You might have noticed some loud partying and fireworks recently over the Archive of Our Own surpassing a phenomenal one MILLION fanworks. Fanwork creators, viewers, volunteers, and fans greeted this milestone with much joy and celebration and a jaw-dropping explosion of fanwork — even an infographic! As one of the site’s coders put it, February saw a lot of “twirling in sleep-deprived excitement.”
The best part? That’s not even the only amazing milestone the Archive has reached in 2014. In addition to having more than one million fanworks, the site has also become home to over a quarter of a million members — a number that’s rising every day!
The Accessibility, Design and Technology committee houses many sleep-deprived twirling coders who donate their time to build the Archive. AD&T tells us there have been other achievements recently — less visible, but no less important:
- We’ve been adding new servers and repurposing some old ones to improve Archive performance and redundancy. Your past donations made these purchases possible!
- The Archive’s Tumblr, created in 2011, has seen rapid growth. AD&T has worked diligently to supply it with informative and innovative content, and their efforts are paying off!
- The Archive’s Twitter account is very close to hitting the 20,000 follower mark! AD&T is thrilled that people who read the tweets aren’t getting left in the dark when there’s a problem with the site or the servers.
- At the beginning of this year, AO3’s page views climbed to almost 50 million page views each week. That’s almost double the views for last January; and that number, too, is steadily climbing.
AO3’s numerous volunteers are continuously improving its features, and in the middle of all the celebrating, they’re making plans for the future. To check out some of AO3’s planned features, view the section “The Road Ahead” in the AO3’s continuously updated roadmap.
If any of those one million fanworks was something you enjoyed, or had fun creating, please help AD&T, Tag Wranglers, Systems, Abuse, Support, and Quality Assurance & Testing continue to make the Archive a useful and precious tool within the fan community. These volunteers give generously of their time and energy to ensure that the site runs smoothly and bring you the AO3 you love.
Your donation of US$10 or more will help us take the next steps toward partying to the tune of two million fanworks in the future!