Nominations

[grundyscribbling]

There are two phases of the exchange before matching happens and assignments go out. The first phase is nominations, the second is sign-ups. Nominations are how we assemble the tagset for the exchange - in other words, the options people can request or offer when they sign up.

Nominations
Whether you’re firmly planning on participating, not sure if you’ll sign up, or just lurking but hoping to see particular elements in fanworks in the collection, you are invited to nominate.

The only requirement to nominate is that you have an AO3 account. (If you do not have an AO3 account and would like to create one so you can participate, let the mods know if you need an invite code.)

• You may nominate up to 20 fandoms, with a maximum of 10 character tags and 10 worldbuilding tags per fandom.
  
• When nominating, please copy and paste the fandom names from the list below. We use several fandoms that are not canonical in the AO3 sense, and AO3 is very precise about tags. (Extra spaces and en-dash vs em-dash have been issues in past rounds.)
  
• Do not accept suggestions from AO3 about fandom names - use the names and abbreviations given in the list at the end of this post.
  
• Check the tagset before nominating to be sure your character or group has not already been nominated! AO3 will not allow exact duplicates, but it also will not warn you if you are repeating an existing nomination in a slightly different form. We do our best to approve tags quickly, so the tag list should usually be up to date.
  
• There are two types of tags you can nominate, Character and Worldbuilding. Please read the explanations below before nominating to ensure your nominations are accepted!

Character Nominations

Character field: All characters AND character groups must be nominated using the Character field. No character groups should be nominated under what AO3 calls the Relationship tag – we use that tag strictly for worldbuilding.

• Only one nomination for each character or character group in a fandom will be accepted.
  
• Any character group nomination must begin with “Group:”
  
• Do NOT use piped tags. If a character has multiple names, the most widely used name should be used. For elves, this is generally the Sindarin name. For example, Maedhros rather than Maitimo, Russandol, or Nelyafinwë.
  
• For groups, the following relationship indicators should be used:
  
  / = romantic and/or sexual
  & = familial and/or platonic
  + = queerplatonic relationship
  To be 100% clear, & is NOT romantic or sexual. Please do not interchange & and / - they are different things.
• Groups may include a combination of relationships. (Ex: Aragorn/Arwen & Eldarion, Aredhel+Celegorm & Maeglin.)
• Many characters appear in more than one fandom, so unless your nominated character is definitely only present in one fandom, please use the abbreviations in the fandom list table to differentiate fandoms. AO3 will not allow nomination of the same character in two different fandoms if you do not differentiate!
• If two characters in a group do not appear in the same fandom, they must be nominated under the Crossover Fandom. In this case, please use fandom disambiguations as necessary.
  • For the purposes of this exchange, if a character is mentioned in a fandom, they can be considered as part of that fandom. So, for example, Feanor can be nominated in LotR books without needing a crossover as his name appears in both Fellowship of the Ring and The Two Towers. However, Nerdanel would need a crossover as she is not mentioned at any point.
• Please alphabetize within pairings, triads, etc – this makes it easier for the mods to check the tagset for duplicates. (Because we ask you to alphabetize, no implications should be read into the order of a grouping, for example Maedhros/Fingon vs Fingon/Maedhros.)
• Nomination of characters from non-Tolkien fandoms is not allowed. You may not nominate Buffy Summers, Harry Potter, Luke Skywalker, etc. (Since the nomination tag are freeform, AO3 will allow the nomination, but the mods will reject it. Please don’t waste your nomination slots this way.)
• Nominations for Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power are limited to characters that appeared in season one, appeared in the trailer for season 2, or have been officially announced for season 2.Please no speculative nominations. (Ie, you may not nominate a character not yet shown or mentioned in the hopes they will show up.)
  • Celeborn is fine. Galadriel mentioned her husband in season1; we’ll allow it.
  • Tom Bombadil and Círdan have both been announced for s2.
  • As of time of writing, you may not offer/request Celebrían, Glorfindel, the Witch King, or any other Nazgul unless it is under the Crossover fandom.

Example Nominations:
Examples of characters present in multiple fandoms: Glorfindel (LOTR books), Glorfindel (Silm)

Examples of characters present in only one fandom: Beowulf, Niggle, Farmer Giles

Examples of character groups:

Group: Fëanor & Findis (Silm)
Group: Fëanor & Gandalf (LOTR books)
Group: Bilbo/Thorin & Frodo (Hobbit movies)

Examples of crossover groups:

Group: Faramir (LOTR books) & Ecthelion (Silm)
Group: Celebrimbor (Silm) & Smith (Smith)
Group: Adar (RoP) & Maglor (Silm)

Worldbuilding

Relationships field: This field should be used for worldbuilding tags only.

• You may nominate up to 10 worldbuilding tags per fandom.
  
• Do not nominate any relationships using this field!
  
• Begin all tags with “Worldbuilding:”.
  
• Please differentiate ALL worldbuilding tags using the abbreviations from the fandoms list – we had trouble last round with AO3 losing the association for worldbuilding tags. (The mods do not enjoy guessing which fandom a tag is intended for.)
  
• Worldbuilding tags may be as serious or light-hearted as you wish. They give creators some idea what people would like to see in the fanwork created for them, whether that’s “Worldbuilding: Aragorn’s tax policy (LotR books)”, or “Worldbuilding: the significance of silver spoons among hobbits (Hobbit book)”.

Previous Tagsets
Tagsets from past rounds are listed below if you would like to browse for inspiration or to see examples.

2023	2019
2022	2018
2021	2017
2020	2016

Fandoms

Fandom	Abbreviation
Adventures in Middle-earth (Roleplaying Game)	AdME
The Adventures of Tom Bombadil - J. R. R. Tolkien	ATB
The Book of Lost Tales - J.R.R. Tolkien	BoLT
Born of Hope (2009)	Hope
The Fall of Arthur - J. R. R. Tolkien	Arthur
Farmer Giles of Ham - J.R.R. Tolkien	Giles
The Father Christmas Letters - J. R. R. Tolkien	TFCL
The Hobbit - J. R. R. Tolkien	Hobbit books
The Hobbit (Jackson Movies)	Hobbit movies
The Homecoming of Beorhtnoth Beorhthelm's Son - J. R. R. Tolkien	HBBS
The Hunt for Gollum (2009)	Hunt
The Lay of Aotrou and Itroun - J. R. R. Tolkien	LAI
Leaf by Niggle - J. R. R. Tolkien	Niggle
The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrún - J. R. R. Tolkien	LSG
The Lord of the Rings - J. R. R. Tolkien	LotR books
The Lord of the Rings (Movies)	LotR movies
The Lord of the Rings Online	LotR online
The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power	RoP
Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor (Video Games)	SoM
Mr. Bliss - J. R. R. Tolkien	Bliss
The Notion Club Papers - J. R. R. Tolkien	NCP
Pearl - J. R. R. Tolkien	Pearl
Roverandom - J. R. R. Tolkien	Rover
Sellic Spell - J. R. R. Tolkien	Sellic
The Silmarillion - J. R. R. Tolkien	Silm
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight - J.R.R. Tolkien	SGGK
Sir Orfeo - J. R. R. Tolkien	Orfeo
Smith of Wootton Major - J. R. R. Tolkien	Smith
The Story of Kullervo - J.R.R. Tolkien	Kullervo
Tolkien (2019)	Tolkien 2019
Crossover Fandom	Crossovers*

*The abbreviation for Crossover Fandom is only needed for worldbuilding tags.