Creator reveals!

[chocolateboxmod]

All creators should now be revealed! Congratulations everyone on another successful Chocolate Box.

A reminder to those we had to default at deadline, you are required to complete your assignment before you can sign up next year. If you're not sure whether you were defaulted by us at deadline or not, please email us at chocolateboxmod@gmail.com so we can check.

Now is your opportunity to provide feedback! We will not be commenting (unless we are asked a direct question), but we will be reading!

One of the things that came up during nominations was that some of the relationship tags were, in the eyes of some people, potentially in bad taste. Our default position is (as it has been in all years) that we are not going to be rejecting relationship tags unless the tag includes the nomination of a real life child in a RPF fandom. That said, given the sheer number of complaints we got this year, we thought that we should open this for discussion. Should we continue to allow essentially all nominations? And if the answer is "no", what criteria should we be using?

Talking about nominations, it's looking like the change in numbers worked for the better - we went a lot longer this time before the admin console started to break down, and we didn't get the complete shutdown from the previous round. If you have suggestions for nomination numbers, we're interested to hear them.

Finally, we remind you all that anon comments are screened by default, but will be unscreened if you include your AO3 name.

Comments

[weirdwednesday]

I absolutely support your regular stance on nominations, and I don't think any restrictions other than the existing one should be added.

The rules might benefit from a small upgrade - they currently don't say that the story should be finished.

[isis]

I agree with both of these points!

[prettysophist]

I think you should stick to your current rules for relationship nominations. I saw quite a few that made me cringe a little, but my attitude is very much that if people want to request or offer these things that they should be free to do so. Once you start censoring nominations it will be very hard to find a natural stopping point.

Thank you very much for all your hard work!

[crantz]

Yeah, I learned that the hard way with Original Works Exchange/OWO. It really isn't worth it.

[rainsometimes]

I think it would be best to stick to current rules for nominations. One can discuss what's in good taste for a long time.

[slightweasel]

I think you should continue to allow all other nominations.

[chocolatepot]

I suspect the issue is the Original Work prompts that hint at non-consensual or most-likely-non-consensual pairings? Can you confirm that?

I can understand where people are coming from when they complain about these - assuming that they are in fact complaining about these - but ultimately they don't seem any different from hero/villain pairings in general. If I choose Harry Potter/Voldemort and then say in my letter that I want a Voldemort Wins AU, it's clear that I'm asking for a problematic situation (though I guess it could be interpreted with Dark!Harry), no different from an Original Works prompt with Master/Slave He Defeated in Battle. If you crack down on the latter, then every fandom's got to be gone through with a fine-toothed comb.

[chocolateboxmod]

This year, the complaints came from both Original Works and RPF.

[chicago_ruth]

Please continue your regular stance of nominations. Anybody who doesn't like a pairing doesn't have to offer/request it, and certainly nobody is forcing them to read/write. Additionally, Chocolate Box as a whole doesn't actually receive that many fics that are on the more objectionable scale. Of 1301 stories, only 7 are marked with underage and only 20 are marked with rape/noncon.

For those of us who do enjoy questionable content, being able to match on it via specific ship tags (especially in original works nominations) is very helpful.

Additionally, I think it would create far more work for you, the mods. You would need to double-check the ages of any characters, as well as the background of any given ship. Is Kilgrave/Jessica Jones acceptable? If yes, why not rapist/victim in Original Works? If you're throwing out Father/Daughter in Original Works, then I'd expect Zeus/Athena to be kicked out too. And are "John Smith/Jane Smith" a married couple, siblings, father/daughter, or do they just coincidentally share a last name?

You shouldn't have to google every single ship, that's way too time consuming. So keeping the current system is better for everybody, IMO.

[yuuago]

Please continue to allow all relationships (with the one exclusion you mentioned in this post).

Thank you for running this exchange; I enjoyed it very much. :)

[ratcreature]

I'm also in favor of keeping the current nomination rules.

[james]

I am in favor of keeping the nomination rules the same - if you object to a pairing, then don't read or write it. No one is forcing them to participate in pairings they find objectionable. Nothing is stopping them from hosting their own fest if they want!

Thank you for all your work with hosting and running this, it was great fun!

[corvidology]

Your nominations rules seem perfectly reasonable to me but then I'm I big believer in live and let live.

I know you can't do polls on a free account but if you'd like I'd be happy to host one on my paid account, lock off comments and you could just link to it from here where people could leave comments if they wish.

It could be completely anonymous or "view voters" and have whatever questions you want.

[runicmagitek]

Please continue to keep the current nomination rules. No one is forcing anyone to read, write, draw, or consuming any content they are uncomfortable with. If someone is abhorrently opposed to that concept, perhaps they can go elsewhere.

Also, thank you for putting together and running this exchange ♥ I had a lot of fun!

[mahmfic]

I wouldn't like a change for nominations. I don't think it'd be fun. You'd have to regulate everything. People will be picky on what's "bad" and what's "good". If there was. People can just deal. Everyone has different tastes. They don't have to ask for or nominate a relationship if they don't like it.

[tjs_whatnot]

I agree with everyone here that relationships should stay as they are. Where do we draw the line? When did we stop being able to scroll past and NOPE out of things that we find reprehensible?

[scribblemyname]

Yes, you should allow basically all nominations. I get that the movement about "bad taste" is getting rather large in fandom lately but they are welcome to start their own exchanges that decide what is and is not bad taste. There are always a ton of noms that hit my squicks, but I absolutely think we should keep them because those fans have a right to their fic too. Chocobox isn't geared for kids, and there's nothing wrong with the nominations as run, where it comes to content restrictions.

[(Anonymous)]

A03 Name: Kameiko

Good morning, Mods!

I want to thank you all for the hard work and everything y'all have done to make this a pleasant experience for everyone! Thank you for answering my e-mail last month when I was stuck with questions! The answer came in a swiftly and timely manner, and I appreciate that so much!

As for nominations: Yes! If it's including real people I would only allow anyone over the age requirements for such nominations! Although if original character's/in real life people that is themselves are included I would still file them under the OFC/OMC tag! Children not included! I hope I am interpreting your post correctly. Sorry if I am not!

Thanks again!

-Kameiko

[asya_ana]

Thanks for supporting artistic freedom. Don't like, don't read. I support your current stance.

[seerofrage]

The current nomination policy is fine!

Thank you for running the exchange, it was a lot of fun! :D

[learnedfoot]

Add my voice to the "keep nominations as is" camp. And thank you for everything you do!

[anarchycox]

Keep the nominations rules as they are, it is too slippery slope otherwise on what to exclude. This was my first time doing this and I had a wonderful time.

[biblestudy]

Please don’t censor nominations. It has been said before, but it is basically impossible to set rules based on what is „in bad taste“ and what isn’t.

One suggestion I have for the next round is to split Original Work nominations in f/f, m/m, m/f and multi. It really helps to have things organised.

[chocolatepot]

Yeah, there are so many OW pairings, it would help to break them don like that.

[lostboywriting]

Please continue your current nominations policy. Fiction needs to be able to include topics--and perspectives on those topics--that some people will find uncomfortable. Nobody's forcing anyone to read or write or draw or view anything they don't want to, and writing about something in a fictional context, with fictional characters, does not mean condoning it in real life. If the existence of content they're not comfortable with means that for some people they're not comfortable taking part in the exchange, that's their decision to make.

[florianschild]

Thank you for running such a great exchange! I really enjoyed the whole experience. :)

I do have some feedback on nominations numbers: Currently, someone can nominate a fandom with just one pairing and then go on to offer that one pairing only, even though the offer form on A03 is actually requiring a minimum of two relationships for each offer. I was able to get around this by doing bucket offers (which I'm assuming others had to do? There were MANY approved fandoms with just one pairing nominated) but it's really strange to be creating an offer and get an AO3 error that says you HAVE to offer two relationships where there literally are not two available in the tagset.

Another issue that this could cause: someone could nominate a fandom with a single relationship, and assume that they will be able to create an offer with just that ship. However, if someone later nominated a bunch of other ships in that fandom that are all outside the first writer's wheelhouse (possibly even a legit squick/DNW for that writer) then they can no longer offer in that fandom at all, because their one pairing (which would have been completely legit and allowed if no other nominations had been submitted) is suddenly not enough and they have to pick of the squicky ships or drop than fandom.

I hope I'm explaining this clearly enough? I'm not sure what the best solution would be. Maybe requiring at least two relationships in any nomination. I know the mods don't want to go back to allowing single relationships in offers, so maybe that would be the next best option?

Thanks again!

[(Anonymous)]

For the fandoms with one ship tag in the tagset, you just offer "any", it means you're offering one ship but you won't get an error message.

(nova)

[muccamukk]

Thanks for such a well-run fest! I had a lot of fun and hope to be back next year.

The rules seem fine to me the way they are.

[astolat]

Keep the current rules. Thanks so much again for a super fun exchange!

[piscaria]

Here’s another vote for keeping nominations as they are. If someone finds a pairing in bad taste, they don’t have to offer, request, or read it.