Why are people still up in arms about AO3 needing donations to run? Their budget is publicly available. You can go onto the website, right now, and read it. If you donate more than a certain amount (pretty sure it’s more than $10), you can vote in their elections, because you’re considered a member, and that’s how memberships work.
It’s a free site to use, but not to run or to maintain, especially not with all these net neutrality battles.
Here’s a list of the OTW’s projects.
Here’s its Terms of Service.
Y’all gotta understand that it’s not just fanworks, there’s a lot more that goes into archiving.
Signal boosting this because it’s important af. OTW is a nonprofit organization, specifically a public charity as classified by the US tax code. That means they file a 990 tax report each year that lets you see all of their finances – what they’re spending money on, where their money comes from, etc. You can see their 2016 990 here if you’re so inclined.
And if you’re not sure about how OTW is using their donations? Ask questions. Get involved. Even if you’re not comfortable with or not in a position to donate, there are lots of opportunities to give your time; it’s an all-volunteer organization that recruits regularly. I know for a fact that I get more value out of what OTW provides than most, if not all, my other paid services combined, so $10 to be a member is more than worth it.
ao3 is routinely used as an example of an excellent digital archive in library and information schools - they’re not just a fansite; they’re held in high regard by people across the industry. they run initiatives to preserve old fansites and groups, in addition to the day to day work of hosting all of our work ad-free to ensure maximum creative freedom. ao3 is not just a place to post your fic; it catalogues and preserves our history and culture.
$130,000 a year though?
Cool.
So…Don’t donate and quit reading any fan fiction off their site if it bothers you so badly?
I don’t get it.
There are other sites out there but they mostly subsidize using ads.
Which particular part of the AO3 budget is it that you object to or would like to cut? Because honestly $130,000 a year is not a lot of money overall. It’s a pretty decent amount if you’re one person maybe, but overall? For an entire site? Not a lot. Not a business major or anything, but it’s not a lot.
And what are they asking for? Ten bucks?
Ten bucks is a fast food meal for two, or a half a movie. Not even a movie ticket. Like. It’s a month of Netflix if you’re cheap but own a television. Or two paperbacks if you buy secondhand but like hard copies. A single translated volume of manga. It’s a pound and a half of meat if you eat meat. Maybe three dozen eggs. Two big boxes of cereal…
It’s an amount you can lose out of your pocket and typically not find too crippling if you have steady work and a few bricks of ramen or a twenty pound bag of rice in the pantry for rough weeks, because a rough week here or there is an inevitability.
Ten bucks.
For a year of fan fiction.
If you feel like being nice and/or have the budget to do so.
For a site that literally has to lay out its budget plan so you can see where the funds are going.
For a site that you already use and enjoy.
…Why is this the hill some of you want to die on?
What am I missing here?
Do you people have any idea how much it costs to just host the fucking fanfic? How much server fees are? How much backup fees are? The amount of data that the OTW has to preserve through fire, flood, and computer failure? How expensive all that equipment is? The money is for buying massive amounts of server space in multiple redundant geographic locations, plus for paying the server companies’ employees to maintain the fucking things. As these things go, $130,000 is a laughably low cost for all that.
you don’t have to donate if you simply don’t got the money, but if you actively speak out against donating, i have news for you: you’re at best an idiot and at worst an asshole and in either case should not be allowed to read any more fanfiction from ao3. Go back to ff.net.
Look, I’ll be honest. I am not going back to FF.net. I am not archiving my stuff on this hellsite. And some of you are so used to getting stuff for free that you forget that things cost money.
Let me repeat that: THINGS COST MONEY.
AO3 provides a safe, stable, intuitive and organized location to post fic, read fic, and basically interact with other fans and writers. More than that, AO3 has been the only site I’ve EVER seen that exists to protect the rights of the writer. This is the first site I’ve ever known that is dedicated to this idea that I can share my writing without constant fear that one whiny letter from a IP owner or godamn religious front ‘purity campaign’ will cause them to A. delete everything I’ve posted and B. give up all my personal information.
Because FF.net will sell you out in a New York minute. LiveJournal folded like a wet newspaper in a typhoon. Tumblr would delete my blog in an instant if it meant pleasing the assholes who keep jamming jump scare horror movie ads onto my dashboard.
AO3 exists to provide safe harbor for fan works, and let me tell you, if they want to take my twenty dollars and light it on FIRE IN THE LOBBY, I am perfectly happy with allowing them to do so. And next year, I’ll give ‘em ANOTHER twenty dollars, because that’s webhosting for all of my trash fic for less than two dollars a month and if you think you can do better than that on the open market, HAHAHAHAHAHAHAAH.
Good luck. Hope you enjoy your auto play banner ads.
