DOINK 2013 - Matching Update and 2013 Stats!

[ffexchange_mod]

We're happy to announce that matching has been completed! We're doing one last check, and then we'll release the assignments for everyone to see!

While we're working on that, we've got some quick summary charts from sign-ups this year that might interest you!



Offers



The FFVII Compilation remains our largest resource: 28 of our 41 participants offered FFVII:OGC, our most frequently offered canon, while 22 offered FFVII: Advent Children. Following are FFX and FFXII, and then FFIV and FFVI (hey, smaller fandoms!) then FFVIII, FFIX, and FFX-2, and then... well, you can see the chart for yourselves.

What's interesting to us is that our fandom offers appear to come in tiers. Tier One is the first four very popular fandoms, but then there's a set of fandoms 14-16 people offered, then another set that 5-10 offer, and then a bunch of fandoms less than 5 people offer each round.

This is why matching can be so tricky -- but it's also why this exchange is so much fun for us! Huge fandoms and small fandoms side-by-side; we try our hardest to make sure everybody's represented.

Prompts

Some things about the way we're plotting Prompts here:

• With 41 participants who have 4 prompts each, our total number of prompts is 164 - but when we include crossover prompts and multifandom prompts, the numbers get more complicated. This year, in fact, there were 244 total canon request occurrences. This includes crossover prompts (where two or more canons are requested and required) and multifandom prompts (where a few fandoms from the same universe are included as options where any is acceptable).


• We've combined the FFVII Compilation into one category. This is because almost every single one of our FFVII Compilation prompts is given as a list of canons ("BC, CC, OCG, AC - Any one works!"), and we found that listing each FFVII canon separately completely dominated the chart, because each FFVII prompt was counted 3-5 times instead of once.


• Crossover prompts that were requested as two-fandom crossovers are listed once in each of their fandoms; crossover prompts involving multiple fandoms or many fandoms with Dissidia were counted only once, in the "primary" fandom listed in the prompt.

Again the FFVII Compilation is our largest request - 17% of the prompts were for the Compilation - followed by FFXII, another usually large contributor fandom, at 11%. The remaining fandoms split up the difference. Of particular note to the matching mod this year was the number of FFVI and Dissidia 012 prompts - much higher than previous years. Way to mix it up, fandom!


We hope you enjoy this little peek into DOINK! 2013's matching. Don't go too far from your inbox - prompts should be headed your way soon...

Comments

[thousanth]

I'm fascinated by this - how exactly do you match people to prompts? I did a tiny, tiny exchange compared to this one and ended up summarising the person's prompts on bits of paper, making two copies and matching them up on my dining room table! For an exchange this size how do you do it?

[seventhe]

I have the help of a couple trusty programs I've written in Excel to help sort and match. There's a macro that filters through all of the offers and all of the prompts and gives people who may be difficult to match a little flag for me to see (for example, someone who only offers 2 or 3 fandoms, only offers small fandoms, has only asked for small fandoms, etc), and then there's a gigantic macro that helps me with matching. Basically I input the fandoms for each prompt, mark whether the prompts are M/M, M/F, F/F/F, whatever, mark the media preferences, and hit "go" -- the program filters through everyone and spits me out a list with the "best" matches at the top. I still have to go through by hand and make sure the Preferences match - there are just too many characters, kinks, variables in FF fandom to program that! - but Excel helps me do a lot of the work.

[thousanth]

That's really cool, thanks for explaining! The power of Excel. :D

[samuraiter]

*sage nod*

Well done! Looks like everything's in order. :-) Just in case, though: Pinch hit, standing by!