The Big Bang, Baby Challenge, a Harry Potter fanfiction and fanart archive, is being imported to the Archive of Our Own (AO3). In this post: A bit of background explanation What this means for creators who have work(s) on The Big Bang, Baby Challenge And what to do if you still have questions Background explanation The Big Bang, Baby Challenge was created in 2005 to incentivize the creation of more canon-based novel-length Harry/Draco fics in the wake of The Order of the Phoenix, and was twice repeated following the publishing of The Half-Blood Prince, and The Deathly Hallows. Over the Big Bang, Baby Challenge’s run,… Read more
OTW Signal, September 2026
Every month in OTW Signal, we take a look at stories that connect to the OTW’s mission and projects, including issues related to legal matters, technology, academia, fannish history and preservation issues of fandom, fan culture, and transformative works. In the News The Organization for Transformative Works has become a Chamber of Progress partner, joining their network as a nonprofit deeply interested in internet freedom and user privacy. As long-time collaborators, they have jointly opposed internet censorship and age-verification bills and lawsuits in the U.S., such as KOSA and NetChoice v. Brown. In March 2026, they joined the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and a coalition… Read more
OTW Board Meeting, October 10, 2026
The OTW Board will be holding its next public meeting at 01:00 October 10 UTC (what time is that for me?). This meeting will be held in the Board Discord server. The server will have a team of moderators and a set of rules (including question rules) and community guidelines. The server will remain open even after the meeting, but the channels for meeting and asking questions will be read-only. Board will be posting replies to questions that do not get addressed during the scheduled meeting two weeks after the meeting in the server’s #questions-answers channel. The agenda will include: Decisions made since the last… Read more
Updates to “No Fandom” Additional Tags, September 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
The OTW is Recruiting for Communications, Accessibility, Design, & Technology, User Response Translation, and AO3 Documentation
Are you a frequent Bluesky and Twitter | X, Facebook, Instagram, or TikTok user who enjoys helping others? Are you a developer experienced with a server-side programming language? Are you interested in facilitating communication and helping teams run smoothly? Are you fluent in Brazilian Portuguese or Spanish, and want to help us better reply to users all around the world? Are you a writer with an eye for technical details? The Organization for Transformative Works is recruiting! We’re excited to announce the opening of applications for: Communications TikTok Moderator – closing 30th September 2026 at 23:59 UTC or after 60 applications Communications Social Media Moderator… Read more