Entry tags:
More nattering about my spreadsheet
It's been a while since my original post describing in words what I was doing with my giant list of Big Bang-style challenges in the Supernatural fandom. So here's a whole bunch more stuff I have to tell the world about organizing SPN fanworks challenges into a bunch of little data cells. Since my post over a year ago, I added another tab for all the rest of the fic challenges that are still In Supernatural fandom. This did not happen all at once because it's a big-ass project, and while I'm fairly sure that the list of bangs is fairly complete (I might be missing one or two, <I>maybe</I>) there are so many more other challenges in such a wide variety out there, I really may never get them all. So by all means, come tell me what I'm missing: you can comment directly into the spreadsheet itself, reply here, look me up on any other social media site you spot me on, it's all good and I don't bite. If there's a reason it wasn't included, at least I can tell you what it is.
A few reasons I might not have included something:
What columns I have and why: On both tabs, I have columns for LJ, tumblr, Other, AO3 tag, and AO3 Collection. Other is mostly Dreamwidth pages and a few other random places people host fanfic challenges. The AO3 columns are an artifact of how I found a lot of the challenges, and the fact that there is a lot of user inconsistency in using tags vs. collections. I've thought about adding columns for, say, Twitter or Discord, since a number of challenges have their own account/server, but the deciding factor has been whether these are platforms where any challenges are primarily hosted, and so far they tend to be auxiliary. Therefore the links to them can generally be found from the main site pages. At least on my computer, the spreadsheet is at a size right now where it just fits on the screen, and I like that enough to resist adding a lot more columns and make it an endless exercise in scrolling.
I've also thought about adding a column for pairing, but that would be boxing up a lot of things that don't quite fit neatly into boxes: Destiel-leaning multiship, Wincest-leaning multiship, plus or minus RPF, character-based, theme-based - the challenges themselves will tell you much more about what they do and don't want than I could in a spreadsheet box. However, you can use filters in part for this - more on filters later.
Sorting: How is this thing organized? The first tab, Bangs, has the oldest, deadest challenges at the top and as you go down, ongoing challenges start being sorted by the month of (writer) signups. But what if you're an artist, or a reader who only wants to know when new fics will be posted? Well, that's why the months all have numbers by them, so they can be sorted by the spreadsheet. If you are on a computer, you can go to Data: Filter Views and either select from a few pre-made views (Alphabetical, Sort for Artists, etc) or create your own. You could choose to exclude all dormant challenges, to only include challenges with "Dean" in the name, or to only show "reverse" type challenges, for example.
The second tab, Other, is sorted differently: the longest-running, still current challenges are at the top, and records of past recurring challenges are below them. There is then a separate section for one-shot or non-recurring challenges, challenges which ran less than a single year. This includes many challenges from this year which will likely return next year as well as many that were never intended to run more than once. The main reason I organized it this way was just because there were so many, and this format was less overwhelming. At the bottom below those are challenges which appear to have had their main page deleted, and challenges which I have not been able to find adequate information on.
I've played around with creating filters for Destiel, Wincest/J2, and Women on this tab (sadly they do not carry over between tabs) but these are not guaranteed: I likely missed/misinterpreted some, and every time I add a new challenge, it's necessary to go take it out of each filter it doesn't belong in, so if they get cruddy I apologize in advance. The other filters show specific types of challenges: for example, if you are looking for "exchanges" or "bingo." These should be more robust to new entries because there's a more limited number of "types."
Updates? My goal going forward is to click on every challenge, even the dormant ones, shortly after the new year to see if they've had activity, a new round, etc. and update the spreadsheet accordingly. Updates during the year are more as-I-catch-things; I'm not guaranteed to see all new challenges, so do let me know about them! I used to add links when sign-ups were open, etc, but I don't expect to do that going forward: I might think it would be common sense not to sign up for a challenge without reading the rules first, but it's a chance I don't want to take, and it's not that hard to click through from the main page. Plus, there's a lot of challenges to keep track of now! As of this writing, there are 90 bangs and 164 other challenges, and I expect a complete list of other challenges would have over 200.
I also want to shoutout to![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
wetsammy for helping me out with this project a lot, telling me about new bangs and helping organize the ones I had. And thanks also to ![[twitter.com profile]](https://p.dreamwidth.org/e0caa790ec10/-/twitter.com/favicon.ico)
Superwiki who not only runs the best damn wiki, but also encouraged me to put my collected knowledge into a wiki page all about the Big Bang, and for telling all of Twitter to come check it out!
Finally, welcome to Dreamwidth, everyone discovering or rediscovering it due to Tumblr's recent meltdown. Best of luck and I hope you enjoy finding your way around!
A few reasons I might not have included something:
- It's multifandom. Challenges that crossover Supernatural with one or more other fandoms are included; challenges that can be any fandom are not. I have dreams of doing at least a bang list for multifandom challenges at some point too. Someday. In the meantime, check out my list of resources where you can find most of the bangs that would be on such a list, were I to make one. Also see
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
thedevilchicken 's list of multifandom exchanges active in 2018, and check out ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
fandomcalendar for updates here on Dreamwidth! - It never produced fic, or produced fic by only one person. There are so many challenges, I had to draw the line somewhere.
- It's a rec community, or for posting fic that was previously posted elsewhere. "Challenge" means it's challenging people to produce new fanworks.
- It's one of several similar challenges run by a single community or person. This gets pretty arbitrary in a hurry and I know I have not been entirely consistent drawing the line. Tell me things and help me out!
- I've included some fanart challenges as well as fanfic challenges and many that accept both and more, but I've probably missed ones that don't use AO3, and I have no idea where to even look for fanvid challenges, so suggestions are welcome!
What columns I have and why: On both tabs, I have columns for LJ, tumblr, Other, AO3 tag, and AO3 Collection. Other is mostly Dreamwidth pages and a few other random places people host fanfic challenges. The AO3 columns are an artifact of how I found a lot of the challenges, and the fact that there is a lot of user inconsistency in using tags vs. collections. I've thought about adding columns for, say, Twitter or Discord, since a number of challenges have their own account/server, but the deciding factor has been whether these are platforms where any challenges are primarily hosted, and so far they tend to be auxiliary. Therefore the links to them can generally be found from the main site pages. At least on my computer, the spreadsheet is at a size right now where it just fits on the screen, and I like that enough to resist adding a lot more columns and make it an endless exercise in scrolling.
I've also thought about adding a column for pairing, but that would be boxing up a lot of things that don't quite fit neatly into boxes: Destiel-leaning multiship, Wincest-leaning multiship, plus or minus RPF, character-based, theme-based - the challenges themselves will tell you much more about what they do and don't want than I could in a spreadsheet box. However, you can use filters in part for this - more on filters later.
Sorting: How is this thing organized? The first tab, Bangs, has the oldest, deadest challenges at the top and as you go down, ongoing challenges start being sorted by the month of (writer) signups. But what if you're an artist, or a reader who only wants to know when new fics will be posted? Well, that's why the months all have numbers by them, so they can be sorted by the spreadsheet. If you are on a computer, you can go to Data: Filter Views and either select from a few pre-made views (Alphabetical, Sort for Artists, etc) or create your own. You could choose to exclude all dormant challenges, to only include challenges with "Dean" in the name, or to only show "reverse" type challenges, for example.
The second tab, Other, is sorted differently: the longest-running, still current challenges are at the top, and records of past recurring challenges are below them. There is then a separate section for one-shot or non-recurring challenges, challenges which ran less than a single year. This includes many challenges from this year which will likely return next year as well as many that were never intended to run more than once. The main reason I organized it this way was just because there were so many, and this format was less overwhelming. At the bottom below those are challenges which appear to have had their main page deleted, and challenges which I have not been able to find adequate information on.
I've played around with creating filters for Destiel, Wincest/J2, and Women on this tab (sadly they do not carry over between tabs) but these are not guaranteed: I likely missed/misinterpreted some, and every time I add a new challenge, it's necessary to go take it out of each filter it doesn't belong in, so if they get cruddy I apologize in advance. The other filters show specific types of challenges: for example, if you are looking for "exchanges" or "bingo." These should be more robust to new entries because there's a more limited number of "types."
Updates? My goal going forward is to click on every challenge, even the dormant ones, shortly after the new year to see if they've had activity, a new round, etc. and update the spreadsheet accordingly. Updates during the year are more as-I-catch-things; I'm not guaranteed to see all new challenges, so do let me know about them! I used to add links when sign-ups were open, etc, but I don't expect to do that going forward: I might think it would be common sense not to sign up for a challenge without reading the rules first, but it's a chance I don't want to take, and it's not that hard to click through from the main page. Plus, there's a lot of challenges to keep track of now! As of this writing, there are 90 bangs and 164 other challenges, and I expect a complete list of other challenges would have over 200.
I also want to shoutout to
wetsammy for helping me out with this project a lot, telling me about new bangs and helping organize the ones I had. And thanks also to Finally, welcome to Dreamwidth, everyone discovering or rediscovering it due to Tumblr's recent meltdown. Best of luck and I hope you enjoy finding your way around!