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ds_ssdiscussionThese instructions are for posting ART. If you're uploading a story that contains illustrations, you must use this version.
Artists have to get a URL from the mods, so please plan ahead. (We do this to maintain secrecy: if you right-click the image and select "View Image Source" you can see the source, which may have identifying information in it. Alternately, if you right-click and select "View Image", the image will open in a new tab and the image location will appear in the URL. That's why the image locations need to be anonymous.)
It isn't the end of the world if we get last second URL requests, but the sooner you upload, the less you'll have to compete with Yuletide to get the page to load.
As of this moment we have no vids, but if anyone decides to put together a last minute vid, the procedure is identical as for art.
The posting deadline is Tuesday, December 18th at 11:59pm Chicago time.
When you're ready to upload, please follow these step-by-step instructions.
Email the file with your art to us at dsss.admin at gmail dot com. If the file is large, please use a file sharing site like MediaFire or SendSpace.
We will respond with a url where your art is hosted. (This may take a day or so, given the different timezones the mods are in.)
Upload your art to the DSSS2012 Collection.
There are 2 ways to get to the upload form.
(A)
1. Go to the DSSS 2012 Collection at the AO3.
2. Be sure you're logged in.
3. Click "Post to Collection".
4. Enter the form's required data (marked in red, plus the info for I, L & N-P). Optional info is welcome, and is also optional.
(B)
1. Go to the AO3 & log in.
2. Select "Assignments" on the left menu.
3. Find your DSSS assignment & click "Fulfill".
4. Enter the form's required data (marked in red, plus the info for I, L & N-P). Optional info is welcome, and is also optional.
If you're already familiar with the AO3 upload form, skip ahead to letters I, L & N-P in the list below and read carefully: this info MUST BE ENTERED CORRECTLY for your recipient to receive their giftwork and to preserve your anonymity!
Now Sage is going to walk through all the blanks, ticky boxes, and text fields for everyone who is brand-new to the AO3. Then she'll have some extra AO3 user hints at the end to help make sure your gift looks like you want it to.
Instructions
TAGS
A) Rating: is required.
B) Archive Warnings: "Choose Not To Use Archive Warnings" is checked by default; uncheck it if you're going to tick any of the other boxes. Warnings can also (optionally) go in the Author's Notes field (L) and/or Additional Freeform tags (G).
C) Fandoms: If your work is a crossover, enter both fandoms. Otherwise, enter "due South" if it isn't already auto-filled.
D) Category: tick the box(es) of your choice. "Multi" seems to mean 3+ people in a relationship. "Other" might mean things beyond binary gender or a work that is neither gen nor about a relationship. Use your best judgment.
E) Relationships: This field allows your work to appear when an index is filtered by Relationship tags. You may tag for both romantic and platonic relationships, or, if your work has no relationships, you can leave this field blank. Characters are listed alphabetically by SURNAME, so start with the character with the earliest alphabetical family name. If your desired pairing isn't in the list, that's okay! Enter it anyway (being careful of spelling). You may enter as many or as few pairings/groups as you like.
Tag protocol generally indicates romantic relationships with a SLASH and gen friendships with an ampersand. For example: "Ray Kowalski/Ray Vecchio" = a romantic relationship tag, whereas "Ray Kowalski & Ray Vecchio" = a gen friendship tag. See the AO3 Hints section below for much more on tags.
F) Characters: This field allows your work to appear when an index is filtered by Character tags. When you start typing a character's name, a list of possible tags will automatically appear. If the character you want to add isn't on the list, enter it anyway (again being careful of spelling). Include as few or as many characters as you want. If this field is blank, your work will NOT appear when users filter an index by Character, even if that character appears in your Relationship tags.
G) Additional Tags: Here you can enter any Additional Tags you like. Examples include: Canon - TV, Post-canon, Pre-canon, Case Fic, Canada, Canadian Shack, Car Sex, Crossover, AU, Space AU, Kissing, Apocalypse, Sex Pollen, Dubcon, Injury, Hurt/Comfort, etc. Again, if a tag you want to use isn't in the system, that's fine. Enter it anyway (being careful of spelling)! Use as few or as many tags as you want.
Additional Tags are visible on every story index page. They may be considered spoilery for your work’s content, which may or may not be a selling point. (See AO3 Hints below. Also, to see what this looks like in practice, click on any AO3 fandom and look over its index.)
PREFACE
H) Work Title: is required.
I) Author/Pseud(s): AO3 allows you to have multiple pseudonyms under the same account. For DSSS, you MUST use the same pseudonym here that you used in your signup! This is how we'll know you've fulfilled your assignment!
J) Add co-authors?: Skip this one as it doesn't apply.
K) Summary: Always helpful! *g*
L) Add notes (at the beginning): If you want to include Author's Notes, we ask that you maintain your anonymity until Reveal! That may mean holding back on naming your betas individually. AFTER Reveal, you can come back and edit identifying info into your notes.
M) Add notes (at the end): Optional.
ASSOCIATIONS
N) Does this fulfill a challenge assignment? Be sure the checkbox next to Due South Seekrit Santa 2012, with your recipient's name in parenthesis, is checked! If this line is not automatically provided, the following two lines let you enter this info.
O) Post to Collections/Challenges: This blank should be auto-filled with "dsss_2012". If not, enter it here.
P) Gift this work to: REQUIRED! REQUIRED! REQUIRED! This should be auto-filled for you. IF NOT: Enter your recipient's username EXACTLY as it appeared in your assignment email! If you don't have the correct username, please come find a mod & we'll get it to you!
Q-R) You can skip the remix and series blanks.
S) This work has multiple chapters: As we are embedding images into AO3, I think the size of your file should not be an issue. However, if you have more than one image, or you have text that accompanies your image, you may want to use multiple chapters. To do so: follow the normal upload instructions below – but ONLY paste your first image's url into the Work Text field – and tick this line's ticky box.When you've posted your first chapter, click "Edit" (under your work in the Collection index). Click the "Add Chapter" button at the top of the edit screen, insert chapter number/title, paste in the next image's url, and upload. Repeat as needed.)
T) Set a different publication date: You can skip this. It's mainly for backdating old works to their original publication date.
U) Only show your work to registered users: Click ONLY if you want to lock your work so it can only be seen by logged-in AO3 users. People without AO3 accounts will be unable to view your work.
V) Choose a language: This allows your work to be filterable by language. Choose English.
W) Custom Stylesheet: The AO3 now allows you to create a custom stylesheet for individual works. This is ideal if you know CSS and want to create something nifty with visual formatting. It is entirely optional, though.
WORK TEXT
X) Work Text: In this box, all you need to post is the following html:
<#img src= "the url we sent you"#> (without any hash marks)
POST
Y) Preview/Post Without Preview: Click Preview and check your work’s appearance thoroughly! At the bottom of the Preview screen, you'll find the buttons to edit again or post. Please use the Preview and Edit buttons as much as necessary! If you click Post Without Preview, you may still Edit your work as much as you need to. If you can't get the Preview screen to load (due to heavy site traffic), use Post Without Preview, and then click Edit to make your revisions.
Note: if you Preview your work and then hit Cancel on the Preview screen, it will take you to the Unposted Works screen, where it will give you options to edit, post, or delete the draft. Unposted Drafts stay in your Drafts folder (on the left menu) for a week before autodeletion. If you are on the Preview screen and need to make revisions, don't hit the back button! Click the EDIT button instead! (See AO3 Hints below.)
AO3 Hints
• Site load will be enormous between now and the end of the year, thanks to all the various fabulous holiday challenges going on, so we can expect the AO3 to be a bit slow. If you're right up against the deadline, get your bare bones info uploaded first: fill in only the REQUIRED data fields and upload your work! AFTER your draft is safely in the system, you can take your time editing optional tags, notes, etc. and making everything pretty.
• Word counts: The 'Work Text' box has a minimum of ten characters. The html for your image should exceed that easily
• Multiple gift works: you may, optionally, upload multiple gift works for your recipient. DSSS only requires that you create ONE gift work for your recipient, but we never say no to Santa/Giftmakers making extras. Bonus works may be shorter/less polished, but your PRIMARY gift work must meet the requirements in the challenge rules and be uploaded BY THE DEADLINE. For DSSS 2012, we're allowing bonus works a few extra days past the main deadline. Watch![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
ds_ssdiscussion for Sage to post a Last Call for bonus works on Dec 22.
• Tags: The tags for having multiple relationships in a single work could look like: [ Elaine Besbriss & Frannie Vecchio ][ Benton Fraser/Ray Kowalski ][ Benton Fraser/Ray Vecchio ][ Ray Kowalski/Ray Vecchio ][ Benton Fraser/Ray Kowalski/Ray Vecchio ]. (In case you got lost, that's one fic containing Elaine & Frannie (gen friendship), Fraser/RayK, Fraser/Vecchio, Ray/Ray, and FKV.) Tags may also be comma-separated, in the event that the drop-down menu doesn't work during heavy site load. AO3 does NOT permit commas WITHIN a single tag.
• You CAN choose to ignore the official canonical pairing tags in the drop-down list and simply type them the way you want them to look, such as "Ray/Ray" or "Frannie/Turnbull". The AO3 tag wranglers synonymize casual forms of pairing tags with their canonical forms, so ALL forms of the tag will show up correctly in relationship filters. However, the tag wranglers CANNOT correct your spelling.
• Warning! Again, the AO3 accepts ALL user-generated tags. Even misspelled ones. Even mistakenly applied ones!
• AO3 tag wranglers are unable to correct misspelled or mistakenly applied tags! Their mission is to curate rather than edit, and they are completely unable to delete or alter the text of existing tags. That power belongs solely to the user. So, if there's a mistake in your tags, you alone can fix it. To do so, click the "Edit Tags" button under your work's title in the index (such as the dsss_2012 index, the main due South fandom index, or your own My Works page. The "Edit" links appear on every filter and search index that contains your work, if you're logged in). "Edit Tags" lets you edit the tags only, without loading the entire work, and causes less server load than the full "Edit" screen; hence it may load faster.
• You can edit your work immediately after uploading and forever into the future. Just click the "Edit" button to do so.
• AO3 slowness/outages: You can track @AO3_status at Twitter in case of site outages. Traffic and site load varies per time of day and region, so you may have better luck uploading in the wee hours, North America time. If the deadline nears and the AO3 completely fails to load for you, get in touch with us at dsss.admin at gmail.com and keep us in the loop. In a worst case scenario, we may look into getting someone to upload your work for you.
More on using the AO3
There are some nifty user tools on the Preferences page. To get there: make sure you're logged in and click "my home" on the top menu bar. Then click "Preferences" in the left nav bar.
You can then change the settings for privacy, site display (& skins), statistics, comments, collections & gifts, etc. For example, you can choose whether to minimize search engine visibility on your stories, whether you want to see hit counts, whether to show adult content without the prompt screen, whether to see chapters separately or in-line, whether to see warnings, whether you want AO3 to provide you your viewing history, and so on. Take your time (once your giftwork is complete *g*) and explore!
That should be everything! (We really hope that's everything!) If you need help with your upload, please consult these instructions first! I know there are a lot of steps, but they're fairly easy and most are entirely optional. If you still have questions specific to your upload OR if something goes horribly wrong, please email us at dsss.admin at gmail & we'll do what we can to help! If it's beyond our understanding, then we can contact AO3 support and bring in the experts. Note: I am in Australia & Sage is in Texas, so hopefully one of us will be around, but time zones and RL factors may delay an immediate reply depending on when you try to reach us.
If you have general questions, email us or comment below! (Comments are visible to all, so please be vague about your giftwork's details and recipient!)
Remember, the DSSS posting deadline is Tuesday, December 18th at 11:59pm Chicago time. We have to hear from you by then, or else we'll pass your assignment to a pinch hitter.
Thank you all so much for playing! Yay DSSS 2012!!! \o/
Sage wrote most of these instructions! \Sage/
Artists have to get a URL from the mods, so please plan ahead. (We do this to maintain secrecy: if you right-click the image and select "View Image Source" you can see the source, which may have identifying information in it. Alternately, if you right-click and select "View Image", the image will open in a new tab and the image location will appear in the URL. That's why the image locations need to be anonymous.)
It isn't the end of the world if we get last second URL requests, but the sooner you upload, the less you'll have to compete with Yuletide to get the page to load.
As of this moment we have no vids, but if anyone decides to put together a last minute vid, the procedure is identical as for art.
The posting deadline is Tuesday, December 18th at 11:59pm Chicago time.
When you're ready to upload, please follow these step-by-step instructions.
Email the file with your art to us at dsss.admin at gmail dot com. If the file is large, please use a file sharing site like MediaFire or SendSpace.
We will respond with a url where your art is hosted. (This may take a day or so, given the different timezones the mods are in.)
Upload your art to the DSSS2012 Collection.
There are 2 ways to get to the upload form.
(A)
1. Go to the DSSS 2012 Collection at the AO3.
2. Be sure you're logged in.
3. Click "Post to Collection".
4. Enter the form's required data (marked in red, plus the info for I, L & N-P). Optional info is welcome, and is also optional.
(B)
1. Go to the AO3 & log in.
2. Select "Assignments" on the left menu.
3. Find your DSSS assignment & click "Fulfill".
4. Enter the form's required data (marked in red, plus the info for I, L & N-P). Optional info is welcome, and is also optional.
If you're already familiar with the AO3 upload form, skip ahead to letters I, L & N-P in the list below and read carefully: this info MUST BE ENTERED CORRECTLY for your recipient to receive their giftwork and to preserve your anonymity!
Now Sage is going to walk through all the blanks, ticky boxes, and text fields for everyone who is brand-new to the AO3. Then she'll have some extra AO3 user hints at the end to help make sure your gift looks like you want it to.
Instructions
TAGS
A) Rating: is required.
B) Archive Warnings: "Choose Not To Use Archive Warnings" is checked by default; uncheck it if you're going to tick any of the other boxes. Warnings can also (optionally) go in the Author's Notes field (L) and/or Additional Freeform tags (G).
C) Fandoms: If your work is a crossover, enter both fandoms. Otherwise, enter "due South" if it isn't already auto-filled.
D) Category: tick the box(es) of your choice. "Multi" seems to mean 3+ people in a relationship. "Other" might mean things beyond binary gender or a work that is neither gen nor about a relationship. Use your best judgment.
E) Relationships: This field allows your work to appear when an index is filtered by Relationship tags. You may tag for both romantic and platonic relationships, or, if your work has no relationships, you can leave this field blank. Characters are listed alphabetically by SURNAME, so start with the character with the earliest alphabetical family name. If your desired pairing isn't in the list, that's okay! Enter it anyway (being careful of spelling). You may enter as many or as few pairings/groups as you like.
Tag protocol generally indicates romantic relationships with a SLASH and gen friendships with an ampersand. For example: "Ray Kowalski/Ray Vecchio" = a romantic relationship tag, whereas "Ray Kowalski & Ray Vecchio" = a gen friendship tag. See the AO3 Hints section below for much more on tags.
F) Characters: This field allows your work to appear when an index is filtered by Character tags. When you start typing a character's name, a list of possible tags will automatically appear. If the character you want to add isn't on the list, enter it anyway (again being careful of spelling). Include as few or as many characters as you want. If this field is blank, your work will NOT appear when users filter an index by Character, even if that character appears in your Relationship tags.
G) Additional Tags: Here you can enter any Additional Tags you like. Examples include: Canon - TV, Post-canon, Pre-canon, Case Fic, Canada, Canadian Shack, Car Sex, Crossover, AU, Space AU, Kissing, Apocalypse, Sex Pollen, Dubcon, Injury, Hurt/Comfort, etc. Again, if a tag you want to use isn't in the system, that's fine. Enter it anyway (being careful of spelling)! Use as few or as many tags as you want.
Additional Tags are visible on every story index page. They may be considered spoilery for your work’s content, which may or may not be a selling point. (See AO3 Hints below. Also, to see what this looks like in practice, click on any AO3 fandom and look over its index.)
PREFACE
H) Work Title: is required.
I) Author/Pseud(s): AO3 allows you to have multiple pseudonyms under the same account. For DSSS, you MUST use the same pseudonym here that you used in your signup! This is how we'll know you've fulfilled your assignment!
J) Add co-authors?: Skip this one as it doesn't apply.
K) Summary: Always helpful! *g*
L) Add notes (at the beginning): If you want to include Author's Notes, we ask that you maintain your anonymity until Reveal! That may mean holding back on naming your betas individually. AFTER Reveal, you can come back and edit identifying info into your notes.
M) Add notes (at the end): Optional.
ASSOCIATIONS
N) Does this fulfill a challenge assignment? Be sure the checkbox next to Due South Seekrit Santa 2012, with your recipient's name in parenthesis, is checked! If this line is not automatically provided, the following two lines let you enter this info.
O) Post to Collections/Challenges: This blank should be auto-filled with "dsss_2012". If not, enter it here.
P) Gift this work to: REQUIRED! REQUIRED! REQUIRED! This should be auto-filled for you. IF NOT: Enter your recipient's username EXACTLY as it appeared in your assignment email! If you don't have the correct username, please come find a mod & we'll get it to you!
Q-R) You can skip the remix and series blanks.
S) This work has multiple chapters: As we are embedding images into AO3, I think the size of your file should not be an issue. However, if you have more than one image, or you have text that accompanies your image, you may want to use multiple chapters. To do so: follow the normal upload instructions below – but ONLY paste your first image's url into the Work Text field – and tick this line's ticky box.When you've posted your first chapter, click "Edit" (under your work in the Collection index). Click the "Add Chapter" button at the top of the edit screen, insert chapter number/title, paste in the next image's url, and upload. Repeat as needed.)
T) Set a different publication date: You can skip this. It's mainly for backdating old works to their original publication date.
U) Only show your work to registered users: Click ONLY if you want to lock your work so it can only be seen by logged-in AO3 users. People without AO3 accounts will be unable to view your work.
V) Choose a language: This allows your work to be filterable by language. Choose English.
W) Custom Stylesheet: The AO3 now allows you to create a custom stylesheet for individual works. This is ideal if you know CSS and want to create something nifty with visual formatting. It is entirely optional, though.
WORK TEXT
X) Work Text: In this box, all you need to post is the following html:
<#img src= "the url we sent you"#> (without any hash marks)
POST
Y) Preview/Post Without Preview: Click Preview and check your work’s appearance thoroughly! At the bottom of the Preview screen, you'll find the buttons to edit again or post. Please use the Preview and Edit buttons as much as necessary! If you click Post Without Preview, you may still Edit your work as much as you need to. If you can't get the Preview screen to load (due to heavy site traffic), use Post Without Preview, and then click Edit to make your revisions.
Note: if you Preview your work and then hit Cancel on the Preview screen, it will take you to the Unposted Works screen, where it will give you options to edit, post, or delete the draft. Unposted Drafts stay in your Drafts folder (on the left menu) for a week before autodeletion. If you are on the Preview screen and need to make revisions, don't hit the back button! Click the EDIT button instead! (See AO3 Hints below.)
AO3 Hints
• Site load will be enormous between now and the end of the year, thanks to all the various fabulous holiday challenges going on, so we can expect the AO3 to be a bit slow. If you're right up against the deadline, get your bare bones info uploaded first: fill in only the REQUIRED data fields and upload your work! AFTER your draft is safely in the system, you can take your time editing optional tags, notes, etc. and making everything pretty.
• Word counts: The 'Work Text' box has a minimum of ten characters. The html for your image should exceed that easily
• Multiple gift works: you may, optionally, upload multiple gift works for your recipient. DSSS only requires that you create ONE gift work for your recipient, but we never say no to Santa/Giftmakers making extras. Bonus works may be shorter/less polished, but your PRIMARY gift work must meet the requirements in the challenge rules and be uploaded BY THE DEADLINE. For DSSS 2012, we're allowing bonus works a few extra days past the main deadline. Watch
ds_ssdiscussion for Sage to post a Last Call for bonus works on Dec 22.• Tags: The tags for having multiple relationships in a single work could look like: [ Elaine Besbriss & Frannie Vecchio ][ Benton Fraser/Ray Kowalski ][ Benton Fraser/Ray Vecchio ][ Ray Kowalski/Ray Vecchio ][ Benton Fraser/Ray Kowalski/Ray Vecchio ]. (In case you got lost, that's one fic containing Elaine & Frannie (gen friendship), Fraser/RayK, Fraser/Vecchio, Ray/Ray, and FKV.) Tags may also be comma-separated, in the event that the drop-down menu doesn't work during heavy site load. AO3 does NOT permit commas WITHIN a single tag.
• You CAN choose to ignore the official canonical pairing tags in the drop-down list and simply type them the way you want them to look, such as "Ray/Ray" or "Frannie/Turnbull". The AO3 tag wranglers synonymize casual forms of pairing tags with their canonical forms, so ALL forms of the tag will show up correctly in relationship filters. However, the tag wranglers CANNOT correct your spelling.
• Warning! Again, the AO3 accepts ALL user-generated tags. Even misspelled ones. Even mistakenly applied ones!
• AO3 tag wranglers are unable to correct misspelled or mistakenly applied tags! Their mission is to curate rather than edit, and they are completely unable to delete or alter the text of existing tags. That power belongs solely to the user. So, if there's a mistake in your tags, you alone can fix it. To do so, click the "Edit Tags" button under your work's title in the index (such as the dsss_2012 index, the main due South fandom index, or your own My Works page. The "Edit" links appear on every filter and search index that contains your work, if you're logged in). "Edit Tags" lets you edit the tags only, without loading the entire work, and causes less server load than the full "Edit" screen; hence it may load faster.
• You can edit your work immediately after uploading and forever into the future. Just click the "Edit" button to do so.
• AO3 slowness/outages: You can track @AO3_status at Twitter in case of site outages. Traffic and site load varies per time of day and region, so you may have better luck uploading in the wee hours, North America time. If the deadline nears and the AO3 completely fails to load for you, get in touch with us at dsss.admin at gmail.com and keep us in the loop. In a worst case scenario, we may look into getting someone to upload your work for you.
More on using the AO3
There are some nifty user tools on the Preferences page. To get there: make sure you're logged in and click "my home" on the top menu bar. Then click "Preferences" in the left nav bar.
You can then change the settings for privacy, site display (& skins), statistics, comments, collections & gifts, etc. For example, you can choose whether to minimize search engine visibility on your stories, whether you want to see hit counts, whether to show adult content without the prompt screen, whether to see chapters separately or in-line, whether to see warnings, whether you want AO3 to provide you your viewing history, and so on. Take your time (once your giftwork is complete *g*) and explore!
That should be everything! (We really hope that's everything!) If you need help with your upload, please consult these instructions first! I know there are a lot of steps, but they're fairly easy and most are entirely optional. If you still have questions specific to your upload OR if something goes horribly wrong, please email us at dsss.admin at gmail & we'll do what we can to help! If it's beyond our understanding, then we can contact AO3 support and bring in the experts. Note: I am in Australia & Sage is in Texas, so hopefully one of us will be around, but time zones and RL factors may delay an immediate reply depending on when you try to reach us.
If you have general questions, email us or comment below! (Comments are visible to all, so please be vague about your giftwork's details and recipient!)
Remember, the DSSS posting deadline is Tuesday, December 18th at 11:59pm Chicago time. We have to hear from you by then, or else we'll pass your assignment to a pinch hitter.
Thank you all so much for playing! Yay DSSS 2012!!! \o/
Sage wrote most of these instructions! \Sage/
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