coaltide | One Wank After Another

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2025

One Wank After Another

A blank assignment is a funny thing, isn't it? When you have it, you don't appreciate it, and when you miss it, it's gone.

Wednesday 10 December: Default deadline (9pm UTC)
Wednesday 17 December: Assignment deadline (9pm UTC)
Wednesday 24 December: Main collection works reveals (9pm UTC)
Thursday 25 December: Madness collection works reveals (9pm UTC)
Thursday 1 January: Author reveals, end of event (9pm UTC)

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I think at some point I'll have to email the yuletide mods to ask them to ask my recip what they actually like, because looking at their blank signup with no letter where they're picked 'any' for the canon we matched on is making me feel deranged
I'm trying to be like 'this is freedom to do what I want' but I'm like, no, please, give me guidance I'm too neurotic for this

Unsure what they're expecting the mods to do about this?

Where is this?

And the mods will email a recipient to be all "hey your author says they could use a little guidance, is there anything you want to give them? up to you tho"

but yeah their neuroticism is not the mods' problem

'thawrecka mcbling plastique chic' in #exchanges in the FFA discord.

That's kind of disappointing, I thought they were cooler than that.

Hope people shove them at the app to check for past prompts and/or don't coddle them too much.

That assumes there are past prompts

(no subject)

(Anonymous) - 2025-10-29 03:29 (UTC) - Expand

After I had a participant who went on an anxiety bender about an assignment like this, and emailed me a couple thousand words of "but don't they understand they're HURTING ME PERSONALLY by withholding from me the means to write a good gift, which is all I want to do!!!" I just don't find this stuff cute.

/excessively jaded mod

#thathappened

don't call mods liars you dickweed. some participants really are this fucking neurotic.

Prime example: coal and ffa.

If only the mods had a long-established system for passing questions along from authors to readers. They definitely haven't mentioned that system in 3/5 of their most recent posts or anything.

I mean. Would the mods even pass along such a question? A blank signup is a blank signup. If you can't write 1000 words of fic even without a prompt, you shouldn't have offered that fandom, period.

Yes, they will. Not "I need prompts gimme prompts" but "Would you like to give your author any suggestions? They'd be open to that, if you are. You don't have to."

Sometimes blank sign ups are on purpose and that's fine but a lot of people also just shove in a placeholder sign-up and run out of time to update it, or aren't familiar with exchanges. (My friend signed up two years ago and entered nothing in the form because she read "you may not demand your writer write you something specific" and thought that meant she wasn't allowed to write prompts.)

NC Idk, I feel like the infinite void of possibility giving someone choice paralysis and what-if-they-hate-it anxiety is very understandable! Even like 6 words of "I love everything, but especially [omegaverse|fluff|angst|2ppov|cuddling]" is better than a blank signup.

Yeah, it is understandable. The author's phrasing in chat is very mildly annoying but they've couched it casually because they're probably talking to friends.

"ask them to ask my recip what they actually like" - yeah they told you what they like, they like the canon and they'd like any of the nominated characters.

It's relatable but also a them problem, just the kind of nothingburger coal finds very soothing to pick over.

(no subject)

(Anonymous) - 2025-10-29 02:08 (UTC) - Expand

Yes, they will. I know because they offered to do so for me when I emailed them in confusion about what to do with a blank signup back when I was new to Yuletide.

And FTR of course I can write 1000 words without a prompt, but in an exchange where I signed up to make someone a gift I want them to actually like, it kind of ruins the writing experience for me. Feels about the same as being matched to someone whose signup says "I don't really care about gifts so just write whatever I guess."

it kind of ruins the writing experience for me. Feels about the same as being matched to someone whose signup says "I don't really care about gifts so just write whatever I guess.

That seems a little unkind, as an interpretation, in an exchange where "Optional details are optional to provide" is repeated frequently.

I lower my expectations for a response when I get a blank sign-up, but sometimes people really do just mean they're excited to be surprised.

Anything? Any fucking thing?

...they already said that they like the canon and the characters nominated in it. This is not something that needs to be addressed by the mods. I'm sure they will forward specific questions though if you have any.

Several years ago, I went to the mods with something like this (well, actually, it was a bit different: recip had requested Any and just prompted for unnominated characters, I asked the mods to relay a question for prompts for the characters I offered) and the response from the mods was "just write what you offered". So that's what I did.

This wasn't recent, and people say they're happy to put questions forward now, but they didn't always used to.

Sure. But, sounds from this conversation like the mods are now willing to ask for prompts generally.

Yeah, that sounds familiar. I remember there being a big wank about someone asking for a DNW clarification, and instead of forwarding the question the mods answered on the recip's behalf, which naturally ended in a shitshow.

You missed the most important part of the conversation

They want 10k of gen about the bloody destructive politics of the omegaverse revolution

So they did say what they like?

DC

In context it's a joke about how blank signups mean you can write whatever you want

Yeesh. Completely blank sign-ups can be frustrating if you were hoping for more but also not that big a deal.

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