2015 Makoto Birthday Exchange: the importance of likes/dislikes

[makobdayexchange]

Hi, everyone!

Many thanks to all of you have signed up so far and.or are helping get the word out – we’re excited about the exchange this year and super happy to have you with us! :D

An email went out about this earlier but we thought it would be useful to make a post as well, especially for those who haven’t signed up yet:
We want to encourage you to include some general likes and general dislikes in the Request Details section of your sign-up. You can do so either on the sign-up form itself or by linking to a “Dear Creator” letter.

You may have done this already or are working on it, in which case thank you and well done! If not and to find out why it’s recommended, please read on.

If you’ve done the exchange with us before, you’re familiar with the prompts-based format we’ve used the past two years. We’re probably going back to that next year but for 2015 we’re trying the more common general exchange format. We’re really sorry for any confusion this may have caused. orz

Here’s a clarification on the difference between the two:

For a general exchange (this exchange), you ARE guaranteed these things in the gift you receive:
- all the characters you specify in one of your requests
- a fill of the type you specify for that request

For a general exchange (this exchange), you are NOT guaranteed these things in the gift you receive:
- something filling a specific prompt
- a romantic or sexual relationship between characters
- something with a NSFW rating
- anything else not mentioned in the section above

This also works the other way, of course: as an artist/author you are only required to create a gift of the type your recipient has requested, featuring the characters they requested.

Most participants will do their very best for their recipients but that may be difficult if all they have to go on is a specific prompt they can’t do for whatever reason. So while you’re most welcome to include suggested prompts in your request details (and many authors/artists will fill one), the best way to ensure you get something you want is to include a list of general likes and dislikes.

That way if the prompts you suggested aren’t something your gifter feels comfortable with, they can use your general likes and dislikes as a source of inspiration to create something for you based on what you’re into and avoiding what you definitely don’t want.

(Put another way: if you get an assignment with a prompt you can’t work with, you can use your recipient’s general likes and dislikes to come up with something they’ll love.)

Here is one of the requests from this year, if it helps to see an actual example:

REQUEST DETAILS - EXAMPLE
Likes: Canon timelines, smut, snark, fluff, random situations, angst, first dates, playful banter, cuddling, happy endings, domesticity, characters who wear glasses, AUs, first times, BDSM, humor fic and humor in general, fairy tale AUs, h/c, friend to lovers trope, magical people and worlds, slice of life things, all of the firsts in a relationship or friendship, drunken confessions, accepting injury to protect someone else, amnesia, atonement, illnesses, disappearing, falls from grace, being forced to face your fear, hospital stays, hugs, learning to be loved, mistaken identity, being on the run, taking care of someone, trapped together, trust issues, five times fics, cuddling, strong women, bi characters, accidental bonds,
Dislikes: Character death, uber-fluff, non-con, dub-con, incest, mpreg, body swap, kid fic, pregnancy, mundane AUs such as coffee shop AU, high school AU, etc., epistolary fic, gay for you, bi erasure, excessive angst, lack of happy endings. Like I am fine with angsty fics but hope for a happy ending or hint of one.

I’ll leave a few gen prompts but feel free to turn it into something romantic if you want. I do ship Makoto/Gou.
1. In his second year of college, Makoto bumps into Gou who has decided to go to the same school as him.
2. Makoto is worried about Haru and needs advice so the first person he goes to is Gou.
3. Sometimes, Gou’s obsession with muscles scares him. The crowning moment was when they had to pose in their swimsuits to recruit more members.
4. Makoto discovers that he isn’t the only one who stays late at the pool after everyone has gone home.

If you got this request (based on a character match), just think how much fun it would be to create something out of this!

Of course there are other ways of doing it (and, as mentioned above, it’s completely fine to include specific prompts). You might want to check out the requests for these other exchanges for more ideas of what works well:

• example requests at parallels
• example requests at yuletide

If this does not sound like the sort of thing you want to do, we’ll be very sad to see you go but we will also understand completely. If that turns out to be the case, we sincerely hope you’ll be back with us when the prompts-based exchange returns next year.

If you’re still in, hurrah! We hope you’re looking forward to it as much as we are. :D

Of course if you have any questions or if we can help with sign-ups, don’t hesitate to contact us.