END OF SIGNUP PERIOD ANNOUNCEMENTS

[hso_mods]

And that's a wrap! All members of four-or-fewer member teams have been moved to Team English; a full list can be found at the bottom of this post. If anyone has been placed on this list in error, please email us immediately.

We are currently compiling a list of palhonchos who have not checked in and members who have been reported absent in check-in; once we have done so, we will reassign palhonchoship where necessary and open up team slots for you to switch, if you would like. That list should go up some time this weekend.

Team changes will be closed for 24 hours (until 11:59 PM June 2nd) while we sort out all these changes and absences.

At this time, we would like to request that members of Teams Cruxtruder and Incipisphere email us individually to check in, as there's been some general confusion about the Alchemiter teams and we'd just like to know who's still present, where you are, and so on! Additionally, members of the remaining Alchemiter teams (Ectobiology, Kernelsprite, Parcel Pyxis) should join their respective team comms (shipping_lab, kernelspritelounge, team_parcelpyxis) immediately and check in with their palhoncho, if they have not done so already.

Teams Condesce♥Handmaid and Dave♥Vriska, congratulations on becoming conifmed! Members of Dave♥Vriska should confer with one another and appoint a palhoncho and vice-palhoncho as soon as possible. Once you have done so, the palhoncho should email us with that information and the address of your team comm.

A revised tagging policy will go up some time this weekend or early next week; we apologize for the delay, but we've all been very swamped lately, and we don't want to put it up until there are enough of us on hand to respond to your concerns in a timely fashion! ♥

And on that note, we've got one last announcement to make. The past couple of weeks have been pretty difficult for all of us on the mod team, as we've all had very busy personal lives in addition to our HSO responsibilities, and I (influx) think that at times, it became too much for us. Unfortunately, this means we're a little behind! We are currently in discussion about how to best restructure the challenge with regards to scoring, rounds, and so forth so that we can run it more efficiently, and we are also in the process of looking for a sixth moderator. We're confident that, after the necessary changes are made, everything will run smoothly and without delay--however, this will take some time. Accordingly, we are pushing the HSO schedule back one week.

What this means:

• The round 1 and collab round prompts will go up as scheduled on June 2nd (tomorrow), but round 1 entries will be due one week later than originally announced, at 11:59 PM on June 23. The voting period will be adjusted accordingly.


• Bonus Round 1 will also be delayed one week. It will go up the evening of June 9.


• We will be publishing an amended schedule at the end of the week! Until then, please assume that all deadlines and events are one week later than stated on the schedule page.

Below is the list of participants still on four-or-less-member teams as of 11:59 PM June 1st.

( HSO PARTICIPANTS ON FOUR-OR-LESS MEMBER TEAMS )

Thank you for bearing with us this long--you've all been great! We're sorry you've had so much of a wait, and even sorrier to extend it, but we hope you're still excited about the challenge, because we definitely are. ♥

FOURTH DRAFT OF TEAM ROSTER

[hso_mods]

Here is the updated list of teams! It is accurate as of July 16, 10am EDT.

If you think there is an error, please email us at homestuck.shipping@gmail.com.

We cannot guarantee that we will be able to read and respond to any comments posted, here or elsewhere.

Team English sign-ups are listed here.

( Read more... )

Check-in Announcements

[hso_mods]

Teams who have yet to either check in, or communicate with us about the check-ins:

aranea♥meenah
bro♥dad (update: palhonchosity awarded to jabberwockyx)
dave♥tavros (update: palhonchosity awarded to joniness)
disciple♥sufferer
feferi♥vriska (update: palhonchosity awarded to thischubbyvato)
terezi♠vriska
dave♥feferi
equius♥gamzee
karkat♥vriska

If you are the Palhoncho of one of these teams, please contact us IMMEDIATELY. Unfortunately, we cannot guarantee that you will be able to retain Palhoncho status.
If you are on these teams but are not the Palhoncho, please consider volunteering for the Palhoncho position. We recommend discussing it amongst your team, but we will be awarding Palhonchosity on a first-come first-served basis.

Late Check-ins

Several palhonchos have emailed us about extenuating circumstances delaying their check-in procedures. That's fine, and the deadline for delayed check-ins is June 8 11:59PM EDT.
For the teams whose have not been in touch: you must have a Palhoncho and Vice-Palhoncho chosen by that same date, June 8 11:59PM EDT. Please have your Palhoncho email homestuck.shipping@gmail.com with a list of any absences by that time.
The deadlines for Alchemiter team check-ins (due to their late formation, among other things) is also June 8 11:59PM EDT.

Alchemiter Teams

If you are on Team Cruxtruder or Team Incipisphere and have not checked in via email, please do so immediately! Additionally, if you are on either of those teams and would like to volunteer for Palhonchoship (or switch to another team), please email us as soon as possible.
If you are on any of the other Alchemiter teams, please make sure to join your comms and check in with your Palhoncho.

Update: Incipisphere now has a palhoncho and a team comm (inshipisphere)! Incipisphere members, please continue to check in via email, but please also join the team comm.

PROMPT: COLLAB ROUND

[hso_mods]

COLLAB ROUND: ABERRATION

a break in the pattern

Hi shippers! Welcome to the very exciting and super special COLLAB ROUND post.
The prompt here is ‘aberration,’ which you can interpret more or less any way you like; like last year, we’re deliberately leaving it pretty vague. If you are unsure whether something counts or not, just ask! (It probably counts.)
To quote from the info post:

The final round is the collaborative round! IDEALLY 'collaborative' means that everyone on the team pitches in in some way, whether by brainstorming or organizing or creating content. Really though, we understand folks are busy! So as long as at least three people pitch in, it counts as valid for this round. Note that there is no longer a media requirement for this round.
This round is also different because only one entry per team gets created! Basically it should be a wonderland extravaganza of teamwork and togetherness.

All elements of this submission must be created/assembled new for this round.
No fan-created content is allowed that has not been made by members of your team specifically in response to the prompt. Mainstream creative content is fine (e.g. popular music, well-known art pieces, the Homestuck soundtrack), but not fanart, fan music, etc. This is largely to ensure that the original content in your entry is clearly identifiable as distinct from the borrowed content.

This challenge will run until 11:59PM EDT August 4. (the link says '11:55' because it only goes in 5-minute increments) If your Palhoncho sends it in after that time according to the gmail timestamp, we cannot guarantee that your submission will be posted in a timely manner.

Suggested Schedule
We will be checking in with Palhonchos at a few different points over the next couple months to make sure you’re all on track.
Generally speaking, you should at least brainstorm a little over the next 2-3 weeks. By the end of June, your team should have some idea of who’s contributing, who’s doing what.
If you don’t know what you’re doing and haven’t really started by early July, you might want to talk to us.

Requirements
This year there are no media requirements! So long as everything’s created/assembled by your team specifically for this round, it’s all good.

Submission Format
We’re still working out the details, but this year we’re probably going to ask palhonchos to post their entries directly to the round comm! Stay tuned for more details.

Questions about this challenge should be emailed to homestuck.shipping@gmail.com; we will attempt to check the comments on this post, but we cannot guarantee that we will be able to see all of them.

Please remember to check the Info Post and FAQ to see if your question is answered there!

PROMPT: ROUND ONE

[hso_mods]

ROUND ONE: GAMBLING

they call you lady luck

Hey shippers!
We are so incredibly excited to announce the first main round prompt and the official start of the HSO!
This year, we’re loosely theming the prompts around patron trolls. We’re also trying to give you a little more creative space with this year’s prompts, so we’ll see how this works out!

For Round One, incorporate gambling--literal or metaphorical--in your submission. It doesn't need to be the central focus, but it should be a major theme.

And as always, if you are unsure whether something counts or not, just ask! You can reach us at homestuck.shipping@gmail.com

All submissions must be created/assembled new for this round by members of your team.
No fan-created content is allowed that has not been made by members of your team specifically in response to the prompt. Mainstream creative content is fine (e.g. popular music, well-known art pieces, the Homestuck soundtrack), but not fanart, fan music, etc. This is largely to ensure that the original content in your entry is clearly identifiable as distinct from the borrowed content.

This challenge will run until 11:59PM EDT June 23. If your Palhoncho sends it in after that time according to the gmail timestamp, your team’s submission will get posted--but we cannot guarantee that it will be posted in a timely manner.

Requirements (as stated in the Info Post)
Fic/meta must be between 800-3000 words.
Combination fic/art entries cannot have more than 4 images.
All other image-based media (including comics) cannot exceed 10 images/panels.
Cosplay must be at least 75% created or assembled new for the challenge.
The penalties for going over 3k words will be as follows:
3000-3050: no penalty (to allow for disparities in wordcount software)
3051-3150: -30 points
3151-3250: -60 points
etc.
PLEASE NOTE that gdocs is notoriously bad at generating an accurate wordcount, so you should probably check your submission at http://www.wordcounter.net/ just to make sure.
Also, this year we are requiring transcriptions of all text on images. These transcriptions count towards the wordcount.

Please remember not to post your HSO creations publicly until voting ends, whether or not they are chosen as part of the team submission. We would like to keep things as anonymous as possible!

Submission Format
We’re still working out the details, but this year we’re probably going to ask palhonchos to post their entries directly to the round comm! Stay tuned for more details.

Questions about this challenge should be emailed to homestuck.shipping@gmail.com; we will attempt to check the comments on this post, but we cannot guarantee that we will be able to see all of them.
Please remember to check the Info Post and FAQ to see if your question is answered there!