Archive of Our Own ^beta

I. 2025 BOARD ELECTION

Elections successfully closed the 2025 OTW Board Director election. Congratulations to the OTW's new Directors: Elizabeth Wiltshire and Harlan Lieberman-Berg! Elizabeth and Harlan will be replacing the seats of outgoing Board members Jennifer Haynes and Zixin Zhang.

Many committees collaborated on Board Election work, with Communications helping distribute announcements, Development & Membership coordinating with OTW members, and Translation making Elections material available in multiple languages.

Elections would like to thank all the candidates who ran, the volunteers from across the OTW who assisted Elections in their work, and everyone who engaged with the election by asking questions or turning out to vote.

Statistics from this year’s election were made available on September 1: out of 15,138 eligible voters, 2,197 cast a ballot, representing 14.5% of potential voters.

II. ARCHIVE OF OUR OWN

In August, AO3 celebrated both one million Mandarin Chinese works and nine million users. Thank you to everyone who's helped us reach these milestones!

Also in August, Accessibility, Design & Technology (AD&T) deployed a couple releases that included bug fixes and security improvements, and Systems continued their routine tasks, such as improving performance and auditing Archive traffic for malicious bots. User Response Translation began completing ticket translation requests, and Open Doors announced the import of Faerie, a Tolkien fanfiction archive.

In July, Policy & Abuse received 3,570 tickets, while Support received 3,999 tickets. Tag Wrangling wrangled just over 636,000 tags, or over 1,400 per wrangling volunteer!

Elsewhere, Tag Wrangling coordinated with AD&T and announced changes to fandom tag policies for fangames and fanmade web series in a series of three posts on the @ao3org Tumblr. The first post outlined the general policy, while the second post focused on Undertale and the third post focused on Fangans from Dangan Ronpa. Lastly, Tag Wrangling also coordinated with Communications to announce 20 new "No Fandom" canonical tags on AO3 News.

III. ELSEWHERE AT THE OTW

Legal is continuing to answer user queries and monitor legal developments. Although there are many concerning legal developments around freedom of speech and expression online, they are not directly affecting AO3. Legal also dealt with some unauthorized app who’ve used OTW and AO3 trademarks in confusing ways.

Transformative Works and Cultures has two active calls for papers, both due by January 1, 2026. The first is a special issue on Latin American Fandoms, and the next is a special issue on Music Fandom.

Communications' Con Outreach division wrapped up Worldcon 2025 in Seattle, Washington, USA - thank you to everyone who tabled and who said hi to us! You can check out con goers' recommendations in the con's AO3 collection.

Fanlore's themed month for July, Fandom in Color, was a big success! Their next editing challenge, Stub September will run from September 14-28, and graphics will have an animals with swords theme. Check their Bluesky, Twitter/X and Tumblr for announcements.

IV. GOVERNANCE

In August, Board, Board Assistants Team (BAT), Organizational Culture Roadmap, and Volunteers & Recruiting began a cross-committee review of the OTW's Code of Conduct. This review aims to ensure the Code of Conduct still serves both the OTW as an organization as well as its many volunteers.

Elsewhere, Board collaborated with other committees on Crisis Communication Guidelines, began their biennial review of the Board Confidentiality Policy, had their quarterly check-in with Legal, and approved the 2024 Annual Report. Minutes from July's public Board meeting are now available on the OTW website. Board also started preparations for the upcoming Board turnover after receiving the 2025 OTW Board election results.

BAT continued work on several projects, including collaborations with the Organizational Culture Roadmap and a report on nonprofit training. Lastly, Strategic Planning continued work on their two-year progress report on the implementation of the current strategic plan.

V. OUR VOLUNTEERS

In addition to the aforementioned Code of Conduct Review, Volunteers & Recruiting also began a project focused on workgroups, aiming to increase the OTW’s ability to support projects that might not fit within the purview of a single committee.

This month, Volunteers & Recruiting conducted recruitment for two committees: BAT and Development & Membership.

From July 23 to August 20, Volunteers & Recruiting received 203 new requests, and completed 252, leaving them with 51 open requests. As of August 20, 2025, the OTW has 982 volunteers. \o/ Recent personnel movements are listed below.

New Communications Volunteers: GrayIsNotEmo, KW Ukuku, Magda19, and 1 other TikTok Moderator
New Fanlore Volunteers: Becca Bun, Jules Moon, Tiff, Zoe Bird, and 2 other Social Media & Outreach Volunteers
New Policy & Abuse Volunteers: Ain, embobem, Gail, Rissi, and 2 other Policy & Abuse Volunteers
New Support Volunteers: ChangYan, Clarice Strand, Jennifer Elliott, llianne, John Pork, Louie, Maycix, melon8, Mily, nayogn, Stevie, TinaOe, viewofsilence, Wtchmn23, Ziting, and 8 other Support Volunteers
New Tag Wrangling Volunteers: amphob, Bec, Berix, Bettelort, bingus, Bismuth, bluejello, Clarissa, Daisya, dila, Draconic, Drakoshig, firstestly, genitus6, grexigone, Hazelwyrm, heliolatry, Jas, KD, Lace, Lau, Leo M, Leuconoen, Maris, Mary, Nerva, nekojoo, null_ice, Nyxia, Pandasaurio, pickledragon, radiance, Ravenna, rikka, RJ, Sabrina_Tangerina, sarkastic, Sayornis, SCEnt Hope, shrikes, Soyash, Talixa, Tea Huimyni, Thunder, twistingsands, Zee, and 1 other Tag Wrangling Volunteer
New Volunteers & Recruiting Volunteers: Ana Niccals, Bekyro, PerpetuallyPurple, and 2 other Volunteers & Recruiting Volunteers

Departing Committee Chairs/Leads: 1 Communications Chair
Departing BAT Volunteers: 2 Board Assistant Team Volunteers
Departing Communications Volunteers: 1 Event Coordinator, 1 Media Outreach Volunteer, 1 Report Writer, and 2 TikTok Moderators
Departing Fanlore Volunteers: 1 Social Media & Outreach Volunteer
Departing Tag Wrangling Volunteers: Esin and 9 other Tag Wrangling Volunteers
Departing Translation Volunteers: Janka (Translator)

For more information about our committees and their regular activities, you can refer to the committee pages 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.

I. UPCOMING BOARD ELECTION

The 2025 OTW Board Election will be held on August 15-18, a week from today.

Elections, Communications, and Translation worked together to announce candidate and voting information. Voting instructions have been emailed to all eligible OTW members, and translated versions of voting instructions are available on the Elections website. Candidate answers to Q&A questions can also be found on the Elections website, and a live Candidate chat was held on August 2 via Discord.

II. ARCHIVE OF OUR OWN

Legal has been closely monitoring legal developments and proposals about internet age verification in the US, UK, and around the world and taking steps to ensure that the AO3 user experience will not change. They also responded to a number of user queries and dealt with a commercial company that has been using the AO3 trademark in a confusing way.

In early July, Accessibility, Design, & Technology resolved some issues and downtime related to creating bookmarks on AO3. They also deployed several releases of bug fixes and improvements, including a performance improvement for the page that administrators use to search for user accounts. Lastly, in conjunction with Systems having installed and set up new servers, they finalized some Elasticsearch upgrades. You can refer to the recent release notes for more details.

In June, Support received 3,348 tickets, while Policy & Abuse received 3,738 tickets. Their TOS Spotlight news post series has now concluded; if you missed it, we encourage you to look it over and contact Policy & Abuse if you have any further TOS questions.

Tag Wrangling continues to test processes for wrangling canonical tags in "No Fandom"—tags that aren't specific to any particular fandom—and announced some new canonical tags on July 14. More tags will continue to be canonized and announced on a regular basis.

In June, Tag Wrangling handled over 526,000 tags, or over 1,200 tags per volunteer! \o/

III. OPEN DOORS IMPORTS CONTINUE

Open Doors finished importing all fanfiction from the Harry Potter archive FictionAlley and is now processing fanart hosted on the site. You can find all imported works in the FictionAlley collection. Unclaimed works are currently restricted to logged-in AO3 users, but per Open Doors' agreement with the archivist, they will be unlocked 30 days after the import is fully completed.

All FictionAlley creators should have received one or more emails with links to claim, orphan, delete their works, or prevent the import of any additional works of theirs in the future. If you were a creator and did not receive this email, please contact Open Doors for assistance. You can also contact Open Doors if you would like to prevent future imports of your Harry Potter works specifically.

The import process for HarryPotterFanFiction.com and MuggleNet Fan Fiction are also underway. If your email address has changed since you were a member of either archive, or you would like Open Doors not to import your works, please contact Open Doors. Please refer to the import announcements for a full list of how Open Doors can assist you.

Elsewhere, Open Doors has continued their importing work on My Mongoose, an archive for The Sentinel.

IV. ELSEWHERE AT THE OTW

Communications' Con Outreach team wrapped up Capital City Comic Con in Lansing, Michigan, USA—thank you to everyone who tabled and who said hi to us! You can check out con attendees' fanwork recommendations in the convention's AO3 collection.

Fanlore's themed month for July, Fandom in Color, was a big success! They're now planning their next editing challenge, Stub September, which will be themed around animals with swords this year. Check out Fanlore's social media (Bluesky, Twitter/X, and Tumblr) for announcements about the challenge, which will run from September 8-21.

Transformative Works and Cultures is finalizing their upcoming general issue, volume 46, which will be published on September 15. Their upcoming Latin American Fandoms and Music Fandoms specific issues are still accepting submissions until January 1, 2026. Lastly, they collaborated with Communications on an OTW website page about the TWC committee, outlining the team behind the publication and spotlighting TWC's Fans of Color research prize.

V. GOVERNANCE

Board held the quarterly Board meeting on July 20 on Discord. There were 44 attendees, and minutes will be available soon on the OTW website.

Alongside preparing for the Board meeting, Board and the Board Assistants Team collaborated across the OTW and made progress on several goals, including the OTW Crisis Management Plan, OTW Procurement Policy, Cybersecurity Report, Paid Staff Transition, and researching nonprofit training resources.

Finance is wrapping up 2024 reconciliations and working with auditors for the 2024 audit.

VI. OUR VOLUNTEERS

Volunteers & Recruiting conducted recruitment for three committees this month: Communications, Fanlore, and Policy & Abuse. Volunteers & Recruiting also closed out all projects carried over from previous years and plan to start new projects this year in accordance with their 2025 roadmap goals.

From June 23 to July 22, Volunteers & Recruiting received 175 new requests, and completed 124, leaving them with 102 open requests. As of July 22, 2025, the OTW has 926 volunteers. \o/ Recent personnel movements are listed below.

New Communications News Post Moderation Volunteers: Deniz (News Post Moderation Volunteer)
New Open Doors Volunteers: Kriti S (FCPP Intern)
New Support Volunteers: moonlithic, SlantedKnitting, and 23 other Support Volunteers
New Translation Volunteers: 1 Translation Volunteer Manager and 1 Translation Task Assistant

Departing Communications Volunteers: 2 Fanhackers Volunteers
Departing Communications News Post Moderation Volunteers: 2 News Post Moderation Volunteers
Departing Policy & Abuse Volunteers: 1 Policy & Abuse Volunteer
Departing Support Volunteers: Jennifer D2 (Liaison to User Response Translation), Geraldine and 2 other Support Volunteers
Departing Tag Wrangling Volunteers: demilyver, Goodwin, Ratty, and 11 other Tag Wrangling Volunteers
Departing Volunteers & Recruiting Volunteers: Ducky (Volunteers & Recruiting Volunteer) and 1 Tool Implementation Lead

For more information about our committees and their regular activities, you can refer to the committee pages 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.

I. SPOTLIGHT ON FICTIONALLEY IMPORT

Open Doors has nearly finished importing FictionAlley, a Harry Potter archive. With approximately 29,000 works imported so far, it is Open Doors' largest import yet. You can check out all imported works at the FictionAlley collection. Unclaimed works are currently locked to logged-in AO3 users only, but per Open Doors' agreement with the FictionAlley archivist, they will be unlocked 30 days after the import is fully completed.

All FictionAlley creators should have received one or more emails with links to claim, orphan, delete their works, or prevent the import of any additional works of theirs in the future. If you were a creator and did not receive this email, please contact Open Doors for assistance. You can also contact Open Doors if you would like to prevent future imports of your Harry Potter works specifically.

Open Doors has two other Harry Potter archives currently in their queue: HarryPotterFanFiction.com and MuggleNet Fan Fiction. If your email address has changed since you were a member of either archive, or you would like Open Doors not to import your works, please contact Open Doors. Please refer to the import announcements for a full list of how Open Doors can assist you with either import.

II. ARCHIVE OF OUR OWN

Accessibility, Design & Technology (AD&T) coordinated with Board and Volunteers & Recruiting to formally decommission the Quality Assurance & Testing (QA&T) subcommittee—thank you to everyone who has served on QA&T over the years. Quality assurance and testing of AO3's code will continue under the oversight of AD&T's new QA Supervisor role. AD&T's latest releases have focused on various bug fixes, code clean-up, and monitoring improvements: check out the release notes. Also, Systems has installed some new Elasticsearch servers and repurposed the old ones as application servers! \o/

Open Doors announced the import of Absolution – The Inugrrrl Memorial, an InuYasha fanfiction memorial archive.

In May, Support received 3,177 tickets, while Policy & Abuse (PAC) received 3,763 tickets—a nearly 40% increase which is likely due to PAC's recent TOS spotlight series. PAC worked with Legal and Communications' News Post Moderation subcommittee to review over 1,700 comments across seven posts, with more than 400 comments receiving a reply. PAC will also be recruiting soon, so look out for the upcoming recruitment post!

In June, Tag Wrangling neared completion of phase two of three of their committee-wide guideline discussions on fandom metatags. They also launched a new procedure which streamlines creation of new "No Fandom" canonical tags, which are canonical tags not specific to any particular fandom. The committee plans to post announcements periodically detailing new tags, including one in a few weeks.

In May, Tag Wrangling handled over 610,000 tags, or over 1,200 tags per wrangling volunteer.

III. ELSEWHERE AT THE OTW

Fanlore's Annual Bingo was a huge success! \o/ 25 participants completed at least one bingo, and 16 got a total blackout. Thanks to everyone who took part!

In July, Fanlore is running a themed month—Fandom in Color—which celebrates characters of color, the contributions of fans of color, and more! Check out their social media (Bluesky and Tumblr) for page spotlights throughout the month.

Communications is now overseeing the OTW's Convention Outreach division, which was previously run by Development & Membership. If you have inquiries regarding OTW's convention presence, Communications can be reached through their contact form on the OTW website.

TWC is finalizing their upcoming general issue of Transformative Works and Cultures, volume 46, which will be published on September 15. They are still accepting submissions for their Latin American Fandoms special issue until January 1, 2026.

IV. THE 2025 ELECTION AND GOVERNANCE

Elections announced the 2025 Election candidates; this year's election is contested, with three candidates running for two open seats in this year's election. Their platforms are available on the Elections website. Communications has been coordinating public posts, while Translation is working on translating candidates' platforms.

2025's OTW Board Election will take place on August 15-18. OTW Members who plan to nominate a proxy should contact Elections by August 6. Specific dates for Q&A and Candidate Chats will be made available on the 2025 Election Timeline page.

Development & Membership has been checking membership for Board candidates and donors who want to vote in this year's election, while Finance has begun preparing for the 2024 audit.

Board uploaded minutes from the April 2025 Board public meeting to the OTW website. They also approved two new Finance Bookkeepers, held check-in meetings with Legal and the Paid Staff Transition Lead, and continued to work with the Organizational Culture Roadmap Workgroup. The Board Assistants Team's work also continues on several projects, including the Procurement Policy and Board Discord Server Guidelines revamp.

V. OUR VOLUNTEERS

Volunteers & Recruiting conducted recruitment for two committees—Tag Wrangling and Support—and two subcommittees—News Post Moderation and Internal Complaint and Conflict Resolution—this month.

From May 19 to June 22, Volunteers & Recruiting received 147 new requests and completed 139, leaving them with 53 open requests (including induction and removal tasks listed below).

As of June 22, 2025, the OTW has 944 volunteers. \o/

New Committee Chairs/Leads: 2 Organizational Culture Roadmap Workgroup Heads
New AD&T Volunteers: 1 QA Supervisor
New Communications Volunteers: 2 Convention Specialists and 3 TikTok Moderators
New Communications News Post Moderation Volunteers: Mossie, Vihi, and 1 other News Post Moderator
New Fanlore Volunteers: 90PercentHuman, Hobgirl, Sparrow, and 1 other Policy & Admin Volunteer
New Finance Volunteers: Scott and 1 other Bookkeeper
New Open Doors Volunteers: Bette, devinwolfi, Kelpie, korry, November_Clouds, Pat Zarzecka, scattered_coreopsis, Starlings and 6 other Import Assistants
New Organizational Culture Roadmap Workgroup Volunteers: 1 Goal Supervisor; megidola and 1 other Volunteer
New Support Volunteers: 2 Chair Assistants
New Translation Volunteers: 1 Volunteer Manager; Adri Jaimes, Lia404, ttom1323, and 5 other Translators
New User Response Translation Volunteers: Felipe and friki (Translators)

Departing Committee Chairs/Leads: Nary (Support) and 2 QA&T Leads
Departing AD&T QA&T Volunteers: runt and 1 other QA&T Testing Volunteer
Departing AO3 Documentation Volunteers: Leja, Evolcahra, and 1 other Editor
Departing Communications Volunteers: 1 TikTok Lead
Departing Development & Membership Volunteers: 1 Convention Specialist
Departing Fanlore Volunteers: 1 Policy & Admin Volunteer
Departing Open Doors Volunteers: 2 Import Assistants and 1 Technical Volunteer
Departing Policy & Abuse Volunteers: 1 Volunteer
Departing Support Volunteers: Sandra 002 (Volunteer)
Departing Tag Wrangling Volunteers: ladydragona (Supervisor); Daniailís, MFY11EP, Barbara Thomas, and 3 other Volunteers
Departing Translation Volunteers: 1 Volunteer Manager; Mirjam, DaisyJane, DanielUL, and 6 other Translators
Departing Volunteers & Recruiting Volunteers: 1 Volunteer

For more information about our committees and their regular activities, you can refer to the committee pages 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.

I. 200 NEWSLETTERS

This month marks the 200th edition of the OTW Newsletter! Starting in February 2012, the newsletter has consistently provided updates on committees across the OTW. Over time, the newsletter's format has grown and shifted, settling into the format used today.

If you're curious, older newsletter editions can be found on AO3 News and the OTW website! Thank you so much for supporting the OTW and our projects. Here's to many more!

II. ARCHIVE OF OUR OWN

Policy & Abuse is currently running a weekly spotlight series about the AO3 Terms of Service. These news posts have been highlighting various nuances of AO3's policies, and Policy & Abuse has been coordinating with Communications' News Post Moderation subcommittee to answer follow-up questions in the comments.

AO3 reached 15 million fanworks in May! Communications published a news post to celebrate.

Also in May, Accessibility, Design, & Technology deployed a few enhancements related to username and password changes, as well as fixed some longstanding bugs in tag sets. Systems is preparing to mount new servers, after which they'll be able to get them up and running for AO3.

Open Doors announced the import of Homosapien Press: the publisher of multi-fandom fanzines such as Samurai Errant, Homosapien, and Pure Maple Syrup. They also completed the import of Slash Advent Calendar and Snow Lands. Lastly, they launched a way for archivists and publishers to designate a Fannish Next of Kin to take over collection management post-import.

In April, Policy & Abuse received 2,734 tickets, while Support received 3,003 tickets. Tag Wrangling wrangled just over 490,000 tags, or approximately 1,100 tags per wrangling volunteer.

III. ELSEWHERE AT THE OTW

Fanlore's annual Fanlore Bingo Challenge is in full swing! This year the event is running from June 2 to June 15, and the bingo is beach themed. All Fanlore visitors and editors, new and old alike, are invited to participate!

Fanlore also celebrated May with a themed month: Creature Feature! Their editing chat on the Fanlore Discord server was a big success; thank you to everyone who joined. You can check out Creature Feature highlights on Fanlore's Tumblr.

Translation's recent recruitment led to the addition of a new translation team for Irish! User Response Translation's first ever recruitment has also concluded.

Transformative Works and Cultures continues to seek submissions for their upcoming special issue on Latin American Fandoms. The deadline for submissions is January 1, 2026.

IV. GOVERNANCE

Elections announced the 2025 Election Timeline in coordination with Communications and Translation. Candidates will be announced on June 22, and the deadline to become a member for voting is June 30.

Development & Membership is continuing to send donation gifts from April's Membership Drive. They're also starting to work on membership queries for the 2025 election and related mini-Drive in June.

Board, with the help of the Board Assistants Team, held a public board meeting on April 26, 2025. The meeting had 74 attendees, and Board answered 10 questions live and 7 questions asynchronously after the meeting. Meeting minutes are available on the OTW website.

Board also approved the creation of the Organizational Culture Roadmap workgroup, continued work on Crisis Procedures and Paid Staff Transition projects, and met with the Cybersecurity Delegate to discuss their report and next steps. The Board Assistants Team continued work on multiple ongoing projects, including updates to the Board Discord moderation guidelines, OTW roadmap goals, and non-profit training.

Lastly, Board announced the resignation of Zixin Zhang as a Board Director. We wish Zixin all the best in her future endeavors.

V. OUR VOLUNTEERS

Volunteers & Recruiting conducted recruitment for three committees this month: Fanlore, Finance, and Open Doors. Volunteers & Recruiting also began a large-scale project regarding their procedures on inductions and removals. This project aims to ensure documentation is consistent across all roles in the OTW, focusing especially on tools managed by Volunteers & Recruiting.

From April 21 to May 18, Volunteers & Recruiting received 154 new requests and completed 149, leaving them with 36 open requests (including inductions and removals listed below).

As of May 18, 2025, the OTW has 933 volunteers. \o/

New AO3 Documentation Volunteers: 1 Editor
New Open Doors Volunteers: Fandoms_addict and 1 other Admin Volunteer
New Policy & Abuse Volunteers: BlackTeaAndVodka, WonderfulWorld, Pent,­ and 1 other Policy & Abuse Volunteer
New Strategic Planning Volunteers: Everett Merian and Camilla Zhao
New Support Volunteers: 1 Tag Wrangling Liaison
New Tag Wrangling Volunteers: Ebonwing, Jazzberries, Keladry, megidola, and Tal (Tag Wrangling Supervisors)
New Translation Volunteers: Bluebear, flatlander woman, Lavinia, Mici Pici, ömer faruk, Somber, and 3 other Translation Volunteers
New TWC Volunteers: 1 Symposium Editor
New User Response Translation Volunteers: Ekevka, meat, Patkiecoo, Remu, and 4 other URT Translators

Departing AO3 Documentation Volunteers: 1 Editor
Departing Communications Volunteers: 1 Chair-Track Volunteer and 1 TikTok Moderator
Departing Fanlore Volunteers: 1 Policy and Admin Volunteer
Departing Open Doors Volunteers: Fandoms_addict (Import Assistant) and 3 other Import Assistants, and 1 Technical Volunteer
Departing Support Volunteers: 1 Support Volunteer
Departing Tag Wrangling Volunteers: Eirinen, Luhba, Vyslanté, and 2 other Tag Wrangling Volunteers
Departing Translation Volunteers: D.Taradi, dhriti, hedvig, Mai, Meep, and 4 other Translation Volunteers

For more information about our committees and their regular activities, you can refer to the committee pages 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.

I. APRIL'S MEMBERSHIP DRIVE

Development & Membership ran April's Membership Drive, which ended with just over US$269,000 raised from over 8,000 donors. Communications helped distribute news posts, while Translation made Drive information available in 24 languages.

In anticipation of the April drive, Finance posted the 2025 budget.

II. ARCHIVE OF OUR OWN

Although AO3 has not experienced a data breach, malware and reused passwords can still put accounts at risk. On World Password Day, Policy & Abuse published a reminder about how to keep your AO3 account secure and other internet security best practices.

In April, Open Doors announced the import of Garlic Press and Poison Pen Press, a collection of fanzines for Star Trek: The Original Series. This is the first of their Fanzine Scan Hosting Project (FSHP) publisher imports.

Also in April, Accessibility, Design & Technology deployed a number of bug fixes and improvements to AO3, including performance improvements to the invitation queue and fixing the bug that made animated gifs not animate when uploaded as pseud icons. They also published release notes covering changes made in March.

In March, Policy & Abuse received 2,988 tickets, while Support received 2,909 – less than Support received in the previous two months, but still above their usual average.

Tag Wrangling announced some new "No Fandom" additional tags, or tags not specific to particular fandoms. This update included tags related to Pregnancy and Reader-Insert. In March, the committee wrangled over 460,000 tags, or approximately 1,150 tags per wrangling volunteer!

III. ELSEWHERE AT THE OTW

Fanlore is running a themed month for May, focusing on monsters and creatures in fandom. Keep an eye on their Bluesky, Tumblr, or Twitter/X for featured articles, and join their Discord server for a themed editing chat in May!

In April, Legal continued responding to user queries, tracking legislation, and preparing to respond to events as they unfold.

Transformative Works and Cultures (TWC) has announced their second annual Fans of Color Research Prize! The award recognizes the best peer-reviewed article about fans and/or fandoms of color published in TWC in the preceding three years (for 2025, no earlier than 2022) and furthers the journal’s goal to support scholars whose work fills critical gaps in fan studies literature about racially marginalized and/or non-Western fans. The winner will receive a US$500 cash prize. Submissions are due to [email protected] no later than May 15, 2025 (Anywhere on Earth).

IV. GOVERNANCE

Board ran their second public meeting on April 26 in the Board Discord server. Their agenda was announced beforehand, and meeting minutes will be available on the OTW website soon.

The Board Assistants Team continued work on ongoing projects, including revamping the Board Discord and investigating non-profit training. In conjunction with Board and the OTW Organizational Culture Roadmap team, they also devoted a lot of focus to working on the OTW Crisis Procedures and making related edits to the Procurement Policy draft.

V. OUR VOLUNTEERS

Volunteers & Recruiting conducted recruitment for four committees in March: Policy & Abuse, Strategic Planning, Translation, and TWC.

From March 19 to April 20, Volunteers & Recruiting received 200 new requests, and completed 208, leaving them with 45 open requests (including induction and removal tasks listed below). As of April 20, 2025, the OTW has 918 volunteers. \o/

New AO3 Documentation Volunteers: chocolatedreams, Evolcahra, and 3 other Documentation Editors
New Open Doors Volunteers: bubble-sort, Maciej, and 1 other Technical Volunteer
New Policy & Abuse Volunteers: Ana, Murus, Yuca, and 1 other Policy & Abuse Volunteer
New Tag Wrangling Volunteers: Alpha, amihan, Andrea T, ari v., Ata Māhina, Aurum, Azure Guest, blossomshed, Canoe, Catrain, Cesario, Corbin, CrystalM, Dalmuri, ECS, Ellie-Bee, Executie, Fyodor, Gialla, greenribbon, Hai, Hima, iri, Ishmael, Jesse Reno, kaijuboyy, Knight, Krchov, Lillie, Luke, Mária_Waluigi, Mayonayys, midoriC, midwinter, Paxsky, PinkBrain, Rain, Ratty, Sarah Wallenfelsz, Shinji, skeleton-kai, Spit, Sunny1, TheDragonflyBox, tomurai, Ushio, Vip, Wicked, Xanya V, and 3 other Tag Wrangling Volunteers
New Translation Volunteers: Ailín and 5 other Translators
New User Response Translation Volunteers: 1 Liaison from Policy & Abuse

Departing Communications Volunteers: 1 Site Moderator and 1 Graphics Volunteer
Departing Open Doors Volunteers: Jennifer D2
Departing Policy & Abuse Volunteers: 1 Policy & Abuse Volunteer
Departing Strategic Planning Volunteers: 1 Strategic Planning Volunteer
Departing Tag Wrangling Volunteers: 1 Tag Wrangling Supervisor and 4 Tag Wrangling Volunteers
Departing Translation Volunteers: Eilean and 4 other Translators
Departing Volunteers & Recruiting Volunteers: Frost The Fox (Senior Volunteer) and 1 Volunteer

For more information about our committees and their regular activities, you can refer to the committee pages 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.

I. SPOTLIGHT ON GOVERNANCE

Board finished their letter for the 2024 Annual Report. They also approved the OTW signing another letter opposing online ID checks, approved several payment requests, and began planning for their next public Board Meeting. They also continued work on multiple ongoing projects with the Board Assistants Team and Roadmap Team, including Crisis Procedures, Cybersecurity Audit, and Paid Staff Transition projects.

Based on the lessening workload for the Webs committee and following internal discussions with multiple committees, Board announced in late February that Webs would be decommissioned. Moving forward, Systems will handle requests that would have gone to Webs and take over the remaining duties of Webs.

II. AT AO3

In March, Accessibility, Design & Technology focused on deploying bug fixes, improvements for tag wranglers, and groundwork to enable translation of email text. They also announced comment rate limits would be put in place for logged in users, aimed at preventing spam comments.

Open Doors finished importing the older works of Due South Seekrit Santa, an annual Due South gift exchange!

In February, Policy & Abuse received 2,807 tickets, while Support received 3,709 tickets. Tag Wrangling wrangled over 470,000 tags, or approximately 1,100 tags per wrangling volunteer.

III. ELSEWHERE AT THE OTW

Fanlore continues to host monthly themed editing challenges, with April's focusing on expanding stubs. They also prepared for their upcoming themed month for May: Creatures!

Legal responded to a number of user queries in March and has been closely tracking many legislative proposals that could affect fans and fan expression online.

TWC announced the publication of Volume 45 of Transformative Works and Cultures, a special issue on Sports Fandoms, guest-edited by Jason Kido Lopez and Lori Kido Lopez.

IV. PREPARING FOR DRIVE

In March, Development & Membership prepared for the April membership drive; they worked with external vendors to order new premiums, and collaborated closely with Communications and Translation to prepare news posts.

In preparation for the April membership drive, Finance worked on finalizing 2024 accounting and the 2024 budget.

V. IT'S ALL ABOUT THE PEEPS

Volunteers & Recruiting conducted recruitment for 3 committees in February: Open Doors, Policy & Abuse, and Tag Wrangling. From February 19 to March 18, Volunteers & Recruiting received 128 new requests and completed 117, leaving them with 66 open requests (including induction and removal tasks listed below).

As of March 18, 2025, the OTW has 862 volunteers. \o/ Recent personnel movements are listed below.

New Committee Chairs/Leads: Brian Austin (AD&T), Bilka (AD&T QA&T Lead)
New AD&T Volunteers: Bilka (Senior Volunteer)
New Communications Volunteers: Aditi Paul, Caitlynne, and callmeri (Media Outreach Volunteers); an (Posting Specialist)
New Fanlore Volunteers: 1 Chair Assistant

Departing BAT Volunteers: 1 Project Specialist
Departing Communications Volunteers: 1 Posting Specialist and 1 Graphics Designer
Departing Communications News Post Moderation Volunteers: Kate G (Moderator)
Departing Development & Membership Volunteers: 1 Convention Specialist
Departing Fanlore Volunteers: 1 Graphics Designer
Departing Open Doors Volunteers: 1 Import Assistant
Departing Policy & Abuse Volunteers: 1 Volunteer
Departing Tag Wrangler Volunteers: antonomasia (Tag Wrangling Supervisor and Tag Wrangling Chair Assistant), Lou Stina Forest and 1 other Tag Wrangling Volunteer
Departing Translation Volunteers: Sil (Translator)
Departing TWC Volunteers: 1 Copyeditor

For more information about our committees and their regular activities, you can refer to the committee pages 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.

I. INTERNATIONAL FANWORKS DAY 2025

On and leading up to February 14th, Communications celebrated the 11th annual International Fanworks Day (IFD)! Translation helped make IFD content available in 26 languages.

Celebrations included a Feedback Fest, Discord server chatting and games, the IFD Fanlore Challenge in collaboration with Fanlore, and more. Thanks to everyone who participated and joined the festivities, and to the volunteers from across the OTW who helped with its organization. We hope you enjoyed!

II. AT THE AO3

In February, Accessibility, Design & Technology implemented a few performance improvements and focused on important software updates (Ruby and Rails). Systems continued to work on keeping AO3 stable while waiting on new Elasticsearch servers. Jointly, they published an update on Intermittent site slowness and errors, which Translation helped make available in 22 languages.

Open Doors finished importing the memorial archive Remembering Tiger Lily Roar. It was enthusiastically received, especially from fans of Batman, Young Justice, and Nightwing.

In January, Policy & Abuse received 2,957 tickets, while Support received 3,595. AO3 surpassed 70,000 canonical fandoms, and Tag Wrangling wrangled over 465,000 tags: more than 1,100 tags per wrangling volunteer!

In February, Tag Wrangling also collaborated with Communications on a page for the OTW website about the Tag Wrangling Committee, which gives an overview of their work, who they collaborate with most, and explains the "lifecycle of a tag."

III. ELSEWHERE AT THE OTW

In addition to the annual IFD editing challenge, Fanlore also ran a themed Femslash February month! Check out the highlighted posts on their Tumblr.

Legal worked with others to advocate against legal proposals requiring ID checks and age verification for websites in various jurisdictions. They also responded to a number of questions from the public.

TWC announced a new upcoming special issue this month, titled "Latin American Fandoms"! The deadline for submissions is January 1, 2026, and the issue is slated for publication in 2027.

IV. GOVERNANCE

Board held the first quarter public meeting on January 26, with 69 attendees and 13 questions asked. All questions were answered live and the official meeting minutes are available on the OTW website.

Board Assistants Team worked hard on several ongoing projects this month: a review of the Board Discord server, non-profit training research, and OTW emergency procedures as part of the OTW culture roadmap.

In February, Strategic Planning provided Volunteers & Recruiting with research on volunteer retention at organizations similar to the OTW. This is a step in the Strategic Plan's Retention goal to better support OTW volunteers and keep them engaged throughout their time volunteering. They’ve also worked on research for goals related to Paid Staff positions.

Development & Membership arranged OTW's attendance at Ret-Con in Durham, North Carolina, U.S., this month where one of their volunteers ran a panel on searching for lost media. Come see the OTW soon at the Tucson Festival of Books in Arizona, U.S.; Chicago Entertainment and Comic Expo (C2E2) in Illinois, U.S.; Supanova Melbourne in Australia; CitrusCon (online); and more—our tables have plenty of goodies and shenanigans to share!

V. IT'S ALL ABOUT THE PEEPS

Volunteers & Recruiting conducted recruitment for three committees in January: Communications, User Response Translation, and Volunteers & Recruiting.

From January 22 to February 19, Volunteers & Recruiting received 135 new requests and completed 91, leaving them with 72 open requests. As of February 19, 2025, the OTW has 863 volunteers. \o/ Recent personnel movements are listed below.

New Committee Chairs: Apple and choux (Communications)
New Communications Volunteers: Indes (Posting Specialist) and 1 Site Moderator-Weibo
New Volunteers & Recruiting Volunteers: corr (Senior Volunteer), Ehryn, Gwendolyn, Kalincka, Kathleen B, and 2 other Volunteers

Departing Directors: Jenni D. (Paid Staff Transition Lead)
Departing Committee Chairs: Prisca (Translation Chair), Jenni D. (QA&T Lead)
Departing Communications Volunteers: 1 TikTok Moderator
Departing Development & Membership Volunteers: 1 Shipping Specialist and 1 Volunteer
Departing Open Doors Volunteers: 4 Import Assistants
Departing Tag Wrangler Volunteers: Roland, Inrainbowz, Sijing, and 20 other Tag Wranglers, and 1 Supervisor
Departing Translation Volunteers: A_I, Hao and 2 other Translators

For more information about our committees and their regular activities, you can refer to the committee pages 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.

I. SPOTLIGHT ON OPEN DOORS

In December, Open Doors completed imports for Elysejský klíč, a Czech-language Harry Potter archive; VinXperience, a message board with fanfiction featuring characters played by actor Vin Diesel; Between the Lines, an archive of JAG fanfiction including a great deal of Mac/Harm fic; Smoochies, a site dedicated to bishounen, shounen-ai, and yaoi fanworks; and All About Spike, a Buffy and Angel archive focussing on the character Spike.

Their annual announcement celebrated the completion of nine archive import projects in 2024, with over 13,000 works!

They also announced the upcoming imports of Slash Advent Calendar, a multifandom slash challenge that ran every December from 2002 to 2005; MuggleNet Fan Fiction, a Harry Potter fanfiction archive; and Remembering Tiger Lily Roar, a memorial archive for a well-loved fanfiction writer.

II. AT THE AO3

In January, Accessibility, Design & Technology published release notes detailing recent AO3 code updates. They also migrated their library to store collection, skin, and pseud icons.

Support received 2,207 tickets in December; ticket levels remain high due to ongoing server issues and site disruptions.

Tag Wrangling finalized another round of updates to some Additional Tags not specific to any fandom, otherwise known as No Fandom tags. They have also continued work behind the scenes on a streamlined process for dealing with small synonym changes to No Fandom tags, an alteration on their existing fast-track procedures.

In December, volunteers wrangled more than 560,000 tags across more than 69,000 fandoms - more than 1,300 tags per wrangling volunteer!

Also in December, Policy & Abuse received 2,559 tickets, totalling to just over 28,000 tickets in 2024! Check out the pie chart for more details.

III. ELSEWHERE AT THE OTW

Communications has been working hard this month preparing for International Fanworks Day (IFD) in February! They’ve been collaborating with Translation to make IFD news posts available in many languages. Communications also celebrated the OTW TikTok passing 10,000 followers! Last but not least, they’ve been busy scoring the trivia game held to celebrate AO3’s fifteenth anniversary.

To close out 2024, Fanlore ran an editing chat, and it was a lot of fun! They are also preparing for the annual IFD Fanlore Challenge, as well as Femslash February this month! Keep an eye on their Twitter/X and Tumblr for more details.

In January, TWC began preparations to publish two special issues: Gaming Fandom and Disability and Fandom. They also counted down their top 20 #TWCHits over on Bluesky!

Also in January, Development & Membership's convention outreach coordinated OTW's attendance at Arisia in Boston, Massachusetts, US! Keep an eye on the OTW's social media, such as our Tumblr and Bluesky, for future convention attendance updates.

IV. GOVERNANCE

Board, in conjunction with the Board Assistants Team held their first quarterly meeting of 2025 in the Board Discord server. During the meeting, they shared decisions made since the last meeting, a wrap-up on the AO3 Terms of Service update, updates on the 2024 Culture Roadmap, and the new 2025 Board Roadmap. They also received a number of questions, both those submitted asynchronously in advance and those asked during the meeting, and all were answered live. Meeting minutes will be made available on the OTW website soon.

Legal spent December and January closely monitoring new laws, lawmaking proposals, and legal developments around the world that could affect fans. They answered a number of queries from fans about legal developments, and also answered concerns about unauthorized apps or sites that may purport to be related to the AO3.

V. IT'S ALL ABOUT THE PEEPS

On December 5, Volunteers & Recruiting celebrated International Volunteer Day 2024 and ran their organization-wide email and graphics campaign recognizing OTW volunteers' work.

From November 22 to January 21, Volunteers & Recruiting received 215 new requests and completed 321, leaving them with 37 open requests. As of January 21, 2025, the OTW has 889 volunteers. \o/ Recent personnel movements are listed below.

New Committee Chairs: Indes and The Professor (Fanlore), xeno (News Post Moderation Lead)
New Communications Volunteers: Tal and 2 other TikTok Moderators
New Development & Membership Volunteers: 1 Shipping Assistant
New Elections Volunteers: Kasia Sophia Vahtera and Elle Thompson (Communication Specialists); Caira, Harold Liu, Kriti, RIMI, and 1 other Voting Process Architect; and 1 Team Coordinator
New Fanlore Volunteers: Patchlamb (Gardener), Silarona and 1 other Team Coordinator, and 1 Policy & Admin Volunteer
New Open Doors Volunteers: 1 Technical Volunteer and 1 Import Assistant
New Policy & Abuse Volunteers: 2 Chair Assistants, Irina and 3 other Supervisors
New Support Volunteers: 1 Volunteer
New Tag Wrangling Volunteers: Lute, Sobriquett, Soppon, and 1 other Tag Wrangling Supervisor
New Translation Volunteers: 1 Translator
New User Response Translation Volunteers: Jennifer D2 and 3 other Liaisons

Departing Committee Chairs: 1 Fanlore Chair
Departing Development & Membership Volunteers: 1 Graphic Designer
Departing Fanlore Volunteers: hheyhalley (Chair Track Volunteer), 1 Policy & Admin Volunteer, 1 Social Media & Outreach Volunteer, 1 Social Media Moderator, and 1 Outreach Analyst
Departing Finance Volunteers: 1 Financial Analyst
Departing Open Doors Volunteers: Amanda Hartley and 1 other Administrative Volunteer, 3 Import Assistants, and 1 Technical Volunteer
Departing Policy & Abuse Volunteers: 3 Volunteers
Departing Support Volunteers: Luthor
Departing Tag Wrangling Volunteers: Echo H and 10 other Tag Wranglers
Departing Translation Volunteers: angrytomato, Maya Habee, Sina, yohanna, and 2 other Translators
Departing TWC Volunteers: 1 Proofreader
Departing Volunteers & Recruiting Volunteers: aliceslantern
Departing Webs Volunteers: 1 Webs Volunteer

For more information about our committees and their regular activities, you can refer to the committee pages 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.