Sunset ^beta

While browsing WayBack Machine's AO3 archives from 2008, I noticed they used to have a button that said "Try a new author!" and it linked to a random site user. I thought that was cute so I upgraded the code to the current Rails otwarchive uses and now we have it on the homepage!

For other otwarchive admins, you can implement this using this link, it's pretty easy.

EDIT, 12/29/25: I didn't think this needed its own news post so I added it on to this one. I've done some much needed updates on Sunset, such as:

-Linked to the content policy in the about menu
-Changed the content policy because why was it entirely in bold text until now
-Added a site button to footer and about page so you can link to us if you want
-Changed the embed description so link embeds for Sunset no longer say it's a project of the OTW

Hope you're all doing well. :)

We have seemingly been hit with some spam commenters, who somehow snuck into the queue just as I was sending out emails. The offending user has been banned, but please inform me if you see any spam comments from a logged in user. Scam comments often talk about art or fic commissions/requests and may ask you to contact them outside of Sunset; do not do this.

To further prevent this in the future, an update will be coming soon to the invitation system, based off of Superlove's; there will be a built-in form on the invite queue request page, as opposed to an external one and no one will be accepted as a member if they leave it blank.

Sorry that this managed to sneak through.

We now have status updates! A refresher from last news post:
-This is a feature I've been hard at work developing for the past week
-I'm extremely proud of it
-It's intentional that status updates don't have comments! I don't want this to be super social media-y, rather I want it to be a place we can post information about our fics, updates on how writing is going, fandom thoughts, etc.
-The character limit is 3500 (I believe) for statuses.

You can reach timeline under the Browse dropdown, and New Status from the post dropdown or your user dashboard navigation.

I hope this works. Please email me at [email protected] with any issues, or comment here!

Sunset will be going down on November 14th at 7:00PM EST to add its first new feature! I’ve been playing around with Ruby on Rails and have developed a very basic status update + timeline view for Sunset. Your status will show up on the timeline page, as well as your user page, if it is set. New status button will be available from the users page, the "post" dropdown, and the timeline will be available from the "browse" dropdown. You can optionally add current mood, music, and an icon, which will be resized to 50px, so I suggest using something relatively square!

You can’t comment on status updates at the moment, and this is intentional; I’m trying to keep Sunset an archive for now, not social media. It’s just a fun little place to promote your works, show off the fic you’re currently most proud of, promo your friends fics, etc.

Please do not misuse this feature i.e. use it to spread hate. I developed it out of love!!

If you'd like a live preview, you can go here for the profile view, and here for the timeline view.

If you run an otw-archive site and would like to implement this feature, I documented how I did it here: at this link.

Thanks! I'm so, so excited for this :)

Sunset invites are open, the form is still required :) A reminder since some of the other OTW-A instances are being targeted at the moment: while we disallow underage RPF for legal reasons/admin's comfort, we still hold an anti-harassment mindset and anyone who engages in harassment even off-site will be banned. Harassment & wishing death on website owners is NEVER acceptable, we run these sites because we have a passion for fandom, we do this in our free time for the love of community, please treat us with respect & take us in good faith. It is reprehensible to treat site owners the way the admins of the other instances have been treated, and I stand firmly with them and their decision to moderate the site in any way they choose.

Thank you.

We have a few new icons. Still working on adding them for the NB etc categories, I'll update this when those are done, but for now--sunset themed icons! We also have a new kudos icon that is a sunset!

Here they are (the M/F and gen ones unedited for obvious reasons):

I have fixed the following issues:

1) Kudos image now shows up as the Sunset logo
2) Changed some more AO3 branding in places it should not have been
3) Categories missing on home page and dropdown

I was not able to fix (these will be fixed in future updates):

1) Kudos emails (working on this as we speak)
2) Mail activation code branding still showing up as AO3

I partially fixed:

1) TAG WRANGLING! I can now add tag wranglers, albeit through a different way than by searching user IDs directly. So if you want to be a wrangler, email me at [email protected] with the email you used to sign up for your Sunset account, and optionally what fandoms you'd like to wrangle for. Some have already reached out - I will get back to you soon about that. I will also start back up wrangling myself tonight, I've been sick the past few days.

Thank you and as always feel free to inform me of any issues you find!

hello everyone. To fix the issues (hopefully all of them) explained in this news post, we will be having downtime on Sunday, October 12, at 07:30pm (what time is that for me?). I do not know how long it will take, but estimate it will take around 2 hours at the least.

I would also like to say: to the person harassing me, please stop stalking and spreading information about me when I have asked people not to. Please stop trying to make me a public figure in fandom when I do not wish to be one and have said so. I am not stalking or being hostile to you in any way. It's just not kind. Please for the love of God treat me and my friends like human beings. I don't want to even have to add this but I feel it's necessary now. Please leave me alone.

To everyone else who has been kind to me, thank you.