Archive of Our Own ^beta

In our latest series of deploys, we made several improvements to searching and filtering, cleaned up a whole bunch of broken links, and made some finicky, but necessary changes under the hood to upgrade Ruby to the latest version.

An extra special thank you to our first-time contributor dlhardin!

Credits

• Coders: Ariana, dlhardin, Elz, Enigel, james_, lethnie, Matt Sears (Littlelines), MaxwellsDaemon, redsummernight, Sarken, Tal Hayon, ticking instant
• Code reviewers: Ariana, Elz, Enigel, james_, redsummernight, Sarken, ticking instant
• Testers: Alison Watson, Ariana, Briar, briar_pipe, Claire P. Baker, cosette, GoldenFalls, Izzy, james_, Katherine, Matty, Memé, mumble, Naomi, Rebecca Sentance, redsummernight, Relle, Sammie Louise, Sarken, Taylor Clossin

Details

Searching & Filtering

• [AO3-5492] - Searches using tags with numbers in them (e.g. "Episode S01E03") would completely ignore the numbers (and return all works with Episode tags, for example). It now respects your choices.
• [AO3-5707] - When we renamed the class for Archive warnings (more details about that in the Infrastructure section), we realised this could break searches made with the old code (such as bookmarked searches, or searches in your browser history) by allowing them to include unwanted results. We ensured that those searches will keep working as intended.
• [AO3-5649] - Sorting works by creator names would sometimes lead to confusing results for co-created works, since a work "by Alec, Ellie" could show up under E. It now follows the actual alphabet and sorts by the first creator listed.
• [AO3-5652] - You can now search for works by the title of the series a work is part of. \o/
• [AO3-5703] - Works and bookmarks are now searchable by their language codes, i.e. two- or three-letter abbreviations that are easier to look up than the IDs our database assigns to each language. You can read more about this in our hidden search operators cheatsheet.

Broken linkage

• [AO3-5583] - When accessing the comment section on a work or news post via a direct link, the pagination links would jump you to the top of the page, away from the comments. We've now made sure the anchor stays firmly in place.
• [AO3-5179] - We used to have an older page with information about orphaning, to be read before orphaning a work. We now point to the Orphaning FAQ instead, which is more neatly maintained.
• [AO3-5688] - However, when deleting an account, the "What do you want to do with your works?" page did not link to any information on orphaning, leaving users to wonder what that option would do. Now it links to the Orphaning FAQ as well.
• [AO3-5076] - The Terms of Service FAQ was using old URLs to link to specific Archive FAQ items, leading to errors. Those links have now been fixed.
• [AO3-5077] - Also in the Terms of Service FAQ, some links to subsections of the Terms of Service were broken. We fixed those, too.

Misc. Fixes

• [AO3-5673] - The fandom, user, and work counts on the Archive homepage used to be hard to parse, so we added commas as thousands separators. Much neater now!
• [AO3-5730] - On the posting form, the labels for chapter number and title weren't properly associated with the respective form fields. Now clicking on those labels will select the field so you can enter the information.
• [AO3-5733] - The assignments page used to show an extraneous email link when a user had multiple assignments in the same exchange. We have fixed that.
• [AO3-5024] - Trying to log in as an admin with incorrect information would just quietly fail, leaving the admin puzzled why nothing was happening. It now displays a helpful error message.

Infrastructure

• [AO3-5613] - Previously, our code used a class named Warning for Archive warning tags. Newer versions of Ruby, however, wanted that class name for themselves, so we had to rename ours to ArchiveWarning before we could upgrade the version of Ruby we're using. (We used warning tags in more places than we ever imagined...)
• [AO3-5756] - We updated the Devise gem to version 4.7.1.
• [AO3-5655] - One of our test files ended up in the wrong folder where it was never run. We moved it to the right place.
• [AO3-5750] - We updated a library used by the testing suite -- the gem formerly known as factory_girl is now factory_bot.
• [AO3-5391] - We removed unused code related to tags.
• [AO3-5784] - We've upgraded the version of Ruby that the Archive runs on to 2.6.5 (the latest stable version at the time of coding).

Yahoo! has announced that Yahoo Groups will be permanently closing, and deleting all previously posted material on December 14, 2019. Some of you may be wondering what you can do to preserve fannish content posted to Yahoo Groups before it is deleted, and what the Organization for Transformative Works can do to help.

What can Open Doors do?

The Open Doors project is dedicated to offering shelter to at-risk fannish content. At this time the Organization for Transformative Works has no way of serving as a replacement to active Yahoo Groups that would like to continue to function as groups or mailing lists. However, we are prepared to work with moderators to preserve fanworks from their groups on the Archive of Our Own and provide tools so Yahoo Groups mods and users can archive messages and other content.

We have two processes in place -- one to move fanworks from Yahoo Groups onto the Archive Of Our Own, and one to download and preserve messages and other content from Yahoo Groups in file systems so moderators and Yahoo Groups users have more than nine weeks to figure out how to preserve and possibly share that content.

Open Doors can only import fanworks archived in Yahoo Groups onto the Archive of Our Own with the consent of the moderator(s). If you are a moderator and would like to import fanworks from your Yahoo Group(s) to AO3, you are welcome to contact Open Doors via our contact form.

While fanworks posted to public Yahoo Groups can be imported using our usual process, we have internal restrictions on what fanworks we can import from private Yahoo Groups, to protect the privacy of fan creators and respect their copyright of their fanworks. Since Yahoo’s announcement is sudden news for everyone, including us, we are still working out the fine points of what we can and cannot import from restricted groups based on the Archive of Our Own Terms of Service. However, moderators are still welcome to contact Open Doors and discuss preservation options for their groups. If we cannot import a group's fanworks to AO3, we can direct moderators to other fandom preservation efforts that are taking place.

Because the content in many Yahoo Groups has historical, cultural and sociological value to each Group’s members, and also to fandom-focused scholars, Open Doors is also open to providing storage of Yahoo Groups backups that are assembled by moderators and non-moderators alike. Please note that at this time we cannot promise how or if the backups we store will be able to be migrated or accessed in the future by anyone other than the uploader(s), the moderator(s), the Open Doors team and affiliated volunteers.

What can you do - if you are a moderator of a Yahoo Group?

If you are a moderator, you can contact Open Doors via our contact form. You can also email your group notifying them of the closure and encouraging members to save their fanworks.

Right now, we believe the most important thing for any administrators to do, if they are interested in preserving fanworks from their Yahoo Group, is to download and back up those fanworks, as it is likely that the ability to do so will diminish or disappear as Yahoo Groups shuts down. Open Doors can then work with moderators to figure out whether we can import fanworks from their group. Information on how to download files and messages from groups can be found here.

What can you do - if you are a member of a Yahoo Group?

Anyone who posted their own fanworks to a Yahoo Group is welcome to post those fanworks to AO3 themselves. You can download your own fanworks and upload them to AO3 at any time. If you need an AO3 account, you can request an invitation at this link.

If you’re not a moderator, but are willing to download the files and messages from a group, please do so to help preserve them! You can find information about how to do this here. You can send these to Open Doors for storage, and we will store them for you. Please note that at this time we cannot promise how or if the backups we store will be able to be migrated or accessed in the future by anyone other than the uploader(s), the moderator(s), the Open Doors team, and affiliated volunteers.

Additionally, If you are not a moderator but would like to see a Yahoo Group preserved, you can contact us via our our contact form with a link to the Yahoo Group and, if you have it, contact information for the moderator. You can also contact the moderator to request that they get in touch with us.

If you would like to help preserve the history of a Yahoo Group, please consider documenting it on Fanlore. If you're new to wiki editing, no worries! Check out the new visitor portal, or ask the Fanlore Gardeners for tips. Fanlore has also recently made a helpful Tumblr post with tips for preserving the history of Yahoo Groups.

Thank you for your interest in helping Open Doors to preserve fannish content from Yahoo Groups!

Are you fluent in another language and would like to help translate AO3/OTW news posts? The Organization for Transformative Works is recruiting!

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

• News Translation Volunteers - closing 23 October 2019 at 23:59 UTC

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.

Translation Committee - News Translation Volunteers

Would you like to help translate OTW/AO3 news posts? We are looking for volunteers of native or near-native fluency in their target languages, who can translate or beta news posts within five-day deadlines.

If you enjoy working collaboratively, if you're fluent in a language other than English, if you’re passionate about the OTW and its projects, and want to help us reach more fans all around the world, working with Translation might be for you!

We particularly need people for Afrikaans, Arabic, Bengali, Catalan, Chinese, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Filipino, Finnish, German, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Japanese, Korean, Latvian, Lithuanian, Macedonian, Malay, Marathi, Persian, Portuguese-BR, Romanian, Serbian, Slovak, Slovenian, Spanish, Swedish, Thai, Turkish, Ukrainian, Vietnamese and Welsh—but help with other languages would be much appreciated.

(Please note that our French, Greek, Indonesian, Italian, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese-PT and Russian teams are not accepting new members at this time.)

Applicants may be asked to translate and correct short text samples and will be invited to a chatroom interview as part of the selection process. More information about us can be found on the Translation committee page.

Applications are due 23 October 2019

Apply at the volunteering page!

I. Transformative Works and Cultures Publishes Its 30th Issue

On 15 September, the Transformative Works and Cultures team published the journal's 30th issue. This was a large issue on general topics, containing over 20 items whose subjects range from eighteenth-century prophecy to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. There's something for everyone!

The team is now working on the next issue, number 31. “Fan Fiction and Ancient Scribal Cultures” will be guest-edited by Frauke Uhlenbruch and Sonja Ammann and is scheduled to be released on December 15, 2019. They're also looking forward to the issues coming out next year (and beyond): check out the TWC website to view open Calls for Papers.

II. AT THE AO3

This month, Open Doors completed the import of a little piece of gundam wing, an archive which originated way back in 2001. We're happy that it's found a permanent home on the AO3!

Good news for those with questions about tagging their fanworks: this month, AO3 Documentation uploaded a new and improved Tags FAQ. Use it to find answers to all of your questions, including what tags are, how they are organized and what to do when the tags you want don't seem to exist. One thing that we all know for certain is that our Tag Wrangling team are kept busy: in August, they wrangled approximately 256,000 tags! (September numbers will be available next month.)

And finally for AO3 news, our user-facing teams have been busy as usual: the Policy and Abuse and the Support teams each received around 1,100 tickets across the month. Policy and Abuse ask for users' patience as they deal with your incoming tickets: the team is small and made up of volunteers and where cases are complex, it can take some time to get through them. They would like to request that users submitting a report bear in mind that the more information you can provide, the easier it is to investigate. As a reminder, non-fanworks such as prompt posts, fic searches, RP ads, etc are not allowed on the Archive and will be removed where they are reported. A warning will also be noted on the account and future violations may cause an account to be suspended or banned.

The Support team further reminds users that they are unable to provide users with updates on the status of cases reported to Policy and Abuse. Our privacy policy means that only Policy and Abuse staffers have access to the information in their queue.

III. COMMUNICATIONS AND CONTENT PRODUCTION

The OTW's Communications committee has been busy this month. On 5 September, they led celebrations of the OTW's 12th anniversary, marking the location by releasing updated flyers and info sheets as well as a series of genre-themed graphics which fans can use on their own websites and social media pages to show support for the OTW. They also published a Guest Post, chatting to Angie Fiedler Sutton of the G33K Out podcast; a Five Things interview with Volunteers and Recruiting staffer Frost the Fox; and two issues of This Week in Fandom, volumes 121 and 122.

As well as keeping our own website busy, Comms staffers have continued to respond to media requests received in the wake of the AO3's Hugo win. As usual, you can find all the latest articles in which OTW projects appear in our Press Room on transformativeworks.org.

Meanwhile, Fanlore ran the two-week long Stub September challenge, focused on growing stubs into full-blown articles. Participants were rewarded with some fantastic badges courtest of the team's new graphic design volunteers! Fanlore also reports a general uptick in editing activity thanks to the excitement around the AO3 Hugo Award. Many, many thanks to everyone who worked hard at documenting it all!

IV. GOVERNANCE

The OTW Board voted on, and is proud to announce, its new Officer roster for 2019/2020: Natalia Gruber as President, Lex de Leon as Secretary, and Yuechiang Luo as Treasurer. The Board also extends its thanks to Priscilla Del Cima and Kristina Busse for their hard work as their tenure on Board comes to an end, and to Claire P. Baker and Jessie Casiulis as they pass their officer roles onto the next cohort.

Development and Membership and Translation were both busy throughout September preparing for the October fundraising drive. You can expect to hear more about that in our newsletter for October!

V. IT’S ALL ABOUT THE PEEPS

Volunteers & Recruiting: As of 24 September the OTW has 815 volunteers. \o/ Recent personnel movements are listed below.

New Directors: Kirsten Wright, Rebecca Sentance
New Committee Chairs: Morgan Drake (AO3 Documentation)
New Committee Staff: Briar, Fiona M, Kelly Gritten, memorizingthedigitsofpi, MorningStarlight, Semnai, x_lazart_x (all AO3 Documentation) and 1 other AO3 Documentation staffer, Audrey J. (Communications), Silas O'Neill (Communications), Seamus Johnston (Systems), Ashley Pancho, arwenxs, eastofoktober, Jocelin, Kyrstin, Leila Varzideh, Mile, Nick_S, SashaK (all Support) & 4 other Support Staffers
New Fanlore Volunteers: djiange, Jercy Dee, memorizingthedigitsofpi and 4 other volunteers
New Tag Wrangler Volunteers: 1hillarynguyen, Alana, Amy2, Aurita, batcat229, Blue_Link13, ceci, cirelle, Cordz, Danielle Plung, Dawn Huang, Dia, Dixon, eak_a_mouse, fulltimeDreamer, gecko, Gwen O, hmsphere, Jacqui, JakUnderhill, Jody, Kay, Leah Kim, Liekinloimu, Martisz, Masha, Mavis, Megan S, Minx, Mosaik, mysk, papernote, Patricia Tang, peaandsea, pumpkinpaix, Quine, Ron Geromy, Siki, SWColeson, Terri Morgan, toby, Upasana Das, Zhimo, Zhirong, Zozo and 2 other Tag Wranglers

Departing Committee Chairs: Angelique Jurd (Communications)
Departing Committee Staff: Angelique Jurd (Communications)
Departing Tag Wrangler Volunteers: waveridden and 1 other volunteer
Departing Translation Volunteers: Lez, Naroen, Natalia Suzdal, Ula and 1 other volunteer

For more information about the purview of our committees, please access the committee listing on our website.

The Organization for Transformative Works is the non-profit parent organization of multiple projects including Archive of Our Own, Fanlore, Open Doors, Transformative Works and Cultures, and OTW Legal Advocacy. We are a fan run, entirely donor-supported organization staffed by volunteers. Find out more about us on our website.

Wow! The OTW’s October fundraising drive is over, and it was amazingly successful! We flew right past our goal of US$130,000, with US$247,098.69 donated by 8566 people from 82 countries. We are truly humbled by your generosity—THANK YOU!

As we’ve mentioned during the course of this drive, the OTW depends on the donations of its user base to fund every one of its activities. The Archive of Our Own is our most visible project, especially after its recent Hugo Award win, but every one of our projects is crucial to our goals. Your donations also go towards initiatives like our legal work, defending fans and fanworks against laws which threaten them, and our Open Doors project, rescuing fanworks from platforms and archives in danger of being lost.

We are a nonprofit and every cent that has been donated will go back into our projects. (In fact, you can read all about the way that we spend the money raised during our funding drives in our recent budget post.) Your generosity means that we can continue with the important work we’re doing and plan for even greater things in the future. Thank you!

We also accept donations year-round, so you can support the OTW whenever you'd like.

Did you know that when you donate to the OTW, you can choose to receive a thank-you gift? We've got lots of choices—from keychains to mugs to notebooks—including some new items for this drive! Here's some of our favourites, new and old.

First of all, let's talk stickers! Our OTW sticker set includes seven stickers featuring the logos of the OTW, AO3, Fanhackers, Fanlore, Legal Advocacy, Open Doors, and Transformative Works and Cultures - TWC. This thank-you gift is available with a minimum donation of US$50. And for a minimum donation of US$40, you can receive our new sticker set in honor of AO3's recent Hugo Award win. They come in a set of four, and each one features a different AO3 and Hugo-themed image. Both sets of stickers are great for decorating your notebooks, laptops, or anything else you like.

Want to show more AO3 love? We've got pins, keychains, notebooks, hats, and a mug that comes with a mystery gift from our retired donation premiums. We also have a Kudos-themed stress ball for those times when life gets hard, or when you discover that you've already left kudos here. :)

Want a place to store all this great OTW swag? Check out our AO3 duffel bag! This bag measures 10 x 19 x 9.75 inches (25 x 48 x 25 centimeters) and features black and red coloring with a white AO3 logo on the side. This thank-you gift is available with a minimum donation of US$350.

If you can't donate enough for your favorite thank-you gift right now, don't worry! We also accept recurring donations that let you save up for what you want. You just select how much you'd like to donate and how often, let us know what you're saving up for, and then when you reach the right amount we send you your gift. It's an easy way to manage your donations, and it also helps make sure that your OTW membership stays current.

For those of you in the United States, don't forget to ask your employers about donation matching programs. The OTW is a registered nonprofit in the US, and we issue tax receipts for donations from US residents.

These gifts are just a small token of our appreciation for your support. To all of you who donate to the OTW, we thank you from the bottom of our hearts.

We believe that creation thrives in community, and that fandom especially requires spaces to exist free from censorship, open to all, and without threat of disappearing. In a world where fan labor is so often exploited, censorship is mandated, and information remains in flux, the Organization for Transformative Works (OTW) aims to create spaces where all are welcome to create, analyze, and preserve. And to do that, we rely on your donations.

The Archive of Our Own's Hugo Award serves as both a celebration and reminder of the importance of fannish spaces where all are free to create, post, and share, but it's only one of the many ways that the OTW serves fandom. Whether you're reading the latest volume of Transformative Works and Cultures or searching through Fanhackers' fan studies bibliography, our research and reference is open and available to all. Through Open Doors and our Legal Advocacy, we preserve fanworks and protect the right to create and share what we love. And through Fanlore, we make sure you can write about it, so that fandom today is remembered tomorrow.

There's no premium level to our projects, nor is there early access to unlock. Everything we do is available for everyone, regardless of who they are and what they do. But the only way we can make this possible is through your generous donations.

In Naomi Novik’s Hugo Award acceptance speech on behalf of the Archive of Our Own, she extended her thanks to everyone who helps make our work possible, from the founders and volunteers through to the users who create, comment, and leave kudos on our works every day. She also thanked our donors, and we'd like to echo that now, and invite you to contribute and help us to continue providing open fannish spaces to all who would create and share. Any donation of US$10 or more will also give you the option of becoming a member of the OTW for the next year, allowing you to help further shape the future of what we do through our annual elections.

Want to celebrate our projects and accomplishments even more? We've got some great thank-you gifts to show off your love. More on those coming soon.

Earlier in the year, the Organization for Transformative Works (OTW) published its 2019 budget. With the end of the year drawing closer, we’d like to issue an update on our financial activity for the remainder of the year, and how our plans have altered or progressed.

Our Finance team continues to track the OTW’s financial activity, prepare financial statements and reports, and ensure compliance with accounting standards and regulations. We’ve worked to improve and document our processes, help the OTW plan its financial future, and are close to concluding the annual audit of our 2018 financial statements.

Without further ado, here’s our updated budget for 2019 (download the budget spreadsheet for more information):

2019 Expenses

Archive of Our Own (AO3)

• US$74,984.28 spent so far out of US$334,351.23 total this year, as of July 31, 2019.
• 74.2% of the OTW's expenses go towards maintaining the AO3. This includes the bulk of our server expenses—both new purchases and ongoing colocation and maintenance—website performance monitoring tools and various systems-related licences (access all program expenses).
• This year's AO3 expenses include US$30,000.00 in contractor costs for upgrades and security testing, of which US$15,000.00 has already been spent to upgrade Ruby for the Archive.
• Additionally, AO3 expenses include a significant server overhaul and expansion of roughly US$177,000.00. New virtualisation servers will replace the current equipment, making testing and deployment of code for the Archive much smoother. The old servers will be repurposed as storage for the new servers. Other new servers will expand the Archive's capacity to serve pages and search results to users with fewer connection issues.
• Other anticipated costs include US$33,000.00 for a Systems contractor, who will do some work for the Archive's hardware infrastructure.

Fanlore

• US$1,477.22 spent so far out of US$10,374.19 total this year, as of July 31, 2019.
• Fanlore expenses are mostly its allocation of server purchases and maintenance and colocation costs, in addition to Fanlore web domains (access all program expenses).
• The new virtualisation servers mentioned above will also serve Fanlore pages and store Fanlore wiki backups.

Transformative Works and Cultures (TWC)

• US$275.00 spent so far out of US$1,833.00 total this year, as of July 31, 2019.
• Transformative Works and Cultures’ expenses are the journal's website hosting, and publishing and storage fees (access all program expenses).

Open Doors

• US$244.20 spent so far out of US$1,294.54 total this year, as of July 31, 2019.
• Open Doors' expenses consist of hosting, backup, and domain costs for imported fanwork archives (access all program expenses).

Legal Advocacy

• US$0.00 spent so far out of US$5,000.00 total this year, as of July 31, 2019.
• Legal's expenses consist of filing fees and travel expenses for conferences and hearings, when and if they are required (access all program expenses).

Con Outreach

• US$0.00 spent so far out of US$500.00 total this year, as of July 31, 2019.
• Budgeted expenses include US$100 for printing flyers and US$400 for other convention outreach activities on behalf of the OTW (access all program expenses).

Fundraising

• US$23,100.09 spent so far out of US$46,800.09 total this year, as of July 31, 2019.
• Our fundraising expenses consist of transaction fees charged by our third-party payment processors for each donation; thank-you gift purchases and shipping; and the tools used to host the OTW’s membership database and track communications with donors and potential donors (access fundraising expenses).

Administration

• US$17,051.93 spent so far out of US$50,440.80 total this year, as of July 31, 2019.
• The OTW’s administrative expenses include hosting for our website, insurance, tax filing, and annual financial statement audits, as well as communication, management, and accounting tools (access all admin expenses).

2019 Revenue

• The OTW is entirely supported by your donations—thank you for your generosity!
• We receive most of our donations each year in the April and October fundraising drives, which together should account for about 68.7% of our income in 2019. We also receive donations via employer matching programs, Amazon Smile, and PayPal Giving Fund, which administers donations from programs like Humble Bundle. If you'd like to support us while making purchases on those websites, please select the Organization for Transformative Works as your charity of choice!
• Given your generosity in previous years, we have a healthy amount in reserves, which we plan to keep in store for a rainy day. Thanks to this, we can explore alternative revenue sources to supplement your donations. The Finance team has made progress in its search for a suitable investment method for a small non-profit organization like the OTW and aims to fully set up a low-risk, conservative investment portfolio by the end of 2019.
• US$346,650.73 received so far (as of July 31, 2019) and US$546,750.73 projected to be received by the end of the year.

Got questions?

If you have any questions about the budget or the OTW's finances, please contact the Finance committee. We will also be hosting an open chat to answer any questions you may have. This chat will take place in our public chatroom on October 13 8PM UTC (what time is that in my timezone?).

Here is the link to the open chat! Come chat with us, and bring your questions! The chat is now over. To contact the Finance Committee with any quesitons, please fill out the form on our website<.a>.

To download the OTW’s updated budget for 2019 in spreadsheet format, please follow this link.