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I started doing multifandom exchanges on ao3 back in 2018, and in the years I've been participating, there have been many changes - even as the whole mode of fandom keeps many of its core attributes. I've been chatting on bluesky about it and getting frustrated with the character length restrictions so I'm writing this here so I can get the whole thing written out.
When I started, there were a lot fewer multifandom exchanges, at least known to me and the group of fans I hang out with (and I'm pretty sure there were just many fewer). The biggest one then (and still) is Yuletide, which has existed since before ao3 was made (and from what I gather, is part of what ao3 was made for, even if a small part). The exchange functionality built into ao3 is in the "Collections" part of the site, and under that "Challenges" - all the parts of fandom exchanges (see the ao3 exchange article on fanlore.org for details) usually utilize, which was built for Yuletide originally and also for other exchanges that date from that time, a few of which are still extant, such as Purimgifts and Trick or Treat.
The biggest ones after Yuletide, in 2018 and early 2019, were Chocolate Box (hasn't run the past few years, but a replacement Candy Hearts has shown up that runs just like Chocolate Box used to, revealing gifts on Valentines Day) and Trick or Treat. All these had in common their ties to specific holidays: Yuletide to Christmas, Chocolate Box to Valentines Day, Trick or Treat to Halloween. As far as I know (even though I wasn't around, so this is hearsay) things hadn't changed that much from 2011-2018.
The biggest change in that time frame (from the inception of Yuletide on ao3, to early 2019) that I am aware of is the rise of "freeform exchanges." This is a modality where, along with the fandom, the characters and/or ship, the participants request a particular trope. Freeform exchanges began, I think, because participants were very choosy about what sort of erotica they wanted to request - and matching that required this level of granularity that hadn't previously been needed. So I think the biggest two freeform exchanges initially were "Smut Swap" and "Nonconathon" - the latter is still extant, the former has been replaced by a clone (like how candy hearts replaced chocolate box). There is also Multi-Fandom Tropefest which is fairly old, and Fandom 5k likewise - all four of these started before I joined the exchange scene.
In summer 2019 everything started to change. (I'm not sure how much of this is public nor how much the various people involved want their handles attached, so I'm going to be vague and use initials) A specific fan M. set out to test the Collection/Challenge/Exchange ao3 functionality to its limits, creating exchanges with wild and heretofore never tried rules and moderation/admin practices, not to mention writing and requesting chaos. This showed the community the flexibility of what exchanges could do and could be, and nearly immediately, other fans picked up on doing this. I did, and S. did, and F., as well as other accomplices 😄 Because so many new people jumped into running these easy and short term "flash exchanges" (as they became known), the community of people who had some experience moderating and running an exchange grew.
Also for a while, MVP fan K. had been creating a webapp for Yuletide for a few years. At some point in I think 2020, K. expanded this into a more general webapp that could scrape any exchange request set and make the requests far easier to find for what a given participant wanted to create. K. is still updating and supporting this app, running a brief fundraiser yearly that quickly accumulates enough money to fund its bandwidth usage.
Between these two factors, the number of exchanges and the breadth of types of exchanges blew up.
One of the biggest exchanges I now do, with nearly as much work produced as Yuletide (albeit by only a quarter the number of participants) is Fic in a Box. It was inspired by F.'s participation in one of M.'s offbeat flash exchanges, spinning F.'s love of "tedious details" and spreadsheets into a fanwork exchange where not only fic, but also art, and many other modes of fan creation (there are over a hundred options, like softer world comic strips, logic puzzles, and drink recipes) are created and given without any specific holiday or trope in mind, in any fandom that is desired.
There are so many exchanges now that there are literally no gaps in the calendar in which a new one can be placed that doesn't overlap two or three already existing ones. Every particpant has to pick and choose which ones to sign up for and put their effort into creating for. This means that while the particpiation in Yuletide specifically is shrinking, the overall pool of multifandom exchange participants has been growing. New fandoms tend to pull their members in like waves - for example, a recent wave brought a lot of Minecraft Lets Play fans in, who write fic about the youtube minecraft players' roleplays.
When I started, there were a lot fewer multifandom exchanges, at least known to me and the group of fans I hang out with (and I'm pretty sure there were just many fewer). The biggest one then (and still) is Yuletide, which has existed since before ao3 was made (and from what I gather, is part of what ao3 was made for, even if a small part). The exchange functionality built into ao3 is in the "Collections" part of the site, and under that "Challenges" - all the parts of fandom exchanges (see the ao3 exchange article on fanlore.org for details) usually utilize, which was built for Yuletide originally and also for other exchanges that date from that time, a few of which are still extant, such as Purimgifts and Trick or Treat.
The biggest ones after Yuletide, in 2018 and early 2019, were Chocolate Box (hasn't run the past few years, but a replacement Candy Hearts has shown up that runs just like Chocolate Box used to, revealing gifts on Valentines Day) and Trick or Treat. All these had in common their ties to specific holidays: Yuletide to Christmas, Chocolate Box to Valentines Day, Trick or Treat to Halloween. As far as I know (even though I wasn't around, so this is hearsay) things hadn't changed that much from 2011-2018.
The biggest change in that time frame (from the inception of Yuletide on ao3, to early 2019) that I am aware of is the rise of "freeform exchanges." This is a modality where, along with the fandom, the characters and/or ship, the participants request a particular trope. Freeform exchanges began, I think, because participants were very choosy about what sort of erotica they wanted to request - and matching that required this level of granularity that hadn't previously been needed. So I think the biggest two freeform exchanges initially were "Smut Swap" and "Nonconathon" - the latter is still extant, the former has been replaced by a clone (like how candy hearts replaced chocolate box). There is also Multi-Fandom Tropefest which is fairly old, and Fandom 5k likewise - all four of these started before I joined the exchange scene.
In summer 2019 everything started to change. (I'm not sure how much of this is public nor how much the various people involved want their handles attached, so I'm going to be vague and use initials) A specific fan M. set out to test the Collection/Challenge/Exchange ao3 functionality to its limits, creating exchanges with wild and heretofore never tried rules and moderation/admin practices, not to mention writing and requesting chaos. This showed the community the flexibility of what exchanges could do and could be, and nearly immediately, other fans picked up on doing this. I did, and S. did, and F., as well as other accomplices 😄 Because so many new people jumped into running these easy and short term "flash exchanges" (as they became known), the community of people who had some experience moderating and running an exchange grew.
Also for a while, MVP fan K. had been creating a webapp for Yuletide for a few years. At some point in I think 2020, K. expanded this into a more general webapp that could scrape any exchange request set and make the requests far easier to find for what a given participant wanted to create. K. is still updating and supporting this app, running a brief fundraiser yearly that quickly accumulates enough money to fund its bandwidth usage.
Between these two factors, the number of exchanges and the breadth of types of exchanges blew up.
One of the biggest exchanges I now do, with nearly as much work produced as Yuletide (albeit by only a quarter the number of participants) is Fic in a Box. It was inspired by F.'s participation in one of M.'s offbeat flash exchanges, spinning F.'s love of "tedious details" and spreadsheets into a fanwork exchange where not only fic, but also art, and many other modes of fan creation (there are over a hundred options, like softer world comic strips, logic puzzles, and drink recipes) are created and given without any specific holiday or trope in mind, in any fandom that is desired.
There are so many exchanges now that there are literally no gaps in the calendar in which a new one can be placed that doesn't overlap two or three already existing ones. Every particpant has to pick and choose which ones to sign up for and put their effort into creating for. This means that while the particpiation in Yuletide specifically is shrinking, the overall pool of multifandom exchange participants has been growing. New fandoms tend to pull their members in like waves - for example, a recent wave brought a lot of Minecraft Lets Play fans in, who write fic about the youtube minecraft players' roleplays.
