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Tagset being finalized/sign-ups opening soon!

The tagset is in the process of being finalized. Thank you to everyone who has nominated and/or spotted issues so far!

If your nominations haven't been approved/you see errors or duplicates in the tagset, please reach out via the comments on this post (anon is on, screening isn't) or by email at rarefemslashexchangemod@gmail.com.

Sign-ups will open less than a little less than 5 hours (~7:30PM PST/UST-8).

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Creators Are Revealed!

Anon is now off on the collection, and everyone can see who made these fantastic works! At the time of posting we have a total of 141 works in this round’s collection! All of which can be found here.

The collection is now unmoderated and will remain open indefinitely for treats. Soon, we will do a wrap-up post for the community challenge!

As ever, as always, the mods appreciate every single one of you that help make this exchange what it is! Here's to another great year of more Rare Pairs cake! <3

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Nomination Clarifications #2

I'm still approving nominations and right now, we're still on track to open sign-ups on time, but I will let you know if that changes.

If you have nominated under these following fandoms:

Star Wars Legends - All Media Types

Fate/stay night & Related Fandoms

Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types

Or any other "all media" or "& related fandoms" that has not been approved, please reach out and let me know which specific version you prefer.

Our Flag Means Death (TV)
Spanish Jackie/Wives (Our flag means death) - This is a little vague. Could the nominator be more specific?

Over The Limit:

Jeeves - P. G. Wodehouse
f!Reginald Jeeves/f!Bertie Wooster - 606 works

薬屋のひとりごと | Kusuriya no Hitorigoto | The Apothecary Diaries (Anime)
F!Jinshi/Maomao - 406 works

Another post will be made at some point tomorrow with the remaining inquiries.

If you spot any errors/duplicates in the tagset, feel free to comment here or reach out via email at rarefemslashexchangemod@gmail.com. :)

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Nominations are closed!

Nominations are now closed. Thank you to everyone who submitted them! :)

I'm still going through them so please don't worry if your's hasn't been approved just yet. Any questions/clarifications will be made on an upcoming post within the next two days.

The tagset is here. Please let me know if you notice any errors/duplicates/etc.

If you have any questions/comments, you can leave them here (anon is on, screening isn't) or reach out via email at rarefemslashexchangemod@gmail.com.

Sign-ups will open on December 13th.

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Last Day to Nominate!

There is a little over twelve hours left to submit your nominations! Nominations will close on December 10th, 10 PM PST. [Countdown to nominations closing] | [In your timezone]

I'm still going through them and will continue doing so after nominations have been officially closed so don't worry if yours has not been approved yet.

If you are looking to nominate, the guidelines are here.

The tagset is here.

Any questions/comments can be left here (anon is on, screening isn't) or can be sent to rarefemslashexchangemod@gmail.com.

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Nomination Clarifications #1

Nominations are slowly being approved! Please remember to use the canonical tags when possible. Exceptions are crossovers, genderbent ships, original works, or if you are nominating a ship under multiple fandoms.

For those who are looking to nominate, the guidelines are here.

This is a ship exchange so any & relationships will be automatically rejected.

Star Wars - All Media Types
F!Anakin Skywalker/F!Darth Vader
F!Dooku/F!Sifo-Dyas

Outside of a couple of exemptions, all media types will not be accepted. Please either nominate a specific version or it needs to be under Crossovers.

Mysterious Skin - All Media Types
F!Neil McCormick/Other(s)

This is too vague. Please be more specific.

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Kira Nerya (Star Trek: DS9)/Ro Laren (Star Trek: Next Gen)

This is needs to be nominated under the Crossover Fandom.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer (TV)
F!Angelus/Buffy Summers (BTVS)

In this exchange, Angel and Angelus will not be considered separate characters.

Over the Limit:

True Detective (TV 2014)
F!Rustin "Rust" Cohle/F!Martin "Marty" Hart - 310 works (GB ships must be rare in their canonical form to qualify)

Raffles - E. W. Hornung
Bunny Manders/A. J. Raffles - 272 works

Comments can be left on this post (anon is on, screening isn't) or you can reach out via email at rarefemslashexchangemod@gmail.com.

In the meantime, please keep nominating! :)

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Post-Deadline Pinch Hit

Hello everyone!

We have one emergency post-deadline pinch hit. There is no specific deadline, but we want to get a gift to our recip as soon as possible. If anyone can help us out and create a gift for this request, either DM one of the mods on Discord (SassySnowperson or nightingalesighs) or comment down below with your AO3 username. Comments are screened.

( Tooka 1 - Star Wars Original Trilogy, Star Wars Disney Canon )

Thank you so much for taking a look and helping us out!

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2025,
2026

Tag suggestion and claim deadline extended to December 15

Hey everyone! Now that it's mid-November, we wanted to remind—

[A small robot whirs up and extends a stick. At the end of it is a note, slightly smudged with dirt.]

Oh. It's December 6th already? How did that happen?

[The robot shrugs.]

Well, in that case, let's extend the tag suggestion and claim deadline to December 15th so everyone has a bit of notice.

Refresh your memories of the process here. Tag suggestions and tag claims both close December 15th, for real.

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Initial Pinch Hits

We had eight initial pinch hits this year, and all of them were sent out to the pinch hit google group yesterday. Some of them were quickly claimed over there, but we have a few left in need of claiming. See below for general details. More specific information can be found by clicking the links.

This year, we will do a pinch hitter treats sign-up post, so that anyone creating a pinch hit fanwork who is not signed up for the main exchange is able to potentially get a treat made for them - you can check this post for more info.

Before you start your assignment, please make sure to familiarise yourself with the exchanges rules, including fanwork minimums.

( #2: Riverdale (TV 2017), Glee (TV 2009), Person of Interest (TV) )
( CLAIMED! #3: Fate/Zero, Titanic (1997), Game of Thrones (TV), Arthurian Mythology, Wiedźmin | The Witcher (Video Game), Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Hades (Supergiant Games Video Games), 陈情令 | The Untamed (TV) )
( #4: Dead by Daylight (Video Game), Borderlands (Video Games), Pocket Monsters: Black & White | Pokemon Black and White Versions )

( #5: The Elementalists (Visual Novel), Heart of Battle - Fay Ikin, Havenfall is for Lovers (Visual Novel) )

( #6: Forsaken (Roblox), Dandy's World (Roblox), ONE - Cheesy Hfj (Web Series), Battle For Dream Island (Web Series), Video Blogging RPF, Cookie Run (Video Game) )

( #7: Disco Elysium (Video Game), Final Fantasy VIII, The Locked Tomb Series | Gideon the Ninth Series - Tamsyn Muir )

If you're interested in claiming any of these pinch hits, send an e-mail to holly.poly.exchange@gmail.com with your AO3 name or reply to this post. (Comments are screened.)

Collection: https://ao3.org/collections/holly_poly_2025
Tag Set: https://archiveofourown.org/tag_sets/25541
Tumblr: https://holly-poly.tumblr.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/holly_poly_ex
Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/holly-poly.bsky.social
Google Groups - Holly Poly Updates: https://groups.google.com/g/holly-poly-updates
Google Groups - Holly Poly Pinchhits: https://groups.google.com/g/holly-poly-pinchhits

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Pinch Hitter Treats

Pinch hitters are an important part of the exchange, making sure everyone has a fanwork so that we can hopefully go live with the collection on time. Many of those who create a pinch hit for us are not signed up to the main exchange and so pinch hit treats are a way for people to give a little back to those kind souls.

Comments on this post are for pinch hitters to sign up for treats and so that anyone inclined to treat them can see what they'd like to receive as a treat. As with other treats, there are no minimum fanwork lengths but remember that any DNWs (Do Not Wants) must be honoured and general rules for the exchange, such as no AI, still apply.

Who is eligible to sign up to receive pinch hit treats?
- You must create 1 or more pinch hits for the main exchange
- You are not signed up for the main exchange under any username
- You have turned on the AO3 setting to be able to receive gift fanworks
- You must not be banned*

*Those with a temporary one-year ban may still be eligible for pinch hit treats but only if they create at least 2 pinch hits for the main exchange

Please note if you sign up for pinch hit treats but later default on your pinch hit and no longer meet the required minimum amount of pinch hits to qualify for a pinch hit treat we will delete your sign up on this post. We will be carefully monitoring how things go for any signs people might be abusing this part of the exchange.

How to sign up for pinch hit treats:
Post your requests in a comment (or a series of comments replying to yourself in a thread if you prefer to separate them out) including the below information.
- AO3 username
- Fandom
- Relationship(s)
- Medium(s)
- Details (if applicable)
- Do Not Wants (if applicable)
- Link to creator letter (optional)

Similar to a regular main exchange sign-up there should be no more than 10 different fandoms requested by each pinch hitter, each fandom with a maximum of 20 ships. All fandoms, ships and mediums for requests should be ones present in this year's tagset which you can search at this link and they must have the same wording in requests as they have in the tagset to make it easiest for us checking treats fulfil the request.

Any DNWs (Do Not Wants) must be in the signup comments - any DNWs mentioned in the optional linked creator letter will not be checked for or enforced.

Please make sure your requests are the final version you want to post as no comment editing is allowed - signups must remain unchanged so potential gifters and mods have the same information and we can check if the gift fulfills the request and avoids DNWs. Edited signups will be deleted. If you need to edit your comment for typos, please reply to the original comment with the corrections.

If people have any questions about this part of the exchange please email us at holly.poly.exchange@gmail.com or reply on this other post here - comments on this post should be kept to requests only.

Collection: https://ao3.org/collections/holly_poly_2025
Tag Set: https://archiveofourown.org/tag_sets/25541
Tumblr: https://holly-poly.tumblr.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/holly_poly_ex
Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/holly-poly.bsky.social
Google Groups - Holly Poly Updates: https://groups.google.com/g/holly-poly-updates
Google Groups - Holly Poly Pinchhits: https://groups.google.com/g/holly-poly-pinchhits

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Assignments Out

Assignments are out! You should have received your assignment already, if not do let us know. Countdown timer links for both the default deadline and the fanworks due deadline have also been added to our schedule post and the collection profile now, so that you can keep track of when they are in your time zone.

There are seven initial pinch hits that we'll be sending out within the next day. They will be posted first to the Google Group for pinch hits and any not claimed over there will then be posted here/to our other socials. We'll also be putting up the Pinch Hitters Treats post soon as well, so keep a look out for that if you claim a pinch hit or if you might be interested in treating any of our pinch hitters.

If there's any issue with your assignment, or if you have any queries for us to pass onto your recipient, please send us an e-mail at holly.poly.exchange@gmail.com ASAP so that we can try to get it resolved.

Collection: https://ao3.org/collections/holly_poly_2025
Tag Set: https://archiveofourown.org/tag_sets/25541
Tumblr: https://holly-poly.tumblr.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/holly_poly_ex
Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/holly-poly.bsky.social
Google Groups - Holly Poly Updates: https://groups.google.com/g/holly-poly-updates
Google Groups - Holly Poly Pinchhits: https://groups.google.com/g/holly-poly-pinchhits

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Nominations are open!

Nominations are now open! They will be open until December 10th, 10PM PST. [ Countdown to nominations closing ] | [ In your timezone ]

The rules are here, which will have additional information about the exchange.

An AO3 account is required to make nominations. If you need an invitation, please reach out to the mods via email or the comments section of this post. Anon comments are on, but they are not screened.

To qualify for this exchange, a ship needs to be a f/f ship with less than 250 works on AO3, complete, written in English, and filtered using the otp:true filter.

Characters need to be either women (canon or genderbent) or genderqueer characters that you think would fit in a f/f exchange. So someone like LaFontaine from the Carmilla web series, who is canonically against being referred to/seen as a woman, would not be eligible. We're going to trust you to use your judgment on this one.

You can nominate up to 10 fandoms with 10 relationships ("/" only) each. We will not be accepting solo character nominations or relationships using "&".

Please stick to one ship per nomination. Multiple ships within one nomination, whether in the same fandom or crossover, will not be accepted (e.g. Lois Lane/Lana Lang & Chloe Sullivan/Tess Mercer (Smallville))

There's no need to disambiguate they are crossovers or you are nominating multiple versions of a ship in different canons. Outside the above exceptions, please try to use the canonical tag when possible.

Please specify which version of canon you would like rather than nominating under the 'all media' version of the tag, e.g. "Dragon Age (Video Games)" vs "Dragon Age (All Media)". Assassin's Creed and American Girl Dolls are the exceptions to this rule. If you feel your fandom has a case, please reach out.

Crossover Nominations: Please nominate crossovers with "Crossover Fandom" in the "Fandom" section of the nomination form, and both fandom names listed in the ship itself. e.g. "Dinah Lance (DCEU)/Natasha Romanov (MCU)".

Genderbent Ships: Nominate with a 'F' in front of the character(s) you want to genderbend, e.g. Natasha Romanov/F!Sam Wilson. Please remember that the original ship has to has to qualify, not the genderbent version, so Peggy Carter/F!Steve Rogers would not be eligible due to the fact that the fact that Peggy Carter/Steve Rogers is over the limit.

Threesomes/moresomes: Are permitted as long as they are eligible. However, v shaped relationships (e.g. "Maria Hill/Sharon Carter & Sharon Carter/Natasha Romanov") or two unrelated ships nominated together (e.g. "Lana Lang/Chloe Sullivan & Lois Lane/Tess Mercer") will not be accepted.

RPF: RPF is permitted, subject to eligibility as outlined above. Non-famous family members are not eligible. Under-18s are not eligible for modern RPF. Controversial figures will not be accepted either.

Regarding specific fandoms with various umbrella fandoms:

Arrowverse/DCTV: Please nominate under "Arrowverse (TV)". Shows not specifically in the Arrowverse but are part of the DC TV universe (i.e. Smallville, Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman, Titans, Doom Patrol, etc.) should remain with their original tag. Shows such as Arrow and The Flash (2014) belong under "Arrowverse".

MCU: Please nominate under "Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU)", e.g. "Maria Hill/Sharon Carter (MCU)". Marvel TV shows (i.e. Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D, WandaVision, TFATWS, Agent Carter, What If …?, Loki, etc.) need to be labelled with their own individual tag.

Doctor Who/Star Wars/Star Trek/X-Men/Stargate: Please refer to the specific version that you are nominating. For X-Men, please use either "The Original Trilogy" or "ATS" (for "Alternate Timeline Series").

Characters who are in separate subfandoms (e.g. "Jadzia Dax (Star Trek: DS9)/B'Elanna Torres (Star Trek: Voyager)") belong to the "Crossover Fandom" category.

Comics: Please nominate these under their specific category. For DCU, that would be "DCU (Comics)". With Marvel, please specify the version that you are nominating (Noir, 616, etc.), i.e. "Natasha Romanov/Carol Danvers under Marvel 616 rather than Marvel Comics".

DC Extended Universe: Please nominate under the "DC Extended Universe" category.

Original characters in non-original canons: You may nominate Character/Original Character(s), e.g. "Diana (Wonder Woman)/Original Female Character"; "Leia Organa (Star Wars: Original Trilogy)/Original Jedi Character". You can be as specific as you would like. Any original character(s) nominated will be assumed to be female.

Original Works: These must be nominated under "Original Work" in the following format: "Character Type/Character Type", e.g. "Princess/Maid", "Pilot/Soldier/General", etc. All characters will be assumed to be female. If they are not nominated in this way, they will be rejected.

Reader ships will not be accepted in this exchange.

Recursive fandoms are also not eligible for this exchange.

If you have any questions, please comment here or email the mod at rarefemslashexchangemod@gmail.com.

Look! I remembered to post before December started this year!

Hello, friends! It's about to be December again, and you know what that means: the fact I am posting this actually before December 1 means

karzilla reminded me about the existence of linear time again. Wait, no -- well, yes, but also -- okay, look, let me back up and start again: it's almost December, and that means it's time for our annual December holiday points bonus.

The standard explanation: For the entire month of December, all orders made in the Shop of points and paid time, either for you or as a gift for a friend, will have 10% of your completed cart total sent to you in points when you finish the transaction. For instance, if you buy an order of 12 months of paid time for $35 (350 points), you'll get 35 points when the order is complete, to use on a future purchase.

( The fine print and much more behind this cut! )

Thank you, in short, for being the best possible users any social media site could possibly ever hope for. I'm probably in danger of crossing the Sappiness Line if I haven't already, but you all make everything worth it.

On behalf of Mark, Jen, Robby, and our team of awesome volunteers, and to each and every one of you, whether you've been with us on this wild ride since the beginning or just signed up last week, I'm wishing you all a very happy set of end-of-year holidays, whichever ones you celebrate, and hoping for all of you that your 2026 is full of kindness, determination, empathy, and a hell of a lot more luck than we've all had lately. Let's go.