here's my hot take on racial justice for ao3: ao3 needs to invest in UX & user research consulting and paid developers. many of the ideas I've seen about what could "make the archive safer for fans" are nontrivial work and, in some cases, spectacular new vectors for abuse.

ao3's lack of transparency around abuse and security vulnerabilities is pragmatic. however, it's been 5 years since I started engaging ao3 on abuse issues. since then, ao3 has introduced moderated commenting, the ability to reject gift works, and opt-out co-authoring.

by design, ao3 protects user identities from malicious outside actors. the code behind ao3 does not protect users from other users and, indeed, may not be capable of doing so in its current form. the technical investment here is big. it's past time to make it.

what I want from ao3 is a scoped SOW and financial commitment for a true release of the archive, which has been in beta since its inception. it's not a mature piece of software. I don't believe we can fix structural discrimination without moving beyond the current codebase.

I have seen MASSIVE internal change in terms of budget transparency in the last five years. I have seen progress in tackling abuse issues on a technical level. I salute the hard work of the abuse team. At the same time, more change is needed and has been called for, for years.

my standpoint: white/nb/30s, on ao3 since 2009 and in fandom since 1999, worked with ao3 (one of many voices) on pushing for the implementation of moderated comments in 2015, currently work in software development.

I would not think a new ao3 is under 200k if you contract the real engineering work out. this isn't a cheap project.