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From German magazine Lustige Blätter, 1932.

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the world may be a dark place sometimes but there are also 1200 year old paw prints from a happy kitty cat out there

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don't listen to them babe just keep opening more tabs in your browser

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Nice throne idiot did your mommy carve a swathe of corpses to get it for you?

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I know tag wranglers do a lot of work connecting tags etc. Is there anything authors can do to make their jobs easier for them like trying to mostly use canonical tags or not making tag comments?

Thanks!

This is a great question, and I'll do my best to answer it but I do hope that some wranglers add on in the notes! I'm also just going to preface this with the fact that you should still tag however you like to tag. This list isn't meant to be a checklist or anything. It's just info I've picked up over the years and you can take or leave each piece as you see fit.

Okay, so the first thing that most non-wranglers should know is that wranglers see tags separately from the fic. They get a big bin full of tags to sort through and match up in the system, but they'll only see your fic and the other tags you've added to it if they decide to go look.

That's important to know because sometimes a user will tag something like [character] is so sexy and then also tag by which I mean they're a huge dork. The wranlger won't see that second tag and won't know that they're connected so your sarcastic tag will end up synned (matched up to) sexy!Character or whatever the canonical is, as if that was the meaning you were going for.

Another good thing to know is that tags can only be synned if they only have 1 idea in them. So if you tag, say, [character] is gay and autistic then the wrangler can't actually syn that to either [character] is gay or character is autistic because it only half-fits either tag. To have them synned in the database, you would need to tag those two ideas separately.

You might have already seen the post I made referencing the fact that you don't have to tag multiple versions of the same idea (unless you want to for the aesthetic) because the synning that wranglers do makes sure that tagging one idea allows users to filter for all versions of that idea. But in case you didn't know that, now you do!

Wranglers are often members of the fandoms they wrangle, but they aren't always. Sometimes they'll take on a fandom that doesn't otherwise have a wrangler because they like to do research or because they like small fandoms or for many other reasons. But that means that if you're tagging your OCs by name, you should add (OC) to the end so that they know it's not a canon character that they aren't familiar with. This is double true in huge fandoms like Star Wars where there are millions of canon characters and just as many OCs.

Wranglers don't "seed" tags in fandoms. For a tag to exist, users need to create it. The rule of thumb is at least 3 fics from 3 separate authors, but that's very much the minimum and in fast-moving or huge fandoms the bar is probably higher. Also, for brand new fandoms, it's entirely possible that they won't know you exist until you tell them. Back in January I was the first person to write in a brand new fandom so I knew I had to start the tags, and I waited until there were 25 or so works by 15 or so creators before I emailed Support because I know I have to be patient - but I'm still impatient by nature lol.

Another thing to know is that tags are kind of like proton packs - they can't cross the streams. If you put a tag in the Character field by mistake, wranglers can't move it to the Additionals. This can also work in your favour, though, because if you have a minor character or minor relationship that you want to tag because there's some kind of fandom drama happening and people want to be able to avoid them, you can tag them in the Additional Tags so that people can know they're in there, but the people who like that character or ship can still filter the Character and Relationship tags without seeing a bunch of works that don't really focus on them.

This got super long, so I'll end with your question about tag comments. I know people worry that it makes extra work for tag wranglers if you get all chatty in your fic tags but I've been reassured by more than one wrangler over the course of several years now that it's no extra work. They just shovel those tags into the gaping maw of the Unfilterable Beast - which is the same thing they do with those tags that have multiple concepts in them. If it can't be synned, then that's where they go.

(keep tagging that way, though, if you like to because that's how new concepts get created and eventually canonized)

Alright, I that's all I can think of off the top of my head, and the list was actually longer than I thought! Wranglers: please do add on with other things you wish users knew, and please correct me if anything has changed since the last time I delved into this topic!

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i am no longer asking

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never forget the universal rule of the order of things: People Will Not Read It

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Spells, and Traps

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Is this from Simone’s BoP run? The art looks very surreal for this era…

Jim Gordon was just visiting his daughter and now he's stuck in the middle of a dispute between her and her bitchy co-worker who also used to be his bitchy coworker.

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Sokka and Zuko get SO much funnier when you remember this is both of their first times talking to another teenage boy in years. Sokka had all the other boys leave the tribe when he was little and Zuko just hasn’t talked to other teenage boys. They wanna be friends but have absolutely no clue how to talk to other teenagers. I love them so much.

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death note musical by EatToast on Deviantart (06/01/2009)

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All of this. Plus, a more immediate problem: the Strawhats don’t develop any goals more interesting than “don’t get fried by the lightning man (and maybe find some gold)” or emotionally connect with any of the locals on a serious level, which is a real problem in an arc this long. Wiper ain’t no Kohza, Conis ain’t no Vivi, Ganfall ain’t no Cobra (though I’d argue he had the most potential to go somewhere genuinely interesting on his own merits), and when all’s said and done I felt more for the big dumb snake than anyone else.

What is your opinion on the Skypeia arc? The fan base either seems to love it, or completely disregards it. I personally feel that Skypeia perfectly embodies the theme of Romance Dawn that Oda constantly pushes for within One Piece. From big narrative beats like the introduction of Blackbeard and the foreshadowing of Luffy's powers, to the discovery and exploration that come from the crew's determination, to the excellent setting and villain, and even the beautiful vibes of it all. Regardless of what I think I would love to hear your thoughts.

I like the beginning and I like the end, but the middle where its nothing but constant battles is a slog. There's also a bit of a strange dissonance in that since Enel is from an outside island he doesn't really have anything to do with the conflict between the Shandians and the Skypieans. I'm gonna guess that there's some important lore stuff with the island he blew up since Urogue is also from there, and he hasn't had his post time skip spotlight yet (and the exposition about moon stuff that will inevitably come with it) but overall I think it makes the arc lack some of the secret sauce that Odas best arcs work

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i love the word lagomorph because it sounds like it’s supposed to mean something alien or unnatural but it’s just. buny

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