2009 Podbang Announcement and FAQ

[podmod.livejournal.com]

the amplificathon (and the many and varied (but averaging three) brains that meld into one podmod) is very pleased to announce the debut Podbang annual big!giant!epic!sekrit! podfic gift exchange!

whoa! you say! what the heck is that? you ask!

well. you've got questions? we do seem to have a couple of answers. \o/

welcome to the first annual podbang faq, presented by amplificathon!


what the heck is a podbang?
it's a word we kind of invented. coined? anyway. it's a scheme to get everyone presents, basically. surprise presents of novel-length podfic. we're encouraging gift givers to look to the various big bang challenges throughout fandom to choose the gifts they want to give--hence the name. (but not exclusively big bang fics! it's just, you know, that's a handy place to start. also, catchy title. we are not immune to gimmicks.)



who is running this thing and why?
your co-mods are superstitiousme, raz0rgirl, and general_jinjur. superstitiousme deserves all the credit for the idea, and for being enthusiastic, energetic, and willing to do a lot of research.

we wanted to expand the amplificathon, and to satisfy the craving for longer podfics. we love surprises, and presents, so a challenge that results in novel-length surprise-present podfics? there is no bad.

also, two annual podfic challenges? twice as awesome as one.



what's the timeframe & what are the deadlines?
August 17th-30th:

participants comment to the sign-up post with the fandoms in which they would be interested in receiving a gift.

participants need only list one fandom, but the more fandoms they list, the easier time their readers will have picking out just the right story.

participants may list up to two negative preference elements per fandom to help guide their reader. this is not required. we can't allow prompts, really, or preferences, because that would make finding a story too challenging, but your reader isn't going to want to give you something you hate. (please do not try to request specific stories or to give a laundry list of your likes and dislikes--in order for the participant making your gift to enjoy themselves and the process, they are going to need to find a story they believe you will both like, so the bigger you can allow the field to be, the better off you both are.)

these sign-up comments will be visible for excitement value!

August 31st-September 6th:

a list of requested fandoms will be posted to amplificathon. all participants will be asked to comment (comments will be screened) with any fandoms on the list that they are willing to read, as well as an email address where they can be reached.

this post will also be a call for pinch hitters who might be able to pick something up in November and/or early December and turn it around fast enough to cover any dropouts. we want to guarantee that everyone who puts a gift recording in will get one out! if you are a participant who may be able to pinch hit, say so--and if you are not a participant, but are still willing to pinch hit, comment with a list of fandoms and an email address where you can be reached.

we will also be asking for volunteer artists in this post! this is not a commitment, but if you comment with an email address (or if you accept lj messages, that also works) and a comment that you may be able to make cover art for participants. podmod will make a list of potential artists and their contact info available to participants by request only--we expect that many of the candidate stories will have existing artwork, and that many readers will want to make covers themselves, so we are not formally coordinating this, just connecting people. :)

September 7th:

assignments will be emailed to participants by midnight. (midnight in what time zone? we're not saying.) we ask that you keep your assignment under your hat, as much as possible. since you will probably need to ask the author (unless they are one of the many people who have made statements saying they grant blanket podfic permission!), total secrecy is kind of impossible. but please try! :p

November 1st:

check in--this is pretty early, but we wanted to give everyone an opportunity to ask for help if they need it, and to drop out if they absolutely have to.

December 1st:

podfic due by the end of the day--participants email a link to the file and the story details to audmod@gmail.com, or drop the info into an lj message at the podmod account. we scramble to fill all late defaults and call on our pinch hitters.

December 20th:

all gifts go live!

what fics qualify?
anything written and submitted to any big bang-type challenge, or any story that is 30,000 words or more, written any year. if you chose a big bang story, and the big bang story you chose is under 30k words, then add one or more additional stories of a minimum of 8,000 words each to make up the word count--the additional stories need not have originated in a big bang type challenge, but should still fit the basic parameters otherwise.

if you choose something seriously epic length? you get more glory, in theory. 30,000 is the minimum, but we strongly encourage those who can go for longer fics, or even multiple 30k fics, to go for it. <3 what goes around comes around!



so does the story i read have to have come from a big bang challenge?
nope! either a big bang story, or a story of 30,000 words or longer. we just, erm, like 'em big.



what if i want to participate with a co-reader?
that would be awesome! you and your co-reader would count as one participant, and share a gift. we are also fine with people participating twice (or more), if they get really excited and want to enter both as an individual and as part of a pair or group of readers.



what about crossposting?
once we've announced on December 20, you can post about your recording and/or link to it and/or archive it wherever you want. it belongs to you and your recipient and the whole world, yay!



what format should i save my file in?
mp3, please! if you want to convert to m4b as well, go for it--but the mods are ready to create those files for you, so it's all good. send us the cover art or a link to the cover art, and we'll add that to the podbook files.



do i need to prove that i have the author's (and artist's) permission?
we expect all participants to have a basic grasp of etiquette, and to ask the author whenever the author hasn't already given a blanket permission. if you are using existing artwork not made by you, ask the artist. :) we are not going to ask for proof.



how do i upload files?
please use yousendit, mediafire, box.net, or megaupload, or whatever. or your own webspace. then email to tell us where it is. we will grab it and give it a permanent home.



how do i find stories?
we have a handy-dandy list of all of the big bang challenges we could scare up! but we're also pretty sure that we all know plenty of writers who churn out awesome long-form fic.

some of these don't go live until too late for this year, but we're listing 'em anyway!

idol_bigbang:
American Idol
Round One (2010) - Posting begins February 2010

bandombigbang:
Bandom Novella/FST
Round One (2008) masterlist
Round Two (2009) - Posting began June 8th

bandgirlsbang:
Bandom Girls
Round One (2009) - Posting begins August 14th

buffy_bigbang:
Buffyverse (BtvS & AtS)
2009 Challenge has been delayed/reset - no new date announced yet

csi_bigbang:
Crime Scene Investigation (CSI)
Round One (2009) Masterlist

bau_bigbang:
Criminal Minds
Round One (2009) - Posting begins after August 24th.

dvbb:
David Cook
Round One (2009) (this may never have gone live)

dbsk_bigbang:
DBSK
Round One (2009) masterlist

tardis_bigbang:
Dr. Who / Torchwood
Round One (2008)
Round Two (2009)

ds_c6d_bigbang:
Due South/Canadian 6 Degrees
Round 1 (2009) Archive

firefly_bigbang
Firefly
Round One (2009) - goes live November 2009

deutschmusikbb:
German Music
Round One (2009) - Archive goes live December 4th

xoxobigbang:
Gossip Girl
Round One (2009) - Masterpost by September 14th

harrypotterbang:
Harry Potter (Gen)
Round One (2010) - Posting begins January 15, 2010

big_bang_hd:
Harry Potter (Harry/Draco)
2005
2007
2008

hermionebigbang:
Harry Potter (Hermione Granger)
Round One (2009) - Archive goes live September 19th

nextgenbigbang:
Harry Potter (Next Generation)
Round One (2009) completed May 20th

sugarandginger:
Harry Potter (Ron/Hermione)
Challenge Webiste (2006)

severusbigbang:
Harry Potter (Severus Snape)
Round One (2010) - Posting begins January 9, 2010

bigbangblackout:
Harry Potter (Sirius Black)
Round One (2009) - Archive goes live September 7th

heroes_bigboom:
Heroes/Heroes RPS
Challenge Round-up (2007)
Round Two Round-up (2008)
Round Three (2009) Posting to begin in September (date to be determined)

hsmbigbang:
High School Musical
Round One (2009) - Posting Begins October 12th

house_bigbang:
House
Round One (2007)
Round Two (2008)

boxofmagic:
Merlin
Round One (2009) - Archive goes live August 5th

crossbigbang:
Mulit-Fandom (Crossovers)
Round One (2009) - Posting begins December 12th

thelittlebang:
Multi-fandom (Femslash)
Round One (2009) masterlist in profile

bigbadaboum:
Multi-Fandom (Un big bang en français)
Round One (2008)

genderbendbb:
Multi-fandom (Genderbending)
Round One (2009) - Posting begins September 1st

kink_bigbang:
Multi-Fandom (Kink)
Round One (2009) - Posting ends November 30th

polybigbang:
Multi-Fandom (Polyamory)
Round One (2009) - Posting Begins October 22nd

rpf_big_bang:
Multi-fandom (Real Person Fiction)
Round One (2009) - Posting begins October 8th.

scifibigbang:
Multi-Fandom (Science Fiction/Fantasy)
Round One (2009) - Posting schedule December 1-15

smallfandom:
Multi-fandom (Small Fandom)
Round One (2008) - Tag
Round Two (2009) - Posting Begins after November 1st

smallfandom_bb:
Multi-Fandom (Small Fandom)
Check out the community for polls; no challenge yet scheduled

ncis_bigbang:
NCIS
Round One (2008) Masterlist
Round Two (2009) - Posting begins November 1st

bittybang:
Popslash
Round One (2008)

bigbanghood:
Robin Hood
Round One (2009) - Posting begins November 1st

svbigbang:
Smallville (Clark/Lex)
Challenge Website (2006) is not a working link--anyone know where these are?

startrekbigbang:
Star Trek
Round One (2009) - Posting October 28th-November 30th

sgabigbang:
Stargate: Atlantis
2007 challenge
2008 challenge
2009 challenge(posting begins November 13th)

stargate_summer:
Stargate: SG1
Round One (2009) - Posting began June 15th (one story posted per week until they run out)

spn_j2_bigbang:
Supernatural/CWRPS
2007 challenge
2008 challenge
2009 Posting June 8th thru August 14th

sncross_bigbang:
Supernatural (Crossovers)
Round One (2009) masterlist

drive_a:
Tenipuri (Prince of Tennis)
Round One (2010) - Posting will begin in late January 2010

xf_bigbang
X Files
2009 Posting November 5

Comments

[anatsuno.livejournal.com]

*tiny prod of puzzled enthusiasm* Could the podbang related posts perhaps also appear in the amplificathon community on Dreamwidth? I know it is not used a lot yet and not many people are members but if we start crossposting a bit, that will change, I think, in the future. Or is that a bad idea?

yay podbang!

[general-jinjur.livejournal.com]

ooh. i like that idea. want to become the official podmod of xposting? i'll make a dw podmod and make 'em a comm mod - what do you think? because of the relatively unified posting style this challenge will have, it should be possible to dupe all of the mod posts and have them all still make sense/remain trackable.

up for it?

okay, there is now a dw podmod, same details as for lj version, and she is an admin of the dreamwidth amplificathon. if i get to it before you, i'll dupe these posts over, but otherwise, feel free to go for it.

[anatsuno.livejournal.com]

sure! I probably won't crosspost today's admin posts til tomorrow cos I'm going to bed soon (timezones!), but I'll do it. :)

[podmod.livejournal.com]

duped! http://amplificathon.dreamwidth.org/17618.html

onto the second one now. :D

[podmod.livejournal.com]

done. http://amplificathon.dreamwidth.org/17902.html

<3

[general-jinjur.livejournal.com]

<3

[6shotamericano.livejournal.com]

Ok, I will admit to being a bit intrigued by this, but also a wee bit intimidated. And easily confused, so please excuse me if I ask silly questions.

So, the two fandoms that I'm really familiar with are Harry Potter and BtVS (and maybe AtS). I'm assuming that if I say those are the fandoms that I'd like to receive a gift from, then those are also the fandoms that I'd be asked to give a gift from. 'Cause I wouldn't even know where to start in picking a fic outside those fandoms. This is probably an excessively obvious thing, but I sometimes need to belabour the obvious point.

I may be getting ahead of myself in even thinking about signing up, because I'm already committed to finishing saras_girl's Foundations (which is a pretty damn big bang in itself), and then working on her one-shots, but still....tempting. Very tempting.

[podmod.livejournal.com]

they can actually be totally different fandoms, if you like! or they can be those. :) here's how it will work: we'll make a big post listing all the fandoms that people have said they would like to get gifts from, and people who signed up will make (screened) comments to that post, listing what fandoms appear in that post that they could read. and then we match you up! basically, there's no way you can be assigned a fandom you don't feel familiar enough to read in, even though you can request anything at all. does that make sense?

in my experience, it can be a lot of fun to switch off reading between two big projects, and secret projects can be awesome, too. i think you should sign up, obviously. :p

[6shotamericano.livejournal.com]

Ok, you talked me into it. Thanks for the explanation - that helped a lot!

[margarks.livejournal.com]

FYI - There is also an X-Files BB (http://community.livejournal.com/xf_bigbang/499.html) - But it doesn't post until November 5? I think, and it is only 20k. So, maybe it doesn't count for this.

[podmod.livejournal.com]

it's definitely worth knowing about, thank you! i'll add it to the list. november 5 would be tight for reading, but not impossible.

we're allowing anything posted in any big bang challenge, as long as you manage to get to 30,000 words somehow. so a ~20.000 word big bang fic, plus one or more ~8.000 word fics works. :)

[blacksquirrel.livejournal.com]

Quick question - how will you make sure that two readers don't record the same thing? Are we going to report what we've decided to read to the mod?

[podmod.livejournal.com]

:)

we suspect the odds are pretty vanishingly low for that, and we're generally in favor of duplication. that said, if you want to be sure, you can email us the story title and we will quietly double check with anyone else potentially reading in that fandom.

also, if the author isn't a blanket permission person, and you've asked permission, they will probably mention it. :p

[amproof.livejournal.com]

Hi,

I just wanted to point out that americanbang is no longer active. It has been replaced by idol_bigbang. :)

[podmod.livejournal.com]

thank you!