paraka

Well, it looks like I shouldn't have worried over my mail for a year idea. Not only is it my highest bid, a whole bunch of other people are now offering it from their various locations and with themes. :)

Since I didn't link to it in the last entry, if you'd like to bid on getting mail from me for a year you can do so here

I don't actually want to pimp myself out too much but I'll probably do so at least once more before everything's over. Anyways, my podfic offer is here (current bids at $15) and my vid offer is here (no bids yet :( ).

In other news, I spent the day trying to match people up for my podfic feedback exchange. 30 people signed up, with 20 podfics to review. I spent a huge amount of time working on the matching yesterday too. I set up a spreadsheet that was really helpful in getting an idea of what I needed to put in the spreadsheet and how to approach certain things. However I just couldn't see the whole thing without making the font too small to read. I'm a really visual person, so I have to be able to see everything. So the next step was getting the craft paper out and transferring the info to paper. diurnal_lee has this giant pad of paper that's 18"12". My first draft wasn't properly spaced so the columns by the end were like 3mm wide, which just didn't work. In fact just as I finished matching everyone up last night, I realized that there were 2 reviewers that didn't have fics to review! I did some quick and dirty changes but at that point I realized that it was 2 am and I had been working on this mostly non-stop since 4pm.

This morning, even though I had everyone matched up from the night before, I decided to do it again. I wasn't really all that satisfied, and I figured I knew what I did wrong last time :P I made a new paper spreadsheet, better spaced this time. However I still wasn't able to fit all the information I wanted on it comfortably, so out came the markers and highlighters. The second matching took much less time, about 5 hours with lots of distractions and I would run downstairs and announce "OMG! I forgot to take into account that some of these podfics where gifts to reviewers during podbang!" It seems kind of tacky to ask someone to review their gift. I also almost assigned someone their own podfic the night before :S

Anyways, everyone's matched up now. I'm going to double check everything tomorrow and then start sending out the assignments. Maybe I'll take pictures of may crazy charts so you can see how nuts I am. :P

Now that podbang has been released, there's been a lot of discussion about podfic in general and feedback specifically. Getting detailed feedback for fanworks is hard, but it's nearly non-existent in the podfic community. I think it's time to change that. So I bring you:



What is it?
Podficers can sign up one of their podfics to be reviewed by other participants in a more in depth way then we normally receive. In return the podficer agrees to review 2 other podfics.

Not a podficer? Or don't want critical feedback of your existing podfic? Well you can still sign up to give feedback.

I'm hoping that all podfics submitted will receive 2 pieces of critical feedback.

Details
Note: this is a critical feedback exchange so the reviewers are encourage bring forward things that didn't work for them as well as things that did. While everything should be presented in a respectful manner, it may not all be positive (although we all hope for a balance of negative and positive reviews).

Because critical feedback can be such a personal matter, while I encourage people to publicly post their reviews, people can also opt to give and/or receive their feedback privately (although I ask that any feedback also be copied to myself, so that I can check mark those that are done, or arrange a pinch hit if someone can't come through).

Since hopefully there will be more reviewers than people submitting things to be reviewed, I'm hoping that if someone receives a podbang length fic that they will only need to review one. That said even though this is on the heels of podbang, any podfic can be submitted. I'm actually encouraging people to post some of their shorter fics since it might be a bit hard for reviewers to listen to 2 6 hour podfics.

People will submit freeform concrit. However since this kind of thing is new to podficing, and since we haven't really developed a common language to deal with this newer (in popularity at least) form of fanart, with people's assignments I'll also post some suggested topics to consider when reviewing. These suggestions are just that, suggestions. There's no format to follow, and you'll find some suggestions don't apply, or would be better smushed into one point. That's A-OK. I just want to give people a place to start from.

Timeline
Now-Jan 13 Sign ups.
Jan 13-Jan 20 Mad matching of podfics to reviewers (I'm hoping it won't take me that long, but I'd rather give myself extra time than be late).
Jan 20-Feb 3 People review. Reviews can be posted/sent as soon as they're done, there's no specific posting date. Private ones will be emailed (with myself copied) and public ones can be posted in the reviewers journal with a link emailed to the podficer and myself.
Jan 30 I'll send out a gentle reminder to anyone who hasn't posted yet, and arrange for pinch hitters if necessary.
Feb 3-17 Pinch hits and extensions to be posted.
Feb 18 Master list of public reviews to be posted.

Sign ups
To sign up, just fill out the appropriate information below as a comment (comments screened)

Podfic & Review Sign Ups
<strong>Name:</strong> <strong>Email Address:</strong> <strong>Podfic Title:</strong> <strong>Podfic Fandom:</strong> <strong>Podfic Lenght:</strong> <strong>Link:</strong> <strong>Public Review?</strong> <strong>Fandoms I'm Willing to Review:</strong> <strong>Lengths I'm Willing to Review:</strong> <strong>I'd be Willing to Review More/Pinch Hit if Needed?</strong> <strong>Review Publicly?</strong>

Review Only Sign Ups
<strong>Name:</strong> <strong>Email Address:</strong> <strong>Fandoms I'm Willing to Review:</strong> <strong>Lengths I'm Willing to Review:</strong> <strong>I'd be Willing to Review More/Pinch Hit if Needed?</strong> <strong>Review Publicly?</strong>

If you are signing up to review only, and would rather review a single podfic instead of two, please leave a comment to that effect in the "I'd be Willing to Review More/Pinch Hit if Needed" section.

To everyone, if you'd be willing to pinch hit or think you could swing doing an extra review depending on your time and lengths of assignments please let me know in that section as well (or via email later if you change your mind). Nothing in that section will be considered a commitment, I just fear doing 50 last minute reviews myself *wibble*

For each question, if you're iffy about something, feel free to expand on your answer. For example, with regards to public reviews, you can say you'd *prefer* something be private/public but are willing to bend.

Any Questions?
Feel free to email me at paraka at livejournal dot com or leave a comment.

ETA: If your podfic has any strong warnings (ie. non-con, underage sex, character death) can you please warn for it.
Similarly if you have issues listening to podfics with such themes, please add that to your sign up.