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So. sunflower_auction is now complete.

We raised €7503 to support Ukraine. That's just over 10K in Canadian dollars. Many people donated more than their high bid; I'm amazed and grateful for how generous people are. I really appreciate that so many people signed up, placed bids, and promoted the auction.

I'm also really glad that I volunteered to help run this project with dhampyresa. Originally, I was hesitant, because I don't have any experience moderating large multifandom events. The only mod experience I have is running Nordipalooza, which was a niche single fandom prompt fest that never had more than, I dunno, 30 people singing up in its busiest year. Sunflower Auction was very different.

I was initially supposed to have a very background role. Keep an eye on the DW comments, run the tumblr, deal with the occasional email, that sort of thing. But then Dhampyresa got sick, and we ended up having to reverse things. They handled the code, and I stepped into a primary communication role. Would say maybe 90% of the interaction that people had with the mods was actually me. I'm glad that people were patient with my occasionally slow responses.

There are some things that I wish we'd been able to do differently. Dhampyresa and I have almost no time zone/availability overlap, so collaborating was hard. We should've taken that into account ahead of time. (Though of course we couldn't have planned for getting sick.)

And in hindsight, I would've liked to have been more selective with the org list, and done a little more research - I'm sure there are some great organisations that we missed because they weren't included in the source we got our list from. And again, in hindsight I would have liked to include at least one primarily Romania-based org on that list - I know two people who I'm sure would have been happy to make suggestions, but I didn't think of that until way late.

Also - I'd like to extend special thanks to my pal Tik, who helped us check that the instructions in our automatic emails were newbie-friendly. I've participated in so many fan auctions by now that I forgot how obscure some details can be if you haven't done it before. (And also he was very good with the emotional support when I was being absolutely neurotic over tiny details, as per usual.)

Anyway... Overall, I think it went pretty smoothly, even with the unexpected bumps that we encountered! Once again, I'm very happy I helped with this. The war in Ukraine was weighing heavy on my mind and I'm very glad that I was able to do something, even if in the grand scheme of things it's a drop in the bucket.

However, I don't see myself moderating any other big multifandom events in the future. This ended up being quite a time sink! Though a good use of my time, to be sure.

+ Sunflower Auction: Whew, just a couple of days left for bidding at sunflower_auction. (countdown). I'll plug my offers once more just for thoroughness sake. ;) Offering fic for Hetalia/Promare/TMA, 1-3k, etc etc details at the link there.

And while I'm at it, if you're into Hetalia or Locked Tomb, check out my buddy Slashmarks's offers here. Their stuff is really really good, and I highly recommend them. (They're offering other fandoms too, but I'm not familiar with their work for those.)

And a list of all the fandoms total on offer is here.

A nice thing: Every single one of the offers I was considering putting a bid on already has bids on it. That's really encouraging!

+ Hetalia: Was talking with the person running the Den/Nor zine. They've finished looking through my draft; I need to add a few things, but I'm fine with that, because their suggestion was really helpful. Oh man, I am SO pumped about this story, and I can hardly wait to send it off to a beta. :V (But first I need to finish... ahhh).

Also. I offered to help with beta for other people's zine works, and they were happy to have me. <3 <3 <3 Hooray! Turns out that the person who originally was going to handle a lot of that dropped out, so they'll likely need some extra help. <3

It feels nice to be helpful. :D

+ comment_bingo: A bingo challenge where the goal is to comment on fanworks! Fun! What a nice idea. I signed up, because why not. Though, whenever I participate in bingos, I just do a few squares and then forget about it, whoops. Maybe this one'll be easier to actually finish, since I don't have to create anything myself.

+ raremaleslashex is in the nomination stage! I love this exchange, but I'm going to have to sit it out this year. Still, I'm keeping my eye on the requests. And noms. (Somebody nommed Michele Crispino/Katsuki Yuuri for YoI, and I really hope they request it, because I'm super curious as to what they have in mind for that pairing. It's not one I've ever thought of!)

+ sunflower_auction fandom fundraiser for Ukraine: Offer signups are ongoing from now until May 10 2022 23:59 UTC. I'm really excited by how many signups we have so far - it's a good sign! (...Still need to put mine together, whoops.)

sunflower_auction: A fandom charity auction in support of the people of Ukraine!

If you've participated in one of these before, you know how it goes. People sign up to do fic/art/beta reading/whatever; others bid on those offers. All money raised is donated directly to charity.

Signups for offers are open from now to May 10! More info over here.