Congrats to the OTW code and systems teams!

[denise]

The OTW's Archive Of Our Own goes into open beta in a few hours, and I wanted to say congratulations to everyone who helped to get it there. I certainly know what it's like to bite your nails in the last few hours before a thing you built has people moving in and beating down the doors!

To the best of anyone's knowledge, the Archive Of Our Own (or, as I've been seeing people calling it, the AO3) and Dreamwidth are the only two majority-female open source projects on the internet. We're also the only two projects I know of that have gone out of our way to encourage, tutor, mentor, and develop newcomers. We aren't run by the same people and we aren't working on the same end results, but we've swapped some ideas a few times, and every time I've talked to anybody at the OTW I've been impressed by their dedication, their determination, and their commitment to quality.

So cheers to the OTW code and systems teams, and I hope you ladies get a chance tonight/tomorrow to sit down, put your feet up, have a glass of your beverage of choice, and toast yourselves and your hard work, because you've certainly earned it. Tomorrow's the culmination of nearly two years of hard work. It's also only the beginning. I hope that everyone who's worked on the project finds it just as satisfying watching people use your stuff as we've found Dreamwidth. Congratulations to you all!

Comments

[cesy]

We've been going a little crazy in chat. It's so exciting! We've already given invites to existing users so they can invite a friend, so it's growing already, and we have two and a half hours to go before the floodgates open.

Graphs of usage over the past day: http://uploadpad.com/files/Open_Beta_5.PNG and http://uploadpad.com/files/Open_Beta_6.PNG

[denise]

Oh, wow, ha. Those graphs are great.

[yvi]

And you wouldn't believe just how tempting it would be to code for both. You know, if the day had 28 hours...

[denise]

Well, my day does, but I also have correspondingly fewer of them. *g*

[samvara]

*practices self-restraint*

We just love knowing you exist :)

[gchick]

Dude. 28 hours and no day job.

*bites nails and buys alcohol*

[samvara]

Thank you, your generosity in sharing your knowledge and your example here has meant a lot :)

*glee*

Re: *bites nails and buys alcohol*

[denise]

You guys have done an amazing job! Speaking from experience, may I suggest that you write yourself a post-it note for above your monitor reminding you to breathe. *g*

Re: *bites nails and buys alcohol*

[samvara]

I have the ingredients for something sinful involving pineapple, rum and icecream!

We might need a flashing macro for the support team ;)

Re: *bites nails and buys alcohol*

[denise]

When I was managing support for LJ, the first thing we'd issue a new hire was a fifth of their favorite booze. :)

Re: *bites nails and buys alcohol*

[samvara]

I can get behind that as a strategy!

Re: *bites nails and buys alcohol*

[zarhooie]

Me too! <3

[kass]

I'm not a coder, but reading this post still makes me all verklempt. I am so proud of everyone who's worked hard to make both of these endeavors happen. &hearts!

[afuna]

Very very cool!