Systems Committee

Who We Are

The Systems committee is responsible for maintaining the servers and technical infrastructure of the OTW’s websites and projects. This includes various software components and physical equipment, such as firewalls, routers, switches, and servers. Our top priority is to keep the OTW servers running, backed up, and secure. As part of this, we handle a wide range of day-to-day maintenance tasks, including regularly scheduled infrastructure maintenance (upgrading operating systems, updating packages for security patches), as well as making improvements to OTW servers.

We oversee the backends of AO3 and Fanlore, along with several internal tools used by our committees to complete their work. Similar to business IT departments, we provide and maintain the technical infrastructure that enables other committees to achieve their goals, and in turn, the OTW’s goals.

Outside of maintenance, we also monitor system metrics to watch for potential issues and address them when they come up. When there are urgent notifications or alerts, we often take the lead in responding, in collaboration with other OTW committees as needed. For example, if AO3 is experiencing issues, we typically work with the Accessibility, Design, & Technology committee to resolve them, and we also keep the Communications and AO3 Support committees in the loop to provide updates to our users. Once a solution has been found, we implement it and monitor the site to ensure that everything recovers as expected.

Finally, we also handle questions, requests, or reported issues from other committees. For example, when an OTW committee requests a change to permissions or the configuration of our internal wiki software, Systems is responsible for handling the request: discussing it, approving or denying it, and implementing it if necessary. Systems also handles requests to upload graphics files for internal use, i.e. embedding in AO3 news posts or archiving for Open Doors.

Internal Structure

Systems is a small team, with members of varying levels and areas of expertise. We typically have fewer than ten members at any given time, and the team is led by one or two committee chairs. All volunteers can take on tasks of all types and are equally responsible for ensuring that everything under the Systems’ purview gets done.

Some volunteers informally specialize in different types of projects and tasks based on their experience and expertise. While Systems volunteers often work independently, many tasks require close collaboration within the committee and with the wider OTW.

Updates from OTW Systems

From time to time, Systems posts updates and postmortems about problems they’ve faced on AO3. If you’d like to learn more about what Systems does, check out the Official Systems AO3 Account. We’ve posted updates on exciting topics, such as behind the scenes details of responding to the 2023 DDoS Attack on AO3 and a postmortem on issues AO3 faced in August and September of 2024.

Contact Us

If you encounter technical problems with one of the OTW’s sites and believe it may need Systems to take a look, please contact the technical support for that site. They will work with you and pass along the information we need on our end.

For technical support on the following sites, please contact the relevant group: