Hey all, we've been doing pretty well so far, but looks like we're hitting the rush now! If you have issues getting to the posting/editing interface, please just give it a little break and try again in a short while, rather than refreshing repeatedly.

Our awesome systems team are tweaking the server settings to improve the performance, and we've got some more performance improvement fixes on test, so hopefully things will ease up.

** Please do NOT hit the Yuletide fandoms/works pages from now until posting closes! **

You can shake the presents some more after the rush is over. :D

How many other people thought we had until we had around the 23rd to turn stories in, looked at the guidelines for uploading the stories, and realized they're due on the 21st? Crap! (I can't be the only one.) I haven't even braved the AO3 guidelines yet.

I can't decide whether pulling out the liquor or running around like a chicken with its head cut off sounds more appealing.

The bug that was causing the unintended visibility of uploaded Yuletide 2009 stories has been fixed, tested, and deployed! You can now go in and make all those changes you only noticed after you finished uploading.

And please boost the signal on this, if you would!

For the fans!!!

http://sherlock-x-watson.deviantart.com/

So, I'm doing a bit of organizing in my house and I found a pile of movies that I have no use for any more. Most of these are what I would call "Alan Alda movies"-- basically anything that stars Alan Alda or anything in which he has a decent-sized cameo.

Before I sell these anywhere else, I thought I'd give some MASH fans (and Alan Alda fans) first dibs. Some of these are pretty rare and difficult to find. They are all in excellent condition-- most of them were bought new and only watched once. Anyway.

( DVDs -- $1 each )

( VHS -- $.50 each )

( Bonus -- original theatrical poster )

As far as shipping goes, let's say $2 for each package when shipped within the US. Anywhere international is fine, too-- we'll just discuss the shipping costs as that happens. Just keep in mind that all the DVDs are region one.

Just leave me a comment with whichever movies you want and we'll go from there. Let me know if you have any questions at all. Thanks!

Cross-posted to aapfa.

Uploading to the Collection

• Because this is so very, very important: When you upload make sure you either use the Post New Story link on the Yuletide 2009 page, which autofills in the collection in the form, or type/select "yuletide2009" in the Post to Collections/Challenges area. If you don't, it won't be added to the collection, and it will be visible on the archive, along with searchability by recipient. If you somehow do this, you can go ahead and edit to add the Fandom as quick as you can (the Preview bug fix is close to being tested, but hasn't been deployed).
  
  
• When you're posting, if you Preview and then hit Edit, some fields may be cleared, including the Collection "yuletide2009" tag. Review all fields very carefully to make sure they still have the information you want, because if the Collection tag is missing, the story will post into the main archive, where it will not be hidden.
  
  
• As a corollary, if you get an email: "a gift story has been posted for you by [name]! here's a link to it!" let us know ASAP! It may mean that a current participant did not successfully post their story to the Yuletide 2009 collection, so it's not unrevealed and hidden and sekrit! This will only happen for works when the recipient already has an AO3 account.
  
  
• There may be a bug when using the rich text editor/pasting from Word when there are extra spaces at the end of sentences (three spaces instead of one or two, possibly). It may cut off everything before the extra space, and turn what comes after into a bulleted list. sheila_snow suggests:

  Just a suggestion for anyone who still wants to use RichText and doesn't want to wait for the bug to be fixed: You can try using the "find and replace" function in Word to "find" three spaces and "replace" them with two"

  This will hopefully let you successfully post. The issue has been reported, but it is lower priority at this time.
  
  
• Your recipient's name will only autofill if they already have an account on the archive. Just type it in as it appears in your assignment email, and you'll be fine.

Entering Fandom Names

The links to current fandoms in the AO3 can be found here. This can be referred to for constructing Fandom Names, if they're atypical.

( More about how tags work on the AO3 )

• When in doubt, input the fandom as found on your assignment email; that will never be a wrong step! And it will be wrangled.
  
  
• From blackmagie: If the story you're uploading is for a non-English fandom and you find your fandom name isn't appearing in the autofill, try typing in the original name from the source language to see if it's there.
  
  
• A brand new fandom will not show up in the fandom listing or tag cloud until it's been "wrangled" (marked canonical).

Usernames and Pseuds

• Spacing and capitalization differences between your Yuletide and AO3 names/usernames/pseuds are not an issue. We just need to be able to visually confirm that this Yuletide participant is that AO3 user. Note: AO3 usernames cannot have spaces, although pseuds can. Trying to create a username with spaces will give you trouble when you try and create an account.
  
  
• While your username has to be unique on AO3, pseuds do not. So if you had to use an alternate name on Yuletide than your usual pseud because someone else already had it, you can create a pseud on AO3 that is identical to someone else's, since the display "pseud (unique username)" will still be a unique combination. Just remember that if your AO3 Yuletide identity is not the same or similar to your original Yuletide identity, the mods need to know this.
  
  
• When you post, you will see your story as being by "Anonymous [username]". This is because all stories will be anonymous between December 25 and January 1, when the author names will be revealed. You're the only one who'll be able to see [username] on the story until then; everyone else will just see "Anonymous".

One Last Note

• While it is a choice to click on the various buttons and filters and see what fandoms have been posted or characters or suchlike, it's harder to avoid the spoilers when they're posted to your flist/reading list on LJ/DW/IJ/GJ. If you're someone who likes shaking your presents, please be thoughtful of those who prefer to wait, and put any information about what you've gleaned from these sources behind a cut tag. You may not understand why other people don't want to know, but taking the little bit of time required to help them avoid finding out is greatly appreciated.

Oryx and Crake (2003)
Written by: Margaret Atwood
Genre: Fiction/Literary SF
Pages: 376 (Trade Paperback)

The premise: from Amazon.com: In Oryx and Crake, a science fiction novel that is more Swift than Heinlein, more cautionary tale than "fictional science" (no flying cars here), Margaret Atwood depicts a near-future world that turns from the merely horrible to the horrific, from a fool's paradise to a bio-wasteland. Snowman (a man once known as Jimmy) sleeps in a tree and just might be the only human left on our devastated planet. He is not entirely alone, however, as he considers himself the shepherd of a group of experimental, human-like creatures called the Children of Crake. As he scavenges and tends to his insect bites, Snowman recalls in flashbacks how the world fell apart.

My Rating

Give It Away: this is an odd rating, because in LibraryThing, I gave it four stars. I'm glad I've read the book, and I'll likely pick up the companion/sequel The Year of the Flood, but I'm so ambivalent about Oryx and Crake that I don't see myself picking it up again. In fact, it's the kind of book I'll probably forget I've read, because it never impacted me the way it probably would a reader who isn't as familiar with science fiction. I think fans of Atwood will enjoy this, and readers who aren't SF-literate in terms of tropes and conventions may find this book to be a diamond in the rough. Certainly, Atwood has a different take on the apocalypse than Cormac McCarthy's The Road, and it's interesting, though it lacks the direction and resolution that McCarthy's novel had. But hey, I'm glad I read it. I just wish I'd read it sooner than I did, before I was as familiar with SF tropes as I am now. If you're an SF fan, I'd only recommend this book to you if you don't mind reading the lit-fic takes on the genre, if you don't mind the fact you're not going to find something wholly original. I read this because I'm a sucker for lit-fic SF, and after The Handmaid's Tale, I wanted to see what else Atwood would do with the genre. The Handmaid's Tale is a much stronger book, but this one was interesting at least, even though it was a little unsatisfying.

Review style: spoilers ahead. Considering the pace and style of the book, the spoilers aren't exactly Earth-shattering, but here's the warning anyway. SPOILERS. :) If such things bother you, there's no need to click the link below, which takes you to my LJ. However, if you're interested, the more discussion the merrier! As always, comments and discussion are most welcome. :)

REVIEW: Margaret Atwood's ORYX AND CRAKE

Happy Reading!

Book club selections @ calico_reaction. Hop on over! We'd love to have you!

December: The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle
January: The Adoration of Jenna Fox by Mary E. Pearson
February: Kindred by Octavia E. Butler

• All participants who do not already have email-matching AO3 accounts have been sent invitations, so keep an eye out, if you haven't received them already. You will not be able to upload to AO3 until you have created an account. Invites will be coming from do-not-reply@archiveofourown.org, so check your spam filters, and don't delete without checking! If your invite hasn't shown up in the next few hours, do write to us at yuletide@yuletidetreasure.org, and we'll get it sorted.

  KNOWN ISSUE: with some earlier browser versions (ETA: FF2, FF3.0, FF3.5, Safari and Chrome, if you run into it with other browsers, please fill out a support request) you may not be able to mouse-click in the field to confirm your password. You should be able to tab to the field where you retype your password, or click in a later field and shift-tab back to it. AO3 Support is working on this.

• If you have technical issues with creating an account or uploading your story, please contact A3 support to report it. AO3 support will be handling any technical issues for Yuletide, as a Collection of AO3, and they want to hear about any problems, because if it happened to you, it's probably happening to other people. However, if you're not sure it's a technical support issue, you can still email the mods or ask on any admin post, and someone (quite probably multiple someones) will respond.
  
  
• Please read the instructions carefully, and when you upload make sure you either use the Post New Story link on the Yuletide 2009 page, which autofills in the collection in the form, or type/select "yuletide2009" in the Post to Collections/Challenges area. If you don't, it won't be added to the collection, and it will be visible on the archive, along with searchability by recipient.
  
  
• Please do not edit your uploaded stories until you see a notice here that it's okay to do so! A late-detected bug leaves stories visible during Preview, but it should be resolved shortly. After it's safe to edit, you will be able to do so at any point up to story reveal (and after, but people will have started reading!)
  
  
• CHANGE FROM PREVIOUS YEARS: the Author Notes field will not be hidden before reveal. If you have identifying information such as beta names, or other details, you will want to leave those out until after the reveal, when you can go and edit them back in.
  
  
• If you're posting in a fandom for which the character listing was something other than individual people (fairy tales, albums, Gilbert&Sullivan oeuvre), please don't use those "characters" as characters in the AO3! If your story is about an individual opera or song, you can use that as the fandom, and then list whatever actual characters you want to, or none at all. You can list multiple fandoms per posting, so if you used multiple songs, you can list each one, or you can use both "Fairy Tales" and the individual tale, as in "12 Dancing Princesses (Fairy Tale)." (I note that currently the archive is using "Fairytales" and "Title (Fairy Tale)", but I've sent a query in about the inconsistency).
  
  
• We are aware that you can see what fandoms have been uploaded, and what ratings/warnings/characters/pairings/additional tags have been used. This is a feature, not a bug! The only piece of information we want to keep hidden is the author name; the reveal of truly rare fandom stories has been a possibility since the institution of the previous "random fandom" feature on the old archive. Think of it as a new way to shake your story to see what it might contain!
  
  And while for some few this may appear to reveal exactly what fandom they'll be receiving, we all know we're getting one of three-four fandoms from the beginning, and which characters we've requested, and even with just 133 135 stories loaded, the number of tags make it unlikely you'll be able to determine exactly which ones go with which request. This will take us a while to adjust to, I'm sure, but I find it makes me even more eager to get to the stories! If you'd rather not take the chance of being potentially spoiled for your fandom, you shouldn't look at the fandom or tag listings. *g*

I'll continue editing the instructions as things come to light, but I'll post again about anything major.

The upload process is a little different this year because of the move to the Archive of Our Own (AO3). If you're comfortable with upload interfaces, you should have no problem, although there are a few AO3-specific things to be aware of, like the tagging and warnings systems.

But first, and most important, there is one important thing to know, and two specific things that you need to do for the Yuletide story you upload:

IMPORTANT ~ IMPORTANT ~ IMPORTANT ~ IMPORTANT

BE AWARE: There is one late-discovered bug for which the fix will go in tomorrow. After you have finished uploading, do not edit your stories until we give the all clear here in the Admin LJ tomorrow.

Uploading Your Yuletide Story to the AO3

To upload your story to the Yuletide section of the AO3, you must specifically add your story to the Yuletide 2009 "Collection". You must also put in your recipient's name.



The "Post to Collections/Challenges" field comes right after the space for title, author, and co-author. If you navigate into the Yuletide 2009 collection (click on Collections, click on Yuletide, click on Subcollections in the bar across the top, and choose Yuletide 2009), you'll see a "Post New Story" link inside the collection:



If you click that link, you'll be brought to a posting form that already has "yuletide2009" filled in for the Collections, and you'll be all set.



If you prefer to post a story from the regular "Post New" links in the archive, when you get to the "Post to Collections/Challenges" field, start typing Yuletide. This will bring up an autofill option for "yuletide2009", which you can pick.



Double-check to make sure that "yuletide2009" is completely filled in, in exactly that format.



If you don't add your story to the yuletide2009 collection, it will not be posted to the Yuletide collection. It will not be anonymous. It will show up in the regular archive as a regular story.

Once you've added your story to yuletide2009, go to the next field and type your recipient's name in; the archive will give you autofill options to pick from, or you can type it in yourself (but please double-check to make sure it's correct!).



For more detailed, step-by-step instructions, click the cut. The instructions includes some important differences between AO3 and Yuletide concerning fandom names, information on how the tagging system works, and detailed discussion of Archive Warnings and how to use them.

( step-by-step instructions - image heavy )

In short: \o/

MOD NOTE: The instructions were put together by aka_arduinna, of the awesome SG1 Handbook!

Please signal boost this post! Twitter it, DW it, SING A SONG. Yuletide is MOVING! Upload will start soon!

For those that have AO3 accounts, LOOK AT THE PRETTY COLLECTION.



PLEASE READ VERY CAREFULLY. This is long, but important! If you still need to use a proxy or have offered to be one, please see below.


Yuletide Invites are going out for the Archive of Our Own (AO3), in batches. They will be sent to the email used for Yuletide signup. Once they've all gone out, I'll post again to tell you to be on the lookout!

ETA: Invites will be coming from do-not-reply@archiveofourown.org.


Once you have created an account, you will be able to upload to the Yuletide 2009 collection, and edit it to your heart's content. Due to issues stemming from a late-detected bug, please do not edit your already uploaded Yuletide stories until we post that the bug has been squashed, which should be tomorrow.



NOTE: Technical questions and problems associated with account creation and uploading of stories will be appropriately addressed to the AO3 support team!

• If you already have an account on AO3 using your signup email, you will not get a new invite.
  
  
• If you have an AO3 account that uses a different email than your Yuletide signup email, you will get an invite, but you can ignore it.

AO3 uses both usernames and pseuds, which display as "pseud (username)" on your works. If you don't use your Yuletide name as your AO3 username, WE STRONGLY URGE YOU TO CREATE A PSEUD FOR YOUR YULETIDE NAME. We have to check to make sure that everyone has a story waiting for them and has uploaded a story, and this will make it soooo much easier.

so, for example I could have:

Username: yulebat
Pseud: elynross
Display: elynross (yulebat)

Usernames can't use spaces, so you may want to do the following:

Username: Awesomewriter
Pseud: Awesome Writer
Display: Awesome Writer (Awesomewriter)

Again, if your username is not the same as your Yuletide name, and you want to make your mods very happy, please create an AO3 pseud for your Yuletide name!

If you do not intend to use your Yuletide name on the archive, please write to us ASAP at yuletide@yuletidetreasure.org and tell us your Yuletide name and the pseud you intend to use on the Archive, so we can determine that you have uploaded and received a story. We do understand there may be reasons you want to start out fresh!


Proxies and the use thereof

If you're still going to need to use a proxy uploader, things are going to be a little different than previously thought.

• If the Author already has an AO3 account, the Proxy can add that person as a co-author, upload, and then remove themselves as co-author, transferring ownership.
  
  
• If the Author does not have an AO3 account, the Proxy will have to create a pseud, using the author's Yuletide pseud:
  
  Author: astolat
  Proxy: elynross
  
  elynross creates a new pseud, "astolat", and posts using that pseud, which will display as: astolat (elynross)
  
  After the Author has a chance to create their account, the Proxy will then add them as co-author, remove their pseud as co-author, and they can then delete that pseud. It's inconvenient, but it will work.

Note: We will not be importing the older stories to AO3 until after this year's Challenge, after all. At that point, you will be notified so that you can "claim" your older stories. More will be announced at that time.

Instructions for uploading will follow in the next post!

This is an angst or hurt/comfort picture largely inspired by Jane's writing the other day. Nothing explicit here.

http://spacefall.livejournal.com/875657.html