What are Collections?
Frankly, this one is huge and complicated, so like a bum, I'm gonna kick you over to AO3 for their FAQ.
In fairness, they have a lot of people working on their FAQs and I'm just one person!
Basically, though, you have collections, gift exchanges and prompt memes, and all of those are available for users! But also, Ad Astra staff will run official archive challenges on Discord and the forums, too, so keep an eye open for those!
Okay, but I heard about something called the Review Hunt. What's that?
OH BOY MY FAVORITE!
Okay, so frankly, the original Ad Astra had one of the highest review to story ratios of any fanfiction archive on the entire internet. We're taking thousands of stories with tens of thousands of reviews. Part of that is just because we have an awesome community.
But another part of that is the Review Hunt.
So, how it works is this: Points are awarded for reviews with modifiers to encourage length and depth, or for first or second reviews of works, or maybe for a fandom or theme. On eFiction, it was pretty easy for me to track those down; all the reviewer needed to do to 'sign up' for the Hunt was give me their username and I could do the tallying from their profile. Here on otw-archive-- it's gonna no doubt prove to be a little more challenging. (I'll sort out how to make it happen, don't worry.)
An example of the points system: You write a review with 209 words. Your base points are 209. Your modifiers would be +20 points for having over 201 words. (Quotes from the story don't count, but your commentary on those do!) Say you also are the very first review on a story, that adds another +50. (Or, if you're the second review, +25.) Any which way, your score after that review would be 279.
(Just to clarify, if you write a one word review as a first review on a story, you're not gonna get a points modifier. It would have to be at least 25 words to get those additional points. Quality over quantity is a big one with this challenge!)
At the end of the Hunt -- at the height of it, it was a monthly event! -- the winner by points gets a prize! Sometimes that'll be a gift card. Sometimes it might be a donation to a chosen charity. Sometimes it might be a piece of art or fanfic! Or, heck, maybe I'll leave the option open to the winner. I've drawn peoples' OCs, I've designed book covers for fan novels, you name it. And hey, maybe someone else will jump in and help offer prizes too. XD
This is literally a win-win situation for everyone. Authors get desperately wanted feedback. Readers/Reviewers get recognized and rewarded for engaging. The community grows and lives long and prospers. 🖖 It made the original site a genuine joy to participate in and it's definitely my hope it'll do the same with this new one.