Camelot Remix

Post-reveal discussion post

2010-10-22T00:46:09Z

So, how did the Remix go for you?

This post is open for discussion on anything to do with the challenge - remixing meta and strategies, suggestions for the mods, AO3 issues, observations, questions, etc. I'll start a few discussion threads, but other people should feel free to start others if there are other topics they want to bring up. We welcome comments from readers, watchers, and defaulters as well as the people who ended up turning in fic. Dreamwidth users, if you wouldn't mind clicking on the crosspost link to the LJ side of this post, it would be nice to keep all the discussion in one place.

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Author reveal!

2010-10-21T14:51:19Z

Authors' names have been added to the fics at the CamelotRemix collection at the AO3! You're now welcome to answer feedback (the AO3 has threaded comments like Dreamwidth and LJ), repost to journals, websites, comms, and so on! Just be sure you keep the link to the fic you've remixed and the original author's name wherever you post.

Here's an updated version of the fic masterlist that was posted last Friday, also with added authors' names. Thanks to everyone who participated, with special thanks to clevermonikerr, glim, lilian_cho, netgirl_y2k, and woldy for pinch hitting. Hope you had fun, everybody!

Merlin (BBC) RPF

Bradley/Colin: ( Three Bradley/Colin fics )

Merlin (BBC) FPF

Threesomes and multiple pairings: ( Four fics )

Gen: ( Six gen fics )

Femmeslash

Gwen/Morgana: ( Four Gwen/Morgana fics )

Boyslash

Merlin/Will: ( One Merlin/Will fic )

Arthur/Merlin: ( Eighteen Arthur/Merlin fics )

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Guessing post

2010-10-20T03:27:29Z

Hi everyone! Hope you're still enjoying reading the remixes. We're still collecting recs on LJ and on Dreamwidth. We're planning to reveal authors' names Thursday morning (Central US time) and to have a post for discussing how the challenge went for everybody on Thursday evening. Please let us know if you have any concerns.

In the meantime, how about some guesses as to who wrote what? Here's a list of the fics and a list of author names, both in alphabetical order:

( fics )

( authors )

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Recs collection post

2010-10-16T14:44:10Z

Have you posted some recs of CamelotRemix fics? Planning to make some over the weekend now that you finally have some time to read? Please comment here with a link, and we'll update this post throughout the next week to add them as they come in. Thanks!

woldy posted 2 recs (plus some others from outside the fest)

netgirl_y2k posted 6 recs in a comment to this post

sophinisba posted 7 recs and 3 more

emei posted 5 recs

And in case you missed it, we now have a Fic Masterlist (with magical DW expanding and collapsing cut tags) for easy browsing by pairing.

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Fic Masterlist

2010-10-15T20:09:09Z

The comments for camelotremix fics are trickling in. Keep them coming, people! (You don't need an AO3 account to comment)
Again, please remember to thank your remixer.

If you see a problem with the listing/links below, comment here or e-mail camelotremix at gmail. Have fun fic-hopping! =)

Merlin (BBC) RPF

Bradley/Colin: ( Three Bradley/Colin fics )

Merlin (BBC) FPF

Threesomes and multiple pairings: ( Four fics )

Gen: ( Six gen fics )

Femmeslash

Gwen/Morgana: ( Four Gwen/Morgana fics )

Boyslash

Merlin/Will: ( One Merlin/Will fic )

Arthur/Merlin: ( Eighteen Arthur/Merlin fics )

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Fic reveal!

2010-10-14T14:25:24Z

CAMELOTREMIX FICS
LIVE AT THE AO3

We have 31 stories by 26 authors, remixing fics by 30 different authors. Special thanks to the pinch hitters who did an awesome job coming through with some great fics in the last few days. lilian_cho is planning to make another post here soon with a list of links to all the stories, but for now there are lots of ways of finding what you want to read at the AO3.

The collection's Works page will display 20 of them at a time and you can browse back for earlier ones. By default it orders them by date, but you can use the buttons on the top right to reverse the order or sort alphabetically or by length or hit count. You can use the right sidebar to filter the fics and only see a particular rating, genre, tag, etc. Please note that the sidebar is only displaying Relationships that can be used for filtering because they've already been wrangled by archive support, but we do have a few fics with other ships.

It's possible that pages will be a leetle slow to load at times because new Yuletide business is increasing traffic at the site right now. But I've been clicking through a lot in the last few days and haven't had any problems.

Please comment on the stories you enjoy! Even though they're anonymous now, everyone should get emailed copies of their comments. If you're logged in with your AO3 account your comments will automatically show up with your name, and you'll get e-mailed any responses, just like on LJ or Dreamwidth. You can upload an icon if you want.

You can also use the AO3 bookmark feature either to mark stories you want to read later or as a quick way of reccing them, with or without tags, much like a Delicious save. We hope people will post recs too, and we'll have another post soon for linking to them.

If you don't have an AO3 account (hello, lurkers!) you can still comment on stories: just fill out your name (if you want) and e-mail (which won't be displayed). If you don't have an account and you'd like one, we have some extra invite codes, so please don't hesitate to ask

Participants, even if you didn't end up posting a story of your own, please, please, thank your remixer!

If you see a problem with your fic, remember that you can still do edits yourself. If there's a problem we need to know about, as always you can comment here or e-mail camelotremix at gmail. Have fun, everybody!

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Fics going live soon

2010-10-14T02:45:42Z

Remixers and remix enthusiasts! We expect the CamelotRemix collection to go live with at least one remix for everybody in about twelve hours! It's possible that another story or two might get added over the next few days, since we've doubled up some assignments and pinch hits this week.

If you still have edits to make, please make them now!

Eeeeeeee!!

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State of the Remix

2010-10-11T00:39:34Z

Hi, everyone! As promised, here's an update on how things are going and what we expect to happen this week.

The deadline was last night. As I write this, we're still missing remixes for ten people, or fully a third of the people who need them. Needless to say, we mods are not thrilled with this state of affairs. Many thanks to those of you who posted in time. Those of you who promised to post today, please get on that. *stern look*

Pinch hits have been assigned - thank you volunteers! - and are due on Wednesday. If you've posted a draft and still have some revisions to do, please finish those by Wednesday too.

We'd like to make the fics public on Thursday, but if we don't have a fic for everyone by then we'll probably push things back until Saturday. (I hate posting fic on Fridays, don't you? It seems like there's never anybody around.) Either way, we'll post again on Thursday to let you know what's going on. We don't anticipate having to wait longer than Saturday.

The fics will stay anonymous for one week, and after that we'll add authors' names and you can add authors' notes, reply to comments, and post on your journals, websites, comms, etc.

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Deadline tonight!

2010-10-09T22:09:08Z

Hello, remixers! We’ve reached October 9th, the deadline for uploading your stories to the CamelotRemix Collection at the AO3! So far we have stories (or drafts) for 14 out of 30 participants. The posts are looking great (love the funky titles especialy) and the fics netgirl_y2k and I have had a chance to read so far are made of awesome and win. We can’t wait for them to go live.

The rest of you are getting ready to post tonight (or have contacted us to say when you will), right? It looks like we never got around to specifying a time zone, so we’ll wait to until tomorrow to see who still needs a remix and start assigning pinch hitters.

Here’s a link to the posting instructions and here are a few reminders:

The AO3 will allow you to keep editing after you submit. If you’re still revising your fic, please go ahead and post your draft now so we mods can see that you’ve written a story and we don’t need to assign a pinch hitter. Fics won’t go public until Wednesday at the earliest (we should have a better idea tomorrow) so you can keep editing until then.

Please leave out beta thanks and other potential identifying information from now. You’ll be able to add them in later, after the author reveal.

Additional Tags aren’t required but they help readers find your story.

If you are the kind of person who likes shaking the boxes before you open your presents, you can play with filters on the side of the CamelotRemix Works page or take a look at the Additional Tags cloud. If you’re logged in at the AO3 you can also check on your Gifts in the left sidebar to see if a remix of your fic has been posted yet. If you don’t want to have any clue, forget I said anything!

Best of luck to those of you who are rushing to finish your fics and post tonight. Please let us know if there’s anything we can help with!

-sophinisba

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Posting to the AO3 is easy.

2010-09-26T01:08:06Z

The posting deadline for camelotremix/camelotremix is October 9, two weeks from today. You’ll need to post your Remix to the Archive of Our Own, which is pretty easy to do, even if you haven’t used it before. The short version is:

1. Go to the CamelotRemix collection and click on the Post to Collection button.

2. Fill out all the relevant fields on the form, including checking the remix box, filling in the URL of the remixed story, and filling in your remixee’s name as a recipient.

3. Click on Preview (bottom right, below the text box for the story) and make sure everything displays the way you want it. If you need to change something, click on Edit. Edit, Preview, and repeat.

4. Click on Post (bottom right) when you’re ready to post!

You’ll be able to see your own story and you can make any time, but the stories won’t go public until the mods flip the switch. The earliest this will happen is October 12th but it will probably closer to the 16th. (It will be whenever we have a remix for everybody.)

If you like visuals, there’s a nice simple Tutorial on posting to a challenge at the AO3, which has screencaps. (Just ignore the part about “My Signups” - since we didn’t do signups there, it doesn’t apply.)

( Regular AO3 stuff: Explanation of Work Tags and Work Preface )

( Challenge-specific: Explanation of Associations )

( Regular AO3 stuff: Explanation of Work Text )

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Check-in/flail session and anonymity

2010-09-23T14:25:09Z

How's it going, Remixers? The deadline is coming up on October 9, two weeks two days from today. The minimum word count is 1000. We can do it!

Are you finished? Are you close? I know of one person who's their remix already. We'll try to get detailed posting instructions up this weekend, but if anyone's eager to post it should be pretty easy, especially if you've used the AO3 before. You go to the Camelot Remix collection, click on "Post to Collection", and fill out all the fields, including "Recipient" and the fields that come up when you check the "This work is a remix". Once it's posted you'll be able to see and edit it, but it won't go public until the mods unlock all the fics together.

Are you not finished? Have yet to start? You're not alone! I (sophinisba) had planned to set a good modly example and free myself up for pinch hits by finishing early. Instead I made a couple of short attempts that didn't go anywhere, and at this point I haven't touched it in two weeks and still don't know which story I'm going to remix. Um.

Need to freak out a little? Need a peptalk? Want to crow about how good it feels to be finished already? Have questions or helpful tips you want to share with the group? Here's the place for it. If you're afraid that what you want to say could give you away, feel free to comment anonymously (but please avoid dissing your remixer or their fics!). If you'd like to communicated just with the mods you can use the Contacting the Mods post (LJ|DW) or e-mail camelotremix at gmail.

Speaking of anonymity, someone asked if they should try to tone down aspects of their remix that would out them as an author. My opinion is that this is up to each author. I think people should be careful about staying anonymous before the fics go up and in things that are not the fic itself. If you post to your journal or comment here about how much you're enjoying writing epic femslash for the first time or if you ask for someone to beta 1400 words of Uther/Lancelot with crossdressing, you're kind of giving away the game.

On the other hand, if the fic itself has a lot of your kinks and quirks, readers who know you are likely to have fun recognizing them. I have three times been remixed by friends whose style I know and recognized (most recently by my co-mod netgirl_y2k) and each time it was really exciting to think, "Oooh, only she could have written that line." Some people get a kick out of trying to disguise themselves in anon exchanges, but I think it's not really necessary, especially in a remix where part of the point is making the story your own.

But, like I said to the author who asked about this, that's just my opinion and not any kind of Remix Rule. I'd love to hear other people's opinions and experiences with this. What have you done to try to keep the magic secret? Did it work? Was it worth it? (Or do you wish you'd told him the truth a long time ago?)

Have fun. I'll be offline most of the day but I hope you have some good discussion and we'll try to answer questions tonight.

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Assignments sent, AO3 invite codes on the way, and "Dear Remixer" notes optional

2010-08-23T00:49:39Z

Greetings, Remixers! We sent out assignments a few hours ago. Please let us know if you have not received yours.

The AO3 has given us some invite codes, so ~~we'll be e-mailing~~ we've e-mailed those to folks who don't have accounts yet. No scrambling for invite codes on the eve of the deadline, hooray!

Also, here's a space to comment or link to a post on your journal if you have anything to say to your remixer, such as giving an alternate link to a different fic listing or telling them that you're planning to post another fic next week. We'll update this post to say who's commented on the LJ and Dreamwidth sides. This note is completely optional.

In LJ comments: vivitchi, pepperlandgirl4, mellacita, xsmoonshine, itachitachi, tetsubinatu.
In DW comments: sophinisba, lilian-cho, fiercynn, briar-pipe, woldy.

Have fun remixing, everybody! Please watch this journal for more information about posting as the deadline (October 9th!) gets closer.

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Sign-ups closing and the one person you can't remix

2010-08-20T22:08:39Z

Hey everyone, don't forget that tomorrow (Saturday) is the last day you can sign up for camelotremix/camelotremix. We'll be working on matching on Sunday and will do our best to get assignments sent out on Monday. So if you've been putting off signing up or updating you fic listing, please take care of that now!

We've had 28 people sign up so far and hope to get a few more tonight and tomorrow. We're so pleased with the interest in this and the mix of people getting involved. Thanks to everyone who's helped us get the word out, and special thanks to mrs_leary for the banners and icons.

Since it looks like the matching will go fairly smoothly with these numbers, we wanted to open up the option for you to name the one person you really don't want to remix. This might be because you had a kerfuffle with them last year or (a more common situation) because you're close friends and don't know how you'll keep the assignment secret when you're on chat with them every night. Now, sometimes keeping your assignment secret from your remixee BFF is half the fun of a remix! But if you're really worried about this potential situation and want to make sure it doesn't happen, please comment on this post (comments screened) or e-mail us at remixthedrabble@gmail.com before signups close.

Thank you!

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Banners

2010-08-12T02:52:57Z

You guys, look at the awesome remix publicity banners mrs_leary made us!

( Three banners and code for linking on Dreamwidth! )

( Code for linking on LJ! )

Tell all your friends to come join us!

Many thanks to mrs_leary for the graphics and to themadlurker for the html on this post!

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Getting the word out

2010-08-06T23:33:22Z

In case you missed it, sign-ups are open on Dreamwidth and on LJ!

We'll start promoting the challenge on some fandom comms this weekend. Can you help us out? We'd love it if someone could make a banner with some Merlin characters and/or actors and the information that sign-ups are open until August 21.

If you (like us mods) are not so graphically inclined, you can still help promote camelotremix/camelotremix by posting a note in your journal or a comm where you're active, or talking it up with your friends. Just let us know if you've posted at a comm so we don't end up spamming them with multiple posts. Thank you!!

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Sign-ups post

2010-08-06T18:48:00Z

Welcome to the camelotremix/camelotremix sign-up post! (Eeee!)

Important Dates
Sign-ups start right now and close on August 21; assignments will go out few days later.

Remixes are due on October 9 and must be at least 1000 words long. The archive will open on October 16 or as soon as we have one remix for everybody.

Eligibility
To sign up as a regular participant you must have written at least five stories of at least 500 words of Merlin FPF (fictional person fic) and/or Merlin RPF (real person fic).

You can specify one fic as a "safe story" that you don't want to be remixed, but this will not count towards your five qualifying stories.

Pinch hitting
If you don't have the qualifying fics you can still sign up as a pinch hitter. If you want to do this, just write "pinch hitter" in the subject line and give us your name, e-mail address, and preference for RPF or FPF.

Offering to pinch-hit does not obligate you to write an extra story, it just puts you on our list of people to ask if someone drops out.

Other stuff
The full rules and more information about remixing can be found at the Frequently Asked Questions and What's a remix? posts. If you have any questions please comment there or email the mods at camelotremix at gmail dot com.

To sign up, copy and paste the following form and comment to this post with it. You can sign up on either livejournal or dreamwidth; there's no need to sign up on both. When you link to your fic, please use a plain url (example: http://archiveofourown.org/users/sophinisba/works) rather than a formatted link (bad example: sophinisba's fic); this will make it easier for us to copy and paste the links into assignment e-mails.

ETA August 22: Sign-ups for regular participants are now closed and assignments will go out soon. Feel free to sign up for the pinch hit list even if you're coming in late.

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Contacting the mods

2010-08-06T16:47:06Z

Have a question or concern about the challenge? Please comment here and let us know how you’d like us to get back to you. Comments on this post are screened. If you want others to see your comment, use another post such as Frequently Asked Questions (LJ|DW). If you’d rather contact us privately, e-mail camelotremix at gmail dot com.

Not going to be able to finish your remix by the deadline? Please let us know as soon as possible so we can find a pinch-hitter and they’ll have time to write a good story. You can comment here or e-mail us. If you’re not sure what to say in your message, “Hi, I won’t be able to write a remix of [remixee]’s fic so I’m dropping out of the challenge” is fine.

Your friendly neighborhood mods are sophinisba/sophinisba, netgirl_y2k/netgirl_y2k, and lilian_cho/lilian_cho. We love remixes and this fandom and we want the challenge to be fun for everyone, so please don’t hesitate to contact us.

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What's a remix?

2010-08-06T15:21:47Z

As promised in the FAQ post (LJ|DW), here's a post with more details about what remixing usually means as well as some guidelines for what we expect in this challenge.

( Basics )
( Some things you can do )
( Some things you shouldn't do )
( Expectations and etiquette )
( Further reading )
( Discuss! )

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Camelot Remix: Frequently Asked Questions

2010-08-03T23:03:06Z

What is this?
A remix is a challenge where you write a new version of a story by another participant. Keep the basics of the story the same (including the basic plot, characters, pairings or lack thereof), but change the style, structure, focus, or something else. Our "What's a remix?" post (LJ|DW) explains some more about what remixing means and some of the different approaches people have used. You can get a quick idea by checking out the Merlin stories at Remix…Redux 2010. Camelot Remix fics will be posted in a similar format at the same archive.

camelotremix/camelotremix is a remix challenge for Merlin and Merlin RPF fic. In your signup you can specify whether you're willing to write FPF, RPF, or both. Beyond that, we won't be matching people by pairings or genre, so before you sign up make sure you're open to writing different kinds of stories.

What are the dates and deadlines?
A sign-up post will go up by August 7 and will be open until August 21. Assignments will go out a few days later, and you'll have until October 9 to write a remix of at least 1000 words. Fics will go public on October 16 or as soon as we have one remix for everybody, and they will stay anonymous for one week.

What are the eligibility requirements?
In order to sign up as a regular participant, you need to have at least five remixable fics of at least 500 words each for your remixer to choose from. These five fics
-must be posted publicly.
-must be complete (no works in progress).
-can be FPF, RPF, or a combination of both (for example, two Gwen/Morgana fics and four Bradley/Colin fics), but not crossovers with other fandoms.
-should stand on their own – five parts of one story counts as one story, not five.
-should not be collaborative projects or remixes of other people's work.

You'll have the option of designating a "safe story" that cannot be remixed. This story won't count toward the five fics you need in order to qualify.

Crossovers and fics of less than 500 words are fair game for remixing even though they don’t count toward the eligibility requirement.

If you don't have enough qualifying fics, you can still sign up as a pinch-hitter and we'll contact you if we need someone to write an extra story.

What do I have to write?
You need to write one story of at least 1000 words that remixes one story by your assigned remixee. There is no upper wordcount limit.

The story you choose to remix can be any length and can be a crossover with another fandom, but it can’t be a work in progress, a remix, a collaboration, or the remixee’s "safe story".

We will e-mail you with your remixee's name and a link to their fics, and you'll have about six weeks to write and post your story.

Note that the word minimum on the remix is higher than on the qualifying fics, and the writing period is shorter than with some other challenges. If you think you might have trouble remixing a short fic into a slightly longer one in this time period, you might not want to sign up.

How do I sign up?
There will be a sign-ups post here on the camelotremix/camelotremix journal by August 7. You can sign up on LJ or Dreamwidth, and if you don't have an account you can comment anonymously or with OpenID. We will e-mail you your assignment, which we'll ask you to keep secret until a week after the fics are posted.

In the sign-ups post, we'll ask you to post a link to a list of all your Merlin fics; this could be a website, a journal post or a fic journal with tags, or a page at the AO3 or another archive. If you don't have your fic listed or organized somewhere, please try to take care of that before you sign up.

Where will the fics be posted?
The fics will be posted to the CamelotRemix collection at the Archive of Our Own. This will make it possible for each author to edit their own fic whenever they need. It will also make it easy for the mods to control when the fics go public and when the authors' names are revealed.

If you don't have an AO3 account, you'll need to set one up in order to post. Sign up at the Invitation Queue and you should get a code within a few days.

We'll put up more details about how to post after assignments go out. ETA: Posting to the AO3 is easy!. /ETA

What if I need to drop out?
We hope you'll only sign up if you're confident you can get a fic written by the deadline, but we understand that these things don't always work out. If you need to drop out of the challenge, just let us know as soon as possible so we'll have time to find a pinch-hitter and they'll have some time to write. You can e-mail us or leave a comment at the Contacting the Mods post on LJ or Dreamwidth.

What about this other thing?
Have other questions or concerns? Feel free to comment here or e-mail or PM sophinisba/sophinisba. We'll edit this post as more questions come up and as details get worked out.

How can I keep up with announcements?
On Dreamwidth, you can subscribe to camelotremix; on LJ, you can friend or track camelotremix. This is set up as an individual journal rather than a community in order to make cross-posting easier; you can always comment on either side and there will be links between corresponding entries.

If you’re an LJ user and would prefer not to friend this account, you can subscribe to the syndicated feed camelot_remix to see announcements. But for linking or commenting please use either camelotremix or camelotremix.

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Camelot Remix, coming soon!

2010-08-02T14:46:00Z

camelotremix/camelotremix/camelot_remix is remix challenge for Merlin and Merlin RPF with sign-ups in August and fics to be posted in October 2010.

Contact sophinisba/sophinisba if you're interested in helping out (co-modding, designing graphics, etc.). Subscribe, friend, or track one of these accounts if you want to see announcements.

All announcements will be crossposted to Dreamwidth and LiveJournal and copied to the camelot_remix syndicated feed on LJ. Fics will be posted to the Archive of Our Own.

Please stay tuned for more details!

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