Our October Membership Drive has ended, and we are glad to announce that we have added 6,113 members in the last few days! Contributions have been made from 74 countries for a total of US$192,743.11.

Although the membership drive has ended for now, you can still become a member at any time of year. And by joining before June 30, 2024 at 23:59 UTC you will be eligible to vote in our annual OTW Board of Directors elections in August next year.

As our Development & Membership team is already hard at work mailing out your thank-you gifts, we want to say how meaningful your support has been for the many years we’ve been here, whether financial, through volunteering, or by sending us encouragement. This year has brought unexpected difficulties, but we’re glad to have come through it together.

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.

After the Archive of Our Own (AO3), Fanlore, and our donation form went down due to the DDoS attacks in July, many fans responded by donating in the following months. We greatly appreciate both your generosity and your desire to respond to the attacks with this show of support. We received a 35% bump in donations in July and August of 2023 compared to July and August in 2022.

That's why, during our usual October membership drive, we want to encourage you to become a member of the Organization for Transformative Works (OTW) — the nonprofit organization behind AO3 and Fanlore, among other projects — and continue to be involved. Our drive donation banner on AO3 will thus be tracking new members and not money raised.

What is OTW membership?

You can become an OTW member with a donation of US$10 or more. Membership will allow you to vote for candidates seeking to join the Board of Directors—the OTW's governing board. You have until June 30, 2024 to become a member if you would like to vote in next year's election, which will be held in August.

• In order to become a member, you must select "Yes" to the question at the end of the donation form.
• You cannot become a member by donating US$1 ten times: it must be at least US$10 in a single donation.
• While employer matching cannot be used for membership, fans in the U.S. might be able to double their contributions that way. (Contact your HR department to find out if this is an option for you!)

Being an OTW member is not the same as having an AO3 account.

Your OTW membership has no connection to any account you may have at AO3 or any of our other projects, and an OTW membership does not provide access to any online space. This was a deliberate choice made by the OTW early on, to ensure that your reading history, works you've created, and edits you've made on Fanlore aren't tied to your wallet name or payment information.

But besides being able to vote in the OTW Board elections, you get cool merchandise if you've been a member for multiple consecutive years.

And speaking of cool merchandise, here are some new thank-you gifts that donors can receive:

AO3 pin is 1.5 inches/3.81 centimeters long

Contracted Unified English Braille sticker reading "I [heart] my fandoms" is 3 inches by 2.5 inches/7.62 by 6.35 centimeters

These thank-you gifts start at US$40. You can also set up a recurring donation and save towards the gift of your choice. Instructions on how to set this up will be included in your donation receipt.

Find out more

If you have any questions about membership and donation, either check out our FAQ or contact Development & Membership.

We appreciate all your donations, volunteering, encouraging messages and fun memes. And for those who would like to help spread the word about our membership drive, use #otwmembers in your posts! That will help us spot your messages and signal boost.

Thanks for your support and we hope to have more of you join us!

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.

Every month or so the OTW will be doing a Q&A with one of its volunteers about their experiences in the organization. The posts express each volunteer's personal views and do not necessarily reflect the views of the OTW or constitute OTW policy. Today's post is with Amy Lowell, who volunteers as a co-chair and premiums specialist for our Development & Membership committee.

How does what you do as a volunteer fit into what the OTW does?

I am the co-chair of the Development and Membership committee as well as the Premiums Specialist. As a member of the Development and Membership committee, I help conduct the fundraisers that pay for all of the things that make the OTW and its projects run. As premiums specialist, I am responsible for ordering, maintaining, and shipping all donor thank-you gifts. I also help coordinate giveaways and display items for conventions where OTW has a presence.

What is a typical week like for you as a volunteer?

I don’t have typical weeks, since what I do varies so much by the time of the year. Outside of the drives, I usually will answer donor questions, send out thank-you gifts to donors, plan and prepare for upcoming drives, and look for new items and vendors for new thank-you gifts.

During the drive, our committee is constantly monitoring incoming donations and answering questions, and I am also monitoring thank-you gift requests so that I can get ahead of items that need to be reordered to fulfill donor requests. Then after the drive I work to get all of the thank-you gifts out to the donors. Luckily, I have an amazing shipper in Europe who handles shipping to that area, but we can have 4,000+ thank-you gifts that need to be packed, labeled, and shipped, so in the weeks after the drive I pretty much do nothing else.

What made you decide to volunteer?

Way back when, I was a vidder who had many videos purged, so when I heard about OTW’s preservation work, I was intrigued and started to look into the organization. Learning that it was an ALL volunteer organization made up of people who just really cared, not people getting paid, I decided to volunteer.

What has been your biggest challenge doing work for the OTW?

Time zones. Having an organization whose members span around the world makes for some unconventional meeting times. Other than that, probably just fitting in my paying job and family during those weeks surrounding the drive when there is so much work to get done in a short amount of time.

What fannish things do you like to do?

I read a lot, but mostly my whole family is pretty much a bunch of fandom nerds, and I do a lot of fandom-related crafting. We have several Christmas trees dedicated to different fandoms. I make a lot of cosplay costumes; many fandom inspired blankets, amigurumi, and accessories; and most recently made my youngest son’s furniture look like Minecraft items.

Now that our volunteer’s said five things about what they do, it’s your turn to ask one more thing! Feel free to ask about their work in the comments. Or if you'd like, you can check out earlier Five Things posts.

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.

The Organization for Transformative Works's April membership drive is over and we are delighted to say that we are finishing with a total of US$252,343.98 raised, far exceeding our goal of US$50,000. These donations came from 7852 people in 71 countries: thank you to every single one of them, as well as to all of you who posted and shared the news about the drive!

We are particularly pleased that 6450 of donors chose to take up or renew OTW membership with their donation. The OTW would not exist without its users all around the world, and your continued support for us is our absolute pride and joy! We are so glad to know that our ongoing mission to support, protect, and provide access to the history of fanworks and fan culture continues to resonate with the people that matter most of all: the fans themselves.

If you were intending to donate or join and haven't yet done so, don't worry! The OTW accepts donations all year round and you can always choose to become a member with a donation of US$10 or more. Memberships run for one calendar year from the date of your donation, so if you donate now you'll be able to vote in the 2023 OTW Board elections, which will take place in August. And our exclusive thank-you gifts are available whenever you donate!

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.

It’s that time of year again – time for the biannual OTW membership drive! Ever since it was founded in 2007, the Organization for Transformative Works has relied on the support of fans like you. This support comes in the form of volunteer hours as well as the incredible generosity of our donors and our members. Find out more about how your donations have contributed to our work this year by checking out our budget post and, if you’re able to, click through to donate today.

We’re excited to have a great new slate of donor thank-you gifts this year including a travel tumbler showcasing the OTW project logos and a sticker set featuring the AO3 work symbols so that you can properly label your friends, pets, and household items. Of course, our wildly popular trope cards are still available, as are a number of other exciting gifts.

These thank-you gifts start at US$40; you can also set up a recurring donation and save towards the gift of your choice. Instructions on how to set this up will be included in your donation receipt. Those of you in the U.S. might also be able to double your contribution via employer matching: contact your HR department to find out if this is an option for you.

It’s also worth remembering that a donation of US$10 or more will allow you to become a member of the OTW. OTW members receive a special social media icon and, more importantly, the right to vote for the Board of Directors — the OTW’s governing board. You have until June 30, 2023 to become a member if you would like to vote in this year’s election, which will be held in August.

While we hope that many of you will take this opportunity to donate and join the OTW, we're grateful for the support of all members of this community, in all its many forms! Whether you create, share, comment on or kudos fanworks on AO3; edit Fanlore; read Transformative Works and Cultures; or spread information from OTW Legal, you all help shape the OTW and its projects every day. We are grateful for your time, energy, and engagement!

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.

The Organization for Transformative Works' April membership drive is over and we are delighted to say that we exceeded our fundraising target of US$40,000, with a final total of US$275,724.51 donated by 7,528 people in 84 countries. We are particularly pleased that 5,810 donors chose to renew or begin OTW membership.

Thank you so much to everybody in our global community who shared, posted about, or donated during the drive. Your support underpins our ongoing mission: to serve the interests of fans by providing access to and preserving the history of fanworks and fan culture, in all its myriad forms. We’re glad that this is as important to you as it is to us.

And if you're just now hearing about the drive - don't worry! The OTW accepts donations all year round, and all of our membership perks and thank-you gifts are available whenever you donate.

The Organization for Transformative Works was conceived, designed, and built by fans. We are supported by the volunteer labor of the fans who staff us and we are also supported by the financial generosity of our members. This April, as we launch our biannual membership drive, we want to explain some of the benefits of OTW membership, which is available to those making donations of US$10 or above; and also describe some of the other ways in which we share our appreciation with our donors.

We understand that for many of our visitors, it won't be possible to donate to the OTW during this drive; and we want to stress that every member of our community is valued, whether your contribution is financial or whether it comes in the form of volunteer hours, creative work, wiki articles, kudos, or comments. You all make the OTW what it is and we are grateful for each and every one of you.

For those who are able to donate, the perks start at just US$10. Each one-time donation of US$10 or above entitles the donor to become a member of the OTW for the next calendar year. OTW members have the right to vote in annual elections for the OTW Board of Directors, the body which oversees the OTW's activity and strategic direction. The next elections will be held in August this year. You can find out more about the elections process here, at our elections website.

OTW members also receive an exclusive social media icon, which they can use across whichever sites they choose; and we are able to reward long-term donors with exclusive thank-you gifts marking three, five, and ten years of continuous membership. Check out the launch post to find out more about these exclusive premiums.

As always, we also have a variety of thank-you gifts available to those donating to the OTW in specific amounts. This drive, we're pleased to make two new gifts available: a new sticker set, which you can select with a donation of US$40 or above, and an exclusive playing-card pack. Each card depicts a fannish term of the kind you might see in AO3 tags. We hope that, as well as playing card games with them, you'll be able to use them to create on-the-spot creative challenges with friends or for yourself. We look forward to seeing what you come up with! The card pack is available to donors giving US$100 or above. More information about this and our other thank-you gifts are available at our donations page.

If that amount isn't feasible for you, don't worry. You can use smaller, recurring donations to meet the set amount. Visit our recurring donations page to set up a donation at whatever frequency and price point is doable for you. You'll receive instructions on how to register for the thank-you gift of your choice in your donation receipt. The gift will be set aside and, once your donations reach the designated level, will be sent out to you.

If you're in the US, where the OTW is a registered non-profit, you might be able to multiply your donation at no additional cost to yourself with an employer matching scheme! Speak to your HR department to find out whether this is something offered by your workplace.

You can find out more about how previous donations to the OTW have been spent by visiting our budget post. And once again, if you're able to give, please accept our thanks and click through here to visit our donations page.

The Organization for Transformative Works’s October membership drive is over, and we’re delighted to say that we raised a total of US$195,009.65, far outstripping our goal of US$40,000. This was made possible by the generosity of 6700 donors from 77 countries worldwide, of whom 4786 chose to begin or renew OTW membership. We are so grateful, as always, for our global community. Thank you! Your support enables us to continue working in service of our mission: to further the interests of the fans we represent by providing access to and preserving the history of fanworks and fan culture in all its many forms.

We would also like to thank the volunteers whose service made this drive run so smoothly, and all of the users who posted, tweeted, and talked about the drive to their friends and acquaintances. Your help is invaluable in helping us to achieve our goals. We appreciate you all so much!

Finally, if you haven’t yet had time to make a contribution, don’t worry! We accept donations all year round. OTW membership, which is available to those making donations of US$10 and above, lasts for a full year from the date of the most recent US$10 donation; so anybody donating now will be eligible to vote in next year’s election for the OTW Board of Directors. The thank-you gifts we offer for donations of US$40 or above are also available on an ongoing basis. It’s always a good time to give!

The Organization for Transformative Works is a labor of love. It was created by fans, for fans. We are a nonprofit organization, and we rely 100% on donations: the donation of time from our volunteers, and the donation of funds from the community we serve. Today marks the beginning of our biannual membership drive, when we ask that those of you who are able to do so consider making a financial contribution to support our work. You can read about how we spend your money in our budget.

Your donations to the OTW support our work across all our projects: from the Archive of Our Own to Fanlore; from our academic journal, Transformative Works and Cultures, to our fanworks rescue project Open Doors and our Legal committee’s advocacy for transformative works worldwide. Donors also benefit more directly. With any one-time donation of US$10 or more, you can choose to take up an annual membership of the OTW, giving you the right to vote for our Board of Directors in the election that we hold in August every year.

Members also receive a digital icon which can be used on your AO3 or on social media profiles; and those who have maintained OTW membership for three, five, or ten years are eligible for exclusive commemorative gifts. Find out more about membership and voting here.

Those making donations of US$40 or above are able to select from a number of thank-you gifts. New this year are an OTW tumbler in limited-edition white, and a brand-new sticker set. If you can’t afford to make a donation of this size, don’t worry: we’ve got you. You can opt to set up a recurring donation at a level that suits you and let our Development and Membership team know which premium you’d like to save up for. Once your donations hit the eligible level, they will dispatch your gift.

The Organization for Transformative Works is a registered non-profit in the US, and donors in this country may be able to take advantage of matched giving schemes from their employer. Please consider speaking to your workplace to find out whether this is a possibility for you!

If you aren’t able to make a donation this time, please consider sharing this post with others, and know that we appreciate your support however you are able to give it. Thank you for your money, your time, and your love. We wouldn’t be here without it!

Every month or so the OTW will be doing a Q&A with one of its volunteers about their experiences in the organization. The posts express each volunteer's personal views and do not necessarily reflect the views of the OTW or constitute OTW policy. Today's post is with Amy2, who volunteers as a Development & Membership staffer and graphic designer.

How does what you do as a Development & Membership volunteer fit into what the OTW does?

Owning the servers and lack of advertising are both key parts of the OTW’s mission, but to do that, we rely on user donations. The Development & Membership committee (DevMem) is responsible for the fundraising efforts, which are largely focused around the April and October drives. My job is to make the graphics—drive headers, member icons, designs for donation gifts, etc. -- as well as some membership data work. (The latter is mostly moving spreadsheet columns around, and updating donors’ addresses and donation gift requests.)

What is a typical week like for you as a volunteer?

At the beginning of the week, I go through the DevMem inbox to make sure that we’ve answered all the donor questions. We have a meeting midweek, and if it’s time to send out a batch of donation gifts, I get in touch with everyone who needs to confirm their address with us. (Or: I’m sending follow-up emails to the people I haven’t heard back from.) My tag wrangling bins are fairly slow — shoutout to those of you dabbling in Sumerian and Babylonian mythology! — so I usually only check on those once a week or so as well.

If we’re a couple of months out from a drive or election (i.e. about 50% of the time,) I’ll have graphics to work on. Once those are ready, it’s pretty quiet for me until the drive starts up, at which point we try to have as many hands on deck as possible to answer emails.

I’m currently in training for the Volunteer & Recruitment Committee, so I don’t know what a typical week there is yet! But right now, for me, it’s tutorials.

You started out as a graphic designer and later added the role of membership data specialist, as well as joining Tag Wrangling and Volunteers & Recruiting. What made you decide to expand your volunteering into other parts of the organization besides graphics?

When I joined DevMem, we only had one person doing pretty much all membership data work — they’re a hero and should be honored as such — and when it got to the point that that really wasn’t working anymore, a couple of us were trained on the database so we could help take the load off. I volunteered for that because I had the fewest responsibilities outside of drive season, so it seemed like a good way to be helpful.

Around that point I started getting more involved in the social side of the OTW, where I learned more about what other people were doing, and what work looked interesting to me.* One of the best parts of being an OTW volunteer is the other volunteers, who can always be counted on to enable encourage you to push yourself and try new things.

*This also put me in the path of evangelizing tag wranglers.

What’s your favorite task or project that you have worked on for the OTW?

This is a hard one! I’d probably have to say the Hugo Award merchandise. The weeks after we won were obviously an exciting time for the AO3 community, and it was very special to help mark that occasion. It was also the first time I had the chance to design a donation gift, so it was gratifying to see how popular they were — though they may have had to excavate our premiums specialist out from under the piles of stickers.

I also really enjoyed making the April 2020 drive banner and member icon: they include favorite tags from nearly all of our translation teams, which was a neat glimpse into what tropes and turns of phrase are popular in the non-English speaking parts of AO3. It was fun to watch people on Twitter find their languages’ tags.

What fannish things do you like to do?

Read fic, write fic, make book covers for fics, ramble about books and media that I love at one in the morning on tumblr dot com... the usual. Lately I’ve been learning InDesign by formatting my favorite fanfics and having them printed in book format: if this lockdown lasts much longer, I may end up with a dedicated fanfiction shelf in my bookcase.

Now that our volunteer’s said five things about what they do, it’s your turn to ask one more thing! Feel free to ask about their work in comments. Or if you'd like, you can check out earlier Five Things posts.

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.

Every month or so the OTW will be doing a Q&A with one of its volunteers about their experiences in the organization. The posts express each volunteer's personal views and do not necessarily reflect the views of the OTW or constitute OTW policy. Today's post is with Chelsea Eidbo, who volunteers with the Development & Membership and Tag Wrangling Committees.

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.

How does what you do as a volunteer fit into what the OTW does?

As a staff member of Development & Membership, DevMem for short, I help with the Membership Drives and fundraising; work with users to resolve issues surrounding donations; and brainstorm for fundraising ideas, future drives, drive graphics, and gifts for donors. As a Tag Wrangler, I help to organize user-created tags in a variety of fandoms to make them searchable and make all creators’ works easier to find.

What is a typical week like for you as a volunteer?

In a typical week, there is a weekly meeting with DevMem staff to discuss any upcoming projects, plan for any upcoming changes that might affect or interest users and work on graphics, banners and posts for the next Membership Drive. I wrangle in any spare time I have. I work with other wranglers on several mega fandoms as well as maintaining about twenty-five fandoms solo.

What made you decide to volunteer?

It’s not overly exciting. I had just quit my job and planned to spend the next two months living with my grandmother to help her out. I needed something to do in my downtime and wrangling seemed perfect. I joined DevMem two years later because I’d done fundraising as a teenager and was interested in doing it again and I was, and still am, highly motivated to make sure the OTW gets donations.

Plus, it’s fun!

What's the most fun thing to you about volunteering for the OTW?

Walked right into that one. There is so much fun to be had! Watching the Membership Drives happen from the volunteer side of it is awesome because all the volunteers are in a positive mood and excited to see how much users care about the OTW and AO3, and that they want to donate to keep us up and running. In the October 2018 Drive, we introduced the AO3 heart-shaped stress balls which were a huge hit and I’m psyched to have one, even though my cat has co-opted it as his favorite toy.

What fannish things do you like to do?

So many things. I read and write fanfiction on AO3 endlessly. Lots of crack fic and fluffy, fluffy romance. Lately, I’ve been letting my OTW friends inspire me for the most crack-filled ships to write about. I also listen to and record podfic, and get my fill of drama by reading the Fanlore pages. Most of my free time is either volunteering or meandering through my favorite AO3 tags.

Now that our volunteer’s said five things about what they do, it’s your turn to ask one more thing! Feel free to ask about their work in comments. Or if you'd like, you can check out earlier Five Things posts.

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.

Every month or so the OTW will be doing a Q&A with one of its volunteers about their experiences in the organization. The posts express each volunteer's personal views and do not necessarily reflect the views of the OTW or constitute OTW policy. Today's post is with Ryan Smith, who volunteers as a staffer with OTW's Development & Membership Committee

How does what you do as a volunteer fit into what the OTW does?

As a member of the Development & Membership Committee, my primary responsibility is coordinating the twice-a-year fund drives which is how we obtain roughly 90% of our funding for the year. This is one of most integral tasks that any particular group within the organization carries out, as it allows us to continue our overall mission. Often times, this can bring us into contact with a multitude of different bodies within the organization, though a few definitely stand out to me.

Our closest working partner in the fund drives is easily the Translation Committee as we are striving to ensure a standard international accessibility within our drive materials. As almost all of us within the committee are native English speakers in the United States, it isn't apparent to us when wording choices aren't easily understood by international audiences. While all of our drive materials in the past have gone through an editing process, we are transitioning to a more thorough model in order to better broadcast the need for our fund raising to audiences that we might have previously not been able to reach, or have disenfranchised. Beyond the Translation Committee, we also regularly coordinate with other organization bodies during the drive periods -- the Board of Directors, to ensure that our drive goals are matching with our overall yearly plan; and the Communications Committee, who coordinate the actual posting and dissemination of our drive materials.

Outside of our work on the fund drives, it largely depends on the particular person and the needs of the committee as to what we do. Our data membership specialists remain hard at work maintaining the donation and membership database which, you might be able to tell from the name, holds our donation and membership records. Some might work on analyzing data gathered from the previous drive in order to make improvements to future drives. Others still will begin the process of restocking our donation premiums in case we begin to run low. Some will work on evaluating and updating our internal documentation. One group might work on a special project in order to develop new revenue generating sources for the organization. The possibilities are endless during this lull between the drives, and really, the sky is the limit on the sort of things that you can work on.

What is a typical week like for you as a volunteer?

For me, it largely depends on the time of year! As mentioned above, our work varies depending on whether we're working during a drive period or in between them. I'll quickly cover both in order to give any readers a good idea of my work.

During the drives, I am writing some aspect of the materials that will go out for the drive -- whether that be an email to AO3 users, or one of the posts, or something else. Simultaneously, I am coordinating with my fellow committee members, by commenting on their own drive materials, answering questions, scheduling meetings, or more, to keep the work on the drive moving ahead as necessary. During this, I'm also monitoring our incoming email queue for any intra-organization communication that needs to be responded to, or for questions coming in from the general public. While our email queue is mostly easy to manage during the time between drives, during drives it will sky rocket with incoming questions. We also have to be aware of comments coming into the news posts and respond to them promptly.

When we aren't running around like chickens with our heads cut off during the drives, we work independently on projects and coordinate with each other as necessary. We also attend our weekly meetings in order to stay on top of any work that another committee member might be doing (which is particularly helpful, because you never know when someone else might be interested in the work you might be doing). One of my big projects has been to update our internal documentation where necessary, which has been pretty fun! As part of this, we've implemented a new meeting minutes procedure and developed a method of easily tracking our out of date documentation (which should hopefully make this type of work easier for our future committee members)! One project that we've been working on following the April 2016 fund drive is selecting a ticket management solution. This will better track our email and ensure that nothing slips between the cracks.

What’s the most fun thing to you about volunteering for the OTW?

For me, I have to say it would be getting exposure to and interacting with other members of fandom. I'm definitely part of fandom on places like Tumblr, and have been on other things like fandom message boards. But in situations like that it is incredibly easy for me to either fade into the background noise or not really take part (lurking for the win).

Being a volunteer within the OTW though, depending on what committee you serve with, you have varying levels of interaction with others. This is great for a wide range of people, because even the shyest of wall-flowers can find a way to help. Even with our most interaction-heavy committees, there are generally ways for you to stick to the background by performing a less communication-intensive role within the group. For me specifically though, I've come to know so many people and have made so many friends from my time within the organization. There are also those crazy, serendipitous moments where you find odd connections between volunteers that leave you going, "Whoa!" For instance, another volunteer and I discovered that she lived in my tiny Louisiana hometown for quite a while!

What did you learn from other roles you've had in the OTW?

Oh gosh, how did I know you'd ask this question? So as a bit of back story, I first served within the OTW in 2013 as a Tag Wrangler and then a Communications staffer. After a car accident, I had to take some time away to regroup in my personal and professional life, but came back in 2015. This time I served as a staffer for both Volunteers & Recruiting, and Development & Membership. While mine definitely isn't the longest record of service, it is probably up there among those with the most variety!

In my time on the different committees, probably the lesson that resonates with me the most is that you have to be responsive to your own needs and take care of them. You have to be aware of when you need to take time for yourself or just plain need a break from the OTW. After my car accident, I was being forced to work more and more hours to pay for bills, which impacted my overall energy and ability to serve within the OTW. I felt obligated to continue serving and so inadequate, because I thought I might be letting down my fellow committee members should I step back for a time. This culminated in me "vanishing" from the OTW because, for me, I was more ashamed of admitting that I needed help than simply running away.

I've also learned a great variety of skills that I can apply to everyday life. Time management, organization, and technical writing are some things that I feel have definitely been improved on my by time within the OTW. I've also gained a fairly solid foundation within the subject matter of the committees I've served on.

What fannish things do you like to do?

Well, mostly I'm a consumer of fannish things, though I do have some pet projects I work on. What I tinker with rarely sees the light of day, because it rarely moves beyond the confines of my brain! I love reading fanfic on the Archive, seeing fanart on Tumblr, and recently being a bit more involved in the fan game community. I am a huge Pokémon fan, and some of the biggest projects for Pokémon fans out there are fan games. Recently I joined up with the Pokémon Phoenix Rising team as a writer. We hope to have our first release out before the end of summer, so here's hoping! In the past, I've been more involved in the fannish community overall on forums and such, but in recent years that has faded.

Now that our volunteer’s said five things about what they do, it’s your turn to ask one more thing! Feel free to ask about their work in comments. Or if you'd like, you can check out earlier Five Things posts.

A short update on Survey Sundays

We've been working on a rough schedule for our Survey Sunday reports to give the committees involved time to review their data and make sure we systematically cover all questions. Unfortunately, this means that we may not be able to answer your Survey Sunday inquiries in a timely fashion, as the related post might be scheduled for weeks or months off. We've done our best to push posts which people showed particular interest in to the top of the pile, but this hasn't always been possible. Although we warned about possible delays in our announcement post, we wanted to give you a specific heads up about this.

In short: we're still very happy to take questions, but we will integrate them into our regular releases, which might mean long delays. Thanks for your patience!

About the answers

Today we’ll be answering questions #84 to #88. These relate to the OTW website (transformativeworks.org) usage, design and content. We've prioritized preparing this data so that our webmasters can factor the results into their planned OTW website redesign. All questions presented in this post are complete and include final numbers, including the last three open (i.e., free-text response only) questions.

It’s important to note that everyone who replied to Question #84 saying that they hadn’t read the site before or that they didn't remember having done so would have skipped all the other site-related questions and automatically been redirected to the last question in the survey, #89, though this fact will also be mentioned when relevant in the corresponding sections.

Additional notes on Freeform Questions #86-#88

In these questions users were given a text box in which to enter their opinions. This type of question obviously requires more time and labor to answer than one with limited choices. This fact, along with the skipping logic, the fact that these questions were at the end of a long survey, and possibly a lack of awareness of the OTW website likely contributed to these questions having a small number of answers compared to the rest of the survey. (Only 4-5% of total survey respondents answered these questions.) Many categories thus represented the opinions of only a very small portion of the respondent pool, so we have chosen not to represent these results as percentages, preferring to focus on the actual counts.

We categorized the answers to these questions by assigning one or more categories to each (similar to tagging) rather than simply dividing responses into distinct bins. Some comments were quite lengthy and included several different ideas, suggestions, and concerns. For this reason, the number of answers in each category will often add up to a number greater than the total number of respondents who answered a question.

84. Have you read the OTW website (transformativeworks.org) before?

82.9% (4,963) of the people who took the survey answered this question. People who answered either "I don't remember" or "No" were immediately redirected to the last question in the survey (question #89), while people who skipped this question, or answered "Yes", were directed to the following questions related to the transformativeworks.org site.

Only 35.7% of the people who answered this question chose "Yes", indicating that they had read the OTW website. 41.2% said "No", and 23.1% said they didn't remember.

85. Based on your previous visits to the OTW website (transformativeworks.org), how strongly do you agree or disagree with the following statements?

Only 28.5% (1,707) of survey respondents gave an opinion on at least one of the statements. Of the 4,279 people who skipped this question, 3,191 did so automatically by answering "No" or "I don't remember" to question #84. This means that 18.2% of the people who took the survey skipped this question purposefully. Taking into account that only 2,795 people would have seen this question (1,772 who answered "Yes" on question #84 and 1,023 who skipped question #84), about 38.9% of the people who saw this question skipped it.

In general, response count for each statement was nearly identical, and a high percentage of people skipped the question purposefully compared to other sections and questions. The percentage of people expressing a particular opinion on each statement had few variations. Given that the statements are related (particularly "easy to navigate" and "made it easy to find the information I was looking for" – the third option is more ambiguous), this is not overly surprising.

Below we'll analyse each statement separately.

The OTW website made it easy to find the information I was looking for.

28.5% (1,706) of people who took the survey gave an opinion about this statement. This is almost 100% of the people who answered question #85 in any form (1,707).

53.6% (915) agreed in some manner (whether strongly or not), 37.5% (640) expressed neutrality by choosing "no particular opinion", and 8.8% (151) disagreed in some manner (whether strongly or not).

The OTW website is easy to navigate.

28.5% (1,702) of people who took the Survey gave their opinion about this statement (about 99.7% of the people who answered this question in some manner).

53.1% (954) agreed in some manner (whether strongly or not), 35.3% (600) expressed neutrality by choosing the "no particular opinion" option, and 8.7% (148) disagreed in some manner (whether strongly or not).

The OTW website met my expectations as a user.

28.3% (1,696) of people who took the Survey gave their opinion about this statement; this is about 99.4% of the people who answered this question.

56.1% (951) agreed in some manner (whether strongly or not), 38.2% (648) expressed neutrality by choosing the "no particular opinion" option, and 5.8% (97) disagreed in some manner (whether strongly or not).

#86 - What should we improve about the website, in your opinion?

Question #86 was first of the 3 free-form answer questions in the OTW website section, and used the same skipping logic as 85. Thus, only 2,795 people saw the question. Out of this number only 375 (13.42% of those who saw it) answered it in any form. (See the note at the beginning of this post for a description of how answers to this question were categorized.)

Out of 375 respondents, 114 answered to clarify that they had no opinion, 14 gave feedback for a different site (often AO3), 24 stated that no improvements were necessary and that the site was fine the way it was, and 223 pointed out issues with the site or offered suggestions to make it better.

Suggested Improvements

223 survey takers left comments suggesting site improvements or describing site issues.

The largest number of comments involved the overall organization and navigation of the site (100 answers) and the navigation/searchability of the blog (40 answers). Users expressed frustration with not being able to find the content they were looking for, even though that content is present on the site. Some users were only able to find the information after a Google search of the site, others said they reached it in ways they did not expect or that they wouldn't have found the content if they didn't know it was there in first place. There were several suggestions that information on volunteering should be made easier to access and find, and that the tagging of posts should be improved.

Another common theme was the organization of the front page and the general layout (33 answers). Here one of the biggest points was users not seeing the search box. Some users noted it was hard to find, others asked for a search box, having overlooked it. Other frequent topics included adding some static information in addition to the blog and making the path to access project links and information shorter.

A third common type of feedback was requests for improvements to visual aspects of the site (29 answers). These fell into two main themes. The most frequent request was a review of the color scheme of the site both for accessibility and aesthetic reasons. Others requested that the OTW website layout be more lively, with images.

A fourth common topic included missing content and content presentation. 33 comments involved content being missing or hard to find, including information about the OTW, its projects and committees, and its finances, as well as information about helping the Org by volunteering, joining, or donating. Note that some users identified multiple types of missing content, giving a total of 67 answers.

26 comments were related to content presentation. Within the content presentation feedback two frequent issues mentioned were language clarity on the textual content, and a request for more charts, videos, pictures and general visual cues to make the content more appealing and easier to read

The remaining 15 comments covered a variety of topics not mentioned above, such as improvements to the calendar feature, performance issues, search engine optimization and accessibility.

Breakdown of missing/hard to find content mentioned

While the nature of missing content was the focus of question #87, several respondents specified types of content they had tried to access but could not find, had difficulty finding, or felt could be clarified further in answer to this question. The most commonly mentioned content was information on projects and committees (21 answers), information about the OTW as a whole, such as general structure and finances (19 answers), information on volunteering, donating and membership (16 answers) and elections (11 answers).

87. What information would you expect to find on the OTW website that's not currently there?

Question #87 used the same skipping logic as #85 and #86; thus, only 2,795 people saw the question. 253 (less than 10%) of them decided to answer it.

Of the 253, 98 of them answered to clarify they had no opinion on the topic, 6 mistakenly gave feedback on specific OTW projects (often AO3), and 43 answered that they didn't think anything in particular was missing. 106 answers contained suggestions to add new or improve existing content.

Nature of content improvements requested

Although the question was specifically asking about missing content, the responses covered a variety of concerns. 87 answers mentioned missing content or asked for more detailed content. 4 answers asked for more frequent updates to particular content. 21 respondents stated that the information they were looking for was there but hard to find.

Breakdown by type of expected information not found

The topic with the greatest number of requests for more information was the legality of fandom and previous cases (18 answers). It is important to note that half of these (9 answers) were specifically requesting information on legal issues with an international scope. Second most frequent request on information was volunteering and donating. Users were looking for more information on volunteering and making donations (17 answers). Specific requests included more current and detailed information on what types of volunteers are needed, what new volunteers should expect, and what is the difference between becoming a member, volunteering, and donating.

Other common requests were more detailed information on OTW finances and how donations are put to use (15 answers), more detailed and up to date information on projects (13 answers), more information on how the OTW is structured, and information on committees and the Board (11 answers).

The remaining answers contained a variety of content requests such as more information on staffers and volunteers as people, FAQs, translations, resources for existing volunteers, or better access/merging of information originating from various OTW communications outlets.

88. Do you have any other feedback about the OTW website?

Question #88 asked for additional comments on the OTW website on topics that weren't covered by the previous two questions. Since the question was under the same skipping logic as #85, #86 and #87, only 2,795 people saw it. Out of these, 234 (less than 10%) chose to answer this question.

Of these answers, more than half (127 answers) were to state that the respondent had no further comment or that they had no opinion. Answers that only referred to previous questions by number (e.g., "what I said in question 86") with no further comments were also categorized here.

13 of the comments were feedback on other OTW projects, general commentary on the OTW, or other off topic content such as frustration with the length of the survey (this was the question-before-last of 89 questions).

94 answers included further suggestions or general comments on the website.

Nature of feedback on the website

The most common type of feedback given in response to this question was to suggest improvements to the site (53 answers). The most common topics mentioned for improvement were organization and issues about the look of the website.

30 users used this space to state that regardless of their previous suggestions or comments they were overall happy with the site. 14 users thanked the website team or sent them encouragements. 5 answers contained non-specific dissatisfaction with the site as a whole, and 4 answers included comments on particular aspects of the site that worked well for the respondent.

Or, um, Survey Monday? Sorry the crosspost is a little late, folks!

About the answers

This week on Survey Sunday, as requested, we're releasing the first batch of AO3 related questions. These were:

• Question 15. How useful do you find the Archive's tagging system?
• I'd be very interested in the results for Questions 19 to 21, concerning kudos and comments on the Archive.
• I'm very interested in the answers to 32 and 33 specifically, and to a slightly lesser extent, all of the opinion-based questions about individual AO3 functions. (15, 16, 22, 23, 24, etc.)

Today we'll be answering questions #10 to #17. These relate generally to how many people use the Archive and how they do so. All questions presented in this post are complete and include final numbers. Future posts will shed light on the ease-of-use of the different Archive features and other general opinions about the Archive.

The question requested in particular is "Question 15. How useful do you find the Archive’s tagging system?" so we're showing its results in the context of its section.

It's important to note that everybody who replied in Question #10 that they hadn't used the Archive would have skipped all the other questions related to the Archive, though this fact will be mentioned when relevant in the corresponding sections.

#10 -- Have you ever used the Archive of Our Own (AO3)? (n = 5794)

Question #10 asked whether the respondent had ever used the AO3. 3.2% percent of the people who took this survey skipped this question.

Of those who answered, 4% said they didn't use it and 96% said they did. As the question did not distinguish between frequent users and someone who had been to the Archive once or twice, further questions were designed to shed more light on users' activity.

One thing to note about this result is that, as AO3 users received emails informing them of the Survey, unlike users from other OTW projects, we were likely to get a very high "Yes" rate on this question.

#11 -- Do you have an account at the Archive of Our Own? (n = 5555)

Question #11 also testifies to the influence of AO3 users finding the Survey through direct contact. This question asked how many respondents already have an AO3 account. 201 people skipped this question on purpose, and 230 skipped it automatically by answering 'no' on question #10.

A clear majority of respondents were account holders -- 82.5%. Only 3.2% of those answering were waiting for an invitation. Back in April, during the survey period, the AO3 invite list was around 5000, roughly a sixth of the current waitlist. This is, however, still a small response from that group.

The number of accounts at that time was around 42,000, meaning that at least 10% of AO3 account holders answered the Survey, compared to around 3% of those on the invite list. This difference in response suggests that either account holders are more likely to be aware of OTW news and events, or, more probably, that the proportion of respondents in this category is substantially larger because they were emailed individually about the survey.

#12 -- How efficient do you find the Archive's invitation system (invite queue or sending invites)?

Question #12 showed a growing skip rate as well, with 1,250 people (21%) of the people who took the survey, not offering an opinion about AO3's invite system -- these people encompass those who answered 'no' to #10 (230), people who answered they didn't have an account and weren't waiting for one in #11 (792 -- who also automatically bypassed this question) and people who just decided not to answer (228).

The highest response was the neutral 'no particular opinion' (2,029 or 42.8% of the people who responded). However, the invite system was at the time relatively favourably regarded with a 25.9% considering it 'very efficient', and another 24.9% considering it "Somewhat efficient." Only 5.4% felt it was "Inefficient" and a mere 1% considered it "Very Inefficient".

This opinion might be considerably different if more than 180 people answering the survey were currently in the invite queue or if the survey were run today, when nearly 30,000 invite requests are outstanding.

It may also have been different if the answer scale's positive and negative sides had been written with the exact same vocabulary -- the fact that one could not answer 'somewhat inefficient' may have pushed people holding more moderately negative opinions towards neutrality (not wanting to answer 'inefficient' outright) while one could answer 'somewhat efficient', attenuating the possible positive responses and thus encouraging them. The influence of the phrasing, however, can't be measured, and this is only one interpretation of its possible effect.

#13 -- What are you using the Archive for?

Question #13 looked at what people were doing at the AO3. The number of skips dropped back to 7.4% of all respondents, only 228 of whom skipped this question directly (the other 230 had automatically bypassed the whole section by answering 'no' to question #10). 92.6% (5,543) of the people who took this survey answered this question in some manner, either choosing one or more options, choosing one or more options and writing in clarifying notes about them or other choice(s), or just writing in other choice(s).

95.2% of the people who answered said they used the Archive to 'view fanworks' -- perhaps predictably, by far the most popular choice. Only 57.7% said they post fanworks. 52.1% said they use it to bookmark fanworks, and 47.9% that they use it to subscribe to creators or works. 18.4% said they use it to participate in challenges, while only 2.0% said they use it to run challenges (mods generally being fewer than participants, this is not a surprise).

'Other' answers add up to 169 (some respondents wrote in more than one, and each action or feature mentioned is counted separately, so these are actually from 166 people). Of these other answers, 35.3% were 'download fanworks', 21.0% 'leave feedback of some kind' (comments or kudos or both), 15.6% 'to find fanworks', and 7.8% 'to calculate stats', either personal or general for both academic and personal enjoyment reasons. Still 20.4% (34) of these answers are grouped in a general 'other' category -- none were common enough to generate significant patterns. Some of the options include using the Reading History or Mark to Read Later features, using Collections rather than Challenges, following feeds, participating in the community, and tag wrangling.

#14 -- Have you ever used the Archive's search function?

In Question #14 457 people (7.6% of the people who took this survey) skipped answering whether they had used the search function at AO3, only about 227 of whom skipped this question inentionally rather than automatically by answering 'no' to question #10.

Of the 5,529 who did answer, 93.3% said they had used the Archive's search function and 6.7% said they hadn't. Those who had were asked the following 3 questions -- #15, #16 and #17 -- and those who hadn't were made to skip directly to the questions about leaving feedback on the Archive (those questions will be analysed in a following post).

#15 -- How useful do you find the Archive's tagging system?

Question #15 asked about tags. Almost double (839 or 14%) the number of respondents skipped this question as the last -- these people include the 230 avoiding the entire set of questions by answering 'no' to question #10, the 368 people who said they hadn't 'used the Archive's search function' in #14, and 231 who simply decided not to answer.

The majority of people who did answer this question, 2,569 (49.8%), found tags very useful, with another 2,004 (38.9%) respondents finding them somewhat useful. This indicates that there is an overall positive opinion of the tag system in place, since 87.7% of the respondents find the tag system useful or very useful.

A 3.7% felt neutrally about it, while 318 (6.2%) found them 'of limited use' and 77 (1.5%) found them 'not useful'. Negative opinions thus add up to a 7.7% of respondents.

#16 -- How efficient is it to search and find works on the Archive?

Question #16 asked about the efficiency of finding works on the AO3. Around the same number of people skipped this question as the last, 831 (14%) -- which again can be divided into the 230 people who are bypassing the whole Archive section, the 368 who answered they hadn't 'used the Archive's search function' and 233 who skipped this question intentionally.

The majority of respondents found the search "Somewhat efficient" (51.9%) or "Very efficient" (24.4%), giving us a total of 89,9% of respondents who have a positive opinion of the Search function. On the other hand, 13.9% found it "Inefficient" and a 4.2% found it "Very inefficient", adding up to 18,1% who have a negative opinion. This is more than double the percentage of people who had a negative opinion of the tagging system.

5.5% of respondents expressed neutrality by choosing 'no particular opinion'.

As we've noted in the analysis of the answers to question #12, responses may have been different if the answer scale used the exact same vocabulary for its positive and negative sides -- the fact that one could not answer 'somewhat inefficient' may have pushed people holding more moderately negative opinions towards neutrality (not wanting to answer 'inefficient' outright) while one could, in fact, answer 'somewhat efficient', perhaps attenuating the possible positive responses and thus encouraging them. The influence of the phrasing, however, can't be measured, and this is only one interpretation of its possible effects.

#17 -- Did you find content in your fandom(s) on the Archive?

Question #17 addresses AO3 content, asking if users' fandoms were represented in the Archive's content. 834 people skipped this question (14%) -- this again gives us 236 people skipping this question intentionally, with the others skipping it automatically as a consequence of previous answers.

Not surprisingly, most people said 'Yes', with 4,201 (81.5%) finding content most of the time and only 634 (12.3%) finding it only sometimes. No one said they never found such content, and 250 (4.9%) said they found it in the same quantities as elsewhere. Only 67 (1.3%) said they rarely found their fandoms at the AO3.

These answers are logical if one considers that it would be unusual to keep using an archive when one was unable to use it for one of its main purposes. One important aspect we did not take into account, however, is multi-fannishness. That is, respondents might find many works in one of their fandoms, but few or none in their other fandom(s), and the question design did not allow them to differentiate this. Judging from the overall positive slant, we assume that multifannish people tended towards answering with their well-represented fandom(s) in mind rather than their underrepresented one(s).

As a final note for this section, we note that the number of people choosing not to answer (or 'skip') a question has mostly stayed constant through the analysed questions, being around 200.

Mirrored from an original post on the OTW blog. Find related news by viewing our tag cloud.

This week* on Survey Sunday, we're taking a look at some stats regarding news outlets and awareness of the OTW.

* We planned to post all these posts to the AO3 as well as to the main OTW news blogs, since so many AO3 users responded to the survey, but your friendly neighbourhood crossposter overlooked this post and the next! Sorry, folks! Hopefully those of you on the edge of your seats for news of the OTW survey saw the master post!

These questions read as follows:

77. How did you first hear about the OTW?: [Closed question]
78. I first heard of the OTW by way of this project: [Closed question]
79. The OTW hosts the following projects under its umbrella: [Closed question]
80. Which OTW projects are most important to you? [Closed question]
81. The OTW is represented on a variety of communication platforms. Which of these OTW online outlets have you read or heard of? [Closed question + write-in field]
82. We post the following types of content to our OTW online outlets. Which ones are you interested in, generally speaking? [Closed question]
83. What type of content would you like to see (more of) on the OTW online outlets? [Text box]

About the answers

All the graphs and discussion here represent final numbers for these questions. Readers may notice that this set of questions has a very high rate of people skipping the questions compared to other questions in the survey. Survey fatigue likely accounts for some of the skips appearing in today's set of questions, although as the final questions about the OTW website actually had fewer people skipping them and 36% of all survey takers took the time to write in answers for the final survey question this is probably not the primary reason. One of the responses to that final question specifically pointed out that the survey should have included more "not sure/don't remember" options so, as will be seen in discussion of Question #83 below, a good many of the skips likely also indicated that the respondent simply wasn't sure of their answer. In addition we'll discuss how the survey structure led some people to never see some of these questions.

OTW Awareness

Questions #77 and 78 were quite similar in asking for memories of initial contact. The 82% of all respondents (4,920) who skipped Question #77 did so primarily because they had been redirected to Question #79 once they answered in Question #75 that they had been members of the OTW. People who skipped #75 also ended up being directed straight to Question #79.

Question #77 actually did have a "Don't remember" option, but it was only chosen by 84 people (7.9%). Nearly equal number of respondents chose a fandom community (453 or 42.5%) as their first site of OTW awareness or word-of-mouth (444 or 41.7%). Very small numbers of people chose "An OTW Project" (48 or 4.5%), "Panel discussion at a fannish convention" (24 or 2.3%) or "Panel discussion at an academic conference" (4 or 0.4%). Particularly negligible were mentions of the OTW in the general media (9 or 0.8%).

The survey questions to come suggest that another major reason for the skips to this question is that many survey respondents had never heard of the OTW before taking the survey, and the option "Only heard of it today" was not available.

Question #78 had an enormous number of skips because only the 48 people who answered "Through an OTW project" in the previous question were offered this question. Not surprisingly, the AO3 accounted for almost all the responses, 45 or 93.8%. The remaining 3 respondents selected either Fanlore, Transformative Works & Cultures (TWC), or Legal Advocacy.

OTW Project Interest and Awareness

Question #79, however, offered all the respondents a chance to express their familiarity with OTW projects. A significant number of people still skipped this question (2,025 or 34%). Given the familiarity shown with the AO3 in most of the survey it is perhaps more surprising that there were any respondents who had never heard of it (59 or 1.5%) with the vast majority having used it (3,792 or 96%). While a significant number of people had not heard of Fanlore (1,008 or 25.9%), many more had (1,277 or 32.8%) or were users (1,608 or 41.3%). While there were fewer users of the TWC (362 or 9.4%) there were still a good many survey takers who had heard of it (1,688 or 43.7%), with 1,815 (47%) not having heard of it.

There was a huge drop off when it came to use of the OTW's other projects, however this was largely due to the restricted circumstances under which someone would do so. For example, while 52.1% of respondents knew of the OTW's Legal Advocacy efforts, only 23 (0.6%) claimed to have directly benefited from them. Similarly, 31.5% (1,211) of respondents knew of Open Doors, though only 41 (1.1%) had used it. Given that the OTW had yet to do its first import, from the Smallville Slash Archive, this is not surprising.

Lastly was the Fan Video projects which prompted the least recognition with 69.8% of respondents (2,677) unaware of it and only 65 (1.7%) having used it. However, given that fans were most likely to know of the project (1,095 or 28.5%) if they were vidders or heard of it through fans involved in making fan videos, this still seems like a fairly high number of people.

Question #80 took a different tack by asking not about people's knowledge or use but about their level of interest in OTW projects. Slightly more people skipped this question (2,144 or 36%) and most chose the AO3 with 3,575 or 93.1% of respondents. Legal advocacy barely edged out Fanlore as the second priority project with 896 (28.1%) choosing it and 880 (27.6%) choosing Fanlore. Legal support for fans was also the top third choice, with 479 (16.3%) choosing it and 117 (3%) making it their first choice.

Given the general lack of knowledge about Fan Video projects in Question #79 it's not surprising that this choice came in last as one of the top three options (6.5%) with about double the remaining people choosing Open Doors for one of those slots (532 or 14%).

Also of significance are the 35 people (0.9%) who didn't find any of the OTW projects of importance to them, and the 22% (842) people who had no second or third choices. An additional 1005 people (26%) found they couldn't decide on a second or third choice.

News About the OTW

Questions #81 and 82, which dealt with OTW news and information, had high rates of people skipping the question. Question #81 was skipped by 32% of survey takers.

Question #81 asks about which of 9 distribution/communication platforms respondents either used or were aware of. Of the 4,052, or 67% who did answer, the highest response was for AO3 administrative posts, with 77.6% or 3,146 claiming to be aware of it. This outlet was listed separately from the OTW's various Twitter accounts, which includes AO3_Status and ao3org, and had the third highest response, 1,699 or 41.9%. Chances are that many more people are now aware of the Twitter accounts and the admin posts due to the archive slowdowns. Over one weekend over 1000 additional people began following AO3_Status, which is by far the most followed of any of the OTW news outlets with 6,463 readers.

The second highest response was to the OTW website with 1,862 or 46%. This number was largely consistent with those responding to Question #84 where 1,772 or 35.7% claimed to have read the website before (a difference of only 90 people). Remaining responses were the otw_news mirrors at fannish sites such as LiveJournal or personal RSS feeds for 1,139 people or 28.1%, the Fanlore community on Dreamwidth at 973 or 24%, and 547 people (13.5%) who listed OTW gift merchandise as a point of organizational awareness.

There were also 458 (11.3%) respondents who knew of the OTW's Facebook page, 435 (10.7%) who knew of Fanlore's administrative posts and 309 (7.6%) who had met an OTW representative at an event. There were 123 write-in responses (3%) and they broke down in the following general categories:

1) None of the above (39 people)
2) One of the options already listed (21 people)
3) Were not aware of the OTW before doing the survey (7 people)
4) Random mention online (6 people)
5) Don't know (4 people)

The highest response was "Word of mouth" (46 people) where the respondent "overheard" or saw discussion in their fannish circles. This was most often being done by people who work for the OTW as staffers or volunteers.

Question #82 also had a high skip rate, with 2,042 or 34% of people not answering what sort of news they were interested in. Of the 3,944 people who did answer, 3,396 or 86.1% claimed to be interested in news about the AO3 through its updates. This number is slightly higher than the people who answered in Question #81 that they were aware of AO3 administrative posts. This suggests that Question #81 either split people who were following news on the AO3 site vs. its Twitter accounts, or else people previously unaware that such news existed were now interested in receiving it.

The second highest news of interest was about specific topics or alerts on matters such as on copyright legislation (2,360 or 59.8%). The third and fourth highest response rates were very close, with 1,722 people (43.7%) interested in the fandom Links Roundup posts, and 1,684 (42.7%) interested in project activity announcements other than those for the AO3.

At the bottom of the news interest scale was information about the inner workings of the OTW. The OTW Newsletter had 1,316 or 33.4% following it. There was then a steep drop for volunteer role posts, of interest to 750 or 19%, and OTW Committee Spotlights with 505 (12.8%).

Overall, questions #81 and 82 suggest that at least a third of respondents are either uninterested or completely unaware of news related to the OTW and its projects, and that the greatest interest is for information of changes and updates to the AO3. Of more significance for the overall survey results, and OTW Communications strategy, is that despite the varied communication outlets the OTW maintains, the footprint of people it reaches is relatively small, at least if the news is related to things other than the archive.

Getting to Specifics

The final question, #83, asked survey takers "What type of content would you like to see (more of) on the OTW online outlets?". Only 614 people answered this, resulting in a skip rate of 90%. In fact, the number would likely have been higher because it appears some people believed that all questions required a response for them to continue with the survey. The largest group of answers was "Don't know" or even random characters to create a response (212 or 34%). Although at least one of the "Don't knows" was such a dedicated survey taker that they commented about how they would have felt guilty in leaving the question blank!

An additional group of respondents, 48 (8%) mentioned that prior to taking the survey they had been either unaware of the OTW or of its news outlets so they didn't feel qualified to offer any suggestions. Given some of the comments made in response to this and other questions in the survey it seems that one of the survey's successes was in alerting users previously familiar only with the AO3 as to what the OTW was and what sort of things it did. Some people were quite interested in finding out more once they realized this, with one respondent even suggesting that the OTW run another survey in a year's time as they would be interested in taking it again once they could sufficiently answer more of its questions. Others, though, declared themselves uninterested in OTW news or any of the org's other aspects as they were interested solely in utilizing the AO3 (32 or 5.2%).

Of the people who did offer specific suggestions, the responses were quite varied and indicated that people took this question to mean a variety of things. Despite its following a question listing examples of what news content the OTW produces, some fans seemed to take "its outlets" to mean "things posted on the archive." For example, 20 people (3.2%) asked for "how to" types of information, most of it focusing on features of the AO3, although some of it was in regards to information about volunteering. Another 47 people (7.6%) suggested that the OTW get deeply involved in producing fanworks, highlighting specific fanworks, fans, or fan groups, hosting fanwork contests, posting fanfic recommendations, etc. Some suggested that it should revive metafandom, a non-OTW fannish newsletter which linked to fandom meta posts hosted on LiveJournal (and later for a time, Dreamwidth) or, indeed, produce its own meta posts.

This last tied in with the group of people who made specific suggestions for content the OTW already produces (94 or 15%). A few of these people were expressing support for particular types of content that they liked. In other cases they seemed to be unaware that things they wanted were already available. This could be expected given how many users made it clear that they were either somewhat or very unfamiliar with the OTW and were previously unaware of any of its news outlets. An exception were a few requests for an outlet at Tumblr. At the time of the survey, while the OTW had had a blog registered there since 2011, the Tumblr outlet had only just been launched.

In other cases the unfamiliarity was likely due to the variety of projects and outlets the OTW has which people simply have not come across. In regards to the request for meta posts, the OTW's academic journal Transformative Works & Cultures (TWC) hosts a Symposium blog and is continually seeking new contributors to it, whether they make recurring or one-time posts. Similarly, some people asked for "academic articles" or "research about fans" which is the purview of the TWC, links to news about fans, which occur several times a week in the Links Roundup, OTW newsletters, which go out once a month, or information about the organization which can be found at the OTW website, such as where people can find news.

This group of respondents, however, was considered separately from people who either asked for more of the content already being created, or were looking for specific types of content which they might or might not already be aware of (49 or 8.4%). The largest group of these answers focused on legal matters, requesting more information about cases affecting fans, or activities of the OTW's Legal Committee. Open Doors was also a project cited several times, with an interest about fannish preservation. Other people asked for more news about specific volunteers (which have occasionally been made as "A Day in the Life" posts), about specific committees, for more frequent and detailed information about technical developments at the AO3, etc.

Another set of answers, which we grouped under the term "transparency", targeted more news about either OTW finances or its governance (41 or 6.6%). Another set of requests asked for greater representation of fans outside of western media fandoms, or of fans in non-English speaking countries (21 or 3.4%).

And lastly, 49 people (8.4%) declared themselves satisfied with what the OTW was producing in the way of news and information.

We have received questions since our last post that involved the AO3 section of the survey and we are still compiling some of the questions requested as well as awaiting some input from the related committees. We expect that those will be posted later in July.

In the meantime if you have an interest in some of the survey questions check out our list of all of them and tell us what you're curious about for the upcoming Survey Sundays!

Mirrored from an original post on the OTW blog. Find related news by viewing our tag cloud.

This week on Survey Sunday, we're taking a look at some illuminating stats regarding OTW membership: why fans join the OTW, why fans don't join, and why fans don't renew their membership. As always throughout this series, we are only offering aggregate results and summary comments rather than individual responses.

Today we're going to focus on the following submitted question:

• "I'm interested in the answers to 73 and 74, and to a lesser extent 72. Basically I want to know what the roadblocks are that are preventing people from donating or that are making people decide to quit donating."

Before we show you those results, however, let's talk about data we're not showing you yet. In the last Survey Sunday, we fielded several queries from some of you regarding the Fanlore sections of the survey, including a great request for conclusions drawn from cross-referencing responses to multiple questions. We're currently working on those questions and eventually hope to provide you with all of that info and more, but there were too many essay-style responses for us to complete the Fanlore section for this Survey Sunday.

How we're working on the data

The survey workgroup in charge of combing through all ~6,000 responses has been organising and filtering the data almost from day one (that is, since the results came in), but only recently met for the first time to define goals and settle on a methodology. We agreed that before we can really know how to categorize the data we're dealing with, we need to get a clear overview of what the feedback actually is.

Since many questions can be grouped together by subject, we've split up into mini-teams that have agreed to work on each grouping, both individually and as an overall composite set of data, such as the 3 questions we're sharing with you today. Here's a bird's-eye view of the organization process for these mini-teams:

1. preview the data and develop a good understanding of it
2. report back to the group, share results with the relevant committees, gather feedback
3. develop a group-wide organizational system
4. work within the team to sort and categorize aggregate and open-ended results for each question

Once these steps are complete for all questions, we plan on digging into the guts of Surveymonkey's Export options, and possibly unleashing an Excel/SQL subgroup to work database magic and expand that preliminary analysis. At this level, we'll have the ability to cross-reference questions, filter by respondent data (like country or platform), and more. But we're not there yet! As we stated previously, we hope that sharing some preliminary data publicly as we proceed will help keep you updated and actively invested in the results.

Responses to questions on OTW membership

So, let's start with a look at 3 questions regarding OTW membership to give you an overview of what the OTW looks like in terms of donor motivation.

The lead-up question to this section was #70, "Have you ever been an OTW member?", serving as the gateway determining which follow-up questions were asked. Of the 5021 respondents, 730 were currently OTW members and proceeded to answer question 72, "What was your main reason for becoming a member?", but skipped questions 73 and 74. 226 had let their membership lapse and got question 73, "What made you stop being a member?", followed up by #74, "What might make you choose to be a member in the future?". This was also the question that the 4065 respondents were routed to who answered that they had never been members.

(Please note that the replies to question 70 don't actually reflect current membership numbers: 965 people skipped the section entirely, and the number of members had increased during the April membership drive.)

Question #72: "What was your main reason for becoming a member?"

As you can see, the main motivation for respondents in choosing to donate to the OTW is support. "Support," of course, is a broad concept. In the open response portion of the question, a number of recurring themes emerged:

• respondents wanted to do a combination of the options given to them, e.g. show general and financial support, or some form of "all of the above"
• respondents wanted to support the OTW's legal advocacy, the Archive of Our Own, and/or other OTW projects
• respondents wanted to have a vote in the OTW elections and a voice in the direction of the organization
• respondents just wanted to give money to the OTW, but didn't realize they would become members as well/didn't realize they had a choice about also becoming a member
• respondents donated as a way of making up for not having time or ability to volunteer
• respondents donated as a way to express their belief in the value of the OTW

It bears repeating that all of this is a preliminary, broad overview of trends we saw in responses; as we categorize data we will look more closely at specific motivations people have for starting, renewing, and discontinuing their OTW membership.

The same principle goes for membership renewal, which was explored further in question 73.

Question #73: "What made you stop being a member?"

It's important to remember that when we designed the survey, we included these particular options because we realize that acknowledging former member dissatisfaction is crucial to learning how to increase membership renewal. It's heartening to know that 42% of respondents might potentially renew their membership, but we also care about the 13-17% of former members who had negative or ambivalent experiences with the OTW after they donated to it. We appreciate these respondents, both for their initial memberships, and for taking the time to share their experiences as members with us.

It's harder to pick up on general themes for this question, especially due to the more contentious nature of the question, and the fact that we had fewer open responses to this question. However, some recurring trends from respondents were:

• A combination of two or more of the closed-ended responses
• Former members plan to renew but just haven't gotten around to it
• Former members shifted their support to volunteer work instead for numerous reasons
• Former members had negative experiences or received negative impressions during OTW election campaigns, or during their time as members

We hope to cross-analyze these types of responses with other responses to different aspects of the survey to glean more specific data about the things that hinder and help our efforts in this area.

Question #74: "What might make non-members join in the future?"

If long-term and new membership are crucial to our health as an organization, then it doesn't take a team of SQL experts to see right away that there's a statistical correlation between the 13-17% of lapsed members from Question #73 who are unsatisfied with our organization's current fannish outreach, general policies, direction, and progress, and the 17-21% of potential members who cite solutions to these same issues as potential incentives to join.

However, this set of questions weren't designed to ask what creates levels of dissatisfaction—only to quantify the relationship between dissatisfaction and membership. Other parts of the survey will hopefully provide more context. What this data does provide us is a sharp, bird's-eye perspective on the rest of the survey: every area where we succeed or fall short, no matter how small, connects back to our actual membership numbers.

And while, alas, we can't control the state of your finances and we definitely understand that the OTW is not for everyone, there are many things we can change to impact membership for the better. We hope the survey analysis will ensure that the organization as a whole knows what we need to change and renews its commitment to do so at every level.

What we can't tell you right away, though, is what those numbers mean in terms of conclusions or future direction. Once our Development & Membership committee has had time to familiarize themselves with these results and discuss them in depth, we will be able to amend this report with their interpretations and conclusions. We will collect similar analyses from committees along with creating more reports, and compile it all into a more fleshed-out final report.

In the meanwhile, check our list of all survey questions and tell us what you're curious about for the next Survey Sunday post on June 17th!

Mirrored from an original post on the OTW blog. Find related news by viewing our tag cloud.

The OTW Community Survey closed on Thursday 2nd May after its two-week run. An amazing 5986 people responded, which surpasses our wildest expectations. We'd like to thank everyone who took it and who helped to spread the word for making it such a huge success! We'd also like to apologise for the delay in posting about our preliminary results. We had originally intended for this post to go up the day after the survey closed, but unfortunately the mass of data involved and some unexpected commitments on the part of some key staffers meant that we weren't able to do this. We're sorry that we didn't post an update about the delay -- improving our processes to cover stuff like this is one of the things we're still working on. Thank you for your patience and your overwhelming response to the survey!

We wanted to cover lots of bases and get a broad picture of our userbases and their needs, which meant that this was a long survey! So we're especially pleased (and relieved!) that the completion rate was 82.2 % -- that is, 4921 people actually finished the entire survey and clicked the "done" button. (Don't worry if you were one of the other 18% -- we'll still be counting the results from partially completed responses.)

The high number of respondents corresponds with a humungous amount of data. Some of this will be reasonably easy to collate, while some of the free text responses will require more in-depth analysis. The final question ("Anything else you'd like to tell us?") alone yielded the equivalent of an epic Big Bang story: 60.000 words!

We've formed an internal workgroup who will help evaluate and publish the results. Due to the amount of data we're working with, this will be a gradual process, but we'll try to keep you up-to-date with the details as they emerge. We thank you for your patience while we get to grips with it all. The really meaty data may take us a while to collate, but here are a couple of tasty morsels to whet your appetite!

Where is everyone?

We had responses to the survey from fans all over the world - and a few from beyond this world (hello to the fan who responded from Narnia!) The top ten countries, by number of respondents, were as follows:

What types of fanworks are people enjoying?

Fandom is a diverse and wonderful place, and people are accessing a whole range of different types of fanwork. The vast majority of respondents (5613 of a total 5716) said they read fanfiction, but other types of fanwork such as fanart and fan videos of various kinds weren't far behind - and we can't wait to delve into the free-text responses to this question!

Stay tuned for more!

We're working hard on analysing the rest of the data and wrangling it into a nice accessible format. We really value all your input, and we'll do our best both to publicise it and respond to it. The response to the survey was beyond our wildest dreams -- we're feeling a teeny bit overwhelmed, but also excited about having such rich results to work with! Thank you to everyone who responded, publicised it, and worked to make it such a huge success.

Mirrored from an original post on the OTW blog. Find related news by viewing our tag cloud.

"What language(s) do you use in fannish or fandom contexts?" "Have you ever used the Fanlore Wiki?" "How did you first hear about the OTW?"

These are questions from the OTW Community Survey, a massive ticky extravaganza designed for one purpose: to find out how we can serve you better. It includes questions on AO3 and the other projects of our parent organization, the Organization for Transformative Works.

The members of Internationalization & Outreach have spent most of the last year gathering ideas for questions from the OTW's many committees. Our goal was to design the kind of survey we ourselves wouldn't mind taking: mindful of fans' need for privacy, conscious of the international nature of fandom, defined in scope, and free from frustrating limits on answer options.

We want you to tell us what you think about our projects and the organization in general, where you think we're succeeding or failing. And we also want to learn more about who you are. We're excited to finally open the doors and invite you in. Please bring your friends and help us make the survey a success by spreading the word in your communities!

The OTW Community Survey runs through May 2nd and is hosted on a secure connection at Surveymonkey:

And if you're as curious as we are about the results: we will be publishing them in aggregate sometime after the survey closes on May 2nd. If you have any concerns or questions in the meanwhile, please contact the Internationalization and Outreach Committee!