Who We Are

The AO3 Documentation committee (AO3 Docs) writes, edits and revises user-facing documentation on Archive of Our Own (AO3), including Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs), help pop-ups, and tutorials. We also support other AO3 committees and workgroups by assisting with their user-facing documentation as needed.

Some of our responsibilities include:

• Reviewing and updating the current AO3 FAQs and Tutorials.
• Writing new AO3 FAQs and Tutorials to provide information about new and updated features.
• Writing and updating help pop-ups to ensure all information is accurate and up-to-date.
• Writing, reviewing, and updating Open Doors tutorial documentation, in collaboration with the Open Doors committee.

We collaborate with all AO3 committees—especially Accessibility, Design, & Technology (AD&T) and Support—to make sure our documentation remains as up-to-date and helpful as possible, reflecting the needs of our users. (We often catch bugs while testing out features and pass them onto AD&T and Support so that we can make AO3 even better!) We also work with the Translation committee to get our FAQs and tutorials translated into other languages so the site is more accessible to non-English speaking users. Choose a language from the drop down menu in the top right corner of the FAQ home page to find out which FAQs and Tutorials are currently available in each language.

Internal Structure

AO3 Docs consists of a group of 12-25 editors, led by 2-3 chairs. We also have a liaison from the Support committee, who informs us of trends in user questions and relays our documentation-related questions back to Support. Editors work together to write, edit, and revise both user-facing documentation and our committee’s internal documents. Along with writing and editing documentation, chairs also perform regular administrative tasks.

All documentation is read through by most of the committee, whether doing a primary check by senior volunteers, one of our four focused beta reviews (Testing; Accessibility & Internationalization; Coherency & Consistency; and Readability, Spelling, & Grammar), or our final free-for-all beta review round in which we attempt to catch any last-minute errors before things go live. Our documentation also goes through an open comment period where we send it out to other committees so we can reflect their insights in our work.

AO3 FAQs and Tutorials

Our primary task is keeping AO3’s FAQs and Tutorials up-to-date. These documents cover every aspect of AO3, from more beginner topics like creating an account and commenting on works, to more complex topics like using unofficial browser tools, orphaning works, or managing tag sets. We write our FAQs for a broad audience, so they can be read by both new and experienced users of AO3. Each individual answer is designed to be read on its own, no matter where it is within the larger FAQ. If more information is needed, then we’ll link to where it can be found.

Our tutorials are designed to guide you through your first time using some of AO3’s features, whether it’s Posting a Work, Creating a Work Skin, or Running a Gift Exchange.

Contact Us

If you want to learn more about the AO3 Documentation committee or if you have any questions about AO3’s FAQs, please contact us—we will be happy to hear from you.