An advisory note to readers: This newsletter reports on activity in April 2022, which was originally intended to be released in May 2022. Due to interruptions to our usual process as explained in the OTW Board’s post last month our posting schedule has been delayed. The OTW’s investigation is ongoing as the Board and Legal Committee continue working with all relevant authorities.
I. APRIL DONATION DRIVE
Development & Membership held a Donation Drive in April, and thanks to the overwhelming support of our users (and the excitement over the card decks), we far exceeded our donation goal, with a final total of US$275,724.51 donated by 7,528 people. We are particularly pleased that 5,810 donors chose to renew or begin OTW membership. Translation worked on posts for 26 languages and we received donations from fans in 84 countries!
II. AT THE AO3
Accessibility, Design & Technology deployed three whole releases, including an update to Rails 6 and big improvements to AO3’s tag search, which have significantly improved functionality for Tag Wrangling. And because three releases just wasn’t enough, AD&T started testing a fourth!
AO3 Documentation is thrilled to announce that it has uploaded an updated and slightly reworked Posting and Editing FAQ.
In March, Policy & Abuse received about 2600 tickets last month, which is a bit more than average, and Support received about 1400 tickets. Meanwhile, also in March, Tag Wrangling wrangled more than 380,000 tags across more than 49,000 fandoms–more than 900 tags per wrangler!
III. ELSEWHERE AT THE OTW
Open Doors announced two more archives to be imported: WWFSML (pro wrestling slash fic) and Pony Fiction Archive (My Little Pony fic).
Legal has continued advocacy work opposing proposed U.S. online filtering mandates and technical measures legislative proposals. Legal chair Betsy Rosenblatt participated in an online town hall with allies from the EFF to discuss these fan-unfriendly proposals; a recording is available on EFF’s YouTube channel.
It’s been a long time coming, but a contractor has made a start on some email-related work that will bring Systems closer to retiring some of the oldest bits of the OTW’s infrastructure. Also, Webs fiddled with the OTW website a bit more, and it now does a number of fancy automations that should reduce the number of tickies that Volunteers & Recruiting and Development & Membership in particular have to tick!
IV. GOVERNANCE
The Board of Directors is pleased to announce that it has appointed a Diversity Consultant Research Officer to help the OTW formulate its next steps towards hiring a diversity consultant or firm. The role remains open for internal recruitment as the Board would ideally like it to be held by two people for the sake of redundancy and sharing out the workload. The Board also held its quarterly public meeting at the beginning of the month — thanks to everyone who came and asked questions!
The Board of Directors Election Timeline is now available on Elections’ website, which lets readers know what news and information will be released when during the Board election season.
V. IT’S ALL ABOUT THE PEEPS
From 24 March to 24 April, Volunteers & Recruiting received 51 new requests, and completed 45, leaving us with 23 open requests (including induction and removal tasks listed below).
As of 24 April 2022, the OTW has 948 volunteers. \o/ Recent personnel movements are listed below.
New Policy & Abuse Volunteers: Aalictoa, ereidivh, FestiveFerret, KayMar, QED, Zoey and 6 other Volunteers
New Tag Wrangler Volunteers: Alecto Gaia, Allonautilus, Ally, Ara, Bard, Bee, Birdie, Bjorn, cali, catmisae, chidorinnn, Defixionesss, denjidenji, Dragonshield, Emmens, erasica, Esin, Faye, Fu, Goosey, Jiang Xinyuan, Juice, Kai Alec, Laura Anne, Leo, Luanna, MoonSally, Morgan Guenther, Nia, obliviscence, plantpun, RannieCRL, Red Wolf, Rune, sarisally, Seonaid, StableState, TBE, Tevya, therealmorticia, Thirteenthesiac, thirtysixhudson, Tyto, Wayward Wren, Wombatmist, and YunShan (all Tag Wranglers)
New Translation Volunteers: idiosincrasy (Volunteer Manager)
New Volunteers & Recruiting Volunteers: 1 Volunteer
Departing AO3 Documentation Volunteers: Carly & 1 other Editor
Departing Elections Volunteers: 1 Team Coordinator and 1 Public Relations Specialist
Departing Policy & Abuse Volunteers: Jen S and 2 other Volunteers
Departing Support Volunteers: KehkashanB
Departing Tag Wrangler Volunteers: Captured_in_LSpace, Clock, Courtney, Kamika, Kuh (all Wranglers) and Jen S (Supervisor) and 2 Wranglers
Departing Translation Volunteers: 3 Translators
For more information about the purview of our committees, please access the committee listing on our website.