Call for Betas & Cheerleaders

[sage]

Dear Betas and Cheerleaders!

Welcome and thank you for helping our participants in DSSS 2013! This is a secret exchange, so we ask all participants, cheerleaders, and betas to keep assignments and recipient info SEEKRIT until Reveal Day. Thanks!

To sign up to cheerlead or beta, please comment below with the following information:

I will cheerlead! YAYAYAY!!
1. Fic, art, vid, podfic?
2. Any characters or genres you're particularly enthusiastic about.
3. Things outside your comfort zone (epic tragedy, kidfic, kink, etc.).
4. How to reach you directly so the DSSS participant can protect his/her anonymity.

I can volunteer to beta! \o/
1. Fic, art, vid, podfic?
2. Areas of expertise (characters, pairings, areas of special knowledge: i.e., Northern Canada, Chicago, RCMP, wolves, kids, particular kinks, etc.).
3. The kinds of betas you can do: (FIC: plot beta, spelling and grammar only, story edit, line edit; ART: proportion/scale/color beta; VID: clip or throughline beta: PODFIC: pronunciation, pacing beta.)
4. Things outside your comfort zone (non/dub-con, horror, kidfic, particular kinks, deathfic, etc.).
5. How to reach you directly so the DSSS participant can protect his/her anonymity.

While we prefer DSSS participants NOT to beta works in the challenge, we understand that sometimes that happens. If you are a participant whose AO3 username is different from your LJ username, please clarify who you are in your comment so no one mistakenly asks you to cheer/beta your own gift!

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Participants

We want you to have all the support you need to create the best DSSS giftwork you can. Please make use of cheerleaders and betas to help keep your creative process on track. If you find you need a beta with specialized knowledge and none of the volunteers in the comments below are a good fit, please email the mods and we'll post a SEEKRIT beta request on your behalf. :)

Rules recap: remember that we expect ALL fic, art, vids, and podfic to be beta'd and to reflect DSSS's quality standards (including length/effort) for well-crafted giftworks. You must post ONE giftwork that meets these requirements for your recipient. (There will be more info on making additional Treats toward the end of November; until then, please focus on your assignment!) If the work you post is below-expectation, then we will ask you to revise it and/or call in a pinch hitter on your behalf. Make sure to leave enough time between beta and deadline to fully edit your fic, art, vid, or podfic! These are GIFT-works, after all, and we want everyone to receive something awesome.

DO NOT ask your recipient to be your beta or cheerleader! Gifts should be a wonderful surprise to their recipients. Please note that SOME recipients have different usernames for LJ and AO3: make certain you don't accidentally ask your recipient to beta/cheer their own gift!

If you have ANY DSSS questions or need more information from your recipients about their requests, EMAIL US, your friendly neighborhood mods, at dsss.admin at gmail.com and we will gladly help you out, make inquiries, etc. :)


Mark Your Calendars

All Works are DUE: Tuesday, December 17, 11:59pm Chicago time.
Gifts Go Live: Tuesday, December 24, 2013, late in the evening.
Santas Revealed: Wednesday, Jan 1st, 2014

Links

DSSS Challenge rules (Check here first if you have questions.)
Dear Santa/Giftmaker letters (Have you added yours yet?)

There are exactly two months until the deadline, but the sooner you start, the less pressure there'll be in December! Best of luck, everyone!