I. EMOJI FOR ALL!

This month, Accessibility, Design & Technology and Systems collaborated on a week-long process to update AO3’s database encoding. This was a big project with a big result: the AO3 now allows for an extended character set in all languages and, including ALL THE EMOJI! We’re delighted to have implemented the update and are looking forward to seeing new emoji-filled fanworks.

II. AT THE AO3

Accessibility, Design and Technology had a busy month. In addition to updating the character set, they issued a new set of release notes, which collect a couple of months of updates including improvements for Support and Policy & Abuse. The next big project will be a major update to the code that powers the AO3 login system, sometime in the next few weeks. This will entail all users being logged out of their accounts. Don’t forget to read our news post about this so that you can be sure you have all of your login information.

Open Doors continues to add new content to the Archive. In November, they announced that Twice Bitten, a Blood Ties fanfiction archive, was moving to the AO3. They also collaborated with the Tag Wrangling committee on tag mapping for three new archive imports.

In October, Tag Wranglers handled more than 189,000 tags. (November numbers will be in the next newsletter.) Policy & Abuse received approximately 1000 tickets this month. Support received approximately 1300 regular tickets, as well as managing a server issue on the 25th which prompted an extra thousand or so tickets.

III. ELSEWHERE AT THE OTW

It’s been a relatively quiet month for the rest of the OTW. Several committees have been doing behind-the-scenes work, so keep an eye out for new announcements soon!

IV. IT’S ALL ABOUT THE PEEPS

As of 26 November the OTW has 711 volunteers. \o/ Recent personnel movements are listed below.

New Committee Chairs: Angelique Jurd (Communications)

New Committee Staff: Linda Levitt (TWC) and 4 other TWC staff, C. Ryan Smith, Ilona van der Vegt, Nerine Luna Cyran, wingblade (all Policy & Abuse) and 1 other Policy and Abuse staff, Aris Gemenetzis, Caelan McAdam, Effie Sapuridis (all Fanlore) and 2 other Fanlore staff, Pam Haas (Communications) and 1 other Communications staff

New Open Doors Volunteers: Scrivener and 4 other volunteers

New Translator Volunteers: Alissa, AnnaJ9, Athena, Cinna_moon, Cynassa, Ekevka, Fiki Islami, Hulja Varjula, hwaranni, Louise Stonehill, Marisa Poulsen, Maryia Ambrazhey, nimadge, Putri, stellahibernis, wellperhaps, Zenaida Lynds and 15 other volunteers

New TWC Volunteers: Jennifer Duggan

Departing Tag Wrangler Volunteers: idiosincrasy, Marta Cardoso, momma2bugandbean, thefrogg and 21 other Tag Wrangling volunteers

Departing Translation Volunteers: AdaVila, Amalia Blondet, bixenboye, Lisa Altevogt, Maria Romanova, Teodora Kaurinović and 8 other volunteers

For more information about the purview of our committees, please access the committee listing on our website.

The Organization for Transformative Works is the non-profit parent organization of multiple projects including Archive of Our Own, Fanlore, Open Doors, Transformative Works and Cultures, and OTW Legal Advocacy. We are a fan run, entirely donor-supported organization staffed by volunteers. Find out more about us on our website.