Welcome to Rare Pair Exchange 2013

This is our second Multi-fandom Rare Pair Exchange on Livejournal.

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Please do not hesitate to contact us at rarepairmod@gmail.com if you have any questions/comments/concerns. We do not know about issues unless we are told. We promise not to bite. At least not hard. :)

Nominations will open on the 1st. Now is the time to start thinking about what fandoms/pairings you'd like to write/request. Be sure to take a look at the ineligble pairing list . We've added a bit to it since the last round, but as always we welcome suggestions.

To recap the major changes from last year:
- A rare pair will now be defined as a pairing that has less than 250 (down from 500) COMPLETED works of 1000 words or greater.
- Fandoms of any any size are now welcome (previously small fandom were not allowed).

Feel free to promote the community at your own journal or other communities. If you do post to a community please be sure they allow advertising and that someone has not already made their own. Banners from last year can be found here, or you're welcome to create your own.

The dates for the next round are as follows:
- June 1 through June 15th - Nomination Period
- June 17 through June 28 - Signups open
- July 1 - Assignments will be sent out by this date
- August 16 - Fics are due
- August 19 - Works are revealed
- August 28th - Authors are revealed

Notable changes:
- A rare pair will be defined as a pairing that has less than 250 (down from 500) COMPLETED works of 1000 words or greater.
- Fandoms of any any size are now welcome (previously small fandom were not allowed).

As this was our first round, we'd like to ask for feedback from those who have participated in how you feel like the experience could be improved for next year. We do have a number of changes planned already. While we will consider all feedback, we can't promise that they will all be implemented. All comments will be screened.

Authors have been revealed on both collections! You're now welcome to post your stories elsewhere. Also remember you're still welcome to post treats. There's no deadline for those. We'd like to thank everyone for participating and making this an awesome fest.

The treat collection has gone live here. Remember there is no deadline or limit for treats, so feel free to keep posting them!

The fics can be seen here.

We'd like to thank everyone who's participated for the 93 amazing fics that have been created. We'd especially like to thank all of you who volunteered to pinch hit.

If you signed up, you should get an email notification with a link to your gift. If for some reason you do no receive an email, you can view your gifts at the last link on your profile page.

If for some reason you turned in a fic and did not receive one, let us know immediately.

Happy reading and commenting!

Requests are now visible here. If you're interested, you're welcome to post treats. Treats are explained here.

ETA: As a reminder, don't reply to comments until authors are revealed.

We're still waiting on 2 more fics. Once they're in we'll reveal the fics.

We'd like to thank everyone who volunteered! We couldn't do this without you. Remember you have until 5pm eastern US time on the 3rd (tomorrow) to turn in your fic. Stories will not go live until they've all been turned in.

Ten pinch hits will be going out shortly. If you're interested and can complete a fic of 1000 words by 5pm eastern US time on the 3rd, check them out here: https://groups.google.com/group/rare-pair-pinch-hits

If you have not posted or asked for an extension, now is the time to do so. If you do not do either, we will mark you as having defaulted.

The deadline for Rare Pair Fest is in less than 24 hours, at 11:59PM Eastern time today. If you haven't gotten started, now would be a really good time to start writing if you want to participate. If you don't think your fic will be done in time, let us know and send us your unfinished work so we can set up an extension for you for September 3rd at 5PM Eastern. If you don’t have anything started or do not contact us, your assignment will automatically go up for pinch hits, and you will not be able to participate in the next fest. If you default, and then the person assigned to write for you defaults, a pinch hitter will not be assigned to fill your request, and you will not receive a fic. Author reveals will not go up until everyone has a story written for them.

As you may or may not have noticed, today is August 25th! In exactly one week, on September 1st, your fics will be due. If you haven't started writing yet, now is the time.

We currently have 13 fics up in the collection at Ao3, so good job to those people on getting their assignments in so early. Thanks!

If you don't think you will be able to finish by the deadline, you can default by clicking the button on your Assignments page on Ao3. It will let us know, so you don't have to contact us if you don't want to. If you need to drop out, please do so sooner rather than later. We'd really appreciate it.

So far, we haven't needed to put out any pinch hits, and that's great! Hopefully, we won't have to put out very many at the end of the fest.

Also, as a quick reminder, if you see a request that you like and would also like to fill in addition to your primary assignment, you can still write treats and post them in the appropriate collection.

For those people new to Ao3 or in need of a refresher course, here is a link on how to post to the collection: http://archiveofourown.org/admin_posts/41

If anyone has any questions about posting, please ask here or direct them to us at rarepairmod@gmail.com

We've put a beta post up at the support comm. Check it out here.

If at this point you are thinking about writing a letter and haven't written one, we can guarantee that we will forward any threads made in the Letters post to the relevant authors. We understand that some people may be reluctant about writing a letter or adding likes/dislikes at this point, since there is no guarantee that your author will see it, but us forwarding the letters will mean that it will be seen by your author. Again, letters are optional, but are often useful in helping your author tailor the story to what you want.

There is also a helpful post regarding author letters on the support comm if anyone is thinking about writing one for the first time, and wants to either look at the existing questions and answers or ask a question.

By request we've made a support community: rarepairsupport

Assignments have gone out! If you do not receive an email with your assignment please visit http://archiveofourown.org/users/USERNAMEHERE/assignments to see your assignment.

Everyone is guaranteed to match on at least one pair and fandom. Some people match on more. You don’t have to write the fandom/pairing you were matched on if something else the person requested interests you. The only requirement is that the pairing is one requested and that none of the squicks be included. While it is not required, if possible use one of the requested prompts if provided. While you will not be bound by the scenarios, creating something that blatantly disregards the recipient's likes will not be accepted.

If you have a problem with, any questions about, or cannot complete your assignment, please contact us immediately at rarepairmod@gmail.com.

Good luck, and most of all, have fun with your assignments!

ETA: A little less than half of the signups did not include any optional details. If you were assigned such a person, you can assume you are welcome to write whatever you'd like, or you an ask us to see if they'd provide extra details for you.

Sign ups are now closed! Matching is now in progress, and assignments will go out by July 26th.

We have 96 amazing signups. We'd like to thank everyone that's signed up, and hope you have fun with your assignments when you receive them!

As today is the last chance to sign up and edit your sign ups, here is a quick list of the remaining fandoms that need more love. In the case of some of the (1, 1) fandoms, the person is both offering and requesting the same fandom, thus negating the offer. The first number is the number of requests and the second is the number of offers.

The sign up summary is also updating again, in case anyone wants to take a look at the larger list.

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