We only had one unmatchable who has been deleted. Assignments have been sent, you should receive it shortly.
There are 7 Initial Pinch Hits which will be posted in the next 24 hours.
Remember your assignment should be kept anonymous! If you have any questions for your recipient, make sure to send them to maevedarcy at proton.me and the mod will pass them along shortly.
The collection is already open.
If you didn't have time to sign up but would like to treat someone, check Three is Not a Crowd on the AutoAO3 App.
All my free time right now is just couch-rotting and HOUSING, so even my calls with my dad are just 10-minute "You got nothing? I got nothing too" check-ins. Last weekend, I thought I found The Place (after having broken my own heart with not being able to afford my first-love unit); then their realtor broke the news that not only did the building not allow dogs, but they'd accidentally listed it for $30K under the real asking price, which was: a shock!!! After sulking for a few days, because it really would have been EVERYTHING, location-wise, it was back in the saddle.
Today, we went to three different places, and the last one was The One. I'd fallen in love with the listing, but seeing it in person just felt so so so so right. Now, of course, there are multiple offers, and my realtor and I are trying to put together a good pitch but I'm going to be paying more than I hoped I would, BUT. Realtor thinks we'll get it, and I would like to know where I'm living in April. It's smaller than my current place but laid out really, really well. The light is astonishing, the kitchen is fantastic AND there's an excellent back porch. I want it to work out real bad!! The wise thing would be to Start Purging Now, but I do feel, on a larger level, that I've been in ADHD waiting mode for my whole life since December. That is hard to dig out of at the best of times.
Other news is sparse. My arm is doing really well in OT; physical therapists are just the nicest people in the whole world, and I'm also dead set on getting myself a magnetic dart board once I'm in the new place. Can This Love Be Translated? is so much better than it should be — a completely delightful love triangle between two people who don't speak each other's language and their interpreter. It is honestly also a lot like watching my character bleed fic come to life, and I'm dying (positive!!!) over that a lot.
Even though we're doing a ton of election/primary coverage, I really really love my job and my coworkers. I just love them. What a good crew. That's a huge relief.
I am so excited about what my life is going to be once I get the psychic weight of this condo eventuality in order. I keep thinking about the spaces I want to have in my home and what they'll enable, and I want to invite people over for parties all the freaking time. We'll get there! It'll happen! I just wish I knew what it will look like. Waiting, especially for things that are ultimately out of your control: It's terrible!
At some point in proceedings (depression? pain? migraine? dense technical text for the PhD? poetry?), I realise, I have gone from reading Unusually Quickly to still reading More? Than Population Norm? (75ish books last year, of which 15ish were graphic novels or otherwise not-a-novel's-worth-of-words), but no faster than I'd be able to read the text aloud -- "hearing" each word in my head, and often rereading sentences repeatedly.
This is in contrast to how I type, which is much faster than I can speak comprehensibly (... though I now recall that I am in fact often asked to Slow The Fuck Down when providing information verbally).
I have over the last little bit been tentatively experimenting with trying not to read each word "aloud", mentally, and instead treating The Written Word as something that doesn't always need to be (pseudo-)vocalised.
It feels weird. It's an active effort. I am extremely dubious about the impact on how much information I retain; Further Study Required. I think this is probably how I used to read (when?); I'm not sure what changed; I'm unsettled.
(And I want to post something to Dreamwidth before bed, and this is a thing I was thinking about a lot while almost-but-not-quite finishing Index, A History of the -- I'm at a point I'd ordinarily count as "finished" but obviously it is in this instance both important and rewarding to read the index, all two of it, so here y'go.)
February 15 is almost here, and it’s time to get ready for the 12th annual International Fanworks Day (IFD)! This year’s theme is Alternate Universes (AUs), and in honor of #IFD2026, the OTW has quite a few activities planned to celebrate with all of you. Check out the list below to find out how you can get involved!
Feedback Fest: It wouldn’t be IFD without our annual Feedback Fest! This is your chance to share your favorite Alternate Universe fanworks and get some great recommendations for yourself in return. Look for our Feedback Fest post on February 13, and leave a comment with 10 fanwork recommendations for your fellow fans. On social media, use the tag #FeedbackFest when posting.
Share your fanworks: Tag your own AU fanworks on AO3 with International Fanworks Day 2026, or share them on social media using the #IFD2026 or #IFDChallenge2026 tags!
Fanlore Challenge: The festivities aren’t limited to AO3! Fanlore, the OTW’s fannish history and culture wiki, will be celebrating as well! From February 14-20, join Fanlore for a new editing challenge to complete every day. To participate, refer to the IFD 2026 Fanlore Challenge page for more information.
Games and Fan Chat: On February 15, we’ll be opening the gates of the OTW's once-a-year Discord server. Join us between 21:00 UTC February 14 (What time is that for me?) and 03:00 UTC February 16 (What time is that for me?) to play games and chat with other fans! The chat room will be moderated in English, and we’ll post a detailed schedule on the 15th.
We also invited you to send us your community events for this IFD, so in addition to what we're doing, here are some fan-led events:
The Fandom Melodies, Intertwined Edition
(in English, some small parts in other languages allowed)
This event is already running, and ends on February 28. You can submit entries in any form, though written material is preferred.
This event will run from February 1 to February 28. It's meant to motivate people to comment more on fic (new and older!), especially since February is the month with the lowest amount of commenting! There are multiple challenges and there are also fun things one can do to spice up their comment a little!
This event will run from February 15 to February 28. You can participate however you like, and there will be a set of questions provided for people to reminisce about and share their fandom experience!
Thank you so much for being a part of our fan community throughout the year. See you at #IFD2026!
The Organization for Transformative Works is the non-profit parent organization of multiple projects including Archive of Our Own, Fanlore, Open Doors, OTW Legal Advocacy, and Transformative Works and Cultures. We are a fan-run, donor-supported organization staffed by volunteers. Find out more about us on our website.
The fun development at our house recently is that we got a 3d printer for Christmas! We had been thinking of getting the kids a Nintendo Switch because there are a few games they've been interested in that aren't available for PC but Jeff and I were not ... excited ... about the prospect of litigating turn-taking between three kids and one device. At pretty much the last minute I was thinking about how eldest really likes playing with the 3d printed dragons her friend made her and idly wondered how much printers go for these days and lo and behold, there are models that cost less than a nintendo switch! So we pivoted to that plan and it's been great. So many articulated dragons. Jeff's been printing minis to play some combat games with the kids and I've been printing some bookbinding tools too. Along with various just, helpful gadgets! I have a lamp with a switch that's really hard to turn in a circle so I designed a cap for it that sticks out wider on the sides and it just snapped right on and works great! I'm still figuring out various 3d modeling software, I've tried OpenSCAD, Autocad Fusion, and TinkerCad (I'm also learning Blender against my will because Eldest is interested in some more artistic sculpting and it's a tricky program for a 9yo to figure out on her own). Not sure which I like best yet but I am having a lot of fun.
A couple of weeks ago we got a massive amount of snow and it hasn't really gotten above freezing since, so we still have a massive amount of snow. The kids got two whole snow days out of it and they're using "by the time the snow melts" as a timeline for their current computer gaming goal (getting into space in Factorio). I am enjoying the snow a little less (my boots have holes. Any recs for not-too-expensive snow boots for wide feet?)
I mentioned before that I had picked up the Guardian drama again, well, I convinced Jeff to watch it with me (apparently "it's a bit cheesy and kind of reminds me of early seasons of BTVS" was a convincing rec) so we re-started from the beginning. Forgot to mention it was based on a danmei but he figured that out for himself at episode 8. We're now up to episode 12 which is *almost* where I left off.
The weekly chat posts are intended for just that, chatting among each other. What are you currently watching? Reading? What actor/idol are you currently following? What are you looking forward to? Are you busy writing, creating art? Or did you have no time at all for anything, and are bemoaning that fact?
Whatever it is, talk to us about it here. Tell us what you liked or didn't like, and if you want to talk about spoilery things, please hide them under either of these codes: or
I want to do a context blog post for just the first chapter of this fic because a. who knows when I'll write the rest (right now I'm partway through writing chapter 2) b. this is the chapter with 70% of the setup so I wanted to talk about where I got my ideas from.
Last year I was sitting on a bus brainstorming a Cuocuo pov fic because I'm edgy and love rare POVs and I wrote this
what IS the fxjl post canon relationship. They're both wrong it would be dumb if they never saw each other again and also dumb to be officially married
Wow.... insightful. Jk but I think most FX/JL shippers would agree with this sentiment. No wonder there's so little fic about them post canon because wtf do we do with you two? I'm hoping some of them would like my fic even though Mu Qing is there (big ask).
I outlined their entire interaction in the first chapter at that point, without knowing where it would go after. I should have known, if it's a bad idea for them to be officially married then that's exactly what I should make them do muhaha.
A week or two after that bus ride I read erotica romance novel The Widow and the Orcs by Finley Fenn (thanks to Tumblr for putting "what if Bridgerton added an orc" on my dash) and became obsessed with it. The plot of that book is driven by a guy (a guy who often rolls his eyes...) trying really hard to get his bestie laid which is my kind of thing. I was thinking up silly ideas for how I could get this for mq+fx+jl for months and I never figured it out but it definitely had some influence on the current fic. At one point it was going to be Mu Qing and Jian Lan getting fake married. Not as juicy!
That influence from my beloved orc book is also why the story has this romance novel vibe. I've always said that fengqing are like the childhood friend and edgy bad boy love interests in a cliche love triangle, now we'll see if they are really up to the task... okay, I think you can guess that they are not up to the task.
Most of all I need to credit Bell's wonderful remix of my fic for being so heart wrenching and insightful on Feng Xin's inner state and making me feel literally so bad for him (okay, and I also felt bad for torturing him on purpose in so many of my other fics lmao) that I wanted to write him some sort of happier ending. That gave me the final impulse to synthesise all my different ideas with this more concrete and challenging goal of a happy ever after.
I didn't realise that having a difficult goal to work towards when plotting can actually be really helpful. Even if it makes me constantly think "oh god, I wrote myself in here and I don't know if I can write my way back out" it gives a lot of energy to the process.
The outline is done but it's long! We will see if I get there!
Festivids reveals have SNUCK up on me they are happening TOMORROW and I have NOT had time to watch all the things I wanted to watch but! here are some things I very much liked anyway!
First, my own three (3!!!) beautiful vids:
Sharp Dressed Man, for Jeongnyeon: The Star Is Born, a glorious celebration of Theatrical Fashion
Touch, for the film Phantom, tense & wistful lesbian tragic romance!
and Ready to Fight, also for Phantom, TRIUMPHANT KINETIC ACTION
I did not expect to receive vids for either of these sources and they are all beautiful and perfect to me!!
And now, an incomplete list of other vids I really really liked and/or was impressed by and/or laughed my ass off at:
Title: 雪白的围巾｜Snow White Scarf Author:xinger Word Count/Drabble Type: 100 Character(s)/Ship(s): Wei Wuxian, Jiang Cheng, Nie Huaisang Summary: 雪开始下了，魏无羡开始抱怨。｜When the snow starts to fall, Wei Wuxian starts to complain.
The context is Simone Giertz's Incomplete White Puzzle, which A got me partly to troll me and partly because they thought I'd enjoy it and partly because getting the bundle of all three puzzles gets you 20% off individual list prices.
Current status: 105/"500" pieces in their final positions, plus another 57 no longer singletons. I have several semi-sorted categories including (in the halves of the box) "could plausibly have come from a reasonable puzzle" and "bullshit", and (on the table) Swoopy Bullshit, Offset Noses, Weirdly Straight, Multi-Nose Bullshit, and Featureless Curves.
I am having a very pleasant and soothing time, and I am trying to break up the hyperfocus by instituting a rule of Get Up And Do One Unit Of Something Else After Every (Contiguous) Piece Placed, and yes that is me rules-lawyering after the fact...
What do the country of Portugal, the city of Seoul, and the Archive of Our Own (AO3) have in common? They are all home to more than 10 million people! That's right: AO3 has surpassed 10 million registered users this month! We at the Organisation for Transformative Works (OTW) are delighted to share this incredible milestone with you.
Even as the community is growing year by year, the active exchange of creations and ideas between fans remains as a cornerstone of fan culture. Whether it's gifting each other fanfic, recording a podfic of your favorite story, or putting together a reclist of fics—no fandom thrives without the myriad ways fans share their passion with one another. In today's world, where ideas are just one more commodity, and content is curated for maximum revenue, it's more important than ever to appreciate and celebrate these aspects of fan spaces.
One way to let other fans know you appreciate the love and hard work they pour into their creations is commenting on their work. In celebration of this milestone, we have prepared a Bingo all about comments! Below you can find the bingo cards in both a square and vertical format.
You can fill out as many bingo squares as you want—the more comments, the merrier! Let us know on this post or on social media which Bingos you scored.
Happy commenting, and a huge thank you to everyone who helped us reach this milestone!
The Organization for Transformative Works is the non-profit parent organization of multiple projects including Archive of Our Own, Fanlore, Open Doors, OTW Legal Advocacy, and Transformative Works and Cultures. We are a fan-run, donor-supported organization staffed by volunteers. Find out more about us on our website.
some washi tape I wanted has restocked at a UK retailer! Possibly a second one also! So as and when the website works out what's going on with Desired Tape #2, it is time to place a stationery order for meeeeeeeeeeeeeee
Progress With Preposterous Puzzle! I now have all the edge assembled (I think I wound up with only one piece having been Actually Wrong) and even I have managed to start filling in very slowly (I am up to... about 5 pieces placed so far? which is a further 1% down!)
I got a hug from the Child while saying goodbye this evening!
I have worked out an acceptable Wagamama order from the current menu and am feeling pretty good about my dinner.
Bread for tomorrow (anise, fig, hazelnut, copied from the local fancy bakery) is looking Extremely Promising.
2025 was a busy year for AO3! The site continued to see rising traffic, with Communicationspublishing an update on AO3 statistics from 2020-2025. In December, Support received 3,589 tickets, totaling to over 40,000 tickets received in 2025, an all-time high. Meanwhile, Policy & Abuse (PAC) received 6,357 tickets in December, totaling approximately 47,500 tickets in 2025. Check out PAC's pie chart for more details.
Pie chart of the approximately 47,500 Policy & Abuse tickets submitted in 2025, divided by type of complaint. These categories reflect the subject of the complaint, and (with the exception of Offensive Content), do not indicate whether the report was upheld or rejected.
In the first half of January, User Response Translation translated or betaed 32 ticket requests from Support and PAC.
In December, Tag Wrangling wrangled approximately 598,000 tags, or around 1,300 tags per volunteer. In total, they wrangled approximately 4,944,000 tags in 2025. They also continued work on handling "No Fandom" additional tags, publishing December and January news posts detailing recent changes. In total, Tag Wrangling published nine "No Fandom"-related news posts in 2025 covering around 399 new canonical "No Fandom" additional tags.
In January, Tag Wrangling updated their Fandom Tag Metatag guidelines, including clarifying when a fandom metatag should be made and when to merge closely related fandoms into one fandom tag. Check out the news post detailing the new policy.
As part of International Volunteers Day (IVD) 2025, Communications collected and batched answers to the IVD Q&A by committee, resulting in five committee-specific news posts highlighting Communications, Support, Tag Wrangling, Translation, and Volunteers & Recruiting. Answers across committees, along with additional responses not featured in the news posts, have been compiled in a separate AO3 work.
III. ELSEWHERE AT THE OTW
Fanlore ran an editing chat to close out 2025, and it was a lot of fun! They also began preparing for their annual IFD Fanlore Challenge and Femslash February event! Keep an eye on their Bluesky, Twitter/X, and Tumblr for announcements.
Legal answered many internal and external questions this month.
In January, Communications' Fanhackers wrote about the Transformative Approaches to Fan Identity, and they began a multi-post survey of acafannish research and publishing resources.
IV. GOVERNANCE
In December, Board announced the resignations of two directors: Kathryn Solderholm and Erica Frank. We would like to thank Erica and Kathryn for their service as members of the Board, and wish them all the best in their future endeavours with the OTW.
In January, Board finalized and approved the OTW Procurement & Purchasing Policy. They and the Board Assistants Team (BAT) organised the first quarter of 2026 public Board meeting on January 18 which had 54 attendees. Minutes of this meeting will be available soon on the OTW website. Elsewhere, Board and BAT continued work on document review and archiving board statements, Code of Conduct tasks in conjunction with Organizational Culture Roadmap, and ongoing projects for mental health resources for volunteers, scheduling tools, public meeting best practices and volunteer retention in BAT. BAT also updated their OTW website committee page.
Organizational Culture Roadmap finalized a confidentiality policy in preparation for upcoming external recruitment.
V. OUR VOLUNTEERS
In December, Volunteers & Recruiting thanked all OTW volunteers on International Volunteer Day with their organization-wide email and graphics campaign. In January, they ran recruitment for Open Doors.
From November 22 to January 23, Volunteers & Recruiting received 355 new requests, and completed 378, leaving them with 52 open requests (including induction and removal tasks listed below). As of January 23, 2025, the OTW has 1,013 volunteers. \o/ Recent personnel movements are listed below.
New Subcommittee Leads/Workgroup Heads: Eevee (Internal Complaint and Conflict Resolution Lead) and megidola (Organizational Culture Roadmap Workgroup Head) New AO3 Documentation Volunteers: Lulu S (Chair Trainee) New Fanlore Volunteers: Elfie, Konsta Morales, Watts, and 1 other Graphic Designer New Open Doors Volunteers: Addiebees, AviLine, feelyx, LeighR, Marie K, meservey66, MetaKass, miffmiff, Mort, pinkconstellations, SleepyJane, Spit, StormySea, Truendz, Vail, and 11 other Import Assistants New Policy & Abuse Volunteers: megidola (Supervisor) and 1 Chair Track Volunteer New Tag Wrangling Volunteers: Chelsea Cheyanne, inspiredstork, Sanity, will, and Yrindor (Supervisors) New Translation Volunteers: Rhine and 1 other Chair Trainee; Arushi, athursdayschild, Eirinar, Linarii, Mira8, Niki K, Phoebe B, Pi, Rita P, and 12 other Translators New TWC Volunteers: Fiona M, Yumi, and 3 other Layout Editors; and 2 Outreach and Communications Editors New User Response Translation Volunteers: Eki, f0f8ff, HARRitte, Jules R, Laus, PanPan, rosings, zoy zauce, and 3 other Translators
Departing Directors: Erica Frank and Kathryn Soderholm Departing Committee Chairs: 1 Communications Chair and 1 Elections Chair Departing BAT Volunteers: 1 Volunteer Departing Communications Volunteers: KW Ukuku (TikTok Moderator), Lori P (Graphics Volunteer), 1 Fanhacker Volunteer, and 1 Social Media Moderator Departing Communications News Post Moderation Volunteers: 1 News Post Moderator Departing Development & Membership Volunteers: 1 Graphic Designer, 2 Membership Data Specialists, and 2 Volunteers Departing Fanlore Volunteers: 1 Discord Moderator, 1 Outreach Analyst, and 1 Policy & Admin Departing Open Doors Volunteers: Pelagia and 1 other Administrative Volunteer, Wynne (Import Assistant), and 1 FCPP Intern Departing Policy & Abuse Volunteers: 1 Volunteer Departing Strategic Planning Volunteers: 1 Volunteer Departing Support Volunteers: Nary and 22 other Volunteers Departing Tag Wrangling Volunteers: Nary and 1 other Supervisor; Asas Carmesins, Bruno, Eevee, lianneder, Lily_Haydee_Lohdisse, McBangle, Sayornis, Tea Huimyni, and 10 other Wranglers Departing Translation Volunteers: Teelee (Task Assistant); Illiterations and 4 Translators Departing TWC Volunteers: Melanie Kohnen (Review Editor); Courtney Lazore and 1 other Proofreader; and 1 Symposium Editor Departing User Response Translation Volunteers: 1 Translator Departing Volunteers & Recruiting Volunteers: 1 Senior Volunteer and 2 Volunteers
For more information about our committees and their regular activities, you can refer to the committee pages on our website.
The Organization for Transformative Works is the non-profit parent organization of multiple projects including Archive of Our Own, Fanlore, Open Doors, OTW Legal Advocacy, and Transformative Works and Cultures. We are a fan-run, donor-supported organization staffed by volunteers. Find out more about us on our website.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
maevedarcy posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
threeisnotacrowd
![[syndicated profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/feed.png){kind=small}
