Archive of Our Own ^beta

The Harry Potter FanFic Archive, a Harry Potter fanfiction archive run by Chad (CazBandit), is being imported to the Archive of Our Own (AO3).

In this post:

• A bit of background explanation
• What this means for creators who have works on The Harry Potter FanFic Archive
• And what to do if you still have questions

Background explanation

The creator and owner of HPFanFicArchive.com, Chad (CazBandit), died suddenly in March of 2020, but with the help of its new custodian HPFanFicArchive.com will continue through the Archive of Our Own (AO3).

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 the custodian of the Harry Potter FanFic Archive to import it 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 Harry Potter FanFic Archive will be hosted on the OTW's servers and embedded in their own AO3 work pages. Eventually links to the old site will redirect to the collection on AO3, which can be searched and filtered in order to locate individual imported works.

Please note that The Harry Potter FanFic Archive will be closed to new and updated works from 12 December 2021, at which time we will take a full backup. The site will be permanently closed down on 31 December 2021.

We will begin importing works from The Harry Potter FanFic Archive to the AO3 after December 2021.

What does this mean for creators who have works on The Harry Potter FanFic Archive?

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

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

Please contact Open Doors with your Harry Potter FanFic Archive pseud(s) and email address(es), if:

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

Please include the name of the archive in the subject heading of your email. If you no longer have access to the email account associated with your Harry Potter FanFic Archive 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 Harry Potter FanFic Archive custodian 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 Harry Potter FanFic Archive

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 The Harry Potter FanFic Archive on Fanlore. If you're new to wiki editing, no worries! Check out the new visitor portal, or ask the Fanlore Gardeners for tips.

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

We're excited to be able to help preserve the Harry Potter FanFic Archive!

- The Open Doors team and the HPFFA custodian

In these recent releases, we added the ability to freeze comment threads on works and news posts; added a limit to the number of tags on works; and prepared the site for localization, starting with our email notifications. As usual, there are also bug fixes and behind-the-scenes improvements. A special thank you to our first-time contributors Chantal, Daroc Alden, Gareth Bedford, Jonathan Means, Julia Feitosa, Kate Boyd, katzenfabrik, NightGlyde, Rudolf M. Schreier (ThePadawan), and Sharra Neely!

Credits

• Coders: ahiijny, Chantal, cosette, Daroc Alden, Enigel, Gareth Bedford, james_, Jonathan Means, Julia Feitosa, Kate Boyd, katzenfabrik, korrien, NightGlyde, redsummernight, Rudolf M. Schreier (ThePadawan), Sarken, Sharra Neely, ticking instant, tlee911
• Code reviewers: james_, redsummernight, Sarken, ticking instant
• Testers: Ant, Bea, Chrome, CJ Record, Claire Baker, Claudia, GoldenFalls, Huey, Izzy, james_, Lady Oscar, Laure Dauban, lydia-theda, mumble, Nary, Nat, Priscilla, Paula, QED, Qem, Rebecca Sentance, redsummernight, Ridicully, Runt, Sammie Louise, Sarken, Teyke

Details

0.9.298

Comment freezing and news post comment settings, deployed on February 12th. We missed this release from the last change log post...

• [AO3-4709] - We added comment freezing to all comments.
• [AO3-5880] - Anonymous series used to be included in the Recent Series list on your dashboard, spoiling the whole anonymous thing a bit. They're no longer there.
• [AO3-5928] - We disabled automatic schema dumping after migrations, since we prefer to do manual updates and it was causing annoying error messages.
• [AO3-5972] - It's now possible to delete a comment that's been marked as spam even if it has replies.
• [AO3-6027] - Admins can now turn off or restrict comments to registered users on admin posts.
• [AO3-6078] - There was escaped HTML in the success message when deleting works with certain characters in the titles. We've fixed that now.
• [AO3-6105] - We added a check to make sure edited tag set nominations belong to the tag set specified in the URL.
• [AO3-6107] - We updated the nokogiri gem to 1.11.0.
• [AO3-6108] - For better performance, we now cache comment counts in more places.
• [AO3-6111] - Also for better performance, we changed the way additional kudos are loaded at the bottom of works.
• [AO3-6115] - We fixed the rate limiting on log in attempts.
• [AO3-6122] - We made some changes to wrangling that had the unintended side effect of preventing some tags from being added to works (and making works that already used those tags impossible to edit). We reverted those wrangling changes.
• [AO3-6123] - We updated the mechanize gem to 2.7.7.
• [AO3-6124] - We made it so editing the comment settings on an admin post will update the settings for translations of the post as well -- that way, no one has to manually edit a few dozen posts.

0.9.306

Various tag clean-up tasks and security fixes, deployed on July 27th.

• [AO3-6187] - It was previously possible to set your works' "revised at" information to whatever you wanted, including a date in the future. Now we prevent that.
• [AO3-6126] - Trying to delete a work that had comment threads with deleted comments in the middle used to cause an error, but now the work will be deleted successfully.
• [AO3-6193] - We've fixed some flaky automated test failures for editing works.
• [AO3-5941] - We've made it faster for database admins to find out which accounts have used certain IP addresses.
• [AO3-5922] - We've also made it faster for them to look up comments by email.
• [AO3-6186] - We cleaned up some unused bits of code relating to prompts, to make things neater.
• [AO3-6195] - We also removed some unused scripts that were used for setting up development and staging databases. 🧹
• [AO3-5988] - There were some works in our database with non-canonical Rating and Category tags (e.g. "Teen & Up Audiences" instead of "Teen And Up Audiences"), so we added some code that would take care of those works and get rid of the erroneous tags.
• [AO3-6065] - We then made sure that works without a rating would receive the "Not Rated" tag (because otherwise those works were broken).
• [AO3-5964] - There were duplicates of tags, except with spaces added at the beginning or end, which led to problems when trying to edit the space-less tags. We made those duplicates more visibly distinct and thus manageable.
• [AO3-6110] - It was previously possible to add a parent skin of your choice to any skin you wanted, which really should not be possible! So we took care of that interesting little loophole.
• [AO3-5679] - On the page where moderators edit challenge assignments before sending them, we weren't properly sanitizing the input our autocomplete received from the "Giver" and "Recipient" fields. We've fixed that.
• [AO3-6165] - Whether deliberately or by accident, guest commenters sometimes enter other people's email addresses when leaving a comment. When someone replies to those comments, an annoyed person who has never used AO3 in their life writes in to complain, and then an annoyed volunteer has to manually update the email on the comment after another annoyed volunteer bans the email from being used in future comments. Now banning the email will prevent the sending of any future replies to comments from that address, eliminating one level of annoyance. (Please double check your email when you leave a guest comment! Only you can prevent annoyance fires!)
• [AO3-6165] - We updated the addressable gem from 2.7.0 to 2.8.0.

0.9.307

Tag limit on works plus some code clean-up, deployed on August 26th.

• [AO3-6094] - When sending an invitation code to someone, there should be a record of when it was sent. For some reason, there wasn't. Now this information is properly stored and displayed.
• [AO3-5565] - It was previously possible to bookmark the same work multiple times (i.e. if you had it open in different tabs). Since you really only need one (1) bookmark of a work, we make sure to prevent duplicates now.
• [AO3-5049] - Trying to change your email address to one already in use would result in a confusing little stack of error messages, some of which weren't even relevant. We now just give you the one that tells you that you'll have to pick a different email address, which is more helpful.
• [AO3-6206] - We updated the text of the email that is sent to a user when an admin hides one of their works.
• [AO3-6205] - We have added a user's ID to the user page accessed by admins, e.g. members of the Policy and Abuse team.
• [AO3-6153] - We introduced a limit to the number of tags that can be added to a work, requiring you to remove tags if you want to edit an existing work that goes over the new limit.
• [AO3-6196] - In our automated tests, we were using the contents of actual works graciously provided by volunteers. We have now replaced this text with more neutral placeholders.
• [AO3-6181] - We did some rewriting of the challenge signup code to make it less redundant.
• [AO3-5557] - We removed tests, code, and config variables for emailing abuse reports to the Policy & Abuse committee (since they already get a copy in their ticket tracker).
• [AO3-6070] - We still had some insecure http links languishing in the footer; those are now proper https links as well.
• [AO3-6149] - There used to be an admin-only page displaying the most recent comments across the whole site. It served no actual purpose, so we got rid of it.
• [AO3-6069] - Our linters (tools that analyze code for style or security issues) were living in a separate file from our other gems because one of them didn't play nice with our development environments. We figured out how to fix that and moved them into the file with our other gems.

0.9.308

Bug fixes and lots of internationalization work, deployed on November 1.

• [AO3-6188] - While all tag wranglers can make changes to a tag's diacritics or capitalization, only admins can make more significant edits to tag names. However, we mistakenly allowed wranglers to change any Asian characters in tag names, which definitely fell into the category of "significant edits." We've fixed it so only admins can change those characters.
• [AO3-6168] - The position of the button for leaving kudos will no longer cause the first line of kudos-givers to wrap prematurely.
• [AO3-6120] - When users access the Archive via a proxy, we display a security warning. However, the warning was appearing even for some addresses we own, causing confusion and concern. We've fixed that now.
• [AO3-6038] - We now give an error message if the comment you're replying to was marked as spam before you posted your reply. (Previously, the reply would be posted.)
• [AO3-3828] - We've made it so the automatic text on a work posted in response to a prompt in a Prompt Meme will now link to that prompt.
• [AO3-3642] - A wrangling error message that linked to the wrong tag due to non-escaped quotation marks will now link to the correct tag.
• [AO3-6220] - We updated some outdated FAQ links in some emails, as well as in the Terms of Service and Terms of Service FAQ.
• [AO3-6209] - We added some new database indexes related to tag sets to speed things up a bit.
• [AO3-6109] - For the third (and hopefully last!) time, we updated the configuration for the service our translators will use when translating emails and site copy.
• [AO3-6103] - We did a whole bunch of work to make the text of our emails more consistent so it will be easier to translate them.
• [AO3-5731] - If you didn't include a name in your support ticket, there was an extra space in the greeting of the emailed copy of your ticket. The space has been removed.
• [AO3-5372] - We've tweaked the padding on bookmarks to make it more consistent across the site.
• [AO3-2380] - Autocomplete tag suggestions will no longer rely on what the user enters matching the tag's diacritics, e.g., typing A should return results for  and vice versa.
• [AO3-6234] - We regenerated the list of false positives and issues that still need fixing raised by our security scanner.
• [AO3-6221] & [AO3-6222] - We updated the text of the Support and Policy & Abuse forms to reflect recent changes to the committees' responsibilities.
• [AO3-4311] - Changing the ISO code for an existing locale with an FAQ used to cause all FAQ pages to give a 500 error. Now the FAQs will continue to work!
• [AO3-6164] - It was possible to create an invalid FAQ category and cause all the FAQ pages to error. Fixing that seemed like a thing we should do, so we did it.

0.9.309

There's a limit on how many kudos guests can give in a certain time period, and on November 8, we deployed a JavaScript tweak to make that more user-friendly.

• [AO3-6252] - We added a helpful little error message in case you try to leave kudos and run into the rate limit.

I. LEGAL ADVOCACY

Legal received some great news in October: the U.S. Copyright Office renewed the vidders’ exemption to the DMCA anti-circumvention provisions. In other words, we have won an additional three years of the existing exemption that allows vidders to decrypt DVDs, Blu-rays, or online sources for purposes of making noncommercial vids. Legal had previously submitted comments to the U.S. Copyright Office arguing for renewal and clarification of the vidders’ exemption earlier this year.

II. AT THE AO3

Open Doors announced the upcoming import of Of Elves and Men and completed the import of Gilmore Girls Adult Fic.

Policy & Abuse had a slight increase in tickets, with their numbers looking to be 2,400 new tickets by the end of October. Support received a typical number of tickets this month as well, with a special shout-out to Translation, who consistently provide translations for about 10% of Support's tickets.

In September, Tag Wrangling handled more than 340,000 tags across 46,000 fandoms.

III. ELSEWHERE AT THE OTW

Development & Membership ran a successful October Membership Drive--By Fans, For Fans--with news posts coordinated with Communications that Translation translated into 37 languages. The OTW raised a total of US$195,009.65, far above our goal of US$40,000. 6700 fans from 77 countries worldwide donated to the drive, and 4786 of those donors chose to begin or renew OTW membership. Thanks to everyone who donated and signal boosted!

Transformative Works and Cultures is on track for the March 2022 issue. New editors Poe Johnson and Mel Stanfill are learning the ropes, as is new managing editor Christine Mains. They also recently recruited for copyeditors and proofreaders.

Finance held a public meeting on October 16th to answer questions about the updated budget report.

IV. IT’S ALL ABOUT THE PEEPS

From 25 September to 24 October, Volunteers & Recruiting received 133 new requests, and completed 122, leaving us with 41 open requests (including induction and removal tasks listed below).

As of 24 October 2021, the OTW has 1043 volunteers. \o/ Recent personnel movements are listed below.

New Tag Wrangler Volunteers: Alastaire, Arcadia, Avery Renee, Carbon, Clemantines, EJ Bell, FatalGrace, faultystart, Fin, friki, Gretal, Ibdreams, Juhos, L. Rex, ladyvgrey, lawly, Leevie, LilianaMelo16, Lix Song, Malini, marevitreum, Minnie, Moche, Morgan Y, Schnikeys, Sin, Skald, Stardreamer, Tay, Tobias, VioletC and 6 other volunteers.

Departing Directors: Lex de Leon & Natalia Gruber
Departing Committee Staff: Llyrianna (Translation), Sijing Xie and 1 other AO3 Docs staffer, and 2 Support Staff
Departing Open Doors Volunteers: 2 volunteers
Departing Tag Wrangler Volunteers: flamethrowr, Rebecca Snyder and 3 other volunteers
Departing Translation Volunteers: Aatreyee, acousticAlkonost, Adhara, ambercatfish, Bibiana, Blanca Rodríguez, EisRequiem, Kockožder, Novella, Sophie K, stellahibernis, weisswald & 6 other volunteers

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.

The Disney Kink Meme, a prompt meme focusing on the Disney animated (and some live-action) films, is being imported to the Archive of Our Own (AO3).

In this post:

• A bit of background explanation
• What this means for creators who have work on The Disney Kink Meme
• And what to do if you still have questions

Background explanation

The Disney Kink Meme was originally hosted on LiveJournal, and has since been moved to Dreamwidth. Participation on Dreamwidth, however, has tapered off significantly, so the moderators want to move the prompt meme to a more active location with a long-term future.

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 krissielee and afterandalasia to import The Disney Kink Meme into separate, searchable collections on the Archive of Our Own. As part of preserving the archive in its entirety, all fanworks and unfilled prompts currently in The Disney Kink Meme will be hosted on the OTW's servers. Fulfilled prompts will be embedded in their own AO3 work pages and associated with the prompts that inspired them.

We will begin importing works from The Disney Kink Meme to the AO3 after October.

What does this mean for creators who have work on The Disney Kink Meme?

Most prompts and fanwork fills on The Disney Kink Meme were posted anonymously. All the prompts, and the anonymous fills, will be imported to the AO3 using the collection's archivist account. If the creator of a fill chose not to post anonymously, however, and if they have an email address listed on their Dreamwidth or LiveJournal profile, we will send an import notification to that email address.

We'll do our best to check for an existing copy of any works before importing. If we find a copy already on the AO3, we will invite it to the collection instead of importing it. All fanworks archived on behalf of a self-identified 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. If 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 LiveJournal or Dreamwidth pseud(s) and email address(es), if:

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

Please include the name of the archive in the subject heading of your email. If you no longer have access to the email account associated with your LiveJournal or Dreamwidth 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 Disney Kink Meme 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 The Disney Kink Meme

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 The Disney Kink Meme 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 The Disney Kink Meme!

- The Open Doors team, krissielee and afterandalasia

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 Effie, who volunteers as a TWC Outreach and Communications editor.

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

My role is fairly new! Originally, I applied to be an editor of Transformative Works and Cultures’ Symposium section. However, during my interview with Kristina and Karen I ended up discussing ideas for outreach and communications at length. This eventually led to the creation of my role: Outreach and Communications Editor. My main focus is on the journal’s social media presence, namely Tumblr and Twitter, though I also make sure that any calls for papers are posted around the Internet as well. I am hoping to scale up TWC’s outreach so that an even wider breadth of scholars (and fans!) feel confident submitting to the journal. Additionally, as I continue on with the role, I will take over most of the outward facing communications including press releases. This takes the task off the editors’ desks, which enables them to focus on what they do best, and allows for a more uniform tone across the journal’s communications.

I’ve been with OTW for years, though! I began volunteering on Fanlore back in 2018 and am still a member of the Fanlore social media team, though I have taken more of a backseat in that role.

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

My weeks are pretty atypical and dependent on what (if anything) is coming out of TWC – not to mention that, this being a new role, I’m still trying to find the right rhythm for our social media. Moving forward, I think the weeks surrounding an issue release will be busiest, as I intend to get a few social media posts out leading up to the release and then, of course, focus on the release on the day of but also for a few weeks afterward! I think the opportunity to have a stronger presence on social media is one that we shouldn’t miss out on and I’m eager for the journal’s presence to be felt! On quieter weeks, I intend to remind followers of our upcoming calls for paper, as well as highlight pieces from recently released issues.

What made you decide to volunteer?

I have quite a lot of editorial experience and it’s something I love to engage in. I actually run my own young adult literary journal and have been on staff at AGNI literary journal for over half a decade. Social media is a big part of what I do in both of those roles, so I’ve become fairly confident in that area. At first, when I applied to be a Symposium editor, I did so because I enjoy editing but also because I think the Symposium section of TWC is wonderful. It offers authors and readers opportunities to start discussions on a variety of topics but, perhaps even more importantly, it’s a space for fan meta. But in the conversation/interview for that role, I got really carried away with what appears to be a passion of mine: outreach and communications. When Kristina and Karen offered me this new role, I was really pleased. I’m a devout reader of TWC and have felt, for a while now, that the work it produces needs to be read by more people! So I’m really thrilled to be part of the process in getting this work into people’s hands, so to speak!

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

The biggest challenges I’ve found, in both my Fanlore work and in this new role at TWC, are (1) understanding the scope of OTW and the systems it has in place and (2) project planning. For the first challenge, I think it’s really easy to be a user of one, or many, of the OTW’s resources and not realize the amount of work that goes into each aspect of this massive organization. The Fanlore team alone, between social media staffers, graphic designers, gardeners, etc is made up of at least a couple dozen volunteers. TWC is also made up of a large group of volunteers and these are only two of the many projects under the OTW umbrella. At first, it is a little overwhelming to grasp who all does what and how! I still found this to be the case when I moved into my new role, despite being on Fanlore for so many years!

The second challenge, which is perhaps a more personal one, is more focused on project and time management. Being a volunteer for such a large organization means that you are responsible for ensuring you pull your weight within the role, or else other aspects might be delayed. It also requires pre-planning and recognizing that dedicated time must be set aside for your tasks. As a PhD student, I am aware of this to a degree but I think when we take on service/volunteer roles, there’s a danger of not giving it the importance it should hold. I will admit, this was something I had to adapt to (mentally) when I came on to the Fanlore team and, again, as a part of TWC, I am re-adjusting to ensure that I accomplish what I want to within the role. Luckily, the teams and communities that make up the OTW are incredible. During my time as a volunteer, I have encountered nothing but encouragement, support, and kindness from everyone I’ve interacted with. It’s truly wonderful being part of the team.

What fannish things do you like to do?

I often feel like a fraud when I say this but…the only fannish thing I do is read fanfiction! But fanfiction is a cornerstone of my life and has been for almost 25 years. In fact, it’s so crucial to who I am that I’m pursuing a PhD in media studies with a dissertation focused on fanfiction, storytelling, and new media platforms!

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 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 an experienced copyeditor or proofreader? Would you like to help translate OTW/AO3 news posts? Are you a frequent Tumblr user who enjoys helping others? Do you want to write technical documentation? Or manage infrastructure projects? The Organization for Transformative Works is recruiting!

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

• News Translation Volunteer - closing 27 October 2021 at 23:59 UTC
• Tumblr Site Moderator - closing 27 October 2021 at 23:59 UTC [or after 40 applications]
• TWC Copyeditor - closing 27 October 2021 at 23:59 UTC
• TWC Proofreader - closing 27 October 2021 at 23:59 UTC
• Systems Technical Writer - closing 27 October 23:59 UTC
• Systems Committee Project Manager - closing 27 October 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.

News Translation Volunteer

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, Bulgarian, Chinese, Croatian, Danish, Dutch, Estonian, Filipino, Finnish, Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Japanese, Korean, Kyrgyz, Lithuanian, Macedonian, Marathi, Norwegian, Persian, Romanian, Serbian, Sinhala, Slovak, Slovenian, Thai, Ukrainian and Welsh — but help with other languages would be much appreciated.

(Please note that our Catalan, Czech, French, German, Indonesian, Italian, Malay, Polish, Brazilian Portuguese, European Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Swedish, Turkish, and Vietnamese 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 October 27, 2021

Tumblr Site Moderator

The Communications Committee is recruiting a Tumblr Site Moderator to manage the Organization for Transformative Works' presence on Tumblr, the social networking site.

The moderator will be part of a small team of social media moderators working across the OTW's social media outlets. They will be expected to maintain an active presence on Tumblr, reblogging a range of posts of relevance and interest to the OTW's userbase. They will also handle incoming user queries and manage responses to the OTW's original news content.

This position is part of the Communications Committee. Communications is the main information distribution team for the OTW. We distribute information both internally to OTW personnel and externally to the general public, media, and fans. We also serve as the general first point of contact for those contacting the OTW.

For this position, we would like to find someone who is familiar with the conventions of Tumblr posting and has experience moderating a social media page. We would also be interested in hearing from those with customer service experience, especially in an online environment. We will expect you to have an interest in fandom at large and an understanding of the concerns and activities of the OTW (although we will of course provide you with training once you start). You should enjoy working in a team and you will need to have roughly 4-5 hours of time available across the week to dedicate to your OTW responsibilities.

If you're a frequent Tumblr user who enjoys helping others, has wide-ranging interests across the fandom space, and is curious and willing to learn, we'd love to hear from you!

Applications are due October 27, 2021 [or after 40 applications]

TWC Copyeditor

Transformative Works and Cultures (TWC) is an international peer-reviewed Gold Open Access online publication about fan-related topics that seeks to promote dialogue between the academic community and fan communities.

Copyeditors professionally copyedit submissions for TWC according to Chicago Manual of Style (CMOS) 17, Merriam-Webster online, and the TWC style guide. Editorial standards are those of a university press. Applicants are required to pass a brief test. All returned tests will be assessed and the applicant provided with feedback.

Applications are due October 27, 2021

TWC Proofreader

Transformative Works and Cultures (TWC) is an international peer-reviewed Gold Open Access online publication about fan-related topics that seeks to promote dialogue between the academic community and fan communities.

Proofreaders carefully proofread the final online HTML-tagged manuscripts for online publication according to Chicago Manual of Style (CMOS) 17, Merriam-Webster online, and the TWC style guide. Editorial standards are those of a university press. Applicants are required to pass a brief test. All returned tests will be assessed and the applicant provided with feedback.

Applications are due October 27, 2021

Systems Technical Writer

The Systems Committee supports, troubleshoots, and expands the technological infrastructure that underlies the OTW’s many projects.

Come help us keep on top of all of this technical information! We are looking for a skilled writer who will take the lead in ensuring our documentation is comprehensive and comprehensible, to help with training new team members and increasing knowledge transfer within Systems and from Systems to the wider OTW.

Applications are due October 27, 2021

Systems Committee Project Manager

The Systems Committee supports, troubleshoots, and expands the technological infrastructure that underlies the OTW’s many projects.

We need a Project Manager to help us to keep track of the many things that we're trying to achieve at once; to help with managing vendors, budget, and expenses; to liaise with other parts of the OTW, and to assist the Chair in managing the Systems Committee.

We are seeking someone who is organized, dedicated, and has strong leadership skills. A background in managing technical projects is a plus but not required. Good communication and interpersonal skills are a must, as we work remotely and are sometimes in the midst of dealing with sudden, stressful technical problems.

Applications are due October 27, 2021

Apply at the volunteering page!

The Organization for Transformative Works’s October membership drive is over, and we’re delighted to say that we raised a total of US$195,009.65, far outstripping our goal of US$40,000. This was made possible by the generosity of 6700 donors from 77 countries worldwide, of whom 4786 chose to begin or renew OTW membership. We are so grateful, as always, for our global community. Thank you! Your support enables us to continue working in service of our mission: to further the interests of the fans we represent by providing access to and preserving the history of fanworks and fan culture in all its many forms.

We would also like to thank the volunteers whose service made this drive run so smoothly, and all of the users who posted, tweeted, and talked about the drive to their friends and acquaintances. Your help is invaluable in helping us to achieve our goals. We appreciate you all so much!

Finally, if you haven’t yet had time to make a contribution, don’t worry! We accept donations all year round. OTW membership, which is available to those making donations of US$10 and above, lasts for a full year from the date of the most recent US$10 donation; so anybody donating now will be eligible to vote in next year’s election for the OTW Board of Directors. The thank-you gifts we offer for donations of US$40 or above are also available on an ongoing basis. It’s always a good time to give!

The Organization for Transformative Works is a labor of love. It was created by fans, for fans. We are a nonprofit organization, and we rely 100% on donations: the donation of time from our volunteers, and the donation of funds from the community we serve. Today marks the beginning of our biannual membership drive, when we ask that those of you who are able to do so consider making a financial contribution to support our work. You can read about how we spend your money in our budget.

Your donations to the OTW support our work across all our projects: from the Archive of Our Own to Fanlore; from our academic journal, Transformative Works and Cultures, to our fanworks rescue project Open Doors and our Legal committee’s advocacy for transformative works worldwide. Donors also benefit more directly. With any one-time donation of US$10 or more, you can choose to take up an annual membership of the OTW, giving you the right to vote for our Board of Directors in the election that we hold in August every year.

Members also receive a digital icon which can be used on your AO3 or on social media profiles; and those who have maintained OTW membership for three, five, or ten years are eligible for exclusive commemorative gifts. Find out more about membership and voting here.

Those making donations of US$40 or above are able to select from a number of thank-you gifts. New this year are an OTW tumbler in limited-edition white, and a brand-new sticker set. If you can’t afford to make a donation of this size, don’t worry: we’ve got you. You can opt to set up a recurring donation at a level that suits you and let our Development and Membership team know which premium you’d like to save up for. Once your donations hit the eligible level, they will dispatch your gift.

The Organization for Transformative Works is a registered non-profit in the US, and donors in this country may be able to take advantage of matched giving schemes from their employer. Please consider speaking to your workplace to find out whether this is a possibility for you!

If you aren’t able to make a donation this time, please consider sharing this post with others, and know that we appreciate your support however you are able to give it. Thank you for your money, your time, and your love. We wouldn’t be here without it!