About AO3 and the OTW

About AO3

The Archive of Our Own (AO3) is a non-profit, non-commercial fanwork archive for transformative fanworks; created by and for fans of books, music, art, games, shows, movies, real-person fiction (RPF), and other fandoms.

AO3 is built upon the principle of maximum inclusiveness of fanwork content. Fanworks that do not violate the Content Policy or some other part of the Terms of Service will not be removed from AO3, even if someone believes they are offensive or objectionable.

AO3 runs on open-source archiving software developed by the Organization for Transformative Works (OTW). Anyone is welcome to contribute by working on the unclaimed tasks in our Jira project.

AO3 entered open beta in November 2009 and exited beta in April 2026. You can read more about AO3's history on Fanlore.

Our Team

Behind the scenes, AO3 is run by volunteers serving on committees, which collaborate to support AO3 in different ways:

  • Accessibility, Design, & Technology designs, maintains, and develops AO3's code.
  • AO3 Documentation creates and maintains AO3's FAQs, help pop-ups, and tutorials.
  • Communications publishes news posts on AO3 and communicates with users about AO3-related updates.
  • Open Doors imports at-risk archives and fanzines to AO3.
  • Policy & Abuse addresses questions and reports about potential violations of the AO3 Terms of Service.
  • Support helps users resolve technical problems and passes on user feedback to other AO3 committees.
  • Systems manages the servers that AO3 runs on.
  • Tag Wrangling sorts and organizes tags on AO3, linking related tags together for better filtering and searching.
  • Translation helps committees communicate with users in non-English languages and translates news and information about AO3.
  • User Response Translation addresses Policy & Abuse and Support's translation needs in specific high-need languages.

About the OTW

The OTW is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, fully supported by donations and run by and for fans. The OTW's mission is to preserve and protect transformative fanworks and fan culture in their myriad forms. We believe that fanworks are transformative and that transformative works are legitimate.

Our other major projects include:

  • Fanlore, a fandom wiki devoted to preserving the history of transformative fanworks and the fandoms from which they have arisen. Visit Fanlore.
  • Legal Advocacy, which is committed to protecting and defending fanworks from commercial exploitation and legal challenges. They also strive to educate fans about developments in law that could affect fandom.
  • Open Doors, which offers shelter to at-risk fannish projects and archives. Through several subprojects, they preserve different kinds of fanworks and artifacts of fan culture. Visit Open Doors.
  • Transformative Works and Cultures (TWC), an international, peer-reviewed journal that publishes articles about transformative works and fan communities. Visit TWC.

Learn More

You can find information on using AO3 in the Archive FAQs, or visit the OTW FAQs to learn more about our organization. If you want to get involved, you can Donate or Volunteer.

For technical help using AO3, including bug reports and feature requests, please contact Support. For questions or reports about violations of the AO3 Terms of Service, contact Policy & Abuse. If you have any other questions, please contact Communications.