Optional Details Are Optional

Synonyms:	ODAO
See also:	dewclaws, AO3 Exchange, Exchange Fandom
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'Optional Details Are Optional or ODAO is a principle of exchange fandom exchange etiquette used to remind oneself and others that the only required components of an exchange fanwork are those laid out by the exchange rules — typically but not always some combination of fandom, medium, relationship/character, and/or freeforms. Optional details such as prompts and like lists are not required in order to fulfil the assignment.

...Most exchanges require you to respect your recip's Do Not Wants (DNWs), but you're usually not required to follow the optional prompts they leave.

There's more than one way to go ODAO, though. There's "you prompted a Sleeping Beauty AU and I wrote a Cinderella AU" and then there's "Hope you like human-animal hybrids with dewclaws and loving descriptions of hunting and the consumption of organ meat."

How far unrequested poly con fic is towards the second is in the eye of the beholder.