#reader bingo

a guest post by CarCrash.

Each year, as the weather starts warming up, I get hit with nostalgia for childhood summers and those long, hot, lazy days spent doing almost nothing besides reading as much as I wanted. Some of the books I read were for school assignments or chosen randomly from the bookcase at home, but most were picked up at my local library, which was close enough to walk to if I had nothing else to do (which I usually didn’t).

The library ran a summer challenge every year for any kid whowanted to participate: for each book read, you got another stamp on your game card, collecting small prizes along the way and a larger one at the end. It was fun and motivating and it was a nice way to keep track of what I was reading.

A lot of libraries still offer summer reading challenges, for kids and adults, and I thought it would be fun to make one of our own in the form of a bingo card! The squares are meant to be as accommodating as possible of different reading preferences while still encouraging you to get out of your comfort zone and read something new.

Have fun and happy reading!

you can also join this bingo as a challenge on Storygraph!

list in text behind the read more

reader mutuals!!!

We have one more surprise for 2024! Our brand new Reader Bingo for the Darcy Lewis fandom!

Darcy Lewis Bingo HQ 2024 Reader Bingo Guidelines

The Card!—Every reader begins this round with the same Darcy Lewis Bingo HQ (DLBHQ) reader card—no exceptions, no changes, no swaps, no customization of any kind for reader bingo. You customize your experience by choosing what to read to complete each fill.

Squares & Fills—There is only one prompt per square on our Reader Bingo Card. To complete a square, a fill is considered maximum interaction, which means reading the work, and leaving kudos, and making a comment that is a positive or uplifting contribution to the creator.

Constructive criticism, no matter how well intended, is not considered an uplifting contribution after a fanwork is already posted publicly and won’t count towards a square fill, so don’t do it in the name of Darcy Reader Bingo. If the Darcy Bingo HQ mod team discovers anyone is leaving unrequested or unprompted constructive criticism in lieu of uplifting comments in the name of Darcy Bingo or for participation in Darcy Reader Bingo, that person risks being restricted from access to all future rounds of Darcy Bingo, blocked by Darcy Lewis Bingo HQ on tumblr, and being banned from the Darcy Lewis Bingo HQ Discord server. The time to edit someone else’s work after it’s posted is never. Don’t do it.

If you’re completing a square that’s for a fannish work other than a fanfic, be sure to check your Reader Bingo Key to double-check which actions you need to complete for maximum reader interaction to complete the fill for that type of fanwork.

What’s the Point?—The goal for this bingo is maximum reader/audience interaction, so it won’t be enough just to read fics for bingo credit and tell us which fics you read on your final masterpost.

Maximum Effort—You’ll need to put in maximum effort for every completed square and fan creation, such as reading, leaving kudos, and a positive, encouraging, or uplifting text comment. And since bingo card squares are so small, we’ve abbreviated the most commonly repeated parts of the instructions for prompts and we’re including a key to help clarify what each of the abbreviations on your card mean.

Reader Bingo Key—

AO3 = Archive of Our Own

challenge fic = anything written for events like Soultember, Promptober, Holiday Advent, Darcy Bingo, etc.

FFn = FanFiction.net

fic = any text longer than 100 words posted to a fanfiction platform

l/c/reb = like, comment, & reblog (Remember to tell the artist if it’s your favorite!)

l/k/c = listen, kudos, & comment

r/c/reb = read, comment, & reblog

r/k/c = read, kudos, & comment

rer/k/c/rec = reread, kudos, comment, & recommend (Remember to tell the writer if it’s your favorite!)

w/k/c = watch, kudos, & comment

Recs—Wherever a prompt requires interaction with others beyond kudos and comments, such as recommendations, the recommendation needs to be public and linkable, so sites like tumblr, Threads, X, and the Archive are preferred. Wherever you have a fannish blog is allowed, however, if you can link back to it. If you rec the work somewhere and can’t link to your rec, you’ll need to figure out how to prove completion of the prompt square. Links are easy to copy, easy to save, easy to share. Highly recommend. 👌🏼

On our Discord, you’ll find a brand new channel for Reader Bingo Fills. If you have a rec to share, feel free to post it there or share it on your tumblr or other fandom space if you haven’t chosen to join us in Discord.

Deadlines & Masterposts

Deadlines—We have no deadlines, really. Just a form to fill out when you’re done with the current card and completed all the badges you’re interested in. Set your own goals and fill out the bingo award badge request form whenever you’re ready. (If you just need to know how long you have before the next reader bingo to work on this one, probably June 2025, if Reader Bingo is a success and we bring it back next year.)

Masterposts—Masterposts are due whenever you’re done with this card and have achieved the goals you’ve set for yourself, whether that’s a bingo or a total blackout. We recommend posting your masterpost to tumblr, Threads, X, Dreamwidth—or wherever your fandom blog home is—before the next reader bingo round.

Your masterpost should include a link to the fics you’ve read to complete each square and a recommendation to those who read your masterpost to convince them why they should read each work, too. 😄

The Darcy Lewis Bingo HQ mod team will also need to be able to read your masterpost wherever you post it, so plan accordingly if you don’t yet have a tumblr account so you can link back to your masterpost to share it for bingo credit.

On Discord, you can share your masterpost in our Master-posts Channel whenever it’s complete.

Reader Bingo Award Badges

2024 Reader Bingo, Truly, a Classic Achievement—fill 5 squares in a row, column, or diagonally on your DLBHQ reader edition bingo card.

2024 Reader Bingo Blackout Badge—complete all 25 fills on your DLBHQ reader edition bingo card and blackout all 25 squares.

Darcy Lewis Bingo Reader Edition Card Badge Claim Form—Claim your bingo badges here.

As promised I made a bingo sheet for those of you who want to keep track of your participation. Some bingos are easier than others, and a blackout will depend on how many people participate. I'm being quite greedy, but I hope the event is popular!

It's a 4x4 grid with no free square.

Row 1 (top row) : Commented on 1 AO3 fic / Left 10 kudos or likes / Sent of reblogged a meta ask / Commented on tumblr fics/arts

Row 2 : Reblogged 2 fanfics / Reblogged 5 fanarts / Commented on 3 AO3 fics / Kudoed or liked everything!

Row 3 : Left 5 kudos or likes / Created a fic rec list / Reblogged edits, gifs, or animations / Reblogged meta posts

Row 4 (bottom row) : Reblogged 1 fanart / Commented on 5 AO3 fics / Reblogged 3 fanarts / Reblogged 5 fanfics

Normal bingo rules apply. If you have a line, horizontal, vertical or diagonal, it's a bingo. If you have the entire card, it's a blackout, and you're a genuine event MVP!!!

Please feel free to use the file and stamp it and share it as you go.

Next month my book club wanted to do Novella November, like make a bingo card where we all try to get a bingo by reading multiple books and novellas.

And my friend goes: “I was thinking about making one of them a fanfic one shot just for you Maddy” and I was like, okay but what if I just read fanfiction during November instead of books

Boop!

okay so this is kind of embarrassing. I've read soooo many fics. But I got my card for the readers bingo and I have read four of them. I actually read Personality before Punctuality today before @jilytoberfest reminded me that I had to post this, so that got me to four instead of three.

I really thought I was gonna do better here, but it's not like I could have read these after getting my card either because a good half of them are well over 100k words lol

Double bingo!

Tagging

@wolfloner-official @rabentochter if you do this kind of thing? If not then it's okaaaayyy 🙈👄

We created a bingo sheet that promotes small authors for readers to use. Only one variation of it has been created since it was difficult to think of prompt goals, and I think everyone's reading tastes will provide enough of a variety factor anyways. Have fun if you use it! 

Rules:

Please use this for small authors only!

The point of this bingo is to read while promoting small authors, thus each goal can only count for one (1) different fic. In other words, please do not combine prompts!

The “Read all UT fics by a small author(≥5)” can only be fulfilled if the small author you are reading has at least 5 UT fics.

Screen reader friendly version under the cut.