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equinox_exchange*
General Information
Equinox is a twice annual vid exchange taking place in spring and autumn, with a different theme each season. The exchange is open to all fanvidders who wish to make and receive vids on the season's theme. The theme for Spring Equinox 2020 is "Game On!"
Every vidder who signs up for the exchange will be matched with another participating vidder, their gift vid recipient, and given their recipient's list of requested fandoms. Vidders must make one vid, at least one minute in length, for one of their recipient's requested fandoms. Each participating vidder will get a gift vid made to one of their requests.
The Moderators
The lead moderator is Trelkez; the Spring Equinox team is Eunice and sweetestdrain; the Fall Equinox team is Eunice, elipie, and Milly.
The Schedule
February 16 - 22: Nominations
May 9: Vidder reveals
Platforms
Equinox takes place primarily on AO3: https://archiveofourown.org/collections/Equinox
The exchange's social media / blogging platforms are:
Dreamwidth: http://equinox-exchange.dreamwidth.org/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/equinox_vids
Tumblr: http://equinox-vids.tumblr.com/
Contact Information
The mods can be reached by email at equinoxvids@gmail.com. Mods will also be checking twitter DMs, LJ/DW comments, etc., but those methods may have longer response times.
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How Equinox is Organized: Seasons, Themes, and AO3
Exchange Seasons
Equinox takes place twice a year: once from February - May (Spring Equinox) and once from July - October (Fall Equinox). Spring Equinox and Fall Equinox are referred to as exchange seasons. Spring and Fall have different moderator teams, so that each set of mods only has to run one exchange a year.
Seasonal Themes
Every exchange season will have a different theme, to keep things fresh and vary the pool of fandoms as much as possible. Themes so far have been:
Spring 2017: Vids in Space
Fall 2017: Based on Books
Spring 2018: Folklore, Fairy Tales, Legends & Mythology
Fall 2018: We're Not in Kansas Anymore
Spring 2019: Sources from the 1990s
Fall 2019: Costume Party
How Themes Are Chosen
At the end of each exchange season, the moderators will take a public vote on the theme for the next season. The themes may be drawn from mod ideas, social media suggestions, themes leftover from previous voting, and so on. The theme with the highest number of votes wins; if there is a tie, the moderators will cast tie-breaker votes to select a winner.
Any theme that isn't picked can still be put up for vote in future seasons. In particular, very popular runner-up themes are likely to reappear soon after.
Archive of Our Own
Equinox runs on Archive of Our Own / AO3. To participate, you must have an AO3 account. If you do not have one, you can request an invite by going to the Invite Request page: http://archiveofourown.org/invite_requests
You can't nominate fandoms or sign up for the exchange until you have an AO3 account. The invitation queue can take several days depending on how many invites are pending, so please plan ahead and request an account (if you need one) before the exchange season begins.
The exchange mods are happy to help anyone navigate the sign up or posting forms, figure out streaming solutions, and so on. One thing we cannot do is sign up or post for you, as we cannot be responsible for your AO3 login / password. (Sure, we're probably okay, but for safety's sake, please don't give us your password!)
You're welcome to have a trusted friend sign you up and/or post for you. Always be careful when giving out your login and password.
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Fandom Eligibility
What Constitutes a Fandom
The exchange uses "fandoms" and "sources" interchangeably (as both are commonly used when referring to vids). For the purposes of the exchange, a fandom is a canonical AO3 fandom tag, though given the broad scope of AO3's canonical fandoms, not all may qualify for use in the exchange, either overall or for any given theme.
What Kinds of Fandoms Qualify Overall
Types of fandoms that can generally be requested or offered include, but are not limited to: live action television and movies; anime and other animated television and movies; live action or animated sources released on streaming platforms or the internet; comic books, graphic novels, and manga; video games; text-based sources such as books; and non-visual sources such as podcasts. (Note that not all types of sources may be eligible for a particular theme.)
Fandoms must have specific bodies of source to qualify, and not all AO3 fandom tags may meet this requirement. (For example, anything "anthropomorphic" will not qualify.) An exception to this is RPF, which tends to have more dispersed source but is generally allowable so long as it fits the theme. If you aren't sure if a specific kind of AO3 fandom tag qualifies, contact the exchange mods.
What Qualifies for "Game On!"
Sources in any format focusing on games & game play.
("Sources in any format" includes (but is not limited to) live action television and movies; anime and other animated television and movies; live action or animated sources released on streaming platforms or the internet; video games; comic books, graphic novels, and manga; and non-graphical/visual sources, e.g. books and podcasts.)
There are many kinds of games under the umbrella of this theme, including sports, video and tabletop games, reality TV competitions, and more.
More information about what sources may qualify is here: https://equinox-exchange.dreamwidth.org/31377.html
If you have any questions about the theme and what qualifies, email us at equinoxvids@gmail.com
There is no franchise grouping rule, so any canonical AO3 fandom tag can be used independently. For example, any of these levels of Star Wars fandom tags are eligible to be independently nominated:
- Star Wars - All Media Types
- Star Wars Legacy Era - All Media Types
- Star Wars Original Trilogy
- Star Wars Episode V: Empire Strikes Back
You are free to use the fandom tag that best fits the scope of the material you want to offer / request. (See Requests / Offers for more details on choosing the specific fandom tags you want to use.)
Safety Fandoms
A safety fandom is a source with a total runtime of 240 minutes or less, which has a maximum of two separate pieces (films, episodes, and so on). A movie and its sequel, if they are under 240 minutes combined, would count; a web series, short form television show, or other sources with more than two episodes/shows/etc. would not count.
Whether or not a source counts as a safety will also depend on the scope of the material set by the AO3 fandom tag – in the example above, Star Wars Episode V is a safety fandom; the other tags are not.
Fandoms without specific runtimes, such as comic books, video games, books, and RPF, are not eligible to be safety fandoms.
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Source Availability
For a fandom to be eligible, the source for it must be widely available by the time assignments go out. Books/graphic novels must be published, television shows must be airing, films must be available at least as cam rips, and so on.
If you sign up for a film that is currently in theaters and/or won't be out on DVD/Bluray when assignments go out, we expect that you will have the source in hand through other means at assignment time; please don't sign up for any fandom if you don't have the source or can't absolutely for sure acquire it. Defaults for "I couldn't get the source" reasons will be treated like any other defaults.
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Nominations
You can nominate up to 10 safety fandoms and up to 10 longer fandoms.
Nominations will be open for one week. Please only nominate fandoms if you are interested in participating in the exchange.
Tag Sets
There are two tag sets for the fall exchange: one for safety fandoms (240 minutes / 4 hrs or less, and no more than two films/episodes/separate pieces per safety source) and one for longer fandoms (241 minutes or more, and/or three episodes/films or more). The tag sets are separated to make it easy to see which fandoms are classed as safeties and which are not.
Safety fandoms will have to be nominated specifically to the safety tag set, and longer fandoms to the main tag set.
Tag Moderation
As nominations come in, the tag set moderator (with assistance from other exchange moderators as needed) will look over all nominated sources. They'll be checking for two things:
- Does the fandom fit the theme?
Nominated fandoms are expected to fit the guidelines given here. Anything needing clarification will be posted to the challenge Dreamwidth to give nominators a chance to explain their nominated source's relation to the theme. If a fandom tag overtly does not fit the guidelines, moderators aren't required to ask for clarification; anything can be rejected from the final tag set if it doesn't fit, and the final decision on all approval/rejection of fandom tags is with the exchange moderators.
- Was the fandom nominated to the correct tag set?
The tag mod will also be checking the total runtimes of nominated sources to make sure that all safeties (and only safeties) are in the safety fandom tag set. Any duplication between tag sets will be removed at this point.
Moderation Starts When Nominations Start
To save time and make lists of tags available as nominations go on so people can see what has already been nominated, the tag moderators will be approving or rejecting tags as nominations are submitted. That means that once your nominations have been sent in, there's no guarantee you'll be able to edit them.
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Sign Ups
Sign ups will be open for one week. Sign ups must be done through the Spring Equinox 2020 exchange on AO3.
Requests
You can request 4 – 8 fandoms.
The first four requests must be distinct fandoms with no overlap. (Being excited about a franchise is great, but vidders need options. At least four of your requests must not contain the same/overlapping source material – eg, "Star Wars - All Media Types" and "Star Wars Original Trilogy" are overlapping fandom tags, as are "Star Wars Original Trilogy" and "Rogue One: A Star Wars Story", despite not containing significant character overlap.)
Please note: We will be carefully enforcing this rule. If your sign up doesn't include at least four requests for separate and distinct franchises, you will be contacted by moderators to make changes.
At least one request must be a source from the safety fandom tag set, with a total runtime of 240 minutes or less and a maximum of two films/episodes.
For Spring 2020, you can include up to 8 character and 8 relationship tags in each fandom request.
This is strictly optional; only fandoms are required for sign-up, and characters/relationships are optional for both AO3 matching and the assigned vidder. If you do have one or more characters or relationships in mind, you're encouraged to include them by tag in your request, as AO3 will take characters / relationships into account if possible to make better matches.
(Character and relationship tags are considered individually - Rey or Finn or Poe Dameron or Poe Dameron/Finn/Rey or BB-8 & Rey. If you included all of those in your request, they would be treated as individual, optional requests for vids about Rey or Finn or Poe Dameron/Finn/Rey, etc.)
Only characters and relationships canonically associated with each fandom within AO3 will be available at sign-up. AO3 relationship tags include romantic relationships (Y/Z, X/Y/Z, etc) and platonic relationships (Y & Z). If there's a character or relationship you want to request that doesn't populate automatically, contact the exchange mods.
You can offer 4 – 10 fandoms.
As with requests, the first four offers must be for distinct fandoms/franchises with no overlap. For the remaining six additional offer slots, you are free to overlap as much as you like. Since the specific tag under which someone asks for a fandom may vary, if there's something you very much want to vid, you may want to offer it under a couple of different fandom tags – but keep in mind that the broader the fandom tag, the broader the scope of the source you're offering. If you really only want to offer to vid "Star Wars Original Trilogy," that should be the tag you pick, and not "Star Wars - All Media Types," where someone may ask for another trilogy – or a TV show – or a book.
(If you want to vid Original Trilogy but are also up for vidding Empire Strikes Back on its own, you would want to offer both; fandom tags have to match exactly and tag nesting doesn't affect matching, so you can't be assigned a Empire Strikes Back request just by offering Original Trilogy.)
You can include up to 10 character and 10 relationship tags in each fandom offer.
To give you the best possible match, you're encouraged to offer as many characters or relationships as you wish to vid (up to the form limits). Even if you're matched on both fandom and character, the character tag is still optional – you aren't required to vid the character or relationship tags – but it will help to bring your vidding interests more in line with your recipients' interests.
Unlike requests, "multi-fandom" is not allowed as an offer fandom (it will show up on the form, but if you tick it as an offer, you'll be asked to edit your sign up). Multi-fandom requests are not used for matching.
Editing Your Sign Up
You can edit your sign up form at any time before sign ups close, under My Sign Ups on AO3
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Assignments
AO3 Matching
All assignment matching is done within AO3. Matching will be done as quickly as possible after sign ups close. It may take a few run-throughs to get the matching to where it needs to be, and there may be unassigned recipients left over; in that case, pinch hits for recipients without vidders will need to be squared away before assignments can go out. As soon as there is a vidder for every recipient, assignments will be sent out.
Your assignment notification will be sent to the email address you have set in AO3 (this is done automatically), and can also be viewed on AO3 itself under My Assignments.
Matching Errors
If the assignment you receive doesn't match your offers, please contact the exchange mods immediately so that we can fix it. (If you never receive your assignment at all, please also contact the exchange mods immediately! Sometimes AO3 can hiccup, it happens.)
Your Assignment is a Secret!
Exchange assignments must be kept secret. Vidders are welcome to privately enlist the help of betas, but the details of assignments must not be revealed in public. (It's perfectly fine to say publicly, "I got my assignment!" or talk in generic terms about working on your vid; it's not okay to say, "I was assigned Vidder X!" or name the fandoms you were assigned.) Assignment secrecy is expected to be maintained until the end of each challenge season, when the vid anon period ends and vidder names are revealed. The same goes for pinch hits and treats – if you're working on any vid for Equinox, the expectation is that you won't talk about the specifics in public.
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Gift Requirements
To fulfill your assignment, you must make a vid at least one minute in length to one of the fandoms your recipient has requested and upload the final version of the vid by the deadline.
Fandom
Characters, Relationships, and Optional Details
All of these things are optional (to a degree - see below for more information on "do not want" requests). If you provided characters and relationships in your sign up, you may have been matched on one or more characters or relationships in your recipient's requests, but that doesn't mean you're required to vid them. Character and relationship tags are an extension of optional details: we ask that you make use of them if possible, but the only tag you're required to include is the requested fandom.
Things like song suggestions or even specific vid concepts are sometimes included in optional details; whether or not you use these is up to you. Using recipient-provided song ideas is great if you can do it, but we encourage you first and foremost to choose songs and concepts that you are comfortable with and excited about vidding.
"Do Not Want" / Trigger Information In Optional Details
Recipients may sometimes include in their optional details things they specifically do not want. If your recipient has listed specific triggers or squicks that they are asking you to exclude from your vid, you are expected to abide by their request. If you have concerns about a "do not want" request in your assignment, contact the exchange moderators.
You're allowed to use limited outside source, but crossovers aren't allowed unless your recipient specifically asks for it.
- Allowed: using scenery or other nonspecific imagery from multiple sources, so long as the vid's fandom itself is still the majority of the source.
- Not Allowed: getting a Jane Eyre request and then dropping in Dean Winchester.
(Unless your recipient put Dean Winchester/Edward Fairfax Rochester in their optional details and you decided to go for it, in which case we wish you the best of luck, and remind you the vid still needs to be set in the Jane Eyre universe.)
When using outside source, the requested fandom must be at least 50% of the source material for the finished vid, and the vid must be recognizably for the requested fandom/set in its universe.
- Fandoms with no primary vidding source:
For books, podcasts, or other fandoms with no filmed or drawn source, you can use whatever source you need to when constructing your vid. Keep in mind that the vid still needs to be for the requested fandom, and can't include crossovers - if Jensen Ackles shows up in a Night Vale vid, he should be a Night Vale character, and not Dean Winchester in Night Vale. (Unless your optional details include a request for Dean Winchester in Night Vale, in which case again, best of luck!)
- Multi-fandom:
For multi-fandom, you're free to use any source that fits the overall theme guidelines. You aren't limited to nominated sources, but please observe the fandom eligibility rules when choosing sources. (We aren't going to analyze your vid shot by shot to figure out if you followed the guidelines or not - this is on the honor system.)
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Pinch Hits and Treats
Pinch hits, once assigned, function as mandatory assignments; treats are optional gift vids made in addition to your assignment(s).
Pinch Hits
A pinch hit is an assignment in need of a vidder – because the original vidder defaulted, or because the AO3 matching had a few unassigned recipients left over. Pinch hits are full assignments, and must meet the requirements of a standard assignment vid (mainly, being at least a minute long and being made to one of the recipient's requests).
Pinch hits will be posted as they come up to the exchange Dreamwidth, with announcements mirrored on other platforms. Anyone can claim a pinch hit, regardless of whether or not they signed up to participate in the exchange. To claim a pinch hit, comment on the pinch hit post with "I'll do it!" or similar, and give your email address so that the moderators can contact you.
Pinch hits are generally assigned on a first come, first served basis; that said, if you've already claimed a few pinch hits and are going back for another, we might give priority to someone after you who hasn't claimed any yet.
The deadline for pinch hits will vary depending on when the pinch hit is assigned, and may not be the main vid deadline; in particular, pinch hits assigned on or after the default deadline will definitely not be due on the main vid deadline. Watch for specifics on pinch hit deadlines as the pinch hits go up.
Treats
Treats are gift vids made for participants in addition to their primary gift vids. Anyone can make a treat, regardless of whether or not they signed up for the exchange.
Treats must be at least 30 seconds in length, and need to fit all the requirements for standard gift vids (aside from length).
Vidders are welcome to make their assigned recipient more than one vid based on their requests, or to browse for Dear Equinox letters for prompts.
Treats must be in by a certain time on May 1st, 2020 (the day before vids go live). An exact time will be announced on Dreamwidth closer to the deadline.
Dear Equinox Letters
Often in fanwork exchanges, participants will post "Dear…" letters to their DW / LJ / Tumblr / etc., detailing their requests and and adding any additional information that may not have fit in their sign up. Things often included in letters are musical preferences, a broader overview of vid and genre likes / dislikes, and more detail on specific fandom interests or dislikes. These aren't required, but can be fun to write, and are a good way to share your requests if you are interested in getting vid treats.
A post will go up in the exchange Dreamwidth during the sign-up period to collect links to Dear Equinox letters, so that anyone looking to make treats can easily find them.
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Uploading and Posting
Vids must be uploaded and posted to AO3, either as an embedded stream or as a download link.
Is Your Vid Complete?
Before you upload and post a vid, it should be finished. If you haven't finished your vid, you haven't met the requirements, and shouldn't submit your assignment as complete.
Exchange moderators will be checking in vids/vid posts as they're submitted; please don't attempt to submit a half-finished placeholder vid at the deadline and then swap it out for something else before vids go live. If we find out you did this, it will be treated the same as a full default, with the same penalties.
(If you make tweaks to your vid before you post a signed version or otherwise after the exchange is finished, that's up to you, but we expect that the version you upload before the deadline will be the same one people watch when the exchange goes live.)
Not all streaming video sites can be used for embedding video on AO3. The list of approved streaming host sites is here: http://archiveofourown.org/faq/posting-and-editing?language_id=en#hostsites
It includes YouTube, Vimeo, and Dailymotion, three streaming host sites commonly used for vid streaming. We recommend you use one of these three.
If you use Vimeo or Dailymotion, your vid privacy settings should be set so that your vid is only viewable with a password, and the password should be included in the body of your AO3 post.
Password settings on Dailymotion:
Setting the vid as unlisted will mean that it is only viewable to people with the direct link – it can't be searched or found from your profile page.
If you want to provide a download link instead of or in addition to an embedded stream, you're welcome to do so. Any download host sites used should be easy to navigate in one or two clicks (such as Sendspace or Dropbox); please don't use sites that disguise download links, hide them with ads, or produce a lot of pop-ups.
Whatever the hosting solution you use, please make sure the account isn't immediately identifiable as you. Keep in mind it's easy to figure out what hosting account vids are being posted from; you should never use your own primary Vimeo, YouTube, Dropbox etc. You can create your own anonymous account, or you're welcome to share one with a friend (just make sure you don't upload any vids for your friend to your shared account!).
When you create an anon account for your vid, make sure you don't lose the login and password! (There's nothing like having an unsigned version of your vid endlessly circulating on YouTube because you can't remember how to log into the anonymous account anymore.) And always make sure you keep a copy of your unsigned vid at least until the anonymous/live period is over; accidents, hiccups, and vid takedowns can happen, so it's always good to have a back up copy.
Posting to AO3
When posting your vid as a new work to AO3, you should fill out the posting form as completely as you can: make sure you tag relationships and characters as needed, include a summary, and make proper use of all the required fields such as rating and archive warnings. If you have video or audio content notes/warnings, those should be included in the notes at the beginning of the post, along with any other content notes/warnings you wish to convey.
(For more info on warnings, see the Accessibility section below.)
Your Equinox assignment will show up as a tick box under "Associations," like the Yuletide assignment in this example:
For each assignment, your recipient's name will show up in parentheses after the exchange name, eg "Spring Equinox 2020 (yourvidrecipient)". If you have more than one assignment (if you picked up one or more pinch hits), make sure you've selected the right one.
Nothing else under "Associations" should matter; when you submit your assignment, the collection and gift associations will be added automatically.
Under "Privacy," it's up to you whether or not you allow anonymous commenting or enable comment moderation, but please leave the post settings public so your vid can be viewed by non-registered users.
The body of your post must contain a streaming embed and/or download link to your vid. If you provide a download link, make sure you include the URL itself in your post (and not just clickable text). For streaming, you'll need the embed code provided by your host website – on YouTube, for example, this is found under Share > Embed. It will look something like:
(In the example above, we recommend unticking "Show suggested videos.")
Copy the embed code and paste it into the body of your AO3 new work form, making sure you're in the HTML view:
You can use the body of the post to include song lyrics or additional notes as needed. Please make sure you aren't including any identifying information – you should save any notes on your vidding process or thank yous for your betas for the signed version of your post, after the exchange is finished.
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Check In and Defaulting
Check In
There will be a mandatory check-in for all participants starting on Sunday, March 29. A post will go up in the challenge Dreamwidth (and will be linked from other platforms) asking all participants to check in and let the moderators know they're still working on a vid for the exchange. Vidders can check in either with screened comments on the DW post or via email to the moderators. Moderators will attempt to contact participants who don't check in, but any participants who fail to check in at all will be assumed to be defaulting on their assignments.
Defaulting
If you miss the check-in or posting deadline, you will automatically default – you will no longer be considered a participant in that exchange season, and your assignment will be reassigned to someone else. If at any point you need to drop out, please do so as soon as possible, rather than waiting for the moderators to find out when a deadline rolls around. You can drop out/default at any time on AO3 under My Assignments:
You don't need to contact the moderators to default (though you're welcome to do so if you wish, or if you run into problems trying to default through My Assignments).
Default Deadline
The deadline for low-penalty default is Sunday, April 12. The default deadline is considered "low-penalty" rather than "no-penalty" as any participant who defaults by the deadline will be required to do an extra check-in during the next exchange they participate in.
Penalties for Defaulting
- If you default by the default deadline, and it is your first time defaulting on an Equinox assignment: You will be required to do an extra mandatory check-in during the next exchange season you sign up for.
- If you default after the default deadline, and it is your first time defaulting on an Equinox assignment: You won't be allowed to sign up for the next exchange season, but are welcome to sign up again after that, with an extra mandatory check-in during the next exchange season you sign up for.
- If you default at any point during the exchange, and it is your second time defaulting on an Equinox assignment: You won't be allowed to sign up for the next two exchange seasons, but are welcome to sign up again after that, with an extra mandatory check-in during the next exchange season you sign up for.
- If you default at any point during the exchange, and it is your third time defaulting on an Equinox assignment: You will no longer be allowed to participate in the exchange.
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Go Live, Anonymity Period, and Reveals
Go Live
The exchange collection will "go live" at some point on Saturday, May 2nd. This is likely to happen between 2PM – 4PM ET, but may happen earlier or later depending on last minute posts that need to be checked or fixed, glitches, and the availability of a moderator to hit the GO! button.
Anonymity Period
The live / anonymity period will last for one week. All participating vidders are expected to maintain anonymity until this period ends.
Reveals
The anonymity period will end and vidders will be revealed on Saturday, May 9th. As with go live, this will probably happen sometime between 2PM – 4PM ET, but may happen earlier or later depending on moderator schedules.
After the Exchange Ends
Vidders are free to edit their vid posts with signed versions of their vids after the anonymity period ends. We ask that you keep the challenge associations on your posts so that they can be easily found by gift recipients and other vid watchers later on.
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Accessibility
Equinox aims to be accessible to any vidder who wishes to participate. The vid exchange's policies are somewhat in flux as we see what works and what doesn't; if you have requests for changes to the policies listed below, please let us know.
Anyone with requests, questions, comments, or concerns is welcome to email the exchange moderators at equinoxvids@gmail.com.
Warnings / Content Notes
All vid posts are required to make proper use of AO3's warnings system, which includes:
- choose not to use Archive warnings
- none of these warnings apply
- graphic depictions of violence
- major character death
- rape/non-con
- underage
In addition, we require that vidders not using "choose not to use Archive warnings" warn in their post notes for:
- physical triggers (which may include strobing lights, very rapid cutting between short clips, or bright / white flashes of light)
- audio triggers (which may include sudden loud noise, gunshot audio, or other startling or sustained loud noises on the audio track)
Vidders are welcome to include these in their tags as well as their notes, but we require those warnings to be in the post notes at the beginning of the post to make them easy to find at a glance. Vidders are also welcome to use any additional trigger warnings/content notes they feel necessary (eg self-harm, medical trauma, animal harm, etc.).
Communicating Trigger Information to Your Vidder
If there are triggers you want your vidder to exclude from the vid made for you, please include them in the optional details portion of your sign up form if you feel comfortable doing so. (Please note that this information may be publicly shared; don't include anything in your sign up form that you aren't comfortable with being posted for pinch hits.)
Vidders are expected to follow any "do not want" requests in their assignments, including (and in particular) trigger exclusion requests. If the vid you receive doesn't take your "do not want" requests into account, please contact the exchange moderators and let them know.
If you would rather not include trigger information on your sign up form, contact the exchange moderators, and we can pass that information along to your vidder directly. (Note that as we can't know who might be making you treat vids, we wouldn't be able to pass that information along to treat vidders.)
Subtitles
If you are an exchange participant who will need subtitles on your gift vid(s), please contact the exchange mods as soon as possible, and we'll make sure your main/assignment gift vid will be subtitled (likely either by exchange moderators or volunteers) before vids go live. If you receive vid treats that are uploaded close to the final treat deadline, these may not have subtitles immediately available at go live, but we will make subtitles available as quickly as possible.
Vidders aren't required to subtitle their vid submissions, but are encouraged to submit vids with soft-coded subs.
If you would like to subtitle your vid(s), but aren't sure how, here's a tutorial in the WisCon Vid Party DW: https://wiscon-vidparty.dreamwidth.org/7015.html
Instructions for how to add subtitles to your vids on the three recommended streaming sites:
YouTube: https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/2734796?hl=en
Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/help/faq/managing-your-videos/captions-and-subtitles
Dailymotion: https://faq.dailymotion.com/hc/en-us/articles/203790726-Subtitles
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Harassment
Equinox does not tolerate harassment of or by any of its participants, on any basis, in any form. While we don't anticipate harassment taking place within the framework of the vid exchange, we recognize that online harassment can happen anywhere. If you are being targeted for harassment or see it taking place in any of the exchange spaces, please let the exchange moderators know immediately.
We will do our best to proactively keep it out of the comments of our Dreamwidth community (but we may miss something, or you may see it before we do). Twitter, Tumblr, and AO3 we have less control over, but please let us know, and also please report it to the platforms themselves if you can:
- Tumblr's policies and links to their reporting forms: https://www.tumblr.com/policy/en/community
- Twitter's policy on abuse and a link to its reporting form: https://support.twitter.com/articles/15794
- AO3's harassment policy: http://archiveofourown.org/tos#IV.G. and its abuse report form: http://archiveofourown.org/abuse_reports/new
If you contact us about harassment on AO3, please let us know whether or not you have reported it to AO3 already.
Reports made to the exchange moderators will be reviewed as quickly as possible. Participants found to be engaging in harassment may be issued a warning, may be immediately dropped from the current exchange season, or may be issued a permanent ban on participation, depending on the severity of the situation, the number of occurrences, and other factors.
The exchange moderators reserve the right to issue a permanent ban from participation to any person for any reason at any time.
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If you have questions about any aspect of the exchange guidelines or anything else to do with Equinox, you can contact the moderators at equinoxvids@gmail.com.
