beagoldfish | Welcome & Intro

Welcome to Be a Goldfish: A Multifandom Multimedia Microbang! We're thrilled to have you. This is an event for small and non-traditional fanworks. We want to remind you to appreciate the little things, be kind, be curious, enjoy generously, and above all, "be a goldfish."

The rules of this event are simple, we hope. We have provided a longer, more in depth FAQ here on google docs that details every possible thing we could think of in what very well may be excessive detail. However, we will still give a concise summary here (though do read the FAQ):

This event takes place over two (2) months: 1 January - 28 February 2026, during which you may share as many works as you like. You are welcome to create works in advance or dust off some old drafts. As long as it meets the guidelines, it's open season.

There is a 1,000-word maximum on all text-based works. Be it fic, meta, or something else. Anything between 1 and 1,000 words is fair game.

Don't limit yourself to fic. You can make traditional and digital fanart, gifs, web weaves, amvs, recipes, fiber art, and anything else you can think of. We have some general guidelines, so you can check those out if you're going to be making any art. Generally though, use your best judgement. It should feel equivalent-ish to about 1,000 words, y'know?

There will be a series of weekly prompts, with a few alternates. How much you choose to follow them is completely up to you. There are also punch cards that you can fill out weekly as you engage with or share works. Both of these are completely optional and exist merely to support the goal-oriented among us.

When you share a work for the challenge, fill out the Entry Submission Form. This is for us to keep track of what people are making and so we can share the full list. No fan(work) left behind!

At the end of the event, fill out the Event Summary Form. Here you can request a customized event banner with a numerical summary of all your contributions, fanworks and comments alike. You will also be able to link to any rec lists, masterlists, or AO3 collections you made for the event.

A Feedback Survey will also be available throughout and afterward, should you desire to leave any. It is completely anonymous and we encourage you to speak freely. Let us know what works, what doesn't, or what you would like to see in the future. We're pretty new to this event-hosting thing and would like to make it as smooth and inclusive an experience as possible.

Most importantly, have fun! Try new things, maybe make some new friends, and hopefully see a bunch of cool new works.

We want your works to speak for themselves. While what follows are certainly not hard and fast rules, we ask that your headers be brief but informative and the body of your entry, be it text, images, or otherwise, should all be under a cut. If you've posted your work elsewhere, hyperlink it between the header and the cut text.

How to use cuts (DW FAQ)

What html can I use in my entry? (DW FAQ, includes hyperlinking how-to)

If you don't want to post your work to the comm directly, just post an entry with the header and the link, no cut required.

If you would like to further spice up your entries, check out this excellent html styling primer by

girlrock. We only ask that you keep your entries accessible.

(Suggested) Header Format

You are welcome to edit, add, or delete fields as necessary. Whatever best suits your work. Just make sure you are giving other fans the opportunity to make informed decisions about the work they choose to engage with.

Subject Line

Medium: Title or Brief DescriptionEntry Box

Title:

Ratings & Warnings

Relationship(s):

Character(s):

Details:

Summary:

Tags

We don't have a lot of tags yet, but look through them and determine if any apply to your work. The format is as follows:

m:[medium]
f:[fandom]

If a tag that applies to your work does not exist yet, or if you're not sure if it's tagged as it should be, use !needs tag and we will check it out for you and add any tags we deem necessary.

If you're not used to posting images and gifs to dreamwidth, we know firsthand that it can be pretty finicky. An easy thing we recommend is using Chlor's Icon Table Generator. Use image links from tumblr or whatever third-party image hosting site you like (Imgur, Flickr, etc.) and fiddle around with the settings.

Once you're satisfied, copy the generated html into your entry within the cut. From there you can alter the size and alignment of your images. Check out w3schools for more information. If you would like to see how your gif or image sets could look, check out our gif tag or examples by one of the mods that can be found here.

Before you post your entry, use the preview feature to make sure everything is formatted correctly and there is no broken html (dreamwidth will tell you if there is). Keep in mind that cut texts are always shown expanded in previews. You're always welcome to edit or delete your own entry after you post it.

If you have any questions that pertain to this community or sharing your works here, leave a comment! Feel free to start a dialogue with other fans if they have questions you can answer.

There are no sign-ups or check-ins for this event so you're free to jump in whenever you like. As long as a round is actively running, you're free to share your works.

Feel free to join our community here on DW, follow us on tumblr