Category: Other Questions 2015 Q&A

Nikisha Sanders 2015 Q&A: Other Questions, Group 2

Jenny McDevitt

When Elections was ordered to remove Nikisha Sanders from the 2015 Election ballot, the committee was told to erase all information about her candidacy from the website. However, Elections firmly feels that there is no situation in which candidates, whether former or current, should be silenced or erased from Election information. As in all circumstances, Elections’ policy is to only edit and/or post candidate-written information with candidate permission. Therefore, with Sanders’ permission, we have posted the Q&A responses she completed prior to her removal.

Can you say something positive about three of your fellow candidates? Read More

Dan Lamson 2015 Q&A: Other Questions, Group 2

Jenny McDevitt

Note: Dan has withdrawn from the race, but he completed his answers before withdrawing, so they will be posted to the site.

Can you say something positive about three of your fellow candidates?

Very easily.

Matty – is getting my first vote. She is an amazing worker and has done awe-inspiring work everywhere she’s gone in the org. She was the chair I served under when I was on the Abuse Committee and she was a joy to work for. If anyone deserves to be elected to board, it’s her.

Aline – I haven’t known her long, but she has served as the Translation/DevMem liaison. In the last few months she’s been coming to our meetings, offering ideas not just on translation stuff but also great stuff for the regular work of DevMem. She’s been an asset to have on the committee and I wish her all the best in this election.

sanders – I got to know sanders over a year ago when she was treasurer for the org. We both liked talking about numbers and started talking. She’s been a good friend and while we may not always agree on org stuff, I trust she has the org’s best interests in heart.

Also—I haven’t worked as closely with the others but they are all are great candidates! Several people have said to me that it will be difficult to figure out where to rank everyone. No matter who wins, I am sure they will be a great help to the org going forward, and I wish them all well.

A lot of the current problems seem to come back to a lack of scalability, especially with the massive growth of the Archive. A) What are your short-term plans to make this growth spurt work, B) What are your long term plans to avoid this problem in the future, when there’s another massive increase (of traffic, users, and/or fanworks etc.), a.k.a what structural changes would you strive for to make the OTW, and especially the Archive more sustainable.

Keep the archive, the archive. That’s my basic thought on the matter. The archive does what it does very, very well. Growth is good, and can be planned for and readied for. It’s a logical assumption that the OTW (and also AO3) will keep growing. It will be a challenge to figure out how we can keep the spirit of the organization while experience rapid growth.

Imagine it like a small town, all of a sudden, there’s a huge stream of growth and the town can either sprawl outwards and have its character forever changed or it can manage that growth.

I think we can keep the archive and the OTW’s atmosphere and appeal without sacrificing growth and change. It will take careful planning and working hard with relevant committees, but I believe we can do it.

Whenever internationalisation is brought up in relation to fandom, I often hear the argument that it’s not needed yet, since there isn’t an “insert country/language/non-English fandom” presence in the OTW/on the Archive. Personally I feel like this is a chicken/egg situation. Is the OTW/AO3 so American/English language focussed because there isn’t enough of a non-English fandom interest, or is there no interest because there’s not enough non-American/English accommodation?

A) Where do you fall on this? What should come first?

B) If the next growth spurt is of a non-English, different fandom culture nature, how will you accommodate that?

This is a very interesting question, and a valid one. I do not know much about the technical side of the Archive, but I do think that we are ready and able to welcome and accept non-English/American fandoms and fans en masse. I do not see it as a problem, or something to be concerned about. I think it would be amazing and lovely. I would want to encourage the growth of the fandom, making them as comfortable as our current fandoms are.

As to why (American English speaker, here) it is so English, I am not sure. I think there are sites for various non-English fandoms and fanworks out there. Perhaps they haven’t had the same tumultuous history that English fandom had with the purges of LJ and FFN, etc.

I am not sure what kind of alternate means of accommodation would be needed, but that is mostly my ignorance. There are things that could be great, different language landing page on AO3. That sort of thing, to make them feel more welcome. I’m sure there’s a ton of other stuff, and I’d love to talk about it more and learn more about this issue.

Matty Bowers 2015 Q&A: Other Questions (Group 2)

Jenny McDevitt

Can you say something positive about three of your fellow candidates?

I’m a bit biased, as I’ve worked with a majority of the candidates on either Abuse or Support. Picking just three people was not an easy task!

Atiya Hakeem is very dedicated about her work and the OTW. She is always one of the first to step up and volunteer for difficult tasks. I love that we can have serious debates about policies without it impacting our working relationship (or friendship!).

Alex Tischer is very passionate about the OTW. Alex has the rare ability to be both outspoken and a great listener. We’ve had Board members have the first ability, yet not the second, which has led to many problems. Alex though, is always willing to listen and consider other points of view.

Katarina Harju has done an amazing job in both Abuse and Translation. Working on Abuse can be a tough, thankless job, but Katarina always rises to the challenge. The ability to stay calm and focused in difficult situations will serve Katarina well on Board.

A lot of the current problems seem to come back to a lack of scalability, especially with the massive growth of the Archive. A) What are your short-term plans to make this growth spurt work, B) What are your long term plans to avoid this problem in the future, when there’s another massive increase (of traffic, users, and/or fanworks etc.), a.k.a what structural changes would you strive for to make the OTW, and especially the Archive more sustainable.

During my tenure as Support chair, the Archive experienced quite a number of sudden growth spurts. While there may have been some inconveniences for users, the AO3-related committees have always risen to the occasion.

Several committees did need to completely change how their committees worked. In my case, neither Support nor Abuse were ready for the drastic upswing in the number of tickets that were sent in. We had to reevaluate our staffing needs, create new documentation, update old policies — basically rebuild the committees entirely. Both committees are now able to better handle huge influxes of new users.

In general, any potential new problems will impact each committee differently and likely need unique solutions. Most of the decisions and work would be handled at a committee level. As a Board member, it would be my responsibility to provide support and help the committee chairs as needed.

I will ensure it’s easier for all committees to get the help they need, whether it’s money for contractors, new tools, equipment, emergency tech support, more staff, etc. I’d also like to work towards improving the organization’s communication tools. Right now, in an emergency we can’t always quickly reach the people we need to talk to; most chat rooms are locked to committees only so we are forced to send out desperate emails and hope we are reaching someone. Improving our communication will go a long ways to improving response time and ensure problems are dealt with in a timely manner.

Whenever internationalisation is brought up in relation to fandom, I often hear the argument that it’s not needed yet, since there isn’t an “insert country/language/non-English fandom” presence in the OTW/on the Archive. Personally I feel like this is a chicken/egg situation. Is the OTW/AO3 so American/English language focussed because there isn’t enough of a non-English fandom interest, or is there no interest because there’s not enough non-American/English accommodation?

A) Where do you fall on this? What should come first?

B) If the next growth spurt is of a non-English, different fandom culture nature, how will you accommodate that?

I often hear the argument that it’s not needed yet, since there isn’t an “insert country/language/non-English fandom” presence in the OTW/on the Archive

I’ve heard this argument and strongly disagree. There are almost 90,000 works in languages other than English on the Archive, and fans from all over the world use it. While it isn’t currently possible to translate the entire Archive interface, I have always supported the project and done my best to contribute in whatever small ways I can. When I first became Support chair I fought for us to change our policy regarding only answering tickets sent in English. The argument at the time was “We aren’t ready!” However,I knew we were never going to be ready if we didn’t start somewhere. Our wonderful Translation committee was willing and able to jump in; with their help, both Support and Abuse were able to start offering help for users in multiple languages.

Thankfully the “We aren’t ready!” opinion has changed since then. In my short tenure as AO3 Documentation lead, I helped oversee the coding and deploy of our new FAQ system which allows for translated FAQs. We now have FAQs translated into over a dozen different languages. This project was fully supported by everyone, and is only one of many features now available.

Where do you fall on this? What should come first?

As mentioned above, I think that this isn’t an issue for the future: it’s already happening every day, and we’re already working every day in this direction. There is still a lot of work ahead, of course, and we’re all aware of that!

If the next growth spurt is of a non-English, different fandom culture nature, how will you accommodate that?

Both Support and Abuse are on the front-lines; we are often the first contacted when users need help or resources that are not currently available. Sometimes we help with easy issues such as adding new languages, other times users’ needs are more complicated. As a Board member, it’s my job to ensure all committees are keeping abreast of what our users need and are addressing those needs.

Katarina Harju 2015 Q&A: Other Questions, Group 2

Jenny McDevitt

Can you say something positive about three of your fellow candidates?

I’ve served on committees with three of my fellow candidates, and I have no trouble finding positive things to say about them. I feel somewhat bad about leaving Lady Oscar (Atiya Hakeem) out of my answer, whom I’ve only really learned to know better since we became candidates, but it makes more sense to talk about people I have personally worked together with.

Matty Bowers is the chair of the Abuse committee, on which I currently serve as a staffer. She is, in short, extraordinary. Matty has been instrumental in making the Abuse committee a well-functioning and enjoyable work environment, despite the fact that Abuse work by its nature is often quite thankless. I don’t think any of my fellow candidates will be surprised, or offended, when I say that I can’t think of anyone better to be elected to Board than Matty.

Aline Carrão is a fellow staffer in the Translation committee. She is friendly, helpful and easy to talk to, and manages to combine that with a healthy professionalism where needed. The Board could definitely use someone like her.

Alex Tischer is also a staffer on the Translation committee, and no one in our committee will be surprised to hear me say that in all of the OTW I find Alex the easiest person to work with. The reason for this is the fact that I would never, for any reason, hesitate to argue with Alex, because I know that no matter the disagreement, it will never affect our ability to work together. Besides this, Alex is hard-working, possesses an integrity that I admire and has time management skills that I think most of us can only dream of.

A lot of the current problems seem to come back to a lack of scalability, especially with the massive growth of the Archive. A) What are your short-term plans to make this growth spurt work, B) What are your long term plans to avoid this problem in the future, when there’s another massive increase (of traffic, users, and/or fanworks etc.), a.k.a what structural changes would you strive for to make the OTW, and especially the Archive more sustainable.

There are many OTW committees that would not be affected by a growth in the Archive of Our Own in any way, because their work concerns other areas of the OTW and not the Archive, or it may even only help their work with no contingency plans needed at all. For example, Archive growth means more tickets and more work for Abuse, while for Translation it means more visibility and more recruits in more languages. The committees that do work with the Archive are impacted in very different ways by its growth because they do different things for the Archive, and no single solution can work for all of them. The Board cannot, and should not, try to implement solutions for these issues, because it is the committees who have the experience and knowledge that is needed to figure out what needs to be done. What the Board can, and should do, is to ensure that the committees in question get the resources they need in time to implement solutions, like for example approve funds to pay for software training and contractors where it makes sense to outsource work.

Whenever internationalisation is brought up in relation to fandom, I often hear the argument that it’s not needed yet, since there isn’t an “insert country/language/non-English fandom” presence in the OTW/on the Archive. Personally I feel like this is a chicken/egg situation. Is the OTW/AO3 so American/English language focussed because there isn’t enough of a non-English fandom interest, or is there no interest because there’s not enough non-American/English accommodation?

A) Where do you fall on this? What should come first?

B) If the next growth spurt is of a non-English, different fandom culture nature, how will you accommodate that?

This is an argument I have never personally heard, which might be because I am not a native English speaker and I work on the Translation committee, which has as its goal to make the OTW’s work accessible in as many languages as possible. There is also the fact that there are definitely quite a lot of non-English works on the Archive. To me it doesn’t matter which comes first, no matter the current number of non-English works, I believe that we should continue to strive to make the Archive accessible to international fans. Currently we can offer the Archive FAQs and Tutorials, and answer Abuse and Support tickets in several languages, and as soon as it becomes technically possible to translate the Archive interface, I can promise you, no one will be as excited as the Translation committee.

Atiya Hakeem 2015 Q&A: Other Questions, Group 2

Jenny McDevitt

Can you say something positive about three of your fellow candidates?

Yes! Matty Bowers was my first chair when I joined the Org. In the years I’ve worked for and with her I’ve found her to be unfailingly calm, practical, and level-headed. She manages with a light touch, such that one feels like one isn’t being managed at all as long as things are going well, but with help right there as soon as it’s needed. I find her extremely comfortable to work with, because when we disagree, we can productively discuss the issues involved without drama or rancor.

Aline Carrão’s enthusiasm and upbeat personality make her a pleasure to be around, possibly sometimes obscuring the fact that she’s very competent at her work.

Alex Tischer is straightforwardly blunt, overtly competent, and extremely funny. I trust her always to get things done, and I enjoy watching it happen.

I only met Katarina Harju “in person” since the campaign started, but if I were allowed a fourth comment, I’d say that getting to know her has been a definite bonus.

A lot of the current problems seem to come back to a lack of scalability, especially with the massive growth of the Archive. A) What are your short-term plans to make this growth spurt work, B) What are your long term plans to avoid this problem in the future, when there’s another massive increase (of traffic, users, and/or fanworks etc.), a.k.a what structural changes would you strive for to make the OTW, and especially the Archive more sustainable.

I could give a more interesting answer to this question as it specifically relates to AO3 with my AD&T staffer hat on, but from the Board perspective:

A) In the short term, for AO3, I would make sure that the AD&T and Systems committees were allocated the money needed to upgrade our server capacity, pay our new contractor, and obtain needed training and software, and that that money was paid out in a timely fashion.

For the Org as a whole, I would work on getting our fiscal house in order. We need to have a predictive budget each year, in order to allow us to anticipate our needs and shape our fundraising accordingly. We need responsible fiscal oversight to ensure that the money goes where it is supposed to and that the bills are paid.

B) In the long term, I think we need to work on transitioning some positions to be paid, rather than volunteer. As our projects get larger, expecting volunteers to manage them in their spare time is increasingly not feasible. I’d start with Systems, AO3 coding, and Volunteers & Recruiting, with a preference for hiring current staffers, as being people we can trust to do the work. (Our experiences in the Org with paying people from outside have, to date, been rather mixed.) I definitely don’t think we should start by paying people at the top (such as an executive director); leadership choosing to pay itself with no oversight has a great potential for abuse, and I’ve seen examples of such in other organizations.

Whenever internationalisation is brought up in relation to fandom, I often hear the argument that it’s not needed yet, since there isn’t an “insert country/language/non-English fandom” presence in the OTW/on the Archive. Personally I feel like this is a chicken/egg situation. Is the OTW/AO3 so American/English language focussed because there isn’t enough of a non-English fandom interest, or is there no interest because there’s not enough non-American/English accommodation?

A) Where do you fall on this? What should come first?

B) If the next growth spurt is of a non-English, different fandom culture nature, how will you accommodate that?

I haven’t actually heard this argument in my time in the OTW. The committees I’ve worked on have members from many countries, with many first languages, and they are very enthusiastic about internationalization. We’ve also certainly seen significant non-English fandom interest on AO3, as measured by visitor stats and the numbers of works posted in non-English languages and for non-English-language source canons.

Since I joined as a staffer, the revitalization of the Translation committee has been a major change. Their members are, not surprisingly, extremely diverse and very passionate about internationalization, and having them available to quickly and enthusiastically translate as needed both enables and motivates efforts to provide content in non-English languages. Not only have they added international diversity to the internal culture of the OTW, they have worked with AD&T, AO3 Documentation, AO3 Support, AO3 Abuse and other committees to implement items such as translated AO3 News Posts, translated content on the OTW web site, translated AO3 FAQs, and Support ticket and News Post comment replies in many languages.

Thus, my answer to A) is that I think there already is international fandom interest and that the OTW’s committees are working on better serving our international audience, and to B) is that I have great confidence that these committees, led by Translation, will be able to accommodate future increases in international interest.

Andrea Horbinski 2015 Q&A: Other Questions, Group 2

Jenny McDevitt

Can you say something positive about three of your fellow candidates?

No answer provided.

A lot of the current problems seem to come back to a lack of scalability, especially with the massive growth of the Archive. A) What are your short-term plans to make this growth spurt work, B) What are your long term plans to avoid this problem in the future, when there’s another massive increase (of traffic, users, and/or fanworks etc.), a.k.a what structural changes would you strive for to make the OTW, and especially the Archive more sustainable.

No answer provided.

Whenever internationalisation is brought up in relation to fandom, I often hear the argument that it’s not needed yet, since there isn’t an “insert country/language/non-English fandom” presence in the OTW/on the Archive. Personally I feel like this is a chicken/egg situation. Is the OTW/AO3 so American/English language focussed because there isn’t enough of a non-English fandom interest, or is there no interest because there’s not enough non-American/English accommodation?

A) Where do you fall on this? What should come first?

B) If the next growth spurt is of a non-English, different fandom culture nature, how will you accommodate that?

No answer provided.