Posts by choux
April 2026 Membership Drive: Behind the Scenes of AO3
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…. Read more
AO3 Statistics – 2025 Update
In 2020, we gave you some insight into our traffic numbers, focusing on the impact that global lockdowns had on our user base. Five years later, we have not only sustained that rise in users but also continued to grow steadily, so we thought we’d show you an update! Comments in 2025 Image 1: Line graph of monthly comments on AO3 in 2020 versus 2025. Both line graphs share small dips in February, June, and September; and peaks in July, August, and October; before sharply trending upward in December. 2020 sees an additional sharp increase in April, while 2025 shows a more typical slow rise… Read more
OTW Finance: 2025 Budget Update
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. The 2024 audit is wrapping up so the focus will soon be on year-end reconciliations! The team has also been diligently working to meet the OTW’s 2025 needs, and is proud to present to you this year’s budget update (access the 2025 budget update spreadsheet for more detailed information): 2025 Expenses Archive of Our Own (AO3) US$560,321.01 spent so far out of US$669,120.53 total this year, as of September 30, 2025. 67.4% of the OTW’s expenses go towards maintaining… Read more
AO3 Releases 0.9.409 – 0.9.413: Change Log
In May and June, we made some security additions for user accounts by adding email notifications when an account’s username or password is changed. We also made some improvements around tag sets and challenge signups. As one more security change, we also permanently disabled image embedding in guest comments. A special thank you to our new contributors Ashley Tan, dismayonnaise, Grayson von Goetz, Jen Mann, kitbur, and ryelle! Credits Coders: Ashley Tan, Bilka, Brian Austin, Ceithir, Connie Feng, dismayonnaise, EchoEkhi, Grayson von Goetz, Hamham6, Jen Mann, kitbur, marcus8448, ryelle, Sarken, Scott, slavalamp, weeklies Code reviewers: Bilka, Brian Austin, Ceithir, james_, lydia-theda, redsummernight, slavalamp, Sarken, weeklies… Read more
OTW Signal, May 2025
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 by Publishers Weekly notes how demographic changes in readership have influenced publishing houses to diversify the titles they publish. Female readers are at the forefront of this change. Most top-selling manga titles, though classified as shonen manga, also boast huge female followings. Some are also the work of women, like the hit series Delicious in Dungeon by Ryoko Kui, translated by… Read more