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(This post is almost 1k words, welp. But at least I had fun thinking out loud!)
So I made this throwaway post on my shiny new Pillowfort account:
"I wonder what part AO3 having native fic exchange and prompt meme functionality played in it becoming the fandom behemoth."
And the thought stuck with me. Like, to participate in a fic exchange or prompt meme on AO3 you *must* 1) have an AO3 account, 2) post your resulting fic on AO3 and 3) probably comment on the fic you get gifted [in return] while logged in on your account. You functionally can not do a fic exchange on AO3 without everyone involved having accounts on AO3 and actually using them.
I mean, you can certainly do a fic exchange or prompt meme without AO3. But there's a barrier of entry to running something like that, a difficulty that makes it Intimidating™ and Big™. A prompt meme, sure, that's relatively simple. But an exchange?
Now you're talking math. You're talking matching requests and offers. You're talking moderating people who might break the rules, who might write something with a recipients DNWs, who might be an asshole if they don't like the fic *they* get gifted. You're talking juggling pinch hits and deadlines and trying to make sure everyone has gotten all the info about their match.
So I made this throwaway post on my shiny new Pillowfort account:
"I wonder what part AO3 having native fic exchange and prompt meme functionality played in it becoming the fandom behemoth."
And the thought stuck with me. Like, to participate in a fic exchange or prompt meme on AO3 you *must* 1) have an AO3 account, 2) post your resulting fic on AO3 and 3) probably comment on the fic you get gifted [in return] while logged in on your account. You functionally can not do a fic exchange on AO3 without everyone involved having accounts on AO3 and actually using them.
I mean, you can certainly do a fic exchange or prompt meme without AO3. But there's a barrier of entry to running something like that, a difficulty that makes it Intimidating™ and Big™. A prompt meme, sure, that's relatively simple. But an exchange?
Now you're talking math. You're talking matching requests and offers. You're talking moderating people who might break the rules, who might write something with a recipients DNWs, who might be an asshole if they don't like the fic *they* get gifted. You're talking juggling pinch hits and deadlines and trying to make sure everyone has gotten all the info about their match.
( Keep reading... )