2019 Schedule + FAQ
Schedule
All times are by 8:59pm CST. Convert time zones.
Nominations: December 14 to December 27
Sign Ups: December 29 to January 11
Assignments Go Out: by January 13
Assignments Due: March 9
Story Reveals: March 16
Author Reveals: March 23
FAQ
What is the Young Justice Fest?
Young Justice Fest is a fic exchange for the Young Justice animated cartoon. Participants sign up to write fic, make art, or create a vid for a character or ship someone else has requested. In return, they will receive fic, art, or a vid for a character or ship they have requested.
What are the fic, art, and vid minimums?
For fic, the minimum is 1,000 words. For art, the minimum is one 500x500 px piece, or multiple pieces that add up to that. For vids, the minimum is 2 minutes. Fic, art, and vids must include at least one of the characters or ships the recipient requested. You are not required to follow anything else from their request or letter, but please respect their do not wants as much as possible.
Why are there gaps in the schedule, like between nominations and sign ups?
The gaps in the schedule are to allow enough time for the mods to make sure everything is correct at every step. After nominations close, the mods will accept and reject any remaining nominations, as well as merging any that need it. Other gaps are to give enough time for AO3 to run sign up matching after sign ups close and for participants to edit their works after they’re due or for pinch hitters to submit works.
Do I need an AO3 account to participate?
Yes, you will need an AO3 account to participate as everything will be run through the Young Justice Fest AO3 collection. If you do not have an account, you can request an invite from AO3 before sign ups by going to the Invite Request page and adding your name to the queue. The page will show you how long you'll have to wait for an invite, generally a few days. You may also leave a comment here to request an invite as the mods have several extra this year.
How can I keep up with announcements?
All announcements and reminders will be crossposted on the Young Justice Fest livejournal, tumblr, pillowfort, and twitter.
What are nominations?
During nominations, people use an AO3 form to submit ships that they would like to see included in the fest. This will create a tag set which is used for making requests and offers during sign ups. Each person is allowed to nominate up to 10 ships. Mods will accept and reject nominations as they come in. You can only edit your nominations until they have been accepted or rejected.
You do not have to nominate in order to participate or participate in order to nominate.
What characters and ships are eligible?
Any character that appeared in any season of the Young Justice are eligible, including those who appear in promotional material for season 3. If you would like to make a case for a character’s inclusion despite them not appearing in the show, please leave a comment on the sign up announcement on livejournal and the mods will decide on a case by case basis. Any ships between two or more characters on the show are eligible. Romantic ships are marked with a / between characters and platonic ships are marked with a & between characters. Characters can be nominated using the form "Character & None". No crossover ships will are eligible for this round.
How does sign ups work?
During sign ups, people use an AO3 form to request and offer the characters and/or ships from the nominated tag set. Each person is allowed to request 0 to 10 ships. Each person is allowed to offer 0 to 10 ships. You can also request and offer “any” ships, which means you are willing to receive or create for any of the ships in the tag set or for the Young Justice universe in general.
You can edit your sign up at any time until sign ups end. For a detailed tutorial on how to sign up for any challenge on AO3, see this post.
What are “optional details”?
“Optional details” is a space on the sign up where you can add extra information about your request. This can be a good chance to let the person creating for you know about the kind of work you would like to receive, or not like to receive. Good things to include might be AUs you like, do not wants, favorite tropes or genres, prompts, etc. You do not have to include any information here unless you would like to and the person creating for you has no obligation to include any of the “optional details” in the work they create. We do ask creators to honor any squicks or triggers.
What are Dear YJ Fest Creator letters?
These are letters posted to personal journals, blogs, etc. that give creators more information about the kind of work you would like to receive. Like the “optional details” on the sign up, letters are entirely optional. We suggest that you put anything important in the optional details as there is no guarantee your creator will look at your letter.
There will be a space on the sign ups where you can link your letter so your creator can find it easily. There will also be a post on the YJF livejournal where you can link your letter. This will allow other participants to see your requests in case they would like to create treats.
What are treats?
Treats are unassigned works created just for fun. Treats do not have to meet the minimum requirements for the fest, though we do ask that you still honor squicks and triggers. There is no way to differentiate between assignments and treats, so you may want to mention in your author’s note that the work is a treat. There is no guarantee that you will get a treat, though having a letter linked in the letters post will increase your chances.
Can I contact my recipient? Can I talk about my assignment on my blog?
We ask that if you really feel you need to contact your recipient for information, you do it anonymously. A better option is to contact a mod and have them work as an intermediary.
Please also do not publicly discuss the details of your work, including who it is for, or upload your work publicly anywhere else before author reveals.
How do I post my work?
You can post your work in two ways. You can go to your “Assignments” page on AO3 and click on the assignment for this fest or go to the YJF collection and click Your Assignment. You can click either “Post to Fulfill” or “Default”. Clicking “Post to Fulfill” will take you to the posting form. This will automatically post your work to this year’s YJF collection with your recipient’s name already filled in. Just fill out the rest of the form, preview, and post.
If you’re posting a treat, you won’t have a “Post to Fulfill” button, so you will need to go to the YJF collection and click “Post to Collection” and fill in your recipient’s name by hand. Then fill out the rest of the form, preview, and post.
You can post your work any time before the assignment due date. You may make edits and minor changes before reveals, but please do not post an incomplete work. All works will show as “Mystery Work” by anonymous until reveals.
What is, and do I need, a beta?
A beta is basically a person who goes over your work to make sure that there are no spelling/grammatical errors and they can even be of assistance in helping you with story lines, etc. It is highly recommended that a beta looks over your work before posting, whether you are doing fic, art, or vid.
What are reveals?
Story reveals are when posted works are switched from hidden to visible. Participants are notified by AO3 by email that they have a gift waiting for them, with a link to the work. You can also look under “Gifts” on your profile to find a gift work. Author names will still be hidden at this point. Logged in authors can reply to comments on AO3, which will be under the name “Anonymous Creator” until author reveals.
Author reveals are when when author names switch from anonymous to showing the author name. At this point, authors may crosspost their works wherever they’d like.
Can I drop out?
We have high hopes that everybody who signs up can actually finish their assignment, but real life can unfortunately get in the way and we completely understand! If you feel like you just cannot finish in time and no amount of assistance from us can help you, just let us know by March 1st, if at all possible, so we can find a pinch hitter.
No-show defaulters, i.e. those who default by failing to post without clicking the Default button or contacting a mod, will be banned for the next round. If you were banned in a previous round, you can become unbanned by completing and posting a work for any request from a previous round, then contacting the mods with a link to the work.
What is a pinch hitter?
A pinch hitter is someone who comes in to create a work for someone whose original creator has defaulted. This makes sure as much as we can that everyone who signs ups receives a gift. Pinch hitters will generally have a much shorter timeline to create their work. Most will be due on the regular deadline of March 9. Some that are sent out after then may be due later. Post-deadline pinch hits need to be posted asap, though within 48 hours is preferable. Treats that meet the minimum fest requirements may be used as pinch hits in some cases.
Pinch hits will be posted on all YJF platforms and can be claimed via email. You do not have to have signed up for YJF to claim a pinch hit, though you will still need an AO3 account.
If you need help you can always contact a mod (reeby10 or biffelderberry) or send us an email at yjfest@gmail.com and we will do our best to help.