#when is it considered overtagging

[glitterb0nez]

zombiecleo my favorite comfort streamer (woman old enough to be my mother)

[courfee]

just went through all my ao3 fics and edited all the tags because i feel like i overtag a lot and it always bothered me. tbf the most overtagging happens in my relationship/character tags but i find it super difficult to judge who/which relationship is important. like friendships are So Important in my fics i dont feel like i cant tag less there? especially my longer fics. amtc james&sirius and black brothers are in my mind at least if not more important than literally amtc jegulus. i know its a jegulus fic but also jegulus is just the catalyst for other relationship dynamics. how do you tag that stuff

[famousblueraincoatmp3]

took a walk outside read a chapter of the second sex you could say im getting stuff done and its only 10:33

[shreedle]

Hey there!

I was just wondering if you had any general advice in regard to AO3, or managing fanfics in general? I’ve tried to do my own research but I’m also trying to ask people who are actively involved in the scene.

You’ve got a ton of content on there and it’s really inspiring.

-Aero

Hi Aero!

Hm, I don't delve too much into the nitty-gritty of AO3 itself. I'm not exactly sure what kind of advice you're looking for, but there are a few things that I've picked up and generally find helpful.

(You know I've already seen you post a fic; I can tell you that you're doing just fine already. c:)

Also throwing this under a Read More since it got longer than I thought.

1) Tags - Tagging is everything. You wanna make sure that you have all the appropriate tags on your fic so that anyone who is interested can find them. On the other hand, you want to make sure that you don't overtag (for example, don't tag a character that only has one line and then never appears again). Try to keep your tags concise - you don't want to give away the whole fic, but you also don't want half a page of tags. You can make your own tags if you need to, especially to clarify something, but generally "chatting" in the tags is not a good idea.

2) Filters - When searching for fics, definitely use the filters to narrow it down. They're extremely useful considering you can make sure you find fics that have something specific tagged, or exclude fics that you don't want to see under any circumstances.

3) Posting - How you post fics is entirely up to you, but I've noticed that by posting multi-chapter fics chapter-by-chapter, you tend to get more eyes on it since it's pushed up to the top of the page more often.

4) Bookmarks - Super useful. Some people like to use Bookmarks as a Favorites section, where they store all of their favorite fics for future rereading. Other people like to use it as a "To Read Eventually" section and then remove the fic once they finished. How you use it is up to you.

5) Pseuds - Some people like to use Pseuds to separate their fics - for example, they might post for Fandom A under one Pseud, and Fandom B under another Pseud, or post different ships under different Pseuds. This can be used to simply sort or organize fics on your account, or for reader convenience, so that readers can follow the Pseud that is posting fanfics for what they want.

6) Multiple Accounts - Some people have multiple accounts; this could be to post fics that they don't want associated with their main username, or to do something similar to Pseuds and keep their fandoms completely separated from each other.

7) Anonymous - If you don't want a fic to be associated with your name at all, but still retain full control over it, you can add it to an "Anonymous" collection when you are posting it. No on will associate it with you, and any comments you make on your fic's page will be abled as "Anonymous Creator".

8) Orphaning - If you no longer want to be associated with a fic at all, give up all control over it, not receive comments, but don't want to delete it, you can Orphan a fic. This will leave the fic up, but your name will no longer be associated with the fic and it will move to AO3's "Orphan Account". You can't get control back once you do this, so only do it if you're 100% sure.

9) Stats - Try not to fret too much about stats. XD It'll only stress you out if you compare the Kudos/Comments/Bookmarks you are getting to other people. Stats are no indicator as to whether you'll enjoy a fic or not, and since AO3 has no algorithm outside of your own filters, you will not automatically be shown fics with the highest stats.

If there's anything super important that I missed, let me know!

[ceilidho]

You commenting on that blog being annoying about people writing darker fiction has really soothed my nerves bc as someone who really wants to dip my toes into writing for COD and finding the darker writer community for it n watching enviously through a window I am continually anxious of receiving harassment for my taboo shit for other fandoms so like thanks 💝

literally just put them out of your mind - as long as you tag things correctly (and overtag if you must - it’s better if someone skips over your fic thinking that it’s darker than it is than have them accidentally read it because it didn’t have a relevant tag) and put them under a read more, you’re doing more than enough. As long as you do your best to ensure that no one reads your fics without being COMPLETELY aware of what they’re getting into, then you’re more than allowed to write whatever you want!!!

also, if you really can’t handle anon hate, consider turning off anon asks or moderating comments on ao3 (that’s more of a like, “know yourself and what you can tolerate” advice). I know lots of people aren’t comfortable with dark fics, and that’s fine, but there are also many many reasons why people choose to read and write this kind of fiction!!!! Know that you’ll never please everyone and be okay with that, but you also aren’t a bad person for choosing to write that content lol - it’s a safe way to explore dark themes and things that scare you because no one is actually getting hurt when you write something.

[gilearstimboards]

FAQ:

PT: FAQ:

Hi Gilear, how should I request you? You can request me via the button on my blog that says 'ask gilear'. You can also feel free to ask me questions or just send me a little note. They often make me smile. :) -

Hi Gilear, I want to request multiple boards. How should I do this? First of all, thank you, I'm glad you enjoy my blog enough to request multiple. I do not have a specific policy on how many per day, but please remain courteous and polite to both me and my inbox. If you request a lot I will spread them out between other requests and I may take a while to finish all your requests. If you have one you want done first, let me know. You can put them in multiple asks or just one ask. I do not mind, it won't change the rate at which I do them in. -

Hi Gilear, you sound quite serious, are you? Do you not like me? You speak quite differently when not on this blog. Hi, I thought I'd clear this up. This blog is a space for me to honestly unmask. I like typing like this, with full sentences and little exclamation marks. It makes me very happy. :) It doesn't mean I don't like you, or that I'm not excited. I'm just an autistic person spending my time unmasked on my stimboard blog. -

Hi Gilear, what's your policy on doing stimboards of real people? Generally, I avoid it. I did one for bbno$ for an interview and I thought that was okay as: a) bbno$ is very internet literate, I'm sure he's seen edits before, and he hasn't expressed anything against them - as far as I know (please correct me if wrong), b) considering the content he is known to like, I feel like he would be okay with a stimboard. With other known figures, I don't know their internet literacy, or they don't seem to be aware of the things the internet can do. Therefore it feels morally wrong to put them in a stimboard. I will of course not do things surrounding "headcanons" and agere with any real person, internet literate or not. Unless they personally request that, which would be incredibly unlikely. -

Hi Gilear, how should I word my requests? I would love for you to include a please or a thank you, and generally try to be as specific as possible. If you leave it as just one theme or an open theme - I will play with it exactly how I like and do my favourite stims. If you're okay with this, that's great, but if you want something more specific you must specify. -

Hi Gilear, how do you tag? All of my tags are listed in my pinned post, however when tagging I will go for general tagging. I will tag my flashing posts: flash warning, flash, flashing. So if you don't want that, please filter those. I prefer cw over tw but I will tag triggering content both cw thing and tw thing. At the moment, I am avoiding flashing content, or at least flashing content that personally triggers me. If I think something is on the edge I will always overtag. The last thing I want is to hurt someone with my stimboards. -

Hi Gilear, in what order do you do your stimboards? I try to go in order of first come first serve, however I will prioritise boards from fandoms I like, current hyperfixations etc. or just boards that I thought of while offline and wanted to do. I'll also prioritise my own gift boards to other people. -

Hey Gilear, I want to request a stimboard of a character that's not part of your preferred fandoms list, is that okay? Absolutely you may. My preferred fandoms list is just ot indicate what I'm personally excited about and interested in. However I'm happy to do a stimboard for any fandom, as long as it doesn't break my personal boundaries which can be found in my Request Guidelines. When I make stimboards I don't know the fandom of, I will do basic research about the character and mostly base it off of appearance. If you have any specific stims/themes for the character, or you want to describe them a bit to me, I would love that.

Have any more questions you'd like to be here? Drop me an ask.

[kae-karo]

okay let's cut to the chase i need to figure out the best way to do this so i am curious about yall's thoughts as readers

i have what will likely be a ~90k au which will have ~5 distinct plotlines that regularly interact or overlap, something like 10 relationships that i would consider as requiring tagging, 7 different pov characters, and a variety of tags that may conflict depending on the relationship/character/plot they refer to

my concern is that a single fic would come across as overtagged/turn people off to clicking into it, or deter folks who might be interested in one plotline/relationship but not in others. i personally balk a little at fics with a ton of relationship tags, etc, and i'm also concerned that folks who come expecting a tag to apply to one dynamic will be surprised or irritated when it actually applies to another, etc

my tentative solutions are...perhaps a bit unwieldy, but i would love some input from the reader side!!

one alternate would be to utilize series as a way of better tagging each section of the fic, either as a single series of 30ish fics in chronological order or as multiple series of 30ish fics that align to the various plots (with a collection to aggregate them all) with appropriate overlap where it makes sense. my concern is a reader coming in and seeing "part 16 in series" and going 'oh well shit i don't wanna read 16 other fics before this one just to get what's going on here', which could potentially happen with either series solution

my other alternate would be a collection for the au with a "choose your own adventure" type of link at the bottom - follow chronologically to the next fic in the au or follow to the next fic in the particular plotline that this fic is a part of. this would probably also necessitate an author's note at the start of each fic with the 'previous' fic(s) linked. the struggle with this ofc is potential confusion in seeing it as a standalone fic when it's ultimately more part of a collective whole story (either in its plotline or with regards to the au as a whole), but would resolve the tagging issue and the potential deterrent of a 'there are how many fics in this series? no way i'm bothering with that' vibe

so my question, dear readers, is this:

i'm leaving this open for a week, and please feel free to rb to your heart's content! would love to know what people outside my circle think as well, or if anyone has any clever solutions or ideas even if they're not a regular reader of mine. thank u all dearly!!!

[the-cryptographer]

Went on some deep dive on the debate on the archive's 'Creator Chose Not to Warn' tag and ended up feeling kinda disgusted with people on multiple ends of the debate.

I admit I really don't like the archive's warning system. I know I'm a pedant but it feels very... imprecise to me. A lot of people are arguing that people overtag with the violence and choose not to warn tags when the contents are 'mild' but... what makes something 'mild'? It's not 'mild' if it can trigger someone, and most if not all things can. I've been sent on upsetting intrusive thought spirals by something the author considered fluffy and I considered deeply dystopian. So what makes something a 'graphic depiction of violence'? Does the act of violence have to by physical in nature to be graphic?

This feels like the debate about the distinction between 'dubcon' and 'noncon'. A distinction I do actually think is valuable in a literary sense! I definitely feel there is a difference between erotica where the characters entering into an iffy or under-negotiated sex act seem to be having fun (dubcon, imo), verses something that intends to ask a lot of questions about the boundaries of consent and and what is or is not a valid reason to choose to offer sex (also dubcon, imo), verses something where one character is actively coercing someone they have social power over into presumably unwanted sex acts (noncon, imo), verses someone violently disregarding another character's verbal or physical nonconsent (also noncon, imo). But at what point is the archive warning encouraging an environment where like... we are not acknowledging that many flavours of dubcon are just a flavour of rape fiction, and aren't necessarily less triggering, and should probably be warned for and tagged as such - not living in this grey zone that exists between the rape/noncon warning and no archive warnings apply.

And also how much does this go for like... things that are implied as a major part of the backstory? Or fiction where no rape occurs literally on page, but the story uses violently sexual imagery that is evocative of that? This is literary fiction. None of it is real except what it invokes in us as writers and readers. So if I write something to be evocative of a purposefully upsetting theme, I feel that deserves a warning for it in a way that the standardised archive warnings don't really express.

Also, what is the relationship between these tags and the fandom's original canon? Like, if I'm writing a fic for a video game where characters routinely get splattered up to their eyeballs in gore, at what point am I expected to warn for 'graphic violence' that is entirely canon typical? Presumably you wouldn't be here in this fandom's tag if you couldn't stomach characters getting splattered in gore. Does that require a special archive warning? 90% of the fics in this fandom tag should have it then! How is that helpful for sorting out which ones are next level violent?! But would it be right to leave that warning out, when compared to the fics in your feed that you wrote for softer canons, it is excessively violent? And the same goes with canons that deal heavily in themes of sexual violence. At what point do you need a warning that a character who was raped in canon may have flashbacks about that?

idk, just do not think these tags have nuance or clarity of purpose and i do not like using them. and maybe that's silly of me - to 'choose not to use archive warnings' and opt out of using the tools the site has available. But... I will warn in the additional tags or the author's note for what I think needs to contextually be warned for in a fic so as to best help readers make an informed decision. And if i mess that up, like... I can take responsibility for that on my own terms at least, instead of the terms people read into the existing archive warning system.

But it is vaguely upsetting to me that to see takes where 'choosing not to use archive warnings' is a button for opting out of the social responsibility of at least attempting to label your work for what it is, because it would be an, uwu, 'boner killer' to acknowledge you're writing about sexual violence. Because it ruins your day to try to put into words what you're writing and for what purpose. Like, if you can't do that, yeah, maybe you shouldn't be posting in a public/semi-public space (depending on whether you're posting it locked or not). And, like, yeah- I can't stop you. And I wouldn't be comfortable making the call to do so even if I had the power to. But don't expect me to clap for what is unpleasant, irresponsible, antisocial behaviour.

[gooses-trenchcoat]

guide to ao3 tagging

by someone who has used ao3 enough to develop tagging pet peeves

ok so i'm going to kind of walk through a process for tagging your fic, aimed at anyone who feels confused or uncertain about tagging or has ever added "i'm bad at tagging" to their tags (because i presume if you have you would benefit from my little guide)

to start off with, what are the purposes of tagging? i think there are two: to tell a potential reader who has found your fic what to expect, and to help someone who wants to read your fic to find it easier

so. i'll breeze through characters and relationships just because i think additional tags are where people have the most issues? this based on zero concrete evidence

step 1: character tags

characters are probably the easiest part. who's in your fic. write them down. you don't have to add them in order of most significant to least significant, but it can be a nice touch if you feel like it. if you're thinking, "this character is briefly in my fic/is talked about a lot but not actually there, you probably shouldn't tag for that character. people filtering for or against that character will find or miss your fic when they don't want to, and it's not going to affect anyone else.

step 2: relationship tags

slightly more involved than characters, and very much a topic of debate. my advice: start by identifying your main relationship. the shorter your fic, the more likely it is to focus on one ship or relationship dynamic above others. tag that first. then any additional ships, if applicable. any ship tagged should receive a considerable amount of focus within the fic, eg the characters have to interact in some way. background ships should most likely not be tagged, as you can add an additional tag for background (that ship) instead, letting people who have found the fic know that it will feature minimal amounts of that ship. ao3 will filter anything in the relationships section as that ship's tag. just because you added "background" or "a tiny bit of" or something, your fic will still show up under searches for that ship, which most people consider annoying and/or misleading, to a degree.

moving on to the additional tags section: this is something that can be tricky to figure out. bear in mind that if you have a short fic, you probably won't need to use that many tags, which is fine. people will still find your fic if they would be interested in it. overtagging can make your work look suspicious, if the word count seems unreasonably small compared to the number of tags. similarly, undertagging a long fic can make it hard to know what will happen to make it worth the word count.

step 3: themes

once you've got all your characters and relationships sorted, consider the main theme or themes of your fic. it is a character study? focused on two characters getting together? a fix it? add probably one to three (ish) tags for themes, depending on length and complexity. this is for the general genre of your fic, and is going to be really crucial for helping people find your fic. if your fic is a relationship reveal but you don't tag it as such, someone reading only relationship reveal fics is not going to find your work.

step 4: vibes

what is the main mood of your fic? the longer the fic, again, the more moods you're likely to go through. so, an 800 word drabble is probably going to just have one vibe, but a 50k slowburn is going to go through several different phases with different moods. this category is for more abstract tags like fluff, angst, humor, crack, etc.

step 5: tropes

did you just write a fic utilising one or more tropes? add them as tags. people love tropes. people are going to filter for specific tropes. tag your tropes. tropes include: character in specific job role, character exhibiting specific personality trait, "peter parker's field trip to stark industries". often the tropes will be fandom specific, unlike themes and vibes. utilise ao3's tag search capabilities to check if your trope is an existing tag. still add it if it isn't, and it'll get wrangled appropriately. (shout out to the tag wranglers, who do god's work daily)

step 6: anything else important

look it's a catch all final step wow. is there anything else that features significantly in your fic that you think people should know about? add it. add anything that is significant and could be a trigger, a selling point, or a hard pass. a good way to think is if you were trying to find the fic you just wrote, what would you filter for to find it? add that.

hope this helped someone out, i am by no means an expert so add anything you feel is relevant. i know tagging is a bit of touchy subject sometimes but i think i've kept this general enough to do more help than harm.

[olderthannetfic]

I found discussions about top/bottom tagging practice facsinating. In russian speaking fandom I saw tags like this only in my early days, like, 2005-2007 years I think, and only in western or asian fandoms (probably people bring it from english speaking part of fandom). I'm in fandom for russian media for past five-six years and I remembler like two examples of people tagging for "top/bottom" and it was in collection of drabbles where summary for every one was like "A tops + B bottoms + B had balls shaven + something else worth mention". Big russian fic archives don't even have a way for tagging top/bottom dinamics I think. And while I tend overtag a little there wasn't a moment where I thought to tag who tops and who bottoms for any of my fics and we talks about like 100 fic a year there. I think it's might be because of when there's a 100-200 fic for your otp at all (and it's considered as decent sized fandom) you just too eager to think like this? Or some other reason for this to not be a thing. Not shaming there btw just found this interesting

--

It's common in some parts of fandom and not in others. I don't think there's necessarily a strong reason for it aside from practices spreading from one community to another.

[spade-snax]

Alright, follow-up post to the "ooooo serious post" I made earlier. You can tell I wasn't really feeling too well when I made it appear ten times more serious than it really is. My apologies, I was overthinking things again.

But my point stands, it is more serious than more things and I need to step my foot down and listen to my needs. (And all the other things around me. Oh, here's a quick sorry again if this is written way worse than my previous post, I woke up a while ago and I haven't been able to stop thinking about this since I went to sleep.)

What I want to talk about first is the name for the AU, being "Cingesnax". I haven't chosen the name myself, it popped up suddenly and people began using it/recognizing the AU as such and so I began tagging my reblogs and posts using the name. However to myself I still just call it "Shadow Filbo AU"

I'm not naming names, and you probably know who I am talking about but for a while there was an user who felt quite hurt by the use of "Cringe" in the name. I don't really like the name either, but I don't mind it as much.

I hammer it in often, which I am sure everyone knows and respects but - this AU is NOT meant for any harassment or making fun out of things. It's purely lighthearted fun and shitposting. It's tributing those things. To me these characters are based on me and my childhood which I poke fun at.

I can see why someone would feel hurt or targeted by the use of the word cringe around these things, considering how it's been used/overused to harm people.

I feel like I had to address this because I do not want to feel like anyone is targeted because of my creation. There won't always be people who like it, yes - but as the creator I feel liek I need to take some respolsibility here. And seeing people ahrmed is the last thing I want, really.

(The person does understand now though, they've replied to me and they're fine, so that's good, but I wonder if there's people who feel upset and haven't spoken up. I mean, that's their thing, they can just block the tag, which is why I overtag my things wich character names and such if you just don't want to see them for any reasons, especially triggers.)

I am still overthinking this and making this more serious, sure. And I KNOW not everyone will read and agree to this, but a simple solution to stop people from coming to conclusions would be figuring out a new name, or just me hammering it in even more as the og creator of this whole thing that it is lighthearted fun.

(Hell, a lot of the things being "made fun of" in this AU I genuinely like or are still a part of. Like Furry Gramble - I am a furry myself, and as I've said many times before he is heavily based on me when I was a younger, way more edgy furry kid.)

But that isn't the main and only reason why I am here and I am just overexplaining myself and making things appear way worse than they are. It's just me overthinking, really - but I still feel like letting everyone know and be responsible is important. Just a lil' reminder, a bop on the head if you will. Nothing too bad, but I fear nobody will read it if I'm not serious in the slightest.

Anyways, onto the other thing, being how this affected me as a peson. I absolutely LOVE seeing everyone's involvement and creations! I'm so very glad my creation brings joy to so many people, not only me and my friends. That it brings us together to just have fun, bond, and create. As said to me before, the fandom hasn't had anything like this before so I believe Shadow Filbo is important in that regard.

I'm still just a person and I want to talk about my work and interests to other people. Like people, you know. But I've also made it as an effort as a creator of a thing to respond to all the fanart I get, and just help people's work get out there. Same with OCs and all other creations within the AU. It all deserves to be seen, you're a great artist. And it makes me really happy to see people happy themselves when I respond to their work.

And even if the amount of stuff I've been getting daily has slowed down, it's still quite overwhelming to me sometimes. It feels like a chore sometimes and I don't wanna force a "YOOO ADSJDFEWRGREWGBRSTH" reaction onto everything because it's not always so genuine. I love seeing all the work but I won't have the excitement if reblogging it and putting in all the tags feels like a chore to me.

I want all this to be genuine and I've been feeling drained. It's absolutely amazing and I am glad that I had the chance and luck to have my work well-knowna nd noticed within a small community to be recognized even by the CREATORS of the thing I am hyperfixating on. But at the same time I feel responsible for a lot of stuff, and the effort I've made to be interactive is quite draining, as I've stated before.

It's taking a bit of a toll on me, and getting more stuff to respond to is like - dishes in the sink piling up into a bigger pile. I genuinely love all of this, but I'm just tired. I need a little break from responding to all of this... Just all the attention and stuff is making me socially exhausted. Definitely the fact I'm a massive introvert and my ADHD kicking in veery nicely. /s

I'm probably going to only reblog stuff involving my characters for the AU and Shadow Filbo himself - and any discussion in regards to the AU. Not someone else's art and OCs for the AU. There's a lot of it. Anyways, I'm starting to lag a little bit with how long this is getting. Yes, my computer is just that weak.

I'm already loosing track of what I've said but, yeah.

This AU has been great, I love it. I love you guys. I am happy for all the cool new people I've met, even if we aren't exactly friends. It's taken a bit of a toll on me and I'll do my best to take care of myself and just - not let it take effect on me. And I hope we can keep this place as accepting and inviting as it can be. Even if it takes changing the name etc. Though i know I cannot change individual folk's opinions.

Yeah, this is realy long now and I am getting double thoughts on this - and I have a test in 20 minutes so I am not sure how active I can be with this, but I doubt I'll be getting many responses yet considering it's 3 or so AM in the US. (9:50 AM here)

Cya guys, take care too. I'll upload a doodle I did yesterday as a little comfort thing after this :)

I hope I can get back onto working on OCs too, and just kinda sit down without artblock or executive dysfunction. Buh-bye now

(Also, sorry this is written in weird blocks/paragraphs, I'm doing this so it's easy on *my* eyes.)

[evilvarric666-archive]

This is gonna be long, so sorry in advance, but as someone who enjoys long fics here are my two cents:

I get why some ppl may not want 75 tags in fics, but this is gonna hurt long fic writers. On a long fic there are probably gonna be more relationships that are central to the plot that aren't the main ship. And side pairings that may be a squick to some ppl. Not to mention trigger warnings and tone tags.

For example: a long fic with the pairing Y x Z. Z had an abusive relationship, and that's gonna be explored. So the author tags abusive relationship, bc that's a trigger, but an explanation next tag saying "not current ship" or smth.

Then Y has very important friendships with some of the cast. These are central to the plot so they're tagged too.

Turns out, character W is controversial in the fandom, but they're central to the fic too. The author is gonna tag after the character tag W positive/negative; so ppl who don't wanna see positive/negative things about W can skip this.

And guess what? Ship A x B appears in this fic too. Maybe it's not that central, but this ship is also disliked by some people, so the author will tag it, so ppl can filter through.

Another problem is with media that has different mediums, like, the media Y, Z, etc are from has movies, and books, and games and a tv show. All these things actually have different stories, different enough at least that ppl may only want to see fics written for the movies! But the author wants to take plot from the movies and the books. So instead of just tagging the all media tag for that media, they also tag media (movies) and media (books)

These tags end up accumulating. And especially in long fics. The author could make the first chapter a list of tws and stuff that they keep updating, but that destroys the purpose of ao3 tags: you can't filter content like that, you can only filter tags.

I honestly think they should just find a way to delete the fics with the trolling tags, or make a readmore thing so it doesn't hurt the browsing. At the very least make the tag limit longer.

sorry in advance that this is going to be rambly and weird. I have a lot of thoughts.

I get where you're coming from but I also still disagree. Like it's definitely going to change the way longfic writers tag, but I really don't think it's going to hurt them. I think it's going to encourage more effective tagging and that that's going to be better for everybody in the long run. If anything, I think that overtagging is what's hurting longfic writers, it makes their works look unappealing, and actually important information gets buried in a wall of text.

i will admit though that I do understand better now why less room for trigger tagging is going to be an issue. My preferred tagging style is "General/umbrella warnings in the tags, with whatever elaboration/specifics the author deems necessary in an author's note/author's notes at the beginning of each chapter" (example: "animal death" in the tags, so that the filters catch it + people who can't handle the subject At All know to keep scrolling, and then the author's note specifying that its in the context of game hunting & not a pet death, so that people who were uncertain and needed more info could click in and get the specifics.) and I thought that preference was pretty universal? But apparently a lot of people use the tags as an exhaustive list of warnings, which I didn't know because when I see a work with more than, well with more than 75 tags, I just start scrolling until it's gone.

(this is a tangent and I get that my experiences are not universal. but I genuinely dislike full warning lists in the tags because, for me at least, it makes it harder for me to figure out if the story is something I can/want to read. The things I Really Do Not Want To Read about are rare, and rarely tagged the same way twice, so the exclusion filter isn't really helpful for me. I have to actually read the full list of warnings and if the things I'm looking for are sandwiched inbetween a bunch of trope/character tags in a big wall o text I am going to miss it. This has happened to me multiple times.)

I think that that's an ineffective tagging style, basically. Lots of tags is kind of the opposite of useful tags, imo. Short, to the point and consistently worded warnings are better and I think having less space will encourage people to do that. I understand why people do this other style, though, and also why it would frustrate them that they can no longer do that. I think it really sucks that ao3 let everyone wild west their website for so long that it managed to spawn like three distinct groups of people who all use the website in completely incompatible ways, and now it's at the point where any new rule implemented is going to screw a lot of people over no matter what. But I digress.

Anyways, as long as someone isn't putting Revolutionary Girl Utena levels of warnings in their tags (and if your fic needs that much... maybe you should just put yur top 10 biggest warnings on there and slap a Dead Dove Do Not Eat on the end there, yknow?), I think that 75 tags will fully accommodate them. I get that tags start adding up, but also I think a lot of people are underestimating how many tags 75 tags is.

Like to just add up how many tags are used in your example: three / pairing tags, lets go crazy and say three more & pairing tags, tag every character tag in those pairings that's twelve, #abusive relationship + #not main pairing tags, three fandom tags bc multiple source mediums, a #[controversial character] positive tag... that's 24 tags. Like all the necessary character & pairing tags are handled in less than a third of the space given (and personally I consider this slightly over tagged. I think the only character tags you should put on a fic are the very mainest/pov characters, but yknow) and honestly if you can't then figure out a way to communicate the rest of the necessary information about your fic in 51 tags and a 1250 character summary then I really don't know how to help you. I personally would have to really push myself to figure out how to put more than 75 tags on one fic, regardless of the length of the fic. And I can't help but notice that a lot of the fics I could find with over 75 tags while searching last night had a lot of... unnecessary duplicate tags, often for information that could've been easily otherwise intuited (tagging #mandolorian #mandolore #mandolorian character and #mandolorian culture on a Jango Fett pre-series fic, for example)

I do have some criticisms about the current change though. I think it would've been better to have individual tag number limits for each individual field (x number of fandom tags, x number of character tags, etc.) instead of a 75 tags over all limit (or make a "warning tags" field that's separate from "additional tags" but that's a separate essay and would... probably mean overhauling the whole site. so not very practical.) A readmore option would be good too, and I'm not sure why they didn't go for that? I also think that this change will be most effective if done in combination with other changes. Like posting very loosely or not at all enforced official tagging/style guides for the site. I really think that even a tepid attempt at standardization will increase the site's usability like, A Lot.

I'm not sure how cohesive that was. TL;DR I appreciate hearing your thoughts, mine are that I still think this is a step in the right direction. And that cutting back on overtagging will lead to more concise, effective tagging which will make browsing and filtering easier in the long run.

[ashintheairlikesnow]

I hope you don't mind this question, but I would like to get into the whumplr community and share my own wips, but I never know how to. Do you just jump in and start writing on a blog? Is there more to it?

I’m not going to lie, Anon, I got into whumpblr largely accidentally and by falling in.

I got back on Tumblr after a long absence a little more than a year ago, made a blog, and largely just reblogged random fandom stuff for ACOTAR and ADSOM, books i was super into at the time. Then I started writing fanfic for those fandoms and reblogged the links to that. I picked up some followers, made some friends. Then, in August, I participated in @writersmonth 2019 with AUs written for the Shades of Magic fandom.

On Day 11, the prompt was “whump”. I asked my friend @pinkcupboardwitch what the fuck ‘whump’ was, and then learned, oh reader, that the types of fiction I preferred my entire life had a name on the internet. 

I clicked the #whump tag.

Then I blacked out, and here we are many months later.

I mean, there’s a bit more to it than that. I started being part of the Whumpblr community mostly by reblogging at first as I came across stuff on the #whump tag I liked. Then I participated in @whumptober2020 for 2019 and picked up new followers - Day 1 of Whumptober 2019 was the first piece of Danny’s story I posted, and so my first piece of dedicated whump fiction.

I stumbled across more tags I liked, found my fucking people when I found the #creepy whumper an #intimate whumper tags and a prompt list posted by @untilthepainstarts (yeah that’s right, Dotty, you are to blame for what I’ve become!) and I just... kept writing, and posting.

I did some research early on to find what tags best suited my writing. One thing I will tell you for advice - there is no such thing as overtagging in whump. People search the tags for the exact scenario they’re looking for, and they use them to block squicks or triggers or make the choice not to read individual pieces for their own safety. Tag, tag, tag, tag, tag. 

Also post Content Warnings prior to your piece - mine are always at the top, in bold, marked with a CW. I try to list all the content/trigger warnings I can think of. The more informed your readers are, the better they’ll feel about the choice to read your work. Considering the dark material whump works with, it’s really just a nice courtesy and common sense to make sure people won’t stumble across something that could really wreck them if they’re not prepared or in the right headspace for it.

I follow a bunch of whump accounts. A lot of peope have dedicated whump blogs, but I just use my main blog and honestly people seem okay with my occasional obsessive posting about horses, Shades of Magic, and whatever other fucking thought comes into my head.

I like, reblog, follow, comment sometimes. All of those are important when it comes to helping people find you, too, because being an active part of the community (I almost wrote ‘active participant’, you guys) is important! We’re all just hanging out around a virtual campfire telling stories. Let other people know you like theirs!

A lot of whump accounts post prompts - I find it’s fun sometimes to take that prompt, write a short piece, and post it as a reblog of the prompt. It helps people find that, and once people find some work by you, they’re likely to scroll and see if they can find more.

Seriously, most of what I did was just start writing, start posting, tag like crazy, and talk to/follow everybody in the community who caught my eye and I wanted to know better. 

I usually also tell people that it’s sometimes handy, starting out, to post an ‘intro’ post where you talk about yourself, the types of whump you like to read or write, and tag a few people whose work you really like. I often reblog intro posts that tag me because this community is huge and fun and I like helping welcome people into it!

The biggest things, though? Write. And post. And tag. And talk to people.

[feynavaley]

How do you tag AO3? I've had an account for a couple of years but never used it much and I'm still a bit confused...

Thanks for the question! Honestly, I’m hardly an expert and I don’t know if I use tags correctly, so I’m probably not the best person you can ask to, but I can definitely explain my process. I hope it’s not too wrong! 😅

Obviously, you need to use the right fandom category, rating (I honestly miss the FFN distinction between K and K+, but I guess everything goes under G), and then there are the warnings and kind of pairings.

I have to admit that, at first, I was a bit confused by the warnings – especially, the ‘Graphic Depictions Of Violence’ one, as I really don’t know what qualifies as ‘graphic’. I used it on I See Fire because there are some serious injuries in the first chapter, but I’m still unsure if it was actually needed, haha. Probably not. At first, I used a lot the ‘Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings’ tag, then I learnt that readers tend to be wary of that as it’s often used to avoid tagging sensitive content that is actually included in the fic but the author didn’t want to spoil. In my case, I was just being overcautious, and I have since changed that to ‘No Archive Warnings Apply’ as I don’t think any depiction of violence in my other stories is strong enough to be considered ‘graphic’. Of course, I’m always receptive to feedback if any reader were of a different opinion.

As for the kind of pairing – they obviously depend on your story. I tag fics as ‘gen’ if none of the main characters is in a romantic relationship, I tagged both ‘gen’ and ‘f/m’ in Chrysalis because there is obviously a romantic relationship, but the focus is also on other non-romantic relationships that are developed through the story. The only advice I can give you here is to think only about the pairings (or lack thereof) involving the main characters, I don’t think that background ones warrant a change of category.

I follow a similar logic for tagging the pairing themselves: I tag familial relationships/friendships that are focused on with a ‘&’ between the two characters’ names, and the established or eventual romantic ones with a ‘/’. I don’t know if this is right, but I personally tag only the relationships involving the main characters – if there are other pairings, they are relegated to the ‘Minor or Background Relationship(s)’ tag as I don’t want to clog the tag for people who are looking for stories centred on that pairing. I also used that tag for the relationship between George and Aila in Arthur Kirkland’s Guide to Being a Big Brother, for example – I kept the category as ‘gen’ because their relationship was never the real focus (moreover, they were OCs, readers probably didn’t care about who they were paired with), but I thought it was better to warn the presence of a background relationship. Once again, I don’t know if this is the right way to do it, but nobody complained.

Now, on the characters: I think it would be better only to tag the ones with a significative role, but how do you define what ‘significative’ means? Personally, I’m still trying to find a balance – I also tag side characters who are recurring or have a significative impact on the main characters’ actions – and I’m afraid I’m overtagging, in this department. What I do, however, is to specify in the additional tags which characters the story is actually focused on, so readers will have more elements to decide. I also always add the ‘Other Hetalia Character(s)’ tag if there are some characters who appear in the story but I don’t want to tag because they have some truly minor roles.I don’t tag OCs if they’re not focused on, though, even if they have a role I would deem significative enough to tag a canon character. I don’t know if this is the right etiquette, but I do it keeping in mind my preferences: I don’t like stories focused on OCs and I won’t read them, I’ll even blacklist the tag when I’m looking for stories to read – but the only thing that bothers me is the OC being focused on, I don’t mind side OCs. So, I don’t even tag them because they aren’t truly important.

After the characters, there are the additional tags, that I still have no idea of how to use, haha. I used to overtag a lot, using them as tumblr commentary tag because I had gotten the impression that it was what most people did, but I’ve since learnt that many don’t like it so I cleaned them up (I only left some tags on Overheated because they ended up featured on ao3tagoftheday, haha). I see additional tags as the place for further specifications. I tag the main genres – usually, the ones I use on ffn plus other ones that might apply (and that’s why like all my fics will be ‘family’, ‘hurt/comfort’, ‘angst’, ‘drama’, ‘brotherly love’, and ‘fluff’, haha) and if the story is an AU, for example.

One important thing to keep in mind, in this department, is the existence of subtags, that show up in the specific search but also when looking for the parent tag. To make an example, ‘Alternate Universe – Human’ is a subtag of ‘Alternate Universe’. Obviously, you’ll find a work tagged ‘Alternate Universe – Human’ when looking for something tagged like that, but it will also show up when looking for ‘Alternate Universe’. Therefore, tagging also as ‘Alternate Universe’ would be redundant, and this is something to keep in mind to avoid using too many tags. Unfortunately, I don’t know where you can find a list of subtags and parent tags, so you’ll have to rely on logic and maybe try a bit.

For the rest… honestly, I really don’t know. Always in the optic of specifications, I tag other things that I think the readers might want to know. As I’ve already mentioned, I specify which characters are focused on if others are tagged as well, use tumblr-style tags to elaborate on the meaning of other tags or mention themes/elements that come up in the fic, and write other stuff I think I should warn readers of (for example, always in Chrysalis, I mentioned which name I would use for Nyo!Canada because it’s not the most widespread one). I also add warnings that weren’t included in the main ones – violence that I don’t think crosses the threshold of graphic, abusive situations, and other things that might bother somebody.

I want to stress that I actually don’t know what I’m doing, but I hope this was at least a bit useful. Good luck with your writing! 😊

[emmerrr]

First Lines tag!

tagged by @two-of-swords-621 thanks buddy this was a really fun one!

rules: post the first line of your last 10 published fics, then tag 10 people. (i’m just using fics i’ve posted on ao3 for this even though i do have more recent drabbles that i only posted on tumblr)

Before the summer practices of his final year at PSU begin, Neil has a month off. It’s a busy one. (You go your way, I’ll go your way too, andreil oneshot)

The dust hasn’t quite settled when Adam goes back to school. (all i need’s a fraction of your happy heart (all i need is you), pynch oneshot)

Once Ronan had blown out his birthday candles, hoping his silent wish that he and his family would be back home before his next birthday would be granted, Matthew ushered him into the armchair in the corner and proclaimed that it was time for presents. (chapter 17 of There Are Wrecking Balls Inside Us -- pynch multi-chapter au, which is currently on hiatus btw, just until i find some motivation to actually work on it)

Neil was woken up outrageously early (or outrageously late depending on your perspective) by Andrew softly murmuring his name. (call it what you want, andreil oneshot)

Adam sat alone in a corner booth of Nino’s, History notes open on the table before him. He’d written VALENTINE’S DAY?? in the margin, underlined three times. He frowned at the words, wondering why he was fixating on them, and turned his head to stare listlessly out of the window instead. (baby all at once this is enough, pynch oneshot)

Andrew’s sitting out on the balcony with his morning coffee and his morning cigarette. It’s Saturday, still early enough that it’s fairly quiet on the streets below. Neil is out for run, but is due back any minute now. There’s coffee in the pot for him, an empty mug with a fox face on it sitting and waiting on the counter to be filled. (breaking the habit, andreil oneshot)

The Gansey Christmas party was an annual thing, hosted at the Gansey family estate and attended by Mrs Gansey’s political ‘friends’. It was a night of champagne and hors d'oeuvres and sycophantic conversation. (you’re the storm, pynch oneshot)

The snow had been falling thick and heavy most of the night and all morning, and by early afternoon the grounds surrounding the Barns looked like a Christmas card, pristine and inviting. (wipe out, pynch oneshot)

The dark clouds that had been brewing all afternoon finally broke as Adam walked up the street towards his and Blue’s favourite bar, and he pulled his jacket tighter around him. Rain splashed against his face and he ducked his head against it until he’d reached his destination. (head over heels, pynch oneshot)

It starts — as most feuds start — with something small. (love thy neighbour, andreil oneshot)

i don’t know who’s already been tagged and i don’t wanna overtag so here’s my standard if you wanna do it just consider yourself tagged spiel!

[fanfictionlive]

Gifting NSFW Fics?

I must admit I don't know how big of a deal this actually is. I have no idea if, when visiting a writer's profile on AO3 they actually check the fanfics gifted to them. After all, if you're on their profile you're looking for more of their writing style, or ship, or fandom, right? Gifts can be random, or have nothing to do with what the author writes.

Much like going link diving in Wikipedia or Tv Tropes, where one ends up reading about a random topic, I enjoy the rabbit hole that is following an author's gift fics, then the profile of that person and so forth. It's, I feel the equivalent of going after favorites on fanfiction dot net.

I say this for a bit of context, because, maybe no one else does it, but I definitively notice it. I like seeing connections, threads linking authors and eventually I end up discovering some hidden gem or diamond in the rough I would have never because they either undertag or overtag.

Ironically enough though about 20+ of my stories are gift fics, I don't really receive many gift fics of my own. I have 2 or 3? And they're all stuff I deeply appreciate and have saved up, and stuff that sits admist my favorite writing, because it was written for me, thinking about me, and the pure act of friendship and care put into making the day of this dorky girl - it still makes her smile months later.

Anyway, in order for this story to make sense you must understand I also have a few alts. Alts for specific fandoms, and specific content, and ships. It's not that I'm ashamed or afraid of posting those stories, which I very much care and put a great deal of effort into it, but if I posted it in my main account, it'd mean being blacklisted by some in the fandom, no matter who I were writing about.

Anyway, some time ago I received an e-mail notification saying that I got a gift fic on that alt. That confuses me, but super rare as they are gift fanfics are still something exciting, so I pop it open, start reading and uh....

It was nsfw, very much so, it was pure smut, porn without plot. I recognised the author as someone who I had sparked a conversation on a ship fic in that alt, as they shipped it as well.

The gift fic wasn't something I was expecting like I said, and though the gesture was, without a doubt nice and thoughtful I can't help but feel somewhat weirded out. As problematic as the ship is (according to the fandom) my fics are all very G, or, at most pg 13, there's nothing more than that sweet innocence from escapism from real life.

I don't know how to feel. I feel flattered, of course, that that discussion (which extended for 10+ comments) meant so much and inspired them. I feel grateful too, in a way.

But then I feel somewhat uncomfortable. Not with the sex itself, it's not how I write the characters, but I must admit, I'm not that prude when it comes to erotica, but with the fact something like that is connected to a very G for everyone profile.

Even as I feel that I feel guilty, because, they wrote it for me, and who am I to complain? How effing rude would I have to be to demand they remove their gift? What a jerk right? But I'm still considering it.

So what are your thoughts on nsfw gifting? Ask first to know if the gifted wants it? No need to ask at all? Only if the person who receives the fit already has nsfw stuff on their profile?

Thank you for your opinion.

submitted by /u/SomecallmeMichelle [link] [comments] from FanFiction: Where Magical Ponies battle Imperial Titans http://bit.ly/30AjeRv