Open Doors

  • Stargatefan has found a fully charged ZPM and is dialing up the ÅO3!

    By Claudia Rebaza on Monday, 4 November 2013 - 7:10pm
    Message type:

    Banner by Diane saying 'Welcome to the AO3: Stargatefan joins the archive!' with the stargate serving as the O in AO3

    In this post:


    Background explanation

    Open Doors is pleased to welcome StargateFan, a gen Stargate SG-1 and Stargate Atlantis archive, to the Archive of Our Own (AO3).

    In its new home, StargateFan will be a separate, searchable collection with its own identity for all of the fan fiction, fan art, and fan comics housed on the current archive. We will begin manually importing works from StargateFan to the AO3 collection in December 2013.

    What does this mean for creators who have work on StargateFan?

    This is the part where we ask for your help!

    1. If you already have an AO3 account and have posted your StargateFan works there, please contact Open Doors with your StargateFan pseud(s) and e-mail address(es), so that we won’t import your works. (We can also e-mail you instructions for mass-adding works to the new collection here on the AO3.)

    2. If you don’t already have an AO3 account but would like one to import your works yourself, please contact Open Doors with your StargateFan pseud(s), and the preferred e-mail address to send the AO3 invite to. (We can e-mail further instructions for importing stories and adding them to the new collection here on the AO3.)

    3. If you would NOT like your works moved, please contact Open Doors with your StargateFan pseud(s) and e-mail address(es) so that we will not add them. (If you would not mind them being preserved but do not want your name attached to them any longer, please let us know that too—we can orphan your works instead of leaving them behind to be deleted.)

    All works imported on a creator’s behalf will be attributed with their name in the summary of the work. As we import works, we will e-mail notifications to the address associated with the work.

    All imported works will be set to be viewable only by logged-in AO3 users. Once you claim your works, you can make them publicly-viewable if you choose. After 3 months, unclaimed imported works will be made visible to all visitors.

    If you no longer have access to the email account associated with your StargateFan account, please contact Open Doors and we'll help you out. (If you've posted the works elsewhere, or have an easy way to verify that they're yours, that's fantastic; if not, we will work with the StargateFan mod to confirm your claims.)

    If you still have questions...

    If you have further questions, visit the Open Doors FAQ page, contact the Open Doors committee, or leave a comment on this post and we'll respond as soon as we can.

    We're also planning to hold two public chats on Campfire (the online chat platform the OTW uses): *November 13, from 02:00UTC to 0:500UTC*, and *November 23, from 20:00UTC to 23:00UTC* (click the links to see when the chats are held in your timezone). You can access OTW's public discussion chatroom using this link.

    Anyone with questions about the process is welcome to join the Open Doors team at those chats, and we’ll do our best to answer you. We'd also love it if fans could stop by to reminisce and help us preserve the story of StargateFan and on Fanlore--no wiki editing skills needed! Of course, if you would like to edit on your own, your contributions would be very welcome. <3 (New to wiki editing? No worries, just visit this page.)

    We're excited to be able to help preserve StargateFan!

    - The Open Doors team

  • Open Doors Chat Reminder

    By Claudia Rebaza on Friday, 18 October 2013 - 2:39pm
    Message type:

    Banner by caitie with 'otw chat' at its center and emoticons and other symbols in word bubbles surrounding it.

    Last week we announced that we will be welcoming the German Speaking Slashers United archive to the AO3!

    This is a reminder that the Open Doors Committee is holding the first of two public chats on Campfire (the online chat platform the OTW uses): 19 October 2013 at 10:00:00 UTC.

    Anyone who has questions about the process is welcome to join the Open Doors team at those chats, and we’ll do our best to answer you. You can access OTW's public discussion chatroom using this link.

  • German Speaking Slashers United zieht um ins Archive of Our Own!

    By Claudia Rebaza on Wednesday, 9 October 2013 - 5:49pm
    Message type:

    Click for English language version
    GSSU logo of the letters on a white background with the two S letters as bent male figures

    In diesem Eintrag:

    Hintergrunderklärung

    Bettina, die GSSU (German Speaking Slashers United)-Archivarin, erstellte das Archiv im Jahr 2000 als Zusatz zur deutschsprachigen Querstrich-Mailingliste. Obwohl die Mailingliste immer noch existiert, wanderten viele Mitglieder in andere Bereiche wie LiveJournal/Dreamwidth, Twitter, Tumblr, etc. ab. Aufgrund dessen und wegen der niedrigen Postingaktivität in den letzten Jahren, kündigte Bettina in 2012 an, das Archiv zu schließen. Da dies für sie eine schwierige Entscheidung war und sie einen wichtigen Teil der deutschsprachigen Fandomgeschichte erhalten wollte, stimmte Open Doors bereitwillig zu, die Fanwerke des GSSU im Archive of Our Own zu erhalten.

    Im neuen Zuhause erhält das GSSU eine separate, durchsuchbare Sammlung mit einer eigenen Identität für alle Fangeschichten aus dem Originalarchiv. Mit dem Import des GSSU in diese AO3-Sammlung beginnen wir im November 2013.

    Was bedeutet das für Urheber, die Fanwerke im GSSU haben?

    Das ist der Punkt wo wir eure Hilfe brauchen!

    1. Wenn du schon ein AO3-Nutzerkonto hast und bereits deine GSSU-Fanwerke selbst hochgeladen hast (oder dies gerne selbst machen würdest!), bitte kontaktiere Open Doors oder die Archivarin unter gssuarchivist at gmail.com mit deinem GSSU-Pseudonym(en) und E-Mail-Adresse(n), damit wir deine Geschichten nicht importieren. (Wir können dir auch eine Anleitung schicken, wie man eine grosse Anzahl Geschichten gleichzeitig zur neuen AO3-Sammlung hinzufügt: http://archiveofourown.org/collections/GSSU.)

    2. Wenn du kein AO3-Nutzerkonto hast, aber gerne eines möchtest, um deine Geschichten selber zu importieren, bitte kontaktiere Open Doors oder die Archivarin unter gssuarchivist at gmail.com mit deinem GSSU Pseudonym(en) und deiner bevorzugten E-Mail-Adresse, damit wir dir eine AO3-Einladung schicken können. (Wir können dir eine Anleitung schicken, wie du deine Geschichten importieren und sie zur neuen AO3-Sammlung hinzufügen kannst: http://archiveofourown.org/collections/GSSU.)

    3. Wenn du deine Geschichten NICHT importiert haben möchtest, bitte kontaktiere Open Doors oder die Archivarin unter gssuarchivist at gmail.com mit deinem GSSU-Pseudonym(en) und deiner E-Mail-Adresse(n), damit wir deine Geschichten nicht importieren. (Wenn du nichts dagegen hast, dass deine Geschichten dem Archiv erhalten bleiben, aber du sie nicht mit deinem Namen assoziiert haben möchtest, dann lass uns das auch wissen. Anstelle deine Geschichten zurück zu lassen, wo sie gelöscht werden, können wir sie anonymisieren.)

    Alle Fanwerke, die im Auftrag der Urheber importiert wurden, werden in der Inhaltsangabe der Geschichte mit dem Autorennamen versehen. Im Zuge des Imports werden wir E-Mail-Mitteilungen an die Adresse, die mit der Geschichte assoziiert ist, verschicken.

    Alle importierten Geschichten werden anfangs nur für eingeloggte AO3-Nutzer sichtbar sein. (Nachdem du deine Geschichten mit deinem eigenen AO3-Nutzer verbunden hast, kannst du sie für alle sichtbar machen, wenn du möchtest.) Nach 3 Monaten werden die von niemanden beanspruchten, importierten Geschichten für alle Besucher sichtbar gemacht.

    Wenn du keinen Zugang zu dem E-Mail-Account mehr hast, der mit deinen Geschichten im GSSU-Archiv assoziiert ist, bitte kontaktiere Open Doors und wir werden dir aushelfen. (Wenn du deine Geschichten woanders gepostet hast oder sonst beweisen kannst, dass es deine Geschichten sind, dann ist das toll. Wenn nicht, dann werden wir mit der GSSU-Archivarin zusammenarbeiten um deinen Anspruch zu bestätigen.

    Wenn du noch weitere Fragen hast…

    Wenn du noch weitere Fragen hast, besuche die Open Doors FAQ Seite, kontaktiere das Open Doors Komitee oder hinterlasse hier einen Kommentar, und wir werden so schnell wie möglich antworten.

    Wir planen auch zwei öffentliche Chats auf Campfire (der vom OTW benutzten Online Chat Plattform): 19 October 2013 10:00:00 UTC und 26 October 2013 16:00:00 UTC((klick den Link um zu sehen, wann die Chats in deiner Zeitzone stattfinden). Du kannst auf den öffentlichen Diskussions-Chatraum der OTW unter diesem Link zugreifen.

    Jeder, der Fragen zu dem Prozess hat, ist eingeladen, an den Chats mit dem Open Doors-Team teilzunehmen, und wir werden unser Bestes tun, um eure Fragen zu beantworten. Wir würden uns auch freuen, wenn Fans daran teilnehmen würden, um in Erinnerungen zu schwelgen und so die Geschichte des GSSU und die Geschichte des deutschsprachigen Fandoms auf Fanlore zu bewahren—man benötigt dafür keine Wiki-Editierkenntnisse! Natürlich, wenn du das Fanlore-Wiki gerne selbständig editieren möchtest, sind deine Beiträge sehr willkommen. <3 (Ist das Editieren eines Wiki neu für dich? Kein Problem, besuche einfach diese Seite.)

    Wir freuen uns, bei der Erhaltung eines Teils der Geschichte des deutschsprachigen Fandoms zu helfen, und sind Stolz, das German Speaking Slashers United-Archiv im AO3 willkommen zu heißen!

    - Das Open Doors-Team

  • German Speaking Slashers United is moving to the Archive of Our Own!

    By Claudia Rebaza on Wednesday, 9 October 2013 - 5:43pm
    Message type:

    Hier klicken für die deutsche Fassung

    GSSU logo of the letters on a white background with the two S letters as bent male figures

    In this post:

    Background explanation

    Bettina, the GSSU (German Speaking Slashers United) moderator, created the archive in 2000 to complement the Querstrich mailing list. While this mailing list still exists, the German-speaking fannish contingent it serves has migrated to other channels like LiveJournal/Dreamwidth, Twitter, Tumblr, etc. Due to this and low posting activity in the last few years, Bettina announced in 2012 that she would be closing the archive. Realising this was a difficult decision for her, and wanting to help preserve an important part of German-Speaking Fandom's history, Open Doors readily agreed to preserve the works on the Archive of Our Own.

    In its new home, GSSU will be a separate, searchable collection with its own identity for all of the fan fiction housed on the original archive. We will begin importing works from the GSSU to the AO3 collection in November 2013.

    What does this mean for creators who have work on GSSU?

    This is the part where we ask for your help!

    1. If you already have an AO3 account and have posted your GSSU works there yourself (or would like to do so!), please contact Open Doors or gssuarchivist at gmail dot com with your GSSU pseud(s) and e-mail address(es), so that we won’t import your stories. (We can also e-mail you instructions for bulk-adding stories to the new collection on the AO3: http://archiveofourown.org/collections/GSSU.)

    2. If you don’t have an AO3 account but would like one to import your stories yourself, please contact Open Doors or gssuarchivist at gmail dot com with your GSSU pseud(s), and the preferred e-mail address to send the AO3 invite to. (We can e-mail further instructions for importing stories and adding them to the new collection on the AO3: http://archiveofourown.org/collections/GSSU.)

    3. If you would NOT like your works moved, please contact Open Doors or gssuarchivist at gmail dot com with your GSSU pseud(s) and e-mail address(es) so that we will not add them. (If you would not mind them being preserved but do not want your name attached to them any longer, please let us know that too; we can orphan your works instead of leaving them behind to be deleted.)

    All works imported on a creator’s behalf will be attributed with their name in the summary of the work. As we import works, we will e-mail notifications to the address associated with the work.

    All imported works will initially be set to be viewable only by logged-in AO3 users. (Once you claim your works, you can make them publicly-viewable if you choose.) After 3 months, unclaimed imported works will be made visible to all visitors.

    If you no longer have access to the email account associated with your works on GSSU, please contact Open Doors and we'll help you out. (If you've posted the stories elsewhere, or have an easy way to verify that they're yours, that's great; if not, we will work with the GSSU archivist to confirm your claims.)

    If you still have questions...

    If you have further questions, visit the Open Doors FAQ page, contact the Open Doors committee, or leave a comment on this post and we'll respond as soon as we can.

    We're also planning to hold two public chats on Campfire (the online chat platform the OTW uses): 19 October 2013 at 10:00:00 UTC, and 26 October 2013 at 16:00:00 UTC (click the links to see when the chats are held in your timezone). You can access OTW's public discussion chatroom using this link.

    Anyone who has questions about the process is welcome to join the Open Doors team at those chats, and we’ll do our best to answer you. We'd also love it if fans could stop by to reminisce and help us preserve the story of GSSU and the history of German-Speaking Fandom on Fanlore--no wiki editing skills needed! Of course, if you would like to edit on your own, your contributions would be very welcome. <3 (New to wiki editing? No worries, just visit this page.)

    We're delighted to help preserve this slice of German-speaking fandom history, and proudly welcome the German Speaking Slashers United archive to the AO3!

    - The Open Doors team

  • October Membership Drive: Preserving Archives Through Open Doors

    By Claudia Rebaza on Wednesday, 2 October 2013 - 5:39pm
    Message type:

    Sometimes fanworks vanish from the Web when they weren't intended to. Hosting services shut down; software becomes obsolete; archivists pass away or simply find that they no longer have the time or money to keep up their sites. Any of these occurrences can result in the loss of thousands of fanworks. The OTW's Open Doors project is a resource to help fans prevent such losses.

    Open Doors works with fannish archivists to import fanworks from endangered archives into the Archive of Our Own. Approximately 11,600 works have been imported to date. Some archives can be imported automatically, but in most cases the Open Doors staff assist archive mods to manually import their archives into the the AO3. Manual importing involves creating an AO3 collection for the archive, contacting as many fanwork creators as possible, and then importing the works and editing them to indicate their original creators. These archives can be large or small — we’ve worked with designated archivists to import small collections of works of deceased fans, and we've worked with archives containing over 5,000 works. The process of manual importing can be time-consuming, but we think it’s worth it!

    Open Doors has completed imports for three archives so far. The Foresmutters Project, an archive of early Star Trek slash that is also mirrored on OTW servers, has been migrated to a forever home on the AO3 where it is more accessible. The Smallville Slash Archive and 852 Prospect, an archive for The Sentinel fanfiction, have been imported as well. We also imported Kista and Demeter, two early Star Trek novels, which were first hosted on OTW servers as scanned PDFs. This involved using optical character recognition to turn the PDFs into editable text and then, in the case of Demeter, painstakingly comparing the results to a print copy of the original 304-page zine to correct any errors in the electronic copy.

    Imports currently in progress include The Good Omens Library; GSSU - German Speaking Slashers United; the Dannell Lites Collection, a memorial archive consisting chiefly of DC and Marvel comics fanfiction; the Leah Adezio Archive, a memorial archive consisting chiefly of DC Comics fanfiction and fanart, and original comics; and Stargatefan, an archive of Stargate SG-1 and Stargate Atlantis gen fanfiction and fanart.

    We also have several archives stored as backups in case of failing hardware, software, and/or hosting issues, and are working with the mods to manually import them or to keep them safe until automated import code is available.

    To inquire about preserving an archive, please contact the Open Doors committee. And to support our ongoing preservation efforts, please donate to the OTW today! Your support will help to ensure that the fanworks you love will be around for future generations of fans to enjoy.

  • Volunteer recruiting for Web and Open Doors Committees

    By Claudia Rebaza on Monday, 12 August 2013 - 6:29pm
    Message type:

    We would like to thank everyone who responded to our previous call for Communications Graphics Volunteers and Tag Wrangling Volunteers.

    Today, we're excited to announce the opening of applications for:

    • Web Developer Staff - applications accepted until August 19
    • Open Doors Staff - applications accepted until August 19

    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 volunteers -(at)- transformativeworks -(dot)- org 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.

    Web Developer Staff: Web Developers are responsible for improvements to and maintenance of the primary web properties owned by the Organization for Transformative Works. S/he will participate in an on-call rotation of three Web Developers, implement new website features, and help determine priorities for future development efforts. Applications are due August 19.

    Open Doors Staff: Are you interested in helping other fans save their works be they in fanzines, vids, stories, meta, artwork? Enjoy coordinating projects and people to make things happen? Open Doors is looking for staffers to do this important work.

    Open Doors is a dedicated committee of the OTW that is all about preserving fanworks in their many native formats with the goal of providing access to future generations of fans as well as the wider world via the internet and several library collections. This work furthers the OTW's goal to preserve the history of fanworks and fan cultures.

    How would you do this? The Open Doors staffer is often the contact between the fan with works to preserve, the OTW, and the final home for those works. There is the quiet joy of knowing we've added more linear feet of zines from the 1960s through today to a permanent collection at a university library open to anyone. There is watching the number of works in an freshly created Open Doors Digital Collection climb as we manually import stories from archives that run on old, sometimes broken code. There is knowing that history, like that contained in the Foresmutters project that has discussions that helped form some of the earliest fannish cultures is held on our servers.

    We're not the loudest or shiniest committee at the OTW, but without the work we do, we would lose our history: our delicate archives that represent hours of work, the fanzines and other physical objects and more. If you're interested, click on through for a fuller description of what we're looking for and the time commitment. Applications are due August 19.

  • 852 Prospect - AO3 Supports our Sentinel*

    By .C. Ryan Smith on Sunday, 12 May 2013 - 8:17pm
    Message type:

    The OTW is delighted to welcome 852 Prospect -- the Sentinel Adult Fiction Archive -- to its new home within the Archive of Our Own. The Archivists of 852 Prospect (most recently alicettlg) have worked hard in conjunction with ADT and Open Doors to make this move a reality.

    There's some special history associated with this move. 852 Prospect was the first automated fiction archive on the web. Back in 1997, astolat wrote the first version of the Automated Archive software for 852 Prospect, which made it possible for authors to post their stories simultaneously to a mailing list and to an archive, and which also made it possible for archivists to maintain fic archives without hand-coding every post. The automated archive software is now old and creaky and no longer maintained; we're delighted to be able to offer 852 Prospect a new home as an integrated collection within the AO3.

    Our coders have set up a redirect from the original domain to the stories' new URLs, to help preserve the validity of old links, rec lists, bookmarks, etc. Because the redirects will be set up to go to the version of each work imported with 852 Prospect, if you have a duplicate on the Archive which has comments / kudos you want to keep, we suggest you keep both versions for now (if you delete the one imported with 852 Prospect, then the redirect will break). Down the line, we’re planning to implement a way of merging two copies of the same work, so you'll be able to keep the redirects and the comments and kudos.

    If you don't care to keep the comments/kudos of both works, you can ask Open Doors to reset the redirect to point toward the pre-existing copy on AO3, and then delete the imported copy. To do so, please contact Open Doors with your AO3 account name, your account name on 852 Prospect, and links to both the 852 Prospect URL, and the AO3 URL of the fanwork designated for the redirect.

    Most of the newly imported works are not yet visible to people who aren't logged in with an AO3 account. If you're looking for The Sentinel fic on AO3 that was newly imported as part of 852 Prospect, please search for it while logged into AO3. You can also request an AO3 account by contacting Open Doors or using this page.

    If you're the author of newly imported stories, you can use the ‘edit works’ function to set them all to 'unrestricted' at once (if you wish) after you've claimed them. For help editing your works, please contact Support. For more information about what happens with imported works, click here for Open Doors' tutorial on automated imports, or here to contact Open Doors. Please note: If you choose to orphan your works, you will want to check them over first and edit out any remaining identifying data.

    And if you want to post new stories to the 852 Prospect collection, you are welcome to do so! The collection will remain open to new entries, but will be moderated according to 852 Prospect’s guidelines.

    Several of the OTW founders are Sentinel fans, and many org volunteers count The Sentinel among their beloved fandoms. We're thrilled to be able to continue preserving and protecting fanworks which are otherwise at risk of disappearing from the internet, and we're doubly thrilled to be rescuing an archive to which many of us have a longstanding personal connection! Hooray for Jim and Blair, Carolyn, Simon and Rafe and Henri, Megan, Naomi, and the whole city of Cascade finding a safe new home.

    *Support Our Sentinel was a 1997 effort by fans to keep the show on the air when it was facing cancellation. The effort succeeded, garnering fans an 8-episode season four which brought fan favorite Blair Sandburg back to life!

    Mirrored from an original post on AO3 News.

  • April Membership Drive: Preserving Endangered Fanworks

    By Claudia Rebaza on Sunday, 7 April 2013 - 4:00pm
    Message type:

    When people talk about OTW's Open Doors committee, it's often about their efforts to sustain and preserve fansites. These can be put at risk by any number of things. Open Doors does the slow, careful work of importing other fan archives onto AO3 so the works they hold will not be lost to future fans.

    But Open Doors has another project which people may not know about: the Fan Culture Preservation Project (FCPP). FCPP is a joint venture with the University of Iowa to archive physical items from fan history such as 'zines, flyers, fanvids, t-shirts and other fan-made ephemera.

    Although part of the University's Special Collections, the FCPP is open to the public. Any fan who visits the library can view the collections without needing special permission. All you need is a desire to learn more about the history of fan culture, a willingness to follow the library's rules, and some time to spend curled up in the library.

    The library hosts a collection named for the OTW, as well as some collections named after individual fans. Since the FCPP started in 2009, eight named collections have been processed, ranging from hundreds to thousands of items each.

    The OTW's 2012 Community Survey gave us a lot of great feedback. One repeated point was that fans liked how something important to them, their fandom activity, was being seen as legitimate and valuable because of the OTW's work. They felt that the OTW's language and approach to fan activities helped them to speak to non-fannish friends and family about fandom in an easier way. The FCPP is one of the many ways the OTW works to archive and legitimize fannish practices.

    Through the work of the OTW and fans who have long worked to preserve fannish history, archivists at academic libraries have started looking at the best ways to conserve fan collections. These types of archives are important not only to fans, but to the growing number of academics who use them in their work. It is through projects like this that Texas A&M University archivist Jeremy Brett is presenting a paper entitled "Good Practices and Recommendations for Archivists Working with Fannish Materials" at the upcoming Eaton Science Fiction Conference. His talk is part of a larger session on "Archives, Archaeology, [and] Alternate History."

    Our OTW volunteers love fandom and spend their time and effort helping to enrich and maintain it. Open Doors' work with the FCPP gathers collections that have been curated by dedicated fans, sometimes for decades. They give them as a gift to fandom by keeping them safe and open for both present and future fans. The archives help to show the passion and creativity of fans and the range of innovative and inspired works we have created.

    Help support these ongoing efforts — please donate today.

  • Highlights from Open Doors Chat

    By Claudia Rebaza on Friday, 8 February 2013 - 6:03pm
    Message type:

    As we reported early last month, due to delays in setting up the automated import for 852 Prospect, we are working to support authors who are interested in manually importing their stories into the Archive of Our Own.

    A public chat, hosted by the Open Doors and Support committees, was held on Campfire (the online chat platform the OTW uses) on February 2. You can now read the highlights. The second chat will be on February 10 at 01:00UTC. (Click the link to see when the chat is being held in your timezone). You can access OTW’s public chatroom using this guest link.

    If you have questions and are unable to make it to the chat or have additional questions after, you can always contact Open Doors for further information.

    Mirrored from an original post on the Archive of Our Own.

  • 852 Prospect - Manual Import Support Chat Reminder

    By Curtis Jefferson on Friday, 1 February 2013 - 6:06pm
    Message type:

    As we reported early last month, due to delays in setting up the automated import for 852 Prospect, we are working to support authors who are interested in manually importing their stories into the Archive of Our Own.

    There will be two public chats, hosted by the Open Doors and Support committees, on Campfire (the online chat platform the OTW uses). The first will be on February 2 at 22:00UTC. The second will be on February 10 at 01:00UTC. (Click the links to see when the chat is being held in your timezone). You can access OTW’s public chatroom using this guest link.

    If you have questions and are unable to make it to the chat or have additional questions after, you can always contact Open Doors for further information.

    Mirrored from an original post on the Archive of Our Own.

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