#I mean it's like........ are the nominating the archival WORK of the OTW? or the... actual archive? neither really fits in the category

[elflady]

LOVE that the Hugo Awards are pitting the ENTIRETY of Archive of Our Own against.............. Lindsay Ellis and Angelina Meehan’s “The Hobbit Duology” (documentary in three parts)

[olderthannetfic]

Somehow I hadn't actually noticed that AO3 technically didn't allow original work! There's, like, 100,000 things under the "original work" category, right? Do you know if the intention is to get rid of those at some point, or is it tacitly allowed?

Originally, it was not allowed. People from parts of fandom where fic archives host original fiction posted a bunch because it never occurred to them their fanworks weren’t allowed or that other fans would deny that they were fanworks.

The basic issue is that some places, it’s fanfiction vs. everything else and some places, it’s fannish writing (fanfic plus “original fic”) vs. non-fannish writing (essays for school, professional novels). The rules were expanded to accommodate this difference in different fandom cultures.

Original Work doesn’t mean “Post every original novel you couldn’t sell elsewhere to AO3″ or something. It means that you can post your fic-adjacent stuff that you see as non-commercial and fandomy. Like... if you could picture this thing in a zine of mixed fanfic and original content or in a fic exchange that allows people to also nominate “Pirate Queen/Lady Entomologist” or something alongside actual fandom ships.

I’ve had to re-explain this like a billion times, and it boils down to it being very obvious if you’re from the part of fandom that has this type of original work and very confusing if you’re not.

Check out the TOS FAQ (not the faq, not the tos) for some expansion on what counts as fannish original writing:

Can I archive original fiction?

Yes and no. Although some users may want a place for all their creative work, our current vision of the Archive is of a place dedicated to fanworks in particular. The Archive was designed to serve the mission of the Organization for Transformative Works (OTW), which was "established by fans to serve the interests of fans by providing access to and preserving the history of fanworks and fan culture in its myriad forms."

     Because our long-term plans include hosting fanworks of all kinds, not just fan fiction, we concluded that it was better to draw a line between fanworks and non-fanworks and only host the former, in order to avoid becoming a general repository for all sorts of creative works. In addition, we will enforce the noncommercialization policy strictly, including a ban on works posted to promote the sale of the author's other works, even if those are not hosted on the site.      

     However, there are a number of varieties of works produced by fans that do not fit comfortably into a narrow definition of fanfiction, fanart, vids, or other types of fanworks.  Some of these do fall within our mission.  In particular, original fiction that is part of an Open Doors project is allowed, as are types of original fiction and quasi-original fiction produced within a fandom context.  Examples include such things as anthropomorfic, original fiction that is produced as part of a fandom challenge, exchange, or charity event, and genres such as Original Slash, Original BL, and Regency romances produced in Jane Austen fandom.      

     At such time as we are able to host art and vids, we anticipate similar policies will apply to those mediums: Art and vids will be considered fannish even in cases where they do not directly depict characters and elements from or use footage from an existing media source if they were created in a fandom context for a fandom audience.   This may include such things as fanart that is intended to be for a particular canon but which does not contain readily identifiable canon characters or elements, art and vids produced as part of a fandom challenge, exchange, or charity event, illustrations of fanfiction, and vids that comment on a particular canon without using any clips from it (e.g., fan-produced videos set in a particular universe).      

      We presume that, by posting the work to the Archive, the creator is making a statement that they believe it's a fanwork. As such, unless the work doesn't meet some other criterion, it will be allowed to remain.      

[mittensmorgul]

when ao3 receives more money than their goal, do they keep the extra money for next year or not?

I’m sending you to page 2 of my ao3 tag, since page 1 currently is all hugo nom squee. You’ll have to scroll down past the posts about how AO3 saved a lot of us back during the recent nippocalypse scare here, where we were terrified that tumblr was just gonna start dumping blogs wholesale like strikethrough or boldthrough did, and loads of us uploaded tons of meta and other posts there in the span of a few weeks (I personally added close to a million words of meta there in less than a month).

Below that, you’ll see posts about how AO3′s legal team was fighting against Article 13 passing in the EU, a few about practical posting stuff, and then toward the bottom of page 2... posts on this exact subject from the last go-around of fundraising.

http://mittensmorgul.tumblr.com/tagged/ao3/page/2

(actually, since I’m tagging this post ao3 also, you’re probably gonna have to scroll down and go to page 3 >.>)

AO3 is a nonprofit organization (i.e. a charity). They’re run entirely by VOLUNTEERS. Money donated to them doesn’t go into anyone’s pocket. There’s no CEO whose salary we’re padding here. Money they raise pays for the physical things that require money to exist-- literally server storage space (they own the servers, so that nobody can come along and say “oh, I don’t want this gay smut on my servers,” and just delete swaths of the archive), legal expenses (they fight for our rights to write and post fic, and even attorneys working pro bono incur expenses like court filing costs, etc.), but you can read exactly where your money is going here, in their publicly available budget that was just updated:

https://www.transformativeworks.org/otw-finance-2019-budget/

from the budget linked there ^^:

Given your generosity in previous years, we have a healthy amount in reserves, which we plan to keep in store for a rainy day. Thanks to this, we can explore alternative revenue sources to supplement your donations. The Finance team has made progress in its search for a suitable investment method for a small non-profit organization like the OTW and aims to fully set up a low-risk, conservative investment portfolio by the end of 2019.

The reserves also help bolster us in years when we’re planning larger than usual purchases. As mentioned previously, we have plans to replace old server hardware over the next few months as well as purchase new server hardware, which significantly increase our expenses for this year. Some of the forecasted expenses outlined in this budget may not take place before the end of the year, due to various constraints. To account for this uncertainty, even though all expenses we anticipate are described in the budget spreadsheet, we have projected a withdrawal of US$96,000 from our reserves to cover the amount corresponding to the less likely expenses. This additional amount may be withdrawn from reserves on an as-needed basis during the year. Our budget update, which will be published in October, will contain more precise information about which expenses will take place in 2019.

Quick reminder from this post from a while back: http://mittensmorgul.tumblr.com/post/179128952410/hey-ao3-can-you-like-give-the-extra-38k-you-made

AO3 is in the top 300 websites in the world, and the top 100 in the US. It is the number 2 literature website.

Number 2 in the entire world. JSTOR is 20.

It sees about 6 million people a day. About 250k an hour. Each of those people is loading multiple pages, many are running searches that execute on literally hundreds of potential variables per search. The demands involved are astronomical.

JSTOR, btw, makes 85 million dollars a year.

It’s 18 ranks below AO3′s traffic, and takes in 650 times the amount of money.

So... yes, of course they keep the extra money. They’re holding it in reserve for a rainy day, for when their servers require maintenance or replacement, for unexpected legal costs, for planned future expansion. They want to ensure that Ao3 continues to exist in perpetuity, and not just from one donation drive to the next. The fact they set their goal at $130k twice a year is the bare minimum they need to keep the lights on. If you actually clicked through and read their operating budget, it’s closer to $450k than the $260k total they set as goals annually. The additional money raised isn’t “extra” money. It’s not money they don’t need, you know?

All of this information is available publicly. Right on the same red bar at the top of the site that’s asking for donations. You can also find a link to the budget in the home page of AO3, sandwiched between an article about preserving fanworks and the Hugo Award nomination announcement.

For an organization managing an archive as large and as functional as AO3? Yeah their annual budget is practically microscopic. Why why WHY does this get asked every single time a fundraising drive happens? Twice a year, every year. I mean, I think part of it might be their complete transparency about how much they aim to raise during each drive. People assume that’s all the money they require to continue operating. But that’s not how any of this works. Just go read the budget, read exactly where your donation is going. Understand WHY they were nominated for the Hugo Award, for the work they’ve done as VOLUNTEERS to create, maintain, and improve AO3, and to ensure fanworks will be preserved in perpetuity.

[iwritesometimes]

hey why do people have to get so righteously offended over fucknothing? literally what harm is a fun little fandom idiocy over the ao3 getting a Hugo nod about us all being ~hugo nominees~ now? we're not, like, actually stupid. nobody thinks we're actually winning an award for our larry stylinson guro a/b/o fic, you can calm your tits individually and as a collective. no one - and i do literally mean zero people - i have seen having a little squee over the frankly bonkers cool news that the archive is being recognized as the unique and heartfelt and technologically innovative accomplishment that it is has been in any way serious about the nomination being "ours" except in the sense that fandom's achievements are felt as a group, and no one is attempting to downplay the work of the OTW in making it all happen. we're...we're all having a little fun, and seeing mudsticks get their hair on fire about "HEY CAN YOU INGRATES SHUT UP FOR A SECOND AND LET THE REAL WINNERS ENJOY THE SPOTLIGHT" makes me think they maybe possibly just fundamentally don't understand what fandom's about.