SHINee AO3

SHINee AO3 - also known as the SHINee_Archive_Project on AO3 - is an archival project that was started on Twitter on 13 December 2022. They aim to archive SHINee fandom content from 2008-present using the various OTW sites and features, and run events in fandom that aren't creator-focused. Despite being SHINee focused, they also look to work with SuperM fandom lore - with SHINee member Lee Taemin also being in the super group - and have actively shown this via looking for a SuperM project moderator.

They originally planned to take the project live in January 2023 but due to large interest, they began events in December.

Background

In June 2022, there were talks of a SHINee Authors Hub - a project that a collection of authors wanted to do in order to provide resources, aid, tips for writing in the South Korean culture and, even further, having the idea of comment teams, translation teams, and more. A portion of this idea focused on tags and working on increasing AO3 content. It is unsure if this is what sparked SHINee AO3 and further information has yet to be shared if SHINee AO3 and the SHINee Authors Hub are connected in anyway. There has been minor speculation they may be connected as SHINee AO3 and the Authors Hub have some shared goals and ideas.

In July 2022, the K-Pop Fanlore Project began on Twitter - a project for all k-pop fandoms to update the Fanlore Wikia and preserve content. They introduced themselves on July 14th and have yet to make further updates. It is unknown if SHINee AO3 is a part of this, although, they have referenced the project themselves.

SHINee AO3 began their Twitter account in December, and began tweeting on the 13th. The moderators go by mod names and currently Mods Gasoline, Chick and Flame have been introduced on the project - it has been stated there are more and the moderators work rotationally on the Twitter account to prevent suspension.

According to their Carrd, they are a mix of readers, authors and ex-event runners in the SHINee fandom.

Aims & Projects

Archiving & Importing

As a collection of author and reader-wols, and a mix of people who used to create shipdom events and from different lengths of time in SHINee shipdom, we wanted to ensure that all of fandom's amazing memories of ship work in the past can be found in the future. SHINee fandom changes, new topics and trends come up in our works and arts and old fandom jokes, content and more can be lost.

On top of this, SHINee does not take much room on AO3, not having many tags, funny canon or non-canon tags and such to speak of. Together, we want to fix the old AO3 tags that need updating/changing, run tagging workshops, and allow room to create space for SHINee on the Archive to create the space and take the resources the Archive wants fandoms to take, have and hold.

We, together, want to ensure that all of Shawol's hard work is preserved and ensure SHINee and Shawol's spot in fandom history, and that it doesn't get lost to forum closures and etc - whilst also creating events that aren't fanfic/fic fest centric to highlight, encourage and inspire all Creatorwols amongst us.

SHINee AO3's mission statement, as per their Carrd

SHINee AO3 looks to do the above by importing and archiving content - inspired by the OTW itself. Not much information has been shared publicly on this, however, with them encouraging event moderators to contact them about archiving the events. Currently, only event moderators/owners can request this.

Beta Bank

On December 23rd, the project asked about creating a beta bank that both fic fests and non-fest authors could use. The polls did not finish, however, before the project started working on this - with the polls being a majorly yes vote and receiving positive feedback. The project set up applications for a beta bank on 25th December but has stated it will not be usable for a while whilst they gather betas. They do allow fic fests to use the bank ahead of time if necessary.

Fest Promotion

The project also works to promote all fic fests for SHINee for authors to easily find all of the events. They do this by highlighting fest specifics such as interest checks and ongoing rounds. They also have a fest list on their Carrd. Originally, this was split between SHINee and SuperM fests, but on December 26th a request was made to arrange it between active and inactive fests. The project now arranges the list in Active Round, Round Preparing, On Break/Hiatus, and Civis Illustris (gone but not forgotten) for abandoned or closed fests.

Gaming

On December 27th, the project confirmed it would share The Sims 4 gaming challenges as part of fandom activities and history.

Events

Consistently, the project asks fandom what they would like to see, with all suggested ideas always given to the project's event team to look over.

On December 21, SHINee AO3 looked at the possibility of making podfic focused events. The ideas given were to put focus on podfic via sharing already existing podfics, explaining the importance and history of them, and encouraging fandom to give them a try if they hadn't yet and the idea of a writing event to create a fanfic specifically to be podficced with both fanfic and podfic being shared.

It is not yet shared which event - or if both - will be done, although their Events Carrd features "Podfic Pod - celebrating podfic by encouraging people to try out listening to and creating podfic, sharing podfic content and more" as a potential February event.

On December 23rd, the project runners confirmed they would be looking at running events for SHINee/non-SHINee ships (eg, EXO's Suho/SHINee's Minho) due to numerous requests and a moderator also having some ships in the category. These events have not yet been shared, nor have they been referenced on the Events Carrd.

Also on December 23rd, the moderators confirmed that they would be running an event for Taemin's military discharge. The events have not yet been confirmed, although, one Retrospring answer confirmed they were debating a writing event. On December 25th, Taemin confirmed his discharge date as April 03/04 2023 via an Instagram Story - the fest has since stated their Taemin event will thus occur in April.

The project has also teased about a newsletter beginning January 01, 2023, but no further information has yet been shared.

On December 25th, the project received an ask suggesting a Taemin fic rec event to count down the days until he is discharged. The fest asked people how many days they would like to do this for, but, has not yet confirmed if this will occur.

On December 29th, a tweet hinted they may do a humour fic event based on SHINee's Why So Serious.

A large number of events, both confirmed and potential, can be found on their Events Carrd.

SHINee Colorful Readathon

SHINee AO3 began their events with a readathon with a focus on commenting on fics over the December festive period. Known as the SHINee Colorful Readathon, the event was inspired by SHINee's music video Colorful - a present that SHINee gave to Shawols. The event was set up to give daily prompts with readers having to find a fan fic that fit one of the themes and comment on the story. The themes were picked using the colours of the rainbow and the meaning of the colours in art theory and emotional study. Mod Chick created and ran the event.

The thread for the event and the first prompts - focusing on the colour red - were posted on December 21st. The prompts were given daily between 00:00 and 04:00 KST until the 27th. The chosen colours were red, orange, yellow, green, blue and purple. Participants were able to use bonus prompts to switch out the daily themes if they did not want to read any of the day's themes - these were "Festive, Christmas, Snow or Holidays". These were rarely used, however, with only 1-2 fics recommended suiting the themes.

The event received large amounts of participation, with the moderators bookmarking all recommendations given by those taken part. At the end of the event, sixty-six different fan fictions were added to the bookmarks.

On December 27th, (28th in KST), the project provided overall statistics for the readathon. In total, sixty-six unique fan works were recommended across three fanfiction sharing sites, with some being recommended more than once - resulting in 72 total recommendations. Minho/Taemin was the most recommended ship with 21 fics shared, with Jonghyun/Key and Minho/Kibum taking 2nd and 3rd, with 12 and 11 recommendations respectively. The theme of Royalty - shared on Day 6 for purple - received the most work recommendations, and only one ship in the SHINee group received no recommendations - Jonghyun/Minho.

The project stated that "at least 20 comments" were left over the course of the event. The project mentioned in an answer that they consider the readathon a success and the moderators were "very tired but happy" after the event..

They have since stated on December 27/28 that no further recommendations for the Colorful Readathon will be shared on the account (and, assumedly, not classed in the statistics) but they will be added to their AO3 account bookmarks.

January Readathon

On December 20, 2020, SHINee AO3 posted about their would-be first event - a daily readathon taking place in January 2023. This received a large positive response, prompting the account to do a mini one over the festive period.

Originally, the project was waiting until January 1st to share the information for the readathon, but due to positive reception and participant input, they released the informational thread early. The information thread was later posted on December 21st to positive feedback.

Due to the large amount of enthusiasm shown by the community, the January Readathon ended up the projects third event, with the SHINee Colorful Readathon taking place from December 21st-December 26th (December 22-27 in KST) and a new monthly event being the second event and set to debut on December 29.

The project has stated that "Mods wanted to run this event so that we can show our Authorwols love and appreciation and start the New Year with some positivity and love".

The readathon is described as part readathon, part scavenger hunt and part comment challenge. Participants will be given three prompts each day including a relationship or character, a theme or genre, a daily challenge to comment on fics. The intent of the readathon has been stated to encourage people to comment on more fics and to encourage readers to try ships, themes and genres they usually would not. As with the Colorful Readathon, they encourage people to recommend fics they read for the day and that all fics will be bookmarked. They will also allow authors to self-promote their works if they fit the daily prompts.

The readathon officially began on January 1st (KST) and all recommended works are bookmarked on the Archive Project's AO3 with the bookmark "SHINee January Readathon".

SHINee Cinematic Wonderland

On December 23rd, the fest received a question stating that "i wanted to do smthg like this for a fic fest but never had time and couldn't work out the dynamics - but what about an event where you choose a SHINee media (eg film, musical, tv show, etc) and once a month, wols watch it together and then write a fic/make art/etc based on the episode/film/etc? ao3 mods could use it as a way to finesse tags too". The project team were enthusiastic about this idea and passed it on to the event team.

Since then, "SHINee Cinematic Wonderland - watching SHINee films, tv shows and etc and creating content together based on the media watched" has appeared as a voteable event for the February event poll on their Carrd.

They have since confirmed in another answer that this would not just be for creators and they will be ensuring there are ways for non-creation based participation. No further information has been shared yet, other than they will also be including SHINee's concert VCRs as a form of media.

SHINee on the OTW & OTW Challenges

See more: SHINee on the OTW

On December 26, the project tweeted that they would begin showcasing SHINee fandom history once a month for a week via the OTW features. This has been described as "via fest & event highlights, challenges for you guys to archive - and make! - history and more". The first event will start December 29th with a Fest Highlight and an 'OTWrangle Challenge' although it has not yet been confirmed what this is. Due to the "Wrangle" in the name, assumption is it will look at Tag Wrangling due to AO3 being a part of the OTW and Tag Wrangling being the official AO3 term.

It's assumed this event will be called "SHINee on the OTW" due to a collection on the project's AO3 page. The AO3 collection states the first event will run from December 29th 2022 to January 5th, 2023.

The first event was delayed due to moderator illness; an hour and a half before the event was due to start, the project promoted the event on the original schedule and stated to please give the moderators a chance as some were ill, so mistakes may be made. Twenty minutes before the event they tweeted that they had decided to push the event back one day so moderators could rest. These tweets also confirmed that the event would be called SHINee on the OTW.

There has since been a new sub-collection called "SHINee on the OTW Dec-Jan Event".