Friday open thread: beloved fannish events

[dolorosa_12]

I'm back for another Friday open thread, the first one this year that isn't a borrowed snowflake_challenge prompt. The prompt is:

What are some of your favourite regularly occurring fannish events?

These could be things like exchanges or fests, but they also could be in-person events such as conventions, personal fannish goal-setting events (e.g. comms in which people pledge to write a certain number of words in the year, themed events in a Dreamwidth comm or on other online platforms), or anything else you wish. My only specifications for this question are that a) the event needs to recur, rather than being a one off; and b) the event needs to involve other people, rather than being a solo affair (but participating in e.g. December Talking Meme in your own blog counts as a shared event, since you're writing responses to others' prompts).



My answer to this changes all the time, but I think at the moment my favourite regular events definitely include once_upon_fic (a fic exchange for canons based on fairytales, mythology, folklore, urban legends and nursery rhymes — I've received some amazing gifts, the fact that all canons in the tagset need to have a version available for free online makes it really accessible, and generally the whole thing has a great atmosphere), fandomtrees (a really good-natured fest with generous participants that falls at exactly the right time of year to raise the spirits in what can otherwise be a bit of a dark and gloomy period), and Yuletide (which generally is a great creative spark for me and has helped me write things which still get a steady trickle of kudos and comments many years later, plus some really incredible pieces of writing have been given to me as gifts over the years).

However, I'm really developing a soft spot for halfamoon, which is filling my Dreamwidth feed with so many works about women and fictional female characters. My primary fannish focus has always been female characters (whether in the original material, or m/f, f/f or female character centric gen in fic), so this fest is definitely designed to appeal to me!

I know it's not everyone's thing, but I also really appreciate the annual holiday love meme, because it always comes around at a time of year when I tend to feel exhausted and emotionally fragile, and the lovely anonymous comments I get always warm my heart and lift my spirits.

My most missed annual fannish event is definitely nightonficmountain, which was a rare fandoms exchange (with similar rules to Yuletide) that took place in the middle of the year. All my fandoms are fandoms of one, so having another annual exchange with this focus was wonderful for me, and it's a shame it doesn't run any more. (I imagine moderating it was very difficult, since it's hard enough to match people in a big rare fandoms exchange like Yuletide, and this one had a much smaller number of participants.)


What are your answers?

Comments

[muccamukk]

A couple Dreamwidth ones that I'm not always that great at doing, but really love seeing go by are intoabar, the great crossover generator fest.

Also, spook_me, which has just such fantastic prompts! I wish I was better at actually writing fic for them.

[dolorosa_12]

Everyone doing intoabar always seems to be having so much fun! It's such a great idea for an exchange.

I'd not heard of spook_me, but it looks fun too.

[wearing_tearing]

I really enjoy trickortreatex! It's super lowkey and pooky-season themed, two things I love very much :D

[dolorosa_12]

I've never participated, but I know so many people who do, and it definitely seems like a really fun — and much loved — exchange.

[wearing_tearing]

It's one of my favorite exchanges along with Yuletide :D

[senmut]

I don't recall the name properly, maybe notprimetime ? For the medium sized fandoms, too big for YT, but too small to be mega fandoms. I miss it.

[dolorosa_12]

Oh yes, I've definitely heard of that exchange, although I never participated. It's a great idea — hopefully someone will revive it at some point, or start a new thing that's similar.

[chestnut_pod]

I do love Purimgifts. It has a nice atmosphere, it always seems to run smoothly, and of course I couldn't like the themes more!

I miss Amplificathon so much and, I must admit, sort of resent that Twitter took away that part of the community. Always in our hearts, Amplificathon.

[dolorosa_12]

Purimgifts is such a fantastic idea for an exchange — the themes are just perfect, and I've read and loved so many fics that started out as Purimgifts works. My impression is that the quality of writing is really high.

A couple of people have mentioned Amplification here, and I have to admit I don't know what it was — but it's certainly very much missed!

[chestnut_pod]

It was a wonderful fest hosted at the amplificathon community, which also runs/ran year-round. It encouraged podficcers to score the most "points" based on an involved formula which took into account how long the podfic was, how small the podfic fandom or ship, what language it was in, and so on. You can see the complexity of it here, from the last year it ran, which was, sadly, 2016. Formulae aside, its real goal was to encourage the creation of lots of podfic of all different kinds. It rewarded seeking out unusual fics, friendly competition, and growing podfic overall. It was an imaginative, friendly, energetic fest and I miss it dearly.

[dolorosa_12]

Oh wow, that sounds really incredible — what an intricate idea for a fest, and what enthusiasm and creativity it must have inspired! I'm so sorry it no longer exists in a form in which you can participate.

[corvidology]

intoabar because I love crossovers (dislike fusions) and the challenge of not knowing exactly what you're going to have to write about.

yuletide because to quote a mate, all my fandoms are 'three people and a corn chip.'

[dolorosa_12]

intoabar is such a fantastic idea for an exchange, and everyone participating always seems to be having a great time.

all my fandoms are 'three people and a corn chip.'

I know that feeling! (And your icon for this is perfect!)

[corvidology]

Inevitably, I made the icon myself. ;D

[dolorosa_12]

Amazing! That just makes it even more perfect!

[mific]

My faves are intoabar as I love crossovers, comment_bingo as it's fun to use it for recs, and multifandomdoodle which is a twice-annual art exchange.

[dolorosa_12]

intoabar is definitely getting a lot of love from people in the comments here!

I'd never thought to use comment_bingo as a jumping off point for recs, but now that you mention it, it's a brilliant idea!

I'm not really familiar with all the main art-only exchanges, but multifandomdoodle sounds like a good one.

[vriddy]

getyourwordsout is the one for me, I enjoy so much spending the year with other people dedicated to making space for writing in their lives :) In terms of exchanges, chocolateboxcomm / candyheartsex (running when chocobox doesn't) have been great. And oh I'm glad to see comment_bingo mentioned, every new round is a joy :D I guess it does feel a little bit more solo than something like an exchange though we do end sharing recs!

[dolorosa_12]

I see so many people I know participating in getyourwordsout, and I find it very impressive. It's lovely that there's a communal way to help everyone stay focused on writing, which can be otherwise quite a solitary and lonely task.

chocolateboxcomm and candyheartsex always seem like such fun exchanges — everyone I know who participates in them seems to have such a great time.

And comment_bingo is definitely something I should look into more, since I hope it might make me engage with fic more outside of exchanges in which I'm participating.

[eglantiere]

out of everything that's not yuletide, hcex got to be my favorite thing. an exchange where i DON'T have to remind myself to put some non-whump prompts for people who don't like it! and i got some truly excellent fics out of it too.

[dolorosa_12]

Exchanges tailored exactly towards the things we love to read and write really are just the best, and I'm glad that was the case for you with h/c exchange. I think I feel similarly about once_upon_fic.

[lilly_c]

I picked up pinch hits in fandomgrowthexchange and it looked quite fun. Although a lot of my fandoms are on the tiny side, they're just a wee bit too big to qualify for this one.

There is luxken27's summer mini challenge it usually runs from June to September and I've had a lot of fun over the years.

sunshine_challenge runs in July and is an off-shoot from snowflake_challenge.

(here via network)

[dolorosa_12]

All those look like a lot of fun! I have participated in sunshine_challenge in the past, and should give it another go this year if the timing is right.

Most of my fandoms (including things that I have requested without luck every single time in which I've participated in Yuletide) would qualify for fandomgrowthexchange, but I worry that even there I'd have trouble finding people willing to write them. But I love the idea in principle.

[svgurl]

I like halfamoon too, as well as fandomtrees (and fandomgiftbasket too!). That is too bad about nightonficmountain - it sounds like fun. I understand why it happens, but it is always a shame to see beloved events fade out.

Some of my favorites are:
poetry_fiction, a fest where you get a snippet from a poem of the year's featured poet to base a fic off of
newyearcntdown - a fest in December with prompts leading up to New Year's
no_true_pair - where you sign up with list of characters, a set of prompts is posted that uses all the characters in different combinations, and you create works using those characters.

There are definitely certain exchanges I look forward to every year because their themes contain some of my favorite tropes, like hurtcomfortex, pine4pine, and justmarriedexchange.

[dolorosa_12]

Oh wow, some of those are new to me and sound like a lot of fun!

I also like the tropes in those last three exchanges, but I can't reliably write them in all contexts, so they tend to be things I read, rather than participate in as an author.