'Cause Baby We Were Born to Porn

Hello everyone!

I've been...dithering...about making this post. It's not a decision that came lightly, and I kept hoping I'd wake up one morning with a change of attitude, but that hasn't happened.

So, hp_springsmut is going on temporary hiatus for 2010.

I know that many of you will be disappointed, and I do apologize for that, but it's a hiatus - I'm not closing shop around here, nor am I leaving HP fandom: Springsmut will be back in 2011!

Why am I putting Springsmut on hiatus? A few reasons. The main one is that I'm a bit burnt out. I modded/co-modded three fests this past year, and I wrote next to nothing of my own. I've had several offers from people to co-mod/help out, and it's not that. For those who have been around here the last three years - or participated in other fests I've modded/co-modded - you may have noticed that I'm just a tad bit anal about *how things are done.* (I hear that collective, "No! Lisa, not you! Certainly not!" Now hush! We all know you're just humoring me! :-P) The point being that I can't bring myself to mod in a half-arsed nature, just for the sake of it.

Another reason is that there are just so many HP fests. It's a known trend that the first week a fest posts, comment numbers are fairly high - people are excited and eager. And then participation wanes and drops off. Some people sign(ed) up for new fests and start writing as the next deadline looms, or real life intrudes, and well. *shrug* Not that anyone is required to read/comment on everything or even a majority of fics/art in any given fest, but I think you all know - and have experienced - what I'm talking about, as readers/watchers and participants. So many fests, so little time.

But in the end, it all comes down to me, and I just need a break. (Yes, yes - it's all about me. :) )

Again, I apologize for the disappointment, but it's not as though you'll be left high and dry. There are several fests running this spring for you to dig into: hp_rarities, hp_spring_fling, springtime_gen, *hp_beholder, and a dozen character-centric Big Bangs, all of which are good venues for long rare pair fic and art. And during the time when you'd normally be writing/drawing for springsmut, there are other fests for you to read (and potentially pinch hit for!) in January/February, 2010, namely wizard_love, hp_nextgen_fest, and charlieficathon.

Lots of rare pair goodness for you to sink your teeth into! (And don't forget to show the artists and authors your appreciation!)

hp_springsmut will be back in March, 2011 with signups opening @ December 1, 2010, so until then, enjoy the holidays and all the wonderful fic and art from the holiday fests, have a fantastic 2010 filled with rare-pair smutty goodness, and we'll see you in a year!

~midnitemarauder

And so, with this post, Springsmut 2009 has officially come to a close. All artist and author names have been added to the individual posts. (If you notice any errors, please let us know!)

And now, without further ado, the Big Reveal™ :

( ART )

( FIC )

~♥~

You are now free to post your stories and art wherever you wish!

Artists: please add your signatures/marks to your art and send us a link to where you are hosting so we can update the links in the posts.

Authors whose works I am hosting on my server: when you post your stories, please send us the link so that we can update the links to redirect to your archive of choice.

You can leave the link in the comments here, or email us at springsmutmods@gmail.com

We are proud (and rather thrilled!) to say that everyone thanked the person who wrote or drew for them, so thank you all for being such wonderful participants! ♥ ♥ The fic and art isn't going anywhere, so please continue to read and view, and support each other.

Once again, thank you to our helpers and pinch hitters, and to all of our watchers! ♥ We hope you enjoyed all of the fabulous stories and art posted this year.

Really, thank you all for continuing to make hp_springsmut such a fantastic and popular fest! It was a pleasure modding, and we hope to see you all back for Springsmut 2010! Viva la Rare Pairs!

Smutfully yours,

midnitemarauder and nqdonne

Another year gone! And so, like Dumbledore (who, alas, did not get tarted up this year in our fest) we must trouble you with a bit of modly wheezing waffle.

This year's tally consisted of 83 works - 72 fics and 11 pieces of art - encompassing over 70 different pairings featuring over 50 different characters. Not a bad showing if I do say so myself.

As always, we'd like to take a moment to thank all of you - our artists, authors, readers, watchers, commenters, reccers, betas, and lurkers alike - for all of your contributions and continuing support of our little rare pair fest. We hope you've enjoyed yourselves this month, as we've very much enjoyed bringing you daily entertainment of a smutty nature. Our modly presentations aside, this fest would not exist without all of you, and we appreciate your efforts more than we can say. ♥

The Reveal™ will take place on Sunday, April 5, in the late afternoon or evening, Eastern Daylight Time. Apologies for not being more specific, but it takes a bit of time to add all the author/artist names to all of the posts on both journals. We will of course post a master list as soon as all the entries are updated.

Until then, please take some time to browse through the community and check out some of the entries you may have missed. It's unfortunate that entries posted mid- to late-fest tend to get less attention than earlier ones, so we hope you'll make the time to read and view. We really had an incredible cache this year of both fic and art - the talent was tremendous! - and as I mentioned above, there's quite a lot of variety. If you click to the recent entries page, there are thirty entries per page for easier browsing of this year's posts, or you can use our tags page on LJ or our tags page here on IJ to browse by pairing. Who knows what gems are lurking beneath those tags. (Well, okay, we mods know, but you should find out for yourselves!)

Pimp to your friends, support your fellow participants by reading and viewing their contributions as well as the one specifically for you, and please do tell them when you've enjoyed their stories and art! Feedback is ♥! If you wish to try and guess who the culprits are who wrote or drew your favorites, feel free to speculate in the comments or in your own journals.

We'd also like to thank reddwarfer and lauriegilbert for their assistance (♥ ♥ to you ladies!) and also offer our first born children our undying gratitude to our pinch hitters: bluemoon02, curia_regis, drcjsnider, lady_green_bat, lauriegilbert, snarkyscorp, snegurochka_lee, venturous and wook77. Much love to you all!

Keep reading/viewing, and enjoy! Until Sunday,

midnitemarauder and nqdonne

Pardon the interruption, but I just wanted to interject for a moment with a few announcements.

First, we're just about at the half-way point in the fest. (I know, can you believe it?) We hope you've been enjoying the stories and art posted, and there's plenty more to come over the next sixteen days!

Read/viewed something you liked? Please don't forget to tell the artists and authors so! No, feedback isn't everything, it's the only thing but it's still a vital part of the fandom experience. It's also a two-way street, so participants, please take the time to check out some of your fellow author/artists contributions. (And please don't forget to thank the person who wrote/drew for you!)

Second, those of you with fics still outstanding, (including PHs!) - and you know who you are! - please mind your due dates, and please don't make us chase after you. Our schedule is very tight - and please feel free to make all the "mods are anal/need lube" jokes you wish because, hey, it's the truth! - and our last post is scheduled for March 31 at 4 p.m. Also remember that we do not post gifts for anyone who hasn't yet turned in their contribution, so when you're late, you're not only holding up the posting of your fic/art, but also the one for you. and if you screw up her perfect schedule, Lisa is going to beat you with Hagrid's willy

Right, where were we? Oh yes. If you are one of the currently outstanding, please don't comment here!. Anon fest and all. Email or ping us us at springsmutmods@gmail, or PM us via our personal journals. (That also goes for anyone with specific questions or other modly concerns!)

Third, you may have noticed already, but just to point it out, weekend posting is at midnight and noon, and weekday posting is midnight, 8 a.m. and 4 p.m. (all times US Eastern Daylight Savings) with two exceptions to the latter because of two novella-length fics submitted, one which was posted last week, and the other which will be posted this week.

Also, since Tuesday is St. Patrick's Day, all three posts that day will feature Seamus in some capacity, so wear your green, raise a pint and read read read!

Lots more smut to come, so stay tuned!

We're getting down to the wire! Here's a few last minute things you need to know:

1. All fanart will be posted at IJ with a 'pointer post' (header + link) at LJ. Yes, LJ is more lenient now, but the TOS is still about as clear as mud. In the end, the 'safety' of our fanartists trumps convenience. Comments will be enabled at both LJ and IJ.

2. All stories will be posted at both IJ AND LJ with comments also enabled at both.

However...

( 2a. For authors who have issues with Livejournal... )

We know some people don't like having their comments in two separate places, however, it would seem that a large percentage of readers and watchers (and fellow participants) prefer to have the option of where to leave feedback. It is with that consideration that we decided to enable commenting at both venues. And look on the bright side - you might get more feedback that way.

( 3. For those of you who have received extensions... )

4. With regard to posting, it is our policy that we will not post fic or art for a participant until they have submitted their own contribution. Please keep this in mind before asking us why your submission hasn't been posted yet! Also, since this is a fest that includes slash, het and fem(me)slash, and fic and art both, we try to alternate between these genres (as well as spacing out similar pairings) when posting, so hopefully there will be something that appeals to everyone on any given day.

5. Posting begins on Saturday night/Sunday morning - March 1 at midnight, Eastern Standard Time - and will continue throughout March 'til the 31st. All stories and art submitted will be posted regardless of whether the original recipient has dropped out.

Most days, there will be three fics or art posted - Eastern Standard Time (GMT -5) at midnight, 8:00 a.m., and 4:00 p.m. On some days, there will be two posts, and they'll go up at midnight and noon Eastern. As of now we are expecting to have @ 82 fics and art to post.

Once again, we have an amazing variety of stories and art, and we're really excited about posting them! Plenty of smut, which is why our fest is called springSMUT. There's PWP, EWE, cross-gen, next-gen, AU, incest, slash, fem(me)slash, het, threesomes, vanilla smut, kinky smut, plotty smut, and a whole lot more! Including a number of new rare and even unusual pairs, which makes us very happy!

And last but not least:

6. Feedback! Mmmmmm! Feedback! Feedback is ♥ love ♥, and rare pairs get so little love as it is. Watchers/readers, please remember to let the participants know you appreciate their story or art! Participants, we will remind you of the old adage, "it is better to give than to receive". If you expect people to leave comments for you, it is courteous to do the same in return. A fest is a community, and it works best when you participate beyond your own submission. Please support your fellow participants! Also, we hate that we have to remind you, but we do ask that you thank the person who has written or drawn specifically for you.

Thank you in advance to all of our participants and all of our watchers and readers! As always, we can be reached at springsmutmods@gmail.com

Five days and counting!

Lisa & Alexa
midnitemarauder and nqdonne

Just a quick reminder to all first-time participants:

Fics and art are due this coming Sunday, February 8th.

(Springsmut veterans (i.e. those who have previously participated in Springsmut in past years) still have another week.)

As far as what time on the 8th, we're flexible and we're not going to quibble over whether you hand it in by midnight your time or ours - both of your lovely mods live on the east coast of the US (GMT -5) - as long as it's February 8th somewhere, it's fine. (Preferably on this planet. :-P)

All fics must be betaed and formatted correctly with whatever html tags your story requires. (bold, italics, center, blockquote, etc.) Headers templates for both fic and art can be found HERE. Please use them!

Artists, please do not sign your artwork. After the reveal in early April you can edit your piece to include your signature/mark, and we will redirect the links.

Also, please send all fics as an attachment, not as text in the email. Artists, you may send a link if you have your picture uploaded to your own server, but please make sure it's not uploaded to a publicized, searchable gallery - like your LJ scrapbook - associated with your name! (But remember, we need to be able to see it, so making it private doesn't work either!) I will re-upload the art to my server for posting regardless, so no need to make a new anon account anywhere. Preferred formats are .jpg, .png and .gif files.

When submitting, please indicate in the title of your email that it is your submission and who it's for, as well as your own LJ name: "Fic Submission - midnitemaraud_r for nqdonne" or similar.

For those of you who have already sent in your submissions, thank you! If you have sent in your submission and have not received a confirmation email back, please contact us ASAP!

As always, we can be reached at springsmutmods@gmail.com both by email and g-talk.

Thank you!

midnitemarauder & nqdonne

To our 2009 Springsmut participants:

This is just a friendly reminder that all fics and art are due on Sunday, February 8, 2009 for first time participants and Sunday, February 15, 2009 for Springsmut veterans, which is, respectively TWO and THREE WEEKS FROM YESTERDAY!

Below the cut you will find the submission header formats for both artists and authors. Please copy and paste the header into your submission email (and don't forget to fill it out!) Authors, if you could also put it at the top of your stories, we would appreciate that simply because it makes it easier for us. We will remove your names for posting. When thanking betas, please use initials, not names. We can edit your notes for you after the reveal if you request it.

Also:

1. Authors: Please check your html tags! The best way to do this that I've found is to make a PRIVATE post to myself in my own LJ. (please note the PRIVATE part! Very important!) If you have italic, bold or underlined text (or hr lines or centered text, etc.) in your story, you must use html tags. We will not add them in for you.

1a. Authors whose stories are longer than @ 10,500 words or those that otherwise do not fit into a single LJ/IJ post: We will be uploading all long stories to a separate website, and link back and forth to the specific posts. If your story fits into this category and you can send us a version with the italics/bold/underline/center etc already embedded (i.e. without html tags) that would be a big help. (You will want to keep a file copy WITH tags for later posting, so this should be a second version) If not, I will reformat the tags when I upload, but otherwise if you can, as I said, it would be helpful.

1b. We'll also host the art as well. After the reveal in April, you can post them to whichever archive and send us the new link so we can edit the post and redirect the link to your site.

2. Please turn off smart quotes!

( How to turn them off in MS Word )

3. Please do not send your story as text in an email: Send it as an attached file. .doc is preferred, but .rtf and .txt docs are fine, too! Also, if you have a newer version of MS Word, please do not send .docx files. I (Lisa) can't open them. Please re-save it as the older .doc format.

( How to convert .docx to .doc: )

4. Artists: Please remember not to sign your artwork. After the reveal you can edit your work to add your mark/signature.

( Headers are below the cut )

If you have any questions or problems, please do not hesitate to contact us at springsmutmods@gmail.com!

Thanks!

Lisa & Alexa
midnitemarauder and nqdonne

Over on Live Journal, we've put up our beta resource post, asking for volunteers who would be interested in betaing for our participants for this year's fest. Anon comments are enabled if you don't have a livejournal. If you are able and willing to beta at least one story or art, or are in need of a beta for your hp_springsmut story or art, please head over there.

Beta Resource Post

Thanks!

Just a quick note:

Signups are now closed - thanks to all of you who are participating! Some really great requests this year!

Which brings me to assignments. We hope to have them all out by Friday, Dec. 26th, barring extreme weather which interferes with internet connections. (White Christmas is lovely - stormy, icy Christmas, not so much!)

If you are going to be away for the holidays and unable to access your email next weekend, please drop us a comment here and let us know! (Or you can always email us) When assignments go out, it's important that you reply and acknowledge receipt, and we'd rather not have multiple panic attacks, worrying that there was a glitch in the email system. If we know you're away, we'll just panic less. :)

If you need to edit your signup, please do it sooner rather than later. We print them out for assignment purposes, and if you discover on Tuesday that you forgot to say you won't write/draw Harry, for example, that could be a problem. Also, please do not delete your original signup comment if you need to edit! (If you had done so previously, that's fine. I just mean for now and in the future.) If you don't have a paid account or are unable to edit the comment itself, simply reply to your initial comment with whatever addendum you wish to add.

As always, feel free to contact us via comment, IM, G-chat or email (springsmutmods@gmail.com) if you have any questions or problems.

Wishing you all a very joyous holiday season - whichever one(s) you celebrate!

midnitemarauder & nqdonne

*blows off dust and cobwebs*

And once again, it's that time of year when, utterly frantic from last-minute holiday shopping and fest writing, you pause for a moment and think, "Why yes! Signing up for another fest is exactly what I need to combat these holiday blues!"

Well, you're in luck! Sign-ups for Springsmut 2009 will begin shortly!

Like last year, we will be double-posting to LiveJournal and InsaneJournal, with comments enabled at both sites, though for the continued safety of our wonderful fanartists and despite LiveJournal's more tolerant stance as of late, fanart will be posted solely at InsaneJournal, and linked from LiveJournal. For those authors at InsaneJournal who do not wish their fic to be posted at LiveJournal for personal reasons, we will once again accommodate your requests, but we will still provide a link to your work in a LiveJournal post.

For those new to the community, please note that the community settings at LiveJournal are "explicit adult content." If you wish to join, you no longer need to request membership, simply click to join on the profile page. (If you are prohibited from joining for any reason, then you need to check your Date of Birth status for your journal. You must be 18 years of age to join. We're afraid we can't help you with that. Sorry.)

A few things to note:

1. The Sign-ups will be at LiveJournal only. We apologize to InsaneJournal-only users, but it's easier for us to keep them all in one location. If this is a problem for you, please let us know! Anonymous commenting is enabled, and we'll work with you where necessary. You must be 18 years of age before March 1, 2009 in order to participate in Springsmut.

2. We will cross-post all admin/mod posts to both communities.

3. Sign ups will begin on Sunday, December 14, 2008, and run until Friday, December 19, 2008, or capped at 90 participants, whichever comes first.

4. Assignments will go out before the end of the year, probably around Christmas, like last year.

5. Submissions will be due on February 8, 2009 and February 15, 2009. We will be staggering the due dates as follows: First- (new) and second-timers' fics and art will be due on February 8, 2009, and those who have previously participated in Springsmut two or more times will have a due date of February 15, 2009.

6. Posting will begin on March 1, 2009 at midnight and will run for the entire month.

**

If you have any questions at all, or any opinions you wish to express regarding any of the above, please do so. We want to hear from you!

Please do not sign up here. There will be a separate post for that. This post is informational only!

As always, we can be reached via comments to this entry or at springsmutmods@gmail.com

Hope you're all enjoying the holiday season, and looking forward to a Smut-tastic Spring!

nqdonne & midnitemarauder

Hello everyone! By now, all the author/artist names have been added to the entries, but for a quicker reference, here is the master list:

( FIC )


( ART )

Participants, you are now free to repost your submissions wherever you wish.

Artists, please add your signature/marks to your art and send me a link of where you are hosting it and we will update the links. For those of you whose stories were too long for one LJ/IJ post and I am hosting it on my server, please send us a link of where your story is reposted and I will update your posts accordingly.

For those who have not yet done so, we can't stress this enough: Please thank the person who wrote or drew for you! We can't force to you to, but it's a matter of common courtesy. Everyone worked very hard and silence is a huge disappointment. (And yes, we've kept track. I'm anal that way.)

Once again, thank you to all of our participants, watchers, pinch hitters and general helpers! You were all marvelous, and we thank you for your contributions! ♥ ♥

We hope you all enjoyed the fest this year, and hopefully we'll see you again in 2009!

midnitemarauder & nqdonne
Springsmut Mods

And...in the immortal words of Porky Pig, That's All, Folks! Springsmut 2008 is officially over!

This year we had 101 submissions: 81 fic posts, 18 art posts, and 2 posts which were both fic and art. Not too shabby!

We'd like to thank all of our participants this year, authors and artists alike; the talent and creativity, and just the sheer amount of entertainment you've provided us all with this month has been absolutely amazing, and we thank you all for your efforts! We literally couldn't have done it without all of you. ♥ ♥

To all of our watchers, we thank you for coming along for the ride, and we hope you enjoyed all of the fabulous and diverse rare pair stories and art posted!

The "Big Reveal" will be on Friday, April 4th, sometime in the early evening (Eastern time) at which time you'll all be free to post your stories and art on your journals, websites and whichever archives you wish.

Until then, we hope you'll take some time to catch up on things you might have missed. All entries are tagged by pairing and type (fic/art, slash/het/femmeslash, threesome), and you can search the community by tags here. We really had a tremendous variety of characters and pairings, including, to our delight, a goodly number of Deathly Hallows-compliant submissions. Please take the time to show these wonderful artists and authors your appreciation!

Once again a reminder to participants to please remember to thank the person who wrote/drew for you. We hate to harp on this point, but one of the biggest disappointments in any fest is when the person you took the time to write/draw for doesn't acknowledge your efforts. Thank you.

A most grateful thank you to blamebrampton, inksheddings and reddwarfer for their assistance in helping us post!

And finally, our heartfelt gratitude to our extraordinary and totally awesome pinch hitters: snegurochka_lee, inksheddings, screamingveela, lady_green_bat, wook77, ships_harry and ericahpfa! You ladies are all ♥! Also thank you to florahart for being on standby, and we're glad you don't hate us. :-P

Thanks again, everyone! Happy Spring, and enjoy the Smut!

midnitemarauder and nqdonne

Some of you may be planning to boycott Live Journal on Friday, March 21, and we just wanted to let you know that we will still be posting that day.

As the posting for our fest is primarily based at our community on Insane Journal and only mirrored [here] at Live Journal, we decided not to suspend the fest or participate in the boycott. Since a majority of our participants and watchers are likely not participating in the boycott, we feel it would be unfair to those authors whose works are scheduled to be posted on Friday if we suspend posting [here] at the Live Journal community.

Whatever your stance on the issue, we just wanted to remind those who do plan to boycott and aren't already watching us over at the Insane Journal community, that there has always been an alternative, and hope that the boycott will not detract from enjoying the stories posted on Friday.

On another note, it would appear that with the last code update at Insane Journal, the "track this post" feature has been enabled, so authors and artists with accounts over there can now go to the posts of their work and enable comment notification by clicking on the tack icon at the top of the post.

We hope you're enjoying the fest so far! Don't forget, there are still 12 1/2 days of rarepair goodness to come! And don't forget to show the artists and authors your appreciation! Feedback is ♥! (Also, participants: please remember to thank your gifter!)

Thank you!

midnitemarauder & nqdonne

**This post was primarily directed at LJ users with regard to the boycott, but we wanted to post it here as well.

Just a quick note to let you know that my website is down. And it's not just my site, the host servers all seem to be down as well.

What this means is that until they get it back up, the art and the longer fics are temporarily offline. *sigh*

I apologize for the inconvenience, but for a change, it's not my fault. Not that that matters. I sent an email off to support, but hopefully they'll have it fixed shortly. *crosses fingers and smites hostrocket*

Lisa

ETA: Aaaand we're back up! Yay!

Hello everyone! There have been some questions and issues with Insane Journal as of late, including what has become known as "comment rot" (where comments to posts just vanish) and the occasional robust server issue.

Nothing like last minute, but we're a bit torn about how to go about posting for the fest. So when we're undecided, we ask you. Please fill out the poll below - and make sure you answer only the appropriate questions, based on how you answer question 1, and whether you're an artist participating in our fest!

Due to TOS issues, all art posts must be posted on Insane Journal. The TOS issues are less clear with fic, but Authors who have personal issues with Live Journal, please feel free to comment below. If you absolutely do not want your story posted on Live Journal, we will accommodate your request. (As an FYI, the content settings for this community on LJ are set to Explicit Content.)

Poll #1068 Springsmut Posting and Commenting
Open to: All, results viewable to: All

I would prefer the full text of the stories to be posted:

If you answered Question 1 as Live Journal only: For FIC POSTS, I would prefer:

If you answered Question 1 as Insane Journal only: For FIC POSTS, I would prefer:

If you answered Question 1 as BOTH LJ and IJ: For FIC POSTS, I would prefer:

FEST ARTISTS ONLY! I am an artist participating in Springsmut and I would prefer commenting for art posts as follows:

NON-FEST ARTISTS! (and watchers, authors - all others!) I would prefer commenting for art posts as follows:

If I forgot something or you want to elaborate in comments, please do so! We'll probably have another mod post tomorrow, and then posting begins at midnight Friday, Eastern Standard Time!

**As a reminder to all of those who have extensions, please contact us ASAP if your extension date has passed. springsmutmods@gmail.com

Thank you!

midnitemarauder and nqdonne
Springsmut Mods

Well, hello there participants!

*checks calendar*

That's right, submissions are due today!

We're not that picky about the time, so if you're up late at night doing last minute editing, and you notice that the clock says 1 a.m. Saturday, we're not going to penalize you for it, but please do try to get all of your submissions in while it's still February 15th somewhere on the planet. Um, this planet.

For those of you who have already submitted your fics and art, THANK YOU!

**

The header templates for both fic and art can be found HERE! Please use them!

**

A number of you have asked for extensions, and while we are trying to be as lenient as possible, we would also like to remind you that extensions are given in good faith. If you ask for an extension and then turn around and ignore the extension date, we are not going to be happy mods. Same thing if you have not asked for an extension, and you ignore the due date today.

What will make us happy is your commitment to this fest, which, even if you are late and need a little more time, can (and should!) be shown by keeping in touch with us, not ignoring our emails and posts, and not disappearing from the face of LJ/IJ land in the hopes that we won't notice. We do notice.

We're all adults and we understand that real life situations crop up, and sometimes stories (and art) don't go as initially planned. All we ask is that you treat us with respect and that you're honest with us. Modly pointy pokey sticks aside, we're actually pretty nice people. Really. We just don't like being ignored or lied to, which we hope you can understand. Communicate with us - springsmutmods@gmail.com or via comment to any of our posts here at the community.

If you do ignore our emails and posts, fail to keep in touch with us, and do not hand in a submission within a reasonable amount of time, we don't like it, but in the best interests of the fest, we will have no alternative but to presume that you have dropped out and assign a pinch hitter. We will notify you before we do this, and give you the opportunity to work with us - we are trying to be fair after all.

**

With regard to posting, it is our policy that we will not post fic or art for a participant until they have submitted their own contribution. Please keep this in mind before asking us why your submission hasn't been posted yet! Also, since this is a fest that includes slash, het and fem(me)slash, and fic and art both, we try to alternate between these genres when posting, so hopefully there will be something that appeals to everyone on any given day.

**

Lastly, (and as a...safety precaution) if you would like to volunteer and would be available to pinch hit, please comment here, and give us a general idea of characters/pairings/genres you would be willing to write/draw. (And please specify if you are an artist or author or both!) We hope we won't need you, but it's better to be safe than sorry.

**

Thank you all for your cooperation! As always, we can be reached at springsmutmods@gmail.com

Posting will commence at midnight on March 1, Eastern Standard Time! (GMT -5)

Lisa & Alexa
(midnitemarauder and nqdonne)

Hello 2008 Springsmut participants! (and watchers, but this post is directed to our lovely participants)

This is just a friendly reminder that all fics and art are due on February 15, 2008, which, according to our calendar, is THREE WEEKS FROM TODAY! (Apologies for the bold capslock, but it's important.)

Below the cut you will find the submission header formats for artists and authors. Please copy and paste the header into your submission email (and don't forget to fill it out!) Authors, if you could also put it at the top of your stories, we would appreciate that simply because it makes it easier for us. We will remove your names for posting.

Also:

1. Authors: Please check your html tags! The best way to do this that I've found is to make a PRIVATE post to myself in my own LJ. (please note the PRIVATE part! Very important!) If you have italic, bold or underlined text (or hr lines or centered text, etc.) in your story, you must use html tags. We will not add them in for you.

2. Please turn off smart quotes!

(In MS Word:)
On the Tools menu, click AutoCorrect Options, and then click the 'AutoFormat As You Type' tab.
Under 'Replace as you type', clear the "Straight quotes" with "smart quotes" check box.
Note: You can find and replace all instances of single or double curly quotes with straight quotes in your document. To do this, clear the "Straight quotes" with "smart quotes" check box on the AutoFormat As You Type tab. On the Edit menu, click Replace. In both the 'Find what' and 'Replace with' boxes, type ' or ", and then click Find Next or Replace All.

3. Please do not send your story as text in an email: Send it as an attached file. Word is preferred, but .rtf and .txt docs are fine, too!

4. For fics that are longer than one LJ/IJ entry allows, I'll be hosting them on my website for the duration of the fest. I'll also host the art as well. After the reveal in April, you can post them to whichever archive and send us the new link so we can edit the post and redirect the link to your site. If you know your fic will not fit in one post, please tell us when you submit your fic.

5. Artists: Please remember not to sign your artwork. After the reveal you can edit your work to add your mark/signature.

( Headers are below the cut )

If you have any questions or problems, please do not hesitate to contact us at springsmutmods@gmail.com!

Thanks!

Lisa & Alexa
midnitemarauder and nqdonne

All of the assignments went out earlier this evening, so if you have not received yours, please check your spam filters and the like. If it's still not there, then email us ASAP at springsmutmods@gmail.com!

As always, please check your assignments to make sure they're something you can work with, and then email us to let us know you've received it. (I apologize for the capslock in the email, but we know a lot of people get preoccupied and forget to acknowledge receipt!)

Just in case you didn't read through the rest of the email, we want to reiterate that you are under no obligation to write/draw any kinks or prompts or pairings that make you uncomfortable, and you are certainly under no obligation to write/draw every single kink/like/preference requested! Please pick only those that work for the idea that you have, even if it's only one or two things. Also, please pay careful attention to the squicks listed.

On another note, a few people listed "long fic" in their 'likes' section, but we wanted to take this time to remind you that, again, you are under no obligation to fulfill that request either. (Although please remember that there is a 1000 word minimum!)

If you feel you simply cannot write/draw what you have been assigned, please let us know as soon as possible so that we can try to arrange for something that you are able to work with. Please be aware though, that some assignments were given based on your own assertions of what you indicated you would or would not write/draw.

As a reminder, all fics and art are due on February 15, 2008. Posting begins on March 1, 2008 at midnight, Eastern Standard Time.

Thanks, everyone! And again, as always, if you have any questions or problems, email us as springsmutmods@gmail.com.

Lisa & Alexa

Just a reminder that sign-ups will be closing tomorrow (Tuesday, December 18, 2007) at midnight, Eastern Standard Time!

Only 37 (and a bit) hours left, so make sure you get in your requests! For those of you who have already signed up, thank you(!) and if you wish to make any edits to your requests, please do so before sign-ups close.

We ask for you to list 3 - 5 pairings, but it's perfectly okay if you ask for a couple more than that. Also, please make sure that you've provided enough information under the kinks/likes and squicks/dislikes sections for the person assigned to write or draw for you. It can be daunting to receive a request that has very little to work with. Best rule of thumb is to write the kind of request you'd like to receive. Remember, nobody is required to write every kink listed in the request! Merely what works for the story/art you choose to write/draw.

The sign-up post is here. (At our Live Journal community)

We'll try to have assignments out to you as soon as possible! If you have any questions, as always you can leave us a comment or email us at springsmutmods@gmail.com

Additionally, a reminder that membership to the Live Journal community is no longer moderated, so you merely need to click to join - no commenting or requests required. The community is set to "Explicit Adult Content" so please make sure Live Journal has your date of birth recorded somewhere. You must be 18 years of age or older to join and to participate.

The community here at Insane Journal is not moderated for membership or labeled, but you should still be 18 or older if you join.

Thank you!

midnitemarauder and nqdonne
Springsmut mods

Sign-ups are a go! Please read the rules thoroughly - a few things have changed this year, including the excluded pairings list - and then comment to the Live Journal post with your sign-up information.

**DO NOT REPLY TO THIS POST TO SIGN UP! ALL SIGN-UPS SHOULD BE POSTED HERE AT THE LIVE JOURNAL POST!

( The Rules )

People who dropped out of Springsmut 2007 but gave timely notice are welcome to sign up, but if you bailed at the last minute or went MIA, you will not be permitted to participate.

Please fill in all required fields. Unless a field says "optional," it's required. Make sure to provide a working email address - we would prefer you don't use @ livejournal addresses. Feel free to amend your request either by editing it (paid users only), as a comment to your original comment or by deleting and reposting as long as sign-ups remain open.

Also, please remember to include art-friendly prompts if you are asking to or okay to receive art!

<b>Pen Name (LJ/IJ name):</b> <b>Email Address:</b> <b>Are you over 18?</b> <b>You'll be giving: (Art or Fic)</b> <b>You'd like: (Art, Fic or No Preference)</b> <b>Three to Five pairings you would like:</b> <b>Kinks, likes, genres, or special requests for the fic/art:</b> <b>Squicks/Dislikes (including epilogue preferences):</b> <b>Two or three prompts for your gift (optional):</b> <b>What pairings (or characters) you absolutely refuse to write/draw:</b> <b>What kinks/genres/situations you absolutely refuse to write/draw:</b> <b>The LJ name/email of someone you trust, in case your giver has questions (optional):</b> <b>Have you participated in springsmut before? If so, who have you previously written/drawn for?:</b>

We encourage you to list as many kinks/squicks as you can think of in order to help guide both us in your assignments and your writer/artist in their writing/drawing, but want to note that you are in no way obligated to write/draw every single one! We'd just like a happy medium between your listing enough specific information for us to go on and your writer/artist being able to pick and choose the few things that work for their bunny. In the same vein, please try to include a fair variety of rare pairs. We love minor characters, too, but if your sign-up requests are too obscure - and all similar - we're going to have a problem matching you. Just a note! :D

**DO NOT REPLY TO THIS POST TO SIGN UP! ALL SIGN-UPS SHOULD BE POSTED HERE AT THE LIVE JOURNAL POST!

If you have any problems with regard to signing up, please comment here or email us!
Thank you!

*dusts off comm and airs out new digs at IJ*

It's that time of year again. Sign-ups for Springsmut 2008 will begin shortly, but before we get to that, we wanted to let you know of a few changes that we're making around here to comply with LJ's...standards, and to protect ourselves and our participants, specifically our fanartists.

First, we have changed the settings for the community at Live Journal to "explicit adult content." Since we already require members to be 18 or older, this changes very little, but what it does mean is that membership is no longer on moderated status. Instead, it is up to you, individually, to ensure that LJ knows you are 18 or older, and you no longer need to display your age information openly in your profiles. If you view the community without being logged in, you will be asked to confirm you are over 18, and all entries will appear completely behind a "Warning: Explicit material" cut tag.

You no longer need to leave a comment for us in the previous posts, simply click to join. If you are prohibited from joining for any reason, then you need to check your DOB status yourself. There's nothing that we can do, even as mods.

Second, we have decided that all posting of fic and art will be done at our community on Insane Journal. However, we are not closing down the Live Journal community, and you will not need to sign up over at IJ if you don't already have a journal there. The Insane Journal community will not be locked or restricted.

A few things to note:

1. The Sign-ups will be at Live Journal only. It's easier for us to keep them all in one location. If this is a problem for you, please let us know!

2. We will cross-post all admin/mod posts to both communities.

3. During the fest, we'll be posting corresponding "pointer" posts at the Live Journal comm - a complete header but instead of a LJ-cut, it will be a link to the IJ post. For fanartists in particular, and also for any authors who don't feel comfortable having a direct link from LJ to their fest submission, we'll be happy to add a 'buffer page' so the link on LJ does not go directly to the art/fic in question.

4. Sign ups will begin on Tuesday, December 11, 2007, and run for a week - or capped at 120 participants, whichever comes first.

5. Assignments will go out before the end of the year, probably around Christmas, like last year.

6. Submissions will be due on February 15, 2008.

7. Posting will begin on March 1, 2008 at midnight and will run for the entire month.

**

If you have any questions at all, or any opinions you wish to express regarding any of the above, please do so. We want to hear from you!

Please do not sign up here. There will be a separate post for that. This post is informational only!

As always, we can be reached via comments to this entry or at springsmutmods@gmail.com

We're both very excited and looking forward to another...titillating Spring!

nqdonne & midnitemarauder