| Welcome to our weekly update from the chair of ADT. All the news that's fit to print about the progress of the Archive of Our Own is below the cut. This post may also be found on the Archive of Our Own, which is commentable by anyone with or without an AO3 account. Comments are disabled elsewhere as we'd like people to be able to share any discussion with each other. ( Read more ) | |
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| This post may also be found on the Archive of Our Own which is commentable by anyone with or without an AO3 account. I am disabling comments elsewhere as I would like people to be able to share any discussion with each other. OMG we did it people! It's almost exactly 2.5 years (17th May 2007) since a certain someone said we should build an Archive of Our Own and I am so proud of us!We didn’t have a meeting this week unless you count staying logged into the chatroom continuously from Friday afternoon to Monday morning (I lie, I left to sleep occasionally). We *did* have a number of passionate discussions which revolved around performance, squee, bugs, more squee, support, and you know, squee. More details after the cut! ( Read more... ) | |
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| Mirrored from an original post on the Archive of Our Own.Dear AO3 users and interested parties, Zvi, in a moment of inspiration has written up a fabulous explanation of how Tags Wuzzles work and has generously offered to let us post it. If you've been wondering how it all works, read on after the cut! ( Read more... ) | |
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| We're now in the second day of Open Beta for the Archive of Our Own! It's been a crazy weekend! Here are a few updates on how it's all going, below the cut. ( Read more... ) | |
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| We're now eight hours into Open Beta for the Archive of Our Own, and we're really excited to see people signing up and using the Archive. So far, we've seen new 493 accounts created, and our new users have added more than 1500 new works in over 150 fandoms! Our lovely front-end coder and support volunteer Cesy has been tracking our progress with some beautiful graphs: New users and fandoms since Open Beta and New works since Open Beta. If you have questions about what Open Beta is and how to get an account, please check out our Announcing Open Beta post \0/ Open Beta is still beta, and as such the site still has a few kinks. We really value the feedback that our new users have been giving us, and our lovely Support team are working hard to respond to queries as fast as possible. In order to keep our users informed, we'd like to highlight a few of the more common issues and questions here: Invitation queueIf you sign up via our invitation queue and have trouble entering your email address, check there aren't any extra spaces before or after it. This has been causing a few problems with our validation - it's a bug that will be fixed very soon. If you joined the invitation queue and when you check back it says you're not in the queue, then please check your spam for your invitation email. If it hasn't shown up, then submit a support request and we'll get back to you as quickly as possible. Invitation codesIf you receive an invitation via email, you can just click on the link to get to the sign-up page and your code will be entered automatically. If you are an existing user of the Archive and you'd like to give a code to a friend, then you need to give them an invitation link, not just the raw code. You can choose to send them an email via 'Invitations' on your user home, and this will happen automatically. If you want to share a code without sending an email, then go to 'Manage invitations' and you'll see an option to 'Copy and use' your existing codes. Click on this to copy the invitations link - it's this that you need to share with people. Account namesThe Archive of Our Own allows you to post under various pseuds. However, these are linked to your account name, and this name will be displayed publicly on the site. Therefore, ensure your user name is one you don't mind other people seeing! Please also take care entering it, as it's difficult to change once it's been created. We'll be improving the information text on the account creation page shortly to make this clearer - sorry to those of you who were confused. Problems with special charactersWe are experiencing some problems with special characters such as em-dashes (the long 'double hyphen'), umlauts and accents. In some cases, these characters will cause posts or imports to be cut off. If this happens to you, a workaround at present is to use the raw html coding for the special character (see this list of html entities for reference). We're working hard to put in a proper fix as soon as possible. (We hope it won't discourage posting in languages other than English in the meantime - we're excited to see works in Czech, German, French and Spanish already!) We'll keep updating our Known Issues page on the Archive of Our Own with any further bugs that arise, and you may also find the Archive FAQ helpful. We'll also be posting regular Archive News Posts on the AO3 (mirrored on the OTW News blog and mirrors) to keep everyone up-to-date on new developments. Despite a few inevitable bugs, Open Beta has been going really well! The shiny AO3 servers (owned by fandom, y'all!) are holding up really well under the vigorous workout they're receiving, and we're totally jazzed to see people using and enjoying the Archive. Thanks so much to everyone who got us here! <3 Mirrored from an original post on the Archive of Our Own. | |
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| We're thrilled to announce that the Archive Of Our Own will enter Open Beta on Saturday! *\0/* Now that we're in Open Beta, we're ready to start expanding our user numbers so that fandom can use the Archive for real! Open Beta – your questions answered!How do I get an invitation for the Archive? You can get an invitation in two ways: - You can add your email address to the invitation queue (opens Saturday 14th November see world clock for the launch time in your timezone) (ETA Invitation queue now open here!). We'll send out invitations to addresses on the queue on a first-come, first-served basis, depending on how many new accounts we can support at a given time. This way, you won't have to know someone who already has an account in order to have a chance of getting one.
- Users who have an account on the Archive will be given a certain number of invitations to hand out to their friends. We know that people like to share the fannish glee and to build their networks on new sites, and we want to give people a chance to do that. Extra invitation codes will be issued to users periodically depending on how many new users the site can manage.
When will the invitation queue open? The invitation queue will open on Saturday 14th November – world clock for the launch time in your timezone. Our launch post will let you know the link for the queue, and we’ll begin issuing accounts to addresses in the queue right away! ( ETA Invitation queue now open here!) We know that many of you in North America will still be asleep when the queue opens - since fandom is international, it was inevitable that this would be the case for someone. We've timed it this way so that as many of our staffers as possible can be around to provide support. We also anticipate that there will be more users from North America, so we wanted to give folks from elsewhere a chance to get on board before the queue gets out of control. If you are unable to join the queue because of the timing, a friend can add your email address to the queue for you. How long will it take for me to get an account?If you've requested an invitation code, you can check where you are in the queue. Just enter your email address on the invitations page, and you'll receive an estimate of when you will receive your invitation, based on the rate at which we're sending out invitations and the number you are in the queue. Exactly how many invitations we can send out per day will depend on how well the site responds to the extra users. I already have an account. How do I give an invitation to someone else?On your user homepage (which you can get to by clicking 'My Home' when you’re logged in), you'll see a new tab called 'Invitations'. You can manage all your invitations here, and if you've run out then you can request some more. To send an invitation to someone, just enter their email address and select the invitation you’d like to use. They'll be sent an automated email. You’ll be able to keep track of which invitations have been used on your 'Manage Invitations' page. What can I do if I have questions or need help?If you have questions about the general process, feel free to leave a comment on this post and we’ll get back to you as quickly as possible. (So that everyone can share in the same discussion and see one another's questions, we're disabling comments everywhere except the main OTW blog. Please hop over there to comment!) If you have questions about the Archive, then you might find the answer in our Frequently Asked Questions. You can also check out Known Issues to see if you’ve hit a bug we’re already working on. If your question isn't answered in the FAQ then please submit a support request and our support team will get back to you as quickly as possible. Finally, during the first few days of Open Beta, we'll be offering live support through our Support Chatroom. We'll keep this staffed as much as possible – OTW staffers can be identified by the OTW on the end of their names. Of course, non staffers should also feel free to help one another out – if you can answer someone else's question, then don’t feel shy! I have Opinions about the Archive. What should I do? The Archive is by fans, for fans and we love to hear your feedback! Open Beta is still a work in progress, and we'll be adding new features, fixing bugs and making enhancements in response to your feedback. Send us your comments via the Support and Feedback form. If you'd like to be more involved, we always welcome volunteers. No previous experience required! The Archive of Our Own is for all fans – please spread the word in your fandoms near and far, and come and join the party! Mirrored from an original post on the OTW blog. Comments are disabled elsewhere - please join in the conversation there! This post is also available in Deutsch, Español, Français and Suomi. | |
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| All the latest news about the Archive of Our Own can be found under the cut. This post may also be found on the Archive of Our Own which is commentable by anyone with or without an AO3 account. We are disabling comments elsewhere as we would like people to be able to share any discussion with each other. ( Read more ) | |
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| From the business section of the Guardian this week: Google seeks to turn a profit from YouTube copyright clashes. The article's subtitle gives you the gist: "Group is working to persuade music and video companies to cash in rather than clamp down when their content is uploaded." In short, Google wants to use their content fingerprinting system to report uses--even transformed uses--to copyright holders and then to offer them the chance to put ads on user-generated content. There's lots wrong with that, but perhaps the wrongest is the idea that the companies have the right to take things down because "because the use does not fit the original's values." C'mon, Google! Don't be evil! In brighter news, UK Will Urge EC To Legalise Mashups, Format-Shifting, Content Sharing. This "could include legalising more outright copying, the creation of sound/image mashups, format-shifting and sharing material with family and friends." Relatedly, folks seem to be figuring out that the DVR isn't actually the death of commercial television and that so-called "music pirates" actually buy more music. While we've heard this song before, optimistically copyright holders will eventually figure out that they shouldn't be afraid of new technologies. Mirrored from an original post on the OTW Blog. | |
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| Welcome to our weekly update from the chair of ADT. All the news that's fit to print about the progress of the Archive of Our Own is below the cut. This post may also be found on the Archive of Our Own, which is commentable by anyone with or without an AO3 account. Comments are disabled elsewhere as we're noticing people ask similar questions and would like everyone to be able to share the discussion. ( Read more ) | |
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| One of our senior coders, the lovely Elz, recently decided that she’d like to fill a few gaps in her knowledge of programming by working through MIT’s OpenCourseWare series Introduction to Computer Science and Programming. In the true spirit of fannish community learning, she’s set up a Dreamwidth community, intro-to-cs, so that anyone else who is interested can join in and support one another. If you’ve always wanted to learn computer programming, now is your chance – the course doesn’t require any previous experience. You can also fill that burning desire to learn coding by volunteering for OTW coders – all abilities and levels of experience very much welcome! | |
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| Welcome to our October, 2009 newsletter. Get news from all your favorite committees about all your favorite OTW projects...right beneath the cut! ( Read on... ) | |
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| Welcome to our weekly update from the chair of ADT. All the news that's fit to print about the progress of the Archive of Our Own is below the cut. This post may also be found on the Archive of Our Own which is commentable by anyone with or without an AO3 account. Comments are disabled elsewhere as we're noticing people ask similar questions and would like everyone to be able to share the discussion. ( Read more ) | |
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| Mercedes Lackey has announced the following on her blog: News: Concerning Fanfiction:
As you folks already know, my agent, Russel Galen, has in the past been opposed to fanfiction. However, he is also Cory Doctorow's agent now, and Cory is a persuasive little gnome.
As a result of this, I am happy to announce that we are officially permitting fanfiction to be licensed as derivative fiction under the Creative Commons umbrella... Thanks, Cory, for helping Mercedes and her agent recognize that fans' reaction to works can (and already do!) legitimately include creative responses. We don't think we need her permission, but we're always happy to have her blessing--and as fans of hers, we're happy that she's happy! :) Mirrored from an original post on the OTW Blog. | |
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| Welcome to our weekly update from the chair of ADT. All the news that's fit to print about the progress of the Archive of Our Own is below the cut. This post may also be found on the Archive of Our Own which is commentable by anyone with or without an AO3 account. Comments are disabled elsewhere as we're noticing people ask similar questions and would like everyone to be able to share the discussion. ( Read more ) | |
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Our October donations drive has ended, and all we can say is wow: thank you so much. Bellyrubz for everyone! We raised a grand total of US$10,573, plus that matching challenge grant of US$5000, for a total drive income of US$15,573. Thanks to you, this is our most successful fund drive yet. We can't thank you enough for your generosity and your support. Knowing that you're behind us gives us renewed energy to dive into the projects we're working on this year -- and inspires us to aim toward even bigger and better things in Year Three. If you weren't able to donate this week, never fear. We make a special effort to raise funds twice a year, but you're welcome to donate at any time, whether we're having a formal donations / membership drive or not. And our fabulous membership premiums will continue to be available! We also welcome contributions of time and energy -- that's what the OTW really runs on, and we really want your skills, talents, time, brainpower, and opinions! If you'd like to get involved with the OTW in the coming year, check out the Willing to Serve post and join our community of volunteers. Thank you for your support and for being a part of the OTW! Love, The Development/Membership Committee | |
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| A few legal stories that might be of interest to followers of the OTW: From publicknowledge.org: UGC is More Than Hamsters on a Piano is an essay by Michael Weinberg at publicknowledge.org, talking about the "assumption that the UGC is essentially commercially worthless – it is all first grade ballet recitals, dogs jumping up and down, or kids falling off of skateboards. The real action (and money) is around the “real” content. Since the money will only come from the professional content, the concerns of today’s professional content owners (usually having to do with filtering or kicking people off of networks) tend to dominate the discussion." But Weinberg points out that we are not all sitting around waiting for professionals to come and entertain us, and that today's established studios may not have "the best interests of their future competitors at heart." From boingboing.net: Meet the 42 lucky people who got to see the secret copyright treaty: Fans should be aware that a number of parties are trying to negotiate an international, anti-copyright treaty "that contains provisions that criminalize non-commercial file-sharing; require net-wide wiretapping for copyright infringement and border-searches of hard-drives and other devices; and disconnection from the Internet for people accused of violating copyright." A lot of people, including publicknowledge.org, BoingBoing, the EFF, and others--are protesting the secretive nature of these negotiations. From Rachel Maddow: Hey, Rachel Maddow follows BoingBoing: could we love her more? Rachel interviews BoingBoing's Xeni Jardin about the Ralph Lauren photoshop disaster--but gets that the real story was the attempted DMCA intimidation of BoingBoing after the fact, when reprinting the photoshopped image to mock it was a classic case of fair use. Because Boingboing's ISP was in Canada, they didn't have to comply with the DMCA, and Rachel immediately gets what she calls "the deeper part of this story", that "ISP's just immediately cave whenever they're confronted by anything like this, and it sort of hurts the first amendment." Lastly, our own Rebecca Tushnet caught the story that Mattel has licensed "Barbie Girl". For those not familiar with the case, 12 years ago, Barbie sued the Danish pop band Aqua, claiming trademark and copyright infringement. The claim was dismissed and the song was ruled as protected speech. Now, Mattel has licensed and rewritten the song to promote its new line of Barbie products. If you can't beat 'em...? Mirrored from an original post on the OTW Blog. | |
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|  The OTW's second annual October donations drive is going strong. It's been an amazing week. We've started offering donor premiums for the first time, which has inspired some truly lovely manips. (Also some icons featuring those manips, free to any good home!) Plus we've received our first-ever anonymous challenge grant -- an anonymous donor is going to match every dollar we raise during the second half of this donations drive, up to US$5000. And OMG, fandom: we met our match. Thanks to your incredible generosity, we've raised just over US$5000 since we announced the challenge grant a few days ago. We are humbled and delighted by your generosity. And the drive isn't over yet, so if you haven't yet donated during this drive, there's still time to do so! This donations drive ends at midnight UTC on October 19. (What time is that where you live? Find out here: http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/fi xedtime.html?month=10&day=19&year=2009&h our=0&min=0&sec=0&p1=0) We've raised almost US$8800 so far during this drive. Our last drive broke US$10,000 -- can you help us top that? If you haven't donated yet, please do! Funds donated during this drive will go toward our ongoing colocation and bandwidth costs (the Archive of Our Own will enter Open Beta soon), building up a safety net for the organization so that we always have funds in-hand to do the work we need to do, and funding the amazing projects we hope to add to our roster in 2010. (Plus: now you can opt to receive stickers and/or a mug!) As a reminder: we're also always looking for volunteers to help with our various projects. Whether or not you're able to donate at this time, you can always write entries for Fanlore, help out our tag wranglers, or join one of our standing committees -- information on that is available in our recent Willing to Serve post. Thanks for being a part of the OTW! | |
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| It's that time again! As the end of the OTW's second term nears, we will soon begin putting together the next round of committees for our third term, which means we are once again in search of people who are willing to serve. We did an amazing amount of work during our second term, and we have a lot of things planned for the next. Many of our current committee members will be returning for a third term, and we are looking for enthusiastic and dedicated people to join them. ( Read more ) | |
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| This post brings you a mid-week Hello! from the Development and Membership committee of the OTW and some exciting news! An anonymous donor has come forward to offer a matching challenge grant of up to US$5000. That means that when you donate now, a contribution of equal value comes from a secret source and effectively doubles the impact of your giving. If you give US$10, it’s matched by another US$10 and the OTW receives a total of US$20. If you give US$50, you can opt to get an OTW sticker & iron-on pack AND your donation is still matched by another US$50, making the total impact of your donation US$100 for the OTW and a premium for you. Matching will continue cumulatively up to US$5000 of donations – US$5000 from you and other donors plus US$5000 in matches equals US$10000 in funds raised for the OTW, for hosting costs for the AOOO and Open Doors, and for future fannish projects not even imagined yet. We’ll be posting regularly to our twitter account over the next few days to let y’all know how much of the challenge amount we’ve raised. You can subscribe to our twitter feed, or just check in to see the news, here: http://twitter.com/otw_news Now is a great time to give if you haven’t done so yet, and a great time to give a little bit more if you can. We’d really like to raise all US$5000 needed to max out our challenge grant, and every donation helps! Thanks, The Development and Membership Committee of the OTW This post is available in Español at the OTW blog. | |
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