fandomweekly | Call for Bannermakers/Interest Check for Banners and Discord

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Admin Post: Call for Bannermakers/Interest Check for Banners and Discord

Hi, everybody, and my apologies for how long it's taken me to make this post!

As you may have noticed, we didn't have any bannermakers signed up past Challenge 020, so this post is a combination interest check/bannermaker sign-up post.

Does everyone like having banners for challenge winners, or is there something else that everyone would enjoy as an alternate prize? If you're interested in making banners or have alternate suggestions for challenge prizes, please comment here and let me know.

In the past, we've also had a group Discord chat for Fandomweekly participants (readers and writers all welcome). Is that something anyone would still be interested in? If so, please let me know here; if enough people are interested, I'll see what I can do about making a new one.

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I liked banners and I'm super disappointed I never got one for when I won third place. I'd like to see more, but only if they honor their commitment (including informing if they're unable to make them.)

I'm not interested in Discord. I avoid it and hate how everything is movie g over there.

Yeah, that's definitely been an issue in the past. I'm trying to come up with a backup option if someone commits to make banners for a certain week and then disappears--I'm not at all good at bannermaking, but if I have the time, I might be able to make some simple backup banners to post myself. It's frustrating to have them promised and not get them, and I don't want to have that be a regular thing, so I won't be confirming any bannermakers for challenges until I know what I'll do in the event that they can't do that week.

Fair enough! I really like

badly_knitted's suggestion of a weekly chat post, if there's an interest in conversation outside of fic comments--it'd certainly be a lot easier for me to keep track of.

I think a weekly chat post is a wonderful idea!

I'd love to see the return of banners for winners, but I second

gwenhwyfar1984's concerns, I don't think everyone who signed up last time honoured the commitment they made, at least there seemed to be fewer banner posts than there were challenges, leaving those who won feeling a bit let down.

Also not intersted in Discord - I don't even know what it is. Wouldn't it be easier and more inclusive to just put up a weekly or monthly chat post here if people want one?

Absolutely; there were some issues in the past with reliability, so there were a lot of challenges that didn't have banners made for them. I've been bouncing around the idea of providing bannermakers with the challenge for their week in advance so that they have a little more time to work on it (I work about four weeks ahead for prompts, so I have them written through November right now), but I don't know if time was the issue or if it might just be something that I'd need to remind people about until it got done. Either way, I'll want some kind of backup built in, whether that's learning to make simple banners myself or having someone on hand who's willing to do them on short notice, before I confirm bannermakers again.

It absolutely would, and if people are interested that's a great idea! There was originally a Discord link in our promos (which is now broken and which I've gotten a message or two about, hence the interest check), so I started from there, but frankly making and moderating one would be a little bit of a pain on my end. A monthly chat post would be a lot easier to deal with.

I wish I could help bannerwise, but I'm graphically incompetent. Advance notice might help, so people could prepare the basic banner and just add the winners' names in when they were confirmed.

You wouldn't need to do much with a chat post once it was up, I'm sure the members could take it from there ;)

Advance notice would seem to be the way to go! Depending on whether or not the bannermakers are also writers, it might even be doable to provide the month's prompts and dates in advance, and let bannermakers decide what works best for their style/comfort level as well as schedule, but I'll have to think about how to do that.

Sounds like a monthly chat post might be fun! I'll see what I can do--maybe not this week, since work's kind of hitting like a ton of bricks currently, but this weekend maybe.

If you can figure out the logistics that might make things easier for everyone.

I'd say there's no mad rush on the chat post, just try it out when you can fit it into your schedule and see how it goes.

I confess I do love the banners which is something you don't get on other comms. I would be willing to have a go at banner making. I've dabbled in the past with banner making apps so happy to give it a go. They might not be brilliant but better than no banners. I just don't know if they need to be stored somewhere or just included in a post to the comm, but I'm sure someone would be able to point me in the right direction.
If you'd like banners for this round, I could probably put something together. Happy to do whatever I can to help make the comm better. :)

That would be awesome! Banners just need to be posted to the comm--if you want to store them offsite and embed links to each, that's fine with me as long as the images show up so the winners can access their banners here.

If you'd be willing to do one for this round, that would be awesome--I have someone tentatively lined up for next week, but this week was slightly too short notice. PM me here or

fanweeklymod and maybe we can figure out timeline stuff?

No trouble at all! Results usually come out Thursday night local time for me, so I can knock something together over the weekend most weeks. If we're missing some from older challenges, I'd be happy to try and fill the gaps so that no one misses out on their well deserved banners. :)

That would be great! I'll sit down this weekend and try to figure out which older challenges we're missing; I know there's several, but maybe between the two of us we can come up with some basic banners we can post for past winners.

I'll PM you tonight about doing banners for this round as well, if you're still open to that!

I can do banners, but not right now - embroiled in a move, will have to get settled in my new place before I can make that commitment. Actual move date is 10th & I'd need a week or two after that most likely, but feel free to poke me before then if you need something & I'll evaluate my abilities.
Would probably use discord but don't demand it!

That sounds great! No worries about the timing--moving always takes way more effort and time than it feels like it really should, at least in my experience.

If you're still interested after that, PM me here or

fanweeklymod and maybe we can figure out a timeline! I'm still figuring out exactly how I want to handle backups, timing, etc., but I should have some options in place by the 17th.

I was one of the banner-makers, and I would like to say that for me the changing schedule was a big issue. I counted the weeks and wrote down which week I was expected to make one and set aside time in my schedule. But then the schedule kept changing and throwing me off, as the mod postponed things from week to week (so that week 15 was suddenly in the second week of the month instead of the first week or whatever). And then it kept happening that I wouldn't have time that week or I'd put it off until I was free and then forget, because I'd written it in my calendar and set aside the time in my schedule for a week or two weeks or three weeks ago, not when it was suddenly dropped on me.

I've been meaning to suggest that if banner-makers are assigned again, that they are assigned to specific dates that aren't moved without notice, and not just a potentially changeable "week 15". (And yes, giving the themes in advance would be helpful too.) It's not good when people are unreliable, but I think that giving the banner-makers a reliable schedule or letting them know about changes in advance would solve some of the issues.

Anyway, I have one more set of banners that I owe the community, and I would still like to finish those at some point, but I am not signing up for new ones at this time.

Edit: I also want to say that I do understand people's disappointment/frustration, but I was feeling frustrated too.

Edited 2019-10-01 16:56 (UTC)

I can understand how frustrating it must have been for bannermakers getting their week sudden;y changed without warning. Hopefully that won't happen now with the change of mods and a more regular schedule.

I'm sure the winners will be delighted whenever you find the time to complete that last set of banners.

Thank you, that's very generous. :) I will fully understand if they're also annoyed at the delay, but hopefully better late than never.

I think rather than being annoyed they'll find it a delightful and unexpected surprise. I know I would. =D

Thanks for this perspective! I can absolutely see the schedule changes being a huge issue for bannermaking--that's something I've been trying to avoid anyway in the few weeks I've been doing this, because I like routine and it was frustrating for me too, but it's good to have it laid out like this so I can come up with ways to mitigate that as a problem in the future.

I can't guarantee that there would never be a schedule change, but I think I've got it set up so that it's at least unlikely for a prompt to be off-schedule by more than a couple hours. Right now, I'm working about a month in advance, with prompts written and filed under the expected dates they'll be going up, so it wouldn't be too hard to provide bannermakers with the prompt as much as four weeks or more in advance. (It would even be doable to provide bannermakers who weren't interested in writing at all with a list of prompts and dates to let people pick what works best for both their schedule and their style, though I'd have to think more about the logistics of that.) Does that sound like it might solve some of the issues you experienced?

Sorry for the delay in responding -- I've been sick and dealing with holidays.

Yes, providing prompts in advance + keeping a more even schedule would solve a lot of the issues, as I see it. If I'd had the prompt beforehand, I could have worked on it when I originally expected to and then just waited to post it until the new date. Admittedly, sometimes people are flaky (sometimes I am flaky!) but I do think that being able to plan would give everyone the best chance of success.

Thank you for listening to all that. :)

No worries! (As you can see, I'm replying with a bit of a delay myself!) I really appreciate your feedback on this; I'm super new to running a community, so any kind of input about what has worked/not worked in the past is super helpful.

Providing the prompts in advance seems to be the best way to go. I'm also looking ahead to my holiday schedule this year to see if there are any weeks where I just won't be able to keep the posting schedule, because I could deliberately plan two-week prompts (and let bannermakers know about that) for times where it looks like I might have issues.

Thanks again for the advice!

I just joined the comm recently, so I don't know what the banners looked like, but just a possible suggestion, if you can't get enough volunteers. I'm assuming they were all unique? What about some sort of generic, banner/winner's ribbon thing. Prompt name could be changed each time, but otherwise remain the same. Would be easier to create/update, and better than nothing. Just a thought (or maybe have a template of those on hand in case some weeks ended up not having any regular banners). Just a thought from a newbie.

Actually, that's a very good idea, I second this, it's a good backup in the event that regular bannermakers prove hard to come by.

This is a fantastic idea! They did tend to be themed to the prompts, but my photoshop skills might be capable of stretching far enough to come up with some basic first/second/third place banners. It would cover for last-minute crises for the bannermakers as well as any schedule weirdness on my end.

I'll have to see what I can come up with this weekend on that front! Thank you very much!

what sort of commitment does a banner-maker require? I'd be happy to contribute by making them

Right now, it would just be "make some kind of first/second/third place banners for a given prompt, no more than once a month". I'd provide the prompt and the dates it will be posted at least a couple of weeks in advance (ideally a month, but this early it might be more like 2-3 weeks); the banners could be posted anytime the week after the winners were announced.

oh! I can totally do that then, I'd be happy to help make banners :)

Fantastic! I'll PM you this evening with scheduling/theme info to confirm.

I think I helped with banner making before. I'd be willing to help again.
:)

Edited 2019-10-02 11:11 (UTC)

That would be fantastic, if you're interested! If you want to PM me here or on

fanweeklymod, I'll get back to you tonight after the results post with some scheduling stuff.

Sadly, I didn't get involved into writing or even reading for this comm, as I had wanted. But I took the banner making as my own kinda prompts from here. If it's okay to keep it that way, I'd go on bannering. :)

Also you've mentioned above, giving the banner making the prompt in advance would be a good thing. More time for me to fit it in with my daily commuting even if I forget my pen once again. Also, it'd serve as a good reminder that it's my turn again. ;)

That sounds great to me! I always liked seeing the creativity people brought to the banner prompts.

I'll PM you tonight to see if we can work out some scheduling and theme details!

Alright then. :)

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Admin Post: Call for Bannermakers/Interest Check for Banners and Discord

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