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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

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

If you're nominating a new length opt-in, another form of something already in the tagset, or something that fits easily into the Rulesets, anyone can nominate.

If nominating a medium where the equivalent needs to be discussed you should only nominate if you are someone who intends to create the medium within the exchange.

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

View Rulesets here!

When nominating a medium, please include the following categories:

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

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 2nd, at which point we will move into normal nominations.

Reminders, Updates, & Queries

• Tags with "(s)" in them will not be transferred; you can nominate a replacement if you want one when nominations open.
• "WB: Any" tags do not need to be transferred; we add them automatically to every fandom during nominations cleanup.
• Untransferable fandoms: One fandom can't be transferred because we've been asked to split the fandom into two different fandoms in this year's tagset:
• Empires SMP splitting into Empires Season 1 and Empires Season 2
• Untransferrable relationship-field tags: Aside from relationship-field tags with "(s)" in them, there are a handful of other 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!

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

2024 Tagset: https://archiveofourown.org/tag_sets/20083

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

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 2024 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 2024 tagset: (link)

Schedule:

July 24-August 2: Nominations Pre-Gaming (participants can load tags from last year’s tagset into this tagset)
August 3-12: Nominations
August 13-16: Nominations Cleanup
August 17-August 31: Signups (Countdown)
August 20: Swap requests open
September 6: Assignments Out By This Date
September 7: Swap requests close
October 19: Assignments Due (Countdown)
November 9: Last Day To Submit Makeup Assignments
November 15: Work Reveals
November 29: 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:

• Email: ficinaboxmod@gmail.com
• AO3 Collection
• Tagset
• Automagic App (for browsing requests!)
• Tumblr

Dreamwidth Post Links:

• Screened Mod Contact Post
• Medium Rulesets
• Posting Guidelines
• Assignment Swaps
• Google Forms (Defaulting, Extensions, Summaries)
• Pinch Hitter Requests
• Fandom Promo

( Participant Expectations )

( Nominations Pre-Gaming )

( Nominations )

( Signups )

( Swaps )

( Assignments )

( Pinch Hits )

( Defaulting )

( Earning back your minimum after defaulting )

( Extensions )

( Delays )

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

This post is a collection of google form options for things you'd otherwise have to email to us!

Emailing is still an option instead of using the form for all of these except for the nominations form! If you have a situation that isn't covered by the form (or just don't like forms or are more comfortable emailing) you should opt to email us at ficinaboxmod@gmail.com !

Nominations

You should really be looking at the Nominations Guidelines for this, but here is the google form for nomination just to be complete: Nominations Google Form (link)

Default Button

Since a lot of assignments in this exchange are emailed, there isn't a handy default button on AO3. So we've made one! This form will let you fully or partially default on any of your assignments (initial/swaps/PHs).

After we've processed the default we will email confirmation to the contact details we already have for you (either ones you gave or the email attached to your AO3 account). If you provided a different email in the form, we will send the confirmation to both emails. This means that if you use the email version of the default button you will get an automatic email from google with a copy of your form and then later get an email from us confirming the default.

Please review the defaulting rules (link) for more information on defaults.

• Default Button (Email Version) - This version asks for your email and will email a copy of the submitted form to you.
• Default Button - This version will not email a copy to you

Extension Request

You may request an extension to October 27th, or November 3rd. Please review the extension rules (link) before requesting one!

After we've applied the extension we will email confirmation to the contact details we already have for you (either ones you gave or the email attached to your AO3 account). If you provided a different email in the form, we will send the confirmation to both emails. This means that if you use the email version for your extension request you will get an automatic email from google with a copy of your form and then later get an email from us confirming the extension.

• Extension Request (Email Version) - This version asks for your email and will email a copy of the submitted form to you.
• Extension Request - This version will not email a copy to you

Assignment Summary Request

This form will let you request a summary of all of your assignments (excepting full defaults). This will include due dates, amount assigned, and progress.

• Assignment Summary Request

Other Forms

I don't know what other forms we could need but I'm going mad with power forms so this is just in case. If we end up needing other forms they'll go here too.

• :ominous form noises:

This page has directions for OW tags, WB tags, and some mediums that we'll need extra information or have specific guidelines for!

All requested medium information should be posted in the top author's note, except for sourced images which can go in either author's note. You can remove everything but image sources from the note shortly before reveals if desired, but please don't do so until we give the all clear in an announcement.

If there's any situation that you think we may need more information, the top author's note is a great place to put it! This could include everything from medium information that we may not have thought to ask for to clarification about to a relationship or fandom tag if how you're tagging it differs from the tagset tag in a way you're worried might be confusing to someone not in the fandom. As stated above, we'll make an all clear announcement before reveals specifically about top author's notes, so before that point it's a great place to communicate with the mods directly on the work itself.

For the ones where we ask you to self report amounts, we will still check to make sure it seems about right.

If your recip asks for something that means you aren't hitting a required tag, please explain that in your top author's note! Note that simply opting into a medium doesn't release you from the tag.

Posting Anything Without An AO3 Assignment

• Post directly to the collection by going to the profile (https://archiveofourown.org/collections/Fic_In_A_Box_2024/profile), clicking 'Post to Collection', and manually adding your recipient on the 'Gift this work to' line.

Original Works

• If you're creating for an Original Works tag, you must tag or state in the author's note what Original Works tag you are filling.

Specific Worldbuilding Tags

• If you're creating for a Worldbuilding tag other than WB: Any, you must tag or state in the author's note what Worldbuilding tag you are filling.

Mixed Media

• If you are mixing multiple medium tags and/or fic within the same work, put what mediums and the amounts per medium if relevant.

Multiple Works in the Same Work on AO3

• Multiple Works should only be posted in the same work if they are directly connected. Please use your best judgement on what counts as connected enough. Multiple written works should only be posted together if they are part of the same narrative.
• If you have multiple fics/other in the same work, please put a list of the works including wordcount and medium in the top author's note of the first chapter.
• Do not gift anything to multiple recips.

Works that include Photos/Manips

• Photos and manips will not count towards your wordcount except for mediums that specifically include them, but can be used as supplementary material to enhance the main submission of other mediums.
• All media (including photos) must be created by the person posting the work, be part of a collaboration we were informed of, be from the official canon, be properly credited images used with permission, or be properly credited CC licensed images. You should credit these in one of the author's notes on your work.

Any submission that includes CC images, images from your canon, or art you did not draw yourself

• Please source any not-made-by-you images that you use (these won't count towards minimums but can be used as supplementary media).

Spoken Audio formats

• For audio works based on pre-existing text (eg, podfic of the recip's fic) or a text you have written yourself, please provide a link to the source.

Images containing words that are counted for wordcount

• If you've posted an image containing words that count for wordcount and haven't posted a text-only version of those words to go with it, please provide the wordcount.

Poetry

• Please state in your author's note or a tag what style of poem you wrote.

Music that follows poetry rules

• Please either provide lyrics or let us know in the author's note how many lines you used and/or what style of poetry

Twine

• Put in your author's note the wordcount of the fic you wrote. (We will still eyeball this to make sure it seems right)

AO3 Based Fanfic Exchange

• You will have to post something to fulfill the assignment on the back end and provide a jumping-off point for your recip; if you're uncertain what you should/can post while complying with the AO3 ToS, please feel free to drop us a line!
• Report wordcount for anything written.
• Please note that if there are any gifts made for the fake exchange, they will only count towards your wordcount if they also fill a recip's request by themselves.
• If there are any gifts on AO3 that need to be revealed, you'll need to either briefly make one of the FIAB mods a mod of the account to reveal it concurrently (we can remove ourselves immediately afterwards to preserve the fourth wall) or give us the password to the mod account.You can DM us password information instead of putting it in the top of your AO3 gift work if you would prefer.

Creators Choice of 3+ In-Universe Mediums Per Work

• If filling this tag, you need 3 different In-Universe mediums within the same work.
• If your recip also requested individual In-Universe medium tags, then you can still post single fills for those tags without having to follow this tag.
• If filling the "That Fit The Canon Setting" variation of this tag it has to be something that makes sense In-Universe without an AU.

Recursive Works

• Recursive works should only be posted for works which have given permission. If your recip requests recursive of their own work this counts as permission, but if they request recursive of gifts of other works please make sure the original creator has given permission for recursive.
• 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 the work you're recursing is on AO3 please use the Inspired By function to link to it. If not please link to it directly from the top Author's note.