Reveals 2017: We made it, somehow!

[nino_mod]

I was looking at the reveals post from last year in which I bored you all with my woes about how hard a season it was, and today-me just was like "oh self, little did you realize". But, well, what started last year ended this year, so if nothing else, I won't have the same worries next year. XD.

Anyway, I feel like I'm constantly thanking you and apologizing to you for being awesome despite my being the worst, but here we are again: Thank you, and I'm sorry. Y'all are great, from the writers to the readers to the general cheerleaders, and I hope you had a good time despite everything.

Of course, the usual thank yous go out to my beta crew, and especially to our pinch hitters during what was a rough year for everyone: lover_youshould (perpetual pinch hitting star of NinoEx), and airairo and calerine (who both came to the rescue despite being very busy and not even signing up for the exchange this year). How's a mod supposed to face humanity when she's got friends like these!

Anyway, I know what you're all here for.

Recipient	Writer	Fic
64907	pierrot	Unfinished Rhapsodies at the End of the World
an_jung	nino1711azuki	Protecting You, Not Me
astrangerenters	silver_crystall	The Bachelor
berrybuttboy	negai3104	Halcyon Days
clipsie	airairo	Double Edged
cutselvage	kirasebi	Different kinds of stories
eiko_lotus	ltgmars	Radio Magic
gomushroom	silverdoll14	Lily
ica_90	an_jung	Love Without Love
kirasebi	ica_90	There'll Be Sunshine After Rain
koi_choshi	64907	Lightning Strike
lilly0	clipsie	Coffee Milk
littlealex	murrponchan	in the heights.
lover_youshould	yoru_no_hikaru	Wicked Little Witcher Vs. Gorgeous Green Goods
ltgmars	berrybuttboy	When nothing goes right, Go left
murrponchan	rainbow_teatime	My Android Soulmate
negai3104	lover_youshould	Kimi no Superhero
nicefinalbeam	yun_miyake	The Dearest
nino1711azuki	shardaunei	Switch On!
phrenk	gomushroom	Lotus
pierrot	sky_fish7	Celebrity Crush
piggywhale	yukitsubute	The binary code man
rainbow_teatime	phrenk	Close for Comfort
shardaunei	lilly0	Velvet Rose
silver_crystall	piggywhale	Possibly Maybe
silverdoll14	astrangerenters	Bloodline
sky_fish7	eiko_lotus	人間じゃない（？）
tempesteru	koi_choshi	Suggestio Falsi
yoru_no_hikaru	nicefinalbeam	Chasing Forever Romance
yukitsubute	calerine	A Lifetime of Clichés
yun_miyake	lover_youshould	According to Plan

In addition, this year was our first year on the nicer, friendlier DW (with full mirrors on LJ). How did you like it? Should we stay here, go back to LJ, move to AO3, something else entirely? With the Rapidly Changing Internet comes many, many growing pains, but I want to keep this community as accessible as possible. Any thoughts on this front would be greatly appreciated! :3.

That's all, folks. Until next year!

Comments

[nicefinalbeam]

DW is a little sneaky because it allows for way more in a single entry, so sometimes I didn't know what I was about to get into! Some epic fics in smaller packages ;D But aside from that aspect, I enjoyed DW. I actually liked reading in the layout style rather than the default style before you changed it? The font was nice and big and clear, but I'd be curious what others thought.

As always - thanks so much, Mod! It was wonderful to get to read all these incredible stories. Ninoex always brings out the best. And I know you had some really hard things going on, thanks for the dedication ♥

[sky_fish7]

Ah, do you mean how it looks like when you click the cut-line of a posting and then it opens on a nice good readably page with bigger font (compared to how it looks when you click the title and open a new tab)? I mostly read on my cell phone so that's what I experienced and what I'm talking about, but probably it's different from person to person and device to device (I'm not too familiar with layouts on dw yet though so I have no idea if it appears as the same for everyone or not XD).

Anyway, I really liked the bigger font version too, so if we are talking about the same right now, I agree with you! ^^

Also, I personally liked that the postings are longer here on dw compared to lj. Everything is neater and more compact.

[nicefinalbeam]

If I click the cut or open in new tab right now it's the same default dreamwidth layout with the gray background and red accents. But maybe for the first day or two of the exchange it opened in the layout from the journal, with a white background a bigger black font. So if that's what you mean - yeah, I liked that look. But other people it might have hurt their eyes? Not sure!

True it's more clean to have most fics be just one post :)

[berrybuttboy]

DW is good! It's not as great as LJ coding wise, so it's bit crappy when it comes to posting and so on but long as you, the mod, are fine with it I support staying here on DW and not moving anywhere anymore :)

Big hugs to you, for still doing awesome job with the exchange! You're the best Exchange mod I've had, good job, and have some good, healing vibes!

Also big kudos to all writers! I have still so many fics I haven't had a chance to read so I'm still excited for that. Thank you, y'all!

[sky_fish7]

Yei~ Reveals! :D Thank you soooo much, everybody!

Thank you, eiko_lotus for writing this supercute fantasy Sakumiya for me! <3 <3 <3 I really love your ideas with the youkais and again, that Sakumiya kiss just made my heart melt *___* THANK YOU! *hugs* <3

Thank you, nino_mod for bearing with us for another year and please don't feel sorry for anything! Organizing an exchange is not an easy task and RL happens so it's understandable that not always everything goes according to plan. It was nonetheless an amazing exchange with great stories and as always, I really enjoyed being part of it so thank you for making it happen again! I hope, there will be lots of exchanges following, as I'm alredy looking forward to the next one! ^^

Thank you to my writing buddies/betas for all of their support, I'm nothing without you.

Thank you to all the other fabulous writers for all of your gorgeous stories! I still have a few on my reading list that I will check out when time allows.

And of course, thank you to all those awesome people who commented on all of the stories, I always love to see the support in the community during this event. Every comment is appreciated and I'll try to properly respond on the comments to my story asap!


About the exchange and dreamwidth, I have to admit that I feel much much saver here on dreamwidth than on livejournal!

Tbh, after they changed so much with the policy, I even became scared to share my fanfictions there. I did not only "move" my stuff to dreamwidth (and AO3), but I even started deleting my crossposted fanfictions from livejournal and will continue to do so until everything is gone there from my journal. And if I am completely honest, I would even feel better, if ninoexchange would not post complete mirrors of our stories on livejournal any longer in the future, but only link to the stories here on dreamwidth. Maybe I'm a little paranoid but... better safe than sorry? ^^"

I do not think that AO3 is exchange-friendly... which might be because I on the one hand have no idea if something similar to this community would work there, as it's set up completely different from a community-styled website but is in first place something where writers post their own stuff, and on the other hand, exactly because of the afore mentioned would feel a bit strange with our stories being posted there twice, as we still all love to crosspost our exchange stories somewhere sooner or later, might it be private journals or private AO3 accounts (also I did not see any exchanges there yet so I guess it just would feel strange too).
Also I think that people on AO3 are not that likely to comment, as 1st there are still a lot of users who don't have an account there and 2nd there is the "Kudo" function, which makes it very "quick and easy" for someone to leave a sign of appreciation, which is nice, but let's be honest, it also makes people lazy sometimes XD. I think it would be better not to move something like an exchange to AO3.

I think, dreamwidth is easy to access for everyone, lj and dw users and as the community is open, it shouldn't be a problem. People even can comment anonymously if they prefer. Maybe fandom lost a few people during the "big move" from lj to dw... but I wonder if those people are even on lj any longer of just vanished completely. Dw is not as big yet as lj but I think fandom here will grow too.

Thus, trying to summarize my thoughts... my answer onto the question what I would wish for the future of the Ninoexchange is that I would definitely prefer to stay on here dreamwidth, NOT go back to lj and also not to crosspost complete stories there but only post links in the future maybe (I think it would also save you a lot of time as you don't have to cut long stories into so many pieces. I am really grateful that you took this task upon yourself so far as it was making our work much easier, but I know how troublesome this can be.) On dreamwidth postings can be longer than on lj, which is - in my opinion - another big advantage compared to lj =)

This is just my opinion, but maybe, others see it similar than I do. No matter how you decide, I hope that I will still be able to join this event in the future! ^^

Again, thanks for everything! :D <3

[ladyc2]

Sorry to butt in, but...

I do not think that AO3 is exchange-friendly...

Actually heaps of exchanges run on AO3 these days - in fact I think J&A fandom is one of the last few holdouts that still does exchanges on lj/dw. The set-up is obviously a little different - you nominate pairings and tags and then later you request/offer from those pairings/tags and write what you want in either your sign-up summary (or some people link to a letter on dw) but it matches automatically (which would save the mod some work) and people post directly to the collection (as a gift for your recip) as they finish and then it reveals the works on the due date (people can see they have a gift fic but can't read it until the due date) and it keeps everything anonymous automatically until author reveals.

I do agree that commenting culture for J&A on AO3 is not that great at the moment (+ the fanbase is still largely lj/dw based) though which is the downside to hosting it there - but running an exchange on the site itself is not an issue.

[sky_fish7]

Oh! No need to be sorry! I actually had no idea that if can work like that on AO3 so I really appreciate your explanation, thank you! =) I probably didn't stumble over any exchanges there yet since I don't really read fanfics outside of Arashi fandom and I have to admit, I thought the gift option is just... that XD An option to mark if you wrote a story for someone else, which can also happen outside of an exchange. My bad and now I learnd something new ^^

I think that system on AO3 actually does not sound so bad either, even if quite different (and less mod-involved if I understood you correctly? Which whould on the one hand be good for the mod as it involves less work and trouble but on the other hand our exchange is stamped by an excellent mod and that's part of the event so I personally think it would be a pity if the involvement vanishes? Since the personal note from the mod's side makes it so familial and such a nice place.)

Then the question is if mod/people are willing to change from a known system to a new one... I personally am someone who likes to stick to things she knows, tbh (for example, I am still a bit struggling to adjust to dw after moving here from lj, even if the sites are not THAT different. Maybe that's because I'm getting old xD)

[ladyc2]

Yeah, I'm rather attached to sticking to the systems I already know as well and I don't have any problems with the current exchanges here on dw/lj (including this one) to stay here. Just wanted to point out it can be done and doesn't seem to be any harder to host there than here - and in the case of matching, it's probably easier - although I'm sure there is still plenty left for the mod to do.

I don't really read much outside J&A either - the main reason I know about the exchanges is because I read a pan-fandom anon meme here on dw and there is always a big thread discussing the current exchanges which are running (which probably means i have some facts wrong about how they run specifically). And the gift option works for both scenerios - general gifting and exchanges.

[reveetoile]

A friend of mine does regularly exchanges on AO3. She says it's great in general and I think it is perfect for huge fandoms with a multitude of pairings because the matching is automatically and there is no mod that has to look through each post to see if there are people who match each other.
But I like Exchanges here on DW/LJ more XD

[yukitsubute]

Thanks for this exchange, and thanks to the author for my story 😁

I prefer DW, because I am hardly on LJ anymore, but it's just my opinion. ☺

[rainbow_teatime]

Otsukaresama, mods and fellow writers! Thanks so much for this lovely fanfic exchange <3

A really big THANK YOU to phrenk for writing me a really sweet masterpiece (with some good bits of spice heh)

Another big THANK YOU to nino_mod for taking the time and effort to put together this wonderful exchange. I am already looking forward to participating in next year's Nino Exchange already.

For a good number of us, I believe it is our first year on DW. It's still quite a lot of things to get used to ( I MISS FLEXIBLE SQUARES LAYOUT ; ^ ; ) but so far I think it has proven itself a decent alternative platform to LJ for fanfic writing and fanfic exchanges.

I wouldn't suggest going back to livejournal (questionable Terms of Service ahem ahem), and I think that so far Dreamwidth has been a pretty good place to be. So.. yeah. Why not stay? :D

[lilly0]

Thank you so much clipsie for this lovely story you wrote for me! I enjoyed it a lot! (Adorable, casual Matsumiya <3)

Also thanks to the mods for running this exchange!
I kind of prefer DW for an exchange, however I have never tried an exchange on AO3, so... well, guess I would give it a try there too.

[yun_miyake]

thank you Mod for your hard work and thanks for the great fics

Thank you

[eiko_lotus]

wow... finally revealed... thank you ltgmars for the lovely and sweet fic, i love it so much.
Thank you very much for dearest nino_mod for arranging this exchange, it was super fun.
and if must choose, I prefer to stay in DW for next year, it allows crossposting which will make it easier for all of us.
So... see you next year

[piggywhale]

Another great year with lots of great fics. I am so happy to be a part of this. Thank you our lovely mods for being super kind and super understanding. It has been so fun.

To yukitsubute I cannot believe you had me in the dark for all this time. LoL It must be my great luck to have you writing for me again, dear. Thank you sooo much for the wonderful story. I LOVEEEE IT!!! 💚💜 (I am gonna change the heart colors just for you ;) )

[sk1726]

Thank you so much for the awesome fics. Surely this year Ninoex didn't let me down as I could read many good fics. Thank you for all the hard work and effort to create awesome pieces.

I still can't believe me lovely writer shardaunei

tricked me. Ily anyway and what you wrote for me was hilarious. Never set me in a trap ever again XDDD

Thank you so much mod-san for holding this exchange again. Looking forward for next year ninoex <3

[kittykaty]

Finally, let me say my thanks as well!

It was fun to write the "Nino story" this year. I have a feeling that this exchange triggers me to write some really nice stories LOL
So, dear mod, thanks for arranging this for us every year again!

Many thanks goes to piggywhale who took the hard task to write a story for me that was out of her comfort zone! Thanks so much!

Also, thanks to my dear Sky who always stayed by my side during the writing process!

I agree with many of you that dw is a nice place and I wouldn't mind staying here for the next years.
I also agree that the stories shouldn't be posted on LJ because we left this platform due to the new ToS. Just the links are fine and as mentionied, are less work for the mod, I suppose!

I hope to see many (if not all) of you next year again! <3