[ SECRET POST #6945 ]

Saturday, January 10th, 2026 14:36
case: (Default)
[personal profile] case posting in [community profile] fandomsecrets

⌈ Secret Post #6945 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.


01.


More! )


Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 02 pages, 54 secrets from Secret Submission Post #992.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

[ SECRET SUBMISSIONS POST #993 ]

Saturday, January 10th, 2026 14:31
case: (Default)
[personal profile] case posting in [community profile] fandomsecrets
[ SECRET SUBMISSIONS POST #993 ]




The first secret from this batch will be posted on January 17th.



RULES:
1. One secret link per comment.
2. 750x750 px or smaller.
3. Link directly to the image.

More details on how to send a secret in!

Optional: If you would like your secret's fandom to be noted in the main post along with the secret itself, please put it in the comment along with your secret. If your secret makes the fandom obvious, there's no need to do this. If your fandom is obscure, you should probably tell me what it is.

Optional #2: If you would like WARNINGS (such as spoilers or common triggers -- list of some common ones here) to be noted in the main post before the secret itself, please put it in the comment along with your secret.

Optional #3: If you would like a transcript to be posted along with your secret, put it along with the link in the comment!

[admin post] Admin Post: Membership PSA

Saturday, January 10th, 2026 14:16
gywomod: (Default)
[personal profile] gywomod posting in [community profile] getyourwordsout
All Writers: If you are not on the 2026 Writers list, we have not received your pledge. You MUST PLEDGE before requesting membership access to the DW community.


Check your email or DW inbox.
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alt

Placeholders aren't always accurate

Saturday, January 10th, 2026 10:55
olivermoss: (Default)
[personal profile] olivermoss
There is a listing on B&N's website for a special edition of a 7th Game Changer book called Unrivaled, that sounds like a 3rd Shane/Ilya book. Reid had been teasing an anthology a bit ago, which would be a misdirect, but it's possible this is not a novel, it's an anthology that has a Shane/Ilya story in it.

#footscraygoose by facingthenorthwind

Saturday, January 10th, 2026 13:38
mythicmistress: The sun shining through Stonehenge (Default)
[personal profile] mythicmistress posting in [community profile] fancake
Fandom: Original Work
Pairings/Characters: Original Characters, Original Soulmate Goose
Rating: T
Length: 4,278 words
Creator Links: facingthenorthwind(spacegandalf) at AO3
Theme: Crack Treated Seriously

Summary: Biosecurity officers have identified and captured a lesser white-fronted goose in Footscray, Victoria. Due to the biosecurity risk to Australian bird life and the poultry industry, the bird is not permitted to remain in Australia and will be humanely destroyed.

Reccer's Notes: This fic was brought to my attention in a Discord server. I found it too hilarious NOT to share here. Also points for having accurate details according to the Australian server member who linked it.

Fanwork Links: #footscraygoose on AO3

IVD 2025 Volunteer Q&A—Translation Spotlight

Saturday, January 10th, 2026 14:39
[syndicated profile] ao3_tumblr_feed

transformativeworks:

IVD 2025 Volunteer Q&A—Translation Spotlight

International Volunteer Day 2026ALT


As a follow-up from International Volunteer Day, today we’re spotlighting our Translation volunteers as they answer questions you asked them! Read what they had to say at https://otw-news.org/2p93mpfh 

Yes. Memes are indeed fun.

Saturday, January 10th, 2026 17:08
goodbyebird: Community: Britta hits the booze. (Community lord give me booze)
[personal profile] goodbyebird
New Years Book Meme Via [personal profile] flamingsword:

1. Grab the nearest book.
2. Turn to page 126
3. The 6th full sentence is your life in 2026


hah my closest book was Nghi Vo's Mammoths at the Gates, which ends at 120 pages.

"I stared down into it, no lights burning at its heart, no voices raised in song, while Rencki tried to call up the shuttle to Kiskol."
Slow Gods by Claire North.

Well, um. That sounds bleak? 2026 really needs to be nicer to me.

Positive note, I do like the writing.

To the devil on your shoulder.

Saturday, January 10th, 2026 15:48
goodbyebird: Loki: president!Loki grinning, arms spread wide, "what did you expect?" (Avengers trickster)
[personal profile] goodbyebird
+ I'm going back to work tonight, just to sleep on board so I can get cracking nice and early before everybody else arrives. It'll probably be freezing but hopping in bed wearing wool should sort that out. Right now I am of course procrastinating to the max. I have not packed a single item yet. At least my packages have been collected, the laundry and washing up done, and I've bought the necessities. The plan was to finish early so I could have a nice bath? *sighs at self* Man, you'll love that bath. Make that bath happen!

eta ugh my dad gave me anxiety about whether the key would be there, so now I won't be going on the boat until tomorrow and I'm grumbly about it. I wanted stuff to be ready dammit.

+ One thing I did finish is my holiday quest list in Dreamlight Valley, most important of all lolol. Gotta get those holiday decoration items, so I can boot it back up next December and once again not actually get around to decorating all that much. But it does make Kid Me happy still, wandering around with Belle and Wall-E, the most low stakes gameplay there is, collecting pretty holiday items. (they did actually sneak in an extra holiday thing that started after New Years and I'm cranky about it.)

+ I should also do my big yearly tarot spread, but I may not have the brains. Maybe I'll just lay them out and take pictures for later.

+ Letterboxd's In Memoriam tribute this year really hit me in the feels. We lost some lovely creatives.

+ Discord is hosting a survey to see what you think of them adding AI bullshit here. Feel free to stop by and tell them nope.

+ Snowflake Challenge #5
In your own space, create a list of at least three things you'd love to receive, a wishlist of sorts. Leave a comment in this post saying you did it and include a link to your wishlist if you feel comfortable doing so.


1. I'd love to see more people share things that bring them joy in their journals, no matter how small. We gotta grab what we can.
2. If you can't quite think of something shiny to share atm: memes are fun!
3. And if anyone has shared something that has brought you joy, please tell them so <3
(sneaky 4. but please do tell Discord to go fuck themselves with their AI bs.)

story out!

Saturday, January 10th, 2026 09:24
genarti: sunbeams lighting yellow flowers, surrounded by rocks and darkness ([misc] break in the clouds)
[personal profile] genarti
I know I still owe some comments on my year-end book post (I'm really enjoying the discussions there! it's just been busy) but I wanted to let you all know that I have a story out! Actually, this one is a first for me: it's a graphic story! When I sent them my prose story about a post-post-apocalyptic soil remediation robot and the various lives of the polluted valley around it, they asked if I would be interested in adapting it to a script for an artist to create a graphic story from, and of course I was. It was a very cool experience, and I'm so impressed with Xiang Yata's art (done impressively fast, no less).

You can check out The Valley in Thaw here, and the whole issue at www.tractorbeam.earth.

Snowflake Challenges 4 & 5

Saturday, January 10th, 2026 06:50
muccamukk: Tasha Yar with little star decorations. (ST: Tasha)
[personal profile] muccamukk
Snowflake Challenge: A warmly light quaint street of shops at night with heavy snow falling.


Challenge #4: Rec The Contents Of Your Last Page: Any website that you like, be it fanfiction, art, social media, or something a bit more eccentric!

I do (semi) regular link lists, and thought about dumping one here, but then I saw this video, and wanted to talk about it.

[youtube.com profile] lostrekkie / [youtube.com profile] jessiegenderafterdark5287: Starfleet Academy Is The Best Live-Action Star Trek We've Gotten In Years (Spoiler-Free Review) (Video: 43 minutes).
I braced for CW-core melodrama in space and instead got a Star Trek show that actually understands Star Trek.

Context on where I am with modern TV Star Trek, the TL;DR being: "Too old and tired to deal with this shit." I remember watching the first two episodes of Star Trek: Picard, and deciding, "I don't have the energy to be angry at Star Trek." Which was similar to how I felt about pretty much everything in January of 2020, to be fair. But the feeling specific to Star Trek has stuck, and I haven't kept up with any of the modern shows. We did watch part of the first season of Discovery, and I enjoyed later episodes more than my first impression of the pilot (which I loathed). But then I just never cared enough to go back to it.

I probably should've watched Prodigy, which was more my speed (it sounds like, being a Voyager girl growing up). Then I bounced off Lower Decks, both tonally and in animation style. And I felt the same sort of continuity exhaustion towards Strange New Worlds as I do towards all of Star Wars and most of the MCU at this point.

(For the reboot movies: Enjoyed the first one, have forgotten every single thing about the second one, adored the third one, but then Anton died, and they never made any more. Tentatively interested in whatever the reboot of the reboot will be.)

This looks like something I might enjoy! I hope it doesn't rely too much on continuity from season three of Discovery, but otherwise I like the cast, I'm willing to put up with overly-hormonal youth, and I'd just... it'd be nice not to be angry at Star Trek for a change.

A few quibbles with the video:
  • Not personal to me, but if you're loving the current era of Trek... Jessie very much is not, and may harsh your mellow.

  • It's probably not as spoiler free as some people use with that term, but it didn't really give away any plot details.

  • I basically listened to it as a podcast, because while I very much enjoy Jessie's face, there's a lot of b-roll that's just the trailers over and over? Which I guess is a youtube thing.


But overall I liked her video! I will be tuning in to the new show.

AND THEN I SAW THIS VIDEO, so you get some Raye, too.


Challenge #5: In your own space, create a list of at least three things you'd love to receive, a wishlist of sorts.
I'm not really active in transformative works fandom right now (brain full, no room), but here's a couple broad wishes for rainbow chasers.

1. Copying a bunch of people asking for help with [community profile] fandomtrees. There's lots of great trees that need a few more decorations <3

2. Tell me your favourite album last year. Not song, full album you can listen to end to end. The album doesn't have to have come out in 2025; it can be from another year, and it was just your favourite to listen to in 2025.

3. Tell me your favourite tiny detail about your blorbo, and why you like it. Don't worry if I know/like your canon. I just want to roll around in some fandom positivity. Alternately, a small joke or funny moment from your blorbo's show (or novel, or whatever).

E.g.: this is more of a canon beat, but the thing in "Mr. Rowl" where everyone keeps mistaking the heroine's dad for the Duke of Wellington cracks me up every time I think of it.

ETA: 4. If you use Discord, please go fill out this survey and tell them to put AI integration where the Sun will never see it: We're exploring how people feel about AI—tools like ChatGPT, Claude, and Copilot—and what they'd want (or not want) from AI in Discord.

ETA 2: Survey appears to be down. Not sure if it got overloaded. Or if Discord decided they don't want user input after all. Or what. Let me know if it comes back on.

Random Doctor Who Picture

Saturday, January 10th, 2026 14:24
purplecat: Books. (General:Books)
[personal profile] purplecat

An image of red demons on a totem poll.  A tribe of native Americans with feathered headresses is in the background walking towards an English village.

This is the cover from Lawrence Miles' Christmas on a Rational Planet New Adventure. This was his debut novel. I recall very little about it. I think many people immediately recognised him as someone with an exciting suffeit of ideas, but sadly, I can not claim to have been among them.

IVD 2025 Volunteer Q&A—Translation Spotlight

Saturday, January 10th, 2026 13:47
[syndicated profile] ao3_news_feed

International Volunteer Day

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 Translation committee's main responsibility is making content from the OTW and its various projects accessible to fans who don't speak English. This includes content for the organization's main site, FAQs on AO3, Open Doors import announcements, and AO3 news posts, among other things. They also collaborate with other OTW committees, for example to help them communicate with non-English speaking fans and users.

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

Translation Committee Specific Question

Question: Is there a software required if one wanted to volunteer? Also, are there any specific devices required?
Committee answer:
While we have no specific software requirements for volunteering, we definitely recommend using a device with a bigger screen in general, like a desktop or a laptop, or at least a tablet, as that makes it easier to keep everything you need for your work on your screen. One of our requirements for any software we use is that it can run in a common internet browser on a computer, without any local installs, though they may require an app on mobile devices.

General Questions

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

  • It varies a lot week to week! Some weeks are very quiet and there's not a lot to work on, but when I do get an assignment, I tend to spend about a couple of hours on it, and that will usually be it for the week unless we're working on time sensitive tasks or projects, when things can get more hectic! Translation in particular sets generous deadlines to complete our assignments (5 or 7 days depending on what we're working on), which gives us plenty of time to work on it even after RL work hours and factoring in other real life things. I also sometimes help the Tag Wrangling team with their Spanish tags, but that accounts for a couple of minutes of quick work overall, I'd say. So... tl;dr, about 2-3 hours, give or take, depending on what we have to do for the week! (Saku)
  • It depends on the task, but an average of 2-3 hours per week suffices. (Nameless_ghoul_7)

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

  • I usually find time for this during the weekend, considering my day job, so it's more of a weekend activity for me. And I prefer to do my translation in one go, and then go through it again afterwards in my free time post weekday work.
    It's definitely taught me to be good at time management, because you can't predict how your week is going to go at any point. (Ana)
  • I use a time tracker to help me track the time I spend on OTW volunteer tasks, though that usually ends up working more in retrospective, where towards the end of each week I look at the hours I did to evaluate whether my current workload is adequate or whether I should delegate some of my work to other people (or if that's not an option, what I can deprioritise and put off until a bit later). I usually try to pick up some volunteer manager or chair trainee work every other day or so (unless I'm working on something that requires daily attention), just to avoid driving myself insane, because at the end of the day there's always more work I could be picking up still. (Rhine)

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

  • My favourite part of volunteering at the OTW has been meeting several new people from around the world and seeing how our different POVs and experiences help with different understandings of life in different spaces and how independently of our differences, cultures and upbringing we're united by pure passion for what we do in and for fandom. Passion and compassion is often hidden or missing in "work spaces" and the OTW has been a positive space filled with positive learning experiences for me since the moment I started volunteering. It's an ever evolving space that takes every instance to be better. (CottonDuck)
  • I was going to say "the people!" and that is mostly true (I've met some wonderful folks as part of Translation, and it's been a great time overall!), but if I sit down to really think about it, I think my favorite part is that it feels very gratifying to be giving back to a community that has done so much for fandom and fan spaces. I don't read a lot of fanfiction myself anymore, much as I do occasionally write it, but fandom is still very important to me and I've made a lot of good friends thanks to it, so it feels good to be able to contribute my time and skills and do something for a space that has done so much for me in turn. It's good work and good people all around, and it feels good to be part of it through my work for the OTW and AO3. (Saku)

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

  • How chill the Translation volunteer managers are! If we need something, be it a hiatus, more time on a task, or clarification on some part of the text, we’re pretty much always granted them! And having a full week to do the task is very nice too, I originally thought it was going to be much more hectic. (kati)
  • The sheer scope of work that is involved! There are so many volunteers, like, seriously, *so many*, and each of us have our own little roles to perform, thus helping everything run like clockwork. Having said all that, it's all strictly on a volunteer basis, which makes it probably the only “work place” I've seen where we all actually enjoy doing what we do. (Ana)

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

  • Mostly the same as any normal day. Only that I set apart one or two hours most days to translate what's been assigned to me. (ttom)
  • It varies a lot! As Translation volunteer managers, we handle several different tasks, depending on the time of year, and what projects are currently going on. For example, if I'm on duty for managing our email inbox and handing out tasks for the week—we alternate regularly—I'll set aside around 2-3 hours a day after work for that. When we are recruiting for new translators, I'll spend a chunk of time in a week holding interviews. There are also routine tasks that each of us rotates through, like preparing meetings or coordinating the upload of translated content to the OTW and AO3 websites. Independent of the task, I usually work through shorter items on my to-do list on weekday nights, and leave bigger tasks for the weekend. (Elin)

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

  • Cats... I love cats and I have one. (Nameless_ghoul_7)
  • Cats, giraffes, turtles, butterflies, and I can go on. As for cats, I love the Egyptian Maus that I currently have. (AnneHelena)
  • My favourite animal is the betta! I loved aquaculture a lot!! My favourite breed of dog is the Indian Pariah Dog. (Aditi Mandavgane)

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

  • I love reading fanfics and it's difficult to choose a favourite one. But among the recent fics I am reading, Bifurcation Sandbox by Gardenersnake8822 is a favourite. (Gloriosa)
  • I love reading fanfic! It's definitely become a hobby, and has been the brunt of my reading as of late (because books are expensive < / 3). It's really difficult to pick a favorite work, since I've read so many amazing fics, but if I had to pick one, I'd pick "The Lowlander" by user foxymoxy! It's a BTS-Dragon Age crossover fic that takes the captor/prisoner trope and really dissects and does something interesting with it. It's one of my all-time favorites, and I re-read it all the time. (Somber)

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

  • Yes! I have a writing account on some platforms like AO3 (ofc, duh), Twitter, Wattpad, and Medium. There are so many things I love about writing. But, I’m going to list 3 of them here:
    1. I can finally read my ship in tropes that I really wanted to read.
    2. The research process. I gained knowledge while doing my hobby. I learn how to write better, to portray the emotion better, to explore and experiment with my characters’ personality, discover interesting information, and so on.
    3. It helps me clear my mind. (Keane)
  • I used to write original stories that never went anywhere and only started writing and publishing fanfiction in order to learn about AO3's user interface so that I could translate the tutorials more accurately. I like how freeing it feels not to have to worry too much about writing well enough for the general audience – it's just me and the five people (at most) who will ever see my silly little stories! (Slovenian Translation volunteer)

What fandoms are you (currently) in?

  • I’m currently obsessed with F1: The Movie and Ocean's Eleven Trilogy. (Cassie)
  • I've been in the Star Wars fandom for more than 20 years at this point, mostly on the Rogue One / Andor side nowadays. (Auré)

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

  • My answer is yes, absolutely! Especially on AO3 in particular, because Mandarin Chinese authors have been facing immense opposition in the form of censorship and takedowns of both digital and physical publications of our works. The 227 incident that resulted in AO3 being banned in Mainland China was a major turning point in the involvement of AO3 within Chinese fandom communities, so every time I see a new Mandarin Chinese work on AO3 I'm always grateful that one more author has found a safe avenue to share their creations with the rest of fandom. (Chinese Translation volunteer)
  • Absolutely! My first language is Portuguese and I always find it surprising when I see works on some fandoms that are definitely not popular in my country. It’s like an invisible thread suddenly connects me to someone I don’t know but share two things in common: a language and a love for a fandom that makes us want to spend time and effort creating something to share with that community. Funny enough, I usually like to read fanfics in the language my brain associates them with. For example, I don’t speak Korean, and I usually watch K-dramas with English subtitles to continue learning English, so that’s the language my brain associates that series with. When I see a work in Portuguese for that fandom, it’s like my horizons have suddenly been broadened. And if I get a chance to make an online friend because of it? Even better! (Amanda)
  • I translate English to Marathi, and I don't see a lot of Marathi fanfic on the site, but when I stumble upon one, my heart soars and I feel on top of the world! (Aditi Mandavgane)

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

(For more answers from Translation 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.

(no subject)

Saturday, January 10th, 2026 09:19
james_davis_nicoll: (Default)
[personal profile] james_davis_nicoll
I am aware jamesdavisnicoll.com is down.

IVD 2025 Volunteer Q&A—Translation Spotlight

Saturday, January 10th, 2026 13:39
[syndicated profile] otw_news_feed

Posted by Aditi Paul

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 Translation committee‘s main responsibility is making content from the OTW and its various projects accessible to fans who don’t speak English. This includes content for the organization’s main site, FAQs on AO3, Open Doors import announcements, and AO3 news posts, among other things. They also collaborate with other OTW committees, for example to help them communicate with non-English speaking fans and users.

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

Translation Committee Specific Question

Question: Is there a software required if one wanted to volunteer? Also, are there any specific devices required?

Committee answer:
While we have no specific software requirements for volunteering, we definitely recommend using a device with a bigger screen in general, like a desktop or a laptop, or at least a tablet, as that makes it easier to keep everything you need for your work on your screen. One of our requirements for any software we use is that it can run in a common internet browser on a computer, without any local installs, though they may require an app on mobile devices.

General Questions

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

  • It varies a lot week to week! Some weeks are very quiet and there’s not a lot to work on, but when I do get an assignment, I tend to spend about a couple of hours on it, and that will usually be it for the week unless we’re working on time sensitive tasks or projects, when things can get more hectic! Translation in particular sets generous deadlines to complete our assignments (5 or 7 days depending on what we’re working on), which gives us plenty of time to work on it even after RL work hours and factoring in other real life things. I also sometimes help the Tag Wrangling team with their Spanish tags, but that accounts for a couple of minutes of quick work overall, I’d say. So… tl;dr, about 2-3 hours, give or take, depending on what we have to do for the week! (Saku)
  • It depends on the task, but an average of 2-3 hours per week suffices. (Nameless_ghoul_7)

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

  • I usually find time for this during the weekend, considering my day job, so it’s more of a weekend activity for me. And I prefer to do my translation in one go, and then go through it again afterwards in my free time post weekday work.
    It’s definitely taught me to be good at time management, because you can’t predict how your week is going to go at any point. (Ana)
  • I use a time tracker to help me track the time I spend on OTW volunteer tasks, though that usually ends up working more in retrospective, where towards the end of each week I look at the hours I did to evaluate whether my current workload is adequate or whether I should delegate some of my work to other people (or if that’s not an option, what I can deprioritise and put off until a bit later). I usually try to pick up some volunteer manager or chair trainee work every other day or so (unless I’m working on something that requires daily attention), just to avoid driving myself insane, because at the end of the day there’s always more work I could be picking up still. (Rhine)

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

  • My favourite part of volunteering at the OTW has been meeting several new people from around the world and seeing how our different POVs and experiences help with different understandings of life in different spaces and how independently of our differences, cultures and upbringing we’re united by pure passion for what we do in and for fandom. Passion and compassion is often hidden or missing in “work spaces” and the OTW has been a positive space filled with positive learning experiences for me since the moment I started volunteering. It’s an ever evolving space that takes every instance to be better. (CottonDuck)
  • I was going to say “the people!” and that is mostly true (I’ve met some wonderful folks as part of Translation, and it’s been a great time overall!), but if I sit down to really think about it, I think my favorite part is that it feels very gratifying to be giving back to a community that has done so much for fandom and fan spaces. I don’t read a lot of fanfiction myself anymore, much as I do occasionally write it, but fandom is still very important to me and I’ve made a lot of good friends thanks to it, so it feels good to be able to contribute my time and skills and do something for a space that has done so much for me in turn. It’s good work and good people all around, and it feels good to be part of it through my work for the OTW and AO3. (Saku)

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

  • How chill the Translation volunteer managers are! If we need something, be it a hiatus, more time on a task, or clarification on some part of the text, we’re pretty much always granted them! And having a full week to do the task is very nice too, I originally thought it was going to be much more hectic. (kati)
  • The sheer scope of work that is involved! There are so many volunteers, like, seriously, *so many*, and each of us have our own little roles to perform, thus helping everything run like clockwork. Having said all that, it’s all strictly on a volunteer basis, which makes it probably the only “work place” I’ve seen where we all actually enjoy doing what we do. (Ana)

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

  • Mostly the same as any normal day. Only that I set apart one or two hours most days to translate what’s been assigned to me. (ttom)
  • It varies a lot! As Translation volunteer managers, we handle several different tasks, depending on the time of year, and what projects are currently going on. For example, if I’m on duty for managing our email inbox and handing out tasks for the week—we alternate regularly—I’ll set aside around 2-3 hours a day after work for that. When we are recruiting for new translators, I’ll spend a chunk of time in a week holding interviews. There are also routine tasks that each of us rotates through, like preparing meetings or coordinating the upload of translated content to the OTW and AO3 websites. Independent of the task, I usually work through shorter items on my to-do list on weekday nights, and leave bigger tasks for the weekend. (Elin)

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

  • Cats… I love cats and I have one. (Nameless_ghoul_7)
  • Cats, giraffes, turtles, butterflies, and I can go on. As for cats, I love the Egyptian Maus that I currently have. (AnneHelena)
  • My favourite animal is the betta! I loved aquaculture a lot!! My favourite breed of dog is the Indian Pariah Dog. (Aditi Mandavgane)

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

  • I love reading fanfics and it’s difficult to choose a favourite one. But among the recent fics I am reading, Bifurcation Sandbox by Gardenersnake8822 is a favourite. (Gloriosa)
  • I love reading fanfic! It’s definitely become a hobby, and has been the brunt of my reading as of late (because books are expensive </3). It's really difficult to pick a favorite work, since I've read so many amazing fics, but if I had to pick one, I'd pick "The Lowlander" by user foxymoxy! It's a BTS-Dragon Age crossover fic that takes the captor/prisoner trope and really dissects and does something interesting with it. It's one of my all-time favorites, and I re-read it all the time. (Somber)

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

  • Yes! I have a writing account on some platforms like AO3 (ofc, duh), Twitter, Wattpad, and Medium. There are so many things I love about writing. But, I’m going to list 3 of them here:
    1. I can finally read my ship in tropes that I really wanted to read.
    2. The research process. I gained knowledge while doing my hobby. I learn how to write better, to portray the emotion better, to explore and experiment with my characters’ personality, discover interesting information, and so on.
    3. It helps me clear my mind. (Keane)
  • I used to write original stories that never went anywhere and only started writing and publishing fanfiction in order to learn about AO3’s user interface so that I could translate the tutorials more accurately. I like how freeing it feels not to have to worry too much about writing well enough for the general audience – it’s just me and the five people (at most) who will ever see my silly little stories! (Slovenian Translation volunteer)

What fandoms are you (currently) in?

  • I’m currently obsessed with F1: The Movie and Ocean’s Eleven Trilogy. (Cassie)
  • I’ve been in the Star Wars fandom for more than 20 years at this point, mostly on the Rogue One / Andor side nowadays. (Auré)

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

  • My answer is yes, absolutely! Especially on AO3 in particular, because Mandarin Chinese authors have been facing immense opposition in the form of censorship and takedowns of both digital and physical publications of our works. The 227 incident that resulted in AO3 being banned in Mainland China was a major turning point in the involvement of AO3 within Chinese fandom communities, so every time I see a new Mandarin Chinese work on AO3 I’m always grateful that one more author has found a safe avenue to share their creations with the rest of fandom. (Chinese Translation volunteer)
  • Absolutely! My first language is Portuguese and I always find it surprising when I see works on some fandoms that are definitely not popular in my country. It’s like an invisible thread suddenly connects me to someone I don’t know but share two things in common: a language and a love for a fandom that makes us want to spend time and effort creating something to share with that community. Funny enough, I usually like to read fanfics in the language my brain associates them with. For example, I don’t speak Korean, and I usually watch K-dramas with English subtitles to continue learning English, so that’s the language my brain associates that series with. When I see a work in Portuguese for that fandom, it’s like my horizons have suddenly been broadened. And if I get a chance to make an online friend because of it? Even better! (Amanda)
  • I translate English to Marathi, and I don’t see a lot of Marathi fanfic on the site, but when I stumble upon one, my heart soars and I feel on top of the world! (Aditi Mandavgane)

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

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

Weekly Chat

Saturday, January 10th, 2026 13:52
dancing_serpent: (Actors - Lu Yuxiao - Ming Xian)
[personal profile] dancing_serpent posting in [community profile] c_ent
The weekly chat posts are intended for just that, chatting among each other. What are you currently watching? Reading? What actor/idol are you currently following? What are you looking forward to? Are you busy writing, creating art? Or did you have no time at all for anything, and are bemoaning that fact?

Whatever it is, talk to us about it here. Tell us what you liked or didn't like, and if you want to talk about spoilery things, please hide them under either of these codes:
or

Purimgifts assignments had been SENT!

Saturday, January 10th, 2026 14:45
hagar_972: Heart-shape formed with hands (Heart-hands)
[personal profile] hagar_972 posting in [community profile] purimgifts
Please let us know if there's any issue! Happy creating!

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