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
On September 23, SenLinYu’s Alchemised joined Rose in Chains by Julie Soto and The Irresistible Urge to Fall for Your Enemy by Brigitte Knightley as the third “Dramione” fan fiction-inspired novel to be traditionally published in 2025. In their article “‘The Year of Dramione’: Fan fiction’s leap to bookstore shelves”, United Press International (UPI) spoke with OTW’s Rebecca Tushnet about the growing appeal of fanworks outside of fandom spaces. Many publishers are fans themselves, Tushnet noted, commenting on the—often fraught—relationship between fandom and traditional media publishing. She also highlighted the deeper, intrinsic worth of fanworks:
… the value in fan fiction writing extends well beyond the potential for publication, Tushnet said.
“To me, it’s never about making the jump to getting paid for it,” she said. “People develop all sorts of skills and passions and connections through fan fiction and I would never want to flatten that.”
UPI posited that it’s perhaps, in part, this passion at the heart of fandom that serves as a beacon for fans and publishers alike. Ali Hazelwood, whose “Reylo” fan fiction inspired her novel The Love Hypothesis, reflected on what binds her to fandom:
“… it’s also just great to feel a sense of community and to get to know people, to find someone who’s like-minded and interested in similar things. It’s very hard to make friends as an adult. And I feel like I truly found my adult friends through fanfiction and through the fandom community.”
Hazelwood’s experience embodies a core purpose of sites like the Archive of Our Own (AO3). “As long as there are humans, they will ask what happens next [beyond canon],” Tushnet said. “The fight we have is their ability to find each other.”
Rae Johnston, presenter of the Download This Show podcast, asks, “What does it take to keep a website alive when every other platform is chasing advertising dollars or subscription fees?” The podcast’s new episode, “How fanfiction took over the world (and stayed free)”, explores how AO3 has risen to the challenge. Johnston spoke with OTW Board Director Rachel Linton to learn more:
The vision was to have a space for fans, created by fans, to make sure that it was a noncommercial space and to make sure that it didn’t restrict content. And those were driven by concerns that were raised by FanLib and by Strikethrough, and trying to make sure that there was a space that people could post what they wanted to write without having that controlled by what corporations wanted to support or promote—and to keep ownership over that work.
… There was definitely a desire to have a very clear vision of why we think that [creating fanworks] is allowed and why this is legal, and as part of that, we’ve had a Legal Committee from the beginning who … exists to support AO3 and to support fans—and make sure that their work is protected and that they know what they are allowed to do and can’t be intimidated.
… On the technical side, [AO3’s] code base was created for the Archive … we own all of our own servers, which is great for having control over the work that we host and the work that we do. … we’re entirely volunteer-run, so any work that we’re doing in terms of coding or in terms of upgrades or anything like that is all done by volunteers. … All of our funding is through donations. … we are essentially completely run by fan volunteers, but also run by the money that fans donate.
An incredible testament to community, Johnston concludes that “Archive of Our Own has managed the near impossible: staying free, staying independent, and keeping the culture alive.”
OTW Tips
Looking for more OTW news coverage? Visit our Press Room! Here, you’ll find a catalogue of notable media mentions of the OTW and its projects—dating back to its founding in 2007. Browse articles, podcasts, and more to learn about how the OTW and its work and volunteers have been recognized across the media landscape.
We want your suggestions for the next OTW Signal post! If you know of an essay, video, article, podcast, or news story you think we should know about, send us a link. We are looking for content in all languages! Submitting a link doesn’t guarantee that it will be included in an OTW post, and inclusion of a link doesn’t mean that it is endorsed by the OTW.
We’ve just given the code for collection browsing and filtering a much-needed overhaul! In addition to some long overdue performance improvements, this update introduces collection tags — a new way to find collections featuring the fandoms, relationships, tropes, and other topics you enjoy.
How do collection tags work?
Collection owners can now use up to 10 tags of any type (What are the different types of tags?) to describe their collection. The tags are listed on the collection blurb, and the collection filters have a new “Filter by tag” autocomplete field to help users find collections matching their interests.
While it is possible to use brand new tags on collections, we strongly encourage owners to use existing canonical tags or their synonyms. This makes it easier for users to find your collection using the autocomplete options in the collection filters.
We’ve also added a “Multifandom” option specifically for collections that feature a wide variety of fandoms. Collection owners can select this option to help users find collections where the focus isn’t a specific fandom, but rather a theme like fanvids of old films or fic written in first person. We think this will be particularly useful for users whose fandoms don’t have their own prompt memes or gift exchanges, but who want to find challenges they might be able to participate in.
Please note that while we encourage collection owners to start using the “Multifandom” option right away, there are a few more changes we need to make before it will be possible to filter collections based on their multifandom status. We’ll update this post when multifandom filtering becomes available.
What about existing collections?
Together with the collection tags feature going live, we automatically tagged existing collections with the fandoms from their works and bookmarks, as well as any works or bookmarks in their subcollections.
Additionally, collections with more than one unrelated fandom were automatically marked as multifandom. We used our tag wrangling system to determine whether fandoms are related, just like we do when marking works as crossovers. Collections with more than 10 fandoms (the limit for collection tags) were marked as multifandom but did not have any fandom tags added.
Collection owners are welcome to edit their collection and change any information we automatically added.
Other changes
As part of the browsing and filtering overhaul, there are a few other noticeable changes to collections.
- Subcollections are now listed on the main Collections page and included in the results when filtering.
- In order to make room for collection tags, we’ve combined the list of owners and moderators in blurbs, similar to the way they’re combined on the collection profile. Because we know this distinction may be important to some users, we’ve made it possible to style owners and moderators separately by using the
a.owneranda.modselectors in a site skin. (Your styles will apply in the blurb and on the collection profile.) - The Open Challenges page, including the Open Gift Exchanges and Open Prompt Memes pages, now list collections that are closing the soonest at the top of the page.
Transformative Works and Cultures has released No. 46!
In the opening editorial of this issue, the editors explain that the journal is focused on diversifying fan studies by diversifying “the scholarly grounds upon which we do our work” to work against “the existence of a sort of canon of fan studies scholarship”.
Over the last year, the editors goal has been to “make room for the fandom killjoys (Pande 2018) and troublemakers who can unsettle those foundations” and this general issue continues to engage with that work.
Each issue includes articles representing theory, fannish meta, and book reviews, such as the following:
- Disordered eating, disordered reading: Wintergirls and the fannish practices of pro-ana
- Teaching with fandom: Promoting student subject engagement and critical reflection through fan fiction writing
- Polyphemus ❤️ Acis: The conduit in Ovid’s Metamorphoses
Further, this issue introduces a new special section, “New Currents,” which collects articles on new topics or approaches at a smaller scale than a special issue. In this issue, New Currents focuses on how fans and fan studies scholars engage with AI as a tool for transformative engagement with fannish texts. It features four articles and two symposium pieces, along with an introduction by the section’s guest editors, Suzanne R. Black and Naomi Jacobs.
TWC’s current calls for papers include the following issues:
- Music Fandom, papers due 01/01/26
- Latin American Fandoms, papers due 01/01/26
We accept submissions for our general issues on a rolling basis. The general issue is always released on September 15.
In the last year, AO3 has seen a rise in “art commission” spambot comments. The bots leaving these comments pretend to be artists who want to make comics or illustrations for a fan’s fic. After convincing their targets to contact them off AO3, they scam their targets into paying for that art. Fans have reported that after sending payment, they either received AI-generated art or nothing at all.
AO3 has been working on various methods that we hope will reduce the spam. However, these scammers are persistent and creative about circumventing our protections.
To avoid falling victim to one of these scams, the Policy & Abuse committee recommends:
- Do not commission art from someone who solicits you by commenting on your work on AO3. Commercial activity is prohibited on AO3. If someone is encouraging behavior that violates our Terms of Service, it’s a good idea to be cautious. They likely do not have your best interests in mind.
- Do not provide your email or social media contact information to a commenter who asks for it, even if they say they’d just like to discuss your work further. Scammers try to get you to talk to them privately, because it is often easier to deceive or manipulate people in a one-on-one conversation.
Example of this type of scam
cool_username_42069: Thanks! I’m glad you enjoyed it. <3
Elizabethbrown123: You’re welcome! I’m so glad you responded. Do you use Discord or Twitter, or could you tell me your email so we can chat more? I’ve got some ideas I’d love to share with you, but I don’t want to spoil anything.
This is just one example of how a scammer tries to lure the work creator onto a different platform where they can pressure the creator into commissioning art. These scammers use AI to generate realistic-sounding comments. The comments often contain generic praise or statements that could apply to any work, but sometimes they are extremely lengthy and/or specific. If the creator is suspicious and asks why the scammer wants to move the conversation off-site, they will typically claim that they aren’t a scammer and/or that they can explain things better in private.
However, unlike a regular user, a scammer will always do at least one of two things:
- They will ask you to commission art from them, or
- They will share their contact information and/or ask for your information (such as an email address or username on a site that supports private messaging, like Instagram or Discord)
If you suspect that you’ve received a spam comment on your work, don’t reply and especially do not provide them with your contact information. Just report the comment to Policy & Abuse so that we can take care of it.
What to do if you encounter this scam
If you receive a scam comment from a guest, you can press the “Spam” button on the comment. This helps train our automated spam-checker to better detect this type of behavior.
If you encounter a scammer that has a registered account, or if you encounter a guest posting scam comments on someone else’s work, please report them to the Policy & Abuse committee. To do so:
- Select the “Thread” button on the scammer’s comment. This will take you to the specific comment page.
- Scroll to the bottom of the page and select Policy Questions & Abuse Reports.
- In the “Brief summary of Terms of Service violation” field, enter “Spambot”.
- In the “Description of the content you are reporting” field, enter “This is a spambot, their username is USERNAME.”
Reporting in this fashion helps us auto-sort your report so that it can be handled as soon as a Policy & Abuse volunteer is available. To help us address reports about these types of bots as fast as possible, please only submit one report per account, and don’t include multiple accounts in the same report.
If you encounter a scam commenter on someone else’s work, you can let the work creator know the commenter is likely a bot and link them to this news post.
We also encourage you to share this post on social media and help spread the word about how to protect yourself from scammers and reduce spam on AO3.
The Pinky and the Brain Page, a Pinky and the Brain 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 had work(s) on The Pinky and the Brain Page
- And what to do if you still have questions
Background explanation
James, the archivist, used to run and maintain a Pinky and the Brain fandom site from around 1995 to 2000. When he recently found some of the stories in an old hard drive he searched the Internet for some of them, but his searches came up empty. Rather than letting those stories sit unread he thought he would rather they be shared on the AO3 for people to enjoy and remember.
The purpose of the Open Doors Committee’s Online Archive Rescue Project is to assist moderators of archives to incorporate the fanworks from those archives into the Archive of Our Own. Open Doors works with moderators to import their archives when the moderators lack the funds, time, or other resources to continue to maintain their archives independently. It is extremely important to Open Doors that we work in collaboration with moderators who want to import their archives and that we fully credit creators, giving them as much control as possible over their fanworks. Open Doors will be working with James to import The Pinky and the Brain Page into a separate, searchable collection on the Archive of Our Own. As part of preserving the archive in its entirety, all fanfics and fanart currently in the The Pinky and the Brain Page will be hosted on the OTW’s servers, and embedded in their own AO3 work pages.
We will begin importing works from The Pinky and the Brain Page to the AO3 after September 2025. However, the import may not take place for several months or even years, depending on the size and complexity of the archive. Creators are always welcome to import their own works and add them to the collection in the meantime.
What does this mean for creators who had work(s) on The Pinky and the Brain Page?
We will send an import notification to the email address we have for each creator. We’ll do our best to check for an existing copy of any works before importing. If we find a copy already on the AO3, we will add it to the collection instead of importing it. All works archived on behalf of a creator will include their name in the byline or the summary of the work.
All imported works will be set to be viewable only by logged-in AO3 users. Once you claim your works, you can make them publicly-viewable if you choose. After 30 days, all unclaimed imported works will be made visible to all visitors.
Please contact Open Doors with your The Pinky and the Brain Page pseud(s) and email address(es), if:
- You’d like us to import your works, but you need the notification sent to a different email address than you used on the original archive.
- You already have an AO3 account and have imported your works already yourself.
- You’d like to import your works yourself (including if you don’t have an AO3 account yet).
- You would NOT like your works moved to the AO3, or would NOT like your works added to the archive collection.
- You are happy for us to preserve your works on the AO3, but would like us to remove your name.
- You have any other questions we can help you with.
Please include the name of the archive in the subject heading of your email. If you no longer have access to the email account associated with your The Pinky and the Brain Page account, please contact Open Doors and we’ll help you out. (If you’ve posted the works elsewhere, or have an easy way to verify that they’re yours, that’s great; if not, we will work with the The Pinky and the Brain Page mod to confirm your claims.)
Please see the Open Doors Website for instructions on:
- importing your works to the AO3
- adding your works to the new collection The Pinky and the Brain Page
If you still have questions…
If you have further questions, visit the Open Doors FAQ, or contact the Open Doors committee.
We’d also love it if fans could help us preserve the story of The Pinky and the Brain Page on Fanlore. If you’re new to wiki editing, no worries! Check out the new visitor portal, or ask the Fanlore Gardeners for tips.
We’re excited to be able to help preserve The Pinky and the Brain Page!
– The Open Doors team and James
Commenting on this post will be disabled in 14 days. If you have any questions, concerns, or comments regarding this import after that date, please contact Open Doors.
The OTW Board will be holding its next public meeting at 00:00 UTC on October 5 (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 public board meeting
- 2025 OTW Board Election wrap-up
- OTW Culture Roadmap Update
- Board Roadmap Update
- Any other business (Questions & Answers)
Prior to this meeting, there is an opportunity to ask questions in advance to be answered as part of the meeting. This allows anyone who wishes to ask the Board questions, whether they will be able to attend the meeting live or not. Board will also accept questions during the meeting.
Questions submitted to this Google Form will be accepted up to three days before the meeting begins or until 50 questions have been submitted. At that point, the form will be turned off. You need to be logged in to a Google account to submit a question. In the future, these rules may be amended as needed.
Further information will be available in the OTW Board Discord server.
Do you have experience copyediting or proofreading academic journals? Would you like to wrangle AO3 tags? Can you read and translate from Chinese to English? Can you read and translate from Italian to English? Do you have experience in managing or leading people?
We’re excited to announce the opening of applications for:
- TWC Committee Copyeditor – closing 24 September 2025 at 23:59 UTC
- Tag Wrangling Volunteer – closing 24 September 2025 at 23:59 UTC or after 125 applications
- Tag Wrangling Volunteer (Chinese) – closing 24 September 2025 at 23:59 UTC or after 45 applications
- Tag Wrangling Volunteer (Italian) – closing 24 September 2025 at 23:59 UTC or after 30 applications
- Fanlore Chair Track Volunteer – closing 24 September 2025 at 23:59 UTC or after 40 applications
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 our email address 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.
TWC Committee Copyeditor
Transformative Works and Cultures (TWC) is an international peer-reviewed Diamond Open Access online publication about fan-related topics that seeks to promote dialogue between the academic community and fan communities. Copyeditors professionally copyedit submissions for TWC according to Chicago Manual of Style (CMOS) 18, Merriam-Webster online, and the TWC style guide. Editorial standards are those of a university press.
The copyeditor’s main responsibility will be to carefully copyedit word-processed manuscripts to correct errors of grammar, usage, style; normalize presentation of information; check the literature; and ensure consistency of usage of, e.g., presentation, capitalization, italic, and numbers.
Applicants are required to pass a brief copyediting test that will be drawn from live copy (a not yet published article that is currently in production). All returned tests will be assessed and the applicant provided with feedback.
Applications are due 24 September 2025
Apply for TWC Committee Copyeditor at the volunteering page! If you have further questions, please contact us.
Tag Wrangling Volunteer
The Tag Wranglers are responsible for helping to connect and sort the tags on AO3! Wranglers follow internal guidelines to choose the tags that appear in the filters and auto-complete, which link related works together. This makes it easier to browse and search on the archive.
If you’re an experienced AO3 user who likes organizing, working in teams, or having excuses to fact-check your favorite fandoms, you might enjoy tag wrangling! To join us, click through to the job description and fill in our application form. There will also be a short questionnaire that will help us assess whether you have the skills and attributes that will lead to your success in this role.
Please note: you must be 18+ in order to apply for this role. For this role, we’re currently looking for wranglers for specific fandoms only, which will change each recruitment round. Please see the application for which fandoms are in need.
Wranglers need to be fluent in English but we welcome applicants who are also fluent in other languages, especially Bahasa Indonesia (Indonesian), Čeština (Czech), Español (Spanish), isiZulu (Zulu), Polski (Polish), Português brasileiro (Brazilian Portuguese), Suomi (Finnish), Tiếng Việt (Vietnamese), Türkçe (Turkish), Українська (Ukrainian), ไทย (Thai), Русский (Russian), беларуская (Belarusian) and 한국어 (Korean) — but help with other languages would be much appreciated!
Applications are due 24 September 2025 or after 125 applications
Apply for Tag Wrangling Volunteer at the volunteering page! If you have further questions, please contact us.
Tag Wrangling Volunteer (Chinese)
The Tag Wranglers are responsible for helping to connect and sort the tags on AO3! Wranglers follow internal guidelines to choose the tags that appear in the filters and auto-complete, which link related works together. This makes it easier to browse and search on the archive.
If you’re an experienced AO3 user who likes organizing, working in teams, or having excuses to fact-check your favorite fandoms, you might enjoy Tag Wrangling! To join us, click through to the job description and fill in our application form. There will also be a short questionnaire that will help us assess whether you have the skills and attributes that will lead to your success in this role.
Please note: you must be 18+ in order to apply for this role. For this role we’re currently looking for applicants who are fluent in both English and Chinese.We welcome all Chinese dialects! The work will involve both regular Tag Wrangling work and translating tags from Chinese into English.
Applications are due 24 September 2025 or after 45 applications
Apply for Tag Wrangling Volunteer (Chinese) at the volunteering page! If you have further questions, please contact us.
Tag Wrangling Volunteer (Italian)
The Tag Wranglers are responsible for helping to connect and sort the tags on AO3! Wranglers follow internal guidelines to choose the tags that appear in the filters and auto-complete, which link related works together. This makes it easier to browse and search on the archive.
If you’re an experienced AO3 user who likes organizing, working in teams, or having excuses to fact-check your favorite fandoms, you might enjoy Tag Wrangling! To join us, click through to the job description and fill in our application form. There will also be a short questionnaire that will help us assess whether you have the skills and attributes that will lead to your success in this role.
Please note: you must be 18+ in order to apply for this role. For this role we’re currently looking for applicants who are fluent in both English and Italian. The work will involve both regular Tag Wrangling work and translating tags from Italian into English.
Applications are due 24 September 2025 or after 30 applications
Apply for Tag Wrangling Volunteer (Italian) at the volunteering page! If you have further questions, please contact us.
Fanlore Chair Track Volunteer
Do you have experience in managing or leading people? Are you an organizational wizard? Do you have an interest in preserving fannish history or experience in wiki editing? The Fanlore committee is looking for new Chair Track Volunteers to join our team!
Fanlore is the committee responsible for maintaining and promoting the Fanlore wiki. We promote Fanlore on social media, run Fanlore editing challenges, support Fanlore editors, write the wiki’s policy and help pages, and respond to emails from editors and readers. The Chair Track Volunteer position is for people who have the time and dedication to learn all about our operations so that they can be considered for the role of committee Chair.
We’re looking for someone who has experience in wiki editing and an understanding of social media, who is comfortable with personnel management and training new recruits, and who is experienced in leadership or management whether in a business or nonprofit environment. Candidates also need strong time management skills and the ability to work on and track multiple tasks at a time. If that’s you, please apply!
For your application to be considered, you will be required to complete a short task within one week of submitting your application.
Applications are due 24 September 2025 or after 40 applications.
Apply for Fanlore Chair Track Volunteer at the volunteering page! If you have further questions, please contact us.
Profile
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cali- cali (theantimodel)
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Page Summary
![[syndicated profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/feed.png)
otw_news_feed : OTW Signal, September 2025 [+0] - james : What the ever loving fuck [+4]
- james : Gremlins [+6]
- james : Books Recs Sought [+26]
- james : Simple Fic Exchanges [+14]
- otw_news_feed : Collection Tags and Improvements to Collection Filters [+0]
- otw_news_feed : Transformative Works and Cultures Releases Issue No. 46 [+0]
- james : Hahahaha more AO3 scams [+4]
- james : AO3 art scams [+13]
- james : Choccy pretzels [+8]
- james : Joke is ON ME [+8]
- otw_news_feed : Protect Your Contact Information From Scammers [+0]
- james : Feral Gremlin Dick Grayson [+5]
- james : Feral Gremlin Dick Grayson [+3]
- james : Questionable Joys [+4]
- otw_news_feed : The Pinky and the Brain Page is Moving to the AO3 [+0]
- james : Holy Fanfic, Batman! [+2]
- james : Good News/Bad News [+10]
- james : I am doing a thing! [+11]
- otw_news_feed : OTW Board Meeting, October 5, 2025 [+0]
- james : Weather thou goest [+9]
- otw_news_feed : The OTW is Recruiting for TWC Committee Copyeditors, Tag Wranglers, and Fanlore Chair Track Voluntee [+0]
- james : Livid [+28]
chasethestars