March 2025

S M T W T F S
      1
2345678
9101112131415
16171819202122
23242526272829
3031     

Most Popular Tags

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags
samvara: Photo of Modesty Blaise with text "All this and brains as well" (Default)
Thursday, June 13th, 2013 07:21 am
  • Resigned from OTW Board
  • Tore/strained left upper hamstring. Took a week off work to avoid chairs and now slowly recovering. Ugh
  • Switched to an ergonomic right-handed mouse - so much easier to use, still lefty at home
  • Week #5 of Marketing Principles - text still v. boring, lecturer still excellent
  • Trialled warming pad dog bed again this winter - we bought two but Kiba promptly ate one so we've embedded the other in the couch nearest my bedroom door. I come out each morning to find them both snuggled up on it = success!
  • TEEN WOLF OMG, had v. low expectations, am pleasantly surprised
samvara: OTW logo with text "Rabid Cyborg Koalas ...pretty ones" (OTW - Koalas)
Thursday, May 30th, 2013 07:24 am
Wired has words to say, and the OTW has them too.

Amazon makes a bid to cash in on fanworks - royalties and rights as yet unclear but not looking great..
samvara: OTW logo with text "Rabid Cyborg Koalas ...pretty ones" (OTW - Koalas)
Tuesday, May 7th, 2013 07:19 am
The AO3: Fan fiction is one of the great unsung popular literary movements of the past 50 years, but finding what you’re looking for online can involve sorting through mountains of inadequately-tagged and frequently dodgy text. Archive of Our Own makes it easy: it’s the most carefully curated, sanely organized, easily browsable and searchable nonprofit collection of fan fiction on the web, and it serves all fandoms equally, from The A-Team to Zachary Quinto and beyond.
samvara: OTW logo with text "Rabid Cyborg Koalas ...pretty ones" (OTW - Koalas)
Sunday, April 7th, 2013 03:54 pm
I am absolutely that person who makes their dog wear clothes. We're trialling a thundershirt that is supposed to help dogs feel calmer. Kiba hates thunder, motorbikes, sirens, fireworks and people having fun late at night (he hates them loudly) so this seemed worth trying.

The colour options were interesting plus you can have text embroidered on them so we went for a fun option,. Since the thundershirt arrived during the OTW April fundraising drive we also had a photoshoot and made an experimental gif.

Kiba OTW - sm
samvara: Photo of Modesty Blaise with text "All this and brains as well" (Default)
Thursday, April 4th, 2013 07:24 am
We're doing amazing things and we need every $ to keep doing them. If you are in a position to donate, please consider doing it.

The OTW community, and the fannish community it is part of often expresses love directly through action. We've started a not so tiny organisation of our own, the Archive of Our Own, a wiki of our own Fanlore, a journal of our own Transformative Works and Culture, we're doing Legal Advocacy of our own, and one day we plan to have a Torrent of Our Own to preserve multi-media as well as what is currently hosted on the AO3.

Act now to support the projects you love.
Fandom Is Love: Organization for Transformative Works Membership Drive, April 3-9
samvara: Photo of Modesty Blaise with text "All this and brains as well" (Default)
Monday, February 11th, 2013 11:39 am
  • Kenobi and Kiba mugged a 2yr old last night :( He had a very seductive yellow ball, they picked it up off the ground and we gave it back but there were kiddy tears of ball stealing distress. *winces*
  • Life seems to be composed of tiny things right now. I've cleaned most of my room and eaten a lot of fruit and read a lot of fanfic.
  • I have a new, fluffy pillow and one of those banana ones for reading with - it's great!
  • I've ordered a bunch of yarn from Etsy and I'll hopefully find out what it actually looks like soonish. I feel some knitting coming on and I totally blame [personal profile] littleboot for this.
  • I replaced the AC adaptor that Kiba ate - ironically it was the recharger cable for the phone+tablet battery recharger thingie - which took me multiple attempts and an eventual actual electronics store (Altronics) who were excellent.
  • I've survived yet another week of OTW stuff Six weeks so far… and that's taking a lot of my energy right now.
  • The sunrise is lovely right now, I can see soon I'll be getting up in the dark but not yet!
Sunrise this morning
samvara: Photo of Modesty Blaise with text "All this and brains as well" (Default)
Wednesday, February 6th, 2013 07:57 am
  • Hobbit again last night with zorana - made better by giant beanbags. Still fun, Thorin's constant smouldering makes me giggle though.
  • Doing all the personality quizzes! Colour Personality Enneagram
  • OTW update: Five weeks so far… did I tell you I have a manifesto?
  • The Redcaps are blossoming again \o/ I also saw a tiny little cocoon - hard to photograph in the wind but so delicate! So precise!
Redcaps are starting to blossom Cosy little home
samvara: Photo of Modesty Blaise with text "All this and brains as well" (Default)
Wednesday, January 23rd, 2013 10:55 am
  • ROAD TRIP TOMORROW!
  • Kenobi's lumps were all benign, the site of the tummy stitches is all wobbly and under observation (by me and by [personal profile] chaosmanor). He is also peeing with less abandon (ie, not on everything we walk past) which makes me nervous.
  • Cleaned, washed, tidied
  • Hung Stargate properly in living room - looks good
  • OTW'd, a lot. [Board] Three weeks so far… [Development & Membership]
  • Watched Episode 1 of The Bletchley Circle, will watch the rest (four female code crackers from WWII come together to hunt a murderer)
  • Watched Episode 1 of Elementary, will watch more - female Watson! Holmes is less sociopathic and more emotionally available in this
  • Still watching The Secret Circle, it's melodrama but has three generations of women interacting, many female witches and JR Bourne as a witch-hunter which given he's playing a werewolf hunter in Teen Wolf is kind of delightful.
  • Watched E01S03 of Lost Girl, that's a v. dodgy plot-line they ran with and v. rarely handled well (not handled well in this case) but am still loving Kenzi and the relationship writing. Yay Lauren!
samvara: Photo of Modesty Blaise with text "All this and brains as well" (Default)
Monday, January 14th, 2013 08:13 am
  • Dentist has replaced a 15 yr old filling, it takes ages for me to go numb so we chatted a fair bit. They think the fact that a tooth now vibrates when I call the dogs post-braces coming off is hilarious and then I TOTALLY blew his mind by pointing out that Tolkien says dwarf gender is not visually distinguishable and that half of Bilbo's travel companions are probably women. I know dwarf women were actually 1/3 of the dwarven population and rarely traveled but since they are post-war refugees I think anything goes.
  • Beach with woofers was sad for Kenobi - on leash until stitches come out .. soon... sooon
  • Lunch in Freo with [personal profile] lilysea in which we lay about in various desirable locations and chatted - lovely, hot day.My Saturday lunch date
  • Home with some very dodgy email reading when the traffic lights were red, followed by some rapid email sending and bolting out the door again
  • Furniture shopping with [personal profile] cupidsbow 
  • Accessibility Design, & Technology Meeting (AD&T) plus Board Meeting Two weeks so far...
samvara: OTW logo with text "Rabid Cyborg Koalas ...pretty ones" (OTW - Koalas)
Friday, December 28th, 2012 11:25 am
The official announcement is on the Transformativeworks website and I offer my thanks to Francesca and Naomi (who are stepping down) for the many hours they have devoted to both creating the OTW and keeping its many balls in the air.

I've created a legal-name DW for all things boardy although I chopped off some letters. The urge to use one of my childhood nicknames was strong, alas, using Miss MasieMoo or Captain Maia Skye-Cloud is probably pushing it.

Come chat if you have burning questions (which I shall probably answer with I don't know but I'll find out and get back to you) unless they are about me in which case I shall ramble and hopefully pass on useful information.
*\o/* OTW *\o/*
samvara: Photo of Modesty Blaise with text "All this and brains as well" (Default)
Monday, May 14th, 2012 11:03 am
  • Iron Sky - seriously, go see it
  • Braces re-wire... surviving on soft foods and all the painkillers.. .I am so ready to have them off
  • Dinner with father and the new gf who has a sense of humour
  • Breakfast with [personal profile] transcendancing - it's been far too long
  • Marriage Equality Rally - many friends present, some sensible speakers and a lot of people with cameras
  • Swancon Program Programming meeting to review software and discuss future requirements
  • Inception with K. who had not seen it - my love remains steadfast
  • AD&T meeting (made my apologies, not compatible with taking mercyndol)
  • OTW Docs working Group meeting - lovely group of people - FAQs, tutorials, experimental screencast, fix ALL the docs!
  • Dark Shadows tonight!
  • MBA Unit 11 of 12 Marketing starts on Thursday
samvara: OTW logo with text "Accessiblity, Des (OTW - AD&T)
Monday, April 30th, 2012 09:16 pm
I kind of fail at writing up my most recent couple of AD&T meetings, is being ridiculously busy an excuse?

These are not official communications, this is me keeping a diary and being open about what we do. People are welcome to ignore the fandom:archive and otw tag if it's not interesting to you, or to come chat about stuff if it is :)

Read more... )
samvara: OTW logo with text "Accessiblity, Des (OTW - AD&T)
Friday, April 20th, 2012 11:51 am
If you want to have a look at v1.0, give feedback, or get involved in helping design v2.0 you are very welcome :)
samvara: Photo of Modesty Blaise with text "All this and brains as well" (Default)
Friday, April 20th, 2012 07:43 am
It's the time of year when the OTW runs a membership drive and asks for donations again. There are many wonderful projects supported by the OTW including my pet love, the Archive of Our Own which has grown from a tiny, tiny thing to a far less tiny thing with over 40,000 users. The AO3 continues to need money to pay for hosting, hardware, backup space and bandwidth - help keep us viable please!

If you're in an position to help support financially, now is an excellent time.

OTW: By Fans, For Fans. Organization for Transformative Works Membership Drive, April 18-25, 2012. transformativeworks.org

samvara: Photo of Modesty Blaise with text "All this and brains as well" (Default)
Wednesday, April 11th, 2012 08:30 am
I'll be around for the second half of this... and I have a few invite codes to distribute. If you've questions about posting or have been meaning to get around to creating an account and uploading your works this is a great time to get organised :)

From Saturday 14th April, 17.00 UTC to Sunday 15th April, 02.00 UTC (see the time in your timezone), we invite you to join us in a live chat where our staff will answer questions about creating accounts, uploading, tags and more, provide a few invitations for those who need them, and celebrate as new works are uploaded!
samvara: OTW logo with text "Accessiblity, Des (OTW - AD&T)
Sunday, March 11th, 2012 09:00 am
Second Accessibility, Design, and Technology (AD&T) meeting attended by me, hopefully I will do better now that various life pressures are easing.

Read more... )
samvara: OTW logo with text "Rabid Cyborg Koalas ...pretty ones" (OTW - Koalas)
Monday, March 5th, 2012 06:02 pm
I joined the OTW for many reasons, this one has been a long time in the making. Not preserving the Smallville Slash Archive specfically (although I have love, love, love for it), but preserving fannish works in general, and dying archives in particular.

MILESTONE!
samvara: OTW logo with text "Accessiblity, Des (OTW - AD&T)
Sunday, February 12th, 2012 07:07 pm
First Accessibility, Design, and Technology (AD&T) meeting for 2012 at the exciting time of 11pm - 1am on Saturday night. We'll be alternating times so I can attend at least every second one if the other time is inaccessible.

These are not official communications, this is me keeping a diary and being open about what we do. People are welcome to ignore the fandom:archive and otw tag if it's not interesting to you, or to come chat about stuff if it is :)
  • Admin. We're still gearing up for the year so this meeting was about when we'll meet (11pm Sat + TBA), how often (weekly), what we want to have in the meetings (fun! ponies!, a manageable way to handle design issues; earlier in the meeting? in clumps by area eg skins?
  • Docs. We've got (in the early stage right now) plans involving organising and beefing up both internal and external documentation - this is exciting to me as I'd love to see more of the AO3 documentation become more visible and more collaborative.
  • Tools. We also talked about a new (to me) tool called Trello which I need to spend some time with and get comfortable with. It manages projects into Boards and tells you what's being worked on, who's working on what, and where something is in a process. Fun! I'll probably talk more about it when I have a better understanding of it.
  • Design - Emails and User Stats. Our one design topic was Emails and the related issue of Stats. We're now sending something like 600,000 emails per month which is a) increasing over time b) costs money c) impacts on performance.
    • We're looking at introducing email batching where you get a digest per work / author rather than one email per Kudos and possibly one email when someone posts multiple chapters all at once... it's coming together.
    • Since batching involves taking something away, now is an excellent time to create a User Stats page as an alternative way to track activity around your works. We can launch it as an alpha feature and request feedback for further development.
I was planning on doing very little for AD&T this week as I've MBA stuff to do but I finished early and wrote up the minutes - they will contribute to a monthly newsletter to replace the AD&T meeting write-ups that were posted to the AO3.
samvara: Photo of Modesty Blaise with text "All this and brains as well" (Default)
Sunday, February 12th, 2012 12:00 am
  • Books unpacked - collection now only fills two bookshelves which I intend to keep as an upper limit. So many books I now want to re-read - on hold until this Trimester is over.
  • Feldenkrais class Part the Second still very interesting, am learning a lot about how my body moves.
  • Archive of Our Own volunteering - back on Accessibility, Design, and Technology (ADT) for the 2012 term - Yay!
  • Couch to 5km just finished week 3 - am doing about 3km in 30 mins. Woofer is loving it. Made ridiculously easy by mobile phone app which vibrates, goes 'bing' and says run to me at appropriate intervals. I just obey!
samvara: OTW logo with text "Rabid Cyborg Koalas ...pretty ones" (OTW - Koalas)
Wednesday, December 28th, 2011 08:15 am
This marks the first year where browsing Yuletide just... happened. Easily. Responsively.

I know we tend to assume things will just work, and they should! Work, that is. I just want to pause and celebrate how much love and effort went into this, how wonderful it is to have this resource, and to point you at this years run away hit
  • Texts From Cephalopods It is a well-established fact in marine biology that the octopus is the drunk texter of the cephalopod family.
Archiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiive
samvara: Photo of Modesty Blaise with text "All this and brains as well" (Default)
Monday, November 7th, 2011 09:08 am
Title: A dubiously accurate RPF story about the Archive partially told in Title text
Fandom:
RPF, Archive of Our Own
Rating: General Audience
Characters: Ensemble cast
Summary: Everything you need to know is in the title. Spoilers for the end of Supernatural S5, excessive glee and references to mpreg.
samvara: OTW logo with text "Rabid Cyborg Koalas ...pretty ones" (OTW - Koalas)
Tuesday, October 11th, 2011 11:36 am

The AO3's parent org, the Organization for Transformative Works, is running its biannual membership drive!

Once again we've reached that point in the year where we ask for your help! We appreciate the ways in which you help us day after day, year after year, since the Organization for Transformative Works would be nothing without its volunteers, staff, and members. Our projects exist because you've dreamed them, asked for them, and built them. And now we're hoping you can help us build the OTW's membership.

OTW logo: red circle with an arrow. Text reads: Organization for Transformative Works Membership Drive October 9-16, 2011

The Archive of Our Own is 3 years and 8 days old today if you count from launching the Closed Beta site (3rd Oct 2008). We had 93 users which was probably every OTW volunteer in existence and the ability to create accounts and post works... just.

Wow.

It took us another year and a bit to nudge the Archive into good enough shape to go to Open Beta (15th Nov 2009) and then of course Yuletide happened, anon kinkmemes happened (build more features!), LJ DDOS attacks happened (massive influx of people), Delicious got sunsetted sold (and again!) and I'm sure something newly interesting is just around the corner.

We bought servers back in 2009 - they arrived around the 10th Nov 2009 and we gloated over them a lot and I recall during the initial planning the OTW Finance Committee said that was our hardware budget for the next 3 years.

*grins*

The fannish support for the AO3 was amazing and we outgrew them in just over a year - the second round of hardware arrived around the 23rd Jan 2011 (1 year, 2 months later) and while we constantly work to improve the performance of our code we also need those machines to continue to do what we do.

Since I get ridiculously excited in the presence of graphs here's one showing how much code we've written so far - it goes up and down because if we find a tidier / faster / more elegant way of doing something we squee and replace our old code - and we do that all the time \o/
AO3 Code Analysis - oholoh
I am in the fortunate position of being able to donate money, and if you are as well it would be very welcome; you'll be supporting a fantastic project. Make sure we can continue to own our own servers! Donate to the OTW now!