Hi, everyone! If you are planning to watch the community from Insanejournal, you might check out the update we posted to the Livejournal community a few days ago. This year we will be posting all gifts to the Livejournal community and posting a round-up post to Insanejournal every Friday night.

Please check the links for individual fic warnings. All are rated R or NC-17, so please click with caution.

( Round-up: December 1-4 )

This is just a reminder that the sign-up post will go up at 12:01EST tonight. If you'd like to fill up your sign-up in advance, the template is here.

Sign-ups will begin on Sept. 1st at 12:01AM EST and will close on Sept. 6th at 12:01AM EST, or when we reach 75 participants. The sign-up post will be on LJ.

General guidelines:

* There are 75 slots available. If we hit this number before Sept. 6th, we will close the sign-up post.
* Artists and writers will sign up on the same post. Pinch hitters will sign up separately at a later date.
* You must be 18 years or older to sign up for this exchange. Please fill out the age statement or your sign-up may be deleted.
* Your journal must be at least 2 months old. If you have recently switched journals or have other extenuating circumstances (i.e your primary journal is on a different site), please email us directly at yuleballsmod@gmail.com before signing up.

( Things to keep in mind when filling out the sign-up template: )

The sign-up template:

Below is the sign-up form, if you want to fill it out now and save time. Please do not sign-up on this post! If you do, your comment will be deleted.

( Sign-up template )

If you have any other questions, leave a comment to this post or email us at yuleballsmod@gmail.com. See you on Tuesday morning for sign-ups!

Hi, everyone, we have a few important updates for you concerning this year's fest.

A few weeks ago, we announced that we would start sign-ups on September 15th to narrow the gift creating window, which would encourage shorter fics and create a low pressure exchange for the holidays. However, based on some participant feedback and our own vision for the fest, we've reconsidered the idea and have decided against it. Last year, we had so many wonderful long fics, and we would love to have more of them this year too. We do not want to put limits on what our authors are inspired to create, nor do we want to unnecessarily limit the time they have to create it.

For this reason, we are bumping our sign-ups up to September 1st at 12:01 AM EST. They will run through September 7th at 12:01 AM EST, or until we reach 75 sign-ups. Artists and authors will sign up on the same post this year. Assignments will go out within 2 weeks, but hopefully sooner.

Those who participated last year and turned in their gift promptly (no more than one week past the deadline, with appropriate communication with the mods) will receive an extra week to complete their assignments, putting their deadline at November 22nd. For new participants or those who required more than one week past the deadline to complete their assignment, the deadline will be November 15th. We will inform you of your personal deadline in your assignment email, but if you need to know ahead of time you may inquire via email at yuleballsmod@gmail.com. It will be the participant's responsibility to know their personal deadline once it has been given to them.

Additionally, we would like to remind everyone that hp_yule_balls is a higher-ratings fest, accepting only gifts rated R or NC-17 for sexual content. We do not have the word smut in our name, but we have had the rating requirement in our rules since day one. We ask that you keep this in mind before signing up and while you are creating your gift.

We have updated the community guidelines to reflect the new rules for 2009. Please take a look at them whenever you get a chance. They should clarify the community's purpose and our expectations for those that choose to participate.

In the next few days, we will put up a post with the updated sign-up template and instructions for signing up. The sign-up post itself will go up on September 1st at 12:01AM EST.

That you all so much for your feedback and dedication to this fest. We have seen and received so many comments from those that are looking forward to this year's exchange, and we are really excited as well. We hope to see some of you on September 1st!

-trubbleclef and tailoredshirt (formerly midnightblue88)

So this wraps up the first year of hp_yule_balls, and we can honestly say that it went better than we could have ever imagined. We received exactly 100 pieces of wonderful pieces of fic and art and felt like the luckiest girls in the world that we got to squee over them first. You're all amazing!

We have lots of people to thank, particularly our pinch hitters, who stepped up at the last minute to help us out. Thank you to redsnake05, furiosity, bookofjude, curia_regis, gryffindorj, gm_weasley, miss_morland, tristesses, venturous1, and violetion. We couldn't have done any of this without you.

Thank you also to all of our original participants, who supported us just by signing up. There are some of you to whom we owe a huge debt of gratitude for your incredible patience and understanding. We appreciate you all more than we can say! ♥

And now we'll stop yammering on before we get weepy, and get on with the reveals already. Please check your links and make sure that everything is all right – that we spelled your username correctly, that we have the right link and pairing and title, etc. If you notice any problems, with yours or someone else's please comment and let us know. We'll fix it as soon as possible.

Also, we will not go back and fill in beta names unless you specifically ask us to (and if you would like us to, just leave us a comment; we don't mind). We will definitely not change anything in the body of the fic itself unless you send us chocolate and/or tell us how beautiful we are. (Please send any of these requests, along with the flattery, via email at yuleballsmod@gmail.com.)

( The 2008 Master List )

Also, pleasepleaseplease go comment on the fic or art that was created for you! It doesn't matter that it's not anonymous anymore; it's better late than never! We are resisting the urge to ban all non-gift-commenters for life, and are settling on pleading with you instead. Be kind and spread some belated holiday cheer to the people who worked so hard. ♥

Thank you all for such a wonderful year! We'll see you again in August! :*

Love, Midnight and Trubble

That's it! All fic and art have been posted! If you do not see the gift you submitted to us, or if you do not see that your gift has been posted,

1) scroll back and check once more, just to be sure.
2) email us at yuleballsmod@gmail.com and let us know.

As we said before, we will be posting the reveals sometime on January 2nd, probably in the evening (EST). Until then, catch up on everything you've missed, especially if you haven't taken a look at the gift that was posted for you. They're probably waiting with bated breath to see if you liked it, so don't be cruel by keeping them waiting!

Have fun catching up, and drop us a line if you have any concerns. We'll see you on Friday!

Love, Midnight and Trubble

Today's final posts will be a bit delayed, due to some RL scheduling issues. We will post the final three gifts this evening by midnight EST.

Sorry for the inconvenience. We'll see you in a few hours!

Hi, everyone!

This is just a little note about the posting schedule. We've got a few more fics and art to post, so we'll be wrapping up at noon on Tuesday, December 30th. Then we'll give everyone a few days to catch up on their reading and viewing, and we'll have the reveals on Friday, January 2nd, as planned.

Please email us at yuleballsmod@gmail.com if you have any questions or concerns.

Hi there, everyone!

We won't be posting any gifts for the next two days. We know that a lot of people will be busy and we want to give everyone's work a fair chance to be read and ogled. We'll resume posting at noon (EST) on December 26th.

In the meantime, catch up on everything you've missed! There's plenty of smut here to keep you warm. :p

-The Mods

No posting tonight, darlings!

Mwah.

Another chance to catch up on Yule Balls fic, kiddos!

Stay safe tonight, don't drink and drive, wear a condom, etc.

Love,

The Mods

No posting tonight, so have fun catching up! We'll see you all tomorrow morning.

Just one fic for tonight, but we'll be back to our regularly scheduled programming tomorrow. Enjoy!

Fallen behind on your Yule Balls reading? Feeling stressed?

Well, here's your chance to catch up! \o/


Posting will resume tomorrow at noon. Have a lovely Friday!

No posting again this evening, so once again have fun catching up. We'll see you tomorrow at noon!

Hi there, everyone. This is just a note that we will not be posting any fics or art at midnight tonight, so please take the time to catch on any of the pieces that you might have missed. We'll resume posting tomorrow at noon EST.

Also, we find ourselves in need of a few good pinch hitters, so if you haven't signed up and think that you might have some free time to devote to smut writing/drawing for the next couple of weeks, the sign-up is here. Thank you!

Hi, everyone! It's just about time to start posting gifts, and we're so excited. We've received so many wonderful pieces of art and fic and we can't wait to share them with everyone. Here's a look at how things will work:

1. We will be posting 4 gifts a day: two at midnight and two at noon (EST). If the posts don't go up at exactly 12:00, please don't panic; these are rough estimates. The first gift will be posted at 12:01 AM (EST) on December 1st, which is about 11 hours from now. This will continue until all gifts have been posted, probably through the 29th of December. (We will have a bettter estimate once we finalize all submissions.) Reveals will go up on January 2nd.

We will be posting the actual pieces to Insanejournal and then posting the links to the Livejournal comm, so you can watch either journal.

2. We will not be posting gifts in the order in which we received them - first of all because our memories aren't that good, and second because we'd like to mix it up and spread things out so that there's something for everyone every day. We ask that you do not contact us asking when your gift will be posted.

3. Please remember that this is an anonymous fest. You might be able to make some really good guesses about the identities of our artists and writers, but please refrain from naming them outright. Comments with overt speculations about the artist or writer's identity will be screened or deleted. Likewise, we expect that all artists and writers will endeavor to keep their own gifts a secret until the reveal. Do not post links to your piece when it is posted. Do not archive your fic or art on your own journal when it is posted. Please be discreet when discussing your submission with your flist, and please wait until after the reveal before posting your submission to other communities or to your own journal.

4. Please be courteous when commenting on a piece of fic or art. Rude comments and flames will be deleted, and the commentor will be banned from the community. If you notice any inappropriate comments, please contact the mods so that we can take care of it, and do not attempt to deal with the situation yourself.

5. Please leave a comment for the person who created your gift! Everyone put a lot of time and energy into their gifts, so a note of thanks is always appreciated.

6. In the interest of maintaining anonymity, do not reply to comments on your own submission until after the reveals. You may reply anonymously if you wish, but please be careful.

7. If you ever ever ever have any questions, problems, concerns, or if you just need to yell at us about something, please contact us at yuleballsmod@gmail.com. We promise we won't bite.

Also, several people still have not turned in their submissions and we are starting to get concerned. If you are one of those people and your extension deadline has passed, please contact us immediately or, better yet, get your piece finished and turn it in! Either way, don't make us chase you down. We love you all, but we just don't have the time.

That's about it! Fic and art coming your way in just a few hours...

Love, Midnight and Trubble

This is the final reminder that all fic and art is due tonight, November 15, by 11:59 PM, Eastern Standard Time.

That gives you a little less than 12 hours to make any last minute changes and submit your gifts. Unless you have contacted us requesting an extension, we will expect to see your submission in our inbox on time. If we do not hear from you by the deadline, we will email you one time only. If you do not reply to that email within 24 hours, we will assume that you have dropped out of the exchange and we will not attempt to contact you again. Please do not make us chase you down, and please do not hide from us. We would much rather hear from you that you are dropping out rather than waste our time trying to contact you unnecessarily.

We are replying to every email we receive. If you do not receive a confirmation reply from us within 12 hours, then something is wrong and we have not received it.

If you need an extension, for whatever reason, then please email us at yuleballsmod@gmail.com to let us know. It's not the end of the world if you need a few extra days, and we won't hate you for it. Just let us know as soon as possible.

Thank you to everyone who has already turned in their gifts. We've received some amazing submissions and we are really looking forward to posting them come December!

Once again, if you are anticipating that you will not be able to finish your fic/art and are thinking of dropping out of the fest, please let us know by the end of the day today, October 15th. Dropping out after this date might hurt your chances of participating in the fest in future years, so please let us know as soon as possible.

Also, the mods have given careful consideration about the best way to post fics that are too long for one post. We have decided that instead of posting to a a different site with a private server, we will be posting everything to InsaneJournal with multiple posts when necessary. That way the fics won't disappear if the server lapses, and no one will have to worry about where their fic and art is being archived. In December, we will be posting to the InsaneJournal comm, then posting headers and links on the LiveJournal comm, for those that prefer to watch the community on LiveJournal.

With this in mind, we will need writers who are writing fics that are too long for one post to let us know where they would like the fic to be divided up. You may do this when you submit your piece. If you have any questions about how to do this, then please let us know by emailing us at yuleballsmod@gmail.com.

All fics and art are due in exactly one month, on November 15th. Good luck!