Banned Together Bingo

Banned Together Bingo is a tumblr-based challenge on the theme of censorship. Prompts are based on reasons that books were banned for in the past. Some of the prompts were criticized as racist, and in June 2020, the challenge went on hiatus and the tumblr posts were deleted. On June 23rd, the challenge came back from hiatus, with updated rules and some revised prompts. The collection and event closed for submissions on January 31, 2021 at 11:59 PST. 
Ultimately, 894 items were added to the AO3 Collection for the event spanning a variety of prompts, fandoms, and themes. The AO3 collection in Feb 2021 showed that 304 fandoms were represented in works submitted.
==Rules==
From a cached version of the page:
==Fanworks==
As of April 2022, there were 1007 works accepted to the collection representing 324 fandoms. 
For Ratings: 
*General - 257 works
*Teen and Up - 310 works
*Mature - 146 works 
*Explicit - 277 works
*Not rated - 17 works
The top fandoms (based on examining AO3's sort and filter options) were: 
* Captain America (movies) - 64 works
* Marvel Cinematic Universe - 63 works
* The Magnus Archives - 50 works
* Star Wars - All Media Types - 49 works
* Supernatural - 49 works
* Boku no Hero Academia | My Hero Academia - 41 works
* Original work (40 works) 
* Shadowhunters - 39 works 
* The Avengers Movieverse - 32 works
* How To Train Your Dragon - 30 works
Also, the No Archive Warnings Apply tag was applied to the majority of works (674) in the collection. 
===Example Fanworks===
* by dragongirlG
* wear you like a badge of honor on my clothes by Sour_Idealist
* Bon Appétit (Final Warning) by newtypeshadow
* How To Kidnap Your Boyfriend (And Other Stories Of An Accidental Bounty Hunter) by SatiricalDraperies
==Criticism==
Much criticism has been leveled at the event, largely due to the nature of certain prompts featured in the bingo, and also due to the responses of the event mods.
One point of criticism was the handling of the Do Not Want system when signing up to receive a bingo card for the event. Some people felt that this list should have contained more topics, considering the many potential triggers within the prompt list, such as self-harm and suicide.Banned Together Bingo Tumblr, archived May 6 2020.
The mods' choice to not give any information about themselves was also a point of criticism. In response to discussion of racism and antisemitism, one tumblr user questioned if there were actually mods of different races and Jewish mods who would be able to accurately identify when these themes were present in works, in order to enforce the event's tagging policy.Renaming Prompts Response from rose-in-a-fisted-glove, archived June 23 2020.
There was also criticism of a number prompts that were used. Two of these, "Miscegenation" (a racist term for interracial relationships) and "Pro-Nazi Content", were later renamed to "Interracial Relationship" and "Nazi content." However, this choice was not undisputed. While some fans appreciated the renaming of the former prompt, they also questioned why it was included in the first place, since it seemed that the mod team did have an understanding of the term's harm when they decided to use it.Renaming Prompts Responses from blackestglass and samstevebuckyhq, archived June 8 2020. It was also brought up that the name "Pro-Nazi Content" was not an issue, but rather the mods' response to a previous ask about the prompt where they said that this content would be allowed without subversion.
==Hiatus==
On June 7th, the event mods posted on tumblr saying they were going on hiatus in order to work on better supporting the event and incorporating feedback from participants.BTB 2020 Is Going on Hiatus, archived June 23 2020. At that time, all other posts on the official tumblr were deleted, the prompt list and unsaved bingo cards became unavailable, and the collection on AO3 was closed for posting.
Reactions to the hiatus were varied. Some fans understood the need for hiatus, but were disappointed nonetheless. Some fans speculated that anti-shippers had forced the event to shut down (an assumption later addressed by the mods); others assumed that the event had been censored; still others hoped that the event would return. Some conversations between users, including on Tumblr, aimed to reconstruct or explain the reason for the hiatus while also debating its efficacy or consequences.
Also in response to the hiatus, some participants expressed anger, irritation, disappointment, or sadness that their old prompt card had also been deleted without prior warning, including via the emails they had been sent. This meant that unless a version of the card image had been saved to the computer, some participants lost their prompts and had to wait until the blog came off hiatus. Many of these users complained about the communication surrounding the hiatus. A recovery initiative and effort to recapture the original prompt set and some cards was made by a user, but this effort was later abandoned; other unofficial and unaffiliated AO3 Collections such as Banned Banned Together 2020 and Banned Together Bingo Recovery also opened to collect submissions. 
==Return from Hiatus==
Participants eventually received an email from the mods explaining planned changes to the event, with some participants posting or referencing the email contents on Tumblr. After returning from hiatus, the mods made a post on June 23 2020 addressing the hiatus. A page about Principles: On Censorship also addressed some aspects of the hiatus. 
Some excerpts from the mod response post-hiatus are as follows: 
Following the hiatus, the mod inbox and Tumblr asks remained closed and the mods requested all inquiries only be routed through the event email. 
===Responses to post-hiatus=== 
In general, responses varied. 
* Some previously-signed up participants felt that the spirit of the event had been compromised by the mod's changes to the event and decided to drop out
* Other participants and onlookers expressed gratitude for the changes that the mods had made and felt the mods made the right decision by responding to feedback
* Some fans were excited to see that the event had restarted, as indicated by their tags when reblogging the "BTB2020 is Back" post 
* At least one user remained critical of the event, stating that she believed the event had not done enough to address concerns or issue a real apology
* Some commentary expressed the feeling that the new rules were less successful than the old at fulfilling the spirit of the event
* There was sporadic confusion as to the status of the event, especially in cases where users weren't aware that the blog had come back off hiatus and the collection re-opened
Commentary about the event continued in some cases to speculate on the motives of the mods, whether or not their apology was genuine, whether the modifications to the event counted as self-censorship, and so on. However, the event went on as planned, and users submitting works were asked to add a finished prompt-fill to the AO3 collection along with a corresponding Google form to alert the mods that a work needed to be bookmarked into the collection for moderated review. 
====Examples of Responses====
 
 
==Further Reading==
* , a dreamwidth thread started by muccamukk in 2020
==References==
Category:Bingo
Category:2020 Challenges