If modding involves sending assignments to an individual or tracking them in some way, then every additional participant represents additional work on the part of the mod.
Sure, but I think in some cases when you balance that against the hypothetical additional work that it might save you later, it could actually be a net savings on time/energy. I was thinking of Comica Obscura specifically when I mentioned reminder letters, and harriet_spy and I came up with that idea because we knew it would be an incredibly harrying if not nearly impossible to find timely pinch-hitters for super-obscure indie comics characters, etc. And, I don't know whether it was the reminder letters or some other factor, but we always had a very low drop-out rate compared to most ficathons. (IIRC, the second year we ran it, no one dropped out at all.)
On the other hand, if we're just talking about, say, a Rodney/Teyla ficathon or something, where it's not the most obscure pairing in the entire world and pinch-hitters would be relatively easy to find, then maybe sending out letters isn't actually an efficient use of the mod's time. (Although on LJ/DW I can see other ways of doing it besides mass-email-- posting a poll in the comm and having people check in that way, maybe?)
![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2009-10-26 11:34 pm (UTC)If modding involves sending assignments to an individual or tracking them in some way, then every additional participant represents additional work on the part of the mod.
Sure, but I think in some cases when you balance that against the hypothetical additional work that it might save you later, it could actually be a net savings on time/energy. I was thinking of Comica Obscura specifically when I mentioned reminder letters, and harriet_spy and I came up with that idea because we knew it would be an incredibly harrying if not nearly impossible to find timely pinch-hitters for super-obscure indie comics characters, etc. And, I don't know whether it was the reminder letters or some other factor, but we always had a very low drop-out rate compared to most ficathons. (IIRC, the second year we ran it, no one dropped out at all.)
On the other hand, if we're just talking about, say, a Rodney/Teyla ficathon or something, where it's not the most obscure pairing in the entire world and pinch-hitters would be relatively easy to find, then maybe sending out letters isn't actually an efficient use of the mod's time. (Although on LJ/DW I can see other ways of doing it besides mass-email-- posting a poll in the comm and having people check in that way, maybe?)