[Something I wrote up while I was procrastinating and got checked out by yulechat for additional questions and edits. I may also do a mod version someday]

While the details between AO3 exchanges are different (as an example, what they focus on or what detail they match participants on), these exchanges are hosted on AO3 and there are limitations that AO3 brings upon the exchange and for the mod.

Here are a bunch of questions split into four categories of the most common questions a participant may have about an AO3 exchange.

Nominations Process
Why hasn't the mod approved my fandom/character nominations yet?
Beyond the simple answer of "The mod may not be working on approving nominations at the moment," the Review Nominations page of the tag set does not show the full extent of either fandoms or characters attached to a fandom for a mod to approve or reject. If you nominated (example) Teen Wolf and want it approved right away, but people also nominated (example) 15 other fandoms, chances are Teen Wolf may not be one of the fandoms on the Review Nominations page. It had been pushed off and the mod won't be able to see it until they clear out the current fandoms by approving or rejecting.

The same can be said for characters. Your fandom (example) Teen Wolf may be approved, but the Review Nominations page doesn't show the full extent of characters that haven't been approved/rejected.

If I request (example) Marvel Comics, will someone who offered (example) Marvel (616) match to me?
If there are similar fandoms in an exchange's tag set (example Marvel Comics and Marvel 616), if someone requests Marvel Comics and someone else offers Marvel 616, they will not be matched up. The fandoms have to be exact (among other things).

The same can be said if someone requests The Hobbit while someone else offers The Lord of the Rings. They will not match on their fandoms.

Why is Character A both in Fandom B and Fandom C? Why is Fandom A listed as (example) a Book and a Movie?
The answer to both questions is tag migration. Tag migration is due to behind the scenes tag wrangling on characters and fandoms that can affect an exchange's tag sets. So if Character A was belonged to both Fandom B and Fandom C's sets of canonical characters, and Character A was nominated for Fandom B and approved there, Character A will "travel" to approved Fandom C in the tag set as if Character A was also approved for Fandom C. That can be fixed in the tag set by the mod, but before that happens, you'll see it pre-fixing of the tag set. This is why mods tend to have a period of time of clarification for their exchange's tag set.

I nominated Fandom A1 but it got approved as Fandom A1.5. What happened?
The mod changed it. Usually that is because Fandom A1 is not the AO3 canonical fandom tag while Fandom A1.5 is. An example of this would be a participant nominating Teen Wolf and the mod approving it as Teen Wolf (TV). Another example would be a participant nominating The Hobbit and the mod approving it as The Hobbit - J. R. R. Tolkien.

Another way this can go is that the mod approves it, but changes the fandom to something that is not AO3 canonical, but fits better for their exchange.

Can I change my nomination after it's been approved/rejected?
Once a nomination, whether fandom or character, has been approved or rejected by the mod, it cannot be edited again. However, until it has been approved/rejected, you can continue to edit and change it.

Is there any way for me to know what's already been approved?
For your personal nominations, yes. Under the exchange's tag set, there is a button on top called My Nominations. Click on that and you can see whether your fandoms and characters have been approved or rejected. If it's been approved, it'll have a check mark next to it. If it's been rejected, it'll have an X next to it. If it has a ?! next to it, it hasn't been approved or rejected and you still have time to change it if you want to.

For the tag set as a whole for the exchange, that depends on the mod. A mod can set the tag set to either have a visible tag list (so once fandoms and characters get approved, they will be visible to everyone who views the tag set) or not during nominations.

Why can't the mod just approve everything in the tag set and then sort it out afterward?
Mostly because the interface for the editing portion of the AO3 tag set isn't that great. It is a lot easier to fix something before a fandom or character gets approved then it is to edit after the fact. That is why mods do clarification posts in their comms when they have questions for the participants.

Why doesn't the mod just trust whatever gets nominated at face value for that exchange?
This is because not everything that gets nominated is correct. Misspelled names for characters have happened (or, if it's an anime/manga fandom, there may be variations on a name and no unanimous decision on which is the "correct" one) or fandoms and characters get nominated that do not belong in that particular exchange. Sometimes participants honestly make mistakes. Mods have to check that their tag set is as correct as possible to be fair to the rest of their participants.

Why can't I nominate/can't see the tag set?
If the mod used the correct settings, it might be that you are not logged into your AO3 account. Another reason is that the mod has not set the option for people to nominate tags just yet or they haven't set the option for people to see the approved tag set just yet.


Sign ups
What are socks? What are dentists?
Socks and dentists mean the same thing - they are a second (or third) AO3 account someone uses in order to sign up for the exchange.

I tried to sign up for Character A in Fandom C, but it's not coming up and I know it's in the exchange's tag set. What's going on?
That is a known AO3 bug. The way around the bug is to copy and paste the character's name from the tag set directly to your sign up and hit enter. When you submit your sign up, the character will be there.

I offered Fandom B, but I don't see it on the sign up summary. Why?
On the sign up summary, you can only see fandom requests that have offers and fandom requests without offers. Currently, AO3's sign up summary does not allow participants to see fandom offers without fandom requests. It is possible to do it manually on the mod's part, but requires the mod going through everyone's sign up to copy/paste.

I offered several fandom bucket offers on my sign up, but I don't see it counted on the sign up summary. Did my offers go through?
Bucket offers do not show up on the summary, but it is counted when AO3 goes through the matching system.

Why doesn't this exchange allow a fandom to be requested more than once?
Some do, some don't. The reason why some exchanges don't allow for a fandom to be requested more than once (as it is an option AO3 lets a mod do) is because the mod cannot limit how many times a particular fandom is requested.

As a personal example, I am the mod of Not Prime Time and NPT allows one fandom to be requested twice. However, the system allows a participant to request a fandom two or more times, or two fandoms with two requests each if this option is chosen. To make sure participants are following the rules of my exchange, I have to go into every sign up manually to see that everything is in order. As people can continue to edit their sign ups until I close them, I also have to check after sign ups are closed. NPT is not large so I can do that. Other exchanges, like Yuletide, are too big with thousands of participants to handle that additional labor which is why Yuletide doesn't allow that option.


Assignments/Writing Period
Can the mod mass email everyone instead of posting just to their comms?
The mod doesn't have the ability to mass email everyone through AO3. The only possible way is to copy/paste all participants' emails and do it manually. Not very viable for exchanges with large numbers of participants.

I uploaded my fic to the exchange collection and I can't find it. How do I find my hidden story?
If the exchange has a period of being unrevealed before the collection opens, you won't be able to see it on your dashboard or directly on your Works page. You'll have to go to your Works page and click on the Works in Collections button on top. That will bring up all your works that have been uploaded to collections, whether hidden or not.

You can also click on the Fandom tab of that particular exchange's collection and scroll until you find your work. It will be the one not listed as Mystery Work.

I uploaded my fic to the exchange collection and now I don't know if I did it right! How do I know if my fic is unrevealed and anonymous?
The first thing that you'll notice as soon as you post your fic to the collection, is that under your title will read Anonymous instead of your AO3 username. Within the header, it will list a Collection (hopefully the right collection for the exchange you signed up for). If you click on it, then click on the Fandoms to find your fic, the other fics will read Mystery Work, but yours will read Unrevealed: TITLE by Anonymous. Your fic is both unrevealed and anonymous.

Only you can see your fic during the unrevealed process and the Unrevealed: TITLE by Anonymous. Everyone else will see it as Mystery Work.

After the exchange was over, my friend and I found out we were both assigned and wrote for the same person. How was that possible?
That is called double assignments. AO3's matching system does one to one matching and at the end of the process, there will be people who have no one to write for them and people who have no one they can write for. The people who have no one to write for them can be sent immediately to the pinch hitters to claim. However, the people who have no one they can write for have to be manually assigned someone before assignments can be sent out.

I want to switch AO3 usernames on my fic, but I don't know how.
You can switch AO3 usernames through the 'co-authoring method.' The way this is done is by going to your work and hitting the Edit button. Scroll down to the Preface box and the second line under Work Title is "Add co-authors?" Click the ticky box and a new line will pop up. Enter your second username's name, hit enter, and Post Without Preview. Now hit Edit once more and click the top button of "Remove Me As Author." The only author that will be left is your second username.

This may be easier to do during the anonymous period of the exchange you're participating in as, no one will know you made the switch except the mods.

I don't want to have my name on the fic I wrote. What can I do about that?
Besides switching author names (see question above), you can orphan your fic or you can add your fic to the Anonymous collection.

To orphan your fic, click on Edit for that particular work. At the top of the page, click on the Orphan Work button. Once you orphan your work, however, you cannot undo this action to reclaim your work or to edit.

To add your fic to the Anonymous collection, and thereby making it so after the exchange's anonymous period is over, your author name will continue to read as Anonymous, click on Edit for that particular work. Scroll down to the 'Associations' box until you see "Post to Collections / Challenges." There should already be the name of the exchange your fic is in and another line under that. Type in 'anonymous' in that line and update your work. Now your fic will be anonymous and remain in both the exchange's collection and the anonymous collection.

I uploaded an AO3 draft to the exchange collection. Why is this bad?
It's not bad, per se, however AO3 drafts (not drafts of your fic) do not last long and will disappear if they are not posted after a period of time. Don't forget to post your fic before the collection goes live.

AO3 drafts also do not mark your assignment as fulfilled.

Can I edit after I upload my fic to the exchange collection?
Yes, you can continue editing during any point in time.

How do I upload a fic/fulfill an assignment?
When you're in your AO3 dashboard page, look for the link called 'Assignments' in the left hand column. Click on Assignments and look for (Exchange) For [Recipient]. In that box it should say 'Status: Unposted' with two buttons of Default and Fulfill.

When you're ready to upload, click the Fulfill button. This is the easiest way to upload because it automatically fills out the collection, assignment, and recipient tag.

How do I default on my assignment?
If you plan on defaulting, follow the steps above except clicking on the Default button instead of the Fulfill button.

What is shaking your gift? How do you shake your gift?
Shaking your gift refers to a recipient trying to figure out details of their gift before the collection is open and the fics are revealed. This does depend though on whether or not your author has added those details at the time you check. To shake your gift, first check to see if you have a gift to check in the first place by looking at the Gifts page on your Dashboard. Then check on the Fandoms page of the exchange to see what fandom you requested is listed. Click on the Fandoms page to bring up the work(s) for that fandom. On the sidebar, you can click to see the listed Ratings, Warnings, Categories, Characters, Relationships, and Additional Tags.

As an example, if I have a gift waiting for me in an exchange, and I check the sidebar for the information my author provided me, I could potentially see that it is an Explicit fic, f/f, with the pairing of Nyssa al Ghul/Sara Lance, and the additional tags of Plot What Plot/Porn Without Plot, Cunnilingus, and Dancing.

An author can hide details from their recipient who wants to shake their gift by not listing anything beyond the fandom or even putting the fic in another fandom altogether until the collection opens.


Behind the Scenes
When I upload a treat to the collection, how does the mod see it?
Under the Assignments tab for the mod, there are several buttons - Defaulted, Pinch Hits, Open, Awaiting Approval, Complete, Default All Incomplete, and Purge Assignments. Defaulted, Pinch Hits, Open, and Complete are the ones that open up with participants' names and the ones a mod usually uses. None of these tabs show if someone uploads a treat because a treat is not someone's assignment. Even if you decide to write a second fic for your recipient, that second fic won't show up in these tabs while the first fic will.

Treats can only be seen via Manage Items (all fics can be seen through Manage Items), not any of the tabs for Assignments. Under Manage Items, mods can see without clicking on the fic who wrote for who, though they cannot see word counts.

The mod revealed fics/authors, but there's still plenty unrevealed. Why is that?
When revealing fics or making authors not anonymous, it takes some time as AO3 doesn't do it all at once but in batches.

Why are there more fandoms listed in the collection than actual stories?
The additional fandoms are the metafandoms the visible fandoms are attached to, but are unseen. They used to be visible before AO3 coders fixed that, but the number of them are still counted in a collection's fandom numbers.

I used the default button, but I don't know if the mod saw it.
You do not have to email/PM the mod to tell them you're defaulting or to see if they saw you defaulted once you've hit the default button. It can be seen in the Assignments tab and the notification gets emailed to the email attached to the collection.