Before we post the updated rules, we thought we'd have a space for member discussion. There were some great comments in the wrap up post last year, and we wanted to talk about how some of those might be implemented this year, especially in regards to fan artists, and how to be more inclusive and welcoming to them.

Schedule for 2015 round is as follows:
10-20 August: Nomination Period
23 August to 2 September: Signups open
5 September: Assignments will be sent out by this date
17 October: Fanworks due
23 October: Archive goes live (or as soon as everyone has a gift)
30 October: Creators revealed

We've made an LJ feed so you can follow us there at thefemslashex

Here's what we're thinking of changing:
1. Nominations:
Poly: This year we are allowing the nomination of poly groupings, so long as all the characters qualify for the fest (thus f/f/f or f\f/f or f/f/f/f etc = fine; f/f/m or f\f/m = not in this fest, though you may list it as an option in your optional details/prompts.)

Crossovers: This year we are allowing crossovers. Please nominate them as under the fandom: Crossovers - Fandom, and list the characters with their fandom after the character name (Example: Pepper Potts (MCU)/Seven of Nine (Star Trek: Voyager). Thanks to rarepair for figuring out how to do this.

RPF: RPF characters must be over 18 at the time of nomination, and must be public figures in their own right (no girlfriends/kids/parents of public figures permitted).


2. Defaulting:
There won't be a penalty-free default date. Instead all defaulting will be penalty-free, but people who flat out don't submit by the due date, or who submit incomplete work, will not be allowed to participate next year.
ETA: We are still asking people who defaulted after the no-penalty date last year to sit this year out. You are welcome to treat, and may sign up again for the 2016 round, if you wish. /ETA


3. Anon period:
There will be a week-long anon period after the archive opens.


4. Treats for Pinch Hitters
We're thinking of having a post, probably put up around the due date, where pinch hitters could list some requests and prompts. Our current thought is that the pinch hitters could e-mail the mods, and the mods would put the prompts in a DW post, and interested parties could make them gifts. It would look something like the following, with up to four prompts:

Username:
Likes:
Squicks:
Prompt #1
Fandom:
Pairings:
Prompt:

5. AO3 Accounts:
Unfortunately, there's no way to get around needing an AO3 account for matching and thus sign ups. We will have invites this year, so people who don't have an accout yet can jump the queue, which has gotten rather long.

We'll also put up a post about how to use AO3 and hints for tagging. Well, at this time we're planning to link to posts, as there's no sense reinventing the wheel. I'm happy to take suggestions as to which posts people have found most useful. AO3 itself has a lot of basic tutorials, but other links are great too.

We are going to create a mod account, so that people without AO3 accounts can pinch hit and treat via that account. The work would be e-mailed to the mods, who could post it to AO3. Proper credit would of course be kept track of, and edited in after reveals.


6. Art Hosting:
I've been told that imgur is useful for anon art hosting. Is this true? I haven't used it.
I'm also happy to temporarily host art on my photobucket, at least until the anon period is over. Or, if there's going to be a lot of call for it, we could make a fest-specific photobucket.
We know there's conflict between wanting to sign your work to cut down on image theft, and having an anon period. Would watermarking your art with "Femslashex" or "do not reblog" some variation thereof, and after reveal swapping it out for a properly signed picture be an acceptable compromise? Any other ideas?


7. Art-friendly Prompts:
We're going to do a post about art-friendly prompts, and would like input from artists as to what those look like from your perspective.


8. Advertising:
Several people last year suggested a fan-art based banner that would advertise the fest and might be reblogged around and about tumblr. Since Team Mod is at below stick figure levels on art, would someone be willing to make something in that line? I don't want to seem grabby, but we also don't have anything to offer in exchange save adding prompts to the pinch hitters' prompt post. Does that seem fair?


9. Other Media:
We know we were talking about vids and podfic last year, but we don't want them to seem like an afterthought as art did last year, and we really don't have a handle on them, so we think we'll put off including them for the time being.


10. Free Space:
Did I forget something? All suggestions welcome. Anon comments are on, and you can always e-mail the mods at femslashexmod@gmail.com