Frankenstein & Related Media

Original Works

Ensemble Stars!/ Ensemble Girls!

Layton Kyouju Series | Professor Layton Series

OMORI

Marvel 616 and Marvel Cinematic Universe

Exchange Questions

Participation Questions

• Collection: The page on AO3 that contains information, requests, sign-ups, and finally, fanfics for an exchange on AO3. You go to an exchange's collection to sign up for it, if it's hosted on AO3.


• Tagset: The list of all the fandoms, characters, and tags that users want to write about for an exchange. If you want to nominate for an exchange, you go to the tagset.


• Nominations, Noms: Refers to the first period of an exchange, when AO3 users suggest fandoms, characters, and tags to be added to the tagset. Nominating for an exchange does not automatically sign you up for it.


• Request: The section of your sign-up that contains what fandoms, characters, and tags you'd like to receive a gift about. Requests contain an "Optional Details" section, which is where you put your DNWs, indicate your opt-ins, and sometimes link your Letters. If a request can't be matched to a creator, it becomes an initial pinch hit.


• Optional Details: A section of your requests or offers, within your sign-up. It's a large text box, with a place to put optional details such as DNWs, likes, and occasionally your letters, if there isn't already a text box for that.


• Offers: The section of your sign-up that contains the fandoms, characters, and tags you'd like to create a gift about. Don't offer for things that you aren't willing to write, as you're matched with a recipient based on what you offer.


• Sign-ups: The second period of an exchange, where users actually create their Requests and Offers for the exchange. The group of your Offers and Requests is located in the Collection for the exchange, as a part of the sign-up.


• Matching: The third period of an exchange, when everyone who signed up is assigned someone to write for, and someone else is assigned to write for them. Sometimes, not everyone can be matched, so some Requests will become pinch hits.


• Assignment: The request that you were assigned to write during matching. You can find your assignment by going to your Dashboard, then clicking on "Assignments", or by clicking the "Hi, [Username]!" button and going to "My Assignments." When you click on your assignment from there, you will be shown all of your offers, and all of your recipient's requests. You do not have to fulfill every single request that your recipient asked for- just one of them.


• Recip: Short for recipient. The person who is going to receive the fic that you write.


• PH, Pinch Hit: Someone's requests, usually posted in a few groups as a part of an announcement wherever the exchange announcements go. If someone's request appears as a pinch hit, it either means that their creator has defaulted on their assignment, or if it appears at the start of an exchange, it can mean that their weren't able to be initially matched with a creator. Pinch Hits can be accepted by contacting the moderators of an exchange, which means you volunteer to write a work following the pinch hit requests in addition to the work you were initially assigned. Typically, exchanges allow anyone, even those who haven't signed up for the exchange, to take on pinch hits.


• Treat: A bonus gift written for someone, which is in addition to the gift they receive as a part of the exchange.


• Letter: An offsite link that provides more information about someone's requests. Can include details about specific prompts the requester would like to see, what they like about their fandoms, and other such details that might be too long to fit in the AO3 sign-up box. Usually optional. Some popular hosting places for letters are Dreamwidth, Google Docs, and Tumblr.


• DNW: Stands for "Do Not Write" or "Do Not Want". DNWs are typically included in the sign-up process. They are usually enforced as part of an exchange's rules, but only if they're actually included within the sign-up and not within a letter.


• Genfic: Refers to fanfiction that is not centered around a romantic or sexual ship.


• Matchable/Unmatchable: If you're matchable, then the mod of the exchange can find a request from someone else that matches the offers in your signup. The amount and type of matching tags required to be matchable varies from exchange to exchange.


• Opt-in/Opt-out: Refers to whether certain content should be allowed by default, or disallowed by default. DNWs are a form of "opting-out", as they allow you to list all the things you do not wish to receive. Some exchanges run sensitive content or certain fic types on an opt-in basis, such as noncon/dubcon, crossovers, and/or first-person POV, to say a few. Some exchanges have lists of "opt-ins", or content that should only be written if a user indicates that they would like to receive it.


• ODAO: Stands for "Optional Details are Optional." When writing for your recipient, you do not have to follow all of their optional details. You do not have to fulfill all of their likes or opt-ins all at once, and you don't have to follow the prompts they might suggest. (Although, while DNWs are included in the "Optional Details" box, DNWs are usually enforced by an exchange's rules.)


• Freeform: A tag that doesn't fit in the first three categories that AO3 outlines, those being Characters, Relationships, and Fandoms, so it goes in the last category: Additional Tags. These are used in exchanges to indicate a wide variety of things, including but not limited to: types of media you'd like to receive (such as art, writing, or podfic), what specific category from the exchange you'd like to receive (some exchanges divide fics into categories), or various other settings, such as whether you'd like to receive treats.


• Disambig, Disambiguation: An indicator after a character's name, to indicate what media they're from. This is most often used when characters have common names that can appear across multiple fandoms, but some exchanges use disambigs for all characters. An example: Dracula (Castlevania: SOTN) vs Dracula (Dracula 1931)


• Gaming for assignment: When you deliberately set up your sign-up so that you get assigned a certain request.


• Bus pass: Refers to a work that fulfills all the requirements of a request, but isn't as polished as it could be, which is submitted to fulfill an assignment before the deadline. They're usually revised and updated before fics are revealed. It's called a 'bus pass' because the work is supposed to be a fic you could give to someone without polishing it, in the event that you were hit by a bus.


• Defaulting: When you give up on writing your assignment, or don't finish your assignment before the deadline, you're considered to have defaulted on it. Consequences for defaulting vary depending on the exchange. If you need to default, go to your Assignments from your Dashboard, and press the "Default" button.


• YKINMKATOK, Kink Tomato: Stands for "Your Kink is not My Kink and That's OK". Called "Kink Tomato" because the acronym looks vaguely like those two words.


• CCOF, Creator's Choice Of Fandom: Sometimes nominated as a fandom for exchanges, which means the creator of the fic gets to choose what fandom to write the fic for. It's not always allowed, but sometimes it is. Usually an exchange will indicate if it's okay to nominate it.


• Id, Iddy: Used to refers to fics that "indulge the id". The "id" refers to a term from Freudian psychology. In short, it's a theoretical part of the psyche that functions based on impulses and unconscious desires. "Iddy" fics are fics you find enjoyable for reasons you may not fully understand. Phrases that carry similar meaning include: a fic that "scratches your brain", one that "activates your neurons", or one that "makes you go feral".