Rules & Sticky

[extrapenguin]

Welcome to CORE!

Character OR Exchange (CORE for short) is a multimedia exchange for fandoms of all sorts (books to RPF to music videos to etc.). The twist: matching will occur on characters, not relationships, with inclusive OR selection.

We'll be running this along typical exchange lines: participants will sign up with requests and offers, will be matched via AO3, and will receive an assignment. By signing up, participants agree to make a fannish creation for their assigned participant. In turn, someone will make a fannish creation for them. You will need an AO3 account to participate. You also need to be 18+ and an adult in your jurisdiction.

Note on treats: They are very welcome, and don't have to to fulfill the minimum creation requirements that main gifts do.

Nominations and Matching

During nominations, you can nominate up to 5 fandoms and up to 10 characters in each.

When signing up, you can request 3-8 fandoms with 1-15 characters and offer 3-10 fandoms with 2-20 characters. We will also be matching on fanwork type, chosen from a ticky box. (You will have to choose at least one of the fanwork types, but feel free to tick both.)

Prompts are useful for giving your assigned writer somewhere to start from. We recommend writing prompts for each type of fanwork you requested, either into the box provided by AO3, or into a linked "Dear Creator" letter.

Matching will be based on your requests. If you have no possible creators, you'll be an initial pinch hit. If you have no possible recipients, you'll be asked to adjust your sign-up. Matching is OR matching. You will be guaranteed to match with someone who has offered at least 1 fandom that you have requested, and within that fandom, at least 1 of the character tags and 1 of the fanwork types you have requested.

If you have matching concerns – e.g. you absolutely do not want to match with another participant – please comment on the screened post during sign-ups and state whether you do not want to create for the person, do not want that person to create for you, or both.

An example

If one of your requests is Mass Effect with the characters
Ashley Williams
Urdnot Wrex
Garrus Vakarian
and the medium
Fanart

and Alice has offered Mass Effect with the characters
Ashley Williams
Liara T'soni
and the mediums
Fanfic
Fanart
you could match with Alice, because you share the Ashley Williams tag and the Fanart medium. If you are matched, Alice will make you a fanart of Ashley.

If Betty has offered Mass Effect with the characters
Kaiden Alenko
Tali'Zorah vas Normandy
and the medium
Fanart
you could not match with Betty, since you do not share any tags.

If Carol has offered Mass Effect with
Ashley Williams
James Vega
and the medium
Fanfic
you could not match with Carol, since despite sharing the Ashley Williams tag, you do not share a medium.

Requests

Note: AO3 has introduced a setting to opt out of non-assignment gifts. If your account was created after 1 Feb, it has been enabled by default. Note that opting out of non-assignment gifts will make it impossible to receive treats, even if they are posted to an exchange you're signed up for, as well as make certain (rare) issues harder for me to resolve. If possible, I highly suggest you enable non-assignment gifts or send me an e-mail (extrapenguin at gmx dot com) if you cannot so I can do some workarounds.

For at least 3 fandoms (and at most 8):

1. Pick the fandom.


2. Choose 1 to 15 character tags you'd like to receive. Bear in mind that you will only match on one of these, so don't try to set up combinations.


3. Choose which media type(s) you'd like for the gift to be in – fic or art. (This can be different for each fandom.)

Fandoms must be unique.

Prompts are useful for giving your assigned creator somewhere to start from. We recommend writing prompts for each type of fanwork you requested, either into the box provided by AO3, or into a linked "Dear Creator" letter.

If you have DNWs that would ruin a gift for you, please state them in the optional details box in the sign-up on AO3. DNWs will not be enforced if:

• They aren't indicated in the optional details box


• They contradict the requested tags (e.g. requesting character A but DNWing character A)


• They contradict each other


• Avoiding them would require a logic puzzle

If you are given a gift that contains a DNW listed in your sign-up, you are eligible for a replacement. Gifts will be randomly spot-checked as they come in and dealt with if necessary, but should a DNW-containing gift make its way to you, please contact the mod at extrapenguin at gmx dot com. You may also contact me if you suspect (through e.g. tag shaking) that your gift will contain a DNW. In cases where a gift contains a DNW due to unclear phrasing of the DNW, we will err on the side of the author. DNWs apply to the gift, not its metadata. A creator is free to tag as they best think describes the work.

Offers

For at least 3 fandoms (and at most 10):

1. Pick the fandom.


2. Choose 2 to 20 characters you'd be willing to create a gift about. If the fandom only has 1 character, or you're truly happy with creating something about any of the characters in the tagset for that fandom, choose "Any". As with offers, please remember that you will only match on one character.


3. Choose which media type(s) you'd be willing to create in – fic or art. (This can be different for each fandom.)

Fandoms must be unique.

If you have matching concerns – e.g. you absolutely do not want to match with another participant – please contact the mods by commenting on this post during sign-ups and state whether you do not want to create for the person, do not want that person to create for you, or both.

Fannish Creation Requirements

The minimum requirements are:

• Fic: 500 words


• Art: 1 clean sketch on unlined paper

You are, of course, welcome to do more and longer. The gift must be something that matches your recip's request and that you have reasonable cause to think they will like. "AI" works produced using a large language model (such as ChatGPT) or "art generators" (such as Midjourney) are prohibited.

Treats are welcome, and do not have to meet the minimum creation requirements.

Bans

Mods reserve the right to ban participants in cases of:

• Uploading placeholders instead of gifts at deadline


• Giving a gift calculated to upset or anger its recipient


• Other forms of bad faith participation

If the bad behavior displayed is sufficiently egregious, mods reserve the right to ban participants based on behavior in other exchanges. Banned participants will have their sign-ups deleted after sign-up have closed but before matching.

Schedule & Contact Info

2023 Schedule

All times are given as 24-hour times. IDT is the time zone of Israel. Please note that the times given may in practice be the previous evening your time. Sign-ups and nominations may start ahead of the given time, but will close when stated.

If you have any questions or concerns, please comment on this post or contact extrapenguin or surplusgoose via DW PM or e-mail at extrapenguin at gmx dot com, and we'll do our best to address them. Link to the 2023 collection.

Comments

[sheliak]

I'm so happy! Thank you so much for running this!

[anaisonfire]

Seconding the first comment! Thank you so much for this! I'm very excited :D

[firecat]

This looks fun!

[slippery_fish]

Yay! Looking forward to this!

[klutzygirl]

So excited for this! Should we disambiguate the fandom when we nominate the characters?

[extrapenguin]

Glad to hear that! Yes, you should disambiguate the fandom. More instructions will come in the noms open post in a few hours.

[klutzygirl]

Awesome, thank you!

[peasina]

Hi, what are the minimum requirements for podfic? :-)

[surplusgoose]

Ah, I apologize, I missed a line while drafting the ruleset. This particular exchange will not include podfic assignments or requests. Sorry!

[peasina]

Ah, no worries. Thanks for explaining!

[anaisonfire]

Ah, I forgot to ask before - will we be allowed to say in the sign ups/letters that we're open to ships and which ones? (Obviously with the understanding that those are completely optional, since matching is on the one character.) Or is this a gen exchange?

[extrapenguin]

Ships are optional details, in that you are allowed to suggest them (like you're allowed to suggest worldbuilding, tea tasting, or magnets, say, in your Likes list) but you can't mandate them (so DNW: "anything but my OTP" or "DNW: gen" will not be enforced). This is not a gen-only exchange.

[anaisonfire]

Excellent! Thank you! :D

[morbane]

Hello! For the ease of looking up information, could you please link to this year's AO3 collection somewhere on the sticky or the comm's links list, and link to the community from the AO3 collection? Thanks very much.

[surplusgoose]

Added a link to the community from the AO3 collection! The link to the parent collection is on the sidebar, but for adding it to the sticky, I'm paging extrapenguin.

[extrapenguin]

Hi! I have added a link to the 2022 collection to uncut portion of the sticky post.

[(Anonymous)]

Hello! Is there any chance the collection will open soon? Thanks!

[extrapenguin]

Reports indicate that the collection is now open for posting!