About AO3

What is the Organization For Transformative Works?

The Organization for Transformative Works (OTW) is a nonprofit organization established by fans to serve the interests of fans by providing access to and preserving the history of fanworks and fan culture in its myriad forms. We believe that fanworks are transformative and that transformative works are legitimate. The OTW represents a practice of transformative fanwork historically rooted in a primarily female culture. The OTW will preserve the record of that history as we pursue our mission while encouraging new and non-mainstream expressions of cultural identity within fandom.

You can find out more about the OTW on our main website under About the OTW.

What is the Archive of Our Own?

The Archive of Our Own offers a noncommercial and nonprofit central hosting place for fanfiction and (long-term) other transformative fanworks: i.e. it is free to use and does not make any money. It is multifannish and built on open-source archiving software designed and built by and for fans. It is hosted on servers owned by the OTW and therefore not vulnerable to a commercial hosting company deciding they don't like our fanworks.

Who built the Archive?

The Archive was entirely built and designed by volunteers from fandom. Many of our volunteers started out with no knowledge of coding / design / documentations and learned their skills on the project. We think it's a pretty amazing achievement! If you'd like to join in, please volunteer via the OTW's Volunteers page.

What is the Archive's position on copyright and the legal status of fanworks?

For details of the Archive's position on transformative works, please see What We Believe: point 2 and Content Policy: Section IV D in the Terms of Service.