What You Can Do in Allbingo

[ysabetwordsmith]

The purpose of the allbingo community is to encourage creativity through random prompts. It gives creative people a place to gather, some inspiration, and an opportunity to share their work with each other. Our rules are pretty simple. Here are some things you can do in this community ...


Introduce Yourself

When you first join a community, it helps to make an introductory post so people can get to know you. Understand how to introduce yourself online. You might want to mention:

* what you like for people to call you, and your preferred pronouns if any
* the kinds of stuff you make
* what you like to read, view, or otherwise enjoy as an audience
* which (if any) other bingo fests you've done
* your blog, website, social network, or other places people can find you online
* a little about yourself in general


Play Bingo

The central purpose of allbingo is, of course, the bingo game itself. Get a card, make some fills in a pattern, and call BINGO! You can do all kinds of cool things with a bingo card.


Post Your Bingo Cards

The bingo card generator by magibrain gives you an image and code for your card. Most moderators in bingo communities will do the same when you request a card from them. This allows you to display your bingo card in your blog, website, or other venue.

allbingo allows participants to get cards from many different sources. Therefore you may post your card to this community if you want other folks to see it. The Creator Bingo cards described in the "Get a Bingo Card" post are especially fun because everyone's prompts will be different depending on the recurrent themes in their work.


Make Friends

Lots of creative people love to hang out together, share their work, and talk about what they're doing. That makes allbingo a great place to meet new people. Know how to make friends online.

Are you looking for something in particular related to your work? Artists seeking authors, authors seeking editors, podcasters seeking scripts -- this community can help them find each other. If you're hoping to make a connection for a particular piece of work, you can mention that in your bingo claim in the notes under the relevant fill.

Can you do stuff related to someone else's work? Watch for hints in other people's posts about what connections they'd like to make. If you're posting about yourself in general, you can list the stuff you do. Collaboration, editing, and illustration are just a few of the things people sometimes seek.


Give and Get Feedback

Part of the fun in a creative community like this is audience interaction. Many creative people enjoy talking about what they make and what other people make. Read some tips on how to boost your audience and how to make constructive comments. There are more detailed tips on how analyzing writing, art, and other things. This is a useful skill that helps hone your own work. Remember to be gentle with everyone's creativity and feelings.


Promote Your Projects

Creative work can stand alone, or it can clump together. A project is any group of related works -- a poetry anthology, a serial adventure, a collection of art on a given theme, etc.  Another type of project is an ongoing or recurring event.  Creators may have multiple projects grouped by protagonist, setting, time period, subject matter, or other parameters. Projects can build up a following of their own, and viewers often watch for new things to enjoy. Promoting projects will help connect creators, audiences, and content.

Use the "Fandom" line in the posting template to identify the canon or original project to which a fill belongs. If the item fits into a fandom collection or series, you can cite that too, such as "Sherlock: 2013 Asexy Valentines Collection." If you have an original project, you may include a few sentences about it above the fill summary: "The following photograph belongs to my Flower Hour series which features ..." Link to your project's landing page if it has one.

Remember that you can link to your claim posts or other activities which appear in any bingo community.  You can also link to bingo-related activities in your blog or other venue, such as a prompt call based on a bingo card.


Make Recommendations

If you see something that might appeal to folks in allbingo, then you can post it here.  Articles about creative bingo or announcements about the session schedule of another community are particularly welcome.

Recommendations can be used as a fill on any bingo card.  There are no specific requirements about number here.  A typical number in other communities is 10 recs per fill.


Announce Events

If you are hosting a fest in another bingo community, you may post here to advertise activities, open/close dates, rule posts, public cards, prompt lists, etc. You may also link to resources in this community if you find them useful for yours. Cross-traffic and signal boosting are heartily encouraged!


Try Crowdfunding

Crowdfunding or cyberfunded creativity is a business model that connects makers directly with audiences online.  Unlike conventional publishers, gallery owners, movie producers, record companies, etc. there is no bottleneck here.  Folks can just make, sell, and sponsor whatever they like.  There is also a crowdfunding community.  Read some crowdfunding resources.

You may crowdfund your bingo card in various ways. When you open a new card, you can give folks a chance to sponsor squares that they want to see you fill. If you already have a crowdfunding project in progress, just use your bingo prompts to inspire content there and fund it however you typically do. If you enjoy doing prompt calls, you can make a bingo card and use that in place of a session theme. When you call bingo, you can mention in the fill summary if the item is available for sponsorship.

Remember that you don't have to post all your fills in order to call bingo here. This is one way that allbingo differs from most bingo fests. You can make original works here, for free or for pay. You're allowed to hold back stuff that hasn't been sponsored yet, or that you want to submit to a conventional market. We do recommend that at least one fill from each bingo be visible to the public, so folks can see what you're doing, but it's not required.

As a patron, you can quietly watch for bingo claims to find new material that you enjoy. Check the fill summaries to see what things are for sale. Watch for creators to mention their other activities, such as prompt calls where you can request or sponsor work. Visit creator websites or profile pages to look for other ways to support them.

What if the stuff you love is fanart, fanfic, something else that shouldn't involve money, or just not for sale? Check the creator's website to see if they make anything else or have a general contribution button somewhere. Often if you like one batch of work, there will be some more that also appeals to you, and it might be available. It's also fine to give money to a creator whose work you enjoy, just because you appreciate them and want them to have a comfortable life.

Crowdfunding in any form serves many functions. It helps to support creative people, making it possible for them to generate more goodies. It can also fill in gaps where mainstream entertainment underserves or misrepresents certain people and topics.


Discuss Relevant Topics

While the majority of activity in allbingo should focus on calling bingo, any subject reasonably connected with creative bingo is legitimate. Have you spotted a new kind of extra, achievement, bingo shape, or bingo grid? Do you wonder how a particular aspect of bingo is supposed to work? Maybe you'd like to compare and contrast two different bingo fests, or explore the role of shipping in fandom fills. Feel free to explore.


Contribute to the Community

Online communities rely on members to make them lively and congenial. If you want to help make allbingo a success, here are some things you could do:

* Post content. Comment on other people's posts. An active community is an effective community.

* Invite some of your friends to join the community. Anybody who likes playing creative bingo would probably enjoy hearing about this. Alternatively, post about the community on your blog or other venue.

* Make things for the community. Bingo fests often have banners, badges, icons, buttons, or other stuff. Some of these promote the community. Others reward people for making a bingo, extra, or achievement. You can offer other kinds of prizes besides general badges and stuff, too. Some fests have had prizes like a customized illustration or story, a pendant, a certificate, etc.

* Volunteer to be a moderator. With several moderators, especially spread around the globe, someone is usually onhand to deal with any problems before they turn serious.


What else would you like to do in this community?
 

Comments

[elizabeth_rice]

I'm participating in rarecharacters and we're in desperate need for pinch-hitters. Is it okay to ask for volunteers here?

Update: #4 and #7 still need pinch hitters.

Yes...

[ysabetwordsmith]

Sure, go ahead. This is a community for inspiration, so that's reasonably connected even if it's not a bingo per se -- and people could always use that as a fill for their bingo card, some fests even have a "rare character" prompt.

Re: Yes...

[elizabeth_rice]

Thanks so much!

[gehayi]

Is it okay to have two cards? I made two, one that's a mixture of race, disability, plot and fairy tale prompts, and one that's strictly for worldbuilding a clockpunk alternate Earth. (China and India are dominant powers in this universe--they have international flight and space travel--and Persia will probably be on an even keel with them in about thirty years. Also, there are settlements on Mars and the people there [a blend of various ethnicities from China and India] call Mars "Prester John's Country." I want to explore what's going on in the East, in the Native American empires, in the Pacific Islands, and on the continent of Africa. [Europe is basically playing catch-up and is not nearly as justified in being proud of itself as it thinks, especially since there's an anti-technological backlash going on there at this point in the story.])

Okay...

[ysabetwordsmith]

>> Is it okay to have two cards? <<

Yes! This is a high-inspiration, low-stress community. Use whatever guidelines help. The only obligatory ones are basic safety (don't act like a dick) and responsibility (don't claim someone else's work as your own) types. If you're playing your own cards, that's about it. If you're playing in a specific fest, here or elsewhere, then it may have additional rules you need to follow to call bingo in that fest -- but it's also fine to borrow cards from other fests to play on your own.

Basically we just want to encourage folks to make stuff!

>> I made two, one that's a mixture of race, disability, plot and fairy tale prompts, and one that's strictly for worldbuilding a clockpunk alternate Earth. <<

That sounds awesome. I love seeing people use bingo cards to boost diversity. They also work great for worldbuilding; I've done that before.

[meatball42.livejournal.com]

Is there a way to participate if I don't have a dreamwidth? Sorry for basic question, most coms I've used in the past have mirrors or AO3, but some of my fills aren't AO3-able

Yes...

[ysabetwordsmith]

Dreamwidth membership is not required. You can read the posts and comment using the non-user options like you just did.

The Bingo Card Generator is not on DW so you can make your own cards there.

You may post fills wherever you wish. AO3 is fine. Some people use LiveJournal, a personal website, or other venues. Then just claim your bingo by posting here as a non-user.

allbingo doesn't require people to post fills though. You can just list what you've written without a link if not all of it has been released online. Some folks are writing original work and/or selling it instead of doing fanfic like most bingo fests use. So we allow claims without posting because otherwise it takes forever. I've had cards almost full without being able to call bingo because they weren't all posted.

I hope this helps.

Re: Yes...

[meatball42.livejournal.com]

The last bit there is very helpful, thank you. However, I'm not really sure how to, as you say, post as a non-user. I'm using the OpenID, which lets me comment, but it says I can't post to the comm without a dreamwidth. Is there some sort of bingo-calling post we non-DW-users comment on?

Re: Yes...

[ysabetwordsmith]

>> The last bit there is very helpful, thank you. <<

Yay!

>>However, I'm not really sure how to, as you say, post as a non-user. I'm using the OpenID, which lets me comment, but it says I can't post to the comm without a dreamwidth.<<

Oh, I forgot about that part. >_<

>> Is there some sort of bingo-calling post we non-DW-users comment on? <<

Yes!

If you are playing the monthly fests here, you can claim your bingo by commenting under the first post (where the fest is announced and the public card given) or the last one (usually at the end of the month there is a wrap-up for the fest).

If you are playing other cards, you can comment under the monthly post that asks what people have done or plan to do. See "!recurring posts" for those.

Re: Yes...

[meatball42.livejournal.com]

That works for me! Thank you :D

[ladyofleithian]

Hey, this is a stupid question, but can we post fills from other bingo cards outside of amnesty? Thanks!

Yes ...

[ysabetwordsmith]

You can post any bingo things here at any time. Outside cards are fine. Any time is fine.

The fests are just here to give people an ever-changing opportunity for inspiration.

Re: Yes ...

[ladyofleithian]

Thanks!