Preserving fannish history is a central part of Open Door’s mission—we love the plurality of fandom and want there to be many individual archives, and we want to ensure that if someone can no longer maintain an archive, this bit of fandom isn’t lost.

While we’d love to be able to preserve the archives themselves, the resources required are too big. Each archive would need its own server space, a team of coders able to update and/or rewrite the code behind it, dedicated moderators, etc. By importing archives onto AO3 but making them into distinct collections, we are able to save the fannish creativity and a little of that individual identity, while ensuring we only have to maintain one set of code, servers, and support team.