All Bingo

This is the rules post for the allbingo community.


How to Play

1) Get a bingo card. You can make your own using the bingo card generator, or borrow one from another bingo fest.

2) Read your card to see which prompts appeal to you. Many folks like to post their cards to their blog so their fans can watch the progress.

3) Make some stuff. You can draw, knit, record, write, or otherwise create whatever you want that relates to the prompts on your card. Keep track of which squares you fill; some folks underline or boldface prompts that have been filled, sponsored, and/or posted. You can post your work in your blog or other venue, but for this community, it's not required because some creators may wish to sell their original work. Do not post whole works directly to this community.

4) Call BINGO! Make a bingo by connecting at least 5 fills in a row, column, or other pattern. cottoncandy_bingo has a post showing bingo and extra patterns. This page has most of the alphabet. You may mix and match fills by source, format, or other parameters; or go for a matched set.

5) Post a bingo. Make a post to the community here.  It should include a summary of your fills with the title of each fill linked to the complete work that you have posted in your own space.  (You don't have to post or repost whole fills to this community.)  If you are using cards from another currently active bingo community rather than a custom card or an old card, please make your summary post to the community that gave you the card and just link to your post here, so they get first viewing of material inspired by their card.  If you are using a card from an allbingo fest (see our calendar), a community not currently open, or a custom card generated outside an event, then post your bingo call here.

6) Reprint your work in the Allbingo collection on AO3.  If you have an account on that fanwork archive, then you can post things to the collection; otherwise you can still browse what other people have shared.  Any item created for a square in creative bingo played on this community, which fits the AO3 posting parameters, is eligible for inclusion in that collection.


Card Management

Most bingo fests allow you to veto individual prompts or even whole categories that may be squicky for you. If that's what you need, you can use their cards. The bingo card generator does not currently offer a veto feature. However, it does let you select one or more premade lists or upload your own prompts. Do you have a lot of sensitive topics you need to avoid? Consider choosing the Gentle Fiction (No Sex, Violence, or Foul Language) category for maximum safety and comfort. One way or another, you should be able to get a card that works for you.

Some bingo fests allow you to post about your fills both in their community and elsewhere for scoring or bingo purposes. Others don't. If you are playing across multiple fests, please check the rules carefully for each because those can vary a lot. Try to avoid making mistakes with the rules that could annoy people.

If you wind up with squicks on your card that make it impossible for you to bingo, then you can change some of them. Take up to three prompts and replace them with something else from the same list(s). You'll have the code for posting the card on your blog, so you can edit that if necessary.

The center space is a wild card. You may create a fill for it using any prompt from the list(s) used to create that card.

Interpret prompts on your card according to your interest and inspiration. Frex, "home" could mean a house, home base, a homing signal, etc. It's okay to take a dark prompt and make it light, a sexy prompt and make it nonsexual, or vice versa. Tropes may be twisted in creative ways; see the post by trope_bingo or the TV Tropes entry. Make something different than the rehash of ideas saturating mainstream entertainment. However, the fill should deal with the prompt in a significant way, not just mention it in passing. The best fills put the prompt at the center of the action.

It is easiest to attract a new audience if each fill can stand on its own at least tolerably well. However, bingo cards are awesome for linking items in a crowdfunding session, a new project, or other activities. So if you want to do a bingo with each fill as a chapter in a longer work, or individual poems in a series, etc. then that's acceptable for this community. If a fill belongs to a larger project, mention that in the posting summary. You can use the Fandom line for naming your own projects, and yes, some of these really do attract a following and even fanworks by folks other than the founder.

Achievements are additional parameters that you can load onto a bingo to make it more challenging. You may aim for fill size, total amount of work done, speed, works of a specific type or theme, etc. This is a great way to increase content about things which are underserved by mainstream entertainment.

Extras are bingo-like patterns that usually combine multiple prompts in a single fill, such as the straight line which puts five prompts into one fill.  You can see some extras illustrated and described in the hc_bingo  post on bingos, extras, and achievements.

You may reuse a square on your card if you create a new fill to go in a different bingo than the first one; for instance, a "love" haiku in a row and then a "love" sonnet in a column. You can't use the same work in two separate bingo calls, i.e. counting the haiku twice.

Start working a new card whenever you want. Preferably you should make a bingo on your current card before getting a new one. Some creators like to have multiple cards active, each in a different theme. Others may want to open a fresh card for a new prompt call or other event. Declaring a card open or closed is up to you.


Other Bingo Parameters

This community is about inspiration, not pressure. Make whatever you like. Browse goodies by other people. Don't harsh on yourself or anyone else; if you don't like something, don't be a dick about it. If you mangle a piece or miss a goal, you can always try again.

Participation is moderated for civility and function. Posting is open and individual works generally will not be examined. If there are complaints about someone causing problems, additional moderation techniques may be applied as necessary.

There are no official requirements regarding size, tone, language, format, rating, or other aspects of content. However, creators are encouraged to summarize their work precisely so that viewers can decide what they want to explore or avoid. It does nobody any good to hit people in the face with something they were not expecting and do not enjoy. Fanworks and original material are equally welcome.

Feel free to organize the workload as you wish. You may play as an individual, doing all your own fills. You may play in collaboration, with everyone participating in each fill; for instance, a writer and artist doing a matched set of story-and-illustration for each square. You may play as a team, dividing a card among several folks; for instance, five people each making a column bingo for a team blackout to create a big heap of material for a chosen project. If you're not a creator but want to help, you may volunteer as a beta reader or other assistant.

You may set goals. Pick a deadline, a wordcount, a number of square inches on canvas, or whatever other objective suits your interest. Want some company or moral support? Make a challenge and invite other folks to participate. You could even offer prizes or other goodies to entice people to create stuff you'd like to see.


Netiquette

Encourage a sense of community online.  Ask open-ended questions; invite people to introduce themselves and talk about their lives or interests.  Share links.  Post about members' news and accomplishments.  Get people talking with each other.  Create traditions.  Mark milestones.  Aim to create a community that develops its own flavor and characteristics, so that it's not just another cyberjoint, but a unique and beloved place full of good friends.

Remember that you are dealing with real live people in this online community, not cyber-ghosts.  Speak the truth gently if possible, firmly if necessary.   Please treat other members with respect, and otherwise conduct yourself as a mature, responsible, civilized person.

Do not "out" someone as belonging to a particular subculture, belief system, etc.  Such information should generally not be shared outside the venue where it originates, unless the person has already made it known in general public.  If in doubt, be discreet.

Try to be sensitive and sensible about politics, class issues, sexism, racism, religion, etc. Those can be touchy issues.  Never talking about them won't solve anything, but they require careful handling in order to do more good than harm.  Understand how to discuss controversial topics responsibly.

Disrespectful, intimidating, or otherwise inappropriate behavior will not be tolerated here.  The moderator(s) may issue up to three warnings, in private or public, and if this does not produce the necessary changes then disruptive members may be removed.

Do not post any spam here.  Persistent spammers will be removed and, if relevant, reported to Internet authorities.

Unless otherwise specified, opinions expressed here are those of the authors and not their organizations.  Please identify official positions as opposed to personal positions, for instance if you're speaking as the moderator of another prompting community.  If quoting another source, please include a citation or link.

Try to remain focused on the topic at hand.  General discussions and socializing should move to private message, e-mail, or another venue dedicated to that purpose.

When commenting about a post, quote only the relevant  sections.  Do not repost the entire message.  When replying to a long segment, break it down to individual points and respond to each in turn.

For sake of clarity, please write normally.  TYPING IN ALL CAPITALS LIKE THIS IS SHOUTING and it is hard to read, so don't do it. typing without capitals or punctuation is also a nuisance please dont do that either

Accept that upsets, misunderstandings, and other unpleasantness will sometimes occur in any venue full of lively people discussing important topics.  If someone does something that makes you uncomfortable, or that violates allbingo  parameters, don't just ignore it; point out the problem and ask them to stop.  A community where multiple people quickly respond to quash flames will have few or no troll problems, compared to a community that leaves such chores to the moderator(s).  If you hurt someone's feelings, it is appropriate to apologize.  If someone apologizes to you, try to accept gracefully.  Most problems can be worked out if people are willing to exert some effort.


Content Control

Please respect other people's privacy and intellectual property.  Don't claim that something is your original work if it isn't.  Don't modify, distribute, or sell things if you don't have those rights. Don't forward any post from this venue to any other, except with the author's permission.  The only exception is for material intended for public release, such as announcements about a fest's session schedule; these should be clearly labeled "NEWS," "PLEASE FORWARD WIDELY," or suchlike.

Fanwork spans both derivative and transformative work.  It includes fanart, fanfic, poetry, filk songs, costuming, and much more.  The Organization for Transformative Works is dedicated to promoting and protecting fanwork for everyone's enjoyment.  This is a good area to explore if you enjoy making stuff based on someone else's canon.

Copyright happens automatically on eligible works, so you don't need to announce it.  If you're doing original work or playing with someone else's material, you should at least be aware of what copyright law says.  Fair use defines some parameters for using other people's work including parody, criticism, and scholarship.  Visit the U.S. Copyright Office (or your own country's if you live elsewhere) for more details.  However, copyright is not your only option for rights management on original work.

Creative Commons offers an excellent and flexible set of options, along with text and graphics for indicating what you allow people to do with the work you create.  If you want to make a shared world or otherwise let people play in your sandbox, CC is a great choice.  Their website will help you search for CC-licensed works or choose a license for your own work.  You can even mark works in the public domain.  Do you like what they do?  Support the Creative Commons with a donation.

If you want to use material from the allbingo parameters to create another community or project, go ahead. A link back to the source here would be appreciated.