In recent years we've received an increasing number of questions in regards to how certain things work with exchange fests in general and with H/D Erised in particular. In order to help alleviate any questions or concerns, we've compiled this handy dandy post of all of our most frequently asked questions.

If you're interested in participating in or following the fest, we strongly encourage you to take a look at the Q&As below (or, for questions about SPaG, to check the H/D Erised style guide), in addition to reading this year's updated Rules & Guidelines.

If you have any questions about the fest that aren't covered in our Rules & Guidelines or in this FAQ, please feel free to send us an email at hderised@gmail.com and we'll get back to you as soon as we can!

BASICS 1. What is the H/D Erised exchange fest? H/D Erised is a fanfic and fanart exchange fest focused on the romantic pairing of Harry Potter/Draco Malfoy! Basically, you sign up and tell us what you like about the pairing – kinks, tropes, prompts, preferred era, etc. Then you tell us what you would like, and are able, to write or draw. Your friendly neighbourhood mods will match everyone who signs up with both a gifter (someone to make you fic or art specifically tailored to your sign-up post) and a giftee (someone for whom you will do the same!) and send out your assignment. Then you have three months to create a gift for your recipient, while another fabulous creator out there works on making one for you. Gifts are posted anonymously starting on the first of December, with everyone encouraged to read and comment throughout the month, and creators’ names revealed in early January. 2. What is the difference between an exchange fest and other fests? In an exchange fest, you are creating work specifically for another participant and receiving work created specifically for you in return, and your mod team matches you with both your gifter and your recipient, based on what you want to create and what you want to receive. The work you create should be tailored to your recipient’s list of likes, dislikes, and prompts (or, in other exchange fests, their wishlist or their letter to their gifter). Additionally, your work must be original and human-created; works containing AI-generated content are not permitted. In the spirit of a gift exchange, wherein someone will be making an original gift tailor-made for you, we ask that you do the same for your giftee! You might be more familiar with prompt-based fests, wherein anyone at all can leave a prompt and participants pick the prompt they’d like to write. In prompt-based fests, creators are working from a prompt someone has left but are not creating work for the prompter, and there's no guarantee you'll have a prompt that is claimed, so there's often more latitude to depart from the prompt and/or create work that the prompter might not like. This significantly differs from an Exchange fest, where you are assigned to a recipient rather than choosing a prompt, will create work that a specific recipient will love rather than running wild with their idea as an initial spark of inspiration, and are guaranteed to receive a gift work that someone has created for you. 3. How do I participate? This fest is run once a year, with sign-ups at the end of July/beginning of August. More information, including a complete timeline and list of rules, as well as directions for signing up, can be found here. You must read the complete rules carefully before signing up. 4. Do I need an AO3 account to participate? If you’re participating as a creator, you will be required to have an AO3 account. If you don’t have one, please contact the mods and we’ll send you an invitation. You do not need an AO3 account to follow along as a reader, viewer, commenter, reccer, and/or general appreciator.

SIGN-UPS 5. Are there any restrictions on who can sign up? Yes, there are a few requirements for participants. First off, you must be at least 18 years old to participate, even if you will not be creating mature or explicit content. Additionally, you must have previously created and posted at least one Draco/Harry work that meets the fest criteria (at least 2.5k or the equivalent in art) prior to sign-ups for whatever medium you are signing up for (i.e. if you are signing up as an author, you must have posted a Draco/Harry fanfic that meets the requirements for fanfic). This work must be original and cannot contain AI-generated content, must have been beta read, and must be complete/posted in its entirety prior to the start of signups. Works in progress do not count towards this requirement. If this work was written for an anonymous fest, the work must be revealed with you listed as the author before sign-ups open. For writers, we have a cap of 35 participants, with sign-ups on a first-come, first-served basis. Once the cap is met, you cannot sign up as a participant, although you can still sign up as a pinch-hitter. There is no cap for artists. If you would like to create art to go along with your fic or vice-versa, please contact the mods first; this is likely to be possible, but we need to know about it before we begin matching participants. Please note that if you had to drop from the fest last year for any reason you must first contact the mods before you sign up to confirm that you are eligible to participate again. If you do not contact the mods prior to signing up, you may be automatically disqualified. 6. What does it mean to sign up as a pinch hitter? Pinch hitters are our deep bench of absolute rock star angels! Pinch hitters are called in if someone who has signed up to participate drops from the fest and we need someone to make a gift for their designated recipient. Whenever possible, we also make sure that pinch hitters will receive a gift, but given the often time-sensitive nature of pinch hits, we can’t guarantee one. (That is, a gift beyond our, and your recipient’s, undying appreciation!!!!) When you sign up as a pinch hitter you can tell us what you’d like to create and receive, as if you were signing up as a participant, and you can tell us how long you’d need to create a gift. Pinch hitters are selected on the basis of their potential recipients' sign-up forms, and signing up as a pinch hitter is not a guarantee that you’ll be called upon to create; we always hope that we won’t have any drops, though there are usually a few. Signing up as a pinch hitter might be an especially good fit if: you wanted to sign up as a participant but missed the cap; you want to participate in the fest and won’t be able to create something in time for the deadline, but will have creation time closer to posting time or during the fest; and/or if you aren’t quite sure whether or not you’re ready to sign up but want to leave the option open. 7. Do I need a dreamwidth account to sign up? No, you do not. Anonymous sign-ups have been enabled on dreamwidth, so you will be able to sign up without having an account. However, if you sign up via an anonymous comment, you will be unable to edit your comment during the sign-up period should you want to make any modifications (including to your HTML, which we provide, and which must be correctly formatted (aka correctly copy-pasted from the sign-up form) within 24 hours of your initial sign-up) so you may want to make an account before sign-ups. You can also log in and sign up with Open ID rather than an DW account. However, we do require that you have either a dreamwidth account or a tumblr account and that you are following the fest at one of the locations to ensure you're receiving all relevant updates. 8. Can we sign up in pairs and submit a collaboration? Maybe. If you're interested in signing up as a duo or team, you'll need to first email the mod account and get permission before the day of sign-ups, and you'll need to provide the mods with a reason that you'd like to sign up as a pair instead of individually. This fest is not a collaboration fest, and exchanges are complicated enough as-is without adding the possibility of collaborative complications. Therefore, we'll only be accepting collaboration requests on a limited, case-by-case basis, and usually only in cases where the potential pair or team has an established record of successful collaboration. You should also be aware that collaborators are treated as a single participant and will submit one sign-up, create one gift, and receive one gift. 9. Can I commission work to accompany the work I'm creating? It depends. A commission accompanying an H/D Erised work cannot be posted on AO3 or any social media platform during the duration of the fest and cannot be part of the official Erised gift to your recipient. However, participants may commission work if (a) the person you commission is sworn to and agrees to abide by complete and total secrecy in accordance with fest rules, and (b) the commission posts after fest reveals. 10. Do I need to fill out the entire sign-up sheet? Yes, yes you do. Your mods use these sign-up sheets to match participants, and your gifter will use them to create your gift. We've included every section for a reason, and if you don’t fill it out thoroughly your gifter may end up feeling quite lost, and you run a higher risk of receiving a gift you don’t completely love. Also note that failing to fill out part of the form doesn’t make it irrelevant—if you don’t fill out your likes, dislikes or preferred rating, your gifter just won’t know what you want! Also note—as this has been an issue in past years—that not filling out part of the form is not a viable way to express a preference about the type of gift you receive. If you say "I only want to receive art so I’m not going to fill out the section about the type of fic I want to receive" (or vice-versa) that does not mean that you are guaranteed to receive art—it just means that if you are assigned fic, your creator will have a very hard time figuring out what you might enjoy. In short, if you want to receive a gift that you’ll enjoy, you really do need to fill out your sign-up sheet completely, honestly, and thoughtfully. 11. Do I really have to fill out the prompts section? I don't want my gifter to feel constrained to just writing those prompts. As stated above, you do need to fill out the entire form, including the prompt section. Gifters are not constrained to creating something based on those prompts, but many participants in past fests have indicated that having prompts available to them is helpful in having a jumping off point, so we do require that you include a prompt or two in your form. If you’re concerned that your prompt will be too constraining, you can also develop something relatively general and based on your likes—"Harry and Draco work at the Ministry and hijinks ensue!" "Harry and Draco can’t seem to stop running into each other—is it fate, or is it another character bringing them together?" "A broke up with B after a passionate eighth year affair, and they haven’t seen each other since. A’s always regretted it, though, and he’s almost tempted to get back in touch after all these years."—just to give your gifter something to work with and a way to envision the form your likes might take as fic or art. 12. What does a good sign-up sheet look like? A good sign-up sheet can be hard to create! The goal is to provide enough detail so that your gifter feels inspired and has plenty to work with, but not so much detail that your gifter feels intimidated and constrained. We recommend sitting down and thinking about what your very favourite fanworks have in common, and what tends to throw you out of a fic or deter you in a piece of art. What are the commonalities? Do you love coffee shop AUs where they’re in their late twenties, but find yourself back-buttoning if the characters use certain nicknames or euphemisms? Do you love The Cursed Child but wince at the first mention of MACUSA? Could you stare at watercolours for hours, but feel like a multi-panel cartoon is more involved than you’ll want to get as a recipient? The more you can do to be specific and clear, the better off your gifter (and later, you!) will be, and the more likely we’ll be to be able to make you a great match. On the other hand, you might want to avoid things that aren’t really important—if you list everything you like in a fanwork, your creator won’t know what’s most important to include and might end up making something that doesn’t include your absolute favourite characteristics. If you’re feeling stumped, check out sign-ups from past years, and think about the level of detail you’d find it useful to have as a creator. 13. There’s something I really think you need to know in order to match me well, but I don’t want to put it on my sign-up form. What should I do? If there is some circumstance, content, etc., that we need to know about in order to match you well and that truly can't go on your sign-up form, please shoot us an email to let us know. However, please only use this option if there is a very very good reason that you can’t put something on your sign-up sheet. We want participants to be able to let us know if, for instance, there is circumstance or content that may cause them genuine and serious distress that goes beyond squicks/dislikes or if there is someone for whom they feel they could absolutely not create a gift, but we can only account for those special circumstances if they are few and far between. If there is a kink or squick, like or dislike, etc., that you’re just a bit reluctant to put out there, we would encourage you to either leave it off (if you think adding it will keep you up at night) or take the leap and put it on your sign-up (if it’s something you really do want to read)—it’s best for everyone if your sign-up form is complete in every sense. 14. I don't know anybody well enough in fandom to put down in my "contact" section. What should I do? No worries! This is helpful to have in case your giftee has questions about your tastes and would like to ask questions of somebody who knows you well. However, if nobody comes to mind for this section, please indicate that your giftee should contact the mods if they have any questions, and we’ll relay any questions that your gifter might have while maintaining strict anonymity and preserving the surprise! 15. I want to participate but I'll be away from my computer when sign-ups open. What should I do? You have a couple of options! If you've completed the sign-up form in advance you can send it to a friend, and they can post it on your behalf. If you haven't, you or a friend can sign-up with a placeholder comment, which simply says "placeholder for [name]!", in order to hold your spot. However, you must post your completed sign-up form within 24 hours of signing up, or you may forfeit your spot in the fest, since it is first-come, first-served and spaces can go quickly. 16. Can I request or create a work with a triad as the primary ship? While we love the enthusiasm in fandom for triads and other poly ships, H/D Erised is focused on Harry/Draco as a romantic pairing. Your H/D Erised requests and creation should be focused on Harry/Draco as an endgame romantic dyad, even if Harry and/or Draco are in triads, polycules, or other relationships along the way.

MATCHING 17. How will I be matched? Based on your sign-up form! One more reason why it’s so important to fill out the form in its entirety *G* Basically, we’ll comb through your likes and dislikes and find you a creator who wants to create something that fits those parameters. Then we’ll do the same thing to find you a recipient who will be excited to receive the kind of work you want to create, and who we’re confident you’ll be able to design something amazing for! 18. I really want FIC/ART as a gift, can you guarantee I'll get that? Unfortunately, no. We do our best to ensure that participants receive whichever they’d prefer, but we can’t make any guarantees. It all depends on how many people prefer which kind of gift, how many artists end up signing up for the fest, whether we need to call in pinch-hitters, and whether we can find you a really good content-creation match who creates the type of work you would prefer to receive. 19. I really want to write for XYZ person, can you give me them as my giftee? Nope. We love the fandom tradition of creating gifts for friends, but you’ll need to do that for their birthday or other special event, rather than for Erised. We also strongly discourage you from filling out your form to try to match with a specific person; there is no guarantee whatsoever that you’ll end up matched with them, or that you’ll end up matched with them in the direction you’re hoping for, and a very large chance that you’ll end up with a gifter (or as a recipient) who’s working with a sign-up form that’s not entirely candid or complete, which is way more likely to end in non-awesomeness. The best policy is always to fill out your sign-up form completely, honestly, and thoughtfully, and we promise we will give it our absolute all to find you a match who can create a gift you love, and for whom you can spread your wings and create something awesome. 20. My giftee really likes XYZ, but I don't, what should I do? Please don't worry if your recipient has requested something you don't like! You are not required to include it, and you wouldn't have been matched if you didn’t have other things in common. Work with your strengths, and the parts of your recipients sign-up that appeal to you. However, please pay close attention to your recipient's dislikes. We may return your submission for editing or reject it entirely if you include anything expressly listed as a dislike on your recipient's sign-up.

EXTENSIONS 21. When is the best time to ask for an extension? This is a complicated question, as there's no best answer. While we would like our participants to make their extension requests as soon as they think they may need one, if you ask for an extension too far in advance, it can be difficult for you, and therefore for us, to accurately estimate how long of an extension you'll need. Best recommendation would be starting two weeks before the due date. One possible exception to this might be if something finite and predictable comes up, and you know, for instance, that since you’ll be travelling for work for a week, you’ll need one additional week to finish. That said, it’s always best to err on the side of more communication and transparency, and if you’d like to touch base with us sooner, you are always welcome to do so. The mandatory check-ins can also be a good time for this kind of discussion. 22. How should I ask for an extension? To ask for an extension you should email the mod account at hderised@gmail.com. In that email, you should tell us how much additional time you think you'll need, what you estimate your final word count will be, and you must include your current WIP as an attachment. 23. I'm almost done, I just need another day for a few finishing touches. Can I go ahead and just send it tomorrow? No. When you are planning for your deadlines or requesting an extension you should account for all of the work it will take to complete your creation, including things like reading through your beta's changes and coming up with a title and summary. If we simply don't hear from you we have no way of knowing that you haven't just gone MIA and that we'll need to find a pinch-hitter, and we may need to drop you from the fest. Not receiving work on time can also throw a real wrench into the works behind the scenes—for instance, if a member of the H/D Erised team has set aside time to proof and upload work that doesn't arrive, it may be days before they're able to look at your work. This creates quite a bit of messiness in the fest posting schedule and your loyal mods' sanity. We really do need to know as quickly and accurately as possible, and in advance, how much time you'll need, and must ask participants to stick to agreed-upon timelines. 24. Will I get as much of an extension as I ask for? Given the number of moving pieces in an exchange fest, we may not be able to give you as much of an extension as you've requested; for instance, asking for a two-week extension does not guarantee that you will receive a two-week extension. We always try to work with our participants, and want to give you the time you need to do work you'll feel good about and that your recipient is sure to love, but in some circumstances (for instance, if we have scheduling constraints, proofing constraints, if you haven't progressed as predicted at past check-in points, or there are any number of other behind-the-scenes challenges going on) we may need to limit your extension. Of course, this can be avoided completely by submitting on time! :D 25. Why do I need to include my WIP? I've been in fandom for ages and have never dropped a fest! WIPs are required from everybody asking for an extension, no exceptions, no matter how long you’ve been in fandom or how experienced and reliable you are as a fest participant. Exchange fests require a lot of work and coordination on everybody's part to ensure that each participant gets a gift, and seeing your WIP helps us make several important calculations. We need to be certain that you’re well on your way to fulfilling your commitment to your recipient and to the fest, to get a sense for whether there’s a chance that you might need an additional extension, and to be able to start thinking about how your work fits into the larger schedule (since we can’t post the gift created for you until we have your creation in hand, and we need to account for the approximate lengths of the gifts you’re giving and receiving)—basically, seeing your WIP goes a long way towards helping us make sure that everything is on track and to plan a schedule that will work for the entire community. 26. Does that mean you might drop me if I haven't made enough progress? Simply put, unfortunately, yes. It's rare, and we really really don’t want to, but it is possible. We provide a 3-month-long creation period to ensure that participants have plenty of time, but if you haven’t made headway in that time, and if we can’t be sure based on your WIP that you will be able to finish before posting, we may need to drop you from the fest in order to ensure that a pinch hitter has enough time to create something great for your intended recipient. Again, we really don’t want to do this—it’s upsetting for all involved when we have to drop a participant who has put energy and care into planning their gift, it’s disappointing for the gifter who’s put time and love into creating something for you, it’s stressful for your mods, and it asks a lot of your substitute pinch hitter, and we really, really, really don’t want to do it and will do our best to work with every participant. But if it looks like it may come down to a choice between dropping you from the fest or not having a complete, polished gift for your recipient, we may need to drop you from the fest.

POSTING 27. Why do I need to opt-in to being invited to be a co-creator, and how do I do it? As of 2019, AO3 requires all users to opt-in before they can be invited to become a co-author on AO3 works. They made this change to avoid situations in which popular creators were added to works without their knowledge or consent in order to reach those creators' subscribers. So, to add you as a creator to your work (so that you can receive comments and have full ownership of the work once we remove H/D Erised as a co-author at the end of the fest) you must opt-in to being an invitable author. Please enable this feature by logging on to AO3 and hovering or tapping on your username in the upper-right-hand corner to access the drop-down menu, and then clicking on "My Preferences." Once there, please look under "Privacy," towards the top of your screen, check the box labelled "Allow others to invite me to be a co-creator," and hit the "Update" button at the bottom of the page. All participants should enable this feature prior to signing up for the fest. If you have any concerns about enabling this feature, please email the mods prior to signing up. 28. Why do you upload works to AO3, rather than having participants do it themselves? As a holiday exchange fest we frequently end up with a whole lot to do on a very tight timeline, and at a time of year when most people are very busy. We, your faithful mods, organise our holiday season around our commitment to the fest, but we know that our participants can't (and shouldn't have to!) do the same. That said, given that we do end up on a very tight timeline, we need works to be uploaded to AO3 immediately (or absolutely as soon as possible) after they're proofed—unfortunately, we sometimes just can't wait for participants to get home from work/back from a weekend trip/until next Thursday when they have a night free from the social obligations of the season. That said, we add our participants as co-authors immediately upon uploading; the window of time when your work exists on AO3 without you having access to it will only be as long as it takes us to upload—so generally less than an hour. 29. Since you're uploading everything to AO3, should I include any images, links, notes, or citations that should be included in my work? Yes, definitely! Please include EVERYTHING in your submission, including any images, links, author's notes, end notes, and citations! 30. Is there anything I should know about including images, links, etc. in my submission? Please note that images cannot be under copyright or contain copyrighted material that does not belong to the creator. If you are submitting one or more images in the public domain, you must provide links to them so that the mods can quickly and efficiently check their copyright status. Ultimately, creators are responsible for copyrighted content included in their works, and should be aware that using copyrighted works is a violation of AO3's TOS (which state that "Reproductions of entire copyrighted works—whether songs, poems, transcripts, or other material—are not allowed without the consent of the copyright owner.") and may result in their work being removed from the archive, may create issues for H/D Erised and AO3, and may result in legal liability for copyright infringement. 31. Since you're uploading everything to AO3, should I include any accessibility descriptions or other alt-text in the draft I submit? We LOVE accessibility descriptions, please go ahead and include those with your submission if you're so inclined! We don't require these because we know that could create its own accessibility and inclusion challenges for some of our participants, but we are very happy to post them to AO3 in the uploading process. If you'd like to include an accessibility description or other alt-text in your creation, please clearly demarcate the relevant text by placing it below the relevant image(s) and starting the text with "Accessibility Description" or "Alt-text" (e.g., "Accessibility Description: Harry and Draco stand on a windswept cliff gazing longingly into each other's eyes. Draco is wearing knee-high leather boots and a blue woollen cape embroidered with silver patterns and his hair is platinum blond and shoulder length. Harry is wearing muddy trainers, dark blue jeans, and an oversized Gryffindor-red sweater. His hair is cut short and he is wearing his glasses."). 32. Why do you proof creations? First and foremost, to double check that your creation (and your gift!) respects your recipient's (and your!) likes, dislikes, squicks, and triggers. Especially during the holiday season, which can be particularly intense, we want to make sure that everyone's getting a gift that's true to what they've requested—and that steers clear of potentially upsetting content. Even with the absolute best of intentions, we know how easy it is to lose sight of a single item or two within a sign-up, and proofreading lets us serve as a backup for you, as both a creator and a recipient. We also keep an eye out for spelling and grammar—everyone misses something once in a while, and we're here to back you up (and will return a proofread copy of your work with track changes on, so you can see exactly what we've done). 33. Why have you added tags to my work? As above, we know from past experience that the holidays can be an especially intense time for people, and it's often one when things that cause distress are especially close to the surface. Things that seem minor to creators may be a pretty big deal for readers; for instance, we might add a tag for drinking in a fic where a bunch of characters are drinking at a party; we absolutely want you to be able to write that, and know many readers will enjoy reading it—we also know that it may be genuinely distressing for someone who's newly in recovery for alcoholism or who's going home to a family with a history of drinking problems. Therefore, while we can't guarantee that we'll catch everything, we do err on the side of caution when it comes to tagging. All creators will be notified by email of any additional tags and are welcome to remove them after reveals, but we do ask that you leave them up for the duration of the fest. 34. Once my work is on AO3, can I make changes to it? You can make minor spelling and grammar edits after your fic posts to AO3. Anything bigger than a stray comma here or there has to go through the mods, whether it's a change to the body of the work or to the author's notes/endnotes. That's for two reasons. First, to preserve anonymity, which can be easily and accidentally compromised with even brief changes to author's notes or the work itself. Second, because we may have information about your recipient that they aren't comfortable sharing publicly, and need to make sure that those edits that seem minor to you won't create discomfort for your recipient. Even if it doesn't seem like a big addition to you, it's happened in past years that writers have, without notifying the mods, added a few extra lines of dialogue or shifted a description or the dynamic of a scene in ways that have brought up major squicks and triggers for recipients and led to real distress. We promise, this isn't an arbitrary policy, and most edits will be totally fine—we just really, truly do need to know about them. 35. How do you come up with the posting schedule? The mods put a lot of work into creating the posting schedule! The most critical thing to note is that we cannot post a participant's gift until that participant has sent in their own submission. This means that if we have a lot of participants out on extension, not only can we not post their creations, but we can't post any of the gifts for those outstanding participants even if they have been submitted—as you might imagine, this can really create logjams, and can be disappointing for creators who submitted their work on time and are waiting for it to post. This is one of the many reasons why it is critical that you submit your work on time! Beyond that, we do our best to account for things like word count, rating, content warnings, and tone, in order to create a posting schedule that doesn’t overwhelm everyone following along and that regularly has something for the whole community. So for instance, we might try to avoid posting two long fics on the same day, or two tearjerkers, or two fluffy things—but again, our ability to do that relies on your on-time submissions! 36. My work has posted! Can I tell people that it’s mine? Nope! You must wait until the big reveal on January 5, 2024 to tell anyone (other than your beta and/or alpha, since they’re working on the fic with you) which fic is yours! If you reveal your, or anyone else's, identity before reveals you may not be allowed back for future fests. 37. My work has posted! Can I reply to comments on it? No, we ask that you please wait until after reveals occur in January to respond to comments on your work to preserve anonymity. Even if it's not your intention, it can be far too easy to accidentally reveal identifying information (e.g., tone of "voice," punctuation, references to your other work, where to find you on other social media platforms, references to which social media platforms you do or don't use, inside jokes or other referents that might show your hand) in your response to comments, so we ask that you hold off until reveals have posted. If you want to respond because you’ve received a critical comment, please contact the mods and let us respond for you—we keep an eye out for flames and harassment and will ban commenters as needed, and will be happy to step in (and to consult with you along the way about the best response) if you let us know that we’ve missed a comment that you found hurtful or inappropriate. 38. When will my work post? Unfortunately, we can’t tell you in advance. We wish we could! But the schedule is often subject to reshuffling as late works arrive, so we can’t guarantee a specific date. 39. I’ll be away from a computer for part of the time the fest is posting. Do you need to know that? Yes, please and thank you! We do need to know if you’ll be away so that we can either make sure to schedule the gift you’re receiving for a time when you’ll be able to read/view and comment on it or let your gifter know that you’re away and when you’re likely to be back. As we all know, posting a work and waiting for feedback can be quite a nerve wracking thing, so if it may be a long wait for your gifter, we do want to let them know that it’s just that you’re away from the internet—not that you didn’t like your gift! 40. My work has posted and it’s been added to a collection other than H/D Erised. What should I do? This sometimes happens when an AO3 user is making a collection of fic for their own use—often work they’ve especially enjoyed or work that they want to read. However, being added to a private collection can sometimes unreveal the work, making it impossible for your giftee and other readers to see the creation you’ve worked so hard on! While your fic is still anonymous, the mods will take care of removing any extraneous collections added to your work. If you need to remove your Erised fic from a private collection after the fic has been revealed and the mod account has been removed, you can do this by editing your fic on AO3, scrolling to the "Post to Collections / Challenges" section, and clicking on the X next to the unwanted collection. In order to prevent your work from being added to collections without your approval, we recommend changing your AO3 settings. In order to do this, go to "My Preferences" and uncheck the box, towards the bottom of the page, that says "Automatically agree to your work being collected by others in the Archive." This is not a requirement of the fest, but it is good general practice to make sure that all of your works—for Erised or not—remain visible to your readers. 41. My work has posted but is still anonymous, and it’s been plagiarised on Wattpad or another site, or someone has created unauthorised fanwork for it! What should I do? Please contact the mods and let us take care of it—which we will do ASAP!! As an anon creator, you can’t contact the (terrible, horrible, no good, very bad) plagiarist or unauthorised fanwork creator without revealing yourself, and we do ask that you don’t take that chance. But we take your creatorship very, very seriously and will follow up with the relevant person and/or platform as soon as we hear about it, and as much as is needed! (Of course, if it is after reveals, you are welcome/encouraged to do this yourself!)

COMMENTING AND FANWORKS 42. What's the community's comment policy? We love comments! If you have enjoyed a story or piece of art on our community, please comment to let the anonymous creator know! Constructive criticism is welcome if, and only if, the author has explicitly asked for it. Harsh, insulting comments and flames will be screened. Participants are expected to comment on their gifts, hopefully in a timely and thoughtful manner. Participants who do not leave a comment acknowledging their gifts may not be allowed to participate in future exchanges. Additionally, though this is not a formal requirement, we would like to strongly encourage participants to not only comment on their gift, but also on the other submissions. We don't expect you to read and comment on every entry, but if you are a participant, we hope that you think it only reasonable that you will make a good faith effort to support your peers in the fest – after all, that’s how we build strong community, encourage our fellow creators, and discover loads of fantastic new fanworks! 43. What's the community's policy on fanworks, such as art/podfic/translation, of H/D Erised works? It's totally up to the H/D Erised participant to grant or deny permission for fanworks. We therefore ask everyone in the H/D Erised community NOT to post fanworks for H/D Erised works until after reveals, and until you've had a chance to consult the Erised participant and/or the participant's permission statement. If you have a burning desire to post your fanwork before reveals, please reach out to the mods at hderised@gmail.com so we can pass your request on to the participant—but note that we cannot guarantee a reply or a yes. Also note that if a participant alerts us to unauthorised fanwork of their H/D Erised creation, we will ask the creator of the unauthorised fanwork to take it down immediately—but by the time we've reached this point, the Erised participant may already be pretty upset, and if you loved their work enough to make a fanwork about it, we're betting you really don't want that to happen! 44. My work has posted! Can I respond to comments? No, participants must wait to respond to comments until after the fest reveals have posted in January. Please see question 37 above for more on why! 45. I think this work should have an additional tag. Should I leave a comment about it? Please email the mods if you notice something like this, rather than commenting. We watch our inbox carefully throughout the fest and will consider the request, try to consult with the author, and add additional tags if/as needed ASAP. It is likely to be faster and nicer to email the mods, who can pass your feedback on to the author and give them a chance to respond, than it is to leave a comment about it on an anonymous, unrevealed fic. 46. I’ve noticed a typo or HTML error in this fic. Should I leave a comment about it? Please email the mods if you notice something like this, rather than commenting. We watch our inbox carefully through the fest and will correct the error ASAP. Emailing us is both faster and nicer than leaving a comment about it on an anonymous, unrevealed fic. 47. Ooh, I totally think I know who created this! Can I say who I think it is in the comments? No, please don’t make any guesses about the author or artist's identity in the comments! It goes against the spirit of an anon fest and in past years it has been stressful for both creators and recipients and has detracted from their experience. Please don’t do it! 48. I think this work sucks! Can I leave a comment about it? Should such an instance arise, we recommend the immediate and enthusiastic use of your back button, rather than the use of any comment buttons. Our participants put a great deal of work and love into their creations, and unless they’ve explicitly asked for constructive criticism, comments that might be understood as critical—no matter how well-intentioned—are not generally welcome. Please also note that flaming and harassment will not be tolerated. 49. I want to comment but I’m new/shy/not sure how. What should I do? Comment! Creators love hearing that you enjoyed their work, even if it’s as simple as saying "loved it!" or "extra kudos!" and creators extra especially love hearing what you liked. And, especially in a community like H/D Erised, it can be a great way to meet people and start fandom friendships! For more advice on how to comment, check out capitu's 8 ½ Fail-Safe Ways To Write A Comment and dictacontrion's Appreciation without Anxiety: Commenting 101.