coaltide | C.R.E.A.M

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2021

C.R.E.A.M

Coal ruins exchanges around me - spitey spitey fic y'all.

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Assignments out by: Mon 25 Oct
Default deadline: Sat 11 Dec
Assignment deadline: Sat 18 Dec
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....and a Partridge in a Pear Tree!

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DC

I feel like you're missing the point, though.

Unless the person really loves writing letters above all else, and coordinating socks, and the other maintenance work innpulling of this scheme, it seems like a lot of work.

Whereas generally speaking the people writing thousands of words of fic (instead of popping out a 1k minimum and done) are doing it because it's fun for them. Speaking as one of them.

I think they preferred getting a gift, yeah. Writing about what you like (and filing off the serials here and there to reuse that info) for maybe a weekend and then keeping an eye on when your gifts are posted/a defaulting schedule sounds like way less work that the 5 digit cumulative wordcount I pull off every Yuletide. It’s more work to me because I like writing and getting a gift equally, but people sign up to PH (doesn’t misura not sign up at all?) and write 30k without getting anything and have a great time. This is the opposite of that but the exact same mindset: putting in effort for what you think is fun and engaging in a way where you don’t have to do anything that isn’t fun, in their case writing to someone else’s prompts or at all.

When you put it like this though, it kind of sounds like sock accounts aren't all that bad, if everyone is having fun doing what they like, either writing fic or writing a bunch of letters/doing that maintenance work I guess

My potentially hot take is that I don't think socks are all that bad. This person is overkill but as someone who likes writing treats to people's id, as long as they have a letter and leave decent comments? I don't mind if they're hacking the system to get a lot of gift if they're allowing authors the chance to create for fandoms they love. I would rather a sock army than a bunch of participants who hate letters/prompts and also don't care about their own gift and only sign up because they need a deadline to finish their own ideas.

I don't remember the details of this sock army but I think they didn't comment (which makes them a trash recip in my book) and that's where I enter the ban them camp. If they had actually been a good egg recip or (and this is what most socks do) turned in gifts for at least half of those accounts, I wouldn't have any judgement for them.

Socks aren't as disruptive as people playing "not touching you" with DNWs, but large sock armies are still participating in a way that everyone else has to put in extra effort to deal with. Maybe they're putting work into their prompts, but that's their business. They're still making other people do more work. And tricking them into it rather than the authors just making a choice to treat them.

I really think there's a difference between one sock and many.

I don't agree with official YT policy not allowing any socks (which it's well known many people don't follow). But having more than 1-2 socks does seem wrong to me.

I think we agree on some aspects. I agree there's a huge difference between having a sock army and having one sock.

The Yuletide policy, eh, it's true that some people sock up and they don't do anything about it. But since it is policy, if you can't even effectively hide your socks, you're failing at the first hurdle and can't be trusted to sign up twice IMHO. So it's more like "sock if you must but you'd better not let us know about it."

Exactly. I think of it as the same sort of thing as getting Al Capone convicted on charges of tax evasion. It wasn't the biggest of his crimes, but it was the one that could be easily proven in court. If your socks are well-behaved, Yuletide mods won't notice (or, if they notice, they won't care, based on anecdotal evidence of, uh, a friend). But if your socks do dodgy stuff that isn't explicitly against the rules otherwise or is hard to prove, they can ban you for socking.

Whereas generally speaking the people writing thousands of words of fic (instead of popping out a 1k minimum and done) are doing it because it's fun for them.

Generally speaking, maybe, but it doesn't apply to everyone. I don't particularly enjoy writing assignments in exchanges. I do exchanges for the gifts and the gifts only; the writing an assignment in return is a chore. But I also want to do it well and give my recipient a fic they enjoy because I know in turn what it feels like to get a disappointing gift, so I put in work and effort. Is it fun? Not really. But if I want to get good gifts, I feel like it's my duty to give good gifts and it generally works out (both in terms of exchange karma, and in being well liked enough that people write me treats).

Huh, I'm totally the opposite. I'm in it because I like getting prompts/feedback for my writing and I sort of don't care what gifts I get if any. I like reading them and I leave good comments (or I try) but I'm in it for the writing, not the gifts.

In general all YTers can be divided into the following four categories

1. Like receiving fics more than writing, but willing to write for fics
2. Like writing fics more than receiving, but are at least minimally interested in receiving (otherwise they'd exclusively PH/treat)
3. Like both in approximately equal amounts
4. Hate both, but are still here for some reason, maybe they love suffering.

Maybe someone someday will do a survey to get a breakdown of what the percentages are.

I think you need

2a) at least minimally interested in receiving
2b) need an assignment to stay focused

And a 5) actually do only PH/treat

Oh yeah good points.

I am a 5.

I am a bun bun.

Also 6): varies based on year.

Because I definitely fluctuate among all of those.

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C.R.E.A.M

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