This will be the last post on this community. I have moved the comm to 3_ships. You can comment there anonymously or with OpenID if you have questions or comments.

3_ships_feed will have the same content (at a bit of a delay), if you are only reading at LJ. Do not comment there, as I do not receive those comments.

Signups are open now until October 30. Assignments will go out November 1. Stories are due on December 29.

Warnings are now required on all stories. We are using a very similar schema to the Archive of Our Own:

• choose not to warn
• choose not to warn for some content
• no standardized warnings apply
• graphic depictions of violence
• major character death
• rape/non-con
• underage

You may include additional warnings for content you believe may trigger or emotionally disturb some readers. Please do not use joke warnings or warnings for content signaled in the rest of the header, e.g. schmoop, het sex, mpreg. If you send your story in without a warning notice, it will be marked choose not to warn.

I think that's everything. Looking forward to the signup count starting to rise!

Authors have been revealed for the 2008 stories.

Thank you, everybody, for participating, and we'll see you in October.

Hey, if anybody has any statistical analysis and wants to pop over and add it to Fanlore entry, that would be awesome. Alternately, if you could comment here with a link. I love to see the stats, which, I don't know if they're meaningful, but they're often interesting.

Sorry for not saying this earlier, I finished the posting in the middle of the night, as you gathered.

A) Authors, please do not respond to feedback as yourselves until after the author reveal. Otherwise, you break the anonymity. :(

I) The story written for you is listed under whatever name you signed up for the challenge as, as that is the name in my tracking spreadsheet.

II) *facepalm* I usually manage to do this before go-live, but half my brain seems to be missing this year. I sent a test e-mail via the direct feedback form to everybody. The subject line is "3 Ships: Title of Fic" and the body is something like

Below is the result of your feedback form.  It was submitted by
zvi ([REDACTED]) on Tuesday, January 6, 2009 at 07:21:52
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

feedback: test feedback

Submit: Submit

Let me know if you haven't gotten the e-mail. Please check your spam folders, first, though. Gmail didn't like it when I tested the story I wrote, maybe because the headers make it clear it's coming from a form?

2008 stories are now posted. Authors will be revealed on January 15.

Thanks to 7iris, Alixtii, Angelia Sparrow, Ari, RubyNye, and Voleuse for pinch hitting when called upon. Thanks to Amy Fortuna, Ang Griffen, Ayla Pascal, belladonalin, Chokolattejedi, Darkrose, Dessert First, flame, Joanne, Kit Russell, misura, Netgirl_y2k, Penknife, pervyficgirl, Ruby, seriousfic, Settiai, Tacky Tramp, and Xtine for volunteering to do so if necessary.

Please, please let me know asap if you find any errors. And PLEASE remember to thank the person who wrote for you. Public commenting on other stories wouldn't go amiss, either.

Thanks you guys. We have 46 stories, and, out of 43 participants, only 5 people defaulted! Woot! Keep up the good work for next year.

Everyone who submitted a story on time (or has already sent in their pinch hit) has been sent an e-mail with a link to where they may review their story.

If you did not get such an e-mail, I do not have your story. Please contact me ASAP if you believe I missed the story you sent in on time. Also, if you are a defaulter who belatedly finished their story and wish it to appear on the website with the others, please go ahead and send it in.

Happily for all of us, a few people have received double stories. This occurred either because their prompts inspired two stories from their assigned writer or because a pinch hitter and the original assigned writer both turned in stories. As of this moment, I anticipate 45 stories to go live on January 6. :)

P.S. I'm sorry that it took so long for me to send the Check Your Story e-mails. There were more stories this year, and I used new software and it took me a while to figure out best practices. Next year, everyone will upload their own stories. I hope the Archive of Our Own Software will be available, but if not, I'll use a CMS.

I have responded to every story I have received to this point. If I did not respond to you, I either didn't get the story or it got filtered out of my inbox or I completely failed to recognize it as a story submission or something along those lines. RE-SEND to zvi at slashx-files dot com.

I'm not promising to respond to everyone's submission tomorrow, because I know I will be away from my computer tomorrow evening and do not know that I will return to it before 11:59 p.m. EST. However, if you are worried that your e-mail will go astray, you may, IN ADDITION TO E-MAILING, comment to this post with your story (comments are screened) or PM your story to me, as proof of time stamp. It only counts as proof of time stamp if you comment/pm the whole story.

Please include the following header information:

Title:
Recipient:
Author:
Author e-mail:
Fandom:
Threesome (with full names spelled out):
Requested element:

(Yes, I know, titles are very difficult for me, too, but the stories are listed by title, and, where possible, we want to avoid having duplicate titles. Untitled would have already appeared on the list twice if I didn't insist on a title. Take heart from the knowledge that that master of English literature, Shakespeare, sucked hardcore at titles. I mean, seriously, Measure for Measure? As You Will? All's Well That Ends Well? How did he expect anyone to keep those straight? And let's not forget that approximately 72.5456% of his plays were titled for the protagonist or romantic leads: Hamlet, Macbeth, Troilus & Cressida, etc.)

Over the next couple of days, I will be e-mailing everyone who turns in a story with a URL where they can preview the story they've submitted, and we can both make sure you've sent the right version and don't have any glaring and embarrassing errors before go-live.

Stories are due tomorrow at 11:59 p.m. EST (UTC -5) Roughly 27.5 hours from now.

Please note: THERE ARE NO EXTENSIONS. I will not listen to your pleadings. When it comes time to turn the story in, I am more unforgiving than the IRS (U.S. tax collection service), as I do not believe in late payments with exorbitant interest.

(On the other hand: if you missed the check-in and I told you that a pinch hitter was being obtained in your place, but you turn your story in on time, we will still be okay and you can participate in future Secret Santa rounds.)

Also, if your story is late, and the person assigned to write a story for you defaults, no pinch hitter will be assigned for you.

That means that if you turn your story in December 30, and the person assigned to write a story for you never turns their story in, you will not get a story. Everyone who turns their story in on time is guaranteed a story. Everyone who doesn't is at the mercy of the person originally given their request. It seems that there is always at least one person caught out in such a way every year. Don't let it be you!

If you've ever wondered about the song for which this challenge is named, Amazon is offering a a free MP3 download of Dan Fogelberg's version of I Saw Three Ships.

I just sent an e-mail to all the participants who have not yet submitted their stories. I need you to reply to my e-mail to assure me that you will be submitting your story on time.

THERE ARE NO EXTENSIONS!

Send me a private message if you do not receive the e-mail, as it means I have the wrong e-mail address for you (or that your spamfilter hates me.)

The e-mail has the subject line Check In and it has been sent from zvi at slashx hyphen files dot com to zvi at slashx hyphen files dot com. You have all been bcc'd.

You may post a link to a letter hosted elsewhere, or write a letter in the comments to this entry.

Please remember that anything written in these letters is optional, although writers who include many of the things their recipient specifically lists as squicks are bad people who may be mocked thoroughly throughout fandom.

The idea of the Dear Santa letter is to give a complete stranger a better idea of the sort of story you would be pleased by, and warn them of anything that would guarantee you didn't enjoy the story they wrote. It's not the place to outline that crackfic epic you've never quite gotten around to writing yourself.

If you need a copy of your signup, send me an e-mail or a private message. I'm not having replies to this post sent to me.