SASO 2016: Talkback

[referees]

This post is closed; thank you for your feedback. If you would like to provide constructive criticism, please contact the mods directly. All further replies to this entry are screened.

The mods still plan to reply to the topics listed at the bottom of the post.

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This is not the final wrap-up results/etc. post—that's coming in a couple of days. But while the mods tabulate final scores and create prize graphics, now's a good time to look back and reflect on your SASO 2016 experience.

Please leave comments giving us feedback on the event this year! What did you like? What did you dislike or find frustrating? What can we improve for next year, and how can we improve it? What was your favorite part of the event? Least favorite? Would you participate next year or not? Why? If you could mention your team when making your comment, we'd appreciate it.

If you would prefer to submit your comments in private, you can e-mail us at anime.espn@gmail.com or send us a Dreamwidth PM. We would prefer it if you'd put "Talkback" in the subject line.

Here's what the mod team plans to improve for next year:

• Voting program reliability. We'd like to apologize again for all of the server dowtnime, and definitely plan to make it much more stable for next year. The voting system in general, though, will remain the same.


• Bonus round program reliability. We think we got most of the kinks out during this year, but want to keep it stable for next year too.


• Dreamwidth capability for NSFW cross-posting. We didn't have time to implement it this year, but next year it should be ready to go.


• Clarifying the rules, especially on what "popular culture media" is acceptable to include in SASO work.

We also wanted to thank you again for being patient with us this year. We had a lot of technical hiccups, and you were all so kind while our heroic codermods worked out the kinks. We really appreciated your support.

--

Mod Replies: (updated 12:55PM EDT 8/28/16)

Please note that inclusion of a topic on this list indicates that we're going to address it, not that we've made any decisions on judging/implementing or not implementing it.

Voting:

The preliminary vote system

Triggers in a participant's assigned vote pool

Juried panel (having the mods decide which entries were the best)

Voting mechanics

Bonus Rounds:

Promptless rounds

One day break between bonus rounds

Bonus round prompt and fill tracking/filtering

Recs round work count

Image size limit

Remix round

Remix/rec round timing

Rec round

Quality control (both prompts and fills)

What is allowed as a fill (tags and ratings)

Unscreening bonus rounds

Fairness to small teams

Comment screening

Main Rounds:

The anonymity policy

Professionalism:

Twitter tone

What information gets posted where

Considering a dreamwidth announcement community

Mod participation in the event

Comments

(frozen comment)

[intricacies]

I got on a computer to write this and I'm praying that my internet actually works enough for me to post it, but we'll see. I'll probably miss a lot of things I'm thinking of, but my internet is too terrible to actually go edit it, so.

To start off, thank you so much to the mods for running this huge event! It's still in its baby steps, but I do see that you all have taken feedback from last year seriously and implemented some changes that made our lives as participants easier despite the amount of work it takes as a mod. I know I would be so burnt out if I had to deal with complaints left and right like I'm sure all of you did, because at the end of the day, this is a strictly hobby thing and you're all humans with lives outside of fandom. You're all wonderful and I'm lucky that I've gotten to know a good bunch of you. You all were really good at responding to any questions or issues I had regarding SASO.

I am specifically happy to see the news re: counting NSFW fills! Yay! I know a lot of people had really strong feelings about this when SASO started, myself included. It wasn't that you all did anything wrong, it's just... We felt/feel extremely uncomfortable and/or anxious posting on ao3, which holds some permanence with an identity attached whereas you can "hide" on DW (which is a primary reason I really dreaded using ao3 and actively avoided it most of the time). I was also really really happy with the MR limitations word/art scale because that made things so much easier for my team this year versus mine last year.

The voting system was a lot better than last year! I'm glad we could no longer see how teams were doing voting-wise. On that note, I personally like being assigned random entries because it prevents me from being biased as much as possible. I try to read objectively, but when I'm tried for time and energy, I will naturally go for the canons/ships/teams I know and unconsciously prefer more, but this randomization system prevents that and also shortens my list of entries to really look at. You can even discover new content through this system. Not knowing the canon or NOTPing the ship doesn't particularly bother me, but unfortunately I know that's a deal-breaker for some people. I'm also partial to this because my team this year was from a relatively unknown fandom in comparison to some of the others, so this likely saved our butts during voting, haha. My team doesn't care about winning, but like all creators, we do want appreciation for the work we put into our entries. The thing about filtering for tags is definitely legit and should be looked into, though.

There are some issues that I feel do need to be addressed, and some people have already touched on them so I'm hoping I'm not repeating too much.

A huge issue this SASO (as it was last SASO, but it seemed exacerbated this year) seemed to be cliques, especially because many people who did it last year returned this year. The mods cannot control participant behavior and I do not really expect them to, but I do think that some things implemented during SASO and some mod behavior did unfortunately encourage it. :( I'll talk about some of it below, but you're free to judge whether or not you think so too!

—

SASO Mod Twitter: Someone (or a few people) touched on this already and while I love memes, Sunny, and Sunny posting about memes, I do feel like it went overboard this year. I'm lucky enough to know a good chunk of SASO participants and mods to understand and find inside jokes funny, but at the same time, I do think it has the potential to feel isolating for those who aren't part of that friend group. Making the mods and event seem fun/approachable is important and has its place, definitely. It, however, has also downgraded the professionalism of the account and made it less organized for those who are just seeking information, which is a legitimate (and arguably primary) reason for following the account and the mods all promoting it. IMO, inside jokes as a reply or direct tweet to someone who understands them is fine as they do not appear on tlist if you're not following all people in the conversation, but pure tweets and using the twitter to "kill time"—as I think someone on there put it once—isn't appropriate use of the account. This is under the assumption that not many people scroll down the mod twitter on some sort of application that doesn't separate replies from pure tweets though. I'm really sorry if this seems harsh on one person, but I pointed Sunny out since I believe they're the publicity mod. ;; tl;dr I wish the official Twitter was more consolidated and professional so I could find information easier.

Recs Bonus Round: I really don't like this BR. I think it's unnecessary to give points for recs. I was neutral about it and participated in it last year, but this year I've had time to reflect and see the effects it has on people's behavior. I am all for people sharing works they like! I think it's great. I also realize that giving points for recommendations is a way of incentivizing people to do them, but I just don't like this system. It not only makes for empty recommendations like Lira and likely others have pointed out, but I think it contributes to clique behavior and opens the pathway for participants to feel terrible about themselves and their work. I've taken a look at the recommendations and many of them are "LOOK AT WHAT MY LOVELY/DEAR/FRIEND (username) MADE." I understand that a lot of SASO is about autonomy and personal choices, but is it necessary to attach recommendations to points? Aren't recs about sharing works you genuinely loved and want other people to also love? There's an emptiness to it when you make it worth something tan...gible... That isn't the right word, but I'm sure you understand what I mean. The points may not mean much to some people, but I've also seen it mean a lot to other people. Recs are a different kind of point value from the ones given for fills. Someone also told me that they've gotten the impression that people "exchange" recommendations for one another just from what they've seen. People will certainly feel whatever they want regardless and I don't think that's the mods' jobs to care about, but I believe in minimizing the chances of people finding SASO unenjoyable if possible... tl;dr I think a recs post in general is a great idea; I just don't like it being used as a bonus round worth points.

Fills Respecting Prompter's Tags: I do think that there is some merit in trying to at least suggest that posters respect the prompter's tags. Even if you add them to the top of your post, there still might be a chance the fill gets read by accident? Not all tags are related to NSFW content. I know just the mere mention of some things makes me really uncomfortable and anxious to the point of being unable to sleep, but they are not considered major tags. Those are times where I specify if I legitimately cannot stand something—and honestly, I feel bad if the poster feels bad that I, as a prompter, do not respond to their fill because I cannot healthily handle something in it. ;; At the same time, I don't think the mods should be policing behavior to this extent. I respect creative freedom, but I also respect people's differing comfort zones and find the latter more important, so a lot of it is up to participants. There will always be other prompts and people who are down for what you want. Always.

Myths & Lore Bonus Round: This is a lot of personal bias, but please bear with me here. I felt like this bonus round theme was too specific? I'm not the type of person who writes or even reads much fantasy or supernatural or etc, so I felt incredibly excluded from this BR even though I participated in it. I know a lot of people feel the same way I do. If more people like it than dislike it, I don't see a reason to listen to that part of my complaint, though. I guess the only legitimate thing I have to say is what everyone else has addressed: the timing of it. I personally would've liked to see this BR earlier in the game before MRs. I felt like putting it after MR2 put a really big drain on a lot of participants who had just gone through the hell of putting together an MR. It can be just me, but I'm the type of person that likes prompts or directions when I'm burnt out, so I felt like this BR could've been better placed in the beginning of the event. tl;dr I thought this theme was too specific and could've been better timed. I'd move it to the beginning of SASO if it's used again.

—

I feel like I'm forgetting some things I wanted to say, but can't think of them at the moment... Oh well. Hope I didn't sound too mean! ;; I really do love SASO and if I don't join again next year, it's mostly due to personal issues and not really anything with the event and how it's run.

Thanks for another year! o/

(frozen comment)

[kazuyas]

"It has ALWAYS been a quantity over "quality" (per se) event to force people to pump out the best work they can on a deadline without overly stressing about perfection, something a lot of us struggle with."

YOOOOO, yes. this. thank you.

(frozen comment)

[intricacies]

HOLY MOLY THIS IS LONG. I APOLOGIZE. JUST CTRL/CMD+F "TL;DR" IF YOU WANT SUMMARIES OF MY THOUGHTS.

(frozen comment)

[karahashi]

wow i agree with literally everything in this post and you articulated it so well, thank you <3
(the only thing about Google forms for a master is that the ships tended to get very complicated when people would give options + with the platonic/romantic option....)

(frozen comment)

[intricacies]

I wasn't going to say this, but since other people are (thanks you all!), I agree considerably with not "quality policing" the bonus round fills. I think the suggestion is not only rude, but really entitled and elitist, along with impossible—because who can judge the amount of effort someone puts into a fill? What is "quality" without being overly subjective? What might have seemed easy and haphazardly created can be someone's achievement, especially if they are trying something new out and have gathered the courage to post it. Bonus rounds are not about "quality" for the mere fact that some people cannot work within two weeks alongside the MRs and that's a perfectly legitimate creative process. We're here to have fun, after all!

(frozen comment)

[platina]

I think you misunderstood me. You should still make something you like, but based on what the prompt gives you. If they ask for HS!AU, don't put them in university, etc. You can expand on it, but it's pretty rude to change the the very basis of the prompt.

We had some rounds with very vague prompts (like the gift tags or even the official art one to some degree) where you could pretty much run with anything, but when it's more specific you should at least TRY and not be lol i do what i want for the sake of points.

(frozen comment)

[kazuyas]

ahhhh, i'm glad, considering it is after midnight and i've been awake for close to 14 hours on five hours sleep lol

re: your comments—you could still notate the & / when putting the ship in, and dictate that characters be ordered alphabetically so they're all grouped together properly. and since this would just be for fills and not prompts you just put in the pairing that you ended up writing, rather than all the options the prompter listed. does that make sense?

(honest to god i'm debating whipping up a sample right now just to see/show what it would look like)

(frozen comment) Re: team kuramiyu!

[tripsh]

<3333 ILU

(frozen comment)

[meliskimo]

Hey man, I know what it's like to not post because you don't think your work is polished enough to put out there. And I know a lot of people who suffer from this a lot worse than me. It's encouraging to be able to experiment with your writing and sketch freely in order to be both productive AND active in a community full of people who are willing and ready to screech with you about what you made. :) To me, it's sort of like that nanowrimo thing. Having a reason to start is a great way to stop yourself from being stunted before you even began! xo

(frozen comment)

[kazuyas]

agree 100000%

(frozen comment)

[catlarks]

Fair! I admit that I'm also chewing on the suggestions some people have made to judge whether a fill actually "matches" the prompt and disqualify it from receiving points if it doesn't. I think these two things dovetail: willfully ignoring prompt details is bad form, but I love subversions of prompts, or unexpected interpretations, or selective focus (like with FST round, images round, and quotes round, where one prompt might just be A LOT OF DATA and narrowing your focus keeps you sane).

I think it's fun to try and surprise people, so tbh my preference is "follow the spirit of the prompt, whether or not you follow their map down to the letter."

(frozen comment) Re: team kuramiyu!

[kazuyas]

<333333 (im sorry i could literally just throw hearts at you until the end of time if i could)

(frozen comment) Re: team kuramiyu!

[tripsh]

this me @ you though! i am eternally throwing hearts at you <33333

(frozen comment)

[sky_rose]

This was my first SASO, and although it did get stressful at times and I may've destroyed my sleep schedule a bit that was entirely me and overall I really enjoyed it! Thank you to the mods for all your hard work - I hope I'll be able to participate again next year.

I don't know how helpful my thoughts are since this was my first SASO and I was also just getting a feel for it and what it was about, but I'll do my best.

1. The twitter: I had no issue scrolling through memes/jokes/whatever to find what I was looking for, and thought they mostly added a fun aspect of community. That said, I think having a space for announcements only would be beneficial.

2. I really liked the voting system with the random selection of entries, actually - I think it was more encouraging for the teams in the long run since it felt like each had more of a fair shot at votes (though I do get why people disliked this). As people have said, this is for fun, and I don't think having a voting system where all the voters pick from the entire 30-something entries would benefit that. Also there's the issue of time; not everyone is gonna be able to look through that many entries, and the sheer number might put people off voting, especially as SASO grows. The selection of ten helps to narrow it down so it doesn't feel as intimidating imo (also it would be hard to remember which ones stood out the most with so many to choose from).

I second the idea for a "fan favourite" vote though, or something like it, for people who do have an entry they desperately want to vote for that isn't in their selection.

3. Promptless bonus rounds were great! The first one burnt me out a lot so I couldn't do much for the second, but that could be solved with some shuffling like others have said. The only round I really wasn't a fan of was the gift tags round - it's a nice idea and I can see why it could be fun for people, but I found it a bit too restrictive.

4. I highly disagree with capping bonus rounds or doing quality control. Both of those seem incredibly confining. Plus, "quality" is extremely subjective; what's "sub-par" to you could be something the creator is extremely proud of and that took hours to make. Putting limits on that hinders creativity and accessibility and that's not a good idea. I didn't write or draw nearly as much as some people did for this event, but it was still more content than I would ever have put out if SASO hadn't been going on. As someone with huge productivity issues it got me motivated to produce content and I really, really enjoyed just how free & fun & creative the entire event felt. I disagree with any attempts to cut that down.

Semi-related, I'd also like to say that taking part in a teamwork-oriented event was really great and I loved creating stuff /with/ people and working to improve while also having a good time. SASO brings out the sports anime character in me <3

5. The mods have lives beyond SASO, and we're here to have fun. Both these things are important to remember.

That's about it, I think! Thank you so much again to the mods for running this - y'all did an amazing job. Whatever ends up happening, I'm looking forward to next year!

(frozen comment)

[mother_herbivore]

i agree that myth & lore was a little limiting; there were a lot of people wondering if their fill fit the theme, and i myself ended up sitting on something i originally drew for the round because it didn't seem ~fantastic~ enough

(frozen comment)

[catlarks]

FWIW I got sincerely kind of emotional reading the second half of your comment. The community is my favorite thing about SASO, and bonus rounds are my favorite portion of the event because they're the best way to meet new people and interface with the community. I love that you tried new things in bonus rounds, and this is why I too am VEHEMENTLY against the entire concept of "quality control." IMO it goes against the spirit of the event and suggesting such a thing be implemented only indicates that the speaker is missing out on the best part of SASO.

(frozen comment) Team DaiSuga

[dokuhan]

First of all, mods - thanks for running a great event this year! It was my second SASO and first time being a captain, and I know you guys have a lot of work cut out for you so your hard work is appreciated. This is the most fun I've had in an event like this.

Unlike a lot of people, I really liked the system used for preliminary voting. A lot of smaller fandoms and rare pairs have a hard time getting noticed, so I feel like it was a great way to direct traffic towards them. It also made things easier for last minute voters like myself, since I didn't have to go through 30 different entries.

I wasn't a big fan of some of the bonus rounds this year. Promptless rounds are hard for me so I didn't get to touch much on the Myth & Lore section, plus I don't write a lot of fantasy so I couldn't really drum up excitement for it. After that it was kind of a downhill slope for me (and the rest of my team) because I'm not really apt at remixes and the rec round kept slipping my mind. If it'd had been a generic AU theme I could have probably pumped some things out, but then some people might think it's too broad. I'm also not a big fan of the images round, but I had the same feelings about it last year so - what can I say? I do wish there had been another encore round like last year since I had a bunch of prompts saved and I'd raved about it to my team as a chance to touch on ideas we didn't get to hit initially, so I was kind of disappointed in that respect.

The gift round and memory round were A++ though, I still have so much stuff saved from them that I want to try and get to. I also really liked the two week cycles, the faster pace made it easier for me, as a captain, to push my teammates to pump something out before the deadline hit.

Something I'm not a big fan of at all though, and a lot of people definitely will disagree, is the argument about quality and quantity. I've seen a lot of people complaining about the quality of fills and it's really unnecessary. SASO is a chance to force people to create, of course it's going to be pushing quantity over quality. It's also a chance for people to try out new things with art that they might not have considered before. Take myself as an example: I'm mostly a writer. I have skills in other things; I cosplay, I've made films, but I mostly stick to writing. When I write, I try to reach for the highest caliber since that's something I know I can manage. This year, though, I did some photography fills. Photography is one of my hobbies that's always kind of fallen to the wayside and even when I started getting back into it this year, it's mostly been landscapes and urbex stuff. SASO gave me a chance to try a couple of other things (even if they didn't get posted) that I normally wouldn't and realize "wow, I actually really do like this, maybe I should think about getting into it more". Were they the highest quality posts? Of course not. But they got me creating and wanting to make more art. That's the point of SASO. (Also consider that people put more focus on MRs.)

I wish the team rankings sheet had been updated a little bit more often. Mostly because my team was super competitive and we wanted to see who was ahead of us at all times so we could push each other to make more stuff.

All in all, I had a lot of fun and made some great friends! I can't wait to do it again next year! (And maybe SWAG this winter perhaps?)

(frozen comment) Re: Pax from KuroKen

[dokuhan]

*highlights number nine and puts lots of stars around it* THIS.

While I do think changing the pairing and major tags is a no-no, I do agree that as prompters we have to understand we're just facilitating a starting point for the prompt. It's never going to be 100% exactly what we wanted, otherwise we'd make it ourselves. That freedom is what creates great ideas.

(frozen comment) ps from Team Aya/Miki

[princesssid]

First of all I would like to say that I had a lot of fun with SASO this summer, more than I did last year (though I think that's more on me for being more involved this time around). Lots of thanks to the mods for wrangling such a huge and sprawling event! I'm particularly grateful for the quick replies to any questions I had.

Looking through the comments above I see that people have many suggestions for the voting process for the main rounds, especially re: the list of entries we get. Since I don't know what decision the mods will come to with how to split up entries, I'm going to offer my suggestion with the assumption that the lists will still be randomized the same way:

At no point did I worry that I wouldn't get a chance to vote, even when the servers were down. The mods made it clear that work was being put into bringing the servers back up, and that we would be given an extension. So that was not frustrating. The only frustration I had was that I wasn't able to access my list of entries to read, so I had no idea what to read while I waited (I do not have the time to read everything, which is why I am happy with the randomized list). I trust the system will be more stable next year but just in case, is it possible to provide the pull list separately from the voting form?

(I can't tell if what I wrote makes sense outside of my own mind, so if you need clarification, please do tell me.)

--

Having read other comments on this post, some more thoughts:

- I enjoyed the promptless BRs though I agree with many comments above wrt spacing them out. They were great, but a lot one after another, and I think I would have enjoyed the myth and lore one more earlier on (though not as a BR1, I think having BR1 prompted helps get everyone comfortable with each other).

- For the remix round I found sometimes I wanted something remixed but didn't want to do it myself. It would be cool to have another post (no points) where we can ask for remixes of other people's works (with the requirement of cross-referencing the permissions post). This would also be good for finding inspiration. Then again, people are suggesting google spreadsheets, etc., so that might fulfill a similar need. This is very much an off the cuff suggestion.

- The gift tag round was creatively fulfilling on the prompting end for me, not so much on the filling end. Even now I can't tell if I was too tired/lazy for that round or if I really could not come up with any ideas that were more than just "char A gives char B a present". (This is more a personal preference for what I wanted to write. I want to clarify I enjoyed many fills I saw that were essentially characters giving presents). The thing is, I don't want to be discouraging of the idea for this round because it really was unique, and I like seeing ideas like that.

I can't wait for another year, and I really hope I will have the time to participate again. I want to get even more creative and interesting with my prompts and fills, and meet new people, and read new things, and find new fandoms! Thanks again for the opportunity to do all those things this year!

(frozen comment) grandstand initially, switched to team imanaru

[winterstuck]

First, a big thank you to the mods for running this event! It was a lot of fun and a huge source of motivation for me personally to draw, and that, I think more than anything else, is what I love most about SASO. Recently, it seems that the only fandom events are exchanges, and while exchanges are great in their own way, I think SASO offers a unique experience that's hard to find elsewhere. So seriously, thank you guys so much.

Please don't add quality filters to this event. Please don't. Other than quality itself being super subjective, it was really freeing to know that I could choose to either fill w/ sketches or fully polished art. I understand that it might be seem unfair in some ways that a sketch gets the same number of points as a 4k+ fic, but you don't really win anything in SASO other than what you create and the gifts you receive. I know this topic has been mentioned already and it's not something the mods can really do anything about, but maybe put it in big bold text somewhere visible? Just a reminder that's there in case people forget.

Also, I don't think there should be a cap on points in the br. I feel like if you want to be competitive to the extent where 2 points matter, that should be an option. The current point system is skewed towards MR rankings having greater weight, so I'm not really sure what limiting points in brs would really accomplish?

I definitely enjoyed the bonus rounds more this year (though part of that may be b/c I didn't have to spend time stressing over the MR on top of br fills ahaha...) I liked all the themes (thank you for not doing fst this year) and while I was initially hesitant about br5, it ended up being the one I liked most. People weren't really requesting small fandoms, so I was very happy for the chance to draw without having to depend on someone else having first requested it. I hope there will be a similar round next year.

It seems there are some who didn't like the promptless format, so maybe you could compromise and have the prompt be optional? Have it so if you want to leave prompts, you can, but if you want to do your own thing, you can also leave fills that aren't attached to a specific prompt.

I'm kind of ambivalent on the remix round in general. On one hand, I've had a lot of fun with remixes, but in a lot of ways it feels very similar to the rec round, in that you're essentially promoting previous fills you liked? Especially since they were simultaneous this year, there was a lot of overlap, but perhaps that's just me. Since there's a limit to how many round there can be, personally I'd prefer what was last year's bbr (past round prompts you didn't get a chance to fill) to a remix round.

Which kind of segues into another point mentioned above, the fact that it's hard to find fills (to remix or rec) b/c of a lack of tagging system. I'd like to second the kink meme-esque fill post idea, since it's probably the solution that requires the least amount of mod involvement.

I think you guys mentioned an automated br scoring program, but I don't know how much work it'd take to adapt that to automatically spit out a list of fills, or even prompts, that passed the check, since that really depends the code. Honestly, more than fills, I'd like some kind of tagging system for prompts. Being someone who wasn't in the largest fandoms this year, wading through prompts in search of something I could fill was the most draining part of the event. At the same time, I understand that this is something that's probably not achievable.

Re rec round: rather than changing word limits, I'd rather you change the scoring curve instead? Have it so that it's not realistic to use rec round to catch up, maybe every rec starting from the first is a flat 2 points? Completely getting rid of points would also get rid of part of the motivational aspect, so having points as a small incentive, but not large enough to contribute to ranking changes might be good?

On that note, I'd like to apologize if any of my recs made anyone feel uncomfortable. I sincerely did not set out to write recs that would make people feel bad. Regardless, intent means very little after the fact, so if this happened, I am very, very sorry m(_ _)m

Re voting: I've really warmed to the idea of having 10 randomized entries b/c it has made me step outside my usual fandoms and helped me discover amazing works I otherwise would not have read. But I do agree w/ an earlier suggestion of having blacklisted content tags. This year's MR was a lot more tame compared to last year's, but I would have loved that option b/c I forced myself to read things and ended up not finishing and being very uncomfortable in many of those cases.

I don't know if this would make it harder to implement, but maybe out of the 3 choices, only 2 of them have to be from the 10 entries given to us, and the last can be one of our own choice? Or add a 4th option that's a vote for an entry outside what we're assigned.

However, I definitely preferred this year's opaqueness to last year's dw poll, and from what you guys have said, hopefully next year's voting system should run smoothly.

I was a lot more active on twitter this year compared to last, and I think that played a really big role in my feelings towards how informative the official twitter was. I'm definitely an advocate for more announcements on tumblr. Since tumblr is a lot less interactive than twitter, maybe have that be the official announcements site w/o the memes/etc?

One part I found confusing: the final MR rankings aren't posted on the main dw account at all? I know it was announced on twitter, but twitter isn't very good about finding older tweets, especially since a lot of other things are also posted. It was only during rec round when I was looking for MR urls that I realized where you guys did post the rankings, which came as a huge surprise. It might be more intuitive for people to find if the voting post on the main dw instead is edited instead? (Also you wouldn't have to add "(Top 15)" since the top 15 are already there on the post, so it's less work too?)

Overall, I had a lot of fun this summer, and will probably participate again next year, though on a less competitive scale. Sorry this got kind of long, but I'm really grateful to the mods and all the participants, especially those who were competitive. Thank you guys for being active until the end, it was very heartening to create (and die) alongside all of you <3!

(frozen comment)

[princesssid]

I don't think we've ever interacted in the bonus rounds but YES! Making stuff for my team and knowing it had some kind of purpose really helped loosen me up and made me less worried about what I was posting in a public space. A lot of the things I made, I would have been embarrassed to share otherwise but SASO kind of makes you lose your inhibitions. And I got some really nice comments on some of those things that were really surprising and really opened my eyes to other new things I could try!

Sorry I'm getting a little emotional but I agree very much with your comment and I'm really happy to see it was a positive experience for you!

(frozen comment) Re: Pax from KuroKen

[kazuyaloveseijun]

I viewed bonus round fills as gifts, I wrote them with the aim of making the prompter happy. What you're proposing is just using the prompter to do whatever you want. There are people on the other end with feelings, I was scared to open my inbox after some of the unsolicited violent fills I received. If this is the kind of community saso has I wish I'd known sooner to save myself the anxiety and tears and I won't be back again next year

(frozen comment) team.... kyouhaba.... woof woof

[reffieisred]

[starts the beat] if you’re reading this, it’s too late, i’m droppin this feedback like a mixtape

yea enough of that for right now it’s 2 am

SO! SASO this year. I gotta lot of thoughts, my pals. Like most people, there were things I enjoyed, things I liked, things I disliked, and things that put me off a bit. First, though, the positives:

1. The Bonus Rounds. I really enjoyed the topics this time around! I feel like I may be an odd one out on this one a wee bit, and this may only be because of my specific circumstances, but I ADORED Myths and Lore. It was so interesting to see what people came up with without prompting-- it seemed to heighten some of the creativity, you dig? Now, I do agree that the rec round should have had some kind of cap on it, much like BR0 had. Other than that.... no qualms with the Bonus Rounds, if I do say so myself!

2. Main Round Limitations. As someone who came from a team who did have some issues with limitations, this year the rules and limitations felt just a bit easier to understand, ESPECIALLY for mixed media.

3. My General Happy Feelings…. I don’t know how many of the mods (or anyone in SASO really) knew that I was studying abroad in China during the…. entirety of SASO, which was a rather stressful and new experience for me, but having SASO occur during it was…. actually rather pleasing. It offered an outlet, an “other place” for me to go when homesickness was rearing its ugly head. It also gave me a GREAT sense of comradery, which was a good thing for me to have during this time-- I was dealing with some really really bad bouts of loneliness, and having a team of people who loved a ship as much as I do really….. well, it really made me feel a fuckton better. At the end of the day, the best thing to me about SASO is just that-- a massive group of talented as fuck individuals coming together to basically sob about how much they love the sports animes/mangas that tear their lives apart in a beautiful way. It promotes a sense of togetherness, a sense of competition, and a sense of humour in a lovely 2-month horse race.

Okay, now the things that I had some form of issue with… which, needless to say, were few and far between. You all did a great job running this, please don’t forget that!

1.The Voting Process. Okay, so I had a love-hate relationship with this one. I kinda enjoyed the style of randomly assigning some of the entries, if only to help keep bias out a bit, but I also feel that it was a hindrance for those that either were assigned a notp, something that could be triggering, or something that they plain and simple had no idea about. Now, as for a solution…. I did see somewhere the idea of being able to cycle through two or three different “voting group” choices, but that exact idea may have to be tweaked a bit.

2.The Mod Twitter. Please understand that I understand-- the mods are here to have fun as well. This is my personal opinion, but the way that the announcement of the MR1 and MR2 finalist was carried out seemed….. very nerve wracking and disheartening. I understand that you guys wanted to have fun with it, I really do, but honestly switching the order around and announcing it backwards so the Ks were last and announcing the teams once at a time just was nerve wracking. I would really rather have them all announced at once! Similarly, as someone who was in on some of the inside jokes and not on others, I can definitely see where people come from when they say that the twitter seemed to be a bit exclusive. I personally believe it is okay for some back-and-forth from time to time, but it did get a bit excessive and drown out important info.

yeehaw. And now, addressing things that I have seen OTHERS comment on:

1.Quality-control. I really, truly, have a lot of feelings about this one, but to sum it all up, I believe the idea of “quality-control” on something that everyone is 1) doing for fun, 2) doing for free, and 3) doing for no prize seems…. very entitled and extremely rude. You have no way of knowing how much effort someone put into a fill, nor do you know how “quality” they see it compared to you. Furthermore, “quality” is very subjective. Who would be the bar? Would the mods have time to personally screen every single BR fill and grade it in a timely manner? Wouldn’t it also be insulting? And finally, and maybe I am being redundant, but it is EXTREMELY insulting to judge something as “low-quality” for yourself when this is FOR. FREE. Not everyone has time. Not everyone has the resources.

2.Mod Behavior. The mods are people too! They’ll make mistakes. They’ll get frustrated. And they deserve to participate in their own event! Now, if this were for an ACTUAL PRIZE of some sort, I might be a little more wary, but guess what: it isn’t! It’s all for fun. Literally. This is all free and for fun, so I feel the mods should get to participate too. I already said my piece about what they need to work on, but in all honesty they are doing a fantastic job.

okay that’s literally it Jesus Christ I wrote so much but I want to say one more time that, no matter what I found issue with, SASO means a whole lot to me. It made getting through this summer a helluva lot easier on me, and it has made me some damn good friendships.

(frozen comment)

[reffieisred]

I'll be really brief, but I really think that a "quality control" is kinda.... entitled? Especially for something done for free, for no prize, by people who have outside obligations.

Furthermore, I feel that judging things as "low quality" purely based on your standards or another's standards will only lead to arguments because of the pure subjective nature. Not to mention that just because something seem low quality to you doesn't mean that the filler didn't put effort into it.

Long story short, I feel it's kinda rude and impractical to implement a "quality control" for something extra tacked on. It is a BONUS round, after all. I don't think it should be judged that strictly at all.

(frozen comment)

[catlarks]

Seconding this.

I will 200% respect the mod decision if they don't want to add a fourth (my suggestion: optional) voting slot users can spend on any entry they DIDN'T roll but really love, but I think it would create a nice balance between getting exposure for small ships/fandoms and keeping reading lists short, and making the userbase feel good that they can also vote for one OTHER entry that blew them away.

And these aren't stats I can back up, but I feel like the 3:1 ratio of assigned list votes to personal votes would balance out favoritism. There's always some of that, but this wouldn't increase it beyond the existing level which imo is impossible to eliminate.