Posts in Accessibility, Design, & Technology
The OTW is Recruiting for AO3 Coders, Documentation Staffers, and Tag Wranglers!
Can you code, write documentation or organize things? The Organization for Transformative Works is looking for AO3 Documentation staff, AD&T Coding volunteers, and Tag Wrangling volunteers! We would like to thank everyone who responded to our previous call for Translation volunteers and Communications staff. Today, we’re excited to announce the opening of applications for: AO3 Documentation Staff – closing 2 November 2016 AD&T Coding Volunteers – closing 2 November 2016 Tag Wrangling volunteers – closing 2 November 2016 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… Read more
On Archive of Our Own Mobile Apps
An unofficial Archive of Our Own Android app was recently released to Google Play. As this release has brought the subject back into the spotlight, we wanted to take this opportunity to share the current state of official AO3 app development.
“Have you thought about making an app?” is one of our most frequently asked questions, but in mobile app development, there isn’t actually such a thing as “an” app. Apps need to be built for different mobile platforms — Android, iOS, and Windows Mobile being the top three — and for the many versions of those platforms still in use.
Before we could even start developing an app that would allow you to do anything more than browse unrestricted works, we would need to develop a public API — definitely on our roadmap, but several major releases away. Then, we would need to build different, responsive user interfaces for both phone and tablet. What seems like a small, straightforward project evolves very quickly into something needing many resources, dedicated ones, with diverse skill-sets. While we have said in the past that we’d like to release a mobile AO3 app, the required resources just aren’t available.
April Showers 2015 Roundup
Now that our membership drive has wrapped up (thank you, everyone!) we also want to give you a wrap-up reminder of our April Showers fandom celebrations from this year. Below, we’ve collected the links to every fandom post we made, along with links to each fandom’s AO3 and Fanlore pages, so you can make sure you didn’t miss any of them. And the April Showers Recs (2015) collection has recommended works in dozens of fandoms, so you can make spring last as long as you want! We’d love to thank each and every one of you who reblogged, retweeted, liked, and clicked on any of… Read more
Scheduled Downtime for AO3 and Fanlore
AO3 and Fanlore users take note: both sites will be down for scheduled maintenance this Friday, 20th March. The maintenance will take place from 17:30 to approximately 20:45 UTC. What time is that for me? Note that maintenance may also take slightly longer than expected, so there is no need to contact us if you cannot access the site at exactly 20:45 UTC. For site status updates about the sites please follow @AO3_Status and @fanlore_news on Twitter.
Volunteer for the OTW & AO3

We would like to thank everyone who responded to our previous call for Abuse, Communications, and Wiki Staff and AO3 Documentation Volunteers. Today, we’re excited to announce the opening of applications for:
- Communications Staff: AD&T Liaison – [closing 23 March 2015 UTC]
- Strategic Planning Staff – [closing 23 March 2015 UTC]
- Translation Volunteers – [closing 23 March 2015 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 volunteers -(at)- transformativeworks -(dot)- org 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.