Yuletide Rarity and an Incomplete List of Ineligible Fandoms
We're hoping to get nominations going next week, and we'll let you know then about deadlines and such! For now, 
arduinna has been working on a nominations form tutorial that will be posted soon, so you can see how they will work.
As usual, the moderators will be reviewing the nominations and rejecting anything that isn't rare enough. One VERY IMPORTANT CHANGE this year: mod reviewing for fandom eligibility will be ongoing during the nominations period, and once a fandom has been accepted or rejected by the moderators, it's accepted or rejected across the board. Therefore, you will only be able to edit/change your nominations as long as the fandom in question hasn't been reviewed and accepted/rejected.
This streamlines the process in a couple of major ways. First, it means the moderators only have to look at a fandom once, rather than every time it's nominated. Second, it means that you'll see right away on your submitted nominations page if a fandom that you're pretty sure should be fine has been rejected, and you can let us know during the nominations instead of afterwards.
It also means that if all three of your fandoms have already been accepted or rejected, then you will not be able to edit your nominated fandoms.
Basically, this means that you should be sure about which three fandoms you want to nominate from the start, and you should be as certain as you can be about their expected eligibility. To help with this, we're providing this INCOMPLETE LIST of ineligible fandoms, which you can use as you're refining your nominations, and as a means of judging comparative rarity.
VERY ROUGH guidelines to consider, when judging rarity of a specific fandom (ETA: and other factors may also be taken into consideration):
1) Does it already have its own seasonal/holiday exchange?
2) Does the fandom have existing, fandom-specific archives of more than 500 stories? (ETA: this, on its own, will probably not be enough to exclude something)
3) Does it have 1000+ completed stories of 1000+ words on fanfiction.net?
4) Does it have 200+ stories of 1000+ words on the AO3? (if so, it usually exceeds #3, as well)
Again, these are very rough guidelines. Usually we choose to err on the generous side for any given fandom. So if you want to make a passionate appeal for allowing your fandom-on-the-edge through, hit us with it at yuletide@yuletidetreasure.org, and we may well reconsider, because we are all about the fun here! But we do ask you first to please consider whether there's another and smaller fandom of your heart that could slide into its place.
Please do not comment to ask for pre-nominations judgments on your specific fandoms. We're hoping these guidelines will help you in making such judgment calls, but we're not going to make those calls ourselves right now.
Note: If there are specific fandoms not on this list that you feel easily exceed the above guidelines and therefore should be present, please do let us know, particularly in the areas of anime, manga, RPF, and individual video games.
Comments are screened.
Incomplete list of ineligible fandoms
ETA: Discworld and The Vorkosigan Saga have been eliminated from elimination, after cogent and detailed refutation! ie, they will be eligible.
ETA2: This list will be adjusted as more information is received.
Adam Lambert (musician)
Alias (tv)
American Idol S7
Angel (tv)
Arashi
Artemis Fowl - Eoin Colfer
Ashes to Ashes
Astonishing X-Men (comic)
Avatar: The Last Airbender
Backstreet Boys
Batman (comics)
Batman (Movies - Nolan)
Battlestar Galactica (2003)
Beatles RPF
Ben 10
Beyblade
Big Bang (Band)
Big Bang Theory
Bleach (anime or manga)
Bleach Rock Musical
Bones (tv)
Brokeback Mountain (book or movie)
Buffy the Vampire Slayer (tv)
Camp Rock (movie)
Card Captor Sakura
Castle (tv)
Chronicles of Narnia - C S Lewis
Chuck
Code Geass
Code Lyoko
Codename: Kids Next Door
Compilation of Final Fantasy VII
Cowboy Bebop (anime)
Criminal Minds
CSI
CSI: Miami
CSI: NY
D Gray-man
D N Angel
Daily Show RPF
Danny Phantom
Dark Angel (tv)
DBSK aka Dong Bang Shin Ki aka TVXQ aka Tohoshinki aka Banjun Drama
Death Note
Detective Conan
Dissidia: Final Fantasy
Doctor Who (1963 & 2005)
Dragon Age
Dragon Ball Z
Dresden Files - Jim Butcher
Due South
Eyeshield 21
Fairy Tail (manga)
Fall Out Boy
Farscape
Final Fantasy VII
Final Fantasy VIII
Final Fantasy X
Final Fantasy XII
Firefly
Friends
Fringe (tv)
Fruits Basket aka Furuba (anime or manga)
Fullmetal Alchemist
Fushigi Yuugi: Genbu Kaiden
Gakuen Alice
Generation Kill
Ghostfacers
Gilmore Girls
Glee (tv)
Golden Sun (game)
Gossip Girl
Gravitation (anime or manga)
Grey's Anatomy
Gundam 00
Gundam Seed
Gundam Wing (anime)
Gyakuten Saiban | Ace Attorney (game)
Halo
Hannah Montana
Harry Potter
Harry Potter - JK Rowling
Hawaii Five-0 (2010)
Hellsing
Heroes (tv)
Hetalia Axis Powers (anime)
Hey! Say! JUMP
High School Musical
Highlander: The Series
Hikaru no Go
Homestuck
House M.D.
Hunger Games - Suzanne Collins
iCarly
Inception
Inuyasha
Invader Zim
Iron Man (movie)
JAG
Justice League (comic)
Kanjani8
Katekyo Hitman Reborn! (manga)
KAT-TUN
Kim Possible
Kingdom Hearts (game)
Kris Allen (Musician)
Kuroshitsuji
Kyo kara Maoh
Labyrinth (movie)
Law & Order (original)
Law & Order: Criminal Intent
Law & Order: SVU
Leverage (tv)
Life On Mars UK (tv)
Life With Derek
Lilo & Stitch
Lord of the Rings RPF
Lord of the Rings trilogy - JRR Tolkien
Lost (TV)
Loveless (anime or manga)
Magic Kaito
Magnificent Seven
Man from U.N.C.L.E.
Mass Effect
Maximum Ride series - James Patterson
Mega Man
Megaman X series
Merlin (BBC)
Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty
Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater
Mighty Morphin Power Rangers
Mortal Instruments - Cassandra Claire
My Chemical Romance
My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic
My-HiME
Naruto
NCIS
Neon Genesis Evangelion
New X-Men aka Academy X
Newsies (1992)
NSYNC
Numb3rs
One Piece
One Tree Hill (tv)
Ouran High School Host Club
Outsiders (2003 comic)
Oz (tv)
Panic at the Disco
Paper Mario series
Percy Jackson and the Olympians
Persona 4
Phantom of the Opera - Gaston Leroux
Pirates of the Caribbean series (movie)
Pokémon
Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
Primeval (tv)
Prince of Tennis
Prison Break (tv)
Psych
Queer As Folk US
Ranma 1/2 (anime or manga)
RENT (musical or movie)
Resident Evil (game)
Robin Hood UK (tv)
Rurouni Kenshin
Sailor Moon (anime or manga)
Saint-Germain series (book) - Chelsea Quinn Yarbro
Saiyuki (anime or manga)
Sanctuary (TV)
Shaman King
Sherlock Holmes - Arthur Conan Doyle
Sherlock Holmes (2009)
Shoujo Kakumei Utena / Revolutionary Girl Utena (anime)
Shugo Chara
Silmarillion - JRR Tolkien
Smallville
Social Network (2010)
A Song of Ice and FIre - George R R Martin
Song of the Lioness - Tamora Pierce
Sonic the Hedgehog (game)
Sonny with a Chance
Soul Eater (manga)
South of Nowhere
South Park
Southern Vampire Mysteries - Charlaine Harris
Star Trek (2009)
Star Trek (2009) RPF
Star Trek TOS
Star Trek: Enterprise
Star Trek: The Next Generation
Star Trek: Voyager
Star Wars series (movie)
Stargate: Atlantis
Stargate: SG-1
Starsky & Hutch (TV)
Stephenie Meyer - Twilight series
Super Junior
Super Mario Galaxy
Super Mario RPG Legend of the Seven Stars
Super Smash Brothers (game)
Supernatural (tv)
Supernatural RPF
Tales of Symphonia
Teen Titans (cartoon or comics)
Tekken
Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles
The Fast and the Furious
The L Word
The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
The Office US
The Phantom of the Opera (book or movie or musical)
The Sentinel
The Vision of Escaflowne
The West Wing
The X-Files
Thor (2011)
Titans (2008 comic)
Tokyo Mew Mew
Torchwood
Total Drama series
Transformers (Bay Movies)
Transformers Generation One
Transformers: Beast Wars
Trigun (anime or manga)
True Blood
Tsubasa: RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE
Twilight saga - Stephenie Meyer
Vampire Diaries
Vampire Knight
Veronica Mars (tv)
Victor Hugo - Les Miserables
Warriors - Erin Hunter
Weiss Kreuz
White Collar (tv)
Wicked (musical)
Without a Trace
Xena: Warrior Princess
Xiaolin Showdown
X-Men (comic)
X-Men (movieverse)
X-Men: Evolution
X-Men First Class
Yami no Matsuei
Young Justice (cartoon)
Yu Yu Hakusho
Yu-Gi-Oh
Yu-Gi-Oh GX
arduinna has been working on a nominations form tutorial that will be posted soon, so you can see how they will work.
As usual, the moderators will be reviewing the nominations and rejecting anything that isn't rare enough. One VERY IMPORTANT CHANGE this year: mod reviewing for fandom eligibility will be ongoing during the nominations period, and once a fandom has been accepted or rejected by the moderators, it's accepted or rejected across the board. Therefore, you will only be able to edit/change your nominations as long as the fandom in question hasn't been reviewed and accepted/rejected.
This streamlines the process in a couple of major ways. First, it means the moderators only have to look at a fandom once, rather than every time it's nominated. Second, it means that you'll see right away on your submitted nominations page if a fandom that you're pretty sure should be fine has been rejected, and you can let us know during the nominations instead of afterwards.
It also means that if all three of your fandoms have already been accepted or rejected, then you will not be able to edit your nominated fandoms.
Basically, this means that you should be sure about which three fandoms you want to nominate from the start, and you should be as certain as you can be about their expected eligibility. To help with this, we're providing this INCOMPLETE LIST of ineligible fandoms, which you can use as you're refining your nominations, and as a means of judging comparative rarity.
VERY ROUGH guidelines to consider, when judging rarity of a specific fandom (ETA: and other factors may also be taken into consideration):
1) Does it already have its own seasonal/holiday exchange?
2) Does the fandom have existing, fandom-specific archives of more than 500 stories? (ETA: this, on its own, will probably not be enough to exclude something)
3) Does it have 1000+ completed stories of 1000+ words on fanfiction.net?
4) Does it have 200+ stories of 1000+ words on the AO3? (if so, it usually exceeds #3, as well)
Again, these are very rough guidelines. Usually we choose to err on the generous side for any given fandom. So if you want to make a passionate appeal for allowing your fandom-on-the-edge through, hit us with it at yuletide@yuletidetreasure.org, and we may well reconsider, because we are all about the fun here! But we do ask you first to please consider whether there's another and smaller fandom of your heart that could slide into its place.
Please do not comment to ask for pre-nominations judgments on your specific fandoms. We're hoping these guidelines will help you in making such judgment calls, but we're not going to make those calls ourselves right now.
Note: If there are specific fandoms not on this list that you feel easily exceed the above guidelines and therefore should be present, please do let us know, particularly in the areas of anime, manga, RPF, and individual video games.
Comments are screened.
Incomplete list of ineligible fandoms
ETA: Discworld and The Vorkosigan Saga have been eliminated from elimination, after cogent and detailed refutation! ie, they will be eligible.
ETA2: This list will be adjusted as more information is received.
Adam Lambert (musician)
Alias (tv)
American Idol S7
Angel (tv)
Arashi
Artemis Fowl - Eoin Colfer
Ashes to Ashes
Astonishing X-Men (comic)
Avatar: The Last Airbender
Backstreet Boys
Batman (comics)
Batman (Movies - Nolan)
Battlestar Galactica (2003)
Beatles RPF
Ben 10
Beyblade
Big Bang (Band)
Big Bang Theory
Bleach (anime or manga)
Bleach Rock Musical
Bones (tv)
Brokeback Mountain (book or movie)
Buffy the Vampire Slayer (tv)
Camp Rock (movie)
Card Captor Sakura
Castle (tv)
Chronicles of Narnia - C S Lewis
Chuck
Code Geass
Code Lyoko
Codename: Kids Next Door
Compilation of Final Fantasy VII
Cowboy Bebop (anime)
Criminal Minds
CSI
CSI: Miami
CSI: NY
D Gray-man
D N Angel
Daily Show RPF
Danny Phantom
Dark Angel (tv)
DBSK aka Dong Bang Shin Ki aka TVXQ aka Tohoshinki aka Banjun Drama
Death Note
Detective Conan
Dissidia: Final Fantasy
Doctor Who (1963 & 2005)
Dragon Age
Dragon Ball Z
Dresden Files - Jim Butcher
Due South
Eyeshield 21
Fairy Tail (manga)
Fall Out Boy
Farscape
Final Fantasy VII
Final Fantasy VIII
Final Fantasy X
Final Fantasy XII
Firefly
Friends
Fringe (tv)
Fruits Basket aka Furuba (anime or manga)
Fullmetal Alchemist
Fushigi Yuugi: Genbu Kaiden
Gakuen Alice
Generation Kill
Ghostfacers
Gilmore Girls
Glee (tv)
Golden Sun (game)
Gossip Girl
Gravitation (anime or manga)
Grey's Anatomy
Gundam 00
Gundam Seed
Gundam Wing (anime)
Gyakuten Saiban | Ace Attorney (game)
Halo
Hannah Montana
Harry Potter
Harry Potter - JK Rowling
Hawaii Five-0 (2010)
Hellsing
Heroes (tv)
Hetalia Axis Powers (anime)
Hey! Say! JUMP
High School Musical
Highlander: The Series
Hikaru no Go
Homestuck
House M.D.
Hunger Games - Suzanne Collins
iCarly
Inception
Inuyasha
Invader Zim
Iron Man (movie)
JAG
Justice League (comic)
Kanjani8
Katekyo Hitman Reborn! (manga)
KAT-TUN
Kim Possible
Kingdom Hearts (game)
Kris Allen (Musician)
Kuroshitsuji
Kyo kara Maoh
Labyrinth (movie)
Law & Order (original)
Law & Order: Criminal Intent
Law & Order: SVU
Leverage (tv)
Life On Mars UK (tv)
Life With Derek
Lilo & Stitch
Lord of the Rings RPF
Lord of the Rings trilogy - JRR Tolkien
Lost (TV)
Loveless (anime or manga)
Magic Kaito
Magnificent Seven
Man from U.N.C.L.E.
Mass Effect
Maximum Ride series - James Patterson
Mega Man
Megaman X series
Merlin (BBC)
Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty
Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater
Mighty Morphin Power Rangers
Mortal Instruments - Cassandra Claire
My Chemical Romance
My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic
My-HiME
Naruto
NCIS
Neon Genesis Evangelion
New X-Men aka Academy X
Newsies (1992)
NSYNC
Numb3rs
One Piece
One Tree Hill (tv)
Ouran High School Host Club
Outsiders (2003 comic)
Oz (tv)
Panic at the Disco
Paper Mario series
Percy Jackson and the Olympians
Persona 4
Phantom of the Opera - Gaston Leroux
Pirates of the Caribbean series (movie)
Pokémon
Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
Primeval (tv)
Prince of Tennis
Prison Break (tv)
Psych
Queer As Folk US
Ranma 1/2 (anime or manga)
RENT (musical or movie)
Resident Evil (game)
Robin Hood UK (tv)
Rurouni Kenshin
Sailor Moon (anime or manga)
Saint-Germain series (book) - Chelsea Quinn Yarbro
Saiyuki (anime or manga)
Sanctuary (TV)
Shaman King
Sherlock Holmes - Arthur Conan Doyle
Sherlock Holmes (2009)
Shoujo Kakumei Utena / Revolutionary Girl Utena (anime)
Shugo Chara
Silmarillion - JRR Tolkien
Smallville
Social Network (2010)
A Song of Ice and FIre - George R R Martin
Song of the Lioness - Tamora Pierce
Sonic the Hedgehog (game)
Sonny with a Chance
Soul Eater (manga)
South of Nowhere
South Park
Southern Vampire Mysteries - Charlaine Harris
Star Trek (2009)
Star Trek (2009) RPF
Star Trek TOS
Star Trek: Enterprise
Star Trek: The Next Generation
Star Trek: Voyager
Star Wars series (movie)
Stargate: Atlantis
Stargate: SG-1
Starsky & Hutch (TV)
Stephenie Meyer - Twilight series
Super Junior
Super Mario Galaxy
Super Mario RPG Legend of the Seven Stars
Super Smash Brothers (game)
Supernatural (tv)
Supernatural RPF
Tales of Symphonia
Teen Titans (cartoon or comics)
Tekken
Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles
The Fast and the Furious
The L Word
The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
The Office US
The Phantom of the Opera (book or movie or musical)
The Sentinel
The Vision of Escaflowne
The West Wing
The X-Files
Thor (2011)
Titans (2008 comic)
Tokyo Mew Mew
Torchwood
Total Drama series
Transformers (Bay Movies)
Transformers Generation One
Transformers: Beast Wars
Trigun (anime or manga)
True Blood
Tsubasa: RESERVoir CHRoNiCLE
Twilight saga - Stephenie Meyer
Vampire Diaries
Vampire Knight
Veronica Mars (tv)
Victor Hugo - Les Miserables
Warriors - Erin Hunter
Weiss Kreuz
White Collar (tv)
Wicked (musical)
Without a Trace
Xena: Warrior Princess
Xiaolin Showdown
X-Men (comic)
X-Men (movieverse)
X-Men: Evolution
X-Men First Class
Yami no Matsuei
Young Justice (cartoon)
Yu Yu Hakusho
Yu-Gi-Oh
Yu-Gi-Oh GX