It's just the phrasing of this part specifically-- it make
If the chromatic character you want fic for is not listed in the options choose 'Any' and say how much you'd like fic focussed on that character in your request
To me this builds on/contributes to a misunderstanding of the way the "Any" selection works. If you request *any* you might get matched to someone who only volunteered to write one particular character out of all the listed characters. They may have been very cautious and specific in choosing to write only that one character. Ticking the "any" ticky box and saying "but I actually want an unlisted character" isn't really effectively different than ticking the "Character X" ticky box and saying "despite the fact that I ticked Character X, I really want Character Y."
I understand that other posts have stressed the part about optional requests being optional, but, just personally, I would have liked to see that reiterated here, specifically, in these instructions, because I don't think it's entirely clear, and just because there's been *so much* honest confusion (and a non-insignificant amount of people trying to game the system, which causes resentment) in past Yuletides about what "Any" means when you're being matched up. It wouldn't have bothered me at all if you'd said something like: If the chromatic character you want fic for is not listed in the options choose 'Any' and say how much you'd like fic about any character, including any unlisted characters, just to let your Yuletide writer know that's an option. Or something like that.
no subject
It's just the phrasing of this part specifically-- it make
If the chromatic character you want fic for is not listed in the options choose 'Any' and say how much you'd like fic focussed on that character in your request
To me this builds on/contributes to a misunderstanding of the way the "Any" selection works. If you request *any* you might get matched to someone who only volunteered to write one particular character out of all the listed characters. They may have been very cautious and specific in choosing to write only that one character. Ticking the "any" ticky box and saying "but I actually want an unlisted character" isn't really effectively different than ticking the "Character X" ticky box and saying "despite the fact that I ticked Character X, I really want Character Y."
I understand that other posts have stressed the part about optional requests being optional, but, just personally, I would have liked to see that reiterated here, specifically, in these instructions, because I don't think it's entirely clear, and just because there's been *so much* honest confusion (and a non-insignificant amount of people trying to game the system, which causes resentment) in past Yuletides about what "Any" means when you're being matched up. It wouldn't have bothered me at all if you'd said something like: If the chromatic character you want fic for is not listed in the options choose 'Any' and say how much you'd like fic about any character, including any unlisted characters, just to let your Yuletide writer know that's an option. Or something like that.