Wild-Card Discussion

[theladyscribe]

I've had several questions regarding the possibility of the Wild-Card, so I thought it would be a good idea to start some real discussion of it.

I see it working like this:

To be a wild-card remixee, you must still meet the three-or-five rule in the qualifying fandoms, but the stories that count do not have to all be in the same fandom. For example, let's say you've written two 500-word stories with women in Supernatural and one 500-word story in Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Woo-hoo, you can sign up to be remixed by a wild-card participant! If you do meet the requirements for regular qualification, you can still sign up to be a wild-card remixee, but you are not required to do so. Furthermore, you can still be matched on the fandoms you qualify with even if you sign up for the wild-card.

To be a wild-card remixer, you are agreeing to potentially be assigned an author with whom you do not share any fandoms. For example, you only read/write Battlestar Galactica, but you signed up for the wild-card and were assigned someone who has only written Star Wars! You have two options: you can either research the fandom and try to access some of the canon and then write your remix, or you can remix blind and use only the author's works as the source for your story, whichever works best for you.

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Thoughts? Questions? Concerns?

Comments

[teaotter]

It sounds like fun to me, but then, I love writing in new fandoms and exploring new things. So this is pretty much right up my alley.

[thinkatory]

I'd like a point of clarification:

Say I sign up with my two qualifying fandoms, and offer to write a wild-card of a particular type. Do I also have to include my own wild-card options? I'm not clear on how many fandoms I get to offer (I qualify under three fandoms), and the fandoms I would otherwise be able to offer wild-card for are not on the list yet.

[theladyscribe]

I'm not sure I fully understand your question. If you qualify in a fandom, you can list it in the sign-up (and the more you list, the easier it will be to match you with someone who shares at least one of your fandoms). As long as you qualify in at least one of the fandoms in the final qualifying list, you do not have to be added to the wild-card match-up.

You can offer to write a wild-card without opting-in to be remixed by a wild-card yourself. If you offer to write a wild-card, you may not have any fandoms in common with the person you are assigned, and you won't be able to be re-assigned.

I'm open to discussion as to whether people who only qualify as a wild-card should be allowed to request to write specific fandoms or must be assigned as a wild-card. I also would like people's opinions on whether wild-card only remixees should be required to have more total stories to qualify, as that will make it a little easier on their remix writers (ie, they have to have five-or-seven instead of three-or-five, but those stories can be across multiple fandoms).

[thinkatory]

OH. Yes, that makes more sense. Thank you. You've addressed all my questions here. (Forgive the unclear comment above, I wrote that before breakfast, lol.)

I also would like people's opinions on whether wild-card only remixees should be required to have more total stories to qualify, as that will make it a little easier on their remix writers (ie, they have to have five-or-seven instead of three-or-five, but those stories can be across multiple fandoms).
IMHO This is a smart idea and will probably make it easier to wild-card, yeah.

[alexseanchai]

So I could sign up to be a wild-card remixee but not a wild-card remixer? 'Cause I only want to write in Fairy Tales and October Daye, but it would be fun to open up aaaall my fandoms—I've got like forty per my AO3 profile—to remixing. I only not-wild-card qualify in three and of those three I don't actually want to write in Supernatural (which is naturally the overwhelming majority of my fics), so I don't want to be a wild-card remixer, but it would be fun to be a wild-card remixee.

[theladyscribe]

Just because you don't qualify in a fandom does not mean that fandom cannot be remixed. The purpose of the qualifying fandoms is to make sure that everyone participating has at least one fandom in common with other people in the remix so they can be matched. However, it's possible that you'll be matched to someone who shares not only your qualifying fandoms but one of your non-qualifying fandoms. They might decide to stick with what you're matched on, or they might go for the other one you have in common.

If you are a wild-card remixer, you may not have ANY fandoms in common with the person you're given to write. So you may have written Fairy Tales, October Daye, and Supernatural, but the person you're given has only written Buffy, The Silmarillion, and Stargate. Also, unless the person you get has *only* written Supernatural, you don't have to write it. And by definition, that won't happen in the wild-card remix, because the rules for that will be that you have to have a total of five-or-seven stories across at least two of the qualifying fandoms. So even if they've written SPN, they'd have at least one other fandom you could choose from.

Since you already qualify in Fairy Tales and October Daye, you don't *have* to sign up as a wild-card remixee, but if you want to, you totally can. The part I'm trying to decide is whether to allow people who DO *have* to sign up as a wild-card remixee to not sign up as a wild-card remixer as well.

[teaotter]

The part I'm trying to decide is whether to allow people who DO *have* to sign up as a wild-card remixee to not sign up as a wild-card remixer as well.

I kinda think you have to require them to sign up as wild card remixers, just to make sure there are enough people willing to cover everyone who signs up without enough stories in a single fandom. At least for the first year.

I'm open to discussion as to whether people who only qualify as a wild-card should be allowed to request to write specific fandoms or must be assigned as a wild-card.

... This one, I think they should be allowed to also list specific fandoms, if it's possible to do both on the sign-up sheet. Or is it not possible to do both?

I also think it'd be easier if you have more than three stories to pick from. I'd like to have at least 7 stories to choose between if I might know nothing about their fandoms or characters. (I'm okay with all 7 being drabbles, mind you). I might be able to work with 5. But if there's only 3, my chances of defaulting go waaaaay up.

(edited to add second comment)