#beannouncements
How to sign up for Black Emporium!
Yes sweet nuglets, it’s that time of year again: Time to sign up for Black Emporium!
Helpful Links:
How to Guide||Requests on Ao3||Tagset||Nominations Spreadsheet||Request Database||Parent Collection (All Past Years)
Main hubs:
@black-emporium-exchange||black_emporium @ Dreamwidth|| blackemporiumex on Twitter|| AO3 Subcollection||Discord
Signups end: July 17, 2021 @ 8:00PM EDT||Countdown
CHANGES THIS YEAR
- We now have a brand new Request Database this year! Unlike previous years where mods had to hand copy requests into a separate Google Doc, the Database will automatically populate who and what people are requesting. (Should come in handy when writing treats or looking for inspiration.)
A STEP-BY-STEP GUIDE TO SIGN-UPS BELOW THE CUT:
Signal boost! Signups close TOMORROW, Saturday July 17th, at 8 pm EST. Please don’t hesitate to ask questions if you’ve got ‘em, we are happy to help.
Today is the final day, nugs and nuglets! Make sure to sign up before the countdown reaches 0!
How to sign up for Black Emporium!
Yes sweet nuglets, it’s that time of year again: Time to sign up for Black Emporium!
Helpful Links:
How to Guide||Requests on Ao3||Tagset||Nominations Spreadsheet||Request Database||Parent Collection (All Past Years)
Main hubs:
@black-emporium-exchange||black_emporium @ Dreamwidth|| blackemporiumex on Twitter|| AO3 Subcollection||Discord
Signups end: July 17, 2021 @ 8:00PM EDT||Countdown
CHANGES THIS YEAR
- We now have a brand new Request Database this year! Unlike previous years where mods had to hand copy requests into a separate Google Doc, the Database will automatically populate who and what people are requesting. (Should come in handy when writing treats or looking for inspiration.)
A STEP-BY-STEP GUIDE TO SIGN-UPS BELOW THE CUT:
Signal boost! Signups close TOMORROW, Saturday July 17th, at 8 pm EST. Please don’t hesitate to ask questions if you’ve got ‘em, we are happy to help.
How to sign up for Black Emporium!
Yes sweet nuglets, it’s that time of year again: Time to sign up for Black Emporium!
Helpful Links:
How to Guide||Requests on Ao3||Tagset||Nominations Spreadsheet||Request Database||Parent Collection (All Past Years)
Main hubs:
@black-emporium-exchange||black_emporium @ Dreamwidth|| blackemporiumex on Twitter|| AO3 Subcollection||Discord
Signups end: July 17, 2021 @ 8:00PM EDT||Countdown
CHANGES THIS YEAR
- We now have a brand new Request Database this year! Unlike previous years where mods had to hand copy requests into a separate Google Doc, the Database will automatically populate who and what people are requesting. (Should come in handy when writing treats or looking for inspiration.)
A STEP-BY-STEP GUIDE TO SIGN-UPS BELOW THE CUT:
1. Sign in to Ao3
If you don’t have an Ao3 account, contact the mods for help!
2. Go to the Black Emporium signup field (link)
3. Scroll to the “Requests” field
There are several different components of this field:
Relationship:
Enter one, two, or three approved relationships that you would like to see in a fanwork created for you. This field will autosuggest approved pairings. If your pairing does not show up, it may be that you have fallen victim to a known bug of Ao3’s that we cannot fix, wherein pairings in a tagset do not autofill. If this happens, simply type it in as it appears in the tagset.
Additional Tags: You can request fanfic, fanart, or both. Selecting “any” is treated the same as selecting both.
Letter: If you have written a letter on an external website (such as Tumblr/Wordpress/Dreamwidth/Google Docs), you may link it here.
Description:Here is where you can provide additional detail about what you would like to see in a fanwork, both in general and for specific pairings. Good things to include (in this box, a letter, or both) are general likes and dislikes, preferred content rating, and Do Not Wants. Please remember to put your DNW’s (do not wants) in the Ao3 sign up form - we can only take action if you put your DNW in your Ao3 sign-up form because it is the only thing we can absolutely guarantee that your creator will be able to access.
Remember that anyone who creates fanwork for you must respect your Do Not Wants. If you do not enter anything into this box, and you do not have a link to a letter, we will assume that means you are okay with anything for the specified pairing(s). If you have any preferences or things you do not want, we would encourage you to add them. It makes the process smoother for all involved.
Here are some things commonly put in the description box:
Likes/Wants:
- Frequently it can be considered helpful to your author or artist if they have some idea of what you like to see, and what you don’t. For example:
I love F!Adaar/Sera because I think the idea of them merrily pranking their way around Skyhold is so much fun. Please don’t write me something sad about them.
Do Not Wants:
- Stuff that makes you uncomfortable, or just plain stuff that is Not Your Thing. While the Black Emporium does not believe in kink shaming or otherwise insulting people for their own personal taste, we do want people to let their artists or authors know what their limits are. You don’t have to give any reasons for this; “no x/y/z” gives your creator plenty of info to discern where your limits are.
We can only take action if someone writes you something against your DNWs if it is in your sign-up.
Prompts:
Prompts can be just about anything, but they’re meant to be ideas that you’d like to see that can help give your artist or author something to work off of. Sometimes this can be a prompt or a question you’d like explored (for example: What if Solas found himself falling for M!Trevelyan? How would he feel about potentially falling for a human?) or an idea you’d love to see (Josie and M!Cadash snuggled up in front of a fire, please!) or just a few words of inspiration (Leliana/Josephine - secrets, lies, ravens).
Details about your character(s):
It is fairly common for people to give basic descriptions of their characters if it is a character where their appearance or personality may vary (ex: Wardens/Hawkes/Inquisitors), particularly if fanart is requested. These descriptions can be very basic indeed (ex: purple hawke), or extremely detailed (ex: This is Celeste Trevelyan, she loves her squad more than life itself, pink hair, dusky-rose skin, built like she could bench press you six ways from sunday).
Bucket Requests:
You may also use the description field to note additional pairings that you would be willing to receive. You may find this option helpful if you are willing to consider different Warden or Inquisitor backgrounds for your specified pairing that have been nominated. You are limited to an additional ten pairings specified in this manner. Please fill out the form entirely before filling in pairings manually in the description; those that you fill in in the relationship field (the first 30) will take priority.
Things you should not put in the description field:
“I would like anything but nasty [kink]. I think people who write that are gross and nasty.”
Please do not insult people who like something you dislike. It’s Not For You, and That’s Okay. “No [kink]” expresses this much better than a long explanation of why you don’t like [kink].
“I’m only choosing this to get to three nominations. Please don’t write it.”
While we know someone who signs up for a, b and z may want a and/or b more than z, but please don’t scream to your author or artist that what you may well match on is something you don’t want as much as other pairings. Writing something like this also reduces your chance at treats as well.
“Even though I said I wanted M!Solavellan, I’m fine with F!Solavellan too if you like that better.”
Please don’t tell people that you’d be alright with non-nominated pairings, as fics with only non-nominated pairings cannot be added to the collection.
Minimums and Maximums in Requests:
You are required to fill out a minimum of three request fields (Required: Relationship, Additional Tags; Optional: Letter, Description). Remember that you may put in one OR two relationships per request field, so the maximum number of pairings that you can list in this manner is thirty. Remember also that you must fill out at least 3 request fields, so if you fill 2 out with 3 requests in each “request box”, Ao3 will still want you to add one more – it’s a good rule of thumb to fill at least three out with one request, then double up as you wish.
4. Continue to the “Offers” field
There are several different components of this field:
Relationship:
Enter one, two, or three approved relationships that you would like to see in a fanwork created for you. This field will autosuggest approved pairings. If your pairing does not show up, it may be that you have fallen victim to a known bug of Ao3’s that we cannot fix, wherein pairings in a tagset do not autofill. If this happens, simply type it in as it appears in the tagset. If it continues to give an error, please drop us a comment with the pairing so we can figure out what’s going on. You also have the option to select anyrelationship.
By selecting “Any Relationship,” that means that you are willing to write or draw fanwork for, literally, ANY of the approved pairings.
The only limitation we will accept will be be a limitation of what category of relationship you want to create for: eg, Any F/F, Any M/M, Any F/M, Any Multi, Any Other, or Any Nonbinary. Anything else WILL BE REJECTED. You may NOT use this option to say, for example, “Any Cullen pairing”. This option is for any and all of the approved pairings in your designated category/categories. Do not use this option unless you are sure that anyis truly what you want.
Additional Tags:
You can offer to create fanfic, fanart, or both. Selecting “any” is treated the same as selecting both.
Comments for mods:
Here is where you can provide additional detail about what you will and won’t create. As with your requests, you can provide general likes and dislikes as well as things that you absolutely will not do. If there is someone signed up you absolutely cannot stand, please write “don’t match me to x” here; we won’t ask details, we just won’t match and this will be a fully confidential field. If you hate nugs, put it here, and we’ll make sure you get at least one nug-free prompt and, ideally, a nug-free sign-up. We want you to have an assignment you’ll be happy about, so if you’ve got something that would be triggering for you to create for, let us know. We can only take action based on our own knowledge, so the more information we have the better we can try to match you with what you really want. If you do not enter anything into this box, we will assume that means you are okay with anything for the specified pairing(s) selected. If you have any preferences or do not wants, we would encourage you to add them. It makes the process smoother for all involved. None of the mods will blab over whatever you write; we just want you to have the best time possible with your assignment.
Minimums and Maximums in Offers:
You are required to fill out a minimum of three offer fields (Required: Fandom, Relationship, Additional Tags; Optional: Comments to mods). Remember that you may put in one or two relationships per request field, so the maximum number of pairings that you can list in this manner is twenty. Remember also that you must fill out at least 3 offer fields, so if you fill 2 offer fields out with 2 offers in each “box”, Ao3 will still want you to add one more offer field even though you have one over the minimum required amount of offers – it’s a good rule of thumb to fill at least three offer fields, each with one offer, then go back and double up or not, as you wish.
Bucket Offers:
You may also use the comments to mod field to note additional pairings that you would be willing to write if you have already filled thirty slots. You may find this option helpful if you are willing to consider different Warden or Inquisitor backgrounds for your specified pairing. You are limited to an additional ten pairings specified in this manner. Once again, those filled in the actual relationship: tags will take priority over those written in, so choose which pairing goes where carefully!
A Note on Matching
Black Emporium runs on OR matching, which means that you will match on one relationship out of the ones that you offer and request. You are guaranteed to match on ONErelationship; you may match on more, you may not. For your assignment, you can write what you matched on OR you can write any other couple on their sign-up form. You will only have to write or draw for ONErequest,notall of them. The minimums will be one piece of artwork or one 1,000 word fic.
Nominations for the Black Emporium are now live! Reach out and tell someone (namely: us) about your favorite rare-pairs (namely: any pairing under 300 complete fics on Ao3). You have twenty nominations to use. Pairings can be twosomes/threesomes/moresomes//etc. We believe in sharing the love.
How do you, in fact, become a true Fereldan buckaroo by nominating a rare pair or 20?
Go to the Dragon Age Rare Pair Tag Set and click Nominate (you have to be signed into Ao3 for the button to appear)
- Nominate your favorite pairings! Some pairings may autofill, some may not; if your pairing is so rare that it doesn’t exist yet, just type it in anyway and we’ll take care of the rest.
- When you’re done, hit Submitat the bottom of the page. Your pairings will be reviewed and accepted/rejected as soon as possible. After you’ve hit Submit you will not be able to go back and edit your nominations after we’ve reviewed them, though you will be able to go back and fill up your form until you’ve hit 20 pairings.
For the purposes of this challenge, the Dragon Age protagonists will be considered different characters based on their genderandsurname. This means that there are twenty-one Wardens, three Hawkesandtwelve Inquisitors to choose from. Please nominate your protagonist of preference with these two criteria in mind. So: Female Trevelyan/Male Cousland will be accepted as a nomination; Inquisitor/Warden will not. Likewise, Female Trevelyan/Cullen Rutherford would not be accepted, because it has more than 300 complete fics, but both Male Trevelyan/Cullen RutherfordandNonbinary Trevelyan/Cullen Rutherford would be.
If you have any specific class, appearance or personality preferences you are free to request them in your prompt during sign-ups.
We will also allow original characters, provided they obey the following rules:
a)The OC is listed in the relationship in such a way as to give someone freedom in how to write them (e.g. “Tentacle Monster” or “Original Templar Character” NOT: “my OC Gerald D'Vivir”) - a good rule of thumb here is whether the character can be summed up in 3 or fewer words; if it can, it is probably a good option. If it cannot, the OC is probably is too complex for this kind of exchange.
b) The OC is not listed in such a way that would, essentially, reflect the spirit of a canon character that is otherwise not permitted in a relationship. See again: “Modern Human Female Inquisitor/Cullen” is still ineligible, even if there are only 5 fics with that tag, because it is a variant of Female Trevelyan/Cullen.
We will also allow crossovers with other canons, provided there are less than 300 completed works with the pairing on Ao3.
What are you waiting for? GET YE TO THE NOMINATING!
If you want to see what’s already been nominated, Mods A, K, and S, and our helpers are updating the nominations spreadsheet as fast as we can.
