#(ridic that 'kidnap family' isn't a filterable tag)

[undercat-overdog]

I sent in a message of support to ao3 addressed to the tolkien tag wranglers, thanking them for changing some of the canonical tags, thanking them for their work, and asking if they will continue, voicing my support for that.

It's an accessibility and readability issue, especially with ship tags, for fans with dyslexia. (And those without too - it took me years to be able to read them without triple checking and even now I still mostly browse through filtering on character and ship tags because the fandom tag itself is too hard to decipher if my eyes are tired. I know others feel the same way; most exchanges ask that people nominating don't use piped tags for a reason.)

(Yes, I had issues with other things about the pipes, such as why some names were used and others weren't, and really, does "Maedhros | Maitimo" help you when people also use Russandol and Nelyafinwe and Russo and Nelyo and whatever else? But my main concern, and the reason I hope they continue, is readability)

The changes to the canonical tags don't affect existing works (ao3 has a policy of not changing tags on published works), but authors themselves can always change (or delete or add) tags. However, for new works the pop up will be the new canonical tag (e.g., it will now suggest "Fingolfin (Tolkien)". It also does not delete existing works. I've seen a couple people confused on that one, so want to be clear: no works are deleted by ao3 when they change the canonical form of a tag.

One other thing: piped tags (ones with a | in it, e.g., "Name | Other-name") are not "Quenya" tags. Some characters, such as Nerdanel or Manwe, only have Quenya names so that is their "main" one. Other times a non-Quenya name is the second element in the tag. The Silmarillion mostly uses Sindarin names for characters, but plenty appear with a Quenya name (and some with Adunaic or Westron). "They're taking away the Quenya names" isn't the accurate or correct way of describing this.