amplificathon

aka everyone's favorite annual podfic gift exchange run entirely over twitter with no limits, ~~no rules~~ yeah there are some rules ngl, but mostly just squee (new and improved(?) this year: run entirely on mod tears! \o/)

(If you'd like to see previous years' master lists, 2011 is here and 2012 is here.)

Ahaha. Hahahahahaha. Okay dudes, you're gonna have to allow me a moment of modly...uh, ranting. Sort of.

You guys. The original draft of this paragraph said, somewhat facetiously, "Fuck yes we work hard on this. This year we did it through fucking chronic migraines, viral pneumonia, a month of involuntary couchsurfing, and various personal crises." And

cantarina emailed that to me the week BEFORE we encountered, between us: a family death, a several-days long electrical blackout, and a broken modem which removed all home internet access (and PS, it's still not back). Not to MENTION AO3 bugs, broken Python code, and new Twitter DM restrictions.

(Actually, I'm lying to you. The original draft of the above paragraph originally said "AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA #killme #bitchesbetterappreciate".)

BASICALLY: your mods have had A Month. Or a few Months. Whatever.

But you know what? If y'all will allow me to get sappy for a minute, you motherfuckers make all the work we do on this in the face of such adversity WORTH IT. Every year when Ca'rina and I get on Skype and talk to each other while we distribute gifts, and watch the squee pour in over our twitter feeds, we always say to each other, "jesus, THIS is why we do this, it makes it all worth it, wow." Because it does. So thank you thank you THANK YOU for being amazing, all of you, you literally give us the energy to continue to do this <3

On a less sappy/whiny/terrible note, SOME HIGHLIGHTS OF THE CHALLENGE THIS YEAR FOR US WERE:

HOLY CRAP OUR BIGGEST YEAR YET, over 50 participants!!! (Bess’ single-minded goal and you’re all great for helping her meet it <3)
lattice_frames & sendreinfrcmnts podding the exact same fic for each other
putting reenajenkins SMACK in the middle of the "Hockey Loop" when pairing people, which she probably didn't know about until just now, and is probably now cursing Bess furiously ;) (#IllGetYouMyPretty)
speaking of reenajenkins, she utterly OBLITERATED any previous records we had for longest/most podfic submitted, turning in a whopping fifteen hours, forty minutes, and thirty-two seconds of podfic for her main gift, and that's not counting extra treats (robot ROBOT SHE'S A PODFIC ROBOT is2g)

And EXTRA SUPER SPECIAL THANKS GO OUT TO:

alexwlchan for creating (and debugging!) the script we use for coding, and also stopthatimp for additional debugging/assistance
opalsong & sapphirescribe for being incredible pinch-hitters
anna_unfolding for her awesome treat-making, despite not having been a formal part of the exchange
akamine_chan for generously offering to do cover art for many many people--much of the lovely art you see below was done by her :)
fleurrochard & pattyisnickname for some last-minute podbook compiling #rockstars