#ao3 tagging

[twilightangel83]

Hello and good day to all my fellow Legend of Zelda fans!

As you may or may not be aware we in the Legend of Zelda fandom have been having some troubles when it comes to tagging on A03. Mostly that the only tags that seem to be available to tag various Links with was the Linked Universe specific tags. Which led to writers either trying to make their own tags (which no one knew how to find) or inaccurately using Linked Universe Tags. Neither of which were fair to creators writing outside of Linked Universe, or fair to the Linked Universe community (let alone JoJo herself!).

People trying to tag their non-Linked Universe fics were either scrambling to be found or blending their words in with Linked Universe works. And Linked Universe fans who were searching for Linked Universe fics ended up stumbling across fics they weren’t looking for.

So, with that in mind, I reached out to the A03 team in search of a solution. And they have gotten back to me! I am going to post a picture of their reply under the cut, but I will summarize it first.

There (now? I’m not clear if they’ve all existed before) are tags we can use for most of our various Links that aren't Linked Universe. They’re just not tags that go in the “Character” box. Instead, you put Link (Legend of Zelda) in the character box and then one (or more) of these tags into the “Additional Tags” box. The tags are ‘Link from X game’. So, for example: Link from Breath of the Wild/Tears of the Kingdom (Legend of Zelda) or Link from Twilight Princess (Legend of Zelda). If you try to put a specific Link in and they don’t exist already you’ll just have to fill it in unfortunately. And the more people use that tag the sooner it will be made into one that’s canonized.

Mind you! These tags should NOT be used for Linked Universe fanfictions. JoJo has explicitly asked that Linked Universe fanworks NOT be tagged with general Legend of Zelda tags. And that is what these are. So please leave these tags for those of us writing outside of Linked Universe.

I did a little experimenting and there seems to be a tag for every game EXCEPT;

“Link from Four Swords Adventures (Legend of Zelda)”,

"Link from Triforce Heroes (Legend of Zelda)",

“Link from The Legend of Zelda (Legend of Zelda)”,

“Link from The Adventures of Link (Legend of Zelda)”, and

“Link from Age of Calamity (Legend of Zelda)”.

There is also no tag for:

“The Hero of Men (Legend of Zelda)” (or whatever title could be used for the hero before Link from The Minish Cap)

But there are Character tags for “Ancient Hero (Legend of Zelda)” and “Hylia’s Chosen Hero (Legend of Zelda)” (who I believe is the First Hero).

The more we, as a fandom, use these tags (especially the ones that aren’t currently searchable) the more readily usable they will be.

[iamwestiec]

Curious how people normally interpret this tag:

(*virginity is a social construct but it's a social construct that exists in fic too)

[waterspoutskies]

Alright LU friends, time for your irregular PSA!

AO3 tagging reminder:

1. Please use the “Linked Universe (Legend of Zelda)” additional tag on your LU works! This assists in two ways: It allows us, searching for LU, to pull up the fics we’re looking for, and it allows others to filter the tag out entirely.

This is a good thing! We want to read your stories! There have been many times where I and others have missed reading something because it wasn’t tagged LU when it was intended to be LU.

2. Don’t use the “Linked Universe - Fandom” tag exclusively to denote your stories. This tag does not exist. You cannot search by it. It redirects back to the “The Legend of Zelda & Related Fandoms” tag when clicked on.

This, in particular, creates a situation where it is harder for people scrolling the regular LoZ fandom tag to filter out the LU content they don’t wish to see, because there’s not such a tag to filter out.

To reiterate, we do not have our own subfandom on AO3. That is what the additional tag is for. Once again, that additional tag is “Linked Universe (Legend of Zelda)”!

[queerescapism]

My favorite ao3 tags

no beta we die like men/specific fandom reference

[blank] is his/her/their/its own warning

[fiveandknives]

I’m actually so bummed that theres barely any lewis centric f1 fics and how they all make it seem like its a sin for him to bottom?? Like i could do a whole analysis on hyper masculinity and black men but dude…power bottom minimum pillow princess at his peak.

I’m like sitting here scrolling and watching people refuse to use the tagging system, which I get can be complicated but please tag your fics. Theres so many max and charles and seb ones and even the nico ones that arent tagged when lewis is romantically involved but otherwise the charles x daniel ones are tagged to the nines.

I guess I’m done binging for f1 fics but idk man. I just feel like complaining I fear. He’s always the insensitive asshole in the fics and it makes me uncomfy cuz its almost exclusively him, the only black man…

[dsudis]

Tagging advice for my siblings in Dreamling

I was talking with some friends today and realized that some of the weirdness in how we tag this pairing is maybe not as widely understood as I thought, so! Let's talk about AO3 tagging and how it works!

The first thing that may not be obvious is how to explore the structure of a given AO3 tag. If you click on the pairing tag of any Dreamling fic, you should get to a page with this at the top:

And what is not obvious but the arrows there are pointing to, is that the name of the tag you're browsing is, itself, a link you can click on to find out more about how that tag works.

If you click on that one, the page for the Dream of the Endless | Morpheus/Hob Gadling tag will show you information in a few categories. Parent tags and Tags with the same meaning can be informative but don't affect searching too much.

Metatags and subtags, however, DO affect searching. If you're looking at the tag page for Dream of the Endless | Morpheus/Hob Gadling, it has one Metatag:

Dream of the Endless/Hob Gadling

This means that, necessarily, every story tagged Dream of the Endless | Morpheus/Hob Gadling also fits under the tag Dream of the Endless/Hob Gadling.

If you explore the character tag Dream of the Endless you can see that it has two subtags: Dream of the Endless | Morpheus and Dream of the Endless | Daniel. That means that those two tags are subsets of Dream of the Endless--and anything that is just tagged Dream of the Endless could in theory be either Morpheus, or Daniel, or both, or some other facet/version of Dream who does not fit into those subsets.

This means that when you search, if you search only for the Dream of the Endless | Morpheus/Hob Gadling tag, you will only find stories with a pairing tag that specifies Morpheus--because as far as the system knows, any story with a Dream/Hob or Dreamling tag that does not specify Morpheus could be featuring a different version of Dream that may not be the one you're searching for. When you search the Dream of the Endless/Hob Gadling tag, you will automatically get EVERY permutation of Dream/Hob in that tag--including anything specifically tagged Daniel!Dream/Hob, and all those tagged with the nonspecific tag, as well as everything tagged Morpheus/Hob.

You can test this by looking at the filters on the Dream of the Endless | Morpheus/Hob Gadling works page--you will see if you look under relationships that there is a smaller number of fics tagged Dream of the Endless/Hob Gadling. However, if you click that box, saying that you only want fics with that tag, and then filter, you will still get the exact same number of fics you originally got in the Dream of the Endless | Morpheus/Hob Gadling tag. Every fic in the more specific tag is treated as if it is also tagged with the Metatag, whether the author added it or not.

This means that the best practice for tagging your work on Ao3 is to use the most specific version of the tag that applies. If your story is Morpheus!Dream/Hob, tag accordingly. People searching the more general tag will automatically find your story, and people searching a more narrow version will only find it if your story applies.

When searching for fic, however, it will be best to browse or search through the more general tag, so that stories that have not been tagged with such precision will still turn up, along with all the ones that are tagged exactly (and then you can use filters to, for instance, exclude stories tagged with a different version of the character/ship, if you choose to).

[booksandpaperss]

u guys ever plan tags for a fic u haven't even written yet bc fic tagging is harder than writing the actual fic

[barkingzerbra]

one thing i'd like to appreciate about ao3 is that the archive's tagging system. it's been really useful to have that kind of experience with filtering through an entire database now that i'm in a high school english class.

"algorithm this," "algorithm that," it's refreshing and useful to be in complete control of what kind of content i see, etc., and to be able to bring that knowledge to other databases on the internet.

ProQuest Issues Researcher got nothing on me.

[litgreadersroom]

How To Use AO3 Tags

Want to find a fic but have no idea how to get started? Are you writing a fic and don't know how to tag it? Don't worry, you aren't alone. Tagging is hard and people don't always follow the same rules. But hopefully this will give you a place to start!

Relationships

Character/MC: romantic or sexual pairing with the fic's main character, may be named or referred to by pronouns or MC

Character/OC or Character/Original Character: romantic or sexual pairing with a named individual created by the author

Character/Character/OC: romantic or sexual relationship containing three individuals all involved with each other (note: this is not the correct tag for a love triangle, in that case, both relationships should be tagged separately)

Character/Reader: romantic or sexual pairing with an unnamed main character (you or Y/N), meant to feel as though the person reading the fic is in the story

Character & MC: platonic or familial relationships with the fic's main character, may be named or unnamed and referred to using pronouns or MC

Character & OC: platonic or familial relationships with a named character created by the author

Character & Reader: platonic or familial pairing with an unnamed main character (you or Y/N), meant to feel as though the person reading the fic is in the story

General: there are either no relationships of note in the fic or the fic does not focus on any relationships

Multi: often used for one-shot series or multiple POVs, should be used when there are 3+ pairings essential to the fic

The big question is always 'how many relationships should I tag in my fic?' Especially in villa fics, there are multiple pairings and the relationship tag can get convoluted. There is no set answer to the question, but the general rule of thumb is that if it's not a key plot point of the fic, don't add it as a relationship tag. In a villa fic, there are going to be multiple relationships, but other than the main pairing, tagging those relationships doesn't add anything. There's nothing more disappointing than looking for a fic for a specific ship only to learn that it's a background pairing you rarely see. This includes one-off sexual relationships and villa couplings that aren't romantic (and if you want to include those, additional tags are your best friend!).

Rating

General: very rare in LITG, but basically, any fic you'd be okay with a child reading

Teen and Up: fluffy, romantic fics with NO smut

Mature: implies the presence of sex or violence without going into detail

Explicit: detailed description of sex or violence

Not Rated: author did not select a rating, could be any of the above ratings

A lot of people get tripped up on the difference between M and E. When it doubt, think about the envelop analogy: a mature fic tells you that the character sent a letter in an envelope. An explicit fic goes into detail about how the character did it including describing putting the letter into the envelope, the taste of it as they licked the seal, etc. These lines can blur when it comes to chaptered fics; some authors may chose to rate a fic as mature but include explicit scenes, so be sure to check the additional tags.

Archive Warnings

Graphic Descriptions of Violence: gory and descriptive violence, it is up to the author as to what exactly falls under this category

Major Character Death: one of the main characters dies, does not have to happen 'on screen' (note: just because this tag isn't there, doesn't mean that there isn't death, just that the author doesn't consider that character to be a major character in the fic)

Rape/Non-con: pretty self-explanatory, does NOT include consensual rape play (although that SHOULD be included in additional tags)

Underage: any sexual activity in which one or both characters are under the age of 18, does not include kissing

Author Chose Not To Use: one of the above warnings might apply, either the author isn't sure if their content qualifies or wants to avoid spoilers, PROCEED WITH CAUTION

No Archive Warnings Apply: none of the archive triggers are included in the fic, does not mean that there are no triggers, but does not have any of the ones listed above

Characters

This is a section for you to include any characters included in the fic. The parties to your pairing should be included here, as well as other characters they interact with. General rule of thumb: if they're just mentioned in passing, you don't have to tag them, but if they have a conversation, it's worth a tag. The big exception to this is villa fics: obviously in a S2 villa fic, every S2 character is going to be mentioned, so you might not need to tag every S2 character unless they contribute to the plot in some way (and there is a tag for 'other love island characters' that exists to capture this). This is entirely up to the author's digression, but as a reader, please remember that just because they're mentioned in the character tags does not mean they are necessarily in a lot of the fic.

Additional Tags

Any tags that don't fit under the other categories. This is where an author can truly tell you what is going to be included in their fic, including any additional triggers that don't fall under the AO3 archive warnings. The nice thing about AO3 tag searches is that it is not exclusive, if you want to filter your search for an alternate universe, AO3 will include all variations of the tag in your search (i.e. AU, alternate universe, and alternate universe-sports AU will all come up on a simple AU search). This is the space to include tropes, triggers, setting, smut/kinks, etc.

Fandom

For the most part, the LITG fandom contains exclusively Love Island The Game-Video game tagged fics. But you will run into the occasional crossover or fusion fic. Crossover fics should be tagged with both fandoms as they contain characters from both. Fusion fics should be tagged with only the LITG tag as they contain exclusively LITG characters in the world of another fandom.

[t-eyla]

Hot AO3 tagging tip: when you post fic and tag your ships in the relationship tag field, ONLY TAG THE MAIN SHIP OR SHIPS.

When in doubt about which ships to tag, think about whether someone clicking on the tag for this ship would want to read your story. Does the ship you're tagging feature enough to satisfy someone who's looking for content about this ship in particular? Yes? Tag it in the relationship field! No? DO NOT TAG IT IN THE RELATIONSHIP FIELD.

You can still tag ships that do not feature extensively in your story. Usually, a ship like that will have a modifier: Past Character A/Character B, Minor Character A/Character B, Implied Character A/Character B, etc. Fun fact, when you tag a modifier like that in the relationship tag field, it will be made synonymous with the main ship tag. But not so in the additional tags field! If you have a ship that does not feature extensively enough to be included in the relationship tag field, but that you still want to tag, stick it in the additional tags with a modifier! (The modifier is important. If you don't have a modifier, you can still use the tag, but the tag will never be made canonical and therefore will never be filterable.)

This will help people browsing ship tags find fics they actually want to read: nobody goes into a ship tag to read a story where the ship in question is mentioned once as a background thing. And browsing is what ship tags are primarily for.

TL;DR: the relationship tag field is for the MAIN relationship, while all other relationships go into the ADDITIONAL TAGS with a MODIFIER.

[feedthefandomfest]

Hiya!

I love this blog and just wanted to ask- do you know any advice on formatting and tagging for AO3?

Or just general etiquette!!

I'm not new to AO3 (reading or writing) but I haven't interacted with the actual community much and would love to know more :)

oof, I still feel like a newbie posting stuff on ao3, and tagging is something i've always struggled with. and actually formatting is also on ongoing issue 😅 so with that in mind, here's what i try to consider:

TAGGING

relationships -> tagging the main is obvious, but i'm sometimes torn about tagging side relationships that feature in the fic, especially since it's annoying to be searching for that pairing and get a bunch of results where they're not the main focus; unless the other pairing is a prominent feature, i leave it out of the relationship tags and at most add it to the additional tags

characters -> i remember updating the character tags on my early fics every time another character popped up in the story, but now i'm of the same mind as the side pairing issue; unless the character is prominently featured, i leave them out of the tags

content warning/advertising -> if i know the fic features an element that some people might wish to avoid, i always tag it and also always fret that i've forgotten to tag something in that regard. when it's more about advertising what's in the fic, especially sexual content, i sometimes feel silly listing every flavor of physical encounter unless the fic is pwp/smut (in which case i gleefully list all the depravity); i sometimes worry that over-emphasizing the sexual content in the tags is misleading? like of this 100k fic, if 15k is spent fucking, how do i get the tags to reflect that while also tag cw appropriately? is there an established tag for that?

sometimes i see fics with TONS of tags, like an exhausting amount, and sometimes i see fics with very minimal tags... sometimes frustratingly few. i also know some writers add chapter-specific warnings in the author's notes. in the end, so long as you're making it possible for people to find or avoid your fic as needed, then you're good. Here are some good posts that dive into it more!

(i remember when people on tumblr would scold writers for monologuing in the tags on ao3 like we do on here, claiming it was a strain on the system, but i believe that's been debunked?)

FORMATTING

i've noticed some MEGA annoying quirks with copy & pasting over from Google Docs and Word, and I know there are some tricks to get around them, but i tend to just slog through the Rich Text window fixing everything manually 🙃 OKAY I FOUND SOLUTIONS LINKED BELOW.

spacing problem #1 -> pet peeve of mine, but i dislike it when the paragraphs have massive spaces between them (ditto for indented paragraphs). idk why, but it's tiring for my eyes to constantly leap the chasm between paragraphs. so whenever i copy and paste from Word, which for some reason ALWAYS appears with double spacing between line breaks, i go in and manually fix it. SOLUTION

spacing problem #2 -> when copying over from Google Doc, whenever there's a punctuation mark following an italicized word, a random space appears between them. and yep, i have to go in and fix every one because typos make me twitch. (this might not be an issue for everyone; i overuse italics and dashes like it's my job) SOLUTION

spacing problem #3 -> again probably a me issue, but i tend to include song lyrics a lot, and it's always a headache to format because when pasting from the doc, ao3 embeds these spaces between the lines that i can't remove by backspacing. only fix i've found is to copy and paste lyrics directly from a website, and then it formats fine. random and annoying and weird. (no solution 😔)

since this section has just been me whining about finding SOLUTIONS for formatting issues, i'll offer one tip that's more about general editing: i try to proofread best i can in Word/GDocs, but it's always easier to spot errors when i'm reading the draft on my phone. the typos always jump out at me from a phone screen. it's now my favorite way to edit!

every writer has their own preferences on formatting, and every reader has their own level of tolerance for formatting quirks. in the end, so long as the formatting doesn't interfere with the reading experience, you're all good.

[manyminded]

incest should become one of the major warnings on ao3 methinks

[iamwestiec]

that poll about MDZS vs CQL fandom tagging is making me want to again bang the drum of

AO3 PLEASE GIVE US BACK "ALL MEDIA TYPES" PARENT TAGS PLEASE

because like some people do want very specifically one or the other but a lot of other people don't care as long as the blorbos are there and that kind of tag was unparalleled for that style of fandoming while leaving the version-specific subtags available for fics that dealt specifically with those canons

[waterspoutskies]

Hi LU friends.

By now you've probably seen my tag reminder post for AO3, and hopefully Krisis's important addition as well.

Let me also be abundantly clear: If you are creating post TotK LU Wild in the coming weeks, you need to tag that appropriately as well. Both on AO3 and here on Tumblr.

I am not interested in seeing your take on what changes for Wild with TotK. I am not interested in seeing how the Chain reacts to everything that is different in his Hyrule. I am not interested in having the game spoiled for me by your brainworms.

I want to play the game for myself, not read everyone else's takes.

I've already blocked every general TotK tag I can think of, but I'm happy to add more. Perhaps something like "lu TotK" or "lu TotK Wild" if that would be easiest. Just try to keep it organized.

(I am fully aware that AO3 has pre-emptively bungled their own fandom sorting system by combining the TotK and BotW fandoms, but character tags and additional tags still exist, so use them.)

Be courteous, be kind. We are all excited. But we also all want the joy of the game, so tag appropriately.

[strawberrus0da]

Ao3 writers will be like “come read my totally legit collector fic in which i have tagged the collector because he is a relevant character, i promise he won’t only show up for a single scene or in passing mention in the first chapter of a longfic starring the main cast instead, what gave you that idea haha”

[unityrain24]

I! FUCKING! HATE! WHEN PEOPLE! ON AO3! TAG THEIR FICS! AS ALL THE PAIRINGS! JUST TO TRY GETTING MORE READS!!

STOP FLOODING THE f/f TAGS WITH m/f!!!!

SERIOUSLY WHAT THE FUCK