#bag.ask

[bag-bang]

Wait so this year the be a goldfish bang is multifandom? I thought it was a Ted Lasso event?

That's right: this round, as well as all hypothetical future rounds, will be multifandom! As mentioned in our pinned post, we began as a Ted Lasso-specific event, but we have always intended to eventually open the event to everyone in the spirit of the curiosity, kindness, and friendship that Ted embraces.

In early 2025, when a major Ted Lasso discord server collapsed, we jumped on creating a new event like the Goths jumping on a dying Roman empire. The majority of our fandom contacts lie within that space and we're both massive Ted Lasso fans, so we chose to limit the first round of Be A Goldfish to just the one fandom in order to beta test the event on a smaller, familiar group.

[bag-bang]

Hi, sorry if you've answered this anywhere, but I can't find it. Are the weekly prompts only good for that week? Like if I finish a draft I've been dragging my feet on in the start of February, do I still submit it to the form saying it corresponds to a weekly prompt? Thanks!

This is a great question! In our Prompt Doc, we say that you may follow the prompts as rigidly or loosely as you wish, meaning there are no rules as to how or when you choose to use the prompts, if at all. So long as you share your work during an active round and it meets all other guidelines, it doesn't matter to us when you share a work for any of the prompts.

That particular question on the submission form is more just for us. We want to know if the prompts are inspiring anybody, or if we're just doing unnecessary work that folks aren't responding to. So far though, it looks like folks are digging it! Which we're really pleased about because we like them too :)

We hope this answers your question!

[bag-bang]

Does a fusion count as a crossover? As in, it takes place in the universe of another fandom, like Star Trek or Star Wars or whatever, but is entirely about Ted Lasso characters? Like a Star Trek AU that's not "Kirk beams down to Nelson Road" but "Ted Lasso characters as Starfleet officers"? Is it only okay if no characters from the other franchise show up/are even mentioned at all? Or does it have to be a general space/sci fi AU anyway?

We consider a fusion and a crossover to be distinct.

We adhere to this definition of a crossover presented over on Fanlore:

In the most common form, characters from Fandom A may meet characters from Fandom B (i.e., a Stargate Atlantis story in which The Doctor visits Atlantis, perhaps with a Companion or two in tow).

The first fourish fusion subtypes, also over on Fanlore; transposed settings, objects, premises, and stories are all fair game. Provided characters don't meet across fandoms.

So, TLDR: You're totally allowed to make the Ted Lasso characters Starfleet officers, witchers, immortal action heroes a la The Old Guard, Seattle-based surgical residents, or whatever else as long as characters from that fused setting do not make an appearance.

(and just between us, we would both be stoked to see an AU like this!)

[bag-bang]

Is there a Discord server of some sort for this, or a semi-official one? Is that something you see happening in the future? (I'm SO HYPED for the July microbang!!)

Great question! We do not host or endorse any Discord server. We hosted a server during our first round in 2025 and upon reflection elected to do away with it by our second at the beginning of 2026. We have no intention of creating, hosting, or endorsing another.

We here at Be A Goldfish have an open-facing event philosophy. Closed doors are out, sharing with the class is in! We do not align with models of fannish participation wherein everything is tucked away, out of sight, and out of mind. We don't like cliques or ingroups, either, and we feel that Discord-based fandom spaces promote them. Our thoughts regarding this issue are echoed in this post by @lonelyroommp3.

We enthusiastically encourage everyone to engage with works in open public forums like Tumblr, Pillowfort, AO3, and Dreamwidth through comments, reblogs, likes, crossposting your own works, creating rec lists, and so on. Our Dreamwidth community in particular is home to an avid commenting community, and we would love to see that energy on our other platforms, too!

[bag-bang]

Is your RuleDoc and FAQ Doc supposed to be by-request? This shows up when I click the link for either of them:

Good Question! It's not by request we just haven't opened it to viewers yet. We're still getting everything ready for the upcoming round and we've been making updates to the RuleDoc (which is the same as the the FAQ, we changed the name since it wasn't actually a FAQ). We just want to make sure it's finalized before folks can read it.

We'll open it up once our promo posts go live on 1 June, so this coming Monday. Once it's live though, it will remain static for the entire round and no further updates will be made.

And let us just say thank you from the bottom of our little goldfish hearts for wanting to read the rules. We love you 🧡 #weareyournumber1fan

[bag-bang]

Hi! In the BAGBang Ruledoc there's the example banner and there's an error in the image ID. The banner says "1 fanfood made", and the ID states "17 comments left"

Good catch! Thanks for letting us know. We've corrected the error.

[bag-bang]

As far as image descriptions go, is within the alt text okay, or must they be in the body of the post? (I understand they cannot be under cuts.)

Yep! Alt text is fine. As long as the description/alt is part of the original post (to prevent the spreading around of reblogs without a description), it's up to you to decide what's best for your work.

Good question!

[bag-bang]

Can we post a work with individual chapters that update each under 750 words, even if the total is over 750? (This would be one fic, not a collection.) Or does that count as one entry? Thanks!

We would consider that to be one entry and would advise against it for the purposes of this event. A single entry should be a complete, relatively stand-alone work that is 750 words or less.

You're welcome to do multiple works within the same narrative/verse/series/collection as long as they are distinct and generally self-contained.