Yuletide Nominations

About
Every year the list of eligible rare fandoms from which participants can request/offer fics starts at 0. The list is then populated using nominations from participants (as of 2011, each paricipant is allowed three fandom nominations and four character nominations per fandom).

Nominations for Yuletide generally run for one week in early-to-mid- October barring any unexpected delays. Nominations occur through ArchiveofOurOwn.org and are publicized on the administrive livejournal.

What Constitutes a Rare Fandom
A rare fandom is one that is "relatively obscure/inactive." Some critera that have been looked at in the past are:
 * Whether the fandom already has a seasonal exchange
 * Whether the fandom has an existing, fandom-specific archive of more than 500 stories
 * Whether the fandom has over 1,000 fics of over 1,000+ words each on fanfiction.net
 * Whether the fandom has over 200 fics of over 1,000+ words each on ArchiveofOurOwn.org

Other factors are looked at as well, and decisions are made looking at the sum total of factors and not just each one individually. The mods tend to err on the side of generosity when deciding what fandoms to include. In addition, sources that are less than a year old are generally eligible by default. Likewise, sources that have been off-air for ten years may be considered eligible again.

Decisions are made by the exchange moderators, but they are not familiar with every fandom that is nominated. Despite their best efforts, mistakes may happen, and they depend on Yuletide participants to point them out. Decisions are generally not made in advance and are made throughout nominations period.

If a fandom is rejected, a participant is unable to modify his/her request in order to choose a different fandom, so care must be taken when nominating potentially ineligible fandoms.

Previous Decisions
Decisions may change from year to year. Fandoms that were eligible one year might be ineligible the next and vice versa.

Previously Allowed Fandoms/Characters

 * 2011 List of Eligible Fandoms


 * 2011 List of Eligible Fandoms and Characters

Previously Rejected Fandoms/Characters

 * 2011 Incomplete List of Ineligible Fandoms

Nomination Sharing
Because each participant is only allowed to nominate up to three fandoms and up to four characters in each fandom, participants will try to work together on the livejournal or the chat to ensure that there are no duplicates. Examples:
 * 1) Betty wants to nominate characters A, B, C, and D in Fandom 1. Amir also wants to nominate those characters in Fandom 1. He sees that Betty will be doing so, so he can use his nomination to either nominate a different fandom or nominate different characters in that same fandom.
 * 2) Sam wants to nominate characters E and F in Fandom 2. He has two blank character nominations in that fandom, so he asks if there are any participants that want to use them. Coincidentally, Mimi wants to nominate characters G and H in Fandom 2. She asks Sam to nominate them for her, freeing up a fandom nomination that she can use on something else.