Posts in Archive of Our Own
Updates to “No Fandom” Additional Tags, August 2026
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 adjust existing canonical “No Fandom” tags to add or remove new subtag and metatag relationships. We also 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… Read more
AO3 Releases 0.9.482 – 0.9.484: Change Log
In June and early July, we updated the AO3 Terms of Service FAQ and made improvements all around prompt memes and gift exchanges. We also improved skin previews and the AO3 admin area, along with a few other small fixes. Special thanks to the first-time contributors charliewhiskee, Gardin233, gemmie, lynn, Naomi Liu, sagittaerys (Olamilekan Aremu), Smaran Jawalkar, Soaphbar, and varram. Thank you also to notpies for alerting us to a security issue! Credits Coders: Aya Sayadi, Bilka, bre-nana, caitlin, charliewhiskee, Danaël / Rever, David Bilsky/Ironskink, Gardin233, gemmie, KooShnoo, Ling-Yi, Luis Pabon, lydia-theda, lynn, Naomi Liu, nicolacleary, Pablo Monfort (VAIRIX), reader-dev-2026, sagittaerys (Olamilekan Aremu), Sarken, slavalamp,… Read more
AO3 Releases 0.9.474 – 0.9.481: Change Log
In May, updates to AO3 focused on improving skins, collections, and gift exchanges, boosting performance across AO3, and addressing several security issues. The Collections page now has options to sort by number of works and bookmarks, and we’ve added some improvements to tag set nominations and the matching process for gift exchanges. The month also included multiple security fixes for permission issues, strengthened URL import protections, and updated dependencies. Shoutout to this month’s first-time contributors gemmie and Mane Muradyan, and special thanks to notpies and Taxen99 who alerted us to security issues. Credits Coders: Aya Sayadi, Bilka, cayugulan, Céline Bertau, gemmie, Hunter Ada Smith, Jesse… Read more
Updates to “No Fandom” Additional Tags, July 2026
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 adjust existing canonical “No Fandom” tags to add or remove new subtag and metatag relationships. We also 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… Read more
AO3 Celebrates 18 Million Fanworks
We’re excited to announce that we’ve crossed another milestone: AO3 now has more than 18 million fanworks! A big Thank You to everyone who contributed to that success, whether you’re a fanwork creator yourself, or cheering on your favorite creators with kudos and comments. Of those 18 million fanworks, a lot live in collections. A collection is a group of works and/or bookmarks compiled together under one theme. You can, for example, group together works for a specific trope or relationship. Prompt Meme and Gift Exchange challenges for specific events are also hosted within collections! Did you know we recently rolled out some changes adding… Read more