It occurs to me that one of the major problems here is a lack of time to spare, especially when we each have other projects to attend to. In which case, I think one solution would be to share the load by setting up a multi-user collaboration.

If that sounds like a good idea, then in order to set up a proposal for the remaining time of the year, here's what I've determined we'll need:

• A character tag or tags which balance(s) the purpose of the group with whether or not it's feasible
• A prompt, possibly adventure-based, designed to allow both narrative focus and creative flexibility
• A reasonable list of users willing to contribute. I'd estimate no fewer than eight, giving each one a few days (say, three) to write and plenty of time before the end of the year
• A reasonable word count, no more than 4,000 words per author but at least 1,000; this shouldn't require a large investment of time for each individual author
• A deadline, though obviously since the group's official deadline is the end of the year, that's the latest we can agree to

If you'd like an example of a previous collaboration to compare and consider, then there was one involving Sunset Shimmer a few months back. You can find the link here: https://www.fimfiction.net/group/199035/sunset-shimmer/thread/292509/sunlight-sliders-the-official-collab-project-thread. This is the sort of project I'm contemplating.

Clearly, this isn't something that can proceed willy-nilly. I need some idea of how many users would be interested and some suggestions, reasonable conditions, and agreed-upon criteria for the collaboration. This post is mainly to generate or gauge people's interest in the project. Nothing official yet.

Penny for your thoughts? Any such suggestions and advice would be most welcome.

See one possibility below. Please note that this is just an illustrative example, not an official proposal:

• Tags: Vapor Trail. Sky Stinger. Commander Hurricane. Private Pansy. Wind Rider.
• Prompt: Sky Stinger and Vapor Trail have finally become reserves for the Wonderbolts squad, though not without some anxiety and embarrassment. However, on the night of their inauguration, disgraced ex-Wonderbolt Wind Rider is spotted active just outside of HQ. Wonderbolts mysteriously vanish soon after. Presuming this to be the work of Wind Rider, both new recruits are sent to find the missing ponies and track down the perpetrator, and soon learn that these modern events have a surprising parallel to events dating back to the founding of Equestria.
• User Count and Time Limit: Ten users, three days apiece from Dec 1st to Dec 30th.
• Word Count: 2,000-3,000 words each, roughly one scene per user.
• Deadline: Each user has until midnight at the end of their third day. The project ends on Dec 30th.

If it helps to give you an idea of what tags we can use, the list of non-graduated tags is below. That should provide a decently sized selection pool from which to proceed.

1. Mane-iac (90 stories)
2. Sunburst (90 stories)
3. Little Strongheart (84 stories)
4. Cranky Doodle Donkey (77 stories)
5. Hoity Toity (75 stories)
6. Suri Polomare (74 stories)
7. Spike (EQG) (72 stories)
8. Sapphire Shores (70 stories)
9. Sour Sweet (67 stories)
10. Filthy Rich (64 stories)
11. Lemon Zest (62 stories)
12. Zebra (62 stories)
13. Cherry Jubilee (60 stories)
14. Ms. Harshwhinny (60 stories)
15. Breezies (54 stories)
16. Marble Pie (53 stories)
17. Trenderhoof (53 stories)
18. Midnight Sparkle (52 stories)
19. Dean Cadence (51 stories)
20. Principal Cinch (50 stories)

21. Clover the Clever (46 stories)
22. Sugarcoat (46 stories)
23. Coloratura (44 stories)
24. Limestone Pie (43 stories)
25. Timberwolves (43 stories)
26. Spoiled Rich (42 stories)
27. Indigo Zap (39 stories)
28. Treehugger (37 stories)
29. Sunny Flare (36 stories)
30. Timber Spruce (35 stories)
31. Tantabus (33 stories)
32. Matilda (32 stories)
33. Commander Hurricane (31 stories)
34. Sunset Shimmer (Demon) (31 stories)
35. Double Diamond (30 stories)
36. Garble (30 stories)
37. Princess Platinum (30 stories)
38. Gabby (29 stories)
39. Zephyr Breeze (29 stories)
40. Gloriosa Daisy (28 stories)
41. Sugar Belle (27 stories)
42. Quibble Pants (24 stories)
43. Seabreeze (24 stories)
44. Blossomforth (23 stories)
45. Party Favor (23 stories)
46. Radiant Hope (23 stories)
47. Vapor Trail (22 stories)
48. Night Glider (19 stories)
49. Sassy Saddles (19 stories)
50. Nightmare Rarity (18 stories)
51. Sky Stinger (18 stories)
52. Twinkleshine (18 stories)
53. Minotaur (17 stories)
54. Flitter (15 stories)
55. Smart Cookie (15 stories)
56. Cloudchaser (14 stories)
57. Pony Joe (14 stories)
58. Yaks (14 stories)
59. Moonlight Raven (13 stories)
60. Tender Taps (13 stories)
61. Lily (12 stories)
62. Troubleshoes (12 stories)
63. Princess Amore (11 stories)
64. Ruby Pinch (11 stories)
65. Sandalwood (10 stories)
66. Svengallop (10 stories)
67. Zipporwhill (10 stories)

68. Chancellor Puddinghead (9 stories)
69. Pets (9 stories)
70. Private Pansy (9 stories)
71. Saffron Masala (7 stories)
72. Wind Rider (7 stories)
73. Sunshine Smiles (6 stories)
74. The Smooze (6 stories)
75. Micro Chips (5 stories)
76. Tiberius (5 stories)
77. Daisy (4 stories)
78. Parcel Post (4 stories)
79. Plaid Stripes (4 stories)
80. White Lightning (4 stories)
81. Coriander Cumin (3 stories)
82. Steven Magnet (3 stories)
83. Mr. Stripes (1 story)

6205938
I've been meaning to reply to this all day.

So, first, I can't really get into anything new until the New Year, myself, and you'll probably find that interest is down around the holidays anyway. Between finals for the college kids and holiday shopping and parties and activities, it's a busy time of year for a lot of people.

But I have done two of these in the past with the AppleDash group, so I have some insider things to keep in mind:

First, it's a lot of work for whoever's running it. People will drop out, or be late, or misunderstand what they're supposed to be doing, so whoever's in charge needs to be ready to be on top of things.

Second... you sort of mentioned this, but there's a lot of groundwork that would need to be done. In shipping groups having a pairing to focus on suggests directions right off the bat, and often even helps keep characterization even (I've usually found that most people who ship AppleDash have a similar view of Dash that's different from people who ship, say, FlutterDash.) A lot of these characters are on the totally other end of the spectrum: they don't even have a solid canon personality, so authors are going to be going every which way. In your example, the way I view any of those characters might be totally different from how you view them, and that would make it a lot harder to tell a story.

So.

I'm not sure this type of collab is the way to go for this group.

But one thing to consider would be another type of collab that came out of the shipping groups: The minific collection. On the shipping groups it usually takes the form of a prompt tag game on the forum: it starts with a one word prompt, then the next person writes a minific about that prompt and leaves a different one word prompt, etc. None of the minifics need to be related or have any continuity. Then someone collects those and publishes them.

Here, for tagging purposes, you could do something like that for a selected character combo. So, for example, have the "Limestone and Marble Pie prompt tag" or the "Founders of Equestria prompt tag." Then it wouldn't matter if people wrote them in entirely different ways since the minifics would be stand alone, people could jump in when they had a spare evening or few hours without feeling pressured, and no one organizing it would need to be running around pressuring people. And since most minifics end up being between 200 and 1000 words, it doesn't take many of them to have enough to publish.

If you don't like the idea, that's fine. I just wanted to toss out an alternative.

6206986

using a prompt which can either be interpreted by writers using different characters, 

I considered that style, but if the point is to add stories to the characters' tags we're limited to the number of tags we can put on the story.

Now, one way that could work would be to pick a "generic" tag-- "zebra," "yaks,""timberwolves," "breezies," etc. and have everyone write about an original character that would fall under that tag... So the story would only need the "breezies" tag (and maybe Seabreeze) but each individual story in the collection would be about different breezies.

(Eta: Actually, a breezies collab sounds adorable for spring. If Impossible Numbers isn't interested now I'm making a note to self.)

6207112
For character tags, I would suggest (and everyone should fell free to ignore it) taking suggestions of combinations of two to five characters and then voting on them (though I don't think anyone would complain if Impossible Numbers was just like "this is what we're doing!") For attracting people and attention, I think sticking to characters who have something to do with one another in canon would be best, but if we put it to vote then people could see what sparks their interest.

For genre tags usually you stick "random" on things like this.

6206795
6206986

Given my lack of experience, I am more than happy to get an insight into more feasible alternatives. Ones that require less policing and more freedom for people to participate, even more so.

The only major criticism I can think of is that, unless each entry is 1,000 words long, a miscellaneous collection of one-offs wouldn't meet the main purpose of this group, which is to increase the representation of these tags on the site at large. Unless we deliberately shrink the pool of tags we can choose from, publishing such a mix-and-match anthology would inevitably raise questions about which tags get the special treatment. There are ways around it - for instance, instead of one big anthology, we could cut it up into five fics apiece of one tag each and publish multiple such anthologies in a series - but they strike me as a tad inelegant.

By contrast, the "shrunk pool" version or the original collaboration would narrow the focus to a handful of tags, which could then be published with those chosen few tags present. That does still smack into the problem of narrowly focusing on a few chosen tags, to which the only solution seems to be to have more than one minific/collaboration thread on the go at any one time. It's not impossible, but each extra thread is one more potential set of complications to deal with.

Moreover, if the stipulation is that each entry is 1,000 words minimum, then we might as well cut out the middleman and let people publish them directly, thus negating the whole point of the minific. That is, unless the prompts are the only or main way to inspire them to write the fics in the first place, but that remains to be settled.

6207096

I don't rule out the possibility of some version of this group continuing to next year - either by rewriting the group's aims with Masterweaver's permission, or by creating a separate group for that explicit purpose - so I've got my eye on that idea.

For the sake of the breezies, I may have to steal it.

6207112
6207119

Depends on whether we're setting a prompt theme (e.g. "winter festival" or "belief in magic") or a prompt tag (e.g. "Hearth's Warming characters" or "Steven Magnet"), and on whether or not each participant can or can't set a prompt for the next comer. Various combinations come to mind - for instance, set an overall "winter" theme but have each participant set which character tag must be used by the next comer - but I haven't figured out which would be ideal for balancing thematic/artistic discipline and creativity.

You two've certainly opened up a rich seam for me to look into, I'll say that much. This sounds a lot more feasible and promising.