As part of our Exchange Prep series ahead of the nominations for Dragon Age Poly Exchange opening, We’ve put together a Polyship Profile questionnaire gDoc. This is super generic and could be used for any fandom, crossover, or just for writing organization
Feel free to fill this out and share it for #dapolyshippingday the next couple of days. You can complete the questions in your copy of the gDoc, copy them to tumblr, or use them however you want.
Link
To Use:
Sign in to your Google Account
Click the link above.
File → Make A Copy to save to gDocs
To Download:
Click the link above.
File → Download → [Choose a file type] to download it for Word/OpenOffice/whatever.
If you download it instead of saving to gDocs you will loose some of the fonts, unless you download the Google fonts below to get it to display correctly.
If you're thinking about signing up for Dragon Age Poly Exchange and your polyships include an OC, part of your exchange prep should include gathering up references and info for your gifter to have access to. We've put together some ideas below the cut for where and how to host and organize info to make things easier. We tried to sort things based on your relative coding experience.
You can use multiple options, mixing and matching to make your OC's info easy to find.
No/Low Coding Experience
Using a tumblr tag
One of the easiest ways for you to gather up images, thoughts, and info for your OC is to create a tag for them on your blog. When you sign up for the exchange simply drop the link to your OCs tag in the "Letter/Additional Info" spot by using the link http://yourblog.tumblr.com/tagged/charactertag. Tags which have a space in words should have the spaces replaced by +: http://yourblog.tumblr.com/tagged/firstname+lastname.
The advantage to using a tag is that it's simple, and you've already got access. The disadvantage is that it can be unorganized and difficult for your gifter to find specific things (screenshots, faceclaim refs, fics you’ve written, or meta).
Google
For long posts with lots of text, tumblr isn't ideal, but other options may be overwhelming when it comes to creating a character profile as they require you to know code. gDocs is an easy compromise for this. With Google Docs you can insert images and even create jump links and link between docs as well as to outside webpages. There are premade templates you can copy to your drive to use.
Using Google can be especially helpful if you're requesting fanart. Simply drop your OC refs into a gDrive folder along with your character's profile, and grab the share link for the whole folder (make sure to set to people with link can view ONLY) to drop into your sign up.
Some gDocs Templates:
Character and Setting gDoc Templates (designed with fic writing in mind)
The Hero (designed as a roleplaying application)
The Secret History
There are a lot of pre-made templates available for both writers and roleplayers if you check out tags on tumblr like #writeblr, #character sheets, #character templates, #google docs template. You can also search for character sheets and templates outside of tumblr.
Google also offers website hosting without needing to code. The site templates are very basic, but it's an easy way for you to put together a website with lots of information very quickly. To access Google Sites, simply sign into your google account and go to http://sites.google.com.
Dragon Age OC Emporium
A fandom.com wiki for Dragon Age OCs. You can create a page for your character, upload images, link to your tumblr or AO3. Easy to edit even if you don't know any coding.
Coding Needed
Tumblr Pages
Tumblr pages are static web pages hosted straight from your blog. We use these in a few places for the blog, but we're thinking about moving, because tumblr pages are difficult or impossible to access on android if you have the tumblr app installed. Go figure. Still, they do exist and are a free way to create sites with custom layouts.
Follow the instructions here to create your page. For some templates check out about pages on theme-hunter. A lot of these can easily be adapted to be character pages.
Various Levels
Most free website hosts can be used to create a site for your OC. You can use the built in templates or code your own, depending on what you're looking for and what your experience level is.
toyhou.se - an OC specific site (@enigmalea has invites available if you're interested)
neocities - general web hosting, 100% free; coding experience needed
wix.com - general web hosting
weebly.com - general web hosting
If you have other ideas for where to host OC info, please feel free to share in the comments or when you reblog!
Nominations close around 8am EST tomorrow. Sign-ups will then open 12 hours later around 8pm EST.
If you’ve never signed up for a fandom exchange before or just want a refresher, please check out the tutorial below!
If you have questions you can send us an ask here, DM us on twitter, or join the Discord to ask.
We’re just under two weeks away for nominations to open! We’re super excited to see what awesome polycules everyone wants to see content for.
In preparation for our nominations opening, we’ve created a tutorial for anyone who has never nominated ships on a tag set for an exchange before or for anyone who needs a refresher.
The link has also been added to the AO3 exchange profile and the pinned post on tumblr.
You can check out the How To Nominate tutorial on our website here.
Exchange Letters (also known as "Dear Creator Letters", "Dear (Event) Author", or "Dear Santa" for holiday exchanges) are letters created to include with a gift exchange sign up. They are sometimes used in place of the prompt/optional details field and sometimes in conjunction with.
These letters often contain more in depth information which might not fit in the AO3 Prompt field due to length; they can also be easier to include non-text information (like links and images) as the Prompt field would require basic HTML to do so. They often contain information on general likes and preferences, do not wants (DNWs), preferred formats for writing, art preferences, in depth prompts, AUs, kinks, tropes, what you like about certain ships or the fandom in general, etc. In exchanges that allow OCs (like Dragon Age Poly Exchange) letters can also contain info on OCs.
An all encompassing letter should contain everything your giftee would need to know in order to create a gift you would enjoy. A letter designed to be used in conjunction with the Prompt field is usually shorter, containing only the general information which applies to every request being made while the prompts for the specific ships or requests are placed into the Prompt field. Once written, you can drop a link to it in each request in the Letter/Additional Info field of your sign-up.
Click on the Read More for more info on what to include, where to host your letter, and how to sign up with one.
What to Include
If you're writing your first letter or are revising your current one, you might be wondering where to start. We recommend starting by scrolling through your AO3 bookmarks and want to reads and jotting down any tags you see repeated often and by thinking about what you use to filter when you're searching for something to read. For your DNWs think about what squicks you avoid, any triggers you might have, or things that just make you hit the back button and not read a fic.
You can include things like POVs, tenses, styles of writing, general tropes (fluff, angst, smut), or more specific tropes (Hurt/Comfort). If that's not helping or you feel like you're forgetting something check out the following links with lists of common tropes, AUs, and kinks/fetishes. As you scroll through them make sure to note your likes and DNWs.
It's definitely not necessary to list everything in the below lists as a like or DNW. There are certain things which are going to be rare or non-existent in the DA fandom (i.e. underage fic isn't common because most characters are adults, compared to other fandoms like Harry Potter) but there are others which are exclusive to DA (for example, MCiT - Modern Character in Thedas). It's more important that your letter hit the big points. If your giftee has questions they can always reach out to you on anon (if you have them on) OR get in contact with a moderator so we can get more details.
List of Fan-fiction Kinks, Tropes, and Clichés
AUs
Masterlist of Alternate Universes
Kink List
Note: this is an extensive kink list from a furry website intended to help furry roleplayers match; proceed with caution if this could squick you
Where to Host Your Letter
Your letter can be hosted in many of the same places as your OC content from our post: Where to Host OC Content.
Google Drive/gDocs
By far the most popular place to host exchange letters currently. Many of the same tips and tricks for OC content hold true for your letter. You can link to other docs and external sites, add images, use templates, etc. Please check out the Where to Host OC Content post for lots of details on using Google products for exchanges!
Tumblr
You can also drop your letter into a regular tumblr post or page. If you would like to keep your letter off your mutuals' dashes you can make the post private and then a few hours (or days) later make it public. It will not appear on their dash if they sort by popularity or by timeline unless it suddenly gets a lot of likes.
Livejournal/Dreamwidth/Wordpress/Other Blogging Site
Although not as widely used now as tumblr, Livejournal and Dreamwidth are still around and you can post on these sites for your letter. Wordpress or other blogging sites like Blogger are not as popular for fandom endeavors, but they can absolutely be used for a fandom letter, too.
Wix.com/Weebly.com/Other Free Webhosts
This option might be too much if you’re just doing a letter, but if you’re planning using one of the above for your OC content, you can make your fandom letter a page within that website!
Your AO3 Profile
Exchange Letters are not allowed to be posted as separate works on AO3; however, according to the AO3 Content FAQ (we recommend using CTRL+F to search for “letter” to find the right question) you can post general likes/preferences on your profile which means you could use this space for a general letter designed to be used in addition to your Prompt field. Although you can do this, we think one of the other options above is a better idea, as profile space is relatively limited.
How to Sign-Up with a Letter
We're going to be doing a more in depth guide to signing up before Sign-Ups open, but we thought we'd give you a small preview now. The sign-up form below is NOT the final version of our form, so things may look different by the time you sign-up.
