OTW Board Meeting, April 18, 2026

Apr. 4th, 2026 12:50 pm
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Posted by Caitlynne

The OTW Board will be holding its next public meeting at 01:00 on April 18, 2026 UTC (what time is that for me?).

This meeting will be held in the Board Discord server. The server will have a team of moderators and a set of rules (including question rules) and community guidelines. The server will remain open even after the meeting, but the channels for meeting and asking questions will be read-only. Board will be posting replies to questions that do not get addressed during the scheduled meeting two weeks after the meeting in the server’s #questions-answers channel.

The agenda will include:

  • Decisions made since the last public board meeting
  • Updates to Board roadmap
  • Updates to Organizational Culture Roadmap
  • Updates regarding internal complaint and conflict systems
  • Any other business (Questions & Answers)

Prior to this meeting, there is an opportunity to ask questions in advance to be answered as part of the meeting. This allows anyone who wishes to ask the Board questions, whether they will be able to attend the meeting live or not. Board will also accept questions during the meeting.

Questions submitted to this Google Form will be accepted up to three days before the meeting begins or until 50 questions have been submitted. At that point, the form will be turned off. You need to be logged in to a Google account to submit a question. In the future, these rules may be amended as needed.

Further information will be available in the OTW Board Discord server.

AO3 is Exiting Open Beta!

Apr. 2nd, 2026 05:17 pm
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Posted by therealmorticia

We’re excited to announce that we’re exiting open beta! We’ve come a long way from when we announced and launched AO3 open beta in 2009.

At launch, there were just 347 AO3 accounts and 6,598 works. While we started growing very quickly, we were originally much more limited in what we could do.

Did you know that AO3 invitations were originally sent out manually by individual AO3 volunteers? During our initial rapid growth, we were still only sending out about 1200 invitations per day, and eventually tapered off to 50 per day. Today, we send around 6,000 invitations every 12 hours. Our old news posts also include fun stats about what AO3’s user base and works looked like in 2009, which you can compare to the stats post we recently shared in January to see how far we’ve come.

What’s Changed Since Then

Since 2009, AO3 has grown and changed a lot. We’ve introduced many features over the years through the efforts of our volunteers and coding contributors, as well as the contractors we’ve been able to hire thanks to generous donations from our users. While there are a lot of additions we’re proud of, some of our favorites include:

Looking at where we are now in 2026, we recently celebrated 10 million registered users and 17 million fanworks! We’re grateful for all the fans that have accompanied us all this time—all of our accomplishments are thanks to you!

Some recent improvements we’ve made include adding new options to bookmark and collections filtering and updating all of the buttons at the bottom of the forms for posting, previewing, or editing a work to make them more user-friendly.

What’s Next for AO3 and How You Can Help

As the AO3 software has been stable for a long time, the change is mostly cosmetic and does not indicate that everything is finalized or perfectly working. Exiting beta doesn’t mean we’ll stop continuing to improve AO3—our volunteer coders and community contributors will still be working to add to and improve AO3 every day. For one, it’s likely you’ll continue to see references to us being in beta for a while as we update our documentation.

If you’d like to see what issues are being worked on, check out our project on Jira. This is a public list of all the bugs and features that are on the to-do list for our coders.

If you’re familiar with coding and would like to contribute your time, we welcome contributions from anyone! Take a look at our Contributing Guidelines and other documentation on GitHub. All contributors are credited in our release notes.

If you’re interested in helping AO3 but don’t have any coding ability, consider volunteering for one of the other teams that work on AO3 or contributing to AO3 in some other way.

If you have a feature request or bug to report, please contact AO3 Support. Support handles communication between users and the various teams involved with AO3. The Support team helps to resolve technical problems experienced by users and passes on users’ feedback to the relevant committees.

Circular badge with the words 'I was here for beta' with an AO3 logo

For all the fans who were part of our beta journey from 2009 until today, here’s a badge for you, as a small thank you for your support! You’re welcome to display this badge on social media, your AO3 profile, or any other website of your choosing. For example, if you want to display the badge in your AO3 profile, add this HTML tag <img src="https://media.archiveofourown.org/news/ao3-updates/2026-04-leaving-beta/badge-english.png" alt="Circular badge with the words 'I was here for beta' with an AO3 logo"> into the “About Me” section in your profile. If you’d like more information on how to embed images, refer to our Posting and Editing FAQ or our guide on how to format HTML on AO3!

We are deeply appreciative and grateful for all the support we’ve gotten from fans since we were founded, so let us be the first to say: Welcome to Post-Beta AO3!

Spotlight on Omegas at AO3

Mar. 31st, 2026 11:25 pm
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Posted by callmeri

Omegas are the glue that holds us all together, providing the essential social lubricant needed for our society to function—and yet they are often maligned and treated as lesser-than. This April, we are changing part of our logo to highlight omegas as part of our commitment to the inclusion and wellbeing of our omega volunteers and users.

We believe that visibility is important. As we post this, we’re home to over 2,900 omega characters and counting. AO3 is one of the only spaces online where omegas are in the limelight, and we are proud to offer this safe space.

Volunteers at the OTW are never required to state their designations, though many choose to do so. Regardless of their decision or subgender, we aim to support our volunteers to the best of our ability; our policies on short breaks and hiatuses are written to help volunteers maintain their privacy and focus on their needs. Here are some words from our volunteers on the subject:

  • “As someone in a leadership position at the OTW I have always felt supported by my fellow volunteers in all matters relating to my designation. Going on break regularly is a non-issue because my alpha chair assistants hold down the nest without taking advantage of my absence, and the only comments I get from my committee are people asking whether I’ve had enough rest when I return.” — Choux, Communications Chair (Ω)
  • “Everyone gets to shine as a volunteer here, because our diverse leadership brings invaluable insight. I’m proud to volunteer for the OTW, this being one of many reasons.” — orphan_account, Support Volunteer (β)
  • “Fandom unites us in a way that transcends bounds. I’m incredibly proud to be a part of an organization that champions its volunteers regardless of subgender, with no tolerance for alpha posturing.” — Tal, Tag Wrangling Supervisor (α)
  • “As an older omega, it is a rare thing to find a volunteer community so consistently supportive. Three years of service, and the whole OTW has always had my back.” — Remi, OTW Tumblr Mod (Ω)

As part of this commitment, our Tag Wrangling Committee recently canonized several tags to better represent experiences had by people of all subgenders! Here are some our omega volunteers have chosen to highlight:

Finally, a word from our Board President:

Dear gentlebeings at AO3, on this serendipitous day of 2026, the Board of Directors are pleased to announce that:

All our volunteers have enjoyed perfect health of body, and tranquillity of mind; we don’t feel the treachery or insecurity of omegas in heat, nor the possessiveness or aggression of alphas in ruts. We have no occasion of bribing, lubricating, or alphasplaining, to procure the favour of any great omega, or of their beta and alpha supporters. We don’t need protection against dishonesty or oppression: there is neither insurance company to destroy our health, nor politician to ruin our equal rights movement; no reporter to watch our words and actions, or forge accusations against us for our designations.

Gracefully yours,

Anh Pham
President of the OTW Board of Directors (Ω)


Happy April Fools! On this day and every other day of the year, AO3 is proud to host all your efforts towards making omegas just that little bit more real! To celebrate, we’ve changed our site header superscript to “omega” instead of the usual “beta”. If you’d like to learn more, you can visit the Fanlore article on the topic.

OTW Signal, March 2026

Mar. 28th, 2026 12:02 pm
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Posted by an

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

An article published in February in the Dublin Inquirer highlights the fannish origins of author Diane Duane and how her experiences writing fanfiction influenced her career.

Inspired by a deep love of the (at the time) newly airing Star Trek: The Original Series, Duane began to craft stories featuring her favourite characters. Like many fans discovering a new world for the first time, she turned to storytelling as a way to explore it more deeply. The skills she developed while writing these stories would help her build a decades-long career as an author.

Duane found herself writing Trek “fan-fiction” – although, she says, she didn’t know that’s what it was called then.

Taking a sip of her cabernet sauvignon, she remembers her first effort as a crossover between Trek and musical sitcom The Monkees.

“I don’t know why I’m even admitting this in a public place, but it’s true,” she says, laughing.

Duane’s writing credits include novels and screenwriting work for well-known series from the Marvel, DC Comics and Disney franchises in addition to her original work. She remains engaged with the Star Trek fandom, enjoying the franchise’s recent series, Strange New Worlds.


Not all coverage is good coverage: When media threatens fandom takes a look at how sudden mainstream visibility can disrupt long‑standing fandom etiquette and trust built within fandom communities.

Using a recent article featured in Dexerto and the subsequent online backlash as an example, the author argues that when large media outlets introduce fanworks to broader, uninvolved audiences it can disrupt a community based on shared norms, and mutual understanding.

Fandom spaces used to be private, and fandom etiquette previously outlined a set of rules for fans. Now, media exposure turns these online communities mainstream, posing problems for authors when fan works are often created quietly and out of admiration for the source material — not a desire for attention.

The author stresses that ethical reporting on fandom requires recognizing fandom as a legitimate cultural practice that is shaped by decades of participatory storytelling, shared values, and communal identity.

OTW Tips

If you like keeping up with OTW news, our News by Email service has a new subscription option! It now has the ability to email you whenever volunteer recruitment opens. These emails are available only in English. Sign up to stay connected with the latest from the OTW! If you are already subscribed to our News by Email service and would like to change your subscription (to add this option or change it in some other way), contact Communications. They will be able to help you adjust your current subscription type.


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.

SlasHeaven is Moving to AO3!

Mar. 25th, 2026 08:13 pm
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Posted by Elintiriel

SlasHeaven, a Spanish-language slash fanfiction and fanart archive, is being imported to the Archive of Our Own (AO3).

In this post:

Background explanation

SlasHeaven was founded on May 19, 2004, by the programmer and main promoter of the archive, Ayesha, and two collaborators, Maryam and Aura. This began after a massive deletion of fanfiction slash written in Spanish at a popular platform and with the conviction that we needed a place where we could publish in our language without restrictions. And so this website was born, a place dedicated exclusively to slash fanfiction written in Spanish.

SlasHeaven’s archivist made the decision to move the archive to AO3 after web configuration issues made it untenable to continue maintaining the archive themselves.

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 Maryam and Aura to import SlasHeaven into a separate, searchable collection on the Archive of Our Own. As part of preserving the archive in its entirety, any fanart currently hosted by SlasHeaven will be hosted on the OTW’s servers, and embedded in their own AO3 work pages.

We will begin importing works from SlasHeaven to AO3 after March. 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 SlasHeaven?

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 SlasHeaven pseud(s) and email address(es), if:

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

Please include the name of the archive in the subject heading of your email. If you no longer have access to the email account associated with your SlasHeaven account, please contact Open Doors and we’ll help you out. (If you’ve posted the works elsewhere, or have an easy way to verify that they’re yours, that’s great; if not, we will work with the SlasHeaven mods to confirm your claims.)

Please see the Open Doors Website for instructions on:

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 SlasHeaven 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 SlasHeaven!

– The Open Doors team and Maryam and Aura

Commenting on this post will be disabled in 14 days, on April 8, 2026. If you have any questions, concerns, or comments regarding this import after that date, please contact Open Doors.

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Posted by Lute

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 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:

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.

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