Pretty sure I won't finish legendary before the B2 release in April (B1 had 499 units), but I'll definitely be terrible at the matching game for a while yet.
"...And you may argue that, well, this is not really a very efficient method of learning a language. You'd be correct. But you can't argue I can't speak Spanish, because I very much can."
Welcome to International Fanworks Day (IFD) Feedback Fest 2026! Feedback Fest is when we celebrate fanworks that creators have made on AO3 or elsewhere by recommending them to others and leaving comments for the creators as well.
Our theme for IFD 2026 is Alternate Universes (AUs), where we celebrate all the fun and exciting AUs that fans have created!
Want to participate in this year’s Feedback Fest? Here’s how to do it!
Leave a comment under this post recommending your favorite fanworks that involve an AU. Tell everyone why you love these works and why they should check them out. You can also link to a recommendation post you’ve made elsewhere, or create a new recommendation post on your social media accounts using the #FeedbackFest2026 tag. Keep the diversity of fanworks in mind when making recommendations—you can share fics, podfics, fanart, zines, archives, collections, newsletters, and anything that sparks joy in you about fandom. There’s many wonderful fanworks out there and we want to hear about all of them!
While going through the recommendations, it’s nice to leave feedback—comments, kudos, likes—for the creators as well! Feel free to boost the recommendations from other people that you enjoyed. This year’s Feedback Fest is all about the universes and worlds people have enjoyed placing their favorite characters in, so try and think of your favorite AU fanworks to recommend!
Start your reccing, and we’ll see you on the other side—and once again we wish you a happy #IFD2026!
Back in August of 2025, we announced a temporary block on account creation for users under the age of 18 from the state of Tennessee, due to the court in Netchoice's challenge to the law (which we're a part of!) refusing to prevent the law from being enforced while the lawsuit plays out. Today, I am sad to announce that we've had to add South Carolina to that list. When creating an account, you will now be asked if you're a resident of Tennessee or South Carolina. If you are, and your birthdate shows you're under 18, you won't be able to create an account.
We're very sorry to have to do this, and especially on such short notice. The reason for it: on Friday, South Carolina governor Henry McMaster signed the South Carolina Age-Appropriate Design Code Act into law, with an effective date of immediately. The law is so incredibly poorly written it took us several days to even figure out what the hell South Carolina wants us to do and whether or not we're covered by it. We're still not entirely 100% sure about the former, but in regards to the latter, we're pretty sure the fact we use Google Analytics on some site pages (for OS/platform/browser capability analysis) means we will be covered by the law. Thankfully, the law does not mandate a specific form of age verification, unlike many of the other state laws we're fighting, so we're likewise pretty sure that just stopping people under 18 from creating an account will be enough to comply without performing intrusive and privacy-invasive third-party age verification. We think. Maybe. (It's a really, really badly written law. I don't know whether they intended to write it in a way that means officers of the company can potentially be sentenced to jail time for violating it, but that's certainly one possible way to read it.)
Netchoice filed their lawsuit against SC over the law as I was working on making this change and writing this news post -- so recently it's not even showing up in RECAP yet for me to link y'all to! -- but here's the complaint as filed in the lawsuit, Netchoice v Wilson. Please note that I didn't even have to write the declaration yet (although I will be): we are cited in the complaint itself with a link to our August news post as evidence of why these laws burden small websites and create legal uncertainty that causes a chilling effect on speech. \o/
In fact, that's the victory: in December, the judge ruled in favor of Netchoice in Netchoice v Murrill, the lawsuit over Louisiana's age-verification law Act 456, finding (once again) that requiring age verification to access social media is unconstitutional. Judge deGravelles' ruling was not simply a preliminary injunction: this was a final, dispositive ruling stating clearly and unambiguously "Louisiana Revised Statutes §§51:1751–1754 violate the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, as incorporated by the Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution", as well as awarding Netchoice their costs and attorney's fees for bringing the lawsuit. We didn't provide a declaration in that one, because Act 456, may it rot in hell, had a total registered user threshold we don't meet. That didn't stop Netchoice's lawyers from pointing out that we were forced to block service to Mississippi and restrict registration in Tennessee (pointing, again, to that news post), and Judge deGravelles found our example so compelling that we are cited twice in his ruling, thus marking the first time we've helped to get one of these laws enjoined or overturned just by existing. I think that's a new career high point for me.
I need to find an afternoon to sit down and write an update for dw_advocacy highlighting everything that's going on (and what stage the lawsuits are in), because folks who know there's Some Shenanigans afoot in their state keep asking us whether we're going to have to put any restrictions on their states. I'll repeat my promise to you all: we will fight every state attempt to impose mandatory age verification and deanonymization on our users as hard as we possibly can, and we will keep actions like this to the clear cases where there's no doubt that we have to take action in order to prevent liability.
In cases like SC, where the law takes immediate effect, or like TN and MS, where the district court declines to issue a temporary injunction or the district court issues a temporary injunction and the appellate court overturns it, we may need to take some steps to limit our potential liability: when that happens, we'll tell you what we're doing as fast as we possibly can. (Sometimes it takes a little while for us to figure out the exact implications of a newly passed law or run the risk assessment on a law that the courts declined to enjoin. Netchoice's lawyers are excellent, but they're Netchoice's lawyers, not ours: we have to figure out our obligations ourselves. I am so very thankful that even though we are poor in money, we are very rich in friends, and we have a wide range of people we can go to for help.)
In cases where Netchoice filed the lawsuit before the law's effective date, there's a pending motion for a preliminary injunction, the court hasn't ruled on the motion yet, and we're specifically named in the motion for preliminary injunction as a Netchoice member the law would apply to, we generally evaluate that the risk is low enough we can wait and see what the judge decides. (Right now, for instance, that's Netchoice v Jones, formerly Netchoice v Miyares, mentioned in our December news post: the judge has not yet ruled on the motion for preliminary injunction.) If the judge grants the injunction, we won't need to do anything, because the state will be prevented from enforcing the law. If the judge doesn't grant the injunction, we'll figure out what we need to do then, and we'll let you know as soon as we know.
I know it's frustrating for people to not know what's going to happen! Believe me, it's just as frustrating for us: you would not believe how much of my time is taken up by tracking all of this. I keep trying to find time to update dw_advocacy so people know the status of all the various lawsuits (and what actions we've taken in response), but every time I think I might have a second, something else happens like this SC law and I have to scramble to figure out what we need to do. We will continue to update dw_news whenever we do have to take an action that restricts any of our users, though, as soon as something happens that may make us have to take an action, and we will give you as much warning as we possibly can. It is absolutely ridiculous that we still have to have this fight, but we're going to keep fighting it for as long as we have to and as hard as we need to.
I look forward to the day we can lift the restrictions on Mississippi, Tennessee, and now South Carolina, and I apologize again to our users (and to the people who temporarily aren't able to become our users) from those states.
Goals, eh? I think one of the reasons I was going to write about them was because when I looked back at this week I realized that my English journaling had already fallen off, even though I felt like it hadn't. Thanks, documentation, for correcting my perception.
♥ I got my fox diamond painting back out, so that's a project that could proceed but hasn't. I might put it away to work on next winter and start the spring dragon one now instead. Until I actually put diamonds on the canvas I suppose it doesn't matter, except that perhaps my motivation would be affected by the design.
♥ I found a book at the library with a blue cover that I was willing to read (thanks Liu Cixin for having an anthology with a blue cover and a great forward) so that's another library bingo square checked off.
♥ I posted my chenqing_100snowscape story seven minutes before the deadline! Huge thanks to ranalore for creating and continuing chenqing_100 and making it such a serene, welcoming place to be.
♥ A Chinese vlogger mentioned leaving hot water in the pot so it was easy to heat and drink throughout the day, and that has transformed my winter water consumption.
♥ An English vlogger mentioned 75fluent.com, which I signed up for and immediately decided not to do, since I'm already doing more than all of the daily goals except "study a textbook," but that inspired me to get out my elementary school Yuwen textbooks and start from the beginning.
This week I would like to: +write something for chenqing_100 +write something for Fluffbruary +photograph some Legos for beagoldfish +record another hour for the HTLAL output challenge (2/50) +finish Yuwen Grade 1
Marci: I think the Venn diagram of people who snowmobile at night and people who watch the Super Bowl is basically a circle.
I accidentally joined a weekend 5k challenge on the Garmin app. (I mean, I joined it on purpose, but I thought it was walking 5k over the course of the weekend, and it turned out to be running 5k all at once. Or, as Aaron says, "I did a marathon once: one mile every day for a month.")
Also when I posted something about goals last weekend I definitely mentioned kicksledding, although I can't remember if it was a goal or just a random comment, but let me tell you about kicksledding in New England, about which I know almost nothing. I know it's harder than I expected to actually get a kicksled here, because apparently the US isn't snowy enough to readily distribute kicksleds to every corner of the country.
(In the movie "The Day After Tomorrow," what was the line above which they wrote off the population? I thought it was an actual latitude line, but the internet tells me it was just "everything north of Washington DC." Seems like that's enough of the country to have kicksleds, to me.)
Anyway, Canada makes them, but because of tariffs won't ship them to the US. Alaska will ship them but you have to meet the plane at the airport. Minnesota will ship a kit to your door, which is how I ended up building my own kicksled from a kit in our living room.
February 15 is almost here, and it’s time to get ready for the 12th annual International Fanworks Day (IFD)! This year’s theme is Alternate Universes (AUs), and in honor of #IFD2026, the OTW has quite a few activities planned to celebrate with all of you. Check out the list below to find out how you can get involved!
Feedback Fest: It wouldn’t be IFD without our annual Feedback Fest! This is your chance to share your favorite Alternate Universe fanworks and get some great recommendations for yourself in return. Look for our Feedback Fest post on February 13, and leave a comment with 10 fanwork recommendations for your fellow fans. On social media, use the tag #FeedbackFest when posting.
Share your fanworks: Tag your own AU fanworks on AO3 with International Fanworks Day 2026, or share them on social media using the #IFD2026 or #IFDChallenge2026 tags!
Fanlore Challenge: The festivities aren’t limited to AO3! Fanlore, the OTW’s fannish history and culture wiki, will be celebrating as well! From February 10-16, join Fanlore for a new editing challenge to complete every day. To participate, refer to the IFD 2026 Fanlore Challenge page for more information.
Games and Fan Chat: On February 15, we’ll be opening the gates of the OTW’s once-a-year Discord server. Join us between 21:00 UTC February 14 (What time is that for me?) and 03:00 UTC February 16 (What time is that for me?) to play games and chat with other fans! The chat room will be moderated in English, and we’ll post a detailed schedule on the 15th.
We also invited you to send us your community events for this IFD, so in addition to what we’re doing, here are some fan-led events:
The Fandom Melodies, Intertwined Edition
(in English, some small parts in other languages allowed)
This event is already running, and ends on February 28. You can submit entries in any form, though written material is preferred.
This event will run from February 1 to February 28. It’s meant to motivate people to comment more on fic (new and older!), especially since February is the month with the lowest amount of commenting! There are multiple challenges and there are also fun things one can do to spice up their comment a little!
This event will run from February 15 to February 28. You can participate however you like, and there will be a set of questions provided for people to reminisce about and share their fandom experience!
What do the country of Portugal, the city of Seoul, and the Archive of Our Own (AO3) have in common? They are all home to more than 10 million people! That’s right: AO3 has surpassed 10 million registered users this month! We at the Organisation for Transformative Works (OTW) are delighted to share this incredible milestone with you.
Even as the community is growing year by year, the active exchange of creations and ideas between fans remains as a cornerstone of fan culture. Whether it’s gifting each other fanfic, recording a podfic of your favorite story, or putting together a reclist of fics—no fandom thrives without the myriad ways fans share their passion with one another. In today’s world, where ideas are just one more commodity, and content is curated for maximum revenue, it’s more important than ever to appreciate and celebrate these aspects of fan spaces.
One way to let other fans know you appreciate the love and hard work they pour into their creations is commenting on their work. In celebration of this milestone, we have prepared a Bingo all about comments! Below you can find the bingo cards in both a square and vertical format.
You can fill out as many bingo squares as you want—the more comments, the merrier! Let us know on this post or on social media which Bingos you scored.
Happy commenting, and a huge thank you to everyone who helped us reach this milestone!
Yesterday I learned the company's DEI group is reading When Women Were Dragons by Kelly Barnhill (amazon link). I thought: not real dragons, surely, but I clicked through to find out. There were dragons on the cover so I read the sample and determined that there are in fact dragons in the book.
I was able to borrow the book from our local library at lunch, and I finished reading it this evening. Not only are there dragons, but there's a world very much like ours that's dealing with the dragons. The story ends well and I enjoyed it.
This was the page I bookmarked, when the librarian learns the narrator has a banned book about dragons:
"You should definitely keep this [book]. They're quite rare. Chock-full of absolutely incorrect information too, as it turns out. [The author] will be the first one to say so. The beautiful thing about science is that we do not know what we cannot know and we will not know until we know. It requires an incredible amount of humility to be willing to be wrong nearly all the time. But we have to be willing to be wrong, and proven wrong, in order to increase knowledge overall. It is a thankless, and essential, job. Thank goodness."
I also appreciated this comment in Kelly Barnhill's acknowledgments:
"The work of storytelling requires a person to remain in a state of brutal vulnerability and punishing empathy. We feel everything. It tears us apart. We could not do this work without people in our lives to love us unceasingly, and to put us back together."
2025 was a busy year for AO3! The site continued to see rising traffic, with Communicationspublishing an update on AO3 statistics from 2020-2025. In December, Support received 3,589 tickets, totaling to over 40,000 tickets received in 2025, an all-time high. Meanwhile, Policy & Abuse (PAC) received 6,357 tickets in December, totaling approximately 47,500 tickets in 2025. Check out PAC’s pie chart for more details.
Pie chart of the approximately 47,500 Policy & Abuse tickets submitted in 2025, divided by type of complaint. These categories reflect the subject of the complaint, and (with the exception of Offensive Content), do not indicate whether the report was upheld or rejected.
In the first half of January, User Response Translation translated or betaed 32 ticket requests from Support and PAC.
In December, Tag Wrangling wrangled approximately 598,000 tags, or around 1,300 tags per volunteer. In total, they wrangled approximately 4,944,000 tags in 2025. They also continued work on handling “No Fandom” additional tags, publishing December and January news posts detailing recent changes. In total, Tag Wrangling published nine “No Fandom”-related news posts in 2025 covering around 399 new canonical “No Fandom” additional tags.
In January, Tag Wrangling updated their Fandom Tag Metatag guidelines, including clarifying when a fandom metatag should be made and when to merge closely related fandoms into one fandom tag. Check out the news post detailing the new policy.
As part of International Volunteers Day (IVD) 2025, Communications collected and batched answers to the IVD Q&A by committee, resulting in five committee-specific news posts highlighting Communications, Support, Tag Wrangling, Translation, and Volunteers & Recruiting. Answers across committees, along with additional responses not featured in the news posts, have been compiled in a separate AO3 work.
III. ELSEWHERE AT THE OTW
Fanlore ran an editing chat to close out 2025, and it was a lot of fun! They also began preparing for their annual IFD Fanlore Challenge and Femslash February event! Keep an eye on their Bluesky, Twitter/X, and Tumblr for announcements.
Legal answered many internal and external questions this month.
In January, Communications’ Fanhackers wrote about the Transformative Approaches to Fan Identity, and they began a multi-post survey of acafannish research and publishing resources.
IV. GOVERNANCE
In December, Board announced the resignations of two directors: Kathryn Solderholm and Erica Frank. We would like to thank Erica and Kathryn for their service as members of the Board, and wish them all the best in their future endeavours with the OTW.
In January, Board finalized and approved the OTW Procurement & Purchasing Policy. They and the Board Assistants Team (BAT) organised the first quarter of 2026 public Board meeting on January 18 which had 54 attendees. Minutes of this meeting will be available soon on the OTW website. Elsewhere, Board and BAT continued work on document review and archiving board statements, Code of Conduct tasks in conjunction with Organizational Culture Roadmap, and ongoing projects for mental health resources for volunteers, scheduling tools, public meeting best practices and volunteer retention in BAT. BAT also updated their OTW website committee page.
Organizational Culture Roadmap finalized a confidentiality policy in preparation for upcoming external recruitment.
V. OUR VOLUNTEERS
In December, Volunteers & Recruiting thanked all OTW volunteers on International Volunteer Day with their organization-wide email and graphics campaign. In January, they ran recruitment for Open Doors.
From November 22 to January 23, Volunteers & Recruiting received 355 new requests, and completed 378, leaving them with 52 open requests (including induction and removal tasks listed below). As of January 23, 2025, the OTW has 1,013 volunteers. \o/ Recent personnel movements are listed below.
New Subcommittee Leads/Workgroup Heads: Eevee (Internal Complaint and Conflict Resolution Lead) and megidola (Organizational Culture Roadmap Workgroup Head) New AO3 Documentation Volunteers: Lulu S (Chair Trainee) New Fanlore Volunteers: Elfie, Konsta Morales, Watts, and 1 other Graphic Designer New Open Doors Volunteers: Addiebees, AviLine, feelyx, LeighR, Marie K, meservey66, MetaKass, miffmiff, Mort, pinkconstellations, SleepyJane, Spit, StormySea, Truendz, Vail, and 11 other Import Assistants New Policy & Abuse Volunteers: megidola (Supervisor) and 1 Chair Track Volunteer New Tag Wrangling Volunteers: Chelsea Cheyanne, inspiredstork, Sanity, will, and Yrindor (Supervisors) New Translation Volunteers: Rhine and 1 other Chair Trainee; Arushi, athursdayschild, Eirinar, Linarii, Mira8, Niki K, Phoebe B, Pi, Rita P, and 12 other Translators New TWC Volunteers: Fiona M, Yumi, and 3 other Layout Editors; and 2 Outreach and Communications Editors New User Response Translation Volunteers: Eki, f0f8ff, HARRitte, Jules R, Laus, PanPan, rosings, zoy zauce, and 3 other Translators
Departing Directors: Erica Frank and Kathryn Soderholm Departing Committee Chairs: 1 Communications Chair and 1 Elections Chair Departing BAT Volunteers: 1 Volunteer Departing Communications Volunteers: KW Ukuku (TikTok Moderator), Lori P (Graphics Volunteer), 1 Fanhacker Volunteer, and 1 Social Media Moderator Departing Communications News Post Moderation Volunteers: 1 News Post Moderator Departing Development & Membership Volunteers: 1 Graphic Designer, 2 Membership Data Specialists, and 2 Volunteers Departing Fanlore Volunteers: 1 Discord Moderator, 1 Outreach Analyst, and 1 Policy & Admin Departing Open Doors Volunteers: Pelagia and 1 other Administrative Volunteer, Wynne (Import Assistant), and 1 FCPP Intern Departing Policy & Abuse Volunteers: 1 Volunteer Departing Strategic Planning Volunteers: 1 Volunteer Departing Support Volunteers: Nary and 22 other Volunteers Departing Tag Wrangling Volunteers: Nary and 1 other Supervisor; Asas Carmesins, Bruno, Eevee, lianneder, Lily_Haydee_Lohdisse, McBangle, Sayornis, Tea Huimyni, and 10 other Wranglers Departing Translation Volunteers: Teelee (Task Assistant); Illiterations and 4 Translators Departing TWC Volunteers: Melanie Kohnen (Review Editor); Courtney Lazore and 1 other Proofreader; and 1 Symposium Editor Departing User Response Translation Volunteers: 1 Translator Departing Volunteers & Recruiting Volunteers: 1 Senior Volunteer and 2 Volunteers
For more information about our committees and their regular activities, you can refer to the committee pages on our website.
So Garmin has a sleep coach, and every day it has prompted me gently, "You could use a little more sleep. Try getting 8 hours tonight."
Until today when it told me, "You could use a lot more sleep. Try getting 9 hours tonight."
Marci says it's doubling down.
Robin says there's a pace coach too: if you tell it how quickly you want to finish a race it will give you a pacing strategy. I asked her if "keep going" was a pace or a strategy, and she said she uses the "don't stop but slow down until you're barely moving" strategy.
I'm doing some minor operational work tonight. It should be transparent, but there's always a chance that something goes wrong. The main thing I'm touching is testing a replacement for Apache2 (our web server software) in one area of the site.
AO3 Tag Wranglers continue to test processes for wrangling canonical additional tags (tags that appear in the auto-complete) which don’t belong to any particular fandom (also known as “No Fandom” tags). This post overviews some of these upcoming changes.
In this round of updates, we began adjusting existing canonical “No Fandom” tags to add or remove new subtag and metatag relationships. We also continued to streamline creating new canonical tags, prioritizing more straightforward updates which would have less discussion compared to renaming current canonical tags or creating new canonical tags which touch on more complex topics. This method also reviews new tags on a regular basis, so check back on AO3 News for periodic “No Fandom” tag announcements.
None of these updates change the tags users have added to works. If a user-created tag is considered to have the same meaning as a new canonical, it will be made a synonym of one of these newly created canonical tags, and works with that user-created tag will appear when the canonical tag is selected.
In short, these changes only affect which tags appear in AO3’s auto-complete and filters. You can and should continue to tag your works however you prefer.
New Canonicals
The following concepts have been made new canonical tags:
Additionally, this month we began making adjustments to existing canonical tags to add or remove new subtag and metatag relationships, which help users find related content and filter in/out content as they browse works on AO3.
While some of these tags may be tags and concepts you’re intimately familiar with, others may be concepts you’ve never heard of before. Fortunately, our fellow OTW volunteers at Fanlore may be able to help! As you may have seen in the comments sections of previous posts, Fanlore is a fantastic resource for learning more about these common fandom concepts, and about the history and lore of fandom in general. For the curious, here’s a quick look at a few articles about concepts related to this month’s new canonical tags:
While we won’t be announcing every change we make to No Fandom canonical tags, you can expect similar updates in the future about tags we believe will most affect users. If you’re interested in the changes we’ll be making, you can continue to check AO3 News or follow us on Bluesky @wranglers.archiveofourown.org or Tumblr @ao3org for future announcements.
You can also read previous updates on “No Fandom” tags as well as other wrangling updates, linked below:
For more information about AO3’s tag system, check out our Tags FAQ.
In addition to providing technical help, AO3 Support also handles requests related to how tags are sorted and connected. If you have questions about specific tags, which were first used over a month ago and are unrelated to any of the new canonical tags listed above, please contact Support instead of leaving a comment on this post.
Please keep in mind that discussions about what tags to canonize and what format they should take are ongoing. As a result, not all related concepts will be canonized at the same time. This does not mean that related or similar concepts will not be canonized in the future or that we have chosen to canonize one specific concept in lieu of another, simply that we likely either haven’t gotten to that related concept yet or that it needs further discussion and will take a bit longer for us to canonize it as a result. We appreciate your patience and understanding.
Lastly, we’re still working on implementing changes and connecting relevant user-created tags to these new canonicals, so it’ll be some time before these updates are complete. If you have questions about specific tags which should be connected to these new canonicals, please refrain from contacting Support about them until at least three months from now to give us adequate time to do so.
So library bingo involves a few different types of squares, including kinds of books to read (a book with pictures, a book with an animal on the cover), ways to read a book (under a blanket, while drinking a hot beverage), and library services to enjoy.
One of the library services is a "library of things," which seems to be an increasingly popular concept I just learned about, wherein the library has a catalogue of items that may be too expensive to buy on a whim, too seldom used for individuals to justify the storage, or just more sustainably shared by a community rather than everyone having their own.
Our library has, among other things, a telescope, so for the "check out something from the library of things" square, I checked it out.
Since the point of my post is how much this experience reminded me of renting a kayak for the first time, I should explain that I have never used a telescope before and did no research ahead of time. This is not a question I was asked during the check out process, nor were any lectures involved, even on important subjects like "which end to aim at the sky" or "how to carry this expensive instrument so you don't break it."
The telescope comes with a very brief instruction manual, which includes a diagram labeling many parts of the telescope, and then refers to them by different names when telling you what to do with them. (Luckily in the diagram one end of the telescope is higher than the other, so I correctly guessed that this is the end that points at the sky.) The manual also includes pointers on how to transport the telescope in your car, including how to arrange the seatbelt, but not how to carry it to and from the car.
After reading the manual several times and carefully experimenting, I successfully viewed the moon. Then I replaced the batteries in the star-finder thingy. Makes finding stuff a lot easier, it turns out, so next I am hoping to view Jupiter. If I spot anything else in the slice of sky visible through our back window I will happily record it.
Also, did I mention that the first time I rented a kayak I was surprised that no one asked, "Do you know how to kayak?" They just said, "Paddles and PFDs are over there, take whatever you like." Then they looked at my small stature and added, "Do you want some help getting it down?"
Yes, I said confidently, that would be great. Someone helped me carry a kayak all the way to the water, then fortunately walked off before they could see me figuring out which end was the front, and how to get both me and the paddle into the kayak at the same time.
So what I get out of this is twofold, after the great experiences and fun stories. One, have confidence. Other people don't go around randomly doubting you for no reason. You said you were gonna do the thing; you must know how to do it, and other people either believe you or don't care or both. Two, have confidence! It turns out most things aren't that hard as long as you're not worried about looking smart or capable.
And when they are hard, we have the internet. Thank goodness.
Some years ago, I spent New Year's Eve with a couple of friends whose exchange at the time I've quoted ever since. One of them remarked that he didn't do everything he'd planned to do that year. The other one looked at his watch and said, "Hurry."
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 Communications committee (Comms) disseminates information to the general public, media, and fans. We draft and beta news posts and social media posts, and are often the first point of contact for anyone interested in the OTW.
We asked Comms for replies to your questions, and received a lot of feedback! Below you can find a selection of their answers:
Communications Committee Specific Questions
Question: We’re so thankful for how fast you guys always respond when the ao3 website goes down. I was wondering what’s the circus like behind the scenes when it happens? xD Do you usually first notice when we start panicking, or does someone keep an eye on it 24/7, do emails start flying from social team to it, is it usually scary or is it very organised and calm since you’re so experienced, who makes the decision to pull the plug for a few hours if it’s really bad and looks hopeless, stuff like this. Thank you! Committee answer:
Accessibility, Design, & Technology (AD&T) and Systems (our two main technical committees) have already given their own replies to this, but from Comms’ end, we often are the ones that handle posting and disseminating information for downtimes! We work hand in hand with AD&T and Systems to ensure that we’re distributing the most accurate and concise information to the public, and coordinate with our fellow volunteers to make sure that it’s sent out in time. We do our best to handle the public logistics so that our coders can focus on their own work!
General Questions
How many hours a week do you spend on your OTW volunteer work?
It truly depends on the week! Typically I would say ~4 hours, for just keeping on top of things and my weekly tasks. It can be upwards of 10 if there’s things outside of the norm or that require a bit of research. (Caitlynne)
For me, it depends on the time of year most of all! As an Event Coordinator, half of the year I’d say it’s ~2-6 hours a week. The bulk of our anniversaries and holidays converge into fall and winter, during that time it’s more ~6-8 hours. (Elin)
How do you manage your volunteer time, and do you do the same thing every day like with a day job?
I hop on my computer pretty frequently throughout the week, so I tailor my OTW time to when I’m on my PC. If there’s a day I’m busy and away from my PC, I know I’ll have to “catch up” the next day when I have time, so to speak. (Tiana)
I try to check our chat tool/the Comms email when I can throughout the day and give a dedicated half hour or so on my laptop in the evenings. It doesn’t always work out, but that’s the goal! (callmeri)
What’s your favorite part about volunteering at the OTW?
I like that tending the little OTW!Tumblr corner of the landscape helps the whole fandom ecosystem. (Remi)
The best part of volunteering at the OTW is the people, for sure! The social aspect is easily what motivates me the most to stay. I have made lots of friends and the Communications committee has been a really supportive environment! (stork)
What’s the aspect of volunteer work with the OTW that you most wish more people knew about?
We are fans just like you! There are so many different cultures and fandoms coming together every day to make the organisation run. (Tal)
We are really big on emojis! The custom emoji feature on our chat tool is definitely getting a lot of mileage with us XD. Also, you can put OTW work on your resume if you want to. (stork)
What does a typical day as an OTW volunteer looks like for you?
Check the Tumblr notes and ask box in the morning, before scrolling through my personal dash and then the tags the organisation follows looking for Things To Queue. Mosey through the #ao3 tag on occasion to reply or leave little notes to folks. Every day is similar, but none are The Same. (Remi)
I often start by checking and responding to messages from other volunteers, and then make a list of current tasks to work on. Sometimes that means brainstorming activities for a special milestone, other times it’s writing posts, or preparing for an event. (Elin)
What is your favorite animal? Alternatively, do you have a favorite breed of cat/dog?
I love bats and think they’re super cute, but identify with possums on an emotional level. (Caitlynne)
My favorite animal is a saiga antelope. Fave dog breed: Irish wolfhound. (Communications volunteer)
Do you enjoy reading fanfic? If so, what’s your favorite work on AO3?
For a dyslexic person I seem to read A LOT of fanfic… I actually tend to read more on AO3 than actual books?? Anyway, my favourite of all time would have to be unholyverse. I don’t think anything can beat that… (Gray)
I love reading fic so much it’s kind of concerning how many tabs I have open all the time. My favourite fic is locked but another fave is between the sheets by DasWarSchonKaputt. og. goat. mother. (choux)
Do you write any fanfic yourself? What do you enjoy about it?
I do write. I enjoy the creativity and the ability to explore characters. (Communications volunteer)
I do! It’s my favorite hobby and one I neglected a bit last year. I hope to get back into the swing of it in 2026. (Tiana)
What fandoms are you (currently) in?
I’m very active in the Dan and Phil fandom :3 (Gray)
Mostly MDZS and IWTV for the past few years, but Heated Rivalry took over my brain so it looks like I’m getting on that ride. (callmeri)
Do you feel glad or proud to see fanfiction in your mother tongue?
I’m also a tag wrangler, so I get to participate in tag translation (every tag wrangled needs to have a documented english translation). There aren’t as many German works, but we have loads of German volunteers – this means there’s often several of us running to translate whenever there’s a German tag. it’s really cool to see very specific cultural references in works! (Tal)
I read a TON of socmed AUs in Filipino along with the Filipino fics in general! I’m super happy to see fanwork in Filipino and when a creator is Filipino as well! especially when I see actual locations or cultural tidbits getting referenced. (choux)
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.
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