Archive of Our Own ^beta

Open Doors is pleased to announce the completion of 9 archive import projects in 2025, plus an additional 5 subcollections, a total of over 34,000 works! We hope that you will find old and new favorites in the collections listed below.

Remembering Tiger Lily Roar

Completed: February 2025

Remembering Tiger Lily Roar is a memorial account for fanfiction written by Tiger Lily Roar, who was active in many fandoms, especially Young Justice. This memorial account was set up with the assistance of Open Doors with permission from Tiger Lily Roar’s family and is maintained by Eva.

Find works at the Remembering Tiger Lily Roar AO3 account.

For more information about the archive and its move to the AO3, see the Remembering Tiger Lily Roar import announcement post. To learn the history of the archive or to share some stories of your own, check out the Tiger Lily Roar Fanlore page.

due South Seekrit Santa

Completed: March 2025

due South Seekrit Santa (dSSS) is an annual gift exchange challenge for fans of due South. The dSSS archive was originally on http://dsss.crocolanthus.com/. After many attempts to communicate with the server admin/owner went unanswered, the crocolanthus dSSS archive went offline, and the domain name was lost. To preserve the archive, the works from the 2004-2009 exchanges were imported to AO3 by Open Doors and dSSS.

Find works at the due South Seekrit Santa AO3 collection.

For more information about the archive and its move to the AO3, see the due South Seekrit Santa import announcement post. To learn the history of the archive or to share some stories of your own, check out the due South Seekrit Santa Fanlore page.

Snow Lands

Completed: April 2025

Snow Lands was a fanfiction and fan comic archive for The Lion King (1994 animated movie) online until June 2023 and was run by Athari. The website hosted works in English and Russian and preserved some of the fandom’s masterpieces.

Find works at the Snow Lands AO3 collection.

For more information about the archive and its move to the AO3, see the Snow Lands’ import announcement post. To learn the history of the archive or to share some stories of your own, check out the Snow Lands Fanlore page.

Slash Advent Calendar

Completed: May 2025

The Slash Advent Calendar was a multifandom slash challenge that ran every December from 2002 to 2005. Founded by kira-nerys at Lady Kardasi Productions, it included works from fandoms such as Star Trek, Harry Potter, The Sentinel, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The archive went offline in 2010.

Find works at the Slash Advent Calendar AO3 collection.

For more information about the archive and its move to the AO3, see the Slash Advent Calendar import announcement post. To learn the history of the archive or to share some stories of your own, check out the Slash Advent Calendar Fanlore page.

My Mongoose Ezines

Completed: August 2025

My Mongoose is a Sentinel fanfiction and fanart ezine collection archive. In an effort to consolidate all My Mongoose Ezines, including all stories, art and miscellaneous, the creator and moderators decided to house the works at Archive of our Own.

Find works at the My Mongoose AO3 collection.

For more information about the archive and its move to the AO3, see the My Mongoose import announcement post. To learn the history of the archive or to share some stories of your own, check out the My Mongoose Fanlore page.

Stayka’s Saint Seiya Archive

Completed: October 2025

Stayka’s Saint Seiya Archive was a Saint Seiya fansite that started in 1998. It was an important early contributor to the Saint Seiya fandom, as one of the first sites on the internet to use English, unifying the uniquely global and diverse fan following. The site went offline in 2019, after which Tracy began contacting individual creators and collecting permission to ensure permanent preservation.

Find works at the Stayka’s Saint Seiya Archive collection.

For more information about the archive and its move to the AO3, see the Stayka’s Saint Seiya Archive import announcement post. To learn the history of the archive or to share some stories of your own, check out the Stayka’s Saint Seiya Archive Fanlore page.

Oz Magi

Completed: November 2025

Oz Magi is an annual gift exchange for the HBO Oz fandom that has been active since 2004 on LiveJournal and Dreamwidth. The moderator created an AO3 collection for Oz Magi in 2012, but wanted to also archive the earlier fanworks. This will be an ongoing import, with each year’s fanworks being transferred across to AO3 on behalf of the creators.

The related imports of HBO Oz archives Unit B and Twisted Sisterhood are still in progress.

Find works at the Oz Magi AO3 collection.

For more information about the archive and its move to the AO3, see the Unit B, Twisted Sisterhood and Oz Magi import announcement post. To learn the history of the archive or to share some stories of your own, check out the Oz Magi Fanlore page.

InDeath.net Fan Fiction

Completed: November 2025

InDeath.net Fan Fiction is a fanfiction archive for the In Death book series by Nora Roberts, writing as J.D. Robb. It was a sub-section of the InDeath.net forum community, and the forum had sections for discussing fanfiction posted to the InDeath.net Fan Fiction archive.

Find works at the InDeath.net Fan Fiction AO3 collection.

For more information about the archive and its move to the AO3, see the InDeath.net import announcement post. To learn the history of the archive or to share some stories of your own, check out the InDeath.net Fanlore page.

Absolution - The Inugrrrl Memorial

Completed: December 2025

Inugrrrl was a longtime fan and fanfiction writer of InuYasha and the InuYasha/Kagome pairing. In her own words, she was known for “writing characterization-breaking, smut-filled, angst-riddled, alternate universe pulp fiction without a hint of shame, regret, or apology.” She was active in the fanbase from 2005-2024. Inugrrrl tragically passed away in June of 2024 and her daughter wished for her mother’s fanworks to remain online for the fanbase to enjoy.

Find works written by Inugrrrl at the Absolution - The Inugrrrl Memorial AO3 account, and works gifted to Inugrrrl at the Inugrrrl's Gifted Fics collection.

For more information about the archive and its move to the AO3, see the Absolution - The Inugrrrl Memorial import announcement post. To learn the history of Inugrrrl or to share some stories of your own, check out the Inugrrrl Fanlore page.

And one more...

In June 2025, Open Doors imported the following subcollections from FictionAlley: AstronomyTower, HPInkPot, Riddikulus, Schnoogle, and TheDarkArts.

Find works at the FictionAlley AO3 collection.

ArtisticAlley is yet to be imported, which means the import of FictionAlley is still ongoing.

For more information about the archive and its move to the AO3, see the FictionAlley import announcement post. To learn the history of the archive or to share some stories of your own, check out the FictionAlley Fanlore page.

We want to give a huge THANK YOU to all of the archivists and volunteers who made these imports possible, as well as all the creators who have transferred or claimed their works! We look forward to importing more archives in 2026.

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

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

Last November we asked the community to submit questions to our OTW volunteers in celebration of International Volunteer Day. In this series of posts we will spotlight some of our committees' responses.

The Volunteers & Recruiting committee (VolCom) is in charge of inducting, retiring, and placing volunteers on hiatus. They handle personnel records and tool access, as well as assisting with the formation of new committees, subcommittees, and workgroups.

We asked VolCom for replies to your questions, and received a lot of feedback! Below you can find a selection of their answers:

Volunteers & Recruiting Committee Specific Questions

Question: Sometimes I want to help the OTW, and consider applying for a volunteer position like tag wrangling, but I don't have a lot of time to commit. Is there anything I can do sporadically, or without a lot of time per week?
Committee answer:
All of our roles come with a weekly time expectation—when we recruit for a role, we post a position description, it's listed there. For some roles, the time requirement starts at two hours per week, while for others it may be five hours or more. How this time is split up in a week depends a lot on the role.
If you find yourself not having enough time to volunteer, but still want to support the OTW, please take a look at our How You Can Help page.

Question: Since this is a non-profit organization, if I wanted to become a volunteer (for fun and because I care about the work being done here), would I be able to use my time as legitimate service hours? (for highschool for example)
Committee answer:
The OTW is a registered 501(c)(3) non-profit organization in the United States, but whether we are a good fit for legitimate service hours depends on the specific requirements your school/work/etc may have. Our volunteers usually do not volunteer under the name they use at school or at work, but if you are comfortable letting either your Chairs or the Volunteers & Recruiting committee know that name, you can receive a written proof of volunteering. If there are other requirements, e.g. a proof of volunteered hours, we can't guarantee that this will be possible for all roles. If you are considering this option, please reach out to the relevant committee via the contact form to discuss what's possible.

Question: Is there a limit to how many times someone can apply to volunteer and be rejected? How many times should you try before giving up? I've applied at least five or six times to different groups and I'm wondering if I should stop bothering you!
Committee answer:
We do not have a limit for applications to the OTW in general. However, if you've been repeatedly not accepted for a role, chances are that you are not fulfilling the requirements for that role. Additionally, some committees might have their own restrictions (see the recruitment post and/or position description). Please also consider your application quality and whether there are other reasons that might lead to you not being offered a role. You can email us and ask why an application was rejected - it depends on the committee how much feedback they are willing to give, as the goal is not to write the "perfect application". Our roles differ a lot in the skills required, so keep an eye out for other roles that might be better suited for your skill set!

Question: What types of things can be done by volunteers? I say this as someone who'd love to volunteer at some point in the future, but have no idea if I have any skill that would actually be helpful.
Committee answer:
The skill sets required from our volunteers depend a lot on the role: There are roles that require some kind of formal education or in-depth knowledge of a specific topic, such as being a lawyer or a financial analyst. Other roles, however, are teaching all required skills during the training period, for those roles it mostly depends on being the "type" for the role. For us in VolCom, it's more of the latter than the former. For example, our volunteers need to enjoy documentation work and ticking off tasks of to-do lists while being able to do work autonomously. There are many roles in the OTW that look for a specific type of person more than a person with a specific set of skills, or the skills are very transferable: Skills such as project management, navigating tricky interpersonal situations, dividing big-picture goals into actionable items, etc. If you keep an eye on our socials and the news posts, you will see us recruiting regularly. Each role comes with a position description that explains both what the volunteers in this role do, and what is required of applicants, so just watch out for a role that matches your skills and interests!

General Questions

How many hours a week do you spend on your OTW volunteer work?

• This tends to vary by week as well as by role! As a tag wrangler I used to spend about 3 hours a week on my fandoms, and though it has required some "pruning" of what fandoms I'm working on, most of mine were currently consistent enough that this is a pretty stable amount of time for me. For Volunteers & Recruiting, where I serve as both volunteer and co-chair, the time is a lot more fluid. For volunteer-specific tasks I can go between 5-10 hours a week, and for chair work that's an addition of another 3-5 hours per week. The work done isn't always in solid chunks of time -- I do try to count in the time I have even when I'm just catching up on messages from various other volunteers/committees, but in general that's where I've fallen. (Eevee)
• I'm a VolCom volunteer and it depends, but I'm mainly spending around 4 to 5 hours minimum working for my committee. It can go from processing inductions or removals or following up on a specific request we've received from an OTW member, which in this case is usually pretty easy, to bigger tasks like running recruitments or reviewing documents. In that last case, I like to take 2 solid hours during every work session to really dive into it. (Kalincka)

How do you manage your volunteer time, and do you do the same thing every day like with a day job?

• I usually block some time on my weekly calendar to get to it! Usually, I do OTW work in the evening, after I've come back from my day job. I work an 8-4, and I live fairly close to my workplace, which means that commuting doesn't eat up too much of my schedule. There are days when I don't do OTW work, but I always check my emails and Slack multiple times a day to make sure I'm not skipping something urgent. Tasks can vary so even if they're mainly cases, they vary, so I don't find it too repetitive! (Kalincka)
• I spend at least fifteen minutes every day on volunteering - keeping up with what's happening, seeing if there is anything urgent that needs to be dealt with. Usually, that means I look at my emails and our internal chat platform at least three to four times a day. This is mostly the same every day. I work on cases and on documentation frequently - sometimes that happens spontaneously, sometimes I block time in my personal calendar so I don't end up making other plans. This is not as regular and scheduled as me keeping track of what's going on in the organization and my committee, but it usually happens for a few hours every two to three days.
  I also have the benefit of having a very flexible daytime job and working a lot from home, which means a lot of my work days consist of me doing an hour of my paid job, an hour of OTW work, three hours of paid job, and so on.There are a lot of recurring tasks or categories of tasks, but it's still so many different categories of tasks that it's not getting boring. (corr)

What's your favorite part about volunteering at the OTW?

• I love meeting other volunteers and learning how the OTW works. I find it super fascinating to learn how such a large organization runs and at the same time meet the people behind the scenes of it all. (Bekyro)
• Getting to work together with so many people from all over the world who care for so many different fandoms. I have gotten to talk to people from so many countries that I would have never met otherwise. I also think that AO3 (and the whole OTW) defies a world in which value and worth are measured in financial units - we don't get paid, the writers on AO3 and Fanlore don't get paid, the readers don't get paid. Being a part of this awesome project makes me proud and happy. (corr)

What's the aspect of volunteer work with the OTW that you most wish more people knew about?

• We don't have shareholders or people with financial interests that tell us what to do. We're all regular fandom people who love fandom and want to maintain a place that's a home (an archive) to all transformative works. Sometimes, when I browse through discussions about the OTW, I get the feeling that people don't know that we are not a for-profit company, that we are not making any money, that every wrangled tag, every written news post, every design decision for AO3, every Fanlore policy, all of these things are made by fandom people in their free time. We're doing this not because we want to earn money with AO3 or the other projects, but because we love fandom and are dedicated to the OTW's mission. (corr)
• There is a lot more to the OTW than AO3! I encourage people to check out Open Doors and the other projects the OTW is holding up, it's worth a look. I know I've learned so much thanks to Fanlore, and I didn't even know that it was OTW volunteers that upheld this platform. (Kalincka)

What does a typical day as an OTW volunteer looks like for you?

• There's one thing that never changes, and it's checking emails/cases/messages. It's the foundation of my typical day. The tasks in themselves always vary. As a VolCom volunteer I'm pretty sure I do at least one removal per week. (Kalincka)
• I check my emails and our chat platform multiple times a day to monitor if something urgent comes up - as I get sent an email for every change in our cases, I also keep track of those like that. That's what I do every day. On days that I do active work, I focus either on documentation, training, or handling cases, and spend one to five hours doing that. (corr)

What is your favorite animal? Alternatively, do you have a favorite breed of cat/dog?

• My favorite animal are sheep! Unfortunately, I don't own any sheep. My favorite breed of cat is trash can kitty, all of the cats I have are the ones nobody at the shelter wanted, and they are the best cats I've ever met (I might be biased). (corr)
• I would have to say birds, especially parrots. I love Sun conures, but cockatiels are definitely high up there too (if they weren’t, my own would probably peck me) (yes, I am very biased). If we include fantasy creatures, dragons are also at the top (Bekyro)

Do you enjoy reading fanfic? If so, what's your favorite work on AO3?

• I love reading fanfic! It's the reason I stumbled upon the OTW in the first place. I wouldn't say I've got a single favorite fic in the entire world, but I keep a list. Off the top of my head, and since we're in an end-of-the-year period, I would heavily recommend reading this Klaus fic (formerly titled 'In the name of love'). It warms my heart every time (Kalincka)
• I do! While I do not have any favorite fic, as I read depending on my mood, I do have a bunch I keep returning to. I’m scared to check how big my collection of fics I reread has gotten nowadays. (Bekyro)

Do you write any fanfic yourself? What do you enjoy about it?

• I do, even if it's less than I'd like due to lack of time. I have about 350k words published on AO3 and half a million in drafts, which is what I wrote in the last four years.
  I like to get my readers to yell at me. My writer discord is really good at getting upset with me, if I'm not being insulted for hurting their feelings, I didn't do my job right. I am mostly a character-driven writer, and I like to put my characters into situations or make them face negative consequences. I also love to write healing, but I am decidedly not a fluff writer - the things I write as comfort for myself tend to get comments of people saying that I still hurt them. (corr)
• I do, though ironically not as much since I started volunteering for the OTW. I love expanding on the worlds given to us, doing missing scenes, fixing tragedies from canon, or imagining canon-compliant AUs (I promise, these are possible!). (Eevee)
• I do not, to the despair of my fic writing friends. Although I may give it a try sometime if the mood strikes. (Bekyro)

What fandoms are you (currently) in?

• I've not been super active in fandom spaces lately, but the last time I was active was in Haikyuu!! and SK8. Recently I've fallen into a danmei rabbit hole starting with 2ha but I haven't read/written much in it. I also read a lot of bl manhwa/manga! (Eevee)
• A few years ago, I read this questionable book series called All For The Game by Nora Sakavic, and I have accepted my fate of living in this fandom. I love-hate the books, I love-hate the fandom, and I have found amazing friends in the fandom. Apart from that, I read a lot fandom-blind, as I am looking for specific kinds of stories or tropes. (corr)

Do you feel glad or proud to see fanfiction in your mother tongue?

• I love that they exist! I think AO3 was one of the first sites where I saw the language I grew up speaking as an option and something about that felt so validating? I don't read in my native language, but I come across them when translations are requested for tags in my native language and I'm always so excited when they show up. (Eevee)
• While I don’t read any of them myself, I do find it nice knowing they exist. Especially as my native tongue is a smaller one, and it normally tends to drown among the countless bigger languages that exists (Bekyro)

Thanks so much to every volunteer who took the time to answer!

(For more answers, check out this work on AO3, where we collect additional replies to each question!)

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

Are you a current or former Digital Humanities or Library and Information Science student? The Organization for Transformative Works is recruiting!

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

• Open Doors Digital Collections Intern - closing 29 January 2026 at 23:59 UTC or after 40 applications

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.

Open Doors Digital Collections Intern

Open Doors is a committee dedicated to preserving fanworks in their many formats, and we’re looking for a temporary intern to support this goal. The work we do preserves fan history, love, and dedication to fandom: we keep fanworks from offline and at-risk archives from being lost, divert fanzines from the trash, and more.

Open Doors is seeking a current or former Digital Humanities or Library and Information Science student to join us for approximately 8-12 weeks (start date is flexible between 1 April and 1 July 2026). The intern should be able to commit at least 10-15 hours per week for the duration of the position. This internship will provide the intern with a temporary position on Open Doors during which they will complete at least one of several available relevant projects while learning more about the committee’s work. The primary project available is to scope and gather requirements for a digital asset management system for archives/zines. However, time permitting, there may be additional projects available, such as investigating options for automating metadata cleanup.

Applicants should be studying toward (or have completed) a Library and Information Science or related degree (in the US or elsewhere in the world), and they should be fluent in written English. The position will be unpaid and entirely virtual/remote. (We may be able to work with university programs that provide compensation or credit for nonprofit work, but we cannot provide in-person supervision.) We will need your assistance connecting us to any university program that may need documentation to provide credit for you.

The intern might be offered a continuing (unpaid, not for credit) volunteer position upon completion of this internship. However, Open Doors cannot guarantee that completing this internship will result in a continuing volunteer role, and the intern will not be required to accept a continuing role if one is offered.

If you're interested, please click through to the application form! Please note you will be required to provide an unofficial college/university transcript as well as a resume/CV as part of your application. For your application to be considered, you will be required to complete a short task within 3 days of submitting your application.

Applications are due 29 January 2026 or after 40 applications

Apply for Open Doors Digital Collections Intern at the volunteering page! If you have further questions, please contact us.

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

Last November we asked the community to submit questions to our OTW volunteers in celebration of International Volunteer Day. In this series of posts we will spotlight some of our committees' responses.

The Tag Wrangling committee sorts, organizes, and connects tags used on the Archive of Our Own (AO3) website, according to Tag Wrangling guidelines, to make them more easily filterable by users. They work, for example, closely with the Support committee to handle user requests for sorting and connecting tags, and the Open Doors committee to "map" tags used in other archives.

We asked the Tag Wrangling committee for replies to your questions, and received a lot of feedback! Below you can find a selection of their answers:

Tag Wrangling Committee Specific Questions

Question: First, thank you for all the work you've been doing on the No Fandom Freeforms this year. I and many people I know are very happy about the newly canonized tags. I have been following developments on another Wrangling Policy, fandom metatags, with interest for several years, and I was excited to see an update about it in the June 2025 Newsletter (https://archiveofourown.org/admin_posts/31888). Is there anything more you can tell us about that process, like what 'phase two of three' means or what sort of timeframe we can expect to see changes to the publicly accessible Wrangling Guidelines or fandom tags?

Committee answer:
Thank you for the kind words! For major changes to the Guidelines, we have a three phase process that we work through.

• Phase 1 - Discussion and Brainstorming - The time where the initial issue to be addressed is laid out, and committee members bring forward concerns and potential solutions.
• Phase 2 - Compromise - Different fandoms have different needs and priorities, so it's not always possible to find a solution that suits everyone. During this phase, we select the solution that will work best in the widest range of cases, and discuss how the proposal can be incorporated into existing guidelines.
• Phase 3 - Drafting - Language and relevant examples are written and brought to the committee for feedback.

In terms of a timeframe, it's very dependent on how complex the initial issue is and how quickly we are able to find a solution that addresses most major concerns. While we understand that a long wait can be frustrating, making sure we take adequate time to fully understand and address all aspects of an issue should minimize negative unintended consequences and prevent the need to revisit guidelines too frequently.

Question: A couple times now, I have advised other AO3 users dealing with fandom tags that haven't been canonized, sometimes for months. I've told them to use the Support Form to raise the issue and hopefully get a wrangler designated to manage the fandom. Do you have specific advice for what to information put on the support form that would help Support and Tag Wrangling process the request?

Committee answer:
Thank you for directing users with questions or concerns to Support! That is exactly the right strategy for these situations. If a fandom tag has had a work visible on it (i.e. not in an unrevealed collection) for more than a month, you are welcome to fill in the Support form to request its canonization, using their contact form.

It’s fine to include multiple tags in the same request that you would like to have reviewed.

When you submit a Support request, it can be helpful to provide links to information on the the sources of canon as this will aid the fandom bin wranglers in identifying and actioning the fandom tag, especially if it’s difficult to search for or could easily be confused with another fandom (say, a movie with the same name released in another country).

Links to sources provided can include information databases, official websites, and places where the canon source can be purchased. They do not need to be in English, particularly if the source material is non-English (where we may need to refer to non-English sources as part of actioning the tag!) though including non-English sources may increase the number of volunteers who need to review your request.

Question: What's the process for moving an unofficial/freeform tag into a proper one you can filter with?

Committee answer:
Great question! Here is a very brief description of the life cycle of a tag.
A user adds a tag on their work. A wrangler then reviews tags in the "bins" assigned to them and determines whether the tag is fandom-specific (Example: The Force from Star Wars) or a general concept (Example: planets). If the former, the tag is "wrangled" to the particular fandom. If the latter, the tag is assigned to "No Fandom".

What happens from this point is dependent on the type of tag (Character, Relationship, or Additional). There are specific criteria for whether a tag should be made a "canonical" or a "synonym". (You can find definitions for all of these wrangling-related terms in our Tag Wrangling Guidelines). Some tags require a minimum level of usage before they will be canonized/appear in the autocomplete/filters.

General concept tags stored in No Fandom typically need to go through a special process of review and discussion by the Tag Wrangling committee before they can be canonized. This process is in place to ensure tags are organized, easily understood by users, and do not duplicate existing canonicals.

General Questions

How many hours a week do you spend on your OTW volunteer work?
This answer varies a lot in Tag Wrangling depending on what projects people are working on and their chosen self-assigned workloads. In general, many wranglers prefer not to track the specific time spent, with some of the joking answers shared including: “I reserve the right to to be silent”, “more than I probably should” and “that's between me and the hyperfixation gods”.

The reality is like Cascade says: “It varies! Sometimes just an hour or two to clean up small fandoms, other times I get into the zone and will spend 10 or more hours in busier fandoms or working on a large project.”

How do you manage your volunteer time, and do you do the same thing every day like with a day job?

• Dean makes a dollar, I make a dime, so I wrangle your tags on university's time. (For academic purposes this is a joke.) Some smaller issues (especially with smaller fandoms) can be easily resolved by taking 5 minutes away from what you're doing, but bigger jobs (big fandoms, confusing canons, loads of tags, especially untranslated tags, etc.) need plenty of time and attention, so I usually wrangle them at home in the evenings or on my days off. And not everyone wrangles every day, unless they want to and have time to do it. Every wrangler works at their own leisure (this is volunteering, after all), but we are required to work through our tag bins at least once every 2 weeks. (Ravenna)
• I have a bit of a routine of things I do most days (check small fandoms for tags, send off tags that need translations, send off tags that belong to other wranglers, and clear a few pages of tags from the active fandoms), but apart from that it varies! Some days I'll look for freeform tags that I can canonize, sometimes I'll work on internal reference pages, or sometimes I might contribute to other ongoing projects. There's always something that can be done! (Tag Wrangling volunteer)

What's your favorite part about volunteering at the OTW?

• As a tag wrangler, it amazes me just how…creative some authors can be. I have seen tags that never in my mind I could come up with, and browsed fics that I would not normally read just to see the context of those tags lol (LaReveuse)
• I love how unconventionally fun the volunteer team is. I used to assume that the OTW was all stone-cold strict behind the scenes, but, really, our wrangling work mostly consists of giggling at tags and cheering when our favorite fandoms get canonized. (Bowekatan)

What's the aspect of volunteer work with the OTW that you most wish more people knew about?

• I think more people should know about co-wrangling. Wrangling seems pretty individual, but with larger and/or more complicated fandoms, one person isn't enough and you need a team of people to take care of the fandom. There is that teamwork aspect where teams discuss new changes and ask each other questions, not to mention you can divide the work up in a configuration that works for the team. Depending on what different people prefer to handle, you might even get to avoid the kinds of tasks you don't enjoy as much if one of your co-wranglers really enjoys doing those tasks. I personally really enjoy co-wrangling and have made friends with a lot of people who I've co-wrangled with, and I don't think that aspect of wrangling is spoken about enough. (Tag Wrangling volunteer)
• I wish more people understood the sheer volume of fic posted, and therefore the astonishing number of tags we wrangle. (Jmathieson)

What does a typical day as an OTW volunteer looks like for you?

• It depends on the week, and can vary based on the workload at my real life job, my social commitments, and the volume of works in the fandoms I wrangle! I generally try to do a clean up of my smaller fandoms every day, which takes about 5-10 minutes. Since I wrangle a number of popular fandoms and mega-fandoms as well, I try to set aside at least an hour when I want to jump into those. On average, I'd say I spend at least five hours a week on wrangling, but that can greatly increase! Sometimes you just get really into the zone, and somehow five hours in one sitting have already passed! (Kenn)
• I usually do a tiny bit of wrangling every weekday so I keep my bins low on tags, and then do longer wrangling projects on the weekends. I keep an ongoing list of projects I have in mind so I don't get sucked into them during my work week. (ellexamines)

What is your favorite animal? Alternatively, do you have a favorite breed of cat/dog?

• Some favourite animals from wranglers include dogs, horses, foxes, moths (specifically domestic silkmoths), dolphins and various varieties of big cats!
• One wrangler, Loxaris specified: “Even though I like all animals, my favourites are dogs, closely followed by horses - their ancient, mutually beneficial connection with humans is what most fuels my love for them. For dog breeds, although I have a very marked preference for larger ones, I am currently captivated by the zerdava (kudos to you if you know it); a somewhat wistful dream of mine is to own one someday.”

Do you enjoy reading fanfic? If so, what's your favorite work on AO3?

• Overwhelmingly wranglers enjoy reading fanfic and it's a regular point of discussion in social chats. Lists of fanfiction recommendations are regularly shared and swapped amongst wranglers.
• I love reading. I love it so much that I currently have 4 library cards in my wallet. While the right book can be great, fanfiction is also a lot of fun! I love the unique stories that are told and seeing the creativity and humour that so many creators share with us! When I’m not ready to say goodbye to another world just yet, it’s great to have fanfic to turn to, to continue playing with that world. My favourites will change, but right now I’m quite fond of and re-reading Tossawary’s Stepping up. (Tag Wrangling volunteer)
• I love it, and read it so much I don't get around to reading published books much, RIP. My favourite is the Halo Effect series. (spacegandalf)
• Some favourites from the team include a sugar coated pill and a pick me up by whomstisthis, While Mighty Oaks Do Fall by WitchofEndor, Desert of Ghosts by rednightmare, as well as mosaic broken hearts and this is me trying by hanville, but there are many, many more favourites amongst the team!

Do you write any fanfic yourself? What do you enjoy about it?

• One of my favorite things about writing fic is posting a work for a fandom I wrangle and immediately wrangling my own tags! Writing fic is definitely a creative outlet for me and I think it’s very interesting to have both a writer and wrangler perspective on fanfic. (Xylia)
• I do! Most of the fanfic I write is not fanfic that I will ever share with the public, but I enjoy writing it for myself to get the plot bunnies out of my brain. Occasionally I will get a burst of inspiration and post a fic that I have written. One thing that I really enjoy about fanfic writing is how freeing it is. There is no obligation to be good at it, and you can write whatever you want, with no expectations aside from what you allow yourself to be held to. I don't consider myself a fantastic writer but it doesn't matter, because the point of fanfic isn't to be good at it, it's to have fun! (Tag Wrangling volunteer)

What fandoms are you (currently) in?
Wranglers are in many fandoms that are constantly changing, but a few of the current ones that were volunteered include but are not limited to:

Ooe (Visual Novel), Digimon Adventure, Kingdom Hearts, Kanto Pokemon, Yu-Gi-Oh! GX, Helluva Boss, Malevolent (an Eldritch Horror podcast), Jurassic Park/World, Spider-Man, The Pitt, Batman, Heated Rivalry, Critical Role, Scum Villain and Aurora (Webcomic) in fact - many webcomics both large and small have wrangling fans currently in them!

Do you feel glad or proud to see fanfiction in your mother tongue?

• Yes, absolutely! It's a delight to see works in my language (and to have tags sent to our translation team to be translated into English 🤭). It's one of those overlooked parts of language (and thus culture) preservation, making things in your mother tongue and putting them out there for everyone to see. There are so many benefits! It helps language learners to absorb culture and writing/speaking conventions, translations into mother tongue help people whose english isn't up to the level of reading comfortably, they create an environment that goes against the notion of anglocentrism and helps people from all cultures feel more welcome, and so much more! Seeing fics in my mother tongue and other languages besides English always makes me happy 🥰 (Ravenna)
• I used to be indifferent to reading in Indonesian, but when we reached 1 million Chinese/Mandarin works in the archive this year, I thought "I want my mother tongue to do that too!", so now I try to support fanfic written in Indonesian as much as possible! (Tag Wrangling volunteer)

Thanks so much to every volunteer who took the time to answer!

(For more answers from Tag Wranglers, check out this work on AO3, where we collect additional replies to each question!)

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

We spent the end of October and whole of November rolling out improvements across the site—from multiple fixes to the Download and Chapter Index menus on small screens to refreshing our footer and error pages to link to the status page. We also made an important security change: password resets can now only be requested using an email address when logged out. For some exciting news, we also finished our work making AO3 emails translatable! We're now going to target other areas of AO3 for internationalization.

Special thanks and welcome to first-time contributors Danaël / Rever, Daniel Haven, Edgar San Martin, Jr, Jennifer He, Kiyazz, Lisa Huang, mgettytehan, ProtonDev, quen, ryeleap, Snehal Mane, and TangkoNoAi!

Credits

• Coders: alien, anna, Bilka, Brian Austin, Ceithir, Cubostar, Danaël / Rever, Daniel Haven, EchoEkhi, Edgar San Martin, Jr, Jennifer He, Kiyazz, Lisa Huang, marcus8448, mgettytehan, ProtonDev, quen, ryeleap, sarken, Scott, slavalamp, Snehal Mane, TangkoNoAi, weeklies, Yanpei Wang
• Code reviewers: anna, Bilka, bingeling, Brian Austin, ceithir, Hamham6, lydia-theda, marcus8448, ömer faruk, sarken, weeklies
• Testers: Aster, Bilka, Brian Austin, calamario, choux, Deniz, hvalrann, Irina, Lute, lydia-theda, marcus8448, ömer faruk, pk2317, Sam Johnsson, sarken, Teyris, therealmorticia, wichard

Details

0.9.440

On October 28, we made some small changes to a variety of areas of the site, including updating our footer and error pages to link to the status page.

• [AO3-7129] - Bluesky blocks AO3's attempts to check whether a URL on the site is active, so we're now skipping the check when you try to create an external bookmark of a Bluesky URL or try to mark a work as inspired by something hosted on Bluesky.
• [AO3-7149] - We removed some unused code for formatting text.
• [AO3-7175] - We updated cache-apt-pkgs-action from 1.5.3 to 1.6.0.
• [AO3-7178] - We updated the gems for Sentry, our error tracking and performance monitoring service.
• [AO3-6167] - When logged in as admin, restricted series are now included on a user's series page and counted in their dashboard sidebar.
• [AO3-7027] - We've been posting status updates on our status page and Bluesky account for a while now, so we've updated a number of pages to reflect that.
• [AO3-7040] - We restricted the ability to search through invitations to admins with certain roles, instead of allowing all admins access to the search.
• [AO3-7104] - We updated the page used for claiming your works if they were imported by Open Doors.
• [AO3-7167] - When someone reports a comment to our Policy & Abuse committee (PAC), the report now automatically includes the user ID of the person who left the comment.
• [AO3-6484] - We made a small change to the code that generates the HTML class names we use for hiding work blurbs by muted users. We were hoping this tweak would improve performance, but unfortunately it made it worse. So we reverted it later.

0.9.441

On November 5, we made some improvements to the admin side of AO3 and deployed the first of what would be several changes to fix issues with the Chapter Index and Download menus on small screens.

• [AO3-6484] - We reverted the change to the blurb code that worsened performance (it's later).
• [AO3-4519] - If two of your pseuds are set as owners of a collection, the collection will no longer be counted twice in your dashboard sidebar.
• [AO3-7142] - Under certain circumstances, the number of collections in a user's sidebar was different than the number of collections on the user's collections page. The number on the collections page was right, so we updated the one in the sidebar to match.
• [AO3-7166] - We upgraded the will_paginate gem to version 4.0.1 to fix a deprecation warning.
• [AO3-7183] - We upgraded the version of actions/upload-artifact from 4 to 5.
• [AO3-4629] - On small screens, the Download and Chapter Index menus could overlap the buttons, making them impossible to close. We made them narrower and adjusted their position to make sure you can always close them.
• [AO3-6542] - We gave specific admins the ability to access user Preference pages.
• [AO3-6833] - When you submit a ticket to PAC or Support, the submission to their ticket trackers will now automatically include information about which form you submitted.
• [AO3-6931] - We split the "Assignments sent" and the "Challenge default by USER" into two separate emails and updated the text while we were at it.
• [AO3-7071] - We made the emails you get when you reply to a comment translatable.
• [AO3-7171] - We will now include the user ID of a profile page when it is reported to PAC.

0.9.442

On November 8, we deployed a single-issue release to fix menus having problems on multi-chapter works.

• [AO3-7195] - Following our last release to update Download and Chapter Index menus, we fixed a bug from that update which was causing Chapter and Download menus to be cut off on small screens.

0.9.443

On November 17, we deployed a grab bag release targeting bugs and improvements in a variety of areas. We also made a change to improve account security by only allowing password resets using an email address (as compared to a username) if you're logged out. We announced this change on social media as well to get the word out.

• [AO3-3976] - Series links in subscription emails will now show up in red and be stylized like all other email links.
• [AO3-6054] - Works marked as inspired by or a translation of an existing work would show on your Related Works page even if you hadn't approved the relationship—now they won't do that!
• [AO3-7134] - The tips for new users linked in the new user help banner will once again open in a pop-up instead of as an ugly, unstyled page.
• [AO3-7159] - You'll no longer get an empty message if you press Accept or Reject on the Co-Creator Requests page with nothing selected.
• [AO3-7180] - The pseud name field is now marked as required on the page for creating a new pseud.
• [AO3-7202] - We fixed a issue that was causing the Chapter Index menu to be cut off in the Low Vision Default skin.
• [AO3-7061] - To reduce unsolicited password reset emails, logged out users who want to reset their password must now enter the email address associated with their account, not their username.
• [AO3-7204] - We upgraded appleboy/ssh-action from one version to another.
• [AO3-7037] - If you request a password reset and it fails, it will now redirect you to the Reset Password page instead of the homepage.
• [AO3-7039] - We've restricted which admin accounts have the ability to grant invitations to people waiting in the queue.
• [AO3-7070] - We prepared the emails you get when you leave a comment on a work, admin post, or tag (if you're a tag wrangler) for translation.
• [AO3-7115] - We updated the error messages you may get when you request a password reset while logged-in and something goes wrong.

0.9.445

Our November 25 release was a big milestone: all existing AO3 emails have been internationalized and are ready to be translated!

(Our deploy script accidentally bumped us ahead, so this ended up being released as 0.9.445 instead of 0.9.444.)

• [AO3-5542] - If a gift exchange didn't use tags, its Sign-up Summary page used to have a permanent and misleading message saying the summary was being generated. We've updated it to display the correct message: "Tags were not used in this Challenge, so there is no summary to display here."
• [AO3-5668] - When determining whether to display the "Fandom" sort button, the challenge request summary sometimes ended up loading all prompts in the collection—now it won't!
• [AO3-7187] - If you try to create a skin with a title that's more than 255 characters long, we'll now tell you the title is too long instead of giving you a 500 error.
• [AO3-7190] - Trying to create skins that included a ^ used to result in error messages missing part of the text. We've fixed that, which should make the error message far more helpful.
• [AO3-7201] - We made one more change to the Chapter Index menu, which was still too narrow in some browsers on Android devices.
• [AO3-7205] - You can add private bookmarks to collections even though they won't be listed on the collections' Bookmarked Items page. We've now added a warning to the success banner to let you know to expect this.
• [AO3-6941] - We've added more information to the browser titles of many of our comment-related pages.
• [AO3-7056] - The emails you get when someone replies to or edits a reply to a comment you've left are now ready to be translated.
• [AO3-7116] - We updated the wording of the reset password link on the login form.
• [AO3-7168] - When a series is reported to PAC, the report now automatically includes the IDs of the series creators.

0.9.446

Our November 30 release focused on changes submitted by first-time contributors to our project!

• [AO3-7121] - We fixed a bug that was causing bookmarks of unrevealed works to link to the work's Bookmark page even if you weren't the work creator.
• [AO3-7133] - The "Flat View" button on your Statistics page wasn't styled correctly when selected—but now it is!
• [AO3-7181] - For tracking purposes, admins have to enter a valid ticket ID in order to edit a user's pseud or profile. We've made sure the field for the ticket ID is clearly marked as required.
• [AO3-7185] - We've removed the comment form on draft works and replaced it with a message saying you can't comment on draft works.
• [AO3-7138] - We standardized the way the code displays participants in Collections so that site skins with CSS distinguishing them will correctly see participants displayed on both People and Membership pages.
• [AO3-7212] - We updated the version of actions/checkout from version 5 to version 6.
• [AO3-7198] - When logged in with some admin roles, admins can now more easily search for all invitations sent to specific email addresses.
• [AO3-7199] - Some admins have access to a page that provides an overview of a user's works and comments, but the link was only available on User Administration pages. To make things more convenient, we've also added the link to user dashboard and profile pages.

February is approaching with faster-than-light speed, which means it's nearly time for International Fanworks Day (IFD) once again! On February 15, we'll gather for our 12th annual observance of IFD to celebrate all aspects of fandom, fan-communities and fanworks—fics, art, podfic, zines, filk, research and more—together!

As we're gearing up towards IFD, we at the OTW would love to hear from you about what you associate with this year's theme: Alternate Universes! An Alternate Universe (AU) in fandom can mean a departure from canon, exploring diverging events and character choices, a themed AU like the cozy and popular Coffee Shop AU, or a fundamental change in worldbuilding, like Omegaverse fanworks. We are curious: Which AUs do you like best? Have you encountered an idea for an AU that changed your whole perspective on a piece of canon? What are your most treasured headcanons in your fandom(s)?

We'll be keeping an eye out for any posts about AUs shared by fans, so tag your posts with #IFD2026, and we'll signal-boost them on our OTW social media accounts!

In the next couple of weeks we'll announce what we're doing to celebrate IFD 2026. But we also want to know how you'll spend the festivities! Back in December, we asked you to let us know about any events you'll be running in your community for this IFD. You can still submit those events through our form until January 28.

Also in February, we'll be running our annual Feedback Fest! Spend the time until February 13 keeping an eye out for any AU-related recs!

We can't wait to hear from you about your fandom experiences and events for this IFD!

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

Last November we asked the community to submit questions to our OTW volunteers in celebration of International Volunteer Day. In this series of posts we will spotlight some of our committees' responses.

The Translation committee's main responsibility is making content from the OTW and its various projects accessible to fans who don't speak English. This includes content for the organization's main site, FAQs on AO3, Open Doors import announcements, and AO3 news posts, among other things. They also collaborate with other OTW committees, for example to help them communicate with non-English speaking fans and users.

We asked the Translation committee for replies to your questions, and received a lot of feedback! Below you can find a selection of their answers:

Translation Committee Specific Question

Question: Is there a software required if one wanted to volunteer? Also, are there any specific devices required?
Committee answer:
While we have no specific software requirements for volunteering, we definitely recommend using a device with a bigger screen in general, like a desktop or a laptop, or at least a tablet, as that makes it easier to keep everything you need for your work on your screen. One of our requirements for any software we use is that it can run in a common internet browser on a computer, without any local installs, though they may require an app on mobile devices.

General Questions

How many hours a week do you spend on your OTW volunteer work?

• It varies a lot week to week! Some weeks are very quiet and there's not a lot to work on, but when I do get an assignment, I tend to spend about a couple of hours on it, and that will usually be it for the week unless we're working on time sensitive tasks or projects, when things can get more hectic! Translation in particular sets generous deadlines to complete our assignments (5 or 7 days depending on what we're working on), which gives us plenty of time to work on it even after RL work hours and factoring in other real life things. I also sometimes help the Tag Wrangling team with their Spanish tags, but that accounts for a couple of minutes of quick work overall, I'd say. So... tl;dr, about 2-3 hours, give or take, depending on what we have to do for the week! (Saku)
• It depends on the task, but an average of 2-3 hours per week suffices. (Nameless_ghoul_7)

How do you manage your volunteer time, and do you do the same thing every day like with a day job?

• I usually find time for this during the weekend, considering my day job, so it's more of a weekend activity for me. And I prefer to do my translation in one go, and then go through it again afterwards in my free time post weekday work.
  It's definitely taught me to be good at time management, because you can't predict how your week is going to go at any point. (Ana)
• I use a time tracker to help me track the time I spend on OTW volunteer tasks, though that usually ends up working more in retrospective, where towards the end of each week I look at the hours I did to evaluate whether my current workload is adequate or whether I should delegate some of my work to other people (or if that's not an option, what I can deprioritise and put off until a bit later). I usually try to pick up some volunteer manager or chair trainee work every other day or so (unless I'm working on something that requires daily attention), just to avoid driving myself insane, because at the end of the day there's always more work I could be picking up still. (Rhine)

What's your favorite part about volunteering at the OTW?

• My favourite part of volunteering at the OTW has been meeting several new people from around the world and seeing how our different POVs and experiences help with different understandings of life in different spaces and how independently of our differences, cultures and upbringing we're united by pure passion for what we do in and for fandom. Passion and compassion is often hidden or missing in "work spaces" and the OTW has been a positive space filled with positive learning experiences for me since the moment I started volunteering. It's an ever evolving space that takes every instance to be better. (CottonDuck)
• I was going to say "the people!" and that is mostly true (I've met some wonderful folks as part of Translation, and it's been a great time overall!), but if I sit down to really think about it, I think my favorite part is that it feels very gratifying to be giving back to a community that has done so much for fandom and fan spaces. I don't read a lot of fanfiction myself anymore, much as I do occasionally write it, but fandom is still very important to me and I've made a lot of good friends thanks to it, so it feels good to be able to contribute my time and skills and do something for a space that has done so much for me in turn. It's good work and good people all around, and it feels good to be part of it through my work for the OTW and AO3. (Saku)

What's the aspect of volunteer work with the OTW that you most wish more people knew about?

• How chill the Translation volunteer managers are! If we need something, be it a hiatus, more time on a task, or clarification on some part of the text, we’re pretty much always granted them! And having a full week to do the task is very nice too, I originally thought it was going to be much more hectic. (kati)
• The sheer scope of work that is involved! There are so many volunteers, like, seriously, *so many*, and each of us have our own little roles to perform, thus helping everything run like clockwork. Having said all that, it's all strictly on a volunteer basis, which makes it probably the only “work place” I've seen where we all actually enjoy doing what we do. (Ana)

What does a typical day as an OTW volunteer looks like for you?

• Mostly the same as any normal day. Only that I set apart one or two hours most days to translate what's been assigned to me. (ttom)
• It varies a lot! As Translation volunteer managers, we handle several different tasks, depending on the time of year, and what projects are currently going on. For example, if I'm on duty for managing our email inbox and handing out tasks for the week—we alternate regularly—I'll set aside around 2-3 hours a day after work for that. When we are recruiting for new translators, I'll spend a chunk of time in a week holding interviews. There are also routine tasks that each of us rotates through, like preparing meetings or coordinating the upload of translated content to the OTW and AO3 websites. Independent of the task, I usually work through shorter items on my to-do list on weekday nights, and leave bigger tasks for the weekend. (Elin)

What is your favorite animal? Alternatively, do you have a favorite breed of cat/dog?

• Cats... I love cats and I have one. (Nameless_ghoul_7)
• Cats, giraffes, turtles, butterflies, and I can go on. As for cats, I love the Egyptian Maus that I currently have. (AnneHelena)
• My favourite animal is the betta! I loved aquaculture a lot!! My favourite breed of dog is the Indian Pariah Dog. (Aditi Mandavgane)

Do you enjoy reading fanfic? If so, what's your favorite work on AO3?

• I love reading fanfics and it's difficult to choose a favourite one. But among the recent fics I am reading, Bifurcation Sandbox by Gardenersnake8822 is a favourite. (Gloriosa)
• I love reading fanfic! It's definitely become a hobby, and has been the brunt of my reading as of late (because books are expensive < / 3). It's really difficult to pick a favorite work, since I've read so many amazing fics, but if I had to pick one, I'd pick "The Lowlander" by user foxymoxy! It's a BTS-Dragon Age crossover fic that takes the captor/prisoner trope and really dissects and does something interesting with it. It's one of my all-time favorites, and I re-read it all the time. (Somber)

Do you write any fanfic yourself? What do you enjoy about it?

• Yes! I have a writing account on some platforms like AO3 (ofc, duh), Twitter, Wattpad, and Medium. There are so many things I love about writing. But, I’m going to list 3 of them here:
  1. I can finally read my ship in tropes that I really wanted to read.
  2. The research process. I gained knowledge while doing my hobby. I learn how to write better, to portray the emotion better, to explore and experiment with my characters’ personality, discover interesting information, and so on.
  3. It helps me clear my mind. (Keane)
• I used to write original stories that never went anywhere and only started writing and publishing fanfiction in order to learn about AO3's user interface so that I could translate the tutorials more accurately. I like how freeing it feels not to have to worry too much about writing well enough for the general audience – it's just me and the five people (at most) who will ever see my silly little stories! (Slovenian Translation volunteer)

What fandoms are you (currently) in?

• I’m currently obsessed with F1: The Movie and Ocean's Eleven Trilogy. (Cassie)
• I've been in the Star Wars fandom for more than 20 years at this point, mostly on the Rogue One / Andor side nowadays. (Auré)

Do you feel glad or proud to see fanfiction in your mother tongue?

• My answer is yes, absolutely! Especially on AO3 in particular, because Mandarin Chinese authors have been facing immense opposition in the form of censorship and takedowns of both digital and physical publications of our works. The 227 incident that resulted in AO3 being banned in Mainland China was a major turning point in the involvement of AO3 within Chinese fandom communities, so every time I see a new Mandarin Chinese work on AO3 I'm always grateful that one more author has found a safe avenue to share their creations with the rest of fandom. (Chinese Translation volunteer)
• Absolutely! My first language is Portuguese and I always find it surprising when I see works on some fandoms that are definitely not popular in my country. It’s like an invisible thread suddenly connects me to someone I don’t know but share two things in common: a language and a love for a fandom that makes us want to spend time and effort creating something to share with that community. Funny enough, I usually like to read fanfics in the language my brain associates them with. For example, I don’t speak Korean, and I usually watch K-dramas with English subtitles to continue learning English, so that’s the language my brain associates that series with. When I see a work in Portuguese for that fandom, it’s like my horizons have suddenly been broadened. And if I get a chance to make an online friend because of it? Even better! (Amanda)
• I translate English to Marathi, and I don't see a lot of Marathi fanfic on the site, but when I stumble upon one, my heart soars and I feel on top of the world! (Aditi Mandavgane)

Thanks so much to every volunteer who took the time to answer!

(For more answers from Translation volunteers, check out this work on AO3, where we'll collect additional replies to each question!)

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

In 2020, we gave you some insight into our traffic numbers, focusing on the impact that global lockdowns had on our user base. Five years later, we have not only sustained that rise in users but also continued to grow steadily, so we thought we’d show you an update!

Comments in 2025

Image 1: Line graph of monthly comments on AO3 in 2020 versus 2025. Both line graphs share small dips in February, June, and September; and peaks in July, August, and October; before sharply trending upward in December. 2020 sees an additional sharp increase in April, while 2025 shows a more typical slow rise throughout the year.

In our previous post, we observed a common pattern of slight dips in user activity in June and September. This pattern still holds true: Our users left 84,278 fewer comments in June than in May, before coming back en masse in July and August. We see a significant drop in September before cresting a suspiciously Kinktober-shaped peak in October. November sees the bustle die down one more time, before we reach record highs—crossing 5 million comments for the first time—by way of our typical end-of-year holiday increase in December.

The raw data for this graph can be found in this spreadsheet: Comments 2020/2025 (Google Sheets).

Daily page views

Image 2: Line graph showing AO3’s daily page views (in millions) starting in mid-April and ending on December 31st. Smaller spikes show higher activity on weekends than weekdays. There is one big spike to 141 million on June 1st, and two big dips to 73.7 and 72 million respectively on July 3rd and September 29th. The trend line rises slowly but steadily, crossing 110 million daily page views in mid-October.

Site traffic tends to slowly increase throughout the year with a noticeable jump in December, and we then carry that forward into the new year. Our first anomaly happens around June 1st, with several days of incredibly high page views. After consulting with our Systems volunteers, we marked this off as likely being due to a large influx of bot traffic.

On July 3rd and 4th, we ran out of rows in the database table that stores bookmarks, so we had to move them to a larger table that can hold them all! This made it so you can once again add your own bookmarks to the 647 million we already had before then. The recovery after this outage is a little higher than normal, possibly due to an influx of users downloading works to tide themselves over any future outages.

On September 29th, we had to take some planned downtime to implement an update to collections—Collection owners can now use up to ten tags of any type to describe their collection, making it easier to find collections featuring the fandoms, relationships, tropes, and other topics you enjoy.

The raw data for this graph can be found in this spreadsheet: Daily page views 2025 (Google Sheets).

Site traffic throughout a typical week

Image 3: Line graph of daily page views. A subsection of the above graph, more clearly showing the ebb and flow of traffic on the archive throughout the calendar week. There are five clear peaks on every weekend with the apex on Sunday. Thursday and Friday are where traffic dips to its lowest.

If we zoom in a little, we can clearly see that weekends are most of our users’ favourite time to engage with fanworks. Some may wonder about the peaks seeming to run over into Monday—our systems run in UTC and much of our traffic comes from later timezones. More North and South Americans reading late at night on Saturday and Sunday equals peaks on Sunday and Monday!

The raw data for this graph can be found in this spreadsheet: Daily page views August 2025 (Google Sheets).

New Year’s Eve by the minute

Image 4: Line graph of requests received by our servers between 9:00 UTC on December 31st 2025 and 9:00 UTC on January 1st 2026. Requests start to rise from ~550K at 12:00 UTC, peaking at nearly 800K at 17:30 UTC before slowly decreasing back down to ~650K. Sharp, sudden drops are noticeable at 16:00 UTC, 23:00 UTC, and 5:00 UTC, with smaller drops at 0:00 UTC and 6:00 UTC.

The delayed effect described in the previous section is especially noticeable on New Year’s Eve. We receive sudden, hourly drops in requests to our servers as users in different timezones pause their reading to ring in the new year. At 16:00 UTC, 47 thousand users in UTC+8 promptly went offline before coming back in force half an hour later, giving us our first noticeable drop. The yearline swept across the globe with minor dips on each hour, before UTC+1 dropped us by a whole 50 thousand requests and UTC followed with just 43 thousand requests. By far the most severe dip occurs when UTC-5 entered 2026, with over 80 thousand fewer requests—compared to UTC-8, which only dropped us by 30 thousand requests.

The raw data for this graph can be found in this spreadsheet: New Year’s Eve by the minute (Google Sheets).

Site traffic over the years

Image 5: Bar chart showing weekly traffic during the last week of November on AO3 from 2012 to 2025. Large jumps are noticeable between 2019 and 2020, 2022 and 2023, and 2024 and 2025.

To round things off, let’s have a look back through time!

We had a big jump in users this year—November 2025 saw over 146.6 million weekly page views more than the previous November. At first glance this is significantly higher than the 129 million increase we experienced from 2019 to 2020, but this is only 22% growth over the previous year as opposed to 52% because our baseline looks completely different.

We are excited to see where 2026 takes us, and it looks like we're already starting off strong! In the first week of the year we amassed a record high of 879 million page views, a significant jump up from 816 million the week before and averaging out to ~125 million page views a day. We look forward to breaking more records with you.

The raw data for this graph can be found in this spreadsheet: Weekly Traffic 2012-2025 (Google Sheets).

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