormal (Web Series): Milo Castello & Miguel Castello (Ordem Paranormal) — The wiki refers to Miguel Castello as a former identity of Milo Castello - are these distinct characters?
Ordem Paranormal (Web Series): WB: Orfanato Santa Manefreda (Ordem Paranormal) — On the wiki we found reference to a "Orfanato Santa Menefreda"-- did the wiki spell the location it incorrectly?
Pantheon SMP: Solo: AbolishRegret (Video Blogging RPF) (Pantheon SMP) — This was nominated with the disambiguation for Video Blogging RPF, not for Pantheon SMP. Did you want RPF?
Pantheon SMP: Solo: Apokuna (Video Blogging RPF) (Pantheon SMP) — This was nominated with the disambiguation for Video Blogging RPF, not for Pantheon SMP. Did you want RPF?
Pantheon SMP: Solo: InfiniteDrift (Video Blogging RPF) (Pantheon SMP) — This was nominated with the disambiguation for Video Blogging RPF, not for Pantheon SMP. Did you want RPF?
Pantheon SMP: Solo: Legundo (Video Blogging RPF) (Pantheon SMP) — This was nominated with the disambiguation for Video Blogging RPF, not for Pantheon SMP. Did you want RPF?
Pantheon SMP: Solo: MythicalSausage (Video Blogging RPF) — This was nominated with the disambiguation for Video Blogging RPF, not for Pantheon SMP SMP. Did you want RPF?
Pantheon SMP: Solo: Owen | OwengeJuiceTV (Video Blogging RPF) (Pantheon SMP) — This was nominated with the disambiguation for Video Blogging RPF, not for Pantheon SMP. Did you want RPF?
Pantheon SMP: Solo: Rendog (Video Blogging RPF) — This was nominated with the disambiguation for Video Blogging RPF, not for Pantheon SMP. Did you want RPF?
Pantheon SMP: Solo: ZombieCleo (Video Blogging RPF) (Pantheon SMP) — This was nominated with the disambiguation for Video Blogging RPF, not for Pantheon SMP. Did you want RPF?
Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies): Mirror!Spock/Mirror!Jim Kirk (AOS) — Nominator, it doesn't seem to us that there's canonically a mirror universe in this version of Star Trek; the movies seem to handle alternate timeline stuff instead. Does Mirrorverse stuff happen in these movies and we just haven't been able to find it via googling? If not, this would be better as a prompt under a normal Spock/Kirk request in this fandom.
Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types: All tags with "Massiff" — Nominator, are you looking for a specific Massiff (like from a particular episode) or will Any Massiff or Original Massiff do?
Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types: All tags with "Tentacle Monster" — Is there a canonical tentacle monster in this fandom?
Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types: Horse-Like Animal/Aayla Secura (SW: TCW) — Nominator, Star Wars has a lot of horse-like animals. Which specific horse-like animals from this fandom are you looking for?
Superman (2025): WB: Social Media (Superman 2025) — Is there any reason to think that social media in the universe of Superman (2025) is substantially different from social media in real life? If not, we can't accept this tag. There are many social-media related mediums that the nominator could choose from and pair with other relationship-field tags, or the nominator could elaborate on what kind of worldbuilding related to social media they're hoping for and we could work out a new WB: tag.
Undertale (Video Game): The Undertale Ensemble (Undertale) — Nominator, we will be accepting this as "Solo: Creator's Choice of Canon Character (Undertale)"
Vampires SMP: Solo: AbolishRegret (Video Blogging RPF) — This was nominated with the disambiguation for Video Blogging RPF, not for Vampires SMP. Did you want RPF?
Vampires SMP: Solo: Apokuna (Video Blogging RPF) — This was nominated with the disambiguation for Video Blogging RPF, not for Vampires SMP. Did you want RPF?
Vampires SMP: Solo: CherriFire (Video Blogging RPF) (Vampires SMP) — This was nominated with the disambiguation for Video Blogging RPF, not for Vampires SMP. Did you want RPF?
Vampires SMP: Solo: InfiniteDrift (Video Blogging RPF) — This was nominated with the disambiguation for Video Blogging RPF, not for Vampires SMP. Did you want RPF?
Vampires SMP: Solo: Legundo (Video Blogging RPF) — This was nominated with the disambiguation for Video Blogging RPF, not for Vampires SMP. Did you want RPF?
Vampires SMP: Solo: Owen | OwengeJuiceTV (Video Blogging RPF) — This was nominated with the disambiguation for Video Blogging RPF, not for Vampires SMP. Did you want RPF?
Vampires SMP: Solo: ZombieCleo (Video Blogging RPF) — This was nominated with the disambiguation for Video Blogging RPF, not for Vampires SMP. Did you want RPF?
ウマ娘プリティーダービー | Uma Musume: Pretty Derby (Video Game): WB: Horsegirls Born in Non-Horsegirl Families (Uma Musume: Pretty Derby) — Can horsegirls canonically be born in non-horsegirl families?

Ao3 tagset nominations

Andor (TV): WB: Ghorman exiles after the war (Andor) — Nominator, we'd like to rephrase this a little if we can, as "[Group] After [Event]" isn't a WB: format we like to accept if we can help it. A new phrasing would hopefully specify what kind of stuff you want to know about the post-war exiles. You can cram in several topics separated by slashes if you'd like.
Ballad Lines - Anderson & Various: Solo: The Abortionist (Ballad Lines - Anderson & Various) — We're having a hard time finding information about this fandom so we haven't been able to confirm that this character's only name is "The Aborttionist" — is that the case or does this character have another name?
Ballad Lines - Anderson & Various: WB: Musical Culture On The Ship (Ballad Lines - Anderson & Various) — We're having a hard time finding information about this fandom so we haven't been able to confirm much about the setting or which ship this is. Is there only one ship in Ballad Lines? Is it a fictional ship?
Ballad Lines - Anderson & Various: WB: Retellings/Rewritings of Scots-Irish Appalachian Ballads (Ballad Lines - Anderson & Various) — We're having a hard time finding information about this fandom so we haven't been able to confirm anything about the setting. Are there canonical, fictional rewrites/retellings of Scots-Irish Appalachian ballads in this canon?
Buffy the Vampire Slayer (TV): All tags — We had a kind of weird tagset situation that made these tags, which we believe were nominated under Buffyverse (TV), show up under Buffy the Vampire Slayer (TV), so we pulled them to accept under the correct fandom. They should be in the tagset!
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 (Video Game): Solo: Any Seeker Gestral (Clair Obscur) — We can't figure out what "Seeker" means in this context, could someone let us know?
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 (Video Game): WB: Gestrals Before Fracture (Clair Obscur) — Nominator, we'd like to rephrase this a little if we can, as "[Group] Before [Event]" isn't a WB: format we like to accept if we can help it. A new phrasing would hopefully specify what kind of stuff you want to know about the pre-fracture gestrals. You can cram in several topics separated by slashes if you'd like.
Fate/EXTRA: Archer (Fate/EXTRA)/Kishinami Hakuno (Fate/EXTRA CCC) — Nominator, what does CCC mean in this context? Is this a crossover ship?
Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses: WB: Golden Route (FE3H) — It seems to us that this isn't an in-univese term but instead is an out-of-universe term for a certain route one can take in gameplay. Is that the case? We prefer that worldbuilding tags be phrased with in-universe words as much as possible. In this case, we're not sure what kind of worldbuilding you're asking for, as this seems more like a request for a certain setting/plot.
Fire Emblem: Kakusei | Fire Emblem: Awakening: Lucina & Creator's Choice of Future Kid (FE:A) — Are the future kids canonical?
Fire Emblem: Kakusei | Fire Emblem: Awakening: Solo: Future Kids (FE:A) — Are the future kids canonical?
Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling: Harry Potter & Tom Riddle (HP) — Does this refer to Tom Riddle Sr or to Voldemort? If Voldemort, "Harry Potter & Voldemort" is already in the tagset.
Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling: Harry Potter/Tom Riddle (HP) — Does this refer to Tom Riddle Sr or to Voldemort? If Voldemort, we will accept as "Harry Potter/Voldemort".
It's All So Incredibly Loud - Glass Animals (Music Video): Solo: Dave Bayley (Incredibly Loud) — Nominator, it's not clear to us that Dave Bayley is playing himself in this music video. Would "Solo: Dave Bayley's Character (Incredibly Loud)" be more accurate? Or, alternatively, is there some way to interpret the music video as Bayley playing himself?
Minecraft Speedrunning (MCSR): Solo: OliverMCSR (MCSR) — We can't find the age of this creator. We need proof that they are 18 years or older before we can accept this tag.
Mouthwashing (Video Game): Solo: Polle (Mouthwashing) — Polle seems to be a company mascot rather than a character. There are statues of Polle, a hallucination of him, and a centipede monster made of Polle segments in the game. Are you referring to one of these specific manifestations?
Original Work: Woman Caught Up In A Sweep For Rebels & Charged With Treason/Person Who Is Reshaping Her Body To Fulfill The Terms Of Her Sentence (F/Any) (OW) — Nominator, we need to rephrase this to get rid of the "&" in the middle (we also don't want to use "and"). Maybe something like "Woman Imprisoned For Treason After Being Caught Up In A Sweep For Rebels/Person Reshaping Her Body To Fulfill The Terms Of Her Sentence (F/Any) (OW)"?
Pocket Monsters | Pokemon (Main Video Game Series): WB: Culture in Different Regions (Pokemon) — We pulled this to query but answered our own questions!
Pocket Monsters | Pokemon (Main Video Game Series): WB: Humans and Pokemon Working Together (Pokemon) — We pulled this to query but answered our own questions!
Pocket Monsters | Pokemon (Main Video Game Series): WB: Relationships Between Different Regions (Pokemon) — We pulled this to query but answered our own questions!
Sonic the Hedgehog - All Media Types: WB: Differences Between Mobian Species (Sonic the Hedgehog VG) — We don't usually accept All Media Types fandoms. Nominator, we would like to accept this under a more specific fandom, such as Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog (Cartoon) or Sonic the Hedgehog (Video Games) or whatever works for you.
The Haunting (1963): Hill House & John Markway & Luke Sanderson & Theodora & Eleanor "Nell" Vance (The Haunting (1963)) — Is Hill House canonically thinking/feeling? Does it have agency the way a character would in this canon?
Thor (Movies): WB: Influence of the Asgard-Jotunheim War on the Perception of Jotnar in Asgard (Thor) — IWe don't think Jotnar is a term used in the MCU. Can the nominator confirm, or can we change this to Frost Giants or People of Jotunheim?
Thor (Movies): WB: Physiological Differences between Aesir and Jotnar (Thor) — We don't think Jotnar or Aesir are terms used in the MCU. Can the nominator confirm, or can we change this to Frost Giants or People of Jotunheim and Asgardians respectively?
グノーシア | Gnosia (Visual Novel): WB: Gnos (Gnosia VN) — The wiki describes Gnos as the antogonist of this VN and describes it having goals and plans, etc, so we think that Gnos probably counts as a character. Nominator, have we misunderstood? If not, we can switch this to Solo: Gnos, or you can elaborate on what kind of worldbuilding you're looking for and we can try to work out a new WB: tag.
仮面ライダーギーツ | Kamen Rider Geats: WB: Ace’s Past Lives (KR Geats) — Nominator, this seems like a backstory prompt that would be better under a Solo: Ace request. Per nomination rules, WB: tags can't just be about one character. If this tag is relevant for more than just Ace, could you explain how?

Rejected Tags

Google Forms nominations

Deltarune (Video Game): WB: Friend (Deltarune) — We will be accepting this as "Solo: Friend (Deltarune)"
Kung Fu Panda (Movies): Crane & Mantis & Master Shifu & Monkey & Po & Tigress & Viper (Kung Fu Panda) — Sorry, nominator, we only allow up to 6 characters per relationship.
Mass Effect Trilogy: WB: Any (MET) (MET) — We will add "WB: Any" to all fandoms when tagset clean up is done.
Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies): WB: Differences Between AOS & TOS (Star Trek AOS) — Sorry, nominator, I don't think we can approve this tag. It seems more approriate for Crossover Fandom, but even besides that we really want worldbuilding tags that are phrased with in-universe worldbuilding topics as much as possible. If you can explain what you're looking for better (and maybe why you think it should be in this fandom instead of Crossover Fandom?) then we'd be willing to reconsider, of course!
Undertale (Video Game): WB: Sans’ Backstory (Undertale) — Sorry, nomiantor, we don't accept backstory as WB tags. This would be better as a prompt under a Solo: Sans request.

Ao3 tagset nominations

Captain America (Chris Evans Movies): All tags — We don't break the Captain America movies out by actor. I have added under the correct fandom, which is Captain America (Movies)
House Builder Gang SMP | HBG SMP: All tags — Unfortunately, we've been unable to confirm that the following MCYT creators nominated for this fandom are 18+: doogile. Since we can't be sure whether or not they are over 18, we must act as if they are a minor. Therefore, we have removed this fandom and its tags from the tagset, including crossover tags. If anyone can provide evidence that doogile is 18+, we'd be happy to add the fandom back. Also, we're sorry that we accepted this fandom into the tagset and are now having to take that back; we will investigate a more robust and organized way to handle RPF nominations in future rounds to prevent this from happening again.
Lifesteal SMP: All tags — Unfortunately, we've been unable to confirm that the following MCYT creators nominated for this fandom are 18+: Only_A_Squid and Wyll_. Since we can't be sure whether or not they are over 18, we must act as if they are a minor. Therefore, we have removed this fandom and its tags from the tagset, including crossover tags. If anyone can provide evidence that both are 18+, we'd be happy to add the fandom back. Also, we're sorry that we accepted this fandom into the tagset and are now having to take that back; we will investigate a more robust and organized way to handle RPF nominations in future rounds to prevent this from happening again.
Lifesteal World (SMP): All tags — This is a short run season of Lifesteal SMP and should normally be nominated as Lifesteal SMP, although per other clarification we cannot accept Lifesteal SMP at this time.
Long Live The Black Parade - My Chemical Romance: All tags — Nominator, we rejected all tags in this fandom because we wanted to query you about them! Is there are reason this isn't just the canonical Black Parade - My Chemical Romance (Album)? Also, many of your relationships seemed to be RPF, rather than album focused, so we were extra confused. Please reply with a link to your nominations page so that when we figure out where your tags should go, I can add them to the tagset for you.
The Avengers (Marvel Movies): WB: The Other (The Avengers) — Sorry, nominator, this isn't a tag we can accept and would be better as a prompt under a Solo: The Other request.
The Dresden Files - Jim Butcher: Solo: Original Male Character Who's Introduction To The Supernatural Was Joining The Wild Hunt (Dresden Files) — Sorry, nominator, this is too specific for a non-Original Works nomination, so we can't accept it.
Thor (Movies): WB: Jotunn Loki (Thor Movies) — Sorry, nominator, this isn't a tag we can accept and would be better as a prompt under a Solo: Loki request.
Video Blogging RPF: Jim Pickens/Turg (VBRPF) — These characters seem to be fictional characters created by callmekevin, rather than video bloggers, so they're not appropriate for nomination in this fandom. Where else might we nominate them? Have they appeared in the same callmekevin video(s)? If not, maybe Crossover Fandom?

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Tagset Clean-Up

Wed, 12 Aug 2026 05:49:27 GMT

Posted by: fic_in_a_box_mod

Navigation: Rules/General Info | AO3 Collection | Tagset | Mod Contact: ficinaboxmod@gmail.com OR Screened Mod Contact Post

Tagset Clean Up

We're still processing nominations! We still have a couple hundred tags to put out and one more clarification post to do, but we wanted to get this post up now that we've stopped accepting new nominations.

This post is very specifically for issues with tags already in the tagset. If you have a question about a queried/rejected nomination or if you think tags you nominated got lost in the shuffle, please instead comment on a Nominations Clarification post.

Your report must include:

The tag(s)
The fandom
The issue and if necessary what needs to be changed to fix it.

Things to definitely report to us

Wandering tags: These are tags that belong in one tagset fandom, but are showing up in others. This is usually caused by the fandoms being connected, but some tags just like to show up any ol place. Please indicate both the correct fandom and the fandom(s) being invaded.
Misspellings: Please tell me the correct spelling.
Duplicate tags: One will need to be removed, so please say which you would rather keep.
Doubled disambiguation: Sometimes we do this by accident, I will trim it back off.
Synning catastrophes: Sometimes a tag, or even a whole fandom, is synned to another thing in the tagset which then devours it. Make sure to tell me both the devoured tag/fandom and what is consuming it.
Tones/diacritics: Did you nominate Jiang Cheng/Wei Wuxian (The Untamed) and now the tagset has Jiāng Chéng/Wèi Wúxiàn (The Untamed)? We'll fix this!
Ambiguous tags: Does a relationship in your fandom use a codename/alias/assumed name/etc that could apply to more than one character? Let us know which characters.
Confusing tags: Are you just not sure what a tag means? We might not be able to fix it, but we'd like to know.
Mod whoopses: Did we say to do things one way and then went and accepted it the wrong way? Hopefully this won't happen often, but if it does please report it here!
Other structural fixes: Things I missed that aren't on the lists below.

Things you don't need to report

Crossover tags with ambiguous or AMT fandoms – we're happy to leave picking the specific adaptation up to the creator for those tags.
Fandoms sorted into the wrong media category – official AO3 tag wranglers handle this, we don't have any control over it and thus can't fix it.
Anything in the "Unassociated Characters & Relationships" bucket at the bottom.
Weird spaces in your disambiguations: I probably put them there to fix some issue.

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Fandom Promo 2026

Sun, 09 Aug 2026 23:00:44 GMT

Posted by: fiab_mod_helper

Navigation: Rules/General Info | AO3 Collection | Mod Contact: ficinaboxmod@gmail.com OR Screened Mod Contact Post

Fandom Promo

One of the really fun things about a multifandom exchange is seeing what everyone else is into and maybe picking up a new fandom or two or three! This post is a place to let everyone know why your fandom(s) are great, how to get into your fandom(s), and so on.

You can see last year's promo post here (link)

(PS, say hello to our mod helper account!)

Promo Spreadsheet

For ease of browsing fandom promos, we will be putting all fandom promos in a sheet for easy browsing, including browsing by roughly the length of time needed to consume the fandom. You don't need to do anything to get your promo info on the sheet, just follow the posting instructions and it will be added for you.

✨Click here for the 2026 Fandom Promo Spreadsheet✨

What to put in your promo

Necessary for the spreadsheet:

Fandom name: Also make this the title of your comment below. If you're promoing a certain ship or section of your fandom, include it after your fandom name.
Tagset fandom: Please copy/paste from the tagset (link) if your fandom is already there. This will help if you go out for pinch hit.
Media type: What kind of thing is it?
Length: How long does it take to consume the canon? We want this to be useful for people looking to pick up new fandoms! You can put an exact time if you know it, or you can sort into these categories:
- For fandoms under 2 hours long: Very short
- For fandoms 2-5 hours long: Short
- For fandoms 5-10 hours long: Short-ish
- For fandoms 10-20 hours long: Medium
- For fandoms longer than 20 hours: Long
- For fandoms longer than 40 hours: Very long

Suggested other info:

Where can it be found? (Only legal links for this, please.)
What is it/what is it about?
What do you love about it? Also, what are you planning to request for it?
If it's a big/complex/long/scattered fandom, where should people start? Also, are there sections of canon (rather than the whole canon) that can be consumed by themselves to fulfill your requests, or that showcase particular characters and relationships?
Do you have any content warnings? These are at your discretion and don't need to be comprehensive. Some content "warnings" might also help attract people who deliberately look for that kind of thing!

How to post your promo

Comment on this post by clicking "reply" in the bottom right corner. You do not need a Dreamwidth account to post.

Put your fandom's name as the comment's title.

Copy the code in the text box below and fill it out. Necessary-for-the-spreadsheet fields are marked with a * so you won't forget. Other fields can be removed if you don't need them.

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Nominations Clarification 2

Sun, 09 Aug 2026 05:12:59 GMT

Posted by: fic_in_a_box_mod

Nominations Clarification 2

Here is a little FAQ about Nominations Clarification posts for those of you who haven't run into them before:

What/why is a Nominations Clarification post?

Nomination clarifications are queries about tags we find confusing and updates about tags or the tagset in general. The goal of nominations is to create a tagset of unambiguous, easy to understand tags that will be useful to participants and solidly within the scope of the exchange. The goal of a clarifications post is to keep all of our participants up-to-date regarding our nominations work and solicit feedback where necessary to create the most useful tagset we can.

Do I need to read the whole post?

No. You can just skim each clarification post to see if a fandom you're interested in requesting or offering has been mentioned. We recommend doing this even if you don't care very much how the tagset is organized in case we make some kind of huge blunder with your favorite fandom or OTP.

How do I reply to a Nominations Clarification post? Do I need a Dreamwidth account?

You don't need a Dreamwidth account because we have anonymous commenting turned on. If you comment anonymously, remember to check back for our reply! You can also email us at ficinaboxmod@gmail.com if you'd prefer.

There's a query about a fandom I'm familiar with, but I'm not the nominator. Can I tell you what I think?

Yes! If you are not the nominator but have relevant fandom knowledge about something, please speak up. Nominators don't always reply to our queries, so answers from other people in the fandom are often very helpful.

Why haven't you processed my nomination(s) yet?

Nominations can't be processed in a strictly first-in, first-out manner because of various backend reasons, so most likely we just haven't yet had a chance because of the large volume of submitted nominations. Double check our nominations clarification posts for your tag. If sign ups open and one or more of your tags is mysteriously still missing, please reach out.

My AO3 tagset nomination(s) were rejected but aren't discussed below, why did you reject them?

Most likely you failed to disambiguate your nominations, or made some other error — we reject incorrect tags rather than fixing them. You're welcome to post a link to your nominations slate if you'd like us to tell you why the tag(s) were rejected. You can attempt to re-nominated tags either on AO3 or via the form if you'd like.

However, there is a delay between us rejecting and us posting nominations clarifications! Literally as I post this post, other people on the tagmod team are approving/rejecting new tags. So your rejected tag might show up in a future clarification post

I have a nominations question not answered here or on the Nomination Guidelines. Can I ask on this post?

Yes! You can ask nominations questions on whichever nominations clarification post has been most recently posted, or you can ask on the Nomination Guidelines, or you can use the mod contact post, or you can email us. We're happy to help no matter how you get in contact!

Queries

Google Forms nominations

Baldur's Gate (Video Games): Gorion's Ward/Shar-Teel Dosan (Baldur's Gate), Gorion's Ward & Imoen (Baldur's Gate) — Gorion's Ward seems to have the canonical name Abdel Adrian, though it also seems that was the Player Character of BG1 & BG2? If "Gordion's Ward" is the best name for this character we're happy to accept these tags as-is, but we want to double check!
Batman Beyond: Terry McGinnis & Warhawk & Aquagirl & Big Barda & Kai-Ro & Micron (Batman Beyond) — Normally we ask that superheroes are nominated with their civilian names, but it seems to us you haven't done that because these these heroes didn't use their civilian names in this show. Is that the case? If so, we'll accept as-is.
Critical Role: Aramán (Web Series): WB: the Masks of the Panto (CR: Araman) — These masks are sentient, which makes them a group of characters! To distinguish this nomination from "Solo: The Masks of the Panto" could the nominator elaborate on what kind of worldbuilding they're hoping to see about the masks?
DogBird (Songs) - Madds Buckley: WB: Song Lyrics Taken Literally (DogBird Songs) — Nominator, per guidelines WB: tags need to be concrete in-universe worldbuilding topics. Can you think of a way to rephrase this? If not, it might be better as a prompt.
Dominion SMP: Legundo/VikingPilot (Dominion SMP) — Although we know that Minecraft SMPs aren't exactly RPF, all nominated characters in SMP fandoms need to abide by the RPF character rules because the barrier between SMP players and their characters is often quite thin. For this fandom, we are having a hard time confirming the ages of some creators. We need to see evidence that the following creators are 18+: VikingPilot. We cannot accept this these tags until we're sure these characters are 18+.
Fallout (TV 2024): Lone Wanderer/Reilly (Fallout TV) — We can't figure out who Reilly is via google or IMBD, could someone help us out? Is this character known by a different name?
Fallout (TV 2024): Solo: Tandi (Fallout TV) — We can't figure out who Tandi is via google or IMBD, could someone help us out? Is this character known by a different name?
Fallout (TV 2024): Vault Dweller & Ian (Fallout TV) — We can't figure out who Ian is via google or IMBD, could someone help us out? Is this character known by a different name?
Fallout (TV 2024): Vault Dweller/Pat (Fallout TV) — We can't figure out who Pat is via google or IMBD, could someone help us out? Is this character known by a different name?
Lifesteal SMP: All tags — Although we know that Minecraft SMPs aren't exactly RPF, all nominated characters in SMP fandoms need to abide by the RPF character rules because the barrier between SMP players and their characters is often quite thin. For this fandom, we are having a hard time confirming the ages of some creators. We need to see evidence that the following creators are 18+: Only_A_Squid, Wyll_, Pentar, Vort3xDragon, Spongs. There are three new names on this list since the last clarification post. We cannot accept this these tags until we're sure these characters are 18+.
One Piece (Anime & Manga): Reiju & Sanji (One Piece) — To match AO3's canonical names for these characters (hopefully preventing duplicates) we're approving this as "Vinsmoke Reiju & Sanji (One Piece)"
Splatoon (Video Games): WB: Big Runs (Splatoon) — This seems to be a real-world out-of-universe event, not an in-universe fictional event. Is this correct? If so, could the nominator please elaborate on what kind of in-universe worldbuilding they're hoping to get from this tag?
Splatoon (Video Games): WB: Splatlandian Clans and Their History (Splatoon) — We will accept as "WB: History of Splatlandian Clans (Splatoon)" to match other WB: tags.
仮面ライダーゼッツ | Kamen Rider ZEZTZ (TV): The Lady/Phantom (KR ZEZTZ) — It seems to us that Phantom's full name might be Phantom Gore Nightmare and that there are other characters named Phantom in this canon which might make this tag confusing if left as-is. Is this accurate, or have we misunderstood something?

Ao3 tagset nominations

Blackwell Series (Video Games): WB: Other Bestowers (Blackwell Series) — We're having a hard time figuring out what this means! Is this a group? If so, we need the nominator to chime in with what kind of worldbuilding they're hoping for so that we can distinguish this tag from "Solo: Other Bestowers".
Critical Role: Aramán (Web Series): WB: House Royce (Critical Role) — This is a group! To distinguish this nomination from "Solo: House Royce" could the nominator elaborate on what kind of worldbuilding they're hoping to see?
Critical Role: Aramán (Web Series): WB: House Tachonis (Critical Role) — This is a group! To distinguish this nomination from "Solo: House Tachonis" could the nominator elaborate on what kind of worldbuilding they're hoping to see?
Crossover Fandom: FalseSymmetry (Empires S2) & Pentar (Lifesteal) — We can't find Pentar's age which, as stated in Lifesteal SMP queries, means we cannot accept this tag. Can anyone help us figure out if this MCYT creator is 18+?
Final Fantasy VIII: WB: How Guardian Forces interact with their users (FFVIII) — We don't want to accept WB: tags with question words like "How" in them because we've found they're pretty prone to being prompts instead of worldbuilding topics, so we'd like to rephrase this. I'm not sure I understand what kind of worldbuilding this is asking for enough to attempt to rephrase, unfortunately.
Final Fantasy X Series: WB: The Fayth (Final Fantasy X Series) — Is this a group? If so, could the nominator please clarify what kind of worldbuilding they're looking for about this group, to distinguish it from the Solo: version of this tag.
Kamen Rider Decade: WB: Hikari Natsuki is AR Gaim (KR Decade) — Nominator, this seems like a prompt rather than a worldbuilding topic. Could you elaborate about what kind of worldbuilding you're looking for?
Naked and Afraid SMP | No Armor Hardcore SMP: WB: The Gamemaster (Naked & Afraid) — Is this a character? If so, could the nominator please clarify what kind of worldbuilding they're looking for about this character, to distinguish it from the Solo: version of this tag.
Original Work: Pirates Who Take A Young Man Hostage Thinking He'd Be A Good Barganing Chip/Young Man Who Knows Nobody Will Care If The Pirates Kill Him (MM+/M) (OW) — Nominator, phrased this way you're only guaranteed one pirate; we don't want to keep "(MM+/M)" on here because it's confusing (at least one tagmod was confused) and it implies that a creator would need multiple pirates, which isn't the case. Is two or more pirates being shipped with this young man an important part of the tag for you? If so we should rephrase as something like "Pirate Who Takes A Young Man Hostage Thinking He'd Be A Good Bargaining Chip/Pirate's Crewmates/Young Man Who Knows Nobody Will Care If The Pirates Kill Him (M/M/M) (OW)" or similar; then you'd get at least Pirate/Pirate/Young Man.
Original Work: WB: New "Wormhole" Travel Technology That's Actually Just Magical Travel Through Underhill (OW) — We're not sure what "Underhill" is. Can someone let us know? Is this a word lots of people know/use and we're just living under a rock? Tentatively, this tag seems fine to approve, but I want to make sure we know what it means before we do.
REANIMAL (Video Game): WB: Adults After The Flood (REANIMAL) — Nominator, it seems like this might be a group (in which case we'd need to revise the tag to include a more specific worldbuilding topic) but we're not totally sure. Could you let us know what this tag means?
The Silt Verses (Podcast): WB: Outlawed Gods (TSV) — This seems like a group! To distinguish this nomination from "Solo: Outlawed Gods" could the nominator elaborate on what kind of worldbuilding they're hoping to see?
Tortall - Tamora Pierce: Alanna of Pirate's Swoop and Olau/Delia of Eldorne (Tortall); Alanna of Trebond/Alexander of Tirragen (Tortall) — We pulled these to have a chat about Alanna's name. We're going to go with "Alanna of Pirate's Swoop and Olau" for all tags to keep things consistant. We'll get these in the tagset (with the second one corrected) soon!
Transistor (Video Game): WB: The Camerata (Transistor) — Is this a group? If so, could the nominator please clarify what kind of worldbuilding they're looking for about this group, to distinguish it from the Solo: version of this tag.

Rejected Tags

Google Forms nominations

A Land Fit for Heroes - Richard Morgan: Ringil Eskiath/Original Male Character(s) (Land Fit for Heroes) — We don't allow tags with "(s)", so we will approve this as "Ringil Eskiath/Original Male Characters (Land Fit for Heroes)" which means the same thing.
Crossover Fandom: WB: How Devil Fruits (One Piece) Would Function In Minecraft — We don't want to accept WB: tags with question words like "How" in them because we've found they're pretty prone to being prompts instead of worldbuilding topics, so we'd like to rephrase this. We realize that crossover WB: tags are hard, though! Depending on what you're aiming for, maybe something like "WB: Effects of Devil Fruit (One Piece) on [x] (Minecraft)" with [x] being what/whoever you want? In this case we will accept out-of-universe phrasing (for example "on Player Characters (Minecraft)" or "on Hostile Mobs (Minecraft)") because I don't think Minecraft really has enough in-universe lore to describe things clearly in this case.
Devil May Cry (Gameverse): Dante/Original Male Character(s) (DMC) — We don't allow tags with "(s)", so we will approve this as "Dante/Original Male Characters (DMC)" which means the same thing.
Devil May Cry (Gameverse): Nero/Original Male Character(s) (DMC) — We don't allow tags with "(s)", so we will approve this as "Nero/Original Male Characters (DMC)" which means the same thing.
One Piece (Anime & Manga): WB: The Strawhats Pirates' Training During Their Two Year Separation (OP) — Nominator, this is really a prompt because it doesn't name a concrete worldbuilding topic, it just requests missing scenes from canon. This should go in your optional details under a Solo: Strawhats request. If you can think of a concrete worldbuilding topic that fits our guidelines, we'd be happy to swap that in.
The Pitt (TV) RPF: WB: Any (The Pitt RPF) (The Pitt RPF) — We will add "WB: Any" to all fandoms after nominations close.
Wicked - Schwartz/Holzman: WB: Any (Wicked) (Wicked Musical) — We will add "WB: Any" to all fandoms after nominations close.
World of Darkness (Games): Original Toreador Vampire/Their Sire (WOD) — Sorry, nominator, but phrasing like "/Their Sire" is only allowed in Original Works. We would be willing to accept this as "Original Toreador Vampire/Original Toreador Vampire (WOD)" although I know that's not the same.
World of Darkness (Games): Original Ventrue Vampire/Their Sire (WOD) — Sorry, nominator, but phrasing like "/Their Sire" is only allowed in Original Works. We would be willing to accept this as "Original Ventrue Vampire/Original Ventrue Vampire (WOD)" although I know that's not the same.

Ao3 tagset nominations

Buffy the Vampire Slayer (TV): All tags — This fandom was accepted in error. All tags from this fandom have been moved to the fandom Buffyverse (TV) as required by our nominations guidelines.
Crossover Fandom: Bradley "Rooster" Bradshaw/Jake "Hangman" Seresin (Top Gun) & Kate Carter/Javi/Tyler Owens (Twisters) — Sorry nominator we don't accept tags in the format A/B & C/D/E, only A/B & C.
Crossover Fandom: Kate Carter/Tyler Owens (Twister Movies) & Bradley "Rooster" Bradshaw/Jake "Hangman" Seresin (Top Gun) — Sorry nominator we don't accept tags in the format A/B & C/D, only A/B & C.
Crossover Fandom: Solo: The Girl | The Sister (REANIMAL) in the Fear Apocalypse (TMA) — Sorry nominator, this tag is incorrectly formatted because the "Solo: Character in Fandom" format only allows the fandom to be listed, not a location/event in the fandom. We would accept "Solo: The Girl | The Sister (REANIMAL) in the Thje Magnus Archives" if that works for you.
Les Misérables - All Media Types: All tags — - we already queried this lol
Teen Wolf (TV): All tags with ""Nogitsune!Stiles" — We can't accept the character "Nogitsune!Stiles" because the Nogitsune is not a distinct character when possessing Stiles vs at other points in canon. We will accept all tags with "Nogitsune!Stiles" as just ""Nogitsune"

comments

Nominations Clarification 1

Thu, 06 Aug 2026 04:43:43 GMT

Posted by: fic_in_a_box_mod

Nominations Clarification 1

Here is a little FAQ about Nominations Clarification posts for those of you who haven't run into them before:

What/why is a Nominations Clarification post?

Do I need to read the whole post?

How do I reply to a Nominations Clarification post? Do I need a Dreamwidth account?

There's a query about a fandom I'm familiar with, but I'm not the nominator. Can I tell you what I think?

Why haven't you processed my nomination(s) yet?

My AO3 tagset nomination(s) were rejected but aren't discussed below, why did you reject them?

I have a nominations question not answered here or on the Nomination Guidelines. Can I ask on this post?

Queries

Google Forms nominations

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 (Video Game): WB: Lumiére Before, During, and After The Fracture (Clair Obscur) — We can't have commas in tags, and also this tag seems to encompass Lumiére's entire history before, during, and after canon. We'd like to accept as "WB: Lumiére (Clair Obscur)", would this work for the nominator?
Critical Role: Aramán (Web Series): Murray Mag'Nesson & the Penteveral (Critical Role) — Per the nominations guidelines: "What counts as a character? We will not accept inanimate objects, inanimate locations, vague concepts, or platonic ideals as characters. Animals, canonically thinking/feeling objects, and canonically thinking/feeling locations are fine!" Is the Penteveral canonically a thinking/feeling location? Does it take action and react to other characters?
Crossover Fandom: Jim Kirk/Mirror!Jim Kirk (AOS), Jim Kirk/Mirror!Jim Kirk (TOS), Jim Kirk/Mirror!Spock (AOS), Jim Kirk/Mirror!Spock (TOS), Spock/Mirror!Jim Kirk (AOS), Spock/Mirror!Jim Kirk (TOS), Spock/Mirror!Spock (AOS), Spock/Mirror!Spock (TOS) — These don't seem to be crossovers. Could the nominator clarify?
Crossover Fandom: The Librarians(TV 2014)&The Librarians:The Next Chapter (TV 2025) — Nominator, we're a little unclear on this relationship phrasing. Would "Any Character (The Librarians TV 2014) & Any Character (The Librarians: The Next Chapter TV 2025)" suit your needs?
Homestuck: Solo: Meat Ship (Homestuck) — Nominator, is this a name of a group of characters, or a ship that characters are on, or some other Homestuck thing we haven't been able to accurately google?
House Builder Gang SMP | HBG SMP: All tgas — Although we know that Minecraft SMPs aren't exactly RPF, all nominated characters in SMP fandoms need to abide by the RPF character rules because the barrier between SMP players and their characters is often quite thin. For this fandom, we are having a hard time confirming the ages of some creators. We need to see evidence that the following creators are 18+: doogile, Infume, and bigbigmongey We cannot accept this fandom until we're sure these characters are 18+.
In the Grey (2026): Bobby/Rachel Wild (In the Grey) — Is Bobby's last name "Sheen"? We like to use full names when we can, but we weren't sure if it was left off this nomination for a reason.
Lifesteal SMP: All tags — Although we know that Minecraft SMPs aren't exactly RPF, all nominated characters in SMP fandoms need to abide by the RPF character rules because the barrier between SMP players and their characters is often quite thin. For this fandom, we are having a hard time confirming the ages of some creators. We need to see evidence that the following creators are 18+: Only_A_Squid, and Wyll_ We cannot accept this fandom until we're sure these characters are 18+.
Minecraft Speedrunning (MCSR): All tags — This fandom is an RPF fandom and it has a lot of overlap with Video Blogging RPF, which is where Minecraft content creator RPF is usually nominated. Are there speedrunners who are famous for speedrunning Minecraft in a way that does not involve posting on YouTube or streaming on Twitch? If not, we wonder if it might be better to merge this fandom with the Video Blogging RPF fandom to prevent duplicate nominations and matching complications. Also, all RPF characters need to be 18+ and famous. We are having a hard time confirming the ages of some creators. We need to see evidence that the following creators are 18+: bigbigmongey, Ancoboy, pulsar32. Finally, we would also appreciate evidence that these creators are famous in their own right, especially Ancoboy and pulsar32 who seem newer to being creators/speedrunners. (We do not need evidence about age/famousness for nominated creators not mentioned here.)
Noi siamo leggenda (TV): All tags with "Lin" — We prefer to use full names when possible. Is the full name of Lin "Lin Mei" or is this Lin a different Lin?
Stargate - Live Action: Ba'al/Continuum Timeline Qetesh (Stargate LA) — We can't find any information on Continuum Timeline Qetesh; it seems from our googling that there's only one version of Qetesh? Please let us know if Continuum Timeline Qetesh is a canonical alternate version of Qetesh who is distinct from some normal version of Qetesh, our googling is getting us nowhere.
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild/Tears of the Kingdom: WB: Destroying the Guardians between BOTW and TOTK (BOTW/TOTK) — Nominator, we're not really sure what kind of worldbuilding you're aiming for here. To us, this seems more like a prompt. Could to elaborate a little on what this WB tag means? Ideally, the tag will be phrased with in-universe language.
Warframe: Solo: The Seven Executors (Warframe) — It seems to us that this group might canonically be called "The Council of Seven" instead—is that the case, or are these two separate groups? We're not generally fussed about how groups are called as long as it's clear to everyone in the fandom, so this query is just to double check that everything's okay with this tag.
Warframe: WB: Expanse of any individual Warframe's Origin Lore (Warframe) — Nominator, we're not sure what this WB: tag means. Usually, we require that WB: tags be phrased with in-universe terminology. Could you expand on what kind of worldbuilding you're looking for?
小蘑菇 - 一十四洲 | Little Mushroom (Webcomic): All tags — We're having trouble finding a webcomic version of this fandom. Do you mean the manhua?
機動戦士GUNDAM ジークアクス | Mobile Suit Gundam GQuuuuuuX (Anime): WB: Alternate Historical Events of 0080-0084 (GQX) — We're not familiar with this fandom so we're having trouble figuring out what this tag means. Nominator, does this canon take place in a setting where its history diverges at some point from real-life history?
重返未来: 1999 | Reverse: 1999 (Video Game): WB: Arcanist, people, things or animals who can harness and use the power of Arcanum (Reverse 1999) — Nominator, we're not sure what this WB tag means, could you elaborate?
重返未来: 1999 | Reverse: 1999 (Video Game): WB: Arcanum, The magic system of Reverse 1999. (Reverse 1999) — We will be accepting this as "WB: Arcanum (Reverse: 1999)"
重返未来: 1999 | Reverse: 1999 (Video Game): WB: St. Pavlov Foundation, a huge organization with branches all over the world, committed to managing all arcanists. (Reverse 1999) — We will be accepting this as "WB: St. Pavlov Foundation (Reverse 1999)"
重返未来: 1999 | Reverse: 1999 (Video Game): WB: The first Storm happened in 1999, so no mentions of anything after 1999/ (Reverse 1999) — Nominator, we're not sure what this WB tag means, could you elaborate?
重返未来: 1999 | Reverse: 1999 (Video Game): WB: The Storm. The "Storm" is a wide-scale supernatural phenomenon of unknown origin and it makes time jump forward and back. (Reverse 1999) — We will be accepting this as "WB: The Storm (Reverse: 1999)"

Ao3 tagset nominations

Crossover Fandom: Astor & The Outsider (Gangster World (1997)) & Buffybot (BTVS) & Cameron Phillips (SCC) & K (Blade Runner 2049) & Marcus Wright (Terminator Salvation) — We pulled this tag to query, but have decided to accept it. It should be in the tagset soon!
Crossover Fandom: Astor/The Outsider (Gangster World (1997)) & Buffybot (BTVS) & Cameron Phillips (SCC) & K (Blade Runner 2049) & Marcus Wright (Terminator Salvation) — We pulled this tag to query, but have decided to accept it. It should be in the tagset soon!
Crossover Fandom: Ava (Iron Lung)/Eva Stratt (Project Hail Mary) — We pulled this tag to query, but have decided to accept it. It should be in the tagset soon!
Crossover Fandom: Caprica Six & Sharon "Athena" Agathon (BSG) & Casella "Cash" Reese (Cyborg 2 (1993)) & Jessica Hanson (Screamers (1995)) & Rachael (Blade Runner) — We pulled this tag to query, but have decided to accept it. It should be in the tagset soon!
Crossover Fandom: Ryland Grace (Project Hail Mary) & Colt Seavers (The Fall Guy) — We pulled this tag to query, but have decided to accept it. It should be in the tagset soon!
Crossover Fandom: The Convict | Simon (Iron Lung)/Ryland Grace (Project Hail Mary) — We pulled this tag to query, but have decided to accept it. It should be in the tagset soon!
Cthulhu Mythos - H. P. Lovecraft: WB: Enmity Between The Cults Of Hastur & Nyarlathotep (Cthulhu Mythos) — Is the enmity between these cults canonical? If not, we would like to rephrase to something more neutral, like "WB: Relationship Between The Cults Of Hastur & Nyarlathotep (Cthulhu Mythos)"
Cthulhu Mythos - H. P. Lovecraft: WB: Non-Euclidean Geometry as a Means of Transport (Cthulhu Mythos) — Is the non-Euclidean geometry canonical and, if so, is it also canonically used as transport?
Cthulhu Mythos - H. P. Lovecraft: WB: Non-Euclidean Geometry in the Architecture of R'lyeh (Cthulhu Mythos) — We pulled this tag to query, but have decided to accept it. It should be in the tagset now!
House of the Dragon (TV): WB: Psychic Bonds between Dragon and Rider (HotD) — Nominator, is there a canonical psychic bond between dragons and riders in this canon? The wiki didn't mention one.
Jurassic World Trilogy (Movies): Sarah Harding/Ian Malcolm & Ian Malcolm's Children (JW) — We can't tell that Sarah Harding or any of Ian's children appear or are mentioned in the Jurassic World movies. Did the nominator mean to nominate the Jurassic Park Trilogy instead?
Jurassic World Trilogy (Movies): Sarah Harding/Ian Malcom & Kelly Malcolm (JW) — We can't tell that Sarah Harding appears or is mentioned in the Jurassic World movies. Did the nominator mean to nominate the Jurassic Park Trilogy instead?
Numb3rs (TV): WB: Effect of five generations of duty honor and following orders — Nominator, we're not sure what this WB: tag means, could you explain what you were thinking?
The Southern Reach Trilogy - Jeff Vandermeer: WB: Creation of Lighthouse Defense Tactics (Southern Reach) — We feel this tag implies that the Lighthouse's defenses were created purposefully by someone or something, but our understanding of the novel is that the lighthouse's weirdness generated spontaneously from natural phenomena. Is that the case? If so, we would like to rephrase slightly to something like "WB: Development of Lighthouse Defense Tactics (Southern Reach)" or "WB: Growth of Lighthouse Defense Tactics (Southern Reach)"

Rejected Tags

Google Forms nominations

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 (Video Game): WB: The Artists Faction (Clair Obscur) — We think this is a little too close to a Solo: nomination (Solo: The Artists Faction) and would like to ask the nominator what kind of worldbuilding about this group they would specifically be interested in. We're happy to help you phrase one or several tags to cover your worldbuilding interests or, alternately, to accept this tag as a Solo: tag.
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 (Video Game): WB: The Writers Faction (Clair Obscur) — We think this is a little too close to a Solo: nomination (Solo: The Writers Faction) and would like to ask the nominator what kind of worldbuilding about this group they would specifically be interested in. We're happy to help you phrase one or several tags to cover your worldbuilding interests or, alternately, to accept this tag as a Solo: tag.
CloudyDreamz's Civilization Event: All tags — Although we know that Minecraft SMPs aren't exactly RPF, all nominated characters in SMP fandoms need to abide by the RPF character rules because the barrier between SMP players and their characters is often quite thin. Unfortunately, this fandom does not meet our RPF standards because RPF characters must be famous in their own right. Nominator, please know we don't mean to discourage your fannish feelings, but unfortunately this SMP is not a good match for our event.
Crossover Fandom: Spock/Jim Kirk (AOS) & Mirror!Spock/Kirk — Sorry, nominator, we don't accept tags in the format A/B & C/D, only A/B & C.
Crossover Fandom: Spock/Jim Kirk (TOS) & Spock/Jim Kirk (AOS) — Sorry, nominator, we don't accept tags in the format A/B & C/D, only A/B & C.
Crossover Fandom: Spock/Jim Kirk (TOS) & Spock/Jim Kirk (SNW) — Sorry, nominator, we don't accept tags in the format A/B & C/D, only A/B & C.
Hermitcraft SMP: Tags with "Any Hermit(s)" — We've got several tags like "joehillssays/Any Hermit(s) (Hermitcraft)" but we don't allow "(s)" in tags for reasons covered under the "Guidelines for /, &, and Solo: tags" section of the nominations guidelines. We will accept all these tags instead with just "Any Hermit" for example "joehillssays/Any Hermit (Hermitcraft)"
Infuse SMP: All tags — Although we know that Minecraft SMPs aren't exactly RPF, all nominated characters in SMP fandoms need to abide by the RPF character rules because the barrier between SMP players and their characters is often quite thin. Unfortunately, this fandom does not meet our RPF standards. RPF characters must be 18+ and famous in their own right. We can't confirm the ages of almost any of the nominated creators in this fandom except for Harmmony, who is 17. We also don't think all nominated characters meet our standards for being famous enough to be nominated as RPF characters. Nominator, please know we don't mean to discourage your fannish feelings, but unfortunately this SMP is not a good match for our event.
Mace SMP: All tags — Although we know that Minecraft SMPs aren't exactly RPF, all nominated characters in SMP fandoms need to abide by the RPF character rules because the barrier between SMP players and their characters is often quite thin. Unfortunately, this fandom does not meet our RPF standards. RPF characters must be 18+ and famous in their own right. We can't confirm the ages of almost any of the nominated creators in this fandom except for Dol9hin, who is 16. We also don't think all nominated characters meet our standards for being famous enough to be nominated as RPF characters. Nominator, please know we don't mean to discourage your fannish feelings, but unfortunately this SMP is not a good match for our event.
Minecraft Speedrunning (MCSR): WB: MCSR Ranked — This fandom is an RPF fandom, so it's not eligible for worldbuilding tags.
Minecraft Speedrunning (MCSR): WB: Speedrunning as Employment — This fandom is an RPF fandom, so it's not eligible for worldbuilding tags.
Original Work: WB: How Dragons Breed If There Are Only Female Dragons (OW) — We don't accept worldbuilding tags that start with question words (How, Why, etc) because we find that the resulting tags tend to be phrased as prompts instead of specific wordbuilding topics. Would rephrasing this tag as "WB: Biology of Dragon Breeding In Species With Only Female Dragons (OW)" or something similar work for the nominator? (If not, we can keep workshopping until we find a tag that works for you!)
Original Work: WB: How Dragons Breed if There Are Only Male Dragons (OW) — We don't accept worldbuilding tags that start with question words (How, Why, etc) because we find that the resulting tags tend to be phrased as prompts instead of specific wordbuilding topics. Would rephrasing this tag as "WB: Biology of Dragon Breeding In Species With Only Male Dragons (OW)" or something similar work for the nominator? (If not, we can keep workshopping until we find a tag that works for you!)
Original Work: WB: Reasons That Travel Is Dangerous Between Settlements in a Medieval Fantasy Setting (OW) — Nominator, this is a great worldbuilding topic but is phrased more like a prompt. Since this is Original Works, we're happy to give a little wiggle room on WB tags just like we do on ship and Solo: tags, since the tag is basically the whole prompt, but we would like to rephrase this a little if possible. "WB: Travel Between Settlements in a Medieval Fantasy Setting" would be an easy yes, but presumably the danger is an important part of the nomination for you. Mostly, I'm looking to get rid of the "Reasons that..." phrasing. Maybe "WB: Dangerous Travel Between Settlements in a Medieval Fantasy Setting (OW)" would work? (If not, we can keep workshopping until we find a tag that works for you!)
Sometimes a Great Notion - Ken Kesey: WB: Any (Sometimes a Great Notion) — We will add WB: Any to every fandom after nominations close!
Star Trek: The Original Series (TV): WB: Jim Kirk's Time At Tarsus IV (ST:TOS) — Per WB guidelines, WB: tags need to apply to several characters and cannot be a request for character backstory,. This tag would be better as "Solo: James T. Kirk (ST:TOS)" or perhaps "WB: Tarsus IV (ST:TOS)"
Team Fortress 2: All tags with "Merc(s)" — We've got several tags like "Soldier/Any Merc(s) (TF2)" but we don't allow "(s)" in tags for reasons covered under the "Guidelines for /, &, and Solo: tags" section of the nominations guidelines. We will accept all these tags instead with just "Merc" for example "Soldier/Any Merc (TF2)"
機動戦士GUNDAM ジークアクス | Mobile Suit Gundam GQuuuuuuX (Anime): WB: Intra-Zeon Factions (GQX) — We think this is a little too close to a Solo: nomination (Solo: Intra-Zeon Factions (GQX) and would like to ask the nominator what kind of worldbuilding about this group they would specifically be interested in. We're happy to help you phrase one or several tags to cover your worldbuilding interests or, alternately, to accept this tag as a Solo: tag.
重返未来: 1999 | Reverse: 1999 (Video Game): Solo: Horropedia (Reverse 1999) — WB: tags can't be about a single character. We would be glad to accept this as "Solo: Horropedia (Reverse 1999)" or alternately the nominator could elaborate on what kind of worldbuilding they're hoping to get. More information on WB tags can be found in the nominations guidelines.
重返未来: 1999 | Reverse: 1999 (Video Game): WB: Manus Vindictae, is a highly mysterious terrorist and extremist organization and is The Foundations enemy. (Reverse 1999) — We think this is a little too close to a Solo: nomination (Solo: Manus Vindictae) and would like to ask the nominator what kind of worldbuilding about this group they would specifically be interested in. We're happy to help you phrase one or several tags to cover your worldbuilding interests or, alternately, to accept this tag as a Solo: tag.

Ao3 tagset nominations

Andy Weir's Project Hail Mary - All Media Types: All tags — Nominator, we don't usually approve - All Media Types fandoms. Please nominate under either the book or the movie. Project Hail Mary (2026) and Project Hail Mary - Andy Weir are already in the tagset.
Babylon (2022): WB: Any (Babylon 2022) — Sorry, nominator, we rejected this because we add all WB: Any tags to each fandom after nominations close.
Crossover Fandom: Tags with "Solo: Creator's Choice of Character (Creator's Choice of Fandom)" — Sorry, nominator, we don't allow "Creator's Choice of Fandom" even in Crossover Fandom
DCU (Comics): WB: Reactions to Superman and Batman (or Clark and Bruce) dating — This WB tag would be better as a prompt in the optional details of a Clark Kent/Bruce Wayne request. Alternately, we could rephrase to something a little more general like "WB: Public Opinion/Rumor About Connection Between Superman and Batman" (and if there are continuities where they canonically publicly know each other in their non-cape identities, we could do a WB: tag about that, too)
Der schweizerische Robinson | Swiss Family Robinson - Johann David Wyss: WB: Jenny's Time On Her Own (Swiss Family Robinson - Wyss) — Per WB guidelines, WB: tags need to apply to several characters and cannot be a request for character backstory,. This tag would be better as "Solo: Jenny Montrose (Swiss Family Robinson - Wyss)"
Hunger Games Series - All Media Types: All tags — Nominator, we don't usually approve - All Media Types fandoms. Please nominate under either the book or the movie. Hunger Games Trilogy - Suzanne Collins is already in the tagset.
Kingsman (Movies): WB: Kingsman Support Staff — We rejected this for not being disambiguated, but wanted to mention that this would be better as a Solo: nomination. If you want worldbuilding about this, please specify what kind of worldbuilding you want about the support staff (for example, WB: Kingsman Support Staff Pay & Benefits)
Les Misérables - All Media Types: All tags — Nominator, we don't usually approve - All Media Types fandoms. Please nominate under a more specific fandom, of which there are a lot (link)
Marvel Cinematic Universe: All tags — This fandom isn't allowed because we consider it an umbrella fandom. Please review the nominations guidelines for instructions on nominating Marvel Cinematic Universe tags.

comments

Medium Nominations

Mon, 03 Aug 2026 01:59:44 GMT

Posted by: fic_in_a_box_mod

Navigation: Rules/General Info | AO3 Collection | Fandom/Relationship Field Nomination Guidelines | Mod Contact: ficinaboxmod@gmail.com OR Screened Mod Contact Post

Nominating Mediums

Nomination is how you add things to the tagset! Mediums aren't matchable via AO3, but participants can opt into mediums other than fanfiction. If you're someone who wishes to match on one of those mediums as a creator you'll be able to email us (ficinaboxmod@gmail.com) or contact us here on DW via the screened mod contact post

Medium changes from last year

Since we're now on year 7 of the exchange, we've spent some time going through the mediums to clean things up a bit! The majority of mediums remain unchanged, but some were merged, renamed, or removed! The removed tags were mediums that were unused, had awkward overlap, were hard to define, or were very early nominations that didn't really fit how we use the medium tags today. Some of them may be renominated! You can see lists of these changes in a table at this link (link)! One of our big medium changes is a new Combined Media ruleset which replaces and expands on the (now defunct) Illustrated Text ruleset we've had in previous rounds.

We have also been working on medium explanations this year for all of the existing medium tags! Unfortunately time betrayed us and that isn't quite ready yet, but the link to that sheet will appear here within the next few days! As of this post going up we are 65% finished!

How to nominate new mediums

This post is where you should nominate any mediums you want added to the tagset (link)!

This year there is a limit of 5 medium or length nominations per person. When nominating, please either post logged in or sign your nomination so that we know who is nominating.
You should only nominate mediums if you are someone who intends to create that medium in this exchange.

Most mediums will be nominated under the pre-established Rulesets, but you may also nominate a medium with Unique Rules instead of a ruleset. In the interest of avoiding rules creep, new Unique Rules mediums should only be mediums that absolutely cannot fit into a ruleset and which have multiple people interested in creating them, or which can either be added to an existing set of Unique Rules or added as a variation to that section

If nominating to the new Combined Media ruleset, you should be nominating something that is a combination of two existing rulesets. These mediums should either be mediums that often or always appear with elements from both rulesets, or cases where two mediums naturally go together as a multimedia work (such as liner notes and fanmixes).

View Rulesets here!

When nominating a medium, please include the following categories:

Medium: Ruleset(s): What is it: Other Info:

comments

Nominations Guidelines 2026

Mon, 03 Aug 2026 01:59:24 GMT

Posted by: fic_in_a_box_mod

Navigation: 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, read the "Nominations Guidelines" section of this post. If you read it last year and nominated successfully, stop by our rules update post to see what we've changed/clarified this year.

After you nominate, keep an eye on the comm for Nomination Clarification posts, where we query nominators about tags that are confusing us. We usually can't accept a queried tag without an answer from the nominator, so replying to us is important.

How To Nominate

There are two methods of relationship nominations!

1) Google form

If you're new to nominating or nervous about getting your nomination formatting wrong, we encourage you to use the form. The form is the more forgiving way to nominate, because it's much easier for us to correct, process, and query large volumes of tags via form than it is on AO3.

To nominate via form:

Read the "Nominations Guidelines" section of this post–there are nominations rules there which we haven't squeezed into the instructions on the form.
Open the google form link and follow the instructions provided to submit your nominations for one fandom.
Fill the form out as many times as you want for additional fandoms.

The google doc is anonymous, just like AO3 nominations. Unlike AO3 nominations, you can't see any kind of record of what you've nominated after you submit the form. We suggest you keep notes about what you've submitted if you think you're likely to forget.

Nomination Google Form: https://forms.gle/m9cxg6P2cKemY8RV7

2) AO3 tagset nomination

If you're confident that you understand how to format your tags, you can nominate using the AO3 tagset. There are several benefits to nominating via AO3: you can nominate multiple fandoms at a time; you can see what tags you've nominated; and you can see whether they've been accepted or rejected. However, we will reject AO3 nominations that don't follow the "Nominations Guidelines" section of this post.

FAQ: Why do you reject incorrect tags on AO3? Why don't you edit incorrect tags on AO3 instead of rejecting? Why do you reject tags you intend to query on AO3? What should I do if my tag(s) are rejected? (click to open!)

Why do you reject incorrect tags on AO3? Why don't you edit incorrect tags on AO3 instead of rejecting?

We get a very high volume of tags via AO3, more than we get on the google form, but editing tags on the AO3 tagset interface is an extremely unenjoyable experience and simply not feasible for the volume of tags we get. In an ideal world, we would be able to send the tags back for revision by the nominator without rejecting them, but AO3 isn't set up to do that and we can't query all the incorrectly formatted tags. We also can't just ignore incorrect tags in hopes the nominator will fix them eventually because they get in the way of other tags–see "FAQ: Why do you reject tags you intend to query on AO3?" below for why that is.

Why do you reject tags you intend to query on AO3?

When the tagset approval page displays tags nominated to fandoms which are already in the tagset, it displays those tags in alphabetical order by fandom name and it only displays a certain amount of tags. If there are more tags in the queue waiting to be approved than there are slots on the approval page to display those tags, the tags nominated to fandoms farther down the alphabet can't be viewed at all until the tags on top of them have been accepted or rejected. There are basically always more tags nominated than can be displayed, so not rejecting queried tags could actually grind tag acceptance on AO3 to a halt if we had enough of them. Additionally, we have a big team of helpers, and it would be easy for them to accidentally accept a tag we've already queried if those tags were just laying around getting in the way.

What should I do if my tag(s) are rejected?

Do you know why the tag was rejected, know how to fix the tag, and have open slots to nominate with still? You're welcome to simply re-nominate with corrected tags. Do you not have slots to nominate again on AO3? You can re-nominate via the google form. If you're pretty sure your tag was formatted correctly and it wasn't something we explicitly list as not allowed in the guidelines below, your tag was probably rejected to query it. Usually this means something about the tag confused us, or you and another nominator nominated very similar tags, something like that! Keep an eye out for the next nominations clarification post; if your tag doesn't show up there you can comment on the post with a link to your nominations page (so we can view your rejected tags) and ask us about it.

To nominate via AO3:

Read the "Nominations Guidelines" section of this post.
Open the tagset link below and click the "Nominate" button in the top righthand corner.
Fill out the fandom and relationships field and click "Submit". You can nominate 10 fandoms with 10 relationships each. Remember that crossover tags must go under Crossover Fandom! We can't remove the note saying crossovers can go under either fandom, but we will reject crossovers nominated in the wrong place without comment.
You can edit your nominations while your tags are unprocessed. As soon as a tag is approved or rejected, you can no longer edit it. You can add new nominations at any time during the Nominations period.

Accepted tags will show up under their associated fandom in the tagset. You may see them hanging out in the Unassociated Characters & Relationships section for a while, but don't worry, we'll clean that up!
We will reject both incorrect tags and tags in need of clarification.

Tagset: https://archiveofourown.org/tag_sets/30776

Nomination Guidelines

Please read all guidelines below before nominating and continue to check back on the comm to read all the Nomination Clarification posts that will be posted. If there's a problem with one or more of your nominations, we will need your input to resolve it.

Reminder: Incorrectly formatted AO3 tagset nominations will be rejected. You are welcome to re-nominate via the google form.

( Fandoms )

( Relationships Field )

Nominations evidence/explanations

In addition to this 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.

( When to post evidence about your nomination(s) )

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Nominations Clarification 0

Sun, 26 Jul 2026 00:14:58 GMT

Posted by: fic_in_a_box_mod

Navigation: Rules/General Info | AO3 Collection | Fandom Transfer | Mod Contact: ficinaboxmod@gmail.com OR Screened Mod Contact Post

Nominations Clarification 0

Welcome to the first Nominations Clarification post of the year! This is Nominations Clarification 0 because we haven't started real nominations yet. This post will cover corrections we're making to last year's tagset that we've caught during the fandom transfer process (which is still on-going!) or during other exchange prep, as well as querying about possible changes to some franchise tags.

Here is a little FAQ about Nominations Clarification posts for those of you who haven't run into them before:

What/why is a Nominations Clarification post?

Do I need to read the whole post?

How do I reply to a Nominations Clarification post? Do I need a Dreamwidth account?

There's a query about a fandom I'm familiar with, but I'm not the nominator. Can I tell you what I think?

Updates

Lots & lots of fandom name changes

As mentioned on the Fandom Transfer post (link), we always take the nominations pre-gaming period as a chance to neaten up some tagset things that have gone awry. Specifically, in the year since we last had nominations the AO3 tag wranglers have been hard at work changing the canonical tags for a bunch of fandoms, so we have to update those to keep from making a mess.

To view the list of updated fandoms and their new tags, please stop by the Changed Fandom List (link). This will update with any new fandoms we change before nominations open.

We aren't soliciting feedback on these fandoms because they're mostly straightforward changes that only clarify the meaning of a tag. Of course, if you think we've goofed and one of these changes is a problem, you should let us know!

Why are you doing this? What is a "canonical" tag? (click to open!)

So glad you asked, curious participant who lives in our head! A "canonical" on AO3 is a tag that AO3 uses as the main tag for a fandom, with all the variations of that tag being "synned" to (made synonymous with) that canonical so that as far as the search is concerned they're the same tag.

To use an example from a previous year's Changed Fandoms List, if you go to the Neverwinter Nights tag (link) on AO3, you can see at the bottom there's a "Mergers" section where it points to the tag Neverwinter Nights (Video Games) (link). If you go into that second tag suddenly there's a ton of information showing over a dozen fandom tags and hundreds of characters/relationships that are all tied to that fandom canonical!

When you're nominating a tag to the tagset on AO3, only canonical tag show up in the fandom dropdown. Last year, the canonical was "Neverwinter Nights", so everyone nominated the fandom using that as that name. This year the AO3 tag wranglers have updated it to have a disambiguation that makes it clearer so the tag that's in the dropdown will be "Neverwinter Nights (Video Games)". For most exchanges you'd never notice. People would just use the new dropdown! But since FIAB uses a lot of data from prior years, including transferring over past fandoms, we've got to update the tags from last year to the new canonicals so that the fandoms we transfer and any new noms in those fandoms have the same fandom tag.

Updates to specific fandom nomination guidelines

Critical Role: Nominate all Exandria campaigns under "Critical Role: Exandria (Web Series)", the 4th main campaign under "Critical Role: Aramán (Web Series)", all Candela Obscura campaigns under "Candela Obscura (Critical Role Web Series)", and any other campaigns separately. The cartoons should be nominated separately under "The Legend of Vox Machina (Cartoon)" and "The Mighty Nein (Cartoon)"

Queries

Potential fandom name changes

DC Studios Universe (Gunn & Safran): Last year, Superman (2025) was nominated alone. This year, there are a lot of other works in this shared universe that might be nominated (Supergirl (2026), Lanterns (TV 2026), maybe others we don't know about) – would participants who like this fandom prefer to nominate things separately, or would you prefer to use the "DC Studios Universe (Gunn & Safran)" tag and nominate all tags there? We will keep these fandoms separate for this round, and may re-query this in future rounds.
Empires SMP - We know that in MCYT-focused exchanges, the two seasons of Empires are often nominated separately. Are participants in Empires interested in splitting this fandom into different seasons, or do you prefer keeping them together? (We asked you to split last year and you…didn't? So we kind of think you want to keep them together, but let us know if we're mistaken!) We will ask for this fandom to be split into the fandoms Empires SMP (Season 1) and Empires SMP (Season 2).
Kidnapped - Robert Louis Stevenson – The canonical for this is a series! Are we okay to switch this to Kidnapped | David Balfour Series - Robert Louis Stevenson? Or do participants interested in this fandom have an interest in only nominating the first installment? We will stick with Kidnapped - Robert Louis Stevenson
The Lawnmower Man (1992) – The canonical for this is a series! Are we okay to switch this to Lawnmower Man (Movies)? Or do participants interested in this fandom have an interest in only nominating the first installment? We will stick with The Lawnmower Man (1992)
~~The Old Guard (Movie 2020)~~ – The canonical for this is a series! Are we okay to switch this to The Old Guard (Movies 2020 2025)? Or do participants interested in this fandom have an interest in only nominating the first installment? We will change this to The Old Guard (Movies 2020 2025)
Ready or Not (2019) – The canonical for this is a series! Are we okay to switch this to Ready or Not (Movies))? Or do participants interested in this fandom have an interest in only nominating the first installment? We will change this to Ready or Not (Movies))
~~Superman (2025)~~ - See "DC Studios Universe (Gunn & Safran)" above.
Trigun Stampede (Anime 2023) – The canonical for this has changed! Are we okay to switch this to Trigun Stampede & Trigun Stargaze (Anime 2023-2026)? Or do participants interested in Trigun want Trigun Stampede and Trigun Stargaze nomianted separately? ~~We will change this to Trigun Stampede & Trigun Stargaze (Anime 2023-2026)~~
Wicked (Movie 2024) – The canonical for this is a series! Are we okay to switch this to Wicked (Movies 2024 2025)? Or do participants interested in this fandom have an interest in only nominating the first installment? We will change this to Wicked (Movies 2024 2025)

Marvel Cinematic Universe, Netflix Marvel shows, other Live Action Marvel fandoms in the same continuity

Our current rules for live action Marvel canons are as follows:

Marvel Cinematic Universe movies nominations may be nominated under the appropriate movie subfranchise or in "The Avengers (Marvel Movies)". If nominating in a subfranchise (for example, "Thor (Movies)"), all characters in the nom should have appeared in a movie from that subfranchise.

We will be sticking with "Captain America (Movies)" – do not nominate separately by actor.

The Marvel Netflix shows should be nommed together under "The Defenders (Marvel TV)".

In all other cases, each Marvel live action television show (Agents of Shield, Wandavision, Legion, Cloak & Dagger, etc) should be nominated separately.

On the mod end, we haven't had any problem with these rules and would be content to leave them as-is, but we wanted to ask Marvel fans: do these still work for you, or are there improvements we could make? It's been awhile since we updated those rules, so if things have changed let us know!

In particular, though, we're interested to know if nominators ever find it frustrating to figure out where to nominate MCU and/or Marvel TV show characters together who weren't in the Avengers movies together but might feel weird to nominate in Crossover Fandom because they share continuity.

Based on feedback, we will continue to allow nomination in subfranchises/TV shows as normal, but will have this new rule for "The Avengers (Marvel Movies)":

"Crossovers" between movie subfrancises/shows/etc: Instead of using Crossover Fandom, characters from any live action Marvel Cinematic Universe movie or television show may be nominated under the tag "The Avengers (Marvel Movies)" regardless of whether or not they've appeared in any of the Avengers movies, so long as the live action canon they appeared in shares continuity with the Avengers movies.

Medium Opt-In: Unique Rules - Web Weave AND Medium Opt-In: Unique Rules - Web Weave - Collage Style

Surprise, a medium query! We need to change the way web weaves are converted to wordcount for this round, but thought we'd ask participants who make web weaves for their input before we finalize things.

Last round, web weaves were calculated by giving wordcount credit per element used in the web weave. This had worked previously for photoset style web weaves, but unfortunately didn't work out great in practice for the newly added collage style web weaves because we never had the same element count that web weavers had in their creator notes on their works! It's important to us that medium conversions are straightforward and repeatable for work checks, and extra important that we as mods and you folks as participants are on the same page about what a work is worth. This is about both fairness/clarity for creators and good work checking workflow for mods .

This round, we would like to switch web weaves (both tags!) into a flat rate equivalent. This means that, like spreadsheets, no matter how complex the web weave is it would only be worth a certain amount. Switching to a flat equivalent is a compromise that allows us to keep collage style web weaves as a medium. We would like to keep both web weave styles with the same equivalent so this will also affect photoset style web weaves..

There are two possible flat equivalents we'd consider switching to:

1k per web weave, 10 elements minimum
2k per web weave, 20 elements minimum

(We would still need to check the number of elements, but not count the total number, which would be very helpful.)

We're leaning towards the 2k equivalent, but would like to hear from web weavers (both past and future!) about their thoughts and preferences. (Link to past FIAB web weaves)

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Fandom Transfer (Nominations Pre-Gaming)

Sun, 26 Jul 2026 00:11:47 GMT

Posted by: fic_in_a_box_mod

Navigation: Rules/General Info | AO3 Collection
Mod Contact: ficinaboxmod@gmail.com OR Screened Mod Contact Post

Nominations Pre-Gaming

Nominations pre-gaming is the first stage of Fic In A Box. We transfer fandom and relationship tags from last year's tagset to this year's tagset by request. This year, pre-gaming will end on August 1st, at which point we will move into normal nominations.

FAQ: How is this different from nominations? Should new participants transfer tags from last year's tagset? Wait, what are the tags even needed for? How does this work on the mod end? (click to open!)

How is this different from nominations?

Nominating is a lot more involved than this! Instead of giving us a list and having us go "Okay!" and adding tags immediately to the tagset, nominating involves participants typing out each tag they want in the correct format, then the mods and their helpers have to look at each tag to make sure there are no problems with it.

There are over 17,000 relationship-field tags in last year's tagset which have already been checked and approved last year or in years before. Since the format of our relationship nominations is always the same, transferring correctly formatted tags from last year's tagset to this year's tagset saves both participants and mods a whole ton of work, especially since many returning participants will want a similar slate of nominations this year as they did last year.

Should new participants transfer tags from last year's tagset?

Yes, please do! Last year's tagset is linked below. You can browse it to find tags you're interested in and transfer them just like returning participants.

Wait, what are the tags even needed for?

Tags are used during the sign up phase to fill out requests and offers. More about that here (link).

How does this work on the mod end?

We have a huge spreadsheet with all the tags and their associated fandoms in it, and AO3's tagset backend has a "batch load" page that lets us add in a bunch of tags at once as long as they're formatted correctly. The need for correct formatting is why we ask for individual tags in such a strange way below when you're asking for specific tags from a large fandom.

Reminders, Updates, & Queries

"WB: Any" tags do not need to be transferred; we add them automatically to every fandom during nominations cleanup.
Untransferrable relationship-field tags: There are a handful of relationship-field tags from last year's tagset which can't be transferred. Specific reasons for each tag are listed in the linked list below.

List of non-transferrable tags

Spot any mistakes in last year's tagset? Wandering tags should be on the non-transferable tags list (linked above), but if you find something we missed, we'd love to know.
Has something about your fandom changed? If there have been changes to your fandoms that would change the fandom tag, this is a good time to let us know about those. This is especially true if a fandom nominated separately last year is in danger of synning into a larger fandom this year.

These fandoms have had their names changed from last year, many of them due to updated canonicals on AO3. Please ask for these by the new name, as they are already changed in the batch load list: Changed Fandom List

How to transfer

There are a few limits on what you can transfer:

Each person can only request 10 fandoms be transferred. If you need more fandoms than that for some reason, please use the regular nominations process to nominate everything else. (If posting anon, please sign a name!)
For fandoms with 39 or fewer relationship tags, we will transfer all relationship tags. Use the instructions under "Transferring Full Fandoms" below.
For fandoms with 40+ relationship tags, you can only ask for 20 relationships to be transferred. Use the instructions under "Transferring Specific Tags From Fandoms" below.
More than one person can ask for relationships to be transferred from a fandom! It won't mess anything up if we try to add the same tag twice, so you don't need to check what other participants have asked to have transferred.

Note that the transferring process will only work for tags that were in last year's tagset and will only transfer those tags exactly as they appeared in that tagset!

Tagsets

2025 Tagset: https://archiveofourown.org/tag_sets/24036

2026 Tagset: https://archiveofourown.org/tag_sets/30776

If I say your noms have been transferred but you can't find them in the tagset, please let me know!

Transferring Full Fandoms

Please reply to this post with your list with each fandom on a new line. Fandoms must be exactly as they appear in the tagset (not including the number in brackets) or the import will fail.

Transferring Specific Tags From Fandoms

Please reply to this post with your fandom and the tags you want transferred in batch load format (Fandom,Relationship,Relationship,Relationship), with each fandom on a new line. All tags must be exactly as they appear in the 2025 tagset (not including the number in brackets) or the import will fail.

Do not include "WB: Any"! These tags will be added to every fandom at the end of nominations, so do not need to be transferred here!

Full batch load format list of all fandoms from the 2025 tagset: (link)

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2026 Updates/Clarifications for Rules, Nomination Guidelines, and Medium Rulesets

Sat, 25 Jul 2026 00:52:35 GMT

Posted by: fic_in_a_box_mod

2026 Rule Updates/Clarifications

Hi friends! We're always improving our documentation, so it's time for our yearly round up of what's changed in our rules and instructions since last year to hopefully save returning participants some reading.

Schedule change

Our schedule is very similar to last year except that we added a week to the writing period and subtracted a week from the editing period. The event overall occupies roughly the same number of days/weeks, with adjustments so that things we want to happen on certain days of the week (usually weekends) happen on those days.

You can view the full schedule for this round here (link) or on the rules post (link).

Update to our AI Policy

Fic In A Box's policy for the usage of generative AI has always been (and will always be) that it is not allowed, but this year we felt that our policy needed a refresh because several other multifandom events have had situations involving the usage of AI in gifts that our previous policy wouldn't have adequately covered.

You can always read our rules about AI usage on the AI policy post (link) but we've also put it in the dropdown below to save you a click:

AI Policy (click here to open!)

Do not use AI to partially or wholly generate any work for Fic in a Box. We do not accept any AI generated work into the collection, even if you are not intending to receive wordcount credit for the parts you have generated. If you believe your gift was created with AI, please email the mod team and explain why you think this. We will review the situation.

If we are unsure but there is a high chance that the gift was generated artificially, we will seek a pinch hit and discuss the situation with the poster. Seeking a pinch hit should not necessarily be taken as an accusation against the poster.

If we are sure that the gift was generated, we will issue one-year bans or permabans depending on the situation.

Because of the ambiguity involved, it is possible that we may choose not to impose a penalty or seek a pinch hit.

We will not review all work for possible AI use by default. We will consider multiple factors in reviewing works, which may include past history or bans from other events for AI usage.

Thank you to crossworks—our policy is based on their policy.

Clarifications to the Rules post

We added these three bullet points to the "Assignment Requirements" list (under the Assignments section):

Works may not be created for or posted to other challenges/events, including but not limited to ship weeks, prompt memes/kink memes, kinktober, etc.
Works may not be sequels, prequels, or otherwise related to other works you've posted prior to the event unless explicitly opted into by your recipient.
Art works may not be traced.

In the "Posting" notes (under the Assignments section) we had a bullet point that read "Gifts to the collection are allowed." but which now reads:

Gifts to the collection are allowed. Please be sure to mention it is a gift to the collection in the top author's note. We'll email you if you leave it off, just to make sure you haven't forgotten to add your recipient.

We've also added the posting info to the posting guidelines (link).

Clarifications to the Nominations post

The nominations guidelines post isn't up yet! It will go up on August 2nd, when nominations open.

RPF nominations

In several places, we've emphasized or added these rules for RPF nominations:

WB: tags aren't allowed for RPF fandoms, because you can't worldbuild about non-fictional things.
We will not accept tags with open ended phrasing like "Creator's Choice of Character" in RPF fandoms because we can't be certain that every possible "character" would be famous in their own right and over 18 years old.
You may still nominate group tags in RPF fandoms if every possible member of that group meets our RPF rules–we will approve an RPF group nomination much quicker if you post a comment with evidence that all characters in that group meet our RPF rules.

Anthropomorphic fandoms

We've clarified that anthropomorphic fandoms are allowed, and you can nominate Anthropomorphic characters either under Original Work or under a fandom with "(Anthropomorphic)" on the end, for example "Chess Pieces (Anthropomorphic)".

All objects/locations/etc nominated as characters under Original Works and Anthropomorphic fandom will be considered thinking/feeling by default.

"Everyone" as a character

We don't allow tags like "Character A/Everyone" or "Character A & Everyone" because we can't guarantee a recip requesting a tag like that will get a work with "everyone" in it–nominators instead should nominate tags like "Character A/Any Canon Characters" or "Character A & Creator's Choice of Canon Characters" which will allow the creator to include one or several characters of their choice.

Gendered versions of video game characters

If a game allows the player to influence the gender of a character, differently gendered versions of that character are considered distinct and can be nominated separately. Even if the game only allows you to select male or female when selecting gender, you can still nominate trans and nonbinary versions of that character. For example, Stardew Valley only allows you to select male or female for your Farmer (the player character) but we would accept a nomination for Nonbinary Farmer.

Easy-to-approve WB: tag examples

One of our tagmod helpers suggested we provide a list of easily/commonly approved worldbuilding tags, so we added a short list of them to the end of the WB: section. However, for your convenience, here is that list right now!

WB: [Location] – A town, a city, a base of operations for some canonical group, a planet, a whole dimension.
WB: [Group] Culture/Internal Politics/Benefits & Compensation/Recruitment/Operations & Logistics – Most people pick one of these per tag, but you can smush several into a tag if you want. (Also: Reminder that you can't nominate just WB: [Group].)
WB: Biology of [x]
WB: Creation of [x] – [x] might be a canonical object, an organization or political movement, a type of technology or magic. Also sometimes WB: Development of [x]
WB: Daily Life in [Location/Group], WB: Daily Lives of [Profession]
WB: Differences Between [x] and [y] – [x] and [y] might be opposing philosophies, canonical timelines, etc.
WB: Disability in [x]
WB: Flora/Fauna of [x]
WB: Queerness in [x]

Updates to Medium Rulesets

Illustrated Text: This is now a broader "Combined Media" ruleset. Limits for nominating into this medium will be explained when medium nominations go live.
Writing: Template credit has been removed from the writing medium. Any writing mediums that don't have enough words to reach 1k on their own should be renominated as Typographic mediums so that they can get per-page credit.
Art: Clarification has been added that brushes/textures are allowed and to explain what "finished" means to the mods.

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Fic In A Box Rules & Info 2026

Sat, 25 Jul 2026 00:49:05 GMT

Posted by: fic_in_a_box_mod

Schedule:

July 25th-August 1: Nominations Pre-Gaming (participants can load tags from last year’s tagset into this tagset)
August 2-11: Nominations
August 12-15: Nominations Cleanup
August 16-30: Signups (Countdown)
August 19: Swap requests open
September 5: Assignments Out By This Date
September 6: Swap requests close
October 25: Assignments Due (Countdown)
November 1: First Extension Deadline
November 8: Last Day To Submit Makeup Assignments
November 14: Work Reveals
November 28: Creator Reveals

All deadlines are at 10:00 PM EDT except for those in November, which will happen at 10:00 PM EST

Information

A gift exchange is an event where participants create fanworks to gift to each other. Fic In A Box is a fanwork exchange with a large minimum gifting requirement and several unique features:

All participants in Fic In A Box are requesting 10,000 words of fanfiction by default, but can opt in to other mediums (such as art, podfic, knitting patterns, and so on). Participants who work in non-writing mediums are very welcome and will get specially matched (as long as they give the mods a heads-up) so they'll have an assignment they can complete.
Participants have the option to split the 10k words (or equivalent) that they owe between several separate works (say, one fic of 3k and another of 7k) to reach 10k total.
The minimum word count per work is 1k by default, but lower wordcount works will count if your recipient has opted into receiving them.
Initial assignments are 10k for one person, but at the start of the exchange we run swaps which will give you the chance to spread that 10k out over multiple assignments for multiple recipients!

For mediums other than the written word, pretty much any medium will be accepted, as long as we can agree on a clear and easily checked equivalent to 1k of written fic. Participants who work in non-writing mediums get specially matched with participants who have opted in to receiving works of that kind so they'll have an assignment they can complete.

If you cannot complete the full 10k (or other medium equivalent) but have posted one or more smaller, complete works, you can default on just the remaining wordcount. You will then be guaranteed (via pinch hit if necessary) a gift equivalent to the amount submitted (rounded down to the nearest 1k). There are also options to "earn back" guaranteed minimum amount by taking pinch hits or completing your original assignment.

Are you new? Or confused? Fic In A Box is a complex exchange even for exchange veterans, so we thought that if we were going to invite a bunch of new people to the exchange we should provide a space where they can ask lots of questions throughout the process. This server is open to everyone (we won't kick you out if you've been doing FIAB for years already) but its purpose is to help people participate in the exchange, so it will probably be most useful/enjoyable if you're kinda confused about the exchange. Like FIAB itself, the server is an 18+ Choose Not To Warn space.

Join the FIAB Newbie Discord! (link)

Non-Dreamwidth Links:

Dreamwidth Post Links:

( Participant Expectations )

( Nominations Pre-Gaming )

( Nominations )

( Signups )

( Swaps )

( Assignments )

( Pinch Hits )

( Defaulting )

( Earning back your minimum after defaulting )

( Extensions )

( Delays )

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