![[syndicated profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/feed.png){kind=small}
![[staff profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user_staff.png){kind=small}
![[site community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/comm_staff.png){kind=small}
Sunday, March 22nd, 2026 09:23 am
( You're about to view content that the journal owner has advised should be viewed with discretion. )
Tags:
Saturday, March 21st, 2026 05:20 pm
Saturday, March 21st, 2026 05:12 pm
( You're about to view content that the journal owner has advised should be viewed with discretion. )
Tags:
Thursday, March 19th, 2026 01:19 pm
I got started early, enough so that I heard a Great Horned Owl, and was home before it got hot.\o/ Lower Packrat is lovely and green, and everyone was singing. No one new showed up, but the number of Wilson's Warblers was amazing, singing, chipping, chasing. They clearly have not settled their territories yet. The Mallards at the Lake confuse me. The last two visits there have been two drakes, and I imagine there are two nests around somewhere, since they each had a mate before that. But sometimes they sit together companionably on the log and sometimes they chase each other incessantly. Why? Did one drake venture too close to the other's nest? This is the merest speculation. ( The list: )
The Anna's Hummingbird continues on her nest. U will bring her camera on Monday so we can compare the old and new nests, see how much she's added.
The Anna's Hummingbird continues on her nest. U will bring her camera on Monday so we can compare the old and new nests, see how much she's added.
Tags:
Wednesday, March 18th, 2026 03:56 pm
It was quite pleasant on Inspiration Trail this morning thanks to a nice breeze. I had a rocky start but was on the rise before the sun came up. Also after the sun came up. As I said.:) Anyway, once I actually got started I had a reasonably productive morning. Finally Wilson's Warblers! and a Western Flycatcher. There were Blue-gray Gnatcatchers where they were four days ago, and still a White-crowned Sparrow singing near the parking lot, but either he changed songs or it's a different individual. Biggest surprise was a Varied Thrush in the dense trees towards the top of the trail. ( The list: )
There are usually a few American White Pelicans on San Pablo Reservoir, but this morning a large flock, thirty-five or so, was gathered near the far shore. I don't know where they went, but when I next looked they were gone.
There are usually a few American White Pelicans on San Pablo Reservoir, but this morning a large flock, thirty-five or so, was gathered near the far shore. I don't know where they went, but when I next looked they were gone.
Tags:
Tuesday, March 17th, 2026 09:52 pm
Oh my GOD can it be spring yet, I am SO TIRED OF WINTER. There is a tiny tiny tiny pink nubbin of rhubarb in the garden. No asparagus yet. I cannot wait to get the dopamine hit of seeing my summer clothes for the first time in months.
The NT's production of The Importance of Being Earnest is of course a delight (Sharon D. Clarke deserves a knighthood and Ncuti Gatwa wears clothes, and few clothes, to perfection); ![[profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
velveteenrabbi and D's Pesach class is as excellent as one might expect; somewhere on this desk is an embroidery needle and I am convinced the gherkin is going to stab herself with it. Wednesday is actually largely unscheduled and I need only survive the conference Thursday, which requires me to leave the house at godawful o'clock.
I am looking forward to the three-hour train ride and the Dessa concert so much. And then I get a weekend in my favorite city! I have been promised brunch and a museum and rainbow cookies and bagels. (Promised by myself and I intend to follow through in every particular.)
Tuesday, March 17th, 2026 01:46 pm
I got started at 8:30, while it was still nice and cool, walking just over halfway up Laurel Canyon for the first time in a couple of years. We shall see if I regret it, but I did have a very productive morning. So much birdsong! Heard my first of season Western Flycatcher, a Western Warbling Vireo was singing where they usually do, and there were Orange-crowned, Townsend's, and Wilson's Warblers singing everywhere. I had two Allen's Hummingbirds, one I saw briefly, tiny and orange, and I could hear another's swooping display flight, though I could not find him. ( The list: )
I submit some of my lists to the California Bird Atlas project, especially when I observe breeding behavior. This morning I watched a Chestnut-backed Chickadee pulling fur out of scat. They had quite a beak full when they finally flew off.
I submit some of my lists to the California Bird Atlas project, especially when I observe breeding behavior. This morning I watched a Chestnut-backed Chickadee pulling fur out of scat. They had quite a beak full when they finally flew off.
Tags:
Tuesday, March 17th, 2026 08:52 pm
Apparently having been supremely indifferent to men's fashion for my entire life I now have a burning interest in it?
I may have been glued to Threads for a while watching the pictures come through from the Oscars and pre- post- parties on Sunday and into the wee small hours of Monday morning.
I'm blaming these fools...
Click to embiggen.
There's also a hilarious video that goes with pic 2 on JR's instagram - last slide in that post - which makes me snort/giggle every time I watch it because of the awkwardness of it all.
I would like to flop tonight but I need to tick off some tasks from my endless "Do ALL The Things" list for sorting out my flat/life. Alas it is already 9:15pm. Wonder how much I can achieve in an hour/90 minutes?
What can I possibly bribe myself with as a reward if I'm a good girl and get shit done?
I may have been glued to Threads for a while watching the pictures come through from the Oscars and pre- post- parties on Sunday and into the wee small hours of Monday morning.
I'm blaming these fools...
Click to embiggen.
There's also a hilarious video that goes with pic 2 on JR's instagram - last slide in that post - which makes me snort/giggle every time I watch it because of the awkwardness of it all.
I would like to flop tonight but I need to tick off some tasks from my endless "Do ALL The Things" list for sorting out my flat/life. Alas it is already 9:15pm. Wonder how much I can achieve in an hour/90 minutes?
What can I possibly bribe myself with as a reward if I'm a good girl and get shit done?
Monday, March 16th, 2026 02:47 pm
Chris is off seeing cranes in the midwest so U and I walked slowly up the road to Jewel Lake. We heard many Wilson's and Orange-crowned Warblers, a couple of Townsend's Warblers, and our first of the season Western Warbling Vireo; they've just split Warbling Vireo into eastern and western so I'll try to use the correct name here although when birding it's too much to bother with. A pair of Downy Woodpeckers appeared to be preparing to nest and there was a female Anna's Hummingbird on the nest at Jewel Lake for at least the third year. Same bird? Who knows. The nest is in a wonderfully protected location on a small branch hanging low over the water. We watched it all winter, wondering if it would disintegrate as some hummingbird nests do, but it survived and it looks like she's reinforced it. ( The list: )
Today was the beginning of hot week, and we were unprepared for the number of cars in the lot at 8 am, folks getting out ahead of the heat? Four more days.
Today was the beginning of hot week, and we were unprepared for the number of cars in the lot at 8 am, folks getting out ahead of the heat? Four more days.
Tags:
Monday, March 16th, 2026 05:13 pm
We started the year with some major improvements to our bookmark search, making it possible to sort and filter bookmarks by word count, and deployed several batches of fixes to strengthen site security and improve performance. These release notes collect all changes made to AO3 in January.
Shoutout to first-time contributors Juliette Curran, KooShnoo, Mae Light, and sanchal ghosh! Thank you for your work.
Credits
- Coders: Brian Austin, Cubostar, FlyingFalcon, irrationalpie, Juliette Curran, kiyazz, KooShnoo, Mae Light, sanchal ghosh, Sarken, Shakelush
- Code reviewers: anmazz, Bilka, Brian Austin, james_, KooShnoo, lydia-theda, ömer faruk, Sarken
- Testers: ana, Bilka, Brian Austin, choux, killiane, Lute, lydia-theda, marcus8448, ömer faruk, slavalamp, wichard, Yuca
Details
Release 0.9.453
On January 21, we deployed some major improvements to our bookmark search, including the ability to filter and sort bookmarks by word count!
- [AO3-6301] - Series blurbs would list all fandom tags from the works included in that series, even if a work was still saved as an unpublished draft. Now series blurbs only display fandoms from posted works.
- [AO3-6303] - Series blurbs would also always list fandoms from works that were restricted to logged-in users. We now make sure that if a fandom in a series comes from a restricted work, it's not listed when a guest is browsing series blurbs.
- [AO3-6304] - Relatedly, series blurbs would always show up in bookmark listings for a certain tag even if that fandom's work in the series was restricted to logged-in users. That's also fixed now!
- [AO3-6471] - We have added word count information to bookmarks! You can now search, filter, and sort bookmarks by the length of the bookmarked work or series. If a series contains restricted works and you're not logged in, a series' word count will reflect only the works that are accessible to you.
- [AO3-7119] - We tweaked the way search queries work when searching bookmarks, so input is parsed more accurately and a "1k" and a "2k" tag won't be interpreted as the same tag anymore (for example).
Release 0.9.454
A small grab bag of fixes was released on January 26.
- [AO3-7264] - We employ certain measures to prevent spam on AO3, such as limiting how many times an action can be performed by a user in a certain time frame. We have now added an option to restrict new accounts more severely than older accounts when it comes to leaving and editing comments.
- [AO3-7238], [AO3-7262] - We added extra information to the details our spam-checking provider uses to determine if a comment is spam or not.
- [AO3-7045], [AO3-7060], [AO3-7248] - Some database clean-up and dependency updates.
Release 0.9.455
On January 28, we deployed some of the necessary changes to enable two-step verification for AO3 admin accounts.
- [AO3-6918] - These changes prepare the login interface for 2FA enforcement to ensure the greatest possible security for admin accounts.
- [AO3-7249] - Site admins, such as members of the Policy and Abuse committee, frequently need to look up a user's past usernames and email addresses. To speed up searches while we work on long-term performance improvements, we moved this information to separate tables.
Release 0.9.456
A collection of navigation and display fixes was deployed on January 30.
- [AO3-6869] - On devices running iOS, footnotes on the Policy Questions & Abuse Reports form were misaligned. Now everything looks tidy again.
- [AO3-7028] - In one of our public site skins, some pagination links had become unclickable. If you've been using the Low Vision Default skin, now you can page through a user's works in collections again!
- [AO3-7213] - On narrow screens, the "Suggest a Language" button on the Work Languages page was slipping behind the list of languages and couldn't be clicked. That's also fixed.
- [AO3-7247] - Fixed the broken link to the Fannish Next of Kin FAQ on the Technical Support & Feedback form.
- [AO3-7251], [AO3-7266] - Some code clean-up.
Monday, March 16th, 2026 12:34 am
I had a whole weekend at home - for the first time in 4 weeks! Remind me never to organise/volunteer for things that mean I have to work 3 Saturday's on the trot because that is exhausting. On the plus side I have a chunk of flexi leave to take.
So quick summary:
HOME: deep cleaned kitchen and sorted out a bunch for a recycling and tip run today. Next week it's deep cleaning the bathroom, and chipping away at the chaos and decluttering/#orjenising in the bedroom and living room. I have detailed bullet point lists and daily/weekly targets!
HEALTH still a bit FUBAR'd but improving. Finally took myself off to Toni and Guy's on Friday where a very firm hairdresser chopped off a significant amount of my hair. It had almost reached my waist and had way too many split ends. I got a free treatment (whatever product they used smelled awesome and made my hair super silky) and I now have a really simple cut - still long enough that I can put it up when gardening /at the gym, but short enough to wash and go and no danger of overnight knots. Today I got my piercings back - found a great piercer locally and I was just going to get single studs in each ear but happily we discovered 5 of my old piercings were still open! She popped new studs in those - because I have no idea where my old studs are - only the tons of dangley earrings on the board in my bedroom. She redid the middle piercing on my left ear and now I have all the shiny jewellery back. Once the current ones have settled down I'm going back to get my helix piercing redone - might get one each side.
LIFE ADMIN: still planning to move from Gmail once I've decluttered it. Applied for a postal vote as I'll be working local election day (7 May) as a poll clerk in Richmond so won't be around to vote locally. Have to make time to complete training for that and it will be a long day (5am to midnight including travel to/from) polling station.
DIGITAL DECLUTTER: have kept email at mail at 11,000 but not managed to reduce it; staying on top of transferring To Keep items from tablet to dropbox, my phone images storage is a mess.
GARDENING/ALLOTMENTING: nope - too cold and/or wet and lacked motivation.
COOKING/EATING: reboarded the takeaway train over the last week - there just seemed to be no time at all, long work days!
READING/LISTENING: LOL. Thank you Rachel Reid - read Game Changers, Heated Rivalry, Tough Guy, Common Goal, Role Model and The Long Game and now re-reading Heated Rivalry matching book chapters to rewatch episodes. What do you mean obsessed?
WATCHING: Heated Rivalry - 4th rewatch. Everything else is having to fit around that!
CREATING/LEARNING: several, projects on the go/nearing completion - spring wreath, Halloween blanket, granny square blanket, hexicardi, granny square bags x 2. Might get one or two done by the end of the month.
CATS: all good.
VOLUNTEERING: one new task to complete as of meeting last week.
SOCIALISING: a 3 hour call withgingerpig consisting of two hours of Heated Rivalry squee and one of catching up. A formal "WiLlYoUCoMeToMyCotTageThisEAsTer" invitation extended to ravurian - because, thanks to Show, I'm never going to be able to invite anyone to the cottage unless I adopt concussed-and-ever-so-slightly-high Shane's rhythm of speech.
WORK: much improvement - BRAG quarterly meeting went well, the Seed Swap was a success, the three consecutive Saturday's of work are over until 28 March which is my next weekend day of work. I've started the current round of inspections which is generating a ton of admin (which is this coming week's issue), I need to carve out some time to dealing with financial year end (how is it almost the end of March?!!!) and reprofile the capital budget.
It's going to be a long work week - think I'm going to work from home tomorrow as I should be able to plough through a chunk of admin uninterrupted. Tuesday through Friday lunchtime will be office days and site visits. Then I've got 30 bags of compost to shift from a site wide delivery down to my plot on Friday afternoon - say a prayer for my knees and back! Keeping my fingers crossed for sunshine and blue skies next week.
So quick summary:
HOME: deep cleaned kitchen and sorted out a bunch for a recycling and tip run today. Next week it's deep cleaning the bathroom, and chipping away at the chaos and decluttering/#orjenising in the bedroom and living room. I have detailed bullet point lists and daily/weekly targets!
HEALTH still a bit FUBAR'd but improving. Finally took myself off to Toni and Guy's on Friday where a very firm hairdresser chopped off a significant amount of my hair. It had almost reached my waist and had way too many split ends. I got a free treatment (whatever product they used smelled awesome and made my hair super silky) and I now have a really simple cut - still long enough that I can put it up when gardening /at the gym, but short enough to wash and go and no danger of overnight knots. Today I got my piercings back - found a great piercer locally and I was just going to get single studs in each ear but happily we discovered 5 of my old piercings were still open! She popped new studs in those - because I have no idea where my old studs are - only the tons of dangley earrings on the board in my bedroom. She redid the middle piercing on my left ear and now I have all the shiny jewellery back. Once the current ones have settled down I'm going back to get my helix piercing redone - might get one each side.
LIFE ADMIN: still planning to move from Gmail once I've decluttered it. Applied for a postal vote as I'll be working local election day (7 May) as a poll clerk in Richmond so won't be around to vote locally. Have to make time to complete training for that and it will be a long day (5am to midnight including travel to/from) polling station.
DIGITAL DECLUTTER: have kept email at mail at 11,000 but not managed to reduce it; staying on top of transferring To Keep items from tablet to dropbox, my phone images storage is a mess.
GARDENING/ALLOTMENTING: nope - too cold and/or wet and lacked motivation.
COOKING/EATING: reboarded the takeaway train over the last week - there just seemed to be no time at all, long work days!
READING/LISTENING: LOL. Thank you Rachel Reid - read Game Changers, Heated Rivalry, Tough Guy, Common Goal, Role Model and The Long Game and now re-reading Heated Rivalry matching book chapters to rewatch episodes. What do you mean obsessed?
WATCHING: Heated Rivalry - 4th rewatch. Everything else is having to fit around that!
CREATING/LEARNING: several, projects on the go/nearing completion - spring wreath, Halloween blanket, granny square blanket, hexicardi, granny square bags x 2. Might get one or two done by the end of the month.
CATS: all good.
VOLUNTEERING: one new task to complete as of meeting last week.
SOCIALISING: a 3 hour call with
gingerpig consisting of two hours of Heated Rivalry squee and one of catching up. A formal "WiLlYoUCoMeToMyCotTageThisEAsTer" invitation extended to ravurian - because, thanks to Show, I'm never going to be able to invite anyone to the cottage unless I adopt concussed-and-ever-so-slightly-high Shane's rhythm of speech. WORK: much improvement - BRAG quarterly meeting went well, the Seed Swap was a success, the three consecutive Saturday's of work are over until 28 March which is my next weekend day of work. I've started the current round of inspections which is generating a ton of admin (which is this coming week's issue), I need to carve out some time to dealing with financial year end (how is it almost the end of March?!!!) and reprofile the capital budget.
It's going to be a long work week - think I'm going to work from home tomorrow as I should be able to plough through a chunk of admin uninterrupted. Tuesday through Friday lunchtime will be office days and site visits. Then I've got 30 bags of compost to shift from a site wide delivery down to my plot on Friday afternoon - say a prayer for my knees and back! Keeping my fingers crossed for sunshine and blue skies next week.
Tags:
Monday, March 16th, 2026 12:33 am
LOL I am all up in everything HR so much so that it's not even funny. :o)
So the last time I posted I was 5 days in, had watched it once, bought the books and was just about to start a second rewatch - that was last Saturday.
I read all 6 books in 2.5 days, completed a second rewatch, randomly watched eps 3-6 across 4 nights (because why not?) and then decided it would be fun to match reading the relevant chapters of HR and then watch the relevant episodes. I got as far as ep 3 and then got distracted by more cast interviews and HR insta and threads.
Yeserday I disappeared down the YouTube rabbit hole of fan vids - so now I have 193 open tabs across 2 browser windows, there's music playing, I have no idea where it's coming from and I'm in the middle of curating playlists on my YouTube. I need to remember how to DL from YouTube because I want a good chunk of those vids accessible to me at all times and never worry about them being pulled.
I may be curating playlists on Spotify for my gym workouts because HR bvidders use great music for their vids. And...um...I have a bunch of meta posts bookmarked to go back and read properly after the current rewatch.
Still noticing new things - all the subtle little whispered remarks that weren't obvious on first or second viewing. I need to see the whole series on a screen bigger than my tablet.
I'm catching up on the cast interviews which I'm finding delightful and astonishing. I mean the 3 minute social media sound bites, wild humour and meeting fans where they live was an absolute gift - but the long form interviews with their openness, vulnerability and in depth discussions are just blowing my mind.
Still steering clear of fanfic - because there are only 24 hours in a day - and I'm not sure I have time for an "Inception" level fandom event in my life - though I suspect I'm fighting a failed rearguard action there. Inception inhabited my brain for 2.5 years and with S2 of Heated Rivalry not airing until '27 and (please god) a potential further season - it's quite possible I'll be fully consumed by this until 2028.
Around all of that it's been super busy at work and I've been making a bunch of appointments/ running errands which come under the heading of "Get Your Shit Together" but for the first time in months I feel like I'm fully firing on all cylinders.
Not sure how much of that is down to the Little Canadian Hockey Romance That Could or whether it's due to the fact that we've had more than a few days of sunshine, warmth and blue skies (and not the dreary grey, wet and miserable days we've had since before Christmas) - whatever! I'm running with it.
So the last time I posted I was 5 days in, had watched it once, bought the books and was just about to start a second rewatch - that was last Saturday.
I read all 6 books in 2.5 days, completed a second rewatch, randomly watched eps 3-6 across 4 nights (because why not?) and then decided it would be fun to match reading the relevant chapters of HR and then watch the relevant episodes. I got as far as ep 3 and then got distracted by more cast interviews and HR insta and threads.
Yeserday I disappeared down the YouTube rabbit hole of fan vids - so now I have 193 open tabs across 2 browser windows, there's music playing, I have no idea where it's coming from and I'm in the middle of curating playlists on my YouTube. I need to remember how to DL from YouTube because I want a good chunk of those vids accessible to me at all times and never worry about them being pulled.
I may be curating playlists on Spotify for my gym workouts because HR bvidders use great music for their vids. And...um...I have a bunch of meta posts bookmarked to go back and read properly after the current rewatch.
Still noticing new things - all the subtle little whispered remarks that weren't obvious on first or second viewing. I need to see the whole series on a screen bigger than my tablet.
I'm catching up on the cast interviews which I'm finding delightful and astonishing. I mean the 3 minute social media sound bites, wild humour and meeting fans where they live was an absolute gift - but the long form interviews with their openness, vulnerability and in depth discussions are just blowing my mind.
Still steering clear of fanfic - because there are only 24 hours in a day - and I'm not sure I have time for an "Inception" level fandom event in my life - though I suspect I'm fighting a failed rearguard action there. Inception inhabited my brain for 2.5 years and with S2 of Heated Rivalry not airing until '27 and (please god) a potential further season - it's quite possible I'll be fully consumed by this until 2028.
Around all of that it's been super busy at work and I've been making a bunch of appointments/ running errands which come under the heading of "Get Your Shit Together" but for the first time in months I feel like I'm fully firing on all cylinders.
Not sure how much of that is down to the Little Canadian Hockey Romance That Could or whether it's due to the fact that we've had more than a few days of sunshine, warmth and blue skies (and not the dreary grey, wet and miserable days we've had since before Christmas) - whatever! I'm running with it.
Tags:
Saturday, March 14th, 2026 01:04 pm
Happy Saturday!
I'm going to be doing a little maintenance today. It will likely cause a tiny interruption of service (specifically for www.dreamwidth.org) on the order of 2-3 minutes while some settings propagate. If you're on a journal page, that should still work throughout!
If it doesn't work, the rollback plan is pretty quick, I'm just toggling a setting on how traffic gets to the site. I'll update this post if something goes wrong, but don't anticipate any interruption to be longer than 10 minutes even in a rollback situation.
Saturday, March 14th, 2026 05:18 pm
- two more radiation treatments to go; I have a mild (and itchy) looks-like-sunburn across a roughly 20cm square running between my armpit and my midline
- the new medication I'm supposed to start after radiation is back ordered until May. need to contact the specialist on monday
- general body health alternating between 'ow' and 'fatigue'. but i'm getting some stuff done
- mental health - struggling with the cognitive load of daily treatments, but mostly chill.
- i have started the 'reading fiction' part of my project; the first book has a lot of details, but suffers from coming out in 2020 and thus is showing a lot of the pre chatgpt tropes surrounding AI
- I am knitting a tiny fifth doctor scarf as a decorative item; it is getting less and less accurate to the pattern as I go on. I only have six of the seven colours....
- reading? not much.
- walking home from the hospital? did it the once. have not had the spoons since. have been using the cane more than some.
- other exercise? bugger all.
- garden: birds have eaten all but one pomegranate. hoping that one gets ripe enough. guava are ~2cm across; I thought i had done a good job of thinning, but nope. have not thinned the feijoa even that much so argh.
- family: youngest has a job contract signed; to be starting in ?august.
Tags:
Friday, March 13th, 2026 04:58 pm
U proposed another attempt at seeing the Summer Tanager at Booker T Anderson and then looking for the Williamson's Sapsucker that's been hanging out in the very tall conifers outside a dorm near the UC Campus. Her church is just across the street and she found the bird last Sunday, so this was my chance. Unfortunately we did not find her but the time spent at Booker T was a lot of fun. I may very well have seen the Summer Tanager, but by the time U joined me I'd lost it, and we did not report it. I did find the Nashville Warbler, and got a brief but excellent view: yellow body, gray head, complete white eye-ring. The trees along the creek were very active when me arrived, full of Cedar Waxwings and Yellow-rumped Warblers. So many Yellow-rumped Warblers! ( The list: )
So one out of three, but it was a beautiful morning.
So one out of three, but it was a beautiful morning.
Tags:
Thursday, March 12th, 2026 02:44 pm
One fewer species than four days ago but very different surprises! Again I was waiting for the sun on the first rise, listening to the bird song. Definitely worth it. The Orange-crowned Warblers were slightly less numerous but I don't think the Purple Finches were; I heard them constantly, everywhere. There was a covey of quail foraging just around the point but they saw me first, so all I got was the explosion as they flew off. Today's surprises were a Blue-gray gnatcatcher and a Bald Eagle! I don't recall seeing one there but it's not unexpected. Might even have been one of the Valle Vista pair. ( The list: )
Still no Wilson's Warblers, but the White-crowned Sparrow near the parking lot was still singing.
Still no Wilson's Warblers, but the White-crowned Sparrow near the parking lot was still singing.
Tags:
The OTW is Recruiting for News Post Moderators, User Response Translation Translators, and Translati
Wednesday, March 11th, 2026 05:56 pm
Are you interested in helping keep OTW news post spaces a welcoming and safe space for engagement? Are you fluent in Brazilian Portuguese, Mandarin Chinese, Russian, or Spanish, and want to help us better reply to users all around the world? Are you a skilled organizer who enjoys working in a team? The Organization for Transformative Works is recruiting!
We're excited to announce the opening of applications for:
- News Post Moderator - closing 18 March 2026 at 23:59 UTC or after 60 applications
- User Response Translation Translator - closing 18 March 2026 at 23:59 UTC
- Translation Volunteer Manager- closing 18 March 2026 at 23:59 UTC
We have included more information on each role below. Open roles and applications will always be available at the volunteering page. If you don't see a role that fits with your skills and interests now, keep an eye on the listings. We plan to put up new applications every few weeks, and we will also publicize new roles as they become available.
All applications generate a confirmation page and an auto-reply to your e-mail address. We encourage you to read the confirmation page and to whitelist our email address in your e-mail client. If you do not receive the auto-reply within 24 hours, please check your spam filters and then contact us.
If you have questions regarding volunteering for the OTW, check out our Volunteering FAQ.
News Post Moderator
News Post Moderation is a Communications subcommittee that is responsible for moderating comments on AO3 and OTW News Posts as well as liaising with other OTW committees to respond to individual commenters as needed.
News Post Moderators freeze, hide, or disallow comments that do not comply with our News Post Moderation Policy. We approve comments that do comply, respond to user questions and concerns, and communicate with other OTW committees so that users can receive helpful, accurate answers.
You must be 18+ in order to apply for this role. We are looking for volunteers who can maintain a consistent level of work, ask for help and collaborate both inside the team and with other committees, and make fair and objective decisions about what comments to moderate.
Applications are due 18 March 2026 or after 60 applications
Apply for News Post Moderator at the volunteering page! If you have further questions, please contact us.
User Response Translation Translator
Are you fluent in Brazilian Portuguese, Mandarin Chinese, Russian, or Spanish, and want to help us better communicate with AO3 users all over the world?
User Response Translation (URT) volunteers help AO3 committees to correspond with users in other languages. URT translators will assist the Policy & Abuse and Support committees by translating correspondence between these committees and AO3 users into specific languages. URT does not translate AO3 or OTW site pages, news posts, or fanworks.
We are looking for volunteers who are at least 18 years old and fluent in Brazilian Portuguese, Mandarin Chinese, Russian, or Spanish. Applicants will be asked to translate and beta (edit) short text samples as part of the selection process.
Applications are due 18 March 2026
Apply for User Response Translation Translator at the volunteering page! If you have further questions, please contact us.
Translation Volunteer Manager
Are you a skilled organizer who enjoys working in a team, liaising with people, working with documentation and texts, and making sure everything runs smoothly behind the scenes?
The Translation committee is currently recruiting Volunteer Managers. Volunteer Managers coordinate localization efforts across the OTW: the translation of site pages, news posts, AO3 FAQs, AO3 Support and Policy & Abuse tickets, and any inquiries that reach other committees in languages they can't translate themselves.
While translators do the actual text translation and editing, volunteer managers support them by keeping track of priorities, deadlines, and pending tasks; assigning work; talking to and working with other committees to coordinate the translation of their content; uploading translated documents; documenting volunteer training, procedures, and workflows; checking in and actioning translators' feedback; and many other tasks involved in managing a wide, diverse and very active volunteer pool.
If you'd like to find out more about the work before applying, feel free to send your questions to translation@transformativeworks.org! Please note that you must be over 18 years of age to apply for this role.
Applications are due 18 March 2026
Apply for Translation Volunteer Manager at the volunteering page! If you have further questions, please contact us.
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.
Friday, March 6th, 2026 05:19 pm
A lot has been going on at the Archive of Our Own (AO3) lately! In January, we celebrated 10 million registered users on AO3. February was all about International Fanworks Day, which we celebrated with several events, culminating in our 30-hour chat and games party over on Discord. And now, we've hit another milestone: 17 million fanworks on AO3!
With this many amazing fanworks, it can be difficult, if not impossible, to remember your favorites. This is why we have bookmarks on AO3! Bookmarks are a useful tool to save fanworks for re-reading whenever the mood strikes, or to recommend a work to other users.
And did you know that not only can you bookmark works posted on AO3, but also external fanworks you want to remember? To bookmark an external work, go to your Dashboard, and then to the "Bookmarks" section. In the upper right corner, there should be a button called "Bookmark External Work". For more information on bookmarks, check out our Bookmarks FAQ!
As always, we are beyond grateful for each and every one of you who contributes their free time, love, and effort to AO3, and helps us grow and flourish! We're excited to see what other achievements we'll celebrate together this year.
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.
Thursday, March 5th, 2026 01:48 pm
I. INTERNATIONAL FANWORKS DAY
On February 15, Communications coordinated many International Fanworks Day (IFD) activities, including a Feedback Fest highlighting fanwork recommendations, an editing challenge in conjunction with Fanlore, and an IFD Discord server with games and chatting. Additionally, Translation helped make IFD materials available in 22 languages. Thank you to everyone who joined us in celebrating!
II. ARCHIVE OF OUR OWN
In February, we celebrated AO3 reaching 10 million registered users! \o/
Accessibility, Design & Technology (AD&T) focused on some important upgrades and bug fixes, including upgrading to Ruby on Rails 8 and improving the collection revealing process. They also published release notes for December's code changes.
AO3 Documentation began their biannual review of user-facing documentation.
In the past month, Open Doors signed five new agreements with moderators to import their archives to AO3! Fandoms include Highlander, The Magnificent Seven, My Chemical Romance, and others. They also completed the import of Slashknot, a Slipknot (band) fanfiction and fanart archive.
In January, Support received 3,811 tickets, while Policy & Abuse (PAC) received 7,972 tickets. User Response Translation completed 12 requests from PAC and 37 requests from Support. PAC continues to work closely with AD&T and Systems to combat spam that users have been experiencing across the site.
Tag Wrangling announced 28 new "No Fandom" canonical tags for February. In January, they wrangled over 648,000 tags, or around 1,400 tags per wrangling volunteer.
III. ELSEWHERE AT THE OTW
Fanlore ran a Femslash February monthly editing challenge! Systems also helped upgrade Fanlore to a new version of MediaWiki.
In February, Legal had one of their volunteers participate in a briefing for staffers in the U.S. Legislature to gain a deeper understanding of copyright fair use. Elsewhere, Legal answered a number of questions internally and from users.
TWC is preparing their March 2026 issue on "Gaming Fandom" for publication. They also completed an update of TWC's editorial board as part of their ongoing work to expand TWC's scope, diversify their discipline in terms of historically marginalized fans and scholars, make the journal more international in scope, and increase multimodal approaches.
IV. GOVERNANCE
Board has concluded all Board-committee check-ins and is reviewing key themes across the organization. They also voted to approve an interpretative rule of one bylaw to better accommodate any future Board members with hearing disabilities.
Board Assistants Team continued work on various projects, including revamping the OTW Board Discord and researching projects on volunteer retention, public meeting best practices, and volunteer mental health.
Organizational Culture Roadmap continued work on the OTW Code of Conduct update project by finishing a summary of internal survey results and adjusting Code of Conduct drafts based on recommendations from an external HR firm. The OTW Crisis Management Plan has been finalised and approved by the Board.
V. OUR VOLUNTEERS
In February, Volunteers & Recruiting ran recruitment for seven roles across four committees and one workgroup.
From January 23 to February 21, Volunteers & Recruiting received 182 new requests and completed 295, leaving them with 61 open requests (including induction and removal tasks listed below). As of February 21, 2026, the OTW has 985 volunteers. \o/ Recent personnel movements are listed below.
New Communications Volunteers: 3 Social Media Moderators
New Translation Volunteers: 1 Volunteer Manager and 1 Translator
New Volunteers & Recruiting Volunteers: corr and peaandsea (Chair Assistants) and 1 Volunteer
Departing Committee Chairs/Leads: Elizabeth Wiltshire (Organizational Culture Roadmap Head) and 1 Elections Chair
Departing AO3 Documentation Volunteers: 1 Editor
Departing Communications Volunteers: Abby (Social Media Moderator) and 2 Weibo Moderators
Departing Elections Volunteers: 1 Voting Process Architect
Departing Open Doors Volunteers: Mei and 2 other Import Assistants, and 1 Chair Assistant
Departing Support Volunteers: Mily and RRHand (Volunteers)
Departing Tag Wrangling Volunteers: Indes, lifeisyetfair, PinkBrain, plantpun, and 14 other Tag Wrangling Volunteers
Departing Translation Volunteers: Idiosincrasy (Volunteer Manager and Translator), 3 Volunteer Managers, and 1 Translator
Departing Volunteers & Recruiting Volunteers: corr, peaandsea, and 1 other 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.
Monday, March 9th, 2026 08:58 pm
We all started out this morning, but Chris had to leave early, so I met only U at Jewel Lake. She got there first, which I don't recall happenning before, but Lower Packrat was wonderfully active and I stopped to listen and look many times. The California Towhees were "singing", which I love though it's not melodic. I heard several Allen's Hummingbirds' diving wing whirr and watched one flying their display pattern, so that was a treat. The Wilson's Warblers have arrived! One was reported yesterday so we were expecting them, but it still took me a moment to recognize their song after so long. ( The list: )
Biggest surprise of the morning: when I got to the Lake U told me there was a Common Goldeneye! We used to get several species besides Mallard on the Lake in Winter, but now it's unusual and exciting.
Biggest surprise of the morning: when I got to the Lake U told me there was a Common Goldeneye! We used to get several species besides Mallard on the Lake in Winter, but now it's unusual and exciting.
Tags:
Sunday, March 8th, 2026 12:05 pm
Hard to believe I hadn't been up there in a month! If it wasn't Spring yet then, it is now. Well before dawn I was on the first rise, waiting for the sun and listening to the dawn chorus, not just migrants such as Orange-crowned Warblers and Ruby-crowned Kinglets (they don't breed here but they sure do sing), but locals, especially Purple Finches. It was wonderful. There was an Allen's Hummingbird displaying and Spotted Towhees, Oak Titmice and Lesser Goldfinches singing, and the California Thrasher was working up to singing at the north end of the trail. I also had some less usual species on my list. A flock of Cedar Waxwings made a few passes; a Double-crested Cormorant flew west, presumably to fish; there were a few American White Pelicans on the reservoir; and a single Snow Goose flew over! ( The list: )
The White-crowned Sparrow singing near the parking lot as I returned was quite a surprise. I don't see many up there and hear ever fewer. Must be migration!
The White-crowned Sparrow singing near the parking lot as I returned was quite a surprise. I don't see many up there and hear ever fewer. Must be migration!
Tags:
Sunday, March 8th, 2026 03:07 pm
Part of trying to use Dreamwidth more is realizing all the things I haven't shared here. Such as: As of December, after 16 years in Canada, I am now a Canadian Citizen!
I had a celebratory citizenship/birthday party last night, surrounded by the family and community I've joined/built here in Canada and it was so lovely and affirming and energizing in exactly the way I needed right now.
I had a celebratory citizenship/birthday party last night, surrounded by the family and community I've joined/built here in Canada and it was so lovely and affirming and energizing in exactly the way I needed right now.
Thursday, March 5th, 2026 03:40 pm
Chris and I walked mostly around César Chavez this morning. Chris used to walk there weekly with his dog so is very familiar with it. Tide was high so few shorebirds, and over all it was pretty quiet. We saw and heard a couple of Savannah Sparrows and a flock of Western Meadowlarks, and one Burrowing Owl was visible in the second spot, though which owl that was only they know. ( The list: )
I didn't want to go home when Chris left so I sat in my car watching the ground squirrels; it's Spring for them, too.:) Something I couldn't identify was bobbing along just off the rocks and when I grabbed my bins, I saw it was a Common Murre. ( I hate when this happens. ) Head in the sand, that's me.
I didn't want to go home when Chris left so I sat in my car watching the ground squirrels; it's Spring for them, too.:) Something I couldn't identify was bobbing along just off the rocks and when I grabbed my bins, I saw it was a Common Murre. ( I hate when this happens. ) Head in the sand, that's me.
Tags:
Sunday, March 8th, 2026 02:55 pm
I'm going to be in France, The UK, Belgium, and Germany in May and June!
I'm quite sure I know many people in at least some of these places and I'd love to see as many of you as I can make happen!
As I noted to Ian just now, seeing things is great and awesome and absolutely something I want to do, but the highlight of travel for me is seeing people, especially ones I've known for ages but never met in person.
Tentative schedule currently is:
- arrive in Paris the morning of May 26th
- May 26-June 5 - various locations in France including but not necessarily limited to Paris and Limoges.
- plane from somewhere in France to Birmingham the morning of the 5th of June.
- June 5-7 VidUKon in Birmingham
- June 7-??? - various locations in the UK including London and Portsmouth, other options depending on people and travel options.
- ??? - Train from London to Brussels
- 2 days later - sleeper from Brussels to Berlin
- ??? (tbd quite soon) - fly home from Berlin.
I'll be buying my flight home in the next couple days, at which point all the dates between Birmingham and Berlin will firm up at least a bit.
This is going to be my first time in Europe since I lived in Berlin for three months in 2000. I've never been to France. I've never been to Belgium. The last time I was in England was a high school trip in 1997. It's all both incredibly exciting and kind of terrifying.
Also, while I've done some solo travelling in the US and Canada, both my previous trips to Europe I was always travelling with at least one other person. So that adds an extra layer of nerves.
So, where should I go??? Who should I see??? How much can I vibrate out of my skin with nerves and excitement between now and the end of May???
I'm quite sure I know many people in at least some of these places and I'd love to see as many of you as I can make happen!
As I noted to Ian just now, seeing things is great and awesome and absolutely something I want to do, but the highlight of travel for me is seeing people, especially ones I've known for ages but never met in person.
Tentative schedule currently is:
- arrive in Paris the morning of May 26th
- May 26-June 5 - various locations in France including but not necessarily limited to Paris and Limoges.
- plane from somewhere in France to Birmingham the morning of the 5th of June.
- June 5-7 VidUKon in Birmingham
- June 7-??? - various locations in the UK including London and Portsmouth, other options depending on people and travel options.
- ??? - Train from London to Brussels
- 2 days later - sleeper from Brussels to Berlin
- ??? (tbd quite soon) - fly home from Berlin.
I'll be buying my flight home in the next couple days, at which point all the dates between Birmingham and Berlin will firm up at least a bit.
This is going to be my first time in Europe since I lived in Berlin for three months in 2000. I've never been to France. I've never been to Belgium. The last time I was in England was a high school trip in 1997. It's all both incredibly exciting and kind of terrifying.
Also, while I've done some solo travelling in the US and Canada, both my previous trips to Europe I was always travelling with at least one other person. So that adds an extra layer of nerves.
So, where should I go??? Who should I see??? How much can I vibrate out of my skin with nerves and excitement between now and the end of May???