[syndicated profile] otw_news_feed

Posted by Caitlynne

Over the past few weeks, we completed several important infrastructure updates including upgrading to Elasticsearch 8, finishing the transition to Rails 7.1, and migrating the bookmarks table to create room for more bookmarks. We also made some user-facing improvements, such as fixing various access and display bugs; clarifying some error messages, form labels, and page titles; and adding chapter numbers to comments in your inbox. Special thanks and welcome to first-time contributors Abhinav Gupta, hk-contribs, TemperedPetals, and Vemmy RM! We’d also like to thank Dhiraj Mishra for reporting a security issue.

Credits

  • Coders: Abhinav Gupta, AliceLsr, Bilka, Brian Austin, calm, ceithir, Connie Feng, EchoEkhi, Hamham6, hk-contribs, kitbur, sarken, slavalamp, TemperedPetals, Vemmy RM, weeklies
  • Code reviewers: Bilka, Brian Austin, ceithir, Coding-Hen, Hamham6, sarken, weeklies
  • Testers: Bilka, Booksarelife, Brian Austin, Caitlynne, calamario, choux, Deniz, Keladry, LilyP, Lute, lydia-theda, Sam Johnsson, Sanity, Teyris, therealmorticia, wichard

Details

0.9.414

In the process of installing the new Elasticsearch servers, we upgraded to Elasticsearch 8 on June 24!

  • [AO3-6259] – We upgraded the Elasticsearch gem to version 8.18.0.

0.9.415

On June 25, we finished off the last remaining parts of the update to Rails 7.1.

  • [AO3-6894] – We flipped the remaining configuration values to use the new defaults from Rails 7.1.

0.9.416

Our deploy on July 1 updated older language on the work search and filtering forms from “Author/Artist” to “Creator” and added chapter numbers to comments in your inbox, among other improvements.

  • [AO3-6050] – When accessing the Tag Wrangling page showing all relationship tags related to a character, tags would always be shown in alphabetical order, regardless of sort order. Now, tag wranglers can additionally sort through the tags by how many times they were used or by creation date.
  • [AO3-6273] – Sometimes, when you used the “Post Draft” button on a draft, the word count of the publicly posted work would be blank. It should now always be the correct number.
  • [AO3-6373] – If you blocked a user who had previously commented on your work, you could no longer freeze their comment. We fixed this, so you can now block users and freeze their comment threads in any order without problems.
  • [AO3-6735] – We fixed that when you left a comment on an news posts with comment moderation enabled, the resulting comment email would incorrectly tell you that the comment was on a work with moderated comments.
  • [AO3-6936] – We changed the browser page title on subscriptions pages to a format that matches other user pages: “username – Subscriptions | Archive of Our Own.”
  • [AO3-6971] – We fixed an error that occurred if the “No Fandom” tag didn’t exist, for example in a development installation of the Archive.
  • [AO3-7010] – Trying to access the chapter index of a work that’s both in an unrevealed collection and hidden by an admin used to result in an error 500. We’ve fixed that so it now results in a normal permission error.
  • [AO3-7017] – If you knew the ID of a draft work or a work restricted to logged in users, you could access a few subpages of the work that revealed its title and blurb. Since that information isn’t meant to be public, we’ve once again restricted access to these pages.
  • [AO3-7016] – We updated the gem we use to run database schema migrations of large tables.
  • [AO3-5345] – Collection maintainers get an email notification if they run matching in a gift exchange and the sign-ups are invalid. We’ve improved the text of this email and prepared it for translation.
  • [AO3-6541] – We changed the works search and the sorting and filtering options to use “Creator” instead of “Author/Artist” to match the terminology used by the rest of the site.
  • [AO3-6750] – Comments in your inbox now include the chapter number, so you don’t have to follow the comment link to know where exactly it was left.
  • [AO3-6807] – If you tried to use an invalid URL for an external work or in your collection sign-up, you would sometimes get a 500 error. We fixed that so now you will always get a proper error message telling you that the URL is invalid.
  • [AO3-6999] – We removed some duplicate code for sending comment emails to admins.

0.9.417 & 0.9.418

On July 3 and July 4, we ran out of rows in the database table that stores bookmarks, so we had to move them to a larger table that can hold them all! Now you can once again add your own bookmarks to the 647 million we already have.

  • [AO3-7031] – We migrated the bookmarks table to be able to hold more rows and then migrated all other table columns that refer to bookmarks to also support the larger bookmark IDs.

0.9.419

On July 12, we deployed an assortment of minor changes that included allowing the accent-color property in skins and clarifying some error messages.

  • [AO3-6795] – When you were excluding a tag in a search and then made a syntax error when trying to filter those results, you’d get a 500 error. We’ve fixed this so it instead tells you that your query has a syntax error.
  • [AO3-6989] – If you tried to view the pseuds list for a user who didn’t exist, you’d get redirected to the People Search page. That made sense in a way, but wasn’t terribly consistent with other nonexistent pages. Now you’ll get a 404 error instead, which makes it easier to check for typos in the URL you entered.
  • [AO3-7007] – We fixed a 500 error when a guest tried to add a work to a collection by directly going to the “Add To Collection” URL.
  • [AO3-7025] – We fixed a typo in one of the CSS properties in the Creating a Skin help pop-up.
  • [AO3-7022] – We changed the default comment setting for news posts to “Only registered users can comment.”
  • [AO3-5344] – We prepared the email that you get when your work is invited to a collection for translation.
  • [AO3-7019] – You will now get an informative error message if you try to change your username to the same name as you currently have, instead of it silently doing nothing.
  • [AO3-7033] – When you access a skin, the skin title is now part of the browser page title.
  • [AO3-7041] – You can now use the accent-color property in site and work skins!
  • [AO3-6852] – We removed some old unused scripts for testing gift exchange matching.
[syndicated profile] otw_news_feed

Posted by Lute

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 will provide an overview of some of these upcoming changes.

Previous Tag Wrangling updates can generally be found on the @ao3org Tumblr and, for No Fandom tags, AO3 News. While No Fandom tag updates are generally announced on AO3 News as well as the @ao3org Tumblr, this may not be true of all wrangling updates. Some updates may remain solely distributed via Tumblr, especially those that only affect one or two fandoms. The way we distribute updates is subject to change as we work through new processes.

During this round of updates, we began a method which streamlines creation of 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 regular basis, so check back on AO3 News for periodic “No Fandom” tag announcements.

None of these updates change the tags users have added to works. If a user-created tag is considered to have the same meaning as a new canonical, it will be made a synonym of one of these newly created canonical tags, and works with that user-created tag will appear when the canonical tag is selected.

In short, these changes only affect which tags appear in AO3’s auto-complete and filters. You can and should continue to tag your works however you prefer.

New Canonicals

The following concepts have been made new canonical tags:

In Conclusion

While all these new tags have already been made canonical, we are still working on implementing changes and connecting relevant tags, so it’ll be some time before these updates are complete. We thank you in advance for your patience!

While we won’t be announcing every change we make to No Fandom canonical tags, you can expect similar updates in the future on the tags we believe will most affect users. If you’re interested in the changes we’ll be making, you can check AO3 News, follow us on Bluesky @wranglers.archiveofourown.org, Twitter/X @ao3_wranglers, or Tumblr @ao3org for future announcements.

You can also read previous updates on “No Fandom” tags, linked below:

For more information about AO3’s tag system, check out our Tags FAQ.

In addition to providing technical help, Support also handles requests related to how tags are sorted and connected.​ If you have questions about specific tags, which were first used over a month ago and are unrelated to any of the new canonical tags listed above, please contact Support instead of leaving a comment on this post.

Lastly, as mentioned above, we are still working on connecting relevant user-created tags to these new canonicals. If you have questions about specific tags which should be connected to these new canonicals, please refrain from contacting Support about them until at least two months from now.

[syndicated profile] otw_news_feed

Posted by an

Are you interested in social media, community management or outreach? Or would you like to assist AO3 users by resolving complaints? Do you want to create videos and connect with fellow fans on TikTok? The Organization for Transformative Works is recruiting!

We’re excited to announce the opening of applications for:

  • Fanlore Social Media & Outreach Volunteer – closing 16 July 2025 at 23:59 UTC or after 40 applications
  • Policy & Abuse Volunteer – closing 16 July 2025 at 23:59 UTC
  • Communications TikTok Moderator – closing 16 July 2025 at 23:59 UTC or after 60 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.

Fanlore Social Media & Outreach Volunteer

Do you have an interest in fandom history, or in fannish culture and the different tropes, ships, communities and viewpoints that make up fandom? Are you interested in social media, community management or outreach? The Fanlore committee is recruiting for Social Media & Outreach volunteers!

Fanlore Social Media & Outreach volunteers are responsible for writing and editing Fanlore’s promotional posts on social media, planning and running Fanlore’s editing challenges, maintaining Fanlore’s social media channels, and thinking of ways to reach out to and engage with new corners of fandom.

No extensive experience required—only reliability, teamwork, good communication skills, and an interest in fandom and Fanlore in particular. Join us!

As part of our application process, candidates who pass the initial review will also be asked to create a sample social media post for Fanlore consisting of a 280-character tweet and a 100-word Tumblr post promoting a Fanlore article. Further directions will be given upon applying.

Applications are due 16 July 2025 or after 40 applications

Apply for Fanlore Social Media & Outreach Volunteer at the volunteering page! If you have further questions, please contact us.

Policy & Abuse Volunteer

The Policy & Abuse committee (PAC) is responsible for addressing questions and concerns about potential violations of the AO3 Terms of Service. We determine whether reports are about legitimate violations of the Terms of Service, and what to do about them if they are. PAC volunteers correspond directly with AO3 users and collaborate on projects both within PAC and with other OTW committees.

Our main goals as a committee are:

  • to adhere to the AO3 Terms of Service
  • to make our reasoning and processes as clear and transparent as possible
  • to handle all user reports consistently, no matter which volunteer is doing the work
  • to keep every case we work on completely confidential

We are seeking people who can:

  • Commit to working on cases regularly
  • Be patient with rephrasing explanations
  • Ask for help when needed
  • Collaborate both inside the team and with other committees
  • Act in accordance with established rules, policies, and procedures
  • Treat confidentiality and user privacy as a priority

You must be 18+ in order to apply for this role. While English proficiency is required, we welcome applicants who are fluent in other languages, especially Spanish (Español), Brazilian Portuguese (Português brasileiro), Russian (Русский), Chinese (中文), or Indonesian (Bahasa Indonesia).

Applications are due 16 July 2025

Apply for Policy & Abuse Volunteer at the volunteering page! If you have further questions, please contact us.

Communications TikTok Moderator

Do you use TikTok? Do you like making videos? Do you want to connect with your fellow fans?

OTW TikTok Moderators create content for the OTW TikTok account, including drafting scripts, recording and editing videos, and reviewing other moderators’ scripts and videos. Moderators address user comments on videos by responding to user questions, removing comments that violate our policies, and flagging comments for video topics. Moderators also try to regularly engage with fandom on TikTok by interacting with relevant, appropriate videos and liking, reposting, and/or commenting.

You must be 18+ in order to apply for this role. We are looking for volunteers familiar with TikTok and passionate about outreach on the platform. They should be able to maintain a consistent level of work, collaborate inside the team and with other committees, ask for help when needed, and commit to making fair decisions about how to handle comments.

Applications are due 16 July 2025 or after 60 applications

Apply for Communications TikTok Moderator at the volunteering page! If you have further questions, please contact us.


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