2025 Schedule & Rule Updates
Jul. 10th, 2025 10:54 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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ficinaboxHello friends! Below is the schedule for FIAB 2025, which will run Late July-November instead of August-November.
Schedule changes, in brief:
- We've added in extra time for mod admin tasks such as tagset clean up and request checking.
- We've given you a full 2 week sign up period
- We've added a couple days of extra time to the creation period.
This extra time will help us utilize our helpers better because we won't have such tight scheduling! It will also allow for the possibility that the swaps puzzle will take longer than in previous years – we don't want to punish swappers with less creation time if it takes us longer than usual to get swaps out, so just building a little extra time into the creation period seemed best.
The rest of this post will cover:
- Updates to several specific medium tags and medium rules.
- A slight change to the way OCs can be nominated.
Discord server reminder! Fic In A Box is a complex exchange even for exchange veterans, so we thought that if we were going to invite a bunch of new people to the exchange we should provide a space where they can ask lots of questions throughout the process. This server is open to everyone (we won't kick you out if you've been doing FIAB for years already) but its purpose is to help people participate in the exchange, so it will probably be most useful/enjoyable if you're kinda confused about the exchange. Like FIAB itself, the server is an 18+ Choose Not To Warn space.
2025 Schedule:
July 24th-August 2: Nominations Pre-Gaming (participants can load tags from last year’s tagset into this tagset)
August 3-12: Nominations
August 13-16: Nominations Cleanup
August 17th-August 31th: Signups
August 20th: Swap requests open
September 6: Assignments Out By This Date
September 7: Swap requests close
October 19: Assignments Due
November 9: Last Day To Submit Makeup Assignments
November 15: Work Reveals
November 29: Creator Reveals
All deadlines are at 11:59 PM EDT except for those in November, which will happen at 11:59 PM EST
New In 2025
Mediums Rules Updates
Art Ruleset
We'll be adjusting the language for the ruleset to make it clear that if multiple characters are requested they must all be visibly within the artwork.
We will also be adding "Papercraft" (creating an image using layered paper cut into the necessary shapes) as a style to the ruleset. This will be a possible style for any art tag that doesn't specify another style (such as "Drawn") and can be requested specifically by nominating the desired art tags with at "Papercraft - " prefix.
Multimedia Works
We'll be adding more guidance for the requirements if combining two different requested medium tags into a multimedia work in the Posting Guidelines.
Medium Opt-In: Unique Rules - Printable Sticker Page Layout
We are changing the rules for stickers to clarify a medium-checking issue we had last year. New rules will set a minimum number of stickers per sheet (five unique stickers per sheet), for an equivalent of 2k per sticker sheet.
Medium Opt-In: Audio - Fanmix
Medium Opt-In: Audio - FST (Fan Soundtrack)
These tags will be merged into the tag "Medium Opt-In: Audio - Fanmix/FST (Fan Soundtrack)"
Medium Opt-In: Unique Rules - Cross Stitch Pattern
We will be updating the rules for this medium to clarify that you can't auto-generate a cross stitch pattern from pre-existing art.
Medium Opt-In: Unique Rules - Interactive Fiction - Web-based choice-based IF not hosted on AO3
Medium Opt-In: Unique Rules - Interactive Fiction - Twine
Medium Opt-In: Unique Rules - Interactive Fiction - Ink
Medium Opt-In: Writing - Interactive Fiction - AO3 style Choose Your Own Adventure
Medium Opt-In: Unique Rules - Visual Novel
We will be restructuring all of these tags into the following four tags:
- Medium Opt-In: Unique Rules - Interactive Fiction - AO3-style Choose Your Own Adventure
- Medium Opt-In: Unique Rules - Interactive Fiction - Choice-Based IF Not Hosted On AO3
- Medium Opt-In: Unique Rules - Interactive Fiction - Illustrated AO3-style Choose Your Own Adventure
- Medium Opt-In: Unique Rules - Interactive Fiction - Illustrated Choice-Based IF Not Hosted On AO3
Length Opt-In: Drabble
Length Opt-In: Double Drabble
Length Opt-In: Triple Drabble
These are being changed to the following:
- Length Opt-In: Drabble (100 Words Exactly)
- Length Opt-In: Double Drabble (200 Words Exactly)
- Length Opt-In: Triple Drabble (300 Words Exactly)
Length Opt-In: Drabble Series
We are removing this tag because it caused some confusion last year. If you'd like to request drabble series please mention it in your optional details. Drabble series of over 1000 words are opt out (similar to other fic formats such as 5+1 things), and for drabble series of under 1000 words you may opt-in within your optional details while requesting a drabble tag.
Medium Opt-In: Unique Rules - Craftwork
These tags will be adjusted to have an equivalent of 2k.
Medium Opt-In: Instructions - Recipe book
Medium Opt-In: Instructions - Cocktail Recipes
For clarity these will be singularized into:
- Medium Opt-In: Instructions - Recipe
- Medium Opt-In: Instructions - Cocktail Recipe
In addition it will be clarified in the rules that recipes are required to be the original creations of the poster.
Nominations Rules Updates
Original Character(s) nominations will not be accepted. This is because "Original Character(s)" is meant to mean either Original Character (singular) or Original Characters (plural) but we've seen some evidence that people who want just one or the other are selecting this phrasing simply because it's common in canonicals.
Tentatively, we will try out simply editing these nominations to be singular if they come up on the AO3 interface, but if that's too burdensome we will reject like all other incorrect tags.
Click here to view tag examples!
Elmo & Original Character(s) (Sesame Street)
Big Bird/Original Character(s) (Sesame Street)
Solo: Original Character(s) (Sesame Street)
Not allowed per this new rule.
Elmo & Original Character (Sesame Street)
Big Bird/Original Character (Sesame Street)
Solo: Original Character (Sesame Street)
Allowed! These tags will get you a work with one OC, plus other listed characters if there are any.
Elmo & Original Characters (Sesame Street)
Big Bird/Original Characters (Sesame Street)
Solo: Original Characters (Sesame Street)
Allowed! These tags are phrased as plural, but per our other nominations rules "Original Characters" counts as an ambiguous group so requests with this phrasing could be filled with 1 OC or 2+ OCs.
Note that you can't limit the number of OCs if you pick a tag like "Big Bird/Original Characters (Sesame Street)" so if you're really only interested in a threesome but not a foursome, you should instead nominate like…
Elmo & Original Character & Original Character (Sesame Street)
Big Bird/Original Character/Original Character (Sesame Street)
Allowed! These tags need to be filled with as many OCs as are listed in the tag. Per other nominations rules, you can list up to 6 characters in a relationship tag.
If Big Bird and five other characters isn't a big enough orgy/polycule for you, you can A) list the last character as the plural "Original Characters" to leave yourself open to more than 5 OCs, or B) use your optional details to opt into more OCs at your creator's discretion. (We suggest you do this in the AO3 optional details box so it's easy for us to find, rather than buried in a letter.)
