Archive of Our Own ^beta

Every month or so the OTW will be doing a Q&A with one of its volunteers about their experiences in the organization. The posts express each volunteer's personal views and do not necessarily reflect the views of the OTW or constitute OTW policy. Today's post is with LianneW, who volunteers as a Fanhackers volunteer on the Communications committee.

How does what you do as a volunteer fit into what the OTW does?

Fanhackers is a group that aims to make scholarly work on fandom accessible to a general audience. We write blog posts on fan studies topics, promote studies looking for fan input, manage a community bibliography, and more in the same vein!

What is a typical week like for you as a volunteer?

Fanhackers volunteers typically write one blog post per two weeks. So far, I’ve posted summaries of scholarly articles on fandom (especially on queer topics) and info on various fannish projects like oral history and archiving projects. I’m also organizing an exciting publication project with Fanhackers! We’re soliciting written and visual submissions for a zine that combines scholarly, artistic, and generally thoughtful work on the theme of “fandom friendship.” If you’re interested, check our blog on July 26 for more details!

What made you decide to volunteer?

Fandom is one of my life’s biggest joys, and I wanted to give back to fandom in a different way. I also specifically was interested in Fanhackers as a way to continue my scholarly thinking after graduating from university.

What has been your biggest challenge doing work for the OTW?

I can’t really say that there have been any challenges, since I started volunteering with OTW somewhat recently! It’s been a lot of fun.

What fannish things do you like to do?

I used to write fanfiction and organize fandom events a lot more, but now I’m mostly a consumer! I still enjoy fanfiction and fanart and have my favorite fan merch on my bedroom wall. My fandom nowadays is mostly my friends.

Now that our volunteer’s said five things about what they do, it’s your turn to ask one more thing! Feel free to ask about their work in the comments. Or if you'd like, you can check out earlier Five Things posts.

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.

Are you interested in actively contributing to the creation and maintenance of a safer volunteering environment within the OTW? 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:

• Internal Complaint and Conflict Resolution Subcommittee Volunteer - closing on 24 July 2024 at 23:59 UTC or after 30 applications are received.
• Volunteers & Recruiting Volunteer - closing on 24 July 2024 at 23:59 UTC or after 30 applications are received.

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.

Internal Complaint and Conflict Resolution Subcommittee Volunteer

Are you interested in actively contributing to the creation and maintenance of a safer volunteering environment within the OTW?

As Internal Complaint and Conflict Resolution ("ICCR") volunteers, we review, investigate, and adjudicate internal complaints filed by other OTW volunteers. We also mediate between parties in conflict, moderate open cross-committee and social cross-committee channels, and review relevant OTW policies. Our goal is to serve as a neutral party for personnel-related issues and to improve the OTW's working environment for its volunteers!

Applications will close on 24 July 2024 at 23:59 UTC or after 30 applications are received.

Volunteers & Recruiting Volunteer

Are you great at admin and enjoy the satisfaction of completing short tasks and ticking them off to-do lists? Or do you have experience in HR, volunteer management, data privacy and other related areas? Volunteers & Recruiting is looking for additional volunteers to help our busy team!

Volunteers & Recruiting volunteers 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 Transformative Works on matters related to organization tools and staffing needs. Volunteers & Recruiting volunteers also serve as a neutral party for personnel-related issues.

Applications will close on 24 July 2024 at 23:59 UTC or after 30 applications are received.

Apply at the volunteering page!

If you have further questions, please contact us.

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.

The Election season is in full swing! Live chat with candidates is coming up soon. You can find links to the candidates' answers to your questions at the bottom of this post.

Live Chat

There will be one live chat session with all four candidates lasting ninety minutes. Chat will take place in our public chatroom.
It is scheduled for:

• Sunday, July 21, from 17:00 UTC to 18:30 UTC – Live chat with all candidates (What time is it where I live?)

The chat will provide attendees the opportunity to ask the candidates questions not already covered in their platforms, bios, and Q&A, as well as to ask individual questions of specific candidates. New questions will only be accepted during the first hour of the scheduled chat time to make sure candidates have time to appropriately address them all.

Please note that though the link to the public chatroom is already active, chatting capabilities will not be enabled until approximately half an hour before the chat is scheduled to begin.

Read on to learn more about using Discord.

• On the login page, you'll need to provide a screen name.
• Once you enter the server, you'll find a list of users on the right and a list of chat rooms on the left. Settings are available via the gear icon on the lower left, near your screen name; there you can choose whether you prefer a dark or light chat room appearance, among other options.
• There will be four rooms available to chat attendees who are not candidates or Elections Committee volunteers: general, candidate_chats, open_chat and questions.
  • General is where you'll find a list of rules for the chats. Please read through these carefully before entering the other two rooms.
  • Candidate_chats is where the candidates will answer questions and debate among themselves. Only the candidates and moderator will be able to chat in this room.
  • Open_chat is where all attendees can participate and talk to each other. We ask that you try to stay on topics related to the election. A moderator will be in the room, so if you have a question for the candidates, you can signal the moderator with o/, the candidate's name, and the question. Use o// if it's a follow-up question to the current discussion.
  • Questions is where the moderator will compile a list of all questions. Only moderators will be able to chat in this room.

Q&A

When we posted the Board candidates' bios and platforms, we asked the public to submit additional questions for them. Once again, our sincere thanks to everyone who did so! We will be posting groups of questions as the candidates finish their responses.

To navigate answers by individual candidate, please use the links below:

• C. Ryan S.
• Erica F.
• Rachel L.
• Tish S.

The following is a list of the topics covered by the questions. Clicking on a topic will take you to the tag containing all the candidates' corresponding answers.

• Group 1 (July 12)
• Group 2 (July 19)

To read all the posts regarding Q&A, simply select the 2024 Q&A tag.

I. SPOTLIGHT ON FANLORE

The Fanlore annual bingo was a huge success! Thanks to everyone who took part and awarded badges, and special thanks to Chimaera and FaalThien for their mythical creature and illuminated manuscript themed graphics.

Fanlore's Fandom in Color event runs all throughout July! The celebration highlights beloved characters of color, the contributions made by fans of color to fandom, and more. Check out Fanlore's Tumblr and Twitter for spotlighted pages.

II. AT THE AO3

Systems worked with Support and others to investigate reports about slow access in some regions. They believe this issue should be resolved now, but if you still have difficulty loading the Archive, check out AO3's posts on Tumblr and Twitter about alternate ways to access the site.

AO3 Documentation finished their biannual documentation review! \o/ The months-long process provided them insight on how they might update their writing style, along with which documents they plan to prioritize next.

Open Doors announced the import of The House of Tucker, a Star Trek: Enterprise archive focused on the character Charles "Trip" Tucker III. Meanwhile, Accessibility, Design & Technology deployed 0.9.370, which included internationalization improvements and an update that will eventually let them upgrade the Redis servers without downtime.

In May, Policy & Abuse received 2,314 tickets, and Support received 2,011 tickets. Both committees conducted recruitment earlier this year, and they’re welcoming and training their new volunteers!

Also in May, Tag Wrangling wrangled over 400,000 tags, which is more than 960 tags per wrangler! More broadly, the committee has been hard at work designing procedures for facilitating temporary wrangling assistance. They also began audits of older piped relationship tags, and they plan to update them in accordance with current guidelines.

III. REACHING OUT TO FANS

Transformative Works and Cultures announced a Call for Papers for their next special issue which will focus on disability and fandom. Deadline for submissions is January 1, 2025 with an anticipated publication in March 2026.

Development & Membership's Con Outreach division also has exciting plans. Volunteers plan to table at Worldcon Glasgow and Fan Expo Chicago in August. Also, while volunteers won't be tabling at Defcon, the OTW's beloved Tumblr mod will be prowling the floor with swag. Make sure to swing by and say hello!

Curious about what it's like volunteering for the OTW? Con Outreach also has plans to run an event during Confabulation in October, which will discuss all things OTW volunteering. More information will be shared closer to the date!

IV. ELECTIONS IN FULL SWING

The 2024 election season is underway! The deadline to donate for this year's election was June 30, and Development & Membership and Translation ran a mini drive the weekend of June 21 to encourage membership. Development & Membership has been answering queries about donations and voter eligibility, while Translation has 25 language teams working on elections content, including the mini drive announcement.

Elections has posted the candidate bios and platforms on their website. The committee has also been hard at work coordinating Candidate Q&A posts and live candidate chats. The 2024 election timeline was announced last month on the Elections website; this year's election will take place from August 16-19.

V. GOVERNANCE

Board has announced their next public meeting will be held on July 14 at 1 pm UTC (what time is that for you?). The meeting will be held in Board's public Discord server, and the agenda has been posted in advance on the OTW website. This meeting will trial a new workflow for submitting questions asynchronously; more details are available in the Discord server itself.

Internally, Board has also reworked the first two sections of Board training, completed asynchronous discussions about the OTW Culture Roadmap, and opened the Whistleblower Protection Policy to the entire OTW volunteerbase for feedback.

The Board Assistants Team has also been hard at work on a variety of projects, including a Procurement Request for Proposals template, CSAM Protection Procedures, nonprofit training resources, OTW website updates, and more!

VI. IT’S ALL ABOUT THE PEEPS

In June, Volunteers & Recruiting set up a new subcommittee under Communications, supported Elections in setting up the upcoming election campaign, and conducted recruitment for a number of committees.

From May 24 to June 24, Volunteers & Recruiting received 182 new requests, and completed 206, leaving them with 55 open requests. As of June 24, 2024, the OTW has 912 volunteers. \o/ Recent personnel movements are listed below.

New Committee Chairs: Bridget Kies (TWC)
New AD&T Volunteers: 1 Coding Volunteer
New Communications News Post Moderation Volunteers: 1 News Post Moderator
New Development & Membership Volunteers: xeno (Convention Specialist) and 1 Membership Data Specialist
New Policy & Abuse Volunteers: Allonautilus, Alruin, RadioCobalt, and 2 other Volunteers
New Translation Volunteers: Jeza, Maura, NaomiLP, and 8 other Translators
New TWC Volunteers: Amanda Hartley and 1 other Copyeditor; Courtney Lazore, Ember, and 1 other Proofreader

Departing Directors: 1 Diversity Consultant Research Officer
Departing Committee Chairs: Karen Hellekson (TWC) and 1 Communications Chair
Departing AO3 Documentation Volunteers: 1 Docs Editor
Departing Communications Volunteers: 1 Posting Specialist, Site Moderator, and Media Outreach Lead
Departing Development & Membership Volunteers: greenmegsnoham (Graphic Designer)
Departing Fanlore Volunteers: greenmegsnoham (Graphic Designer) and shiningpaperclip (Policy & Admin Volunteer)
Departing Open Doors Volunteers: Cyn (Import Assistant)
Departing Policy & Abuse Volunteers: 2 Policy & Abuse Volunteers
Departing Tag Wrangler Volunteers: 1 Tag Wrangling Supervisor and 7 Tag Wranglers
Departing Translation Volunteers: 1 Translator
Departing Volunteers & Recruiting Volunteers: 1 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.

Between February and May, we deployed a host of enhancements, bug fixes, and performance improvements. This included measures to combat spam and abuse, a fix that drastically reduced the size of PDF downloads containing Chinese, Japanese, or Korean characters, and a big Rails upgrade.

Many thanks to first-time contributor Saphron!

Credits

• Coders: Albert Pedersen, alien, Bilka, Brian Austin, Ceithir, Claire C, EchoEkhi, Eliah Hecht, irrationalpie, Ivedonestranger, james_, Potpotkettle, Saphron, Sarken, warlockmel, weeklies
• Code reviewers: Bilka, Brian Austin, Ceithir, EchoEkhi, printfn, redsummernight, Sarken, ticking instant, weeklies
• Testers: Anh P, Bilka, Brian Austin, Claire C, Claire P Baker, dazyndara, intyalote, Jenni D., Jennifer D2, Keladry, lydia-theda, Maine, Nrandom, Priscilla, Runt, Sam Johnsson, Sarken, Teyke, therealmorticia

Details

0.9.360

We did a quick deploy with some minor changes on February 10.

• [AO3-6680] - We updated our automated code style checker.
• [AO3-6630] - We updated the gem used for our performance and error monitoring system.
• [AO3-6613] - Our site footer and GitHub README now specify that the Archive's code is licensed under GPL-2.0-or-later, instead of just saying GPL.

0.9.361

Our February 26 release included improvements to caching on comments, work headers, and the Languages page, as well as smaller file sizes for PDF downloads of works with Chinese, Korean, or Japanese characters, and the ability to use the flexbox layout model in skins.

• [AO3-3207] - Adding works to a series or changing their order didn't always update the header of existing works in that series. That was quite confusing, but we fixed the bug so now series behave correctly.
• [AO3-3463] - The timestamp on comments used to be cached, causing it to display in the timezone of the person who first accessed the comment. We've now moved it out of the cache, so logged in users will see the timestamp in the timezone they've set in their preferences, and logged out users will see the timestamp in UTC.
• [AO3-5803] - Challenges allowed setting a minimum of 0 requests or offers for sign-ups. Not only does that not really make sense, it resulted in not numbering things correctly. We now require a minimum of 1 for both (and while we were at it, updated the form to show errors better).
• [AO3-6042] - To help us work on translating emails, we have a bit of code that controls whether users can select a language they'd like to receive emails in. We discovered that if we turned it on and someone chose a language, they'd continue to receive emails in that language even after we turned it off. That's not good, because the main reason we'd turn it off would be because something was broken. We've fixed it so everyone will receive emails in the Archive's default language (English) when language selection is off.
• [AO3-6265] - The text in comments was left-aligned even when the text was in a right-to-left language, so we've fixed that.
• [AO3-6377] - The page title that displays in your browser tab for the Edit Profile page will now say "Edit Profile" instead of "Edit User."
• [AO3-6526] - If you tried to add a co-creator who was suspended or banned, the error message would tell you the user was suspended or banned. We think that information should be private, so we removed it from the error message. Now it will just tell you the user can't be added as a co-creator.
• [AO3-6575] - We updated the AO3 News sidebar to work better with assistive technology like screen readers.
• [AO3-6598] - We had a bit of code related to challenge sign-ups that would run unnecessarily in some cases and twice in other cases, slowing down the whole sign-up process. We've fixed it so it will only run once, and only when needed.
• [AO3-6652] - Our shiny new PDF generator had an unfortunate side effect: truly massive PDFs for works containing Chinese, Japanese, or Korean characters. We've updated the code to fix that, and our sysadmins have done some server upgrades to let us use that code, which required a newer version of the PDF-generating software.
• [AO3-6681] - We fixed some intermittent failures in our automated tests for orphaning.
• [AO3-6678] - Our dependency updater bumped our version of nokogiri from 1.14.3 to 1.16.2.
• [AO3-5728] - You can now use flexbox in site and work skins!
• [AO3-6134] - We updated our tests so they no longer use the discontinued Delorean gem.
• [AO3-6430] - We've updated our code to use the term "allowlist" instead of "whitelist."
• [AO3-6667] - We added some caching to the Languages page and started rounding some of the larger numbers to make the caching less obvious.
• [AO3-6679] - A few releases ago, we changed the way we handle session cookies. The change included some code to help us transition from the old way to the new way without logging everyone out. Now that we're done with the transition, we've taken that code out.

0.9.363

We updated our Ruby version on March 14! (Don't worry, you didn't miss a release. We just had a little trouble with the version number.)

• [AO3-6647] - We've updated Ruby to 3.1.4.

0.9.364

On March 22, we deployed a few small issues so Systems could change some things on their side.

• [AO3-6685] - We updated our automated tests to use the update! method in place of plain ol' update. This will give us more obvious errors if things go wrong.
• [AO3-6596] - Accessing the help text for users who've just logged in for the first time used to give a 500 error if you were logged out. Now it prompts you to log in instead.
• [AO3-2151] - If you've ever tried to remove a related work from the Edit Work page instead of the Related Works page, you've probably gotten a 404 error in the process, even though the related work was removed. Now you'll be redirected to the Edit Work page.
• [AO3-6695] - Our dependency bot updated our code style checker. Automation is a wonderful thing!
• [AO3-6696] - We configured our gem manager to install fewer gems when running the GitHub Workflow for our linters. This should speed up the automated process of checking our code for style issues.

0.9.365

On April 1, we deployed some bug fixes and improvements, which included preventing blocked users from giving you unsolicited gifts, and adding a link to landing pages for fandom tags.

• [AO3-6320] - Trying to create tags that included a ^ would result in error messages missing part of the tag. We've fixed that, which should make the error message far more helpful.
• [AO3-6676] - If you joined a moderated collection from the Collections page, all of the "Join" buttons on the page would update their text to "Leave," creating the impression you had joined all of the collections (which you hadn't). We've fixed it so only the collection you actually joined will have a "Leave" button.
• [AO3-6689] - Some screen readers weren't able to access the the navigation items in the "Hi, username!" dropdown menu, so we took the opportunity to modernize the HTML for the site's main navigation.
• [AO3-4696] - If you go to a canonical fandom tag's landing page (e.g., Les Misérables - Victor Hugo), you'll find a new link to a page containing all of the relationship tags for that fandom.
• [AO3-6502] - If you block someone, they can no longer give you a gift work. (However, because blocking doesn't apply to challenges yet, they can still give you a gift that fulfills one of your challenge requests -- but you can refuse that gift at any time.)
• [AO3-6564] - To reduce the potential for abuse, we've prevented images from displaying in comments on news posts, pseud descriptions, sitewide banners like we use for fundraising drives, bookmark notes, and support tickets and abuse reports.
• [AO3-6623] - The work listings for individual series are now paginated, so if a series contains 100 works, they will be listed across five pages instead of piled onto one.
• [AO3-6628] - Our font list had a very useful, but kind of ugly, font as the third fallback option. We've rearranged the list so it will only be used if there's no other choice.
• [AO3-6701] - We fixed some automated tests that were failing one or two times out of every 50 runs, which was just plain annoying.

0.9.366

We did a quick deploy on April 2 to allow our Development & Membership team to update the fundraising banner during the drive.

• [AO3-6486] - We created a new admin role for our Development & Membership volunteers.
• [AO3-6691] - We added some custom rules to our code style checker, so now it will do some of our reviewing work for us.

0.9.367

Our April 30 release included seventeen issues, including multiple performance improvements and some changes to help deal with ongoing spam attacks.

• [AO3-4308] - In our ongoing mission to prepare all of our emails for translation, we've now updated the email that existing AO3 users get when Open Doors archivists import works belonging to them.
• [AO3-5054] - Kudos didn't always get the message when the kudos-giver updated their username. We've fixed that bug, so now they're with the program.
• [AO3-5283] - There was a rare bug where admins would get an error when dealing with spam works that were deleted. We've updated our code to handle this scenario better.
• [AO3-6594] - If you had a location in your profile at one point and decided to remove it, the empty "I live in:" section would linger in your profile just the same. We've told it to go away.
• [AO3-6703] - Some tests weren't running due to a rake task calling exit, which means they weren't catching problems with the code. We've fixed it so they'll run.
• [AO3-5865] - We've tidied up the Edit Multiple Works form so its fields are arranged in a more familiar way (i.e., the same way they're arranged on the regular posting and editing form).
• [AO3-6297] - Our downloads code was using a rather old library to manage different file types. However, the old library had license issues, so we've updated to use the library recommended by the Rails team.
• [AO3-6336] - The bookmark code was set to retrieve bookmarks in descending order by ID. Unfortunately, we couldn't override this behavior in places where we wanted to list bookmarks in a different order. We've updated the code so this is no longer the default ordering and is instead applied only where needed. (In other words, you won't notice any changes.)
• [AO3-6592] - We improved the code for counting series in pseud and user sidebars. This should particularly help performance for the orphan_account, since it has so many.
• [AO3-6608] - If you deleted your pseud's icon, the text describing it for screen readers would stick around. We fixed that bug, so no more Schrödinger's pseud icon.
• [AO3-6634] - We added a new admin role for the Board Assistants Team Committee.
• [AO3-6669] - To make looking up non-canonical tags in autocomplete faster, we started looking them up from Elasticsearch.
• [AO3-6705] - We updated our local development scripts to use the more up-to-date version of Docker Compose.
• [AO3-6716] - Our automatic dependency updater updated our automated code style checker again! This is why we automate these things.
• [AO3-6719] - The places where we recently began stripping image embeds (in the April 1 deploy) will display the image's URL instead of removing it entirely. We also made it possible to easily adjust where images stripping is applied if we face another spam attack.
• [AO3-6491] - As described in our post about spam protection measures, we changed which comment settings are pre-selected when posting a new work. Now it's set to "Only registered users can comment," but you can change it at any time.
• [AO3-6721] - Our automatic dependency updater updated our automated code style checker yet again! Your eyes do not deceive you, this release has 2 (!) code style checker updates.

0.9.368

On May 12, we upgraded to Rails 7.

• [AO3-6674] - We upgraded our gems and configuration files to Rails 7! (There are still a few more things we need to do to be thoroughly done with this update, though.)

Every month or so the OTW will be doing a Q&A with one of its volunteers about their experiences in the organization. The posts express each volunteer's personal views and do not necessarily reflect the views of the OTW or constitute OTW policy. Today's post is with whetherwoman, who volunteers on our Volunteers & Recruiting committee.

How does what you do as a volunteer fit into what the OTW does?

As a volunteer on the Volunteering & Recruiting Committee (VolCom) I help recruit and onboard new volunteers for the OTW, keep records up to date for current volunteers, give or remove access to OTW-wide tools, and process volunteer retirements. VolCom also helps improve processes for all of these pieces, which might look like helping to improve training documentation for other committees or answering questions about volunteering from potential or existing volunteers.

My favorite thing about being on VolCom is that I get to see a little bit about all the many projects and committees in the OTW. We have over 900 volunteers, and the amount of skill, time, and enthusiasm people bring always makes me feel optimistic about fandom. I love getting to interact with volunteers from all over the world in all sorts of different fandoms and all sorts of ways of interacting with fandom.

What is a typical week like for you as a volunteer?

During the week, I'll usually check on chat multiple times a day, because I am attached to my phone like that. Sometimes I can answer a question or emoji react to something someone else is working on. If there are some quick cases, like filing applications or recording a volunteer hiatus, I might work on some of those in the evenings. On weekends I have time for projects that require more focus, like running recruitment for a committee, auditing documentation, or—my favorite–-streamlining and automating processes to speed us up in the future.

What made you decide to volunteer?

I've been aware of the OTW since it started, and I've had an AO3 account since 2009. I started volunteering with the OTW as a tag wrangler in 2020, which attracted me because I love organizing things and also because AO3 tags are frequently hilarious. VolCom work is also a lot of organizing things, although less frequently hilarious. I wanted to join VolCom to get a broader view of all the different things the OTW is doing—although we don't do work that's publicly visible, it's one of the few committees that interact with and support every part of the OTW. Fundamentally I'm a database geek, and sorting and reporting on data is how I have fun. I love that I get to combine my data management self and my fannish self!

What has been your biggest challenge doing work for the OTW?

The past couple of years have not been boring times for the OTW! There have been some stressful periods due to both external attacks and very necessary but difficult conversations about the internal culture of the OTW. Overall, I've always found other volunteers to be super thoughtful, supportive, committed people, which helps tremendously during difficult times.

On a slightly less serious note, I sometimes find it challenging to keep my mouth shut! Being an OTW volunteer in general and on VolCom specifically means I'm sometimes aware of issues or initiatives that aren't public knowledge yet. If I see someone on the internet talking about the OTW and getting something wrong, it's hard to not butt in and correct them! Arguing with people who are wrong on the internet never ends well, though, so I stick to venting in private. :)

What fannish things do you like to do?

I love to read and write fanfic! I'm multifannish and both my bookmarks and works on AO3 are a whole mishmash of different fandoms. Right now I'm most fannishly active about romance novels by KJ Charles, and I lurk a lot in MDZS/CQL.

Now that our volunteer’s said five things about what they do, it’s your turn to ask one more thing! Feel free to ask about their work in the comments. Or if you'd like, you can check out earlier Five Things posts.

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.

The Organization for Transformative Works is pleased to announce the following candidates for the 2024 Election (in alphabetical order by given name):

• C. Ryan S.
• Erica F.
• Rachel L.
• Tish S.

Because we have 2 seats to be filled and 4 candidates, the 2024 election will be contested – that is, the members of the OTW will vote on which candidates fill the seats.

The Elections Committee is excited to introduce the candidates to all of the members of the OTW! Included in this post are links to short Bios and Platforms written by the candidates. This post also marks the beginning of our Q&A period, during which we invite the public to submit questions for the candidates. Additionally, we will be holding a series of live chats – dates and times for those are to be announced based on candidate availability. Information on the voting period and how to vote will also be posted shortly.

In the meantime, there is a timeline of Elections events available here for your reference. Read on to learn more about our candidates and how you can submit questions for them!

Platforms and Bios

We asked each candidate to provide us with a Bio that sums up their professional and fannish experience, as well as to write a Platform about their goals for their term on the Board by answering the following questions:

• Why did you decide to run for election to the Board?
• What skills and/or experience would you bring to the Board?
• Choose one or two goals for the OTW that are important to you and that you would be interested in working on during your term. Why do you value these goals? How would you work with others to achieve them?
• What is your experience with the OTW's projects and how would you collaborate with the relevant committees to support and strengthen them? Try to include a range of projects, though feel free to emphasize particular ones you have experience with.
• How would you balance your Board work with other roles in the OTW, or how do you plan to hand over your current roles to focus on Board work?

You can read both the candidates' answers to these questions and their bios by following the links below.

• C. Ryan S.
• Erica F.
• Rachel L.
• Tish S.

Question & Answer (Q&A)

To better accommodate the time constraints of the election and the workload for candidates, this year we are introducing two changes to the Q&A rules: One question per message. Additional questions in the same message will be discarded. Limit of three questions per person.

Candidates will also answer questions from the public. Anyone may submit questions via the Elections form. Please submit all questions by 11:59pm UTC on June 30 (what time is that where I live?). All candidates will answer each question submitted, subject to the following restrictions:

• Questions must be a maximum of 50 words long.
• Any submitted questions repeating what is already addressed on Platforms will be ignored. This is to allow candidates to dedicate more time to answering new questions.
• Similar questions will be grouped together to avoid candidates giving repetative answers. Elections volunteers will decide which questions are similar enough to group.
• If you have a follow-up to a Platform question, please specifically mention it is a follow-up so Elections volunteers know not to treat it as a repeat.
• One question per message. Additional questions in the same message will be discarded.
• Maximum of three questions per person.

The posting date for answers will be chosen depending on the number of questions received. Posts will be spread out, arranged by topic, to make it easier for voters to read all the answers.

The House of Tucker, a Star Trek: Enterprise fanworks 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 had work(s) on House of Tucker
• And what to do if you still have questions

Background explanation

House of Tucker was a Star Trek: Enterprise fansite dedicated to the character Charles “Trip” Tucker III. The site included five subsites where fanfiction was posted: ¡TRIP!, Trip/T'Polers, Archer*Trip, Trip*Malcolm, and Soval Annex.

The purpose of the Open Doors Committee’s Online Archive Rescue Project is to assist moderators of archives to incorporate the fanworks from those archives into the Archive of Our Own. Open Doors works with moderators to import their archives when the moderators lack the funds, time, or other resources to continue to maintain their archives independently. It is extremely important to Open Doors that we work in collaboration with moderators who want to import their archives and that we fully credit creators, giving them as much control as possible over their fanworks. Open Doors will be working with mods evay, write_light, Bucky, myst123, wychwood, and wollem to import House of Tucker into a separate, searchable collection on the Archive of Our Own. As part of preserving the archive in its entirety, all fanfiction currently in the House of Tucker archive will be hosted on the OTW's servers, and embedded in their own AO3 work pages.

We will begin importing works from House of Tucker to the AO3 after July 2024. However, the import may not take place for several months or even years, depending on the size and complexity of the archive. Creators are always welcome to import their own works and add them to the collection in the meantime.

What does this mean for creators who had work(s) on House of Tucker?

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 add 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 House of Tucker 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, or would NOT like your works added to the archive collection.
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 House of Tucker 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 House of Tucker 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 House of Tucker

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 House of Tucker 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 House of Tucker!

- The Open Doors team and House of Tucker mods.

Commenting on this post will be disabled in 14 days, on July 6, 2024. If you have any questions, concerns, or comments regarding this import after that date, please contact Open Doors.