Meeester said:
Hey,

So after a lengthy discussion with the rest of the team, we've done our best to identify what went wrong, why, and how to best make this work for everyone going forward.

What Went Wrong
So the two key rules for why the story was revoked have to do with posting stories written by someone else, and posting the same story twice. You may recall a collab from 2015 called OC Slamjam, an event that was also run by Obselescence who left the team back in January 2017 just after the first instance your Jinglemas collab account was used. Shortly after Slamjam, when all participants started asking to post their submissions to their own account, the Fimfic staff had decided to no longer allow collaborative efforts use a single upload for all participants, as it risks one user reaping all the benefits of the work of others. Jinglemas avoids this issue with an alt, even though it also breaks the shared account rule, but not the rule for posting the same story twice since participants wanted their stories once the contest was over. Because of the mess that became Slamjam with the same issues, the way we treat collabs changed. No more shared accounts or single uploads; users have to post their own stories and the collab's organizers can consolidate everything to a group and individual folder. The reasoning being no one can take unfair advantage of someone else's work and readers are better able to see individual submissions now that they have their own art, descriptions, tags, and their own individual time on the front page for new uploads.

As for how we got here, my guess is that Obs made a mistake on day 1 with allowing Jinglemas in its current form before he left, and then because there was no malicious intent in anything for the Jingle collabs, no users thought to take issue with it or bring it to the attention of myself or other members of staff. Any staff who were involved either predated the rules for collabs or did not remember them because they are so rare. So even a popular collab such as yours still managed to slip under the radar as far as rule violations are concerned, only in the technical sense though since Jinglemas is a very positive event.

Going Forward
The announcement several weeks ago about contests and events getting site posts still applies to collabs such as this. We still have every intention of supporting community efforts like these as much as we can, but it still has to be within our rules to avoid as much misuse as possible. So if you will write up a draft for a site post for both Jingleclop and Jinglemas with info about the collab and group, we would be glad to post it asap or whenever you would prefer. For this year, it's fine to go as you always have with the single upload, but 2020 onwards, you will need to have participants upload their own stories and consolidate them in a single group folder.

So you can keep on as you have always done for this year, but going forward you will need separate uploads. Sorry it was such a train wreck to get to this stage, but in the end both sides have the best intentions for giving the community the best stories we can.

Thanks.


1 hour ago
Flutterpriest said:
Meeester and by Extension the Fimfic Mod team,

I appreciate your input and generosity regarding how this event had been ran in the past. I also want to thank you for the forthright information on how Jinglemas went wrong. By working with Professor Plum (Story Approver) in Discord direct messages, we have already developed a plan and put it into place for this year. JingleClop will take advantage of your offer and remain up as a one story 'collaboration' with the intent for it to be removed from the site, as per site rules, in accordance to our original plan. From that point onward, we hope to have JingleClop ran as a 'fun side event' to the proper event Jinglemas.

As for Jinglemas, now that we've established a plan to follow the site rules and make use of a Sitewide Blog Post, I am in development of a post that can introduce Jinglemas to the wide platform that is Fimfiction, as well as show the wonderful examples made by our participants this year that are being posted to their accounts as of writing this message. (I'm sure the submission and posting queue is jammed for that. In that way, I apologize. We did not intend to load the story approvers with a higher volume than normal amount of work during the holidays. My intent was not to make it more difficult for the average user of Fimfic to release a holiday story.) I personally think deviating from the plan that Plum and I built would create more hardship and make morale lower than it already is. I hope you understand if we elect to not change course.

It's our hope to continue to run this event in a way that not only respects the rules of Fimfiction, but also can be a shining example for others whom wish to collaborate to follow. In this way, I hope you do not mind if we review our actions for site wide collaboration prior running further events to ensure that what we do not only follows the rules, but in additon can set a proper precedent for Fimfiction as a whole.

If FimficCollabs, as an account, violates any rules regarding shared accounts (Petrichord and I both use it, and I'm sure you know. I will not attempt to hide this.) I will quickly change the password and change our policy for using the account going forward. Under these new rules and precedent, I will work with you guys to see if such an account is even necessary going forward. The intent of the account was to host Multiple user story collaborations (which are one finished product) in a place where one person does not get sole credit for the single story. If this does not match the rules and intent of the Collaboration policy of Fimfiction, I will close the account.

Last but not least I want to ask, if it's not too much trouble, If I may share this information publicly, as there are many more users of the site that have been affected by this event than simply me. By sharing this information on a wider scale, I hope I can answer many user's questions as well as stem the tide of the frustration many of the event participants have had.

Thank you so much for your message. I hope mine finds you well, and happy holidays to the whole team,

Flutterpriest and the Jinglemas Staff


45 minutes ago
Meeester said:
That's fine.

Let myself or anyone on staff know when you have your site post ready, and we'll get it posted. It doesn't necessarily have to follow the same contest format, as the Jingle collabs aren't exactly contests anyway. Just be clean and to the point with the info that matters while still having a hook to get anyone interested now or for next year.