a "hand-matched" exchange

[brightknightie]

I've seen a few ficathon/fest exchange announcements recently that advertise themselves as "hand-matched" (presumably as opposed to the AO3's automated matching).

If this is a selling point, I must remember to include it on future fkficfest/fkficfest promotions!

Comments

[argentum_ls]

I think it can be a selling point in the case of exchanges where there's strong contention about character or pairing assignments.

Teen Wolf, for example, has pretty much always been dominated by the Sterek (Stiles/Derek) pairing, which those of us not into are really not into. I'm reminded of one exchange where I was matched on a rarepair, but my recip's letter outright stated that they assumed Sterek would be the primary pairing in the resulting story. Hand matching could have avoided this. As could have better modding, I suppose. At any rate, it was unpleasant for me.

I don't know if FK fans have such hard-drawn lines in the sand, but certainly mentioning that slates are hand-matched could be consoling to people who do have reservations.

[brightknightie]

I'm sorry about that person's misunderstanding of the nature of the rare-pair request and match! That's not at all a fair expectation. And it put a burden on you that is kind of ... slimy, in the way it undermines its own supposed reason for existence.

It's extremely lonely in a fandom where there's an absolutely overwhelming non-canonical majority view that you don't happen to share.

>"I don't know if FK fans have such hard-drawn lines in the sand,..."

FK doesn't share a single overwhelming fanon assumption like Teen Wolf and, to a somewhat lesser extent, Highlander do. FK is the polar opposite. No one agrees about anything in FKdom, hardly even baseline canon. :-)

Knighties versus Dark Knighties? Knighties versus Cousins? Natpackers versus Knighties? Unnamed Faction versus Cousins of the Knight? Third-season lovers versus third-season deniers? N&Ners versus everyone else? Ravenettes and Nevermores both treasure Janette! :-)

I can barely imagine a happy outcome from automated matching in FK.

I literally stressed myself sick the one time that I (Knightie; Nick's quest for humanity is right and just) got matched with PJ (Cousin, Dark Knightie, UFer; vampires, including Nick, should drink blood and kill people) in a fest. It was painful. The resulting story in fact drove away from FK someone whom I was then trying to interest in the show (I didn't know he was going to read it! I didn't know he'd found the AO3! I would have explained!). I anticipate that I will immediately default if I'm ever again matched with PJ or another such "dark" fan.

When I say that one FKFicFest prompt slate stars Reese in every request and the next refuses to mention Reese under any circumstances... "Reese" is a placeholder for other characters, pairings and perspectives, but the situation is wholly real, around and around our small circle. There's vanishingly little agreement.

Yay, hand-matching? ;-)

[argentum_ls]

It's extremely lonely in a fandom where there's an absolutely overwhelming non-canonical majority view that you don't happen to share.

It really is. Fortunately, I managed to carve out a little niche and meet some great people.

FK is the polar opposite. No one agrees about anything in FKdom, hardly even baseline canon. :-)

:) What I remember from my mailing list days is that everyone had their own interpretations, but also that (most) everyone worked to stay respectful of the others. I don't recall discussions getting nasty very often or people being snots about forcing their preferences on the fandom-at-large. Of course, that was a long time ago, so it's possible that my recollection is less than perfect. It was my first, shiny fandom, so I definitely approach it with stars in my eyes.

I can barely imagine a happy outcome from automated matching in FK.

No, I can't see that automated matching would work at all. Part of being respectful lies in recognizing where people's boundaries are, and no AO3 script is going to know that a player simply can't (or won't) write a character the way their recipient understands it.

I'm sorry that you had to go through the experience of a bad match. Both you and PJ are too nice to have had to suffer that. I'm also sorry that the resulting story drove someone away. We all have stories that aren't what they could be, or that aren't "us" (especially when it comes to exchange-written fic, where we may be making an effort to write past our normal boundaries). For a story to run someone out of a potential fandom is a harsh blow.

For this fandom, then, it sounds like hand-matching is definitely a selling point.

[greerwatson]

It occurs to me that there's another situation in which hand-matching is likely to be a plus feature: a small exchange (which certainly describes fkficfest).

You may recall the situation we both found ourselves in for rarelywritten, where we could pretty well predict who we were likely to find ourselves writing for, at least within a couple of names. When there are a lot of possibilities and a relatively small number of players, one can find oneself with very few matches.

Well, I've just signed up for fic_corner, in which the AO3 computer has paired me with someone I've been matched with more than once before. I made sure to offer more widely, of course; but the algorithm has no way of knowing what my previous matches have been, especially since they were in other exchanges.

Furthermore, three of my requests weren't offered, and (unless I'm mistaken) the other two were only offered by one person. To be precise, the same person whose story I am writing. In other words, I have a horrid suspicion that we're going to be swapping stories. Maybe even in the same fandom. Computers are a bit dumb that way. (Well, either that or she matched with someone else and I went out to pinch-hit.)

I suspect that fic_corner is a bit large for hand matching. However, I know that, in modding fkficfest, you make an effort to ensure that people don't keep getting the same writer or the same recipient. Given that FK is a small fandom, I can quite see potential players liking the idea that you hand-match prompts.