Category: Uncategorized

The OTW is Recruiting for Open Doors Staff and Policy & Abuse Staff

Jess H 2 Comments

Do you want to rescue at-risk fan archives? Would you like to assist AO3 users by resolving complaints? The Organization for Transformative Works is recruiting!

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

  • Open Doors Staff – closing 13 May 2020 at 23:59 UTC or after 30 applications
  • Policy & Abuse Staff – closing 13 May 2020 at 23:59 UTC

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.

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This Week in Fandom

This Week in Fandom, Volume 142

Jess H

Hello and welcome to This Week in Fandom, the OTW’s roundup of things that are happening! As with last week’s TWIF we are offering a slight variation on our regular format, with a lot of people still at home and much of the entertainment world still on hold. But fear not, despite the hard times everyone is experiencing, we’ve sought out some good things happening around the globe. Have you encountered any exciting fandom ideas or initiatives? Let us know in the comments and we might feature them in a future TWIF!

First, it’s clear that fans under movement restrictions, currently in place around the world, are in many cases turning to fanworks for entertainment. AO3 traffic saw a spike from 262 million views in the first week of March to 298 million in the final week, enough of a difference that we’re having to make a few changes to some users’ experience in order to maintain an optimal experience for everyone. But it’s not just fanwork consumption that’s been affected. As Aja Romano observed this week in an article for Vox, fan creators are already making the best of these exceptional circumstances by creating something new: the quarantine trope.

As you can see, the quarantine (or self-isolation) trope offers a topical adaptation of the legendary fandom favourite, And They Were Roommates (Oh My God, They Were Roommates). What better way to flatten the curve, and make the best of a stressful situation, than staying home and spending some quality time developing your own variant on the theme? Or, as we say, improvise. Adapt. Overcome. We got this. Leave it to the fans to transform and create in a time of crisis.

If you’re interested in the other ways that fan creators have responded to the COVID-19 crisis, articles on the subject have already begun to pop up online. Gavia Baker-Whitelaw at the Daily Dot has an interesting article on the ways in which current events, like this one, translate into fan communities; and Palmer Haasch at Business Insider offers a similar, shorter piece which includes a conversation with a fan creator about her motivations.

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Organization for Transformative Works Membership Drive, October 10–14, 2019

Thank You for Your Support!

Retired Personnel

Wow! The OTW’s October fundraising drive is over, and it was amazingly successful! We flew right past our goal of US$130,000, with US$247,098.69 donated by 8566 people from 82 countries. We are truly humbled by your generosity—THANK YOU!

As we’ve mentioned during the course of this drive, the OTW depends on the donations of its user base to fund every one of its activities. The Archive of Our Own is our most visible project, especially after its recent Hugo Award win, but every one of our projects is crucial to our goals. Your donations also go towards initiatives like our legal work, defending fans and fanworks against laws which threaten them, and our Open Doors project, rescuing fanworks from platforms and archives in danger of being lost.

We are a nonprofit and every cent that has been donated will go back into our projects. (In fact, you can read all about the way that we spend the money raised during our funding drives in our recent budget post.) Your generosity means that we can continue with the important work we’re doing and plan for even greater things in the future. Thank you!

We also accept donations year-round, so you can support the OTW whenever you’d like.