Archive of Our Own

Last November we asked the community to submit questions to our OTW volunteers in celebration of International Volunteer Day. In this series of posts we will spotlight some of our committees' responses.

The Support committee is the first point of contact for users of the Archive of Our Own (AO3) when they encounter issues, have questions, or want to submit feedback or feature requests. Internally at the OTW, Support collaborates with other committees frequently, forwarding relevant questions and information to them, or consulting them on specific topics. Besides answering tickets, they also handle several other tasks, like maintaining the AO3 Known Issues page or assisting with testing bug fixes and new features on AO3.

We asked the Support committee for replies to your questions, and received a lot of feedback! Below you can find a selection of their answers:

Support Committee Specific Question

How is Fannish Next of Kin enacted after one of the parties involved in the agreement passes away?

Committee answer:
After a creator with a Fannish Next-of-Kin passes away, the FNOK can contact us and the fannish next-of-kin agreement is activated. We will update the email associated with the account to match the address provided by your next-of-kin. Your next-of-kin will then be able to reset the password through the normal "Forgot password" process. Control will then be fully transferred to your FNOK. Please see our Fannish Next-of-Kin FAQ for more information.

General Questions

How many hours a week do you spend on your OTW volunteer work?

• I try to focus more on meeting the expected number of tickets over how many hours I spend working in a week but I think I do hit the ten hours per week that I signed up for. (Louie)
• Not super sure, but definitely a lot! I should probably try and time it at some point to check. I'd say over 15 hours, and that's me low-balling it. (Mille K)

How do you manage your volunteer time, and do you do the same thing every day like with a day job?

• First, I catch up on our internal chat tool; then I work on any of my Support tickets that need something done; and then I beta tickets from other Support volunteers, interspersing it with a few tickets of my own. If there is something specific that needs to be done by a Chair Assistant or I'm working on a project, then that comes before betas. (Jennifer)
• Chaos! It really depends on the rest of my schedule for the day, and my energy levels. I prioritize urgent tasks as much as possible. (Kyrie)

What's your favorite part about volunteering at the OTW?

• It sounds cliche I know, but helping others. And the volunteering environment is great, everyone's just so nice! :D (Wtchmn23)
• Answering user's tickets and mentoring saltlings (new Support volunteers) (Jennifer)

What's the aspect of volunteer work with the OTW that you most wish more people knew about?

• Just that the number of tickets compared to the number of people (and the time they are able to spend on it) means that some tickets either slip through the cracks or have other reasons they're not responded to in a "timely" manner (PK)
• That despite the fact that we all lead busy lives, the amount of passion people put into doing all they reasonably can for the OTW, our projects, our users, and our fellow volunteers is staggering. Oh and looking at other Support volunteers answers... that we are not paid xD This is not our only job and we're definitely not available 24/7! (Kyrie)
• That unlike many other Support forms out there on the internet, there are real humans on the other side. I love helping people, but it’s hard to keep your spirits up when the folks you volunteer for just swear at you. (Paula)

What does a typical day as an OTW volunteer looks like for you?

• My standard daily routine is: check our ticketing system to see if any tickets have been proofread (betaed) by another volunteer, then check our internal chat tool for key messages and replies. After that, I'll go back to our ticketing system to work on open tickets and find some new ones. Before logging off, I ask senior salts to look up user information I need for my tickets on our internal chat tool for the next day. Newer folks don’t get access to that information right away. (ZZ)
• First, I do some backreading of the messages in channels, check out the odd tickets that were mentioned or documents (like the opportunity to submit answers for this Q&A). Then, I will do some tickets. I start by sending out all my tickets that have been betaed, and then I get my hands on new ones. I'd like to start from later tickets and there's usually a date of where I am now and I start from there. At last I try to do some betas. (Wtchmn23)

What is your favorite animal? Alternatively, do you have a favorite breed of cat/dog?

• Today, the ADHD says dragonflies. Butterflies and moths also commonly come up. (Sam)
• I like finches and birds in general though they also scare me a lot. (ChangYan)

Do you enjoy reading fanfic? If so, what's your favorite work on AO3?

• Very much so, although I'd have trouble picking one single "favorite". The one I've probably recommended the most is "Don't Go", which is in the She-Ra fandom, and was actually written by the creator under an alias. (PK)
• I think my fave is a work called Love Is (Not) A Battlefield, Or: Gay Panic! At the BB Lounge, which is a fantastic Ya Boy Kongming! work. It's just extremely cute and sweet, and funny! And very true to canon. (Mille K)

Do you write any fanfic yourself? What do you enjoy about it?

• Yes. I enjoy being creative and hearing from my readers that my work brings them joy (or sadness, sometimes you've got to write the angst) (Anren)
• I do dabble in writing, but translation is my true love and calling. Ann Goldstein says "translating can be like lining up unruly toddlers who have their own sense of order," and nothing excites me more than an intellectual puzzle of trying to pin down the exact right word. (Liv)

What fandoms are you (currently) in?

• Batman! It's funny cause I don't really know much about canon I just piece together canon from what I read. (killiane)
• Woo, I am in a lot now. Mainly F1 RPF, sometimes code geass, or quanzhigaoshou (Sorry I don't know the exact english name) My bookmarks show that I was really into Star Trek a couple years ago. (Ziting)

Do you feel glad or proud to see fanfiction in your mother tongue?

• This question is more challenging than the rest for me, because I have very complicated feelings about Vietnamese fandom on AO3 lol. I rarely read Vietnamese fic on AO3, but in 2024 while I was hyperactive in a Vietnamese survival show fandom, during the period of three months I:
  1. translated around 600-800 Vietnamese tags,
  2. published multiple fanworks in Vietnamese and English,
  3. created a whole fanblog (it now has more than 2 thousands followers lmao) to promote AO3 to Vietnamese fans,
  4. indirectly (allegedly) skyrocketed the amount of Vietnamese Support tickets as a result, oops 😂
  One year later, looking at the current Vietnamese fanworks stat on AO3, I'm quite fond of the whole journey despite the occasional hiccups I encountered. (Anh Pham)
• Years ago when I first discovered fandom, the English community was way bigger than the Chinese one, at least for my ship. So I hung out on Tumblr and AO3, read a lot of amazing and frankly life-changing fics, commented and made rec lists and made friends with people from all over the world. It was one of the best things that happened to me and I wouldn't change it for anything. In 2021, however, we had a renaissance in Chinese fandom. And let me tell you, being able to read and write and participate in fests in your native language is like an epiphany. Is this something y'all have been able to enjoy all the time? Jealousy does not begin to describe how I feel. No more fumbling, no more worrying, I can be as unhinged as I want. Eventually we became good friends in real life, too. We call each other nicknames and meet up several times a year. Nothing, absolutely nothing, can compare to this. (Liv)

Thanks so much to every volunteer who took the time to answer!

(For more answers from Support volunteers, check out this work on AO3, where we'll collect additional replies to each question!)

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.

Every month or so the OTW will be doing a Q&A with one of its volunteers about their experiences in the organization. The posts express each volunteer's personal views and do not necessarily reflect the views of the OTW or constitute OTW policy. Today's post is with Mille K, who volunteers in the Support Committee.

How does what you do as a volunteer fit into what the OTW does?

So, as the blurb said, I'm a volunteer for the OTW’s Support branch, which I've been doing since May 2024! I'm sure other Support volunteers have explained this far more eloquently in the past, but we basically help users with a wide variety of things. If you want to ask how to change your password, we're the people to ask. If you run into some kind of error, shoot us a message. If a work has been tagged with the wrong language, that's also us! Basically, we help the OTW-machine run smoothly.

What is a typical week like for you as a volunteer?
Personally, that depends from week to week! We don't send out responses to users until another volunteer has read it over and given it the go-ahead (known as betaing), so some weeks I get a lot of my own tickets done, other weeks I prefer focusing on betaing for others! I like to work while I'm drinking something and listening to music, just to make it a bit more cozy. (My music of choice is Citypop and soundtracks to anime and games!)

What made you decide to volunteer?
To put it very simply, AO3/the OTW has done so much for me, and I wanted to give back. It's been amazing for my personal growth to have a place to meet like-minded people, to post my works to, to read works that have moved me in some form… and then to get to help it run is an amazing experience!

What has been your biggest challenge doing work for the OTW?
Probably having to learn so many new things, like how to use all of our tools, or all of the internal phrasing. It's definitely been challenging to pick all of that up, but it's also been super fun, and everyone else has been incredible so far!

What fannish things do you like to do?
I mainly read and write fanfic! I also enjoy art immensely, although I can't for the life of me make it myself. I also participate in online events from time to time, such as bangs, fests, exchanges, and online cons!

Now that our volunteer’s said five things about what they do, it’s your turn to ask one more thing! Feel free to ask about their work in the comments. Or if you'd like, you can check out earlier Five Things posts.

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.

Every month or so the OTW will be doing a Q&A with one of its volunteers about their experiences in the organization. The posts express each volunteer's personal views and do not necessarily reflect the views of the OTW or constitute OTW policy. Today's post is with Jennifer D2, who volunteers on our Support committee.

How does what you do as a volunteer fit into what the OTW does?

I have two volunteer hats at OTW! I am a Support Volunteer for AO3, and I also spend a little time as an Import Assistant for Open Doors. I’ll be talking about my Support role, because that’s where I spend most of my volunteer time.

As you probably know, AO3, or Archive of Our Own, is the fanwork Archive that OTW runs. Sometimes, when you’re using AO3, you might run into a problem! That’s where Support comes in. You can contact us using the link at the bottom of any AO3 page. No question too small! Users write in with questions about getting accounts or even just getting access to the Archive, or maybe a creator is struggling with posting their work. Or a dreaded error message comes up. We get all kinds of questions.

I love doing Support work. I mean I really love it. I get to talk to people about AO3, and hopefully I get to help people! What’s not to love? I work with a fantastic team and two really great Chairs (and one great retired Chair). I’m blown away by the professionalism, enthusiasm, and deep knowledge of the Archive that my teammates bring to their work. We do all this in our free time, so we must love it!

If you are having problems with your experience at the Archive, we want you to write in; we’d like to try to help. The flip side of that is that we are a mighty but rather small team, so if you write to us, please have patience. We will get to your ticket; it just might take a little while.

What is a typical week like for you as a volunteer?

I work 2-3 hours on Support every day (because it’s just so much fun I don’t want to take any time off!). First I catch up on our group chat, to see what issues might be happening or what new things people might have solved. Then I check out my “current claimed tickets” pile to see if anyone has responded to me. Then I alternate between taking new tickets and “beta”ing, or editing, tickets other Support volunteers have answered. That’s right—almost none of our answers go out without a second set of eyes looking them over! We want to be really sure we got it right.

My personal favorite is answering non-English tickets. We work closely with the fabulous Translation committee to craft the right answers in users’ first languages. Sometimes I also spend a little time working on some of the computer software tools we use in Support.

One thing that I have to mention, that I love, about working at OTW is how willing people are to teach each other how to do things without mocking them for not already knowing. It’s a continuation of AO3’s origins, where people taught themselves how to build an archive in response to LiveJournal’s strikethrough and other fanwork losses.

What made you decide to volunteer?

I’d been a devout reader on AO3 for years, and I had some free time, so when the call went out for Support volunteers I thought, hey, let’s see if I get in! One of the best decisions I ever made. I’m so grateful to the leaders for taking a chance on me.

What has been your biggest challenge doing work for the OTW?

It’s a technical challenge: I still don’t have the hang of challenges and prompt memes! I’m learning, but when those tickets come up, I confess I often leave them to others who are much better versed in those useful but tricky features that the Archive provides. Give me another five years, and I’ll be an expert!

What fannish things do you like to do?

I haven’t been that active in fandom since the pandemic hit. I used to go to science fiction conventions fairly often, and once I got to go to a local slash con, which was a revelation!

I play on Tumblr every day where I get to see others in my fandoms. I have, in the past, written for my fandoms, but the writing bug has eluded me for a few years. Never say never, though! I’m sure I’ll get back into writing (almost exclusively slash—does that term date me? I’m fandom old!) sooner or later.

I can’t draw worth a hoot, but I really enjoy others’ art. I’ve also been known to record a podfic here or there. And of course I read AO3 every day.

Now that our volunteer’s said five things about what they do, it’s your turn to ask one more thing! Feel free to ask about their work in the comments. Or if you'd like, you can check out earlier Five Things posts.

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.

Every month or so the OTW will be doing a Q&A with one of its volunteers about their experiences in the organization. The posts express each volunteer's personal views and do not necessarily reflect the views of the OTW or constitute OTW policy. Today's post is with petricores, who works as a Support volunteer.

How does what you do as a volunteer fit into what the OTW does?

I volunteer with the AO3 Support Committee, which is the team responsible for handling feedback and requests for technical assistance from AO3 users. In a nutshell, we answer a lot of questions and requests sent by users from all over the world.

Support work is highly collaborative work; we don’t have all the answers all the time, so we regularly rely on the expertise and information supplied by our coders, sysadmins, tag wranglers, and translators, to name a few.

What is a typical week like for you as a volunteer?

Out of an abundance of superstitious caution, I will refrain from characterizing a “typical” week – you just never know! Our queue of Support inquiries can go from perfectly ordinary with your run-of-the-mill “I can’t log in” tickets, to a hundred reports of the same error flooding in at once (like the DDoS attack from July). Waking up and checking our volunteering tools to find such incidents is like running towards the tree on Christmas morning to check your presents, but a bit less joyous.

Special occasions aside, I typically spend a few hours per week, usually on evenings or weekends, claiming Support requests and drafting replies to them. I also beta and provide feedback on email replies drafted by other Support volunteers, and help the Accessibility, Design & Technology Committee (AD&T) with testing fixes or improvements to the Archive’s features.

What made you decide to volunteer?

I applied for the role and had my interview in spring 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic had shut everything down overnight. I was very lucky that the pandemic lockdown led to me having a lot of leisurely time on my hands, and as a result I was spending more time on reading/writing fics. When I saw the volunteer position posting, I figured why not apply and try it out? It’s funny, even though I created my AO3 account in 2013, I did not learn what the Statistics page is until I started training as a Support volunteer.

As luck would have it, I absolutely love what I do in Support. It has been a very rewarding experience. I could not have anticipated the increased amount of traffic and popularity that the Archive experienced from 2020 onwards, particularly among users from non-Anglophone countries. Even after 3 years I still think it’s so exciting and cool that I can help both English-speaking users and users who share my mother tongue to gain more out of their experience using the Archive as a bilingual person.

What has been your biggest challenge doing work for the OTW?

Due to the nature of the Archive and OTW’s operations, most of our activities must take place via text-based communications. I find the constraints of text-based communication to be the biggest challenge both when troubleshooting issues with AO3 users and when collaborating with other OTW volunteers.

I lean on my fellow Support volunteers heavily for beta reading and/or giving me suggestions on making my drafted reply easier to read and follow (especially if I need to give instructions to the user on what troubleshooting steps to try), especially since they are likely confused or frustrated already.

In a similar vein, learning people’s different communication styles within the OTW is also a key part of learning how to do this job well. As I said earlier, there is a lot of collaboration that goes into what Support does; as a volunteer, I’ve definitely had to train myself to get better at observing other volunteers’ communication style and adapting my own communication, and I do my best to communicate effectively to the specific audience via text.

What fannish things do you like to do?

I read, I write, I browse, I kudos, I squee, I comment, I re-read. I re-read stuff a lot.

Now that our volunteer’s said five things about what they do, it’s your turn to ask one more thing! Feel free to ask about their work in the comments. Or if you'd like, you can check out earlier Five Things posts.

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.

Every month or so the OTW will be doing a Q&A with one of its volunteers about their experiences in the organization. The posts express each volunteer's personal views and do not necessarily reflect the views of the OTW or constitute OTW policy. Today's post is with Sammie Louise, who volunteers as an AO3 Documentation chair and Support volunteer.

How does what you do as a volunteer fit into what the OTW does?

My current volunteer roles are chair of the AO3 Documentation Committee and AO3 Support Committee volunteer. So what I do primarily is help people understand how to use the AO3 site and its features directly through my support work and indirectly through writing and editing our FAQs and help documentation.

What is a typical week like for you as a volunteer?

As a committee chair, a lot of what I do on a weekly basis is background admin type work. I meet with the other chairs every week where we discuss any short or long term projects and what we need to be doing to move those forward. I also review the documents that our volunteer editors have been working on and sometimes meet with the editors directly to address any questions. Occasionally, I have the time to work on a document myself. ;)

In AO3 Support, I unfortunately rarely have the time to take user enquiries directly, but I do spend some time helping to troubleshoot an issue or check responses other Support staff have drafted. It's important we do these checks to make sure the answers we're sending are accurate, and fully answer the person's questions.

What made you decide to volunteer?

I've been a volunteer with the OTW since April 2014. I honestly can't remember what prompted me to volunteer. I think I was invested in a particular fandom at the time, and that led me to AO3. I had spare time on my hands and wanted to help out. I joined AO3 Documentation then, and have since also worked with OTW Translation, AO3 Policy and Abuse, and now AO3 Support.

What has been your biggest challenge doing work for the OTW?

Hmmmmm. That's a difficult question. I guess, over such a long period of time, maintaining my motivation can sometimes be a challenge. There are a number of things that remind me why I'm here though—sometimes we'll get a message through Support that lets us know our FAQs and Tutorials have been helpful to someone, and that's motivating. (Seriously, let us know what's helped you out, you can contact us via the Technical Support and Feedback form in the footer.) Also, I'm working with a phenomenal group of people who I genuinely like, so that also helps keep me on track.

What fannish things do you like to do?

I read on AO3 a LOT. Like, an unreasonable amount of fan fiction reading is going on in my life LOL. I dabbled in writing many years ago, and that was fun and felt like a huge accomplishment. But I seem to have run out of stories to tell, so I mostly enjoy the stories others have shared. There's so much writing talent in fandom, it's inspiring.

Now that our volunteer’s said five things about what they do, it’s your turn to ask one more thing! Feel free to ask about their work in the comments. Or if you'd like, you can check out earlier Five Things posts.

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.

As we continue to work on better balancing the responsibilities of our Support and Policy & Abuse committees, we are shifting two further types of issues from Policy & Abuse to Support's mandate:

Fannish Next-of-Kin

This is an option we offer that allows a designated person to manage your account if you die or become incapacitated. To learn more about the Fannish Next-of-Kin program, you can read our TOS FAQ on the subject. Please note that if you have a currently-in-process Fannish Next-of-Kin request, our Policy & Abuse team will complete the ones that they have already received.

Going forward, if you wish to set up a Fannish Next-of-Kin, or need to change or activate one currently in place, please contact Support.

Duplicate works

Sometimes, due to a glitch or error, a work may be posted multiple times. This can be reported to our Support team, who will investigate and take down exact duplicates. Please note that works that contain different content (such as a work that is an edited or rewritten version of another work) will not be considered exact duplicates.

If you wish to report works that are exact duplicates of one another, please include links to both or all of the works in question in your report to our Support team. We hope these changes will be helpful by allowing our Policy and Abuse team members to devote more of their time and energy to other issues!

Every month or so the OTW will be doing a Q&A with one of its volunteers about their experiences in the organization. The posts express each volunteer's personal views and do not necessarily reflect the views of the OTW or constitute OTW policy. Today's post is with V Snow, who volunteers on our Support Committee.

How does what you do as a volunteer fit into what the OTW does?

I volunteer for AO3 Support. We are the team users can contact if they are having technical issues with the Archive. We deal with a very wide range of issues, but a lot of it is helping users when they are having a hard time activating accounts, changing passwords, etc. Our work helps users get back to using the site when they have a problem. This fits in with the OTW’s goals because, well, without Support a lot of users wouldn’t be able to access the Archive at all.

What is a typical week like for you as a volunteer?

We have no set schedule or required workload in Support so it varies. Mostly it's keeping an eye on the reports coming in and grabbing ones I can answer. When I have some spare minutes I will write responses and approve others' responses so they can be sent.

One of the things I appreciate about Support is that there is a lot of flexibility in the workload. If I’m feeling especially motivated I can grab a more complicated ticket, which may require internal consultation and multiple back and forths with the user. But if I am not up to a lot of work, I can pick out some easier tickets and/or beta other responses.

What made you decide to volunteer?

I was trying and failing to find work at the time and people kept telling me to volunteer to add to my resume. Nowhere in person worked for my situation or wanted my help. I'd been a fan and user of the Archive for years and the work Support does interested me. So when Support applications opened up, I figured why not!

Of course, I ended up getting a job before I even settled in with Support or had a chance to put this on my resume. But it wasn’t even a question of continuing to volunteer because I realised how much I enjoyed it.

What has been your biggest challenge doing work for the OTW?

Probably the technical aspects. Because Support deals with bug reports we often work with the Accessibility, Design & Technology Committee (AD&T) to discuss reports. My coding knowledge is minimal and a lot of the technical details go over my head, but just through osmosis I have learned a whole bunch about how the site works from a technical perspective.

The other main challenge was the sheer amount of knowledge. Knowledge of how the site works (and the issues people encounter) was one thing, but also learning how the organization works and who to ask for what was also a challenge. The OTW is a huge and complicated place with a long history. It took a bit to figure it all out and start to feel like I belong.

With all these challenges I am glad I took the time to get through them, as the work is all the more rewarding now.

What fannish things do you like to do?

I would say my main fannish activity is beta reading/editing for various fandoms. I do also do some writing myself, but betaing is what I love. I participate in and help run a variety of Big Bangs. This brings me a lot of joy, to get to plan and organize things and watch the fandom come together to create content. Of course, I also read fic and spend inordinate amounts of time discussing headcanons with my friends.

Now that our volunteer’s said five things about what they do, it’s your turn to ask one more thing! Feel free to ask about their work in the comments. Or if you'd like, you can check out earlier Five Things posts.

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.

In order to better balance the workloads of our Support and Policy & Abuse committees, we are making some changes to who is responsible for which kinds of requests.

Policy & Abuse will continue to address Terms of Service violations, and Support will continue to answer questions on how to use the site and address bug reports, as always. But there are some cases which Policy & Abuse have previously been handling, and which will now be handled by Support. These are:

• Loss of access to an account (for example, if you no longer remember or have access to the email address you used to set up your account in order to receive a password reset)
• Questions and problems concerning orphaned works
• Works labeled with an incorrect language

If you need to report one of these issues, please contact Support. If you direct a report of any kind to the wrong department, it's okay! We'll either transfer the report directly, or ask you to resubmit it to the correct team.

We hope these changes will be helpful by allowing our Policy & Abuse team members to devote more of their time and energy to other issues!

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.

Every month or so the OTW will be doing a Q&A with one of its volunteers about their experiences in the organization. The posts express each volunteer's personal views and do not necessarily reflect the views of the OTW or constitute OTW policy. Today's post is with Paula, who volunteers as a staffer in AO3's Support Committee.

How does what you do as a volunteer fit into what the OTW does?

I’m Support Staff and a tag wrangler. As a Tag Wrangler, I wrangle tags. I make sure you can find your MPREG and Fluff. We’ve had plenty of awesome tag wranglers explain it better than I ever could so, I’ll skip to my other role. As Support staff, I help people who use the site to…well...use the site LOL. When you contact Support about not being able to get your account set up, that’s me. When your work doesn’t post with the correct date or is acting otherwise wonky? I’m your girl.

We also do quite a bit of bug hunting. When someone reports a weird site behavior we’re on the job. We help our Accessibility, Design, & Technology Committee figure out if it’s a problem with the site, a browser issue, or just a one-time gremlin we can’t track down. We also look for trends in what’s being reported so that we can let the people who need to know that there’s a problem, know that, well, there’s a problem.

I’ve volunteered with the Support Committee for two years now. It’s fascinating to see the issues and feedback ebb and flow over time. What was once an immediate "in your face" issue two years ago isn’t anymore, and new issues pop up that we never could have dreamed of then. We also work with the Translation Committee to translate incoming tickets and translate our response. They’ve often been able to add a cultural context to a ticket that helps immensely in answering the question or figuring out what’s going on. (Love my translation peeps!)

What is a typical week like for you as a volunteer?

The nice thing about Support is that while it is a decent chunk of work, it’s the kind of work you can do in between other things. I usually wake up in the morning and briefly browse the mobile app for the ticket tracking program we use. (Rather than, you know, rolling out of bed to get ready for work… this is more fun.) Sometimes I’ll claim tickets right there, especially if it’s something for which I can tell right away what the issue is.

When I have time at work or grad school, I’ll check again and see what’s coming in (or maybe tag wrangle a bit on my phone). The Support staff also works quite collaboratively on tickets. Sometimes I’ll assist another Support staffer to troubleshoot a quirky issue. I’ll also "beta" a few tickets during the day as well. (That’s exactly what it sounds like -- proofreading and double-checking the solutions on another staffer’s tickets).

Later in the evening, or even the next day, I’ll go through the tickets I’ve assigned myself and write responses. I’ll send tickets to the Translation Committee to check for meaning, or translate an answer into a user's language. I’ll talk to the appropriate committee to get the information I need to solve a problem. Sometimes I’ll edit our internal documentation to account for things like Gmail updating their interface or a new iOS upgrade. That way we can make sure we’re giving people the correct instructions to fix things like caching issues or email being sent to spam.

There are days when real life is just too busy, so at most I can help other Staffers with solutions or check in with another committee.

What made you decide to volunteer?

I see volunteering for the OTW as my contribution to fandom. I’ve never been much of a writer. I’m more a voracious fic reader and fandom nerd. I used to roleplay on Livejournal and Dreamwidth back in the day. I started as a Tag Wrangler. I don’t know why that role appealed to me but it just seemed like FUN.

Later, as I got to know the people involved and just what happens behind the scenes, I realized I’d really like Support. I’ve always been a tech nerd. I work at a computer lab for my day job. Even before I was Support, I found myself helping other volunteers with their tech issues. I liked the people involved and it seemed like a natural fit.

What's the most fun thing to you about volunteering for the OTW?

There are two things I really love about volunteering for the OTW. The first is the community. This is an amazing group of people. I’ve made real-life friends and had meetups with volunteers offline. I took an international study trip for grad school and there were OTW people half a world away to meet with! We joke that you can go anywhere in the world and find a person from the OTW that you’d be able to have coffee with (if not crash on their floor).

Because we’re so international I’ve learned so much about other cultures and countries just by hanging around and squeeing about Robert Downey Jr. or Assassins Creed or even sharing pictures of our cats because cats are liquid and adorable and bleps and mlems!!! The support the OTW volunteer community gives each other through thick and thin is nothing short of amazing...especially lately.

The other thing is the feeling you get from being a part of something bigger than yourself. I’m continually amazed that we do what we do. It’s incredible to see something you’ve worked so hard on flourish. To see that fix for a bug you discovered, and helped test, go live. To know that your work (even when it drives you absolutely insane) is helping fannish communities all over the world…it’s a bit of a rush.

What fannish things do you like to do?

This is where I confess I’m a huge Robert Downey Jr. fangirl. So, stare lovingly into his eyes? Read Endgame fix-it fics?

Ok, I’m mostly joking there. As I’m not much of a writer I read a ton of fic. I joined fandom way back in the day on Usenet! I’ll skim Tumblr or go to my favorite fic finder community and see if I like something. Why a fic finding community? My theory on that is, if it was good enough to stick in someone’s mind so that they want to read it again? Chances are it’s a good fic!

Lately, my fandom has mostly been existing with other fans! Doing meetups or talking meta...once conventions resume I’m looking forward to getting into that aspect of fandom!

Now that our volunteer’s said five things about what they do, it’s your turn to ask one more thing! Feel free to ask about their work in comments although, if it's a question about AO3 you need help with, please use the Support form so that our volunteers can work together in addressing your problem. Or if you'd like, you can check out earlier Five Things posts.

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.

Every month or so the OTW will be doing a Q&A with one of its volunteers about their experiences in the organization. The posts express each volunteer's personal views and do not necessarily reflect the views of the OTW or constitute OTW policy. Today's post is with Lex deLeon, who volunteers as a Support staffer and tag wrangler, and was recently elected to the OTW's Board of Directors.

How does what you do as a volunteer fit into what the OTW does?

As a member of the Support and Tag Wrangling teams, I feel I provide two different aspects of user to volunteer interaction with the Archive. As a tag wrangler, I take loose ideas that people use to describe their stories in the Character, Relationship or Additional Tags fields on their works and make them synonymous with common tags that many people use for searching. There are far too many examples for this, but it is basically like taking fandom ideas and making them make sense to someone who isn't in fandom. The thought process can be the same at times! There can be a lot of research associated with this, especially when someone likes to use fanon specific nicknames. It is a largely invisible, but invaluable task.

As a member of the Support team, I reply to tickets that are sent in by users of the site. This may be as simple as "I can't log in", which is a common complaint to any site with login capability. Those of you out there who have suffered this, you are not alone! Or it could be more complex questions, such as "how do I post a new work". It is always important to me to respond with the utmost of professionalism and respect, as I was once one of those users who didn't know a slash (/) from an ampersand (&). Hint: the first means a romantic or sexual relationship, the second means friendship or platonic.

Overall, I feel my work in the OTW is something that allows me to contribute in a generally positive way to the larger fandom communities that are out there.

What is a typical week like for you as a volunteer?

Generally, any work as a volunteer starts the same way -- caffeine. I will openly admit to being a thorough and unashamed addict, whether it be coffee or energy drinks. Then I will typically peruse new tags that have come in and send them to the appropriate locations as needed. On Support days, I will begin by selecting a ticket which I am comfortable tackling given my level of energy or time -- if a ticket is one which I know will require an hour of research or time, I will not begin working on it when I have ten minutes free. Much of my work as a volunteer is essentially time and resource (read: my own energy levels) management.

My father taught me a crucial lesson as a child: the only normal day was yesterday. Being willing and able to accept this kind of variability has been a huge help to my work as a volunteer.

What made you decide to volunteer?

I had wanted to volunteer for a while but had never happened upon the application at the right time. One day, I came to the Archive to peruse new femslash and saw it -- a shining beacon of a new News post, heralding "Volunteers needed!" I applied and the rest, as they say, was history. The mission of the OTW at large aligns with what I believe we as a fannish culture at large should be striving for -- not just a space for us to post out stories and pictures and videos, but a place that actively strives to protect our rights to do so.

What's the most fun thing to you about volunteering for the OTW?

Of all of the things I have learned and experienced during my time volunteering, the most rewarding thing has been discovering that I am not alone. I am not the only one who sees this rare ship, I am not the only one who sees the need for this fight, and I am not the only one who thinks that Certain Female Characters Were Robbed! While this is something I have also received from my other friends who do not volunteer, it is not always easy to yell into the void of my own fannish tumblr. I wish to discuss these things, to work out my thoughts and find a cohesive narrative from the frequently broken and half baked ideas that we are presented with from canon. The friendships I have made, and the relationships I have forged are ones which I hope are ones which stay with me for a long time.

Other than that, I'd have to say learning about new fandoms. I have SO MANY NEW SHIPS.

What fannish things do you like to do?

I have been writing since roughly 1992, though almost all of my early work is gone. I have never stopped writing, though I have taken hiatuses over the years for personal reasons. I have spent countless hours perusing fan manipulations, fan mixes, fan vids -- but my heart remains with fanfic. Whether reading or writing, that is where my main focus has always been.

I've drifted between fandoms over the years -- oh, the fond memories I have of the long dead Popular mailing list! -- though I do have to admit all of my fandoms have one thing in common. It is a failing, perhaps, or a strength. All of my fandoms have invariably been femslash. It has become a running joke amongst my friends, though additionally an advertisement, that I will invariably know of or be in the fandom for a lot of fandoms that have femslash.

Of everything I do in fandom, remembering what has come before and continuing to work toward allowing others the space and freedom to explore their own fannish tendencies is the thing I am most proud of. It is akin to the classic quote frequently misattributed to Voltaire but which is from Evelyn Beatrice Hall: "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it."

Now that our volunteer’s said five things about what they do, it’s your turn to ask one more thing! Feel free to ask about their work in comments. Or if you'd like, you can check out earlier Five Things posts.

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.

Every month or so the OTW will be doing a Q&A with one of its volunteers about their experiences in the organization. The posts express each volunteer's personal views and do not necessarily reflect the views of the OTW or constitute OTW policy. Today's post is with James Kruk, who volunteers as an AO3 Support Staffer.

How does what you do as a volunteer fit into what the OTW does?

I volunteer with the AO3 Support Committee, which has the responsibility of answering any questions about how to use the site. Really, it’s about making AO3 as accessible to as many as people as possible, and helping them get the most out of the Archive.

What is a typical week like for you as a volunteer?

AO3 Support has a fairly steady rhythm day-to-day. When people send in a request for technical support and feedback, it generates a support ticket, where it will be claimed or assigned to a Support volunteer. From there, we figure out what the response should be, or whether it needs to be passed along to another group, such as the AO3 Abuse Team (who deal with questions related to the Terms of Service), or to our translation team. Sometimes we get inundated with tickets (such as whenever the Archive goes offline for a few minutes), or when major events like Yuletide come along. And while it’s never entirely quiet, some weeks are smoother than others.

Some tickets can be answered in a manner of minutes, but many require some research, testing, and consulting with other volunteers. The questions users come to us with really can be about anything, so every week usually involves tinkering with something new. One week it’s figuring out if AO3 is compatible with the Tor Browser, the next, it’s figuring out how Google Chrome renders combining diacritics.

What made you decide to volunteer?

Way before I applied to volunteer, I’d been preaching the benefits of AO3 to everyone in my writing circles, trying to convey to them just how awesome of a platform it was. I found I really enjoyed showing off all the neat things you could do with the site, and I loved to tout its policy of maximum inclusiveness.

Eventually, I realized that my enthusiasm could maybe be made to actually help the Archive itself. With AO3 Support, I’ve found I’ve been able to directly improve people’s experiences of using the Archive, helping them enjoy it the same way I do. And that has been incredibly rewarding.

What’s the most fun thing to you about volunteering for the OTW?

Helping authors publish their fics the way they want them to appear. Sometimes that involves showing writers how to embed images in a work, how to right-align text, how to format line breaks or add in a hyperlink. You can do a ton of cool things with HTML to get your story to look just how you imagine, and helping authors with the finishing touches is extremely rewarding.

What fannish things do you like to do?

I write fanfiction as regularly as I’m able to. I remember typing up Star Wars adventures on my computer when I was maybe ten years old, and I don’t believe that the bug ever really left me. I began publishing in earnest around 2013, and soon made AO3 my home for all my works. I used to stick primarily in one or two fandoms and wrote mostly in the same genre, but I’ve grown much more comfortable experimenting over the years, both in terms of style and subject. I crossed the half-million word mark not too long ago, and have no plans to stop now!

Now that our volunteer’s said five things about what they do, it’s your turn to ask one more thing! Feel free to ask about their work in comments. Or if you'd like, you can check out earlier Five Things posts.

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.

We recently received reports about one or more Tumblr accounts posing as "AO3 consultants" and contacting other users about their works on the Archive. In those messages, users are asked to take down their works "due to reports of abuse" or else have their works deleted by AO3 admins.

These messages are in no way sanctioned by the AO3 Policy & Abuse committee, who will never contact users via social media. All messages you receive from our Support and Abuse teams will be signed by the volunteer contacting you, and will reference specific abuse reports, requests for technical support, or other matters pertaining to your account.

Please keep your email address up to date, as this is our only way of getting in touch with you. To check, follow these instructions for changing the email address associated with your account. (If you go to that page and don't see a place to enter your password, that's a known issue, sorry! You can work around it by following these steps to change your password.)

Every month or so the OTW will be doing a Q&A with one of its volunteers about their experiences in the organization. The posts express each volunteer's personal views and do not necessarily reflect the views of the OTW or constitute OTW policy. Today's post is with Nary, who volunteers as a Support staffer and Tag Wrangler.

How does what you do as a volunteer fit into what the OTW does?

I volunteer as part of the AO3 Support team, which means that I handle questions that come in about the site and how it works, requests for new features, and problems when something is broken or not working the expected way.

The Support team works closely with many other committees -- Tag Wrangling when there's a problem with a tag; AD&T when there are issues with the site's performance; when bugs are found and fixed; and when new features are being developed; Abuse when addressing issues that fall under the Archive's Terms of Service; Documentation in order to help clarify the wording of the FAQs or other instructions on the site; Testing when we are trying to duplicate an issue a user is reporting; and Translation to handle requests for support that use languages apart from those spoken by members of the Support team.

I'm currently the liaison to the Tag Wrangling committee, which is handy because I'm also a tag wrangler, so I was already familiar with how the Tag Wrangling system works. Being the liaison means that I contact wranglers if a question comes in about a tag in one of their assigned fandoms, and relay their answer back to the user. If it's a question about a No Fandom tag, or a tag in a fandom that doesn't currently have a wrangler, I bring the question to the staff of the Tag Wrangling committee so that one of them can look into it.

What is a typical week like for you as a volunteer?

I answer a lot of questions via email! We receive support tickets through our tracking system, our volunteers claim them, draft an answer, get the answer beta-read by another Support staffer, and if everything looks good, send it off. We try to do this as quickly as we can, although if it requires consultation with another committee or testing a problem to see if we can duplicate it, it can take longer. And sometimes we just get a large number of requests in a short period of time, and it takes longer to work through them all!

We have templates for answering common questions that we can make use of, which helps things go more quickly, but even then we try to make sure we're tailoring the reply to the user's exact problem. For instance, if someone asks about how to filter out particular tags from their search results, we will try to use the specific tags they asked about in our example, if possible.

So pretty much every day I answer a number of support requests, and beta other people's answers to try and catch any typos or mistakes before the answer is sent. I'd estimate I spend an average of 2 hours a day on Support, although some days I do less and some more. I fit in a bit of tag wrangling around that when I have a chance. I've had to scale back how much I can do there, and limit myself mostly to fairly small fandoms that don't get a lot of new tags every day!

I tend to keep the OTW's internal chat service open most of the time, so that I can receive any urgent messages or find out about developments as they happen. We've also been training some new volunteers for Support lately (yay!) so I try to be available to answer questions for them as they come up.

The Support Committee created a graph showing the number of requests they've gotten since 2011. It looks like the 500 per month benchmark lasted a long time but was left in the dust last year. Were you around to see this change?

I've been volunteering for Support for a little over two years, so I did see the increase happening, although it didn't feel that dramatic to me, because I hadn't seen how things worked when we had a much lower volume of requests.

As requests were increasing, several of our Support staffers became Board members, so we were faced with more support requests, with fewer volunteers available to answer them. We have had to find ways to deal with the increase, as a committee, while still trying to provide the same level of service to our users. The increase in requests for help reflects the growth of the Archive as a whole, and I'm glad that people are finding us and making use of the service we provide. I also believe that part of the increase is because when users find Support helpful, they're more likely to come to us again with any future questions or problems, which is great!

One big help has been moving to our new ticket tracking system, which has streamlined the process a lot. It makes it quite a bit faster to go through the process of draft -> beta -> send, and we don't need to manually paste in answers from users if they reply to us, because it will thread any replies within the same ticket.

Another solution, of course, has been working to recruit and train more volunteers, which is a great help in keeping on top of the workload!

What's the most fun thing for you about volunteering?

By volunteering for Support, I've definitely learned things about how to use the Archive that I wasn't aware of before, even though I'd been a user of the site since 2009. For instance, I've become a lot more familiar with the searching and filtering options that are available, like how to exclude certain tags or make my searches more precise. Picking up new tips and tricks is always fun!

It's always especially satisfying when we can help someone with a tricky problem, too. I'm sure we've all had frustrating moments trying to get a website or piece of software to behave, and when you can get an answer from a real live human being that solves your problem, that's a great feeling. I'm happy to be able to provide that help to users.

What fannish things do you like to do?

I write fanfic, although I find that these days, when there are so many other demands on my time, I do best when I'm writing for an exchange -- having a deadline helps to motivate me, as does knowing that someone is counting on me to finish my story. So I participate in a handful of exchanges every year -- Yuletide and Jukebox for sure, and then a few others as time permits or interest strikes me. In 2016 so far I've participated in the Chocolate Box exchange and Smut Swap, for instance, and I'm planning to sign up for the Seeing Color exchange as well. I write in a wide variety of mostly-small fandoms, so multifandom exchanges are my favourite kind.

I'm also trying my hand at running an exchange on AO3 for the first time, called Three Worlds Travelers, for the Books of the Raksura series by Martha Wells. It's fairly small, but I'm very excited about it, because in any small fandom, new fic is always a cause for celebration! I had some experience running exchanges in the Song of Ice and Fire fandom years ago, but those were all run through LiveJournal, so it's been interesting to see first-hand all the features that AO3 offers to make the task simpler than it used to be. I'm sure it will make me more comfortable with answering the questions that we receive about collections and exchanges, too!

Now that our volunteer’s said five things about what they do, it’s your turn to ask one more thing! Feel free to ask about their work in comments. (If you have an AO3 support request though, please use the Support form, as that makes things easier on our volunteers!)

AO3 Support staffers are the people who receive your tickets through the Support and Feedback form and try to respond as soon as possible to register your feature suggestion, pass your bug report on to our coders, or do their best to help you out with a problem. However, when it comes to explaining how to do things or why something doesn't seem to be working right, the formal back-and-forth emails of a Support request aren't always ideal.

So Support will be holding an Open Chat session in our public chat room.

Unlike previous Open Chats, we're trying a new thing this year. This chat will be focused on the Posting and Editing forms! We'll have a walkthrough of tricks, methods, and known issues when adding your fannish creation to the Archive. Want some suggestions on how to add comments and notes beyond what the tags field will allow? Have a translation, or remix, or other creation inspired by an existing work? Are you posting to a challenge but never get it to work quite right? Are you wanting to post a work in a different language? Come find out how! (We'll still have a few staffers around to answer some general questions, too.)

We'll be available on Sunday, June 7, 16:00 UTC to 18:00 UTC (what time is that in my timezone?). If you can't make it to this one, keep an eye out for future chat announcements.

If you're having a problem using the Archive, want help trying something new, or would like an explanation of one of our features, please drop in and talk to us in person!

Some guidelines from Support, just to keep things running smoothly

As Support, our function is to help users with bugs and issues, and pass reports on to our Coders and Systems team, who actually keep the place running. This means that policy questions are way over our capacity. So, if you have questions or comments about AO3 or OTW policies, good or bad, Support Chat isn't the right place for them. If you do want to talk to someone about policy issues, we can direct you to the appropriate admin post or contact address so you can leave feedback directly for the people dealing with the area of your concern.

Additionally, if a question looks like it might violate a user's privacy to answer (if it needs an email address or other personal information, for example) we may not be willing to work with it in chat. In those cases, we'll redirect a user to the Support Form so we can communicate via email.

We'd be happy to help you with any questions, and anything else you're having trouble doing or would like to try doing with the Archive. And if you miss us and have any questions, you can always send us a ticket!

Mirrored from an original post made at the OTW News Blog..

AO3 Support staffers are the people who receive your tickets through the Support and Feedback form and try to respond as soon as possible to register your feature suggestion, pass your bug report on to our coders, or do their best to help you out with a problem. However, when it comes to explaining how to do things or why something doesn't seem to be working right, the formal back-and-forth emails of a Support request aren't always ideal.

So Support will be holding an Open Chat session in our public chat room.

They'll be available on Sunday, December 7, 00:00 UTC to 04:00 UTC (what time is that in my timezone?). Volunteers will be available to answer inquiries in English, German, Hungarian, Indonesian, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish. If you can't make it to this one, keep an eye out for future chat announcements.

If you're having a problem using the Archive, want help trying something new, or would like an explanation of one of our features, please drop in and talk to us in person!

Some guidelines from Support, just to keep things running smoothly

We don't have a fancy presentation or material prepared--there are plenty of FAQs, tutorials, and admin posts for that. The point of live chat is to talk with you, not at you. We're happy for you to drop in and say "hi", but it's even better if you drop in and say, "Hi, what's up with my work that won't show as complete even though it is?!"

As Support, our function is to help users with bugs and issues, and pass reports on to our Coders and Systems team, who actually keep the place running. This means that policy questions are way over our pay grade. (Just kidding--none of us get paid!) So, if you have questions or comments about AO3 or OTW policies, good or bad, Support Chat isn't the right place for them. If you do want to talk to someone about policy issues (meta on the Archive, philosophical issues with the tagging system, category change, etc.) we can direct you to the appropriate admin post or contact address so you can leave feedback directly for the people dealing with the area of your concern.

Additionally, if a question looks like it might violate a user's privacy to answer (if it needs an email address or other personal information, for example) we may not be willing to work with it in chat. In those cases, we'll redirect a user to the Support Form so we can communicate via email.

So, now that that's out of the way, what kind of things are we going to talk about?

Live chat is best for questions of a "How do I...?" or "Why does it...?" nature. For example, you might have been wondering:

• I'd like to run a challenge, but I'm not sure how to do what I want.
• For that matter, where did my work submitted to an anonymous challenge go?!
• I want to post using formatting the Rich Text Editor won't give me. How do I do it using a work skin?
• I want to add a lot of my older works to the AO3 -- what would be the easiest way to do that?

We'd be happy to help you with any of these questions, and anything else you're having trouble doing or would like to try doing with the Archive.

AO3 Support staffers are the people who receive your tickets through the Support and Feedback form and try to respond as soon as possible to register your feature suggestion, pass your bug report on to our coders, or do their best to help you out with a problem. However, when it comes to explaining how to do things or why something doesn't seem to be working right, the formal back-and-forth emails of a Support request aren't always ideal.

So Support will be holding an Open Chat session in our public chat room. They'll be available on Sunday, October 26, 17:00 UTC to 21:00 UTC (what time is that in my timezone?). Volunteers will be available to answer inquiries in Chinese, Czech, English, French, German, Hungarian, Korean, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish. If you can't make it to this chat, another chat is planned for Sunday, December 7.

If you're having a problem using the Archive, want help trying something new, or would like an explanation of one of our features, please drop in and talk to us in person!

Some guidelines from Support, just to keep things running smoothly

We don't have a fancy presentation or material prepared--there are plenty of FAQs, tutorials, and admin posts for that. The point of live chat is to talk with you, not at you. We're happy for you to drop in and say "hi", but it's even better if you drop in and say, "Hi, what's up with my work that won't show as complete even though it is?!"

As Support, our function is to help users with bugs and issues, and pass reports on to our Coders and Systems team, who actually keep the place running. This means that policy questions are way over our pay grade. (Just kidding--none of us get paid!) So, if you have questions or comments about AO3 or OTW policies, good or bad, Support Chat isn't the right place for them. If you do want to talk to someone about policy issues (meta on the Archive, philosophical issues with the tagging system, category change, etc.) we can direct you to the appropriate admin post or contact address so you can leave feedback directly for the people dealing with the area of your concern.

Additionally, if a question looks like it might violate a user's privacy to answer (if it needs an email address or other personal information, for example) we may not be willing to work with it in chat. In those cases, we'll redirect a user to the Support Form so we can communicate via email.

So, now that that's out of the way, what kind of things are we going to talk about?

Live chat is best for questions of a "How do I...?" or "Why does it...?" nature. For example, you might have been wondering:

• I'd like to run a challenge, but I'm not sure how to do what I want.
• For that matter, where did my work submitted to an anonymous challenge go?!
• I want to post using formatting the Rich Text Editor won't give me. How do I do it using a work skin?
• I want to add a lot of my older works to the AO3 -- what would be the easiest way to do that?

We'd be happy to help you with any of these questions, and anything else you're having trouble doing or would like to try doing with the Archive.

AO3 Support staffers are the people who receive your tickets through the Support and Feedback form and try to respond as soon as possible to register your feature suggestion, pass your bug report on to our coders, or do their best to help you out with a problem. However, when it comes to explaining how to do things or why something doesn't seem to be working right, the formal back-and-forth emails of a Support request aren't always ideal.

So Support will be holding an Open Chat session in our public chat room.

They'll be available on Saturday, August 30, 13:00 UTC to 19:00 UTC (what time is that in my timezone?). Volunteers will be available to answer inquiries in Chinese, English, Finnish, German, Indonesian, Italian, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Swedish, and Turkish. If you can't make it to this chat, keep an eye out for the next time as Support will be doing other chats later this year.

If you're having a problem using the Archive, want help trying something new, or would like an explanation of one of our features, please drop in and talk to us in person!

Some guidelines from Support, just to keep things running smoothly

We don't have a fancy presentation or material prepared--there are plenty of FAQs, tutorials, and admin posts for that. The point of live chat is to talk with you, not at you. We're happy for you to drop in and say "hi", but it's even better if you drop in and say, "Hi, what's up with my work that won't show as complete even though it is?!"

As Support, our function is to help users with bugs and issues, and pass reports on to our Coders and Systems team, who actually keep the place running. This means that policy questions are way over our pay grade. (Just kidding--none of us get paid!) So, if you have questions or comments about AO3 or OTW policies, good or bad, Support Chat isn't the right place for them. If you do want to talk to someone about policy issues (meta on the Archive, philosophical issues with the tagging system, category change, etc.) we can direct you to the appropriate admin post or contact address so you can leave feedback directly for the people dealing with the area of your concern.

Additionally, if a question looks like it might violate a user's privacy to answer (if it needs an email address or other personal information, for example) we may not be willing to work with it in chat. In those cases, we'll redirect a user to the Support Form so we can communicate via email.

So, now that that's out of the way, what kind of things are we going to talk about?

Live chat is best for questions of a "How do I...?" or "Why does it...?" nature.

For example, you might have been wondering:

• I'd like to run a challenge, but I'm not sure how to do what I want.
• For that matter, where did my work submitted to an anonymous challenge go?!
• I want to post using formatting the Rich Text Editor won't give me. How do I do it using a work skin?
• I want to add a lot of my older works to the AO3 -- what would be the easiest way to do that?

We'd be happy to help you with any of these questions, and anything else you're having trouble doing or would like to try doing with the Archive.

AO3 Support staffers are the people who receive your tickets through the Support and Feedback form and try to respond as soon as possible to register your feature suggestion, pass your bug report on to our coders, or do their best to help you out with a problem. However, when it comes to explaining how to do things or why something doesn't seem to be working right, the formal back-and-forth emails of a Support request aren't always ideal.

So Support will be holding an Open Chat session in our public chat room. They'll be available on Sunday, June 29, 13:00 UTC to June 30, 01:00 UTC (what time is that in my timezone?). Volunteers will be available to answer inquiries in Chinese, English, Finnish, French, German, Indonesian, Portuguese, Spanish and Swedish. If you can't make it to this chat, keep an eye out for the next as Support will be doing other chats later this year.

If you're having a problem using the Archive, want help trying something new, or would like an explanation of one of our features, please drop in and talk to us in person!

Some guidelines from Support, just to keep things running smoothly

We don't have a fancy presentation or material prepared--there are plenty of FAQs, tutorials, and admin posts for that. The point of live chat is to talk with you, not at you. We're happy for you to drop in and say "hi", but it's even better if you drop in and say, "Hi, what's up with my work that won't show as complete even though it is?!"

As Support, our function is to help users with bugs and issues, and pass reports on to our Coders and Systems team, who actually keep the place running. This means that policy questions are way over our pay grade. (Just kidding--none of us get paid!) So, if you have questions or comments about AO3 or OTW policies, good or bad, Support Chat isn't the right place for them. If you do want to talk to someone about policy issues (meta on the Archive, philosophical issues with the tagging system, category change, etc.) we can direct you to the appropriate admin post or contact address so you can leave feedback directly for the people dealing with the area of your concern.

Additionally, if a question looks like it might violate a user's privacy to answer (if it needs an email address or other personal information, for example) we may not be willing to work with it in chat. In those cases, we'll redirect a user to the Support Form so we can communicate via email.

So, now that that's out of the way, what kind of things are we going to talk about?

Live chat is best for questions of a "How do I...?" or "Why does it...?" nature.

For example, you might have been wondering:

• I'd like to run a challenge, but I'm not sure how to do what I want.
• For that matter, where did my work submitted to an anonymous challenge go?!
• I want to post using formatting the Rich Text Editor won't give me. How do I do it using a work skin?
• I want to add a lot of my older works to the AO3 -- what would be the easiest way to do that?

We'd be happy to help you with any of these questions, and anything else you're having trouble doing or would like to try doing with the Archive.

Edited to add: The Support chat has ended, but if you still have questions click on the Support link at the bottom of all AO3 pages.

If you've been enjoying The Future of Fanworks chat series, we hope you'll be reading the Q&A posts coming this weekend with our legal panel. However, if you're all set for a live chat, we'll be having one of those too!

AO3 Support staffers are the people who receive your tickets through the Support and Feedback form and try to respond as soon as possible to register your feature suggestion, pass your bug report on to our coders, or do their best to help you out with a problem. However, when it comes to explaining how to do things or why something doesn't seem to be working right, the formal back-and-forth emails of a Support request aren't always ideal.

They'll be available on Saturday, March 22, 2014 from 1600-2200 UTC (what time is that in my timezone?. If you can't make it to this one, keep an eye out for the next as Support will be doing other chats later this year.

If you're having a problem using the Archive, want help trying something new, or would like an explanation of one of our features, please drop in and talk to us in person!

Some guidelines from Support, just to keep things running smoothly

We don't have a fancy presentation or material prepared--there are plenty of FAQs, tutorials, and admin posts for that. The point of live chat is to talk with you, not at you. We're happy for you to drop in and say "hi", but it's even better if you drop in and say, "Hi, what's up with my work that won't show as complete even though it is?!"

As Support, our function is to help users with bugs and issues, and pass reports on to our Coders and Systems team, who actually keep the place running. This means that policy questions are way over our pay grade. (Just kidding--none of us get paid!) So, if you have questions or comments about AO3 or OTW policies, good or bad, Support Chat isn't the right place for them. If you do want to talk to someone about policy issues (meta on the Archive, philosophical issues with the tagging system, category change, etc.) we can direct you to the appropriate admin post or contact address so you can leave feedback directly for the people dealing with the area of your concern.

Additionally, if a question looks like it might violate a user's privacy to answer (if it needs an email address or other personal information, for example) we may not be willing to work with it in chat. In those cases, we'll redirect a user to the Support Form so we can communicate via email.

So, now that that's out of the way, what kind of things are we going to talk about?

Live chat is best for questions of a "How do I...?" or "Why does it...?" nature.

For example, you might have been wondering:

• I'd like to run a challenge, but I'm not sure how to do what I want.
• For that matter, where did my work submitted to an anonymous challenge go?!
• I want to post using formatting the Rich Text Editor won't give me. How do I do it using a work skin?
• I want to add a lot of my older works to the AO3 -- what would be the easiest way to do that?

We'd be happy to help you with any of these questions, and anything else you're having trouble doing or would like to try doing with the Archive.

Note: The post originally listed a date from last year. Our apologies for any confusion!

Support chat is now over!

Hi! Support here, again! In fact, Support is always here--when you submit a ticket through the Support and Feedback form we'll respond as soon as possible to register your feature suggestion, pass your bug report on to our coders, or do our best to help you out with a problem. However, when it comes to explaining how to do things or why something doesn't seem to be working right, the formal back-and-forth emails of a Support request aren't always ideal.

After receiving positive reviews of our previous chats in November and February, we're continuing on with Open Chat sessions with the Support Staff in our public chat room (the link will be made available on the day of the chat). We will be there this coming Saturday, May 04, 2013 at 16:00:00 UTC lasting through this Sunday, May 05, 2013 at 04:00:00 UTC. Members of Support will be available to interact with you one-on-one in live chat. See what time that is where you live. We are going to try to have future sessions at different times to make sure we eventually cover all time zones. If you can't make it to this one, keep an eye out for the next!

If you're having a problem using the Archive, want help trying something new, or would like an explanation of one of our features, please drop in and talk to us in person!

Some guidelines, just to keep things running smoothly

We don't have a fancy presentation or material prepared--there are plenty of FAQs, tutorials, and admin posts for that. The point of live chat is to talk with you, not at you. We're happy for you to drop in and say "hi", but it's even better if you drop in and say, "Hi, what's up with my work that won't show as complete even though it is?!"

As Support, our function is to help users with bugs and issues, and pass reports on to our Coders and Systems team, who actually keep the place running. This means that policy questions are way over our pay grade. (Just kidding--none of us get paid!) So, if you have questions or comments about AO3 or OTW policies, good or bad, Support Chat isn't the right place for them. If you do want to talk to someone about policy issues (meta on the Archive, philosophical issues with the tagging system, category change, etc.) we can direct you to the appropriate admin post or contact address so you can leave feedback directly for the people dealing with the area of your concern.

Additionally, if a question looks like it might violate a user's privacy to answer (if it needs an email address or other personal information, for example) we may not be willing to work with it in chat. In those cases, we'll redirect a user to the Support Form so we can communicate via email.

So, now that that's out of the way, what kind of things are we going to talk about?

Live chat is best for questions of a "How do I...?" or "Why does it...?" nature.

For example, you might have been wondering:

• How do I use the new search and browse system to find a certain type of work?
• I'd like to run a challenge, but I'm not sure how to do what I want.
• For that matter, where did my work submitted to an anonymous challenge go?!
• I want to post using formatting the Rich Text Editor won't give me. How do I do it using a work skin?

We'd be happy to help you with any of these questions, and anything else you're having trouble doing or would like to try doing with the Archive.