The fanfiction platform will keep adding new features after shedding the ‘beta’ label.
Archive of Our Own (AO3) is moving out of beta. The Organization for Transformative Works, the nonprofit backing the fanfiction site, announced this update, marking 17 years since AO3’s 2009 launch.
“Since 2009, AO3 has greatly evolved,” the announcement notes. “Our volunteers, coding contributors, and contractors, funded by our users’ generous donations, have introduced many features over the years.”
The announcement outlines some features AO3 offers since its inception, including a tagging system, fanworks downloads, and privacy settings allowing creators to limit access to their work. Exiting beta doesn’t mean updates will cease:
As AO3’s software has been stable for a long time, the change is largely cosmetic and doesn’t imply that everything is finalized or perfectly working. Exiting beta doesn’t mean we’ll stop improving AO3—our volunteer coders and community contributors will continue enhancing AO3 daily.
One notable change is the removal of the small “beta” label in the AO3 logo at the platform’s top. (AO3 temporarily altered the beta to “omega” for April Fools’ Day this year).
You can track AO3’s updates by viewing its projects on Jira.