coaltide | The Coal Game

Entry tags:

2021

The Coal Game

We're scrolling
And watching coalies make errors
The most pathetical errors!
We're watching experienced coalies
Who stayed up all night tracking a source in its original Latin
Up, writin'
And writin' bad!

Default deadline: Sat 11 Dec
Assignment deadline: Sat 18 Dec
Reveals: Sat 25 Dec

yuletide |

yuletide_admin | Writing Post
2021 Collection | 2021 App (bonus + challenges) | Letter Post

Flat / Recent | Top-Level (Last) | FAQ | Search

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

What would make you quit Yuletide altogether?
What’s the worst case scenario (overall or in a given year) for Yuletide for you personally? (Get goal, have to default, ignore a DNW, etc.??)

Absolute worst would be something I'd done and that was clearly my fault leading to pain for someone else and then that thing blowing up. For example, tripping a DNW, especially if that DNW related to sensitive identity or trauma issues. Or, as a beta, advising someone that Thing A was fine and Thing A then turning out to be very much not fine. I can deal a bit with online anger, though I've never had to deal with mass outrage or harassment from individuals, so I don't really know how I'd cope with it if it happened, but that combined with feeling like I really was at fault would be pretty devastating.

Every year I think "this is probably going to be my last Yuletide" because I do it mostly out of nostalgia even though it's not the type of exchange I'd touch with a hot poker (too large, no freeforms, character matching, hidden requests) if I wasn't sentimentally fond of it. I don't think it'll need a nightmare scenario to override that fondness (I already had the nightmare scenario and received a rule-breaking gift); one day it just won't be enough to balance the scales.

I've reached that point this year, coalie. I deleted my sign-up after a couple of days; usually I end up signing up again at the last minute due to nostalgia, guilt or feeling obliged to do so, but not this year. And the relief is glorious. I can just enjoy coal instead.

Replacing character matching with relationship matching would probably make me quit, as relationship matching is the reason I haven't joined any of the other exchanges I've looked into.

(I also dislike freeform tags, but I don't think I dislike them enough to quit over them)

Terrible things to have happen:

1. Get an untherius-like for a writer and receiving a revolting, horrible fic I'd never have thought to DNW.
2. fucking up badly enough I end up in the center of a huge wankstorm
3. somehow managing to hit a DNW. Doesn't matter how many times I reread the DNW list and my fic, I am always paranoid about this.

I would love both, but I sincerely think that there's a 0% change of Yuletide ever implementing freeform matching. And while relationship matching is probably slightly more likely in the long run, I still doubt it's going to happen anytime soon.

+1 to all of this

I somehow do something that gets my (extremely well-behaved!) socks discovered, and it becomes the Parade of Shame that drives me out of fandom entirely.

I would probably come back under a new name, but I wouldn't do exchanges anymore.

Well, the main highly unlikely thing that would kill Yuletide for me completely is a reduction in minimum wordcount. The 300-word minimum is the reason I've never managed to get involved in some other bigger exchanges; I almost never get anything out of fic that short, and my plans to write longer treats for those kinds of exchanges have always failed because the prompts are geared towards that length too so there's not enough of a plot hook to inspire me.

OTOH, not sure I actually have a personal nightmare scenario that would make me quit. I often just write treats rather than signing up and I have no hardline DNWs anyway, so a horrible gift wouldn't bother me. I'm sure I would feel pretty bad about accidentally hitting a DNW or wank descending on my fic, but not so upset that I wouldn't have chilled out about it by a year later. Can't really think of anything other than untenable rule changes or disappearance of any fandoms I can write that would put me off long-term.

Maybe an overall exchange rule that made it less appealing for me? I don't think anything a normal participant did would make me quit Yuletide, since I could always have better luck next year.

The thing that would make me quit Yuletide altogether would be missing the mark so badly that my recip rejected their gift, whether by accidentally hitting a DNW I'd mentally skipped over in the list or for some other reason (missed the point of their prompt so thoroughly I'd subverted it and they hated it, my writing was just That Bad, etc). I would die of shame, and my soul would leave my body and retreat to a windowless void to eat worms.

Pissing off the wrong people and getting doxxed/having my wallet name attached to my fics. I don't write anything beyond M rating but it almost happened once and it was too awful

Longer fic minimums. I struggle to write long fics and having mandatory 5k would make it impossible to sign up.

This +1 million! The struggle is real, coalie!

If the mods made decisions I hated. What decisions? I'll know them if I see them.

Yuletide is pretty much the only time I write all year, so it would take something pretty big to make me drop it forever. Like other have said, accidentally or carelessly landing on a DNW would be pretty bad, causing someone pain would be horrible, having my fannish name ruined would mean scrubbing it and slinking away to die in shame.

+1 million

It would have to be a two-parter for me, I think. If I messed up so badly that not only did I get wanked about here/FFA/wherever, but the next year people saw my signup and said "oh it's THAT person" that would be the worst. I think I could stomach being a villain for one round, but only if it was benign enough that it never came up again.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

The Coal Game

Yuletide nightmares

Re: Yuletide nightmares

Re: Yuletide nightmares

Re: Yuletide nightmares

Re: Yuletide nightmares

Re: Yuletide nightmares

Re: Yuletide nightmares

Re: Yuletide nightmares

Re: Yuletide nightmares

Re: Yuletide nightmares

Re: Yuletide nightmares

Re: Yuletide nightmares

Re: Yuletide nightmares

Re: Yuletide nightmares

Re: Yuletide nightmares

Re: Yuletide nightmares

Re: Yuletide nightmares

Re: Yuletide nightmares

Re: Yuletide nightmares