Archive FAQ > Tutorial: Running a Gift Exchange on AO3

Running a Gift Exchange on Archive of Our Own

Archive of Our Own (AO3) has settings designed to help you run Gift Exchanges and Prompt Memes. This means you can make use of our resources—including user accounts, tags, work hosting, notifications, etc.—for your challenge.

This tutorial will guide you through creating a Gift Exchange. If you're running a Prompt Meme, check out our Tutorial: Running a Prompt Meme on AO3 instead.

All Gift Exchanges are different, so AO3 offers many features for customizing your challenge to suit your needs and preferences. This tutorial won't cover every scenario, but should guide you through most of the steps needed to create your Gift Exchange.

For more information on collections and challenges, please refer to the Collections, Gift Exchange, and Prompt Meme FAQs. If your questions aren't answered by the Tutorials or the FAQs, please contact us and we'll do our best to help you.

Before You Start

Before you set up your Gift Exchange, it's important to consider the parameters you want to set. The settings you choose for requests and offers will affect how you can match up participants based on these requests and offers later. By deciding on these factors in advance, you will reduce potential problems later on.

For example, if you intend to match participants using character and relationship tags, you must ensure character and relationship tags are required in the Sign-up form. If you intend to match on two characters, make sure participants can't request or offer just one. Similarly, if you want control over the tags that your participants can use (whether to limit their options, or add some not currently available on AO3), you may want to consider preparing a tag set. You can also use a tag set to allow your participants to indicate what tags they'd like to be able to use—this is called "nominations". You can find out more about this process in our Tag Sets FAQ.

It's also possible to run an exchange without using tags. For example, an exchange run for a specific pairing may choose to use the description field for challenge prompts and not allow tags. In this case, you may still auto-match your participants and the matching will be completely random. Refinement for this, or any other matching result, can be done manually after the initial matching is completed.

Creating a Gift Exchange

To create a Gift Exchange, you'll first need to create the hosting collection or subcollection. You can find step by step instructions on how to do this in our Tutorial: Creating a Collection. When creating your collection, select "Gift Exchange" from the "Type of challenge, if any" menu in the Preferences section.

Once you've created your collection and have indicated that this will be a Gift Exchange, you'll be taken to a page to set up your challenge. The page is divided into several parts, the first of which is Schedule. There are a number of settings which can't be changed once you've received sign ups on your Gift Exchange, so we suggest you keep sign-ups closed until you have previewed and tested your sign-up form. There will be more on this later in the tutorial.

Schedule

In the Schedule section, you can indicate time frames for the various stages of your Gift Exchange. These times are for information only; AO3 won't automatically open sign-ups, close sign-ups, or reveal works or creators. These tasks all need to be done manually by checking or unchecking the relevant boxes at the appropriate times. The times you indicate here will appear on the Gift Exchange's Profile page.

Sign-up open?

When this box is checked, sign-ups will be open and AO3 users will be able to submit entries to your Gift Exchange. Owners and moderators can access the Sign-up form whether or not it has been enabled.

We recommend that you leave this unchecked while creating your challenge. When you're ready to open your Gift Exchange for sign-ups, come back here and check the box.

Remember to come back and uncheck it when sign-ups close!

For more information about membership roles, including owners and moderators, refer to What membership levels are available for collections?

Time zone

Set the time zone you'll be using to determine the opening and closing dates and times by selecting it from the menu. This may be your time zone, the time zone in which your fandom's media originates, or whichever time zone works best for your moderators, your Gift Exchange, and/or your fandom(s).

Sign-up opens and closes

A JavaScript calendar will pop-up when you select these fields. Choose the date and the time you'll be opening sign-ups for your Gift Exchange. If you don't have JavaScript enabled, you can manually enter the details in the following format: YYYY-MM-DD hh:mmAM (or PM). The hour and minute options are limited in the pop-up, so you may want to manually enter or adjust the time using this format as well.

You won't be able to open sign-ups if the "Sign-up opens" date is in the future. If you want to open sign-ups earlier than the date you originally set, change the "Sign-up opens" date to "Now". You can also select the "Now" button if you'd like to open sign-ups immediately; however, be aware that you will be unable to change any settings in your challenge after sign-ups have been added to your Gift Exchange. We recommend that you preview your sign-up form before opening it publicly.

Repeat this process in the "Sign-up closes" field. Your Gift Exchange will appear on the Open Challenges page so long as the "Sign-up closes" date and time is in the future. Remember that these settings won't automatically open or close sign-ups; you must still do this manually with the "Sign-up open?" checkbox.

Assignments due

In the same way you did for sign-ups, set the date and time by which participants need to complete their works. Again, this doesn't automatically do anything. When the time comes, you'll need to manually check on any outstanding assignments and contact the participants, or default and reassign the requests. You may also choose to do one of the following once the due date has passed:

  • Close the collection (stopping new works from being added).
  • Moderate the collection (giving owners and moderators complete control over which submissions are accepted and when they appear).

You can choose these options on the challenge's Collection Settings page.

Works and Creators revealed

If you've selected the checkbox "This collection is unrevealed" and/or "This collection is anonymous" when setting up your collection or subcollection, you can indicate the date and time works and/or their creators will be revealed here. If you didn't select these options, this section won't appear.

Remember that this won't happen automatically. You'll need to return to your Collection Settings at the appropriate time and uncheck the relevant boxes to reveal the works and/or their creators.

Requests and Offers

Requests visible?

If you choose this option, all logged-in users will be able to select "Requests Summary" on the Gift Exchange's page to preview the requests made for your Gift Exchange.

Making requests public can encourage people to make matching offers or create extra works for participants, but also spoils all requests in the Gift Exchange. If you decide to keep requests hidden during sign-ups, you may want to turn this on after sending out assignments so that participants can create extra works for each other if they find themselves inspired.

Number of requests and offers per sign-up

These fields allow you to specify the minimum number of requests and offers a participant is required to make (at least one), and the maximum number they're allowed to make (up to 10). These numbers can't be changed once sign-ups have been added.

In the screenshot example below, participants are required to make one request and at least one offer, but can make one additional offer if they choose. They can't make more than one request.

Screenshot: request and offers settings with one required and one allowed request, and one required and two allowed offers. Requests visible? is not checked.

Figure 1: Settings for the number of requests and offers per sign-up in an example Gift Exchange.

Request and Offer Settings

These settings determine what each separate request and offer can contain, and how many of each tag type can be included. You can't change these settings after sign-ups have been added.

You can set different values for requests and offers. Being more restrictive in the requests and allowing more options in offers may improve your ability to match offers to requests.

Optional Tags?

Optional tags let your Gift Exchange's participants make more detailed or obscure requests, but ensure you can match without too much difficulty. Checking this box adds an Optional Tags box to the sign-up, allowing participants to add bonus tags of any sort to their sign-up. This includes tags for which they otherwise have reached the limit (extra characters, pairings, etc).

Optional tags must be either canonical tags, or belong to a tag set that you've added to your exchange under Tag Options. However, they're not limited to a specific fandom, and will allow any canonical tag to be used even if your settings otherwise limit what is allowed. If you require tags to be limited to fandom or tag sets only, you should leave this unchecked, or provide firm guidelines for your participants on how to use the optional tags field.

Title

Use these checkboxes to indicate whether a user is required or allowed to specify the title of the work in their request or offer. If you don't want participants to specify titles, leave both boxes unchecked.

Details/Description

Use these checkboxes to indicate whether a user is required or allowed to add a description or details in their request or offer. The details/description field can let the participant include a prompt phrase or description of what they do or don't want in their requested work (for example, "No A/B/O or Mpreg please"). Details or descriptions in offers are only visible to the owners and moderators of the Gift Exchange, so checking this for offers will only be useful if you're going to be manually checking matches and/or assignments. If you don't want participants to enter details or a description, leave both boxes unchecked.

URL

Use these checkboxes to indicate whether a user is required or allowed to include a URL in their request or offer. For example, if your challenge is to create a work of fanfiction based on an image, you may require participants to include the URL to their prompt image in their request. If you don't want participants to include URLs, leave both boxes unchecked.

Tags

In this section you set how many of each kind of tag are required or allowed per request or offer.
Set both Required and Allowed to zero if you don't want participants to make requests or offers using a specific type of tag.

Tag options are only helpful when participants are able to make a choice. For example, if you're running a Gift Exchange for a specific relationship, you may want to leave any relevant tag options set at zero.

Check "Allow Any" to let participants indicate they are happy with any result from that tag type. This option can be particularly useful for offers, as it means a participant marking "Any" in a field can be matched against a participant making a difficult or obscure request.

Check "Must Be Unique" to indicate that every tag within a tag type must differ. Users will be restricted to using any specific tag once in all of their requests, and any specific tag once in all of their offers. For example, if you set options to require at least three fandoms and have selected "Must Be Unique", a user making two requests must enter at least six unique fandoms in total. Any additional (optional) requests will also need to use fandoms different from any they've already requested.

Screenshot: example selection of tag settings, the details of which are explained in the following section.

Figure 2: Tag settings per request or offer for an example Gift Exchange.

The above example screenshot will produce the following results:

Optional Tags?:
We haven't selected this checkbox, so a participant doesn't have the option to specify optional tags.
Title:
We haven't selected either checkbox here, so a participant doesn't have the option to specify the title.
Details/Description:
We've selected the Allowed checkbox, but not Required, which means a participant can, but isn't required to provide a description or details for their request (or offer).
URL:
We haven't selected either checkbox, so a participant doesn't have the option to provide a URL.
Fandom(s):
By entering three in the Required field, and five in the Allowed field, we're requiring a participant to specify at least three, and up to five, fandoms. Because "Must Be Unique" is checked, each fandom must be different and can only be used once in all of their requests, and/or once in all of their offers.
Character(s):
By entering two in the Required field, and five in the Allowed field, we're requiring a participant to specify at least two, and up to five, characters. Because "Must Be Unique" is not checked, they can use the same character in multiple requests and offers.
Relationship(s):
By entering one in the Required field, and five in the Allowed field, we're requiring a participant to specify at least one, and up to five, relationships. Also, because "Allow Any" is checked, a participant has the option to check "Any Relationship" on their request (or offer) instead.
Rating(s):
By entering zero in the Required field, and two in the Allowed field, we've allowed, but not required, a participant to specify up to two ratings.
Categories:
By entering zero in the Required field, and two in the Allowed field, we've allowed, but not required, a participant to specify up to two categories.
Additional tag(s):
By entering zero in both fields, we aren't providing a participant the option to specify additional tags.
Archive Warning(s):
By entering zero in both fields, we aren't providing a participant the option to specify archive warnings.

Tag Options

The Tag Options section allows you to specify what overall tags are available to participants. Previously you indicated how many of each kind of tag a participant can request or offer; here you can decide what tags they have to choose from.

Tag Set

To use custom tag sets, enter the name of the tag set you wish to use in the autocomplete text field. You can add multiple tag sets if you so choose. Each tag set must have already been created to appear as an option in the autocomplete field, though they need not be finalized. For more information, check out the Tag Sets FAQ.

If you're using a tag set in your Gift Exchange and are accepting nominations, this should be completed before opening sign-ups so that users know what tags they have to choose from when making their requests and offers. Tags may still be added after sign-ups open, if necessary.

Character Settings and Relationship Settings

Here you have the following options:

  1. Leave both boxes unchecked.
    • If you don't have any tag sets associated with your Gift Exchange, any canonical tags on the Archive can be used in any combination.
    • If you do have associated tag sets, any tags within the tag set(s) can be used in any combination. Tags that aren't in the tag set(s) can't be used, whether they are canonical Archive tags or not.
  2. This is the only option which will allow participants to sign up to your Gift Exchange without choosing a fandom.
  3. Check "Fandom only" to require participants to select fandom(s) from the ones included in the tag set(s). They can then use any character or relationship tags associated with that fandom, whether they are in the tag set(s) or not. This can be an existing fandom association on AO3, or one added by you via the tag set(s). If you have no fandoms defined in your tag set(s) and select this option, your participants will not be able to complete a sign-up. If you're not using any tag sets, participants can select any canonical fandom on the Archive.
  4. Check "Tag set fandom only" to require participants to select fandom(s) from the ones included in the tag set(s). They can then use any character or relationship tags that exist in the tag set(s), whether they are associated with their chosen fandom or not. You must have at least one associated tag set if you are selecting this option.
  5. Checking both boxes has the same functional result as checking "Fandom only". However, where "Fandom only" populates the character and relationship tags' autocomplete fields with all associated tags across AO3, checking both boxes populates the autocomplete only with those tags you have included in your tag set(s). Participants can still add tags from AO3 that aren't in the tag set(s) by entering them manually rather than relying on the autocomplete.

Minimum Number to Match

Select the minimum number of matching tags required before an offer is considered to match a request. The number of tags required to match should be the same or fewer than the number of required tags you set in the Requests and Offer Settings. If the number of tags required to match is larger than the number of offered tags, the system may not be able to generate matches. For example, if you require two character tags in a sign-up, you should only require one or two for matching.

A lower number will generate a greater chance of matching, and a higher number will create stricter matching criteria. Any matches above the minimum number required will be used to rank the quality of potential matches. If you have permitted optional tags in the Requests and Offer Settings then you can allow those tags to count as potential matches for various tag types by checking the relevant boxes.

You can also choose to set the minimum number for all tags to zero if you'd like a completely random set of matches.

If you alter these settings after you've already generated potential matches for your Gift Exchange, you'll need to regenerate potential matches before your changes are reflected.

 

Screenshot: an example selection of match settings, the details of which are explained in the following section.

Figure 3: Matching settings for an example Gift Exchange.

The above example screenshot will produce the following results:

  • We've entered one in the Requests, which means at minimum one participant's request must match one participant's offer, based on the other criteria in this section, to be considered a successful match.
  • In the Requests and Offer Settings we required participants to include three fandoms in their sign-up. Setting Fandom to two here means that at least two of those three fandoms must match.
  • At least two characters must match (we required two and allowed five).
  • At least one relationship must match (we required one and allowed five). Because we also allowed "Any Relationship", anyone who checked that box can be matched with any offer based on relationship, provided other criteria also matches.
  • We didn't require Ratings, Categories, Additional Tag(s) or Warnings, nor did we allow Optional Tags. Therefore, we can't match on these criteria.

Sign-up Instructions

These fields let you provide instructions to help your participants understand how to fill in the Sign-up form. What you enter here will depend on your specific Gift Exchange's criteria.

You can provide General Sign-up Instructions, which will be displayed at the top of the form; Request Instructions, which will be displayed above the requests section; and Offer Instructions, which will be displayed above the offers section.

You can also change the "Prompt URL" and "Description" labels to something more relevant to your Gift Exchange. For example, if your challenge is to create a work of fanfiction based on an image, you might want to change "Prompt URL" to "Image URL" or "My prompt image can be found at:" or similar.

When you are done setting your exchange details on this page, select "Submit" at the bottom of the page to save.

Previewing Your Sign-Up Form

All owners and moderators of the Gift Exchange can preview the Sign-up form at any time from its dashboard, but it won't be available to other users until sign-ups are opened. We suggest that you review the form and have someone fill it out before opening sign-ups so you can double check that everything is working the way you expect it to.

If you need to change any settings, delete the test sign-up and then go to the Challenge Settings page to adjust. If you're unsure how to get to that page, refer to How do I return to my Challenge Settings page? For help deleting your sign-up, please refer to How do I delete my sign-up?

Running Your Gift Exchange

Before opening sign-ups, you'll want to set dates for, advertise, and run any tag set nominations. If you're using one or more tag sets but not running nominations, this is when you'll want to make sure your tag sets are up to date and ready to go. Check out the Tag Sets FAQ for more information.

Now that the initial setup is complete, you should be ready to begin the process of running your Gift Exchange. This will involve the following steps:

Sign-ups

To open sign-ups for your Gift Exchange, go to the Challenge Settings page and check the box beside, or below, "Sign-up open?" then select the "Update" button at the bottom of the page. You can also edit the dates and times if you need to. If you're unsure how to get to this page, refer to How do I return to my Challenge Settings page?

Once you've opened sign-ups, your Gift Exchange will appear on the Open Challenges page until you've closed sign-ups, or your "Sign-up closes" date passes. You can also promote your Gift Exchange in your fandom circles outside of the AO3 site.

The "Sign-up Form" link will appear on the Gift Exchange's dashboard for other users when you've opened sign-ups. Sign-ups already received will be available under the "Sign-ups" link, found in the same location. You can also download sign-ups as a CSV file from this page.

Once you have more than five sign-ups, a "Sign-up Summary" becomes available, which lets you and your participants find statistics on how many requests and offers have been made. This can take time to compile, particularly if you have a large number of sign-ups, so you may need to refresh the page after a few minutes. There is also a "Requests Summary" which shows all the requests made by participants without their corresponding offers. This summary may be available to all logged-in users, or just your Gift Exchange's owners and moderators, depending on your choices during the Requests and Offers stage of the setup.

When your sign-up period is over, return to the Challenge Settings page, uncheck the box beside "Sign-up open?" and then select the "Update" button at the bottom of the page. You're now ready to match your requests and offers!

Note that participants must have an AO3 account to sign up for your Gift Exchange. If you need to request accounts for participants, check out How do I request invitations for a challenge that I'm running?

For information on how to create an account, refer to How do I create an account?

Matching

To generate automatic matching on your Gift Exchange, you first need to ensure sign-ups are closed. Navigate to your Challenge Settings page and uncheck the "Sign-up open?" box and select the "Update" button. Then, navigate to the Gift Exchange's dashboard and select "Matching" from the menu.

Select the "Generate Potential Matches" button. When the matching process is complete, a notification email will be sent to the email address email listed on your Collection Settings page, or (if you didn't set an email address) to all owners and moderators of the Gift Exchange.

When matching has completed, return to the Gift Exchange's "Matching" page to review the results. The result table will display the following for each match: the assignment ID, recipient, giver, and a field where you can enter a write-in giver (also known as a pinch hitter). You can select the assignment ID here to review the entire match, including all requests made by the requester, and the offer it was matched to (if any).

If you're unhappy with any of the matches, or wish to change them for any reason, you can use the × button to remove anyone in the Recipient, Giver or Write-In Giver fields. The autocomplete field will populate with a list of recipients or givers who match, sorted by quality of the match, in both the Recipient and Giver fields. If you wish to assign someone who doesn't match with their recipient, you will need to use the Write-In Giver field instead. Once you're happy with your matches, select "Save Assignment Changes" so that you can review your updated matches. Note that changes can only be done this way before assignments are sent out; after assignments are sent you'll need to default the original giver and then assign a pinch hitter.

Several buttons may become available to you on this page, depending on how your matching works out. These buttons and the conditions under which they appear are explained below. If all requests and offers were matched, these buttons won't appear. The "Complete" button returns you to the original page with all matched assignments. If you add a write-in giver or otherwise change the assignments, remember to select the "Save Assignment Changes" button.

No Potential Recipients / No Potential Givers

These buttons will show up if one or more participants are unable to be matched with anyone, based on their sign-up and the exchange's current matching criteria.

Select the appropriate button to review participants whose offers can't be matched to requests (or vice versa). How you deal with unmatched participants is entirely up to you. Some suggestions include:

  • email them to ask them to modify their sign-up
  • temporarily assign unmatched requests to an owner or moderator, and seek pinch hitters to fill them after assignments have been sent
  • contact participants whose offers don't have a matching request to ask if they are willing to fill an unmatched request (or vice versa)

The "email" button beside a username allows you to contact the participant directly. Note that, as stated in the Terms of Service FAQ, use of these email addresses for any purpose other than running the challenge may lead to the termination of your account.

You can use "Edit" to change the participant's sign-up if needed. Once the sign-up has been edited, you can select "Regenerate Matches For [participant]". If the problem isn't resolvable or if the participant pulls out of the Gift Exchange, you can delete their sign-up. Note that this permanently deletes their entire sign-up which might then leave you with another participant who is now unmatched.

No Recipient / No Giver

These buttons will appear if one or more participants weren't automatically matched because any potential matches have been assigned to other people. This includes both participants who have potential matches, and those who also appear under "No Potential Recipients/Givers."

Select the appropriate button to review the assignments related to requests or offers that haven't been matched. Here, you can manually assign a matching recipient or giver to the assignment. The autocomplete field will populate with a list of recipients or givers who match, sorted by quality of the match. If you'd rather assign a giver who didn't immediately match, use the Write-in Giver field. Ensure you select "Save Assignment Changes" after completing your matches.

Duplicate Givers

This button will appear if the same participant is assigned as a giver or write-in giver to more than one assignment. Selecting it will show you all duplicate givers, who they are matched to, and whether they are the primary or write-in giver for that assignment. You can use the × button to remove anyone in the Recipient, Giver or Write-In Giver fields if you'd like to change these assignments.

Duplicate Recipients

This button will appear if a recipient has been assigned more than one giver or write-in giver, and otherwise behaves the same as the Duplicate Givers button.

Regenerate Assignments

This is an option to regenerate matches and assignments after you have generated assignments but before you have sent them based on the potential matches already identified. It's useful if you're not satisfied with the assignments the automatic matching has come up with. For instance, if all participants have potential matches, but some weren't matched because all their potential givers or recipients were instead matched with other people, you may want to regenerate assignments.

Regenerate All Potential Matches

This is an option to regenerate matches before you have sent assignments. If changes have been made to requests or offers, you can select this button to regenerate the matches. You can do this as many times as you like as long as you haven't sent the assignments yet. For example, if you realize your ship-based Gift Exchange didn't match on relationships but you've generated the matches already, or if several people have needed to change their sign-ups for matching to work, you can use this feature to start over.

Send Assignments

Once you're satisfied with the matches, select this button to notify participants of their assignments. They will receive a notification by email and can also find any assignments they have pending on their dashboard under "Assignments". Note that all participants must have been matched to a recipient and a giver for assignments to be sent.

Assignments

Once you have sent assignments to your participants, the "Matching" link will no longer be available, and an "Assignments" link will be added in its place. From this page, you can review the assignments for the challenge and their current status. Buttons near the top of the page (or below the "Assignments for [challenge name]" heading on mobile) allow you to review assignments that are Defaulted, Open, or Complete. You can also review Pinch Hit assignments, Default All Incomplete assignments, or Purge Assignments entirely.

An email icon beside the name of the assigned participant will allow you to contact them directly from your own email, should that be necessary. Selecting this link will open a new email in your default email client; alternatively, you can right-click (or equivalent) or long press on mobile and copy the email address to use in your browser.

Defaulted

Selecting this button will provide a list of all assignments that have been defaulted, either by the owners or moderators of the challenge, or by the participants themselves. Each assignment has a checkbox you can check to undefault the participant, and a field in which you can assign a pinch hitter. Select the "Submit" button towards the bottom of the page to apply any changes.

Pinch Hits

Select this button to review all open pinch hit assignments. If you need to reassign the pinch hitter, you will first need to default the user currently assigned. To do so, select the "Default" checkbox beside or below the assignment entry and then the "Submit" button towards the bottom of the page.

Open

You can select the "Open" button to review all unfilled assignments, including pinch hits, which will be denoted by "* (pinch hitter)" next to the assigned participant's pseud. As with Pinch Hits, you can default assignments individually on this page by checking the box beside or below the assignment entry and then the "Submit" button towards the bottom of the page.

Awaiting Approval

If your collection is moderated, any assignments that have been submitted will need to be approved by an owner or moderator before they're posted to the collection. Select the "Awaiting Approval" button to review these works and make decisions on their inclusion in your challenge. For further information on managing works in your collection, refer to How do I manage works or bookmarks in a collection that I own or moderate?

Complete

This button will take you to a list of all assignments that have been completed. Each entry will have a link to the posted work, and statistics about the work including when it was posted and its word count.

Default All Incomplete

If you need to default assignments that haven't been completed (for example, after your listed "Assignments Due" time has passed) you can use this button to affect all incomplete assignments across the Gift Exchange. In a moderated challenge, this will also affect any works that have been posted but not yet approved, so it's a good idea to complete the Approval process before taking this step.

Once Defaulted, these assignments will be available by selecting the "Defaulted" button near the top right of the page (or below the "Assignments for [challenge name]" heading on mobile). From there, you can assign pinch hitters, or undefault the assignment if you made an error.

Purge Assignments

If you realize you have a major error in your Gift Exchange matches after you have sent out assignments, you can select the "Purge Assignments" button on the Gift Exchange's Assignments page, which will reset all current assignments and allow you to make changes to your matching criteria and run it again. Please note, an automated message won't be sent to your participants if you cancel all assignments. They will, however, receive an email when you send out new assignments, so you may want to modify your assignment notification message to let participants know which assignment they should be acting on. You can do this from your Collection Settings page. Purged assignments are non-recoverable: only choose this function if you absolutely mean it!

Refer to the Gift Exchange FAQ for further information on your options for managing assignments as your challenge approaches its completion dates.

Assignment Completion

Participants' completed works will automatically be added to the Gift Exchange's collection if they check the appropriate open assignment on the New Works page, or post their work by selecting the "Fulfill" button on their Assignments page. For more on how participants can post their work, check out How do I fulfill my Gift Exchange assignment?

If your collection is moderated, any assignments that have been submitted will need to be approved by an owner or moderator before they're posted to the collection. Refer to How do I manage works or bookmarks in a collection that I own or moderate? for more on this.

You can reveal all works and/or creators simultaneously from the Collection Settings page. If you're unsure how to get to this page, refer to How do I return to my Collection Settings page?

Managing and Troubleshooting Your Gift Exchange

You may come across some issues while running your Gift Exchange. Hopefully, the following links will help you resolve them. If you need help with something that hasn't been addressed here or in the Gift Exchange and Collections FAQs, please add AO3_Support as a co-owner and then contact us and we'll do our best to help you.

Where can I get more information if my question isn't answered here?

If you need guidance on a particular part of collection or challenge creation, please check out:

Some frequently asked questions about the Archive are answered in other sections of the Archive FAQ, and some common terminology is defined in our Glossary. Questions and answers about our Terms of Service can be found in the Terms of Service FAQ. You may also like to check out our Known Issues. For help with your specific Gift Exchange that isn't covered in these FAQs or Tutorials, please add AO3_Support as a co-owner and then contact us and we'll do our best to help you.