Gift fic: the beta obligation

It's in the very nature of fic exchanges that they require the good faith of the participants to function. They couldn't happen if you couldn't count on people to keep their promises and deadlines and to do their best; so it's essential that all participants try to meet their obligations by giving the whole writing/request filling thing a good faith effort. And a necessary, intrinsic part of that is having the story decently betaed (I say 'decently' because I've seen plenty of stories with glaring errors and even numerous typos with one or more betas named at the top).

There is no obligation to rewrite over and over again, or to bow to the beta's every suggestion if she disagrees about the plot or the ending or the character choices; but there is a definite obligation, for every writer who signs up, to make the gift as presentable as possible - to meet the basic forms with a clean copy, without simple mechanical errors. Turning in a story dotted with proofreading errors - half-rewritten sentences, misplaced punctuation, typos, misplaced modifiers - is rude. It's a slap in the face to the organisers and the recipient. It's like giving someone their present at a secret santa party with a CLEARANCE price sticker on, wadded up in a used McDonald's hamburger wrapper with oil stains on it.