Archive of Our Own ^beta

It's almost that time again: International Fanworks Day is coming up fast! Held annually on February 15th, we have a lot planned out and hope you will join us to celebrate!

What is International Fanworks Day?

Founded by the OTW in 2014 and first celebrated in 2015, International Fanworks Day is a day of celebration for all forms of fanworks in their infinite diversity and incredible creativity from around the world. Whether it be fanfiction, podfic, animation, fanvids, podcasts, fanart, or anything else you can think of, we want to take this opportunity to spend time with creators and fans alike.

Fanworks Challenge: share your favourite lesser known fandoms/fanworks!

This year, given that AO3 recently passed 40,000 fandoms, we want to celebrate all things lesser-known, whether it's a microfandom you want new folks to join, a work or fandom that deserves more exposure, or a work in a huge fandom that you think deserves more love - and anything in between! From now until #IFD2021 we would like to invite you to share with us your favourite lesser known works or fandoms on social media using the #IFDChallenge2021 hashtag, and we will reblog some of our favourites on our social media channels from the 8th - 15th February.

We would also love to see fanwork creators seeking out small fandoms, minor characters, lesser-known pairings, and so on, and creating works for them! Between now and February 15th we challenge creators to find a smaller fandom, pairing, character, etc that is new to them and create a fanwork for it, using the tag 'International Fanworks Day 2021' so we can all enjoy them!

Are you interested in social media, community management or outreach? Would you like to wrangle AO3 tags? Can you read and translate from Russian to English? Are you good at administrative tasks or working with people? The Organization for Transformative Works is recruiting!

We're excited to announce the opening of applications for:

• Fanlore Social Media & Outreach staff - closing Wednesday 20 January 2021 at 23:59 UTC
• Tag Wrangling volunteers - closing Wednesday 20 January 2021 at 23:59 UTC or after 85 applications
• Tag Wrangling (Russian) volunteers - closing Wednesday 20 January 2021 at 23:59 UTC or after 40 applications
• Volunteers & Recruiting staff - closing Wednesday 20 January 2021 at 23:59 UTC or after 30 applications

We have included more information on each role below. Open roles and applications will always be available at the volunteering page. If you don't see a role that fits with your skills and interests now, keep an eye on the listings. We plan to put up new applications every few weeks, and we will also publicize new roles as they become available.

All applications generate a confirmation page and an auto-reply to your e-mail address. We encourage you to read the confirmation page and to whitelist our email address in your e-mail client. If you do not receive the auto-reply within 24 hours, please check your spam filters and then contact us.

If you have questions regarding volunteering for the OTW, check out our Volunteering FAQ.

Fanlore Social Media & Outreach staff

Do you have an interest in fandom history, or in fannish culture and the different tropes, ships, communities and viewpoints that make up fandom? Are you interested in social media, community management or outreach? The Fanlore committee is recruiting for Social Media & Outreach volunteers!

Fanlore Social Media & Outreach volunteers are responsible for managing Fanlore’s social media outlets and planning their content, brainstorming ways to reach new editors and promote fandom history, and running Fanlore’s various editing challenges.

No extensive experience required—only reliability, teamwork, good communication skills, and an interest in fandom and Fanlore in particular. Join us!

Applications are due 20 January 2021

Tag Wrangling Volunteer

The Tag Wranglers are responsible for helping to connect and sort the tags on AO3! Wranglers follow internal guidelines to choose the tags that appear in the filters and auto-complete, which link related works together. (This makes it easier to browse and search on the archive, whether that’s Shěn Wēi/Zhào Yúnlán with ABO Dynamics, Pepper Potts/Tony Stark with angst, g-rated Rose Lalonde/Kanaya Maryam fluff, or Jeon Jungkook & Kim Taehyung | V Are Childhood Friends.)

If you’re an experienced AO3 user who likes organizing, working in teams, or excuses to fact-check your favorite fandoms, you might enjoy tag wrangling!

Please note: You must be 18+ in order to apply for this role. For this role, we’re currently looking for wranglers for specific fandoms only, which will change each recruitment round. Please see the application for which fandoms are in need.

While all wranglers need to be fluent in English, we welcome applicants who are also fluent in other languages, especially Afrikaans, Bahasa Indonesia (Indonesian), Chinuk Wawa, Čeština (Czech), Español (Spanish), Filipino (Filipino), Italiano (Italian), Português brasileiro (Brazilian Portuguese), Suomi (Finnish), Tiếng Việt (Vietnamese), Русский (Russian), فارسی (Persian), हिन्दी (Hindi), ไทย (Thai), 中文 (Chinese), 日本語 (Japanese) and 한국어 (Korean).

Applications are due 20 January 2021 or before 85 applications

Tag Wrangling Volunteer - Russian

The Tag Wranglers are responsible for helping to connect and sort the tags on AO3! Wranglers follow internal guidelines to choose the tags that appear in the filters and auto-complete, which link related works together. (This makes it easier to browse and search on the archive, whether that's Roque Alva/Richard Oakdell romance, Pepper Potts/Tony Stark with angst, g-rated Rose Lalonde/Kanaya Maryam fluff, or Jeon Jungkook & Kim Taehyung | V Are Childhood Friends.)

If you're a fluent Russian speaker who likes organizing, working in teams, or excuses to fact-check your favorite fandoms, you might enjoy tag wrangling!

Please note: You must be 18+ in order to apply for this role. We’re currently looking for applicants who are fluent in both English and Russian. The work will involve both regular Tag Wrangling work and translating tags from Russian into English.

Applications are due 20 January 2021 or before 40 applications

Volunteers & Recruiting staff

Volunteers & Recruiting staff guide and manage services, policies, recruitment and volunteer management for the entire organization; compose and maintain organization policy and training documentation; and communicate with other committees and workgroups in the Organization for Transformation Works on matters related to organization tools and staffing needs. Volunteers & Recruiting staff also serve as a neutral party for personnel-related issues.

Applications are due 20 January 2021 or before 30 applications

Apply at the volunteering page!

The works of Frodo Baggins of Bag End are being imported to the Archive of Our Own (AO3).

Background explanation

At the time of the Peter Jackson Lord of the Rings movies, Frodo-Baggins-Of-Bag-End (Febobe) became known in fanfic circles for creating Frodo-centric hurt/comfort fic. So invested was she in the genre that she even set up a Yahoo Group, “Frodo Healers”, in which she not only shared her work, but welcomed that of other writers. Sadly, due to her chronic illness and later, death, many of her works were never completed, but it seems wrong to let what there was simply fade into obscurity. So, to protect them, we will be transferring them to this archive, something that she often spoke of doing herself one day.

Open Doors will be working with Elwen of the Hidden Valley to import Febobe’s works into a searchable collection on the Archive of Our Own. As part of preserving these works in their entirety, all of her fics will be hosted on the OTW's servers and embedded in their own AO3 work pages.

We'd appreciate it if fans could help us preserve the story of Frodo Baggins of Bag End on Fanlore. If you're new to wiki editing, no worries! Check out the new visitor portal, or ask the Fanlore Gardeners for tips.

We're honored to be able to help preserve the works of Frodo Baggins of Bag End, and while we mourn the loss of Febobe, we also realize that we are fortunate that Febobe had a friend who was given permission to collect and preserve her works on the AO3 so that they will not be lost. Thinking about the death of a fandom friend may be difficult, but it can also be an opportunity to consider what will happen to your fanworks and accounts and those of your friends after your deaths. The Archive of Our Own has an option to name a Fannish Next of Kin, someone who would be able to gain access to your accounts in the case of your death or incapacitation. By naming someone who can act on your behalf, you can decide ahead of time how you want your AO3 accounts handled going into the future.

- The Open Doors team and Elwen of the Hidden Valley

春日泽 (SpringFen), a Prince of Tennis fanfiction archive, is being imported to the Archive of Our Own (AO3).

In this post:

• A bit of background explanation
• What this means for creators who have work on 春日泽
• And what to do if you still have questions

Background explanation

The original site of 春日泽 is in danger of closing down, and in order to preserve the works hosted there, the moderators decided to import the archive to the AO3.

Open Doors will be working with the 春日泽 moderators to import 春日泽 into a separate, searchable collection on the Archive of Our Own. As part of preserving the archive in its entirety, all fic and art currently in the 春日泽 archive (versions 1 and 2) will be hosted on the OTW's servers and embedded in their own AO3 work pages. Eventually the links going to the old site will re-direct to the collection on AO3 so the works can continue to be found with their old URLs.

We will begin importing works from 春日泽 to the AO3 after January.

What does this mean for creators who have work(s) on 春日泽?

We will send an import notification to the email address we have for each creator. We'll do our best to check for an existing copy of any works before importing. If we find a copy already on the AO3, we will invite it to the collection instead of importing it. All works archived on behalf of a creator will include their name in the byline or the summary of the work.

All imported works will be set to be viewable only by logged-in AO3 users. Once you claim your works, you can make them publicly-viewable if you choose. After 30 days, all unclaimed imported works will be made visible to all visitors.

Please contact Open Doors with your 春日泽 pseud(s) and email address(es), if:

1. You'd like us to import your works, but you need the notification sent to a different email address than you used on the original archive
2. You already have an AO3 account and have imported your works already yourself.
3. You’d like to import your works yourself (including if you don’t have an AO3 account yet).
4. You would NOT like your works moved to the AO3.
5. You are happy for us to preserve your works on the AO3, but would like us to remove your name.
6. You have any other questions we can help you with.

Please include the name of the archive in the subject heading of your email. If you no longer have access to the email account associated with your 春日泽 account, please contact Open Doors and we'll help you out. (If you've posted the works elsewhere, or have an easy way to verify that they're yours, that's great; if not, we will work with the 春日泽 mods to confirm your claims.)

Please see the Open Doors Website for instructions on

• importing your works to the AO3
• adding your works to the new collection 春日泽 SpringFen

If you still have questions...

If you have further questions, visit the Open Doors FAQ, or contact the Open Doors committee.

We'd also love it if fans could help us preserve the story of 春日泽SpringFen on Fanlore. If you're new to wiki editing, no worries! Check out the new visitor portal, or ask the Fanlore Gardeners for tips.

We're excited to be able to help preserve 春日泽 (SpringFen)!

- The Open Doors team and the 春日泽 Moderators