Archive of Our Own ^beta

This year, in recognition of World Password Day, we’re asking all fans to spend a few minutes ensuring that their passwords – and their AO3 accounts – are secure.

Recently, the Policy & Abuse committee (PAC) has seen an increasing number of users who have lost access to their AO3 accounts because they used an insecure password. We'd like to reassure our users that there is no indication that AO3 has experienced a data breach. PAC has been able to determine that all of the affected users' login information had been compromised in other ways, such as by accidentally downloading malware to their devices and/or by re-using the same password on AO3 that they had also used on a compromised website.

In early 2025, several large datasets were posted online, containing hundreds of millions of email/password pairs obtained from malware and compromised websites. It's common practice for scammers to test these compromised email/password pairs on other websites, in case the affected passwords were reused elsewhere. This allows the scammer to access accounts on websites that have never experienced a data breach, such as AO3. After gaining access to an account, the scammer may then change the account's email, password, and/or username, or sell the account information to other people.

AO3 is always free to use, but some people might not understand how to create their own AO3 account. There are many reasons for this, such as language barriers and unfamiliarity with our site. These people may purchase AO3 account information in the mistaken belief that AO3 accounts can be sold legitimately. They only discover they have been scammed once PAC re-acquires the account to give it back to the original owner.

PAC has been working diligently to identify compromised accounts and restore them to their original owners. We have also been working with the victims of the account-selling scam to help them create their own free AO3 accounts. Unfortunately, sometimes these victims, thinking the account they purchased legitimately belongs to them, may delete works or other content posted by the original account owner. While PAC can restore ownership of an account, we are unable to restore deleted content.

Ensure Your Password is Secure

You can reduce your vulnerability to this kind of incident by following internet security best practices:

• Set a unique, secure password for each and every one of your accounts on all platforms.
• Don't ever reuse passwords or share your passwords with anyone else for any reason.
• Use a password manager. This will help you to set unique, secure passwords for each of your accounts without worrying about forgetting them. Many browsers have a free, built-in password manager if you would prefer not to download third-party software.
• Keep your antivirus software and operating system up to date, and set them to scan for malware regularly.
• Check the website haveibeenpwned.com to see if your emails, passwords, and other information may have been exposed in data breaches. Change your passwords for any breached websites and any accounts on other sites where you may have used the same password.

If you are ever worried that your AO3 account is at risk of being compromised, you should do the following:

• Change your password immediately. This will automatically log you – and anyone else accessing your account – out of all sessions on all devices.
  • If you’ve forgotten your password, but you have access to the email address currently associated with your AO3 account, you can log out and reset your password instead.
  • If you’ve forgotten your password, and you no longer have access to the email address you used for your account, please contact Support.
• Make sure the email address associated with your AO3 account is one that you check regularly, as this is where all notifications about your account will be sent. If you need to update your email address, please refer to our FAQ about changing your email.

If you've received an email from @archiveofourown.org saying that the email associated with your account has been changed to one you don’t recognize, and you can't log in to your account, please contact Policy & Abuse. PAC treats compromised accounts as a matter of high priority, and will work with you via email to restore your account. If it's been over a week and you have not heard back from a PAC volunteer about the status of your account, check your email (including any spam, social, or other folders) before replying to our email or submitting a new Abuse report.

Again, we emphasize that there has not been any breach of AO3's servers. We are also developing and implementing additional measures to help prevent unauthorized access to AO3 accounts. However, your account is only as secure as your password and email. We encourage all users to take a few minutes today to ensure that your AO3 password is unique and your email address is up to date.

The Organization for Transformative Works (OTW) Board of Directors is saddened to announce that Zixin Zhang has resigned from her role as a Board Director for personal reasons.

Zixin was elected to her seat in 2023 and her resignation is effective as of the 28th of April, 2025. As her term was set to end in a few months, her seat will be left open until this year's OTW elections and filled via the normal election process.

We would like to thank Zixin for her service as a member of the Board and for her years as an OTW volunteer. We wish her all the best in her future endeavors.

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

The 2023-2026 Strategic Plan is intended to guide the Organization for Transformative Works (OTW) over the next several years and is based on the Vision Statement, which was published in July 2022. Since the Strategic Plan's approval by the Board of Directors and publication in July 2023, the Strategic Planning Committee has monitored and reported on the progress of the Strategic Plan. This one year update reports on our progress on the plan as of July 31, 2024. Only goals with current/expected progress during the first year of the Plan have been included in this review. A translation of this post will be available soon.

Diversifying Spaces

Diversity Consultant - Complete

The Board received a recommendation from the Diversity Consultant Research Officer to hire an external organization culture consultant firm. A firm was hired, which completed an audit of the OTW's internal culture, including surveying over 265 volunteers at all levels of the OTW. This firm presented to the Board recommendations for diversifying spaces within the OTW. The Board is responsible for the next steps and updates on the follow-up are covered under "Progress Report."

Progress Report - In progress

The OTW shared the Organizational Culture Consultant’s recommendations for diversifying spaces and improving the volunteer experience within the OTW for all volunteers. Summary highlights of the report were also shared with the public at the July Board meeting. A roadmap of work to be accomplished was written and shared with all OTW volunteers. Volunteers were asked to submit feedback on the Roadmap draft and revisions were made from there. Work began on the first goals in this OTW Organizational Culture Change roadmap.

Recruitment - Complete

Strategic Planning (SP) and Volunteer Committees researched, developed, and internally published a resource for inclusive recruiting practices in January 2024. This resource was shared with all committees including chairs and other volunteers.

Volunteer Coalitions - In progress/Delayed

Volunteer Coalitions were reprioritized as a lower priority than other organizational culture projects, as a result of the work by the external organization culture consultant firm. However, initial research for this goal is underway within Strategic Planning.

Internal Sustainability

Succession Planning - In progress/Delayed

Succession Planning work to reduce the impact of burnout and turnover by improving documentation and consistency across committees is slightly behind schedule, though early results from Organizational Culture Consultant’s work reaffirmed its necessity. Succession planning documentation is in progress.

Paid Staff

Paid Staff Transition Lead - Complete

The Paid Staff Transition Lead accomplished several aspects of the goal ahead of schedule, including selecting new Paid Staff Transition Co-Leads. The new leads will continue research on the paid staff transition to define next steps in this process, including feasibility research and a needs assessment.

Cybersecurity

Cybersecurity - In progress

Cybersecurity initial work is completed, with further steps ongoing.

AO3 Development

Note: Goals in this category are ongoing for the continuing health of the Organization.

Continued Maintenance and Support of AO3 - Ongoing

Conduct regular maintenance, upgrades, and support to ensure the AO3 site is stable, secure, and performant. Systems supplemented existing post-mortem practice with externally-facing incident analysis on the Archive and on Cloudflare’s case study collection. Public post-mortems (when appropriate) build stakeholder trust and contribute to the knowledge set of the systems and security industries.

Internationally-Accessible AO3 Interface - In progress

Finalize multi-language email notifications and pursue possible avenues for making additional user-facing text translatable. Progress on AO3's goal of email notifications being translated can be followed on the OTW Jira. As of July 31, 2024, the internationalization standards were largely established and documented, and implementation for emails was progressing well.

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

Are you interested in the rescue and preservation of fanworks? Are you a good wiki editor? The Organization for Transformative Works is recruiting!

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

• Open Doors Import Assistant - closing 30 April 2025 at 23:59 UTC [or after 35 applications]
• Fanlore Policy & Admin Volunteer - closing 30 April 2025 at 23:59 UTC [or after 40 applications]

We have included more information on each role below. Open roles and applications will always be available at the volunteering page. If you don't see a role that fits with your skills and interests now, keep an eye on the listings. We plan to put up new applications every few weeks, and we will also publicize new roles as they become available.

All applications generate a confirmation page and an auto-reply to your e-mail address. We encourage you to read the confirmation page and to whitelist our email address in your e-mail client. If you do not receive the auto-reply within 24 hours, please check your spam filters and then contact us.

If you have questions regarding volunteering for the OTW, check out our Volunteering FAQ.

Open Doors Import Assistant

Do you enjoy spreadsheets, self-paced projects, and helping protect fanworks from getting lost over time? Are you interested in the rescue and preservation of fanworks? Do you still guiltily—or not so guiltily—love the first fanwork that opened your eyes to fandom? Open Doors is a committee dedicated to preserving fanworks in their many formats, and we’re looking for volunteers to support this goal. The work we do preserves fan history, love, and dedication to fandom: we keep fanworks from offline and at-risk archives from being lost, divert fanzines from the trash, and more.

Our import assistants contribute to our goal by:

• Importing works to AO3 from rescued digital archives and fanzines
• Searching AO3 for existing copies of works that creators have already uploaded themselves (to prevent us from importing duplicate versions when we import an archive)
• Compiling and correcting spreadsheets of works from an archive to be imported and/or tags to use on those works
• Copyediting/proofreading works from fanzines that have been scanned from PDFs (to ensure that the scanned works were transcribed properly by the software we used)

The training is self-directed, and so is the work for the most part, though we also have weekly working meetings/parties for people to all chip in and work on tasks together! Import assistants can generally alternate the types of tasks they work on. At any one time, we usually have several tasks of different types available.

To apply for this role, you must be at least 18 years old and legally of age to open explicit fanworks in your local jurisdiction.

If you're interested, click on through for a longer description of what we're looking for and the time commitment. For your application to be considered, you will be required to complete a short task within 3 days of submitting your application.

Applications are due 30 April 2025 [or after 35 applications]

Apply for Open Doors Import Assistant at the volunteering page! If you have further questions, please contact us.

Fanlore Policy & Admin Volunteer

Do you have an interest in preserving fannish history? Do you have an interest in wiki editing, or writing help documentation? Fanlore is recruiting for Policy & Admin volunteers!

Fanlore's Policy & Admin volunteers are responsible for dealing with all the behind the scenes stuff to ensure that Fanlore runs smoothly. We respond to questions and complaints; shape Fanlore's policies, tutorials, and guidelines; and assist Fanlore gardeners and other editors. No extensive experience is required—just a strong interest in documenting and preserving fandom, good communication skills, and a willingness to work with a team and further Fanlore's mission. Join us!

Applications are due 30 April 2025 [or after 40 applications]

Apply for Fanlore Policy & Admin at the volunteering page! If you have further questions, please contact us.

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

Garlic Press and Poison Pen Press, publishers of Star Trek: The Original Series fanzines including Spockanalia and Masiform D, are importing the zines’ fanworks to the Archive of Our Own (AO3).

In this post:

• A bit of background explanation
• What this means for creators who had work(s) in Garlic Press and Poison Pen Press’s fanzines
• And what to do if you still have questions

Background explanation

Spockanalia (1967-1970) was the very first all-Star Trek fanzine ever published, and Masiform D (1971-1998) was the longest running Star Trek fanzine, so Open Doors is delighted to be preserving these fanzines’ works as part of the AO3 Fanzine Scan Hosting Project (FSHP).

The fanzines to be imported are:

• Spockanalia: Fanlore page and AO3 collection
• Masiform D: Fanlore page and AO3 collection
• The Compleat Kershu Fighter: Fanlore page and AO3 collection

The purpose of the Open Doors Committee’s AO3 Fanzine Scan Hosting Project (FSHP) is to assist publishers of fanzines to incorporate the fanworks from those fanzines into the Archive of Our Own. It is extremely important to Open Doors that we work in collaboration with publishers who want to import their fanzines and that we fully credit creators, giving them as much control as possible over their fanworks. Open Doors will be working with Garlic Press and Poison Pen Press to import the fanzines listed above into separate, searchable collections on the Archive of Our Own. As part of preserving the fanzines in their entirety, all art in the fanzines will be hosted on the OTW's servers and embedded in their own AO3 work pages.

We will begin importing works from Garlic Press and Poison Pen Press’s fanzines to the AO3 after April. However, the import may not take place for several months or even years, depending on the size and complexity of the task. Creators are always welcome to import their own works and add them to the collections in the meantime.

What does this mean for creators who had work(s) in Garlic Press and Poison Pen Press’s fanzines?

We will send an import notification to the email address we have for each creator. We'll do our best to check for an existing copy of any works before importing. If we find a copy already on the AO3, we will 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 creator 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 the publishers have a record of.
2. You already have an AO3 account and have imported your works already yourself.
3. You’d like to import your works yourself (including if you don’t have an AO3 account yet).
4. You would NOT like your works moved to the AO3, or would NOT like your works added to the fanzine collections.
5. You are happy for us to preserve your works on the AO3, but would like us to remove your name.
6. You have any other questions we can help you with.

Please include the name of the publisher or fanzine in the subject heading of your email. If you no longer have access to the email account the publishers have a record of, 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 Garlic Press and Poison Pen Press to confirm your claims.)

Please see the Open Doors website for instructions on:

• importing your works to the AO3
• adding your works to the new collections listed above

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 Garlic Press and Poison Pen Press and their fanzines 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 Garlic Press and Poison Pen Press’s fanzines!

- The Open Doors team and Devra Langsam

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.

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 will provide an overview of some of these upcoming changes.

Previous Tag Wrangling updates can generally be found the @ao3org Tumblr. While we plan to announce No Fandom tag updates on AO3 News going forward, this may not be true of all wrangling updates. It's likely some updates may remain solely distributed via the @ao3org Tumblr, especially those that only affect one or two fandoms. The way we distribute updates is subject to change as we work through this new process.

These discussions were the result of internal follow-up discussions related to January's updates. They involve creating new canonical No Fandom additional tags or updating the format of older canonical tags, but none of these updates will 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 the canonical tag, 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 with any version of these tags you prefer to use.

Reader and Reader-Insert-related Canonicals

During this round of updates, we tested a discussion method which permitted many related canonicals to be canonized at once, instead of each canonical having its own separate discussion period. This allowed us to canonize over 200 additional tags from one discussion.

Consequently, we've canonized many additional tags related to Reader-Insert. All Reader-Insert modifier tags will be subtags of Reader-Insert. The full list is available via tag search.

Pregnancy-related Canonicals

As mentioned in the last update, we will create a canonical for Trans Mpreg | Trans Male Pregnancy. We will also create a new canonical for Past Trans Mpreg | Trans Male Pregnancy, which will be made a subtag of Trans Mpreg | Trans Male Pregnancy.

To improve clarity, we will also be decanonizing the current canonical Fpreg and canonizing two new tags: Female Pregnancy and Fpreg | Female/Female Pregnancy. Tags which are currently synonyms of Fpreg will be made synonyms of Female Pregnancy or Fpreg | Female/Female Pregnancy as appropriate.

Lastly, we will be making 3 new canonical tags related to pregnancy in Omegaverse settings:

• Omegaverse Omega Pregnancy
• Omegaverse Alpha Pregnancy
• Omegaverse Beta Pregnancy

In Conclusion

These are just some of the changes we are making to No Fandom canonical additional tags. Some of these changes have already been implemented, while others are currently underway. Creating and renaming tags requires a lot of work from wranglers to implement, so large changes will likely take some time to complete after this post has been published.

While we won't be announcing every change we make to No Fandom canonical tags, you can expect similar updates in the future on the tags we believe will most affect users. If you're interested in the changes we'll be making, you can follow AO3 on Bluesky @wranglers.archiveofourown.org, Twitter/X @ao3_wranglers, or Tumblr @ao3org for future announcements.

You can also read the previous updates on tags updated and created through this process, linked below:

• Update on "No Fandom" tags
• Another Update Regarding "No Fandom" tags
• More Updates to "No Fandom" Additional Tags

For more information about AO3's tag system, check out our Tags FAQ.

Lastly, in addition to providing technical help, 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, please contact Support instead of leaving a comment on this post.

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

The Organization for Transformative Works's April membership drive is over and we are delighted to say that we are finishing with a total of 269,766.01 USD raised, far exceeding our goal of 75,000 USD. These donations came from 8216 people in 82 countries: thank you to everyone who donated, as well as all of you who posted and shared the news about the drive!

We are particularly pleased that 7064 of donors chose to take up or renew 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 round 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 2025 OTW Board elections, which will take place in August. And our exclusive thank-you gifts are available whenever you donate!

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

Ever since its foundation in 2007, the Organization of Transformative Works (OTW) has been run for fans, by fans. We’ve been happily overwhelmed by the continued growing interest and support in our projects from the fans of different generations around the world, and we're extremely grateful for the financial support from OTW members and donors, which has helped us build up a reserve fund while covering our projects' day-to-day expenses.

These funds and your kindness and support are crucial when one of our projects encounters issues, such as the downtime and slowness that the Archive of Our Own (AO3) experienced over the past few months. We’ve been taking important steps to resolve these issues and remain thankful for your support and patience during this period.

While our volunteers have been hard at work keeping AO3 stable, this period has once again proven the strength and resilience of fans. Thanks to your generous donations and continuous support, we have been able to keep AO3 and the rest of our projects, running as a non-profit driven by our volunteers. In light of this, we would like to encourage you to donate and become a member during our first membership drive of this year!

As per usual, we have prepared various donation gifts:

Want to show off your love for AO3 on the go? For a donation of US$100, you can now write down your notes and carry a piece of fandom in your bag with a brand-new 5.5”×7.5” (14 cm x 19 cm) AO3 notebook!

By donating US$45, you can get a random selection from our sticker stash (be prepared for a surprise)!

You can also become a member of the OTW by donating US$10 or more. Keep in mind that being a member of OTW is not the same as having an AO3 account—OTW members can vote for the annual OTW Board elections and their information is not connected to any of their accounts on AO3, Fanlore, or any of our other projects.

You can also set up a recurring donation and save towards the gift of your choice. Once you select the gift you’d like, your future donations can get added to the total, even if your current donation amount isn’t sufficient. Those of you in the U.S. might also be able to double your contribution via employer matching: please contact your HR department to find out if this is an option for you.

Curious about how donations are spent? Visit our past budget posts or annual reports to find out more. If you have any other questions regarding donations and membership, you can visit our FAQ or contact Development and Membership.

While our members and their donations are crucial for us to keep our projects like Fanlore, Open Doors, Legal Advocacy, Transformative Works and Cultures (TWC), and the AO3 running, don’t be discouraged if you can’t contribute financially! We appreciate the endless support and commitment of this community: whether it’s publishing or commenting under a work on AO3, editing on Fanlore, or reaching out to Open Doors about fanfiction archives that are at risk. You can also check out our Volunteering Page to find out how to get more involved through volunteering opportunities.

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