On 10 June 2023, otw_news made a post concerning the usage of the OTW Dreamwidth community, and asked readers for feedback: (link)

The post accrued 59 comments.

OTW News Reader Comment Period

The OTW Communications Committee periodically reviews its news distribution process to best balance volunteer workload and the maximum reach possible for readership. This review has shown that for some years now there has been little to no engagement here on Dreamwidth.

However readers on Dreamwidth are capable of utilizing RSS feed accounts. On Dreamwidth, OTW news can be found via the otw_rss_feed and there is a separate account for the AO3 News blog.

The Communications Committee is proposing to stop manually adding blurbs and links to this account, and instead redirecting readers to subscribe to the feeds. This account will not be deleted, so its archive will remain open. It simply will not be updated.

Today begins a 2 week feedback period from readers regarding this change, letting us know how many people are still reading, and what reasons those readers might have as to why the feeds would not serve the same function.

If you do comment, please let us know how long you have been reading this account and how often you click through to the website to read the full news posts. On June 24, we will post again with a decision.

Thank you for your interest in OTW news!

A week later, on 17 June 2023, otw_news made a post to address concerns and questions: (link)

Comment Period Update

Hello OTW News readers!

As we mentioned in the post here of June 10, the OTW Communications Committee has been reviewing its current news distribution sites to determine how best to allocate volunteer resources and how to reach the maximum number of fans interested in knowing more about our organization and projects.

We have compiled the responses we received and want to continue the comment period ending June 24 before any decision is made. There were a number of concerns raised which might or might not have appealing solutions, and there were also some misunderstandings we'd like to clear up.

Why is engagement important?

The short answer is that it's not. We don't expect anyone reading to feel the need to comment, and as some people have pointed out, they prefer to do so at the OTW website instead once they've read the entire post.

Anyone using Dreamwidth is aware that it is unusual among online platforms used by fans, as it's a long-form blogging site as much as a social media site, and posting to it is different, particularly when it comes to images. What is particularly important from an organizational point of view, is that there are no metrics here to help us find out if our subscribers are still reading our account or even using Dreamwidth at all. Any site that has been around for some time is filled with dead accounts. And unlike other platforms, where people can signal their presence by liking or reblogging, if people don't comment here, they're invisible.

This does not mean that we feel people must engage with this account. Like many communities on Dreamwidth, activity here is not easy to cultivate. This account did for most of 2015 have its own moderator attempting to do so. Although the account has largely gone without a moderator since 2009, there has intermittently been someone monitoring the account for spam and responding to the occasional question. But if people simply want to see what news is coming out, we're fine with that!

Issues with an RSS feed on Dreamwidth

Feeds break.

This is undoubtedly true, as there was previously an RSS feed here which stopped working some time ago, possibly when our website migrated to a new host. It may also be the case that it would take some time for a support ticket to be addressed, creating a lengthy gap for readers.

However, it is not necessarily the case that a feed is bound to stop working. For example, the feed to the AO3 news blog has apparently been functioning since it was created in December 2010.

We should point out that until this month the OTW has never started a feed here. Any feeds connected to us here were started unofficially and we do not know which other ones there may be or how to find them.

We agree that should news here go feed-only, then we'd need to periodically check that it was still active. But we would also rely on readers here to contact us if news stopped. It is rare that we go a week without sending out a post, and there are at minimum 4 sent out each month.

The feed is incomplete

This is true, and while the OTW could fix one aspect of this, the other is on Dreamwidth's end. Feed posts here are set to disappear after two weeks. Some readers are concerned this means they have no access to older posts.

Possible Solutions: RSS feed posts only disappear here. The posts are still available in full at the OTW website. We also have a Pinboard account that tracks all OTW related news posts, not just what gets posted on the OTW website. The Pinboard link could be pinned here along with links to the RSS feed accounts so that anyone wanting to scroll through posts new or old could.

The current OTW News feed is truncated. To some people this is an advantage (less to scroll past) and to others a disadvantage (need to click through to the website for the whole post) while some people prefer the way the RSS feed eliminates the post banners.

Possible Solutions: We could change the feed settings on our end to have whole posts come through as they do on the AO3 feed. Whether more people want this or don't isn't so clear, so we'd want to get more feedback on that.

A feed can create duplicates

This has sometimes been known to happen with feeds and it's possible it might happen with the OTW feeds, which would be annoying. However the majority of feeds on Dreamwidth do not, even over long periods of time (and on some occasions when it happens, it's because the feed has been reset).

Dreamwidth is a preferred location for news

As our news posts can get hidden on other sites due to fiddling with algorithms or display order, we can understand why Dreamwidth is a better choice for many people in terms of being sure our posts will come up in one's reading list, (and do so in the order in which they were posted).

Given that subscribing (and unsubscribing) to a feed on Dreamwidth is done exactly the same way as subscribing to a community or personal account, switching to a feed shouldn't create any change. But we can understand why subscribing elsewhere is not an appealing alternative.

Notifications of Board Meetings

As many people noted, in recent years Board meetings have been announced only via Twitter (or occasionally in the Newsletter, depending on the timing of its release and the Board meeting). This is partly because most of our news readers utilize Twitter and partly because it has been a quicker and simpler process to post a tweet and then to auto-schedule follow up reminders.

However, Communications could make posts to the OTW News blog with board meeting announcements and anyplace receiving that news feed would also receive these notices. It would be less certain that we could quickly notify users of a cancellation or last minute schedule change, but as long as people wouldn't mind showing up to the Discord channel only to see a reschedule notification, this should work better than the current Twitter-only practice.

OTW News vs AO3 News

To clear up confusion about what has historically been posted at this account, we need to point out that AO3 News has never been posted here. (No doubt this was why someone started the AO3 News feed.) There is, occasionally, news about new policies or other activity from AO3 committees that ends up here, but that is because announcements are cross-posted to OTW News by request of those committees. And some OTW News posts are also cross posted to AO3 News, resulting in duplicates for anyone following both.

However news about the latest updates, fixes that have been made, new features, etc. has always been posted only at AO3's news blog. AO3 has social media outlets of its own, but these have not usually carried all of that news.

For anyone here who wants to follow AO3 News, we recommend you subscribe to the feed linked above.

Are proposed changes here connected to other issues?

Yes. About a month ago Communications had a change in its Chairs and will also be recruiting soon (see our post next Wednesday!) We are currently very understaffed and are looking at how many people will be needed to fill our current roles and whether, in fact, all roles are needed.

This review connects to how many posting outlets we have, as well as our need to train people to send out posts manually to all these locations. (There are currently only 2 people in the committee who can do so).

Our commenting process began with LiveJournal back on May 27th and would have begun on Dreamwidth at the same time, but we were unable to get a feed running here on Dreamwidth until last week. The LiveJournal account is now inactive as we received no response to our call for comments there.

Other alternatives

There was a suggestion about a future OTW Mastodon account, which is something we'll be taking into consideration. But given people's responses, the real concern is not how to get OTW News but how to get it here on Dreamwidth.

However there is another possibility which might be appealing to anyone wanting direct notification of news, and that is a newsletter being sent directly to your email. In the OTW's early days it owned a Yahoo Groups account, and until the site itself went away we still had subscribers to it because it was the only way to get news sent to people individually (a request we still see from time to time). This is another form of news distribution we are considering, and if we do pursue it, this is likely to happen within the next year.

Should that be of interest, please do leave a comment about it.

What's next?

As we stated up top, we'd like to continue hearing from readers now that we've provided more information in response to your comments. After June 24 we'll discuss how we'll proceed, which might involve turning this account inactive, or continuing to post here manually for at least the next year, or should another alternative be put in place in the near future, doing another comment period to see how many people might be served by that option.

Thank you for your responses, and we hope to hear from you again.

On 25 June 2023, otw_news posted an update in the decision that had been made: they would be making the account inactive, and post news through a Feed account instead: (link)

The ensuing response was negative, and the post accrued 78 comments.

Comment Period Closure and Results

Hello OTW News readers!

As we mentioned in our post on June 10, the OTW Communications Committee has been reviewing usage of this community and getting responses from subscribers about potentially following OTW News via a feed account instead.

We have now compiled the responses we received to both the original message and the follow-up message, and we have decided to turn this account inactive and to direct users to follow the feed accounts instead.

Several factors went into this decision.

Amount of Response

Although there was a quick response to our initial post, and some additional comments to our follow-up, overall only 55 people replied to one or both posts out of 1206 subscribers. (An additional 16 accounts have added the community since then, but these users were either not following OTW News before, or were doing so elsewhere.)

Although it wasn't expected that the majority of people would respond, this amounts to less than 5% of subscribers.

Availability of Current Options

OTW news can still be found here on Dreamwidth via the otw_rss_feed and there is a separate account for the AO3 News blog for anyone who wants to subscribe to both. Dreamwidth makes it just as easy to subscribe to a feed as to a community.

Our second post discussed the pluses and minuses of the feed display (and reliability) versus manual posting. Although we asked for people's interest in seeing a change to the feed display (which had been remarked upon by a few people commenting on the first post), none of the respondents to our second post mentioned a preference. Due to the lack of response, we'll let the feed remain as it is for now from our end.

Given that we will be relying on the feed to offer people news, we will be monitoring it regularly to ensure that posts continue to arrive here.

Availability of Future Options

We mentioned in the second post that we are considering an email newsletter which would send our news posts directly to people's inboxes. One of the reasons we'd like to do so is that this is considered both more convenient and reliable to many people than the way they are getting the news now.

What's more, such subscriptions would allow us to reach fans who normally use locations we have never posted to and at which an automated feed can't be set up. There are obviously many places fans use online and it would not only be impossible for us to post to all of them, but their varied formats might also be a poor fit for our news posts.

The newsletter option would also simplify things for fans whose fandoms are changing online locations. With a newsletter, fans would keep getting delivery regardless of where they were active.

Although the Communications Committee is currently occupied with recruitment and training, we expect to address this option in coming months and will be evaluating providers. Should anyone have experience with or a preference for newsletter services, we will be glad to hear your recommendations. Just comment on this post!

Notifications of Board Meetings

As mentioned in our follow-up post, there was almost as much concern with notification of OTW Board meetings as there was regarding methods to get news here. In response to that concern, we will be making posts to the OTW News blog with Board meeting announcements, which will then get delivered here via the feed.

Some readers took note that this new practice began last week.

Reader Preferences

Although there was a strong preference for receiving news here at Dreamwidth as opposed to other sites, and understandable concerns (which we addressed) about the reliability of feeds, various commenters expressed a willingness to use the feed account. There were also various comments to our second post that a newsletter option would be desirable.

What Happens Next?

If you have not already done so, click on this link for the otw_rss_feed (and, if you want AO3 News as well, the AO3 News blog) and click on the Subscribe link. You will begin receiving the news post links in your reading list as each one goes out.

In order to allow time for people to switch over without losing news, we will continue posting here for the next few weeks. Then, this community's profile page will be changed and a pinned post will be made which will offer directions to any visitors on how to keep viewing news, see all past news, and how to contact us.

2 days later, otw_news made a post with further explanation on this decision: (link)

It received 71 comments.

Further Explanation on the Switch from Community to Feed

Communications volunteers have read your responses to our decision and wanted to make an additional post addressing your feedback. We want to state at the outset though that this will not be changing the decision that has been made, but hope it will show how much we value your feedback and have put thought into this decision.

Focus on Percentages

There were a number of references to the percentage of respondents but fewer about the total number of 55. Our reason for opening a feedback period was to find out how many people were paying attention to the news coming through and were sufficiently interested in the community to respond.

Some have suggested that other methods such as a poll should have been used. Aside from the delays and difficulties that would pose (since this account is not a paid one), a poll would more easily be skewed by people encouraged to participate who did not have strong feelings about using a community versus an automated service. On a platform such as Dreamwidth where commenting is a norm rather than an exception, we did not feel that asking for people to tell us how often they read this account was an unusual thing to request of readers.

And our results showed that there were fewer people motivated to respond than we expected. We are sure that there are some occasional-to-regular readers of news on this account who, for various reasons, did not respond. While we value your readership immensely, we felt that our limited resources could better serve you elsewhere and that automated delivery of news would allow you to still engage with OTW News in a very similar format.

Active vs Passive Posting

Another issue raised was that if active posting here was a central issue for Communications then alternative methods could be used such as IFTTT. Comms has used it in the past for different purposes but have found the service reliability is mixed. We have also tried to use other services with little success. We do not send full posts through to our accounts because unfortunately, many sites have different format restrictions and there is no easy one-size-fits-all posting method.

In response to the discussion about Dreamwidth's 2 week feed retention period and comment deletions, we looked at metrics from previous posts and found that we only averaged about one comment a month. If readers would like to share comments with us, we encourage commenting on the OTW website instead, where we can aggregate feedback across platforms.

Feed Content and Commenting

Some statements were made that the feed does not contain all news the OTW puts out. This is true and it is equally true of news posted at this account. If you want the complete record of OTW news, traditionally posted here, you'll want to subscribe to the otw_rss_feed and, if you want AO3 News as well the the AO3 News blog feed is also available on Dreamwidth.

In other words, were this account to continue on as it always has, you would not be getting any different news than via the feed above.

We would also like to emphasize that we value your comments and have done our best to respond to many of the concerns raised in our June 17 post. If you have lingering doubts about feed functionality or have not seen a response to issues raised in the comments, please refer to that post; we might have already addressed it.

Universal Opinion

While most people commenting have indeed preferred to keep things at this account as they have always been, we found that some people were in fact willing to use a feed account or subscribe to a newsletter once we develop that service.

Additionally, some who expressed misgivings about feed function might not be accustomed to their functions via Dreamwidth. We recommend fans subscribe to the following feed to get some familiarity with feed functionality. The subscription and reading process works just the same as your subscription here.

otw_rss_feed

We realize that change can be difficult and that new options are not always ideal, but want to re-emphasize that we value your feedback and unfortunately have to make difficult decisions to manage our limited resources as non-profit volunteers. We hope this post helps make the transition from community to feed posts more understandable, if not easy, and that we can retain your support as the OTW continues to attempt to serve you in the best ways we know how.

On 10 July 2023 around approximately 12:24PM UTC, the AO3 servers faced a DDoS attack, causing the site to be down for a little over 24 hours: (link)

At 5:59PM UTC on 10 July, approximately 6 hours after the initial DDoS announcement on Twitter, otw_news posted about the Dreamwidth community closing, and hid and disabled all comments: (link)

This Account is Now Inactive

This account has been set to inactive status and commenting is closed. Anyone looking for OTW News on Dreamwidth can subscribe here. You can also read news directly on our website.

The OTW can be contacted at our site if readers have questions or want to report issues with the feed linked above.

We also have a Pinboard account which provides links to all news the OTW and its projects have released.

Hiding all comments reported by FFA: (link)

They've also turned off commenting across the entire community so all previous comments on all posts have been hidden.

Don't panic yet. I used the website contact form to let them know the comments are hidden. It could be a mistake.

"Thanks for alerting us to this.
I'm not sure why a closing comment setting would be designed to hide all existing comments, but the setting has been changed so that they are now visible again."

For the record, there is a note in the Dreamwidth privacy settings that states this:

Enable Comments
Note: If you disable comments, all past comments in your journal will be hidden

Comments were visible and enabled again soon after.

On 11 July 2023 at 5:58PM UTC, following the closing announcement, otw_news made a post regarding AO3, and the inaccessibility of the OTW website and donation forms: (link)

OTW Website and Donation Form Are Down

As of now, 18:50 UTC on July 11, 2023, AO3 is back up. However, in the past hours the OTW website and the donation platform have become inaccessible. We believe it is part of the same attack first made on the Archive. We will be providing updates via the OTW Tumblr account https://transformativeworks.tumblr.com so please check there for further information.

We also want to alert fans that on Twitter someone is using the name AO3_Status_ (note the second underscore). If you are on Twitter, please block and report this account.

This fake account is impersonating our service status account and attempting to scam AO3 users out of money. Fans on all platforms should be wary of anyone soliciting money on behalf of the OTW or its projects at this time. (The real donation form is currently down due to a DDoS.)

Open Doors and Legal Advocacy pages are also not available at this time. Our Fanlore project is being worked on and should be back today. Our Transformative Works and Cultures site has not been affected. Thank you for being patient while we restore services!

A comment by samjohnsson pointed out that the RSS feed, which is supposed to be the replacement for the otw_news Dreamwidth account, is hosted on the same servers that were under attack: (link)

The RSS feed is hosted on the same servers that are under attack. If they're ddosed, there's no way to get to the feed, either to update it or to read it.

No new posts have been made to otw_news since.