You told us, we listened! Folks, we had a great time this year and we hope you did too. We might have closed the collection this year, but we’ll be back next year in early 2018. See you back in February, unless you’re planning on joining us in black_emporium ​ in which case, see you ...tomorrow. ;) 

Below, here’s what we’re implementing: 

Things we will definitely be keeping for next year:

• The Discord. The Discord is actually open year-round for rare pair love, but we're definitively going to keep the room for next year. In general, we had a lot of positive feedback about it.
• Treats will continue to have no word limits or art restrictions.
• Treatless list, spreadsheet on nominations, and trophies will come back.
• We will be running in early spring of 2018, similar to the first year we ran. 

Things we will change for next year:

• I am no longer solo mod! @keita52​,a long term helper from the last two years, has agreed to sign on on co-mod both here and in Black Emporium, which is opening tomorrow! Please welcome and cheer on Mod K!
• Trophies will get their own tag on tumblr and Dreamwidth, specrecstrophies. Blacklist early if you'd prefer it not be on your dash! Questions will be tagged with specrecsquestions if you want to white/blacklist the tag.
• We will promote Dreamwidth more, posting a link to it on the sidebar and on posts. We'll also be trying to highlight posts on both communities by doing daily digests of posts on the other. This will be short.
• Important posts will have "specrecsannouncements" as a tag to ensure a way for people to very quickly go through posts on the most important topics (schedule, important deadlines, etc).
• We will have more links on the sidebar for various official documents.
• We are going to try to space this out next year so that it does not overlap with the MEBB. Unfortunately we were unable to do that this year, but next year I will try contacting Azzy early and seeing if we can make sure we don't intersect for next year.

Things we cannot change but want to address:

• If anyone is making you uncomfortable in chat, please let us know in the moment. It's very hard for us to act on anything months down the line based on vagueblogging complaints.
• If you notice spec recs isn't on a list and want it to be, please do ask the creators of the list or tell us about it so we can get the word out.

We’ll be announcing the schedule for next year in February. We hope you’ll all join us then and there. <3

we will paint and draw even faster as the hours go
We will find a million plotholes and knock them to zero
We will grip our pencils and go with the flow

One more day to draw and write
One more day to submit and we will not quit!
One more run post my assignment; it will be lit!
One more day, one more morning light!

As a reminder, ASSIGNMENTS ARE DUE TOMORROW.

All assignments are due at 11:59pm CST on August 2. Treats may continue to be posted after this date, but assignments will not be allowed to be unless you’ve talked to me about an extension. Please use this countdown to see how much time you have left.

If you need an extension or aren’t able to complete your assignment, I need you to tell Mod A (@acequeenking) ASAP. Please do not wait until the last second to default; I would rather give our pinch hitters more time if need be.

Treat trophies will be posted tomorrow since the Ao3 archive is getting inundated in the best of ways and I need to admit all these truly excellent submissions and check them for trophies!

Need help posting an assignment? 

Click the assignment tab and it should fill in your details. If you are posting art, you will need to find another site to host it on; please contact ace at specreqs@gmail.com or through our tumblr askbox if you need it. 

1) All assignments are due on August 2nd at 11:59 CDT. If you do not know what time this is for you, please use this countdown. We're down to about a week and a half before reveals. 

As it stands now, we have 45 works in the archive, of which around 40 are treats. Treats, it is worth noting, will be accepted until author/artist reveals. I'll be busy updating the treatless/treat trophy sheet with the last couple blasts of New Works this weekend, so stay tuned to the sheet for new updates.

2) Authors and artists who have not signed up for the Spec Recs challenge can still participate via writing or drawing treats!

3) Treats have no word limit or any restrictions on the art. Drabbles, sketches, fan vids, animated ship gifs, whatever you like - all fine. If it can be uploaded to Ao3, it can be a treat.

4) If you have any questions you want to ask your recipient, please contact me so I can ask them for you. Please also double check your Ao3 email from time to time for questions as well, so you can answer them!

5) Over in the Discord, we'll be doing several twenty-minute writing/drawing sprints throughout the day this weekend and next. Please come join us to spend time writing/drawing/chatting/having fun!

On to the Trophies:

Once again we're highlighting the Classic Trilogy. Though the collection was originally dominated by Andromeda, the Classic Trilogy has been punching back up the last couple of days - will it be enough to overtake its younger sibling? Only time will tell. 

 

 

Another day, another victory for ScientistSalarian and StarGazerGamer. These two are dominating our trophy charts for the original trilogy so far, although they are facing stiff competition from Raven-Wilde, bloomingcnidarians, and MalcominSpace. 

 

 

Remember, we've got a treat spreadsheet that can help you not only hunt achievements but also help treat our currently treatless! Please click here for the spread-sheet. :)

 

 

Congrats to both winners today, StarGazerGamer and ScientistSalarian!

Today's works will be GOLD, as fitting Mod A's good mood - our first gold trophy, and proof of our amazing golden community, which has already produced 10 fanworks for Andromeda over a month before our reveals date! I am so proud of you all and so excited by you guys. You truly are amazing.

 

 

Please applaud for our very own StarGazerGamer, ScientistSalarian,GuileandGall,KestrelShrike, and Raven_Wilde for adding 10 works to our archive for Andromeda, and ScientistSalarian for single-handedly bringing our Ryder trophies up to gold level with two new treats!

An important note that we in the discord chat talked about yesterday (have you considered joining the discord? We have a blast there!): all works are covered by the trophies treats list, not just treats. The document is named to encourage people to treat, not to just count treats.

If you’d like to see your name up here or just join us in the treat-giving fun, please see the treats spreadsheet here for trophies, this google doc for requests, this countdown for how much time you have, and this post for tips and tricks for treats!

As a reminder, treats can be uploaded at any time, can be made for anyone, and can be of any length, type, etc.  Icon set? Go for it. Fanart sketch? Hells yeah! Drabble? You know we gotta have ‘em. Fanvid? DO IT. Wallpaper? ALWAYS. If it can be uploaded to Ao3, it can count. 

We're debuting a new system to encourage treats this year. Much like the Mass Effect games have trophies or achievements you can unlock for doing different things in-game, so too does Spec Recs have their own trophies!

LOOK AT OUR SHINY TROPHIES!!!

These are awards that the entire community will work toward during the next month or so. Every day we'll update the spreadsheet with new works in the archive and make a post over which trophies have been unlocked.

Every time a new trophy is unlocked, we'll post a new banner made by Mod A or a volunteer and give credit to the member(s) of our community who unlocked it! Your Ao3 username will also live on in the Achieved By: Column of our spreadsheet until Spec Recs 2018, unless you would prefer to be known as something else (in which case let us know). Anyone who prefers to be anonymous will get put on the list as "Anonymous [Animal]" in the spirit of Google Spreadsheet's favorite way of listing anons.

Around three weeks before the archive goes live, we'll add a third sheet with the usernames and requests of those who do not yet have any treats for easy inspiration. We’ll let you all know when that happens.

Happy rare pairing, everyone!

The Nominations Spreadsheet and Requests Doc have both received sizable updates re: what has been offered and requested. Further updates are coming, particularly to the requests doc in terms for formatting, and, of course, filling out new sign ups.

#2 Strong start to sign-ups 

We currently are 28 strong, getting more than halfway to last years’ 34 sign-ups in just three days! Woo! We had a bit of a rocky start due to Mod A making a slightly apocalyptic AO3 mix-up, but you all are, as always, awesome. I’m still working on updating dates across all sites but sign-ups will now end on the 20th. 

#3 Discord Chat coming soon

We’re currently setting up a Discord server in order to help rare pair shippers connect with one another and provide help/encouragement/etc for our writers and artists. Further detail coming as soon as I finish setting it up!

#4 Questions & Comments from the Community of Note:

How do I post Treats? 

When can Treats be posted? 

Sidera Nyx is 15.

There are a couple small changes from last year:

• Obviously, the biggest is that Mass Effect Andromeda is out. We will allow both Mass Effect Andromeda and Original Trilogy nominations. Because Andromeda is so new, In order for a pairing/pairing to be eligible, it must have 50 or less completed works on Ao3. For the Original Trilogy, pairings/moresomes must have 200 or less completed works on Ao3. Otherwise, the rules will be the same. 
• The nomination period will be shortened to just a week. Last year we had virtually no nominations in the second week, so it is my hope that giving people more time in sign ups and writing time will be beneficial. 
• We’ll be putting pinch hits up in a group and on the comm(s).
• Mod B doesn’t seem to be available at the moment, so it will just be me, Mod A (acequeenking ), at the helm for now. Please direct all questions or comments to either the spectre-requisitions-exchange​ inbox or mine on tumblr, and I will get back to you ASAP. You may also contact us by posting a screened comment here (all comments are screened) or by emailing me at specrecs@gmail.com.

Other than that, the rules will be the same as last year. I’ll be putting up an intro post and an updated FAQ once nominations begin. I missed you guys, and I can’t wait to get started writing with you again. 

Here is the schedule: 

June 1-June 8 Nominations

June 9 - 19 Sign-Ups

June 20  Assignments go Out

June 20 - August 1 Writing/Drawing time

August 2 Due date

August 7 Works revealed

August 14 Creators’ revealed

Dates may be adjusted as needed, and I will let you all know should that be the case.