AO3 is finally out of beta after 17 years

Our Archive (AO3) is officially out of beta. Transformative Works – the non-profit organization behind the fanfiction site – The update was announced on Thursdaywhich comes 17 years after AO3 launched in 2009.

“Since 2009, AO3 has grown and changed a lot,” the ad says. “We’ve introduced many features over the years through the efforts of our volunteers and programming contributors, as well as the contractors we’ve been able to hire thanks to generous donations from our users.”

The post highlights some of the features AO3 has had since launch, including a tag system, fanwork downloads, privacy settings that allow creators to restrict access to their works, and more. Just because AO3 is out of beta doesn’t mean updates will stop flowing:

Since AO3 software has remained stable for a long time, changes are mostly cosmetic and do not indicate that everything has been finalized or is working perfectly. Coming out of beta doesn’t mean we’ll stop continuing to improve AO3 — our volunteer coders and community contributors will still be working to add to and improve AO3 every day.

One of the most significant changes to the site is the absence of the small “beta” sign inside the AO3 logo displayed at the top of the platform. (AO3 briefly changed the beta to Omega on April Fool’s Day this year).

You can follow updates coming to AO3 by viewing its projects On Jira