If they did not require eligible voters to donate money, AO3 would have no way of stopping bad actors from influencing the election. People from other platforms who aren't really involved in fandom and don't care about AO3's mission could actively try to hinder it by voting at random, ruining the vote. I could see internet trolling opportunities there.
Well, sure. But I would say it at least cuts down the number of trolls who are willing to spend USD on such a thing, and it certainly removes the trolls that want to disrupt AO3 for hostile reasons, because those trolls won't believe such a thing worth supporting AO3 by giving AO3 any money.
I'm sure there are other deterrents that could be implemented, but the current one seems rather simple and effective for now.
Not sure about this particular case, but can be a legal requirement, for purposes of establishing formal membership, who you allow to vote and run for board.
E.g. I've volunteered with fan conventions, environment, anime and car clubs, including serving on the board for some of those, and all of those had very small token membership fees as part of establishing formal membership.
Like anyone was welcome to rock up and help with pulling weeds out, or watching the screening etc, and volunteering for the convention itself did not have a membership fee requirement, but it's extremely common to limit some of the aspects such as running and voting for the board for people who have paid the token fee of $2, $5, $10 to be a member. And we had to do this, along with other things so we could be registered as a non-profit organisation, which would allow us to actually /do/ various thing.
Comment on 2025 OTW Election Statistics
HerdOfTurtles Wed 03 Sep 2025 04:34PM UTC
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PokePotter1 Wed 03 Sep 2025 09:24PM UTC
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HerdOfTurtles Wed 03 Sep 2025 09:52PM UTC
Last Edited Wed 03 Sep 2025 10:15PM UTC
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Qem Fri 05 Sep 2025 01:08AM UTC
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