#exchanges

[hometoursandotherstuff]

I like this idea.

Unfortunately, the man who made this one had to take it down b/c it kept getting vandalized.

mikebennettart instagram

Goodbye to the Portland Keychain Library as we know it…

[detective-jane-rizzoli]

[glassesblu]

Made for a Twst Valentines flash exchange :)

Idia learned metalcraft and Made Azul's engagement ring himself. It's a high karat gold, with 3 opal magestones set into it. It's also got really tiny tech that they can configure to whatever Azul might want

Azul's engagement ring for Idia is a blackened Silver ring with purple sapphire magestones set into it.

[cr-summer-wildflowers]

24 hours left to sign up!

SIGN UP HERE!

With 30 sign-ups so far, 2026 officially has the most participants of any Wildflowers Exchange yet!

And we've still got another 24 hours to left to sign up!

Sign-ups for Critical Role Summer Wildflowers 2026 will be closing on Saturday, 30th May at 11:59 PM EDT/Sunday, 31st 3:59 AM UTC! Make sure you have submitted your requests and offers before then!

More information on how to sign up here!

Join the Discord server here!

If you miss sign-ups, you will still be able to fill prompts as treats, but you will not receive an assignment and you will not receive anything for yourself.

[saywhat-politics]

Trump found yet another distasteful way to profit from the presidency

Coast Guard members were given the opportunity to line the commander-in-chief's pockets directly by purchasing his branded alcohol.

Coast Guard members were given the opportunity to line the commander-in-chief's pockets directly by purchasing his branded alcohol.

Nov. 10, 2025, 7:09 AM EST

By Hayes Brown, MSNBC Opinion Writer/Editor

President Donald Trump has spent much of his second term so far doing, well, exactly the sorts of things he would be doing if he weren’t president. He’s been busy renovating the White House to more closely resemble his gilded temple to opulence at Mar-a-Lago. He’s been hawking wares with his name slapped on them to anyone willing to open their wallet. And at least one branch of the military has been given the chance to give back to their commander in chief directly.

Forbes reported Friday that bottles of Trump-branded wine and cider were available for purchase at two Coast Guard Exchanges, which “sell tax-free goods to members of the Coast Guard and other qualified customers, such as active duty and retired military, and civilian employees.” A display of the Trump-brand beverages was posted on Instagram last week, before Forbes confirmed their presence with both the Washington, D.C., and Centreville, Virginia, stores.

[allekha]

Request for prompts!

Hiya! This July, I and 279 other people will be playing a fanworks exchange game called Battleships! While sign-ups are closed, prompts are still open and will be throughout the game (which starts on July 12 and will probably go until near the end of the month). Battleships is basically played like the Battleships board game, but to call squares, you have to make fanworks first, and each fanwork has to be a gift for someone's prompt - so having prompts to work with is a super important part of the game. And you might get a fic, art, or podfic in response to your prompt!

You can go to the prompt form here to get started! If you want more instructions on filling it out, I've included an explanation below.

How to leave a prompt:

The full prompting rules are here, but here's a simplified version: First of all, you need an AO3 account, and your account needs to be set to receive gifts, or else nobody can give you a response to a prompt! Receiving gifts is disabled by default for newer accounts. Go to your preferences (you can find it from your dashboard or by selecting 'Hi, [your username]') and check that the 'Allow anyone to gift me works' setting at the bottom is checked.

At the prompt form, if you want to add more than one prompt, you can click the 'add another request?' button at the bottom to add up to 50. You can edit the prompts afterward (although you shouldn't make big changes mid-game) or remove them or add more whenever you want.

The fandom has to be one that has already been nominated by someone for the game - you can search for fandoms by typing in the box and clicking if you fandom shows up, but the search boxes can be a little glitchy, so you can also check the set of nominated fandoms (alphabetical here, or by medium here).

Then you select whether you want to ask for fic, art, and/or podfic.

The relationships box is used for both relationships and single characters (and sometimes objects, places, or ideas like worldbuilding). A tag like 1: Character means you are asking for a work centered on that character; this can be filled with a gen work, or a work with any relationship featuring the character, unless you add relationships or something like 'no romantic relationships' to your do not want list (see below). A tag like Character/Character means who are asking for work with a romantic and/or sexual relationship between the characters. A tag like Character & Character means you are asking for a work with a platonic relationship between the characters. Relationships also have to already be nominated; you can search with the box, but this one is also a bit glitchy sometimes, so you can also look for your fandom in the big list of nominated fandoms and relationships and click the arrow next to it to see what has already been nominated.

The additional tags and the optional tags field are basically the same thing, but the additional tags box has a limit of 20, and any after that go in the optional tags box. You have to request at least one additional tag from the list of additional tags, but you can request as many as you want. Be warned that the additional tags box can search the Battleship tags, but if you want to include more in the optional tags box, you have to copy and paste from the tag list. (Putting anything in either tags box except the tags from the Battleship tags list will get your prompt deleted by the mods!) If you want to add a lot of tags, there's a tickybox sheet that can help.

A fill for a prompt has to contain at least one relationship (or character) you requested and at least one additional tag you requested in a medium you requested. You can make more than one prompt for the same fandom if you want to ask for different relationships in different mediums or different additional tags for different relationships.

In the optional details box, you need to include at least a little bit of info for a potential creator. You can write about what you like in the prompted medium in general or any ideas for more specific prompts you have, like tropes, scenes, or AUs. You also need to either clearly list your do not wants (DNWs) or say that you don't have any. DNWs are things that you don't want to receive for any reason (you don't need to explain why), and creators are not allowed to include them when fulfilling a prompt. They should be stated neutrally, and you should try to make them clear and easy to understand. (For example: 'DNW: explicit sex, A/B' is good, while 'DNW: gross stuff' doesn't clearly state what it encompasses, and 'DNW that disgusting ship A/B' is not neutral.)

The archive warnings box allows you to indicate that you are interested in receiving works with those archive warnings. Not selecting them does not mean a fill can't include them (unless you add them to your DNWs) and selecting them doesn't mean that a fill must include them (unless you say 'DNW No Archive Warnings Apply').

Don't check 'Semi-anonymous Prompt?'. Battleship uses the gift functionality of AO3, so a creator can't gift a prompt fill to an unknown person.

When you're ready, click the 'submit' button! And hopefully someone will make something for your prompt 😀

[freinchfrygirl]

My Thoughts on Late Gifts in Fandom Exchanges

A disclaimer -- I am an individual participant in fandom events and do not run them, nor am associated with any of them. These thoughts are my own, independent perspective on fandom etiquette.

TLDR; If you require timely or high quality fan works, you can always commission them. Stay grateful and patient for free labor and freely run spaces, and maybe grow the garden instead of stomping on it.

When you see entitlement / entitled behavior, call it out. It's way past uncool.

--

The person who took on my prompt in the Sonadow Exchange is running about a week behind -- and I'll be happy to receive anything, at any time -- even if they drop and a pinch hitter fills in during July, I will be grateful. The mod communicated what they knew back to me as soon as they did, and I went "bet, I have a million other things to do, too."

I realize not everyone feels this way on late gifts.

I say that maybe, if you don't feel this way, you're better off purchasing commission work to ensure you are getting the quality of work you desire on a timeline that fits the needs of your anxiety. Maybe community garden vibes aren't for you, and you'd prefer a country club.

Me? I'll roll in some dirt and enjoy chatting with other worms and lady bugs. Maybe some quality ain't perfect -- we get some daisies and fancy mosses to go along with our dahlias and artfully pruned shrubs.

Now, just going to leave thoughts below for posterity as I am sure they were deleted by the originator of the post (I'm blocked and I count that as a win), and I stand by what I say verbatim. Quote me on it, go ahead.

Seeing someone blast a mod and share private DMs because the weather was too hot and their anxiety is everyone else's problem (a therapy topic we actually cover in Acts 2-3 of Rediscovering You through Sonic) when the original poster was provided visibly fair, consistent, and fluid communication just set my burners off.