marcicatverse | Reading

Daphne had a quiet day after her big adventure yesterday.

( picture )

I thought she might spend the whole day in her cat tree (or beanbag, but the cat tree has a better view), but she agreed to go outside once it stopped raining.

She was a big help spreading compost on the fence gardens out front.

( picture )

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Yesterday we took the day off and drove up the coast to see a forest beside the ocean. Unexpectedly, we also found a pond with a cool swing where we had lunch.

It's still early for beach businesses to be open, so we went into to town to get an ice cream flight and a pup cup with biscuit sprinkles. We found a nice walk across the river and back, then drove home.

( field trip pictures )

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Posted by Lute

https://www.transformativeworks.org/mediafans-and-futures-without-end-are-moving-to-ao3/

https://www.transformativeworks.org/?p=284315

Mediafans, a multifandom fanfiction archive, and Futures Without End, a Duncan/Methos zine it hosted, are being imported to the Archive of Our Own (AO3).

In this post:

Background explanation

Mediafans was a personal fanworks archive for creators Rachael Sabotini and Melina, as well as several other creators. It also hosted the Highlander zine Futures Without End, which was started by Melina and Maygra de Rhema and ran for four issues. Mediafans went offline in 2013, taking digital access to Futures Without End with it.

The purpose of the Open Doors Committee’s Online Archive Rescue Project is to assist moderators of archives to incorporate the fanworks from those archives into the Archive of Our Own. Open Doors works with moderators to import their archives when the moderators lack the funds, time, or other resources to continue to maintain their archives independently. It is extremely important to Open Doors that we work in collaboration with moderators who want to import their archives and that we fully credit creators, giving them as much control as possible over their fanworks. Open Doors will be working with Melina to import Mediafans and Futures Without End into separate, searchable collections on the Archive of Our Own. As part of preserving the archives in their entirety, all fanfiction and fanart currently in the archive and zine will be hosted on the OTW’s servers, and embedded in their own AO3 work pages.

We will begin importing works from Mediafans and Futures Without End to AO3 after May. However, the import may not take place for several months or even years, depending on the size and complexity of the archive. Creators are always welcome to import their own works and add them to the collection in the meantime.

What does this mean for creators who had work(s) on Mediafans or in Futures Without End?

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

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

Please contact Open Doors with your Mediafans or Futures Without End pseud(s) and email address(es), if:

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

Please include the name of the archive in the subject heading of your email. If you no longer have access to the email account associated with Mediafans or Futures Without End, please contact Open Doors and we’ll help you out. (If you’ve posted the works elsewhere, or have an easy way to verify that they’re yours, that’s great; if not, we will work with Melina to confirm your claims.)

Please see the Open Doors Website for instructions on:

importing your works to AO3
adding your works to the new collections Mediafans or Futures Without End

If you still have questions…

If you have further questions, visit the Open Doors FAQ, or contact the Open Doors committee.

We’d also love it if fans could help us preserve the story of Mediafans and Futures Without End on Fanlore. If you’re new to wiki editing, no worries! Check out the new visitor portal, or ask the Fanlore Gardeners for tips.

We’re excited to be able to help preserve Mediafans and Futures Without End!

– The Open Doors team and Melina

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

https://www.transformativeworks.org/mediafans-and-futures-without-end-are-moving-to-ao3/

https://www.transformativeworks.org/?p=284315

Yay beach! Happy May ♥

Tags:

dogs,
pictures

The dahlias are outside. I hope I don't regret that in the morning,* but they looked so happy and there are just so many of them. Originally I thought putting them on a tray near the back door meant we could carry them outside (on the tray) during the day and bring them back in the same way at night. Ha ha. They are much too big for that.

( picture )

*"Star, didn't you set up not one but two popup greenhouses outside the back door?" I did, yes, and one of them is full of unsprouted cannas and the other one is full of patio furniture and houseplants, so clearly the space is well-planned and efficiently utilized.

( picture )

I should clarify, all the dahlias are too big to easily move, but some are tall and spindly despite my efforts to feed them artificial sun. I see now that putting the smaller tubers in smaller pots disadvantaged them in the race for light: the smaller pots were shorter, and that inch or two made a difference. Anyway, I put the bushy ones outside and left the skinny ones inside under the plant lights for now.

( picture )

I moved the blueberry twigs out too and put the indoor cannas where the blueberries used to be. I set up a dedicated seedling light next to them for the nasturtiums (and Cheri's cosmos and Marci's sagelings). I hope the seedling light turned itself off. I just realized I didn't check, but hopefully I plugged it into the timer side of the outlet strip.

( picture )

I also have some montauk daisy cuttings inside: my neighbor told me to just put them in the ground, but it's been so dry, and they'd be great out by the street if I can get them growing, so I started them in water. They are not happy. But another neighbor dug up some geraniums for the shade garden, and they bounced back after just a day, so the spring plant migration has begun. (All that discarded pachysandra and vinca definitely didn't hurt.)

In conclusion, here is a relatable short video by jesuisbaggsy on youtube: The thing that threw me most about neurotypical living was their homes. (They have spare rooms! "that's different")

In further conclusion, here are some pretty pictures for reading all of that.

( bridge garden - with bridge! )

( unrelated vet notes )

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Posted by Elintiriel

https://www.transformativeworks.org/updates-to-no-fandom-additional-tags-april-2026/

https://www.transformativeworks.org/?p=284303

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 continued to adjust 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:

Accidental Confessions
Accidental Love Confessions
College | University Students
Corruption Kink
Coworkers to Lovers
Lovers
Teammates to Lovers
Dark Academia
Date Nights
Drooling
Fingers in Mouth
Spitting in Mouth
First Time Being in Heat
First Time Being in Rut
Hard Vore
Soft Vore
Hyper Penises
Implied/Referenced Suicidal Thoughts
Passive Suicidality
Suicidal Behavior
Suicidal Characters
Medical Malpractice
Marijuana | Weed Edibles
Musk Scent
Political Intrigue
Slick | Self-Lubricant
Soft Smut

Subtag/Metatag Revisions

Additionally, we continued to adjust 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.

Cat/Human Hybrids is now a subtag of Hybrids
Blood and Gore is now a subtag of Gore
Non-Consensual Oral Sex is now a subtag of Oral Sex
Trans Female Character is now a subtag of Female Characters
Canon LGBTQ Character has been removed as a subtag from Canon Sexuality

In Conclusion

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.

https://www.transformativeworks.org/updates-to-no-fandom-additional-tags-april-2026/

https://www.transformativeworks.org/?p=284303

The day really got away from me there. Like, I walked past the dahlias tonight and thought, I'd better see if they need water, and when I looked down I noticed the nasturtiums I thought hadn't sprouted yet were growing through the holes in the top of their container. (Also the dahlias needed water.)

If we're lucky we'll get to try again tomorrow. In the meantime, here's a picture of my dog.

Tags:

Posted by an

https://www.transformativeworks.org/otw-signal-april-2026/

https://www.transformativeworks.org/?p=284237

Every month in OTW Signal, we take a look at stories that connect to the OTW’s mission and projects, including issues related to legal matters, technology, academia, fannish history and preservation issues of fandom, fan culture, and transformative works.

In the News

A discussion on NPR Radio centered on a growing debate: should fanfiction have remained tucked away in private internet forums and zines, or was its advance into the mainstream inevitable and even beneficial?

That conversation seems to reflect a broader cultural shift, indicated by several recent news stories describing fanfiction as not only a major force in pop culture, but also a legitimate creative endeavor.

For example, in an article for Vogue, Alexandra Romanoff describes how fanfiction gave her the incentive to immerse herself in romance in her writing while helping her better understand story structure and how to develop a complete narrative.

I had such a specific vision in my head for how these people interacted, how they felt about their world and each other. Eventually, there was nothing to do but to start typing it all out into a Word doc.

This growing legitimacy is also reflected in fanfiction’s increased visibility in publishing and the media. In How fan fiction went mainstream, Danielle Hewitt and Noel King explain that after a wave of commercially successful books and films which began as fanworks, from 50 Shades of Grey and The Love Hypothesis to Heated Rivalry, publishers are now actively scouting fan spaces for talent—a dramatic reversal from earlier attitudes that treated fanfiction as something to hide.

I think part of it is just a broader mainstreaming of fanfic, and that people are kind of waving that fanfic flag proudly in a way that they hadn’t a decade or so ago. And if we’re understanding the structures of traditional publishing, whether it is the editors who are acquiring works or literary agents, a lot of these people are people who grew up on fan fiction, right? So they might not have the same hangups or ideas about fan fiction that previous generations had. They’re interested in it, and they see it as a legitimate form of writing.

Beyond publishing, fanfiction is also being recognized for being, at its core, a collaborative community. Writers create and share stories not for profit but for connection, creativity, and mutual enthusiasm. In a story for the University of Tennessee’s The Pacer, author Bethany Collins emphasizes this aspect, portraying fanfiction as one of the internet’s most honest and participatory forms of storytelling.

Fan fiction is unapologetically sincere. People are not pretending they are above caring. They are not hiding their excitement behind layers of irony. They are saying, very openly, “This story mattered to me, so I made something in response.” That kind of vulnerability can look embarrassing from the outside, especially in a culture that often rewards detachment and sarcasm. But it is also what makes these communities feel so human.
In fandom, emotion is not something to be hidden. It is the entire point.

An article published in The Harvard Gazette describes how the Harvard-Yenching Library, Harvard University’s primary location for East Asia-related collections, is building a unique collection of K-pop fan merchandise to chronicle the global rise and cultural impact of Korean pop music. The collection, which includes items from the 1990s to today, includes things like posters, magazines, and other fan goods tied to idol groups.

The project was inspired in part by a course on “Korean Stars” taught by Professor Chan Yong Bu, who uses these materials to help students understand how fandom, celebrity culture, and media industries shape K-pop’s success.

The Harvard Gazette article emphasizes that K-pop fandom has historical roots going back to early 20th-century Korean celebrity culture and evolved through television stars in the 1980s and first-generation idol groups in the 1990s.

Overall, the collection treats fan merchandise not just as memorabilia, but as important cultural artifacts that reveal how K-pop’s global influence is built, marketed, and experienced by fans.

OTW Tips

Would you like to learn more about the preservation of fannish history? The AO3 Fanzine Scan Hosting Project (FSHP), a project of the OTW, is dedicated to the digital preservation of zines and other fannish artifacts, with permission from the creators and/or publishers. If you are interested in helping us preserve fanworks for the future, or if you have any questions about the FSHP, please contact the Open Doors committee!

We want your suggestions for the next OTW Signal post! If you know of an essay, video, article, podcast, or news story you think we should know about, send us a link. We are looking for content in all languages! Submitting a link doesn’t guarantee that it will be included in an OTW post, and inclusion of a link doesn’t mean that it is endorsed by the OTW.

https://www.transformativeworks.org/otw-signal-april-2026/

https://www.transformativeworks.org/?p=284237

polyamships is hosting a discussion, rec, and comment event for

3weeks4dreamwidth, with a post every other day (masterlist) and the ongoing promise to include "all your polyamorous shipping content."

The Day Two prompt asks, How did you discover poly ships? What makes you write/read/draw them?

And I thought, it was Power Rangers in Space, right? I started writing Zhane with Andros and Ashley because I wanted to write Zhane and Andros together, and I also wanted to continue an established series (another million-worder) where Andros and Ashley were together. That seems straightforward enough.

( it was not quite that straightforward )

"oh that was one year for the record
I know I never will forget her and how it was between us
in the great love of 1998"
--South65

Tags:

I asked if there was anything I should post about during

3weeks4dreamwidth, and

china_shop kindly replied, "I would love to hear about your very first steps to learning Chinese."

🔖 Some background~

( why I started learning Chinese, and where I am with it seven years later )

🔖 My first steps in learning Chinese~

( specifically and generally, and what I would tell myself if I were starting now )

🔖 In conclusion, some early study notes~

( so many old resources, some more current and/or helpful than others )

Tags:

♥ a ficlet a day, 2026 prompts by

lilly_c for

3weeks4dreamwidth~
♥ A story about fox!xian and dragon!ji at the Cloud Recesses guest lectures, where they both get pulled under the cold springs for no reason, and time has passed on the other side, also for no reason.

♥ ( story )

🦊

temperature	breakdown	magic	gone	darkness	improvise	investigate
late	echo	seed	analyse	weakness	tied together	charm
fragile	backwards	smirk	substance	desolate	alien	finish

Tags:

Posted by choux

https://www.transformativeworks.org/april-2026-membership-drive-thanks-for-your-support/

https://www.transformativeworks.org/?p=283283

The Organization for Transformative Works’s April Membership Drive is over and we are delighted to say that we are finishing with a total of $362,171.85 raised, far exceeding our goal of US$150,000. These donations came from 9,702 people in 87 countries: thank you to every single one of them, as well as to all of you who posted and shared the news about the drive!

We are particularly pleased that 8,035 donors chose to take up or renew an OTW membership with their donation. The OTW would not exist without its users all around the world, and your continued support for us is our absolute pride and joy! We are so glad to know that our ongoing mission to support, protect, and provide access to the history of fanworks and fan culture continues to resonate with the people that matter most of all: the fans themselves.

If you were intending to donate or join and haven’t yet done so, don’t worry! The OTW accepts donations all year and you can always choose to become a member with a donation of US$10 or more. Memberships run for one calendar year from the date of your donation, so if you donate now you’ll be able to vote in the 2026 OTW Board elections, which will take place in August. And our exclusive thank-you gifts are available whenever you donate!

https://www.transformativeworks.org/april-2026-membership-drive-thanks-for-your-support/

https://www.transformativeworks.org/?p=283283

It's been a little dry here, to the point where I've been wondering: will I have to start watering the gardens in April?? But today I noticed the daffodils are shriveling as soon as they try to open and the poor Icelandic poppy is fading again, plus I'd been meaning to put more water on the transplanted blueberries, so hose time has arrived.

I got the front and back hoses hooked up, and I brought out the hose butler for the fence gardens. Then since I was there anyway I watered some of the shade garden, and I've left the long hose out there because I spotted my neighbor pulling out pachysandra. I asked if he was going to throw it away, and when he said yes I asked if I could have it. So now I have a cart full of pachysandra and a new plan for the evening.

What I do not have is groceries, but that's really not as important as plants, so.

I got a couple more mesh protectors set up for my winter sown seedlings, just to keep the squirrels out when I take the tops off to give them fresh air and extra sunshine. I watered the greenhouse houseplants and didn't entirely forget that I have a couple of coreopsis still in the canna greenhouse (in the sense that I walked past it, thought "oh right," and kept going).

Now I'm pondering an Untamed series about the cave under the cold springs (still a little puzzled about the geology of that area) based on

lilly_c's ficlet a day prompts for

3weeks4dreamwidth. That would be fun, although though I have no idea what would happen in it. But the cave is both pretty and magical, and that goes a long way.

Daphne says I'll be taking her out first. Then probably the pachysandra. Then... not groceries, I'm guessing. So writing, clearly.

Tags:

Yay it's

3weeks4dreamwidth! What should I post about? I have no idea! (If there's something you want me to post about, let me know and I'll do it.) Right now I'm eating microwave pasta and mushrooms with chopsticks, so that's pretty exciting.

I did accomplish a variety of small tasks this morning: relocating my Reunion Dinner legos to Flower Fruit Mountain (that set makes so much more sense now that I've read something about Sun Wukong and his monkeys), super gluing the pin in my favorite moldavite pendant so I can wear it again (I'm sure I did this when I first got it, but that must have been at least 10 years ago now), and moving the compost I was storing beside the porch to behind the garage (thanks for that idea Marci; it was a hassle but it looks so much neater).

I left my hardiest houseplants outside in the greenhouse last night, and all of them appear to have survived. The weather app says it got down to 29F; our greenhouse temperature sensor says 35F. And I put some new faux flower/vines on the moongate yesterday, so the whole patio looks cheerier.

All blueberry plants are still alive as far as I can tell. The cosmos have sprouted but the nasturtiums have not. I have finished my lunch, and Daphne is asleep after a long and windy walk in the park, so I guess it's time to hang up the laundry.

Happy birthday, Dreamwidth!

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Hello, everyone; happy Dreamwidth Anniversary!

Today I come bearing some simple colored Dreamsheep icons, for your color-themed blogs. These are just some basic web-safe colors I grabbed, so it's not everything on the spectrum or color wheel, but I aimed for a decent variety. Also, if there's a color or color combination that you really want, I'm willing to take requests! It may take me a couple of days to get to them, though, just a heads up.

Anyway, ( Colorful Dreamsheep )

If you decide to use one, please credit soc_puppet or Socchan somewhere; other than that, no restrictions apply 👍

I hope you find one you like!

Tags:

Posted by choux

https://www.transformativeworks.org/april-2026-membership-drive-behind-the-scenes-of-ao3/

https://www.transformativeworks.org/?p=283281

In case you missed it, earlier this month AO3 exited open beta! Earlier this year, we also reached 10 million users and 17 million fanworks. We’re awed by all these milestones we’ve reached as a community, and, as always, are very grateful for all your support.

These milestones would not be possible without the hard work of the volunteers who are part of the Accessibility, Design, & Technology committee (AD&T). AD&T is the team behind developing, updating, and maintaining the AO3’s software and infrastructure, whose work you can keep up with by reading the release notes posts with the list of code updates and fixes. Recently, our AD&T volunteers and contributors moved collections to Elasticsearch as well as made improvements to bookmark filtering and sorting.

If you’re familiar with coding and would like to help, we welcome contributions from anyone! Check out our Contributing Guidelines and other documentation on our GitHub repository. All contributors are credited in our release notes.

If you’re interested in helping AO3 but don’t have any coding experience, consider contributing to AO3 in some other way, such as by donating!

We’ve prepared new donation gifts for this Drive as well, such as the US$350 Fix-It Kit, for when you need to do a little fix-it for canon; and the US$100 tech travel bag for all your fic reading and fanwork creation needs!

As per usual, we have a sticker set at the US$45 level, with a theme in celebration of the inherently human and collaborative nature of fannish culture and fandom, as well as encouragement of new beginnings.

Fiber Art Weavers, who generously donated OTW-themed recycled cotton blankets previously have kindly donated some more this Drive! We’re very excited to add them to our donation gifts at the US$600 level, but please note that these are limited in number and cannot be saved up for with a recurring donation unlike the other gifts. Once again, thank you so much to Fiber Art Weavers for their donation!

Red pouch with multiple compartments with the archiveofourown.org domain stylized to contain both the AO3 and OTW logo Sticker set of flowers and relationship category tags Dark red blanket with various logos of OTW projects Red first aid kit with the words 'Fix-It Kit', a stethoscope with the AO3 logo, and a thermometer with a 'Hurt/Comfort' tag

If you want a gift but don’t want to donate all at once, you can also set up a recurring donation and save towards the gift of your choice. Simply select a thank-you gift that your recurring donation will be adding up to, and once you’ve “saved” enough to get your item, you will get an email from Development & Membership to confirm your shipping address. You must respond to this email for the donation gift to be sent to you. Those of you in the U.S. might also be able to double your contribution via employer matching: contact your HR department to find out if this is an option for you. For more information regarding donating, refer to the Donations and Membership FAQ.

A donation of US$10 or more will also allow you to become a member of the OTW. OTW members have the right to vote for the Board of Directors—the OTW’s governing board. You have until June 30, 2026 to become a member if you would like to vote in this year’s election, which will be held in August. For more information about OTW elections, refer to our elections website.

While we hope that many of you will take this opportunity to donate and join the OTW, we’re grateful for the support of all members of this community, in all its many forms! Whether you create, share, comment on or kudos fanworks on AO3; edit Fanlore; read Transformative Works and Cultures; or spread information from OTW Legal, you all help shape the OTW and its projects every day. We are grateful for your time, energy, and engagement!

Update April 24 13:27 UTC: We are grateful for all your enthusiasm for the OTW-themed blankets! Unfortunately, our limited supply has now run out and it is no longer available as a donation gift. All other items are still available.

https://www.transformativeworks.org/april-2026-membership-drive-behind-the-scenes-of-ao3/

https://www.transformativeworks.org/?p=283281

Posted by therealmorticia

https://www.transformativeworks.org/otw-finance-2026-budget/

https://www.transformativeworks.org/?p=283966

Through the last year, the OTW Finance team has continued to ensure that the organization’s bills are paid, tax returns filed, and standard accounting procedures met. Preparation for the 2025 audit of financial statements is currently ongoing!

The team has also been diligently working to meet the OTW’s 2026 needs, and is proud to present to you this year’s budget (access the 2026 budget spreadsheet for more detailed information):

2026 Expenses

Expenses by program: Archive of Our Own: 71.2%. Open Doors: 0.7%. Transformative Works and Cultures: 0.5%. Fanlore: 3.9%. Legal Advocacy: 0.2%. Admin: 12.1%. Fundraising & Development: 11.4%.

Archive of Our Own (AO3)

US$58,283.93 spent; US$791,756.92 left

US$58,283.93 spent so far out of US$850,040.85 total this year, as of March 31, 2026.
71.2% of the OTW’s expenses go towards maintaining AO3. This includes the bulk of our server expenses—both new purchases and ongoing colocation and maintenance—website performance monitoring tools, and various systems-related licenses, as well as costs highlighted below (access all program expenses).
This year’s projected AO3 expenses also include US$500,000 to purchase new database servers, as well as US$60,000 for new firewalls and routers and US$35,000 in server related equipment to increase the capacity of existing servers to handle expected site traffic growth through the year.

Open Doors

US$1,957.84 spent; US$6,773.21 left

US$1,957.84 spent so far out of US$8,731.05 total this year, as of March 31, 2026.
Open Doors’ expenses consist of hosting, backup, and domain costs for imported fanwork archives, as well as an allocated share of various OTW-wide productivity tools (access all program expenses).

Transformative Works and Cultures

US$317.00 spent; US$6,195.63 left

US$317.00 spent so far out of US$6,512.63 total this year, as of March 31, 2026.
Transformative Works and Cultures‘ expenses are the journal’s website hosting, publishing, and storage fees, as well as an allocated share of various OTW-wide productivity tools (access all program expenses).
Additionally, in 2024, the University of Amsterdam provided €1,000 (US$1,061) to Transformative Works and Cultures, which will be used to help fund the Fans of Color Research Prize. One prize was awarded in 2025.

Fanlore

US$2,228.24 spent; US$44,460.06 left

US$2,228.24 spent so far out of US$46,688.30 total this year, as of March 31, 2026.
Fanlore’s expenses are its share of allocated server hardware, maintenance and colocation costs, as well as its portion of various OTW-wide productivity tools (access all program expenses).

Legal Advocacy

US$0spent; US$2,927.92 left

US$0 spent so far out of US$2,927.92 total this year, as of March 31, 2026.
Legal’s expenses consist of registration fees for conferences and hearings and funds set aside for legal filings if necessary, as well as an allocated share of OTW-wide productivity tools (access all program expenses).

Fundraising and Development

US$22,123.05 spent; US$113,881.76 left

US$22,123.05 spent so far out of US$136,004.81 total this year, as of March 31, 2026.
Our fundraising and development expenses consist of transaction fees charged by our third-party payment processors for each donation, thank-you gift purchases and shipping, outreach work by volunteers at various fan conventions, and the tools used to host the OTW’s membership database and track communications with donors and potential donors, as well as an allocated share of OTW-wide productivity tools (access fundraising expenses).

Administration

US$32,837.40 spent; US$111,365.73 left

US$32,837.40 spent so far out of US$144,203.13 total this year, as of March 31, 2026.
The OTW’s administrative expenses include hosting for our website, trademarks, domains, insurance, tax filing, and annual financial statement audits, as well as productivity, management, and accounting tools (access all admin expenses).

2026 Revenue

OTW revenue: April drive donations: 18.1%. October drive donations: 18.1%. Non-drive donations: 54.1%. Donations from matching programs: 9.6%. Interest income: <0.1%. Royalties: <0.1%. Other Income: <0.1%.

The OTW is entirely supported by your donations—thank you for your generosity!
We receive a significant portion of our donations each year in the April and October fundraising drives, which together will account for about 36.2% of our income in 2026. We also receive donations via employer matching programs, royalties, and PayPal Giving Fund, which administers donations from programs like Humble Bundle and eBay for Charity. If you’d like to support us while making purchases on those websites, please select the Organization for Transformative Works as your charity of choice!
Thanks to your generosity in previous years, we have a healthy amount of money in our reserves, which we can use to pay for larger than usual purchases and keep on hand for legal contingencies. As mentioned previously, we plan to continue to upgrade the capacity of AO3’s servers, which significantly increases server equipment and server hosting expenses. The growth of AO3 and other projects of the OTW also requires more volunteers and administrative support, further increasing expenses. The budget spreadsheet projects a withdrawal of US$375,000 from reserves to cover the costs that exceed the amount of revenue projected to be received this year. This amount may be withdrawn as needed during the year.
US$147,393.22 received so far (as of March 31, 2026) and US$830,450.00 projected to be received by the end of the year.

US$147,393.22 donated; US$683,056.78 left

Got questions?

If you have any questions about the budget or the OTW’s finances, please contact the Finance committee. We’ll get back to you as soon as possible!

To download the OTW’s 2026 budget in spreadsheet format, please follow this link.

https://www.transformativeworks.org/otw-finance-2026-budget/

https://www.transformativeworks.org/?p=283966

Happy Wednesday!

I'm taking search offline sometime today to upgrade the server to a new instance type. It should be down for a day or so -- sorry for the inconvenience. If you're curious, the existing search machine is over 10 years old and was starting to accumulate a decade of cruft...!

Also, apparently these older machines cost more than twice what the newer ones cost, on top of being slower. Trying to save a bit of maintenance and cost, and hopefully a Wednesday is okay!

Edited: The other cool thing is that this also means that the search index will be effectively realtime afterwards... no more waiting a few minutes for the indexer to catch new content.

Astronomy Picture of the Day (

apod_feed) is delightful for many reasons, one being their lovely astronomy pictures and another being their brief explanations of those pictures.

The explanations include a bunch of links for people who want to learn more, and often a random funny link to make people like me click all of them in order to find it. (A little practice can make you very good at guessing which one is the funny link.)

For example, yesterday's picture was Eye on the Milky Way by Miguel Claro. The explanation acknowledged the "unusual vertical horizon," and unusual vertical was a clickable link. I clicked it and laughed out loud.

Another great one from last year was Little Red Dots in the Early Universe, which concluded: "...searches are underway in our nearby universe to try to find whatever previous LRDs might have become today." The phrase searches are underway linked to a paper in The Astrophysical Journal, but the phrase become today was the one I was looking for.

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In Conclusion

In the News

OTW Tips

2026 Expenses

Archive of Our Own (AO3)

Open Doors

Transformative Works and Cultures

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Fundraising and Development

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2026 Revenue

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